Life reflects the relationship

The need for people on the journey to full Life to be examples of the relationship they seek is included in the message from the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today. Friar Jude Winkler locates the prophet Amos in the northern kingdom at about 750 BCE. He preaches to Israel about the social conditions he sees around him which includes the reduction of the poor to slavery, ritual prostitution and the corruption of the ways of worship of the people who had been brought by the mighty hand of God from the land of Egypt. It appears, in human history, that the conquerer too often adopts the behaviour of those conquered. The one who promises freedom and justice when struggling for power reverts to the style of the oppressor when the power changes hands. The victim of abuse is too often the future abuser. Amos declares that the Israel which has forgotten the Lord and fails to live as the Chosen People will share the fate of the enemies of Israel. The life and energy of the people of Israel for the role of living in relationship with God has gone. The strength and motivation to resist the practices of the world around them will go too. This observation of the loss of moral fibre in people who have wandered away from thanksgiving to God, preference for the poor and dependance on power and might can be made today in many world societies including our own. The psalmist describes scial interaction which we have observed in our workplaces, our family reunions and even in the circles around our places of worship. This observation of believers of their own lives is the start to hearing the messages of the cost of discipleship presented by Jesus in the text today from the Gospel of Matthew. The disciple is on a journey to holiness which means an openness to change and an understanding that transformation means surrender of the behavior and practice we currently find ourselves "at home" with for Ways which witness Life. Friar Jude elaborates on the suggestion of Jesus that the disciple would not bury his parent. This is not the burial very soon after death which is Jewish custom, but the year long attention to the dead after burial which could be excuse for the non committed to defer the decision to get on with the journey to intimacy with the Divine. The Way is the path indicated by Jesus and not the one we choose for whatever reason.