Oct 25th

Post date: Oct 27, 2020 4:13:38 PM

October 25, 2020 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment and He responded by

naming two, both found in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy and Leviticus).

Jesus brought them together; hence, we must not separate them.

We must remember that love is a two-sided coin with love of God on one side and

love of neighbor, including oneself on the other.

In the time of the desert monks there was an abbot named Moses who was

considered very holy. Easter was approaching so the monks met to see how

they should prepare for it. They decided to fast the entire length of Holy Week.

Having come to this decision, each monk went off to his hut, to fast and pray.

About the middle of the week, two monks came to visit the Abbot’s hut.

Seeing they were starving; he cooked a little vegetable stew for them.

To make them feel at ease, he took a little of it himself. Meanwhile,

the other monks had seen the smoke rising from the Abbot’s cell.

It could only mean one thing—he had lit a fire to cook some food. In other words,

he had broken the fast. They were shocked, for some he had fallen off

the pedestal they had placed him on. So, they went to confront him.

Seeing judgment in their eyes, he asked,

‘What sin have I committed that makes you look at me like this?’ They replied,

‘You have broken the solemn fast.’ Abbot Moses said, ‘So I have—I have broken

the rule of men, but in sharing my food with these brothers of ours,

I have kept the commandment of God that we should love one another.’

On hearing this, the monks grew silent and went away humbled but wiser.

This is the love God gives us and asks us to use and to give away.

It is our loss if we do not. This poem describes it well:

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped by coincidence /In dark and bitter cold,

Each one possessed a stick of wood, /Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs, /The first woman held hers back,

For of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black.

The next man looking across the way Saw not one of his church,

And couldn't bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes. He gave his coat a hitch,

Why should his log be put to use, To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought Of the wealth he had in store,

And how to keep what he had earned, From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from sight,

For all he saw in his stick of wood Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group Did naught except for gain,

Giving only to those who gave, Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands, Was proof of human sin,

They didn't die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.

- by James Patrick Kinney –