Fr. Thom's Homilies

          The readings this Sunday invite us to really examine our lives in terms of our relationship with God.   And there are some questions that come to mind, at least for me:   Is God first in our lives?   Or is God an afterthought?   Do we really trust God?   Or are we afraid that God will take something from us?   Do we give God our best?     How much does God want of us and is our relationship with Him really that important?           What doesn’t help us in considering these questions is the fact that in many ways we have become “master budgeters.”   The demands of living in this modern economy seem to require that we carefully calculate out just how much money something will cost, how much time something will take, how much energy is needed for a particular task.   And along with this, we are also notorious “bargain hunters.”   Ironically, even though we are “master budgeters,” we also find ourselves buying things we don’t really need because the price is just too good t

          “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”   Now that is something you want to hear Jesus say to you!   Likely, the scribe to whom Jesus said this did not realize at the time the full significance of Jesus’ statement.   To have the eternal Son of God and the author of our salvation make such a declaration is no small thing.           But what is more interesting to me in this exchange is that it took so little to elicit this statement from Jesus.   The scribe merely “parrots” back to Jesus his own answer to the question about which is the greatest commandment in the law. There must have been something more happening here, something under the surface that we can’t see in the text or read in this man’s face, something at the level not just of the mind, but of the heart, as he proclaims, “You are right in saying, ‘[God] is One and there is no other than he’. And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighb