Fourteenth Sunday C - Cycle A - Cycle B - Cycle C
Sacred Scriptures
1 Kings 19:16, 19-21
Psalm 16
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Luke 9:51-62
In his letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul is reminding the Church - us - that Christ has won us our freedom. In giving us the Holy Spirit, Jesus has given us all that we need to free ourselves for the service and love of God. Our part in this life giving mystery is integrating the Holy Spirit into every dimension of our lives. In other words, when we leave Mass today, we take what we receive - the Word and the Sacrament - and we live it. We treat one another with love and we keep in mind that behind every face we encounter in our daily lives, lies a mini-version of the story of God's love alive in our world. We act and think in ways that are not self-centered or self-destructive. We free ourselves from the idea that God is out to get us for any other reason than to use us as instruments of grace and mercy. We invite others to join us in discipleship by how we live our lives.
If we do choose to integrate the Holy Spirit in our lives throughout our lives - we're talking about a life-long process - we will be free to follow Jesus. But this is not easy, because sometimes Jesus is going in a direction that we may not want to follow, much like the Samaritans who saw Jesus going to Jerusalem in today's gospel. We know what happens when we follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to Calvary. How many of us would rather avoid that?
But the truth is that sometimes God is going to lead us through some tough times. God is going to walk with us in a direction that we may not want to follow in. Or, we may feel that we are following God's will and have wonderful experiences of growth and grace and then suddenly realize that God is calling us to stretch our souls and grow even more, leading down yet another path that we never expected. God's grace is amazing in that way. But it requires an open heart to receive it.
If we are truly open to answering our vocation - following the plan that God has in his heart for us - we will be free to follow wherever the Lord Jesus goes. Our hearts will be open and we will be able to trust that God is leading us where we are supposed to be going. We'll get there by integrating the Holy Spirit into our lives; for it is through the Holy Spirit's integrating with human flesh in the person of Jesus, that the entire world was saved for all times and ages. Our call is to be open to doing the same. - S. Lowery
Fourteenth Sunday C - Cycle A - Cycle B - Cycle C