“Satisfaction”: Pharisee & Publican (2019-10-27, Sunday-30)

2019 October 27 /  30^th Sunday

●● Sirach 35:12-14,16-18 ● Psalm 34 ●  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 ● + Luke 18:9-14 ●●

9:30 am Mass

Title:  “Satisfaction” = [S]

[__01__]      1965.  In the year, 1965,  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones – starting singing a famous song called “Satisfaction” or “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” = [S]

          Fortunately, for them, Grammarly had not yet been invented, but your grade-school grammar teacher would not approve either ….but that’s poetic license for you: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

          The song [Satisfaction] has been heard, downloaded, listened to, on a billion-and-one playlists and on the radio.

          Please do not turn off your electronic devices during this reflection.

[__02__]      I bring this up and would like to quote some verses because in the Gospel, the:

          ►Pharisee wants [S]

►tax collector wants [S]

          ► They want to be satisfied; ►we want to be satisfied.

          And, I would like to connect [S] with the confession of our sins or our faults, and what does [S] mean in the confession of our sins? (in the closing part of this reflection).

         

[__03__]       The confession of our sins and contrition (or sorrow) for our sins also leads to [S], but I want be careful how we define [S] or “being satisfied.”

[__04__]      Who is satisfied?  It’s safe to say that the Pharisee is very satisfied /pleased with himself and dissatisfied/displeased with his neighbor, the tax collector.

          And, sometimes we too also find [S] by comparing ourselves in a search for material wealth or value or success or knowledge,

Comparing ”my grades in school to another person’s grades or scores” …. “my statistics on the playing field to another person’s stats…” ….. “my family to another person’s family…” … “my level of income…my home… my style of raising children…”

What do Mick Jagger and Keith Richards & the Rolling Stones …have to say?

“When I’m ridin’ round the world, and I’m doin’ this and I’m signin’ that … I can’t get no satisfaction… ”  (: || ~ 2x)

        

I’m reciting these lyrics to you, rather than singing them. You’re welcome …

[__05__]       The ancient tax collectors of Jesus’ day were ridin’ round the world, doin’ this, signin’ that. … taking people’s money, committing all kinds of fraud – fraudulent action – and the tax collectors were rightly rejected and despised.

          So, it was a surprise the first time Jesus said all of this (we’ve heard it before …this is like a frequently downloaded song that we know about tax collectors)… but Jesus was getting their attention getting in annoying way … like me … clicking my pen over and over again…. I have been guilty of this… well, Jesus was clicking his pen by bringing up the tax collectors as people who are going to get into heaven ahead of you and me. They did not want to hear about tax collectors making a spiritual comeback.

          It would be as though he told us that “dealers in illicit drugs and opioids and those who sell vaping devices” are going to get into heaven ahead of you because they have repented…

          Or, some corrupt celebrity is going to get into heaven ahead of you. Consider the resentment and revilement heaped upon Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and other Hollywood star/parents for their bribery of college admissions officers and NCAA coaches in the so-called “college admissions scandal”.

          If Felicity Huffman were to get into heaven ahead of me… then à (I Can’t Get No)  [S].

[__06__]       So, we should be careful about ridin’ round the world’ comparing ourselves to others. The baseline or standard is not “me versus you” …. “me versus the latest celebrity in a prison jumpsuit.”

          It is our walk with Jesus, our desire to be compared with and be united with Christ and his virtue.

         

[__07__]       How do I get satisfaction ?

Mick Jagger / Keith Richards would say…:

“When I’m drivin’ in my car and a man comes on the radio and he’s telling me more and more about some useless information supposed to fire my imagination … … I can’t get no satisfaction… ”  (: || ~ 2x)

          So, there is in our world ”some useless information [supposed to fire the imagination] ” and the tax collector – guilty of the fraud and dishonesty is aware of it….he – of all people comes humbly before God, he gets it.

          He gets it ..or as we say … he “owns it”. He owns his faults.

          In the Gospel, the tax collector says. “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

          Jesus summarizes that if we are going to be like the Pharisee we are only exalting ourselves and we will be humbled.

          But, if we are like the tax collector, we will be humbling ourselves and will be exalted.

         

[__08__]       Now, I’d like to comment on the forgiveness of sins and the connection to [S].

Have you experienced the forgiveness of sin? The experience of God forgiving your sin in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, or just another person forgiving you?

          We believe that forgiveness is a gift, it’s not a prison sentence we endure and at the end we are forgiven…nor is it a debt we repay and the bottom of a VISA statement and then we are forgiven.

