Weekly HOMILY for July 23, 2011: Faith -- More Thank One of Many Gifts

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Mark Parish, Fallston
July 23, 2011

Faith: More Than One of Many Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


ROSE KENNEDY

Years ago before Katy Curic left The Today Show she was interviewing a reporter who was a personal friend of the Kennedy family. Katy asked how she believed this family had been able to get through so many personal losses.

The reporter, Doris Goodman, thought for a moment and responded, “It was Rose Kennedy. She’s the one who has given this family its underlying strength.”

Goodman recalled an incident in which Rose Kennedy said, “If God were to take away all the gifts I’ve been given, the only one I’d beg him to let me keep would be faith.”

“Faith?” the reporter asked her, “Why keep faith as the very last one?” “Because with faith I’d be able to understand and deal with the loss of all the other blessings I loved.”

Holding on to faith had given Rose Kennedy the ability to deal with the tragic deaths of four of her children.


GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

Our Scriptures focus on what’s important in our lives as believers and how we might act in terms of that “most important item” in our lives.

In the Gospel, Jesus uses two images to raise this question.

First, he tells of a man who finds a treasure buried in a field. The man re-buries the treasure then sells all he has for money to buy the field and have title to the treasure.

Jesus’ second image is of a merchant selling all he has so he can buy one valuable pearl. At the time, pearls were more valuable than gold or diamonds.

So, in each parable, we see folks going to great lengths to acquire something that is the most valuable thing in their lives. His point is that we should be ready to give anything for that field, anything for that pearl.

Rose Kennedy understood this point well. For her, “faith” was that treasure that pearl.


A TEMPLATE

A closer look shows us that the gift Rose chose is actually a tool that would help her see and understand all the other gifts. Think of it as a “template” in computer jargon.

When we are typing a letter for the first time on our PC or MAC, the software tells us, “This looks like a letter. Are you typing a letter? If you are, I can help you type the hundreds of letters you type after this one.” All you need do is say, “yes.”

After that, the program will present you with a template in which all letters can be typed.

Thus templates offer you a framework that assists us in dealing with the components of all future letters. They offer alternatives that will make your letter better.

This is precisely what the gift of faith did for Rose Kennedy. It was a template, a way of assisting her in all the “letters” of her life – her losses, joys, sorrows and sad good-bys.


APPLICATION

So what does all this say to you and me?

Chose faith! Say “yes” to faith in Jesus Christ as the most important treasure in your life – sell all you have for faith in the Lord, placing all else at least second and you will have a template, a way of dealing with all that life has dealt you.

Setbacks such as the LOSS OF A JOB OR AN ILLNESS need not be the end. With faith in Jesus and knowing he is at our side, we can tighten the belt a bit, get the courage to be more assertive in our networking for a new joy, or use our recuperation time from an illness to develop a hobby or create a home-based business

The LOSS OF A LOVED ONE NEED not be the loss of our own will to live. With faith in Jesus, we can better learn to trust him with our life and join ourselves to our departed loved ones through increased prayer or service to others in their memory.

The LIMITATIONS OF OUR PERSONALITY, be they anger, impatience, or depression, need not be a strike against us. Again, with faith in Jesus, they can be avenues for understanding how much the Lord loves us and accepts us as we are.

Those sorts of breakthroughs are now possible because we have the template that offers us a framework. It offers us assistance in dealing with the components of all our “future letters.” It offers us alternatives that make our letter better.

When you choose faith in Christ, and you receive the “template,” you don’t have to start from scratch with each trial you encounter, for you now have a framework, a context, to understand all of life’s curves and turns, it’s potholes and open vistas, it’s dead-ends and steep inclines.


CONCLUSION

Rose Kennedy’s choice of “faith first” served her well. We see it in her family’s ability to deal with so much loss.

Faith first can have that same impact in our own lives, as well.