Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Why does it matter that God always forgives? Why does it matter to have God in our lives and even celebrate that God wants us? Being lost is a bad experience. Lost, meaning I don’t know where I am in the world. Whether up in the mountains or in the middle of Manhattan, when we are lost it is frightening, confusing, disorienting. Been there, seen it, done it. Being lost emotionally, mentally, spiritually can be the same. It is hard to think. Overwhelmed by emotions; can’t make decisions, hard to have hope; all we see is gray. Been there, seen it and done that too. To be honest, not sure which is worse: physically lost or emotionally-spiritually lost? Many of us know or have known lost people; lost in their addictions, lost in their anger and bitterness; lost in their sorrow and grief. We can feel powerless because it seems there is very little we can do to bring them home to us, to themselves. If only they would just stop drinking, doing the drugs…. If only they could stay awa...

After nearly 20 years of being with families experiencing death, it will never get easier. The more tragic and painful experiences are those persons that died suddenly; accidents or sudden health issues. Part of the tragedy is that the final words, the final “thank you”, the final “I love you”, the final “forgive me”, the final “I forgive you”…did not get spoken.   So, don’t wait. Now is the time. As we approach Easter, let's go to Christmas. Particularly the tale “A Christmas Carol.” We kind of know that tale; Ebenezer Scrooge, a rich old man, bitter and isolated, gets visited by three Spirits; past, present and future. Ebenezer is shown those moments in life when he made a choice in the past that led to his sad present; whereas the Crachitt family, poor, lived with joy; and then a future, the grave. Ebenezer wakes up and with joy realizes he has time to change the direction of his life. It was not too late. A former doctor of mine, many years ago, noted that I was ga...

In college I had a normal circle of friends that I hung with regularly. One friend in particular often received special attention from our group. She did not always have the best taste in men. We would raise our eyebrows at some she dated, all of us would get a good laugh at their expense. After college, we all maintained our friendship even though we spread out. This friend started to date someone; he was older and tended to be a bit self-absorbed, at least we thought. But she fell in love and we supported her. They got married and it was good. Then she became sick, brain cancer. And he, her husband, rallied around her. He devoted himself to her care, it was amazing! She made it through, for a few years, then it came back and he once again did everything for her. She eventually passed but her husband, I saw him in a different light. That is a phrase we use in English, to see someone in a different light, whether positive or negative. A person’s actions help us to know mor...

Every sickness and disease can have its devastation. One that perplexes and affects so many is dementia. When someone we love loses memory; forgets who they are, who we are; it can hurt. I listened to a podcast about this, and the spirituality around this, and the question was, what if the person forgets God? And the simple answer is that, it is no matter, God never forgets the person; God always remembers. God always remembers us. We remember in different ways. We remember with nostalgia; calling to mind days and events from the past, usually overlooking the bad stuff and remembering the good and fun. Nostalgia elicits warm feelings, like remembering hot chocolate on a cold winter day with people we loved. We also remember to make real today what has happened. We remember to induce gratitude, change, and to remain strong. We remember how we felt out of shape, so we go to the gym. We remember how people supported us for college, so we work to get our degree. We also remember t...