A gospel commentary for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, by the Pontifical Household preacher - Father Raniero Cantalamessa - has this to share:
"You go through life chasing after the thousand little things and never find time for the things that truly impact human relationships and can give joy (or deep sadness when neglected) in life. Thus, we see how the Gospel is, indirectly, a school of life; it teaches us to establish priorities, to attend to what is essential. In a word, to not lose the important for the sake of the urgent as happened with those who were invited to the wedding feast in our parable."
In a country like Singapore, this commentary can certainly be an accurate rendering of the kind of lifestyle which tends to rein over the families (generally) - we spend too much time chasing after little things.
The recent meltdown of the major banking institutions, which now led us to a worldwide recession, has also shown us how much we have ran after amorphous and fleeting values that the economy was put to built upon which eventually collapsed under its own weight of deception. It's utterly incredible how much trust we can put upon such ephemeral objects when the ones that truly matters, that stand right in front of our eyes, that live under the same roof and seeking attention and care, can sometimes be ignored!
"I said that the danger of neglecting the important for the urgent is also present in the human sphere, in everyday life... It is of the utmost importance that a man dedicate time to his family, be with his children, talk to them if they are grown, play with them if they are little. But then at the last moment there are always urgent things to deal with at the office, extra things to do at work, and he puts it off till another time, returning home too late and too tired to think about anything else."
It is familiar setting and one which unfolds everyday in many homes of our friends, neighbours and, perhaps even in our own family. The cost of neglect in families can be devastating and one which no bailout can provide, nor soothe. There is already a prominent shift in the way the world is heading, politically, economically, socially and technologically and how societies are coping with these global changes. In the midst of all these fluctuations, one thing has remained constant - this need to chase after the transitory at the expense of the essential. Hence the parable of the wedding feast in the 28th Sunday's gospel of Ordinary Time is the Word most fortuitous to take with us this coming week as we ponder our priorities and see how they affect our religious and human sphere of life.
"You go through life chasing after the thousand little things and never find time for the things that truly impact human relationships and can give joy (or deep sadness when neglected) in life. Thus, we see how the Gospel is, indirectly, a school of life; it teaches us to establish priorities, to attend to what is essential. In a word, to not lose the important for the sake of the urgent as happened with those who were invited to the wedding feast in our parable."
In a country like Singapore, this commentary can certainly be an accurate rendering of the kind of lifestyle which tends to rein over the families (generally) - we spend too much time chasing after little things.
The recent meltdown of the major banking institutions, which now led us to a worldwide recession, has also shown us how much we have ran after amorphous and fleeting values that the economy was put to built upon which eventually collapsed under its own weight of deception. It's utterly incredible how much trust we can put upon such ephemeral objects when the ones that truly matters, that stand right in front of our eyes, that live under the same roof and seeking attention and care, can sometimes be ignored!
"I said that the danger of neglecting the important for the urgent is also present in the human sphere, in everyday life... It is of the utmost importance that a man dedicate time to his family, be with his children, talk to them if they are grown, play with them if they are little. But then at the last moment there are always urgent things to deal with at the office, extra things to do at work, and he puts it off till another time, returning home too late and too tired to think about anything else."
It is familiar setting and one which unfolds everyday in many homes of our friends, neighbours and, perhaps even in our own family. The cost of neglect in families can be devastating and one which no bailout can provide, nor soothe. There is already a prominent shift in the way the world is heading, politically, economically, socially and technologically and how societies are coping with these global changes. In the midst of all these fluctuations, one thing has remained constant - this need to chase after the transitory at the expense of the essential. Hence the parable of the wedding feast in the 28th Sunday's gospel of Ordinary Time is the Word most fortuitous to take with us this coming week as we ponder our priorities and see how they affect our religious and human sphere of life.
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2 comments:
Thats the cost we need to pay to 'live' in this world..everybody need to be in line to chase everything so that 'world' can accept them...emm..
I believe the word is 'GREED'... ;-)
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