Thursday, November 12, 2015

Memorial of St. Josephat, bishop and martyr

Wisdom 7:22b-8:1; Luke 17:20-25)

In the movie Philomena the son of an unmarried woman is unlawfully given to another family.  When many years later the woman discovers that the perpetrators of the crime are a congregation of sisters, she decides not to sew for personal damages.  Thankful to have closure to the question of what became of her son, Philomena accepts the apologies of the congregation.  Obviously she lives within the Kingdom of God.

As Jesus explains to the Pharisees in today’s gospel, the Kingdom of God has no geographical boundaries.  Nor is it confined to any moment of time.  Rather the Kingdom of God exists wherever men and women recognize that their lives are gifts from God which they are to share with others.  It is the freedom experienced in thanking God by joyfully serving all as brothers and sisters.


We live in a world that believes that justice can be achieved by recognizing a full complement of human rights for all.  Soon, however, we see that there are many more rights than there are responsibilities to assure their being honored.  Living in God’s Kingdom, we realize that we must sacrifice at least some of our rights claims.  It means that we humble ourselves for the good of our neighbors.