Giving The Greater Gift
Jesus’ life was the great reversal. He not only reversed the damning acts of Adam and Eve, He reversed all of the actions of Man so that they became salvific. Of course, we can continue to do bad things, but God can even use the bad things that anyone does to make the world a better place.
That does not mean that no matter what we do, we are good. Far from it. There will be a judgment. If we are not, in obedience, seeking to do God’s will and seeking greater union with him, we will remain in the darkness of sin in the torture of Hell.
The choice is ours, and but the world is a better place when we choose God.
Written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael
IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:
Penny hit an issue that has been bothering me a great deal lately and I have to work something out. So it's not just you. A form of this homily will be a part of a discussion I plan to have with Fr. Sorto. He and I are going to have a discussion.
I live in a divided world. The people up at my office, and the lawyers, and the courts I deal with don't know this part of my world, and you don't know that other part of my world.
One thing is, as a lawyer, as an old lawyer practicing law, I'm powerful. I really am. Robert can tell you. I can take care of things that will drive you crazy for weeks upon weeks, with one telephone call. I can do things in the real world that will drive you absolutely nuts until you let me help you.
At the same time, each and every one of you can do something for me that I can't do for myself. And Jesus talks about the how division of the world, He is bringing in separation, the division in the families, but He is also bringing the answer to that division. He brings that division through the belief in Christ, but He brings the reconciliation when we believe in Christ, and love our neighbor.
And one of the corollaries to loving our neighbor, Pope Francis talks about this. It does me no good whatsoever if Mayve has a problem and I can pick up the phone in five minutes and solve Mayve's problem, and Mayve has been worrying about it for two months, it does me no good if she doesn't tell me what her problem is. None.
How can I love my neighbor if someone doesn't allow me to help them? I learned this lesson most vividly at Parkland Hospital. I met some of the most wonderful women you could ever meet in your life. Men, too, but it's a different topic on them. Black women who are dying and what happens with them is they wouldn't let anybody help them.
"Well, I've spent my life for, my parents, my husband. I took care of all of them when they were dying." And I've asked, "Is it a good thing?" She’s said, "Oh yeah, absolutely. I became holier." "Then why are you not letting your loved ones do it for you?"
Why do we allow ourselves and be so prideful that we do not give other people the opportunity to become sanctified by loving their neighbor? "I can do it myself." “Yes, I know. But I can do it for you and become sanctified.”
Remember the separating of the sheep and goats at the time of judgement. If the least among you don't allow you to help them, how is anybody going to get to heaven? If you don't allow yourself to understand that love is a two-way street? "I do all these things for everybody I can possibly do." “Yes, but Robert, will you let me help you?” "Oh I can't do that. I can take care of myself. I know what I'm doing. I'm a 90 year old man. I know what I'm doing. I can take care of it. No, I'm not going to let you help me, Michael." Robert, you are depriving me of the opportunity to be holy!
And we all do it. And we have to stop that because everybody out there is being given the opportunity to sanctify themselves, and how do they do it? By loving God and loving neighbor. And if you won't let them love you by helping you when you're in need, you have deprived them of the opportunity to go to heaven.
What a horrible, hateful thing that would be. We've got to change that perspective, especially as we're getting older. We're falling apart. We're… we’re old. John, it's not an insult when you can't read something. “We don't like you.” We don’t go, “Oh that John, we don't want to deal with him any more." If you can't do it, let them do it. We are called to do that. I'm picking up Penny right now [to bring her to the service]. I went and got her cane because she fell down without her cane. And I had to argue with her to get her to give me the key to her car to go get her cane.
That's wrong, Penny. Period. Look at the perspective. We're getting old. By human nature we are made to be in communion with God and with each other. And if we cut off that communion, of not allowing someone to help us, what in the world are we doing? We are not loving our neighbor.
John, you're an old man. If you need help, let someone help you. Period. That's not saying, "Oh I'm looking down on you." And if they were, so what! Get your pride out of the way.
That's the reality that we need to understand. It is central. And Francis came… I love that first rumination or whatever you want to call it, on the first Lent that he was Pope. Remember we talked about that. He came so close to saying, and I didn't stop, I went there, that when you have someone who has the ability to do something for someone else, you want to give of your wealth, you look at it from the perspective of giving to someone, not because they are needy but because they are a fellow human, if you analyze what Jesus is really saying, it is not I who am giving charity to someone in need, it is they, from a superior position, who are accepting from me the charity necessary for my salvation. It is not hierarchical. The person giving the love is not better than the person receiving it. The person receiving it is giving the greater gift. They are giving the opportunity to eternal life. And this drives me, you can tell, this drives me crazy!
"Oh, I can do it myself." Yes, I know you can do it yourself, but let someone help you. Let someone love you. Let someone prepare themselves for eternity in heaven with God.
October 24, 2018 2