Sunday Homily - October 27, 2019 - "Bless your heart!"
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector Icon I. "Oh Lord, bless your heart!" Now, what did you hear when I said that phrase? Because the content of that phrase carries with it a very contextualized meaning with it if you have grown up in the South. "Oh, bless your heart." This phrase can mean two different things, as some of you may know. One of them is a congenial meaning, such as how my grandma would use it after me or one of my friends got hurt playing outside, "Oh, bless your heart!" Or, it can also be used dismissively and antagonistically, as in someone does something or says something socially out of line, "Ugh, bless their heart." That one person in your social life that everyone knows is, you know, and little on the manipulative side rolls up and is trying to coax you into doing something that she wants to do, and you think to yourself, ...