Dear Parishioners,
Are you truly happy?
Are you blessed?
Let’s be brutally honest for a
few minutes. The world (secular society) holds up certain things for us and tells us
we will be happy if we have them and miserable without them: pleasure, power, wealth and fame. Preachers of the “prosperity gospel” tell us
that we are blessed by God when we
are showered with a type of earthly success—primarily money and health. While wanting to have a good, happy life in
this world is not a bad thing in and of itself, whenever we place our desire for things or on self above our love for God, we create a type of false god. Pleasure, power, wealth and fame can all
become false gods in our lives.
What does Jesus teach us in the
Sacred Scriptures? Let’s begin with a
very difficult statement about the cross in our lives: "Then
Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever
wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt. 16: 24-25)
Moreover, the Beatitudes (Mt. 5: 3-12) seem to contradict what the world touts
as essential for happiness. Blessed are the poor is spirit seems to rail against a call to accumulate
material wealth. Blessed
are the meek seems to undermine
those seeking to obtain power over
others. Blessed are they who mourn
seems far removed from those who seek pleasure
as their motivation. And blessed are you
when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of
evil against you falsely because of me doesn’t seem to command the respect
and honor craved for by so many. In fact, Jesus points out that those persons
are blessed, when the direct opposite
of what the world propagates is practiced and lived.
Why is this? First, worldly vision is shortsighted. Eternity and even God are seen as some pie in
the sky ideas and we are told that we must live for this world only. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!
I remind everyone that heaven and hell are eternal, not this world. In addition, Jesus demonstrated for us a sacrificial
love (picking up the cross) which, unfortunately,
requires some degree of pain and suffering.
A cross was a means of public execution and the early Christians needed
no reminder of its brutality. Yet, God
freely chose it as a means of our redemption.
Jesus accepted His cross.
The ultimate decision which we
all must make is whether we choose to live for this world with its temporary
pleasures and sorrows or to live for eternity and to desire
union with God. It requires a modicum of
faith to see things with the proper
perspective. It also requires the
support of a Church and its sacraments to strengthen our resolve and keep us on
the right path. God’s grace is available, if we chose to accept it.
It has always intrigued me how
many accounts of the martyrs tell how they sang, prayed and bore final witness
even when facing brutal torture and death.
Self-giving, sacrificial love can be contagious when we witness it. “This is
my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has
greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn. 15: 12-13)
I dare say that too few of us
have come to such a realization in our lives.
Fr. Ed Namiotka
Pastor
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