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.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for July 17, 2011: Lessons from Weeds and Wheat Growing Together
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Terrnauova Hermitage
July 17, 2011
Lessons from Weeds and Wheat Growing Together
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
SUNFLOWERS AND WEEDS
I have always enjoyed some gardening – at least when I have time to do it.
I remember once planting sunflowers. I really like them and was looking forward to them forming the background to the other plants and flowers.
Well, as the sunflower seeds sprouted and merged above the soil, there were also some weeds. It was very difficult to tell the difference between the leaves of these weeds and the leaves of the sunflowers.
I realized this too late and pulled up some of the sunflower plants with the weeds. And then I decided to stop weeding in that area.
I figured that soon the sunflowers would grow so tall and start to bloom that it would be easy to tell the difference between them and the weeds. That is exactly what happened and I ended up with some beautiful sunflowers and was easily able to weed around them.
WHEAT AND WEEDS
This experience is almost exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s parable.
The farmer tells his workers not to pull up the weeds that are in with the wheat. This seems counter-intuitive, against what seems to make sense.
But the farmer’s direction is correct. The type of weed here looks like wheat in its early stages and you might pull up both weeds and wheat.
And beyond that, the kind of weed being referred to had roots that intertwined with the roots of the wheat. So, even if you could identify and pull out the weeds, you would probably injure the wheat in the process.
Well, as with any parable, Jesus is really teaching us something about life and how we are to follow him. There are some excellent lessons here.
NOT SAYING: DON'T GUIDE
First, what is Jesus not saying here?
Jesus is not saying that we should not guide our children and youth. We do need to guide them in what is right and wrong and in choosing good friends.
Also, Jesus is not saying that we should condone or be passive about certain evils – things like foul language, racist remarks, abortion, and on it goes. We need to be a light for our world when it comes to these things.
SAYING 1: DON'T WEED OUT
What then is Jesus saying with this teaching about the wheat and the weeds?
First, he’s saying: “Don’t weed out one another.” He wants us to resist the human tendency to separate, divide, exclude, and shun in all its forms.
Sometimes religion and those of us who are religious can get into this sort of behavior. In recent years, even in our Church, some have wanted to identify those who are weeds and pull them out and exclude them from Communion for reasons well beyond sound Catholic tradition.
This kind of action just does not seem consistent with today’s Gospel. Jesus calls us here to be patient and even give what we might call weeds the chance to grow to become wheat.
SAYING 2: DON'T LABEL
That moves right into the second thing Jesus is saying here. Do not even label others as weeds.
Again, there is a human tendency to do this. The problem is that it is a dualistic approach – we versus them, the good versus the bad.
The best of our Catholic tradition has warned against and even condemned dualism. Jesus calls us to a more unitive approach.
This means that we see both others and ourselves as one because, in fact, there is a mix of wheat and weeds right within me and within you. Jesus is patient with us in letting us grow and wants us to be patient with others in letting them grow.
SAYING 3: NOURISH THE WHEAT
And that moves right into the third point Jesus is making. He wants us to concentrate more on the wheat.
Nourish the wheat, just like the sunflowers in my garden, and it will grow well and be easily distinguishable from the weeds. There will be a good harvest and God in his own way will take care of any weeds.
In other words, act positively in promoting what is good.
CONCLUSION
A Franciscan theologian, Father Richard Rohr, offers some wonderful advice on this topic and I will conclude with his advice.
He says: “If you want others to be more loving, choose to love first. If you want a reconciled outer world, reconcile your own inner world.
“If you notice other peoples’ irritability, let go of your own. If the world seems desperate, let go of your despair.
“If you want a just world, start being just in small ways yourself. If you want to find God, then honor God within you, and you will always see God beyond you.
“For it is only God in you who knows where and how to look for God.” In short, pay more attention to the wheat than to the weeds.
Terrnauova Hermitage
July 17, 2011
Lessons from Weeds and Wheat Growing Together
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
SUNFLOWERS AND WEEDS
I have always enjoyed some gardening – at least when I have time to do it.
I remember once planting sunflowers. I really like them and was looking forward to them forming the background to the other plants and flowers.
Well, as the sunflower seeds sprouted and merged above the soil, there were also some weeds. It was very difficult to tell the difference between the leaves of these weeds and the leaves of the sunflowers.
