Pick a Parable

Being faithful followers, loyal believers requires a preternatural confidence and courage. Saying that I am Christian is easier than being a Christian. This is the age of short cuts, the time of leisure. We search for things and people who display an air of ease. Each day we make short journeys, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. We have conversations. We share this and that. We speak in metaphors, we make allusions, use metaphors. To make our points we use anthropomorphism, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, simile and other rhetorical devices. We use verbal language to communicate.

Jesus Christ did the same thing. As we use metaphors he used parables. He could provide something for his audience to hear and to think about. He could provide something to capture his audience’s attention and to educate them.

A parable suggests more than literal meanings of the words. A parable is a mystery, a riddle, a private language to be decoded.

Each parable provides clues for interpretation. Meaning always accompany parables. Interpretation of parables often requires reflection or reading notes in modern Bibles, listening attentively to homilies during Mass. The message within Jesus’s parables remain applicable, remain instructive for our modern lives.

As Christians we are always challenged, always asked to be alert, always asked to be prepared.

Jesus Christ used parables to teach his followers, to prepare their hearts, minds, and souls for the difficult choices, for the responsibilities of being faithful, truthful, and loving followers of God.

Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD - December 14

Which of the two did his father's will? Matthew 21:31

Is there any part of your life that you think would make a great parable for someone else to hear? Have you done something wonderful for someone? Has someone done something wonderful for you? Have you had a prodigal moment? Have you had a “cast the first stone” moment?

Throughout our lives we have each made many, many decisions. We have obeyed the rules and broken the rules. We try to be saints but we are always sinners.

Being a sinner is natural, is organic for all human beings. No one is immune from sin.

The goal of our Christian lives involves both learning and applying the principles and precepts of goodness, holiness, and kindness. We must learn how to be God like in our thoughts and actions.

How illustrious and how illuminating a Christian life can be.

It is good to study and follow the customs and traditions of a religion. There is diligence, diversity within the parishioners. There is honor and happiness within each Mass. There is glory! There is love. There is admiration, adoration. There is congratulation. There is commiseration.

Each day of a faithful Christian’s life is an attempt to be God-like, to follow in the foot steps of Jesus Christ.

A Long Afternoon Walk

Fresh and delicious thoughts and daydreams. A long afternoon walk. Thinking of dogwood and magnolia trees in the spring. A moment of reflection as I walk on the sidewalk away from my house. The sky is vague
preparing for night. My mind silently says little prayers; my mind is fringed with hope. There is something dazzling about Mass before dinner. Spiritual hunger can lead us to exquisite insights into love, charity, obedience; questions about virtue and goodness can lead to delicate revelations about how to be a humble servant of the Lord’s. Honest, simple prayer is necessary. Morality is necessary; decency is necessary. How wonderful some of the lawns with their hedges do appear. How wonderful it is to have the leisure to offer prayer to the Lord! How peaceful prayer can make us feel once we learn how to pray, how to meditate, how to be patient. Learn to avoid anxiety. Learn to pray with the simplicity and enthusiasm of faithful children. Contentment may follow such prayers when both the mind and soul are open and when both are clean and pure. God’s love for each one of us is boundless. Because of our own private individual sins we must simply confront our unworthiness and beg for forgiveness; no matter how good or holy we may believe we are, there is always some little stray thought or comment which keeps us human, keeps sin alive in all of us. We must pray for the wisdom to discover and understand this subtle obstacle to loving ourselves, our neighbors and our God. My mind remembers fields stretching for miles in each, fields on gently rolling hills, fields with wooden fences, fields alive and green. Sometimes our lives contain a hidden softness. And we can share delightful anecdotes about warm donuts, cold orange juice, missing buttons on wool coats. And we can always find time to pray to God. There is always work to be done; always volunteer work to be done. God’s love for us is boundless. In our hearts there is a desire to please God, to find our true vocation, to be a humble servant for God. All humans need a moment of silence, to reflect and to pray. How peaceful the moment is. The weather cold and crisp pleases me. And are you willing to proclaim your love for God. This January morning my mind allows me to see verdant meadows and blossoming orchards; to rest my eyes on the Gospels written on the clouds in the blue sky; to have Jesus Christ with me; to listen to his preaching, his parables; to be filled with a calm goodness. How wonderful the grass and trees are! How much gratitude and love I do feel, I do have. The days of trouble and uncertainty are too frequent but prayer teaches how to calmly accept each moment of chaos and difficulty. Prayer sometimes provides a second of blissful presentiment when we imagine the world to be peaceful, loving and fair. We must remember that it is our actions, our thoughts, our words which can create our happiness and peace. There is much goodness and innocence in the world to enchant and inspire our humility and charity. There is much grief in the world that needs our compassion, love, and prayers. We must not hide the miserable or ignoble things which life does present to us. We must accept them and offer them to God.

Choices

Today reviewed some photographs taken inside the Cathedral. Handsome and inspiring with calm, peaceful, unobtrusive lighting.

In these troubled times making ethical and moral choices requires diligence and patience. We are still without complete protection from sin and sinful behavior, but we have the teachings of Jesus Christ as a template. We also have to remember the Ten Commandments and all of the parables, psalms, and lessons within the Bible which help to create our spiritual landscape, notwithstanding the creation of our social justice beliefs. Within our social justice beliefs reside the best of us, the ability to love, to show mercy, to forgive, and to be humble; the best impression of the human heart, mind, and soul begins here with thoughts which hopefully will transform into actions called moral. Great hope will be made upon our desire for fairness and goodness. We must always remember that our lives as Christians require fortitude, sacrifice, obedience, patience. We must remember fortitude.