This homily was recorded at Sacred Heart Church in Joliet. I didn’t type it out this week, so there’s a little outline below.Â
What is the secret to a happy life? Is it even a secret, or is it something right under our noses?
Scarcity: A Life of “Never Enough” – Not, “I dont’ have enough” but “I am never enough”.
Scarcity looks like:
1. Shame
2. Comparison
3. Disengagement
We turn to all sorts of places and things do away with the feelings of never enough.
How-to programs never work. We are the most medicated, obese, anxious, in debt society of people that has ever walked the earth. This in itself is proof that self-help programs and how-to books usually don’t work.
(From the lecture “The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings on Authenticity, Connection, and Courage” by Dr. Brene Brown, available on Audible)
In the Gospel, Jesus sees the crowds and has pity on them because they are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
What’s the most important word in that sentence? Sheep? Shepherd? They?
In my opinion, the most important word there is “like.” They were like sheep without a shepherd, but they failed to see that they were not sheep without a shepherd, and the shepherd who stood in their midst had pity on them.
He is the one to follow toward freedom and happiness. Not abstract happiness, but an abiding “peace in my life and joy on my face” kind of happiness.
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