Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Once, a young poet was having difficulty living with his sorrow. So he asked the poet Ranier Rilke his thoughts. Rilke responded by saying we must always go into our sorrow; we must not avoid it, nor rush around it. We must seek to understand it and thus we gain wisdom from it. We are then able to transform the sorrow. Rilke implies that in the midst of that sorrow or darkness, the divine is present. In our day we have many venues to outwardly express our emotions. We have many ways to proclaim to the whole world our thoughts & feelings, our dislikes, our outrage. By God I am upset and the whole world will know and accept this if they know what is good for them!!!! And unfortunately we believe this suffices as a way to find" closure" or healing. Here is the thing though, first, "closure” is pure fantasy. Second, venting does not heal everything. It can start the process, but just pure venting rather, it seems to just increase the anger, the outrage, the sorrow; o...

In geology/paleontology there was an idea called "Punctuated Equilibrium!  Which means evolution did not occur on a slow steady process, but rather was ignited or accelerated at certain times by moments of high stress. E.g. asteroids plowing into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago. Change when it happens is inherently chaotic. People, well we tend to resist change, even if it is a change for the better. We can get quite accustomed to our lives, even dysfunctional ones, and to break out of our ruts requires a lot of inspiration, a lot of energy, a lot of courage; and often a trigger event. It is also just downright frightening to let go. Talk to anyone who is in recovery from substance abuse. Talk with someone who has been in therapy. Talk with someone who escaped a bad relationship. Change is hard; it can be scary.  Even here locally, we experienced a change in Bishops and there is a little confusion as we try to get to know different approaches. Think of our own...

How many watch shows such as “Keeping up with the Khardashians” or Real Housewives of wherever… How many of us follow celebrities and get excited over them?  Celebrity culture is huge. Celebrities, whether in sports or cinema, or just because they have done something infamous, will often use and be used to sell stuff or bring attention to matters, usually for a cost. Look at the cars on NASCAR, they are covered in advertisements. Watch TV, on the internet… It's such a part of our existence. Celebrity endorsement selling anything from Medicaid, to orange juice to ?? And on some occasions, the celebrity will use that fame to promote and aid others, for no cost, for no other glory, simply because it is the right thing to do. On a local level, we too have our celebrities and known persons.  And on a personal level, an individual level, we can have attention focused upon us, whether we want it or not.  How will we use it? Elijah would have been a celebrity. He would hav...