HOMILY FOR TUESDAY, 32ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - YEAR A

HOMILY FOR TUESDAY, 32ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

THEME: Service With a Smile
Praying in the Old City

By: Deacon Bill Frere

Over the last 8 years or so, Ginger and I have gotten into a pretty consistent routine. Every Sunday night we would sit down and look at the calendar for the week. The goal? To see if there were any nights when we would both be home for dinner! Most weeks that translated to one night, maybe two if we were lucky. Otherwise it was dinner for one or dinner on the run as we navigated various meetings, services, RCIA, Baptismal Prep, etc. And that doesn’t even include all that we do as spouses and as parents – cooking, cleaning, helping with homework, shuttling the kids to school and practice, checking up on the grandparents, grocery shopping and playing nurse when the kids are sick.

But then a family emergency arises. Maybe it’s a sudden accident or death of a dear friend! Maybe the car broke down or an unexpected house repair that devastates our finances! Or maybe it’s a sudden illness of a parent! And then everything shuts down and we face a new reality. Up until then, we were slaves to our calendars, always double-checking what we were doing and very often wondering how we could squeeze in one more activity. And then the schedule disappeared; everything was canceled. It felt like the train had suddenly stopped and we were all stuck in the passenger car. Duties and responsibilities changed and priorities were re-arranged!

Up until then, we were like the servant in today’s Gospel. There was always something more to be done, more tasks to accomplish as a worker, as a spouse, as a parent. There was always more work than time in the day to get it all done. Too often we approached the day and our calendar with a sense of duty and responsibility and nothing more. But we need to remind ourselves that we always need some time to step back and evaluate what we are doing! Time to remember that we are not slaves but servants! And hopefully it is a reminder that, in all we do, we do it out of love!

Jesus calls us all today to live out our faith in service to God and to others. We are all called to be true servants and true disciples. May we find the time to pause in the midst of this hectic mad rush of the modern world and take the chance to reflect and appreciate all that we do so that, when the train starts up again, we jump back in with renewed spirit and energy!

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