{"id":904,"date":"2019-09-26T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=904"},"modified":"2019-09-26T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T18:42:10","slug":"reflection-29-september-2019-c-twenty-sixth-sunday-of-year-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=904","title":{"rendered":"Reflection 29 September  2019 (C) Twenty-Sixth SUNDAY of Year (c)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reflection &amp; Dialogue:\n<\/strong><em>\u201cThe\nlight of faith and questions of our own day\u201d<\/em><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today\u2019s readings, and in particular the\nfirst reading and the gospel, invite us to reflect on belief in Christ and in\nthe next life and our mission as members of the human race and all its\nconcerns. This is a topic in which the modern world is in dialogue with us, and\nthere are loud voices putting forward the view that faith and the Christian\ntradition are obstacles to human progress and the care of the poor. Pope\nFrancis has recently spoken of this in his encyclical <em>Lumen Fidei<\/em>, \u201cThe Light of Faith\u201d, an encyclical which is really\nthe work of his predecessor, the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Josef Ratzinger).\nAlthough the Pope\u2019s views have already been drawn to the attention to the users\nof this internet site earlier this year (Reflection 19th Sunday) they merit\nrepetition here. The Pope notes (paragraph 2) that in speaking of the light of\nfaith we can hear the objections of many of our contemporaries. In modernity,\nthat light might have been considered sufficient for societies of old, but was\nfelt to be of no use for our times, for a humanity come of age, proud of its\nrationality and anxious to explore the future in novel ways. Faith thus\nappeared to some as an illusory light, preventing mankind from boldly setting\nout in quest of knowledge. Faith was thus understood either as a leap in the\ndark, to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion or as a\nsubjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal\nconsolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an\nobjective and shared light which points the way. The Pope goes on to say that\nthere is need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the\nflame of faith goes out, all other light begin to dim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For\nthe prophets and for Jesus faith is not an illusory light, nor just a\nsubjective light capable perhaps of warming the heart. This is clear from the\ntext of Amos read today and from the parable of he rich man (Dives) and\nLazarus. And this parable is not a stand alone text. It is reflected again in\nthe words of the Son of Man at the judgment of the Last Day, where the eternal\ndestiny of individuals is made to depend on how they behaved towards their\nfellow men and women in their hour of need \u2013 the hungry, thirsty, naked, the\nstranger, the sick, the one in prison. Central to belief in God and in Christ\nare the two commandments, the love of God and love of the neighbour. And as\nJesus reminded the person who questioned him on the subject in the parable \u201cThe\nGood Samaritan\u201d, the implication of the command to love one\u2019s neighbour can\nmake demands, broadening one\u2019s understanding of the neighbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It\nis these two commandments that has had the Church down through the centuries \u2013 the\nChurch as institution, clergy, religious, lay organizations, lay individuals \u2013\nwork for the wellbeing of humanity, when there were no state organizations to\ndo so. Faith is not an obstacle, but rather a help in facing the problems of\nour age, or of any age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflection &amp; Dialogue: \u201cThe light of faith and questions of our own day\u201d Today\u2019s readings, and in particular the first reading and the gospel, invite us to reflect on belief &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-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","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=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":905,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}