Dear Family,
If Luke the evangelist was trying to find a good way of geffing our attention, he couldn’t have done better than today’s gospel. “Unless a man HATES his father and mother... he cannot be my disciple.”
Wow. Fortunately, Matthew 10:37 helps us understand. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me...”
Our challenge is puffing God first. As I think about it, the more I can put Him first, the more likely I will be able to love others because I will be choosing them as He would, ...and does!
On Creighton U.’s ministry page, Father Nicky Santos, SJ remarked about today’s gospel, “ ...I was reminded of the radical and inclusive love that God has for us. In being detached... (from what we have,) we can more fully experience this love and be channels of it to our family, friends, ourselves and even our enemies.
...Today’s gospel is calling us to love these ...with that radical and inclusive love that we have experienced as disciples. This is the true cost of discipleship, and it is not easy.”
Perhaps that is a good lead in to the “Season of Creation.” Being a good disciple isn’t easy. It means, as the word implies, that there is definitely work to learning and choosing well. Perhaps no one reflects that more than Pope Francis.
Since June of 2015 with the publication of his second encyclical, LAUDATO SI, (PRAISE BE TO YOU,) Pope Francis has been calling us and the whole world to a radical reassessment of how we are treating our envi¬ronment. The subtitle of LAUDATO SI is, “on care for our common home.”
From now through October 4th, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, we will explore what Pope Francis is offering us.
I cannot recommend highly enough the article that Wikipedia has published about the encyclical. It’s like having a good expert friend walk with you through the very closely reasoned theology of creation. You’ll find the article simply by searching for Laudato Si and calling up the Wikipedia article.
If you are at all interested in our environment, and the condition we are leaving it for our kids and grandkids - and generations to come, don’t be put off by the effort you may have to make.
I’d like to think that some great retired person would be able to do a little work and maybe bring along some of their family members who “are too busy to stop and read.”
I’m closing with what I hope is not a well-founded concern, in fact, fear.
I pray that we will NEVER let our discussions of climate and environment and the good and bad effects of various practices and policies, be turned into a series of political climate-bashing fights.
We need to be listeners and learners. If we haven’t paid as much attention to these things as we should have in the past, let’s not waste time by arguing over who is to blame in the present. I simply feel sad that at 81 there’s not all that much time for me to be more open-eyed. Every time I see one of our youngsters in church, I pray for them. Every time one of them lets out a yell, I think, “Thank you, Jesus.” And trust me, it’s not just about my pension plan.
With Pope Francis we ask the Lord to be fantastic caretakers and treasurers of “our common home.” Let that be the heritage we leave for those who come after us.
In Jesus,
