Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, Cycle A
January 1, 2002
Holy Trinity Church
Reflection That Makes a Difference
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
ERMA BOMBECK
Our well-known American humorist Erma Bombeck once came up with a list of six New Year’s resolutions.
With Erma’s typical combination of wit and insight, her six resolutions go like this:
1. I’m going to clean this dump just as soon as the kids grow up.
2. I will go to no doctor whose office plants have died.
3. I’m going to follow my husband’s suggestion to put a little excitement into my life by living within our budget.
4. I’m going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
5. I will never lend my car to anyone I have given birth to.
6. And, finally, just like last year, I am going to remember that my children need love most when they deserve it least.
MARY
With all of Erma’s wit, she ends with a very insightful resolution.
That resolution – about loving her children when they deserve it least – seems to be the result of some reflection. Erma must have reflected on her role as a mother and on her children’s needs and discerned what she was called to do.
In today’s gospel, Mary is also presented as a person who reflects. Saint Luke says that after she has given birth to Jesus and the shepherds have visited, “Mary treasures all these things and reflects on them in her heart.”
So, Mary is a reflective person. She looks carefully at what is happening and looks at all of this through the eyes of faith.
This reflective spirit enables Mary to see God acting in her life. It leads Mary to go along with what God is asking her to do.
Well, the example of Mary calls us to the same reflective spirit in our own lives. This can be especially appropriate on New Year’s Day.
If we are inclined to make some New Year’s resolutions, I recommend that reflect a bit and focus our reflections on the three dimensions of time – on the past, then the future, and finally the present. I recommend that we focus on these and see what resolution is appropriate for us.
POSSIBLE RESOLUTIONS
First, the past. Maybe we need to resolve to stop saying things like “If only I had done this” or “If only I had not said that.”
Usually, our “if onlys” are a waste of time and energy. We cannot bring back or re-do the past.
On the other hand, if our regret is based on an appropriate feeling of guilt, then let’s ask for forgiveness from the person involved or from God. In this way, let’s bring the past to completion and just let the past be past.
Then, the future. Maybe we need to resolve to stop saying things like “What if this happens” or “What if he does that.”
Again, usually our “what ifs” are a waste of time and energy. They are almost always focused on something in the future that we can do nothing about.
In truth, the only thing we can do about the future is live today the best we can with our future goals in mind – both our earthly and our heavenly goals. So, maybe we need to take Mary’s approach and trust more that God will be with us and support us through whatever happens.
And finally, the present. Maybe we need to resolve just to give our attention to the person we are now with or the thing we are now doing.
So often we are thinking about the next person or task or what I will say just as soon as the other person stops talking. So often we are not really “with” or present to the person we are talking with or the thing we are doing.
Maybe we need just to focus on how God may be present to us right now through your husband or wife or friend or in leading a project at work or cleaning the house or whatever. We can usually find God and the richness of life right here – in the present moment, in whatever we are doing.
CONCLUSION
So, Erma Bombeck’s humor and Mary’s reflective spirit might lead us to some thoughtful resolutions at this junction of time that we call New Year’s. Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for Christmas December 25, 2011: What's in a Song?
Christmas, Cycle B
December 25, 2011
Saint Margaret Church, Bel Air, MD
Our Lady of Grace Church, Parkton, MD
What’s in a Song?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
Back in the nineteenth century, in the 1870’s, there was an American preacher named Phillips Brooks.
One December, shortly before Christmas, Phillips Brooks visited the Holy Land. On that Christmas Eve, he made the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback.
From a distance, Brooks saw the little town of Bethlehem lit up against the darkness of the night. That sight made a great impression on him and a year later it inspired Brooks to write some verses.
His church organist quickly composed a tune to go with them. That hymn has become a standard for our celebration of Christmas. I’d like to speak it to you so you can listen carefully to the words.
“O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie! (gesture)
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by; (gesture)
Yet in thy dark streets shineth (gesture)
The everlasting light; (gesture)
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.” (gesture)
INTERPLAY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT IN SCRIPTURE
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light” – those words have really captured my attention this Christmas. They express the contrast between darkness and light that Christmas is all about.
In tonight’s 1st reading, the Prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.”
Isaiah is looking ahead to a moment when God will penetrate the darkness that fills so much of our lives with gloom. He foresees a moment when God will break through and be a light penetrating that darkness.
We now see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. And yet, it is interesting that even the story of Jesus’ birth tells us that the star which guides the Wise Men to Bethlehem does not drive all the darkness away.
Instead, the light of that star shines in the darkness and is a steady sign and guide. I suggest that for us, the light of Bethlehem operates in much the same way.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS TODAY
Each one of us, perhaps each in a different or similar ways experiences some form of darkness. In that very darkness, we are invited and even urged to look to the light of Bethlehem.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of ANXIETY ABOUT OUR FINANCIAL SECURITY or our job. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us hope by finding our real security in Jesus and by trusting that God’s providential care will watch over us.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING LONELY AND ISOLATED after the death of a spouse or other loved one. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures us of Emmanuel, God-with-us, as we walk through the tunnel until we reemerge into fuller light.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of DOUBT AND QUESTIONING, of wondering why we are living and what we really believe. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us a vision for where we are going and how to get there.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of COLD, OF A MARRIAGE THAT HAS GROWN COLD or of alienation from a child or parent or close friend. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem offers us the warmth of God’s love and moves us to extend and accept signs and glimmers of that love.
Or finally, perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING STUCK, TRAPPED in some habit or addiction or compulsion that is self-defeating and destructive. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures that human growth is always a possibility and invites us to search like the Magi for persons or programs that can help us with that growing.
CONCLUSION
So, “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”
The light shines in the darkness of Bethlehem and it shines today in our own darkness, as well.
Yes, the darkness remains, but – and that a big “but” – there is indeed light with the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Let’s look to that light in whatever darkness we may have. Let us allow the light of Jesus lead us to:
➢ Hope
➢ Comfort
➢ Vision
➢ Warmth and
➢ Growth
All are the gifts that only the light of Bethlehem can give us.
December 25, 2011
Saint Margaret Church, Bel Air, MD
Our Lady of Grace Church, Parkton, MD
What’s in a Song?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
Back in the nineteenth century, in the 1870’s, there was an American preacher named Phillips Brooks.
One December, shortly before Christmas, Phillips Brooks visited the Holy Land. On that Christmas Eve, he made the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback.
From a distance, Brooks saw the little town of Bethlehem lit up against the darkness of the night. That sight made a great impression on him and a year later it inspired Brooks to write some verses.
His church organist quickly composed a tune to go with them. That hymn has become a standard for our celebration of Christmas. I’d like to speak it to you so you can listen carefully to the words.
“O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie! (gesture)
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by; (gesture)
Yet in thy dark streets shineth (gesture)
The everlasting light; (gesture)
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.” (gesture)
INTERPLAY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT IN SCRIPTURE
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light” – those words have really captured my attention this Christmas. They express the contrast between darkness and light that Christmas is all about.
In tonight’s 1st reading, the Prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.”
Isaiah is looking ahead to a moment when God will penetrate the darkness that fills so much of our lives with gloom. He foresees a moment when God will break through and be a light penetrating that darkness.
We now see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. And yet, it is interesting that even the story of Jesus’ birth tells us that the star which guides the Wise Men to Bethlehem does not drive all the darkness away.
Instead, the light of that star shines in the darkness and is a steady sign and guide. I suggest that for us, the light of Bethlehem operates in much the same way.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS TODAY
Each one of us, perhaps each in a different or similar ways experiences some form of darkness. In that very darkness, we are invited and even urged to look to the light of Bethlehem.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of ANXIETY ABOUT OUR FINANCIAL SECURITY or our job. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us hope by finding our real security in Jesus and by trusting that God’s providential care will watch over us.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING LONELY AND ISOLATED after the death of a spouse or other loved one. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures us of Emmanuel, God-with-us, as we walk through the tunnel until we reemerge into fuller light.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of DOUBT AND QUESTIONING, of wondering why we are living and what we really believe. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us a vision for where we are going and how to get there.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of COLD, OF A MARRIAGE THAT HAS GROWN COLD or of alienation from a child or parent or close friend. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem offers us the warmth of God’s love and moves us to extend and accept signs and glimmers of that love.
Or finally, perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING STUCK, TRAPPED in some habit or addiction or compulsion that is self-defeating and destructive. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures that human growth is always a possibility and invites us to search like the Magi for persons or programs that can help us with that growing.
CONCLUSION
So, “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”
The light shines in the darkness of Bethlehem and it shines today in our own darkness, as well.
Yes, the darkness remains, but – and that a big “but” – there is indeed light with the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Let’s look to that light in whatever darkness we may have. Let us allow the light of Jesus lead us to:
➢ Hope
➢ Comfort
➢ Vision
➢ Warmth and
➢ Growth
All are the gifts that only the light of Bethlehem can give us.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Weekly Homily for December 18, 2011: 4th Advent -- The Power of Stillness
4th Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
Terranuova Hermitage
December 18, 2011
The Power of Stillness
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
STILLNESS
This afternoon, I want to ask you to do something with me.
I am asking that for two minutes, we just sit here and let’s all be silent – completely silent. I recommend that either we keep our eyes closed, or we keep our eyes focused on the image of the resurrected Christ or on the tabernacle.
In these two minutes, don’t recite any prayers and try to let go of any worries or thoughts about what you are going to do the rest of the day. Let’s just try to be – to be with God.
And maybe every 10 to 15 seconds, just silently repeat the words: “Emmanuel – God is with us.” “Emmanuel – God is with us.”
Okay! Let’s begin and try this. [Pause – 2 minutes]
PRAYER OF STILLNESS
Okay. I want to say a few things about what we just did.
We can call this the Prayer of Stillness. It may not be easy for us.
It is almost counter to how we live in our culture. Most of us, most of the time, including me, are always doing something.
It is difficult for us just to be instead of to do. One author says that we have become human doings instead of human beings.
I think this has affected our spiritual lives. We may think that a life of faith, a spiritual life, or prayer is just doing things like the set prayers here at Mass.
It does include that. But it also includes just being – being with God.
And, in fact, maybe this is the most basic and most essential part of spirituality. Maybe the lack of this is why some people today find religion or church or spirituality empty – just not meeting their needs.
MARY'S STILLNESS
I am led to this today because of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
The gospel at one point tells us that Mary treasures and reflects on what is happening in her life. This tells us that there is a stillness in Mary’s life – a Prayer of Stillness.
I believe that this stillness, her being, just being with God, this is what enables Mary to deal with the message of the angel in today’s gospel. She questions how she can conceive this child.
But in the end, Mary says, “Okay!” Her inner stillness, her Prayer of Stillness enables her to do this.
WHAT STILLNESS DOES
I recommend that our making time just to be with God, like we did a few minutes ago, can have positive effects on our lives.
We see this right in the Scriptures today. This Prayer of Stillness can help us to be receptive, as Mary is.
It disposes us to listen – to take in what God or what another person is saying. It opens us to messages that are in words or messages that are not in words but in the very stillness.
The Prayer of Stillness also calms us. It gives us an inner peace.
Again, we see this in Mary today. She is troubled and she questions, but in the end she is at peace with what is happening.
Maybe the first reading about King David gives us the underlying value in the Prayer of Stillness. David wants to build a house for God, a great temple.
But God says, “You’re going to build a house for me? No way!
“I’m going to build a house for you.” God means not a building, but a “house” of successors to lead God’s people.
In effect, God is saying to David, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to do for me. Instead, allow me to do something for you that will be much much more important.”
Well, in the Prayer of Stillness, instead of our speaking words and offering prayers to God, we are allowing God to do something for us. We are allowing God to come to us and speak to us and form us as persons.
Our being with God allows God to affect our very being. And that can have dramatic effects on who we are and what we do and how we relate.
CONCLUSION
So, I recommend: try this Prayer of Stillness on your own.
Don’t bite off too much at least to begin with. Maybe just 2 to 5 minutes.
It can have dramatic effects. After all, it enabled Mary to bring the Son of God into our world.
Terranuova Hermitage
December 18, 2011
The Power of Stillness
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
STILLNESS
This afternoon, I want to ask you to do something with me.
I am asking that for two minutes, we just sit here and let’s all be silent – completely silent. I recommend that either we keep our eyes closed, or we keep our eyes focused on the image of the resurrected Christ or on the tabernacle.
In these two minutes, don’t recite any prayers and try to let go of any worries or thoughts about what you are going to do the rest of the day. Let’s just try to be – to be with God.
And maybe every 10 to 15 seconds, just silently repeat the words: “Emmanuel – God is with us.” “Emmanuel – God is with us.”
Okay! Let’s begin and try this. [Pause – 2 minutes]
PRAYER OF STILLNESS
Okay. I want to say a few things about what we just did.
We can call this the Prayer of Stillness. It may not be easy for us.
It is almost counter to how we live in our culture. Most of us, most of the time, including me, are always doing something.
It is difficult for us just to be instead of to do. One author says that we have become human doings instead of human beings.
I think this has affected our spiritual lives. We may think that a life of faith, a spiritual life, or prayer is just doing things like the set prayers here at Mass.
It does include that. But it also includes just being – being with God.
And, in fact, maybe this is the most basic and most essential part of spirituality. Maybe the lack of this is why some people today find religion or church or spirituality empty – just not meeting their needs.
MARY'S STILLNESS
I am led to this today because of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
The gospel at one point tells us that Mary treasures and reflects on what is happening in her life. This tells us that there is a stillness in Mary’s life – a Prayer of Stillness.
I believe that this stillness, her being, just being with God, this is what enables Mary to deal with the message of the angel in today’s gospel. She questions how she can conceive this child.
But in the end, Mary says, “Okay!” Her inner stillness, her Prayer of Stillness enables her to do this.
WHAT STILLNESS DOES
I recommend that our making time just to be with God, like we did a few minutes ago, can have positive effects on our lives.
We see this right in the Scriptures today. This Prayer of Stillness can help us to be receptive, as Mary is.
It disposes us to listen – to take in what God or what another person is saying. It opens us to messages that are in words or messages that are not in words but in the very stillness.
The Prayer of Stillness also calms us. It gives us an inner peace.
Again, we see this in Mary today. She is troubled and she questions, but in the end she is at peace with what is happening.
Maybe the first reading about King David gives us the underlying value in the Prayer of Stillness. David wants to build a house for God, a great temple.
But God says, “You’re going to build a house for me? No way!
“I’m going to build a house for you.” God means not a building, but a “house” of successors to lead God’s people.
In effect, God is saying to David, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to do for me. Instead, allow me to do something for you that will be much much more important.”
Well, in the Prayer of Stillness, instead of our speaking words and offering prayers to God, we are allowing God to do something for us. We are allowing God to come to us and speak to us and form us as persons.
Our being with God allows God to affect our very being. And that can have dramatic effects on who we are and what we do and how we relate.
CONCLUSION
So, I recommend: try this Prayer of Stillness on your own.
Don’t bite off too much at least to begin with. Maybe just 2 to 5 minutes.
It can have dramatic effects. After all, it enabled Mary to bring the Son of God into our world.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for December 11, 2011: 3rd Advent -- "O Come, O Come, Emmanual"
3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
December 11, 2011
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC
“O Come O Come Emmanual”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE HYMN
I think we would agree that the most familiar of all our Advent hymns is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
This beautiful, classic hymn dates back to the year 800. It contains words and verses like these:
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.
“To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. O Come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, From every foe deliver them.
“That trust your mighty power to save, And give them vic’try o’er the grave. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
A SAVIOR, FROM WHAT?
At its heart, this hymn powerfully and poetically expresses our yearning and desire for a savior and salvation.
It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But that immediately raises an important question for us.
Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we honestly believe we need to be saved? Do we really believe we need a savior?
Or, to put it differently, from what precisely do we need to be saved? These are important questions of faith especially during this Advent Season.
Paul Tillich, the great Lutheran theologian, has a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from. He says that today we need a savior as much as people did in the time of Isaiah and before the coming of Jesus.
And the need for a savior continues because we continue to labor under three fundamental anxieties: anxiety (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.
These three anxieties exist right in the heart and core of our humanity; they seem to be written into our DNA.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT DEATH
First, let us hear a word about the fundamental anxiety about death.
We know that eventually we will die, and often we shy away from thinking about it. We start showing some gray, and probably aren’t too pleased.
We may find ourselves getting tired and having less energy, and we try to avoid admitting it.
We resist facing up to these things because they remind us if only subconsciously of death.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT MEANING
Then we have a fundamental anxiety about meaning – about the meaning of life.
This anxiety may show itself in our drive for affirmation or our need to be right. It may show itself in wondering why we even do our routines of personal care, household chores, or work or business. It’s all so much of the same over and over and over.
We may worry that we are missing something in life.
We may have a deep, gnawing feeling that our basic life choices have left us incomplete and that there must be more to life.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT GUILT
Finally, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.
We sense the evil in the world and some darkness within ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.
We know also that sometimes we do wrong in spite of our good intentions. We know we try hard and may do better, but we’re never completely good.
SALVATION FROM THESE THREE ANXIETIES
Given this human condition, Advent may be the best time of year.
➢ It invites us to link a physical pain or limitation to our anxiety over death.
➢ It invites us to link a nagging worry or even our desire for more and more of something to our anxiety over meaning.
