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Sts. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church |
Homily Archives | |
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19
Sunday in Ordinary Time – B
No. 9
I have a priest friend, who, every time he passes a church, either walking or driving, will make the sign of the cross and bless himself. Every time a bad storm would roll in, my mother would take us to her bedroom in the basement, have us kneel around the bed and say the rosary. Then she would take out her bottle of Holy Water and sprinkle us to bless us for protection. I also recall that every time we left my grandmother’s house, she would pray over us, bless us and ask God to go with us. Even today, when we say our grace before a meal, we complete the grace by blessing ourselves. From the Book of Kings, Elijah curses his life and wishes doom on himself, but God wishes him a blessing not a curse. This blessing that God wished for Elijah is for us as well. God invites us to choose goodness and reject evil, and he invites us to bless others, instead of cursing them. To wish them well, instead of harm. Unfortunately, today we live in a culture, in which it is easier to curse then it is to bless. Television, movies, music, books and magazines are full of four letter words. Stopped at a traffic light, you can see people cursing and throwing fingers at each other. Visit a school playground, and you will hear our young people bullying and cursing each other. Even our political leaders let a few curse words slip. It appears that it has become easier to curse another, and we have forgotten how to bless each other.
St. Paul tells us that as Christians, we are to live lives worthy of our calling; we are to live lives engaged in the practice of blessing people. He says, “Let go of all bitterness; fury, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven.” It has been said, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We can look at the world and see it as either half full or half empty. We can look at other people and see them as a blessing or as a curse. We are called today to learn the Christian practice of blessing people and stop the evil practice of cursing them. Together, this week let us adopt the way of St. Paul and practice blessing people. As you drive your car down the street, as you work and play with them, in public and at home, bless them. When you talk to people, mentally bless their health, their work and their relationships. Bless this city and the neighbors who live beside you. Bless our government and our leaders. Bless the mail carrier, the police, the firefighter, the teacher, the kids waiting to catch the buss. Bless the elderly in the nursing home, those in the hospital and in the prisons that you pass. When you watch the evening news and you see bombs falling, bless those who are being killed and those who are trying to protect them. When you pass a church, bless its pastor, its ministers and its parishioners, whether they are Catholic or Protestant, Muslim or Jew. Bless your grandparents, parents and children. And, lest you forget, when you look in the mirror in the morning, bless yourself with peace and forgiveness because, oftentimes, we are hardest on ourselves. The choice is ours: to bless or to curse. Imagine how bad the world will be if we keep cursing each other. Imagine how good the world will be if we, instead, bless each other. May God bless you! May God bless me! May God bless this parish!
sdrose@bellsouth.net |
To bless means to wish unconditional good for others. It means
to hold others in reverence and call down divine care for them. It means
to affirm their basic goodness, to think positively about them. It means
to wish them happiness. Cursing, on the other hand is the opposite of
blessing. To curse is to call down evil or harm on someone. It means to
wish them ill. We have a choice between blessing or cursing others,
between calling down God’s goodness or the power of evil.