Everything's going my way! 



Monsignor Tighe, a prest at Kansas City's Visitation Catholic Church in the early 1960s, delivered his homilies in the most dramatic fashion. He had no need for a microphone for his booming voice electrified the church and left you no doubt as to what his message was.

At one Sunday High Mass he paced back and forth across the front of the church as he eloquently recited the words from a song in Oklahoma.

 
Oh, what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day.
I've got a beautiful feeling,
everything's going my way! 

He had everyone in the church almost singing the words. It was a beauiful sunny Sunday morning with perfect temperature outdoors. And then he lowered the boom on each of us. What ego, he said, that we should expect everything to go our way.

The human comes to believe that every detail of life should turn out just the way we deem it to be. And if it doesn't, then life is unfair!

He reminded us that morning that life wasn't fair. We had to exhibit good character in our relations with others. We had to be the best person that we could be. But others, might not always be the same with us. That was to be accepted.

How we responded to the "unfairness" of life told us a great deal about our own character.

His message was backed up by a tape that I obtained once for my high school students who were having difficulties. The tape was from the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City and was entitled Bounce Back.

In once segment a teenage girl complained about having been dropped by her boyfriend. "Life isn't fair!" she cried. The narrator responded, "You're right, life isn't fair. You have to accept that and go on with your life."

Sometimes, however, we as humans decide that since "life isn't fair" we will help the odds and see if we can't make things go our way.

This can be done in many ways, but sometimes the best ethics aren't used. An example of this occurred while we were having lunch at Pogo's Pizza during one intense July heat wave in 1999, after the Picnic.

A soap opera was on and we were partially listening to some of the character dialogue. (Some of you may know the show, we didn't/. So forgive me if I'm not "fair.")

The female character seemed to be a serial killer who was attempting to decide how she could "get away with murder." She thought about escaping to desert island where no one would know her. She then said she could invite all her friends and they could have a blast! (I'm not sure f her reasoning there--won't that let people know where is is hiding?)

Her statement that stopped us was, "Sometimes you have to push things to get them to work out the way you want."

Push things, to get what you want., Some people believe that what they want is more important than anything else. They will "push" things in order to get life to be "fair" by their standards. If other s get hurt in the meantime, remember, "life isn't fair."

However, the person doing the pushing does it to get things to go their way. That is how they are certain that it will be a beautiful day with everything going their way.

Monsignor Tighe taught us that to live in that manner as a sin. We could become involved in the sin of pride. To protect pride some are willing to do anything.

We can commit the sin of selfishness. We want it all to be our way!

We can commit the sin of greed. We literally want it all!

He contrasted those sinful behaviors with these. Instead of pride, we should see humility. replace selfishness with acts of selflessness. Replace green with the charity of giving.

The amazing thing, is that by being humble, selfless, and giving we will truly have it all our way. We read in Ecclesiastes, Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. It will literally come back to you.

A humble spirit will be rewarded with praise for your character. Selflessness will be rewarded with the satisfaction of acting without any personal motivation for gain. When you give of yourself, you feel richly rewarded for your action.

It is sad that we should ever believe that the only way to get what we want is to push. It is just not that way. What we will always experience in the end is loss, not gain. We will eventually lose because we sought in the wrong way.

 




 
 

Posted: Fri - July 30, 2004 at 08:14 AM        

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