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Good News Reflection
October 12, 2008
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday's Readings:
Is 25:6-10a
Ps 23:1-6
Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
Matt 22:1-14
http://www.usccb.org/nab/101208.shtml
Audio:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/08_10_12.mp3

In Sunday's Gospel reading, Jesus addresses the problem of fakers, i.e., people who try to win his friendship by being religious and showing up for the banquet of the Eucharist (Mass) while refusing to enter into a genuine relationship with God.

You know the type: They are friendly or they do good deeds but only for their own advantage. When their faith is challenged by hardship, they stop going to church. When a priest says or does something imperfectly, they leave Catholicism. When their relationship with you requires sacrifice or repentance, they abandon you.

Jesus shows us in this parable God's prescription for handling friendships and marriages that are not genuinely based on love. The invitation to join the party is open to everyone, but when people want only the fun and do not accept the hard work that's part of every lasting relationship, God sets up boundaries to block these fakers.

Think of the people you've invited to your banquet table, i.e., into a healthy, Godly relationship, but they've try to reshape it according to their unhealthiness and immorality. We should love them but not within harmful circumstances. We should do our own part to make the relationship healthy, but when others do not do their part, they've already abandoned the relationship.

God asks us to carry the cross of doing everything possible to invite them to repentance, conversion, and healing. However, healthy boundaries need to remain in place, and when our efforts are fruitless, eventually God says it's time to let go and move on.

And always, we're to go back out into the byroads to find those who genuinely value Godly friendships.

Questions for Personal Reflection:
How many Godly, healthy friendships do you really have? Where can you go to find more people who want to be in a holy, Christ-centered, faith-building relationship with you?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What makes a friendship truly good? How do you know when the time has come to say no to an unhealthy, unholy relationship? How have you handled it? Where have you gone to find support and healing and growth?