Rather we are forgiven first, then we are asked to change, to pay it forward, to forgive others as we have been forgiven.

[__09__]       As Catholics we are called to confess our sins, to repent of our sins.

          I recognize that this may be fearful or unfamiliar to us, the very idea of telling our sins to a priest or the idea of holding in our heart and bringing to the light what we have done wrong.

          We may prefer to forget about than to forgive someone who has hurt us. Or, of ourselves, might prefer to be forgotten than to be forgiven.

          But, the confession of sins is meant to lead us to a new level of [S].

          [S] is not measured in material things …or what we own.  

“Material things ” includes the value of people liking us. But, that’s not [S] in Christ’s terms.

          [S] is measured in what we “own” and “take responsibility for” before God.

          In the Gospel, the tax collector says. “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

          Catholic priests too are called to go to confession. I go to confession to a priest.

         

[__09__]       The 3 steps of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation are CONFESSION – CONTRITION – and SATISFACTION.

          Well, “confession” means simply putting it out there…. Stating what we have done wrong.

          But, “contrition” might seem to be a hindrance, a bother.  Because, I am supposed to say “I am sorry”.   But, I might be – you might be – sorry for the wrong reasons…or fearing that we are not really sorry..or truly sorry.

          Our sorrow may be tied only into a fear of punishment or the fear of some other material loss in value. Yes, this does not make our sorrow completely invalid.  It just makes our sorrow, for now, “incomplete” or imperfect. But, that is enough…that’s a starting point.

          So, don’t worry too much if you do not know the Act of Contrition prayer, or you’re not sure if you are really sorry. The priest will guide you – I will guide you – through the steps of a confession.  

          It is in the act of connecting with God in the sacrament that makes our contrition complete.

          But this is not magic…it’s just the way we are made.  It is based on the fact that God knows when we sit and when we stand, knows our inmost being, knows what we need in the complete connection of this mercy. (That’s from Psalm 139 not the Rolling Stones).

          But, I believe we have knowledge of this.  For example, is this journey from the “incomplete sorrow/contrition” to a “complete sorrow/contrition” one that we have traveled?    Let’s say that I offend someone…I have some vague idea that I did something wrong… but I’m not really sure what it is or how bad it was.  We may not even know – ourselves – was there a tiny bit more than a tiny bit of bad intent?  I may not be absolutely sure of how malicious or intentional I was. It may take me a while to realize this. But, still, I am capable of both confession and some level of contrition/sorrow.

          I also may not know if – or to what degree - the other person was offended.

          But, consider… after I apologize, after we are forgiven – we pray and hope – by the other person, then we know how complete and important our confession and contrition was.

          It happens in the moment. It’s a gift from outside of ourselves.

          Similarly, God does the same in absolving us and forgiving us for our confession and  contrition.

          That’s how we get [S]

[__fin__]      

Prayer Without Ceasing (2019-10-20, Sunday-29)

2019 October 20 /  29^th Sunday

●● Exodus 17:8-13 ● Psalm 121 ●  2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 ● +Luke 18:1-8 ●●

[__01__]  On Thursday (2019.10.17), I attended an event hosted by the Essex County Clergy Association about the dangers and responses by clergy and other caregivers … when we consider both the causes and the effects of drug addiction and, in particular, opioid addiction and painkillers.

          It was also sad to realize that so much of this so-called new awareness and new alertness is driven by the fact that the such drug addiction has moved out of the inner city ecosystem where people of color and lower incomes are disproportionately affected and into the suburban environment where people not of color and of higher incomes are now experiencing the same pain.

          The attention and alertness to the problem is overdue, but it does now exist. And, at my table, I was seated with three West Orange Police Officers who represent our own township’s commitment not just to “prosecute” but to rescue those in need from addiction to drugs and opioids.

          DEFINITION - A lot of different drugs are called opioids … many are prescription medications used for pain relief (like after you have dental surgery), but heroin is also an opioid.  Opioid drugs bind to opioid receptors on cells in the brain and throughout the body.

         

[__02__]    The whole thing made me ask this question à can you kill pain?  (repeat: can you kill pain?)

          How do you “kill” pain?

          We use the word “kill” to refer in this case not to the taking of a life either on a street corner or in a video game where a superficial flash of digital light and pixels indicates something superficial and simulated.

          In fact, I think so many of us want to the use the word “kill” very carefully and parents/mothers/fathers teach their children not to use this word casually.

