Brandon
Thanks to Deacon Bernard Lyngdal of the Diocese of Superior, WI for the following story:
Six -year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.
He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.
Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.
He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!. Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting h is pajamas white and sticky.
And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big tears welled up in Brandon's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him.
Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process!
That's how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him.
Can't we all relate to Brandon. We mess things up. We make mistakes. We do the wrong things for the right reasons. Or we do the right things for the wrong reasons. But God, our father, loves us anyway. Brandon wasn't crying because he was afraid of a spanking as much as he was crying because he felt like he had failed his parents. Don't we all feel like that sometimes?
Sometimes we don't even do anything wrong, but we just feel inadequate. We do something good, but we don't think it's good enough. We think we should have done more, even when we know, deep down, that we did the best we could.
God is like the best father you've ever known times a million. He knows what's in our hearts and judges us accordingly. He doesn't care what we look like. He doesn't care what we do for a living. He doesn't care if we have a grade school education or a PhD. He loves us for what's inside. He loves us more than we love ourselves. He loves us just because we're us.
St. Paul writes in the second reading today that “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions brought us to life with Christ. And there were some pretty serious transgressions going on in Ephesus in the first century.
In today's Gospel, the famous John 3:16, John tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everytone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
That's EVERYONE. That's you and that's me. He didn't come just to save the beautiful, or the strong, or the smart, or the talented. EVERYONE who believes in him can have eternal life. Doesn't it make sense that He and His Father are there for us when we pull a “Brandon”?
Jesus told us to love one another as we love ourselves. Most people think He meant that we should love others as much as we love ourselves. I think He meant that we should love ourselves as much as we love others. That's much harder.
We may not look like Tom Cruise or Katherine Zeta Jones. We may not be able to play baseball like Albert Pujols, or sing like Sinatra, or preach like Bishop Sheen. But those are superficial things. They're not important things. What's important is what's in our hearts, and God knows that and loves us because of it, or in spite of it.
We live in a place and a time where there is a lot of emphasis on the material; on looks, on money, on things. Most of us can't measure up to the standards that Hollywood, television and magazines set for us. Why do they do it? Mainly they do it to sell products. Americans spend more than a billion and a half dollars each year on hair dye! And sales to men are growing faster than sales to women. Fortunately, I'm not part of that market.In fact, men aged 18 to 24 are the most likely group to be coloring their hair.
I'm not against companies selling their products, as long as they aren't harmful. But, I am against advertisers and others setting standards for us, and our kids and grandkids, that are impossible to meet. That is harmful. Our young people, and some older people as well are trying to be something that's nearly impossible. That leads to frustration, depression, eating disorders and even suicide.
Most of us have no more chance of looking like a movie star, or playing baseball like Pujols, or singing like Sinatra than little Brandon has of making pancakes.
Our value isn't on the outside, it's on the inside. And God knows that, and He loves us unconditionally.
In the entire history of the world, there's nevere been a person exactly like you or exactly like me. There will never again be another person like you or me either. Don't you imagine that God had a reason for creating each and every individual human being? We know that He doesn't make mistakes. So, yes, there must be a reason.
As we enter the final days of Lent, why not make part of your preparation a daily prayer of thanks for making us who we are and asking for His guidance to be the best “us” we can be.
When we think of little Brandon standing there covered with goo, crying his eyes out because all he wanted to do was make his parents happy, remember his father's reaction. That's how you and I would react and it's definitely how our Heavenly Father reacts. He knows what's important, and deep down I believe that we do too.
________________________________________________________________
God works in mysterious ways. As I was writing this homily, the phone rang and it was a friend of mine. He wanted to know how my daughter-in-law and our soon-to-be granddaughter were doing. The baby is due on Holy Thursday and that fact led us to talking about me serving on Good Friday at the Cathedral. Jim, who isn't Catholic, thought that was awesome, which it is. I made a comment about not thinking I'm worthy for such an honor. He proceeded to give me a lecture very similar to the one I just gave you.
At ordination the candidate kneels in front of the Archbishop and he says, “receive the book of the Gospels, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read. Preach what you believe, and practice what you preach.” Good advice, not always easy to follow.
