Liturgy for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time + Sunday, September 7, 2025

Reflection Neither a liberal pattern nor a conservative pattern can deal with disorder and misery. St. Paul believes that Jesus has revealed the only response that works. The revelation of the cross makes us indestructible, Paul says, because it reveals there is a way through all absurdity and tragedy. That way is precisely through accepting absurdity and tragedy, trusting that God can somehow use it for good. If we can internalize the mystery of the cross, we won’t fall into cynicism, failure, bitterness, or skepticism. The cross gives us a precise and profound way through the shadow side of life and through all disappointments. Paul allows both conservatives and liberals to define wisdom in their own ways, yet he dares to call both inadequate and finally wrong. He believes that such worldviews will eventually fail people. He writes, “God has shown up human wisdom as folly” on the cross, and this is “an obstacle that the Jews cannot get over,” and which the gentiles or pagans think is simple “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:21–23). -Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, rev. ed. Music Reprinted and Streamed with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-719251. All rights reserved. A link to our bulletin may be found at:   drive.google.com/file/d/13cajn5--oc6tan1zz...