August 29, 2010

Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29;
Hebrews 12:18-10,22-24a;
Luke 14:1,7-14
Father Allan Torrez
My Reflection:

Jesus speaks in parables to touch our hearts, inform our thinking and challenge
our actions. In the gospel reading for today, Jesus uses a parable to teach us to
check our motives and see if they are rightly aligned with the mind and heart of
God. As Christians, we will always need to reflect on why we do what we are
doing? Is it for payback? Am I searching for personal gain and recognition? Or, do I
make choices based on what is right, according to the teachings of Jesus?

So, when I am invited to dinner, it is not mine to determine where I sit or where
someone else sits. When I am emotionally, spiritually or physically off the mark, I
can tend to watch where you are sitting rather than simply being grateful for
having been invited to the dinner. Recently I was reminded that my perceptions of
reality have a direct effect on my interpretation of what is happening around me. I
had been 'observing' the behavior of another and adjusting my attitude according
to what I believed I was seeing. Only later, in dialogue, was I to learn that I was
giving off the same attitudes as I thought I was receiving. The old "eye for an eye"
was operative in my heart. What happened to "conduct my affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts"?
 September 5, 2010
Wisdom 9:13-18; Philippians 9-10,12-17; Luke 14:25-33
Father Allan Torrez

My Reflection:

In today's first reading, we are invited to open our minds and hearts to the
wisdom of God and to walk the path where that leads with fidelity and trust.This
teaching is particularly appropriate in the environment in which we live. During
the past months we have been inundated with news of our sagging economy,
foreclosures on homes, bank failures, tremendously high unemployment rates,
serious budget cuts that have profoundly impacted the lives of children, the poor
and the elderly.

I am sure that all of us have family members and friends who are suffering from
the effects of these serious economic problems.In today's reading from the Book
of Wisdom, we are invited to look at life from another perspective, to walk in a
new direction.We live in times in which we often question God's ways. We believe
that God loves each of us and has promised to be always with us. At times like
this our faith wavers.
 September19,2010
Amos 8:4-7; 1
Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13
Father Allan
Torrez

My Reflection:

We live in a world of economic crisis; a world of unemployment, underemployment, frozen wages,

foreclosures all around us. We live in a world of political crisis; a world where power is more
important than people or principles, where violence outshines and is more publicized than
virtue. We live in a world of spiritual crisis; a world where tradition is used to negate experience
and where rule sometimes outweighs love.
How are we handling the crisis in the world that surrounds us or ones we are experiencing in our
own personal lives? When we invoke our own gifts of resourcefulness and creativity, how are we
using them? Are we willing to reflect and search for the truth in the situations we find ourselves
in? Are we willing to search for a just resolution through prayer, discernment and dialogue? Does
the rights and dignity of each person and the pursuit of the common good take precedence over
our own self-serving goals?
Yes, God's Word to us today reminds us to examine not only our actions but our motives. Who or
what are we serving? You cannot serve both God and mammon.
 September 26, 2010
Amos 6:1a,4-7; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31
Father Allan Torrez

My Reflection

In this world the rich man was clothed in robes of fine linen and feasted on costly and exotic dishes. A
figure of self-indulgence for sure. Lazarus was a beggar with sores, waiting for crumbs from the rich
man's table. Obviously a strong contrast. Riches must be shared with the needy. We know that an
excessive love of our material possessions causes our selfishness. The rich man was too callous to care
about people like Lazarus. Although he did nothing against Lazarus, allowing him to remain by his
gate, he did nothing to help him. That was his sin. He was not condemned for his riches, but for his
selfishness.

The rich man professed belief in the teachings of Moses and the prophets, but had no belief in the
afterlife. He denied the survival of the soul and a judgment. His mind was closed to the revelations of
his God and his heart was closed to the demands for compassion. Should Abraham have sent Lazarus in
a dream perhaps and show them a miracle to believe? If they cannot learn from the word of God and
see the beggar, then neither a visit from Hades nor a revelation of the horrors of Hades will turn them
around.
 October 3, 2010
Habakkuk 1:2-3,2-4;2 Timothy 1:6-8; Luke 17:5-10
Father Allan Torrez

My Reflection:

How impulsively I can want to run to the finish line. Without delay nor distraction I can demand that
MY vision and MY agenda be fulfilled. But life has its own way of editing MY script. Do I have the
FAITH to believe? Am I able to TRUST that God desires that I pay attention and notice the twists and
turns on the road as opportunity rather than obstacle? Well, thank God, today my answer leans more
towards "Yes" than "No". My prayer for an increase of Faith no longer implies a decrease of LIFE with
all its experiences. Rather, I pray for "the power and the love and the self-control" to see beyond the
fears, the weariness, the helplessness into the vision and plan of God.
I have learned that it is not status or condition that will determine who I am but it shall be graciously
doing all God has asked of me, just for today.
 August 22, 2010
Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 Luke 13:22-30
Father Allan Torrez

My Reflection:

Jesus reminds us that in the end "People will come from the east and the west and from the north and
the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God." This is well described in the old song that
says, "We're gonna sit at the welcome table, one of these days, alleluia." As he often does, Jesus
promises us a surprise. "For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be
last." We are walking a path toward that day that calls us to great repentance and deep conversion. We
must take nothing for granted. There is great danger in becoming routine in the practice of our spiritual
life and in the performance of our works of mercy and justice.

Jesus challenges us to divest ourselves of any apathy indifference and comprise that impede us on the
"narrow" but hallowed way of the Gospel. Rather we are called to live our lives in a spirit of humility,
discipline and openness that make us truly recognizable as disciples of the one Door we can rely on -
Jesus.