Author: Tim Hinkle

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.

I am thinking of a building. On Saturday, July 11, the Palace of Auburn Hills was imploded with explosives. As far as I know, this arena was still in fine shape for basketball, concerts, and other events. But it was considered unneeded in its location. And so it was destroyed. Some people on the radio spoke of this with sadness as they recalled many happy hours in that building, especially when the Detroit Pistons were having good seasons.

We can say that was “just a building.” Yes it was, but this event can mirror our dealing with loss. Many of you have suffered much more important losses in this year: family members, relatives, friends. You may have lost a job or possessions. This is part of thehuman journey. Things change. People and things are taken from us. It is the repetition over and over of the Paschal Mystery: the life, suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus. This pattern repeats in our lives and reminds us that we have here “no lasting city,” as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 13:14).

The comings and goings, the gains and losses of life call us back again and again to the present moment. We recall the past, we look to the future. We may get tired of hearing it, but we are called back to the present moment, where we live. In all our thoughts and feelings, we open ourselves to the presence of God and the love of our neighbor.

In the first reading for the 15th Sunday, Series A, we hear the familiar image of God’s Word being like the rain that falls on the earth, nourishing it and bringing forth growing things, achieving its purpose (Isaiah 55:10-11). The Word of God is spoken not only once, but over and over again. The Word of God is constantly “watering” our minds and hearts.

The Word of God has been spoken to us all our lives, from the Bible, from sermons in church, from the teaching and example of our parents, other family members, teachers, coaches, and other sources. All these have had some effect on us and have helped to make us who we are. The scripture passage seems to imply that God’s Word will achieve results, no matter what.

However we can help ourselves if we try harder to hear the Word, get the message. In the current civil and social climate, we have been asked “Are you listening?” As a society we have not listened well enough to what some of our brothers and sisters have been trying to tell us.

And so also in our personal and spiritual lives, how well have we been listening to the steady message from God:
love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, justice, healing? It is always there, like a constant falling rain.

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.

It seems the emotional state of the country is becoming more tense. People are feeling the strain of weeks of quarantine, sheltering in place, loneliness, lack of human contact. We hear of incidents of shouting, pushing, more violent behavior, people standing on their “right” of not being told what to do.

We need more exercise of what some call “emotional intelligence.” Can I recognize the feeling roiling inside me before it pops out in an angry outburst? Am I too willing to point fingers and blame someone else for my troubles? Am I, in the words of the Gospel, unwilling to see the log in my own eye?

I don’t have any answers or solutions to our state of uneasiness. But we are always invited to turn to prayer, but prayer that is not mere saying lots of words or asking for things. We are invited to enter into quiet, look honestly within and see ourselves in the presence of God, admitting that we are “poor in spirit.” As Jesus told us, we are to be like children as we live in the Kingdom of God. We need quiet moments, perhaps combined with a walk in the neighborhood or in nature.

Our egos may want to control everything, to always be “right,” to fix what is wrong. We could take more advice from our friends in Alcoholics Anonymous: admit our weakness and hand our lives over to God, “however we understand God.”