Right Place, Right Time

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time–Second Scrutiny

    As many of you know, Buffalo Trace Distillery is one of my favorite places to visit in the US.  Two different times I have been there at what I would call “just the right time.”  The first time I was visiting around 11 a.m. just to see what Buffalo Trace had for the day.  I had found all the special bourbon that I wanted, along with a few other bar accessories, and was in the check-out line, when someone mentioned that they had just put out a very special bottle of bourbon.  I was allowed to leave the line to get said bottle, which was an experimental bourbon Buffalo Trace released, and which I have never seen anywhere else.  A second time, on our Basilicas and Bourbon Pilgrimage, after our tour I went back to the gift shop, though I had already visited it earlier before our tour to pick up any of the special bottles I sought.  Sure enough, they had just put out another very special bottle of bourbon called the Single Oak Project.  Twice I was in the right place at the right time to score a special bottle of bourbon to add to my collection.
    In our Gospel, the man born blind also finds himself in the right place at the right time.  There’s no evidence he sought out Jesus, but Jesus and the disciples walk past him, and ask whether the blindness served as a punishment for the man’s sins or the sins of his parents.  But Jesus uses the opportunity to heal the man, in a very earthy way.  

Statue of David in Jerusalem

    In a similar way, David never sought to be king.  In fact, Samuel, one of God’s great prophets, thought that David’s other brothers would be good kings.  But God did not choose the greatest king of Israel based upon appearance.  And so David, who did not seek the position of king, ends up receiving the rule of the land of Israel.
    Skyler, I imagine if I would have known you and asked you ten years ago if you had any desire to join the Catholic Church, you would have said no.  But God sought you out and, with the help of others, piqued your interest in the Catholic Church, which has brought you to today and your upcoming baptism.  Through new connections with others, you were in the right place at the right time to hear God’s call that He makes to every person: to join the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.  
    And it is this relationship with Jesus that will help you see the world more clearly.  We all have blind spots in our lives, things that we don’t notice, or sometimes even that we choose not to see because admitting that we see could be painful and necessitate change, which always seems difficult.  Our world often proposes that happiness comes from having power over others, having large amounts of money, and ever-increasing varieties of physical pleasure.  But Christ shows us that true happiness comes from laying down our life for another, being poor in spirit so that we recognize our dependence on God, and that while physical pleasure like the taste of a good meal or good bourbon, or the embrace of a loved one, is good, it cannot be the goal of our life, because we are made for more than just what this world provides.
    And while this transition can feel difficult, which is why we have a ritual before you are baptized to pray over you and ask God to strengthen you to leave behind in you all that is fallen, we do gain true liberation and joy from living more and more for God each day.  And as you open yourself up to God more and more, you find that you are in the right place at the right time, and actually become yourself a conduit of God’s grace and action, just as others helped draw you in, Skyler, to the Catholic faith.
    Today is also special for Xavier, who will be making his First Holy Communion today.  Xavier, you are also in the right place at the right time, as the anniversary of your baptism is just in a few days, and we remember your baptism as you carried the candle in procession with us.  Today, Xavier, you get to receive Jesus into you in a very special way, in a way closer than you’ll ever be to Jesus until you make it to heaven.  Jesus loves you so much that He doesn’t want anything to keep you from being united to Him, and He wants to strengthen you with spiritual food that will continue to help you choose Jesus and do what He would do. 
    And while I’m sure there are days where you wish you could be an adult and do all the cool things that adults get to do, today Skyler, a young adult, is actually wishing she could be you, because you will receive the Eucharist today and Skyler will have to wait two more weeks until she is baptized and gets to receive Holy Communion for the first time.  
    But God has called both of you, Skyler and Xavier, and all of us, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to allow Him to put us into perfect place at the perfect time.  Sometimes it benefits us, like the man born blind.  Sometime it also benefits others, like when God chose David to be king.  But may we all seek docility to the will of God to allow us to glorify God in every circumstance.