"Man up!!!!"

Hi Folks!

A lot of my female friends think that men are wimps. It usually comes up in the conversations that we have over child birth and what a painful ordeal it is. The conversation normally ends and the argument starts when the woman or women say(s) something like, “I have never met a man tough enough to be able to give birth to a child!” They contend that we men whine too much over pain to be able to give birth. They may be right. I definitely don’t want that job and I am very appreciative of the faithful women that I’ve known who have embraced every aspect of motherhood, even child birth.

In this weekend’s readings we have examples of people who have “toughed it out” and done the hard labor of compunction in order to do God’s will and know God’s forgiveness. In the first reading King David get’s dressed down by his friend and priest, Nathan. He tells David that the king has been given blessing after blessing in his life and now he’s at risk of loosing it all because he found another man’s wife more attractive than his own. David even went so far as to have Uriah killed so he could take his wife, Bathsheba, as his own. When Nathan points out David’s sinfulness, David does the “manly” thing and fesses up and says, “I’m sorry!” to God.

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, tells us that he too has had to die to his former ways in order to let Christ live in his life and not himself. I could think of no better thing to be said about myself than, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” That is the bar that all of us Christians are called to walk under. More Christ living in me and less me and my selfish way of living is and can be an achievable goal for us all.

In the Gospel Jesus is served by a repentant woman in a Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee is concerned that this good Jewish Rabbi is letting himself be touched (and therefore being made sinfully dirty) by this unclean and sinful woman. Yet Jesus recognizes remorse and conversion when he sees her and forgives of her of her many sins. She, and not the Pharisee, is the one who is given the grace of forgiveness and acceptance from God because of her heart and display of penitence.

From these reading we are given a chance to look at how we “man up”. How easy is it for us to say a much needed “I’m sorry!” to someone in our life that needs to hear it? Who do we need to apologize to this week? When is the last time we came to the Sacrament of Reconciliation to say, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned…”? The owning up to our sinfulness is the tough part of forgiveness. But the grace we receive from God in Reconciliation is worth way more than our small amount of pain. Be tough this week. Tell God and someone else that you’re sorry for a hurt.

paz,
Fr. Chuck