Love God. Live the Eucharist.

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Thirty-Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B, November 15, 2015, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

OK, think of your life as a tree.  I need a few volunteers.  [Instructions to volunteers in italics]

 I want you to pretend to be trees.

 

1. First, A tree has roots.  So be let us see your roots [demonstrate by showing my feet]

Sometimes deep roots . . . we all have backgrounds, stories and family histories.

 

2. A tree never stops growing.  OK, crunch down and let us see you grow.

We should never stop learning. -there are too many of us who think we know it all.  I have met some teenagers who act as if they are God’s gift to the universe and have nothing to learn.  I also know of some wonderful elderly folks who still want to learn and grow.  They ask questions rather than give lectures.

 

3. A tree begins to sprouts new things.  Hold your hands into fists.

Hopefully you have found ways to be creative.  A friend of mine says that he strives to do one creative thing each day.  Think of when in your life you have been full of passion.  Or think of what are the things that give you joy?  For those of you struggling what to do with your life.  Writer Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place that God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  

 

4. A tree stands in full glory with its leaves fully developed.  [I give the volunteers large paper, leaves.]  Hold those leaves high.  Just like a tree I think that we are meant to give God praise.  The best prayer that we can make is to say, “Thank you.”

 

5. A tree in the autumn seems the most vulnerable . . . for it has undergone some big changes.  [I replae the green leaves with large paper leaves of orange, red and yellow.]  Now start dropping those leaves .   It once was full of leaves and even had a dazzling show of itself with autumn colors.  But now it is naked and most vulnerable . . . because it let go of its leaves and/or its fruit.

 

[Send volunteers back to pews]

Letting go is one of hardest struggles of our lives.  We often have to let of things that we are not prepared for . . . a loss of a job, a loss of health, a loss of our looks, a loss of a relationship.  All can seem to be devastating and hindering. 

 

But look at the bigger picture . . . when a tree lets go of its leaves and fruit, there is the possibility of new life.  What may seem awful, sometimes can be a great gift.  With loss there can be a new chapter.  Think of your life and the losses that you have endured.  I cannot tell you how often people will tell me stories of “great loss” that led to “great joy.” 

 

For example, people with cancer stating that it was the best thing that ever happened to them, for

            they finally started to appreciate the people and things in their lives and not take things

            for granted. 

 

            People who have lost a job, but then a door was opened for something better.

 

 

 

            People who have worried so much about their looks, and finally accepted the reality

that those wrinkles may be the result of laughing and that those gray hairs may be the result of caring.

 

 

In the gospel Jesus talks about a tree.  A tree represents the changes that each of us faces.  Just as changes around can sometimes feel like “the end of the world.”  We recognize that there is a cycle to all the pain or difficulties that we face.  That no matter how hard something feels now, things will change. 

 

During our pilgrimage to Israel last September, we spent one hour in holy silence in the Garden of Gethsemane.   That was the place that Jesus went to after the Last Supper and prayed to God to have the upcoming crucifixion taken away . . . but ultimately for Jesus to accept the cross and trust in God.  Anyway, some of the huge olive trees are really old . . . and possibly where there in the garden with Jesus.

 

I would like to imagine that those trees helped Jesus with the burden he felt in facing his death.  I say that whenever you are facing a big decision or problem . . . take it to something bigger than yourself.  For example, the lake or the mountain, the forest . . . and especially the Eucharist.

 

Something that can “hold the pain” with you.  It is as if a tree says to you, “Yes, you are carrying a heavy load, but you will get through it.  It will pass and you can start again.”

 

You see, we can stay buried in the sorrow and hopelessness over the changes of our lives or we can stop to realize the possibilities for new life in the "seeds" and "fruit" we may not even realize we have produced.

 

6.  In winter, a tree sometimes looks dead . . . sometimes our lives seem dead, that is when we have no direction or purpose, but simple plod along and do things that we have always done.

Many times we want to blame someone else or something else for our problems.  Maybe the problem is not that other person, but the problem is you.  Maya Angelo says, “If you don’t like something change it, if you can’t change it change your attitude.”

 

Writer Gail Sheehy says,”If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.”

 

Be like a tree . . . never stop growing, stand tall, let go –now and then, trust God.

 

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