Fourth Sunday of Advent • Year A
I’ve known a lot of ordinary Joes and Marys in my life. Beginning with family and friends, most of the people I’ve encountered have been rather unremarkable as far as doing outstanding things goes. But I’ve found as I look at the entirety of their lives that they have been inspirational for me. They have become heroes, inspirational and extraordinary because of the longevity of their loyalty, the depth and strength of their faith which has established a tradition. They have become legendary in their goodness because of the ease with which they do it as a way of life.
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year C
In a country where the common people were fortunate if they ate meat once a week and where they toiled for six days out of seven, Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence. Lazarus was waiting from the crumbs that fell from Dives’s table. In that time there were no knives, forks or napkins. Food was eaten with the hands and, in very wealthy houses, the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.