The Gospel Through a Franciscan Lens – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Christopher
Whether we are looking for God, or not. God is looking for us. God is always successful.
Whether we are looking for God, or not. God is looking for us. God is always successful.
We often confuse appearances. We mistake our enemies for God’s enemies. We are quick to uproot those whom Christ is patiently nurturing. The Kingdom grows through God’s patience before it culminates in God’s judgment.
“The word that goes forth from the mouth of God does not return empty. It does not come back without succeeding in what it was sent to do.”
Jesus comes back again and again to this image of the child, to communicate a sense of human relationship to God.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me.” Hospitality extended from one to another becomes a place of encounter. In welcoming another person, we may discover that Christ has already arrived ahead of us.
The deeper we travel through these days of Ordinary Time, the more we encounter the reality that discipleship is not simply believing certain things about Jesus. It’s about following Jesus.
Their first assignment is to connect and re-establish broken friendships among God’s people, to bring back the lost and forsaken, to speak a word that strengthens, the good news that saves, that God’s reign has come near.
Available on June 7th - Print version for sale on the Gospel to Life Bookstore. Also available for download from the National Website CNSA page.
True sharing in the prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist means that I listen, receive, and the door opens up within me, through which Christ may enter, and that I may begin to enter into Him.
“Eternal Trinity, You are like a deep sea, in which the more I seek, the more I find; and the more I find, the more I seek You.” St Catherine of Siena