We
are having mass today, without electricity because of Hurricane Laura's visit
to the State of Louisiana this week. We pray for our brother and sisters in
Calcasieu Parish, Lake Charles and all the communities in the Hurricane’s. Even
over 230 miles from where it came ashore, our community felt the storm.
Without electricity, it was hot at mass. Everybody was fanning
themselves with the order of mass cards. It made remember funeral parlor
fans.
I
grew up in a small country Church with no air conditioning. On Sundays in
the summer, everyone used funeral parlor fans. It was just a piece of cardboard on a stick advertisement for the funeral home. The hotter it was, the faster the funeral parlor fans
fluttered. If the sermon was too close to home, the faster the funeral parlor fans fluttered.
No
matter how hot, the men wore suits and ties and the women had on their
best. They came prepared to meet God and fought the heat with funeral
parlor fans.
Now
days, people look for reasons not to come to church. It’s too hot. The homilies
are too long or boring. They have something else to do. They feel it's not
really necessary to go to Mass or Church or Sunday Meetings because God knows
my heart. (God does and is often disappointed). God wants us to be happy.
The
problem is where people find happiness.
Be
happy,but, find it in the right place; because one day, God is going to call us
to account. People will ask themselves -Where were you at; When do you pray;
When did you love God?
When
called to account for a life lived without God, many will blame God. They don’t
find happiness in the things of this world, they blame God. Think about it,
many blame God for everything.
They
will be lamenting “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped…” I didn’t
know that you wanted so much of me.
If
people just knew and listened to the word of God, the words of Jesus.
“Whoever
wishes to come after me must deny self, take up his cross, and follow
me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.”
God
is good and loving and wants us to be happy. Denying yourself seems the
very opposite of happiness, and the cross is an instrument of torture.
The
route to the happiness God does want for us goes through the cross of Christ.
Christ is The Way for us and we meet him at the cross for our true happiness in
love and holiness in him.
Find our happiness in Christ and one day maybe, we won’t need funeral
parlor fans anymore.
Be
good, be happy, and preach the gospel by the way you life your life and love
one another. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment