Word to the Wise
Saturday, October 27, 2007 - Twenty-ninth Saturday in Ordinary Time
[Romans 8:1-11 and Luke 13:1-9]Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blod Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, "do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did......
Some folks seem to think that any suffering in a person's life has to be punishment for sins committed. And if the suffering comes about in a catastrophic way: tornado, political violence (remember certain preachers after 9/11) or natural disaster (other preachers about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina) the message seems to be that these people were worse sinners than others! How these folks can ignore Jesus' plainly spoken words in today's gospel is beyond me. The message is simple. We are ALL called to repentance. We are all called to be prepared for the Lord's coming. None of us knows when our death will occur. We may die suddenly or at the end of a long trial of illness or old age. The call is the same. It is normal to ask, "Why me?" or "Why them?" In most cases there's no meaningful response. The weather is the weather. New Orleans is where it is. It is possible to turn a great suffering into a meaningful witness of faith and endurance. To claim that someone must have been a great sinner because the suffering is great is simply untrue. We have the Lord's word for it. AMEN