Tuesday's readings are an invitation to consider what we think about the time when we know that we are approach death. Paul and Jesus are confronted with the reality that there lives were in danger. Without doubt they would encounter situations that lead to their deaths.We can be like Paul and Jesus. We can go about our work, our mission, our vocation entrusting all that we are and all that we can be to the hands of God. Or, like some, we can worry ourselves sick about it.
Today we honor St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorian Fathers. He was a man of simplicity, teacher of young men, great love for his neighbor, and a man with a genuine sense of humor. He is know for his wisdom about worrying too much and too often about the end of our earthly lives: "a joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one."
The message from Philip: don't take yourself too seriously. It is the beginning of the summer season for so many ... longer hours of daylight, a time for being outside, a time for friends, a time for our own R&R whether we go away on "vacation" or whether we remain at home on "staycation." Use the summer as a season of coming to know yourself better, reading, some extra time just sitting by water ... be it one of the many DC fountains, the Potomac River, the Chesapeake Bay or the Atlantic Ocean ... these are God's gifts to each of us just to abstract ourselves from the hectic world where we ply the day.
