32 OT A We find wisdom because we have been found.

Friends

Peace be with you.

A number of years ago, I was assigned to an Irish parish and and I was asked, relatively early into the assignment, to do a burial. In case you don’t know, in general, Irish parishes tend to want their cemetery in a different location than the parish church. Luxemburger and German parishes, on the other hand, tend to want the cemetery right next to the church. Think of St. Joe’s in Bellevue, for instance, versus Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Donatus, and St. Catherine. There was a church in the St. Joe Cemetery at one point roughly where the columbarium are located today but, by 1901, the largely Irish population that attended that church moved it blocks away. It’s my understanding that, at one point, Sts. Peter and Paul in Springbrook was located East of town but, when they decided to move the church into the center of town, rather than continuing to bury people out there, they started a new cemetery right around the new church. Okay, you get the picture.

So, I’m supposed to go to a cemetery that isn’t right next to the church but, halfway there, I realized I didn’t know where the cemetery was. I was supposed to meet the funeral home director at the funeral home and he would lead me out there but I got delayed and was a little late and missed the procession to the cemetery. I tried to find it on google maps to no avail. I asked around town and got the kind of directions that help locals. “Take the Frankville highway until you see where the windmill used to be on old Slim Jackson’s farm…” I got so lost and had absolutely no luck in finding anyone who could help me get there that I eventually gave up and went home. I no more than walked through the door when the funeral home director called and asked me why I didn’t show up. I told him everything I just told you and he said, “Well, why didn’t you just wait at the funeral home? You should have known I was going to come back and get you.” I thought to myself, “Should I?” and just apologized and said I’d do better in the future.

I think that’s why I have a certain sympathy for the foolish virgins in the gospel today. I am not always good about planning ahead and being ready for whatever is to come. So, it’s probably good to focus our attention on being wise, a characteristic described rather well in the first reading for today. Now, I know some of you may have noticed rather quickly that wisdom is portrayed as a woman. You may think that’s because only women are wise but it is a little more complicated than that. In the language at the time, God is portrayed as a man and lady wisdom is portrayed as God’s partner, his coworker. The book from which this passage comes, entitled Wisdom or the Wisdom of Solomon, was probably written 100 or 200 years before the birth of Jesus. It’s one of those books that is found in the Catholic Bible but not in Protestant Bibles. It’s a book all about the search for wisdom. What’s interesting is that, at the time of its writing, the Jewish people would have been interacting, with the Greek world, a world of violence, yes, but also a world of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. So, part of what the author is doing is saying that it’s not just the Greeks who have wisdom, we do too. It’s just that, unlike the Greeks who believe you have to go on a long and arduous journey searching for wisdom, “She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire.” Even before we search for wisdom, she is making herself known to us. That’s because, for believers, God existed before us and wisdom, often associated with the Holy Spirit, existed before us and has been seeking us out. That’s why the first reading says, “(wisdom) makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.”

Isn’t that great? I hope it’s relieving. Instead of having to search in all kinds of places for the wisdom of God, God is searching for us. This really is something that makes Christianity different from most other religions; We have a God who searches for us. Knowing this, it should affect our prayer. Bishop Barron suggests, quite rightly, that we take five minutes a day to remind ourselves that God is looking for you and invite God into our hearts. Don’t be like me, driving all over looking for God. Just sit and be still and let God find you. Also, think about those areas of your life that you feel like you have to control. Recently, I have realized that I’m getting in trouble in this assignment because I’ve started thinking that, if I don’t do some things, they aren’t going to get done. I have to call this meeting because I can’t trust the leadership to do so. I have to set the agenda because, if they do, we’ll never get anything done. I have to be the one to turn the lights off in church or we’ll waste all kinds of electricity. Whenever we make ourselves indispensable in a situation, we lose sight that God is the one who is in charge. It’s okay to ask for help. In fact, it’s a good reminder that we need to take time to trust in others and search out others for their help, if for no other reason than because we need to be able to take time each day to be found by God and we can’t do that when we feel like we have to be in charge of everything. Of what use is a creator when we feel like we need to create everything or it just won’t get done right.

In the end, it’s easy to find wisdom. We just have to let the Father find us and there she is too.

All Saints - A: Being God’s storyteller

Friends

Peace be with you.

In the book “Building Better Families”, the Catholic apologist Matthew Kelly advises parents in nine different ways to be Great Leaders for their children. One of the ways he advises is to be a great storyteller to your children. He says in this rather lengthy quote,


The most powerful story you tell the world every day is the story of how you choose to live your life. This story, your story, affects the lives of everyone who crosses your path...and millions of people whom you will never meet or know...But beyond this very intimate story of your life, let us consider the stories we tell each other and our children in conversation. Are we constantly talking about the latest horrific world event or do we talk about the people who we look up to and why? Are we constantly discussing fame and fortune or do we make time to speak of the ordinary people who are our heroes and mentors? Do you tell your children what you loved about your parents and grandparents? Do they know the stories of the teachers and coaches (I would add nuns and priests) who had the most influence on your life? Do they know the story of your life? Have you told them the story of how you met their mother or father? Stories are powerful, and great leaders continuously develop an inspiring repertoire to have on hand when the right moment arises.



Think about this quote in the context of our readings and our celebration for today. It’s All Saints Day, a time for us to remember the named and unnamed saints who are in heaven. Our readings remind us of this. The first reading, from the Book of Revelation, is situated in a part of that book in which six of seven seals are opened and stories are being read, largely of doom and gloom. They’re talking about a coronavirus pandemic and evil politicians and a derecho. Wait, no, that’s us. They’re talking about signs of the end times that they’re experiencing. However, then they get to Chapter 7 and they remind themselves that, as St. Paul says in the second reading, we are called to be children of God, marked not by the symbols of this world, power, pleasure, and wealth, but with the mark of God on our foreheads. Most of us were signed with this mark at baptism and were renewed with it in confirmation when the bishop or priest marked our forehead with sacred chrism, making us among those who have washed our robes in the blood of the lamb and made them white. The world may not know our story but, that’s okay, because that merely means we are living up to that mark on our foreheads even more because the world also didn’t know the story of Jesus or they never would have put him to death.

In the gospel, Jesus tells us why the world wasn’t interested in his story, because he valued what heaven values not what the world valued. He said we’d be blessed, we’d be happiest, when our stories involved mourning, because we will be comforted. Only those who mourn can desire the comfort of God. Jesus’ story was all about being clean or pure of heart, because only by seeking to be like God can we see God, let alone be known by him. Jesus knew first hand that those who are insulted and persecuted because of him will receive a reward great in heaven, that they’d be blessed by him by living like he did.

What is the story of our life thus far? What would people say were our greatest accomplishments and our greatest failures? Where do we find our deepest pleasure but in God himself? How can we be sure that our lives are telling the story of Jesus and not the story of this world?