Weekly HOMILY for November 18, 2007: Content of a Dead Man's Pocket

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
November 18, 2007

Focus: The content of the pocket of a dead man
Function: To have listeners reevaluate what they live for.
Form: Whole story as a modern day parable


Content of a Dead Man’s Pocket
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket

One of our American authors named Jack Finney has written a short story entitled Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket.

In the story, a man named Tom has started working on a proposal for the supermarket chain he works for. He has put an outline of his proposal and some critical data on a yellow sheet of paper.

Tom’s idea could lead to a big promotion for him. Then, one evening, his wife Clare leaves their New York apartment to go out to movies.

Tom stays home to write up his full proposal. But then, a draft of cold air blows the yellow piece of paper off of the desk and out the window.

The paper becomes lodged on the brick ledge just below Tom’s reach – eleven stories up. Tom convinces himself that he can retrieve the paper.

So, he carefully makes his way out the apartment window and onto the ledge. He moves slowly along and then manages to stoop down, grab the yellow paper and stuff it into his pocket.

Tom carefully shuffles back to the window, but the old window has slipped close and he cannot pry it open. He is trapped on the narrow brick ledge, eleven stories above Lexington Avenue in New York City.

Tom’s calls for help are not heard and Clare won’t be home for several hours. He starts to think about dying and becomes filled with both fear and anger.

Tom realizes that they will find just one thing in his pocket – that yellow sheet of paper. His notations and abbreviations will be incomprehensible to others.

Tom thinks of the hours and days he has spent away from his wife Clare. He thinks of his ambition and career and his lack of attention to other things – things that now seem so much more important.

Tom is afraid and also angry. He judges that he has wasted his life.


The Scriptures and Our Contents

That short story, Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket, is a kind of modern-day parable.

It is something like the stories Jesus tells in the gospels. In a way, it needs little explanation.

Here, in the month of November, we are entering the death of winter and we in our Catholic tradition are also remembering all of our loved ones who have died. And now, on this third weekend of the month, the Scripture passages focus us on the end or end of time.

The prophet Malachi in the first reading foretells the coming of a day of judgment. Jesus in the Gospel speaks of various kinds of natural disasters and human hardships that will accompany the end time.

In truth, Jesus is trying to shake us so that we will be ready today and every day – as if it were our last. It is as if Jesus is saying, “What will be the content of your pocket that defines your life when that end day and end time comes?”


The Contents of Our Pockets?

In other words, can we see ourselves in the person of Tom standing on that ledge eleven stories above street level?

Will we feel angry or disappointed with ourselves for wasting too much of our lives? Will we see ourselves as so absorbed in our own agenda or in the good life that we neglected the really important things?

Or, will we feel reasonably satisfied? Will we see ourselves as having given our best human effort to draw close to Jesus through prayer and the reading and study of the Scripture?

Will we see ourselves as having made time and given ourselves as persons to our loved ones? Will we see ourselves as having done something to make a safer, more peaceful and more just future for our children and grandchildren?

Will we see ourselves as having done our best to reconcile with those with whom we were at odds?


Conclusion

I think that today Jesus may be asking us the question of that short story: “What will be the contents of our pockets on that last day and end time?”