Month: December 2020

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Meditation

The Rich Man’s Excess is the Poor Man’s Right

TRANSCRIPT:

I was reading the Magnificat today, and the words hit me in a little bit of a different way than they have in the past. And I was thinking about the pride and the conceit and of the world, and I was thinking about the rich and what the Saints tell us that the purpose of the rich is. And the rich, of course, are here on earth for the aid of the poor- to come to their aid. And the poor are here on the earth for the spiritual salvation of the rich, to give the rich people an opportunity to work out their salvation through their generosity and their benefits and their assistance.

And each of us has been born into a particular place in our life, and most of us probably, that are watching this, are rich by any standard, certainly compared to what the Saints of all time have lived like. And a large portion of the world’s population today are dependent upon those of us that are rich. And Saint Thomas talks about how if we have an extra coat in our closet, we should give that to the poor. If it’s hanging in our closet and we’re not using it, that’s excess that we own that we should give to the poor. Or if we have an excess of food, that should be going to the poor. And I just thought about how my own closet is full of clothes that I don’t wear on a regular basis and haven’t worn in a long time, and that there’s not a single meal that goes by that I don’t at least have access to seconds, you know, a second portion, a helping.

And yet, how rare it is that that would go to the poor, or that the money that provided for that excess could have gone to the poor instead of going into seconds for my family or an extra coat or a second hat or a third pair of gloves or whatever. It’s a high standard, but it’s the standard that Saint Thomas tells us this is the one that we must adhere to for salvation. So, I’m just going to be working on looking for opportunities in my life to take the excess, the things that I don’t really need according to my state in life, and find a way to get those to the poor.

Categories
Meditation

You May Be Looking, But Are You Seeing?

TRANSCRIPT:

Boy, that was kind of embarrassing. So, like many of you all, I’ve been spending most of my time working from home lately, and I’ve got a pretty great setup in my basement. It’s kind of like a man cave, but it’s ‘Dad’s office’, right? And I keep it pretty dark down there because I do some filming occasionally, and I like to create a kind of an ambiance for creative thinking, and stays kind of cool in the basement. And I’ve got my primary computer that I do most of my business work on, and then I’ve got my laptop, which is off to the side, that I use when I need to be mobile and stuff. And occasionally when I’m doing my holy hours at home, I’ll even light a candle or two in my office there and sprinkle some holy water around.

Why am I telling you this? Well today, I left the office, and I took my laptop out with me, and I went to go see a friend and a client. And when I walked into his conference room- beautiful, brightly lit, and so forth- and I pulled my laptop out onto the table to set up for our conference, I realized that my laptop was filthy. Not just the outside that had dust and stuff that had accumulated over weeks and months, but as I opened it up, I was looking at it under these really harsh bright lights in the conference room.

The keyboard was dirty. I hadn’t cleaned the keyboard in forever, and you could see the keys that I use all the time with my fingers- they were kind of polished clean, and where I rest my hand is clean. But the rest of it was dirty with dust, accumulated dirt, there was a splotch of something- probably tea or something. But the screen was so dirty on this laptop that in the glare of the lights I couldn’t even see. I could just barely make out, behind all the filth on the screen, what was there.

I was standing there. It was so embarrassing. And then it hit me. I realized that this is like doing an examination of conscience for the first time in a long time or switching up your examination of conscience and trying a different technique or reading one of those old-style examinations of conscience that goes by the sacraments, that goes by the Commandments, and asks, “Have you done this?” or “Have you failed to do this?” And not being in that same routine that you’re accustomed to where you kind of think, “Oh yeah, maybe I committed this venial sin today,” but you’ve probably forgotten a lot of things. And I was standing there, and it was so embarrassing.

But in that moment, Our Lord and my Guardian Angel gave me this opportunity to just be reminded of why we have to measure things, why we have to be so vigorous in our self-examinations; because we get into our own little world that we’ve created around ourselves. In my case, it’s dark downstairs and it’s kind of cool and I don’t take the laptop out of there very often, I hadn’t seen it in a long time. I certainly hadn’t seen it with fresh eyes. It’s kind of like when you have sunglasses or glasses and if you’ve got them up close, you’re looking through them, you’re not looking at them. You can’t see how dirty the lenses are.

And that’s what happens to our souls. That’s what happens when people have a routine, and that’s great, but what if your routine needs to be changed up a little bit? What if the things you’re measuring aren’t all of the things you need to be measuring? What if the things you’re tracking and you’re so proud of aren’t all of the things that you need to be tracking in order to become a saint? That can be kind of embarrassing. That’s where I was today.

Categories
Meditation

Bearing Accusation Silently

TRANSCRIPT:

You know, during Advent, like with Lent, it’s a great time to reflect on our Lord’s life and how it’s an example for us in every way. And you know, it occurred to me that Our Lord would have exemplified this notion of abasement, where you lower yourself to the point where you don’t even defend yourself when people lie about you, when people say things to hurt you or imply things about you, or just outright engage in slander, defamation, and libel.

Our Lord lived His whole life that way. We’re familiar with the examples during His Passion, where he was accused of things, betrayed over and over and over again and never once spoke up to defend Himself from those lies. But He would have lived His entire life like that. And we know what people are like. Kids, for example- surely there were times when He was a child when He was playing with the other kids in the village- whether it was Bethlehem or Nazareth or in Egypt or wherever He was-.and there must have been times when, kids being kids, things happened; a window got knocked out in a nice home or somebody did something, and they pointed the finger at Jesus and blamed Him.

It’s almost certain that He would not have defended Himself unless the circumstances just really required that He speak the truth rather than take the blame. And I was thinking about myself and how difficult it is to take the blame. It’s hard enough when it’s true, but when it’s false, when it’s a lie, there’s something in me- perhaps you all have experienced this too- that someone lies about you and blames you falsely, and it just screams out in you to defend yourself. And gosh, there’s a lot of work there to be done to be willing to take the blame when you’re not guilty.

And this happens in the workplace, it happens in society, it happens online- worst of all, probably, if you’re online, on social media. And it even happens at home, right? It might be that your spouse says something about you that’s not true. Sometimes that happens between spouses, right? “Well, you did this,” or “You said this,” or “You made it sound like this.” And sometimes it’s just not true, and you might feel that defense lawyer begging to come out of you and defend yourself to the very end- every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed and so forth. But sometimes, even just on a practical level, not just the spiritual doing it for humility, but on the practical level, sometimes it really is just better to say nothing. And your silence kind of allows that word, that unspoken admission of guilt, to be assumed, and yet it might actually be better for the situation. It might be better for that relationship. And maybe days later, weeks later, months or years later, it could be addressed, and you say, “You know, there was this time…” But in that moment, it might be better to say nothing.

And it’s painful. It’s difficult. It’s hard. But Our Lord has given us the example that it is better, oftentimes, for our soul. And it might just be better for our relationship with other people and the example that we set, especially if you have children. I hope this has been helpful, and I hope you’ll pray for me as I work on this. Thanks.