Hi everyone! I hope you’re summer is going great! Here is my homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 8, 2010. The readings can be found at https://www.usccb.org/nab/080810.shtml . Thanks as always for reading and for your feedback and comments – I appreciate it! (Check the videos of him on Youtube after you read this!) God Bless- Father Jim
HOMILY:
Sadly, Patrick Henry Hughes’ name isn’t as recognizable to the world as some other twenty-somethings like Lindsey Lohan or Nicole Polizzi (aka Snookie), but those two, as well as the rest of us could learn a lot from this young man. He gained some attention a few years ago when his family was selected to have their home made over by Extreme Makeover. What made this selection so memorable wasn’t the house, the cabinets that were built or color paint that was used – but rather the story of Patrick Henry Hughes himself.
Because when Patrick was born, the medical staff immediately noticed what they considered severe physical abnormalities – he was born without eyes and was unable to fully straighten his arms and legs which left him incapable of walking. So for his entire life he has been blind and confined to a wheel chair. At the age of 9 his father introduced him to the piano and a few years after that to playing the trumpet. It seems Patrick really had a knack as a musician. So much so that a reporter from ABC was assigned to do a story on him. When the reporter went to this guys house for the first time Patrick offered to play the piano as his father rolled his wheelchair up to the baby grand. The reporter confessed that he was prepared to placate the kid as he thought to himself “Well, this will be sweet. He has overcome so much. How nice that he can play piano.” The reporter was prepared to get his story and simply move on to the next assignment. He figured that he could talk to Patrick and his father as he played the piano how Hughes managed to navigate the keyboard; how he first learned the piano and what his favorite songs were. He never imagined that Patrick would leave such a lasting impression on him:
“Then Patrick put his hands to the keyboard, and his fingers began to race across it — the entire span of it, his fingers moving up and back and over and across the keys so quickly and intricately that my fully-functional eyesight couldn’t keep up with them. I was stunned. The music his hands drew from that piano was so lovely and lyrical and haunting, so rich and complex and beyond anything I had imagined he would play that there was nothing I could say. All I could do was listen.” The reporter reflected on that as he observed “That is the power of Patrick Henry Hughes. He quietly makes you listen.”
It wasn’t just the music though. In this quiet listening, the reporter heard words from Patrick that probably seem shocking: “God made me blind and didn’t give me the ability to walk. I mean, big deal.” Patrick continued, smiling as he said “He gave me the talent to play piano and trumpet and all that good stuff.”
His parents story is quite remarkable as well. The Father works overnight so that he can take Patrick to college classes (and take notes for him) as well as to Marching Band practice at the University of Louisiana. Yeah, you heard that right – the Father and Son can be seen, Dad pushing the wheel chair around in those choreographed half-time shows as the Son continues to play trumpet. Mom works full time so that her husband can assist his son; as well as to support their other two children.
With all of those challenges, all of those difficulties, it’s understandable that the husband and wife asked themselves “Why us? What did we do that this happened to us?” – questions that they continue to ask themselves. Only now, they explain “ we ask the same question . . .but we put it in a whole new light. . .’What did we do to deserve such a special young man, who’s brought us so, so much. He sees the world in a way that we can’t even imagine…”
Patrick Henry Hughes and his family are living witnesses to the important message Jesus is sharing in today’s Gospel, which is quite simply, but profoundly the question: How do we utilize all that God has given us to bring him glory? So often we get caught up comparing ourselves to one another, seeing our limitations, letting petty jealousies, envies, pride enter in and all that does is diminish the special, unique gifts that all of us have been created to be. Gifts meant to reflect the beauty of God Himself.
It would have been easy for the entire family to have given up on Patrick. Many comparing him with everyone else who are labeled “normal” and think, what is he going to be able to do? And resign him to the wheelchair.
Yet Patrick and his family urge us to see the world with eyes of Faith: to know that God has created every single one of us with a purpose. To be certain that each of us is here for a specific reason, a special task – a vocation, that only we can fulfill. God had only you and me in mind for this special purpose that he created you and me for. In the mysterious journeys we find ourselves on, may we discover and respond to that purpose, may we uncover the true wealth that is our life… Jesus reminds us how blessed we will be if we have the vision, the sight to see our lives as that priceless treasure that it is and our hearts are found there.
