Homily

Do you invite every single person who rings your door bell into your house? Do you allow everyone who knocks on your door to enter your home? And once they are inside, do you let people stay for as long as they want to? Do you let them do or say whatever they wish, no matter how upsetting or awful they may be? And when these others are in your house do you allow them to tell you how you should act, what you should do or not do? Are you willing to follow their directions without question? Do you ever turn over the control of your house to someone else you have allowed to come in?

So, let us now replace the word, "person" with "thoughts," and the word, "home," with "head." Do you allow every single thought that wants to get into your head to come in and stay for a while? And once a thought is inside, do you permit it to stay as long as it wishes? Do you allow your thoughts to dictate to you how you should act, or what you should say or do no matter how awful or upsetting that may be? Do you permit them to blurt out whatever they like, because after all it's a free country? Do your thoughts control you, or do you control your thoughts?

Where do our thoughts come from? You'll have to ask a person smarter than me to get a good and more complete answer to that question. We cannot completely understand how they come to us. But still, I think we can say that we understand that our thoughts can come from outside influences, from people and things and events outside of us. You just ate the last piece of pepperoni pizza I had my eye on. That may prompt a thought about you in my head. We also understand that thoughts can come from within ourselves, for reasons that we cannot always understand. And let’s not forget that thoughts can also be suggested to us by the devil.

No matter where they come from we need to do our best to take charge of our thoughts, because they are not us. We may find ourselves in many of our thoughts but just because ideas are in our heads, it does not mean they are us. We've all experienced, for example, thoughts of taking revenge on people who have hurt us, but that doesn't mean we have always followed through on those imaginings, because we knew it was wrong and we choose not to do it.

I do think, in a way, thoughts are like people who ring our door bell, or perhaps more directly they are often visitors who just come inside whether invited or not, welcome or not. Sometimes they just sneak in and other times they force themselves inside. And I think, too many times and for too long a time, we may just allow them to stay and do as they please. We may let them in because they seem so strong we're afraid we can't say no. Or if they just barge in, we don't think we can tell them to leave. Even if they are bad or negative thoughts, we may find them exciting, or powerful or gratifying in some way, so we don’t try to get rid of them.

Now thoughts can be great helps to us and encourage us to do good, to live well, to worship the Lord, to serve our neighbor. Those kinds of thoughts should always be welcome and made to feel that they are right at home. Those kinds of thoughts should be given food and drink and the best seats in our house as we pay attention to their good conversation and their encouragement for us, their suggestions for good words and good works. We should always ask them if they have any good friends they would like us to meet and if so, then text them to come on over.

But then there are those other thoughts that come in. They can be mean and nasty, they can be oppressive and punishing toward us and toward others, and they can be sources of temptation in a hundred different ways. They bring us false sadness, empty pleasure, irritation, frustration, memories of past sins and ideas of future revenge. They can be good at lying and deception, pushing us to wrong ideas and false conclusions. They are capable of piling on to try to push us by the sheer weight of their numbers and strength. We are not our thoughts, but our bad or unhelpful thoughts want to be us.

Although it might seem obvious to us, I still find that many times, we do not take care to manage what is inside our heads and too often we allow our minds to play "Open House," letting whatever wants to come in, come in. We guard and protect ourselves in proper ways in many areas of our life. We have dead bolts on our doors and seat belts in our cars. Shouldn't we also guard ourselves against bad, harmful and sinful thoughts? We should pay attention to them and tell them to leave even if we may at first, have allowed them inside. Maybe we’ve even entertained them for a while. But once we notice their bad intentions or their negative effect on us, we need to stop paying them attention and tell them to get out. Granted that sometimes they may be very powerful, or they may be very large in number and it's hard to get them out the door, but even so we should not give up. We should call on the Lord to help us push them out and give us the grace of persistence.

The easiest way to deal with negative, bad or tempting thoughts is to catch them right at the door before they are sitting in your kitchen and drinking your best liquor. Right at the front door, just as if they were a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses, we can tell them, "No, thank you. I'm a Christian," and close the door so we can get on with better things.

But if such thoughts have entered our home, it does not mean they have the right to stay, nor should we let them. We need plenty of room for the thoughts that will inspire us and help us to love, to live in virtue and to follow the Lord. The rich young man in today's Gospel did not end up in misery without Christ simply because of one thought, one idea, one response. It was the result of many wrong and false ideas that he had allowed in his head over a long period of time, ideas that had eventually so corrupted his understanding of who he was and what his life was all about, that even though he obeyed all the commandments when the Giver of the commandments is standing in front of him, calling him to salvation, he cannot go there. He cannot follow. His thoughts have led him to his choices, and now he chooses to leave the Source of All Life, the Lord of heaven and earth.

Let us pay attention to the thoughts and ideas that try to mold our lives, guarding ourselves against the bad and the harmful, and seeking out those which push us upward and outward and even into eternal life. Let's continually evict those who would harm us or harm others and set the table for those thoughts that enjoy patience, peace, love and the glory of God. Soon here we will sing “Let us now set aside all earthly cares.” Let us use this time to guide our thoughts towards the Lord.