A photo simply to tease on a cold but sunny Capitol Hill day.

One of the major challenges to anyone seriously reflecting on a verse from Sacred Scripture, especially a segment of the gospel such a that included in today's liturgy is to face what the words might mean for me.  Simply praying over words from the Evangelists or other parts of the Bible is certainly not allowing the messages do their thing in our lives.  The words almost always call for the reader and prayer to determine the vocation within a vocation.  Basically the question that results is something like this:  "And what am I supposed to do about this?

For some it may be easy to read and reflect on the words of Jesus, especially the words in today's gospel.  He puts forward the challenges his vocation has placed in his life.  Good.  Good for you, Jesus.  But is this meant for me also?

Here on Capitol Hill focus is far from many of the issues that Jesus raises.  New actions by the recently reconvened Congress addressing new issues seemed to be concerned with resolving how to save face with the Illinois Senatorial appointment; how this city is going to get around with so many jubilant visitors coming to see history take place on January 20th; and, possibly, just possibly, some interest in what the USA should be saying or doing about the tragic bombings between Israel and Palestine.

It is still early in the new year.  There remains time for us to evaluate the resolutions that make sense for the new year.  The silly ones have most likely already disappeared or we may not have taken them seriously at the outset.

What are we capable of doing for all the poor ... a growing population in this nation?  How can we help those millions ... yes millions ... who have lost their jobs in the last few months?  What are we going to do to assist the marginalized in our communities?  These are real questions and they are given greater solidity because they address real problems that are exploding in our communities.