➢ Advent invites us to link our gut feeling that the world is out of kilter or that there is something in disarray in our own lives to our anxiety over guilt.
So considering our human condition with these fundamental anxieties, Advent may be the best season of all.
When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, it is then we discover our need for a savior.
We need a savior to transform death to resurrection, and so we sing: “Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
We need a savior to give fundamental meaning to our lives, and so we sing: “To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”
And we need a savior to forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”
Advent puts us in touch with our need of a Savior and leads us to find this need fulfilled in Jesus.
December 11, 2011
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC
“O Come O Come Emmanual”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE HYMN
I think we would agree that the most familiar of all our Advent hymns is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
This beautiful, classic hymn dates back to the year 800. It contains words and verses like these:
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.
“To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. O Come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, From every foe deliver them.
“That trust your mighty power to save, And give them vic’try o’er the grave. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
A SAVIOR, FROM WHAT?
At its heart, this hymn powerfully and poetically expresses our yearning and desire for a savior and salvation.
It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But that immediately raises an important question for us.
Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we honestly believe we need to be saved? Do we really believe we need a savior?
Or, to put it differently, from what precisely do we need to be saved? These are important questions of faith especially during this Advent Season.
Paul Tillich, the great Lutheran theologian, has a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from. He says that today we need a savior as much as people did in the time of Isaiah and before the coming of Jesus.
And the need for a savior continues because we continue to labor under three fundamental anxieties: anxiety (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.
These three anxieties exist right in the heart and core of our humanity; they seem to be written into our DNA.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT DEATH
First, let us hear a word about the fundamental anxiety about death.
We know that eventually we will die, and often we shy away from thinking about it. We start showing some gray, and probably aren’t too pleased.
We may find ourselves getting tired and having less energy, and we try to avoid admitting it.
We resist facing up to these things because they remind us if only subconsciously of death.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT MEANING
Then we have a fundamental anxiety about meaning – about the meaning of life.
This anxiety may show itself in our drive for affirmation or our need to be right. It may show itself in wondering why we even do our routines of personal care, household chores, or work or business. It’s all so much of the same over and over and over.
We may worry that we are missing something in life.
We may have a deep, gnawing feeling that our basic life choices have left us incomplete and that there must be more to life.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT GUILT
Finally, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.
We sense the evil in the world and some darkness within ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.
We know also that sometimes we do wrong in spite of our good intentions. We know we try hard and may do better, but we’re never completely good.
SALVATION FROM THESE THREE ANXIETIES
Given this human condition, Advent may be the best time of year.
➢ It invites us to link a physical pain or limitation to our anxiety over death.
➢ It invites us to link a nagging worry or even our desire for more and more of something to our anxiety over meaning.
➢ Advent invites us to link our gut feeling that the world is out of kilter or that there is something in disarray in our own lives to our anxiety over guilt.
So considering our human condition with these fundamental anxieties, Advent may be the best season of all.
When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, it is then we discover our need for a savior.
We need a savior to transform death to resurrection, and so we sing: “Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
We need a savior to give fundamental meaning to our lives, and so we sing: “To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”
And we need a savior to forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”
Advent puts us in touch with our need of a Savior and leads us to find this need fulfilled in Jesus.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for December 4, 2011: 2nd Advent -- Breaking News: Read All about It!
2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
Mepkin (Trappist) Abbey
December 4, 2011
Breaking News; Read All about It!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BREAKING NEWS!
Today, when we watch news shows or news channels on TV, we often see the words Breaking News on the screen.
Breaking News appears when a story has just happened or is happening even as it is being reported. So, last spring, we saw Breaking News when President Mubarak of Egypt was forced to resign.
This week, we saw Breaking News when our Federal Reserve and five other central banks intervened to alleviate the debt crisis in Europe.
This evening, if we have not been watching the football game late this afternoon, we hope to see Breaking News telling us about the Raven’s win over the Browns.
Breaking News is meant to grab our attention away from anything else. It means that something important is happening right now and we don’t want to miss it.
MARK'S NEWS
This image helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Mark starts off: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” The word “gospel” that Mark uses means proclamation.
It is the same word that civil rulers used back then when they had something important to “proclaim” to the people. Mark in effect is saying, “This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…”
So, right in the first sentence, Mark explains why there is a “proclamation” about this ordinary man from Nazareth – why he is Breaking News. There is a “proclamation” about Jesus because he is the “Son of God.”
This means that God has entered our world in the person of Jesus and shares our humanity. This is the Breaking News of who Jesus of Nazareth really is and it forms the very first sentence of Mark’s gospel.
MORE NEWS: JOHN AND JESUS
Then, right after telling us this, Mark gives us some background – kind of like the next 30 seconds worth about the Breaking News.
Mark tells us that a man named John the Baptist is to introduce this Jesus to the world and he says John tells us something about Jesus even by his lifestyle. So, Mark says that John’s diet consists of locusts and honey – not my idea of a good meal!
Mark recalls these foods because each of them tells us something about Jesus. In the Old Testament, God sends a plague of locusts to punish the evil pharaoh in Egypt – in other words, to uproot or destroy evil.
And so, John’s eating locusts tells us that Jesus comes to destroy evil. In today’s first reading, Isaiah gives us some beautiful images – the images of leveling mountains and filling in valleys and smoothing rough roads.
These images are not to be taken literally. In other words, we are not literally going to do these things to prepare for the Savior’s coming.
Instead, these images point to areas of evil or sin that we need to address. For example, we are to “level the mountains” of busyness and preoccupation with so many things that get in the way of some reflective prayer or prayerful reflection and our entire relationship with God.
We are to “fill in the valleys” of human need wherever we see it, whether in a grieving neighbor who needs companionship or a homeless person who needs a bed. And we are to “smooth out the rough roads” of relationships by patiently and respectfully trying to work through misunderstandings or hurts.
So, the locusts in John’s diet are symbolic – they call us to deal with any area of evil or sin in our lives.
Then, throughout the Bible, honey is a symbol of God’s special care for us.
The honey that John eats looks back to Isaiah’s words today, “Comfort, give comfort to my people.” Jesus, whom John is introducing, gives us the comfort of God’s presence.
Jesus gives us an inner peace and hope. He brings us comfort, but still we have to open our hearts and level those mountains and fill in those valleys and smooth those rough spots that can keep the Lord away from us.
CONCLUSION
So, we have a wonderful proclamation or Breaking News here at the beginning of Mark’s gospel today.
Mark does not want us to miss this – that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is here with us. And he wants us to do all we can – through the images of locusts and honey – to allow Jesus to be with us as fully as he wants to be.
Mepkin (Trappist) Abbey
December 4, 2011
Breaking News; Read All about It!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BREAKING NEWS!
Today, when we watch news shows or news channels on TV, we often see the words Breaking News on the screen.
Breaking News appears when a story has just happened or is happening even as it is being reported. So, last spring, we saw Breaking News when President Mubarak of Egypt was forced to resign.
This week, we saw Breaking News when our Federal Reserve and five other central banks intervened to alleviate the debt crisis in Europe.
This evening, if we have not been watching the football game late this afternoon, we hope to see Breaking News telling us about the Raven’s win over the Browns.
Breaking News is meant to grab our attention away from anything else. It means that something important is happening right now and we don’t want to miss it.
MARK'S NEWS
This image helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Mark starts off: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” The word “gospel” that Mark uses means proclamation.
It is the same word that civil rulers used back then when they had something important to “proclaim” to the people. Mark in effect is saying, “This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…”
So, right in the first sentence, Mark explains why there is a “proclamation” about this ordinary man from Nazareth – why he is Breaking News. There is a “proclamation” about Jesus because he is the “Son of God.”
This means that God has entered our world in the person of Jesus and shares our humanity. This is the Breaking News of who Jesus of Nazareth really is and it forms the very first sentence of Mark’s gospel.
MORE NEWS: JOHN AND JESUS
Then, right after telling us this, Mark gives us some background – kind of like the next 30 seconds worth about the Breaking News.
Mark tells us that a man named John the Baptist is to introduce this Jesus to the world and he says John tells us something about Jesus even by his lifestyle. So, Mark says that John’s diet consists of locusts and honey – not my idea of a good meal!
Mark recalls these foods because each of them tells us something about Jesus. In the Old Testament, God sends a plague of locusts to punish the evil pharaoh in Egypt – in other words, to uproot or destroy evil.
And so, John’s eating locusts tells us that Jesus comes to destroy evil. In today’s first reading, Isaiah gives us some beautiful images – the images of leveling mountains and filling in valleys and smoothing rough roads.
These images are not to be taken literally. In other words, we are not literally going to do these things to prepare for the Savior’s coming.
Instead, these images point to areas of evil or sin that we need to address. For example, we are to “level the mountains” of busyness and preoccupation with so many things that get in the way of some reflective prayer or prayerful reflection and our entire relationship with God.
We are to “fill in the valleys” of human need wherever we see it, whether in a grieving neighbor who needs companionship or a homeless person who needs a bed. And we are to “smooth out the rough roads” of relationships by patiently and respectfully trying to work through misunderstandings or hurts.
So, the locusts in John’s diet are symbolic – they call us to deal with any area of evil or sin in our lives.
Then, throughout the Bible, honey is a symbol of God’s special care for us.
The honey that John eats looks back to Isaiah’s words today, “Comfort, give comfort to my people.” Jesus, whom John is introducing, gives us the comfort of God’s presence.
Jesus gives us an inner peace and hope. He brings us comfort, but still we have to open our hearts and level those mountains and fill in those valleys and smooth those rough spots that can keep the Lord away from us.
CONCLUSION
So, we have a wonderful proclamation or Breaking News here at the beginning of Mark’s gospel today.
Mark does not want us to miss this – that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is here with us. And he wants us to do all we can – through the images of locusts and honey – to allow Jesus to be with us as fully as he wants to be.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for November 27, 2011: Father Nicholas was at St. John's Hydes and didn't preach this weekend.
Father Nicholas was at St. John's Hydes and didn't preach this weekend.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for Thanksgiving Day November 24, 2011: Thinking, Thanking and Believing
Thanksgiving Day, Cycle A
November 24, 2011
Terranuova Hermitage
Thinking, Thanking and Believing
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
"THANK YOU"
I suppose that every language has a word for expressing gratitude.
These are simple, basic words, like: “Thank you; Merci; Grazie; Gratias; Danke” – on and on we could go. Saying “thank you” is something that our parents taught us from the time we were little children.
If I just think about it, how many hundreds of times my parents told me, “Now remember to say thank you.” And yet, for many of us this does not become a habit.
The famous General George Patton of World War II comments on this in his memoirs. He recalls one time when he sent a soldier to a rest camp after a prolonged period of active service.
When the soldier returned, he wrote a letter to General Patton thanking him for the fine care. Patton wrote back and told the young man that for thirty-five years he had always tried to provide well for his soldiers, but this was the first letter of thanks he had ever received.
THINKING LEADS TO THANKING
So, maybe a good question for today is: how can we become more grateful and more expressive of our gratitude?
There is a popular book entitled Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and the author Richard Carlson proposes a solution. Carlson says: “Spend a moment every day thinking of someone to thank.”
Carlson says this is the key. Thinking people will become thanking people.
Carlson says that this may sound like an awfully simple solution, but it works. He also recommends that it is helpful to make a habit of beginning each day thinking of someone to thank.
It can be your spouse, best friend, mother or father, son or daughter, brother or sister, someone at work, a teacher, a coach, a doctor, whomever. So, begin each day thinking of someone to thank and then thank that person at least in our own mind and heart.
This practice can lift much of the negativity and darkness that can cloud our lives and make us much more positive persons. It will also let others know how much they are valued and appreciated.
THANKING LEADS TO BELIEVING
Then, as a next step, our thanking also leads to believing.
Thanking is not just good manners. It enriches and strengthens our relationships with one another.
And, on a spiritual level, thanking also leads us to God. It awakens and enhances our relationship with God and that of course is the core of faith and believing.
In today’s gospel, the one leper realizes that he has been healed. He then returns to Jesus to give thanks and, as he does that, he comes to faith.
He recognizes the divine power at work in Jesus. Jesus in turn praises him not just for coming back to say “Thank you,” but also for his faith.
Jesus even says, “Your faith has been your salvation.” So, thinking leads to thanking and thanking leads to believing.
EUCHARIST
This morning, as we celebrate the Eucharist, we participate in this movement.
First, we think. In the Word of God that we heard and in the Eucharistic Prayer that we will offer in just a few minutes, we think and remember the great saving deeds that God has done throughout history.
As we recall God’s great deeds, our thinking leads to thanking. In fact, the word Eucharist is the Greek word for thanks.
And then, we receive the Eucharist and this communion unites us with Jesus. It nourishes our relationship with God.
It enlivens our faith. So again, thinking leads to thanking and thanking leads to believing.
This is what lies underneath our Thanksgiving Day. And this is why it is so appropriate for us to be here in worship this morning.
November 24, 2011
Terranuova Hermitage
Thinking, Thanking and Believing
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
"THANK YOU"
I suppose that every language has a word for expressing gratitude.
These are simple, basic words, like: “Thank you; Merci; Grazie; Gratias; Danke” – on and on we could go. Saying “thank you” is something that our parents taught us from the time we were little children.
If I just think about it, how many hundreds of times my parents told me, “Now remember to say thank you.” And yet, for many of us this does not become a habit.
The famous General George Patton of World War II comments on this in his memoirs. He recalls one time when he sent a soldier to a rest camp after a prolonged period of active service.
When the soldier returned, he wrote a letter to General Patton thanking him for the fine care. Patton wrote back and told the young man that for thirty-five years he had always tried to provide well for his soldiers, but this was the first letter of thanks he had ever received.
THINKING LEADS TO THANKING
So, maybe a good question for today is: how can we become more grateful and more expressive of our gratitude?
There is a popular book entitled Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and the author Richard Carlson proposes a solution. Carlson says: “Spend a moment every day thinking of someone to thank.”
Carlson says this is the key. Thinking people will become thanking people.
Carlson says that this may sound like an awfully simple solution, but it works. He also recommends that it is helpful to make a habit of beginning each day thinking of someone to thank.
It can be your spouse, best friend, mother or father, son or daughter, brother or sister, someone at work, a teacher, a coach, a doctor, whomever. So, begin each day thinking of someone to thank and then thank that person at least in our own mind and heart.
This practice can lift much of the negativity and darkness that can cloud our lives and make us much more positive persons. It will also let others know how much they are valued and appreciated.
THANKING LEADS TO BELIEVING
Then, as a next step, our thanking also leads to believing.
Thanking is not just good manners. It enriches and strengthens our relationships with one another.
And, on a spiritual level, thanking also leads us to God. It awakens and enhances our relationship with God and that of course is the core of faith and believing.
In today’s gospel, the one leper realizes that he has been healed. He then returns to Jesus to give thanks and, as he does that, he comes to faith.
He recognizes the divine power at work in Jesus. Jesus in turn praises him not just for coming back to say “Thank you,” but also for his faith.
Jesus even says, “Your faith has been your salvation.” So, thinking leads to thanking and thanking leads to believing.
EUCHARIST
This morning, as we celebrate the Eucharist, we participate in this movement.
First, we think. In the Word of God that we heard and in the Eucharistic Prayer that we will offer in just a few minutes, we think and remember the great saving deeds that God has done throughout history.
As we recall God’s great deeds, our thinking leads to thanking. In fact, the word Eucharist is the Greek word for thanks.
And then, we receive the Eucharist and this communion unites us with Jesus. It nourishes our relationship with God.
It enlivens our faith. So again, thinking leads to thanking and thanking leads to believing.
This is what lies underneath our Thanksgiving Day. And this is why it is so appropriate for us to be here in worship this morning.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for November 20, 2011: There Will Be an Ultimate Audit
The Feast of Christ the King, Cycle A
St. Margaret Church, Bel Air
November 20, 2011
There Will Be an Ultimate Audit
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE ULTIMATE AUDIT
I have never been audited by the IRS. Actually, the very idea strikes fear in me. Why?
Perhaps I wonder if my deductions were correct; if my income amounts were accurate; if I filled out the tax forms properly.
This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we begin a new Liturgical year with the 1st Sunday of Advent. The readings give the same feel of being told that you’re going to be audited by the IRS.
Jesus instructs us that upon his return, each of us will be called to “render an accounting of ourselves” as to how well or how poorly we have made use of our gifts.
Yes, we shall all one day be faced with life’s “ultimate audit.”
TRANSITION
I would like to suggest that we face that possibility today with a sense of calm and see how things stack up “for” or “against” us.
Last week’s gospel about the three servants and how each of them used his gifts is helpful as a frame of reference for appreciating this week’s “audit” of our lives, which gets into how, what we have received, is used in the service of others.
Each of the three servants last week received a gift and each was responsible for making the best use of that gift for his master.
I would like to suggest an image to better understand what I mean by making the best use of the gift we’ve been given.
A BAR OF IRON
Take a long 1-inch bar of iron worth about $5. (Demonstrate with hands)
This very same bar of iron, in the hands of one person could be used to make $50 worth of horseshoes. In the hands of another, $500 worth of sewing machine needles, and in the hands of a third person, $5,000 worth of watch springs.
Yes, one bar of iron in the hands of three different people, doing different things to it, could create different products and different profits.
