|
|
|
|
|
|
For if you give, you will get. Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use to give--large or small--will be used to measure what is given back to you.
-Luke 6:38
We are not human beings
having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings
having a human experience
--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, s.j.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A few years ago Matt Weinstein, in his book, Managing to Have Fun, tells an interesting story that deserves to be told in every home throughout the parish.
Matt was running through the streets of Berkeley, California, with his friend Dale Larsen. Dale is a clinical psychologist, and although they had been friends for a long time, they had never gone running together before. After stretching, they began to run and had only gone a few blocks when Matt noticed Dale reaching into the pocket of his shorts, took out a handful of coins, and threw them over his shoulder. The first couple of times this happened, Matt pretended not to notice. But after a while it began to drive him crazy, so he finally asked Dale what's the story with the money? Why was he throwing coins into the street? Dale laughed and told Matt about an amazing psychology experiment nicknamed "The Good Samaritan Study."
In the study, researchers positioned themselves across from a pay phone and studied the people who made phone calls. One of the first things they discovered was that almost every one who makes a call looks in the coin return after hanging up to see if any coins happen to be there. The urge is irresistible: You just have to look in the coin return to see if the machine has mistakenly returned your money. This behavior gave the researchers an idea. The next day they randomly put coins in the coin return slot, so that some of the people who used the phone actually did discover money. The researchers then hired a young woman to walk by the phone at the exact moment that the subjects were hanging up. When the young woman walked by with her arms full of books, she pretended to stumble and drop them on the ground. Astonishingly, the researchers observed that the people who found the money in the coin return were four times as likely to stop and help the woman pick up her books then were the people who found no money in the coin return. The psychological
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
study concluded that when we feel good we tend to do good, which also means the helping impulse is transferable. In other words, if you do something good for another person, he or she is much more likely to do something nice for someone else, causing one small gesture to result in a giant ripple effect.
When We Feel Good, We Tend To Do Good!
When I go home on Sunday night, the end of my week, I'm usually exhausted, but I feel great. Something happens to me when I gather for Eucharist with you. I can't explain the mystery that takes place as we gather and worship our God in the name of Jesus. Something happens to me during the liturgy, and I pray that something is happening within you, too. The "Father" of Jesus continues to love us and speak to us in our Sunday assembly. For me, Sunday liturgy is not work but life . I believe that God gives me new life day after day in the Eucharist, but I also believe that God gives me life through each person I encounter day after day. All of us believe in Jesus. As you trust Jesus as your Lord, your faith in Jesus touches me and makes me positive, and makes me want to do good!
This weekend we celebrate our annual Fall Festival. Young and older gather together; what unites all of us is the Lord, Jesus. He continues to be a "real presence" in our lives. Jesus "touches" our minds, hearts, and souls in the liturgy. We leave Mass as people who have received more than a few coins at a pay phone. We've received the very life of the Risen Christ in Eucharist. We ought to feel deep joy and share that joy over a bowl of booya, a glass of beer, eating a pork chop on a stick, or dancing to the Rockin' Hollywoods. We should be joyful people who belong to Christ. This weekend is just about feeling good so that we can do good. Have a great time!
Fr. Bill
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
