Word Wide Open: The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) - 9/4/22

First Reading (Wisdom 9:13-18b)

A reading from the Book of Wisdom.

 Who can know God’s counsel,

 or who can conceive what the LORD intends?

 For the deliberations of mortals are timid,

 and unsure are our plans.

 For the corruptible body burdens the soul

 and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.

 And scarce do we guess the things on earth,

 and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;

 but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?

 Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom

 and sent your holy spirit from on high?

 And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.

The word of the Lord.

Asking the big questions: Is there anything that stuck out to you from this reading? How can we understand God's will better?

Second Reading (Philemon 9-10, 12-17)

A reading from the Letter to Philemon.

I, Paul, an old man,

and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,

urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,

whose father I have become in my imprisonment;

I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

I should have liked to retain him for myself,

so that he might serve me on your behalf

in my imprisonment for the gospel,

but I did not want to do anything without your consent,

so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.

Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,

that you might have him back forever,

no longer as a slave

but more than a slave, a brother,

beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,

as a man and in the Lord. 

So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

The word of the Lord.

Asking the big questions: Is there anything that stuck out to you from this reading? How are we called to be spiritual fathers/mothers?

Gospel (Luke 14:25-33)

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,

and he turned and addressed them,

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,

wife and children, brothers and sisters,

and even his own life,

he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me

cannot be my disciple.

Which of you wishing to construct a tower

does not first sit down and calculate the cost

to see if there is enough for its completion? 

Otherwise, after laying the foundation

and finding himself unable to finish the work

the onlookers should laugh at him and say,

‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down

and decide whether with ten thousand troops

he can successfully oppose another king

advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? 

But if not, while he is still far away,

he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. 

In the same way,

anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions

cannot be my disciple.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Asking the big questions: Is there anything that stuck out to you from this Gospel reading? What does it mean to hate your own life? How can we get better at assessing the gifts God has given us? What do we have to renounce to be a disciple of Jesus?