Great homily for today by Deacon Paul Augustin

Since I did not preach this weekend or prepare a homily, I am proud to present this excellent homily by my friend and classmate Deacon Paul Augustin.  Hope you both enjoy and get much from hi excellent offering here:

The Center for Economic Studies has been keeping a statistic called the Happiness index since 1961. Along with economic well-being, the index measures responses to statements such as  My life is close to how I would like it to be or I am very happy most of the time.

In 1961 the Happiness Index in the US was 42.1

 

In 1961, the average size of a new home in the US was 1,460 sq ft. In 2015 it was 2,600 sq ft.  

The average number of TVs per household in 1961 was .7, today it is over 3.

In 1961 there was virtually no self-storage, or mini-storage facilities. Today, there are almost 50,000 nearly 3 billion square feet.  Every American could stand – all at the same time – under roof of a self-storage facility. And on and on it goes.

With respect to the birth rate, in 1961 the average number of children per family was 3.6. Last year it was slightly over 1.8.   For the first time in history, there are more households with dogs than with children

Last year the US Happiness index last year was 26.8.

54 years later, we have bigger houses, more things and more places to keep our things.  And smaller families with whom to share everything.. We are almost half as happy.  Why is that?  One of the things necessary, as people of faith who want true happiness, is to learn to become detached from our possessions.

Today’s readings center on destitute widows.  In the first reading, Elijah tells the widow of Zarephath to take the last bit of food that she has and make a cake for him.  In the Gospel, a poor widow takes what might be her last two coins and deposits them in the temple treasury. A usual and not necessarily incorrect interpretation of today's readings is generosity.

Generosity is certainly a good thing, it is important, and it is certainly a start. But real and true generosity is merely an outward sign of an internal attitude.  So, if the primary lesson from today’s readings is not generosity, then what might it be?  I would like to suggest that you look at the readings today in terms of an attitude of detachment. Imagine if the widows in the readings had not developed detachment from their possessions. The Widow at Zarephath would have told Elijah – “Beat it bub… I need this flour and oil for me and my child.”  The widow in the temple might have dropped a slug in the temple collection container so that it would have sounded like she made a donation, but kept all of what she had for herself because of her great need.

Detachment, with regards to the spiritual life, has also been called Holy Indifference. Someone who is indifferent is often seen as someone who does not care.  This is not what it means within this context. At its simplest level detachment means – I put God and my relationship with him first, other people second, and everything else a very distant third.

Detachment does not mean that you shouldn’t enjoy your life and the things in it and approach it with energy, joy, and enthusiasm. It just means that your daily activity must figuratively be placed on the altar, offered up to God as a living sacrifice. And you must be ever ready to walk away from your activities at a moment’s notice, should Jesus call you to do so.

There are countless things that we become attached today and place ahead of God.  This include people such as our spouses, our children and our friends.  We can become attached to our reputation, image, our health and fitness.   How about our toys, video games, and gadgets? Our smartphones?  Facebook and twitter? And how many of us know people who are attached to their careers or their jobs?

How does one become detached? It is not a “normal” thing in our culture that stresses accumulation of things, wealth, power, reputation and prestige. Here are three things to consider for homework.

1) As a mentioned, generosity is a good start. There is two sentence  prayer attribute to St. Ignatius of Loyola that I pray every morning and invite you to consider: Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that I do your will.

I have put this on the St Luke website.  There is no link, just enter in saintlukeslidell.org/prayers   .  There is also a link on our Facebook page.

2) Speaking of St. Ignatius, as part of his Spiritual Exercises, there is a concept called the First Principle and Foundation. It is a wonderful 3 paragraph meditation on detachment.  Ignatius invites us to consider how we should not prefer wealth to poverty, health to sickness, fame to anonymity and so on.  We should only prefer those things that help us achieve the ends for which we are created.  If it helps you, I invite you to mediate on it. It is just three very short paragraphs.  This is also linked on our website and Facebook

3) Finally, go  put your prayer into action.  Go to your home, look around and ask yourself these questions – “Why do I have all of this stuff?”  “Is this_____ necessary and is it bringing me real happiness?”  (you fill in the blank.  You know your attachments)  “Are these things getting in the way of me putting God first in my life?” Maybe it’s time for you to clean house, literally.

 

God and his Church want your happiness index to be 100.  True happiness and inner joy cannot be found outside of a closeness with God.  You can’t cling to him and all your possessions at the same time. The widows were detached enough to give it all.  What attachments are holding you back?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to his website:  http://deepsouthdeacon.blogspot.com/