Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
My friends think my house is always neat and tidy. That’s because I only invite them over after I’ve spent hours cleaning up the mess and hiding everything else in closets, the oven, and behind closed doors. So if you think of just dropping by, give me a few hours notice!
Yet how much time am I missing with friends, in more authentic relationship, by trying to put up an act? Today Jesus says don’t worry about the mess; let me be where you live. And in that place of vulnerability, conversion happens.
We are called to let Jesus into the mess of our lives. We are also called to enter into the messiness of others’ lives without requiring them to first clean up their act. Click To TweetThis conversion happens both ways for disciples. We are called to let Jesus into the mess of our lives. We are also called to enter into the messiness of others’ lives without requiring them to first clean up their act.
Pope Francis reminded us: “Jesus did not provide a short list of who is, or is not, worthy of receiving his message and his presence.…Far from expecting a pretty life, smartly-dressed and neatly groomed, he embraced life as he found it.…Go out and in [Jesus’s] name embrace life as it is, and not as you think it should be.…[G]o out to tell the good news fearlessly, without prejudice, without superiority, without condescension, to all those who have lost the joy of living” (September 23, 2015, homily).
This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”
Image credit: Eduard Militaru, Unsplash, CC0.
Leave a Reply