Hi everyone here’s my homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 17, 2010. The readings for today can be found at https://www.usccb.org/nab/101710.shtml . Thanks as always for reading and your feedback and comments. God Bless, Father Jim
HOMILY:
A few weeks ago I went to my 15 year college reunion. It’s hard to believe it’s 15 years and it’s strange that as the years go by… you get so wrapped up in what you’re doing and where you’re at in your life right now, well, it’s not that you forget those days or those people, but they’re just not in apart of your everyday life anymore. What’s really amazing though with these reunions is that just going back, things kind of pick up right where you left off the last time you saw each other. It’s weird – a good weird…
All of a sudden, a flood of memories, stories that you just hadn’t thought about all in years – they come back like it was the first time you heard them. For me there was a lot of them … but one that, I can’t believe I had forgotten was this just absolutely cringe-inducing, unforgettable story. Now that I remembered it, I haven’t stopped laughing about it, despite how incredibly awkward it was.
There was a group of us that were all good friends… we’d go out all the time, from dinner in the cafeteria to Sunday Night Mass together… They were just the go-to group of people for me. So this one day, my friend Janet said to me that she “liked” my friend Ted. (Not his real name in order to protect the guilty) Being Captain Oblivious I didn’t understand why she was telling me this – we’ll we all like each other… and then it was like “OH… OHHHH” OK – so Janet had a bit of a crush on Ted. I guess she was trying to feel me out about whether Ted liked her or what. But I suppose with my delayed response to begin with that she decided I wouldn’t be helpful to her “investigation.”
Which was probably smart on her part, because about three weeks later Janet got me aside alone one day and asked “Has Ted talked to you?” “Well yeah, Ted lives upstairs from me, I talk to him every day, why?” “NO – Has Ted talked to you about me?” “Janet, didn’t we just talk about this like a couple of weeks ago?” “Yeah, I know Jim…” then she kind of nervously laughed, so I realized something was up (remember, Captain Oblivious here) she continued “I kind of talked to Ted two weeks ago and told him that I liked him… and he said he liked me too, but then I said I was wondering if he wanted to start dating like boyfriend and girlfriend he said – OHHH, ‘can I think about it and get back to you?’ and he hasn’t said anything since.”
I know… and I thought I was Captain Oblivious. Long story short, I went upstairs and there was Ted watching TV and I just closed the door to his room and just said “I don’t believe you.” “WHAT?” (With an air of contempt) “You have a girl tell you that she likes you, asks you if you like her, asks you if you want to start to date, start going out together and you say ‘Can I think about it and get back to you?’ and don’t say a word about it for 2 weeks?” He got this awkward smile on his face, a nervous laugh and then confessed – I just don’t know what to say.
I can laugh about this story now, because Janet is happily married with two beautiful children, and we can relate to the awkwardness of not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings. But I remember when this happened after the initial hysterics at what a total boob Ted was, I really felt bad for Janet. And me and a couple of my friends really laid into Ted that he had to do the right thing and talk to her (even though by that point, Janet was pretty smart enough to figure out what Ted thought)
Because that’s an incredibly vulnerable thing for a person to say, vulnerable place for someone to be to express their hearts like that. Those are words that deserves better than “can I think about it.” Oblivious or not, there was time spent together, things that were shared that led to her working up the confidence to say I like you -I care about you. That’s a risk someone takes to have it received or rejected. But it is a yes and no thing. It deserves the honesty of a yes or no response, even if it is the harder and difficult response.
That last line of today’s Gospel has been staying with me all week. Jesus asks a rhetorical question at the end of a somewhat intense Gospel passage. Remember when this scene occurs, Jesus is enroute to Jerusalem at this point in the Gospel where his Passion and Death await Him. Here He’s been preaching, teaching, healing along the way. He’s inspired people to follow Him. They’ve been listening to Him. They’ve been journeying with Him. Yet He wonders, after all that they’ve seen and heard, after all that he has given, after all that he is about to give – he asks that question where Jesus reveals a vulnerable heartfelt wondering – “when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”
Jesus isn’t doubting his mission or what he’s doing here. But he knows that for this to be true love, it has to be a free choice. He needs to leave himself open to being accepted whole-heartedly or completely and utterly rejected. So perhaps he wonders – Will all that he has done and does for us be enough? Will we still be following, still be listening to His preaching and teaching that he continues to do through His Church? Will we still be walking the roads of our life’s journey’s looking to Jesus to lead us? Will he find us faithful?
Because the reality is that Jesus continues to make himself incredibly vulnerable to us. He offers us a dynamic intimacy that can only come from someone giving their entire self to us. It’s hard to fully grasp or appreciate that kind of love when you really think about it. We might be able to have glimpses of that in the selfless love we experience from families, parents, siblings, grandparents or good, true, sincere friends… But even those examples pale in comparison to consider the wonderful mystery of trying to grasp how much our God loves us. Yet Jesus’ love is that profound that he doesn’t simply give some simple, single expression. He continues to offer us His very self that he offers freely, right here, right now as we share His Word, as we dare to come forward and take his Body and Blood.
He asks… Do you love me? When I return, despite the ups and downs of life – the trials, the struggles you face, will this complete and total gift of myself be enough? Will I find faith on earth? Will I find you?
Sadly there are many who say No. There are some who refuse to try to break out of lives of sin. There are some who put their trust solely in themselves or in other things… Some will reject the love of Christ by trying to make Jesus conform to their lives rather than allowing their lives to be challenged by Christ and trying to conform to His Gospel message. There are some who say Yes, who strive for holiness, who aren’t perfect, but are able to recognize that when they get knocked down by temptation and sin, they don’t allow themselves to stay there – they get up, go to confession, they, as Jesus encourages them in the Gospel today – persevere each day, to make some changes in their lives and keep moving forward trying to live that Yes to Christ’s love each day and experience the fullness of life He’s calling them to.
But there’s no middle ground here. We can’t be faithful and unfaithful… We can’t be a disciple of Jesus Christ and follow someone else as well. This is an either-or decision not a both-and that we need to make each and every day… As He looks out at us, Jesus is wondering- Do you love me; He asks “When I return, will I find any faith?” Jesus puts himself in this vulnerable place, hoping that His love will be received and returned in our genuine and sincere efforts each day to try to follow him. But he leaves it solely as a choice we have to make. No one will force us one way or the other it’s our decision. But such a question, such a decision also deserves a better response than “Can I think about it and get back to you.”
