Fr. Leo's Benevolent Blog!

(With apologies to the memory of Erma Bombeck.)

[Greetings, Church fans! Here is the text of the homily. As always, you may see it on our Facebook Page at your leisure. Blessings – Fr. Leo]

I did something for the first time the other day.  I went to Fred Meyer and got a senior discount. I am officially middle aged. I kind of like it. Life is a little cheaper than it was a year or so ago. 

One of the wistful things about getting older is that so much of what you grew up with is virtually unknown to the generations that come after you. That’s okay, I guess, but there are some things worth sharing.  One of those things is wit and wisdom of one Erma Bombeck.  

Erma Louise Bombeck was an American humorist who achieved great popularity in the second half of the 20^th century for her newspaper column that depicted suburban home life.

Beginning in 1965 until her death in 1996, she published 4,000 newspaper articles. By the 1970’s, her twice weekly columns were read by thirty million readers in 900 newspapers of USA and Canada. Her 15 books were all bestsellers. 

One of her finest pieces was entitled: “When God Created Mothers.” It originally ran on May 11, 1974, and appeared again in her book, Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession.  I’d like to share it with you now.

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         When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of “overtime” when the angel appeared and said. “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

         And God said, “Have you read the specs on this order?” She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts…all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands.”

         The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands…. no way.”

         “It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” God remarked, “it’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

         “That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel. God nodded,   “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

         “God,” said the angel touching his sleeve gently, “Get some rest,  tomorrow….”

         “I can’t,” said God, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower.”

         The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

         “But tough!” said God excitedly. “You can imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

         “Can it think?”

         “Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

         Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.

“There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model.”

         “It’s not a leak,” said the Lord, “It’s a tear.”

         “What’s it for?”

         “It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

         “You are a genius, ” said the angel.

         Somberly, God said, “I didn’t put it there.”
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In case you were wondering, yes, Erma Bombeck was Catholic, She joined the Church when before marrying her husband Bill in 1949 at the age of 22.

So, I read Erma Bombeck’s insights about mothers and motherhood.  And then I look at today’s gospel.  And I wonder…was there a similar conversation in heaven before God created the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I can imagine the Archangel Gabriel walking by God’s workshop.

       “Hey, Gabe!” the Lord said, “Can you come in here for a second? I want to show you something.”  

       “Sure, Lord,” Gabriel says, “What can I do for…oh…oh my! That is something special.” 

       “What do you think?” God asked.

       “She’s beautiful. Like nothing I’ve ever seen. Is this the Mother of God project you’ve been working on?”

       “Absolutely,” God replied. “She has all the features of the standard model, but I made one big modification. Can you spot it?

       The Angel Gabriel looked intently at the model of the Mother of God. “It’s not obvious on the surface, you must have done something inside…Hello, what’s this?  What have you done to her heart?  It’s different somehow.”

       “You’ve a sharp eye, Gabe,” God replied. “That, my fair herald of the heavenly hosts, is the Immaculate Heart!”

       “Wow!” the angel replied.  

       God gushed on, “First, I applied a protective coating so that it is preserved from the stain of Original Sin and all other malware.”

       “Impressive.  That means she will have no barrier to perceive your will.” 

       “That’s just the beginning,” God said, “Remember, not only is she going to be the Mother of Christ, but also the Mother of the Church.”  Her Immaculate Conception allows me to give her a limitless capacity to love.  She can stream directly from Cloud in real time.”

       “Unlimited capacity for love,” the angel mused. “that does make her worthy for the Incarnation program. But have you allowed enough tolerance for free will? You can’t over-program these things, you know. It puts them into an endless causal loop.”

       “That’s the difficult part,” God said. “For the Incarnation program to work, her choice has to completely free. Love has no value if it is not free.  Her acceptance has to be a free act of love.  

       “That’s risky,” Gabriel replied. “What if she refuses.”

       “That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” God replied.

       “I don’ know,” Gabriel said. “You’ll overload it. Look! It’s already torn.”

       “It’s there on purpose,” God replied. “If she is going to love like I love, I can’t preserve her from the suffering that I’m going to go through.  This is a heart united to mine in every way. It can’t be avoided.”

       “Will she have any idea of this when you ask her?”

       “Perhaps,” God replied.

       “I don’t like it,” the angel said. “It’s too risky. She’ll need an infinite amount of help from the support desk.”

       “Yes,” said God, “I suppose she will.  That’s why I’m sending you.” 

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You know, I wrote this little mediation, and I began to ask myself, “What is the difference between the Immaculate Heart, which was preserved from the stain of Original Sin, and the heart of every Christian, where the stain of Original Sin, indeed all sin, is wiped away in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ?

       Do our hearts have any less capacity to love?

              To create?

                      To forgive?

Leo the Great was right when he said, “Christian, remember your dignity.”

What a beautiful thing / that Almighty God in his loving plan, found a way to give us each a heart like hers.

God had a plan for the Blessed Virgin –

       With all her heart, Mary said, “Yes” to God.”

       Thus, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us- and the world has never been the same.

Christian, God also has a plan for you.

Imagine what will happen when you say ‘Yes’ to God.

There is no limit to your capacity to love

to create,

to forgive.

       Christian, do not be afraid.  For you have found favor with God.

