SOLVING PROBLEMS
July 3, 2011
Quote for Today - July 3, 2011
"Let's swap problems since all people know how to solve other people's problems."
Anonymous
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
HEARTS AND MINDS
INTRODUCTION
On this feast of the Sacred Heart, the title of my homily is, “Hearts and Minds.”
STATUE OF THE SACRED HEART
When Catholics hear the words, “Sacred Heart” - the odds are they picture a statue of the Sacred Heart in a church - a statue of Jesus with his heart outside his body - in the center of his chest - a heart on fire with flames and light as well as a crown of thorns around it.
Amazing. What would a person who never had heard of Christ and Christianity think/ feel if they walked into a church and saw such a statue or picture for the first time?
It’s an image and a devotion that goes way back to the 11th and 12th centuries. At first it was a private devotion. It was a mystical image - but in time it became more and more popular. In the 1600’s, with the so called revelations of a nun named Marguerite Marie Alacoque [1647-1690], this image became more widespread - till a pope, Leo XIII, promulgated it to all the church in 1899.
Pope Benedict XVI recently asked the Jesuits and others to promote devotion to Jesus - imagining him as the Sacred Heart.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? THEORIES AND CONJECTURES
I’ve often wondered what it’s all about?
As a result I have theories and conjectures.
Some people wear their heart on their sleeve; others have a great poker face.
We use the image of heart all the time.
James Earl Jones once said, “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.”
I discovered somewhere along the line that people love personality tests. One basic test is to discover whether a person is more heart or more mind? Many people have taken the so called Myers-Briggs test or the Jungian Test - which gives you a number - testing you to see if you come more from your mind or your heart. I score higher from the heart. I was never good in logic or algebra or math or the Rubik Cube or following directions in putting together a gadget from the instruction sheet. I never look under the hood of a car.
Here’s a simple test: draw yourself. But draw your heart and your head based on how much one is stronger than the other in your personality. Then ask someone who knows you to draw you in the way they see you - and if they wish - they do the same - and then each of your look at the 4 drawings you come up with.
It’s a matter of degrees.
Classically men are supposed to be mind or head and women are supposed to be all heart. It’s a stereotype. I’ve been beaten by my sister-in-law in chess. I prefer Rummy or Go Fish to Bridge!
RELIGION
When it comes to picturing God, would you picture God all mind or head or all heart?
I have a theory about religion. When religion becomes heavy with Reason and Rationalism - someone is going to come out with religious revelations that are Romantic and Emotional.
Check out the Founding Fathers of the United States. Several of them were Deists. They picture God as head or mind. Check out the image on the back of the dollar bill. There is the pyramid with the all seeing eye of God in the head or top of the Triangle. The Deists picture God as architect - planning and creating this world and then put it on it’s own.
When we study the universe, if we are very mathematical and logical, it might make sense. You can’t land someone on the moon without knowing the Math of our Solar System. And our world is very logical. People are able to Go Figure the logic of fires and storms in the hurricane and tornado and forest fire season.
IMAGE OF DIVINE MERCY
I have a theory that when the image of the Sacred Heart faded from our spirituality along came another nun with a similar image - that of Divine Mercy - and it filled the gap and in time another pope promoted her revelations.
HEAD AND HEART
Obviously we need both - because we have both.
And if we live long enough, we’ll discover that it’s smart to work with, cooperate with and be with others who have the gifts we don’t have - and we have the gifts they don’t have.
It’s called a good marriage; it’s called a good team; it’s called a good meeting.
CONCLUSION
Let me conclude with a quote from Marilyn vas Savant - who was a columnist - “Ask Marilyn”. She is said to have been the person who has had the hightest IQ ever recorded: 228. The quote from Marilyn: “If your head tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart.”
+++++++++++++++++++
Painting on top: Sacred Heart by Jose Maria Ibarraran y Ponce - 1896
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this June 29th Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul is, “Peter & Paul: Who Do You Say That I Am?”
