Value Clarification

November 25: Tuesday of Week 34 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Revelation 14:14-19; Psalm 96:10, 11-12, 13; Luke 21:5-11

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings.

Thoughts to help us take responsibility as stewards of the kingship of Christ.

(To support  Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life ... Step Five )

Value Clarification

“Say among the nations: The Lord is king.” (Psalm 96:10).

Jesus says believers are not impressed by “awesome sights and mighty signs from the sky.” Our job is to remind “the nations” that “the Lord is king.” He is in charge, and we work for him as “stewards of his kingship.”

The only significance believers should see in “wars and insurrections… earthquakes, famines, and plagues” is what they say about us: our concern or lack of concern for each other on earth; and whether or not we are doing our job as “stewards of creation.”

People are important. Buildings, cities, even empires (political or industrial) aren’t. When Jesus saw people admiring the temple with its “costly stones and votive offerings,” he said, “All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon a stone.”

Nothing is permanent but the Church, the people who, “in him” are “living stones,” the “temple of his body,” built upon “the foundation of the apostles, with Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” This is “something greater than the temple.” And we are still under construction, being “built together spiritually and growing into a holy temple, a dwelling place for God (Matthew 12:6, John 2:22; 1Peter 2:5; Ephesians 2:20).

We are all sub-contractors, responsible for doing everything we can to make the building perfect. Take responsibility.

PRAY: “Lord, don’t let me sweat the small stuff”.

PRACTICE: Keep your eye on the ball: the one that’s going somewhere.