5th Sunday of Lent, Cycle B
St. Charles Borromeo, Sicklersville, New Jersey
March 29, 2009
“Last Chance Harvey”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Harvey and Kate
A wonderful movie that got little attention this winter was “Last Chance Harvey.” Dustin Hoffman is Harvey, a failed jazz pianist struggling to hold onto his job.
He has spent his life running very fast, but not getting very far. His career was always first; his family second. He’s in London for his daughter’s wedding and it’s an awkward as he pays the price for being an estranged father.
Emma Thompson’s Kate is a clerk for the British Office of National Statistics. Her life is her work and caring for her elderly mother. She, too, harbors a dying dream: to be a writer.
A bad experience on a blind date leaves Kate devastated. In a poignant scene, Kate, seeking refuge in the restaurant bathroom, realizes that life has passed her by.
Their Encounter
Harvey and Kate meet at London’s Heathrow Airport as the only two patrons in the airport pub. They are both miserable, but in their misery they make an awkward connection that soon becomes a friendship.
They offer one another the understanding and kindness that they both desperately need.
Kate provides moral support to Harvey to get through his daughter’s wedding. With Kate’s help, father and daughter reconcile – and the moment awakens in Kate a new sense of purposefulness.
Harvey and Kate realize that there is always another chance; it’s never too late to turn one’s life around.
What it will take is: (1) A willingness to take a leap of faith into the unknown and (2) Having someone who is willing to leap with you.
(1) How Jesus Does It
Jesus is not only the one who will show us (1) How he does it, but he will also (2) Be with us through the entire experience each time we go through it.
(1) To show us how, in today’s Gospel he uses the image of a grain of wheat: the grain “lets go of itself” so to speak and goes into the dark earth. It must give up something of itself to then be transformed into something more glorious, more beautiful.
The dying of the grain is the leap of faith or the risk we must take into the unknown abyss. What we know of the seed’s “rising” out of that dying then, becomes the hope that we too, like the seed, will be changed.
Our Own Harvey/Kate Moments
What are our “Harvey and Kate” moments of risk, moments of jumping into the darkness, the moments and occasions where we need to let go, if we are to experience a resurrection?
Suppose your marriage is falling apart and you can’t seem to work out the problems yourselves and you or your spouse is resisting going to someone for help. Here dying to yourself will mean dying to your pride to have someone assist you with the problem.
Or suppose some friends tell us we are developing a drinking problem, but we keep denying it in spite of mounting evidence? Here dying to myself will mean submitting myself to the judgment of a professional and then following the advice that is given.
Or suppose a neighbor, relative, or friend has hurt me in some way and we find myself holding a grudge against him. Here dying to self will mean letting go of the need to win, be right, or in control.
(2) He’ll Be with Us
That’s how the grain, that’s how Jesus, that’s how we are to die each day, but remember I said that Jesus is not only (1) The one who will show us how, but he will also (2) Be with us through the entire experience, thus taking the sting out of it.
If we’re to have that assuring presence, we need to ask, “What’s the quality of my relationship with the Lord?” “Am I united with him in prayer?” “Do I sing and celebrate that presence at Mass?” “Do I become one with the flesh and blood of the Lord in the Eucharist I consume?”
From our own experience, we know that relationships are a two-way street, if they are to be real.
Fidelity to daily prayer and mediation, participation in weekly Eucharist are absolutely necessary.
Conclusion
My friends, you don’t want to be in the situation of dying to self alone. It’s an impossible task.
With Jesus presence in my life the promise of a harvest of Gospel wheat is secure.
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