Weekly Readings
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Jesus said,] “All that you see here — the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
Luke 21:6
Opening the Word
Editor’s Note: Fr. Peter shares insights from a variety of voices on the Sunday readings.
Dismantled and Reassembled
It is the time of year when seasons turn and the rhythm of life changes as days become dismantled and reassembled in new and varied ways. All of this is not unlike the much deeper process continually at play within our hearts. Indeed, the seasons of our individual lives can be dismantled and reassembled — and often more than once in a lifetime. That white-robed prophet of doom who proclaims that the end is near is right. Our lives do collapse in such cosmic ways that not one stone is left upon another. The end may come with a life-robbing illness or the premature death of someone we love. It may take the shape of an unwanted move to a new city or a life collapsed by addiction. It may happen slowly, as life forces us to surrender passion or enthusiasm or the dreams of our youth, like colors faded by sunlight yet never noticed until suddenly we realize the color has all but disappeared. Such transitions can feel as violent as the end of our lives in this world. Indeed, at such times, we may feel that a part of us has died. Yet, if we pay attention, we may discover that we have been refashioned, recreated into something new. It is the story of the divine phoenix rising from the ashes, lived by every human being and understood by every person who lives with faith in the resurrection.
~Fr. Joseph Juknialis
Reflect
Have I known the experience of life being dismantled and reassembled into something new?
Fr. Joseph Juknialis, a retired priest of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, is the new author of reflections for Liguori Publications’ Our Parish Community bulletins. Fr. Joe has served in ministry as a parish priest and a teacher of homiletics at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. Retirement has given him time for hiking, canoeing, writing, poetry, gin rummy, the Green Bay Packers, and pursuing his appreciation of nature. In noting the most amazing aspect of his life, Fr. Joe says, “God has always brought me to the place I should be.”
