Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time....August 25, 2013

Written by Fr. Fitz Thursday, 22 August 2013 09:12

Print

One of the speakers on our ship Regatta was a Physics Prof who gave a lecture on puzzles and paradoxes. He went on to say that in his college classes, every night he went home wondering and with all kinds of questions, and yet each day his classmates had all the answers, and so he considered himself rather inferior in intelligence. And yet when the final exams came, he got better grades then those who seemed to have all the answers each day. A paradox!

 

Sometimes it seems Jesus speaks, if not in puzzles, then surely in paradoxes which are apparent contradictions.

Today's Gospel is one such example of a paradox: "Behold, some who are last shall be first, and some who are first shall be last." LK 13:30

On the ship also we had a "human horse race" in which we cheered for our horse to win. And is that what life is really all about...a race to be winners? It seems to be so by any world standards. So we passengers on the ship are the winners? And the waiters and crew the losers? That is the way the world sees it.

BUT the other day I saw a waiter going about his work humming a tune. I have seen no passenger doing so.

Jesus seems to see the world upside down from the way we see it.

And so, do we see it "right" or do we too often see illusions?

Too often we see what we want to see. FOX News says there is no global warming. The Union of Concerned Scientists says there is.

WE? Well we see it the way we WANT to see it.

Jesus always seem to be challenging us to "Look again!"

The Gospel always probes us to question, to ponder, to look for a deeper meaning.

Long before Christ, Socrates, the Greek philosopher wrote:
"The unexamined life is not worth living."

Jesus asks us to examine, to question, to wonder.

So today, in response to the Gospel, we must ask: "Just where is THE NARROW GATE?"

Am I always looking for the wide one?

Am I examining life at the surface or any deeper?

The Captain of the Titanic saw the surface of the ice berg.

But the real mighty ice berg lay below as he discovered much too late.

BREAKFAST QUESTION: Can I ever be comfortable being last?
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do I reflect on my life too much, (scrupulous)?
or not enough, (presumptuous) ?