Occasionally, I like to go out and have a plate of nachos! You know a plate of nice chips with salsa, some chicken or beef - and then to keep my doctor happy - I make sure there is lettuce & tomatoes on it so it resembles healthy salad type stuff. I enjoy trying different places - a few locals watering holes and a couple not so local - but either way you meet interesting people along the way, and see interesting spots. One watering hole - had a sign near its entrance - we are the King of Quenching Your Thirst!
It made me pause and ponder a bit in between the salsa and jalapenos - - what do people thirst for? In Haiti - where we are trying to aid the Sisters of St Joseph in building a well - people thirst for simple water - something we take for granted. But our thirst is actually even greater than their thirst; we thirst for understanding, we thirst for relationships - meaningful ones, we thirst for direction - we thirst for ways to be heard, we thirst for sympathy - we thirst for justice and fairness. So which King will Quench our Thirst and where will our watering hole be ?
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and I would like to share with you why He should be the King of Quenching Your Thirst. Blessed John Paul II spoke early in his life as Pope of the call to “put out into the deep”. His was a convincing call to Mission and Evangelization. His was an invitation to see all within the world, our very lives - even the things we thirst for - to be found within the beauty and power of the Gospel. He told us though that this would be found, first and foremost, in one place - The Family.
The Family is the foundational place of spiritual formation. It is the place of apprenticeship - training in holiness - How ?
1. Loving God First
The family must be the place where God is honoured. Our call as we thirst is to love God - above all things - and to Honour Him and His Day. This can be difficult in today’s society because so many things pull families in various directions. But what happens when you are pulled in various directions is that eventually you are pulled apart. Something - someone - must be your unifying centre - it must be God
Do you thirst for harmony in your marriage ? Do you thirst for serenity in your family ?
Don’t put fleeting things first - Love God First - make Him King !
2. Service
The family must be the place where service is seen. One of the things in our parish family we seek to be good at - always trying for better - is to serve one another:
- Red Stocking Campaign
- Neighbourhood Ministry and Lend A Hand Appeal
- Haiti Mission Work (Coins for Change, Milk Bag Mats, Catholic Cafe)
- Service Saturdays/Green Bag Saturday
- Food Drives
- Blanket Brigade and Ready Day One Back Packs
- Roses for Life Appeal and Baby Shower for Michael House
- 40 Days for Life
- Commitment to Orphanage in Bethlehem
In our world which creates illusive images of happiness to tempt us, cars, mansions, fine clothes, latest toys - tempt us to become someone other than ourselves. Service to others makes us real, shows if we are real. The real us comes out when we give of our real ourselves to another in need. Who we really are comes out when we lend a hand.
Do you thirst for something that will fill the emptiness you feel some days?
Do you thirst for something that will satisfy the hole you feel in your life for meaning and purpose?
Don’t Use Visa First - Serve Another and God First - make Him King !
3. Forgiveness
The family must be the place where forgiveness is taught. In our weakness we hurt one another - we fail to be there for a friend, we fail to support a sibling, we fail to sustain a spouse in their need. We let down, get down on, or rip down another, and when it is someone we love - it hurts all the more! Yet when the hurt is there so is the temptation toward revenge, resentment, retribution, and these seek to be King in our life - but the only thing they do is make us dry. Dry and thirsty - for a peace found only in Forgiveness
Do you thirst for a restoration in a relationship?
Do you thirst for a refreshment in conversation with spouse, sibling, significant friend ?
Don’t get back first - Seek Forgiveness from Another and God First - make Him King !
Let me conclude with this. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York spoke recently about the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States. He remarked that it, along with other major celebrations — are in jeopardy. He writes in a recent column for his Archdiocesan Newspaper; "The stores, we hear, will open on Thanksgiving. Isn’t that a sign of progress and liberation? Sorry, but no — it’s a sign of a further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture, one that values having stuff and doing things over just being with people whom we love, cherish and appreciate."
As you make your priorities this week - Who is your King? Is their an idol which takes over your priorities making the watering hole from which your thirst is quenched different than the life giving water found in being an apprentice of Christ and His ways?
Will you allow a little forgivness, a slight bit of service and just a touch of loving God first into the picture of your week ? Your day? Makes these beacons for time and as a result - Make Him King.