September 15, 2024
24th Sunday
Ordinary Time
FOCUS: Our lives must demonstrate our belief in Christ.
Today we hear the question that is at the center of the entire Gospel. Who is Jesus, and what does it mean to follow him? We would do well to reflect on this question from time to time. Who do we say that Jesus is, and how do our actions demonstrate this belief?
What's in Your Heart
To follow Jesus involves self-denial.
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What crosses do you take up? What do you “lose” for the sake of Christ and the gospel? What good works bring your faith to life? How?
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Isaiah’s Suffering Servant accepts his calling even in the face of ridicule and persecution.
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Homily Stories
It had been a long day of teaching, then a wake service in a far suburb, topped off by traffic slowing my way back to the rectory. I made the mistake of passing a car over railroad tracks and was pulled over by a police car. The officer told me it was illegal as he asked for my license, which gave me time to unzip my coat revealing my Roman collar. It worked. No ticket for Father.
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I felt some remorse but mostly relieved until I pulled up to the rectory garage door. Leaning on it was a familiar sight: Marvin, who lived three doors down was once again drunk. I got out of the car to move him so I could open the door. Before I knew it, I was walking him home. He couldn’t handle the three flights of stairs alone, so I helped him hoping he wouldn’t fall, taking me down with him. I laid him on his bed. Without thinking I unlaced and removed his old shoes. The smell nearly floored me. I rushed home and immediately into the shower. Three days later I ran into a sober Marvin. He told me that he didn’t remember anything about being drunk except that Jesus was there and took off his shoes for him. A miracle, he explained. I smiled. No miracle, just a guilty-feeling priest doing what he should have done acting on the faith he had claimed for his own benefit with the police officer.
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First Reading
Second Reading
Quotes
Faith is the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Action without a name, a "who" attached to it, is meaningless.
—Saint Jerome