As you grabbed your bulletin this morning and excitedly flipped to your favorite page (that would be this one) to find out what is going on in the world of youth group this week, you may have been slightly creeped out by the mustache face staring back at you. This is the face that I chose to carve onto my pumpkin this year. Now you are no doubt asking yourself, “why did he carve such an odd face on his pumpkin, and why should we care?” Both are very good questions. You should care because the Catholic thing to do is to care about what your brothers and sisters in Christ are up to in their lives. As to the why, that takes a bit more explaining. Back in college my household brothers and I entered a pumpkin carving contest. Our pumpkin was beautiful, but since it wasn’t religious we got passed over for any of the prizes. This, however, failed to dampen our creative spirit and we decided this year to all carve pumpkins and send each other the pictures. Thus the pumpkin with a giant mustache was born. The whole point behind this little story is brotherhood. My brothers and I carved pumpkins to let each other know that we were thinking about and praying for each other. Was it also goofy, silly and a lot of fun? You better believe it! As far as Jesus ever carving a pumpkin goes, I don’t really think that he did. But I am sure that he did other things with his disciples that were similar. Things done just for fun to grow in the bonds of brotherhood. It is important for us to remember that Jesus was like us in all ways except sin. That means he knew how to just relax and have fun. We are called to imitate him in this area of our lives just as in all the rest. We just need to make sure that the fun we have is the same kind that Jesus would have had. I always wonder if he ever did whatever the ancient equivalent of short sheeting was to Peter’s bed? Something to ponder for the week I guess.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Did Jesus carve a pumpkin? And if he did, what did it look like? (11-11-2007)
As you grabbed your bulletin this morning and excitedly flipped to your favorite page (that would be this one) to find out what is going on in the world of youth group this week, you may have been slightly creeped out by the mustache face staring back at you. This is the face that I chose to carve onto my pumpkin this year. Now you are no doubt asking yourself, “why did he carve such an odd face on his pumpkin, and why should we care?” Both are very good questions. You should care because the Catholic thing to do is to care about what your brothers and sisters in Christ are up to in their lives. As to the why, that takes a bit more explaining. Back in college my household brothers and I entered a pumpkin carving contest. Our pumpkin was beautiful, but since it wasn’t religious we got passed over for any of the prizes. This, however, failed to dampen our creative spirit and we decided this year to all carve pumpkins and send each other the pictures. Thus the pumpkin with a giant mustache was born. The whole point behind this little story is brotherhood. My brothers and I carved pumpkins to let each other know that we were thinking about and praying for each other. Was it also goofy, silly and a lot of fun? You better believe it! As far as Jesus ever carving a pumpkin goes, I don’t really think that he did. But I am sure that he did other things with his disciples that were similar. Things done just for fun to grow in the bonds of brotherhood. It is important for us to remember that Jesus was like us in all ways except sin. That means he knew how to just relax and have fun. We are called to imitate him in this area of our lives just as in all the rest. We just need to make sure that the fun we have is the same kind that Jesus would have had. I always wonder if he ever did whatever the ancient equivalent of short sheeting was to Peter’s bed? Something to ponder for the week I guess.
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