Wisdom 9:13-18 Ps 89(90):3-17 Phlm 9-10, 12-17 Lk 14:25-33
The Book of Wisdom was written in 1st century BC. Greek and other pagan religions gave inadequate answers to life’s questions, especially why the wicked prosper and the just suffer. How does a just God mete out justice? Wisdom’s solution, distilled from all Jewish Scriptures, is that the just continue to live with God after their deaths: a developing Jewish belief in resurrection, though not of the body. Man’s knowledge and powers of reasoning are inadequate compared with God’s Wisdom. So we ask God to give us Wisdom for our guide.
The psalm contrasts God’s eternity with our short lives, confident that God cares for us and that some good will come from our trials.
In this moving letter Paul asks Philemon to accept back the slave Onesimus and forgive him. But Paul is pleading for something more: Onesimus means “profit”, and Paul wants Philemon to see the “profit” of forgiving Onesimus out of Christian love, and not because Paul could “force this act of kindness”. In this way Philemon can gain wisdom and spiritual benefit.
In Luke’s gospel, after a parable about “I’m too busy” excuses, Jesus insists we must “hate” our parents: not emotionally but in our actions. We must weigh our options carefully and willingly carry the Cross.
Psalm Response: O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Chris