November 5, 2021
Dear Friends,
Even before we move into this week’s musings, because they are deeper than I anticipated, I would like to send one friendly reminder. This weekend, we, unlike Cher actually, get to turn back time. Don’t forget to set your clocks back - you know the ones on your coffee maker, thermostat, stove, microwave, and the random devices that we don’t realize have clocks on them until weeks later.
There. My good deed for the week is done. On Monday, we celebrated All Saints Day. It really gets one thinking about the lives of the Saints, the good and bad parts of their lives. Yet to us, these are people we need to aspire to be. In spite of their imperfections, they answered the call to live their faith to its fullest. In the movie Wreck-it Ralph, we see the “bad” guys of past video games in a support group. They have an affirmation that they say at each meeting, “I’m bad. And that’s good. I will never be good. And that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.” What they are saying is, yes, they are bad, but they can still try to grow as a character. Be the best you, that you can be.
I am not a Saint, but I am trying to be. I am not always loving but I am trying to be. I am not the smartest person in the room, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t stop trying to be. The list of areas of personal growth that I need is just as long as it was when I was born. Yet, it is something that I still try, on a daily basis, to work on. Shockingly, he sarcastically says that one thing I feel we can all continue to bring into focus is the love we bring to others. Love is an easy call for us to answer. I think it has become difficult to actually sort the emotion from the overwhelming parts of the world with which everyone is dealing.
Giving love should be unconditional. We should be able to love every person, we come in contact with; however, loving our neighbor is no longer proper. If we do not agree with someone based upon ____________ grounds, we fight and argue with them. We need to harass them and bad mouth them on social media. We get caught up so much in our ideologies and forget that it is ok to disagree with someone and still have a civil conversation. Acts of charity and love should not be tied to the digital world and the evil that it brings out in people. Some of the nicest people I know, some of the most faithful people I know, share some of the most hateful things on social media and it surprises me.
I have said time and again at mass, when we leave church, we are supposed to take God with us wherever we go. Sometimes that love doesn’t even make it out of the parking lot, especially on Faith Formation Sundays. We need to get into our cars and on the road as quickly as we can. We fume at the people in the parking lot in front of our cars as we try to leave and at the person trying to park or back out of their parking spot. Don’t they know I have someplace that I need to be?
Love should be unconditional. Sure, we may struggle to love at times, but that just means we need to work on it more. There is a song that we sing at mass, Take the Word of God with you. The song has multiple verses, but we sing it with great joy. The fourth verse, Take the Love of God with you as you go, take the seeds of God’s love and make it grow, go in peace to serve the world, in peace to serve the world, take the love of God, the love of God, with you as you go. We need to be reminded of how important it is to take that Love wherever we go. It isn’t easy. It is a struggle, yet we are still called to do this on a daily and consistent basis.
Stay warm and have a great weekend!
Fr. Brian