I realized this too late and pulled up some of the sunflower plants with the weeds. And then I decided to stop weeding in that area.
I figured that soon the sunflowers would grow so tall and start to bloom that it would be easy to tell the difference between them and the weeds. That is exactly what happened and I ended up with some beautiful sunflowers and was easily able to weed around them.
WHEAT AND WEEDS
This experience is almost exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s parable.
The farmer tells his workers not to pull up the weeds that are in with the wheat. This seems counter-intuitive, against what seems to make sense.
But the farmer’s direction is correct. The type of weed here looks like wheat in its early stages and you might pull up both weeds and wheat.
And beyond that, the kind of weed being referred to had roots that intertwined with the roots of the wheat. So, even if you could identify and pull out the weeds, you would probably injure the wheat in the process.
Well, as with any parable, Jesus is really teaching us something about life and how we are to follow him. There are some excellent lessons here.
NOT SAYING: DON'T GUIDE
First, what is Jesus not saying here?
Jesus is not saying that we should not guide our children and youth. We do need to guide them in what is right and wrong and in choosing good friends.
Also, Jesus is not saying that we should condone or be passive about certain evils – things like foul language, racist remarks, abortion, and on it goes. We need to be a light for our world when it comes to these things.
SAYING 1: DON'T WEED OUT
What then is Jesus saying with this teaching about the wheat and the weeds?
First, he’s saying: “Don’t weed out one another.” He wants us to resist the human tendency to separate, divide, exclude, and shun in all its forms.
Sometimes religion and those of us who are religious can get into this sort of behavior. In recent years, even in our Church, some have wanted to identify those who are weeds and pull them out and exclude them from Communion for reasons well beyond sound Catholic tradition.
This kind of action just does not seem consistent with today’s Gospel. Jesus calls us here to be patient and even give what we might call weeds the chance to grow to become wheat.
SAYING 2: DON'T LABEL
That moves right into the second thing Jesus is saying here. Do not even label others as weeds.
Again, there is a human tendency to do this. The problem is that it is a dualistic approach – we versus them, the good versus the bad.
The best of our Catholic tradition has warned against and even condemned dualism. Jesus calls us to a more unitive approach.
This means that we see both others and ourselves as one because, in fact, there is a mix of wheat and weeds right within me and within you. Jesus is patient with us in letting us grow and wants us to be patient with others in letting them grow.
SAYING 3: NOURISH THE WHEAT
And that moves right into the third point Jesus is making. He wants us to concentrate more on the wheat.
Nourish the wheat, just like the sunflowers in my garden, and it will grow well and be easily distinguishable from the weeds. There will be a good harvest and God in his own way will take care of any weeds.
In other words, act positively in promoting what is good.
CONCLUSION
A Franciscan theologian, Father Richard Rohr, offers some wonderful advice on this topic and I will conclude with his advice.
He says: “If you want others to be more loving, choose to love first. If you want a reconciled outer world, reconcile your own inner world.
“If you notice other peoples’ irritability, let go of your own. If the world seems desperate, let go of your despair.
“If you want a just world, start being just in small ways yourself. If you want to find God, then honor God within you, and you will always see God beyond you.
“For it is only God in you who knows where and how to look for God.” In short, pay more attention to the wheat than to the weeds.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for July 10, 2011: Faith, Humility and Openness: Keys to Listening to God and Others
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Mark Church, Fallston
July 10, 2011
Faith, Humility and Openness: Keys to Listening to God and Others
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A PROBLEM: LISTENING
Every day we interact with one another, it becomes clearer that our culture has a real problem with listening. There’s a reason for this.
When my father and mother were teaching my brother, sister, and me good manners, they taught us never to interrupt others when they are speaking. They taught us to listen and wait to speak until the other person was finished.
From that lesson learned, my experience is that folks are constantly interrupting each other when someone is speaking. You can also see this on news shows and talk shows that are modeling this as normative behavior to the general public.
We interrupt and do not listen, of if we listen we’re thinking about our response before the person has completed their thought. So often, our response is here (hand high) and what the person said is here. (Hand low; and two missing each other)
Still another lesson preached and learned at home was, “God gave you two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak”
Some of us are two mouths and half an ear. It is no wonder that we’re not communicating!
SOIL TYPES AND LISTENING
Today’s Gospel parable raises this issue of listening beautifully.
