Thursday, September 22, 2016



Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ecclesiastes 1:2-11; Luke 9:7-9)

The IPhone 7 premiered last week.  You can take it under water, and it works faster than previous generations.  But don’t expect it to satisfy all you needs.  More than likely you will find yourself with similar problems to the ones you have always had.  IPhone 7 won’t make you more prompt or more attentive. As Qoheleth testifies in today’s first reading, there is “(n)othing new under the sun.”

What might change our lives, however, is a fresh relationship.  A new friend can give us insight into other’s lives and our own.  Talk with a new African-American friend about racial harassment, and you probably will learn how much it still hurts.  Or talk with a new teacher friend, and you may be surprised at how educators find testing interfering with learning.  One friendship that we definitely want to cultivate is that with Jesus.

Today’s gospel says that Herod the tetrarch wanted to visit with Jesus.  We should be doubly eager to do so.  He will move us from a preoccupation with IPhones to a sincere concern about the people around us.  He will also show us how to change our unhelpful habits.  Qoheleth could not have had friendship with Jesus in mind when he said nothing is new.