Tuesday, 18 November 2014

HIS COMPATRIOTS DETESTED HIM

PRAYER MOMENT 


Wednesday 19 November 2014


HIS COMPATRIOTS DETESTED HIM
                     

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.


Reading: “But his compatriots detested him and sent a delegation to follow him with this message, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’” (Luke 19:11-28)


Reflection. This is Luke’s version of Matthew’s parable of the talents we read last Sunday and it is even harsher. (Last year on this day we welcomed Fr Chuks as the new rector of Arrupe College, Harare, and the reader enjoyed reading this bit!). In both stories the key person is an unsavoury character who ‘reaps where he has not sown.’ But in both cases the one who does nothing comes off worse. The key to the stories is the expectation of the people listening to Jesus that the ‘kingdom of God was going to show itself then and there.’ Jesus cautions them; in a corrupt world people act and improve their lives through their hard work. How is it, he asks, that when the kingdom of God is in your midst you, the ‘children of light,’ do nothing?’ You sit on your hands! Maybe that is a stark reading of the parable but still, we have to hold it up as a mirror and ask what is it saying to me.  


Prayer. Lord, help us through your Spirit to be attentive to your stories and see what they are saying to me..  Amen.  
David Harold-Barry SJ











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