June 22, 2004
June 28, 2004
Does today’s Gospel sound familiar? It should. Today Matthew tells us the same story that we heard yesterday from Luke’s Gospel.
If you were here this weekend, you heard Mike Coppage give an excellent homily on this event. I guess that means that we’re going to hear the same thing today as we heard yesterday. No, you’re not. It’s very interesting that Mike and I each got something completely different from exactly the same story.
God works in strange and mysterious ways. Mike was involved in two funerals last week and they inspired him to talk about the end of the Gospel where Jesus says “let the dead bury their dead.” His conclusion was that we shouldn’t put off doing the things that we know we should do. If we do, it may be too late. The disciple who wanted to return home to bury his father was just procrastinating. He wanted to follow Jesus, but not just yet.
My week wasn’t quite as profound as Mike’s. No weddings. No funerals. Just the usual stuff. Oh, we did go to the Cardinal game Thursday but nothing happened there to inspire any words of wisdom on my part.
My inspiration came in a much more mundane way. Saturday morning, Jan had to get up early to go to a meeting. She came in to tell me goodbye and to tell me that she had set the alarm clock so that I wouldn’t sleep all day. I laid there for a few minutes and realized that if I didn’t get up and use the bathroom, I would never go back to sleep. So I did. I thought Jan had left. You can imagine my surprise when I came out of the bathroom to see that the bed had been made.
I complained, but it was pointless. The bed was made. She told me if I wanted to go back to sleep, I could sleep on the couch or lay on top of the bedspread. Anyway, she left and I did lay back down on top of the bedspread but it just wasn’t the same. But as I lay there, today’s Gospel came into my mind. “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.”
As I thought about it, it occurred to me that of course, He had no place to lay his head. As far as we know, Jesus lived with his mother until he was thirty years old. In fact, there’s an old joke that Jesus must have been Irish because he lived with his mother, didn’t have a job and spent all of his time hanging around with the guys.
But, Jesus never had a place of his own. How could he? He was in the world, but He wasn’t of the world. Jesus the homeowner just doesn’t work.
What He’s telling the disciples, and us, today is that if we want to follow Him, we must be like Him. Not that He expects us not to have a place to live. He just wants us to realize that We must follow His example to the best of our ability. We can own a home, but it shouldn’t be the most important thing in our life. It’s a place to lay our heads. That’s all. It’s a place to raise our families. But it should never come ahead of following Christ.
He understands that we must function in the world, just as He did. He had no worldly responsibilities, but we do. Most of us have to work. We have bills to pay. But He does want us to put Him first. He expects us to support His church, financially and by our presence. He doesn’t want us to have false gods. Many people worship money, or power or fame. We can see that in the current controversy about Catholic politicians and the right to life. Not to take sides, but when getting elected is more important than adhering to your faith, somebody is worshiping at the wrong altar.
But, that’s a topic for another day. For today, I’d like to close with a great quote I read in a magazine: “Christ doesn’t want our kids’ college tuition money. He just wants our golf money.” Think about it.
Does today’s Gospel sound familiar? It should. Today Matthew tells us the same story that we heard yesterday from Luke’s Gospel.
If you were here this weekend, you heard Mike Coppage give an excellent homily on this event. I guess that means that we’re going to hear the same thing today as we heard yesterday. No, you’re not. It’s very interesting that Mike and I each got something completely different from exactly the same story.
God works in strange and mysterious ways. Mike was involved in two funerals last week and they inspired him to talk about the end of the Gospel where Jesus says “let the dead bury their dead.” His conclusion was that we shouldn’t put off doing the things that we know we should do. If we do, it may be too late. The disciple who wanted to return home to bury his father was just procrastinating. He wanted to follow Jesus, but not just yet.
My week wasn’t quite as profound as Mike’s. No weddings. No funerals. Just the usual stuff. Oh, we did go to the Cardinal game Thursday but nothing happened there to inspire any words of wisdom on my part.
My inspiration came in a much more mundane way. Saturday morning, Jan had to get up early to go to a meeting. She came in to tell me goodbye and to tell me that she had set the alarm clock so that I wouldn’t sleep all day. I laid there for a few minutes and realized that if I didn’t get up and use the bathroom, I would never go back to sleep. So I did. I thought Jan had left. You can imagine my surprise when I came out of the bathroom to see that the bed had been made.
I complained, but it was pointless. The bed was made. She told me if I wanted to go back to sleep, I could sleep on the couch or lay on top of the bedspread. Anyway, she left and I did lay back down on top of the bedspread but it just wasn’t the same. But as I lay there, today’s Gospel came into my mind. “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.”
As I thought about it, it occurred to me that of course, He had no place to lay his head. As far as we know, Jesus lived with his mother until he was thirty years old. In fact, there’s an old joke that Jesus must have been Irish because he lived with his mother, didn’t have a job and spent all of his time hanging around with the guys.
But, Jesus never had a place of his own. How could he? He was in the world, but He wasn’t of the world. Jesus the homeowner just doesn’t work.
What He’s telling the disciples, and us, today is that if we want to follow Him, we must be like Him. Not that He expects us not to have a place to live. He just wants us to realize that We must follow His example to the best of our ability. We can own a home, but it shouldn’t be the most important thing in our life. It’s a place to lay our heads. That’s all. It’s a place to raise our families. But it should never come ahead of following Christ.
He understands that we must function in the world, just as He did. He had no worldly responsibilities, but we do. Most of us have to work. We have bills to pay. But He does want us to put Him first. He expects us to support His church, financially and by our presence. He doesn’t want us to have false gods. Many people worship money, or power or fame. We can see that in the current controversy about Catholic politicians and the right to life. Not to take sides, but when getting elected is more important than adhering to your faith, somebody is worshiping at the wrong altar.
But, that’s a topic for another day. For today, I’d like to close with a great quote I read in a magazine: “Christ doesn’t want our kids’ college tuition money. He just wants our golf money.” Think about it.
posted by Mike at 7:54 PM
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