It is Christ we serve. It is Christ we are. We are the Christ with plenty sharing with the Christ in need. We are the Christ at home welcoming the wandering Christ. Just as the death and resurrection of Christ gives us life, we give Christ life when we care for him out on the street, down on his luck, lost in addiction, far from his friends, troubled in marriage, looking for answers, praying for health, crying in secret, staring at walls, reaching through bars, breathing his last.

The scriptures call us to look more deeply at the brief span of our years here below, and the quality of living and service to others we offer. Yet the ads in the Sunday newspapers and the stores ready for Christmas at Halloween urge us, “Yes, the time is very short, so shop now.” We are pulled in at least two directions. The readings encourage our pondering our future in eternity and how we’re doing at living well. The present world wants to lure us elsewhere.

All too often the circumstances of our lives will force us to confront such mysteries as the death and our own mortality. Natural disasters, disease and our own human finitude threaten, and take us and our loved ones everyday. November is the month in the liturgical calendar that the Church reserves to remember, and honor those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.

God’s word today challenges all of us who are priests, prophets, and kings by Baptism, but especially the ordained leadership of the Body of Christ, to reflect deeply on what it means to be Christ for others today. We are most the Body of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist, which the Second Vatican Council calls “the center and summit of the Christian life,” and therefore, each of us individually and together must be Eucharistically focused.

It is the call of those who hear the Scriptures, both Old and New, to stand for values that are counter-cultural. Being compassionate does not get you ahead in society or make a lot of money for you in a world that worships power and wealth at any price. Thinking about the welfare of others before considering what’s in it for you is considered foolish and naive.

Governments and their forms change, national boundaries change, social conditions change, cultures and civilizations change, but the problem does not change. What is God’s, what is Caesar’s? Jesus’ real answer is given in response to the question of which commandment in the Jewish law was the greatest. “You shall love the Lord your God,” Jesus said, “with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-38). Jesus spent his whole life and ministry interpreting this law for all times and places and situations. The two great commandments in the Jewish law, he said, are inseparable. You cannot fulfill the first if you are not fulfilling the second. Loving God and not loving your neighbor is a contradiction.

We have to go one step further, as the woman did. Do we believe that God will help us in those times of our lives when we need help? Do we believe that God loves us enough to be involved in our lives? God may not wave a magic wand over our problems and change them, but God will be there to hold us up and give us the strength we need to get through the difficulties of life. He can help us, but the important faith is that God will help us.

This day, Christ says to us: “The bad things of this world do not last. The good things of this world do not last. But you can have me, always, without fail. You cannot have perfection, but you can have my faithfulness. You cannot live without pain, but you can have my mercy. You cannot escape every storm, but you can always have me by your side, a rock that will not crack, a beacon that never dims, a friend who does not vanish with the fair weather.”

The disciples of Jesus must have remembered that experience on Mount Tabor. Did they ever return to the Mount physically? We will never know. But they could have relived that experience on Tabor anytime they needed to do so to give them faith and strength in their Mission to carry on the message of the Gospel.

Jesus is enticing us. He knows humanity. He is one of us. He knows the appeal of wealth. Our ears perk up at the mere mention of it. Jesus uses such images to grab our attention. Once He has our attention, He redirects it to that which is true wealth, to what we truly desire, that is, “the kingdom of heaven.”

What am I doing to make this a better world? Am I a member of a small group which is dedicated to improve the corner of the world where God put me? Granted, I work hard for my family and myself, but am I doing anything for God? What proportion of my efforts and time do I devote to others?

This is the doctrine of “growthmanship,” so that you will grow – not in loneliness, restlessness and selfishness, but in wisdom, age and grace before God and man. And that is why the man who hates his 1ife in this world, preserves his life in the world to come.

We have here, or so it seems to me, one of the hidden gems of the gospel, Jesus offering to take over control of our lives, if we permit him. Do you often feel angry, tense, impatient, that things are out of control? If you do, today’s message is really worth pondering.

The gospel warns us three times to shape up or walk the plank. But the story reminds us that every Sunday during Mass, just before communion time, we confess our unworthiness when we say, Lord, I am not worthy to receive you. But that’s not all we say, for immediately we add, But only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Jesus then came among us to show the way and imparted this mission to his followers who have passed it on to us. On this Father’s Day holiday we call to mind the exhortation to give as we have received. Our parents taught us the love of God, disciplined us in ways reminiscent of the eagle and its young. The message: to care about others as God has cared for us.

Jesus then came among us to show the way and imparted this mission to his followers who have passed it on to us. On this Father’s Day holiday we call to mind the exhortation to give as we have received. Our parents taught us the love of God, disciplined us in ways reminiscent of the eagle and its young. The message: to care about others as God has cared for us.

Just as Moses encouraged Israel to remember, so too we are called to live the memory of all that Jesus was and is in the Church today and in a special way, in all those who are in need (the poor, the sick, immigrants, so many who feel excluded). Wash the feet of those who are needy; serve one another; be humble and welcoming. May we all be truly united in the Body and Blood of Christ.

If we believe that God is One and God is More, that God does not exist in solitude, then our mission is clear. A follower of Jesus Christ must recognize loneliness as ungodly, a grave offense to the Trinity. We can never be truly human if we are lonely, and we can never be truly Christian if we allow others to be. A follower of Jesus Christ must seek out the lonely and minister to them as surely as he strives to serve the hungry and clothe the naked.

How did Christianity, in 30 short years, grow from a tiny spark into a raging inferno? That amazing story is told in the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised to send his disciples, descended upon them on Pentecost and transformed them.

We are not to be weak, bobbing along with every cultural current that proclaims that happiness can be found in acquisition and perversion, a life without moderation and self-examination. We are not to be reeds swayed by the prevailing winds, “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.”