19t^h Sunday in Ordinary Time C. Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30, 11:30.  Wisdom 18:6-9.  Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19.Luke 12: 32-48.

Summer is a great time of year for children.  No school and plenty of time to sleep, eat and play makes many kids wish that summer would go on forever.  A week ago a 12 year old boy was playing with a friend in a Roseville park.  They brought some surgical tubing with them which they stretched between two posts, making a giant sling shot. It was all great fun, and pretty ingenious too.  They were smart kids seeking adventure and a good time.  They used their giant sling shot to launch baseballs, rocks and chucks of concrete into the air. They propelled things so high into the air that sometimes they left craters in the ground when they landed.  Things got more daring and more fun.  The boys put a six pound rock into their giant sling shot.  It went a short distance into the air before landing on one of the boys, crushing his chest.  The boy died a short time later.  The two boys were not doing anything bad.  They were not looking for trouble.  They made a tragic mistake and one of the boys died.  You don’t have to be bad to make a mistake.  These were not bad boys, but that doesn’t make the mistake go away.

 Jesus said, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching and waiting when he comes home.  If the master should arrive late in the evening or in the middle of the night and find his servant watching and waiting for him – happy is that servant.  You must be prepared always for the master – because Jesus – the Son of Man – will come at an hour you do not expect.”

A goalie in hockey or in soccer has to be awake always and watchful always.  If he or she is not wide awake and prepared the puck or the ball will whip by them in an instant, scoring a goal. It doesn’t matter how skillful the goalie is, how intelligent or how strong. If the goalie is not wide awake during the game the game will certainly be lost.

Jesus is not saying that we have to be as tense and worked up as a goalie must be to perform well.  Jesus is saying that we must be aware.  The Letter to the Hebrews points to Abraham as an example of someone who had his eyes, ears and heart wide open. Abraham was aware of God’s new call and challenge in his life even when he was a very old man.  When many of us slow down for all kinds of reasons - Abraham was aware that God was calling him to leave his country to journey to a foreign land.  He was aware that God is faithful and that God would give him a child in his old age – and that this child would be the father of a nation with as many people as there are stars in the sky.  Abraham continued to be aware of God’s faithfulness even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son.  Abraham is our father in faith because Abraham was always eager to respond to God. 

Today Jesus is challenging us to think about faith in a new way.  Faith is much more than believing certain doctrines or truths.  Faith is more than worship and prayer even though faith is deeply rooted there. Faith is an eager yearning to do the will of God; it is a spiritual urge to live out the vocation God had given us.   Faith is about being awake and aware always.   Jesus said, “You must be prepared always because the master will come at an hour you do not expect.”

Faith is not about fear.  Faith is about eager longing to meet Jesus now and always.  Jesus said: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give gifts for the poor.  Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out; inexhaustible treasure in heaven where no thief can reach nor moth destroy.  For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

Many years ago I made a Jesuit 30 Day Silent Retreat.  I began the retreat believing in God.  I was already serving God as a priest.  Yet I had a very difficult time praying the prayer that St. Ignatius Loyola tells those on retreat to pray.  Letting go and having nothing but God and everything in God seemed much too hard for me.  I told my retreat director each day that I would say the prayer but I would not pray it.  I could say words about God being the center of my life, but I was afraid to live as if God was the center of my life because I was afraid that I would miss out on life if I had only God.  I was unwilling to sell or give away my belongings, especially my most important belonging – myself.  I fought hard not to really pray this prayer:

“Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding and my entire will.

All that I am and all that I possess You have given me.

I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.

Give me only Your love and Your grace;

with these I will be rich enough,

and will desire nothing more”

Your love and your grace are enough for me.

My experience tells me that I have received much, much more than I have given up in following the Lord.  When we have God we have everything and when we refuse to live fully for God we are in fact poor.

O Lord You are the center of my life
I will always praise You
I will always serve You
I will always keep You in my sight

May Jesus always be the center of our lives.