Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.
A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, bishop, by Father Perry.
By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
+ Francis Thompson wrote his famous poem, “The Hound of Heaven,” in 1893 in which he portrays God as a hound hounding us.
God hunts us because God loves us and also wants us, and just won’t let us go.
Even if we run in the opposite direction and deny him, God will always love us and want us: his creation.
Especially “lost souls” does God go after, seeking them to bring them home, and to save them.
The last two days, our selection from Paul’s letter to the Romans brings this poem to mind. Many of the Jews rejected Jesus. They could not or would not recognize him as the Messiah.
Later, some Jews were able to harness the Roman apparatus to have him “hung on a cross.”
Paul asks: “Has God rejected his people?”
To which he gives a resounding, “Of course not!”
Paul confirms that it was the Jews’ rejection of Jesus that brought Jesus to the Gentiles; they were gifted with faith.
But, he asserts, they should not take it for granted or become arrogant in their faith, because this “Hound of Heaven” loves his Jewish children from old and forever.
After all — he is the “Hound of Heaven.”
+ In the Gospel, Jesus is once again at another dinner, and again, at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
And, once again, the people, “were observing him closely.”
It is, it almost seems, as if they had a glimpse and a kind of “almost thought” that if not the messiah, at least he was truly a very holy or close-to-God man.
But, so many were stuck in comparative religious activity.
Who is better? Who follows the Law more perfectly? Who is right and who is wrong?
God loves me more because I follow the Law better than you!
And Jesus presents his observation of them through the eyes of this parable about people clamoring for the highest seat — the seat of highest honor and prestige.
Jesus observes that the high-stakes embarrassment would be delivered upon that person who chose the high seat then got demoted to a lowest seat.
Yikes! But if the other way around: One chose the lowest seat, then was promoted to a higher seat or position.
Ah! There’s the frosting on the cake!
And Jesus, as usual, sums it up in a simple and direct and unforgettable lesson as he notes the admiration and esteem that person would receive from their companions, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Once again Jesus aptly describes that “kingdom stuff of God” that appears upside down and inside out, but when practiced reveals that grace and blessing stuff that is the gift of God.
Perhaps yet another way that this “Hound of Heaven” keeps hounding, loving, and saving us — even from ourselves!
Father Perry Dean Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com.
[Image: “San Carlo Borromeo, cardinal of Milan” | Wellcome Images]
