{"id":857,"date":"2019-08-14T08:09:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T08:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2019-08-14T08:09:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T08:09:51","slug":"reflection-18-august-2019-c-twentieth-sunday-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"Reflection 18 August  2019 (C) Twentieth Sunday of Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Reflection &amp;\nDialogue: The Church in dialogue with division.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Reflection.<\/em> Today\u2019s readings give us rich material\nfor reflection. We, present-day Christians, are heirs to a great cloud of\nwitnesses. From the very beginnings of the Church\u2019s history the followers of\nChrist experienced persecution of one kind or another. Early in his ministry we\nfind Paul and his fellow missioner Barnabas encouraging new converts and\nexhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that \u201cthrough many\ntribulations we must enter the kingdom\n of God\u201d (Acts 14:22). In\nthe passage from the Letter to the Hebrews read today strong stress is laid on\nperseverance.&nbsp; The same messages holds\ntrue for our own day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dialogue<\/em>. What Jesus says in today\u2019s Gospel\nreading on the connection between his person and division, even the absence of\npeace, provides us with a strong invitation for dialogue. Christ is the Prince\nof Peace who has made a strong plea for unity. All are well aware of his words\nthat he is the good shepherd and that there were other sheep that were not of\nhis fold, sheep that will heed his voice, so that&nbsp; there will be one flock and one shepherd\n(John 10:14-16). These words are often cited. But this does not permit us to\nforget the divisions connected with the person of Jesus by reason of the\ndemands he makes and the mystery that is his person, continued in the Church\nwhich is his body. And indeed, already after his statement about himself as\ngood shepherd, the Gospel text goes on to say that there was again a division\namong the Jews because of these words. Jesus came to the world and the world\ndid not know him; he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.\nIn the early Church there was division between the Jewish and Gentile Christians.\nDivision continued between Christians over the centuries, the major division in\nthe West coming with the Reformation, and remaining with us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The\nexamples we have considered concern divisions among Christian believers. The\ndivisions today between Christ and what he stands for and much of contemporary\nsociety run far deeper, between the Christian vision and that of atheism,\nhumanism, liberalism and other movements. For believers, Christ is the saviour\nof the world, and the Christian vision of personal and public morality covers\nmany aspects of human behaviour. These other ideologies mentioned also have a\nvision of life and human society which they believe should be governed without\nany reference to, or influence from, the voice of God or of Jesus. The Church\nand believers must, as far as possible, engage in dialogue with the new\nreality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It\nis a question of dialogue, not criticism. Both Christ, the Church and humanism\nhave a rather absolute vision of the world, the human person, and matters\nrelating to them. In the view of philosophical humanism faith is an impediment\nto human development. For Christ himself and his followers, Christ is the\nSaviour of the world. This dialogue implies that the arguments of humanism be\nexamined and responded to by the Christian position. Believers should not be\nafraid of such dialogue. In a sense, fidelity to Christ and the Christian inheritance\nindicates it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflection &amp; Dialogue: The Church in dialogue with division. Reflection. Today\u2019s readings give us rich material for reflection. We, present-day Christians, are heirs to a great cloud of witnesses. From &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}