10/19/2026
Father Bill's Pondering for October 18:
Because of my carefully cultivated crusty façade, not many of you are aware that I am an eternal optimist. However difficult the situation is, I always look for a silver lining. As I held the hand of my mother as she was dying, I found great joy in the reality that she would no longer be in pain, that she would be able to walk without a walker and as fast as she wanted. Of course, I still miss her today, but how can I be sad now that she is able to do all the things age and illness excluded? Of course, some might say that this is simply a way to avoid a harsh reality. They will say that it is denial and that emotions repressed will be expressed later in an unhealthy way. This may be true, but my response to them is: give me time and I can find something positive even in this.
So, like all of you, I find myself in shock every time I go to the gas station or the grocery store. I celebrate when I am able to fill one bag for less than a hundred dollars. The high cost of everything is making all of us have to make sacrifices and even rearrange our priorities. But I have been wondering if this time of hardship is somehow a message from God. Is God trying to make explicit a lesson he has been trying to convey to us in more subtle ways? This idea became part of my prayer and once again, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the answer to my pondering was a resounding yes.
There are indeed places we have to go and things we have to do. So, we need to put gas in the car. Because the price to fill the tank is so high, maybe the message to us from God is: stay home. Stay home with the family and enjoy each other’s company: play games, watch a movie, pray together. The only exception to this rule is going to Mass, but the whole family coming together means only one trip to Church. Too often family life gets relegated to brief moments early in the morning before the day begins or late at night when it finally approaches an end. Seeing the high cost of gas as a reason to stay home and renew family time may bring healing to wounded relationships and allow members to share their gifts and talents with one another. It may also allow the various generations in the household to experience and appreciate each other’s time and culture.
“Oh Father,” you may be saying to yourself, “you know it’s not cheap to heat a house.” This is true, but the silver lining in this is that necessity is the mother of invention. Learning to quilt, knit, or crochet means that we will eventually find ourselves wrapped in a new blanket, afghan, or maybe a handmade sweater. Or maybe the cooler home will mean that married couples who have been sitting in “their chair” for years may find it more comfortable to cuddle on the sofa while they watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. This may be a wonderful example of the blessings of marriage to young people who rarely see a positive example of marriage on television or in movies.
If everyone is home, then we will have to eat. Eating at home, as we all know, is probably better for us, but it is way easier to go out or to order in. I think back to my own home life. For most of my childhood, mom stayed home and dad worked. There was only one breadwinner in the house, so we were never rich. I have often said that my mom, and women of her generation, were the greatest financiers the world has ever known. I am sure my mother knew how to spend both sides of a nickel. I also knew that we would never go hungry. Whenever I came home from school, there was something to eat and some kind of dessert. It may not have been fancy, but it was filling and it was good. It may not have been organic, but it was homemade and we knew what was in it.
Since everyone is staying home because of the high cost of everything, maybe it would be fun if every night someone was tasked with making a meal that will feed the family without breaking the bank. These meals then can be served around the table with good company, fine conversation, laughter, and thanksgiving. We all know that even a sandwich made at home tastes better than something we can buy, so why not see the high cost of food as a way to learn how to be creative and frugal when it comes to mealtime?
The silver lining that I have found in these days of prohibitively high prices for everything is that we are being called home. We are called to renew the bonds of family. We are called to be neighbor to one another as we navigate the choppy seas of the economy. The more we find happiness and contentment in the home, the more we bring the same to a world that is in desperate need of just these things. So instead of lamenting the high cost of everything, perhaps it would be more helpful for us to see this as an opportunity to more deliberately heed the great commandment of Jesus to love God and our neighbor. Maybe we can see this time as the moment in history when family life once again becomes a glimpse of the kingdom of God rather than ships that pass in the night.
