Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: whoever causes … to stumble

If only all were prophets!

If only everyone recognized that if I/we are silent, then the whole Church remains silent

Numbers 11:29 (ESV-CE)

But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Mark 9:39 (ESV-CE)

But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

Joel 2:28 (ESV-CE)

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

Acts 2:1 (ESV-CE)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:4 (ESV-CE)

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

There is no “they” in the Church, there is only “we”.

David White reminded us this week:

We are all Christ’s family who do God’s will, sons & daughters of God and heirs to the riches of salvation.

Micah 6:8 ESV-CE

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

All this is well and good. Then, …

Woe to the one … weep and howl

Mark 9:42 (ESV-CE)

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin [stumble], it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

James 5:1 ESV-CE

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

Wisdom from abuse survivors

some requests and some things I [re-]learned last week.

‘We [abuse survivors] need to know that the Church is facing the consequences of what we did and didn’t do.’

not to torture but to heal.

Talk about abuse:

not to talk it to death,

but so that survivors know they are cherished;

and so that we all be reminded

of what we owe to one another in Christ.

There’s no healing [from something] without dealing [with it]

[from AA]: You can’t tame it if you can’t name it OR

see it, recognize it, acknowledge it, name it, own it.

Do you think you’re

Ill-prepared, unworthy, afraid?

153 … Why, if the church were perfect, we should not endure you in it! I have no doubt that you will find the church quite as perfect as you are. There are others who keep aloof from the people of God because they feel they are not perfect themselves. My dear friend, if you were perfect we should not want you, because you would be the only perfect member among us.—17.478

Charles Spurgeon

So, let’s resolve

To be ministers of grace:

wherever, whenever, however the grace of God permits,

in season or out of season

whether convenient or inconvenient,

for the sake of so many who have been so wounded.

The Roman Missal, Third Typical Edition (16. For Reconciliation)

O God, author of true freedom,

whose will it is to shape all men and women

into a single people released from slavery,

(and who offer us a time of grace and blessing,)

grant to your Church, we pray,

that, as she receives new growth in freedom,

she may appear more clearly to the world

as the universal sacrament of salvation,

manifesting and making present

the mystery of your love for all.

Let all God’s children say —

Amen!