O Death, Where is Your Sting? 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A), September 24, 2023

As happens in every church community, death unexpectedly intervenes in our daily and weekly life. Early Saturday morning, one of the young members of our church family, Katherine, suddenly died. It moved me from working on a homily based on the day's great parable of the workers in the field (Matthew 20:1-16a) to a reflection on this Sunday's reading from Paul's Letter to the Philippians (1:20c-24), which gives us insight into his attitude to both death and life, an attitude founded in his deeply intimate relationship to Jesus, the Risen One. 

Our memories of Katherine are sweet and they shall remain so. We embrace her family in our prayers and love. We entrust her gentle spirit into the hands of the gentle Lord. 

Saint Francis Catholic Community, Cuenca, Ecuador