Let The Dead Bury The Dead 13th Sunday Ordinary Time 2013

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Coming up this Sunday is a gospel with so much meaning in it .

I'm still letting it sink in so these are just a few bit and pieces.

Blessings on you
who stand in the tension and flux
of understanding God
in the struggle to understand what is
and what isn't,
what was and what will be,
what we are
and what we should be.

Juli Allen, Wellsprings 

Scripture readings for Sunday Mass are here.

When the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?”
Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him,
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”

And to another he said, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”
To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

 That phrase Jesus says "Let the dead bury the dead." always intrigues.

As chance would have it I was blown away by a wonderful programme on BBC World Service Outlook at the weekend which gave insight on this Gospel and if you can spend a few moments listening to it I thoroughly recommend it.

 This is a summary of it .
 "In 1994, Simon Lewis was a successful Hollywood producer, who had just married the love of his life. His film, Look Who's Talking, was a huge hit around the world. But he was involved in a hit and run car crash that killed his wife and left him in a deep coma for a month. 

He survived against all expectations and tells Matthew Bannister about his extraordinary memories of being in a coma and the impact of all this on his " new life" afterwards.

You can listen to it by clicking here. It's on after a short introduction. Look for Hollywood Producer My Month in a Coma dated 24th June in the list.

It won't let me embed it and it's only available for thirty days. The programme is also listed on the right hand side of the page and can be heard just by clicking the arrow or you can choose to download it here.

Click here for a reflection on this Gospel from 2010.

and this one from 2011 " Nowhere To Lay Your Head."

Poem With Two Endings

Say “death” and the whole room freezes—
even the couches stop moving,
even the lamps.
Like a squirrel suddenly aware it is being looked at.
Say the word continuously,
and things begin to go forward.
Your life takes on
the jerky texture of an old film strip.
Continue saying it, hold it moment after moment inside the mouth,
it becomes another syllable.
A shopping mall swirls around the corpse of a beetle.
Death is voracious, it swallows all the living.
Life is voracious, it swallows all the dead.
neither is ever satisfied, neither is ever filled,
each swallows and swallows the world.
The grip of life is as strong as the grip of death.
but the vanished, the vanished beloved, o where?

— Jane Hirshfield

My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.

  Saint Nicholas of Flüe