BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU THROW OUT

Today is the commenmoration of Sts. Peter and Paul.  The Holy Scriptures that are read on this day relate the story of Peter being released from prison by the angel of God.  Today, Pope Francis told the assembly in St. Peter's Square that Peter did not become a  hero becuse he escaped, but because he remained bound to the story of Salvation that he lived in the presence of God.  Paul also had experiences of capture and release, sone in the Promised Land and some in other places.  He, like Peter is revered not because he was smart enough to escape, but because he never ceased carrying the Story of Salvation to the People of God.

                                           Pope Francis and I are the same age

Interestingly enough, Pope Francis took this opportunity to make this exhortation to the world:

Pope Francis encouraged people to cherish the time they have with elderly family members, during Monday’s Angelus prayer in Saint Peter’s Square.

 The pope told the crowd not to toss out older family members like “waste material.” Rather, he said to “make a gift of one’s life.”

 “And this applies to everyone, to parents towards their children and children towards their elderly parents.”

 He said many elderly people are “abandoned by their families as if they were waste material.  This is a drama of our times: the solitude of the elderly, when children and grandchildren do not make their lives a gift for the elderly.”

This isn't the first time the pope has pushed for better treatment of the elderly. He did so in a 2015 general audience address.

In his address, he called a society that doesn’t help and reach out to its elderly “perverse.”

 “In a civilization in which there is no place for the elderly or they are discarded because they create problems,” Francis said, “this society carries the virus of death.”

 He said young people should not be taught to ignore the old “as if it were a disease to be avoided.”

 Pope Francis also pointed to what scholars call “the century of aging,” where there are more elderly people than children.

 “This imbalance challenges us,” he said, adding that the old are seen as a “burden, as dead weight.”

 “We are used to discarding people, we want to remove our growing fear of weakness and vulnerability; but in doing so we increase the elderly’s anguish over being barely tolerated and abandoned.”

 “God wants to help us grow in the gift; only in this way do we become great,” he said. “We grow if we give ourselves to others.”

I must admit that I have heard similar sentiments expressed time and again across the many decades of my life.  We grow old but the topic of the relationship between old and young is ever fresh.

TRUTH TO EVERYONE - FROM START TO FINISH

June 24 - John the Baptist

I don't know about you, but one of my first degree heroes who live between the covers of the Holy Bible is John the Baptist.  He is the picture of what it looks like to have the ramrod strength of the convictions that you form along the road of life.  

It doesn't take long to study all that there is to absorb about this powerful prophet.  By the time the Gospels spill out into the mid first year of  Jesus' ministry,  this tough precursor of the Son of God has shown the world what lays in wait of the truly honest son of God.  I often wonder if the martyrdom of John the Baptist ever served as a warning to the apostles.  We do believe that eleven of them were martyred.  

Think of this.  So many of the heroes of the story of Salvation find their lives ended at the hands of the non-believers.  It is a serious topic of reflection presented to us:  What is the price of honesty?  What is the price of truth?  What is the price of Faith?  We all know the answer.  How often do we consider the state of our readiness to confront the ultimate question at the final instant?  

There are two key passages of the Sacred Scripture that are essential to my personal preparation for the final instant:

Psalm 15:  "Who can live in your tent Lord?

                  "Who can dwell on your Holy Mountain?"  

       I dare you to read the answer without swallowing hard.

Luke 3; 10 - 14 - 

                   "10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

       Both of these exhortations challenge us way before Jesus throws down the gauntlet of Matthew 22; 34 - 40

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

As we consider these truths at this moment of our history we must ask ourselves what point of the honesty line do we occupy.  We must ask ourselves how much inner strength that we have to proclaim the truth to those who need to see it and hear it.  

May God bless us all with the courage that is needed to deserve to live with Him for all eternity.