Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Call to worship
Jesus’ message to us today is clear. We can only guide others when our speech and our sight are based in honesty and goodness, when we understand our own weaknesses and when we speak from our own suffering.
- To the point: A good person produces good from the storehouse of goodness of his/her heart. An evil person produces evil from the storehouse of evil in his/her heart. It is from the fullness of the heart that the mouth speaks. Just as the quality of a fruit tree indicates the care of its cultivator, so our speech reveals everything that has gone into our formation.
- Connecting the Gospel (Luke 6: 39-45) to the first reading: As the potter’s furnace solidifies his creation, our best speech is tempered by pain and suffering. We are even blinder than we think when we choose to lead others whose eyes we think are splintered. This is because we cannot see the wooden beam blocking our own vision. Have we suffered enough to have clear vision?
- Connecting the Gospel to experience: It is so easy for judgment to escape our lips- through gossip, social media or expressing an opinion. When we seek affirmation from others for our judgments, are we denying the beam that exists in our eyes? We are the blind leading the blind- the tree that bears sour fruit.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(Luke 6: 39-45)
For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
Jesus, we watch as you heal the sick, and eat and then drink with sinners,
or you talk with a Samaritan woman. We see you visit with Nicodemus;
and you let the prostitute anoint your feet.
You take our heart of flesh. You teach us how to love.
Teacher, make our hearts large. Let us heed
your call to love tenderly with hearts and hands and voices.
The First Reading
(Sirach 27: 4-7)
One’s speech discloses the bent of one’s mind.
Christ, be in my heart, to love everyone I meet.
Be in my eyes to see you in all things:
on my tongue to spread your love to all who hear me,
in my hands to give your love to all in need,
in my feet to take your love wherever I go.
The Second Reading
(I Corinthians 15: 54-58)
Where, O death, is your sting?
Jesus, you call all of us to your infinite love.
Clothe our corruptibility with incorruptibility.
Clothe our mortality with immortality.
Let us spread your kingdom,
with you as our victor in life and in death.
Death, now, where is your sting?
Copyright © 2022, Anne M. Osdieck
Music for reflection