The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The first reading from the Old Testament reminds us that without God’s Wisdom, it would be impossible for us to know what is in the heavens. We know that God’s Wisdom is Christ and that he died for us so that we might enter into the kingdom of heaven. To help us achieve this goal, he has left us the Holy Spirit to be our guide.
In the Gospel passage from Saint Luke, Jesus tells us that we must forsake all that we possess if we are to be his disciples. While we need some possessions to live or for the world to function, we must not place our trust solely in these possessions, but must cherish God above all else. If we do this, we will then know God’s Wisdom and inherit the kingdom of heaven which is worth more than any earthly possession we could ever desire.
In our second reading from Saint Paul’s short letter to Philemon, we read that Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon. Onesimus is a slave who had run away from his master. In sending him back, Paul is conforming to the law, but he is also doing so in the hope that Onesimus will be treated as a free man since his master is a Christian. Onesimus returns because, even though he does not know for certain what awaits him, as a Christian, he has already been freed from oppression by the power of Christ. This is the spirit that we too must have and must place our trust in God rather than in the things and people of this life. Only then will we inherit eternal life.
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