Brief Homily-2nd Sunday

We will all fall short at one point or another.  What will we do?

We humans, we have so much potential for greatness.  We have so much potential for the good.  There is so much possibility for making good things happen, for reducing the suffering in our world and in our lives.

Yet, we do not always live up to this potential.  Sometimes we run short.

Sometimes our own fears get in the way, our anger, our sadness...our egos.  We hold back.
We fail to live out that potential.

God's grace empowers us to fulfill our potential.
God's grave overflows into us, so that we can be emboldened to make the best choices that reflect who we are as humans persons, as those children of God.

It is not a magic act...but empowerment for us to act.

And when we do, simple actions becomes great flavorful "miracles."

Holding a door open, becomes a show of respect and honor to an elderly person who feels left out.
A smile to a stranger becomes a show of humanity to someone who feels isolated.
Holding our tongues, remaining silent, and letting another speak becomes the miracle of community building.

A married couple are about to fall short in our gospel.  God's grace, through Jesus Christ, makes the situation better.  God is NOT parsimonious with the grace, it overflows!

God has placed so much potential within us, for a reason.  God created us to work for God, to make heaven here on earth.
God's grace, given to us freely and to which we become sensitized through our Sacramental-Liturgical, and Spiritual life,  empowers our very humanity.

So that when weak, when tired, when scared, sad, angry, lost, ignorant...we open ourselves to this mystery; and then we act accordingly.

The end?   A great celebration!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

19th Sunday. With just a little faith...

Image
Parents, you are amazing. Each day you wake up and walk into the chaos of life with those special little somethings. Each day you walk into life and make choices, with little preparation, with those kids that are inherently bipolar: angels in one moment, in another, even Satan would be scared of them. Again, there is little prep; there is no easy app for parenting. I will repeat again, I do not mind noisy kids in mass; noisy adults I do, you all know better, but kids…please bring them and have them here. Parents thank you for bringing them and for having the courage and faith to be parents. Recently a friend asked me about depression. He asked me to describe what it is like. I could only give my experience: it is like a fog. It is being so overwhelmed by everything and feeling everything, and lacking the ability to take a step forward, to make a choice. There is no movement, only stagnation. It takes a lot of energy to be able to make a choice, to take a step. Earlier this week I w
Read more

22nd Sunday Following the Messiah

Image
My first car was a 1977 chevy nova, v-6, two doors; under the hood there was so much space. I got it the summer before my sophomore year in college, so I was 18-19. I wanted to change the oil so my dad told me how to do it. He said when I change the filter, hand tighten first, then give a small turn with the wrench, do not overtighten it. Me, being a college man, and knowing everything, gave it a good strong turn and thought well done. Several months later, it was time to change the filter again. I could not get it off. I tried and tried. My dad noticed and came to help. He told me that I had cranked it hard the last time didn’t I. Yup, with a degree of shame. He worked to get that thing off. My Uncle who lived nearby saw the commotion, He came and helped. It took them a long time, and what they did was eventually pound through the tire jack, and twisted it off that way. I learned my lesson; I felt a lot of shame on that one. Being able to hold in tension or conflicting ideals signifie
Read more

2nd Advent - Finding our way in God's Love

Image
Many years ago a friend living in Texas came up to visit me in Fernley. This friend had been born and raised in the city. Anyway, I had asked him what he would like to do and he wanted to go geocaching. Okay, I thought it is March in Northern Nevada, fun! But we went, found a cache located near Lahontan Reservoir, and so we drove out there. I parked the car near the cache and the gps device told us the cache was about 500 feet away. I looked around and had a sense of where it would be, on this hillside. My friend became worried: worried that we would get lost. I said not a problem. What if we lose sight of the car? I looked around, it was Nevada sage, no tree for miles; and again we were only going 500 feet up a hill. I said we will be fine, we will never lose sight of the car and we won’t get lost. We didn’t. I have been lost in the wilderness once. It was scary. I was in Northern New Mexico, in a thick forest and it was an overcast day. I was by myself, and nobody knew where I was, a
Read more