Perfect Timing. Joy. Game (2022-08-07, Sunday 19th)

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2022-08-07  -- 19^th    Sunday   

Title: Perfect Timing.Joy.Game  

● ● Wisdom 18:6-9  ● ● Psalm  ____ ● ●●   Hebrews 1:1-2, 8-19 ● Luke 12:32-48 ● ●

[__01__]  Have you ever been in your own house or someone else’s house and living room or TV room when an important sporting event is on TV – maybe the baseball World Series, soccer World Cup, or Wimbledon. And, at such a time, everyone is supposed to lock in and be attentive to the watching of the game, even listening to the announcer as well.

          At such moments, you may have to be careful not to make noise, or walk in front of the flat screen TV.  People want not only to watch but also hear the announcer describing the events.

          Silence is golden at such a time. And, timing is very important.

[__02__]   I’d like to touch on this Gospel in 3 parts:

__ perfect TIMING

__ perfect JOY

__ a perfect game

[__03__]      I bring this up because Jesus in the Gospel speaks not only with VISIBLE ACTIONS but also with an AUDIBLE VOICE.  We are called to pay attention.

          Visibly – in actual demonstration – he shows that he will lay down his life for us. He does not resist arrest when he is stopped and more than “frisked”.   Yet, he responds not with fury but forgiveness, even to those who put him to death.  Our Lord has perfect timing.

          I’d like to close with an example of a real-life person who died this past week – a famous MLB baseball announcer named Vincent Scully (Vin Scully) who died at age 94 after a very long career with the Los Angeles Dodgers as their “audible voice”. Vin Scully was known for his own perfect timing and telling of a baseball game.

[__04__] 1^st. PERFECT TIMING.

          Do you have a to-do list with tasks that you wished you had finished a long time ago? If so, I’m relieved because I thought I was the only one.

          It’s hard to have perfect timing when we have to manage many responsibilities and tasks.  What does it mean to have perfect timing in this regard? Is it even possible?

In CCC Catholic Catechism (1800,-1804) we read that by our prayer and sacrifices and pursuit of holiness we learn to do the good… with CONSISTENCY, with JOY, with EASE.

          The Lord is a model of this CONSISTENCY, JOY, EASE by being willing to serve and respond – even at inconvenient times -- with consistency, joy, ease?

          Do I practice this? In order to gain this we are called to regular prayer, to acts of self-denial such as fasting, to intentionally give ourselves …. This helps us grow in consistency, joy, and ease…and also to imitate it when we see it in others.

[__05__]  [EXAMPLE] Many years ago, I was coming home on a train on NJ Transit from NYC and it was about 9:30 pm at night. I was an adult, and – technically at least – quite knowledgeable of my route, what my station was and when my stop was. But that night I was not paying attention due to what I was reading or absorbed in. So, I missed the stop and ended up in the town of Waldwick. If you do not know where the Waldwick train station is, neither did I. It’s not that easy to find. And, this was before cell mobile phones and GPS. I called up my father whom I expected to be annoyed since it was late. But, he was not --- he was consistent, joyful, easy … though he had to read a map to find me.

          My siblings and I laugh about this because it demonstrated how much my father enjoys picking people up at airports, train stations anywhere – consistency, joy ease.

[__06__] 2^nd PERFECT JOY.   In Catholic tradition, St. Francis of Assisi calls this “perfect joy”. And I encourage you to Google/search St. Francis of Assisi for the complete explanation of the “perfect joy” episode. Essentially, “perfect joy” is when we can bear injuries out of love and think of Christ when we are suffering and also to think of the other person we are serving. This is perfect joy.

          As St. Paul ∑ - 1^st Corinthians 13 “love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love never fails” That’s perfect joy.

[__07__]    So…when you or I are offended or trespassed against. When someone hurts us, it is a real virtue to forgive consistently, joyfully, easily.

          I have certainly had lots of practice NOT doing this, getting angry, and seemingly “exalting myself by  being frustrated and angry” . That’s not perfect joy, Jim Ferry.

          Perfect joy is also shown by our willingness to admit we are wrong, to trust in God’s love, even if our admission of guilt will cause us some embarrassment or shame temporarily, it is better to live in the light of truth. That’s perfect joy.

[__07__]   PERFECT GAME.   Vin Scully just died at age 94. Vin (Vincent) Scully of the L.A. Dodgers died at age 94. He was known to do his job with perfect timing, with perfect joy…and he once called a very memorable “perfect game”

          In 1965, he was he play by play announcer for a baseball game in which the great Sandy Koufax was pitching and going for a “perfect game”.   In the 9^th inning – i.e.,near the end of the game -- Scully went to the trouble of reporting not just balls, strikes, foul balls, but also noting the exact time on the clock …9:41 pm, 9:47 pm, etc … as the game reached its final moments. He said that he did this as a favor to Sandy Koufax himself who might appreciate this later. He figured no one else would notice. But, his reporting on the exact time made his words more memorable.

Scully was also a devout Catholic who was instrumental in having Catholic Mass offered at Dodger Stradium on Sundays so that reporters could go to church on game day. That’s perfect timing !

You and I are also striving for a perfect game.  It doesn't mean we're never going to fall down. We are made perfect by sin and forgiveness. We are made perfect by admitting our sins and by recognizing that you and I are made in God's image and that we are part of his timing, part of his joy.  [__END__]