17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
Rm 8:28-30
Mt 13:44-52
Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the “Sunday Soundbite” for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Are you a collector? I’ve collected stamps from childhood, although I’ve never had enough money to do it seriously. And, I love books, and have a few small collections of titles by certain authors or on certain subjects. My Franciscan vow of poverty makes it difficult to have the kind of intense zeal for either of those two kinds of collecting—or any other—that matches the kind of intensity described by Jesus in today’s Gospel.
There, our Lord gives us two parables of the Kingdom: Someone who finds a treasure in a field, and sells all that he has to obtain the field—and the treasure; and a merchant searching for fine pearls, who finds the legendary pearl of great price, and, like the first discoverer, sells all that he has to buy the pearl.
I must confess that it isn’t lack of money that usually keeps me from being as intense about the Kingdom of God as Jesus proposes. Rather, it’s my humanness—sin, fear, self-doubt, laziness, distraction by other goals and treasures of a lesser value—all the substitutes I allow to preoccupy my efforts, when I should be as intense about the kingdom as the two characters in today’s Gospel parables.
How about you? What’s distracting you from the Kingdom? Let’s pray together for the conversion we need to give it our all!
Scripture:
•“…Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9)
•We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
•When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. (Matthew 14:46)
Reflection:
•What gift would you give all to possess?
•Why is a heart (and not the mind) able to judge right from wrong?
•In all that you do, are you called to do the will of God?What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it.
Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
Rm 8:28-30
Mt 13:44-52
Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the “Sunday Soundbite” for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Are you a collector? I’ve collected stamps from childhood, although I’ve never had enough money to do it seriously. And, I love books, and have a few small collections of titles by certain authors or on certain subjects. My Franciscan vow of poverty makes it difficult to have the kind of intense zeal for either of those two kinds of collecting—or any other—that matches the kind of intensity described by Jesus in today’s Gospel.
There, our Lord gives us two parables of the Kingdom: Someone who finds a treasure in a field, and sells all that he has to obtain the field—and the treasure; and a merchant searching for fine pearls, who finds the legendary pearl of great price, and, like the first discoverer, sells all that he has to buy the pearl.
I must confess that it isn’t lack of money that usually keeps me from being as intense about the Kingdom of God as Jesus proposes. Rather, it’s my humanness—sin, fear, self-doubt, laziness, distraction by other goals and treasures of a lesser value—all the substitutes I allow to preoccupy my efforts, when I should be as intense about the kingdom as the two characters in today’s Gospel parables.
How about you? What’s distracting you from the Kingdom? Let’s pray together for the conversion we need to give it our all!
Scripture:
•“…Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9)
•We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
•When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. (Matthew 14:46)
Reflection:
•What gift would you give all to possess?
•Why is a heart (and not the mind) able to judge right from wrong?
•In all that you do, are you called to do the will of God?What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it.
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9:27 PM
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