20th Sunday in Oridinary Time

Chaput, what do you do when you disagree with a teaching of the Church? You change your mind.

• Jesus is headed into that darkness in Luke’s Gospel this Sunday.
• He is on his way to Jerusalem. He loves her and her people, and wants to shower abundance upon them. But he knows with increasing certainly that she will put him, not merely down a cistern as soldiers did Jeremiah in the First Reading, but on a cross.
• It is a baptism, he says, and he wants it. He shouts to his disciples that he has come to set the earth on fire—just like the blazing lightning wants to tonight. “How great is my anguish until it is accomplished,” he says.

So, Is Jesus the storm or is he the stormed upon? Both, I think. But He will not run away. He walks into a continuous storm that has by no means reached its apex.

If you are talking about, sharing, defending your faith, the church, etc….ESPECIALLY with family, friends, colleagues at work, are you the storm or are you one who is stormed upon? Both, I think. Those close to you will challenge you.

What do you do:

• First, set a good example ( you’re making them uncomfortable and that’s fine. That’s “setting the fire.”)
• Pray
• Pray (again). Pray in the midst - Pause, listen and Let the message come to you.
• “Know what you are talking about.” Catechesis. So you can …..
• Present the teaching in a way that is cogent and perhaps compelling
• Present non confrontational and in a way that is happy and loving.
• Remember, you’re not presenting the closing argument, only a part of the story. * “Setting the fire” with the issue presented to you at this time. “Start there,” leave the rest of the full conversion to The Lord.

As long as there is another day, there’s hope (for them).

Ebed-Melech is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah as an official at the palace of king Zedekiah of Judah during the Siege of Jerusalem. The name is translated as Servant of the King, and as such may not be his proper name but a hereditary title. A Cushite, dark skinned people along the Nile in the area near the delta.