God has blessed each of us with a share of this world’s goods. So also, each of us has been challenged to make the best use of these goods by furthering the interests of our master.
From our Master we learn that what we do with our bar of iron isn’t to be based on making the most money from it but on what is needed.
We need to acknowledge 1st that we each have our bar of iron and 2nd that our life has called us into relationships with others in our family, workplace, school, and church where there are real needs to be satisfied.
Those needs must be served best with a bar of iron God has given me.
And, yes, those relationships might include, as Jesus says in today’s gospel, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless.
The two factors – namely, my bar of iron and the needs in my relationships – are the criteria that will determine how well I will fare at my ultimate audit before God.
REACHING OUT
I downloaded last week’s bulletin just to see how my bar of iron might get shaped to serve my relationship to this parish where I help out from time-to-time.
So what did I find? For starters, Pat Stasiak who heads up “Thoughtful Wishes” our
Card Ministry that sends monthly cards to folks in area nursing homes is in need of volunteers to help write 25 cards a month to the shut-in and homebound.
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the sick are getting cared for!
Then I read that Janet Gentry needs volunteers tomorrow to deliver Thanksgiving basket to needy families.
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that a hungry family is fed!
Finally I read that St. Margaret’s Ministry of Consolation held its last drop-in Bereavement Group session this past week until January. Are there people in my life who have suffered the loss of a loved one and who are not being compassionately supported in their need to mourn?
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? Yes, by now you know, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that those who mourn are being consoled!
CONCLUSION
In the new Roman Missal that we will begin using next Sunday, there are new words for the consecration of the wine. They speak of Jesus’ blood being shed “for many” instead of “for all” as the present translation says.
This does not mean that Jesus did not die for everyone. The new translation points to the reality that we need to welcome and accept the gifts God has given us and to use them as God has asked us to, for the needs of all.
On that – accepting the gifts given and how the gifts were used – will rest our final audit. Are you ready?
St. Margaret Church, Bel Air
November 20, 2011
There Will Be an Ultimate Audit
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE ULTIMATE AUDIT
I have never been audited by the IRS. Actually, the very idea strikes fear in me. Why?
Perhaps I wonder if my deductions were correct; if my income amounts were accurate; if I filled out the tax forms properly.
This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we begin a new Liturgical year with the 1st Sunday of Advent. The readings give the same feel of being told that you’re going to be audited by the IRS.
Jesus instructs us that upon his return, each of us will be called to “render an accounting of ourselves” as to how well or how poorly we have made use of our gifts.
Yes, we shall all one day be faced with life’s “ultimate audit.”
TRANSITION
I would like to suggest that we face that possibility today with a sense of calm and see how things stack up “for” or “against” us.
Last week’s gospel about the three servants and how each of them used his gifts is helpful as a frame of reference for appreciating this week’s “audit” of our lives, which gets into how, what we have received, is used in the service of others.
Each of the three servants last week received a gift and each was responsible for making the best use of that gift for his master.
I would like to suggest an image to better understand what I mean by making the best use of the gift we’ve been given.
A BAR OF IRON
Take a long 1-inch bar of iron worth about $5. (Demonstrate with hands)
This very same bar of iron, in the hands of one person could be used to make $50 worth of horseshoes. In the hands of another, $500 worth of sewing machine needles, and in the hands of a third person, $5,000 worth of watch springs.
Yes, one bar of iron in the hands of three different people, doing different things to it, could create different products and different profits.
God has blessed each of us with a share of this world’s goods. So also, each of us has been challenged to make the best use of these goods by furthering the interests of our master.
From our Master we learn that what we do with our bar of iron isn’t to be based on making the most money from it but on what is needed.
We need to acknowledge 1st that we each have our bar of iron and 2nd that our life has called us into relationships with others in our family, workplace, school, and church where there are real needs to be satisfied.
Those needs must be served best with a bar of iron God has given me.
And, yes, those relationships might include, as Jesus says in today’s gospel, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless.
The two factors – namely, my bar of iron and the needs in my relationships – are the criteria that will determine how well I will fare at my ultimate audit before God.
REACHING OUT
I downloaded last week’s bulletin just to see how my bar of iron might get shaped to serve my relationship to this parish where I help out from time-to-time.
So what did I find? For starters, Pat Stasiak who heads up “Thoughtful Wishes” our
Card Ministry that sends monthly cards to folks in area nursing homes is in need of volunteers to help write 25 cards a month to the shut-in and homebound.
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the sick are getting cared for!
Then I read that Janet Gentry needs volunteers tomorrow to deliver Thanksgiving basket to needy families.
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that a hungry family is fed!
Finally I read that St. Margaret’s Ministry of Consolation held its last drop-in Bereavement Group session this past week until January. Are there people in my life who have suffered the loss of a loved one and who are not being compassionately supported in their need to mourn?
What might I do with my gift as I become aware of this need? Make horseshoes, needles, or watch springs? Yes, by now you know, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that those who mourn are being consoled!
CONCLUSION
In the new Roman Missal that we will begin using next Sunday, there are new words for the consecration of the wine. They speak of Jesus’ blood being shed “for many” instead of “for all” as the present translation says.
This does not mean that Jesus did not die for everyone. The new translation points to the reality that we need to welcome and accept the gifts God has given us and to use them as God has asked us to, for the needs of all.
On that – accepting the gifts given and how the gifts were used – will rest our final audit. Are you ready?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for November 13, 2011: Knowing and Using Our Gifts
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
November 13, 2011
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air & St. Mark Parish, Fallston
Knowing and Using Our Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE GIFTEDNESS OF CHILDREN
There is a young adult named Brian who provides a good lesson for us. Brian has always loved to tinker with mechanical devices.
As a 6-year old, he took apart an alarm clock. At age 9, Brian helped his dad fix the lawn mower. In high school, he spent hours tearing apart and rebuilding computer equipment.
And now, as a young adult, Brian is a sound technician for a theatre company. His parents have steadily encouraged him from a very young age.
But, Brian was never labeled as “gifted.” The definition of the “gifted child” has traditionally been limited to the top 5 to 10% of children who achieve high test scores and who excel in school.
No question, these children are gifted, but, there may be hundreds of other ways for children to be gifted. Today, educators and psychologists tell us that nearly all children have special gifts.
Children may display their giftedness through body movement, music, athletics, technical skills, social interaction, intuitive insight, perseverance, creativity, a quick wit and on it goes.
Many professionals now say that all children are gifted and they just show it in different ways.
OUR GIFTS AND THE GOSPEL
I first came across these insights in an article that is entitled Fifty Ways to Bring Out Your Child’s Best by Thomas Armstrong.
Today’s gospel parable about the servants and their talents is really being about what we can do and how we can assist one another in using our gifts.
After all, isn’t that the key to responding to Jesus’ lesson to us? We can indeed assist one another in identifying and using our gifts.
As the title says, the article that I read gives 50 ways to bring out the best, to bring out the gifts in our children. This morning I want to share just 5 of these ways with you.
FIVE WAYS TO BRING OUT THE GIFTS
FIRST, PAY ATTENTION to what really interests and captivates your child. Be attentive to what your children really feel drawn to do and what they spend their time doing.
Theses interests and activities will say a great deal about where their gifts are. By doing this, you are in effect letting your child discover his or her own giftedness.
In the gospel parable, with the number of talents given as 5, 2 or 1 does not so much mean having more or less talent than others. Instead, they simply represent different gifts and our task is to help our children – and even other adults – identify their own unique gifts.
SECOND, ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD, but do not push or pressure him too much. If we do that, he may become too stressed to learn anything or develop his gifts.
Notice that the master in today’s parable does not pressure. He simply gives his servants the gifts and the opportunities to use them.
THIRD, GIVE YOUR CHILDREN PERMISSION TO MAKE MISTAKES. If they have to do things perfectly, they may never take the risks necessary to discover and develop their gifts.
It is good to assist a child in realizing they’ve made a mistake and in learning from it. But, allow some safe freedom to make mistakes and grow from them.
AND THE FOURTH RULE IS connected with this: DON’T CRITICIZE OR JUDGE YOUR CHILDREN. They may just give up, if they feel evaluated all the time.
These two rules – allowing your children to make mistakes and not criticizing or judging them – are borne out in the third servant in the parable. The servant feels afraid and intimidated and the result is that he does not use and develop his gifts.
AND THE FIFTH RULE: ACCEPT YOUR CHILD AS HE OR SHE IS.
Maybe your son is musically inclined and does not have the athletic ability you want him to have. Or maybe your daughter is more into computers than dance.
The important thing is to take our children as they are, because that will be the best environment for using the gifts they have been given and for them to become the persons God intended them to be.
CONCLUSION
So, these simple, but important rules, will help us to assist one another, especially children but maybe even other adults, in identifying and using their gifts.
November 13, 2011
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air & St. Mark Parish, Fallston
Knowing and Using Our Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE GIFTEDNESS OF CHILDREN
There is a young adult named Brian who provides a good lesson for us. Brian has always loved to tinker with mechanical devices.
As a 6-year old, he took apart an alarm clock. At age 9, Brian helped his dad fix the lawn mower. In high school, he spent hours tearing apart and rebuilding computer equipment.
And now, as a young adult, Brian is a sound technician for a theatre company. His parents have steadily encouraged him from a very young age.
But, Brian was never labeled as “gifted.” The definition of the “gifted child” has traditionally been limited to the top 5 to 10% of children who achieve high test scores and who excel in school.
No question, these children are gifted, but, there may be hundreds of other ways for children to be gifted. Today, educators and psychologists tell us that nearly all children have special gifts.
Children may display their giftedness through body movement, music, athletics, technical skills, social interaction, intuitive insight, perseverance, creativity, a quick wit and on it goes.
Many professionals now say that all children are gifted and they just show it in different ways.
OUR GIFTS AND THE GOSPEL
I first came across these insights in an article that is entitled Fifty Ways to Bring Out Your Child’s Best by Thomas Armstrong.
Today’s gospel parable about the servants and their talents is really being about what we can do and how we can assist one another in using our gifts.
After all, isn’t that the key to responding to Jesus’ lesson to us? We can indeed assist one another in identifying and using our gifts.
As the title says, the article that I read gives 50 ways to bring out the best, to bring out the gifts in our children. This morning I want to share just 5 of these ways with you.
FIVE WAYS TO BRING OUT THE GIFTS
FIRST, PAY ATTENTION to what really interests and captivates your child. Be attentive to what your children really feel drawn to do and what they spend their time doing.
Theses interests and activities will say a great deal about where their gifts are. By doing this, you are in effect letting your child discover his or her own giftedness.
In the gospel parable, with the number of talents given as 5, 2 or 1 does not so much mean having more or less talent than others. Instead, they simply represent different gifts and our task is to help our children – and even other adults – identify their own unique gifts.
SECOND, ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD, but do not push or pressure him too much. If we do that, he may become too stressed to learn anything or develop his gifts.
Notice that the master in today’s parable does not pressure. He simply gives his servants the gifts and the opportunities to use them.
THIRD, GIVE YOUR CHILDREN PERMISSION TO MAKE MISTAKES. If they have to do things perfectly, they may never take the risks necessary to discover and develop their gifts.
It is good to assist a child in realizing they’ve made a mistake and in learning from it. But, allow some safe freedom to make mistakes and grow from them.
AND THE FOURTH RULE IS connected with this: DON’T CRITICIZE OR JUDGE YOUR CHILDREN. They may just give up, if they feel evaluated all the time.
These two rules – allowing your children to make mistakes and not criticizing or judging them – are borne out in the third servant in the parable. The servant feels afraid and intimidated and the result is that he does not use and develop his gifts.
AND THE FIFTH RULE: ACCEPT YOUR CHILD AS HE OR SHE IS.
Maybe your son is musically inclined and does not have the athletic ability you want him to have. Or maybe your daughter is more into computers than dance.
The important thing is to take our children as they are, because that will be the best environment for using the gifts they have been given and for them to become the persons God intended them to be.
CONCLUSION
So, these simple, but important rules, will help us to assist one another, especially children but maybe even other adults, in identifying and using their gifts.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for November 6, 2011: Carpem Diem
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
November 6, 2011
Carpe Diem
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
SAND IN AN HOURGLASS
There is a story about a little girl who lived near the beach. This little girl had a grandfather whom she loved very much.
Her grandfather had a collection of hourglasses and she liked to turn them upside down and watch the sand steadily sift through to the bottom.
Her grandfather once told her that the hourglasses reminded him that time was so very precious. Well, this particular year, Christmas was coming.
With difficulty, this little girl’s mother told her that her Grandpa was in the hospital and was very sick. He might even die.
The little girl asked what that meant. And her mother explained that life was like one of Grandpa’s hourglasses and that Grandpa had very little time left.
Her mother suggested that she make a special Christmas gift that they could take to Grandpa. So the little girl excitedly went to work on her gift.
When they got to the hospital, the little girl gave her Grandpa a beautifully wrapped box. He slowly unwrapped it and looked inside and when he saw its contents he just smiled, with a face full of love.
He immediately understood. His granddaughter had filled the box with sand.
The Story of the Bridesmaids
Well, if it were only that easy!
If only we could extend our days by adding more sand to our hourglasses or more pages to our calendars! But, of course, we cannot!
Today’s parable of the bridesmaids addresses this very issue. There are three important reminders or lessons that I see here.
1. PREPARE
First, each of us must prepare and be ready for the moment when we will meet God face to face.
We must do this for ourselves. No one can do it for us.
We see this in the parable in the refusal of the five wise bridesmaids to share their oil with the others. This is not an issue of sharing.
Instead, it is about being prepared. These bridesmaids did not share their oil because they could not share this kind of oil.
This is the oil of personal preparation, the oil of who we have become as persons in the course of our lives. We can motivate and encourage one another, but ultimately each one of us must do this kind of preparation for ourselves.
2. WATCH THE TIME
The second lesson is that our time is limited.
There are a limited number of grains of sand in the hourglass. We see this in the parable in the inability of the five foolish bridesmaids to go and buy oil for themselves.
Obviously, it was midnight and the stores were closed. And that is exactly the point: it was too late!
The moment had come, the groom and bride were arriving and there was no more time to prepare. This will be true for each one of us at some moment.
So, we need to prepare today and be ready today. We need to live as if this were our day to meet the Lord face to face.
3. KEEP OUR LAMPS LIGHTED
And then the third lesson is that we must be about light.
Psalm 36 in the Old Testament praises God by saying: “In your light we see light.” The idea is that we need to be drawn into and enlightened by the light of God.
And then, with this light, we can see light in the world and bring light to one another. “In your light, we see light.”
We see this in the parable in the oil lamps that the bridesmaids are to keep burning brightly. We are to be and to bring light in darkness.
I think this is a helpful way for understanding our role in promoting respect for human life. We can lift up the wonder of an infant, or tend the man or woman who is homeless, or provide all possible comfort to a person who is dying.
Theses are actions of light – of keeping our lamps burning brightly. They will accomplish much more for respect for human life than just cursing the darkness in a certain person or action.
CONCLUSION
So, the sands in the hourglass are a good reminder for us.
(1) We are to be prepared and ready today.
(2) Our time is limited.
(3) And we are to be a light for the world around us.
That is the way to prepare and to use our limited time.
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
November 6, 2011
Carpe Diem
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
SAND IN AN HOURGLASS
There is a story about a little girl who lived near the beach. This little girl had a grandfather whom she loved very much.
Her grandfather had a collection of hourglasses and she liked to turn them upside down and watch the sand steadily sift through to the bottom.
Her grandfather once told her that the hourglasses reminded him that time was so very precious. Well, this particular year, Christmas was coming.
With difficulty, this little girl’s mother told her that her Grandpa was in the hospital and was very sick. He might even die.
The little girl asked what that meant. And her mother explained that life was like one of Grandpa’s hourglasses and that Grandpa had very little time left.
Her mother suggested that she make a special Christmas gift that they could take to Grandpa. So the little girl excitedly went to work on her gift.
When they got to the hospital, the little girl gave her Grandpa a beautifully wrapped box. He slowly unwrapped it and looked inside and when he saw its contents he just smiled, with a face full of love.
He immediately understood. His granddaughter had filled the box with sand.
The Story of the Bridesmaids
Well, if it were only that easy!
If only we could extend our days by adding more sand to our hourglasses or more pages to our calendars! But, of course, we cannot!
Today’s parable of the bridesmaids addresses this very issue. There are three important reminders or lessons that I see here.
1. PREPARE
First, each of us must prepare and be ready for the moment when we will meet God face to face.
We must do this for ourselves. No one can do it for us.
We see this in the parable in the refusal of the five wise bridesmaids to share their oil with the others. This is not an issue of sharing.
Instead, it is about being prepared. These bridesmaids did not share their oil because they could not share this kind of oil.
This is the oil of personal preparation, the oil of who we have become as persons in the course of our lives. We can motivate and encourage one another, but ultimately each one of us must do this kind of preparation for ourselves.
2. WATCH THE TIME
The second lesson is that our time is limited.
There are a limited number of grains of sand in the hourglass. We see this in the parable in the inability of the five foolish bridesmaids to go and buy oil for themselves.
Obviously, it was midnight and the stores were closed. And that is exactly the point: it was too late!
The moment had come, the groom and bride were arriving and there was no more time to prepare. This will be true for each one of us at some moment.
