Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, September 3rd, 2017

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, September 3rd, 2017

In my secular position working for the Department of Corrections, I am a counselor for a faith and character based unit in a maximum security juvenile facility.  Now, bear in mind that we do not call it a "prison."  We refer to it as a "facility."  But I ask the young men sometimes in my unit sometimes:  "What makes this a prison?" because it would lose something in the "translation" if I asked them: "What makes this a facility?"   Of course, I get the usual answers back in response:   Fences . . .  Gates . . .  Doors . . .  Locks . . .  Guards .  .  .  Barbed Wire . .  . .  All very good responses, to be sure.  But the reason I ask this particular question to my guys is not to state the obvious but, rather, to help them understand that we build our own prisons which do not need any of the above mentioned items.  In other words, we imprison ourselves.  We imprison ourselves, for example, by the poor choices we make in life.  We imprison ourselves by the poor choices we make for friends who influence us.  We imprison ourselves by the drugs and the alcohol and the riches of the world that we become addicted to.  We are imprisoned by the poisonous mind-set that we have been taught to look at certain people a certain way.  Who needs fences and barbed wire and locked doors when we keep our own selves down through fear of moving forward.  Through fear of the unknown.  Through fear of being mocked and discouraged by those around us.  As I often say to my guys:  "We are our own worst enemies."  We refuse to improve our lives because we still chained to our addictions that keep us down.  We refuse to move out of the prisons we have built for ourselves because we find them to be comfortable . . .  they're familiar  . . . .  they're ours  . . . . they belong to us.   We are too blind to see that we are imprisoned through bad choices, bad decisions, addictions and the consequences of our wrong ways of thinking.   Who needs gates and locks and fences when many of us carry our own "personal prisons" around with us wherever we go?

The answer is obvious.  The answer is obvious to those who believe.  The answer is right before our eyes if we would only open our eyes and make an effort to look for the answer.  So many of us, as we stated above, are content to be in our prisons.  So many of us, whether we realize it or not, want to remain in our prison.  We may say that we don't but we say otherwise by our actions.  But if we would make the effort to look for the way out of our prison, the answer would be closer than we ever imagined. The answer, of course, is Our Blessed Saviour.  In St. Mark 7:37, we hear the words of the deaf man cured by Our Blessed Saviour:  "He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak"  St. Mark tells us that this man's ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed.    Only God can heal our impediments.  Only God can cure what needs to be cured.  The sad thing is that so many in the world do not even realize they need a cure.  So many in the world do not realize that they are imprisoned through their addictions,  . . . their hatreds, . . .  their anger .  .  . , their worldly mindset.  But it is Our Blessed Saviour Who holds the key.  He is the One that can set us free.  He is our cure.  He is our salvation.  He is our everlasting hope.  Let us never depart from Him.  Let us always stay constant in our faithfulness to Him.

Please join us for Mass on Sunday, September 3rd, 2017 as we celebrate the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.  Join St. Margaret Church this day as we pray for those affected by the hurricane in Texas and Louisiana.  As we pray for those affected by the storm we will listen to the Word of God and hear God speaking to us.  Holy Communion will be distributed so that we can be nourished and strengthened by the Body and Blood of Our Precious Saviour.

St. Margaret Church gathers every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.