Sunday, June 17, 2012

ON BEING A FATHER



June  17,  2012 - Fathers' Day - Quote for Today

"It's a wonderful feeling when your father becomes not a god but a man to you - when he comes down from the mountain and you see he's this man with weaknesses.  And you love him as this whole being, not as a figurehead."


Robin Williams, Rolling Stone, 1988

Saturday, June 16, 2012

ENEMIES HELP US 
TO DEFINE AND 
DISCOVER OURSELVES


June 16, 2012  Quote for the Day

"I don't have a warm personal enemy left.  They've all died off.  I miss them terribly because they helped define me."

Clare Booth Luce [1903-1987], "The Dick Cavett Show,"  July 21, 1981

1932 Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Questions

What do you know about Clare Booth Luce?

How would you define yourself in 50 words or less?


What have been your biggest discoveries about yourself? List 5 "that I's" about yourself.

          I know this about myself, that I  ______________
          I know this about myself, that I  ______________
          I know this about myself, that I  ______________
          I know this about myself, that I  ______________
          I know this about myself, that I ______________

Who are your enemies?

Who are your warm enemies?  Who are your cold enemies?

What have each by name taught and told you about yourself?

Have you ever in your life talked to an "enemy" one to one? Please describe. Have you ever talked to a friend about any of those experiences? Please describe.

Check back:

Check back into my blog and you'll find a series of self tests.



































Have you ever in your life ever talked to an "enemy" one to one?

Friday, June 15, 2012



THE SACRED HEART:
3 IMAGES OF GOD’S LOVE

INTRODUCTION


The title of my homily is, “Feast of the Sacred Heart: 3 Images of God’s Love.”

Today’s 3 readings give 3 images of God’s love for us.

For starters, there is a basic human question: “Do you love me!”

We ask it in various and many ways:

·        Does anyone love me?
·        Does she love me?
·        Does he love me?
·        Does [did] my mother love me?
·        Does [did] my father love me?
·        Do my children love me?
·        Does so and so love me?
·        Does God love me?

Today’s 3 readings for this feast of the Sacred Heart give 3 images of God’s love for us?

FIRST READING - FIRST IMAGE PARENTING

Today’s first reading from Hosea the Prophet gives the basic image of a parent loving a child. [Cf. Hosea 11: 3-4, 8c-9.] That’s where it all begins - being held and loved as a baby.

I’ll never forget a scary statement I heard in a lecture in a counseling course I was taking, “The bigger the problem, the earlier the problem.”

The speaker then said, “If a person has severe personality problems, sometimes it can traced back to horrible neglect of that person early, early in their childhood and babyhood.”

It gives me pause when I run into “problem people” or “strange rangers” or folks I find “difficult”.

Please God we have/had parents that love us.

All through the scriptures we hear that theme - God as a Parent - both Mother and Father - loving us. [1]

Hopefully, when we say the “Our Father” - we say it with deep feelings because we got glimpses of the love of God for us - because we had a loving father - or we experienced in our lifetime from guardians or father figures - great care and love for us.

Want to catechize your kids and grandkids?  Love them.

SECOND READING - THE IMAGE OF CONVERSION MOMENTS

In today’s second reading from Ephesians we have mention of Paul’s experience of Christ. [Cf. Ephesians 3: 8-12, 14-19.] Saul, who became Paul, was trying to remove mention of Jesus, or the presence, awareness, following, or attachment to Christ from Jewish folks who were becoming Christians. In his conversion Paul discovered that Christ was aware of him.


Today’s second reading has the word “access”. Isn’t that a neat image? Christ gives us “access” to the Father. In his conversion moment on the road to Damascus, Paul  discovered that the one he was trying to kill - erase - destroy - hurt - was the one who saved him from his destructive life style. In this Christ - in this mystery of Christ - which he entered - Paul experienced the love of God for him and for all. 

Conversion stories are reversal stories.

Listen again to the powerful words from Ephesians in today’s second reading - words of access to the Father through, in, and with Christ.

For this reason 
I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven 
and on earth is named,
that he may grant you 
in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell 
in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend 
with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length 
and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ 
which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled 
with all the fullness of God.

GOSPEL - DEATH SCENES - THE SACRED HEART OF GOD

And today’s Gospel gives us the third image of God’s love for us.[Cf. John 19: 31-37] It is a  scene from Jesus’ death on the Cross. I assume it was chosen for this feast of the Sacred Heart because the lance is thrust into Jesus’ chest - his heart area - and out flowed blood and water.

What happens to you when you stand before an image, a statue or a picture of Jesus Christ? We have this gigantic image of Christ here at St. John Neumann’s. At St. Mary’s we have a big crucifix in the back of church, a statue of the Sacred Heart in the sanctuary, and an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd on the upper wall of the sanctuary. What is your favorite image of Jesus? What moves you?

Looking at the history of how Jesus is pictured, using broad general statements, the first key image of Jesus was that of the Good Shepherd. Then came Jesus on the Cross. Then came Jesus as the Sacred Heart. In the last century came the image of Jesus filled with Divine Mercy. These images convey caring, relating, reaching out, pouring out one’s heart, for others.

Today we celebrating the image of the  Sacred Heart.

We know the meaning of the heart - in all those “I love you’s” - all those heart images on rings and things - bumper stickers - and Valentine Day stuff. We feel it in our pump - our chest - our heart - when we are loved and when we love.

CONCLUSION

In this homily I presented from today’s 3 readings, 3 images that God loves us. Today, on this feast of the Sacred Heart,  we celebrate that reality: God loves me.





[1] Pope John Paul I, [Albino Luciani] (1912-1978) said at the Sunday Angelus blessing in St. Peter's Square on September 17, 1978, "He is Father. Even more, God is Mother, who does not want to harm us."









STUFF  ME

June 15,  2012  Quote for Today






"If I am what I have and if I lose what I have who then am I?" 


Erich Fromm [1900-1980]

Thursday, June 14, 2012

HAPPINESS



June  14, 2012   Quote for Today

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling."

Margaret Lee Runbeck

Questions:

On a scale of 1 to 10,  10 being the highest, are you happy?

Who is the happiest person you know? Have you ever asked her or him the secret of their happiness?

Ask your closest friend: "Do you see me as a happy person?"  If they hesitate, breathe. If they say, "Yes" - ask, "For example?"  If they say, "No! and if you are really close, ask, "Have you any thoughts why you think I'm unhappy?"

What has been your best day this year so far?  What has been the best day in your life, so far?

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

VOTING



June  13,  2012  Quote for Today

"Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against."

W.C. Fields, in Robert Lewis Taylor, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes, 1949

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

HATRED



June 12, 2012  Quote for Today

"I have honestly never gone in for hating.  My temporary bitternesses toward people have all been ended by what Freud called an inferiority complex and Christ called 'Let him without sin -'  I remember the day he said it. We were just like that then;  we tossed up for who was to go through with it - and he lost."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, letter to Ernest Hemingway, June 1, 1934, in Matthew J. Bruccoli, Scott and Ernest, 1978

Questions:

Have you ever put down a word (a rock) and not spoken it (thrown the rock) about another because of Jesus' words - as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it - in the above quote?

Have you ever seen hatred or gossip or attacking others as having inferiority feelings - as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it - in the above quote?

Is there anyone you hate? What does that do to you?

Read Matthew 5: 38-48.  What did Jesus figure out about hatred and retaliation and people who bother us and those we label as "enemies"?