True Religion: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Draft
Dear Readers,
I have a wedding rehearsal tonight, therefore no homily reflection group to give me advance input. So, I'm relying on you!
Please send your reactions and suggestion on the homily below to me ASAP at jms48@fuse.net.
Thanks for your help. JMS
Business is business.
We know that phrase.
It means that,
“at the end of the day,”
“all things being equal”
when you “get down to bras tacks,”
well, business is business.
In other words, when there’s a job to get,
there’s no time for “monkey business,”
because “business is business.”
Take the world of finance as an example.
When you go to the bank,
what you see on the paper matches the amount in the account.
There’s no room for variance.
What you see is what you have.
The same holds true in the world of medicine.
If you suspect that you have an illness,
you want the doctor’s diagnosis to be on the mark.
Medical practitioners strive for the highest level of accuracy.
We expect the same from the criminal justice system.
For the good of society and the protection of the innocent,
the punishment must fit the crime.
When push comes to shove,
business is business and there’s no monkeying around.
That’s true in the banks, in the courtrooms, in hospitals.
And it’s also true in the churches.
This is the reason why, Jesus Christ,
the founder of our religion
was so hard those practitioners of religion in his day,
who did not realize the devastating effect
of hypocrisy in the leaders of religion.
Like a corrupt judge,
an incompetent doctor
or a banker with his hand in the till…
it is essential that people like me
practice what they preach.
The message is reiterated in the passage from St. James:
“Be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”
We’re used to the phrase, “business is business.”
Maybe we should adop a new saying:
“Religion is religion.”
Meaning,
“Real religion is real religion.”
Have any of you seen the movie World Trade Center?
I’ve not seen the movie
but a review by Rod Dreher that indicates that it conveys an important message,
a message very similar to the spirit of today’s readings.
He points out that, in the movie, World Trade Center,
the two heroes lie buried alive under the rubble of the collapsed towers,
they – and their wives at home – reflect on their lives,
come to understand who and what they really love,
and what they wish they had done with their lives.
The burning towers illuminate the true character
of all the firemen, cops and rescue personnel
who ran into them to pull people out –
and men like Father Mychal Judge, the Catholic priest
who died that day ministering to the fallen.
They were the kind of people who conquered their fear
because they had a job to do.
And it's not something they decided to do on a lark:
the making of their character
began long before the time of their testing.
September 11 illuminated what was already inside.
They didn't become on that morning the kind of men
who would give their lives
to run into the burning towers;
they ran into those towers because long ago,
they became the sort of men who would do that sort of thing.
That's why they chose to be
cops, firefighters, rescue personnel, a priest:
the kind of people who run toward danger.
The kind of people
who live the Word, not just hear it!
So you see, true religion—the kind of religion that builds your character
and shapes your soul—has very little to do
with the clothes you wear on Sunday.
Nor is it found in the words I speak from the pulpit,
Rather, “at the end of the day, when push comes to shove,”
it’s how our love for God is put into practice day after day
that determines whether or not
the religion we profess
is the religion that we live.
Dear Readers,
I have a wedding rehearsal tonight, therefore no homily reflection group to give me advance input. So, I'm relying on you!
Please send your reactions and suggestion on the homily below to me ASAP at jms48@fuse.net.
Thanks for your help. JMS
Business is business.
We know that phrase.
It means that,
“at the end of the day,”
“all things being equal”
when you “get down to bras tacks,”
well, business is business.
In other words, when there’s a job to get,
there’s no time for “monkey business,”
because “business is business.”
Take the world of finance as an example.
When you go to the bank,
what you see on the paper matches the amount in the account.
There’s no room for variance.
What you see is what you have.
The same holds true in the world of medicine.
If you suspect that you have an illness,
you want the doctor’s diagnosis to be on the mark.
Medical practitioners strive for the highest level of accuracy.
We expect the same from the criminal justice system.
For the good of society and the protection of the innocent,
the punishment must fit the crime.
When push comes to shove,
business is business and there’s no monkeying around.
That’s true in the banks, in the courtrooms, in hospitals.
And it’s also true in the churches.
This is the reason why, Jesus Christ,
the founder of our religion
was so hard those practitioners of religion in his day,
who did not realize the devastating effect
of hypocrisy in the leaders of religion.
Like a corrupt judge,
an incompetent doctor
or a banker with his hand in the till…
it is essential that people like me
practice what they preach.
The message is reiterated in the passage from St. James:
“Be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”
We’re used to the phrase, “business is business.”
Maybe we should adop a new saying:
“Religion is religion.”
Meaning,
“Real religion is real religion.”
Have any of you seen the movie World Trade Center?
I’ve not seen the movie
but a review by Rod Dreher that indicates that it conveys an important message,
a message very similar to the spirit of today’s readings.
He points out that, in the movie, World Trade Center,
the two heroes lie buried alive under the rubble of the collapsed towers,
they – and their wives at home – reflect on their lives,
come to understand who and what they really love,
and what they wish they had done with their lives.
The burning towers illuminate the true character
of all the firemen, cops and rescue personnel
who ran into them to pull people out –
and men like Father Mychal Judge, the Catholic priest
who died that day ministering to the fallen.
They were the kind of people who conquered their fear
because they had a job to do.
And it's not something they decided to do on a lark:
the making of their character
began long before the time of their testing.
September 11 illuminated what was already inside.
They didn't become on that morning the kind of men
who would give their lives
to run into the burning towers;
they ran into those towers because long ago,
they became the sort of men who would do that sort of thing.
That's why they chose to be
cops, firefighters, rescue personnel, a priest:
the kind of people who run toward danger.
The kind of people
who live the Word, not just hear it!
So you see, true religion—the kind of religion that builds your character
and shapes your soul—has very little to do
with the clothes you wear on Sunday.
Nor is it found in the words I speak from the pulpit,
Rather, “at the end of the day, when push comes to shove,”
it’s how our love for God is put into practice day after day
that determines whether or not
the religion we profess
is the religion that we live.
posted by BlueCollarPreacher at 12:55 PM
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