Side note: I really must get back to going to daily mass. My soul hungers for the Word of God, but especially for the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that is truly present in the Eucharist. Since retiring, I have no excuses not to go anymore, other than laziness. My laziness ranks up there with greats—Homer Simpson, Al Bundy, and these people.
I have a lot of apps on my phone that help me to read the daily Scripture passages and give me fodder for meditation, but those meditations are usually my own interpretation of what I’ve read or experienced each day. It’s good to get another perspective now and again. That’s where a priest’s homily comes in handy. Especially when he goes “off script”, so to speak. Take today, for example.
The readings at Mass were supposed to be for the “Wednesday of the nineteenth week in Ordinary Time”, which was an Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy and the Gospel from Matthew. But it’s also the Feast Day of Saint Maxamilian Kolbe, a priest who was martyred during WWII. He was in a concentration camp. One of the prisoners escaped and as punishment, the Nazis chose 10 men to die to discourage other escape attempts. Father Kolbe volunteered to be injected with carbolic acid in place of another man who had a wife and family. You can read his story here.
When it is a Feast Day, the priest has the option to use other readings that were authorized by the Church that help honor the Saint in a special way. Today was one of those days. The readings were instead Wisdom 3:1-9 and John 15:12-16. Both speak of giving up everything for the Kingdom of God, including our very lives.
During his homily, Father asked “Who wants to go to Heaven?” Of course everyone raised their hands. Then, he asked “How many of you are willing to sell EVERYTHING you have to follow Christ?” No one raised their hands. He knew he would get that response. He related that the last time he asked the question at a Mass, he had a parishioner come to him afterwards and ask, “So Father, do we have to be homeless to follow Christ?” His answer was thought-provoking to me, although not convicting me enough to do what St. Francis and others did. He said there are many stories of the lives of the saints who did renounce great wealth and stations in life and spent the rest of their lives living in the streets and begging for food for themselves and others. But there is one word that was never used to describe them; “homeless”. I wonder how many “homeless” I see everyday are actually saints in disguise. I think from now on, I’ll try to give each of them the benefit of the doubt and give them the respect and dignity they deserve. Won’t you join me?
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