All three of our readings
today are tied together. And all three
are really talk about the same reality, the reality of community, of
family. As Jesus reminds us in the
gospel, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of
them.” Jesus is right here present in
this church, in the midst of you and me.
And our readings remind us that we are responsible for and to one
another. No one lives in splendid
isolation. We need each other. And in a community such as St. Alphonsus
Parish Community. You know we laugh with
each other, we cry with each other, we dance with each other, we eat with each
other, we support one another. We are
here in all the ups and downs, the fears, the joys, the tears, the fears,
everything that comes to us in everyday lives.
That’s what family and community are about. That if you and I had to do this everyday by
ourselves we would shrivel up and die.
We need other people to be with us.
That’s
why Ezekiel reminds us that if someone is not told that they are doing
something wrong, the Lord says, “I will hold you responsible for that person’s
death because you did not reach out to try to correct them or help them, or be
with them.” Paul says it the other way,
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
You and I have a healthy
self-love and respect and we in turn will want to acknowledge this and see it
and give it to each other. You cannot
give what you do not have. If you don’t
see your own goodness and worthwhile and uniqueness how will you want to give
that to someone else, or how will you be able to see it in someone else? Because you will block it out as they try to
approach you. So we need one another.
Beautiful readings that
Jesus is trying to remind us. And this
is life-long isn’t it folks? From the
cradle to the ultimate moment of death we belong to and for and with each
other.
There is a beautiful little
book called Three Cups of Tea. It
is written by Greg Mortenson. He was an
American mountain climber and where part of this all got started. He was over up in the villages of central
Asia, in the Himalayan mountains, climbing what they call the K2 mountain. And he had an accident, he didn’t quite make
all of it and the local people, the villagers of a little village Korpei, they
saved his life. They nurtured him back
to health. He wanted to somehow respond
to them in gratitude for what they had given to him. So he decided to build a school in one of
their villages.
And as everything went so
well, people in other villages heard about it and they wanted Greg, ‘Sahib’ as
they called him, if he would be willing to build up schools in some of the
other villages of the community.
Well Greg, being one of our
typical American way of life, you know gung-ho, gotta do it this way and you
gotta get everybody organized, and he was trying to get all these villages,
ordering them on how we do things. And
they were getting a little frustrated because that wasn’t their mentality and
their culture of how to do it this way.
Always you know, we in our American mentality, we have this 8-hour work
day, 40-hours a week and all these types of things you know. The clock says 8:00 and you be there at 8:00
and you punch out at 4:00 or whatever it might be you know. And he was trying to do all these types of
things in that American mentality. In a
wonderful way he didn’t know anything else.
That was who he was.
And finally the elder in one
of the villages came to him. His name
was Hajih Ali. And he poured a cup of
hot tea and he invited Greg to sit down.
And this is what he said, “If you want to survive in Baltistan you must
respect our ways. The first time you
share tea with a Baltee you are a stranger.
The second time you take tea you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea you
become family, and our family, for our family, we are prepared to do anything,
even die. Greg, you must take time to
share three cups of tea. We may be
uneducated but we are not stupid. We
have lived and survived a long time.”
Greg wrote in his book that
he learned a very important lesson that day.
He realized then that in order to really respect the people with whom he
was living and moving and wanting to help he needed to respect and learn their
culture, their attitudes, their values, become one with them rather than to
just someone coming from outside and imposing his help.
I think that’s what Jesus
and all these readings are trying to say to you and me today, at least to Pat
Grile. As I looked over these readings a
long time I said, “Okay Lord, what do you want me to do?”
I had two weeks as I
said. I just returned from Grand
Rapids. And over those two weeks this
was fermenting, like a good tea, inside of me.
And the reality hit me the other day as I sat in the nursing home with
my dad. At the beginning of August he
had a TIA, a slight stroke. Just the
other day, Thursday morning, sitting in his room. He was smiling and beaming because he said
the physical therapist had released him and said, “Howard, you’re back full
strength.” No residual effects from the
stroke. My dad could sit there. We were watching the US Tennis Open. And he was saying, “You know that player
three years ago made so much money and he was ranked such and such throughout
the world. And this guy you know. I want this guy.” And he was naming all these tennis
players. And I said, “How do you
remember all this stuff?” He know
this. He keeps his mind alert. He watches TV. He reads.
