|
 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our Parish today as we gather
together to celebrate the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time!
We’re glad that you’re here with us.
Back on Friday evening, October 18th,
1991, the world-class Chicago Symphony Orchestra was going to
perform its final concert in its year-long celebration of the
Symphony’s one hundredth year. It was to be a majestic
evening! For the first time in United States symphony history,
the present conductor and two former conductors of an orchestra
stood on the same stage: Rafael Kubelik, Georg Solti, and Daniel
Barenboim. At a centenary celebration dinner before the
concert, patrons had received souvenir clocks as gifts. As
Daniel Barenboim sat down at the piano and Georg Solti lifted
his baton to begin Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, a great
sense of drama filled Chicago’s historic Orchestra Hall. And
the beauty of the music took over. A few minutes later,
however, at 9:15 PM, the music began to unravel. Out in the
auditorium a little beep sounded. Then another, and another,
and another. Little beeps were sounding everywhere! Barenboim
and the Symphony plowed ahead, but everyone was distracted and
the music suffered. Finally, after the first movement ended,
Henry Fogel, the executive director of the symphony, walked on
stage to explain what had happened. It seems that the
manufacturer of the souvenir clocks presented at the pre-concert
dinner, had inadvertently set the alarms to all go off at 9:15
PM. At this point there was only one way to get on with the
concert. Fogel asked everyone who had one of the clocks to
check them in with an usher, and the concert was able to
continue.
This story reminds us that sometimes
our little, trivial things have a terrible power to disrupt, or
even make a farce of, what is important. My brothers and
sisters, we have lots of things. Some of our things, very much
like the souvenir clocks given out by the Symphony in Chicago,
have the ability to make noise and distract us. Right about
now, you probably think that I’m going to talk about cell phones
and pagers at Mass. In actuality, I’m talking much bigger
today. Some of our distractions, like our TV’s, our computers,
our phones, our music systems do make noise. But many of things
that distract us in this life don’t necessarily make noise, at
least not the kind that we can hear with our ears. Far too
often, our things, our possessions, our goods, our stuff gets in
the way and interrupts the concert of our lives. Our stuff is
killing us and ruining our experience of this life. We have
people today who are more attached to their cars or their homes,
or their clothes, than they are to their own family and
friends! Materialism is out of control. And unfortunately,
living in Hamilton County, Indiana, doesn’t make it any easier
for any of us. Maybe it really is time for all of us to
reconsider that value and the place that we give to our “things”
in this life. What do we need? And what do we want? My fear
is that in this beautiful life that God has blessed us with,
that so many of us are missing the concert, because of our
little, trivial things, are getting in the way of us hearing the
music. We’re playing with our little souvenir clocks, while
we’re missing a really extraordinary concert that God is playing
for us. Think about this. How much time have you already spent
today worrying about your things? Isn’t it time for a new
detachment? The truth is that we have too much stuff. And our
“stuff” is killing our souls. How can you simplify your life?
How can you become more detached from your things?
We continue to look forward to the
kick-off of our 2009-2010 RCIA class, with the beginning of the
Pre-Catechumenate on Monday evening, August 10th,
at 7:00 PM in the Parish Narthex. If you or someone that you
know might be interested in joining the Catholic Church, this
very well could be your year, and we would love to have you in
this year’s class! Are you already a Catholic, but need to
“update” your Faith? You’re welcome to join us too! Have you
ever considered being a sponsor for someone joining the Church?
It is one of the most rewarding experiences of our Catholic
Faith. Please consider your involvement in this year’s RCIA.
And let all of us keep those considering joining the Church in
our prayers, not only these next couple weeks, but also
throughout this year.
Summer is flying by. School starts
here at St. Maria Goretti next week! Can you believe it?!? Get
out there and enjoy as much of this as possible! Have a great
week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is
so gentle as real strength |
