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Homily of the Day
July 25th, 2011 by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
2 Cor 4:7-15 / Mt 20:20-28
A wise old Irish nun once quoted an old saying to me: Pain is the price of consciousness. How regularly that truth is evident in the life of St. Paul, who was painfully aware of his own feet of clay. As he says in todays epistle, We possess a treasure in earthen vessels. Its true of us all, though sometimes we dont remember either part of that quote. We so easily forget what a treasure we have in the totally unearned love with which the Lord cherishes us. Who in the world could have imagined that this would be the way that God would want to deal with his creatures?
But, unlike St. Paul, we also regularly forget how seriously unfinished we are, and we take the Lords love for granted, almost as if it were earned. To face our flaws as Paul did is painful and its tempting to look the other way. But consciousness of our real selves, instead of our imaginary selves, is the price of opening the door to Gods healing love, and its the key to beginning to grow into the persons that God always dreamed wed be.
That consciousness of our real selves has to be renewed and expanded daily. The task is never done in this life. But rewards are real, here and now, and theyre worth the pain, every bit of it. Its not the pain of death, but the pain of giving birth.
July 25th, 2011 by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
2 Cor 4:7-15 / Mt 20:20-28
A wise old Irish nun once quoted an old saying to me: Pain is the price of consciousness. How regularly that truth is evident in the life of St. Paul, who was painfully aware of his own feet of clay. As he says in todays epistle, We possess a treasure in earthen vessels. Its true of us all, though sometimes we dont remember either part of that quote. We so easily forget what a treasure we have in the totally unearned love with which the Lord cherishes us. Who in the world could have imagined that this would be the way that God would want to deal with his creatures?
But, unlike St. Paul, we also regularly forget how seriously unfinished we are, and we take the Lords love for granted, almost as if it were earned. To face our flaws as Paul did is painful and its tempting to look the other way. But consciousness of our real selves, instead of our imaginary selves, is the price of opening the door to Gods healing love, and its the key to beginning to grow into the persons that God always dreamed wed be.
That consciousness of our real selves has to be renewed and expanded daily. The task is never done in this life. But rewards are real, here and now, and theyre worth the pain, every bit of it. Its not the pain of death, but the pain of giving birth.