          Nevertheless, when it comes to pain – to physical pain – in our lives, we certainly would prefer not to be in it, not to have it touch us or to destroy us.

          I would like to touch – in this reflection then on how pain and the faith of the woman in the Gospel reminds us to pray ..and to pray unceasingly. People in pain know how to pray!

[__03__]      Somehow, I will always remember the morning I opened a news article online – I had just started reading the news online because it was the year 2000 and things electronic were so new and novel at the time.

          I opened an online news article to read about the Seton Hall University dormitory residence hall fire in the January 2000, a fire in which three Seton Hall students lost their lives. Yes, the fire “killed” them. Many others were burned severely and spent weeks if not months at St. Barnabas hospital burn unit.

          A friend and priest whom many of us know – Father Williams Sheridan formerly of Immaculate in Montclair – was a priest chaplain on the Seton Hall campus at the time.  He told me of his many visits to SBMC  (St. Barnabas Medical Center) to visit students who had suffered much… one of whom thanked Father Sheridan because he knew that his presence had provided comfort to his parents.

          So … no… he could not “kill” the pain…but he could surround it with love and with community and affection and presence of Christ through his ministry.

[__04__]       Can you kill pain?

          The late Cistercian Trappist monk, Thomas Merton of Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky, wrote this about suffering:

          “Some men [men and women] believe in the power and value of suffering. But, their believe is an illusion.  Suffering has no power or value of its own.

     It is valuable only as a test of faith. But what if we enter into suffering with a strong faith and then discover that suffering destroys us?” (Thomas Merton, “The Word of the Cross”, No Man Is An Island, p. 78)

[__05__]       What I’d like to suggest is that suffering does not have to eliminate or negate FAITH ..but rather that suffering helps us to encounter and know our FAITH and knew our Savior who suffered and died for us.

          Josef Pieper wrote this about FAITH. Pieper wishes to dispel the notion that faith is only “make believe”.  For is this not what some people will make fun or of mock in the devotee of religion and of worship and church and all the Sunday and prayer “stuff”?

          Some people may say this is “make believe”.  But Josef Pieper’s point is that not you cannot make anyone believe anything.  “Make-believe” is not real ! It does not exist. (Josef Pieper, “Faith”, Faith Hope  Love. p. 26)

          So, you cannot make me or anyone believe anything.

          A few Sundays ago, Jesus said in the Gospel that faith the size of a mustard seed will help us to survive. That is, a small amount, a small quantity of faith as seed or seedling is sufficient.

          Belief is then not only real. It is also binary. It’s not about how much faith you have, but just that you have some and this is the starting point we all benefit from.         

[__07__]     Faith is also not the same as pride and is in fact the opposite of pride.  The New York Jets might say they had both faith and pride, defeating the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys in a football game last week… but that’s just how sports people talk.

          We need faith ..not pride and while “pride might tell me” – as Thomas Merton points out – that I am strong enough to suffer (or pride might even tell me I can avoid having to suffer) … faith knows that the mercy of God is given to those who seek him in suffering and by his grace we can overcome evil with good. (Thomas Merton, “The Word of the Cross”, No Man Is An Island, p. 78-79)

[*** pause ***]

[__08__]     Can you kill pain?

          I was moved to ask this question at this conference on opioid and drug abuse prevention, especially after 1 particular speaker tried to put this is not just a “medical & scientific” but also a “moral & spiritual” context. Of course, medically and scientifically, we heard about prescriptions and pain receptors and synapses and …and whether it is better to take Advil or Oxycodone after you get your wisdom teeth extracted. (yes… Advil… don’t use the strong stuff or too long and do so only the care of a physician).

          But, then, the speaker asked a moral and spiritual question … “what is holy?” …what do we revere? What and whom do we respect?

          Thomas Merton had put it this way… sometimes we try to make the suffering/pain “holy”…but it’s not the pain that is holy but the person who is holy. The Cross was holy because Jesus hung upon it.

          The speaker asked this moral and spiritual question … “what is holy?” …what do we revere? What and whom do we respect?

          He gave an example of a bottle of water being on the table. OK, so here you have a bottle of water = H₂O.  Water itself is neutral and not a pain killer …  but what if that bottle became a bottle that were a bottle of pills, a bottle of wine, a bottle of whiskey.

          Do you or I as an addict or aficionado change or regard or worship the solution to our pain?

          I am not saying you cannot or should not have a glass of wine or maybe more than one glass.

