Sunday, February 12, 2006
LAST NIGHT'S HOMILY
was focused on "love", not surprisingly considering the encyclical. Father used the exclusion of lepers from the company of healthy members of an older society as a jumping-off point. He talked about St. Damien and his service to lepers on the Island of Molokai. He also made the distinction that has been on my mind over the last couple of days--that one kind of love (he didn't say "agape" but I assume that is what he meant), which is really charity, is an intellectual kind of love--a head trip. The other kind of love is emotional--a heart trip, so to speak.
He said that while we are called to love our neighbor, we are not necessarily obliged to like him. Our love for our neighbor amounts to our desiring that he spend eternity with God in heaven, and that we do nothing to interfere with that happy outcome, which must include avoiding thoughts for his damnation.
He elaborated extensively on the many reasons why we could possibly dislike our neighbor, including silly things like not liking the way he walked or talked, and more serious things as well. He spoke of the jockying for table position at priests events, where the tendency is to hang back to see where others are sitting, as an example of behavior that derives from liking and not liking people; and that this is not sinful. He also talked about making efforts with school children to include the child who is always excluded on the playground and at the lunchtime table. He indicated that each of us may experience being excluded from time to time, when we don't fit the thinking of a group we find ourselves involved with.
One could almost believe he had ventured into St. Blogs if it weren't for the fact that he keeps emphasizing that he doesn't even know what a blog is and he's not computer literate!
