Catholic Singles

Hi everyone - here’s my homily for SUNDAY JANUARY 24, 2010 - The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time.  The readings can be found at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/012410.shtml .

Thanks so much for reading and your comments.  I’m sorry if I don’t get a chance to respond to all the messages and all, but do read them all and greatly appreciate you sharing where you’re from, how you found this blog, etc...  God Bless!

HOMILY

So I got this email the other day - it was really unexpected, incredible news.  I couldn’t believe how lucky I was as I’m reading this message on my screen.  And now I cannot find it.   I don’t know what I did...  I KNOW I didn’t delete it, there’s no way I’d delete it.  But I’ve gone up and down in that list of emails in my Inbox, I don’t know how many times.  I’ve  looked through all my other email files.  It’s not in the Spam file, the Junk Mail file (I don’t know why I have BOTH of those, but... it’s not in either of them )  I even looked through all the other files - you know the sent file, or the drafts file to see if by mistake I moved it there...It’s not there either.  So it’s gone, right? It’s just so frustrating because I keep trying to figure out HOW DID I LOSE THIS MESSAGE!  The last thing I remember was that I hit the “X” in the corner to minimize the email, but I know I was saving it... it was too important, and all I needed to do was get some information for the guy who contacted me.  I was going to get right back to it.  I’m so disappointed, because I don’t know how the guy found me in the first place and now this opportunity is gone because I lost the message.

You see, it seems that this prince from Nigeria was reaching out to me, he just got this HUGE inheritance and somehow found my name and email.  If I could help him transfer his funds to the US, he’d give me $100 million - all I needed to do was email him my bank account.  I don’t know - it’s so frustrating – I guess you win some, lose some...

It’s amazing - that “Nigerian - Email scam” or variations of it has been circulating in email boxes for years and years now.   Most people read these and realize it’s a scam because they’ve heard the stories of people who’ve gotten the same email, believed it and then have been swindled out of thousands of dollars, some hitting $10,000 or more (which I guess, in light of the millions you’re going to receive seems a drop in the bucket)   

We’re understandably skeptical people.   We hear or read something like that and, sure, we wish it were true.   Who couldn’t do a lot with a $100 million dollars? But most people learn pretty quickly the old adage, if it’s too good to be true, than it probably is.

For some when they first heard the words Jesus is proclaiming in tonight’s gospel, that’s what came to mind.  “Yeah, right - this guy Jesus - he’s the one God was promising would  bring glad tidings to the poor.  He’s the one who would  proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, THIS GUY IS THE ONE WHO IS GOING to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.  Yeah, right - this carpenter - What’s the scam? some thought.

There’s an  interesting thing though about this whole gospel reading though.  Before we heard Jesus giving this first sermon, we are at the very beginning of the Gospel of Luke.  I have to admit that in the past, I’ve just kind of ignored that and went to the second part - the (in my mind) “more important” part of the Gospel.  But if we take a second look at it, we hear St. Luke, the author, introducing himself.  In his mind, he’s not setting out to write a Gospel.  He’s writing a letter (a very long letter!) to this guy Theophilus (who by referring to him as “the most excellent” probably was a Roman official).   

Luke says right from the start that he wasn’t an actual eyewitness to the events of Jesus Christ.  But he just as quickly he says that he’s not just telling a story or recounting historical events that other people say happened, he says that those events “have been fulfilled among US - Just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us...”  Luke includes himself as a witness himself.  He reassures his reader and us, those blessed to hear his words tonight that IT’S TRUE... ALL OF THIS IS TRUE.

Luke isn’t some anonymous Nigerian prince offering lofty promises to unsuspecting victims, trying to pull some scam on people.   He’s explaining how he too has encountered Jesus Christ.   So he’s  putting himself on the line.  He says - I’ve experienced it too.  I’ve experienced the healing, I’ve seen the transformations, I’m here to share the glad tidings with you.   That Jesus is the one we’ve all been waiting for.  God’s son has come among us.

People continue to have encounters with Christ.  And when they do, it’s beautiful to witness how the blindness is gone, the freedom they seek is found - the promises that are written in the deepest recesses of the hearts are fulfilled.   Just this past Friday, (I have to give Lino Rulli, “The Catholic Guy” credit for sharing this story on the air, a few hours after it) was just starting to become a major news story that people, particularly sports writers are shaking their heads about.

This guy, Grant Desme, he is one of the top prospects for Major League Baseball.  He was the MVP in the Arizona Fall Ball league; had a sensational season last year on a minor league team, was considered one of the top prospects for the Oakland A’s (I know, it’s the Oakland A’s, but come on, even this Yankee fan can appreciate that it’s a major league team...)  Well on Friday, this 29 year old, who the Assistant General Manager for the A’s said “was on the brink” of becoming a bona-fide major leaguer; announced that he was “retiring.” Why?  So that he could enter the seminary to begin studies for the priesthood.  This Assistant General Manager was almost stunned into disbelief talking about it.  He was saying “So few players get to the point where he’s at. In my perspective, the guy could be a priest when he’s 35 or 60. … Here’s a guy who’s so unbelievably close to making it [in baseball].”

But, Desme explained "I'm doing well in baseball,But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life.”  He continued: “Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. It took awhile to trust that and open up to it and aim full steam toward him.  I love the game, but I'm going to aspire to higher things.”

Tonight’s Gospel when we focus on what Jesus is saying, it contains so much promise, so much hope, so much... that we tend not to believe it can actually happen to us, that our lives can be much different than wherever and whatever our situations present to us right now.  Different voices try to explain this away - saying it’s a metaphor or it’s an ideal to aspire to.  The more cynical parts of us wonder whether it’s just a scam... Baloney - don’t fall for it.

Because St. Luke, Grant Desme and countless others share their testimony that the promises of eternal riches are truer than our greatest imaginations can ever conceive of.  Make sure you don’t lose this message....