          Nor should we eliminate the true medical pain killers from a treatment plan. But for the least of our brothers and sisters who may suffer addiction … that person is – sadly and perversely – finding peace where there is no real peace, and consolation where there is really only more pain.   That person is revering and respecting and worshiping something that is bad.

          But then again, he wants to kill his pain. What’s wrong with that?

[__09__]  The whole thing reminded me of my mother.

          When my mother and my aunt and uncle were children living with my grandparents, they grew up in a house with my grandparents from whom I myself only knew love and affection that was dispensed like Halloween candy to receptive grandchildren, even without costumes!

          There was absolutely nothing corrupt or wrong in my relationship with my grandparents.

          Therefore, it is a contradiction and hard for me to fathom how difficult it was for my mother and my aunt and uncle to grow up with my grandparent both of whom were heavy drinkers, alcoholics.

          My mother, as a teenager, went to Alanon, a treatment program for the family members of alcoholics …and my mother in many ways is a thriving survivor of the experience.

          My mother did not kill the pain, but encountered the pain … and ultimately found a way to pray and to forgive.

          What I took from the Essex County clergy /drug abuse conference was that our goal as disciples is not to be destroyed by the pain but to surround the pain with love, just as you would wrap your injured arm or hand in something to heal, you and I also need the love of God, the precious blood of Christ, to live as the widow of the Gospel lives, who lives with the pain of the corrupt judge, but returns each day knowing of God’s presence which surrounds her and enables her to pray without ceasing.  [__fin__]

Peculiar. Prescribed. Proclaimed (10 Lepers) (2019-10-13, Sunday-28)

2019 October 13 /  28^th Sunday

●● 2 Kings 5:14-17 ● Psalm 98 ●  2 Timothy 2:8-13 ● Luke 17:11-19 ●●

[__01__]   I’d like to reflect on what is peculiar about the moment in the Gospel …and what is prescribed in the mercy of Jesus …. And what is proclaimed in the message of gratitude.

          What is PECULIAR, what is PRESCRIBED, what is PROCLAIMED.

[__02__]    What was peculiar to me on the afternoon of August 26^th was that I got a flat tire on my car – the front passenger side tire was punctured by some sharp metal in the parking lot. It was not the first flat tire I have ever had. But the peculiar moment was that I was in a new geographical place, out of town, visiting family in the state of Rhode Island.

The place was peculiar, strange.

[__03__]      What is normal and regular PRESCRIBED “mercy” (prescription = [R_x]) for such a driving difficulty?  Call AAA, call for roadside assistance or – if you are really high-tech, use the app. You do not have to call anyone.

          Pray also. Jesus, master, have pity on me.  (And – call family for moral support et cetera, et cetera). AAA was 90 minutes away.

          That is the usual way, my default.

          But, at this very moment – kind of out of the blue, I received a phone call from a friend.

          During the conversation which I answered …I was almost embarrassed to to admit to another ADULT –  yes I am this vain – that I had tried but never successfully removed a flat tire and put on the spare tire in my life.

          And, my friend did not say … why don’t you call AAA – that was not the message of mercy.

          The message of mercy was, however, something I had never ever considered in the realm of physics and torque and how things turn.

          My friend says … new [R_x] for me and says – just put the wrench on the tire. Then step on the wrench… the lug nut will loosen … it will work, you will be on your way. It worked perfectly. The new [R_x] worked …and I was out of my peculiar predicament.

          The next day I drove to a repair shop and got a new tire.

          I thanked my friend both on the phone and later in person and proclaimed the good news.

          So, I was in a peculiar moment out of town, I got a prescription of mercy of what to do…and I proclaimed that message…

[__04__]      I’d like to reflect on this Gospel today in terms of what is [PECULIAR] about the moment … what is [PRESCRIBED]/ [R_x] in Jesus’ mercy  ..and what is [PROCLAIMED]  in the message of the 1 leper .. and then consider  how we might receive this as the Good News.

          What is peculiar about the moment is the geography. Jesus is in between – we read – in between Samaria and Galilee. He is neither completely inside nor fully outside the so-called beltway of Judaism.

          Here in this peculiar particular place, he meets 10 lepers who are crying out “have pity on us.”  No one wanted them, they were exiled, ostracized and imprisoned by this contagious disease.

[__05__]      What is [PRESCRIBED]/ [R_x] for the lepers…

          Is it the usual default ancient equivalent of “roadside assistance” where someone else is going to fix and heal the lepers…or should we just exile them, put them on an island …in quarantine?

