Sunday on Monday

Greetings!!

Continuing on with Proverbs,

"Anxiety in a man's heart depresses it, but a kindly word makes it glad."

A good reminder to me that when I sense that somebody is feeling sad or anxious, I can really help them feel better by just a "kindly word". Cheesy, but yeah, still true.

"Wealth quickly gotten dwindles away, but amassed little by little, it grows."

One of those common sensical concepts that I have never really thought about in a direct way. I guess its, slow but steady wins the race. That's always a comforting idea. Good to have God's stamp of approval. haha

"He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him takes care to chastise him."

This seems to be about justice again. Love actually does translate into justice, because justice reinforces an understanding of what is right and wrong, good and bad. The father wants his son to have this understanding because he loves him!! Don't think I plan on using the rod on my kids though.

"Even in laughter the heart may be sad, and the end of joy may be sorrow."

Seems that Solomon is just stating a fact of life here. He may be implying that our emotions do not tell us what is right and wrong, we have to search in our hearts. Wow I am sorry for this cheesiness.

"He who oppresses the poor blasphemes his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy glorifies him."

I had never thought of it this way before: Helping the disadvantaged and needy glorifies God, because it affirms that EVERYTHING God created is deserving of our love. To be disgusted by an individual (a person, not an action) is to sort of offend God.
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So yesterday, I went to Catholic Mass with a fellow Catholic intern, and I came to a realization that the biggest thing I could not stand about Catholic mass back in the day was the AWFUL music. It seems that there is like a canon of Catholic hymns that are accepted and that they sing in Catholic churches around the country on a sort of cyclical basis. They are mostly written by these three people: Dan Schute, Mary Haugen, and David Haas. Anyway, the main point is that this music is not conducive to prayer. I would be trying to pray during mass and then all of a sudden the flute and piano would start up in some jingly hymn that did not fit the mood at all. It is actually pretty sad.. Even silence would be better.

The sermon was pretty good though, it was about the part in the Gospels when Jesus asks his Apostles, "and you, who do you say that I am?" or something like that, and they respond, "You are the Christ, our savior, the son of God" or something like that, and he "rebukes" them. The priest pointed out that Jesus was not rebuking them because they were incorrect, but because he did not want himself to be put up on a pedestal - he wanted to be seen as our humble servant, a lamb, not as like an almighty, sort of prince-like figure.

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