Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Scripture

My faith has been tested many times during the course of my priesthood. But in recent times, it has not been tested more than during my last visit home. You already know that my mother had had a fall and my father had gotten cataract surgeries on both his eyes. My bother’s family and I spent a couple of weeks with my parents and it was a time for much assurance and comfort for all of us. But as time arrived for each of us to leave, I could sense the despair and gloom that was beginning to set in at home. Perhaps because of her gradual recovery from the fall, or perhaps because of our leaving, mother began to experience symptoms she had never experienced before – short periods of absolute exhaustion. The day before returned to Dayton, I had to rush her to the emergency room. Her vital signs were all normal, yet her symptoms would not leave her. I was to leave for the airport at 4:00 in the morning the day I was leaving. At 3:30 she had another one of these attacks. I almost decided that I would cancel my flight and stay back till she would stabilize. She snapped out of it and asked me to proceed with my journey. I did, partly because I had to be back here for the weekend masses, but also partly because I entrusted my mother to God in faith. I lay my head on her chest and entrusted her to my God. It has been the hardest good-bye I have even said to mother and father. My faith in my God sustains me even as I nervously continue to do ministry here.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Scripture 

We are a generation that in very tangible and dreadful terms knows the effects of human greed. Where shall we begin? Let me see… Shall we begin with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? How can successive governments and multinational corporations allow deep sea drilling without the technology to stem an accidental disaster? They tell us now that the entire department that oversees such operations is rife with corruption. I wonder how many politicians receive money for their campaign form these very corporations. H about all the foreclosures? Was that not caused by greedy banks and their executives wanting quicker and larger profits? Who is paying for it now? Banks got bailed out but not the people who lost their homes. They tell us now that 90%  of the ninety million dollars assigned for reconstruction in Iraq cannot be accounted for. Let us see if the guilty will stand on the dock. The effects of just these disasters are enough to send our minds spinning. Greed is a horrific thing. In the Catholic tradition, it is counted among the Seven Deadly Sins.