A Reflection on My Palm Sunday Homily

I've been an avid-to-nonexistent-to-moderately-avid churchgoer all my life. Most Catholics I know have one of two favorite times of liturgical year: Christmas or Easter. I've tended to favor Christmas, but over the weekend, at Palm Sunday mass, I sort of started to like Easter too... mostly due to a homily delivered by Karon, part of the parish leadership team here at St. Mary's University Parish.

Basically, the message of it was that life can change in an instant, as Jesus' did-- He went from being a hero to being a criminal, loved to hated, etc. The parallels Karon drew to everyday life are like when things go from bad to worse, from better to best, or sad to happy... like recently, with mine and Bacon-Bringer's unemployment woes. Bacon went from having the promise of another year-long contract in SVSU's History Dept., to a potential tenure-track job at MCLA, to having neither, in just a few weeks time.

However, things might begin looking up soon. Bacon might be teaching some classes here at CMU in fall... he's waiting on some communication from the chair of the History Dept. I probably have an additional job opp this summer, working as an academic advisor for summer freshman orientation.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you was that even when things seem really really bad, totally insufferable, and you are nearly asphyixated with sadness or grief or whatever, the important thing is to remain wholly present in that emotional state-- not to retreat from it-- because I think there's light and grace in every emotion, every event-- and there's nothing better about living than feeling everything as deeply as you possibly can.