19th Sunday Ordinary Time
19th Sunday Ordinary Time
Gospel Reflection for the 19th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C – August 11th 2013
Full scripture for this Sunday is available on our parish website. Daily Scripture is also available. Our parish Prayers of the Faithful for this Sunday are made available on the Dublin Diocesan website.
SCRIPTURE
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them. It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
Luke 12: 35-40
REFLECTION
When you go away and want someone to mind the house, you plan well and invest in someone safe. We often need that. Who’ll look after the alarm in the house and keep an eye?
Looking after his Business
Same with Jesus…the people of the gospel are the ones who look after his business while he is away! God invests in us. He wants us to do our best while he is away. We, his community, church, are the people he entrusts his life’s work to.
We spread the kingdom in simple ways every day – care, hospitality, work for justice, compassion ,with the gifts and talents we have. He has given us the gifts – we are to use them in his service. We do our best and God, the architect, is continually building with us.
Extra Presence
He is the extra presence around in his Spirit. So when we do things in his service, he is the inspirer. But he leaves a lot to us.
And then when in his service he feeds us. He works with us and for us. The slave/master turned upside down. People would never expect that the master would serve the meal – same at the washing of the feet. We are nourished and renewed. In the Eucharist.
There is a need now for volunteer help within the church – we need it now and will in the future. We need to form people who can hand on faith when the parish may be called on to do more, and to do what the Catholic school has done up to now.
The kingdom is spread through the work of the church, and we are this church, this body of Christ. We are the true blessed sacraments of Jesus Christ.
Donal Neary SJ
Gospel Reflections 