Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year C, Lectionary 123
Jesus gives us all a special invitation to God's kingdom but we cannot be consumed thinking we're more special than others. With such pride and ego we close ourselves off from God's banquet and make the path narrow. With humility let us approach God thankful for the salvation Christ has given us.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Assess • Challenge • Community • Compassion • Disciple • Discipline • Door • Effort • Family • Forgive • Freedom • Gate • Gather • Grace • Growth • Heaven • Hell • Holy Spirit • Hope • Humility • Identity • Inclusion • Journey • Kingdom • Mercy • Narrow • Opportunity • Participate • Punishment • Reconciliation • Repent • Responsibility • Salvation • Sin • Striving • Struggle • Suffering • Understand • Unity • Vocation • Widen •
“So God himself in the Old Testament, notice this isn't Acts, this isn't Paul, this isn't the New Testament, in the book of Isaiah describes a mission to the Gentiles. A mission to the nations in which the remnant of Israel goes out to the nations.”
“And what Hebrews is saying here is that God teaches his children as children, like a father instructs his son. Not just through education but through discipline.”
“there is no room for fence sitters in the Kingdom of God. There are no privileged entry permits to the eternal life which Jesus offers. You are either a player or a spectator. You're an actor in the drama of salvation or you're a member of the audience.”
“accents and the way we dress and the way we speak and the attitudes and who we vote for and all of that, all of that is secondary when it comes to receiving the Lord Jesus and loving like Jesus loved”
“It does not matter what the world says of you now. What matters is your alignment with God's will.”
“we cannot achieve good things in our life if we don't have discipline”
“When we go through trials, it is not about us. We don't develop strength so that we feel good, so that we gain a sense of survival or achievement. Rather, the invitation from the God of love is to deepen our compassion and solidarity with the body of Christ wounded throughout the world.”
“We don't need to know all of our siblings by name, all made in the very image and likeness of God. It's enough or should be enough to say 'if you are a human being, you are one with me and we together are the children of God.'”
“Mere acquaintance with the Messiah or with God is not enough, right. Listening to Jesus preach and teach in the streets of Galilee or Capernaum or Bethsaida isn't enough. He has to know you, right, and you have to leave a life of sin behind, right, and enter into a real communion with him.”
“Striving in the gospel has something and maybe even everything to do with being known and recognized by Jesus. Striving is our deep desire, it's what deep desire looks like, deep desire to be in relationship with the living God.”
“On our final judgment day it would not matter where you came from. What would matter is your relationship with Christ and how you choose to demonstrate that relationship with others.”
“If discipline is ever to be something that is useful, we have to be open to it”
“You can't step into the house of love and not know what love is all about. You cannot bring yourself to a place of grace when your heart has yet to surrender to grace.”
“Jesus invites us to be disciples who develop the discipline of love, who practice the wideness of God's merciful gathering, who go to the ends of the earth to proclaim and enact this love”
“The theme of our reflection today is: God's salvation is free and inclusive but not cheap”
“The main challenge of religion lies in the practical application to individual lives and real life experiences. When it comes to the theory so many are active but when the light begins to shine on individuals only few will remain standing.”
“That's what, what Christ is trying to tell us here in the Gospel. 'Yes, heaven is gift but you're going have to work at it too.”
