{"id":1678,"date":"2015-09-06T12:26:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T16:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2015-09-06T12:26:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T16:26:28","slug":"23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

23rd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nIsaiah 35:4-7a
\nJames 2:1-5
\nMark 7:31-37
\n*Psalm 146, 6-7, 8-9, 9-10 (1b)
\nSeptember 6, 2015<\/p>\n

\u201cSay to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!<\/em><\/p>\n

What frightens us?\u00a0 What comes to mind for you?\u00a0 It might be being the victim of physical violence.\u00a0 It might be the fear of someone no longer loving us.\u00a0 It might be fear of not having what we need to survive.<\/p>\n

There are honest, hardworking people who fear having enough money to buy food, clothing and pay the rent.\u00a0 Do we care?\u00a0 God does!<\/p>\n

Our psalm today speaks of how God gives food to the hungry.\u00a0 Someone might think, \u2018oh, good, I don\u2019t have to help them because God will take care of them.\u2019\u00a0 God does want to take care of the poor but He wants to do it through us.<\/p>\n

There are ways in which we are a generous parish.\u00a0 We have our Food Pantry that provides food for anywhere from 100 to 180 households each week<\/em>.\u00a0 It is completely staffed by dedicated volunteers<\/em>.\u00a0 A large amount of the food is donated but our food pantry relies on monetary donations to buy some of the food.<\/p>\n

We are generous in supporting Catholic Charities with donating items for them to help the poor.\u00a0 Our poor box in back goes to Catholic Charities.<\/p>\n

For Thanksgiving and Christmas we offer assistance and gifts to a few families in need.<\/p>\n

These are all good works.\u00a0 Many of the beneficiaries are strangers to us but that doesn\u2019t matter for as our psalm says, \u201cThe Lord protects strangers.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The psalm also tells us that God \u201csecures justice for the oppressed.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

What comes to mind when you hear the word \u201coppressed\u201d?\u00a0 Is it slavery or those who are suffer violence because of their faith or because they are \u201cdifferent\u201d?<\/p>\n

What about those who are not giving a \u201cfair deal\u201d?<\/p>\n

They put in a good day\u2019s work.\u00a0 Some might even do more than a fair day\u2019s work but they aren\u2019t given a chance to get ahead in life.\u00a0 It might be in low pay or being overlooked for promotions.\u00a0 They are willing to work hard but keep getting looked over because they seem poor.\u00a0 What does James say?\u00a0 \u201cShow no partiality<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Monday is Labor Day, a day meant to celebrate the work (labor) we do.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t for boasting about the work we do but a day to be thankful for the work that everyone does.<\/p>\n

We need to express our thanks.\u00a0 This can be in words but it also needs to include a fair day\u2019s wages for a fair day\u2019s work.\u00a0 This can\u2019t be fixed in one massive increase but we have to start someplace.\u00a0 We might also look to see what can be done to make the cost of living more reasonable.<\/p>\n

The work itself is important.\u00a0 We take a significant step in finding fulfillment in life when we work using the gifts God has given us to work.<\/p>\n

How might Jesus be asking to you to help the oppressed, the hungry, the blind, and the stranger?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Isaiah 35:4-7a James 2:1-5 Mark 7:31-37 *Psalm 146, 6-7, 8-9, 9-10 (1b) September 6, 2015 \u201cSay to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! What frightens us?\u00a0 What comes to mind for you?\u00a0 It might be being the victim of physical violence.\u00a0 It might be the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-r4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1679,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}