The Church is the "house of prayer for all peoples": not entitlement to miracle bailouts but the universal place of the ordinary miracle of Faith

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Pundits and experts are saying that there is a parallel between the fall of Western economies and children's reading and learning scores. The sense of entitlement that has been bred over many years in these countries, they say, is reflected in the lack of a work ethic among the young now observable in poor educational results and the rampant violence in the streets of Britain and which now may be spreading to other places.

Having been given so much and worked for so little has aroused in some an addiction that must be fed through rioting and looting. In the burning and destruction of the property of others is a rejection of the society to which they once looked so expectantly to give them everything they lack little effort on their part. The false illusion of the "miracle" of free stuff leaves the human person weakened and vulnerable before the harsh reality that work and discipline is a fact of human existence, exempting no one from its laws of give and take.

For the full text of the homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time click here to visit Meeting Christ in the Liturgy.