He says, “You want to read this novel?” I said, “I’ve got something else I’m reading,
Dad, but thanks you keep reading.” I
watched him one day sit there and put his socks on and tie his own shoes. He is 95-years-old. He has never stopped living, never stopped
growing.
And it taught me something
as I watched him. I said, “Oh God, I
hope I can be as mentally and physically fit at 95 as my dad is today.” But it was teaching me something else, and it
flows from this. We are on this journey
of life from beginning to end. Never
stop growing and learning any way along the trip.
We are having registration
today for our Faith Formation programs.
Now some people just put their kids in the programs at 2nd
grade, for First Confession, Confirmation.
Maybe sometimes we don’t see people again until they are wanting to get
married. We have Adult Education
programs. We have Faith Formation
programs in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade and high
school. We have our Adult Education
programs. Do we take advantage of these
means in front of us to keep growing and learning?
And as I sat there and
learned from my dad about patience and about the love for life it taught me
something else too. How much I need to
learn from you, the people of St. Alphonsus Parish. Look around you in this church right now
too. We are so many different ages,
backgrounds, ethnicity. We are old, we
are young, everything in between. We’re
rich, we’re poor, we’re Democrat, we’re Republican, we’re Independents, we’re
liberal, we’re conservative, maybe we have none of those labels. Some have gone to college, some haven’t, some
are still in the process. We are a
little bit of everything. Yet we need to
respect and honor everybody for who they are and where they are in their
journey of life. We need to be able to
include that and find ways as a parish community to keep pulling out the best
that is in each other.
One day I was sitting on the
beach of Lake Michigan and I was watching the waves come in and go back
out. I said, “Lord is there something
here You’re trying to get through this thick head of Pat Grile?” It took about five hours of watching these
waves come and go and watching the little animals scurry along, the little
birds and the different creatures and seagulls come and go, and I thought
‘patience’. And yet, as each wave would
come in it would embrace the wave that was before it and then roll out and then
come back in. And that cycle kept going
over and over and over again.
Yes, Lord, I must never stop
growing, never stop learning, never stop trying to embrace the goodness of very
person who is a member of this parish. I
want to give you my best of who I am but I want you to give me your best as
well. And I want you to give that to
each and every member of this parish community. Let us never hold back from each other what we
can give and receive.
“Where two or three are
gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of you.” You’ve heard me say it before, we are Jesus
Christ for each other. That’s what this
parish community is all about.
And so we need maybe just
that little image of the three cups of tea.
Sometimes when you don’t feel like you’re accomplishing or doing
anything, but when you just sit down sometimes across a table from somebody and
share a muffin, or a cup of coffee, or a cup of tea we are being present to
each other and that is one of the most precious gifts we can give to each
other. To be with each other and just to
hold each other so gently as our God holds each and every one of us.
Around this table this
morning you and I gather to praise our God, to thank our God for the gift of
life, of faith. For the gift of each
other. I encourage you sometime in the
course of the day, as you go back home, after you receive Jesus in this
Eucharist, and after you perhaps acknowledge Jesus in each other, just take a
little time. Sit out on the back porch,
or the front lawn and just think about how blessed you are. Your health, your family, your faith, the
clothes you’re wearing at that time.
Just stop for a moment and praise God for who and what you have and
are. And then would you say a little
prayer for every member of St. Alphonsus Parish, that they are doing the same
thing sometime today and acknowledging the gift of themselves.
And then when you and I come
back again next Sunday, and stand around this table of the Lord we once again
will be able to do it with each other.
Let’s share the cup of tea, the Cup of Life, the Body and Blood of Jesus
and then go back home to our lives and works again throughout that week and
keep being the wonderful presence of God.
Be grateful and enjoy the journey of life each day.