So, we need to prepare today and be ready today. We need to live as if this were our day to meet the Lord face to face.
3. KEEP OUR LAMPS LIGHTED
And then the third lesson is that we must be about light.
Psalm 36 in the Old Testament praises God by saying: “In your light we see light.” The idea is that we need to be drawn into and enlightened by the light of God.
And then, with this light, we can see light in the world and bring light to one another. “In your light, we see light.”
We see this in the parable in the oil lamps that the bridesmaids are to keep burning brightly. We are to be and to bring light in darkness.
I think this is a helpful way for understanding our role in promoting respect for human life. We can lift up the wonder of an infant, or tend the man or woman who is homeless, or provide all possible comfort to a person who is dying.
Theses are actions of light – of keeping our lamps burning brightly. They will accomplish much more for respect for human life than just cursing the darkness in a certain person or action.
CONCLUSION
So, the sands in the hourglass are a good reminder for us.
(1) We are to be prepared and ready today.
(2) Our time is limited.
(3) And we are to be a light for the world around us.
That is the way to prepare and to use our limited time.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 30, 2011: Humble Service Calls for the Death of the Ego
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Michael’s Church, Poplar Springs
October 30, 2011
Humble Service Calls for the Death of the Ego
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
RICHARD RICH
In the opening scene of the movie A Man for All Seasons, Richard Rich, a bright but desperately ambition young man, petitions Thomas More, the king’s humble and saintly chancellor, for a position among the glitterati at the court of Henry VIII.
More tells Rich that he can offer him a position, not as a courtier at court, but as a simple teacher.
The young man is crestfallen, and More tries to cheer him up, “You’d be a fine teacher, Richard; perhaps a great one.” Rich fires back. “And if I was, who would know it?”
The ever patient More responds: “You would, your pupils, your friends, and God. Not a bad public, that.”
Rich wanted glitz and notoriety at court, not the humility of being a classroom teacher.
THE GOSPEL
In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking about folks who’ve made the choice for a career in high places, but have lost the sense of humility that is needed for real service.
He says: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders.” “All their works are performed to be seen.” “They love places of honor at banquets.”
His reaction leads us to ask what’s the secret to remaining humble even as you climb the corporate ladder or become the head of the family or the president of an organization.
Humility isn’t something you cultivate like building a muscle (flex biceps): “I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble.” It just doesn’t work that way. We may admire humility. We may espouse humility. We may want to acquire humility, but it’s not something we do by way of will power.
THE DEATH OF THE EGO
True humility is borne of grace and the realization of who I truly am. Let me explain.
The ego – that is, who I think I am – is a concept here in my heard that I’ve shaped over the years.
The EGO OF SOME FOLKS is what they possess. In their “stuff” they find their identities. It’s expressed in the phrase: “I am my…” as in, “I am the one with the Lexus, or the I-Pad, the newest Droid, a wine cellar.”
If you don’t think you are your “stuff,” just recall all that you have in your closets, basement, attic, garage that you find difficult to part with and ask yourself, “How much of your ‘stuff’ you really are?”
Some folks are able to let go of that ego.
The NEXT LEVEL of ego is “I am me…” I am such and such a title, a member of this family, country club, graduate of this university, live in this neighborhood, etc.”
An interesting way of seeing where you are in terms of your ego is how you introduce yourself. “I’m a department head at Care First” or “I’m this Abercrombie & Fitch shirt or Calvin Klein pants.” “I’m my Laura Ashley bag, my Louis Vuitton dress, Prada shoes or Brooks Brothers suit.” I wear my labels proudly so folks know who I am.
And some of us are able to let go of this ego as well.
There is a THIRD LEVEL of who you are. It is the level of self-understanding that is borne of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It comes from a relinquishing of “I am my stuff” and “I am me” to “I am in God.”
What happens at this third level of self-understanding is that “in God” I come to see that, “I am really we.”
It works like this: The closer I come to being in God’s presence through prayer, the more I am humbled by God’s presence: humbled that God would call me into union with him; humbled that I am worthy of that call; humbled that I can live at that level of identity; humbled that I am empowered to live for others as Jesus lived for me!
That is the grace, the capacity I receive from union with God. It isn’t the muscle of humility that I developed.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell it is being disposed to God’s grace and the disposition comes through the dying to finding my identity in stuff, in titles and honors, to finding myself in God.
St. Michael’s Church, Poplar Springs
October 30, 2011
Humble Service Calls for the Death of the Ego
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
RICHARD RICH
In the opening scene of the movie A Man for All Seasons, Richard Rich, a bright but desperately ambition young man, petitions Thomas More, the king’s humble and saintly chancellor, for a position among the glitterati at the court of Henry VIII.
More tells Rich that he can offer him a position, not as a courtier at court, but as a simple teacher.
The young man is crestfallen, and More tries to cheer him up, “You’d be a fine teacher, Richard; perhaps a great one.” Rich fires back. “And if I was, who would know it?”
The ever patient More responds: “You would, your pupils, your friends, and God. Not a bad public, that.”
Rich wanted glitz and notoriety at court, not the humility of being a classroom teacher.
THE GOSPEL
In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking about folks who’ve made the choice for a career in high places, but have lost the sense of humility that is needed for real service.
He says: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders.” “All their works are performed to be seen.” “They love places of honor at banquets.”
His reaction leads us to ask what’s the secret to remaining humble even as you climb the corporate ladder or become the head of the family or the president of an organization.
Humility isn’t something you cultivate like building a muscle (flex biceps): “I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble.” It just doesn’t work that way. We may admire humility. We may espouse humility. We may want to acquire humility, but it’s not something we do by way of will power.
THE DEATH OF THE EGO
True humility is borne of grace and the realization of who I truly am. Let me explain.
The ego – that is, who I think I am – is a concept here in my heard that I’ve shaped over the years.
The EGO OF SOME FOLKS is what they possess. In their “stuff” they find their identities. It’s expressed in the phrase: “I am my…” as in, “I am the one with the Lexus, or the I-Pad, the newest Droid, a wine cellar.”
If you don’t think you are your “stuff,” just recall all that you have in your closets, basement, attic, garage that you find difficult to part with and ask yourself, “How much of your ‘stuff’ you really are?”
Some folks are able to let go of that ego.
The NEXT LEVEL of ego is “I am me…” I am such and such a title, a member of this family, country club, graduate of this university, live in this neighborhood, etc.”
An interesting way of seeing where you are in terms of your ego is how you introduce yourself. “I’m a department head at Care First” or “I’m this Abercrombie & Fitch shirt or Calvin Klein pants.” “I’m my Laura Ashley bag, my Louis Vuitton dress, Prada shoes or Brooks Brothers suit.” I wear my labels proudly so folks know who I am.
And some of us are able to let go of this ego as well.
There is a THIRD LEVEL of who you are. It is the level of self-understanding that is borne of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It comes from a relinquishing of “I am my stuff” and “I am me” to “I am in God.”
What happens at this third level of self-understanding is that “in God” I come to see that, “I am really we.”
It works like this: The closer I come to being in God’s presence through prayer, the more I am humbled by God’s presence: humbled that God would call me into union with him; humbled that I am worthy of that call; humbled that I can live at that level of identity; humbled that I am empowered to live for others as Jesus lived for me!
That is the grace, the capacity I receive from union with God. It isn’t the muscle of humility that I developed.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell it is being disposed to God’s grace and the disposition comes through the dying to finding my identity in stuff, in titles and honors, to finding myself in God.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 23, 2011: The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
30th Sunday of the Year, Cycle A
St. Margaret Church and St. Mark Church
October 23, 2011
The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
EINSTEIN
On one occasion, Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity. The great physicist replied that the simplest explanation of relativity he could think of was this.
When a boy spends an hour with the girls he loves, if feels like a minute. But when that same boy is compelled to sit on a hot stove for a minute, if feels like an hour.
And so, to explain a complicate theory, Einstein went back to something very basic. Now, what Einstein did there helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Some of the religious leaders ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” It isn’t an easy question, because in the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were 613 commandments.
Well, like Albert Einstein, Jesus cuts through to the most basic of all those commandments.
He takes 613 and answers with two commandments: “To love God” and “To love our neighbor.” And Jesus says that these two are the most basic and the most important because they both (1) Summarize every other law of the religion and (2) All the others can be found within these two.
It seems that the laws and teachings of the synagogue of Jesus’ time and of our church today have become as complicated as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
To help us understand the meaning of both these commandments and their connection, I suggest that we simply look at another basic: and that is the shape of a cross.
THE VERTICAL BEAM
The construction of a cross has something interesting to say. I would suggest that the first commandment represents the vertical beam of the cross. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Now, if we are to love God sincerely, we need to realize that (1) God has first loved us and that he has loved us unconditionally.
The scripture says that, (2) “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And in another place, (3) “The love of God consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us.”
God loves us by giving us life, and family, and friends as well as the necessities and comforts of life. And beyond that, God loves us by forgiving us and offering us salvation, even when we sin.
With that gratitude as a base, we in turn love God with humble hearts and prayers.
So, God’s love for us, or our realization of that love, empowers us to love God in return. It constitutes the supportive vertical beam of the cross.
THE HORIZONTAL BEAM
Secondly, I suggest that this love of God for us and we for God is the basis, the foundation, for the horizontal beam of the cross, which is our ability to then love our neighbor.
Let’s look at it this way. We cannot write paragraphs and essays in school until we are first able to write the alphabet and know the rules of grammar. If you are to have any skill at writing, you simply have to learn the basics first.
In the same way, we cannot truly love our neighbor (arms horizontally), until we have learned the basics of love from God (arms vertically.)
That love, God’s love for us and our love for God in return, empowers us to love others even when they do not seem to deserve it – even when they have hurt or wronged us in some profound way.
So the vertical beam of the cross makes the horizontal beam possible; it holds the horizontal beam in place; it sustains it.
CONCLUSION
When the Lord tells us to love our enemies, he gives us, along with the command, the love itself.
You don’t have to be a contractor or even a carpenter to know you can’t construct a cross without first having the vertical support.
What makes you think you can forgive someone who’s wronged you, or someone who has proclaimed themselves your enemy without first knowing the love of Jesus?
Perhaps that’s why forgiving is so difficult, we haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness of Jesus of us.
That’s the place to start, not just in building a cross, but in understanding the cross of Jesus in our lives.
St. Margaret Church and St. Mark Church
October 23, 2011
The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
EINSTEIN
On one occasion, Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity. The great physicist replied that the simplest explanation of relativity he could think of was this.
When a boy spends an hour with the girls he loves, if feels like a minute. But when that same boy is compelled to sit on a hot stove for a minute, if feels like an hour.
And so, to explain a complicate theory, Einstein went back to something very basic. Now, what Einstein did there helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Some of the religious leaders ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” It isn’t an easy question, because in the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were 613 commandments.
Well, like Albert Einstein, Jesus cuts through to the most basic of all those commandments.
He takes 613 and answers with two commandments: “To love God” and “To love our neighbor.” And Jesus says that these two are the most basic and the most important because they both (1) Summarize every other law of the religion and (2) All the others can be found within these two.
It seems that the laws and teachings of the synagogue of Jesus’ time and of our church today have become as complicated as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
To help us understand the meaning of both these commandments and their connection, I suggest that we simply look at another basic: and that is the shape of a cross.
THE VERTICAL BEAM
The construction of a cross has something interesting to say. I would suggest that the first commandment represents the vertical beam of the cross. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Now, if we are to love God sincerely, we need to realize that (1) God has first loved us and that he has loved us unconditionally.
The scripture says that, (2) “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And in another place, (3) “The love of God consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us.”
God loves us by giving us life, and family, and friends as well as the necessities and comforts of life. And beyond that, God loves us by forgiving us and offering us salvation, even when we sin.
With that gratitude as a base, we in turn love God with humble hearts and prayers.
So, God’s love for us, or our realization of that love, empowers us to love God in return. It constitutes the supportive vertical beam of the cross.
THE HORIZONTAL BEAM
Secondly, I suggest that this love of God for us and we for God is the basis, the foundation, for the horizontal beam of the cross, which is our ability to then love our neighbor.
Let’s look at it this way. We cannot write paragraphs and essays in school until we are first able to write the alphabet and know the rules of grammar. If you are to have any skill at writing, you simply have to learn the basics first.
In the same way, we cannot truly love our neighbor (arms horizontally), until we have learned the basics of love from God (arms vertically.)
That love, God’s love for us and our love for God in return, empowers us to love others even when they do not seem to deserve it – even when they have hurt or wronged us in some profound way.
So the vertical beam of the cross makes the horizontal beam possible; it holds the horizontal beam in place; it sustains it.
CONCLUSION
When the Lord tells us to love our enemies, he gives us, along with the command, the love itself.
You don’t have to be a contractor or even a carpenter to know you can’t construct a cross without first having the vertical support.
What makes you think you can forgive someone who’s wronged you, or someone who has proclaimed themselves your enemy without first knowing the love of Jesus?
Perhaps that’s why forgiving is so difficult, we haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness of Jesus of us.
That’s the place to start, not just in building a cross, but in understanding the cross of Jesus in our lives.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 16, 2011: To Change the World
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
October 16, 2011
To Change the World
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BOOK CLUB
I am part of a small group of priests that meets with a theologian friend of ours from time-to-time to discuss various books on theology. It’s a great way to stay updated.
A recent book we shared was entitled To Change the World by James Hunter.
The author begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models for world changing among Christians today and highlights how each is flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which it aspires.
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT: Characterized by a sense of injury, entitlement, anger, partisanship, identifying the enemy, the language of war and winning. They are theologically conservative. Their solution is to make America holy in the manner that they see it.
THE CHRISTIAN LEFT: Many of the same characteristics as the Right, except the Christian Right has a different agenda. It is much more oriented to the poor and the common good. These folks are theologically progressive. They see the main problem as inequality and the faults of capitalism. Their solution is a redistribution of wealth through legal means.
NEO-ANABAPTISTS: Keep a distance from it all. They see the world as basically evil. They are gospel-based. Neo-Anabaptists see the main problem with society today as violence and coercion. Their response is peace, and living in community even apart from the culture. These would be folks like the Amish and Mennonites.
Hunter argues that often these political theologies actually worsen the very problems they are designed to solve.
THE SOLUTION
In today’s gospel Jesus offers us a different alternative, one not based on political power.
He first distinguishes the two spheres of political and personal activity, saying that we live in both and we should render to each what is its due. He sums that up in the phrase, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
Rather than responding with power or force or living apart from society, Jesus is telling his hearers to put their faith in God and then live that faith concretely in all their choices and actions. In short, they are to live within society a faithful presence of the God they serve.
If Caesar or the government or state over-steps the mark, a Christian is absolved from obedience to the law, for we must obey God rather than man.
FAITHFUL PRESENCE
What precisely does “faithful presence” entail? That is, how can I, as a follower of Jesus, be faithfully present, respecting the distinction between church and state, between what I believe and the laws that govern me?
A theology of faithful presence is a theology of engagement in and with the world around us. While it is simple in concept, it is also challenging in its implications.
FIRST, faithful presence means that we are to be fully present TO EACH OTHER within the community of faith and fully present to those who are not.
We are not only to do no wrong to those outside of our community, but are actively to love the stranger as we love ourselves
NEXT, faithful presence requires that believers be fully present and committed TO THEIR TASKS. When our tasks are done before God, they have their own integrity apart from anything else they might accomplish, for the labor itself brings honor to God.
If we perform our tasks as working for the Lord, we will want to pursue them with all the skill, care, and quality we can bring to them. Working for the Lord, there is a built-in safeguard against work, whatever it is, becoming a source of idolatry.
FINALLY, faithful presence in the world means that believers are fully present and committed IN THEIR SPHERES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, whatever they may be: their families, neighborhoods, parish, voluntary activities, and places of work.
The question we face in this regard is how will we use whatever power we have? Where power is exercised, it must conform to the way of Jesus, that is, it must be rooted in intimacy with the Father, rejecting the privileges of status, oriented by a self-giving compassion for the needs of others, and not only non-coercive toward those outside of the community of faith, but committed indiscriminately for the good of all.
CONCLUSION
There is an alternative way of thinking about the world we live in, and engaging it in a way that is constructive and draws upon the teachings of Jesus.
And it is practicing a faithful presence as a follower of the Lord toward ourselves, toward our tasks, and toward the spheres in which we exercise influence.
In the end, this strategy becomes not first and foremost about changing the world, but living for the flourishing of others.
It can’t get more Christ-centered than that!
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
October 16, 2011
To Change the World
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BOOK CLUB
I am part of a small group of priests that meets with a theologian friend of ours from time-to-time to discuss various books on theology. It’s a great way to stay updated.
A recent book we shared was entitled To Change the World by James Hunter.
The author begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models for world changing among Christians today and highlights how each is flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which it aspires.
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT: Characterized by a sense of injury, entitlement, anger, partisanship, identifying the enemy, the language of war and winning. They are theologically conservative. Their solution is to make America holy in the manner that they see it.
THE CHRISTIAN LEFT: Many of the same characteristics as the Right, except the Christian Right has a different agenda. It is much more oriented to the poor and the common good. These folks are theologically progressive. They see the main problem as inequality and the faults of capitalism. Their solution is a redistribution of wealth through legal means.
