Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 3, 2019 - 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Wis 11:22-12:2; 2 Thess 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10]But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. [Wisdom] "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." [Luke]
Coming on the heels of All Saints and All Souls, Wisdom and Luke can add comfort to comfort. All Saints reminds us that we belong to the Communion of Saints, and All Souls reminds us that complete perfection is not a barrier to eternal life. We can still grow into it after death. God loves us and is determined to have us in eternal life!
Wisdom reminds us that God has made all things no matter what we, in our Tower of Technological Babel, think we have done, and we will have to account to God for what we do to God's creation, including ourselves. The story of Zaccheus in the Gospel According to Luke is a reminder that if we show even curiosity about God, our curiosity will be rewarded with a fascinating dinner guest!
There is much spiritual hope in all of this. I once gave a Day of Recollection to some ladies at a parish in Memphis, TN. It became clear to me in my one-to-one conversations with them that the virtues of faith and love were strong in them, but they needed hope that God would not abandon them in their challenges. Today I will conclude a retreat for women in New Orleans and try to assure them that when the Saints go marching in, they can be in that number! AMEN