This past Sunday our priest gave a wonderful but difficult Homily.
The Gospel passage was from Matthew…
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Our Priest broke this passage down in a way that pertains to my immediate world.
Do I give unconditional love to those who hunger for it, my husband, my children, family and friends?
When people thirst for acceptance and truth do I quench their thirst or do I hold back because they are a different religion, a different color, or have different ideas of truth than what I believe to be right?
Do I welcome the stranger into my circle of friends or family when they are different than me? Do I accept them even though they have different beliefs, political stance etc…?
When people are naked with vulnerability do I feel superior towards them, use that vulnerability to manipulate them or cause them harm?
When people are sick with addiction, mental illness, or lack of love, do I run away from them, ridicule them?
When someone is imprisoned with depression, home bound, or is in a prison of sadness and anger because of hurt that has been afflicted upon them do I keep my distance?
Our priest also said that we must see Jesus in everyone. This is so difficult. It is hard to see Jesus in the person addicted to drugs who is hurting themselves and their families.
Am I supposed to see Jesus in the people who harm children, who are not sorry for their crime and will do it again if they have a chance?
Is Jesus really in these people?
When the homily was over I knew I fell short on everything Jesus was trying to say through the Gospel.
I do pray for everyone, even those who do evil things, but even though I pray for them I don’t have the love and compassion in my heart for them. I do not see Jesus in them.
I want to see Christ in everyone, but it is difficult when I have trouble finding Him in me.
I don't have the answer. I know what Jesus wants me to do but at times I find it impossible. The only thing I know to do is pray.
I will keep this homily in my heart, pray about it and ask Christ for help.
Peace
Showing posts with label Kindness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindness. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Reference Desk Man
I love the library. The library in my area has a great kids section. Besides the books it has games, toys, computers, and a wall hole that the kids can crawl through and hide in. It is a lot of fun for the kids and gives me time to look for the books I need.
I am new to the library, I just started to frequent our local library this year since we started homeschooling.
I don’t know if it is just me or maybe others have experienced this. I think part of the qualifications for the person who works the reference desk is they must move and talk at a very slow pace. Since I am new to our library I find myself needing to ask questions, so I go to the reference desk. It does not matter who is working that day all of them move and talk at the same pace, very slowly.
Today I had all the kids with me at the library. I had a list of books I wanted to get for the older kids. I searched for them on the computer, I searched the shelves and I could not find any on my list. I knew I would have to go to the reference desk to ask about one book that was supposed to be there.
By this time my oldest son is in a time out. My littlest one has one shoe on and clutching one of the stuff animals, screaming as his older sister tries to take it away. The last thing I wanted to do was approach the reference desk. But it is a book I need for school so I went ahead and asked about the book.
The person looked up very slowly from the computer, I asked my question and he very slowly told me he would teach me how to use the computer to hold books. (I already know how to do this). He slowly walked over to the computer, and then proceeded to let my daughter do all the typing. I am looking at him and then looking at my two screaming toddlers. His face never changed, he just went on with the demonstration.
Then he decided to call another library for me, all this at the pace of a turtle. Now my oldest son is crying, my youngest one has no shoe or sock on, and bug is sweating to death screaming for me to take off her jacket.
The reference guy makes the call and tells me I will have my book soon. I thank him and he looks at me and with a slow sweet smile and says, have a wonderful day. He says the same to each one of my unruly children.
He was so sweet and nice. Ignoring how my kids were behaving and genuinely happy to help. He moved slow as all reference desk people do, but I think that means patience, patience with people who don’t know the library well, patience with mom’s who are always moving way to fast.
Thank you for your patience slow moving reference desk man. Thank you for not rolling your eyes at my children or me. You were a very big help.
I am new to the library, I just started to frequent our local library this year since we started homeschooling.
I don’t know if it is just me or maybe others have experienced this. I think part of the qualifications for the person who works the reference desk is they must move and talk at a very slow pace. Since I am new to our library I find myself needing to ask questions, so I go to the reference desk. It does not matter who is working that day all of them move and talk at the same pace, very slowly.
Today I had all the kids with me at the library. I had a list of books I wanted to get for the older kids. I searched for them on the computer, I searched the shelves and I could not find any on my list. I knew I would have to go to the reference desk to ask about one book that was supposed to be there.
By this time my oldest son is in a time out. My littlest one has one shoe on and clutching one of the stuff animals, screaming as his older sister tries to take it away. The last thing I wanted to do was approach the reference desk. But it is a book I need for school so I went ahead and asked about the book.
The person looked up very slowly from the computer, I asked my question and he very slowly told me he would teach me how to use the computer to hold books. (I already know how to do this). He slowly walked over to the computer, and then proceeded to let my daughter do all the typing. I am looking at him and then looking at my two screaming toddlers. His face never changed, he just went on with the demonstration.
Then he decided to call another library for me, all this at the pace of a turtle. Now my oldest son is crying, my youngest one has no shoe or sock on, and bug is sweating to death screaming for me to take off her jacket.
The reference guy makes the call and tells me I will have my book soon. I thank him and he looks at me and with a slow sweet smile and says, have a wonderful day. He says the same to each one of my unruly children.
He was so sweet and nice. Ignoring how my kids were behaving and genuinely happy to help. He moved slow as all reference desk people do, but I think that means patience, patience with people who don’t know the library well, patience with mom’s who are always moving way to fast.
Thank you for your patience slow moving reference desk man. Thank you for not rolling your eyes at my children or me. You were a very big help.
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