          That’s what was usually PRESCRIBED. 

But, Jesus prescribed something different for their healing and for our healing.

That is, Jesus does not just give them the CONVENIENCE of relief from pain, but also the COMMITMENT of  a relationship with their faith community, with the Temple, with the Church.

Look – one of our own corporal works of mercy is to visit the sick, take care of the sick.

And, when are sick – physically -  we are usually very aware of how the healing comes from outside of ourselves…that we are dependent.

And, when we do get a PRESCRIPTION of healing that works, we proclaim that message. We want to be in a relationship with such a physician, right?

          But, do we accept the same prescription and make the same proclamation about the healing of forgiveness.

          John Henry Newman – who will soon be canonized – observed that we usually give credit to the doctor even when we have to do things to get healed.

          John Henry Newman observed that while a patient is responsible for taking the medicine or doing the exercises, this does not make the work of the doctor any less significant, does it?

          We proclaim the good news about the doctor.

          My example of the flat tire is, of course, much less serious “diagnosis” and predicament, but I could not figure it on my own.

[__07__]     In the healing of souls and forgivness of our sins, we also need intervention from outside…

We might prefer to imagine the forgiveness is like our own immune system kicking in to fight a virus.

          All of us need to be prodded or encouraged – converted away from our sinful selves, away from our attachment to PRIDE or FEAR or INDIFFERENCE.

          But the prescription is that we need the love of God and love of neighbor – including the love of parents, teachers, friends – in order to be healed in this way.

          But, forgiveness and the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood is a gift from outside, his life laid down for us. And, we PROCLAIM it each day: e.g., “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed… ”

[__08__]     What is peculiar about this moment for many who are here this Sunday at Mass is their allegiance and connection to Our Lady of Lourdes School. We welcome our school alumnae and alumni who are here to recall there time at 100 Valley Way and friends they made, and lessons learned…some of which involved books and paper.

         

[__09__]  To recall our school days, we recall that education and learning often prescribes …rules, guidelines and may even be recalled as austere or strict or not always fun.

          But, in all of this prescribing and prescription, is there not contained also some lessons that we could not teach ourselves that we could not have possibly learned on our own, and even both the moments when we felt either successful or unsuccessful at school, there were prescriptions of mercy from the sisters who taught us, from the teachers who taught us.. from many.

          And, that we needed the help of so many teachers, and a good school principal, and aides, and classmates and our parents, to take and receive the “medicine” / “homework” that was prescribed.

          And, now as alumni and alumnae we can give thanks for this education to proclaim it to others and to remember that in our own pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, it is not only our intelligence that counts or how fast we got it that mattered….  Or what percentile we were in… but but that we were together and remain together, persevering, that it is our faith that saved us.

          This is what we proclaim.  [__fin__]

What is Certain, Sufficent, Service & "Almost Famous" (2019-10-06, Sunday-27)

2019 October 6 /  27^th Sunday    ●● Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4 ● Psalm 95 ●  2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 ● Luke 17:5-10 ●●

[__01__]    We are very  pleased to have  at this Solemn Mass for the Rosary Altar Society our concelebrant – Monsignor Sylvester Cronin, pastor of  St. James Church in Basking Ridge  - and an alumnus 1975  of Our Lady of Lourdes School.

          After Mass, Monsignor Cronin will be speaking at our Communion Breakfast after Mass.

          Considering the Gospel of today and also the importance of our Blessed Mother and our own mothers in our lives, I’d like to reflect on the Gospel with 3 ideas today:

1.     What is Certain

2.     What is Sufficient

3.     What is SERVICE?

[__02__]     1^st. What is Certain.

The old saying of Benjamin Franklin was that the only 2 certain things in life were DEATH and TAXES, dying and being taxed.

          Jesus, in the few verses says that what is certain – life – is that there will be SCANDAL. And Scandal – like taxes – certainly gets our attention… before the start of today’s Gospel in verse 5 of Luke 17, we read Jesus’ words:  “Things that cause sin – scandal – will surely occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”  (Luke 17:1-2).

[__03__]     Now, of course, it is natural for us to associate scandal – or to be scandalized by – the behavior of people we may see on TV news, or by any institutional leader, or by a church leader, by a celebrity.

          But, Jesus is also cautioning us that we could – if we are not careful – also be the source of scandal or sin for others.

