 |
||||||
[Jesus
said:] "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your
whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your
whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness,
how great will the darkness be."
|
||||||
"I
got a pocket full of sunshine. I got a love
that knows that it’s all mine. Do what
you want, but you’ll never break me; sticks and stones are never
gonna shake
me. Take me away, a secret place, a
sweet escape, take me away to better days, a hiding place.
There's
a place that I go, and I call it home. And there's no more lies, and
darkness is light. The sun’s on my side, take me for a ride, I
smile up to the sky, I know I’ll be alright."
|
||||||
|
During
the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus becomes
philosophical as he teaches what happens when we allow the
positives, the light, or the negatives, darkness, to govern us. Using
the thought of our body's
eye, that which allows into our minds light or darkness, he tells his
followers that we are responsible for what we do,
and if we choose the negative, the darkness, it will have a profound
effect on everything in our lives. He instructs us, then, to choose the
light.
Singing that she is choosing the light, or in her words that the sun is always on her side, the person in Natasha Bedingfield's song is well aware of the negatives of life, the sticks and stones that she refers to. But they do not bother her. As Jesus said, she knows that dwelling on the negative will ruin a person's outlook. And so, she takes herself to a place that she makes her home, a place of honesty, a place of light, a place in which she knows that everything will be "alright." It is a place where life is always good, even if things are not going well. The video to the song shows people discovering good things and getting away from negatives. Life is a great positive experience even in the midst of sticks and stones. What is the place where life is always good? Understood as a place that is located in our minds, it is an attitude of life. It is a decision on our parts--that we will enjoy the life that we have been given, no matter what that life consists of, the negatives as well as the positives. We will approach our lives with the overall conviction that we will be happy. In fact, we will pray to our God that we will be taken to that place, and that even though there are sticks and stones in life, big and small problems, we will approach our lives with a smile and a belief that all is well. |
||||||
|
THOUGHT
If you choose a
positive attitude in life, what should change in your behavior right
now?
PRAYER Good
and gracious
God, you have created a world that is full of light, but which also
contains darkness. We are responsible for much of the darkness. Help us
choose a positive attitude in life, and dispel the darkness from our
hearts. Be with
us,
we pray.
|
||||||
©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |
||||||