Third Sunday Ordinary Time
January 22, 2023 •
Father offers a follow-up to last week's homily on gossip.
Knowledge, truth. These are good for everyone. But data, facts, and information aren't for everyone. As parents, you know this inherently for your own children. You keep certain information away from them because it's not helpful. They're either too immature, or it's just not important. It doesn't mean that the things you know aren't true, just that they are not ready for it. That's perfectly justified.
But as adults, we think "Oh I'm mature enough." "I need to know what's going on out there."
Really?
How well do you handle the information that you have? Are you able to maintain the peace of Christ in your heart? Are you able to hear the voice of God and focus on Him despite the chaos and bad things in the world? If you can't do that, then you can't handle the information. You have to stop listening to it, reading it, hearing it. You have to remove it from your life. . . .
You don't need to worry about things outside of your control. This was a lesson the Lord taught me many years ago, to - in essence - shrink my world view.
I am only responsible for certain things in this world. Family. Some relationships with friends. Saint Dorothy's. Lincolnton. That's the sphere of my existence for the most part. . . . As long as I can keep my focus on these thing on which the Lord has asked me to work and minister and care, then I can handle it because I have the grace from Christ to handle it.
When I reach out to gain information for things outside my control, our Lord, more often than not, will not give me grace to handle it because He never wanted me to know about it.
This easy access to data is not helpful for us. Most of the time. I'm not saying it isn't a great tool. But as with all tools, it has to be used rightly.
There's a reason why we like filling our minds with the useless and often harmful information. It's because it's distracting and entertaining. Now, there's nothing wrong with good entertainment, we should rejoice when we are entertained. And there's nothing wrong necessarily with distractions, sometimes you need them. But I would say, upwards of 75-90% of what we're fed through the media, what we read and listen to and watch, is not helpful distraction. Is not holy entertainment.
The reason why we fill our minds with these things is because - in truth - we don't want to fill our minds with Christ. . . .
Now what does all this have to do with gossip? There's a direct relationship between what comes out of my mouth and what is in my head.
Is 8:23—9:3; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14; 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17; Mt 4:12-23
Homily begins at 24:44