In today’s gospel from Matthew 16: 13-19, we have Jesus trying to get his disciples to know who he is. He asks, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
I thought for this homily on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul - to ask the same question of Peter and Paul: “Who do you say Peter and Paul are?”
I would think Paul would be easier to describe than Peter - because there is so much more we know about Paul compared to what we know about Peter. What’s your take on Peter and Paul? How do you see each of them?
EVENTS MORE THAN IDEAS
T.W. Manson in describing Paul gives what I thought was a good insight. He says Paul was not a systematic theologian. He doesn’t give us ideas - or abstractions - or principals. Yet he says Paul is a Great Christian thinker. Then he adds: to understand Paul think events more than ideas - a series of events more than a series of ideas. Paradoxically, that’s an idea - rather than an event.
I thought the same thing can be said even more with Peter.
But what does it mean to say events more than ideas forming a person’s life? Is it the difference between forming and informing - the difference between formation and information?
OUR OWN LIVES
Have we ever looked in the mirror and said, “Who are you?” Has anyone ever said to us, “I can’t figure you out?” Have we ever replied back to them, “At times, I can’t figure myself out either.” Isn’t that how Paul felt - based on his self comments in Romans 7:14-25?
Well, what are the events that shaped my life?
A person is taught catechism - and religious education - but why am I a Catholic? Was it parents or a spouse that gave us good example? What kept us as a Catholic? Was it a certain teacher, the good example of a friend - the family we grow up in - whether our parents went to church or what have you.
I heard of a lady - who is married - has a couple of kids - has gone to Sunday Mass all her life - got her husband by her example to start going to Mass - but has only gone to confession once in her life - her first confession. As a little girl making her first confession, the priest yelled at her for not knowing the act of contrition, so she said, “That’s it for that!” And that was it for that.
We priests say behind other priests back - those who yell at parents for crying babies in church or what have you - that they are going to have to pay for all the people they have driven from the Church. So too a host of faults and foibles by the priests of our church.
I’ve made my mistakes. I’ve had one person walk out on me - that I know of. It was a priest. I was at least 30 years younger than he was. He wanted me to give the same sermon we were giving on weekend retreats to married couples on their retreat - many of whom had come to weekend retreats earlier in the year - and heard our weekend sermons. So I chose to preach on the same readings - but give a homily for a married couple. He didn’t like it - so he walked out.
I learned from that experience a lot more than reading a book or an article on the priesthood or personality. That moment had an impact on me. Let me tell you. Then there are all those people whom I hurt or bothered down through the years. I still go by the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 rule that an old priest once told me: 1/3 like you, 1/3 don’t like you, 1/3 don’t care. Get over it.
PETER AND PAUL
So Peter and Paul were formed by their experiences of Jesus Christ.
Paul was trying to exterminate and put an end to those who followed Jesus - and in that persecution he discovered Jesus Christ - who changed his life - and then he had crawl on the ground, before he could rise. He had to see his blindness, before he could see. He had to experience darkness, before he could see the light.
He learned humility. He “moved from a self-centered to a Christ-centered life”. Christ was his strength as we heard in today’s second reading.
Peter can be pictured as the fisherman chosen by Christ - that day at the beach. Christ must have seen something in him - that could call others to follow Christ. And right away the gospels give us the hint about Peter’s personality. Big mouth. Foot in mouth. Foot out of mouth. Foot following Christ.
CONCLUSION
What’s your take on Peter and Paul? Do 1/3 of you like Peter? Do 1/3 of you like Paul? Do 1/3 of you say, “I never thought about the question?”
Notice how I worded that last 1/3. I didn’t say, “You don’t care!” Nope I put it the way I put it, because I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth. I wouldn’t want 1/3 of you to walk out.
************
NOTES:
Painting on top: Saints Peter and Paul by El Greco - Domenikos Theotokopoulos [c,1541-1614]. As far as I could figure out, this is one of 3 paintings of Peter and Paul by El Greco. That's Peter with the key in his hand and Paul pointing to his writings. Another painting has Paul with a sword.
(1) T. W. Manson, On Paul and John, Alec Allenson, Inc. pages 11-14.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)