NEO-ANABAPTISTS: Keep a distance from it all. They see the world as basically evil. They are gospel-based. Neo-Anabaptists see the main problem with society today as violence and coercion. Their response is peace, and living in community even apart from the culture. These would be folks like the Amish and Mennonites.
Hunter argues that often these political theologies actually worsen the very problems they are designed to solve.
THE SOLUTION
In today’s gospel Jesus offers us a different alternative, one not based on political power.
He first distinguishes the two spheres of political and personal activity, saying that we live in both and we should render to each what is its due. He sums that up in the phrase, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
Rather than responding with power or force or living apart from society, Jesus is telling his hearers to put their faith in God and then live that faith concretely in all their choices and actions. In short, they are to live within society a faithful presence of the God they serve.
If Caesar or the government or state over-steps the mark, a Christian is absolved from obedience to the law, for we must obey God rather than man.
FAITHFUL PRESENCE
What precisely does “faithful presence” entail? That is, how can I, as a follower of Jesus, be faithfully present, respecting the distinction between church and state, between what I believe and the laws that govern me?
A theology of faithful presence is a theology of engagement in and with the world around us. While it is simple in concept, it is also challenging in its implications.
FIRST, faithful presence means that we are to be fully present TO EACH OTHER within the community of faith and fully present to those who are not.
We are not only to do no wrong to those outside of our community, but are actively to love the stranger as we love ourselves
NEXT, faithful presence requires that believers be fully present and committed TO THEIR TASKS. When our tasks are done before God, they have their own integrity apart from anything else they might accomplish, for the labor itself brings honor to God.
If we perform our tasks as working for the Lord, we will want to pursue them with all the skill, care, and quality we can bring to them. Working for the Lord, there is a built-in safeguard against work, whatever it is, becoming a source of idolatry.
FINALLY, faithful presence in the world means that believers are fully present and committed IN THEIR SPHERES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, whatever they may be: their families, neighborhoods, parish, voluntary activities, and places of work.
The question we face in this regard is how will we use whatever power we have? Where power is exercised, it must conform to the way of Jesus, that is, it must be rooted in intimacy with the Father, rejecting the privileges of status, oriented by a self-giving compassion for the needs of others, and not only non-coercive toward those outside of the community of faith, but committed indiscriminately for the good of all.
CONCLUSION
There is an alternative way of thinking about the world we live in, and engaging it in a way that is constructive and draws upon the teachings of Jesus.
And it is practicing a faithful presence as a follower of the Lord toward ourselves, toward our tasks, and toward the spheres in which we exercise influence.
In the end, this strategy becomes not first and foremost about changing the world, but living for the flourishing of others.
It can’t get more Christ-centered than that!
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 9, 2011: Have You Seen the Rabbit?
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Alphonsus Church, Woodstock
October 9, 2011
Have You Seen the Rabbit?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
GUEST AT THE SON'S WEDDING BANQUET
Everybody wonders why that man in the gospel came to a party improperly dressed
I know why. He actually thought he was correctly attired.
He even looked like everyone else: tux, pleated shirt, shinny shoes. But the host spotted an outsider right away. He told the intruder, “You may look like one of us, but I can tell you have never seen the rabbit.” “Seen the rabbit?”
Many of us look and talk like we belong in God’s inner circle, that we are close enough to God to actually be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection.
We try to belong. Sometimes we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual program in search of God, but most of us get tired quickly.
We lose interest and eventually give up the chase. Do you know why? It’s because we have never seen the rabbit. There’s that phrase again, “Never seen the rabbit.”
CHASING RABBITS AT MRS. VINCI’S
When I was a little boy, we used to visit an aunt on a farm in the country. While there, we loved to go rabbit hunting with my cousins and their hounds.
I always rooted for the rabbit and the rabbit almost always won because it was fast, on its own turf, and knew the hiding places.
When the first dog caught sight of the rabbit it would let out a howl and hurtled off barking. The other dogs got excited by the noise and commotion and joined in the chase.
There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drainpipes.
But most of the dogs would eventually tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why they turned back? It’s because they never actually saw the rabbit.
They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog and then they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and hoped their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot.
Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute for actually seeing.
SAINTS CHASING RABBITS
It’s the same with us in our chase of God. We have to actually see the rabbit, actually see and experience God to stay active in the pursuit.
Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become as faithful as Moses or as poor as St. Francis or as compassionate as St. Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed.
Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor.
But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight will not cure this blindness. We have to see and experience God with our own eyes.
OUR CHASING RABBITS
Now we know that God is always there, but it takes some personal attention to discern, to feel, to experience God’s presence in the tangle of our lives.
Remember those puzzles that contain objects hidden in the jumble of lines? We have to sense their presence before we can actually see them.
People say they will believe when they see it, but we actually see it, when we believe it’s really there.
We try to create and image of God in prayer. So we meditate like St. Ignatius, have conversation like the Little Flower, St. Therese, or we contemplate like St. John of the Cross.
But God remains silent. God remains silent because St. Ignatius and St. Therese and St. John learned their personal language by first seeing and experiencing God.
THE JOY OF THE CHASE
I would like to tell you an easy, secret way to catch God, but there is none.
You and I are programmed to pursue God as surely as a beagle is programmed in our DNA to pursue rabbits. That’s the way it is.
Of course, a dog can laze in the sun instead, and likewise we too can find other pleasant pursuits. It can be a nice life, but it will not be the best life.
A hound is never happier than when chasing a rabbit; a man or woman is never happier than when panting after God.
And God, God is happiest of all when he stays one jump ahead of us. It makes the pursuit all worth while with God remaining God.
St. Alphonsus Church, Woodstock
October 9, 2011
Have You Seen the Rabbit?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
GUEST AT THE SON'S WEDDING BANQUET
Everybody wonders why that man in the gospel came to a party improperly dressed
I know why. He actually thought he was correctly attired.
He even looked like everyone else: tux, pleated shirt, shinny shoes. But the host spotted an outsider right away. He told the intruder, “You may look like one of us, but I can tell you have never seen the rabbit.” “Seen the rabbit?”
Many of us look and talk like we belong in God’s inner circle, that we are close enough to God to actually be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection.
We try to belong. Sometimes we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual program in search of God, but most of us get tired quickly.
We lose interest and eventually give up the chase. Do you know why? It’s because we have never seen the rabbit. There’s that phrase again, “Never seen the rabbit.”
CHASING RABBITS AT MRS. VINCI’S
When I was a little boy, we used to visit an aunt on a farm in the country. While there, we loved to go rabbit hunting with my cousins and their hounds.
I always rooted for the rabbit and the rabbit almost always won because it was fast, on its own turf, and knew the hiding places.
When the first dog caught sight of the rabbit it would let out a howl and hurtled off barking. The other dogs got excited by the noise and commotion and joined in the chase.
There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drainpipes.
But most of the dogs would eventually tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why they turned back? It’s because they never actually saw the rabbit.
They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog and then they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and hoped their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot.
Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute for actually seeing.
SAINTS CHASING RABBITS
It’s the same with us in our chase of God. We have to actually see the rabbit, actually see and experience God to stay active in the pursuit.
Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become as faithful as Moses or as poor as St. Francis or as compassionate as St. Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed.
Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor.
But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight will not cure this blindness. We have to see and experience God with our own eyes.
OUR CHASING RABBITS
Now we know that God is always there, but it takes some personal attention to discern, to feel, to experience God’s presence in the tangle of our lives.
Remember those puzzles that contain objects hidden in the jumble of lines? We have to sense their presence before we can actually see them.
People say they will believe when they see it, but we actually see it, when we believe it’s really there.
We try to create and image of God in prayer. So we meditate like St. Ignatius, have conversation like the Little Flower, St. Therese, or we contemplate like St. John of the Cross.
But God remains silent. God remains silent because St. Ignatius and St. Therese and St. John learned their personal language by first seeing and experiencing God.
THE JOY OF THE CHASE
I would like to tell you an easy, secret way to catch God, but there is none.
You and I are programmed to pursue God as surely as a beagle is programmed in our DNA to pursue rabbits. That’s the way it is.
Of course, a dog can laze in the sun instead, and likewise we too can find other pleasant pursuits. It can be a nice life, but it will not be the best life.
A hound is never happier than when chasing a rabbit; a man or woman is never happier than when panting after God.
And God, God is happiest of all when he stays one jump ahead of us. It makes the pursuit all worth while with God remaining God.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 2, 2011: Parables: Stories with a Punch
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
John Carroll High School
October 2, 2011
Parables: Stories with a Punch
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
MELROSE SUSPENSION BRIDGE
In upstate New York, the 800-foot Melrose Suspension Bridge spans the Niagara River and connects Canada and the United States.
There is an interesting story about the way the bridge was built.
In 1848 Charles Ellet, Jr., a contractor, first flew a kite across the river. Attached to the kite was a piece of string. Attached to the string was a rope. Attached to the rope was a steel cable.
The steel cable was then anchored and used to get the steel girders across span and thus the bridge was built.
This story of the construction of the Melrose Suspension Bridge is what I’d like to call a modern day parable and, in a creative way, it illustrates many points:
o The kite string eventually connecting to steel girders → shows how great things often have humble beginnings
o The creative use of a kite → demonstrates how a seemingly insignificant thing can have great results
o Or moving from string to rope to cable to girder → shows how teamwork and the use of materials of increasing strength can span great distances
Parables – very powerful for teaching lessons, and long after you’ve forgotten who I am, you’ll remember the kite and the bridge over the Niagara River!
Jesus also knows the power of parables and he uses them to get peoples’ attention, indeed to startle or surprise them, and most importantly, to challenge them.
MIRROR PARABLES
Frequently, the Gospel reading at Mass consists of a parable. Today, for example, we hear the Parable of the Tenants and the Vineyard. It is classified as a “mirror parable.”
Such parables act like a verbal mirror. They are told in such a way that the hearer begins to say, “Who’s he talking about?” And like looking in a mirror, we are able to see something of ourselves in the story.
This story of the vineyard is a good example of a mirror parable. The tenants of the vineyard reject each of the servants sent by the owner to collect his share of the grapes. They finally even kill the owner’s son when he sends him.
There’s a real shift in the story when Jesus asks his hearers, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
Remember their response? “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus’ hearers don’t mind the story, until they begin to realize that the tenants represent themselves, the religious leaders. The servants represent the prophets and the owner’s son represents the very person, Jesus, who’s telling the parable.
“Yikes! He’s talking about us” they realize! And they’ve incriminated themselves with their very own words!
Yes, parables are very powerful stories for teaching important lessons.
APPLICATION
Well, it’s application time, Friends, and I would say that either the parable of the Melrose Suspension Bridge or that of the Vineyard would fit you, the graduates of John Carroll High School, on this occasion, your first Alumni Weekend.
If the Bridge strikes your fancy:
o You need to know that the humble beginnings of John Carroll High School have produced ____ of you graduates, men and women who have gone on to make an impact in our community and beyond.
o Like the bridge’s string, cord, steel, girders – simple beginnings with great results
o Imagine all the creative uses your minds have made of ordinary opportunities
o Now not with kites, but with simple resources used in creative ways, like an annual alumni weekend such as you’re celebrating this weekend
o Networking among each other, staying in contact with the School, volunteering, making a financial gift – all contribute to the building up of the school
o It’s the moving from string to rope to cable to girder and how teamwork and the use of materials of increasing strength can achieve great results
On the other hand, if the Vineyard got more of your attention, then:
o Your vineyard is the four years you spent here
o Your vineyard is the value-based education you received
o Your vineyard is the faith in Jesus Christ that was nourished in your high school days
And Jesus would remind you, that you’re the tenant, the holder of these precious gifts and, of course, how have you tended them, grown them, brought them to fruition are the questions he puts to you
So, where are you with:
o Talking up the school?
o Sending your children here?
o Celebrating annual reunions?
o Living out the faith you had nurtured here?
o Financial Support?
o Serving when asked to volunteer?
CONCLUSION
The suspension bridge and the vineyard are not harmless children’s stories.
They are told that we might realize
o Not only that are they addressed to us
o But that they are challenging us to live out our beliefs and values as graduates of John Carroll
John Carroll High School
October 2, 2011
Parables: Stories with a Punch
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
MELROSE SUSPENSION BRIDGE
In upstate New York, the 800-foot Melrose Suspension Bridge spans the Niagara River and connects Canada and the United States.
There is an interesting story about the way the bridge was built.
In 1848 Charles Ellet, Jr., a contractor, first flew a kite across the river. Attached to the kite was a piece of string. Attached to the string was a rope. Attached to the rope was a steel cable.
The steel cable was then anchored and used to get the steel girders across span and thus the bridge was built.
This story of the construction of the Melrose Suspension Bridge is what I’d like to call a modern day parable and, in a creative way, it illustrates many points:
o The kite string eventually connecting to steel girders → shows how great things often have humble beginnings
o The creative use of a kite → demonstrates how a seemingly insignificant thing can have great results
o Or moving from string to rope to cable to girder → shows how teamwork and the use of materials of increasing strength can span great distances
Parables – very powerful for teaching lessons, and long after you’ve forgotten who I am, you’ll remember the kite and the bridge over the Niagara River!
Jesus also knows the power of parables and he uses them to get peoples’ attention, indeed to startle or surprise them, and most importantly, to challenge them.
MIRROR PARABLES
Frequently, the Gospel reading at Mass consists of a parable. Today, for example, we hear the Parable of the Tenants and the Vineyard. It is classified as a “mirror parable.”
Such parables act like a verbal mirror. They are told in such a way that the hearer begins to say, “Who’s he talking about?” And like looking in a mirror, we are able to see something of ourselves in the story.
This story of the vineyard is a good example of a mirror parable. The tenants of the vineyard reject each of the servants sent by the owner to collect his share of the grapes. They finally even kill the owner’s son when he sends him.
There’s a real shift in the story when Jesus asks his hearers, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
Remember their response? “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus’ hearers don’t mind the story, until they begin to realize that the tenants represent themselves, the religious leaders. The servants represent the prophets and the owner’s son represents the very person, Jesus, who’s telling the parable.
“Yikes! He’s talking about us” they realize! And they’ve incriminated themselves with their very own words!
Yes, parables are very powerful stories for teaching important lessons.
APPLICATION
Well, it’s application time, Friends, and I would say that either the parable of the Melrose Suspension Bridge or that of the Vineyard would fit you, the graduates of John Carroll High School, on this occasion, your first Alumni Weekend.
If the Bridge strikes your fancy:
o You need to know that the humble beginnings of John Carroll High School have produced ____ of you graduates, men and women who have gone on to make an impact in our community and beyond.
o Like the bridge’s string, cord, steel, girders – simple beginnings with great results
o Imagine all the creative uses your minds have made of ordinary opportunities
o Now not with kites, but with simple resources used in creative ways, like an annual alumni weekend such as you’re celebrating this weekend
o Networking among each other, staying in contact with the School, volunteering, making a financial gift – all contribute to the building up of the school
o It’s the moving from string to rope to cable to girder and how teamwork and the use of materials of increasing strength can achieve great results
On the other hand, if the Vineyard got more of your attention, then:
o Your vineyard is the four years you spent here
o Your vineyard is the value-based education you received
o Your vineyard is the faith in Jesus Christ that was nourished in your high school days
And Jesus would remind you, that you’re the tenant, the holder of these precious gifts and, of course, how have you tended them, grown them, brought them to fruition are the questions he puts to you
So, where are you with:
o Talking up the school?
o Sending your children here?
o Celebrating annual reunions?
o Living out the faith you had nurtured here?
o Financial Support?
o Serving when asked to volunteer?
CONCLUSION
The suspension bridge and the vineyard are not harmless children’s stories.
They are told that we might realize
o Not only that are they addressed to us
o But that they are challenging us to live out our beliefs and values as graduates of John Carroll
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for September 25,2011: Two Sons and Doing the Father's Will
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Clement, Lansdowne, St. Mark, Fallston
September 25, 2011
Two Sons and Doing the Father’s Will
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE POWER OF "NO" AS CHILDREN
It begins very early in our lives: “Eat all your vegetables.” “No!” “Clean up your room” “No!” “Do your chores.” “No!” Sound familiar? The use of the word “No!” is in full swing by the time we’re toddlers.
Thank God we eventually mend our ways and begin making the right choices and saying “Yes” to what needs to be done … or do we?
The ability to say “No” to lots of things that are actually good for us does have value. Saying no is:
(1) A way of taking a stand, of distancing myself from someone.
(2) It’s using the freedom we have to oppose something we don’t want to consider.
(3) Very often it opens up some psychological space to look things over and ask, “Is this really the stand I wanted to take? Is this really who I am?”
(4) Most of all “No!” opens up a space in which God can touch my heart and change my mind.
That attitude of saying no, and the space that opens up because of it, doesn’t stop with childhood, but continues each day and even into the present.
JESUS' USE OF THE STORY OF THE SONS
Jesus takes up this very human journey of saying-no-and-then-saying-yes, on the one hand, and saying yes-and-then-acting-no on the other in his story of the two sons.
Let’s situate his telling of the story. When Jesus first shares this parable, he does so within the context of a controversy he’s having with the chief priests and elders.
