sticks and stones.........

Sticks and stones
May break my bones,.
But names will never
Hurt me.

NOT!

Growing up, I was on the receiving end of much name calling. I have to say that YES, the names did hurt. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at the Columbine incident and various other incidents in schools across America. The hurt of name calling was manifested by more hurt of school violence by those who were on the receiving end of those hurtful names. So much hate. So much hurt. Why?

Have you noticed how you felt when someone praised your work? How did you feel when they complemented you? Words and actions are powerful. They have the ability to tear down someone or build them up.

What would Jesus do? Let’s take a look.

Matthew 7:15-23
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?'
Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'

The next time that you open your mouth with a critical word, pause to reflect on how you deliver it. Constructive criticism is good. Be sure it constructive and not destructive. And, remember positive words build up. Just please be sure they are genuine and spoken from your heart and not empty flattery. The person on the receiving end will be able to discern.

Sometimes, our emotions get the most of us and before we know it the harsh words and statements are flying out of our mouths. What do we do? We don’t mean to hurt members of our family and our friends.

My reflective answer to that is, “It’s forgiveness time.” Time to apologize and ask for forgiveness. If we are on the receiving end, then we must forgive. You know the magic number, seventy-times seven. Peter queried Jesus over two thousand years ago. “Lord, how many times must we forgive? Three times? Then, Jesus hit him with the higher number answer. Seventy-times seven.

Forgiveness. Now that can bring about major change and conversion. But that’s a reflection for another day.

Bear good fruit and build the Kingdom of God.

Of splinters and wooden beams

Today’s gospel reading from Matthew (7: 1-5) reminds us to “stop judging.” Jesus reminds us to remove the wooden beam from our eyes before we attempt to remove the splinter from our neighbor’s eye.

Let’s reflect on this a little. In order to remove something from our eye, we must look into a mirror. With the help of the reflection from the mirror, we are able to locate the foreign object and remove it from our eye.

Mirrors are unforgiving objects. Their reflection is always honest. As a result we see ourselves without the benefit of self improvement like make-up, hair-do, or a neat close shaved face.

I invite you to look into the mirror and look really close. Look into your eyes where you find the opening to the inside of yourself. Use the mirror to see that part of you. Notice what you find. Notice how you feel. Get to know the person in the mirror. Does the person in the mirror have a good relationship with God? Does the person in the mirror have a good relationship with self? With others?

Allow your mirror vision to examine your relationships? How are they? Need a little improvement? Is there something you can do for someone? Is there something you can do for God?

Maybe we need to do that more often---that is look into the mirror. If we looked into the mirror, and saw ourselves perhaps we would not judge others harshly. The quickness to judge others would be hastened by the person in the mirror.

Go ahead. Take a look.

Diversity

Through him
With him
And in him
In the unity of the Holy Spirit
All glory and honor is yours
Almighty Father
Forever and ever. Amen.
(doxology after the Eucharistic prayer)

In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples, and he prays for us. He prayed, “so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” Continuing he prayed, “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”

Jesus’ prayer is filled
with the hope of the unity
of all of us
of all the world.
Despite our differences
and in spite of our differences
that we may come together
in unity to live
as a community
of believers
who care for and love each other.

We have different gifts, different likes, different opinions, different religions, different cultures, different biologies. God made us a diverse world. If we can use our differences and come together to take care of each other, we would realize Christ’s hope, his dream. Jesus’ prayer would become reality, and we would all live in the Kingdom of God.

What does that "coming together as one" look like? Well, it begins with tolerance and understanding then grows into acceptance and love of others who are different than you. Can you embrace diversity?

That is what Christ prayed for and hoped for. That we would all be one. Can you do your part to make the Kingdom of God a reality?