O7/11/2025

Friday Week 31 Ordinary Time

Again it is only the pure prayer of the Psalm that brings me into the conscious awareness that it is possible for me to abandon myself  completely to the Love of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, The Good Shepherd who leads us, even in this world, into his peace which is beyond all understanding.

The translation that I read just now is made up of English, human words, but is the pure joy of a created being in the certainty that he has an eternal Father and Saviour who never forgets him. It is the epitome of prayer that is the "thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" we were taught to pray by Jesus, our Lord and Shepherd.

The first reading from St Paul's letter to the Infant Church in Rome holds my attention for it can be read as not only an exhortation to all of us but is also an assessment made by the doubly chosen one of God,  of how he himself has responded to his own calling and overwhelming vision of the Resurrection.

He is satisfied that he has been successful as is evidenced in the Faith of the communities in which he has preached and baptised. He is humble about this success however and knows that it is only by the grace of Jesus that the way to truth and eternal life is being followed by his converts, but he is still human and mars his humility by a self-centered ambition to always be the only "foundation builder".

All of God's revelations are about relationships. First of all we have to know God. Then we have to deal with ourselves and other people.

In today's Gospel Jesus, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT incarnate, tells us a parable which is set in the economic world of material wealth and networking. He commends the dishonesty of yet another "executive" who by worldly standards  has displayed a shrewdness often lacking in those who seek to live a spiritually focused way of life.

Although I have heard many plausible versions, it has always been difficult for me to work out for myself what is the spiritual equivalent of this basic dishonesty unless it is simple personal sinning of which God is always aware without need of the reports of others.

I don't think it is the best of Jesus' parables and wonder how only St Luke came to include it in the record of Jesus' life he had learnt from Mary and the Apostles.