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2022-10-30 – 31st Sunday ● ● Wisdom 11:22-12:2 ● Psalm 145 ● 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 ●● + Luke 19:1-10 ● ●
[__00-a__] Zacchaeus climbs up a tree, climbs up a sycamore tree. He goes up the trunk of the tree and out on a branch or out on a limb, to see Jesus. Anyone or any animal could climb a tree go out on the branch / out on the limb in to reach someone / something. And at the end of this homily, I'd like to talk about that expression of going out on a limb or what it means to take a risk.
[__01 __] Several years ago, I learned something about sorrow, contrition, and conversion. But, I was not in church at the time hearing confessions.
I had arrived recently and was a new parish
priest / pastor for you, assigned here by the Archbishop.
At the time I was a newer and inexperienced parish
priest. Now I'm an older and
inexperienced parish priest.
This was the story about “sorrow” or “being
sorry.” I had a 10 am in the morning
meeting scheduled with 1 of our building contractors about a repair on the
church. The man, the contractor arrived, and he arrived a few minutes
early. As the clock struck 10 am o'clock,
I was trying to finish something up and did not come to meet him right away… I
was about 5-10 minutes late for him.
In my heart, I was feeling my usual vanity or
pride, and really didn't think that my lack of punctuality was any big deal.
After all, this contractor was here to see me. We were going to be paying him
for his services. Did it really matter? As they say, the customer is always
right. And I was the customer.
But just to be polite, I told man waiting to
see me “Sorry, I'm late.”
But he knew that I was not sorry. How did I
know? Because he told me. He told me face to face, in person, and man to man, “You're
not sorry.”
And as only a respected man of experience in years
could say to me as a younger person, “You're not sorry.” He was absolutely
correct. He put me in my place without being angry or resentful, or bitter. He
was good natured. He was even laughing. He was Christ to me in that moment.
[__02__] What does it mean to have a contrite heart,
contrite spirit, true sorrow?
Here's another example about a lack of
punctuality, not being on time, sorrow.
One things I learned from my own family --- in
the seminary and priesthood studies of the rules of the Ferry family house --- is
that sometimes the breaking of rules that it was possible for me to break the
rules.
And if I, as long as I avoided being caught
that I could avoid being sorry, right. That's what kids think. If I don't get
caught, I won't have to be sorry.
One particular evening, I arrived home very
late. Now this was when after I had a driver's license. I was 19 years old. At
this point, I pulled into the driveway and had been driving my father’s car.
I’d been out with my friends.
My father was inconvenienced by my lateness
because he wanted to leave on vacation that evening, and he couldn't leave.
Because he didn't have his car.
There was no cell phone, no GPS, no way to
check on me where I was. And when I arrived home in the middle of the night, my
father was not visibly angry with me. He was upset, but I think it was
partially relieved that I was still alive that it was actually breathing.
But I was at that moment, sorry. Yes, I had
gotten away with being out all night. But I realized that my actions had caused
trouble had called heart ache, or learned something about contrition and a contrite
spirit.
[PEER
PRESSURE] And also I had to ask myself about whether
it's really worth it to give into peer pressure, and to do everything my
friends were doing. Was that really worth it? I was sorry.
[__03__] In the Gospel, this Sunday, we read
about Zacchaeus, the tax collector.
Hearing this gospel, I'm always reminded about
a moment when I was a teenager, in a Catholic CYO youth group. And I was asked
to give a talk, a witness talk on a retreat to my peers.
And the biblical reading associated with the
talk was this one. Luke chapter 19, 1 à 10,
Zacchaeus climbs the tree. The title of the talk was “OUT ON A LIMB”. The expression pertains to an animal or
person going further and further from the trunk of the tree to reach something
or someone.
Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree, went out
on a limb to see Jesus.
[Z] takes a risk. It’s dangerous. His, his
people, the Jewish people, were not in favor of [Z] making repentance. They did not think he was
capable of any sorrow or real repentance or anything trustworthy.
[Z] was super negative [----],
as though – in modern day terms – he wre Wall Street financier doing insider
trading making tons of money for himself while everyone else was loving money. Somebody
who traded on insider information. [Z] = Bernie Madoff who many investors –
especially in NYC - with his pyramid scheme. Bernie Madoff was gaining while
others lost and even though he died in prison, people might still wonder if was
really sorry or sufficiently punished.
[Z] was gaining while other people were
losing. And, for many years he was absolutely not sorry ! [Z] was the white
collar criminal par excellence. He was stealing from his own people and making
the Roman Empire prosper. And even worse, he was a chief tax collector and a
very wealthy man.
[__04__] In my own “”Out on a Limb” talk, I told
my youth group peers of an event in which some of them were actually involved.
It was about my failure to go out on a limb
when I could have! A few months before
that in the summertime, our youth group had been on a summertime trip to a
theme park called Vernon Valley Action Park here in NW NJ, water rides, car, go
karts, pools, etc.
It was a great day with a strict deadline to
meet at front gate in the parking lot by the bus at 4 pm..
I was in a group however, that decided that
the 4 pm rule did not apply to us. We
missed the bus, but got a ride because one of the chaperones stayed behind with
her blue Chevrolet station wagon and drove us home in the blue Chevy station
wagon. But there were consequences for our actions. And I knew afterwards, I
knew I had let people down.
And I decided to go along with this group
because I thought going along with this group was going to make me cool going
along with this group was going to be my path to growing up my path to
adulthood, strength, etc.
I told my peers how I'd given into peer
pressure, and really let other people down that I was just going along with the
crowd. I had failed to go out on a limb.
My “talk” went over well !
But was I really sorry? I asked myself this
because sometime later, after I gave the talk, I had a talk with the parish
priest who was on the trip with us. His name was Father Anthony.
Father Anthony was the leader and chaperone
of the trip. And he told me he thanked me for reflecting on that episode, for
getting up and telling the story for going out on a limb by telling the truth
of what had happened.
But the truth was that I had failed and let
down the group. Father Anthony told me
he was pretty angry that day, felt hurt by what we done and after all, he was
responsible for all of us.
I was 16 but I learned something about the
priesthood that day I learned something about his fatherly role to us. And I
learned that my actions had consequences for him, but also that my confession
had consequences.
My contrition had consequences. Confession has
consequences. Contrition has consequences Absolution has a consequence. Mercy
has a consequence.
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