Monday, November 21, 2016
PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY LUKE 21:1-4
Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the poor widow who gave her last penny to the temple treasury. Her behavior makes us consider our possessiveness. What do we tell ourselves all the time? You’re not happy because you don’t have all the things that you should have or that you want to have. What follows from this? Life becomes a constant quest to get, to acquire, to attain possessions.
Do you remember the parable about foolish rich man? When his barns were filled with all his possessions, he decided to tear them down and build bigger ones. Why is he a fool? And we fools like him? Because (and I want you to repeat this to yourself as I say it) you have everything you need right now, right in front of you to be happy. What makes you happy is always right in front of you, because what makes you happy is love. Love is willing the good of the other, opening yourself to the world around you.
Love is not a feeling. It’s an act of the will. It is the great act of dispossession.
PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY LUKE 21:1-4
Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the poor widow who gave her last penny to the temple treasury. Her behavior makes us consider our possessiveness. What do we tell ourselves all the time? You’re not happy because you don’t have all the things that you should have or that you want to have. What follows from this? Life becomes a constant quest to get, to acquire, to attain possessions.
Do you remember the parable about foolish rich man? When his barns were filled with all his possessions, he decided to tear them down and build bigger ones. Why is he a fool? And we fools like him? Because (and I want you to repeat this to yourself as I say it) you have everything you need right now, right in front of you to be happy. What makes you happy is always right in front of you, because what makes you happy is love. Love is willing the good of the other, opening yourself to the world around you.
Love is not a feeling. It’s an act of the will. It is the great act of dispossession.
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