People over time have tried
to use this particular gospel reading to justify capitalism and other economic
ways of doing business. That’s not
really what this gospel is about. So
don’t try to use this gospel to justify if you’re going to put your money in
the bank or not. Probably a lot of us
now wouldn’t want to put our money in a bank.
We might be like that third servant, I’m going to bury it and put it
under my mattress you know and keep it and save it.
But maybe there is another
way to look at these readings because I’m sure if I went around and asked all
of you this morning, “What would be the dominant feeling you might have about
what’s going on in our country and throughout the world?” And what I’ve heard so far a lot of people
are saying fear, anxiety. Fear about the
economic needs that we have and what’s going on. Fear about losing our jobs. Anxious if we are going to be able to put
enough food on the table. Even about the
world economy and so forth.
But you know you didn’t come
here to hear me talk about fear and anxiety this morning. You don’t need to hear more of that. What I really would like to do would be to
talk about something hopeful, something very encouraging because when I look at
these readings I hear, see a great message of hope.
Now we can act out of fear
but I want to challenge us to act out of love.
Think about it this way. Say for
instance if you were to take a little bar of iron. And perhaps you took that little bar, you know
I think of these images we see of gold bars, okay something about that
size. And maybe of itself it is probably
only worth about $5.00. But it you took
that same bar of iron and you made it into say two horseshoes it might be worth
about $50.00. If you could take that
iron bar and somehow through this process make it into medical needles that
would be used in surgery and so forth it’s probably going to be worth about
$500.00. Now if you were to take that
same bar of iron and maybe make into like balance springs for a fine Swiss
watch it’s value might go up to $5000.00.
So what’s the simple
point? Raw material needs to be
developed. We have to take it and then
we process it and we use it and make it into something far, far better. It will grow, it becomes more valuable. And the only commodity, we use that word, the
only value, the only gift, the only talent I know that grows the more you give
it away is the gift of love. It is the
spirit of love that God has poured into you and me and the more we share and
give it away it doubles, it expands, it grows.
You never run out of it because it’s God love, it’s infinite. But if we try to hold onto it, you notice
instinctively I clenched my fists, and when we try to hold onto our love, our
goodness we do shrivel up and die. And
that’s not what these readings are talking about.
It isn’t burying our talents
in the ground, it’s taking what God entrusts to you and to me, to you and me,
the people of God in St. Alphonsus Parish at this moment in time in history,
great things are entrusted to you and to me to make the kingdom of God
grow. What God gives God expects to
grow. It’s up to you and to me to take
what God gives us. How are we going to
do this? You know look at the first
reading. When one finds a worthy
wife. Okay, when one finds a worthy
husband, child, brother, sister, mother, father, uncle, aunt, grandparent—put
your own name in there. When God finds
someone worthy, and all of us are worthy, when we put our hands to the wool and
the flax—or maybe you’re not having weaving looms at home, you don’t do it that
way, but how giving our hands to the poor, extending our arms to the
needy.
In other words what that
reading is saying that in the everyday ordinary events of life, that you and I
do every day. Washing the dishes, put
gasoline into the car, reaching the phone, doing laundry, helping out one
another, cooking a meal, going to work, going to school, doing all of these
things each day and every day, that is how we build up the kingdom of God.
And as the second reading
reminds us, the Lord Jesus will come back.
No doubt about it. Everyone of us
here in this church will one day give an accounting for what we have done with
what God has entrusted to us and as Paul says “That day the Lord will come like
a thief in the night.” That we could
live in fear and trembling, Oh God, when are You going to come”, or we can live
in love saying, “God, you’ve give it to me.
You have entrusted it to me and I’m doing the best I can and I want to
share it and give it away.”
A few years ago Nelson
Mandela, when he became president of South Africa, he gave a beautiful talk at
his inauguration. A couple of the lines
that have really always just struck me were these. This is what he said, “We are born to
manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our light shine we consciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates
others.” It’s in everyone of us. God’s love.
God’s spirit is entrusted to every person who is alive and walks this
earth, and that means everyone of you and me here this morning.
Notice in the gospel, when
the master was leaving he entrusted his possessions to them, not theirs, God’s
possessions, God’s life, God’s glory, God’s love in you and me. It’s been given to us and we in turn are
asked to share it and to keep giving it away and let it grow. Beautiful.
And you’re sitting there
saying, “How?” Okay. I’m going to give you and me a
challenge. As your pastor I’ve been
thinking and praying about this a lot in connection with a lot of other
people. And here’s one way I think we
could do it. I’m going to ask everybody
in this parish community to give one more hour of your time a month to St.
