Thirty first Sunday in Ordinary Time A. October 30, 2005   Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30.   Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10.  I Thessalonians 2:7b -9, 13. Matthew 23:1-12.  

Pastor Robertson was both a Protestant minister and the president of a seminary.  He had given his whole life to teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. His wife was an artist, a counselor and a teacher.  In 1979 Alzheimer’s disease began taking hold of his wife.  When the disease got severe Pastor Robertson resigned from his leadership position at the seminary to care for his wife full time.  Muriel died in 2003 at the age of 81.  He had stood by her in her illness for 25 years.  Some of his friends asked how he could give up the life of preaching and teaching the gospel that he loved so much.  Would it not have been better to accept his wife’s fate and then move on with his own life?  The good pastor knew better.  He knew that the gospel is not something you preach and teach apart from the example of your own life.  The gospel is who we are.  The gospel is something we witness to by the way we live and in the choices we make.

When he resigned from his other responsibilities Pastor Robertson said, “Had I not promised 42 years before (to be true to my wife) ‘in sickness and in health…till death do us part?’ ”. This was no grim duty to which I stoically resigned (myself).  It was (only) faith.  She had, after all, cared for me for almost four decades with marvelous devotion; now it was my turn… If I took care of her for 40 years, I would never be out of her debt… We (trusted) in the Lord to work a miracle in Muriel if he so desired, or work a miracle in me if he did not.”  The miracle that God worked was the miracle of a faithful marriage in the midst of great adversity.  Faithful love is the message and the meaning of the Cross of Jesus.  Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be your servant.”

I have seen this kind of faithful, self-giving, servant love many times in this parish community.  While I know that there are kinds of heroism that may seem to be beyond reason or possibility in the concrete circumstances of our own life, at the same time I have witnessed the long-suffering, faithful love between husbands and wives many times in our parish.  I have been deeply moved by the faithfulness of parents to their children and children to their parents.  I have seen you make great sacrifices for people in need, even people you have never seen before who are suffering in a foreign land.  I have been a priest for more than 38 years.  While I have great respect for the generosity of my brother priests, most of my real heroes are husbands and wives, mothers and fathers and other dedicated lay people.  I stand in awe of you.  You have taught me very much about what it means to follow Jesus in the midst of the challenges of daily life.  I am very grateful to you. 

Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.   They preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.  All their works are performed to be seen…They love places of honor at banquets…and greetings in the marketplace.”  “But the greatest among you must be your servant.”

The scribes and the Pharisees knew the truth.  They taught the truth accurately and clearly.  But they did not live the truth they preached to others.  Jesus condemned them for hypocrisy – the grave sin of lying about God’s truth in the way that they lived their lives. 

A few days ago I was chatting with one of the Mass servers in the sacristy after Mass.  I told him that my job was very difficult with Fr. Paul on vacation.  The young man said, “You shouldn’t say that.  You don’t have a job.”  I remember a first grader writing me a thanksgiving note saying: “Thank you for being our priest and not getting a real job like other people.”  I thought that the server was objecting to me saying that I had a hard job.   He was in fact objecting to me saying that what I do is a job.  He said, “What you are doing is a gift to God.  It is not a job because you are doing something for God.”    I was impressed that he felt comfortable instructing the pastor.  I don’t remember being able to do that when I was in grade school.  I said him, “OK; I accept the fact that I am doing something that is a gift to God.  Well then, is what you are doing as a hard working student just a job, or is it also a gift to God?” This young man comes from a very good family with a deep respect for priests.  He was impressed that I have a vocation to serve God.  I wanted him to understand that he has a vocation from God, too.  I wanted him to know that I stand in awe of the way that lay people live out their vocation.

Parents, who practice their faith in Christ by laying down their lives for one another, and by generously serving their children, lead their families to Christ more powerfully than they would with the most elegant words of instruction, or by sending their children to the best schools in the world.  There is no substitute for parents who live their faith in humble service to their families and to those in need.  The most powerful teachers of Christian faith are parents, grand parents, business people and friends who do something beautiful for God by loving and serving others at home and in the marketplace. 

Jesus had no blackboards, maps, charts or computers with which to teach.  His students were the poor, the lame, the deaf and the blind.  He opened eyes with faith.  He opened ears with simple truth.  He opened hearts with kindness and forgiveness.  Jesus was a humble man who won no honors, no gold medals or tributes for his skill and wisdom. Yet this quiet teacher from Galilee has changed the lives of millions of people.  The secret of his success is that he lived the servant love he taught by dying on the Cross. He wrote his message with his own blood on the Cross. Jesus continues to transform our world by challenging those who follow him to take up the cross of servant love and do the same.     For the grace to practice and live the Christians message that we believe and teach to others we give God thanks and praise.