11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not text and drive”.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
SEEING DIFFERENTLY
INTRODUCTION One of the things that Jesus was always trying to do was to get people to see differently—better to see better.
People
see differently.
People
see differently.
That’s
one of the great lessons in life to learn is that we might be looking at the
same thing, but people see differently.
CANDLE
Look
at a lit candle.
What
do you see?
Do you
see the wax or do you see the fire?
Do you
see danger? If it’s not watched it could
burn a house down.
Do you
see memories? Do you see the candle you lit in church on the day of your
wedding?
Do you
see the candle in the windowthat you
loved one lit every night - so you knew you were coming home to love?
People
see differently.
FLOWER
Look
at a flower.
Do you
see the flowers your family brought to celebrate your first part in a play?
Do you
remember the flowers people brought for your mom’s funeral or when she was sick
in the hospital?
Does
it remind you of the moment you saw a painting by Georgia O’Keefe or a painting
by Manet.
People
see differently.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In
today’s gospel the people saw Jesus mom and his brothers. That’s what they were
seeing. But Jesus saw differently. He said, “You are my brothers and my sisters
and my mom.”
He
wants us to see everyone as family. You are my brother or my sister or my mom.
You and you and you. And once we see each other that way it makes quite a
difference.
People
see differently.
CONTACT LENSE STORY
I once
saw an interesting story in the newspaper about how people see differently.
A girl
lost her contact lens. She went up to her dad and said that he had to take her
to the optician tomorrow. He said, “We
were just there last month.” She replied, “Dad, I lost one of my contact lens and I have a big date tomorrow
night.”
He
said, “Where did you lose it?”
She responded, “Well, if I knew where I
lost it, I wouldn’t be telling you that I lost it.”
“Oh, that’s right. Well, where do you
think you lost it?”
“Probably my room. But I just spent an
hour looking for it.”
Her dad said, “Well, let me look.”
She said, “Dad, you’re not going to
find it. I just looked everywhere—for an hour.”
Well
he went up to her room and looked. Five minutes later he comes down and she’s
sitting there arms folded. “Here’s your
lens.”
“How did you find it so fast?” she
asked.
“Well, you were looking for a contact
lens. I was looking for a hundred dollar bill.”
CONCLUSION
People
see differently.
Till
we learn that, we’ll never learn to see eye to eye.
Till
we learn that, we’ll never learn that we are all brothers and sisters.
12 SPOTS
There are about 12 spots -
at least that’s what people
have told me down through
the years - about 12 spots.
Spots?
Yes. spots where
we meet God.
Could be at the ocean - or in
the shower - in church - or on
a mountain or on a bus ride.
Spots?
Could be falling in love or
getting married or the birth
of the first baby - or the
death of mom or dad.
Spots?
Sometimes people tell me
they haven’t met God yet
in any spot. My answer:
take a long walk in the woods.
Spots?
Or tell God you’re looking
and waiting or wondering
when God is going to knock
on your inner door?
Spots?
And then listen …. Listen.
God is already inside you - just sitting there waiting for you to
11th Commandment: “Respect your sons and daughters.”
Shimon Peres
Monday, September 24, 2018
ENTITLEMENT
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 25th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Entitlement.”
Have you ever heard a word or picked up on something
someone is complaining about - or talking about - and you say to yourself, “I
have to learn more about that.” Or, “I don’t understand that.”
I’ve said that to myself when I hear people say things
like, “The kidstoday think they are
entitled.”
I usually hear it as a complaint - against young people -
or some poor people - or people of a different color - or culture - and I say
to myself, “I don’t know enough about all of this entitlement stuff.”
So I spent some time this morning, working on this issue.
To be honest, I still don’t know enough about
entitlement.
Let me present two minutes worth of ideas - and thoughts
- if interested - and if this is one of your questions, I’ll continue working
on this and I urge you to do the same. Make it a topic of conversation and grab
other people’s ideas.
TODAY’S FIRST READING
In today’s first reading - Proverbs 3: 27-34 - we move back to the Old Testament
In the opening two sentences I read the following,
“Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do
it for him. Say not to your neighbor, ‘Go and come again, tomorrow I will
give,’ when you can give at once.”
That triggered the thought of entitlement - questions
about entitlement.
ENTITLEMENTS:
Sometimes entitlements are good; sometimes they are too
much.
We’re all entitled to good water, so if someone pollutes,
we have a right to scream.
So too cleanair
and avoiding noise pollution.
Sometimes rights conflict.
Like people are entitled that this church to be a house
of prayer and quiet and peace and freedom from interruptions. We also have the
right to have this placewhere others
recognize us and say hello to us and ask us to pray for their daughter who just
found out she has cancer.
So that’s an obvious problem - and being in 1000 churches
I’ve heard people voice this complaint about too much noise in church.
Entitlements sometimes crash or collide.
Fair is fair when we’re on line trying to get into
Eggcellence.
Does anyone feel they are entitled not to have to wait on
lines getting into a restaurant or to the check out counter in the supermarket.
Once we’re in the restaurant, once we’re seated, it’s
fair to want service.
If a waiter or waitress is blind to us for any reason and
the waiter or waitress knows or likes someone on a table other than ours, and
give them a lot more attention, then fair is fair.
If we’re always getting upset, if we take more than we
give, if we’re always late and get mad when others are late, if we think we’re
smarter or better looking and therefore take care of me first, that’s a red
flag.
The more I read up about entitlements, the more I found
it to be a touchy subject. It has two pulls: rights and duties. I have rights
while driving - but others also have expectations from me - that are my duty to
fulfill.
JESUS
Jesus says a lot about entitlements. We’re entitled to visits
when we’re sick or in prison or we’re hurting.We’re entitled to forgiveness,70
x 7 times when we make mistakes.
Jesus says we’re called to be aware of each other, serve
each other, wash each other’s feet, and to serve and be served.
Jesus didn’t scream from the cross: unfair, unfair,
unfair. It was unfair. Yet he forgave because people don’t know what they are
doing.
CONCLUSION
Those are a few ideas about
entitled. Sorry to say, I found myself only scratching the surface of this
issue of entitlements.
In conclusion, in today’s
gospel, Jesus calls us to be light to each other. This issue of entitlements
would be a clear specific to work on and to enlighten each other on fairness
and service.
