As we announced last week…
We’re making just one weekly blog post with everything included. You’ll get the weekly Mettle Maker that used to be posted on Saturdays, plus the weekly Holy Communion all in one.
Why the change?
We’re re-focusing on our mission to bring the wisdom of the past into the present, and we feel strongly that there’s no need to create separate weekly messages because mind, body, and spirit are one. You know this to be true for a thousand reasons. People with brain injuries experience changes s in personality, mood makes difficult ordeals fun, attitude and morale affect group cohesion, aches and pains make you short-tempered, and so forth. The outside affects the inside and vice versa. Why differentiate the material?
Mettle Maker #312
Self-defense: Try the martial fitness routine (a.k.a. “constitutional”) we did the the other night — see the pics on the left. See if you can beat my time of 19:37. Don’t know what the abbreviations mean? Get with the program! Check our our free distance learning program here.
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Fitness: Mind, body, and spirit are one. You know this to be true for a thousand reasons — people with physical injuries and diseases that affect the brain experience alterations in personality. If you’re in a good mood and in the company of others who are encouraging you, a physical ordeal can become fun. Religious rituals increase pain tolerance. Try adding some spiritual training onto the end your fitness training session — see video on the right. Want more on this topic? Today’s homily (see below) features the true story of a famous boy — one Henry Rollins — who was rescued from self-loathing and thoughts of suicide by a caring teacher’s intervention, mainly via fitness instruction. Want help designing a mind-body-spirit fitness program? Sign up for our free distance learning program.
Wildwood. Check out this short intro to skulking from the 7th Edition of Sir Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. Staying low is important even at night, Baden-Powell says, because you could be spotted as a dark outline against a field of stars. Nowadays there is too much light pollution for that to be likely. But what about standing out against the backdrop of a lighted sign or billboard in the city? Over a hundred years old, and still sound advice. Get there! Want to learn more? Sign up for our free Wildwood distance learning program.
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 10, 2022
Readings: Dt 30:10-14, Ps 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37, Col1:15-20, Lk 10:25-37
Lk 10:25-37 World English Bible (Catholic Edition)
25 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;✡ and your neighbor as yourself.”✡
28 He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, 34 came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’ 36 Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?”
37 He said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Some years ago my friend and fellow fitness enthusiast Leo – a patron of St. Barachiel Chapel, a missionary to prisoners, and a powerful witness of the Gospel – shared with me an essay called “Iron and the Soul” by the famous punk rock star Henry Rollins.* In the essay Rollins tells the story of his childhood rescue by a teacher named Mr. Pepperman. Rollins had been abandoned, bullied, and demeaned for most of his young life, so much so that, by the time he was in high school, he was possessed by fear, humiliation, self-loathing, and thoughts of suicide. But Mr. Pepperman intervened and saved his life. Leading by example, Pepperman showed him how to walk through the world in a different way and improved Rollin’s health and self-esteem through weightlifting.
To be clear, Rollins is not a Christian, nor is he a saint. But in the world of rock music, permeated with dissolution, drug and alcohol abuse, he sets a powerful example of sobriety, health, and fitness. A passionate advocate of peace and justice, Rollins doesn’t fully realize how deeply Christian his viewpoint is. As an example, he says that most weightlifting injuries come from ego – lack of self-control and showing off – and that ego must be put aside in order to pursue real strength, both internal strength and physical strength. In his view, being pumped up with big muscles doesn’t equate to strength, and training for cosmetic reasons is like doing good for the sake of appearances rather than out of sincerity. Real strength of character, he says, is manifested in kindness and understanding. Isn’t that remarkable? I pray, and I hope you’ll pray with me brothers and sisters, that Henry Rollins will one day put down the burden of his agnosticism, lift up the cross of Jesus Christ, and carry it in his heart.
And so, when I read the story of the Good Samaritan, I think of Rollin’s article for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason is, of course, that Mr. Pepperman is an example of a good Samaritan. He stepped in and gave young Henry Rollins the extra attention and mentorship he needed during a critical time. And by doing so, he saved a young man’s mental, emotional, moral, and literal life.
The second, less obvious reason is that the parable of the Good Samaritan is just like iron, and iron doesn’t lie. As Rollins points out in his article, in a world full of chaos and unpredictability, two hundred pounds of iron is always two hundred pounds of iron. You can either lift it or you cannot. If you lifted it last month and today you cannot, you’ve grown weaker. If you could not lift it last month and today you can, you’ve grown stronger. With iron there is no faking it. There are no excuses.
And that is the way it is with the parable of the Good Samaritan. We either lift up our neighbors or we do not. We can either be like a certain lawyer and argue about definitions and semantics, or we can pick up those who are in need of love, compassion, help, and protection and carry them to safety. We either bless those who curse us and do good to those who hate us, or we do not.
There is no faking it. There are no excuses.
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* To read Henry Rollin’s article Iron and the Soul, click here.