"If I Had A Million Dollars"

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            If I were to ask you what you wanted right now, at this moment, what would your answer be?  A short homily?  Millions of dollars?  Both are probably equally likely.  Maybe we want an end to a disease or an illness.  Maybe we want a loved one back who is either estranged from us, or has died.  What is it that we want?

           

Each culture has its own way of seeking wishes.  The Irish have catching a leprechaun.  We can probably all remember the story of Aladdin and the genie who grants three wishes when Aladdin rubs his magic lamp.  Maybe we throw pennies into wishing wells, or just say our wish to the wishing well like Snow White.  In the past few years there has been a surge in people making wishes at 11:11 p.m., and then posting the time on Twitter, just to make sure people know they’re making a wish.  But we all want to have our desires granted.  And more often than not, our wishes are for passing things.

            That’s what makes Solomon’s prayer (not quite a wish) so unique.  The desire of his heart is not for riches, or the death of his enemies, or long life for himself, but for wisdom so that he can rule well over the Chosen People.  If the Lord appeared to me tonight in a dream and asked what I wanted, I hope I would say that I wanted wisdom to help shepherd this parish well.  But a few million dollars for the parish wouldn’t hurt either.  I’d like to think that my desire would be as pure as Solomon’s, but sometimes the desires of the world get in there, even with the best of intentions.

            In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is what we should desire above all else.  He compares it to a treasure of great price in a field that a person finds, and then goes and buys the field to get the treasure; or like a pearl of great price that a merchant sells all he has to buy because of its priceless quality.   If I told you that Fr. Dave, before he left, inherited 5 million dollars in cash and left it somewhere on the parish property, this whole campus would be torn up by people looking for it.  Imagine what someone could do with that money: take a vacation, pay off the mortgage, feed the poor, start a new business.  As much and more as we would desire that 5 million dollars, that is the measure of how much we should value the kingdom of heaven.

            And look at what people will do for lots of money.  They conquer their greatest fears and do really weird stuff like on “Fear Factor.”  They live in a house or in the middle of nowhere with complete strangers and go through physical and mental tests like in “Big Brother” or “Survivor.”  Prime time television is full of shows of people doing funny/stupid/amazing things just to win some money.  What are we willing to do for the kingdom of heaven?

            What we are willing to do always returns to where our hearts are and what we desire.  If we feel the prize is good enough, we are willing to go through a lot to obtain that prize.  St. Francis of Assisi, according to tradition, struggled at times with chastity, with using the gift of his sexuality well.  So, whenever he was tempted to misuse that gift, he jumped into a rose bush so that his mind would move away from the temptation and move towards all those little thorns digging into his flesh.  Now, I’m not suggesting that if you’re tempted to unchaste acts you should start jumping into thorns, but St. Francis showed us that he valued heaven so much, that he was even willing to undergo bodily pain to make sure he could obtain his true desire: heaven.

            In this, my first weekend in St. Joseph parish, I want to let you know that my goal, my pastoral plan, my mission is to help you desire heaven and help you to get there.  A good shepherd leads his sheep towards green pastures and fresh water, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.  By what I say from the ambo and in my bulletin articles; by my actions whether in the church building, in the office, or out and about; by my prayers I will try to help you as your shepherd.  But even though I am a leader of this community, I am also a part of it, and need your help so that I can desire heaven above all things and make sure I’m getting closer and closer.  Will I help lead you perfectly?  No.  That’s why I’ll go to confession and ask for your forgiveness when I don’t do it well.  Will you do it perfectly?  No.  That’s why I’ll be available for confession.  And in asking God and the community’s forgiveness, we will receive grace from God to reorder our desires in the right way, and get back on the path towards heaven. 

            Each Sunday we will come back here to have our desires purified as we give God what He deserves: our worship and attention.  Each Sunday we will admit that our desires have not always been for God and the kingdom of heaven, and we will receive strength from the worthy reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus.  You don’t have to catch a leprechaun.  You don’t have to find a magic lamp.  You don’t even have to wait until 11:11 p.m.  Just come back each Sunday, and together, in our worship of God, we will put our desires back in the right order, and move closer to the kingdom of heaven.