To watch Fr. Joe’s homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: CLICK HERE!
A while back the daily comic strip “For Better or Worse” featured, 6 year old Lizzy coming home after a bad day at school. Lizzy confides in her father, “Daddy, why don’t some kids get along with other kids? Sometimes, when you think someone’s your friend, they’re really not. Some kids do mean things for no reason. Kids fight over dumb stuff. They pick on each other. They do not share – and they say things about other kids that are not true… I can’t wait till I’m grown up. Grown-ups do not do things like that to each other.”
Lizzy turns to walk away, leaving her dad with a stunned and sad expression on his face that says, “Oh Lizzy, if you only knew…”
In our scriptures today we hear that Joshua and the Disciples of Jesus, thought they were the only dispensers of God’s blessings. But Moses says to Joshua and Jesus says to his Disciples, “Nay, nay!”
Joshua and Jesus remind everyone that, bringing the message of God, bringing the healing of God was the JOB of everyone.
Seems to me our Scriptures are asking us to look within… to be more open to the working of God, the work of the Holy Spirit – among us, through others, and even in our selves.
Seems to me the Scriptures are asking us (maybe better put – Jesus is asking us) – to celebrate, to applaud, to live more faithfully – the call of others, our own call to bring blessing to others every day.
To paraphrase Lizzy, folks, why don’t some people get along with other people? Sometimes, when you think someone’s your friend, they’re really not. Some people do mean things for no reason. People fight over dumb stuff. They pick on each other. They do not share – and they say things about other people that are not true.
May we and our children really come to know a world and a people who witness daily to a faith (centered in Jesus and his word and his way) that brings us close and closer to the “Kingdom of God here on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
A world where Lizzy’s expectation of being a grown-up are true, “because grown-ups do not do things like that to each other.”