-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat, 8am and 12:30pm on Sunday
What Causes the Change?
What is it that turns the love we feel from and for someone into infuriating anger, or annoyance at least? Same person, same truth, one minute we're loving it and the next ....well we want to discard them from our midst?
In the case of Jesus and his "countrymen" in Nazareth it seems to be hard-heartedness. Jesus can hardly be accused of loving the the folks in one minute and then sinning against them in the next. No, he was telling them the truth in the first moment (which they found mystifying) and then telling them the truth in the next and they want to kill him. Hmmm.
I guess it's all about conversion, or the lack thereof. All of us are converted to a certain level of comfort with reality and the truth. When reality starts speaking a truth to us above or beyond our level of conversion - it no longer feels sweet, it hurts.
I saw this on the beach on my vacation. A father and child were interacting joyfully at the water's edge until the child attempted to walk farther away from the father than the father was comfortable. The father called out to the child to save or secure him and the child responded in tears and rage. Same two people, same loving activity, a smart expression of love and concern from the father,a perceived limit upon freedom, and the whole thing turns into an emotional meltdown. Loving turns into hurting very quickly.
This is the experience of the Garden of Eden written small. How do you see it operating in your daily life, spiritual life, family life, church and world?
3 comments:
I hear what you're saying. Have been taking care of my parents healthcare for years. Now that they are very sick and need help from all four of us children, one brother is insistent and overbearing in wanting to change things and NOW. At first I was annoyed, then I realized he is just handling this like what he does for a living. That realization gave understanding and freedom. Peace.
However, what really confuses me is the feeling part of love. I know what love is from Corinthians. However, if I didn't see any of my brothers or their families for years on years, don't know how much it would matter. I tend to be a bit of an introvert and in this regard I feeeeel like a nomad. What makes me think about it is seeing some families seemingly VERY involved and very emotional. Yet Paul does not address this aspect.
Very curious. The whole thing about "feeeeeling" love versus giving love. Just not sure.
“When reality starts speaking a truth to us above or beyond our level of conversion - it no longer feels sweet, it hurts.” That line spoke particularly loudly to me because it is so true in my human weakness. I can go along just fine – but when the envelope gets pushed just a little too far it does indeed hurt, and I typically withdraw. The good news is that in that withdrawal, if I can muster the maturity, I can make myself available for that deeper conversion referred to by the Matador. In other words, through prayer and a little retreat time, that pain and hurt can become an avenue of grace for deepening my intimacy with God. At least that’s the goal, because as one of my favorite authors says, if I don’t let that pain transform me, I will most assuredly transmit it – which is just what the people in the synagogue did with their pain. They transmitted it to Jesus.
The other interesting thing that strikes me in this Gospel is that the ending of THIS part of the story is that Jesus “went away” – he left them. I wonder how often I have refused to listen to someone telling the truth in my midst, have let the hurt of it affect me, and have transmitted my pain – the end result being that they went away. How sad – and what a good lesson to consider.
top [url=http://www.c-online-casino.co.uk/]uk casino bonus[/url] hinder the latest [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]casino bonus[/url] unshackled no deposit hand-out at the leading [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]casino games
[/url].
Post a Comment