Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 24, 2015 - Thursday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Hag 1:1-8 and Luke 9:7-9]Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; you have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, and not been warmed; and whoever earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! [Haggai]
The prophet Haggai is confronting the former exiles who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their lives. Haggai confronts them for their priorities which did not include the immediate rebuilding of the temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. For Haggai, true prosperity would not be found in economic rebuilding but in spritual rebuilding which would be respresented in the temple. He points to the moral and physical emptiness of their lives which had numbed them to the importance of their faith in God, so that the temple was a kind of "down the road"project. His most important line is: CONSIDER YOUR WAYS!
When St. Francis of Assisi underwent his conversion, he received a vision from God which told him to "go and rebuild my church, which is in ruins." Right now there are some very anxious senators and congressmen in Washington, D.C. who will witness the historic event of Pope Francis addressing a joint session of Congress. They are worried about what he will say. Since it is difficult for them to think beyond Democrat or Republican categories, they will inevitably interpret his words in political/economic terms, but that is not what Pope Francis will say. He will tell them and all of us Americans: CONSIDER YOUR WAYS! He said that to the Roman curia last Christmas, he said it to the Cuban government and now its our turn. I truly hope we can listen! AMEN
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