Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 5; The Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian; Passing into Eternal Life of the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, 1944; Passing into Eternal Life (1947) of Blessed Theodore Romzha, Bishop of Mukachevo, and Martyr
Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 16:19-31
Read Galatians 6:11-18
Catherine Doherty, the foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate, a community of men, women and priests who strive to serve the Lord with their lives, grew up in an aristocratic household in Russia. She relates a childhood story of a poor man knocking on the door during a dinner party her parents were hosting one night. The servant came and informed her parents that “Christ was at the door.” Without a second thought, her parents excused themselves to clothe, feed and comfort this wandering beggar, much to the astonishment of the onlooking dinner guests! What made the memory so vivid for young Catherine was that she wasn’t given the privilege of helping “take care of Christ” as she had misbehaved that week!
St. Paul writes to the Galatians that he has died to the world and the world to him. All that matters now is the new creation, that St. Paul can identify with Christ to the point that he only glories in Christ’s cross and that he has been found worthy to suffer as Christ suffered: that he bears on his body the marks of Jesus.
What is our core identity? Do we see our sufferings as united to Christ who suffered for us? Do we recognize in the lowly, the outcast, the unpopular and needy, the face of Christ? Through His Incarnation, Our Lord has become our brother and opened to us the doors of heaven. There are no such things as “bums” but only “Christophers,” those who carry Christ’s image and who are waiting and hungry for our attention and love.
As we gear up to enter into the Nativity Fast in order to prepare to welcome the Christ child anew this Christmas, let us renew our commitment to prayer, fasting and almsgiving that we may better recognize the needs of Christ in our neighbours as well as our desperate need for Him!