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2023-06-04– Trinity ●● Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9 ●● Psalm / Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55 ●● 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 ●● John 3:16-18 ●●
TITLE: What Makes You Run?
[_01__] What made Moses – the prophet in our Exodus reading today – run or climb up Mount Sinai?
In fact, this climb is the 2nd of 2 upward
endeavors. In both endeavors, Moses had been traveling in the desert – at
“regular” altitude – with his Hebrew brothers and sisters on their way out of
Egypt to the Promised Land. And, they stop at Mount Sinai which Moses climbs.
This episode for Moses and the
people is known as the “testing at Mount Sinai”
And, it is a physical test and a spiritual test. Is not true that most real challenges for you
and me are not just physical and not just spiritual? They are both. For example, the discipline of
waking up early or on time is not just “physical” but also “spiritual”.
Sometimes, I hit the SNOOZE button and fail both tests.
Moses climbs – alone - the mountain, the 1st
time. He spends 40 days up there, which is so long that his fellow travelers
get scared, feel abandoned by him and by God and they decide – on their own –
to melt down all of their gold and precious metal and they create the “Golden
Calf” idol. And, they like their idol so much that they profess faith in it and
declare that that the Golden Calf really was their spiritual guide and their
liberation from Egypt.
They are physically scared, spiritually scared. They
created an idol. This causes – to say the least – an angry outburst from Moses
who tells the people that he will go up Mt Sinai – for his 2nd climb
– to atone for – to make reparations for – their sinfulness, their idolatry.
And, this is our 1st reading – Moses praising
God and pleading with God, “pardon our wickedness and sins and receive us as
your own.” (Exodus 34:9)
[_02__] Are you and I not
tested –each day – by both physical conditions and spiritual conditions? For myself, I notice that I am much more calm
and virtuous when I am “rested”, having enough sleep food. There is a body-soul
connection.
On the other hand, this is also Trinity Sunday and June is
the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, reminding us that we are not only
physical beings. Even the heart – as a
physical organ – is both healthy or unhealthy based on things that not purely
material, like stress.
[_03__] In the Gospel this
Sunday, we recall that Jesus is the new Moses comes “down” being born as a
divine person with a human nature and comes down so low and vulnerable that he
can be put to death in physical terms.
But, his death is also a spiritual ransom – his death does
not just “raise a a debt ceiling” so that we can accumulate more debts or sins,
but gives you and me a new heart, a new consciousness of the law written in our
hearts.
His death and resurrection also shows the first disciples
and you and me that we have a life beyond this world.
There is a danger of being so caught up in the things of
this world that we can lose sight of eternal life.
[_04__] In Allendale, NJ – northeast of here –
a family suffered the death of a beloved young daughter to suicide and have
started a foundation devoted to mental health awareness called the Madison
Holleran Foundation which also led to a Suicide Prevention Act in the state of
New Jersey.
Anxiety, depression
– is something that can truly afflict us both body and soul.
In 2014, in Philadelphia, Madison
–called Maddie by everyone –a freshman student at the U of Pennsylvania was
very depressed and troubled, took her own life and a tragic act of suicide. Her
biography is told in a book called What Made Maddie Run.
By many measures,
Maddie was a great success: All State, All County both soccer and track and
field, member of a state championship girls soccer team. Maddie believed in God, a Catholic, baptized
received confirmation and 1st Communion. And she came from a well
off family.
[_05__] What Made Maddie Run is the title and troubling
question. What made Maddie or any young person run or run away?
In terms of what makes us run
? What makes us tick / operate? What gives us joy? What makes you and me work
harder? Asking this, we also examine our
lives – as a body – soul unity, to uncover our true motivations.
What Made Maddie Run is – in the end – unanswerable.
Maddie ran away throughout months of suffering.
In her body - physically and outwardly –
she was succeeding.
Inside, her family knew she
was suffering and was trying to watch over her. She goes to see more than one
psychologist and counselor.
