Word to the Wise
Thursday, November 6, 2025 - Thursday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 14:7-12 and Luke 15:1-10]None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord: so whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? [Luke]
NOVEMBER 6 [Dominican Martyrs in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39]
The philosopher Aristotle wrote, "Man is a social animal!" (Politics). From our very conception we belong to others. We are created in the image and likeness of God. We BELONG to God. This is not simply a "vertical" relationship, but is expressed in the way we belong to our neighbor, as well. It can be a useful exercise to write down the various ways in which we "belong, " or the way other persons or things "belong" to us- e.g. to various organizations or other relationships. The most important belonging is expressed by St. Paul and the Gospel According to Luke today. In St. Paul, we are reminded that for our entire existence from conception to eternity we are in a relationship of belonging to God. The Gospel According to Luke reminds us that God's love is such that God will try to come and find us if we stray from the flock to which we belong.
Friendship is a particular form of belonging that can characterize a relationship to God or to another person. Marriage is an example, but all family relationships express a form of belonging. Adoption is a very intentional way of establishing a relationship of belonging.
The passage from the gospel today is the first of three straight parables culminating in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Belonging means loving and forgiving. We have Jesus as our example of how to live and die for God and neighbor. How do we express our belonging? AMEN