21st and 22nd Sundays in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
August 21 & 29, 2010

REFLECT

View the readings for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

View the readings for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Sunday Gospels have been coming to us from Luke for the last several weeks. 
One of the themes in this week’s readings is the stranger from afar, and sharing the Good News with him.  She comes, gathered by the LORD (in Isaiah) to see God’s glory; the psalm, exhorts us to “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”  In this time where much emphasis is placed on fear, what Good News are we sharing with the world? 

Are we sharing the Good News of a God who gathers all of the nations together, a God of love, a God who calls the people from the “east and the west and from the north and the south ... (to) recline at table in the kingdom of God”? 

Our God is not a God of fear, for as Timothy tells us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7) If we have been called to share this Good News with the world, are we living in such a way, that people are drawn to the Good News, as people were drawn to Francis and Clare?

We are called to embrace the immigrant, to hear his and her story, to share our story with them.  It is only in this shared living of lives, that we can truly live out of love, for as we begin to welcome the stranger, they no longer are stranger, but rather, they are known.

The 22nd Sunday’s readings continue this theme.  The psalm claims, “God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor” and in the Gospel, Jesus tells us a parable about attending a wedding banquet.  Jesus continues by calling us to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” to the banquet we host.  These people, those who are minores, are the ones with whom we are called to share our abundance.  On August 21st, we celebrate the feast day of Pius X, who was a third order member of the Franciscans.  Pius X had a heart for the poor and was known to have said, “I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor.”  Let us try to welcome those who seem different from us, especially the poor.

ACT

While FAN continues to work for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), we are now also putting our energy into the DREAM Act, in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Justice for Immigrants (JFI).  The DREAM Act is NOT a substitute for CIR, however it is an important component. 

What is the DREAM Act? It is a measure that was introduced on March 26, 2009 by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) that would serve to provide legal status and educational opportunities to those who entered the U.S. as minor children. 

Click the red button (or here) to send a message to your Members of Congress in support of the DREAM Act.

To learn more, visit the JFI site.


PRAY

An interfaith group, sponsored by The New Sanctuary Movement, gathers together on the first Thursday of each month at 12 noon in front of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They gather in prayerful solidarity with families who have been affected by deportation.  The service lasts about a half-hour and includes songs, petitions, the reading of the names of people deported or waiting to be deported and a closing prayer. 

The purpose of the prayer gathering is to ask that the deportations and detentions stop while Congress works on immigration reform. FAN members Sr. Grace Golata, OSF and Sr. Phyllis Wertz, OSF, of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Milwaukee, are both frequently in attendance.  The School Sisters of St. Francis are an institutional member of FAN.

Here is a prayer service that was shared with us by Dominica LoBianco, OSF, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia