31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Practicing what one preaches. Mt. 23:1-12

St. Francis lived in a time when the Church was falling into ruin.

Literally and figuratively.

And one day as St. Francis was kneeling in front of a Crucifix,

Jesus spoke to him and said.

“Go rebuild my church, which as you see is falling into ruin.

There were churches literally falling apart everywhere,

Neglected because no one was going to them anymore.

So St. Francis went around rebuilding them brick by brick;

Until one day he figured out that was not what God meant when He said,

“Go rebuild my church which as you see is falling into ruin.

God was not talking about rebuilding physical churches with mortar and brick

but rebuilding the the Church of Living Stones, the People. 1Pt. 2:5 with Faith.

He could have gone around pointing out everyone else’s faults.

But that would have been too obvious and too easy.

Anyone can do that.

Instead he focused on himself.

And so he began rebuilding the Church first with himself.

He quit his job;

Gave up his earthly father for his Heavenly Father;

Sold everything he had;

And started to care for lepers.

The Pharisees however were different.

They went around pointing out everyone else’s sins.

They tied up heavy burdens and laid them on other people’s shoulders,

busy telling everyone else what they should be doing.

They looked the part wearing religious clothing for everyone to see,

But inside were naked.

They liked it when people noticed how religious they were,

Although titles and places of honor do not interest God.

What does interest God is Humility.

For Jesus humbled Himself and took the form of a slave. Phil 2:8

And God the Father exalted Him because He did. Phil 2:9

And this is how a person begins to rebuild the Church.

beginning with oneself, in all Humility.

For When we humble ourselves Mt. 23:12.

We are most like Jesus,

And when we are most like Jesus is when people will take notice.