A sweeter heart!
(02-14-2010)
Celibacy is a life choice; sometimes can be a condition imposed by certain problematic encounters for example: While attending a marriage encounter weekend, Walter and his wife Ann, listened intently as the facilitator declared, "It's essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other." He went on, addressing the men, "Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?"
Walter leaned over, touched Ann's arm gently and whispered, "Pillsbury All-Purpose, isn't it?"
And thus began Walter's life of celibacy. (Okay so it’s a corny intro).
As many of you know, Pope Benedict XVI has called our Church to celebrate The Year of the Priest. Often, young men will see a call to the vocation of priesthood as a negative because of celibacy. True celibacy in the priestly and Religious (women and men) life is a glad embrace of single life and an abstinence from sex to allow oneness with Christ in ministry and service to His people in His Church. Outwardly, to some, it is seen as a negative, a giving up of, but to others who truly receive the gift as grace, celibacy is a blessing and joy. It may take years to accept the grace to truly feel it as a blessing and be joyful about it. Celibacy is so difficult for many to understand, especially in the 21st century where sex and a commitment to a life of marriage are often taken as casual, persons become objects, commitments disposable. We can so easily lose sight of the dignity of life and its sacredness. We can so easily lose focus on the values we espouse as Christians. We can so easily lose sight of the personhood and worth and value of the divinely created human being. This can even happen in ministry and service in the Church and out of the Church.
We need to be careful and focus so that we do not become so caught-up in our definition or agenda in trying to be helpful that we lose sight of the dignity of person and only focus on the help we have come to offer and avoid making persons objects!
In other words, we get so wrapped up in helping that we cannot see the person from the issue. We work to feed or house those who suffer in poverty but do we connect to their humanity their personhood; do we know their individual story? We can so easily fall trap to see only the issue and our fixing a situation.
All of our readings today caution us to focus and watch what we consider trappings and blessings. Jeremiah tells us blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and not human trappings. Paul tells us that if our hopes are limited to this life, only the here and the now quick fix, we are to be pitied. In addition, Luke spells out severe warnings for watchfulness in the blessings and in the woes given by Jesus.
Yet, we also need to watch out that we are not too literal in our understanding of the Blessings and Woes. Jesus did not romanticize poverty when he stated, “Blessed are the poor.” Imagine responding to a poor person on the street asking for help: Blessed are you in your poverty¾Amen my sister ¾rejoice the reign of God is yours!
To ignore or dehumanize poverty¾or any human suffering that is around us is to ignore Jesus, his mission, and the reason he came here in the first place. Jesus befriended persons who were poor and oppressed, ate with persons who sinned, and touched persons suffering from leprosy; but it was in order to embrace their humanity, help change their situation, and help dignify their lives. Jesus did not romanticize their suffering; he did not condone the injustice of society, and simply leave. If he had, he would not have ended-up on the cross. Jesus challenged injustice, gave persons who were suffering a sense of self-worth and hope, and he called disciples so that they would join his mission and work for change¾and WE are the they.
We all know well what Jesus intended by his blessings and woes. Sometimes it is uncomfortable for us to hear them—and that’s good, we need our conscience tweaked and awakened. We take a personal inventory and ask ourselves are we doing enough, to make certain we are not too fixated on our own comfort. We take a close look at the people around us and we see that there is more than material poverty. There is poverty in low self worth, of isolation and loneliness, all sorts of opportunities for us to share the riches we have. Perhaps we may not have material riches, but all of us have the rich love we have been given in Christ to share with persons in need.
Not too long ago I received a collect call from an inmate in a Federal prison who has been incarcerated since he was 18, he is now 44. When I first met him, it was to help him through his grief and bereavement of his father’s suicide. After each of our meetings and prayer together, I would give him a hug. He stated those hugs were the first time he had had any sort of human contact in 15 years, the first time he had been embraced. I wasn’t being heroic, but just doing what many of us do after sharing prayer. But to him it brought a sense of dignity, humanity, and self-worth.
Before we take on any project to help others that are less fortunate we need to be more open to see them as persons, real live human beings like us instead like them, like all the categories and issues we safely distance ourselves from: you know the poor, the blacks, those Mexicans, those uneducated, those prisoners, those druggies, those gang-bangers. We need to see not merely an issue or a cause, but see human persons in need. Then we will begin to see what Jesus has seen all along, someone worthy of care and love, another human being just like us.
Want to take on something for Lent? Let us ask the Lord to open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts so that we can increase blessings and decrease woes. Fr. Gordon
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