“NOBODY CAN MAKE ANYBODY HAPPY”

Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday of the Second week in Advent (A)
Scriptural Readings: Isaiah 48:17-19; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4+6; Matthew 11:16-19

“NOBODY CAN MAKE ANYBODY HAPPY”

Have you ever known people nothing could satisfy? You do this, they say they want that. You do that, they say they want this. You try to make them happy, you try to please them, but try as you may you strike out every time. Nobody can make anybody else happy! We all have in our hands the reigns of our own happiness but not the happiness of others. Our gospel today reflects that point.

God sent John the Baptist to preach to and alert the people. The leaders of the Jews did not accept him. God sent his own Son to teach and love the people. The leaders of the Jews did not accept him either.

Though the two used very different approaches, John the fire and brimstone method of threatening, Jesus the calm and soothing method of forgiveness and love, both men were criticized, ridiculed, and condemned by the leaders of the Jews. Neither could satisfy nor make those people happy.

Satisfaction and happiness is not something that can be imposed from without, it must be engendered from within. Our attitudes, our desires, our expectations decide our amount and quality of happiness. We are only able to determine our own. God will help us with them, but he will not force his attitudes or desires upon us.

“John appeared neither eating nor drinking,” Jesus said, “and people say, ‘He is mad!’ The Son of Man appeared eating and drinking, and they say, ‘This one is a glutton and drunkard, a lover of tax collectors and those outside the law!” Are you dissatisfied? Look inside yourself for the reason, not to others.

01/16/11

In the Eyes of Faith

Friday, December 03, 2010
Feast of St. Francis Xavier, S.J.
Scriptural Readings: Isaiah 29:17-24; Psalm 27:1,4,13-14; Matthew 9:27-31

My dear encountered couples:

Being able to see is a blessing many of us take for granted. It is one of God’s gifts we might not sufficiently appreciate until we begin losing our sight. Our gospel speaks of two blind men who come up to Jesus hoping for a cure. And they received it. I’ll bet they valued their gift of sight more than many people do.

We are all born blind to the world of spirits. We cannot see God nor angels nor devils, nor those who have died and left us. We cannot see heaven nor hell. This is where faith comes in. Faith is a gift from God to help us see with a supernatural set of eyes into a world that is all around us, but which, without those eyes of faith, we can only imagine and dream about. In the beginning our eyes of faith let us see only dimly, but as we get used to them and use them we can see more clearly. But it is a type of sight very unlike that which we are used to. In fact, I think that those who are physically blind, like the two men in the gospel, might possibly be able to understand the sight that comes from the eyes of faith much more so than those of us who have always had physical sight. They have gotten used to a type of sight most of us have had no natural experience with.

God offers all of us sight to see him and his world. And often every day he urges us to take a look. He wants us to see him with us, he wants us to see his angels and saints who are helping us, he wants us to see how safe and secure we really are. He wants us to see and understand. You have the eyes of faith, you have the gift of spiritual sight and insight. I hope you use your spiritual eyes often. They must be used in order for them to improve. And, as they say, “If you don’t use them, you can lose them.” May you see and understand with the vision of the saints.

01/16/11