Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Friends,

"What are you arguing about," Jesus asks his disciples. In this week's Gospel, we are reminded of how even within Jesus' inner circle of friends there was the discussion of who was greatest among them - the result of envy and jealousy.

Jesus approaches the weakness of his disciples with an invitation to change. Exchanging their desire for greatness for littleness and virtue - a paradox that is difficult to understand in our world. The Gospel reading is complemented by St. James' words that jealousy and selfish ambition are actually a disorder. Pride, possessiveness, and conflicts, although present in our lives, were not built into the order of original man - they are the disordered effect of sin. St. James makes the observation that disintegration on the inside, sows disintegration on the outside.

The front of our church is marked with a rose stained glass window. In most Gothic churches, at the center of each rose window is a depiction of Christ. Surrounding that center are all the different elements of the window, connected harmoniously to each other and to the center. This is an image of the well-ordered soul. Centered in Christ, all the elements that make me up on the inside are now linked to Christ and therefore linked harmoniously to one another. A saint is someone who's found this wholeness and integration, which is why saints tend to radiate harmony and integration.

In the midst of the disciple's conflict, Jesus places a little child in their midst. Who but a child is the opposite of greatness? One who is pure, peaceful, gentle, compliant, quick to forgive, constant and sincere. Children have this capacity to get lost in the present moment. Think of a child at play - not thinking about the past, not preoccupied with the future, but completely caught up with a kind of joyful abandon in the present moment. This week consider how you can give yourself utterly to the present moment, not grasping for self ambition but in childlike joy that leads to inner freedom.

Anthony Quinn, Young Adult Coordinator