Sunday Oct . 9 2016 28th Sunday (year
C)
[__01__] Last Sunday – October 2nd – was our
Rosary Altar Society Communion breakfast, a lovely morning event made possible
by the teamwork and cooperation of the women in our Society.
Our Rosary Altar Society prays for
you, for all the priests of Our Lady of Lourdes and for the Sisters of Charity.
Our Rosary Altar Society members take beautiful care of our altar linens,
meaning the cloths, purificators, corporals, towels used by the servers, the
priests, deacons the Eucharistic ministers at Sunday Masses.
[__02__] In these and many other ways, the Rosary Altar
Society members go out of their way for you and for me.
And, the members of our society always
welcome new volunteers who might help in the washing and care of our altar
cloths at church, in their annual Tricky Tray fundraiser, in their many
missions and tasks of prayer and service.
To them we can be very grateful.
[__03__] At the breakfast last Sunday, we were pleased
to welcome Father Paul Donohue from the Comboni Missionary Fathers as our guest
speaker. The Comboni Fathers are a religious order formerly based in Montclair
– now in Newark. These priests have helped out here with Daily Mass several
times of week for many years here at Lourdes.
Father Paul touched on a lovely moment
in his own childhood and autobiography. At this time, the young Paul was being
disciplined – and interrogated Law & Order style - by his parents after
some troublemaking incident.
What
recall from this episode was that both of his parents wanted the truth.
Each had a different way of finding, discovering the truth. They certainly went
out of their way, extended themselves mentally, spiritually.
[__04__] Can I
go out of my way? Will I go out of my way?
In the Gospel, this Sunday, we receive
the message that our connection with Christ is possible, especially when we go
out of our way, off/away from our regular path.
Was this not the experience and the
model of the one (1) Samaritan leper? This
1 Samaritan – to whom Jesus refers to as
“the foreigner” – returns to Jesus to express his gratitude.
This Samaritan goes out of his way and
makes himself known easily to the Son of God. Meanwhile, Jesus would have had
to contact the Postal Service or UPS for the tracking numbers of the other 9
thank-you notes.
This 1 Samaritan lepers went out of
his way to express his gratitude and is closer to Christ as a result.
[__05__] Will I go out of my way?
Will I go out of my way even if there
is no guarantee of success or welcome?
The Samaritan leper had not known –
could not have known – how would be regarded or received by our Lord and
Savior.
He returned anyway, despite the
customary distance and alienation between the regions of Judea and Samaria, and
between the Jewish people and Samaritan people.
Can I – will I – go out of my way even
even though I may be on someone’s no-fly list, or no-talk list, though I may
fear rejection or failure?
Sometimes, we need the assistance of
others to go out of our way, to find our way, to find our true path,
calling, vocation.
[__06__] When I was a senior in high school, I went
for an interview at a college in Pennsylvania. And, for this particular visit,
a family friend – and student at the college – had arranged for me to meet the Director
of Admissions. I still remember his name, Peter van Buskirk.
I remember Peter’s name because we
never actually met each other for the interview. And, that became the
problem.
I had gone to the Admissions
department and building at the appointed time, checked in, told them my name.
There was no co-pay. I just waited.
I sat down for a few minutes until my
name was called. Then, I had a nice conversation with an ASSISTANT director of
admissions – not Peter, the DIRECTOR.
[__07__] Later,
as we returned home in my father’s 1997 Chevrolet, and took Route 30 to the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, I wondered aloud – to my mother and father – why I had
not met with Peter.
Then, the interrogation began.
“What do you mean? You met with the
wrong person?”
I had not thought this was my fault.
My father was questioning my
motivation, making a calculation of all the tuition checks he would be writing.
I think I expected my mother to
intervene and defend me. My mom was helpful, however, in a different way,
helping me to understand what had happened, to reflect on it and to avoid this
in the future.
[__08__] Yes, today, years later I am grateful. Both
of my parents went out of their way for me.
However, at the time, I sat in the
back seat wondering when this line of questioning would conclude. Are we there
yet? Oh.. only 2 and a half more hours.
Good.
[__09__] In this case, yes the lesson of the 1
Samaritan leper would have been meaningful and helpful to me. The Samaritan does not follow the crowd,
sitting passively waiting for his name to be called by just anybody.
He does not follow the crowd, but goes
his own way.
Also, while enjoying a renewed and
healed physical condition, he finds great joy in giving credit to his healer,
to the miracle worker.
And, then, with his healing complete,
he was no longer restricted to an exile or a quarantine. He could go where he
wanted.
But, for him, it is important that he
first give thanks to Almighty God for his new destiny rather than go to any
particular destination.
[__10__] You and I are also called to praise and give
thanks for the miracles and of direction and re-direction we receive in our
lives. To recognize that, for example,
the gift and miracle of
MERCY
– that we are called not only to seek mercy so that God may forgive us our
trespasses ..but so that we may also show mercy, to forgive those who trespass
against us.
In this, we go out of our way.
We
are called to recognize the gift and miracle of our FREEDOM.
FREEDOM
– is something we can take for granted. But, this is also a gift given by God
in our conscience to decide right from wrong good from evil. We are called to pray and give thanks for
those who have helped to choose LIFE over DEATH, GOOD over EVIL, HONESTY over
DISHONESTY. These are free choices and
sometimes not the popular choices.
We, at times, are called to go out of
our way.
We
are also called the recognize the gift and the miracle of:
LOVE
– that we are called both to give and to receive love, to acknowledge those who
have loved us, and to love those whom others might not acknowledge, whom others
might ignore.
To go out of our way. [__fin__]
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