[_06__] SUICIDE. MERCY But as Catholic Christians it is our calling
to trust in the mercy of God for those who do commit suicide and to remember
that it is not too late, even today, years later, to pray for someone who has
died to pray that even at the moment of death, he or she might repent and be
received into the arms of our loving God.
As Moses prayed: “pardon our
wickedness and sins and receive us as your own.” (Exodus 34:9)
[_07__] SPORTS.
What Made Maddie Run is question is also about a young person at the crossroads, making
a decision about “success”. In her
senior of HS, Maddie had new found stardom as a runner on the track team. But
her longer term experience was a soccer player. Technically, both are “team
sports”, but soccer is more explicitly a group endeavor.
In her senior year, an Ivy
League NCAA college – U Penn – offered her acceptance if she were to run track.
This meant giving up soccer. Her choice to abandon soccer meant she was also
giving up on soccer team opportunity at another college Lehigh University which
had a place for her on the team wanted her very much.
1 Question is that raised by “What Made Maddie Run” is if she had not been drawn to U Penn, gone a less prestigious
route, stayed with what she knew, she might be alive.
It is not that simple. But
Maddie’s is a cautionary tale of a young person caught up seriously in social
status, social media, Facebook, Instagram, and other things that were just
getting launched in 2014. Clearly, Maddie looked at her own screen her own phone
or own laptop more than once and thought everyone else was having a much better
time. This made her run. Social status is not a bad thing. But it can also be a
Golden Calf. It can be an idol.
These idols can affect what we
choose for ourselves, both body and soul.
[_08__] Trinity Sunday.
The 3 persons of the Trinity,
sharing the sharing one nature, but all of them God had a plan to save the
world, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that all who
believe in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16) Today's Gospel, this is what Jesus this is
what makes Jesus run his love for you and me. Are you aware that both your joys
and your troubles are not merely material challenges, or financial equations,
or academic exercises, rather, the troubles we have affect both our body and
our soul?
For this reason, it's
important for young people, for all of us to know that
while our bodies are certainly important and precious gifts, the
body itself could become an idol that we worship.
Or, the body alone
– or material things alone – are what we used measure
goodness.
In the case of
young Maddie, you could read the book and conclude that if she had been getter
better grades in class or faster times in track, she would still be alive.
At some point, all
of us “hit the wall” physically. And, that will affect how we look at ourselves
both body and soul.
[_09__] Pope
St. John Paul II wrote a series of teachings called the “Theology of the Body”
about our true appreciation of the body.
QUOTE (RENEW.ORG
blog): It’s important to know that Theology of the Body is not a hit piece for
a culture war. It was actually a weekly teaching JPII did for the Catholic
Church during his first five years of being the head Bishop of Rome. And, even
though it was in the 70’s, John Paul was not just responding to the Sexual
Revolution. He was Polish, and he was also responding to the Holocaust.
Because both movements are built on the same basic philosophy: the belief that human bodies don’t really matter. The idea that human dignity is not inherent to everyone in the same way. (https://renew.org/theology-of-the-body/)
[_10__] Also,
regardless, what your view of the secular / popular “Pride Month”, everyone has
something to be truly proud of in his or her body and soul unity.
It was made by God
and contrary to some scientific and psychological opinions, it is not
alterable.
Yes, it is true we may
spend a lifetime trying to figure out what it means to be a woman or a man, to
be either a mother or father, or a mother or father spiritually, to be
nurturing to be protective. All of this
comes at a cost. But all of this also comes to us through our own physical
being. And our spiritual being. We are body and soul together we are a body and
soul unity.
This body soul
unity can be challenging, but it is also what makes us run and what makes us
need love, support, prayer, God's mercy, especially when we're in trouble.
As St. Paul wrote in 1st
Corinthians chapter 12 about our unity with and for each other and to look out
for each other: “For the body does not
consist of one member, but many we are the members of Jesus's body and the eye
cannot say to the hand I have no need of you …
If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored,
all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12)
This is what makes you run. [_END__]
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