I have completed the move but not the unpacking. However, one of the sisters offered a reflection on today’s Gospel that I found quite charming and would like to share with you.
If you read the Gospel for today, no one will blame you if you scratch your head and think that you better start over again. It is, quite honestly, a bit confusing. So when the priest asked Sister’s second graders what the Gospel was about when this passage was read, she was a little nervous about how they would respond. However, a little boy replied to the priest's question with: “Like Father, like Son.” That little second grader hit the nail on the head. Jesus, the Son, did not fall far from the tree, the Father. Jesus came to do the work of the Father in person, in the flesh. The Father and Jesus are about the same thing.
Sister also related that this particular second grader did not wear a backpack like the others. Rather, he came to school with a brief case! You see, his father was a lawyer, and this little boy wanted to be like his Dad. Indeed, he is wise beyond his years.
I hope you will excuse me if I tell you that a get a number of compliments about my homilies and my blogs. I am not bragging. I simply want to make this point. “It is God’s name we praise, and God’s kingdom that we build.” When people compliment me about my homilies or my blog, this line comes into my head all the time – ALL the time. If there is something in my preaching and something in my writing that you find worthwhile, remember that it is God who put it there – not me. Like Jesus, I do the work of the Father. What greater gift than to be entrusted with God’s word.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator