Last weekend I visited Rocklin, near Sacramento to give a retreat to SS Peter and Paul Parish on Saturday through Tuesday nights. It was the material I presented here at Saint Simon two years ago called, Cairns on the Second Mountain of Life, about how to recognize the cairns or markers on the life of a disciple. It was well-received, and I was happy that 250 people attended in person and another 300 watched online. While it was a busy few days, it was also a grace-filled few days away.
One addition I made to the material was the concept of “sharing the joy of the gospel” and how to share “good memories” as part of the disciples’ gameplan of life. I made the comparison that when hiking in the mountains for 14 hours in Colorado one should always hike with someone for two reasons: safety and enjoyment. If anything happens to you on the way, then there is someone else around to call for help. Second, if you get to the peak of the mountain, it is more meaningful if you have someone to share it with.
The same is true of the life of a disciple, it is more meaningful to have someone to share the journey of life with for safety and enjoyment. If anything goes wrong, you have someone to call on for help and when you get to the last part of your life, sharing the memories increases the joy. The whole adage of a sorrow is a sorrow shared is half the sorrow, and a joy shared is twice the joy.
I went on to talk about “creating good memories” as a necessary part of the disciples’ life. I maintain that if we are not “creating good memories” for ourselves and our loved ones around us then we are not truly living the Gospel because God desires us to be joy-filled in this life as well as the eternal life. I stressed the value of our “time left” here on earth as a critical time to witness the joy of a well-lived life of a disciple. So how do we do this?
In a similar way, when we invest our money in some investment that gives us dividends that we then can live off, we need to invest our time in something that will pay future “memory dividends”. For example, when we choose to spend our time with the kids and grandkids on a long weekend away at the beach or a week away on vacation in the mountains, on an island or seeing the sights of a new city, we are creating memories for ourselves, and for them, that will pay memory dividends for years to come. When we remember the bedlam of those days, we will smile and think we were crazy but what amazing memories we have to cherish. Furthermore, long after we have died, our children and grandchildren will remember those treasured memories and the dividends keep paying—memory dividends! [1] Think about how we spend our treasured time each week and month, are we creating memory dividends for ourselves, for our loved ones or even strangers? My hope is we are and that we live the joy of the Gospel and witness Christ in our lives.
This week, we celebrate Catholic Schools Week and I truly believe that every teacher and staff member is creating joy-filled memories for the children that attend Catholic Schools today. While we may not have the religious sisters running the schools anymore, the lay staff give their lives serving the children and their families, giving them memory dividends for a lifetime. Please join us for any of our Catholic School Week activities over the next week and please read the letter from Principal, Ann Koslovsky, in this eBulletin. Thank you to the current and many alumni staff and students who have supported, built and attended our school creating incredible memories at St. Simon Parish School. We are building on your memory dividends and re-investing in the future generation. Thank you.
God Bless
Fr. Brendan
[1] Bill Perkins, Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life.