Weekly HOMILY for May 6,2007: The Lesson of the $100

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
May 6, 2007

The Lesson of the $100
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


The $100

Last year I was on vacation for a week with four priest friends.

We rented two adjoining apartments in a resort right on the ocean. The complex was large, with four hotel towers and three restaurants.

The resort was also a cashless society. You just needed to show your hotel ID in the restaurants and they would charge your account.

You know the routine: a painless way to wrack up a big bill!

Given my affinity for cooking, we ate in for many meals. Every other day, I’d go to the local market that was only five minutes away to stock up on supplies.

This one day I got everything I needed, was checking out and the bill came to about $85.

And then I realized the problem. I didn’t have my wallet and the store was not part of the resort where we were staying.

What was I going to do? I began asking the clerk if she could hold my order right there while I ran back to the hotel and got my wallet.

As I was saying this, a couple who had just checked out in the next line came over and asked what I needed. And before I could answer, he handed me five $20 bills and said that he and his wife would be on the beach at the volleyball court that afternoon and I could pay them back there.

I was speechless. I had never seen either of them and they didn’t know me.

There I was in sandals, shorts, and a tee shirt; not a black suit and Roman collar. And here this couple comes to my assistance by handing me $100!


Love Without Saying It

Isn’t that an amazing experience?

I was overwhelmed by what this guy and his wife – Tom and Jean – did for me. And I think it illustrates perfectly what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel.

He says: “Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for one another.”

The fellow at the beach never used the word “love” and, as a matter of fact, I would have wondered about him if he had. The truth of the matter was he was living out in a very demonstrative way Jesus’ command to love.


What Love Isn’t and What Love Is

Notice, he did not base his helping me on any merit of mine – on whether I deserved it or not. In fact, my problem was my own fault, my own forgetfulness.

He did not make his assistance a quid-pro-quo. In other words, he did not loan me the $100 on the condition that I would do something for him in return.

And, what he did was not primarily a feeling he had for me.

It was for none of those reasons that he helped me. It was instead a decision to help, an action, an act of love, if you will.


Jesus’ Love

This, I suggest, is what Jesus does and what his love for us is like.

Jesus shows his love for us throughout his life by all that he says in scripture and all the things that he does. And those words and actions get summed up in one powerful image: this cross.

It is why we must have a crucifix – a cross with a body on it – in our churches, because it captures like nothing else Jesus’ love for you and me.

And like the couple in the market, Jesus’ love is not based on any merit of ours. In fact, we humans have had a pretty checkered history in the way we have lived.

Jesus’ love is not a quid-pro-quo. Even though he calls us to live a certain way, he does not do this on the condition that we will actually do what he asks us to do.

And Jesus’ love involves a decision and an action. It is not just or not primarily a feeling.

Jesus gives himself to us freely and fully. He gives himself to us for our wellbeing. He gives himself to us that we may be saved and have life with him now and for eternity.

And this is what the Eucharist or Holy Communion is all about.

It’s about Jesus giving himself to us right here and now. He gives us his Body and Blood, under the forms of bread and wine.

Imagine the gift. And in our eating and drinking we become one with him and acquire strength, comfort, and the relationship with will get us anything and everything we experience.


Conclusion

By the way, I did go to the volleyball area of the beach that afternoon.

And I did find Tom and Jean. And I did pay back the $100.

As I walked away I remember saying to myself, “This would make a great homily someday” and that day has come.

God bless the Toms and Jeans everywhere. May we be more like them, more like Jesus.