25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Reflection
A wine merchant lies on his deathbed; surrounded in hushed silence by his sons and daughters, the grandchildren; all gathered around at this sacred moment. With his last breaths, he whispered urgently to them, “My dear children, be careful not to allow any distractions to get in the way of the wine business. No other endeavour will bring you as much profit, especially when you are making wine for the Passover holiday. I will reveal to you now the secret that has made a rich man of me and will make you rich too. You can make wine out of anything, absolutely anything, even from grapes.”
The wicked humour of the rabbis might bring a quick, dry smile to our lips even as for a moment we feel uncomfortable at the dying father corrupting his progeny.
When corruption, however, comes closer to home, our reactions may become a bit more heated. And so we stand aghast at the medical industries’ greed, deception and deceit in the opioid epidemic that has cost so many lives and ruined so many more.
The Amazon rainforests are burning, the Siberian forests of burning; the fires are burning in Greece, in Spain, in France, in Turkey, and Greenland, and so we beat our breasts and wail like a mother in labour. And yet, and yet oh Lord, have we call ourselves righteous not also walked hand-in-hand with the Babylon beast?
We desire a higher standard of living, we demand our right to live longer, healthier, to be more beautiful and to wear the latest fashion… Those others have it, and we deserve it also. We want more for our children and we promise them the world and every last drop we can squeeze out of God’s abundance. And so we have come to live in a world of ‘arrangements’ where everything has a price.
And so God, we have created you in our own image; a God who requires payment; a God who meets out justice and requires retribution; and so everything that has value now has a price… And so it is written in God’s kingdom and grace no longer has value.
How have we come to this, living according to worldly standards of ‘arrangements’ rather than covenantal relational integrity? They are little steps and all too easy, from petty pilfering, then to tax evasion, insurance fraud, looting and corruption, assassination and murder… ‘For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.’
We, as church community, have beautiful teachings about building the community of the world, about building up of this Kingdom of God, about the building of a world in which people and communities can live in peace and dignity with a quality of life that befits those made in God’s image. And yet, and yet, oh Lord, we want our share of the riches, we deserve it. And so we have financial systems, political systems, and yes, even religious systems that all make ‘arrangements’. Just like the astute steward in today’s gospel story, we also make ‘arrangements’.
We are called to evaluate our actions in light of the teachings of Jesus. How has my own little bit of greed, our demands, led us to the inferno engulfing our world? We heard in last week’s gospel how Mary, the God-bearer, proclaims God’s preferential option for the poor, for the downtrodden, for the abused, for the underdog.
We are called to evaluate how we have distanced ourselves and our lives from the common good and from our common destiny as the human family. If we cannot acknowledge the needs of our brothers and sisters, how are we ever to acknowledge that our destiny is interwoven with the world, with each other and with every species that shares are burning world.
How have we joined our hands to the mighty conglomerates, to the superpowers, to the shakers and movers, so that there is no more room for humility or simplicity? We live in God’s creation, we live with God’s gifts and so Jesus reminds us that “whatever you have done for one of these least brothers of mine, you have done for me.”
As we look to our many justice and peace commissions working within the church, we see how we have sidetracked the third imperative, the imperative of the Integrity of Creation. The integrity of creation cannot be unchained from our human destiny.
All of us together are called to the road to integrity; to wholeness; to holiness. Jesus tells us that we cannot have two masters; we cannot have our feet in both camps. One road leads to death, the other to life; let us choose life.
Yes, let us beat our breasts and wail, but let us not point our fingers at those others, rather let us look to our own hearts, to our own pride, and to our own greed. Once we have found that golden light of God within us, we will also see it in all our brothers and sisters; we will see it in all God’s creations; we shall see it in the forests and in the oceans. It is in this book of creation that we, as Franciscans, will find God’s first book of revelation.
Let us seek to free ourselves from the illusion of a disembodied spirituality so that we may experience and see incarnation everywhere, and live accordingly.
The Canticle of the Creatures
by St. Francis of Assisi
Most High, all-powerful,
good Lord,
yours is the praise,
the glory and the honor and every blessing.
To you alone, Most High,
do they belong,
and no one is worthy
to speak your name.
Praised be you, my Lord
with all your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom
you bring us light.
And he is lovely, shining
with great splendor,
for he heralds you, Most High.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Moon and Stars.
In heaven you have formed them,
lightsome and precious and fair.
And praised be you, my Lord,
through Brother Wind, through
air and cloud, through calm
and every weather by which
you sustain your creatures.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water,
so very useful and humble,
precious and chaste.
Praised be you, my Lord
through Brother Fire,
by whom you light up
the night, and he is
handsome and merry,
robust and strong.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister, Mother Earth,
who sustains us and directs us
bringing forth all kinds of fruits
and coloured flowers and herbs.
Praised be you, my Lord
through those who forgive
for your love
and who bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those
who endure in peace,
for by you, Most High,
they will be crowned.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister Bodily Death
from whom no living being
can escape.
How dreadful for those
who die in mortal sin!
How blessed are those she
finds in your most holy will
for the second death
can do them no harm.
O praise and bless my Lord,
thank him and serve him
humbly but grandly!
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