In our opening prayer today we prayed God would teach us that He abides
in hearts that are just and true and that He would fashion us by His grace so
we would become a dwelling pleasing to Him.
Let’s reflect on this.
A man walks into a pet store. At the back of the store is an enclosure with a
wire mesh. In the enclosure are all kinds of birds. He notices on the back
wall of the enclosure a perch with a parrot sitting on it. A sign hangs from
the perch that reads “Parrot…$2000”
“Wow!”…that pretty expensive for a parrot” he says to the owner.
“That no ordinary parrot” the store owner says… “That’s a talking parrot.”
It was not a parrot that could repeat something
like Polly wants a cracker…
but a parrot who could hold a conversation with someone…
a parrot that could ask questions and answer questions…
just as if you were talking with another person.
“There is not another parrot like this in the entire world” the owner said.
The man thought about it for a second and said, “I’ll take it.”
He took the parrot home.
Every day he tried to get the parrot to talk…but the parrot did not talk.
About every three days he would return to the store
and tell the store owner, “He doesn’t talk…not a chirp...
not a peep...not a word”
Each time he returned to the store the store owner would ask,
“Do you have a perch in the cage…or do you have a swing in the cage…
or do you have a ladder in the cage…or do you have a mirror in the cage?”
Each time the store owner would assure him that if he had one of these items
the parrot would probably talk and each time the guy bought one of
these items…but the parrot still never talked.
Finally the guy walked into the store and announced to the store owner,
“The parrot is dead…dead as a door nail…laying upside down on the
bottom of the cage…legs sticking up in the air…dead. I was standing
there talking to him when he fell dead.”
The store owner asked, “Did he say anything before he died?
“Yes” the guy said, he asked, “Did they ever try to sell you any bird seed?”
What is that seed that feeds our Christian life?
What is that seed that makes us healthy Christians.
READING 1 (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
Trust is a seed.
-do we trust in human beings?
-do we seek strength in flesh?
***or***
-do we trust in the Lord?
-is our hope in the Lord?
-for trust in the Lord…hope in the Lord
opens us to the life giving water of Grace.
READING 2 (1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20)
Belief in the Resurrection is a seed.
-this is not our true home…
-our true home is in heaven…
-we are pilgrims on a journey…
-we are sojourners…
-our belief in the Resurrection to eternal life with the Lord…
-opens us to a new way of living…
-opens us to a new way relating…
-opens us to a new way of loving.
GOSPEL (Luke 6:17, 20-26)
Here is the seed in this Gospel.
-to acknowledge our spiritual poverty and our need for the Lord…
-to be hungry for…and thirsting for the Lord.
-to be willing to endure hate…to endure being excluded…
to endure being denounced for the Lord…
-to be willing to weep and mourn for the lost…for the lonely…
for the sick and the sorrowing…for the immigrant…
for the poor…for those who experience discrimination…
for the persecuted and abused.
If these things…the seeds we are to feed on…in the scriptures today…
are a part of our life…are part of our living…
then it will be second nature for us…to pray…to read scripture…
to be much a part of the community we call church…
to be men and women of service…
to be active in the Spiritual Works of Mercy…
next weekend the bulletin insert will feature
the Spiritual Work of Mercy
“Comfort the Afflicted/Sorrowful”…
to be a Eucharistic people,
receiving Jesus in His word from this altar
and in His Body and Blood from this altar.
What I have shared with you…with all of us…me included…
is what we want…
for we prayed for it as we began this Mass…
we prayed God would teach us that He abides
in hearts that are just and true
and that He would fashion us by His grace so
we would become a dwelling pleasing to Him.