September 4, 2022

Wisdom 9:13-18b; Psalm 90; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33

Our Wounded Creation

We’re deep

Into the ministry

Of Jesus, the Christ

Traveling

Within a great crowd

Everyone

Wants to see

To hear

To know

To be included

To be a fan

A spectator

To be able to brag

To say

I was there.

And the commitment?

Jesus asks

Hate your mother,

Your father,

Your brother,

Your sister,

Your wife,

Your Husband,

Your child,

Your very life.

There is more:

Carry your own cross,

Follow Jesus,

Live a life

Of constant self-giving

Death to self

Today, tomorrow,

And every day.

And still

A little more:

Renounce all you possess

Give it away.

And be ready

To follow me,

Be my disciple,

Follow Jesus

To what

And where?

Listen to what Pope Francis

Speaks

In Evangelii Guadium:

Possessions have dangerous powers

To make

Our Hearts

Complacent yet covetous.

Materialism, he says

Is the feverish pursuit

Of frivolous pleasures

That wield

Treacherous potential

To blunt out consciences

Leaving

No Room

For God’s voice

Or Love.

Jesus asks

For an indifference

To blood relatives

Not to be bound by them

Nor self-preservation

Nor by possessions.

Remember

The Good Samaritan?

Imagine how he explained to his wife

What happened to the oil,

The wine, and the money

He was supposed to bring home.

Where do we go from here?

Listen to Francis

“Today’s most urgent call

Is to the ecological call

That will lead us

To heal and renew

Our common home.”

Like the discounted victim

On the side of the road

Creation is languishing

And calling us

To stop abusing her

And step up to

Protecting her.

Ecological conversion

Is our call.

Are we up to it?

Can we take the leap from

Abusers of the Earth

To protectors and preservers?

Can we carry the cross

Of wounded creation

And renounce what harms her?

Today,

Everyone who wishes

To be a disciple of Jesus

Must carry the cross

Of wounded creation.

Renounce what harms her.

This is not an option!