Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.
“Looking Ahead” is a reflection on the Sunday readings, for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Perry.
By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
There is a lot of wisdom being shared with us in today’s readings.
The first dose comes from the Wisdom literature through the book of Sirach. We are warned that a person’s words betray exactly where their mind and heart is; all gets revealed. And the full force of the warning is revealed in the advice —
“Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.”
And the first letter to the Corinthians shares the power and meaning of the Christ’s death and resurrection, namely, that corruptibility has been clothed with “incorruptibility,” and the mortal with immortality. In short, sin and death have been destroyed, conquered, or defeated by the Christ’s death and resurrection; we are all new!
The verse before the Gospel truly is an Alleluia verse for us as it declares —
“Shine like lights in the world
as you hold on to the word of life.”
And then, the Gospel wisdom comes; it gives us that word — if you are blind, don’t get a blind person to guide you because you both will probably fall into a pit which you didn’t see coming! While you are at it, learn from the teacher, not from the student! And, really, have you noticed that you have a beam in your eye, and instead you are noticing and attempting to, remove “the splinter in your brother’s eye”? Really?
Finally, wisdom hits us head on. Good trees bear good fruit; rotten trees bear rotten fruit. Isn’t that obvious? So also goes the heart. Good hearts produce goodness all the way around. Rotten hearts produce rot and waste and ugliness, and all kinds of sin and hurt and pain and nastiness.
Quote of the week |
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” — Heller Keller (1880-1968).
