23rd Sunday in Ordinary time.

23 ^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
“Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!” That sounds so straight forward and simple it annoys me. Here is another one, not matter what is going to happen, why do people insist on saying, “everything will be fine.” Everything is not always fine. Sometimes there are bad outcomes. You don’t get to make promises that you can’t keep. Telling me to be strong and fear not is not taking the fear away. I am terrified. The scripture tells me that God comes to save me and everything will be marvelous. Please stop saying that. I am traumatized. I can’t just snap out of it because you tell me everything will be fine and God is coming to save me and I should be strong. Bit annoyed by the letter of St. James as well today. James tells us not to show any partiality. He gives us a man with gold rings and fine clothes. He also gives me a man with shabby clothes. James then tells me that I will always pick the rich man over the poor man. Then he castigates me for showing partiality. Do you know what, when the poor man has a haircut, puts on some nice clothes, get his teeth fixed and smells nicer, maybe then I will pick him. I am not impartial. I just don’t like smelly clothes and bad breath. Are we any different today from those people who lived in Biblical times? I don’t think so. A funny story comes to mind. A business man is about to go to work when his wife stops him at the door. She inspects him and she asks him, “Did you brush your teeth?” He responds, “Yes, I did.” Then she asks, “Did you clean your shoes today?” He responds, “Yes, I did.” Then she asks, “Do you have clean tissues?” He responds, “Yes, I do.” Then she puts a sprig of parsley on his head. “What’s that for?” he asks. She replies, “Darling, presentation is everything!” (Ha! I bet you don’t understand my joke. American people don’t understand my jokes and they are brilliant. You don’t get punch lines or subtlety or nuance…just saying.) We just people by the way they look, by the things they say, by the way they talk funny, by the way they look at you. We know that we shouldn’t but we do. It is all very unfair. It is full of prejudice. It loses people jobs at interviews. I don’t know how to fix it. I wish we didn’t segregate people by the way we do, but we do it anyway, all the way back to Biblical times. Drives me crazy…just saying.
With love, Fr. Pat