This weekend, September 27, 28 and 29, we celebrate our 2019 Parish Harvest Festival. Let our inborn goodness and our uncontested exercise of service be put into practice. Our Harvest Festival’s theme: “WE are ONE – one Heart, one Lord, one Community” calls us to continue becoming “visible signs of God’s love!”

Here Jesus tells the story of a rich man who feasted every single day while a beggar named Lazarus starved to death outside of the gates of the rich man’s house. The poor man ends up in the bosom of Abraham while the rich man ends up in Hades. There is a double lesson here about how we use our time and possessions in this life and how some people cannot hear or understand the Truth, even if spoken by someone who has returned from the dead. The common denominator for both is a pitiable hardness of heart that does not recognize the needs of others or the Truth when it’s right in front of them.

Many people find today’s Gospel passage a little confusing. It tells the story of the dishonest steward who shrewdly foregoes his commission on his master’s loans in order to gain favor among those who may be of help to him in the future. While Jesus is not commending dishonesty, He is challenging us to consider what we should give up in order to plan for the future. And not just any kind of future, but our eternal future.

As we continue celebrating the 173rd Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette, please be with us as we “walk the talk” of the great news of reconciliation that, to whenever and anywhere we minister, we always become the ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation 24/7!

Do you remember a time when you lost something, perhaps a much-valued possession? When we lose something of high value, we search and search until we finally find it. And the discovery brings such a sense of relief. The greater the value of what was lost, the more we rejoice in finding it. In this Gospel, Jesus shows how our human feelings also echoes an eternal truth.

Don’t underestimate Jesus’ love. No matter where we are, no matter what condition we find ourselves, no matter how multitude our sins are, Jesus will continue loving us. Whatever it takes, he will forgive us - even dying on the cross, he will do it over again just for you and me. The reason is simple: Jesus loves us very much!

What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus? That’s the question in today’s Gospel. Jesus proclaims that no one is worthy to be called His disciple unless he “hates” those people dearest to him, or renounces his possessions, takes up his cross and follows Jesus to wherever He leads (and if one is carrying a cross, then that led to only one place). We may try to qualify Jesus’ words, but they proclaim a great truth: there are no half-measures when following Jesus. He requires everything of us. Are we willing to say yes to that?

Jesus is challenging every person who claims to be a Catholic to take a moral stand against the evils of our times, such us poverty, racism, violence, abortion and capital punishment.