It’s fun to have a dog named Joy. She thinks every other Christmas carol is for her. She also thinks that the Third Sunday in Advent is dedicated just for her!                                                 

       That’s partly true, I guess, but it is even more so for the rest of us. In every penitential season, the Church lets us take a little break about two-thirds of the way through.  Like all things liturgical, there is a practical and a spiritual reason. This makes sense because as human beings, we are body and soul. 

The practical/corporeal reason is that psychologically and physically, we need to take a break every once in awhile. As the saying goes, “All work and no play” makes us pretty dreary people to be around. Quite frankly, I think the world has enough dreariness in it at the moment. Spiritually and liturgically, the Church is reminding us that as we continue to “make ready the way of the Lord,” and the end of the world, we should not do so in spirit of dread and doom, but of great rejoicing. For the believer, the second coming of Christ brings with it the fulfillment of all of our hopes and deepest desires. The resurrection of the dead and final judgment will bring with it the coming of “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev. 21:1) It will mean an end to all suffering and pain and eternal communion with the Trinity and all the Saints. So as St. Peter says, “There is great cause for rejoicing here.” (1 Pet 1:6)  The key is to be ready.

Did I mention that we will be having the opportunity for confessions three extra times this coming week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00 PM, we will start with Evening Prayer and then there will be at least two or three confessors on hand…most of whom have absolutely no idea who you are! 

Advent is a time for preparation and for rejoicing in as we prepare for the coming of the Lord in glory, even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming in humility.  Maranathá! Come, Lord Jesus!  Do not delay.

 – Fr. Leo

[A reminder, this is the text of the homily. To see the video go to our parish Facebook page: https://facebook.com/stpatsak/. Enjoy!

As most of you know, I was in business before I went into seminary.  In fact, on the seminary application, it asked, “If you don’t become a priest, what do you see yourself doing in five years?”

I wrote: “Working on the third million.”

But as we see in the gospel today, trade and investing were very much a part of life in Jesus’ day as well.  So much so that he could tell the parable of the talents.     

• Of course, you know the most successful investor in the Bible was Noah.  He floated stock while everything around him went into liquidation.

• The mother of Moses was also a pretty savvy investor, she went the Bank of the Nile and was able to float a little prophet.

So, what is a “talent” anyway?  In the Roman empire, when referring to money it was measure of weight in gold or silver.  Typically, it was about 72 pounds.  So in gold, at today’s market rate of $1889.20 an ounce , a talent would equal about $2,176, 358.40.  A pretty tidy sum.

So, one servant gets 5 talents, one gets 2 and the last gets 1. You do the math.  They each were entrusted with a huge amount.  And the master goes away, for a long time.

I was always curious for about how long. Well, it was certainly long enough for two of them to double their money. So how long would that be?

Actually, it’s not that hard to figure out. In finance, there is a thing called the rule of 72 which states that the amount of time required to double your money can be estimated by dividing 72 by your rate of return. 1 For example: If you invest money at a 10% return, you will double your money every 7.2 years. … If you invest at a 7% return, you will double your money every 10.2 years.

Even assuming a healthy rate of return of 10%. The master was gone for at least seven years.  That’s a long time.

So we there are two things that help us put the parable into context:

       1. They were each entrusted with a LOT of money.

       2.  They had at least 7 years to figure out what to do with it.

       That’s a lot of money, and a lot of time.

So what can we learn from the parable.

1.  God trusts us and he is not stingy.  If we think of the talents as representing our families or our parish, think about how much God trusts us!

       Those of you who are parents, think about how much God trusts you when he gives you your children? To be entrusted 18 years with another little human life of infinite worth to help him or her grow into a loving, giving adult is truly amazing. Look at how much God trusts you.

       And those of us in the St. Patrick’s Parish family, think about how much God has entrusted by giving us this part of the vineyard to tend.  All of the souls in 99504.  Look at how much God trusts us.

       God is not stingy.  Neither should we be.

Lesson #2 – Eventually, we will all be held accountable for what has been entrusted to us. 

       Remember, there is a very deliberate reason this parable is being offered to us as the Church asks us to contemplate the end of the age. 

        God has entrusted us with much.

              We will each be called to render an account of what we have done with it.

       To return to the Lord with increase, that with which we have end entrusted.

       In short, to leave this world, or at least our little part of it, just a little better than what we found it.

       Do a personal inventory. Is your family, your parish, your community, your world, better for having you had you in it?

       If we are faithful in small matters, like the first two servants in the parable, we will come to share the Master’s joy.

Lesson # 3:  Fear is the enemy.

       The last servant doesn’t fair very well.

       What was the problem?  Fear.

The opposite of love is not hate,

       The opposite of love is fear.

Why? Because fear paralyzes us and keeps us from doing the right thing.

       It can be fear of failure, fear of being embarrassed, even, ironically, fear of success.

       The point here is that this life is not just about asset preservation.

       It has everything to do with being about the Master’s business.

       As Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!”

Three  lessons we can learn from the parable of the Talents.

       1.  God trusts us and he is not stingy.

       2.  It may take quite a while, but eventually, we will each be held accountable to God for what has been entrusted to us. 

       3.  Fear is the enemy, because it paralyzes us and keeps us from doing the right thing.

No, we cannot do everything, but we can and should do something with all that has been entrusted to us in this life. We may not be called to change the whole world, but we should have a profound effect upon that part of the world with which we come into contact. So that we leave this world a little better than what we found it.

Much of this is summed up in Bishop Ken Untner’s prayer on the occasion of the death of Oscar Romero.  Bishop Untner wrote: