ATTITUDE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, "Attitude."

Today's first reading from the book of Job - triggered for me a topic and theme for this homily: attitude.

Here's Job in a very dark moody mood - seeing life as drudgery and doom. He doesn't seem like a happy camper. He sees himself as a hireling - not running his own business. Everything is happening at him. He sees himself as a slave longing for the shade. He has sleepless nights - restless till the dawn. Notice the word "misery" and if you've seen that movie - you know what misery is like. And listen to that last sentence in today's first reading again: "Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again."

I wouldn't want to have a job working next to Job. I wouldn't want to see him walking into the room in the morning - or afternoon - or evening for that matter.

SO SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT ATTITUDE

We know what attitude is and what it means - but to put it into words - we could do that - but we might not be that clear with words - but we still know what attitude is - especially a bad attitude.

In fact, for starters - in talking about attitude - the adjectives "good" and "bad" - might be a good place to start.

A good first question is right there: When it comes to the big picture - our life - judge yourself - do you think you have a good or a bad attitude?

When you walk into a room - what's the first gut or belly take - people get about you?

Do they say, "Here comes an angry person?" Or, "Here comes a happy person?"

Or do people look you in the eye or look at your face - and try to get a read on you. Are they thinking, "What kind of a mood will he or she be in today?"

If the saying, "Action speaks louder than words" is true, so too is this saying of John C. Maxwell, "People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude."

I sense we all have an overall attitude - that we show or those who know us - get it - got it - good or bad. Then we have changing attitudes - depending on the day - the weather - traffic - and a dozen other things.

Then we have specific attitudes toward specific issues, persons, places and things.

We might hate so and so because she is always telling us about what she's going to cook for supper tonight - or how well her children are doing in college or sports or what have you. Enough already.

We might have a great attitude towards the environment. We hate it when people dump their Starbucks containers in the park - but we have a poor attitude towards the poor.

So, attitude. It's a tricky thing.

TODAY'S GOSPEL

Here we are still in the First Chapter of the gospel of Mark. After healing Peter's Mother-in-law who was sick, who then feeds Jesus and his disciples, a lot of people show up with their demons and their diseases.

They want healing. And Jesus heals them.

When it comes to healing - it would be smart to go to Jesus for healing of any destructive attitudes.

I found a helpful distinction. It comes out of some research by Stanford University. A psychologist, Carol Dweck found that people's core

attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

"With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you're challenged because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed."

That's the first category. I have to think about that - because at times I have said, "Once we hit a certain age, it's hard to change." Then I add, "Sorry, expect the same." "Expect Deja  vu."

This Carol Dweck gal is saying, "No necessarily so." She continues, "People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new."

I assume we have to accept this second mindset - the growth mindset - if we come to Church, if we accept Jesus in our life - because Jesus is always proclaiming, "Change!" "Repent." "Grow." "Change your heart and not your garments."

Jesus gave us the Beatitudes. That's 8 attitudes to put into practice.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Today's gospel has an interesting secret that seems to be one of Jesus' key spiritual practices.

Mark tells us that "Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed."

Where is your deserted place? It could be this Sunday Mass. It could be talking a walk. It could be fishing? It could be a prayer chair in your bedroom or back porch.

For my dad, it was the cellar. For my mom, it was the right hand corner of a couch in our living room - with her small rubber banded prayer book  in the top drawer right there. A friend of mine - changed his garage into a chapel.  A few people in the neighborhood found out about it and used it. It could be the Eucharistic chapel here. It could be this church or St. Mary's when it's open.

Attitudes can change - mindsets can move from fixed mindsets to growth mindsets if we take the time to pray.

But it has to be prayer - it has to be communion. It has to be more than me. It has to be  God and me, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with me.

This doesn't mean we won't be interrupted. Here's Jesus interrupted in today's Gospel, but we have to have the attitude, I need to find the time for Sabbath, for Holy Places, and then do it.

CONCLUSION

If you don't want to have the Job attitude we hear about in today's first reading, find hideouts, find time for God - for the rest of your life.

And when with God, pray for and decided to be a happy camper on this planet - on this journey  called “Life!”

And remember Victor Frankl’s comment that we have freedom right here. He said, “The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude. Choose life. Choose  beatitude as our attitude.