These priests and elders had assumed that their being right with God had earned them entrance into God’s kingdom. These had also assumed that the sinfulness of the tax collectors and prostitutes of their day had sealed their fate as being outside the kingdom.
Jesus makes it very clear: the tax-gatherers and the prostitutes are those who said that they would go their own way and then took God’s way (no→yes). The Jewish religious he’s actually talking to are the people who said they would obey God and then did not (yes→no).
The priests and elders had, in all of their assuming, overlooked the possibility of grace to turn lives and situations that seemed hopeless, around. Remember the “space” I spoke about that saying “No!” gives you?
Nevertheless, Jesus brings the chief priests and elders to the point where they have to admit that the son who first said no and then had a change of heart was the one who did what his father wanted.
This admission is a double whammy:
(1) It leaves them to deal with the fact that the tax-gatherers and harlots, whom they despised as beyond salvation, would actually be granted a share in God’s kingdom, and
(2) They who said yes, and didn’t obey the prophets or Jesus, are really the ones on the outside.
WHICH SON? WHAT DAY!
What does this story of the two sons then, have to teach us?
If you’re a bit of the first son, you may have said “No” to God in any number of ways:
➢ “No” to taking quiet time to pray
➢ “No” to regular worship
➢ “No” to caring for those in need
➢ “No” to the common good
➢ “No” to fidelity to my marriage or
➢ Taking the time to show my love for my children.
The space that our “no” produces allows us to be attentive to God’s grace always calling us to greater union with him.
If, on the other hand, you’re a bit of the second son on another day, that is, you’ve said “yes” with your mouth or in your thoughts, then where are the works that manifest your talk or express your thoughts?
From your seat, “just a little higher” than the seats of others, are you inclined to look down on anyone be they divorced and remarried Catholics, those who only attend Mass at Easter and Christmas, immigrants, or racial minorities?
What you don’t get is that before Jesus we’re all equal, all chosen, all redeemed.
CONCLUSION
With the positions of the two sons, we perhaps find ourselves experiencing any day either
➢ An angry defiant stance before God of “no” and reconsider to a “yes”, or
➢ We start out with good intentions and a hearty “yes” and then go astray living out a “no”
Whether we make a negative first response or we fail in our intentions, there is always a way back. Today’s reading gives us hope.
St. Clement, Lansdowne, St. Mark, Fallston
September 25, 2011
Two Sons and Doing the Father’s Will
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE POWER OF "NO" AS CHILDREN
It begins very early in our lives: “Eat all your vegetables.” “No!” “Clean up your room” “No!” “Do your chores.” “No!” Sound familiar? The use of the word “No!” is in full swing by the time we’re toddlers.
Thank God we eventually mend our ways and begin making the right choices and saying “Yes” to what needs to be done … or do we?
The ability to say “No” to lots of things that are actually good for us does have value. Saying no is:
(1) A way of taking a stand, of distancing myself from someone.
(2) It’s using the freedom we have to oppose something we don’t want to consider.
(3) Very often it opens up some psychological space to look things over and ask, “Is this really the stand I wanted to take? Is this really who I am?”
(4) Most of all “No!” opens up a space in which God can touch my heart and change my mind.
That attitude of saying no, and the space that opens up because of it, doesn’t stop with childhood, but continues each day and even into the present.
JESUS' USE OF THE STORY OF THE SONS
Jesus takes up this very human journey of saying-no-and-then-saying-yes, on the one hand, and saying yes-and-then-acting-no on the other in his story of the two sons.
Let’s situate his telling of the story. When Jesus first shares this parable, he does so within the context of a controversy he’s having with the chief priests and elders.
These priests and elders had assumed that their being right with God had earned them entrance into God’s kingdom. These had also assumed that the sinfulness of the tax collectors and prostitutes of their day had sealed their fate as being outside the kingdom.
Jesus makes it very clear: the tax-gatherers and the prostitutes are those who said that they would go their own way and then took God’s way (no→yes). The Jewish religious he’s actually talking to are the people who said they would obey God and then did not (yes→no).
The priests and elders had, in all of their assuming, overlooked the possibility of grace to turn lives and situations that seemed hopeless, around. Remember the “space” I spoke about that saying “No!” gives you?
Nevertheless, Jesus brings the chief priests and elders to the point where they have to admit that the son who first said no and then had a change of heart was the one who did what his father wanted.
This admission is a double whammy:
(1) It leaves them to deal with the fact that the tax-gatherers and harlots, whom they despised as beyond salvation, would actually be granted a share in God’s kingdom, and
(2) They who said yes, and didn’t obey the prophets or Jesus, are really the ones on the outside.
WHICH SON? WHAT DAY!
What does this story of the two sons then, have to teach us?
If you’re a bit of the first son, you may have said “No” to God in any number of ways:
➢ “No” to taking quiet time to pray
➢ “No” to regular worship
➢ “No” to caring for those in need
➢ “No” to the common good
➢ “No” to fidelity to my marriage or
➢ Taking the time to show my love for my children.
The space that our “no” produces allows us to be attentive to God’s grace always calling us to greater union with him.
If, on the other hand, you’re a bit of the second son on another day, that is, you’ve said “yes” with your mouth or in your thoughts, then where are the works that manifest your talk or express your thoughts?
From your seat, “just a little higher” than the seats of others, are you inclined to look down on anyone be they divorced and remarried Catholics, those who only attend Mass at Easter and Christmas, immigrants, or racial minorities?
What you don’t get is that before Jesus we’re all equal, all chosen, all redeemed.
CONCLUSION
With the positions of the two sons, we perhaps find ourselves experiencing any day either
➢ An angry defiant stance before God of “no” and reconsider to a “yes”, or
➢ We start out with good intentions and a hearty “yes” and then go astray living out a “no”
Whether we make a negative first response or we fail in our intentions, there is always a way back. Today’s reading gives us hope.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for September 18, 2011: Dealing with Envy
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Terranuova Hermitage
September 18, 2011
Dealing with Envy
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE PARABLE
There is a stinging line in today’s Gospel parable.
The owner of a vineyard hires workers to pick his grapes. He goes to the center of town where people who want to work hang out, and he hires some workers around 6 o’clock in the morning.
Then the owner goes back there at 9:00am, at noontime, at 3:00pm and even at 5:00pm, and each time he hires more workers. He has a lot of grapes that are ripe and need to be picked that day.
Now it’s starting to get dark. The workday is over and it’s time to pay the workers.
In those days, they don’t pay every two weeks or once a month. And they don’t use direct, electronic deposit into your checking account.
They pay in cash at the end of each day. And here comes the trouble.
First, the vineyard owner pays in reverse order – those hired last, first, and those hired first, last. And on top of that, he pays them all the same amount – the amount he had agreed to pay those hired at 6am.
Well, those workers really get upset with the owner. And it is to them that the owner speaks this stinging question: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
ENVY
What’s important to note here is that if these workers who were hired earlier would not know what the later hires get paid, there would be no problem.
But they do know and that is why they are upset. They are envious of the other workers.
They compare themselves and the amount of their work and their pay with the others and they are really bent out of shape. Now, Jesus is not teaching anything here about management practices or wage and salary scales.
That’s not the point. He is teaching an important personal lesson to each one of us.
He is teaching that we can be envious. We can feel discontented and resentful when we compare ourselves and what we have with others.
This is the core of envy – comparing. Comparing ourselves with others is the seedbed of envy.
COMPARE AND DESPAIR
One of our Catholic spiritual writers today talks about envy.
He gives this simple, pointed saying: “Compare and despair.” “Compare and despair.”
Humanly speaking, we are easily tempted to compare our life and lifestyle with others. The problem is that when we do this, we can so easily feel down about ourselves and resentful of others.
“Compare and despair.” This is envy.
When we compare, we often minimize our own gifts and maximize the gifts of others. We easily minimize or overlook our academic, athletic, musical, or leadership ability.
We easily maximize or overstate the same gifts in others. “Compare and despair” – it’s the root of envy.
And when we compare, we often maximize our problems and minimize those of others. We maximize or overstate the struggles in our family or our financial challenges and on and on it goes.
We easily minimize or overlook the very same realities in others. “Compare and despair” – it’s the root of envy.
AVOIDING ENVY
So, how do we avoid envy? How do we avoid “comparing and despairing”? What does Jesus want us to do?
I see three important practices.
First, stay glued to the Gospels. These are to be the core of our personal and spiritual formation.
The Gospels consistently show that God loves each one of us equally and personally. The vineyard owner in today’s parable is conveying this wonderful truth in the way he pays all the workers.
Second, in a good way, we need to keep focused on ourselves. Each day we need to look at what we positively have – this day of life, family members, a friend, our computer skill, or sense of humor, the basics of food and shelter that we easily take for granted.
It is so easy to overlook who we are and what we have. It is easy to miss God’s gifts because everything is, in truth, a gift from God.
And third, each day we need to thank God. We need to thank God for one thing, and something specific.
This positive gratitude to God will leave little room for the negative envy of others. In a nutshell, be thankful every day.
CONCLUSION
So, a potentially stinging question from a vineyard owner.
“Are you envious because I am generous?” A simple question put to us with a powerful lesson.
Terranuova Hermitage
September 18, 2011
Dealing with Envy
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE PARABLE
There is a stinging line in today’s Gospel parable.
The owner of a vineyard hires workers to pick his grapes. He goes to the center of town where people who want to work hang out, and he hires some workers around 6 o’clock in the morning.
Then the owner goes back there at 9:00am, at noontime, at 3:00pm and even at 5:00pm, and each time he hires more workers. He has a lot of grapes that are ripe and need to be picked that day.
Now it’s starting to get dark. The workday is over and it’s time to pay the workers.
In those days, they don’t pay every two weeks or once a month. And they don’t use direct, electronic deposit into your checking account.
They pay in cash at the end of each day. And here comes the trouble.
First, the vineyard owner pays in reverse order – those hired last, first, and those hired first, last. And on top of that, he pays them all the same amount – the amount he had agreed to pay those hired at 6am.
Well, those workers really get upset with the owner. And it is to them that the owner speaks this stinging question: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
ENVY
What’s important to note here is that if these workers who were hired earlier would not know what the later hires get paid, there would be no problem.
But they do know and that is why they are upset. They are envious of the other workers.
They compare themselves and the amount of their work and their pay with the others and they are really bent out of shape. Now, Jesus is not teaching anything here about management practices or wage and salary scales.
That’s not the point. He is teaching an important personal lesson to each one of us.
He is teaching that we can be envious. We can feel discontented and resentful when we compare ourselves and what we have with others.
This is the core of envy – comparing. Comparing ourselves with others is the seedbed of envy.
COMPARE AND DESPAIR
One of our Catholic spiritual writers today talks about envy.
He gives this simple, pointed saying: “Compare and despair.” “Compare and despair.”
Humanly speaking, we are easily tempted to compare our life and lifestyle with others. The problem is that when we do this, we can so easily feel down about ourselves and resentful of others.
“Compare and despair.” This is envy.
When we compare, we often minimize our own gifts and maximize the gifts of others. We easily minimize or overlook our academic, athletic, musical, or leadership ability.
We easily maximize or overstate the same gifts in others. “Compare and despair” – it’s the root of envy.
And when we compare, we often maximize our problems and minimize those of others. We maximize or overstate the struggles in our family or our financial challenges and on and on it goes.
We easily minimize or overlook the very same realities in others. “Compare and despair” – it’s the root of envy.
AVOIDING ENVY
So, how do we avoid envy? How do we avoid “comparing and despairing”? What does Jesus want us to do?
I see three important practices.
First, stay glued to the Gospels. These are to be the core of our personal and spiritual formation.
The Gospels consistently show that God loves each one of us equally and personally. The vineyard owner in today’s parable is conveying this wonderful truth in the way he pays all the workers.
Second, in a good way, we need to keep focused on ourselves. Each day we need to look at what we positively have – this day of life, family members, a friend, our computer skill, or sense of humor, the basics of food and shelter that we easily take for granted.
It is so easy to overlook who we are and what we have. It is easy to miss God’s gifts because everything is, in truth, a gift from God.
And third, each day we need to thank God. We need to thank God for one thing, and something specific.
This positive gratitude to God will leave little room for the negative envy of others. In a nutshell, be thankful every day.
CONCLUSION
So, a potentially stinging question from a vineyard owner.
“Are you envious because I am generous?” A simple question put to us with a powerful lesson.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for September 11, 2011: Father Nicholas did not preach this weekend
Father Nicholas did not preach this weekend.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for September4, 2011: Did He Hear Your Love?
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Terranuova Hermitage
September 4, 2011
“Did He Hear Your Love?”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A BOTTLE OF BOOZE
Recently, a father discovered a half-empty bottle of wine in his teenage son’s bedroom. The father reacted quickly, “How did this get here?” The son mumbled, “I don’t know.”
The father got angrier: “I’ll give you one minute to come up with a better answer than that.” The son: “It belongs to a friend of mine.”
The father: “Do you expect me to believe that?” Immediately the son walked out of the house and slammed the door behind him.
Things got worse, and eventually the father called the counselor at his son’s school. The counselor first asked the father why he was so concerned about the wine and he replied, “I don’t want him to get into trouble.”
The counselor then asked the father why he didn’t want his son to get into trouble. The father answered that he didn’t want his son to get into legal trouble or to get addicted to alcohol and ruin his future.
Again, the counselor pushed the father about the reason for his concern. Finally, he responded, “I love my son and I want the best for him.”
And to that the counselor asked, “Do you think that your son got that message?” And the father sadly replied, “I see what you mean.”
SCRIPTURE
That incident helps us to appreciate today’s Scripture readings.
The passages call us to address situations where someone is doing something that is wrong, harmful or that is personally offensive. The Scriptures give three helpful principles to guide us.
THREE PRINCIPLES
First, we need to make sure our motives for responding are pure. We need to be careful that we are not trying to put others down or get back at them.
Our motive needs to be either the well-being of the other person, like that father for his son, or reconciliation with the other person, like talking with your spouse about something that is bothering you in the relationship. As Saint Paul says today, we need to be grounded in love.
So, in our approach, we need to ask more than accuse, to speak quietly rather than loudly, and to seek agreement rather than argument. Again, that’s all to say that we need to be pure in our motives.
Second, we need to begin by trying to work things out one-on-one. This is the most respectful and least confrontational way of proceeding, and it minimizes defensiveness in the other person.
If this does not work, then we can bring in third parties. Third parties can be family members, friends, a counselor, or a priest.
Alcoholics Anonymous advocates this method when one-on-one fails. They call it an intervention. But always, the goal must be pure: to respectfully persuade the other person that he or she is going in the wrong direction or to help reconcile two people.
And the third principle is that we never give up on another person. In the Gospel, Jesus says that if a person will not listen to a third party, then “treat them as you would a tax collector or gentile.”
Here the Gospel means that we should do what Jesus does with the tax collectors or gentiles. And what does he do?
Jesus does not exclude or excommunicate or refuse to have anything to do with them. On the contrary, he makes a point of hanging out with them, giving his time to them, and even having dinner with them.
Now, no question, that with children and youth, we need to provide direction and rules. And no question, in case of some type of abuse or things like that, with adults we have to protect ourselves or others.
But in general, the direction that the Gospel gives is to respect freedom and allow space for the other person to have a change of heart. Our goal is inclusion and growth, not exclusion and put-downs.
CONCLUSION
So, the Scripture gives us some practical principles about how to proceed in these real-life situations. To some extent, the suggestions are common sense.
They are also verified and confirmed by contemporary psychology. But we can easily forget them and I hope going over them as coming from the mouth of Jesus will make a difference in how we handle similar situations.
Terranuova Hermitage
September 4, 2011
“Did He Hear Your Love?”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A BOTTLE OF BOOZE
Recently, a father discovered a half-empty bottle of wine in his teenage son’s bedroom. The father reacted quickly, “How did this get here?” The son mumbled, “I don’t know.”
The father got angrier: “I’ll give you one minute to come up with a better answer than that.” The son: “It belongs to a friend of mine.”
The father: “Do you expect me to believe that?” Immediately the son walked out of the house and slammed the door behind him.
Things got worse, and eventually the father called the counselor at his son’s school. The counselor first asked the father why he was so concerned about the wine and he replied, “I don’t want him to get into trouble.”
The counselor then asked the father why he didn’t want his son to get into trouble. The father answered that he didn’t want his son to get into legal trouble or to get addicted to alcohol and ruin his future.
Again, the counselor pushed the father about the reason for his concern. Finally, he responded, “I love my son and I want the best for him.”
And to that the counselor asked, “Do you think that your son got that message?” And the father sadly replied, “I see what you mean.”
SCRIPTURE
That incident helps us to appreciate today’s Scripture readings.
The passages call us to address situations where someone is doing something that is wrong, harmful or that is personally offensive. The Scriptures give three helpful principles to guide us.
THREE PRINCIPLES
First, we need to make sure our motives for responding are pure. We need to be careful that we are not trying to put others down or get back at them.
Our motive needs to be either the well-being of the other person, like that father for his son, or reconciliation with the other person, like talking with your spouse about something that is bothering you in the relationship. As Saint Paul says today, we need to be grounded in love.
So, in our approach, we need to ask more than accuse, to speak quietly rather than loudly, and to seek agreement rather than argument. Again, that’s all to say that we need to be pure in our motives.
