Let It Go: Third (3rd) Sunday in Ordinary

Click here for audio homily, as given. My mom lived through the Great Depression of the 1930’s.   I think that was the reason why just about every television we ever owned was down in the basement.  “Put it down downstairs, maybe it can be fixed.”  The televisions still worked to some degree but we just never seemed to get rid of them.  When we would get a new TV the old one would go downstairs and await a chance to be needed.  Because of my mother, I have become a bit of a pack-rat, too.  “Don’t throw it away, you might need it someday.” I hear a little voice saying in my head.  This was not the experience of Simon and Andrew, or James and John.  In today’s Gospel, we here of the call of the first four Apostles.  They left their nets and their boats and their family to follow Jesus. I went to seminary with guys who lives were changed by a similar encounter with Christ.  They decided to leave the previous careers and listen to the call of Christ.  (Show cards) These are souvenirs of priestly ordination.  I call them priest trading cards.  I’ll give you two Steve Gemme’s for a Tim Pfander.   Thomas Muldowney was ordained a priest, 28 June 2003 (He was a nurse in Scranton, Pennsylvania); Lawrence LoMonaco ordained a priest June 1, 2002 (He was an engineer from Charlotte, NC); Timothy Nolan ordained a priest May 25, 2002. (He was an artist); Tim Pfander ordained a priest, 6 June 2004 (He was the manager of a security firm in Birmingham, Alabama); Stephen Gemme ordained a priest June 1, 2002 (He was a teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts).  Of course, you know I was a teacher, ordained 24 May 2003.   Msgr. Farmer was a lawyer, Fr. Bianco was a musician.  Some of the other priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore include Fr. Steve Hook who was a bank vice-president, Fr. George Gannon was lawyer, as well as others.  And then there are others whom God called before they had a secular career, like Fr. John Rapisarda, Fr. Mark Bialek, and Fr. Matt Beuning.  When God calls you, you need to respond to the Lord’s call as did Simon and Andrew, as did James and John.  Is it easy, no.  Is it simple, yes.  Going to seminary, does not mean that you will become a priest.  Going to seminary is about listening to the call.  There are many guys in the seminary who for one reason or another never make it to ordination.  There is a guy I went to seminary with who left before ordination and is now married with children.  The point is to answer the call.  For those who are already married, the Lord is calling you as well. Holy Matrimony, just like Holy Orders, is a sacrament and a vocation from God.  What is God calling you to do?  My sister gave me an article once from the Wall Street Journal about a married man by the name of  Joshua Hochschild.  Dr. Hochschild was a professor of medieval philosophy at Wheaton College, a small evangelical Protestant college in Illinois.  Having studied the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Professor Hochschild heard God calling him to become Catholic.  Wheaton College has a policy of not allowing Catholics on their faculty.  Because Professor Hochschild heard God’s call and joined the Catholic Church, he lost his teaching position at Wheaton College.  Joshua Hochschild believed that following Jesus faithfully in the Roman Catholic Church was more important than his tenure-track professorship at Wheaton College.  Professor Hochshild eventually realized that he longed to “obey the Gospel command to eat the flesh of Christ.”  As a Catholic, he is teaching at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg.  But Father Larry, you might say, I can’t be a priest and I am already a Catholic.  Well, how much is the Kingdom of God worth to you?  Pray and Jesus will show you the way.  St Pope Gregory the Great wrote “The kingdom of heaven has no price tag on it:  It is worth as much as you have.  For Zacchaeus, it was worth half of what he owned, because the other half that he had unjustly pocketed, he promised to restore fourfold.  For Peter and Andrew, it was worth the nets and the vessel they had left behind; for the widow it was worth two copper coins; for another, it was worth a cup of cold water.  So as we said, the kingdom of heaven is worth as much as you have.”    It may start with something as simple as taking down some of the pictures on your walls and replacing them with pictures of Jesus, Mary, the saints, or the Crucifix.  My mother had a holy picture hanging in almost every room of the house, except for some reason, the bathroom.  Maybe it is as simple as spending time talking to your children about their religious education or saying grace before meals.  Who knows, maybe God wants you to preach to a modern day Nineveh, or maybe to abandon your boat, or, at least, let go of those old televisions down in the basement.