FROM THE PULPIT

Excerpts from messages being presented at area places of worship this weekend.

Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Beth El Synagogue

Viktor Frankl was a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis. He developed a new approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the center of his theory is the belief that humanity’s main motivational force is the search for meaning.

He once told a story about the time a woman phoned him during the night and said she was about to commit suicide. Frankl kept her on the phone, listened to her and gave her reasons to keep living. In the end, she assured him she would not take her life.

When they met later on, Frankl asked her which of his reasons she had found persuasive. “None,” she replied. What then convinced her to go on living? Her answer: It wasn’t so much what he said that gave her comfort, but rather, that he cared enough to listen. It seemed to her that a world where someone would listen to another’s anguish was a world in which it was worthwhile to live.

The simple act of carefully listening to someone’s pain can have great healing power and be a source of much-needed comfort. One of the most valuable gifts we can give others is the willingness to listen with compassion, with our whole being. This is what the Hebrew Bible teaches: God listens to those who go unheard. We have to do the same.

Monsignor James Gilg, St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church

I Corinthians 12:12-30

St. Paul’s use of the analogy of the human body to teach the Corinthians the value of each person’s unique gifts and contributions to the common welfare of the Christian community is an image and message that never fails to hit home in some way. Because of our own weakness and the frailties of the human condition, it is seldom that we find ourselves without need of improvement as we attempt to live in harmony and peacefulness with one another. Whether it be our family, or neighborhood, or parish, or school, or business, it is so easy to begin to assign inordinate value to what we are bringing to the table and lose sight of the contributions of others.

Perhaps this is especially difficult when we find ourselves having different points of view and perspectives regarding the pursuit of civic goals and the general welfare. One can certainly say that the present characteristics of our political and civic discourse are a long way from the ideal that St. Paul is teaching us. We have become almost used to shrill comment, name-calling, and ridicule as we watch or participate in lively discussions about the events of the day. We frequently will not agree with one another, but we are challenged by our understanding of God’s unique role in the life of each person to recognize the good in the other and try to move beyond contentious rhetoric and verbal bashing.

I often think of words my mother used to say when we siblings would be quarreling and fussing with one another. She would say, “If I put you all in a gunny sack and shook it up, I don’t know who would end up on top.” Might St. Paul say something similar about us in today’s world?”

« Living

Share