Little Suzie was watching her father, a deacon, write his homily for Sunday. And little Suzie said, “how do you know what to say?” She asked her dad. “My God tells me what to write,” said her dad, to little Susie. And little Suzie then asked, “then why do you keep crossing things out?” Listen to this story.

There’s a story about an old Cherokee chief, who was teaching his eight year old grandson about life. He tells him, “a fight is going on inside me. It’s a very terrible fight. It’s between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He’s angry, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self pity, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, self doubt, and ego. The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, forgiving, compassionate, and faith. The same fight is going inside of you. it’s going inside of every other person too.” The grandson thought for a moment, and then said to his grandfather, “which wolf will win?” The old wise chief turned to his grandson and said, “the one you feed, the one you feed.”

In our relationship with the Lord, what are those areas, those obstacles that keep me from being the person I wanna be? Our Lord says in today’s Gospel, “take away the stone.” On a much deeper level, the command take away the stone really means take away that which blocks the coming of the Lord. So what are those areas in our life that are important to us, that to keep us from living the Christian life? For example, fear can be a stone that blocks the Lord’s presence. Fear means we’re not free. The two greatest fears we live with, are fear of failure, and fear of rejection.

The Lord says, “take away the stone, be free, I’m the one who brings life.” Hate can block the Lord’s presence. Guilt can block the Lord’s presence. The attitude regret for yesterday, and fear for tomorrow can only hinder our relationship with the Lord, yourself and others. And forgiveness can keep us from being free, can block the Lord. Maybe this question as I close, as we grow older, is life making us better or bitter? The choice is ours.