{"id":1918,"date":"2016-10-02T11:51:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T15:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2016-10-02T11:51:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T15:51:27","slug":"27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-respect-life-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-respect-life-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C & Respect Life Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nHabakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4
\nPsalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
\n2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
\nLuke 17:5-10
\nOctober 2, 2016<\/p>\n

The Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.\u00a0 It seems like a good request.\u00a0 I suspect many of us, myself included, make the same request.\u00a0 It\u2019s a challenge to believe.\u00a0 We can feel like we need more faith!<\/p>\n

Yet, what is Jesus response?\u00a0 \u201cIf you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, \u2018Be uprooted and planted in the sea\u2019 and it would obey you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess I don\u2019t have much faith because I can\u2019t get the mulberry tree to uproot and move.\u00a0 I would say I need more faith but how do we measure our faith?<\/p>\n

We might feel like we need more faith when our prayers are not being answered.\u00a0 Are there times when we repeat the words of Habakkuk, \u201cI cry for help but you do not listen!<\/em>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Do we cry out \u201cviolence<\/em>\u201d but nothing changes?\u00a0 \u2018Why must I look at misery?<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n

Every time there is a shooting, people cry out to God.<\/p>\n

Every time there is a terrorist attack, people cry out to God.<\/p>\n

When one sees the misery of those who don\u2019t have a home to live in or food to eat, a cry goes out to God.<\/p>\n

Will it ever change?<\/p>\n

I think part of the problem is that people don\u2019t really grasp the \u201cvision\u201d that God has given us on how to live.\u00a0 People hear God\u2019s commandment to love but don\u2019t listen to God to hear what it means to love.\u00a0 They think this means just telling them we love them and never talking about anything they do as wrong.<\/p>\n

I think there are a lot of people don\u2019t respect life.\u00a0 I\u2019ll go so far as to say that I wonder if the people who commit shootings and terrorism even respect their own lives, let alone the lives of others.<\/p>\n

Respecting life is not just a matter of crying out when there is a shooting or terrorist attack.\u00a0 To respect life requires us to everyone<\/em> as a unique individual, given life by God, and having all the same rights and deserving respect.<\/p>\n

If we truly respect life, it doesn\u2019t matter if the person can take care of themselves or is totally dependent on others.\u00a0 Respecting life means respecting the person at a core level even when they have done something wrong.<\/p>\n

October is Respect Life month in our Catholic faith.\u00a0 When people hear the Catholic Church speak about respecting life, many know that our Church is against abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty, but I think a lot of people, including a lot of Catholics, doesn\u2019t understand why our Church is against these things.<\/p>\n

These are important issues and they are not easy to talk out.\u00a0 Our church teaching doesn\u2019t match popular opinion.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feel it is easy even to stand up in a Catholic Church and talk about this issues, let alone trying to talk about them to people outside the Church.<\/p>\n

Yet, as Paul writes to Timothy, \u201cGod did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

If we are going to respect life, we need the gifts of the Spirit (knowledge, wisdom, and understanding) to know what it means to respect life and <\/em><\/strong>we need the gift of courage to speak up.<\/p>\n

Respecting life very much includes life as it begins in the womb.\u00a0 It includes life at its end (the tomb) in this world when our bodies are tired and week from age or illness.<\/p>\n

Respecting life also means every moment in between (from womb to <\/em>tomb).\u00a0 It means feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty.\u00a0 It means understanding the needs of those who have committed crimes.\u00a0 They may deserve punishment but they need compassion.<\/p>\n

We are nearing the end of our Jubilee Year of Mercy but the need for mercy will never end.\u00a0 We count on God\u2019s mercy for ourselves and we should be moved by mercy to respect all life.<\/p>\n

Maybe we know what we can do to respect life.\u00a0 Maybe our first step is to learn why<\/em><\/strong> the Church calls us to respect life.\u00a0 We need to make sure we have a well-formed conscience in order to live out our faith.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret we are in a presidential election year.\u00a0 There are others offices open for election.\u00a0 You must decide for yourselves who you are going to vote for but it is important for us to vote.\u00a0 Our Church calls us to discern what is important to us and to learn where the candidates stand on the issues.\u00a0 There are lots of things to consider in selecting a candidate.\u00a0 Is respecting life one of them for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4 Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 Luke 17:5-10 October 2, 2016 The Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.\u00a0 It seems like a good request.\u00a0 I suspect many of us, myself included, make the same request.\u00a0 It\u2019s a challenge to believe.\u00a0 We can …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C & Respect Life Sunday’ »<\/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":[82,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-uW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918"}],"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=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}