Monday, September 22, 2003
homily
went to mass last friday here at st. philip's in pasadena. there are a number of excellent priests at that church, my favorite being father franklin- a visiting priest from india. he's very intellectual and we've had several good conversations. his homilies are always very insightful, not cryptic or confusing. it's very down-to-earth, and always easily applicable to our lives. i hate it when the homily is so vague and you don't know what it has to do with you.
anyway, i really liked the message he gave that day. he was talking about money and how the love of money is the root of all evil. he stressed that we all need money, even the church, the priests, everyone needs money. money is not evil all in itself, but is a blessing and providence from God. He provides it for us, so that we may use it to show love. fr. franklin emphasized that money is a means to show love, and that is how we should use it-to provide for our basic needs, but much more to spread love to others. not necessarily for accumulation of stuff.
fr. franklin also spoke about self-reliance. since we were young, we strived to be self-reliant. we learn how to walk, go to school without our parents, go to college, get jobs, all in order to be self-reliant. and we grow up to be independent, responsible, and able to fend for ourselves. we are able to rely on ourselves to care for ourselves. and money allows us this reliance. when we were children, we'd ask our parents for money as we relied on them for this and other basic needs. now as adults, we rely on ourselves and our jobs to provide us with our basic needs. what fr. franklin said was really poignant, in that we need to learn not to be self-reliant, but God-reliant. i really liked that line, because it's the epitomy of "basta ikaw, Lord!" to live not for yourself, but for God. to offer everything to Him and to trust that all will be well and good. not to depend on yourself, who is a measly human who makes mistakes and is simply unreliable, but to depend on He who knows everything and is perfect in every way. it's just such a better way to live i think.
i know this stirs up conversation somewhere with some people, so please feel free to comment.
anyway, i really liked the message he gave that day. he was talking about money and how the love of money is the root of all evil. he stressed that we all need money, even the church, the priests, everyone needs money. money is not evil all in itself, but is a blessing and providence from God. He provides it for us, so that we may use it to show love. fr. franklin emphasized that money is a means to show love, and that is how we should use it-to provide for our basic needs, but much more to spread love to others. not necessarily for accumulation of stuff.
fr. franklin also spoke about self-reliance. since we were young, we strived to be self-reliant. we learn how to walk, go to school without our parents, go to college, get jobs, all in order to be self-reliant. and we grow up to be independent, responsible, and able to fend for ourselves. we are able to rely on ourselves to care for ourselves. and money allows us this reliance. when we were children, we'd ask our parents for money as we relied on them for this and other basic needs. now as adults, we rely on ourselves and our jobs to provide us with our basic needs. what fr. franklin said was really poignant, in that we need to learn not to be self-reliant, but God-reliant. i really liked that line, because it's the epitomy of "basta ikaw, Lord!" to live not for yourself, but for God. to offer everything to Him and to trust that all will be well and good. not to depend on yourself, who is a measly human who makes mistakes and is simply unreliable, but to depend on He who knows everything and is perfect in every way. it's just such a better way to live i think.
i know this stirs up conversation somewhere with some people, so please feel free to comment.
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