Second, we need to begin by trying to work things out one-on-one. This is the most respectful and least confrontational way of proceeding, and it minimizes defensiveness in the other person.
If this does not work, then we can bring in third parties. Third parties can be family members, friends, a counselor, or a priest.
Alcoholics Anonymous advocates this method when one-on-one fails. They call it an intervention. But always, the goal must be pure: to respectfully persuade the other person that he or she is going in the wrong direction or to help reconcile two people.
And the third principle is that we never give up on another person. In the Gospel, Jesus says that if a person will not listen to a third party, then “treat them as you would a tax collector or gentile.”
Here the Gospel means that we should do what Jesus does with the tax collectors or gentiles. And what does he do?
Jesus does not exclude or excommunicate or refuse to have anything to do with them. On the contrary, he makes a point of hanging out with them, giving his time to them, and even having dinner with them.
Now, no question, that with children and youth, we need to provide direction and rules. And no question, in case of some type of abuse or things like that, with adults we have to protect ourselves or others.
But in general, the direction that the Gospel gives is to respect freedom and allow space for the other person to have a change of heart. Our goal is inclusion and growth, not exclusion and put-downs.
CONCLUSION
So, the Scripture gives us some practical principles about how to proceed in these real-life situations. To some extent, the suggestions are common sense.
They are also verified and confirmed by contemporary psychology. But we can easily forget them and I hope going over them as coming from the mouth of Jesus will make a difference in how we handle similar situations.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for August 28, 2011: Did He Hear Your Love?
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Terranuova Hermitage
September 4, 2011
“Did He Hear Your Love?”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A BOTTLE OF BOOZE
Recently, a father discovered a half-empty bottle of wine in his teenage son’s bedroom. The father reacted quickly, “How did this get here?” The son mumbled, “I don’t know.”
The father got angrier: “I’ll give you one minute to come up with a better answer than that.” The son: “It belongs to a friend of mine.”
The father: “Do you expect me to believe that?” Immediately the son walked out of the house and slammed the door behind him.
Things got worse, and eventually the father called the counselor at his son’s school. The counselor first asked the father why he was so concerned about the wine and he replied, “I don’t want him to get into trouble.”
The counselor then asked the father why he didn’t want his son to get into trouble. The father answered that he didn’t want his son to get into legal trouble or to get addicted to alcohol and ruin his future.
Again, the counselor pushed the father about the reason for his concern. Finally, he responded, “I love my son and I want the best for him.”
And to that the counselor asked, “Do you think that your son got that message?” And the father sadly replied, “I see what you mean.”
SCRIPTURE
That incident helps us to appreciate today’s Scripture readings.
The passages call us to address situations where someone is doing something that is wrong, harmful or that is personally offensive. The Scriptures give three helpful principles to guide us.
THREE PRINCIPLES
FIRST, we need to make sure our motives for responding are pure. We need to be careful that we are not trying to put others down or get back at them.
Our motive needs to be either the well-being of the other person, like that father for his son, or reconciliation with the other person, like talking with your spouse about something that is bothering you in the relationship. As Saint Paul says today, we need to be grounded in love.
So, in our approach, we need to ask more than accuse, to speak quietly rather than loudly, and to seek agreement rather than argument. Again, that’s all to say that we need to be pure in our motives.
SECOND, we need to begin by trying to work things out one-on-one. This is the most respectful and least confrontational way of proceeding, and it minimizes defensiveness in the other person.
If this does not work, then we can bring in third parties. Third parties can be family members, friends, a counselor, or a priest.
Alcoholics Anonymous advocates this method when one-on-one fails. They call it an intervention. But always, the goal must be pure: to respectfully persuade the other person that he or she is going in the wrong direction or to help reconcile two people.
And the THIRD principle is that we never give up on another person. In the Gospel, Jesus says that if a person will not listen to a third party, then “treat them as you would a tax collector or gentile.”
Here the Gospel means that we should do what Jesus does with the tax collectors or gentiles. And what does he do?
Jesus does not exclude or excommunicate or refuse to have anything to do with them. On the contrary, he makes a point of hanging out with them, giving his time to them, and even having dinner with them.
Now, no question, that with children and youth, we need to provide direction and rules. And no question, in case of some type of abuse or things like that, with adults we have to protect ourselves or others.
But in general, the direction that the Gospel gives is to respect freedom and allow space for the other person to have a change of heart. Our goal is inclusion and growth, not exclusion and put-downs.
CONCLUSION
So, the Scripture gives us some practical principles about how to proceed in these real-life situations. To some extent, the suggestions are common sense.
They are also verified and confirmed by contemporary psychology. But we can easily forget them and I hope going over them as coming from the mouth of Jesus will make a difference in how we handle similar situations.
Terranuova Hermitage
September 4, 2011
“Did He Hear Your Love?”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A BOTTLE OF BOOZE
Recently, a father discovered a half-empty bottle of wine in his teenage son’s bedroom. The father reacted quickly, “How did this get here?” The son mumbled, “I don’t know.”
The father got angrier: “I’ll give you one minute to come up with a better answer than that.” The son: “It belongs to a friend of mine.”
The father: “Do you expect me to believe that?” Immediately the son walked out of the house and slammed the door behind him.
Things got worse, and eventually the father called the counselor at his son’s school. The counselor first asked the father why he was so concerned about the wine and he replied, “I don’t want him to get into trouble.”
The counselor then asked the father why he didn’t want his son to get into trouble. The father answered that he didn’t want his son to get into legal trouble or to get addicted to alcohol and ruin his future.
Again, the counselor pushed the father about the reason for his concern. Finally, he responded, “I love my son and I want the best for him.”
And to that the counselor asked, “Do you think that your son got that message?” And the father sadly replied, “I see what you mean.”
SCRIPTURE
That incident helps us to appreciate today’s Scripture readings.
The passages call us to address situations where someone is doing something that is wrong, harmful or that is personally offensive. The Scriptures give three helpful principles to guide us.
THREE PRINCIPLES
FIRST, we need to make sure our motives for responding are pure. We need to be careful that we are not trying to put others down or get back at them.
Our motive needs to be either the well-being of the other person, like that father for his son, or reconciliation with the other person, like talking with your spouse about something that is bothering you in the relationship. As Saint Paul says today, we need to be grounded in love.
So, in our approach, we need to ask more than accuse, to speak quietly rather than loudly, and to seek agreement rather than argument. Again, that’s all to say that we need to be pure in our motives.
SECOND, we need to begin by trying to work things out one-on-one. This is the most respectful and least confrontational way of proceeding, and it minimizes defensiveness in the other person.
If this does not work, then we can bring in third parties. Third parties can be family members, friends, a counselor, or a priest.
Alcoholics Anonymous advocates this method when one-on-one fails. They call it an intervention. But always, the goal must be pure: to respectfully persuade the other person that he or she is going in the wrong direction or to help reconcile two people.
And the THIRD principle is that we never give up on another person. In the Gospel, Jesus says that if a person will not listen to a third party, then “treat them as you would a tax collector or gentile.”
Here the Gospel means that we should do what Jesus does with the tax collectors or gentiles. And what does he do?
Jesus does not exclude or excommunicate or refuse to have anything to do with them. On the contrary, he makes a point of hanging out with them, giving his time to them, and even having dinner with them.
Now, no question, that with children and youth, we need to provide direction and rules. And no question, in case of some type of abuse or things like that, with adults we have to protect ourselves or others.
But in general, the direction that the Gospel gives is to respect freedom and allow space for the other person to have a change of heart. Our goal is inclusion and growth, not exclusion and put-downs.
CONCLUSION
So, the Scripture gives us some practical principles about how to proceed in these real-life situations. To some extent, the suggestions are common sense.
They are also verified and confirmed by contemporary psychology. But we can easily forget them and I hope going over them as coming from the mouth of Jesus will make a difference in how we handle similar situations.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Weekly HOMILY fo August 28, 2011: Becoming More
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Saint Mary Magdalene Mission, Churchville
August 28, 2011
Becoming More
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE DANDELION, HARE, AND THE HUNTER
Once upon a time, a dandelion whispered to the nutrients in its soil: “How would you like to become a dandelion? You need only allow yourself to be dissolved in the earth’s water, and I will draw you up through my roots.
“Afterward you will be able to grow and flower and brighten the world.” The nutrients said: “Okay!”
The next morning, a rabbit hopped by and, feeling generous, said to the dandelion: “How would you like to become a rabbit? You would have to let me chew you up and swallow you, and you would lose your pretty petals.
“It would hurt at first, but afterward you would be able to hop around and wiggle your ears.” Not being rooted in just one place sounded good so the dandelion allowed itself to be munched and it became a rabbit.
The next day, a hunter spotted the rabbit, and being in a friendly mood, asked: “How would you like to become a human? Of course, you must let yourself be shot, skinned, stewed and eaten.
“That would be rather painful, but think of what you’d gain. You’d be able to think, laugh, cry, get 50 credit cards and watch football on a wide flat-screen TV.”
The rabbit was scared, but who could pass this up? So, he gave up the carefree life of a rabbit and became a human.
Years later, God noticed this human going about everyday human living. Feeling very fatherly, God said: “Hey! How would you like to become a super-human and live forever?”
BECOMING DIVINE
And that, my friends, is precisely the question God asks each human being.
And, in case we don’t know what is involved in this, God’s Son, Jesus, spells it out: “You have to lose your life to find it.”
Sports coaches and athletes say: “No pain; no gain.” Psychologists say: “Lose your false self to find your true self.” Spiritual writers talk about the “dark night before the dawn.”
What is it that we must lose and what do we gain? Well, the good news is that we don’t lose anything essential to our humanity.
We don’t lose anything that is good within us. All we really lose is our inhumanity, our bad self.
WHAT DO WE LOSE?
For example, we must lose our self-centeredness, which isolates us from other good people. We must lose our prejudices, which blind us to the truth.
We must lose our lust, which distorts our love. We must lose our insecurity, which restrains us from doing or saying what we believe is right.
We must lose our obsession with money, which prevents us from being generous. And we must lose our fear, which strangles our hope.
WHAT DO WE GAIN?
To the degree that we do this losing, we gain. We actually enlarge or expand our humanity.
We don’t have to get there all at once. We can do it step by step.
And we don’t have to advance in every department of life. Actually, most saints are imperfect and unfinished in some way.
The best part is that in fulfilling our humanity, we simultaneously become divine. We participate in divine life.
We become intimate with God and start thinking and loving in a Godly way. We engage in communion and conversation with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
And here is the really best part. In losing our lives in God, we don’t really lose at all as the nutrients in the soil, the dandelion, or the rabbit.
Instead, we retain our own self and grow bigger.
But we have to remember: only with God and only in going through this process of losing can we gain and be our fullest self. And that is tough news and also the great news!
Saint Mary Magdalene Mission, Churchville
August 28, 2011
Becoming More
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE DANDELION, HARE, AND THE HUNTER
Once upon a time, a dandelion whispered to the nutrients in its soil: “How would you like to become a dandelion? You need only allow yourself to be dissolved in the earth’s water, and I will draw you up through my roots.
“Afterward you will be able to grow and flower and brighten the world.” The nutrients said: “Okay!”
The next morning, a rabbit hopped by and, feeling generous, said to the dandelion: “How would you like to become a rabbit? You would have to let me chew you up and swallow you, and you would lose your pretty petals.
“It would hurt at first, but afterward you would be able to hop around and wiggle your ears.” Not being rooted in just one place sounded good so the dandelion allowed itself to be munched and it became a rabbit.
The next day, a hunter spotted the rabbit, and being in a friendly mood, asked: “How would you like to become a human? Of course, you must let yourself be shot, skinned, stewed and eaten.
“That would be rather painful, but think of what you’d gain. You’d be able to think, laugh, cry, get 50 credit cards and watch football on a wide flat-screen TV.”
The rabbit was scared, but who could pass this up? So, he gave up the carefree life of a rabbit and became a human.
Years later, God noticed this human going about everyday human living. Feeling very fatherly, God said: “Hey! How would you like to become a super-human and live forever?”
BECOMING DIVINE
And that, my friends, is precisely the question God asks each human being.
And, in case we don’t know what is involved in this, God’s Son, Jesus, spells it out: “You have to lose your life to find it.”
Sports coaches and athletes say: “No pain; no gain.” Psychologists say: “Lose your false self to find your true self.” Spiritual writers talk about the “dark night before the dawn.”
What is it that we must lose and what do we gain? Well, the good news is that we don’t lose anything essential to our humanity.
We don’t lose anything that is good within us. All we really lose is our inhumanity, our bad self.
WHAT DO WE LOSE?
For example, we must lose our self-centeredness, which isolates us from other good people. We must lose our prejudices, which blind us to the truth.
We must lose our lust, which distorts our love. We must lose our insecurity, which restrains us from doing or saying what we believe is right.
We must lose our obsession with money, which prevents us from being generous. And we must lose our fear, which strangles our hope.
WHAT DO WE GAIN?
To the degree that we do this losing, we gain. We actually enlarge or expand our humanity.
We don’t have to get there all at once. We can do it step by step.
And we don’t have to advance in every department of life. Actually, most saints are imperfect and unfinished in some way.
The best part is that in fulfilling our humanity, we simultaneously become divine. We participate in divine life.
We become intimate with God and start thinking and loving in a Godly way. We engage in communion and conversation with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
And here is the really best part. In losing our lives in God, we don’t really lose at all as the nutrients in the soil, the dandelion, or the rabbit.
Instead, we retain our own self and grow bigger.
But we have to remember: only with God and only in going through this process of losing can we gain and be our fullest self. And that is tough news and also the great news!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for August 21, 2011: Deacon Preaching Weekend
Deacons preached this weekend at St. Margaret's and St. Marks where Father Nicholas celebrated Masses.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for August 14, 2011: Father Nicholas is away on Vacation
Father Nicholas is away on Vacation this weekend.
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for August 7, 2011: Amazing Grace? Yes, It Is!
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Mark Parish, Fallston
August 7, 2011
AMAZING GRACE? YES, IT IS!
AMAZING GRACE
One of our classic Christian hymns is Amazing Grace.
We all know those opening lines: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” We sing of God’s grace saving us.
In our Christian or Catholic vocabulary, we used to use the word grace much more frequently than we do today. Today we still believe in this reality, but we often use other words for it.
Today, more often we speak of the presence, the love, the strength, or the healing action of God. These words help to express the reality of what God does for us or who God is for us.
And, of course, in all of this, God is giving himself to us. God’s action is gratuitous, gratis, and from this we get the word grace.
GOD REACHES OUT
I see today’s Gospel as a story about the grace of God.
Jesus extends himself, his hand and arm, to Peter. Peter is afraid because of the wind and waves on the lake.
The whole point here is that Jesus is here for us when we have to deal with the winds and waves of life. God gratuitously reaches out to us.
God gives us his presence when we are afraid or anxious. God gives us his love when we feel abandoned or alone.
God gives us his strength when we find life difficult or burdensome. And God gives us his healing when we are spiritually injured or even physically ill.
WE REACH BACK
Yes, God reaches out himself to us and the experience of that contact, we call grace.
But, like Peter, we need to allow Jesus to take hold of us. We need to allow him to be present, to love, to strengthen and to heal us.
And to do this we need to keep our eyes fixed on God, on Jesus. Remember, Peter becomes afraid and gets into trouble when he takes his eyes off of Jesus.
He starts to sink when he just focuses on the wind and the waves. The same thing can happen to us.
There will be wind and waves in our lives too – a personal sickness, the death of a loved one, financial troubles, a son or daughter trapped in an addiction, and on it can go. Yes, we all experience winds and waves in our lives.
And in these times, if we keep our eyes focused just on the troubles, we will get overwhelmed and start sinking like Peter. The key is keep your eyes fixed on the Lord.
LOOKING AT JESUS
How do we do this?
My experience tells me that if we are going to keep our eyes on Jesus in the storms of life, we need a pattern for doing this every day, even when there is no storm.
I recommend three habits or actions for doing this.
FIRST, I suggest that every morning you offer a prayer to center yourself on the Lord. You can thank God just for the gift of a new day of life.
You can ask the Lord for strength and guidance in what you have to do in this new day. This kind of brief Morning Prayer, whether our personal weather is calm or stormy, helps us to develop a pattern of keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord.
SECOND, I recommend that we choose a one-sentence prayer and pray it often during the course of the day. For example, “I am with you always,” or “God is love” or “Lord, you are my refuge and my strength.”
A one-sentence prayer like one of these helps us to stay centered on the Lord throughout the day. It helps us to keep our eyes on the Lord whether our personal weather is calm or stormy.
AND THIRD, let’s learn a lesson from Elijah who was looking for God in extraordinary places like strong and heavy wind that was rending the mountains and crushing rocks. But, recall, the Lord was not in the wind. Or in the earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Or the fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Where did he find the Lord? In the tiny whispering sound! So Elijah hides his face in his cloak. It’s the same Lord we find in the sacraments using ordinary elements like water, oil, bread and wine. And right here in the ordinary and everyday we bow our heads over God’s reaching out to us.
CONCLUSION
When we respond to God in these ways, we are clearing the way for him to take hold of us and be the steady help he wants to be.
And that is Amazing Grace!
St. Mark Parish, Fallston
August 7, 2011
AMAZING GRACE? YES, IT IS!