[__04__]      And, in today’s Gospel Jesus says that given the certainty of scandal … what we need is not our opinion or our analysis …but our faith in God’s love and mercy.

          This is part 2 – Jesus speask about what is SUFFICIENT…

          Jesus encouraged us – noting that we are all novices in knowledge of God’s ways, we are all beginners in the Biblical-thought … while we might have the Commandments memorized, we do not always remember to follow them.

          Jesus does not want us to be discouraged because we are not EXPERTS,  it is sufficient that we are simply starting out… sufficient that we start and re-start ourselves in the ways of the faith each day.   

          Our Rosary Altar Society gives us a beautiful example of this and reminder of devotion to the Lord, to the mysteries of his life in the Rosary.

          So, yes, there is the certainty of scandal in our lives…but do we not also try to restart each day with our focus on God and his ways including remembering that God is our Father and Mary our mother.       

[__05__]   In addition to speaking about what is CERTAIN and what is SUFFICIENT – Jesus speaks about what is SERVICE the significance of service.

          One commentator observed that is Jesus’ way of warning his disciples not to pose for the ancient equivalent of selfies…nor to seek places of honor for their service..but just to do what God wants them to do.

[__06__]    I would like to close with an example from a Hollywood movie of the year 2000, a movie called Almost Famous which is about to become a Broadway musical.

          I reflect on this because there is contained in it…

          The certainty of scandal, the sufficiency of starting out, the significance of service…and not least of all, the love of a mother for her son.

          Almost Famous is also the nearly true story of an actual music rock and and roll journalist in California in the 1970’s.

          The movie title – Almost Famous – is also kind of ironic because the movie was almost NOT VERY FAMOUS at all because very few people went to see it in the theater. It was not financially successful at least not at first…but the movie received 4 Oscar/Academy Awards nominations, including a win for Best Original Screenplay and other significant awards.

The famous critic Roger Ebert hailed it the best film of the year 2000 and top 10 movie for the decade.

         

[__07__]     I also bring this up because of the character of the mother – the mother played by Frances McDormand – who is so worried about her son being out on the road with rock and roll bands…and who is – at various times – in the movie calling up her son to find out if he is abusing alcohol or using drugs or getting into trouble in other ways.

          Her son is 15 years old travelling with rock and roll bands. Surely, there is the CERTAINTY OF SCANDAL…and she leaves messages at the front desk of hotels for him… written out by the hotel staff at the front desk with words like, “your mother called, don’t do drugs”

          So, in so many ways, the movie is not just about a young man on the road …it is about his mother who loves him and wants him to return home.

          Spoiler alert – the young William Miller does return home “almost famous” at the end of the movie.

[__08__]     But the character of the mother – Frances McDormand – reminds her son and us that we are all in kind of an “almost” state…. That we are all just starting out in life, that we all need just a little bit of faith to start out… that faith is called to grow however…

          In one scene in the movie… the mother finds herself on the phone with one of the rock and roll stars…towards whom she is scandalized and scared…   for her son… and she reminds this rock and roll guy that her son is just starting …and that it’s important for the rock and roll guy to get her son home safe…

And it is important we recognize whom we really serve…

          Do we serve what is good, do we serve what is Evil?

MOTHER: Hello?

ROCK STAR (Russell):  Look, you got a great kid here. There's nothing to worry about. We're taking good care of him. You should come to the [rock concert] show sometime.

MOTHER:  Hey, listen to me, mister … Your charm doesn't work on me. I'm onto you.  Oh, of course you like [my son]

ROCK STAR:  Well, yeah.

MOTHER:   [My son] worships you people. 

MOTHER:    He 's a smart, good-hearted   -year-old kid with infinite potential.   This is not some apron-wearing mother you're speaking to.               He's not ready for your world of compromised values...and diminished brain cells that you throw away like confetti.  Am I speaking to you clearly?

ROCK STAR:      - Yes, ma'am. - 

MOTHER: If you break his spirit...harm him in any way... keep him from his chosen profession, which is law...something you may not value, but I do...

MOTHER:  you will meet the voice at the other end of this telephone.  And it will not be pretty. Do we understand each other?  Now go do your best.

It's not too late for you to become a person of substance, Russell.

Please get my son home safely.

The Lord with his Blessed Mother just wants us to get home safely, safely to heaven, through our recognition…that scandal is certain…that is sufficient to start out with a little bit of faith and that above all we serve God, we worship God and none other. We will also meet Him one day.

Get home safe.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for Us.    [__fin___]