Lazy Sunday

I wanted to apologize for not posting yesterday.  I believe it is the first time since starting my 50 day project of daily posts that I have neglected to post anything at all.  I did start a draft of a post but failed to complete it and almost failed to complete one today.  I'm very sorry about that.

Today I will briefly talk about something I was excited about, focusing my energy on and failed to come through.  A few days ago I decided to do a stand up comedy open mic.  It's something I've been thinking about for a while and after the disappointment of not getting the job I anticipated early last week I figured I had nothing to lose.  But I didn't dedicate enough time to writing material and tonight I chickened out before even leaving for the club.

So I'm a little disappointed in myself for that and I want to find a positive spin since this is Easter and there is much to be happy about stilL! I think where I find solace tonight was in today's Gospel reading.  The apostles are kind of just not getting what Jesus is talking about (see my last post) and they are talking in a way that is focusing back on them, "How are we supposed to know the way?" "Show us the Father".  It's all about them, and their experiences.  In this case, it is their lack of understanding which is really caused by their lack of Faith.  And that's what I'm experiencing too I guess.

Jesus is the answer to both Thomas and Philip's question as He is to mine.  When I'm disappointed in myself for forgetting to blog or chickening out of standup because I'm too scared or not writing, beating myself up isn't going to help.  Any time we reflect the issue back to ourselves it can indulge our pride and leave us alone, unproductive, thinking only of our inferiority.  And our sucking shouldn't come as a surprise.  We aren't perfect; we're only human.  We'll fail, miss opportunities, hurt those we love.  We err.  But Jesus transforms that err into "Are" because He is one with the Father "I AM".

One line of the Gospel particularly stuck out to me:

Amen, amen, I say to you,whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12

Though I failed in the works I wanted to do today, in Christ I can do great works for God.  Not that my trying to do some comedy will be of any impact on the world but, through Jesus, it may be a part of spreading the Gospel.  The works that Jesus says will be greater than those He showed the apostles I believe are the collective works of the members of the body of Christ, all of us.  While God may have performed many extraordinary miracles through Peter and Paul and many apostles and saints, the daily work of all of God's people is truly a testimony to His love for us.

I believe in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I have faith in God and trust that He will provide for me.  And I also believe that He has imbued me, as He has every person, with a certain talents, dispositions, and creative energies.  I pray now that though I failed today, in His grace tomorrow I may make that talent profitable for God.

God love you!

~One Catholic Guy

St. Joseph the Worker

Appropriately, we kick of the month honoring Mary the Blessed Mother of Jesus with the feast of St. Joseph the Worker!  Also fitting is that I had several job related things today: an interview, two phone calls with old employers and a email request for my resume! God is good and St. Joseph definitely intercedes hardcore (Thanks God!  And thanks for the prayers St. Joe!).  

I unfortunately don't know a lot about St. Joseph the Worker as a feast day but I did find this cool reflection from American Catholic:

In a constantly necessary effort to keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has from the beginning proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously trained by Joseph in both the satisfactions and the drudgery of that vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also in creating. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Pretty cool to think about: one of the highest honors of humanity that show we are made in the image of God is our ability to create.  Not only to have babies (whoa now!) but to  play, write, act, draw, manufacture, imagine, and dream!

SIDEBAR: Isn't it strange that though Joseph was a master carpenter and taught the Lord his trade, the only thing we ever see him and Jesus holding is a big chunky unshaped block of wood? Seems unfittingly for the foster father of our Lord to be misrepresented as only a carpenter who makes smaller wooden beams from bigger wooden logs.

"This is a big block of wood"

"This is smaller wood"

"Hey Joe, how about we do something with this one instead of leaving it as a beam?"

All forms of creativity are our share in God's creation of the world  from those first 7 days way back in Genesis 1! So next time you do whatever creative thing you do, keep in mind you could use that as an opportunity to build the Body of Christ and show God you love Him and say "I'm going to be like you Dad/ you know I'm going to be like you". *sniffle* everytime it makes me cry, everytime!

BTW just realized Harry Chapin's kinda making a cool parallel to Jesus' command "Be perfect as your Father is perfect" but showing the humanity of our earthly fathers.  BOOM! Grab the kleenex and listen:

Call your pops and say you love him! 

God love you! ~onecatholicguy