Nothing. The Cardinal preached.

Nice to have a day off again. I'll have to remember this for next year's appeal. The Saturday evening of the Cardinal's Appeal weekend is a good one to try and get guys together. There isn't any stress from having to preach and everyone can just relax. For the most part.

Cardinal's appeal & perfection

It was a two-part homily. The first part previewed next weeks Cardinal's appeal. The second part dealt with forgiveness as the fulfillment of the perfection mandate.

Marriage, civil divorce, annulments, and gay marriage.

It was a tad long at 13:00 minutes. But content was good and it moved along.
The constant theme and the take-away/thesis: Marriage is noble; Our Lord's high regard for marriage enables us to look at these things, i.e. civil divorce, annulments, and gay marriage and understand them properly.
I also emphasized how this is a very personal issue, effecting those who are close to us in challenging ways.
Another point of emphasis was how important it is for us to have a proper understanding of these issues given how much misinformation is out there. It's good to help people, for instance get passed the not-to-uncommon misunderstanding that "I'm divorced, I guess I'm going to hell."

Anyhow. I'm gaining confidence with the touchy topics. And sure enough the comments after Mass were nothing but positive. There were many deliberate expressions of gratitude for talking about this.

"I don't think I know anybody who goes to Mass every Sunday."

This was from our mid-week religious ed class the other night. The confirmation-prep children were asking about potential sponsors. The questions were honest, innocent, and telling.

A question and a comment stood out as rather alarming. "Do they have to be Catholic?" was one. When I responded 'yes' there were a couple disappointed sighs. But it was when I added that they also should be practicing Catholics who attend Mass every Sunday, there was a collective, exasperated disbelief. In the midst of the disruption I heard the comment, "I don't think I know anybody who goes to Mass every Sunday."

As much as the comment confirmed the suspicion, it was the candor and frankness with which it was delivered that was the heartbreaker.

We've got our work cut out for us.

The 'Shine' Imperative

"Your light must shine for others."
If Jesus is telling us that we must shine the light of faith through our good deeds, then it must be important. Furthermore how wonderful is it that we have a responsibility to God? We had better give it highest priority.
This is especially true when the going has gotten tough.
This pleases God.

The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes teach us when the going gets tough, they remind us of the eternal happiness that awaits us, and they force us to look Jesus square in the face.
Jesus announces the promises in the Beatitudes to those who are suffering: the poor; the persecuted; those who mourn, etc. This encourages us who find ourselves and others frequently in challenging circumstances.
Jesus promises wonderful things: comfort; mercy; consolation; the kingdom of heaven, etc. It's natural to allow this to motivate us.
The Beatitudes are not shallow, meaningless cliches handed down from who-knows where. They are spoken to us from Jesus' own mouth. They carry his authority.
Pick a beatitude and work on it.

The homily went well. The place was packed with families from the School as we emphasized Catholic Schools Week. That gave a nice context for Jesus' 'teaching.'
I mentioned JFK's 50th anniversary of his inaugural address and compared it with the Sermon on the Mount in terms of both coming at the beginning of the public ministry.
I mentioned "Blessed are those who mourn" in the context of being at the March for Life and there learning about Billy Mitchell's senseless murder from a few days prior.