Alphonsus Parish. One more hour of your
time each month to St. Alphonsus Parish.
Choose perhaps from some of these ideas.
Wouldn’t you be willing to give one more hour of prayer each month to
St. Alphonsus Parish? Our Perpetual
Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many hours no one is there to pray before the
Blessed Sacrament. Would you be willing
to commit one hour of your time a month before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament? Would you commit one hour of your time, if
you can’t do that, praying at home with your family, with your spouse, with
your children? Would you be willing to
commit one hour of your time praying by yourself then in the privacy of your
own home? In your lunch break? Half an hour one week, half an hour the
following week? Or in your car when you
get to work or before you come home? One
hour of prayer a month more for your parish community.
Would you be willing to
commit one hour of volunteering for your parish community? Maybe one of the liturgical ministries, in
the choir, Eucharistic Minister, being an usher. I notice so many times at Mass they only have
one person come down each aisle.
Wouldn’t be great if we could have two people come down each aisle? The collection time would go much faster
then, much more convenient. It might be
helpful. One hour a month. It only takes 10 minutes at each Mass to be
an usher. In the course of a month you
got a hour.
How about bringing Communion
to the sick, to the shut-in? We have
people called “Ministers of Care”. If we
had more of them we could get more times we could bring Communion to the sick
and to the shut-in, in the hospitals, our nursing homes and those in their
private homes.
How about giving one hour
instructing our children in our Faith Formation programs? How about babysitting one hour a month? Many programs take place and families come
with their other children and wouldn’t it be great to say, “Well ya, we have
someone babysitting so you can come to this program.” And they wouldn’t have to pay a babysitter to
come to their home.
Children’s Liturgy of the
Word. You saw the children leave this
morning. We could have more people
helping with that ministry.
There is another ministry
I’d like to get started in the parish.
I’m going to call it a Phone Ministry.
Would you be willing to take one hour a month to phone your fellow
parishioners, especially those who are sick, those who maybe just came out of
the hospital after surgery? We all have
cell phones and phones. Maybe you can’t
get out of your house. Maybe you
yourself are shut-in but could you not phone another member of the parish and
say, “Hi, I’m another member of St. Alphonsus Parish, thinking about you,
praying for you. How’s it going?” Whether you spend an hour with that person on
10 minutes or 5 minutes, do five people ten times, an hour a month.
Would you be willing to
spend an hour a month volunteering to clean around here. We have a group of people that clean the
church on Tuesday morning. You could
come any time during the week and you might say, “Okay I’ll take the east
windows at the church. And I’ll make
sure they are sparkling clean every month.”
Maybe not do the windows in your home, but why should I come clean the
windows at church? Because it’s your
parish, not just mine. Not just anyone
individual, but it’s ours together.
Would you be willing to
spend one hour of time next Sunday afternoon, November 23? We are going to have an All-Parish meeting
here in the church. We are going to
present all the plans for the 50th Anniversary of our parish next
year. Dave Johnson, our parish
administrator, Bob Byrnes, our Parish Council President, Ed Daley, our Finance
Council Chairman and myself are going to present to all of us so many different
things about our parish. The State of
the Parish. Where we’ve come from the
last four or five years, where we hope to go.
Too much information for me to give you here now.
Wouldn’t it be great it one
member of every household would come to that meeting to find out what’s going
on in St. Alphonsus Parish?
Would you be willing to give
one hour of your time next year for the 50th Anniversary? There are going to be so many activities and
things taking place, it’s going to take a lot of hands and a lot of feet, a lot
of people to pull together.
Why? Because it isn’t just the kingdom of Pat
Grile that’s being formed here. It’s not
mine. It’s Jesus’ kingdom. It isn’t Dave Johnson’s kingdom. It isn’t Emily Rouch’s kingdom. It isn’t Ed Daley’s kingdom. It isn’t Father Brian Johnson’s kingdom. It’s the kingdom of God entrusted to you and
me right here and now at this moment in time in history and we have such an
opportunity to grow God’s love.
The bottom line in the
gospel here. The first two people who
took what was entrusted to them and they grew it, “Come well done good and
faithful servant. Share your Master’s
joy.” I hope and I pray that every one
of us here will have the Lord come up to us and say the same thing, “Well done
good and faithful servant. Come share
your Master’s joy.”
And you and I, we the people
of St. Alphonsus Parish, we can do this.
We will pray with each
other, we will work with each other, we will cry and laugh with each other. We will celebrate with each other. We will do all of these wonderful and
beautiful things and let us do it one hour at a time.