refresh my heart in Christ

Philemon 1:7-20; Psalm 146 Blessed is he whose help is the god of Jacob; Luke 17:20-25

I love literature. I love writers. I am often fascinated with the way writers choose words to describe actions, thoughts, lives of others. A good wordsmith can open a passage to new worlds and new places and great adventures. With the slight of a pen, we are invited inside people's minds and hearts and we get to see anew as if for the first time through another's eyes.

Kurt Vonnegut, a writer, in describing the madness behind writing said this, "Every successful creative person creates with an audience of one in mind. That's the secret of artistic unity. ... If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia."


The key for him was to keep one person in mind as the story unfolded. If you reach one, you reach the world. If you try to reach the world, the book comes across as contrived nonsense. The key is to fall in love with one and then you are able to love the world, at least through literature.

The same can be said in the life of Faith. Christ inivtes us to love One and in loving one we are empowered to love generally and specifically the world.

To focus our love on the audience of one, the one right before us in each moment is the way we begin to love the many. If you love the one before you, then you learn to love the many that await you. Of course, primarily the audience of one is Christ. To love Him is to be open to love the many.

In the words of st. Paul in today's first reading, "Refresh my heart in Christ; confidant of your compliance, I write you knowing you will do more than I say." 1:20-21


St. Paul invites Philemon and the community that gathers in his home to welcome Onesimus, out the love they have for him, out of the love they have for Christ.

Love always goes back to the audience of one. For the sake of the one, love moves forth. As we see in verse 12, "It is he (onesimus)I am sending back to you-and that means I am sending my heart."

We may not be able to make love to the world, but we can make love to one and that will make all the difference in a world gone mad.

St. Martin of Tours pray for us.

We also pause today to remember and pray for our Veterans. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we pause in silence begging the Lord to heal the afflicted, mend the broken, raise the fallen; we also beg for peace to reign and violence and terror to end for it has claimed too many of our young lives and hearts.

Soldiers fight because they love. May we fight to show the love they deserve and extend a hand in friendship and gratitude as we remember, lest we forget and in forgetting fight all over again.