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Sts. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church |
Homily Archives | |
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Third Sunday
Ordinary Time - C
(Begin by singing)
"God has smiled on me, He has set me free. God has smiled on me He's been
good to me." I heard this song sung when I was in New York City a few
years ago. I walked into Times Square and turned the corner, where I saw a
young African American boy standing on the street corner, holding his hat
out in front of him. The hat contained a few loose bills and some change,
and he was just singing, "God has smiled on me, He has set me free. God
has smiled on me He's been good to me." I stopped to listen for a moment,
reached into my pocket and pulled out my loose change, threw it in the hat
and went on. I assumed that the boy had nothing --that he sang to buy something to eat, or to help out his family, or to get enough money to ride the bus home. I don't know why he was singing, but I do know that he had the courage to stand up in the middle of an American city and use his voice, a prophetic voice, that touched my ear and the ears of all who passed by. This boy’s voice could be likened to the voice of Jesus, who stood up in the temple, opened the scroll and read from the prophet Isaiah: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me, to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set the oppressed free and proclaim a year of favor to the Lord." Then Jesus preached a short sermon saying, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." For the word of God to reach its fulfillment, it must be heard -- not only heard, it must be listened to, taken to heart and acted upon. That’s the great challenge of Christians -- how to take the gospel message seriously and in its entirety and not lose sight of its true meaning. Something within us - be it fear, or an anxiety that people will think less of us, or that it's messy when we get involved with the gospel, or that we’ll be seen as one of those “Jesus” freaks – I’m not sure, but something keeps us from taking the pieces of Scripture that challenge. This something keeps us from standing up and bringing true prophetic conversion to our world. This Sunday, we again focus our attention on the gospel message of stewardship. Stewardship is a way of life for us as Christians. It calls us to share the prophetic message of Jesus through standing up and giving our gifts and talents to the world.
sdrose@bellsouth.net
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