Homily: Love / Stewardship Renewal

Deacon Tony Cecil Homily—31st Sun. OT, B (4 November 2018)

Epiphany Catholic Church, Louisville, Kentucky—Stewardship Renewal Weekend

A one-legged, stubborn as a mule, military barber.

That’s it.

In the seminary, we’re told over and over again how preaching is so important—and therefore why our preparation is important, too—and that’s all I could come up with: a one-legged, stubborn as a mule military barber.

Here we go.

His name was James. He was a hard-working man, born at the beginning of the twentieth century, who lived out on a farm in the country with his wife and their seven children. One day, he was riding in a train car that detached and began to roll away on its own—when he was trying to stop it, he fell out—and I’ll spare you the details, but that’s how he ended up with one leg.

This man was named James—and he was hard-headed, stuck in his ways, opinionated, and wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind—and he was my grandfather. But, from what my own father and my uncles have told me, he was, at his core, one of the gentlest, kindest men you’d ever meet.

One thing that everyone who knew him has consistently remarked as remarkable was that he was utterly unafraid to show his love for other people.

In case you’ve been living on another planet—that’s not too common for men.

Typically, men don’t show that much emotion.

Typically, men don’t share their love with other people that openly—especially other men, including their sons once they reach a certain age.

But, this wasn’t the case with Grandpa Cecil. He told people that he loved them all the time—but he also demanded it in return. Once my father and my uncles grew up a bit, they got to the age where they didn’t want to hug my grandpa in public, because “that’s not what guys do.” It really upset my grandfather—he told them that if we truly love someone, then we should be unafraid and unashamed of expressing that love—and so they did, and they came to be just like he was, even to today. They openly express how much they love the people they love, and they’ve taught me to be the same way.

A one-legged, stubborn as a mule military barber—and to me, an example of what love really is.

I chose my words carefully, “what love really is,” because, to me, love is something that we have so much confusion over. To me, we use the word “love” way too much on way too many things.

We say that we love a plant, or a photograph, or a candle, or a sports team, or a store, or a restaurant—we say that we love nearly everything—and when we do, we diminish love.

You see, love—love is something deep—it’s something profound. It’s not the way we feel about a shirt that we like to wear—it’s not a cheapened emotion in a book or a movie that makes us grab the tissue box. Love is so much more.

Love is what my grandfather modeled so well—because he was able to look at other people, despite their faults, and he was able to see that they had an objectively good and beautiful value—he was able to see that they were invaluable and precious in the eyes of God—he knew that an encounter with another person was something sacred—something truly worthy of love.

Saint Clare of Assisi once said something that I believe my grandfather bought into. She said this: "We become what we love, and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing…We are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.”

I believe that when my grandfather saw another person, he was able to see through them, and know that he was really looking at Christ. He was able to see Christ at work in them. He was able to see the immense value that they had—he was able to see the beauty of another person created in the image and likeness of God Himself—and so, he loved.

In this weekend’s Gospel, Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment. Now, you have to understand—Jesus was Jewish, and for the Jewish people, there were a lot of commandments—613 of them to be precise. And out of all of those laws, all of those commandments, when Jesus is asked what the most important, what the greatest of these commandments is—he says:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Love—not just an emotion—not some nicely framed quote on the wall, or a reaction to a social media post—not something to be diminished to a simple genre for literature and film—not something to throw around about just any old thing—love is something sacred; love is something profound. Love is the greatest commandment. If we do not have love, as Saint Paul says, we truly have nothing.

And not only that—not only is love the greatest commandment—but it’s about who we love: God and our neighbor—that is above all else—above everything.

What Jesus is telling us is very clear—there’s no way around it, brothers and sisters.

We have to love.

We have to love God above everything else—we cannot let anything stand in the way.

We have to love our neighbor, even the one that we can’t stand, even the one that gets on our nerves.

There is no option.

But that’s what makes love real isn’t it? That it’s not easy? That it actually demands something of us? That is costs something? That we have to get over ourselves and give of ourselves? That it hurts a little?

Because that’s what’s been modeled for us. That’s what my grandfather instilled in his children—that loving meant looking past differences and faults and looking at the soul—looking at the beauty of God present within another and loving that presence with everything that we had.

And in an even greater way—it’s what Jesus models for us. That’s why we process in and out of this church with a Crucifix because that Crucifix is not just some nice decoration—it’s not just us following a rule laid out by the Church—that Crucifix is the greatest sign and greatest example and greatest reality of love that we will ever have and ever will see—that God Himself entered into the mess that we had made of humanity, and he chose to take on all of our crap, to take on the mess that we had made, and to allow our sins to nail him to that Cross—that God’s Son could have easily saved Himself, but when He was on that Cross he thought of you—and he thought of me—and a love that will forever be beyond our comprehension kept him there so that we might have eternal life.

Love is beautiful. But love is also sacrificial, love is also hard work. If we truly love—if we love as we are called to love—to love as Christ loved—there must be some cost—there must be some giving of ourselves—or it is shallow—it is useless—it is not worthy of being called love.

Jesus is very clear. We must love—we must love Him, and we must love one another. There is not another option.

But how do we do that?

Well, it’s something that takes practice.

But, the practice is simple.

We just have to do it—we just have to love.

And this weekend, we have a fantastic opportunity to do just that.

This weekend, we as a parish are renewing our commitment to stewardship. Now, I know a bunch of people may have just checked out because I said that “S” word that means its time to get out your checkbooks. But that’s not what it’s about and that’s not what I’m talking about so stay with me.

This weekend, we as a parish have an opportunity to make a commitment.

We have the opportunity to make a commitment to give of ourselves.

We have the opportunity to make a commitment to love.

Because ultimately, that’s what stewardship is.

Stewardship isn’t just signing up for direct deposit donations to the parish.

Stewardship is a way of life.

Stewardship is how we as Christians respond to the command that Jesus gives us—it’s how we love.

When we volunteer to lector, to welcome new parishioners, to sew healing blankets, to provide food for funeral meals, to play music at Mass, to engage in Bible study, to volunteer for youth group, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to figure out how we as a parish can serve other people—what we are doing is being the hands and the feet of Christ in the world—what we are doing is having an encounter with another person—we are actively seeking to see Christ in someone else, and through loving them, we are seeking to love Him, and when we do that, brothers and sisters—when we truly make this not just signing a check but a way of life, then we realize love’s value. We realize it’s so much more than we ever thought….

And we read that greatest commandment with confidence, because we know that we have taken the first step on the life-long journey of loving as Christ loved—of loving to the point of dying to ourselves for the sake of His presence in another.

That’s what this is all about.

That’s what we are all called to do—whether we’re young, or old, or rich, or poor—even if we’re a one-legged, sailor-mouthed military barber.

There is no other option.

This weekend, we all have the opportunity to commit to love in a very focused way.

Let’s not waste it.

To read this weekend's readings, click here.

#homily