Luke 21: 5-11 All That You See
"Do not fear when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases. He takes nothing with him when he dies, his glory does not follow him below. Though he flattered himself while he lived: 'Men will praise me for all my success,' yet he will go and join his fathers, who will never see the light any more." (Ps 49)
All that you see here! The day will come when there is nothing left. My day will come when I open my eyes for the last time and have them closed forever. I need to wake up from my deep slumber and live my life for the Lord. “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come!” (Rv. 14:15)
Why do I wait? Why do I procrastinate? Why do I pity myself and envy others? There is one life and one chance to live it! Live it! And live it for the Lord!
I am not sure if the Lord’s warning to the crowd was a motivational speech or if he was seeking to deflate their tiny bubble. Why do I care so much about the end of the world? My end will come well before the world does. Why do I care so much about how others live their lives – Hollywood stars, royal Princes and soon-to-be Princesses? Why do I spend so much time in front of a television or reading gossip magazines? Is this for me? Is this for you? NEVER! Not for me! I am proud to say and to let the world know: I have rejected the temptation to purchase or to own a TV. I do not have one! I have destroyed one temptation! Now, only ninety-nine left to go! [This is for me. This may not be for you.]
Time is not money. Time is much more precious than money. Time is a reminder: I have a responsibility to fulfill. Today I have time to do what I must do. I cannot waste the greatest alarm clock that exists. For this reason, the sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go, the moon appears and disappears, the light shines and darkness comes. For this reason I rise and fall asleep. Time is a reminder: I have only a certain amount of it.
Buildings will crumble. Societies will collapse. Death will come. What will become of me? The Lord knows because the Lord provides. “See that you are not deceived.” Time is a gift because life is a gift. I will see friends come and go; relationships fall apart and children arrive and leave. But in the end, what will become of me? “Do not be terrified! Do not follow them.” Follow me, says the Lord. And I will. I will follow the Lord in his words and his examples; in his commitments and his decisions. “The Lord comes to judge the earth” (Ps 96:13). Not me, nor you. None of us for the Lord is the giver of life and time. He is the beginning and the end.
Lord, embrace me this day. Give me a hint, a touch of appreciation for how precious life is and how demanding you are. Allow me to seek what you seek, love what you love and share what you give. I ask this in your name. Amen.
Not owning a tv is not the answer, in my opinion of course. Tv is a good thing, well you can make it into a good thing. It's educational, it's eye opening, it could contain messages you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteHow about just watching good movies or comedy shows, or the history channel, or the Catholic channel, or some of the TLC shows, how about the PBS channel World. Many times, their documentaries are quite good, or the cooking channel, you have to eat too, plus it's also a people learning channel. Comedies - laughing is one of the best medicines. You can do more good for yourself and everyone else when you have had a good doze of laughter. You know that, your homilies always contain some sort of humor. Many movies and shows, documentaries, etc. that I watch on tv are quite educational as far as human interactions...and since you're in the business of people...just sayin. You don't have to watch the garbage, and you don't have to focus on the celebrities and their issues. There are so many options and so much to lose by not having a tv. Get a little one, one that doesn't have the fancy view or the high def, etc. I know you say this is for you and perhaps not for someone else. I respect that. Just commenting here. Love your homilies! (I made the previous comment too, just wanted to add a little more)
ReplyDeleteThank you Father Alfonse!!, your meditations are food for my soul, I learn, I suffer, I put them in practice, and specially.. many times I laugh a lot when I read them. I share them with my children and husband....
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you Father Alfonse.
Thank you Father Alfonse for your daily meditations! I always look forward to reading them every morning! :)
ReplyDeleteLike you, I seem to have an addiction to TV that unlike you, I have not quite broken yet. I am working on that. It seems as it my heart is still a little to attached to some of the characters on a certain soap opera.
I have broken a few other addictions the past 6 months or so, so I figure I can work on this one...it is just going to take me some time.
Dear Father Alfonse,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for taking the time to post your daily meditations. They have really inspired me to grow closer to the Lord. I am working on putting Him back as the top priority in my life. I really could not have done this without your spiritual guidance.
Also, I am very impressed that anonymous's spouse and children read the meditations. I wish mine would. I think they would get a lot out of them if they took the time which they don't. I just relay what I remember to them.
Father, you are always in my prayers.
