A REALLY Inconvenient Truth

Have you seen the movie, “The Bucket List”? If you haven’t, the plot’s pretty simple. Jack Nicholson’s plays Ed, a gazillionaire hospital owner. Morgan Freeman plays Carter, an auto mechanic. Carter is black. Ed is white. Carter is a family man. Ed has four ex-wives. Carter works for a living. Ed doesn’t. Carter believes in God. Ed believes in Ed. The two men have absolutely nothing in common.

When we meet Ed, the board of directors of the hospital are accusing him of being cheap and putting profits ahead of patient care. One of the board’s complaints is that Ed insists that there be no private rooms. “Two people per room! No exceptions!”

During the meeting, Ed keels over. When he wakes up, he’s sharing a room with Carter. Remember, two people per room, no exceptions. As it turns out, both men find out that they have just a few months to live.

Ed sees Carter writing on a legal pad. He asks what he’s writing and he says a list of things he’d like to do before he dies. He calls it a “Bucket List” because it’s a list of things to do before he kicks the bucket. But, he says, it’s too late now. But Ed’s not so sure. He has more money than God. He has no family to leave it to. He convinces Carter that they should go for it.

Carter’s list includes things like “helping a complete stranger for no reason”. Ed’s list includes things like jumping out of an airplane.

The two men have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing except that they’re both going to die. And that one thing is all they need to become fast friends. In fact, they become more like brothers than friends.

[pause]

I’d like you to take a look at the people around you. Not the ones you brought with you, but at the others here in church. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

From where I’m standing, I see a lot of different people. Some of us are young. Some of us used to be young. Some are short. Some are tall. There are men and women, boys and girls. Some of us work for a living. Some are retired. Some have hair. Some, not so much. We’re a lot like Ed and Carter. We don’t have much in common; just the one thing.

The reason we’re here, in this Church, on this Sunday morning is because we believe. We believe that this man, this Jesus, died for our sins. And that’s all we need to be part of a family. Jesus’ family. The family that we call the Catholic Church. We’ve been called to be a part of this family just as surely as Simon and Andrew were called in today’s Gospel.

In the second reading today, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” What do you suppose he was talking about?

The first century world of the Corinthians was a dangerous place. Being a Christian could be a capital offense.

Paul knew the Christians in Corinth were in danger. His advice? Stay together. Don’t be divided. There’s strength in numbers. “Be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” In the 1960s he might have said “keep the faith, baby.”

Most of you know I have a beautiful wife, four great kids, and two of the world’s cutest grandchildren. There’s nothing in this life more important to me than my God and my family. This may come as a surprise to you but life in the Buckley isn’t always sweetness and light. Sometimes there are problems. Sometimes we argue. Jan may be beautiful and the kids may be great, but none of us are perfect. Sometimes we put the “fun” in “dysfunctional”. I can say that because it’s my family.

But don’t expect me to say any more than that. Like Las Vegas, what happens in the family stays in the family. And don’t you even think about saying anything bad about my family. If you do, I’m going to defend them like an angry mother bear. That’s what family members do.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had skirmishes with teachers, principals, coaches, and referees who’ve had the audacity to say one of my kids wasn’t perfect. More than once I’ve come away with egg on my face when it turned out that they weren’t. But I’ll keep fighting for them as long as I have breath in my body. I may make a fool out of myself once in a while, but it won’t be the first time.

The thing is, I feel the same way about this family, this parish family. We may have our disagreements from time to time, but I consider you my family and I’m not interested in hearing anything negative about you. It doesn’t happen much anymore, but for a long time the rumor was going around that this parish was going to close. I’ve had more than my share of “discussions” about that. I’m sure you have too. We may not be the biggest parish. We may not be the richest parish. We may not be the best parish. But we’re my parish and that’s enough.

Then there’s our BIG family, our extended family, the billion or so folks who call themselves Catholic; the descendents of those Corinthians that Paul wrote to. The ones he told to “Be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”

In a few minutes we’ll receive the Body and Blood of Christ along with all those other Catholics. That’s why we call it communion. We’re a community of believers with a common set of beliefs. With all those believers, and with all the choirs of angels in heaven we’ll proclaim Christ’s glory and join in the unending hymn of praise: “Holy, holy, holy Lord.”

[pause]

Why did Paul feel the need to tell the Corinthians to “be united in the same mind and in the same purpose”? He tells us. “For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, that there are rivalries among you.” He goes on, “Is Christ divided?”

Some things never change, do they? Even in its infancy, there were divisions in the Church, just like there are today. And it’s no less important today than it was 2,000 years ago for our Church family to be united in the same mind and the same purpose. But, what’s that mean?

It means that we understand and accept what the Church teaches. We all have questions and doubts. No one is 100% sure about everything all the time. But there are plenty of people to answer our questions and lots of resources that we can go to.

See, most of us see right as the opposite of wrong. But there are some who think of right as the opposite of convenient. Or right is the opposite of popular. If you were lucky enough to be born in a Catholic family, you were taught to accept the whole package. This is what the Church teaches. This is what we believe.

I think I’ve told this story before, but I was raised Baptist. I did have a few Catholic friends. Sometimes we’d go out on a Friday night after a dance or a basketball game. My Catholic friends would either order a mushroom pizza or they’d sit there until midnight before they’d eat their pepperoni. I had no idea why they did it, but I was impressed and even a little envious that they had something so strong in their lives that they would deny themselves something, especially when the rest of us were chowing down. Didn’t they know that their parents would never find out?

Not eating meat on Fridays was a little thing, but it taught Catholics something about discipline and sacrifice. Besides, it was just part of the deal if you were a Catholic. It was part of Paul’s “one mind one purpose” thing. My friends didn’t care if they were different.

Little by little some of us have let “society”, whatever that is, chip away at our resolve. Maybe we give in to the convenience of the birth control pill. We may feel guilty for a while but we get over it. Then we start to think, “hey, the Church was wrong on that one, what else are they wrong about?”

Or, “There’s no reason why my boyfriend and I should pay double rent. Let’s just move in together. We’re going to get married eventually. What’s the big deal?”

Of course, we really won’t know if the Church was right or wrong until it’s too late, will we? Then it will be a big deal. But, hey, live for today. Eat drink and be merry, right?

And so it goes until you have situations like we had this week in St. Louis where a prominent person tells a TV reporter that it’s ok to murder innocent children, and yes, he is a Catholic.

So, what’s my point? My point is that Paul wasn’t kidding around with the Corinthians when he told them ““be united in the same mind and in the same purpose”? He knew that the Church might fail before it even got started if it began to split up into factions. He knew that the way to heaven was through Jesus and His teachings and he understood that Satan is an expert in the strategy of divide and conquer. Make no mistake. Satan’s still around and he’s still using the same strategy. Don’t let him win.