Readings:
Ecclesiasticus 48:1-15
Matthew 6:7-15
Reflection:
Some years ago, I saw an interview with Diane Warren. Diane Warren is considered one of the greatest pop songwriters of the modern era. Up until that time, I hadn’t even known her name. But I knew her songs: Warren has written nine number-one songs and 33 top-10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 including “If I Could Turn Back Time” (Cher, 1989), “Nothings Gonna Stop us Now” (Starship, 1987), “Because You Loved Me” (Celine Dion, 1996), “How Do I Live” (LeAnn Rimes, 1997), “When I See You Smile” (Bad English, 1989), and “I Turn to You” (Christian Aguilera, 1996). [i]
She is the Queen of Pop love songs. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard “Because You Loved Me” at weddings. And funerals. She has received seventeen nominations for Academy Awards, the most of any individual without a win! Her songs have appeared in sixty films.
Despite her accumulation of awards and success, writing invariably about love, during the interview, she admitted that she had never been in love. She admitted she was no good at relationships. She doesn’t know what love is.
The interviewer said to her, “So when you wrote, ‘How do I live without you?’ you weren’t thinking of anyone special?”
“No,” she said. “I was thinking of my piano.”
I share that story not for judgement, but for understanding.
As I often say, “If what happened to them happened to me, I would probably be like them”
It does, however, ring true to our Gospel reading today.
Because religion can be a dangerous place.
We can have all of the words and none of the experience.
Jesus always calls us to honesty and simplicity. Honesty requires humility, the courage to admit our weaknesses, and the willingness to grow. Simplicity reminds us that we are enough as we are, and that true peace is found not in what we accumulate or pretend to be, but in living authentically before God.
Then we can focus on what truly matters: faith, hope, and love
Peter Gardiner is a Passionist Priest.