[media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, July 2, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time MATTHEW 10:37-42 I give you my conditions for discipleship. Prayerthoughts a.There will be division in families. In my own different families right now (families that I grew up in, my own family right now, family in which I work, etc.), do I try to promote peace? b. I have a love of my family, but Jesus says that love for Him and the things of God should even be greater. Do I place God high in my priority during the day? c. I must accept the things that happen to me, my “cross,” and adjust to them as best I can. Have I looked at what has happened to me as God speaking to me? d. We can get wrapped up in the things of this life without the Lord (“saves” his life) or we can choose to lose our life for the Lord’s sake, that is, give ourselves to the Lord  more and more in our living. Do I see evidence in my life that I am choosing correctly? e. Obviously, I am not ashamed of my time with the Lord, but I do I make it often enough? As I study this past week, what percentage of time was spent specifically in prayer? (This is the task of the meditation.) f. My prayerthoughts… Today, I will carry out letter e.   Some Thoughts on the Liturgy FINDING AND LOSING LIFE            A couple years ago, a counselor friend of mine received permission from a client to ask my advice. His client was a young man of 25, well to do, married at 22, divorced at 23, tried alcohol early in life more because others were doing it. He began to depend on it, and started to mix marijuana with it, finally turning to a serious cocaine habit, developing a dependency to the drug. At 25, he ended up in the psychiatric ward of a Denver hospital because he had tried to kill himself.           During one of the conferences with my counselor friend, it came out that he had been brought up in the Roman Catholic Church, and in fact, had entered a seminary after he graduated from high school. He was preparing himself for the Catholic priesthood, and stayed there about two years.           The therapist’s question to me, and a common enough question, worded in various ways was: What had happened to this young man and why did the Church not help him find what he was looking for? You may think of other similar questions:           – Why do we have so many mixed up people in the world?           – Why is there a necessity for psychiatrists and counselors? (They do good work, I am not denying that.)           – Why are there so many problems with families?           – Why are there so many unfulfilled, unhappy people, some who go to Church, even work in ministry, even as counselors?           The answer is probably just as complicated as the individual circumstances of every person. But I think that Jesus gives the nucleus of an answer in today’s Gospel:           Whoever finds his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.           We must look at the definition of “finding our lives.” You and I are into finding our lives. I define it as having it all together, being on top of everything, being people who know what we want and why we want it, discovering who we are, feeling good about who we are; obviously, there are various ways of describing it. But Jesus says that if we are into that—finding our lives in that way—we will lose them. The young man in the counselor’s office desperately wanted to find his life, but something was not working because he was not finding his life and instead was losing it, exactly as Jesus said.           In order to find our lives in a Christian way, according to Jesus, two things must happen:           – 1 – We must lose our lives. What does that mean? Scott Peck in his book The Different Drum calls this “emptying self.” His book is about building community, and he maintains that in order to build community, every individual in the community must empty him/herself. And in order to empty oneself, this means certain things. Peck mentions specifically:           – overcoming the desire to make experiences conform to what we want;           – overcoming prejudices, that is, judging others with no or very little knowledge;           – conquering the belief that we have all the answers;           – getting rid of the need to fix everything the way we want;           – and conquering the desire to control every situation. That is what Jesus means by “losing our lives.”           – 2 –  We must lose our lives for Jesus’ sake. It is imperative then that we make Jesus Christ and his doctrine central to our lives; As Jesus says today—more important than family, friends and work. It is the primary relationship, not in a fanatical religious sense, but in the sense of accepting a set of principles to live by—that is “living for Jesus’ sake.” Immediately we have a fundamental problem—some people call it the fundamental problem in our lives—we do not want the difficult steps that Jesus proposes.            Today’s Gospel is most important as we look at the psychology of human living. If we want answers as to how to live a happy, fulfilled life, to get it all together, to feel good about ourselves—how ever we describe it—we must first of all “lose our lives”—empty ourselves. And then fill up that emptiness with the principles of Jesus Christ—lose ourselves for Jesus’ sake. We do this, and then we can really live. MEDIA PRESENTATION Song: “Am I Wrong” — Nico & Vinz THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX The Gospel MATTHEW 14:15-21 When it was evening, the disciples approached [Jesus] and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” [Jesus] said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” Then he said, “Bring them here to me,” and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over—twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

Gospelthink: I was moved with pity and compassion for the crowds. Am I a compassionate person trying to bring about love among my friends?

“Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay? Am I wrong for saying that I choose another way? I ain’t trying to do what everybody else is doing just ‘cause everybody doing what they all do. If one thing I know, I’ll fall but I’ll grow. I’m walking down this road of mine, this road I call home. So am I wrong for thinking that we could be something for real? Now am I wrong for trying to reach the things that I can’t see. Am I tripping for having a vision? My prediction: Ima be on the top of the world. Walk your walk and don’t look back.”

Sometimes the solution to a problem is rather obvious and does not take much thought. Sometimes there seems to be no solution to a particular problem or a difficult situation except to give up completely. Sometimes the solution to the problem is the not the best solution. Consequently, it is important to spend time concentrating on just what the solution could be. Often if we think in terms of a solution “outside the box,” that is, one that is not usually considered, we may find a solution that we ought to try. The Apostles only thought of one solution to the problem of feeding the hundreds of people who were with them, and that was the usual one of buying enough food for all of them. They knew that they could not do it, and so that told Jesus to dismiss the crowds. But Jesus was able to think in a different way from his Apostles, and ultimately was able to feed the crowds with leftovers even. In terms of Nico & Vinz’s song “Am I Wrong,” Jesus chose “another way” and accomplished the solution to the problem. Jesus was able to think “outside the box.” One of the important ideas of leadership is the idea of fresh thinking or the ability to view the problems of life from a different point of view. It involves trying to determine the cause of the problem or that which is making a situation difficult and looking at it in a way that is not the same way as everyone else. When we are able to accomplish it, the chances are that we will discover something new about the problem or situation.  It is an avenue of discovery, often bringing about solutions that were never considered before. We often face very difficult problems and situations in the course of our lives. Perhaps we must spend some time outside of our “comfort zone” and think about the solutions in an entirely different way.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, your Son was able to think about problems from a different point of view while he was with us on this earth. Give us the grace to carefully consider the problems we have in such a way that we can consider all of the possible solutions. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: Some of the solutions to our problems may lie outside our normal way of thinking. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. The Gospel passage is usually considered to be a passage that calls to mind the Eucharist. What is the meaning of the Eucharist for a Christian? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 1322-1344. 2. “Five thousand men” can be an exaggeration. Why would the evangelists use exaggeration when they described certain scenes of the Gospel?      3. Text analysis: “Thinking out the box from where I stay.” What is the meaning of the phrase? 4. Why does the person in the song describe his way as “home” to him? 5. Text analysis: “Tripping for having a vision.” What is the meaning of the phrase? 6. What does it mean to be “on top of the world”? 7. Give an example of “thinking outside the box.” 8. What is the best way to determine a solution “outside the box”? 9. In your opinion, how do you define “fresh thinking”? 10. In your opinion, what does the idea of “comfort zone” mean? 11. What does the song “Am I Wrong” teach young people?