{"id":7436,"date":"2020-10-17T05:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T09:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=7436"},"modified":"2020-10-15T21:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T01:04:00","slug":"from-fr-tom-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2020\/10\/17\/from-fr-tom-12\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fr. Tom!"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO IS MY GOD???<\/span><\/p>\n

I AM THE LORD AND THERE IS NO OTHER…<\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

GIVE TO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR\u2019S AND TO GOD WHAT IS GOD\u2019S.<\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

IS MY \u201cGOD\u201d, THE ONE TRUE GOD. <\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT GOD AM I SERVING???<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I, like all human beings, have yearnings and desires. I want to be whole, I want to be happy, I want to feel wanted and needed. These yearnings can lead to a sense of emptiness or unhappiness. I am not whole, I am needy, I am not sure I\u2019m wanted or needed\u2014at least by those I want to want me. The God of consumption is ready to tell me there\u2019s a cure. When I feel needy, empty, unfinished, or unsatisfied, the God of consumption tells me that what I need are things, because owning, possessing, using, things can fill me. I will always need more because this cure is always only temporary, but the God of consumption is always ready to supply new things, improved things, distracting things, unnecessary things. Just buy and be happy.<\/li>\n
  2. Pray and be wise. Don\u2019t chase happiness; rather come to know more deeply what happiness is. Come to know more deeply what I really and truly need. Come to understand living, that inevitably includes sorrow and emptiness, which is a gift, even though it is a challenge. Come to know that often love, commitment, and obedience require challenge and sadness. Jesus embraced the cross not to sanctify hatred and mistrust, but rather to be faithful to God. He chose in love to obediently accept death, even death on the cross. Come to know that the cross leads to life and that if we avoid the cross, though we might manage short term relief, it means we will trade real life and living for temporary and ultimately unsatisfying substitutes. It seems to me scenario number one is a God our culture begs us to give tribute to, but today\u2019s Gospel reading warns us against. If we would give to God what is God\u2019s, we must learn in prayer and contemplation who God is, what God promises, and what leads to life and salvation. If our God promises life with no mention of the cross, of sacrifice, of committed obedient love, then perhaps we are following another God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It seems to me scenario number one is a God our culture begs us to give tribute to, but today\u2019s Gospel reading warns us against. If we would give to God what is God\u2019s, we must learn in prayer and contemplation who God is, what God promises, and what leads to life and salvation. If our God promises life with no mention of the cross, of sacrifice, of committed obedient love, then perhaps we are following another God. So, stop a bit, and think and pray. Who is my God? To whom, or to what, do I give my heart, my needs, my emptiness, my allegiance, my assent and my will?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Have a blessed week,<\/p>\n

    Fr. Tom<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    WHO IS MY GOD??? IS MY \u201cGOD\u201d, THE ONE TRUE GOD. WHAT GOD AM I SERVING??? I, like all human beings, have yearnings and desires. I want to be whole, I want to be happy, I want to feel wanted and needed. These yearnings can lead to a sense of emptiness or unhappiness. I am not whole, I am needy, I am…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-tom","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7436"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7438,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}