32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading I – Wisdom 6:12-16 (154A)
Reading II - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 or 4:13-14
Listen to this week's readings courtesy of the UCCB.
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We are approaching the conclusion of another liturgical year. The liturgy addresses ultimate things: wisdom, holiness, death and the second coming. They deal with mystery. As life is a mystery, relationships are mysteries. No matter how well we know someone, there's always more to know. We name all kinds of things as mysteries when we don't understand them. And then there's death, the final mystery.
In his last book, Toward an Adult Faith (OCP 9857TD), Sulpician Father Gene Walsh (1911-1989) talked about the challenge of seeing God a s a loving father, not as a stern judge, at the moment of death: "I myself have come to expect that the one person who loves me more than anyone else is going to be right there with me at the moment when I need him most…. When I think about dying, God has got to be there, keeping me and holding me in my last fierce struggle. I cannot conceive it otherwise. I don't want to conceive it otherwise" (134).
Anyone who has studied comparative religions knows there is no religion that believes a person will meet God without first having a time of purification or preparation. Whether you are a parent or a parent by affection, prepare your children to meet God. As Christians, we do this through the transformative power of Christ. That faith is passed on to children through family and the faith community.
By Elaine Rendler-McQueeney, from Today's Liturgy 2005 © 2005, OCP. All rights reserved.
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