31st Sunday Ordinary Time November 2 & 3, 2024

To peak your interest – and to catch your attention---  our school's spring musical will be Fiddler on the Roof  -- so stay tuned -- and never forget there can always be an unexpected appearance on the stage by someone not in the cast.

         One of the scenes in that musical and movie -- is when the Father, Tevye, finally breaks down -- and gives his blessing for one of his daughters to marry a man who had nothing but a sewing machine-- and the hope of being a great tailor.

         Tevye finally became convinced that the old ways are passing away, that it's a new world -- and people are now marrying each other out of love –  and not because the marriage had been arranged by their parents.

         Tevye then turns to his wife and asks the question:  do you love me?

         His wife doesn't know how to respond, she ignores the question, but Tevye persists:  do you love me?

         She finally breaks out in song reciting all that she has done for him for the last 25 years:

washing his clothes, cooking his meals, cleaning their house, birthing his children, milking the cows. . .

          Much like Jesus in his resurrection appearance to Peter and the others on the side of the lake -- Tevye asks for a third time:  but do you love me?

         And his wife, Golde, persists // too:  saying for twenty-five years I've lived with you, fought with you, starved with you -- if that's not love, what is??

         Tevye’s wife, is saying--  love is not just something we say we have -- we show each other that we have it -- by sharing each other's hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows -- Love always expresses itself through actions.

         One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "which is the first of all the commandments".

         And Jesus says that it is "to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and strength"  -- but that's not all -- we then show our love for God by loving our neighbor as ourself -- because love always expresses itself through actions.

         So like Peter standing on the lakeshore -- if Jesus were to ask us:  do you love me?

         What would we have to show for it??

         And do always remember – it never hurts to tell the people we love – that we do love them, and we should tell them often – because we never know when it will be last the opportunity we