Homily: Thirtieth Tuesday of Ordinary Time
Thirtieth Tuesday of Ordinary Time (Rm. 8:18-25) “Futile or Hopeful”
“Creation was made subject to futility.” I often meditate on that line especially when I am facing difficult situations. To me that means that we cannot plan for ever eventuality.
We can use the old image of the person riding in a leaky boat. We plug one hole in the boat, but then we spring another leak. We plug that hole and then we have another one. In our modern world crisis seem to happen at a faster clip. We have social media to keep us informed of a lot of people’s problems.
A few years ago, I was taking care of my parents as they faced the last years of their life. They were both in their eighties. They had been in relatively good health and were taking care of themselves. Then my mother fell and broke her pelvis and some ribs. My Dad’s dementia got worse at about the same time. My sister and I had to decided how to help our parents. We had to sell their home and move them to assisted living and take care of their health needs.
Every day seemed to bring a new problem to solve. I often felt like I was trying to drive through an ice storm. It was hard to get traction and really have a sense that we were moving anywhere. It took a long time to get the feeling that we had some traction. When we reached out for help, though, we found it.
I needed the virtue of hope at that time of my life. As Paul says in Romans when we hope for something we don’t exactly know what it is that we need. We must try to trust that, in the end, God will care of us in Christ.
My parents are both deceased now. As I look back at those dark days, I give thanks for the Christian men and women who helped our family out. Many of them I met only for a brief time in moments of crisis, but they were an answer to prayer and a sign of God’s providence.
- When have I been in a futile situation? How did I make it through?
- Was there someone who helped me through a dark hour? Who were they?
Dear Parishioners,
During the past few weeks, there have been several parishioners who have gotten up to voice their support for the new addition to our church. It is never easy to get up and talk in front of a group, especially when the subject is money. Studies have shown that this is the thing that people fear the most in life. Some of the speakers have truly gotten out of their comfort zone. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.
Hopefully, we will have good news to share about our TTT drive soon. Let us continue to ask St. Damian the Leper to pray for our success.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints pray for you today.
Fr. Mark