Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - June 3, 2007

Before I share with you some spiritual reflections, I take this opportunity to answer two questions I am getting lately.
First, some have said that they heard I am going into the hospital and want to know if I am sick. In order to head off any rumors, I am considering gastric by-pass surgery. As you know, I am a diabetic and I had heart by-pass surgery. Because I take insulin, I have a hard time loosing weight. The type of diabetes I have causes me to be insulin resistant, which is directly tied to preventing weight loss. I am in a “Catch 22”. I must take insulin but it causes weight gain. On the recommendation of my doctor, this type of surgery seems to be the best solution. I will be meeting with the surgeon sometime in June and after that will possibly be scheduling surgery. This will necessitate about two days in the hospital and about two weeks recuperation. Please keep me in your prayers.
Secondly, people are asking me what is that scar on your forehead? Sometime ago I scratched my forehead and rather than healing normally, a callous developed. The dermatologist told me that it will fade away if left alone in about two years. She said there is nothing to worry about.
In both these instances I thank you for your concern and prayers.

Something For Your Heart
People are gifts whom God sends to us wrapped. Some come wrapped very beautifully, some in very ordinary wrapping paper. Some persons are very loosely wrapped, others very tightly. Sometimes the gift has been mishandled in the mail. Once in awhile there is a special delivery! But the wrapping is not the gift! It is so easy to make that mistake; it’s amusing when babies do.
Some person-gifts are very easy to open up; others need to be helped out of their boxes. Is it because they are afraid? Do they think it might hurt to be opened? Maybe they have been opened up before and discarded. Could it be that their gift is not for me?
I am a person; therefore I am a gift too! Perhaps I’ve never accepted the gift that I am. Could it be that there is something else inside the wrappings than what I think is there? Maybe I’ve never seen the wonderful gift that I am. Could God’s gift be anything but beautiful? I love the gifts which those who love me give to me. Why not the gift of me? And I am a gift to other persons. Love is a relationship between people who see themselves as they really are -- gifts given by God to be given to others.
“Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Afraid”
Complete freedom from fear is one of those things we owe wholly to Our Lord. To be afraid is to do Him a double injury. First, it is to forget Him, to forget that He is with us, that He loves us and is Himself almighty. Second it is to fail to bend to His will. If we shape our will to His, as everything that happens is either willed or allowed by Him, we shall find joy in whatever happens and will never be disturbed or afraid.
So then, we should have the faith that banishes all fear. Beside us, face to face with us, within us, we have Our Lord Jesus, our God whose love for us is infinite. In that blessed company, we must go straight along the path of the greatest perfection, certain that nothing will happen to us that we cannot use for His glory. We have only to say “Whatever happens — God be praised!” praying that He will arrange everything not in accordance with our ideas, but for His greater glory and our salvation. We should never forget these two axioms: “Jesus is with me” and “Whatever happens, we can trust in God to make all things work together for our good.”

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