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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A 2023 (’02)

5th.Sunday in Ordinary A Sunday 5th.Feb 2023 (’02)

  1. IS58 7-10
  • Read 58 1-14! True&false religious practice! & Why embody one, not the other?
  • Why are readings like this consistently offered-out, consistently ignored?
  • Which of these ‘works of mercy’ do I pursue, even in a modest fashion?
  • Apart from SVdP, how is my local church organised to succour our own needy?
  • Why is Food&Shelter&Clothing&Non-Violence reckoned to be so fundamental? Yet, Worship&Devotion&Obedience is sanctioned with reward&punishment as the ideal?

2. THE PSALM: 111 4-9

  • Read 111(112). 1-10 The rewards promised for Righteousness& Fear-of-Yahweh!
  • Who in their right mind wouldn’t inconvenience themselves for them! & Yet.
  • Is there a tacit wink in institutional religion that TheYahwisticStuff is optional?
  • Good/Just/Man,’ Does the yahwehistic golden-handshake apply also to women?
  • Read Job 23-24. Job’s Bone-to-Pick with ‘God’ & the traditional ‘theodicy’!
  • In what ways are AdultChristians ‘Light-in-the-Darkness for IrishSociety?

3. 1COR2, 1-5

  • How is Paul (or anyone) able to declare ‘what God has guaranteed’?
  • ‘Jesus-as-CrucifiedMessiah!’ What is the impact now, of this Biblical language?
  • Nowadays, from what do preachers&missionaries derive their ‘power’?
  • ‘Fear&Trembling.’ Is not this an unusual side of Paul? How is it compatible with his assertion that his speaking demonstrated ‘ThePower-of-TheHolyBreath’?
  • ‘TheHolySpirit!’ What was dynamic in Paul, how might it awaken in me?

4. MT5.13-16

  • In what circumstances does the earth require salt? Or is it that the disciples of Jesus
  • will be a preservative a flavouring for the people of the earth?
  • Are disciples who have become insipid&irrelevant, threatened with being trampled?
  • ‘Light.’ Apart from ‘Mass-attendance,’ how ‘visible’ are Christians in Ireland?
  • What 7Sorts-of-‘ChristianPresence’ are urgently needed in the contemporary situation?
  • But aren’t Christians currently encouraged to be ‘low-profile dummies?

5. The presence & action of TheBlessedOne, is it like this?

‘Is it possible, sir, & I say it with due regard to the proprieties, that some of your most challenging words to disciples have been watered-down & spiritualised? And what was once flame is no longer even ash? ‘Friend, it is true, & where truth is being hidden, what are proprieties but pious fraud? ‘It grieves me, sir. To find all that solicitude to quote you & refer to you, that it is yet little more than lip-service.’ Let me mention one particular word?’ ‘Friend, please do!’ When you encouraged disciples to be salt-of-the-earth, & if salt-of-the-earth lost its aliveness, it would be thrown out & trampled?’ ‘Yes…’ ‘I remember, it was near TheSea-of-salt! & some felt offended by being associated with the inhabitants of Sodom, while others were displeased with the hint that useless salt, that is disciples, would be thrown out & trampled!’ ‘Was it on that occasion that many left your company & walked no more with you?’ ‘That occasion, friend, was but one of many!’ ‘& What did you reply to the complainers?’ ‘Very little, friend! I said, if you find it difficult to carry the full burden of my words, how will you fare when the burden of others’ hatred for me, falls fully on you?’

RIDDLE What to do? Struggle for the corporal works of mercy?

Depend not on eloquence but on TheHolyBreath?

Seek to be a visibly-dynamic presence of society?

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie

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