Christ The Servant
Catholic Church
Cold Springs, Ontario
Homily Selections
Freedom
Last Sunday was Canada Day. This year, with our troops in harms way, we will spend more than just one day thinking about Freedom. Perhaps, as many suggest, we take our freedom in this country too much for granted. I think that’s a good thing because it tells me that our whole lives have been lived in the nurturing arms of freedom. As a country that is our primary security that we need and expect to continue.
Christ the Servant values freedom, maybe because the Spirit has led us to our place of community and worship on the wings of religious freedom...on the wings of truth and integrity and on the wings of peace, love and joy. Our Mass, the traditions we continue and those we choose to include in it reflect our freedom of worship in the truest sense.
As always, we inspire each other. When Gary attended the most recent ordination of Women in Toronto, he shared with us that the thoughts going through his mind at the moment of ordination were the words of Martin Luther King “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last/
A few weeks ago I took a real estate exam and crashed and burned spectacularly. I studied on line and somehow totally missed the material that was the subject of about a third of the exam. Since a 75% grade was required for a pass, there was no hope that I was going to be successful.
Now I don’t do stupid very well, so as I left the exam centre I was full of angry self loathing. And I also had some thoughts (not for the first time) that God could use a good management consultant. I never mess with the Holy Spirit so there were no negatives there. As I was in the middle of straightening God out I heard someone call my name. A little startled, I was relieved to see it was Betty Borg whom I treated to my bleeting and in an explosion of self destructive immaturity added that I was considering taking up smoking again. Betty, in her consistent kindness gently counseled against that as a solution for my woes.
Some hours later as I was enjoying a supper which consisted of cigarettes, chocolate bars, and scotch ( I don’t even like scotch...I guess that was the punishing part) I interrupted my perfect little pity party (which was getting old and boring) by turning my thoughts to this homily. It occurred to me that what I had experienced that day was the freedom to fail. If freedom is awesome (and it is) , I thought, it can also be awful . Isn’t it curious, I thought further, how close those two words are in spelling ... awesome and awful. So, abandoning my scotch and chocolate bars (I took my cigarettes with me) off I went to the computer and Wikopedia and found that the two words came from the same source and that as awe is defined as an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, and fear produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful or the like, awful grabs the darker part of inspiring awe or fear and travels to a definition of extremely bad, unpleasant, ugly, dreadful terrible and solemnly impressive. So we have choices in our journeys of freedom and we will make mistakes and feel awful and we can choose another path and experience awe. It put me in mind of a saying that my sister attached to her fridge when she was very ill....you all know it. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".....and she did that magnificently. So can we.The freedoms that we treasure and exercise in our lives, our beautiful country and our beautiful church will sometimes result in failures and confusions. There is always a gift when this happens, sometimes hard to find, but it is always there, and part of that gift is the knowledge that our spiritual journies are full and free and open. We can celebrate our failures and confusions...they inspire us to continue searching.They are the proof positive that we are growing. They are necessary foundation steps of the freedom journey.
As I contemplated the gifts of failure I began to wonder if failure itself could be a gift. So I went to Google and asked the question . Sure enough, An author by the name of Jean Fritz wrote a paper on the Gift of Failure. This is what she had to say.
FAILURES TEACH US ABOUT PROCESS Thomas Edison tried over 9,000 designs before he created a working light bulb. A young reporter asked him how he felt after having failed 9,000 tunes. Edison replied " I didn't fail I just learned 9.000 ways not to make a light bulb!
Failure is often a clue to redirect our efforts in a different direction, and to follow a different set of plans. How many times have we learned how not to sell a product, how not to get a new job, or how not to judge a future mate? If a series of failures leads us to open our minds to new knowledge or information, or gives us the willingness to try different behaviors, then we haven't failed, we've learned how to create different results.
FAILURES TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES During the '40s, a young Jewish boy chose to forego academia in order to pursue his dream of becoming another Benny Goodman. Against his parents' wishes, he began playing in a jazz band.
His musical talents were less than sterling, and soon he realized he was just another musician teetering on the brink of unemployment. Unlike many of his fellow musicians, he was able to manage the income he had, so those periods of unemployment weren't nearly as devastating for him as they were for others.
His musical colleagues recognized his talent for money management, and soon they had hired him to manage their finances - for a fee. This caused the young man to rethink his career goals, and changed the course of his life.
This failure's name is Alan Greenspan, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, who has been credited with performing an economic impossibility - sustaining long term economic growth without stimulating inflation. His failure taught him that money, rather than music, was his forté, and we have all benefitted from that epiphany.
There is a saying that to teach a snake his shape, put him in a box. Our failures can be the box that teaches us our shape, and helps us to ascertain how our talents, personality, and learning ability coalesce to form the unique creation we are, and help us to fulfill our destiny and purpose.
FAILURES CAN HELP PUT THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE "Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it." How many times have we pursued a goal we thought was important, only to find it didn't bring us the rewards we expected? Have we succeeded or failed in our attempt? Billionaire J. Paul Getty blew through five wives and is alienated from his childreen. Is he a success or a failure?
Our failures highlight our values, and help us to define what is important in our lives. The man who puts family first will perhaps not have a skyrocketing career, but can certainly be a successful husband and father. The woman who thrives on a high-powered career requiring 80+ hour weeks will undoubtedly be a financial success, but may have to forego success in the relationship department. One truism in life is that we can have everything we want in life, just not all at the same time. Our failures may help us choose in what area we would like to have success so we can focus our time, effort and energy on that area, and we happily let the rest go to the sidelines.
One of the greatest gifts of failure is the knowledge that failure is never final, unless we choose to give up. Discovering that we can turn our lives around, choose a different path, or embrace a new idea at any age or in any set of circumstances is liberating for the soul, can motivate us to seek the wisdom and experience of others who have had different experiences, and can provide the momentum we need to propel us to successes beyond our imaginings.
So there we are from Freedom to the freedom to fail, to the gifts of failure, to Failure as a Gift. Food for thought.
Oh yes, I stopped smoking in two days and yesterday I retook the real estate exam. Fingers crossed!!
MORE RECENT HOMILIES
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