July 5, 2020

Post date: Jul 07, 2020 1:57:50 PM

July 5, 2020 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

You know of Aesop’s Fables—here is one that fits well with our Gospel today. It deals with the sun and the wind. The dispute was over which of the two was stronger. One day an opportunity arose to settle the dispute. A person dressed in a coat was walking down a deserted country road.

The sun said to the wind, “whoever makes that person remove the coat faster will be the winner.” The wind not only agreed but decided to go first. He blew and blew, but the more he blew, the tighter the person held on to the coat.

Finally, exhausted, the wind gave up. Then the sun took over. It merely shone in all its glory. Within minutes, the person took off the coat.

Aesop said the moral of the story was this: You can achieve more by gentleness than by agressiveness or violence. Do you believe that?

Today, gentleness is not as highly regarded as it once was.

Once, the highest compliment you could pay someone was to call him or her a gentle person.

Today, violence is more popular than gentleness. You only need to watch the news these days to understand that.

And then there are movies and television which glorify bullying, angry words, and violence. Do we not understand that violence begets violence? And by watching violence we have become desensitized to it.

How different from what Jesus taught us! “Learn from me because I am gentle and humble of heart.” Some examples from Scripture include how Jesus handled the woman caught in adultery, the Father in the Prodigal Son parable, and the Good Shepherd finding the one lost sheep.

What can we learn from Jesus? First, respond to people as the sun did in Aesop’s fable- respond with genuine warmth. Second, respond with understanding as Jesus did with the sinful woman, and the father of the prodigal son. Respond with respect. Be a gentle man, a gentle woman.