Maybe time and money are both important. Maybe they are not at odds with each other. Money is not just money. Money represents food, shelter, medicine, a means to a way, or way to a means, not sure how that one goes...it could mean the difference between life or death. Money is just a symbol, a symbol for what can be done. Lots of wonderful things are free, probably the most important things in life are free, certainly spiritually, all is free, thank goodness, we just have to make the right choices, but still money is also necessary in this world, maybe not in heaven, but here, you bet it's needed. In actuality, money can buy time. Maybe a better way to put it is to say that money can save time. The cliche is to always hear about the evils of money, but it's the human nature, this thing called sin that makes money dirty and awful. I choose not to see it that way. I choose to appreciate money and use money for good. for life. for love. Forgive me father if I seem disrespectful, for this is not my intention.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Comment #1/#2:
ReplyDeleteI agree that TV is not in itself a bad thing, on the contrary I think it can be a wholesome means of entertainment. I think, though, that perhaps in terms of what is given up it can be seen to be a far lesser good. I am a full-time college student, with two jobs, and a host of other commitments, and I know that having TV has definitely been more of thief of my time than many other things...I actually admire a priest who is so dedicated to celebrating the sacraments and to giving himself to others, that the opportunities to sit in from of the tube are so rare that they don't even merit having one. Perhaps a priest's time is not really his time at all, but God's time. And as he has vowed poverty-even in his time-he must choose to use the limited amount he has wisely...I'm not saying it would be 'bad' for a priest to watch TV, just that I admire those that choose to dedicate their time elsewhere.
Response to Comment #6:
(Sorry for being long winded, my Cable has been down the last couple of days and I have to find something to do ; )
I wholeheartedly agree that money is 'important' in the sense of it helping one to arrive to an end. That it can be a means to doing great good. There can be a lot of power that comes with money, and like with all power it can be used for great good or great evil. Working hard as a father, day in and day out, so as to make enough money to support one's family and give one's children a good education is a noble thing. Using a portion of one's salary to help those less fortunate than oneself, is a wonderful act of generosity, and it would not be possible if one didn't have the financial resources. I think where the problem lies is in confusing the 'means' as an 'end'. In seeking possessions for the sake of having them. Of forgetting to that doing good is always more important than having whatever it is. And that even the greatest things that can be done with money do not justify a evil means of getting there. Anyways...just thoughts.
-Jessica
Interesting opinions today Father.
ReplyDeleteI think you touched some nerves. Good job!
I gave up TV as well and I am so much better off for it!
Anonymous #1 and #2,
Like Planned Parenthood, there is some good in some of the things they do. But the evil they do, counter any good. The good doesn’t justify the evil.
I don’t believe anyone can actually watch only “good” things on TV without taking in bad as well. You can’t! The commercials are opposed to our faith. Most of those ‘educational’ shows contain messages that conflict with The faith, and those who don’t know the faith inside and out can be lead astray. The history channel, has it's own take on truth and an agenda that is often opposed to the Catholic Church. And PBS, they are liberal and spread their agenda as well. How many comedies made in the last 30 years do not contain inappropriate material?
If you want to learn, read a book, take a class; listen to a decent CD or DVD.
“Many movies and shows, documentaries, etc. that I watch on TV are quite educational as far as human interactions”
I have no clue what this means. What kind of humans are you interacting with watching TV? Unless you are learning about human interactions on the shows, in that case, how real are those human interactions and if they are real, how healthy are they?
What does owning a little TV have to do with anything?
Evil is evil no matter what size it is.
That’s like saying only kill little babies in the womb!
Anonymous #6,
I think you are missing Father's whole point about money.
You seem very defensive. And it sounds like you are trying to justify something. Mmmm???
What I understand he is saying is, time equals life. You can’t put a price on life, no, really you can’t.
I don’t see anywhere that Father said money was not necessary or evil.
Just my take on today’s hot commentsJ
but Jessica, priests are people too, and they need to take care of their bodies and their spirit just like we do. Of course prayer and all the wonderful things priests do are so very important and I am so very grateful for our priests, so very grateful, but I'm just saying that they too need that laughter that is so intense that it makes the belly hurt and the eyes water and the breath hard to catch, and since our priests are so overworked, and so busy with taking care of us spiritually and their time is of such value that it's priceless that to sit down and catch a half hour of a good wholesome comedy where they get to laugh a good ol'belly laugh takes 30 minutes but can do days of good. I can still remember good jokes or good lines on comedy shoes that make me laugh when I remember much later after I watch that comedy. I still think more is lost than gained by not having a tv. It's the gift that keeps on giving, laughter is!
ReplyDelete