The metaphor is clear: the sower or farmer is God or Jesus. The seed is the Word of God.
The soil represents you and me and the different ways we receive or listen to the Word of God. The question is: How do we listen? Which of the four soils are we?
Each tells us how well we listen. I want to propose three requirements that are needed for effective listening, whether it is listening to the Word of God or listening to one another.
LISTENING TO THE WORD
For listening to the Word of God, FIRST WE NEED FAITH. Faith means that we believe that this is really the Word of God himself as it’s entering our very ears.
We believe that the Word who is God really speaks to us in and through the Scripture. We believe that the Word or Son of God is really present in the inspired Word as it is proclaimed here at Mass or as we read it privately.
SECOND, WE NEED HUMILITY. Humility means that we are aware that we are incomplete, that we are imperfect, that we don’t have it all.
We are aware that we desire and yearn, at least deep down, for completeness, for something beyond ourselves. We yearn for God, for a divine communication, for transcendence.
And THIRD, WE NEED OPENNESS. Openness means that we are awake and alert to the present moment.
It means that we want to take in what is said, that we are willing to have our attitudes, outlooks, feelings, behavior, and relationships changed, changed because of the Word we are listening to.
Imagine the kind of transformation that sort of listening can bring you!
LISTENING TO ONE ANOTHER
Now these same three traits are also essential for listening to one another.
FIRST, WE AGAIN NEED FAITH. Here faith means seeing the other person as made in the image and likeness of God and worthy to be listened to.
It means seeing others as in their own unique way revealing God to us, seeing others as valuable, worthwhile, with something to share with us.
SECOND, WE AGAIN NEED HUMILITY. Here humility means that we see ourselves as one with, as bonded with, others on the same human journey. We’re in this together and can’t make it alone!
It means that we do not see ourselves as above or better than others, that we see ourselves and others as having similar wants and needs, similar challenges and hopes.
AND THIRD, WE AGAIN NEED OPENNESS. Openness means that we are willing to take in the experience of others and not just hold on to my own experience as normative.
We are willing to ask and try to enter into the life of others and not just talk about ourselves all the time.
We’re even willing to have our attitudes, outlooks, feelings, behavior, and relationships changed, changed because of our listening to others.
CONCLUSION
So, these three traits – faith, humility, and openness – help us to be good listeners – listeners to the Word of God and to one another.
These traits, with the listening that results, might just help to ease and even resolve some of the problems in our communications with each other.
St. Mark Church, Fallston
July 10, 2011
Faith, Humility and Openness: Keys to Listening to God and Others
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A PROBLEM: LISTENING
Every day we interact with one another, it becomes clearer that our culture has a real problem with listening. There’s a reason for this.
When my father and mother were teaching my brother, sister, and me good manners, they taught us never to interrupt others when they are speaking. They taught us to listen and wait to speak until the other person was finished.
From that lesson learned, my experience is that folks are constantly interrupting each other when someone is speaking. You can also see this on news shows and talk shows that are modeling this as normative behavior to the general public.
We interrupt and do not listen, of if we listen we’re thinking about our response before the person has completed their thought. So often, our response is here (hand high) and what the person said is here. (Hand low; and two missing each other)
Still another lesson preached and learned at home was, “God gave you two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak”
Some of us are two mouths and half an ear. It is no wonder that we’re not communicating!
SOIL TYPES AND LISTENING
Today’s Gospel parable raises this issue of listening beautifully.
The metaphor is clear: the sower or farmer is God or Jesus. The seed is the Word of God.
The soil represents you and me and the different ways we receive or listen to the Word of God. The question is: How do we listen? Which of the four soils are we?
Each tells us how well we listen. I want to propose three requirements that are needed for effective listening, whether it is listening to the Word of God or listening to one another.
LISTENING TO THE WORD
For listening to the Word of God, FIRST WE NEED FAITH. Faith means that we believe that this is really the Word of God himself as it’s entering our very ears.
We believe that the Word who is God really speaks to us in and through the Scripture. We believe that the Word or Son of God is really present in the inspired Word as it is proclaimed here at Mass or as we read it privately.
SECOND, WE NEED HUMILITY. Humility means that we are aware that we are incomplete, that we are imperfect, that we don’t have it all.