Six -year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.
He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.
Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.
He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!. Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting h is pajamas white and sticky.
And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big tears welled up in Brandon's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him.
Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process!
That's how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him.
Can't we all relate to Brandon. We mess things up. We make mistakes. We do the wrong things for the right reasons. Or we do the right things for the wrong reasons. But God, our father, loves us anyway. Brandon wasn't crying because he was afraid of a spanking as much as he was crying because he felt like he had failed his parents. Don't we all feel like that sometimes?
Sometimes we don't even do anything wrong, but we just feel inadequate. We do something good, but we don't think it's good enough. We think we should have done more, even when we know, deep down, that we did the best we could.
God is like the best father you've ever known times a million. He knows what's in our hearts and judges us accordingly. He doesn't care what we look like. He doesn't care what we do for a living. He doesn't care if we have a grade school education or a PhD. He loves us for what's inside. He loves us more than we love ourselves. He loves us just because we're us.
St. Paul writes in the second reading today that “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions brought us to life with Christ. And there were some pretty serious transgressions going on in Ephesus in the first century.
In today's Gospel, the famous John 3:16, John tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everytone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
That's EVERYONE. That's you and that's me. He didn't come just to save the beautiful, or the strong, or the smart, or the talented. EVERYONE who believes in him can have eternal life. Doesn't it make sense that He and His Father are there for us when we pull a “Brandon”?
Jesus told us to love one another as we love ourselves. Most people think He meant that we should love others as much as we love ourselves. I think He meant that we should love ourselves as much as we love others. That's much harder.
We may not look like Tom Cruise or Katherine Zeta Jones. We may not be able to play baseball like Albert Pujols, or sing like Sinatra, or preach like Bishop Sheen. But those are superficial things. They're not important things. What's important is what's in our hearts, and God knows that and loves us because of it, or in spite of it.
We live in a place and a time where there is a lot of emphasis on the material; on looks, on money, on things. Most of us can't measure up to the standards that Hollywood, television and magazines set for us. Why do they do it? Mainly they do it to sell products. Americans spend more than a billion and a half dollars each year on hair dye! And sales to men are growing faster than sales to women. Fortunately, I'm not part of that market.In fact, men aged 18 to 24 are the most likely group to be coloring their hair.
I'm not against companies selling their products, as long as they aren't harmful. But, I am against advertisers and others setting standards for us, and our kids and grandkids, that are impossible to meet. That is harmful. Our young people, and some older people as well are trying to be something that's nearly impossible. That leads to frustration, depression, eating disorders and even suicide.
Most of us have no more chance of looking like a movie star, or playing baseball like Pujols, or singing like Sinatra than little Brandon has of making pancakes.
Our value isn't on the outside, it's on the inside. And God knows that, and He loves us unconditionally.
In the entire history of the world, there's nevere been a person exactly like you or exactly like me. There will never again be another person like you or me either. Don't you imagine that God had a reason for creating each and every individual human being? We know that He doesn't make mistakes. So, yes, there must be a reason.
As we enter the final days of Lent, why not make part of your preparation a daily prayer of thanks for making us who we are and asking for His guidance to be the best “us” we can be.
When we think of little Brandon standing there covered with goo, crying his eyes out because all he wanted to do was make his parents happy, remember his father's reaction. That's how you and I would react and it's definitely how our Heavenly Father reacts. He knows what's important, and deep down I believe that we do too.
________________________________________________________________
God works in mysterious ways. As I was writing this homily, the phone rang and it was a friend of mine. He wanted to know how my daughter-in-law and our soon-to-be granddaughter were doing. The baby is due on Holy Thursday and that fact led us to talking about me serving on Good Friday at the Cathedral. Jim, who isn't Catholic, thought that was awesome, which it is. I made a comment about not thinking I'm worthy for such an honor. He proceeded to give me a lecture very similar to the one I just gave you.
At ordination the candidate kneels in front of the Archbishop and he says, “receive the book of the Gospels, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read. Preach what you believe, and practice what you preach.” Good advice, not always easy to follow.
posted by Mike at 12:11 PM
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