FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Gal. 6:9-10: “Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all [people], and especially toward those who are of the household of faith.
Matt. 6:25, 32b-33: Jesus said, “Don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?… for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Reflection
Benjamin Franklin once said: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” That’s the first thing that came to mind when I read the assigned Gospel for today. Jesus warns his listeners that “You can’t serve both God and [money]”, and then asks, “Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” I imagine that Jesus, had he been preaching today, might’ve rephrased his words more like that popular meme circulating on the Internet: “There’s no way you were born to just pay bills and die.”
Right now, the world seems to be operating in survival mode. The financial crisis continues in the West. What started with the bursting of the “housing bubble” in the United States cascaded into a frenzy of financial failures, which now threaten to tear the European Union apart. Other parts of the world, like Puerto Rico and Indonesia, are also beginning to feel this pressure. And this year, we’ve witnessed the mass migration of Middle Easterners into Europe, desperately fleeing violence and religious persecution. Sadly, many of them never reached the shores of their freedom, meeting their deaths out in the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea. And at the center of all of this, we see concerns about money and life.
This Sunday is dedicated to the illumination of greed. Recall from seven Sundays ago that what we know as “greed”, the ancient Church identified as “covetousness”, that is: “I want what someone else has!” Whereas we’ve (ideally) purged ourselves of this passion, today we open ourselves to a different understanding of it. Yes, we know that money is intimately close to greed—even the Gospel opens with a reference towards money—but I think Jesus is trying to dig a little deeper. I think he’s trying to link “covetousness” with “worry”. In his eyes, then, “I want what someone else has" follows from “I’m afraid that tomorrow, I’ll have nothing!”
Can worry lead to covetousness/greed? In the modern world, we know the answer to that. We know that Earth has a limited supply of resources for the world’s growing, and increasingly interconnected population. But to accumulate possessions for yourself—food, clothing, money, etc.—is, in essence, to take it away from someone else. And yet that’s exactly what’s happening today. So I find it interesting that these are the same things Jesus tells his followers not to worry about. I don't think he said this to encourage laziness or poverty, but rather to discourage attachment to worldly goods so that everyone may benefit from God’s creation. God knows what we need; we have to remember our fellow human beings have our same needs too.
Pope Francis certainly remembers this. I’m impressed and taken by his humble request that all churches—presumably not just Catholic—should take in at least one family of Middle Eastern refugees. If you think about it, with that one request, he is calling everyone not to worry. The churches must not worry about money or possessions, or even the number of people in need, because, despite economic problems, there really is enough to go around if they each focus on just one family. He’s also calling on the refugees not to worry; they're not alone, and the food, drink, clothing, and shelter that God knows they need are available. Pope Francis is reminding us, as Paul does in his Epistle, that we still have an opportunity to do what is good toward all people. If we aim for doing that good, what Jesus called "God's Kingdom", then we have the promise that the rest will be given to us.
Prayer of the Day
O Lord, we pray you,
keep your Church with your perpetual mercy;
and, because human frailty without you cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God forever and ever.
Amen.
—Collect #1 for Trinity 15 from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary; found also in the Sarum Missal, and the Book of Common Prayer, 1662.
Grant, O merciful God,
that we may, with ready minds,
pray to be reconciled with you;
and, pursuing the remission of sins,
may we be freed from all harmful attacks;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Collect #2 for Trinity 15 from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, translated and adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015.
Hymn: “Spirit of God, descend upon my heart”
(Words: George Croly, 1854; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015
Tune: ‘Emilie’, by John W. Baume, 1880)
Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.
Wean it from the earth, through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness—of your strength impart,
And make me love you as I ought to love.
I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no op’ning skies,
Just take the dimness of my soul away.
Teach me to feel that you are always nigh.
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
Have you not bid me love you, God and King?
All, all your own, soul, heart, and strength, and mind.
I see your cross; there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek you, and O let me find!
Teach me to love you as your angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame,
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and your love the flame.
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