If you want to be able to lift heavy objects the wrong way to 
prepare for it is to wait until you know that you will need the muscle (such as helping a pal move) and then, a day in advance, start working out hard in order to have the muscle to lift couches and refrigerators – silly – right?
I used to play the trumpet for the
University of Akron. I haven’t picked up my trumpet in any serious way since the seminary where we had a brass quartet. The alumni game is coming up and I was toying with the idea of joining a few parishioners and marching. If I were at all serious about this I would have picked up the trumpet about three months ago to build up my lips. But I didn’t – and it would be ridiculous to think that I could play for longer than a few measures and certainly below D before my lips said, “Well, that was enough for the next 20 years.”
Faith is not much different. Faith is not a thing, it is a relationship. It is a relationship like any relationship save this one is with a Divine Person. So we work on faith – on that relationship - when we don’t necessarily need it so that when we do need it – it is there.
Today we will have a funeral service for an infant here at Saint Sebastian. It is a day for faith. It will be difficult, of course, for everyone. But, for those with strong faith, that sadness is tempered by hope and an understanding that while we do not necessarily understand, God can take even the most stupid and seemingly pointless things that happen in this life and fill them with meaning and light. We may not see it now – or ever in this life. But having faith – if you have this relationship – you have come to trust the Father you have come to know, to trust, to love, and Whose love has enveloped you.
prepare for it is to wait until you know that you will need the muscle (such as helping a pal move) and then, a day in advance, start working out hard in order to have the muscle to lift couches and refrigerators – silly – right?I used to play the trumpet for the
University of Akron. I haven’t picked up my trumpet in any serious way since the seminary where we had a brass quartet. The alumni game is coming up and I was toying with the idea of joining a few parishioners and marching. If I were at all serious about this I would have picked up the trumpet about three months ago to build up my lips. But I didn’t – and it would be ridiculous to think that I could play for longer than a few measures and certainly below D before my lips said, “Well, that was enough for the next 20 years.”Faith is not much different. Faith is not a thing, it is a relationship. It is a relationship like any relationship save this one is with a Divine Person. So we work on faith – on that relationship - when we don’t necessarily need it so that when we do need it – it is there.
Today we will have a funeral service for an infant here at Saint Sebastian. It is a day for faith. It will be difficult, of course, for everyone. But, for those with strong faith, that sadness is tempered by hope and an understanding that while we do not necessarily understand, God can take even the most stupid and seemingly pointless things that happen in this life and fill them with meaning and light. We may not see it now – or ever in this life. But having faith – if you have this relationship – you have come to trust the Father you have come to know, to trust, to love, and Whose love has enveloped you.
1 comment:
Alas, that understanding of the Church's life is too little known amongst non-believers and believers alike. Odd, since the fact of it is what engenders either great ardour hatred in man.
God bless the little one's family, and may he intercede for them in their pain.
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