We are aware that we desire and yearn, at least deep down, for completeness, for something beyond ourselves. We yearn for God, for a divine communication, for transcendence.
And THIRD, WE NEED OPENNESS. Openness means that we are awake and alert to the present moment.
It means that we want to take in what is said, that we are willing to have our attitudes, outlooks, feelings, behavior, and relationships changed, changed because of the Word we are listening to.
Imagine the kind of transformation that sort of listening can bring you!
LISTENING TO ONE ANOTHER
Now these same three traits are also essential for listening to one another.
FIRST, WE AGAIN NEED FAITH. Here faith means seeing the other person as made in the image and likeness of God and worthy to be listened to.
It means seeing others as in their own unique way revealing God to us, seeing others as valuable, worthwhile, with something to share with us.
SECOND, WE AGAIN NEED HUMILITY. Here humility means that we see ourselves as one with, as bonded with, others on the same human journey. We’re in this together and can’t make it alone!
It means that we do not see ourselves as above or better than others, that we see ourselves and others as having similar wants and needs, similar challenges and hopes.
AND THIRD, WE AGAIN NEED OPENNESS. Openness means that we are willing to take in the experience of others and not just hold on to my own experience as normative.
We are willing to ask and try to enter into the life of others and not just talk about ourselves all the time.
We’re even willing to have our attitudes, outlooks, feelings, behavior, and relationships changed, changed because of our listening to others.
CONCLUSION
So, these three traits – faith, humility, and openness – help us to be good listeners – listeners to the Word of God and to one another.
These traits, with the listening that results, might just help to ease and even resolve some of the problems in our communications with each other.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for July 3, 2011: What’s Stronger, Wind or Sun? And Why?
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Margaret, St. Mark
July 3, 2011
What’s Stronger, Wind or Sun? And Why?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
AESOP'S FABLE
Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth, there lived a Greek slave named Aesop.
This man compiled a collection of stories known as Aesop’s Fables. The stories have become a classic and they contain wonderful lessons for living.
One of Aesop’s Fables is tells of a dispute between the sun and the wind about which of them was stronger. The story goes that one day, a man dressed in an overcoat was walking down a country road.
The sun said to the wind, “Whoever gets the coat off that man first will be the stronger.” The wind agreed to the contest and agreed to go first.
And so, the wind blew and blew, but the more the wind blew, the tighter the man held on to his coat. Finally, the wind gave up.
Then it was the sun’s turn and she began to shine. Within a few minutes, the man removed his coat.
The sun won the contest and was declared stronger than the wind. The moral of Aesop’s tale is: you can achieve more by gentleness than by force.
JESUS' HUMBLENESS
Aesop’s moral is the lesson Jesus is teaching us today.
He says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” I would suggest that gentleness requires one first to be humble.
Look at Jesus. Though God, he humbles himself to become one of us. He lives our life fully, embracing our humanity with all of its limitations and weaknesses and he loves what he sees in us.
In becoming just like us – yet without our sinfulness – Jesus gives our human nature dignity. Now that’s being humble!
JESUS' GENTLENESS
It is in his humbleness – God meeting us where we are and as we are that makes it possible for Jesus to be so gentle with us. He knows us from the inside.
His gentleness and understanding flow from that very intimate knowledge of us.
Unlike the forceful wind, Jesus is gentle like the warm sun and it’s a gentleness that gets played out in many ways throughout the Gospels.
For example, when Jesus forms a group of followers, he respects these ragtag individuals and their life situations and their freedom, so he simply invites them to follow him, never force or coercing them.
In another situation, Jesus refuses to get caught up in putting down or condemning a woman caught in adultery. He respects her as the person she is sins and all and simply exhorts her to avoid that behavior.
Or again, Jesus likens himself to a shepherd who searches and finds one lost sheep. He doesn’t beat or scold the sheep, but rejoices in finding it and carries it home in his arms.
In so many ways, Jesus shows himself exactly as he describes himself today. “I am gentle and humble of heart.”
"LEARN FROM ME“
Let’s not forget the three words that precede “I am gentle and humble of heart,” namely, “Learn from me.”
The invitation to learn is that we cultivate the traits of humbleness and gentleness in ourselves.
To be humble means we stay in touch with our humanity, that is, we remain aware of our own limitations, weaknesses, struggles, and infirmities.
