Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Week beginning Sunday, 27 September
seeing your life through the lens of the gospels
Mark 9:38-39, 45, 47-48
Questions people ask
Q. My son says he is an agnostic. Is this the same as an atheist?
A. An atheist holds that there is no God, no divine being. An agnostic accepts the existence of God but holds that God cannot be properly known by the human mind and that we cannot have any true relationship with the divine being. It has been said, rather unfairly I feel, that an agnostic is someone who hasn’t the commitment to be a believer nor the courage to be an atheist.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End
PS: I Thank You!
I came across a prayer some time ago that caught my attention. Can’t remember where, but here’s the prayer: Dear God, we rejoice and give thanks for earthworms, bees, ladybirds and broody hens; for humans tending their gardens, talking to animals, cleaning their homes and singing to themselves; for the rising of the sap, the fragrance of growth, the invention of the wheelbarrow and the existence of the teapot, we give thanks. We celebrate and give thanks. Amen.
In light of today’s readings (Num 11:25-29; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48) that prayer makes me ask how often I give thanks to God for the fine things that others do – especially if they seem to be muscling in on my turf. Jealousy is often quicker off the mark than generosity. But not always.
In today’s readings Moses and Jesus wish that everyone be filled with God’s Spirit. The more that Spirit is active in our world the better. It doesn’t matter through whom the Spirit works. Criticising someone for doing good is like telling the Holy Spirit whom he may work with. Now that would be arrogant.
In 1 Cor 13:4 Paul writes: ‘… love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude’. If we love it will not be as an afterthought, as a PS: I love you. If we are happy to acknowledge God’s freedom to do as he wishes and choose whom he will for his purpose then neither will our thanks be a mere afterthought, a PS: I thank you!
Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@svdireland.com