Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 22, 2024
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092224.cfm
Beloved:
Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
for those who cultivate peace.
James 3:16-18
It appears that the moral tumult of our world already existed in James’s world over 2000 years ago. And no doubt it has existed in every age in between. Jealousy and selfish ambition drive so much of our public life. It takes great insight, patience and wisdom to cultivate peace:
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to be agents of peace in our world despite the inverse image of our culture offered by politics and media. We want to lessen the influence of these negative factors in our lives and open ourselves to the promptings of faith and goodness.
Prose: Cultivating Peace from Pope Francis
War begins in here, in the heart, inside the person, and finishes out in the world. The news we see in the papers or on television… Today so many people die, and that seed of war, which breeds envy, jealousy, and greed in my heart, is the same – grown up, become a tree – as the bomb which falls on a hospital, on a school, and kills children. It is the same. The declaration of war begins in the heart, in each of us. For this reason, the following question arises: ‘How do I care for peace in my heart, in my interior, and in my family?’. The answer is: Care for peace; not only care for it, but make it with your hands every day. Just so, will we succeed in spreading it throughout the whole world.
Music: Peace Train – Cat Stevens
Lavish Mercy 