Scripture Reflections for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“to view religion as a means to a temporal end, as a way to make money or support oneself, is always a gross distortion of one’s relationship to God”

“a prophet is someone who speaks the word of God publicly for the sake of others”

“What Paul is saying is everything in nature, history, science, our lives, is summed up in Christ. When that sinks in, everything changes.”

“Friends, the most important element in the Great Story is the central character and the central character is God”

“One question to ask reflecting upon the passage of the early apostles is, does our current strategy achieve evangelisation?”

“Even the poorest of preachers can produce a rich result in the minds of those who listen”

“Christian religion is never this sort of lone ranger business. It's a corporate identity so even as they go out on mission they go out two by two, they're connected to each other and they're connected through each other to Christ.”

“Christianity is just inescapably a communitarian religion. We’re implicated in each other.”

“Christianity is a missionary religion, we’re sent just as Jesus was sent into the world by the Father, so we are sent by Jesus on mission”

“When do we find ourselves called beyond familiar identities, often of what we do or what we did? How do we respond to invitations to cross new thresholds in complex relationships and understandings?”

“In Christian culture, defined through the ages, God creates the world and rules it. He rules in love, but he rules...We live to become like him and to make the world more like him.”

“We need to give room to God in our hearts: to God who comes to us everyday not for his own benefit but for our benefit”

“we are all called to mission and be witnesses to the Gospel. The question now is, how do we answer such a summons? And if we do act on this call, how do we rise to the challenges we face when our witness is not welcomed?”

“what I hear Jesus saying is “get out of your comfort zone and be a neighbor. Get involved with your neighbors, and your brothers and sisters.” I believe that each of us can do that – we need to listen in prayer and to our community members and loved ones to know what God is calling us to do”

“We have to know that Christ will be with us and have our back in times of adversity, anxiety, and confusion”

“We will only know what we are worth if we listen to the voice of God, for it is through his Word that God proclaims that we are loved as his children from eternity”

“To be a prophet is always to have an inescapable vocation; he has an unavoidable mission to tell God’s truth, to uphold God’s covenant, to proclaim the unity of all God’s people, in the here-and-now”

“God may send us prophets, as he sent Amos and others, long ago. They may come from inside the Church community or from outside, and we will certainly feel uncomfortable with their message.”

“Detachment does not mean that we do not care. We care deeply. Detachment reminds us that it is God’s will and not our will that will ultimately be done.”

“The true prophet calls out injustice and social hypocrisy, exploitation and oppression wherever it exists”

“So we’re all called to be prophets, we’re all called to be disciples. What does it mean? It means it’s not your life primarily, it’s God’s call. It means not the door that you open, it’s the door that’s opened for you by God.”