When looking at someone whom we consider less than us, we understand the old adage: “There but for the grace of God go I” or the Native American saying, “We have to walk a mile in another person’s moccasins to understand them.”
And from this humbleness, will flow a new found gentleness.
(1) Gentleness toward those who do not seem to belong be it the country club, the Catholic Church, the white race, the political party, the ethnic group. Only kindness will reduce those divisions.
(2) Gentleness toward those living with addictions to sex or drugs, those living a lifestyle very different from our own. Only love will have them consider alternatives.
(3) Gentleness toward those who have left the Catholic Church and seem to be floundering not knowing what they believe. Only respect will help them consider their options for living with faith.
CONCLUSION
Aesop’s fable of the wind and the sun helps us to recall Jesus’ words today.
“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Jesus’ humbleness and gentleness will be our real strength in loving others as they are.
St. Margaret, St. Mark
July 3, 2011
What’s Stronger, Wind or Sun? And Why?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
AESOP'S FABLE
Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth, there lived a Greek slave named Aesop.
This man compiled a collection of stories known as Aesop’s Fables. The stories have become a classic and they contain wonderful lessons for living.
One of Aesop’s Fables is tells of a dispute between the sun and the wind about which of them was stronger. The story goes that one day, a man dressed in an overcoat was walking down a country road.
The sun said to the wind, “Whoever gets the coat off that man first will be the stronger.” The wind agreed to the contest and agreed to go first.
And so, the wind blew and blew, but the more the wind blew, the tighter the man held on to his coat. Finally, the wind gave up.
Then it was the sun’s turn and she began to shine. Within a few minutes, the man removed his coat.
The sun won the contest and was declared stronger than the wind. The moral of Aesop’s tale is: you can achieve more by gentleness than by force.
JESUS' HUMBLENESS
Aesop’s moral is the lesson Jesus is teaching us today.
He says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” I would suggest that gentleness requires one first to be humble.
Look at Jesus. Though God, he humbles himself to become one of us. He lives our life fully, embracing our humanity with all of its limitations and weaknesses and he loves what he sees in us.
In becoming just like us – yet without our sinfulness – Jesus gives our human nature dignity. Now that’s being humble!
JESUS' GENTLENESS
It is in his humbleness – God meeting us where we are and as we are that makes it possible for Jesus to be so gentle with us. He knows us from the inside.
His gentleness and understanding flow from that very intimate knowledge of us.
Unlike the forceful wind, Jesus is gentle like the warm sun and it’s a gentleness that gets played out in many ways throughout the Gospels.
For example, when Jesus forms a group of followers, he respects these ragtag individuals and their life situations and their freedom, so he simply invites them to follow him, never force or coercing them.
In another situation, Jesus refuses to get caught up in putting down or condemning a woman caught in adultery. He respects her as the person she is sins and all and simply exhorts her to avoid that behavior.
Or again, Jesus likens himself to a shepherd who searches and finds one lost sheep. He doesn’t beat or scold the sheep, but rejoices in finding it and carries it home in his arms.
In so many ways, Jesus shows himself exactly as he describes himself today. “I am gentle and humble of heart.”
"LEARN FROM ME“
Let’s not forget the three words that precede “I am gentle and humble of heart,” namely, “Learn from me.”
The invitation to learn is that we cultivate the traits of humbleness and gentleness in ourselves.
To be humble means we stay in touch with our humanity, that is, we remain aware of our own limitations, weaknesses, struggles, and infirmities.
When looking at someone whom we consider less than us, we understand the old adage: “There but for the grace of God go I” or the Native American saying, “We have to walk a mile in another person’s moccasins to understand them.”
And from this humbleness, will flow a new found gentleness.
(1) Gentleness toward those who do not seem to belong be it the country club, the Catholic Church, the white race, the political party, the ethnic group. Only kindness will reduce those divisions.
(2) Gentleness toward those living with addictions to sex or drugs, those living a lifestyle very different from our own. Only love will have them consider alternatives.
(3) Gentleness toward those who have left the Catholic Church and seem to be floundering not knowing what they believe. Only respect will help them consider their options for living with faith.
CONCLUSION
Aesop’s fable of the wind and the sun helps us to recall Jesus’ words today.
“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Jesus’ humbleness and gentleness will be our real strength in loving others as they are.
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