28th SUNDAY (A) 12 October 2008

This Sunday, the Archdiocese of Sydney celebrates Marriage & Family Sunday.

Spouses' Prayer

Father, all powerful and ever living God, we thank you and bless your holy Name, for you created man and woman to be a help and support for each other. Remember us today. Protect us and enable our love to be the mutual gift of self in the image of Christ and the Church. Enlighten and strengthen us for the mission of teaching our children to be authentic Christians and energetic builders of the earthly city. Enable us the grow old together in joy and peace so we can always praise and thank you in our hearts through your Son in the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Grant that I and my spouse may have a true and understanding love for each other.
Grant that we may both be filled with faith and trust.
Give us the grace to live with each other in peace and harmony.
May we always bear with one another's weaknesses and grow from each other's strengths.
Help us to forgive one another's failings and grant us patience, kindness, cheerfulness and the spirit of placing the well-being of another ahead of self.
May the love that bought us together grow and mature with each passing year.
Bring us both ever closer to You through our love for each other. Let our love grow to perfection.

(extracted from parish bulletin)

27th SUNDAY(A) 5 October 2008

When parents are in deep distress after being let down or rejected by their children they may well voice the lament of Isaiah in the first reading: “What more could I have done for my children that I did not do?” There is no pain more intense or distressing than that of being rejected. Like a sword of sorrow it pierces our heart and leaves us deeply wounded. Rejection is something we all encounter on our journey through life and Jesus was no exception. The terrible truth is that the Son of God came to earth, showed his love in every possible way and was rejected. In this very hard hitting gospel we are exposed to the blunt truth that God has done everything possible for us as a people by sending his Son to live among us. In return we have turned our back and offered him nothing but black ingratitude and cold indifference.

It does not take a great deal of imagination to see ourselves in this parable. Each of us is a tenant, cultivating a small portion of God’s vineyard and when the harvest time arrives we are expected to produce the fruits of right living, by displaying a brotherhood of caring, sharing and showing forth the charity of the gospel in our daily lives. By doing this we put into practice during the week what we profess to believe at our Sunday morning celebration of the Mass.

The parable challenges us to keep working in God’s service and not to become complacent. We can examine our conscience to see if we are producing the gifts of God’s love. The Lord is bitterly disappointed when we lazily sit back and fail to appreciate the beauty of our lives, the joy of our families and his loving care. There will be a day of reckoning for all of us. A time will come when we will be answerable for the way in which we have carried out the task God has given us to do. What then if at the end of life we have nothing to offer the Lord but the sour grapes of a pagan lifestyle? We will have smothered a beautiful being with indifference, ingratitude, selfishness and neglect and have become useless to God. Christ is concerned that we respond to his appeal to bear fruit and become an immense and beautiful harvest.

Fr. Jojo Eloja