AMAZING GRACE
One of our classic Christian hymns is Amazing Grace.
We all know those opening lines: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” We sing of God’s grace saving us.
In our Christian or Catholic vocabulary, we used to use the word grace much more frequently than we do today. Today we still believe in this reality, but we often use other words for it.
Today, more often we speak of the presence, the love, the strength, or the healing action of God. These words help to express the reality of what God does for us or who God is for us.
And, of course, in all of this, God is giving himself to us. God’s action is gratuitous, gratis, and from this we get the word grace.
GOD REACHES OUT
I see today’s Gospel as a story about the grace of God.
Jesus extends himself, his hand and arm, to Peter. Peter is afraid because of the wind and waves on the lake.
The whole point here is that Jesus is here for us when we have to deal with the winds and waves of life. God gratuitously reaches out to us.
God gives us his presence when we are afraid or anxious. God gives us his love when we feel abandoned or alone.
God gives us his strength when we find life difficult or burdensome. And God gives us his healing when we are spiritually injured or even physically ill.
WE REACH BACK
Yes, God reaches out himself to us and the experience of that contact, we call grace.
But, like Peter, we need to allow Jesus to take hold of us. We need to allow him to be present, to love, to strengthen and to heal us.
And to do this we need to keep our eyes fixed on God, on Jesus. Remember, Peter becomes afraid and gets into trouble when he takes his eyes off of Jesus.
He starts to sink when he just focuses on the wind and the waves. The same thing can happen to us.
There will be wind and waves in our lives too – a personal sickness, the death of a loved one, financial troubles, a son or daughter trapped in an addiction, and on it can go. Yes, we all experience winds and waves in our lives.
And in these times, if we keep our eyes focused just on the troubles, we will get overwhelmed and start sinking like Peter. The key is keep your eyes fixed on the Lord.
LOOKING AT JESUS
How do we do this?
My experience tells me that if we are going to keep our eyes on Jesus in the storms of life, we need a pattern for doing this every day, even when there is no storm.
I recommend three habits or actions for doing this.
FIRST, I suggest that every morning you offer a prayer to center yourself on the Lord. You can thank God just for the gift of a new day of life.
You can ask the Lord for strength and guidance in what you have to do in this new day. This kind of brief Morning Prayer, whether our personal weather is calm or stormy, helps us to develop a pattern of keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord.
SECOND, I recommend that we choose a one-sentence prayer and pray it often during the course of the day. For example, “I am with you always,” or “God is love” or “Lord, you are my refuge and my strength.”
A one-sentence prayer like one of these helps us to stay centered on the Lord throughout the day. It helps us to keep our eyes on the Lord whether our personal weather is calm or stormy.
AND THIRD, let’s learn a lesson from Elijah who was looking for God in extraordinary places like strong and heavy wind that was rending the mountains and crushing rocks. But, recall, the Lord was not in the wind. Or in the earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Or the fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Where did he find the Lord? In the tiny whispering sound! So Elijah hides his face in his cloak. It’s the same Lord we find in the sacraments using ordinary elements like water, oil, bread and wine. And right here in the ordinary and everyday we bow our heads over God’s reaching out to us.
CONCLUSION
When we respond to God in these ways, we are clearing the way for him to take hold of us and be the steady help he wants to be.
And that is Amazing Grace!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for July 31, 2011: Disconnecting in Order to Connect
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Terranuova Hermitage
July 31, 2011
Disconnecting in Order to Connect
By (Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BEING CONNECTED
It a little over two years ago, that I got a new cell phone – a Verizon Droid.
My Droid keeps me connected with all the parishes I help out in and with the places I am offering retreats. I can place and respond to calls quickly.
As you know I can send and receive text messages and emails. I can get on the Internet, do a Google search for a restaurant, or get directions to your home on the GPS.
Many of you have phones like this and you know exactly what I am talking about. There’s no question about it, there’s a real advantage in being connected like this.
JESUS DISCONNECTS TO CONNECT
On the other hand, one of today’s spiritual writers, a Jesuit priest named James Martin, speaks of the importance of disconnecting.
Martin says that we need to disconnect in order to connect. And isn’t that exactly what Jesus does in today’s Gospel?
Jesus’ spirits are low because he has just heard of the death of his cousin John the Baptist. The passage says that “he withdrew to a deserted place by himself.”
So Jesus disconnects – from his ministry and teaching, from his apostles and everyone. Why does he do this?
I’d suggest that he disconnects in order to connect. He needs to connect with his inner self, with his feelings, his sense of mission, and with the Father.
And what happens is that by his disconnecting, Jesus gets the energy to connect again with others. The passage says that a lot of people show up and we see that he is now able to respond to them.
And then his disconnecting also enables him to connect again with his disciples. They want to send the people away.
But Jesus is again able to draw the best out of them. He moves them to utilize their own resources and take care of the people themselves.
So, Jesus disconnects in order to connect. His connecting with himself and the Father empowers him to connect again with others in a life-giving and positive way.
WE DISCONNECT TO CONNECT
It is easy to say that we also need to disconnect in order to connect, but it is not always easy to do this.
I imagine this is especially challenging for parents with young children or for any adults with long commutes to work and lots of responsibilities. But I want to hold out for this: that we do need some time, if it is only five minutes a day, to turn off the cell phones and be alone with ourselves and with God.
We need this time to disconnect – maybe alone in your bedroom, in your car, taking a walk, or in any quiet place we can find. This disconnecting helps to connect again with our inner self, with what is going on in our lives, with God, and with what God is moving us to do.
It will help us sort out our stresses and upsets. It will help us connect with our best self and with how Jesus moves us to respond to overload or relationship troubles or whatever is weighing on us.
We are also to do this here at Sunday Mass. It is intentional that we are asked to turn off our cell phones here.
We do this disconnect so as to be able to connect with both God and the larger community. Here the Word of God guides us and the Eucharist nourishes us as a spiritual community.
The Word connects us as a community with our resources and gifts, much as Jesus does with the disciples today. It draws us out of ourselves to connect with the larger community of the Church and society and the entire world.
It awakens us from a narrow sense of self and of God that we will probably have if we were just to pray alone at home. It connects us to a fuller, maybe even more accurate sense of life.
And then the Eucharist connects us to Jesus in a way that nothing else can do. It is Jesus, present here for us, nourishing and strengthening us to act – again like the disciples today.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell – disconnect to connect.
Easy words to remember, maybe not so easy to do! But, important, very important to first espouse and then put into action!
We need to disconnect as much as Jesus did. The stresses of our lives and the problems confronting our country and our world are not going to subside anytime soon.
To be God’s people in this, we need to disconnect. And we need this to connect in a Christ-like, life-giving, positive way – something our world sorely needs right now.
Terranuova Hermitage
July 31, 2011
Disconnecting in Order to Connect
By (Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BEING CONNECTED
It a little over two years ago, that I got a new cell phone – a Verizon Droid.
My Droid keeps me connected with all the parishes I help out in and with the places I am offering retreats. I can place and respond to calls quickly.
As you know I can send and receive text messages and emails. I can get on the Internet, do a Google search for a restaurant, or get directions to your home on the GPS.
Many of you have phones like this and you know exactly what I am talking about. There’s no question about it, there’s a real advantage in being connected like this.
JESUS DISCONNECTS TO CONNECT
On the other hand, one of today’s spiritual writers, a Jesuit priest named James Martin, speaks of the importance of disconnecting.
Martin says that we need to disconnect in order to connect. And isn’t that exactly what Jesus does in today’s Gospel?
Jesus’ spirits are low because he has just heard of the death of his cousin John the Baptist. The passage says that “he withdrew to a deserted place by himself.”
So Jesus disconnects – from his ministry and teaching, from his apostles and everyone. Why does he do this?
I’d suggest that he disconnects in order to connect. He needs to connect with his inner self, with his feelings, his sense of mission, and with the Father.
And what happens is that by his disconnecting, Jesus gets the energy to connect again with others. The passage says that a lot of people show up and we see that he is now able to respond to them.
And then his disconnecting also enables him to connect again with his disciples. They want to send the people away.
But Jesus is again able to draw the best out of them. He moves them to utilize their own resources and take care of the people themselves.
So, Jesus disconnects in order to connect. His connecting with himself and the Father empowers him to connect again with others in a life-giving and positive way.
WE DISCONNECT TO CONNECT
It is easy to say that we also need to disconnect in order to connect, but it is not always easy to do this.
I imagine this is especially challenging for parents with young children or for any adults with long commutes to work and lots of responsibilities. But I want to hold out for this: that we do need some time, if it is only five minutes a day, to turn off the cell phones and be alone with ourselves and with God.
We need this time to disconnect – maybe alone in your bedroom, in your car, taking a walk, or in any quiet place we can find. This disconnecting helps to connect again with our inner self, with what is going on in our lives, with God, and with what God is moving us to do.
It will help us sort out our stresses and upsets. It will help us connect with our best self and with how Jesus moves us to respond to overload or relationship troubles or whatever is weighing on us.
We are also to do this here at Sunday Mass. It is intentional that we are asked to turn off our cell phones here.
We do this disconnect so as to be able to connect with both God and the larger community. Here the Word of God guides us and the Eucharist nourishes us as a spiritual community.
The Word connects us as a community with our resources and gifts, much as Jesus does with the disciples today. It draws us out of ourselves to connect with the larger community of the Church and society and the entire world.
It awakens us from a narrow sense of self and of God that we will probably have if we were just to pray alone at home. It connects us to a fuller, maybe even more accurate sense of life.
And then the Eucharist connects us to Jesus in a way that nothing else can do. It is Jesus, present here for us, nourishing and strengthening us to act – again like the disciples today.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell – disconnect to connect.
Easy words to remember, maybe not so easy to do! But, important, very important to first espouse and then put into action!
We need to disconnect as much as Jesus did. The stresses of our lives and the problems confronting our country and our world are not going to subside anytime soon.
To be God’s people in this, we need to disconnect. And we need this to connect in a Christ-like, life-giving, positive way – something our world sorely needs right now.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for July 23, 2011: Faith -- More Thank One of Many Gifts
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Mark Parish, Fallston
July 23, 2011
Faith: More Than One of Many Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
ROSE KENNEDY
Years ago before Katy Curic left The Today Show she was interviewing a reporter who was a personal friend of the Kennedy family. Katy asked how she believed this family had been able to get through so many personal losses.
The reporter, Doris Goodman, thought for a moment and responded, “It was Rose Kennedy. She’s the one who has given this family its underlying strength.”
Goodman recalled an incident in which Rose Kennedy said, “If God were to take away all the gifts I’ve been given, the only one I’d beg him to let me keep would be faith.”
“Faith?” the reporter asked her, “Why keep faith as the very last one?” “Because with faith I’d be able to understand and deal with the loss of all the other blessings I loved.”
Holding on to faith had given Rose Kennedy the ability to deal with the tragic deaths of four of her children.
GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Our Scriptures focus on what’s important in our lives as believers and how we might act in terms of that “most important item” in our lives.
In the Gospel, Jesus uses two images to raise this question.
First, he tells of a man who finds a treasure buried in a field. The man re-buries the treasure then sells all he has for money to buy the field and have title to the treasure.
Jesus’ second image is of a merchant selling all he has so he can buy one valuable pearl. At the time, pearls were more valuable than gold or diamonds.
So, in each parable, we see folks going to great lengths to acquire something that is the most valuable thing in their lives. His point is that we should be ready to give anything for that field, anything for that pearl.
Rose Kennedy understood this point well. For her, “faith” was that treasure that pearl.
A TEMPLATE
A closer look shows us that the gift Rose chose is actually a tool that would help her see and understand all the other gifts. Think of it as a “template” in computer jargon.
When we are typing a letter for the first time on our PC or MAC, the software tells us, “This looks like a letter. Are you typing a letter? If you are, I can help you type the hundreds of letters you type after this one.” All you need do is say, “yes.”
After that, the program will present you with a template in which all letters can be typed.
Thus templates offer you a framework that assists us in dealing with the components of all future letters. They offer alternatives that will make your letter better.
This is precisely what the gift of faith did for Rose Kennedy. It was a template, a way of assisting her in all the “letters” of her life – her losses, joys, sorrows and sad good-bys.
APPLICATION
So what does all this say to you and me?
Chose faith! Say “yes” to faith in Jesus Christ as the most important treasure in your life – sell all you have for faith in the Lord, placing all else at least second and you will have a template, a way of dealing with all that life has dealt you.
Setbacks such as the LOSS OF A JOB OR AN ILLNESS need not be the end. With faith in Jesus and knowing he is at our side, we can tighten the belt a bit, get the courage to be more assertive in our networking for a new joy, or use our recuperation time from an illness to develop a hobby or create a home-based business
The LOSS OF A LOVED ONE NEED not be the loss of our own will to live. With faith in Jesus, we can better learn to trust him with our life and join ourselves to our departed loved ones through increased prayer or service to others in their memory.
The LIMITATIONS OF OUR PERSONALITY, be they anger, impatience, or depression, need not be a strike against us. Again, with faith in Jesus, they can be avenues for understanding how much the Lord loves us and accepts us as we are.
Those sorts of breakthroughs are now possible because we have the template that offers us a framework. It offers us assistance in dealing with the components of all our “future letters.” It offers us alternatives that make our letter better.
When you choose faith in Christ, and you receive the “template,” you don’t have to start from scratch with each trial you encounter, for you now have a framework, a context, to understand all of life’s curves and turns, it’s potholes and open vistas, it’s dead-ends and steep inclines.
CONCLUSION
Rose Kennedy’s choice of “faith first” served her well. We see it in her family’s ability to deal with so much loss.
Faith first can have that same impact in our own lives, as well.
St. Mark Parish, Fallston
July 23, 2011
Faith: More Than One of Many Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
ROSE KENNEDY
Years ago before Katy Curic left The Today Show she was interviewing a reporter who was a personal friend of the Kennedy family. Katy asked how she believed this family had been able to get through so many personal losses.
The reporter, Doris Goodman, thought for a moment and responded, “It was Rose Kennedy. She’s the one who has given this family its underlying strength.”
Goodman recalled an incident in which Rose Kennedy said, “If God were to take away all the gifts I’ve been given, the only one I’d beg him to let me keep would be faith.”
“Faith?” the reporter asked her, “Why keep faith as the very last one?” “Because with faith I’d be able to understand and deal with the loss of all the other blessings I loved.”
Holding on to faith had given Rose Kennedy the ability to deal with the tragic deaths of four of her children.
GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Our Scriptures focus on what’s important in our lives as believers and how we might act in terms of that “most important item” in our lives.
In the Gospel, Jesus uses two images to raise this question.
First, he tells of a man who finds a treasure buried in a field. The man re-buries the treasure then sells all he has for money to buy the field and have title to the treasure.
Jesus’ second image is of a merchant selling all he has so he can buy one valuable pearl. At the time, pearls were more valuable than gold or diamonds.
So, in each parable, we see folks going to great lengths to acquire something that is the most valuable thing in their lives. His point is that we should be ready to give anything for that field, anything for that pearl.
Rose Kennedy understood this point well. For her, “faith” was that treasure that pearl.
A TEMPLATE
A closer look shows us that the gift Rose chose is actually a tool that would help her see and understand all the other gifts. Think of it as a “template” in computer jargon.
When we are typing a letter for the first time on our PC or MAC, the software tells us, “This looks like a letter. Are you typing a letter? If you are, I can help you type the hundreds of letters you type after this one.” All you need do is say, “yes.”
After that, the program will present you with a template in which all letters can be typed.
Thus templates offer you a framework that assists us in dealing with the components of all future letters. They offer alternatives that will make your letter better.
This is precisely what the gift of faith did for Rose Kennedy. It was a template, a way of assisting her in all the “letters” of her life – her losses, joys, sorrows and sad good-bys.
APPLICATION
So what does all this say to you and me?
Chose faith! Say “yes” to faith in Jesus Christ as the most important treasure in your life – sell all you have for faith in the Lord, placing all else at least second and you will have a template, a way of dealing with all that life has dealt you.
Setbacks such as the LOSS OF A JOB OR AN ILLNESS need not be the end. With faith in Jesus and knowing he is at our side, we can tighten the belt a bit, get the courage to be more assertive in our networking for a new joy, or use our recuperation time from an illness to develop a hobby or create a home-based business
The LOSS OF A LOVED ONE NEED not be the loss of our own will to live. With faith in Jesus, we can better learn to trust him with our life and join ourselves to our departed loved ones through increased prayer or service to others in their memory.
The LIMITATIONS OF OUR PERSONALITY, be they anger, impatience, or depression, need not be a strike against us. Again, with faith in Jesus, they can be avenues for understanding how much the Lord loves us and accepts us as we are.
Those sorts of breakthroughs are now possible because we have the template that offers us a framework. It offers us assistance in dealing with the components of all our “future letters.” It offers us alternatives that make our letter better.
When you choose faith in Christ, and you receive the “template,” you don’t have to start from scratch with each trial you encounter, for you now have a framework, a context, to understand all of life’s curves and turns, it’s potholes and open vistas, it’s dead-ends and steep inclines.
CONCLUSION
Rose Kennedy’s choice of “faith first” served her well. We see it in her family’s ability to deal with so much loss.
Faith first can have that same impact in our own lives, as well.
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