|
|
|
7th
Sunday in Ordinary Time LK 6/27-38 |
||
| Background:
The trouble with ridiculing and attacking other people, whether it
be a referee at a basketball game (they zebras are patently blind!) or a rival or a public
official is that the very bitterness of our attacks makes us hate the other person even
more. If one considers, let us say, Northern Ireland and Israel, one understands that the
bitter rhetoric of attack in both places is often more the cause of conflict than merely
its effect. The advise Jesus is giving is not merely sound spirituality, it is also wise
psychology. |
read the padre |
|
 |
Story:
Juliette Binoche, the wondrous French actress, was being interviewed
on the Jay Leno show about her film “Chocolat” – a marvelously Catholic
film in which chocolate is a sacrament of the goodness and love which animates the
universe. Mr. Leno, as is his custom, was making fun of President Clinton. Ms. Binoche was
not amused. You Americans, she informed Leno, do not have enough respect for your leaders.
You should respect them more. Leno was nonplused. None of his guests had ever said
anything like that. He tried to laugh it off. Ms. Binoche would have none of it. I am
serious she said, if you don’t respect your leaders, then you wont respect your
country. Leno tried to change the subject. The woman was trying to deprive him of his
comedy sthick. Yet which of the two was following more closely the description of
Christian behavior in today’s Gospel?
|
|
