Loving-Kindness

W16B-2015-SPN

One of my constant themes is how do we live a spiritual life?  I believe that part of the answer is contained in today’s Gospel.  I know you remember last week’s Gospel where Jesus sends the disciples out two by two to every town and village.  Of course you do.  They went out to do what Jesus was doing.  Jesus empowered them to do what He did.  He trusted them.  He didn’t go with them.

In today’s Gospel we see the disciples returning and relating to Jesus what they taught and did in His name.  Then, Jesus invites them to rest awhile and grab a bite to eat.  Here in lies a good map of what a spiritual life might look like.  We too go out from this place and we return next week to this place, to rest awhile and get a bite to eat.  We do this pattern every day of our lives, we leave our home, go out and come back to rest and get a bite to eat.  So without doing anything else we live the pattern of a spiritual life.

Something more is needed to mix into this pattern, namely our attitude.  Attitude is everything.  Get up and leave the house with a bad attitude and I guarantee you are going to have a bad day, no matter how good it may be.  Getting out of bed with a good attitude and I guarantee you are going to have a good day, no matter how bad it might get.  Attitude is everything.

The First Noble Truth of Buddhism is that suffering is inevitable.  The only way to overcome it is with an attitude of loving-kindness.  It sin’t so much about how much we do or accomplish but rather the attitude we bring to everything we do.  All this means staying focused, staying focused on loving-kindness or if you really want to be Catholic about it to always be full of grace GRACED FILLED — to be graceful in all that we do.

When we say the Hail Mary we are not so much saying anything about Mary, but praying that we might become what we pray, namely to become FULL OF GRACE.  This actually happens in daily life; you run into it every now and then.

(SOCIAL SECURITY STORY)  I heard awful stories about dealing with social security. I was prepared for an uphill fight but ran into the most helpful person ever.  She was focused on her job, took me through the whole process os signing up for social security with complete ease.  She was full of loving-kindness.

It is an attitude of heart, not just a thinking or doing thing.  If we have the attitude the doing will follow.  Pope Francis isn’t teaching us in any heady way but showing us by his actions which are obviously rooted in lovng-kindness  In his latest encyclical he is calling us beyond just not using bottled water or recycling but to have, from the heart an attitude of loving kindness toward Mother Earth, sister squirrel  and brother sun.  I know people who don’t drink bottled water but leave all the lights in the house on. If we convert our hearts and not just our minds and action we will do all we ought to do and more besides — because we will get to a point where we can’t do otherwise.

Pope Francis is initing us to find spirituality everywhere, in care for creation, care for one another.  It is the radical Jesuit call to find God in all things.