March 7, 2010: 3rd Sunday Lent (C)

(Click here for audio homily)
The last time I flew somewhere on an airplane, I took out the in-flight magazine from the seat pocket in front of me and thumbed through it. One of the photos captured my attention. It was a lush green golf course dotted with cactus trees in the middle of bone-dry Arizona desert surrounded by towering red boulders. Where did they get all that water, I wondered. And I wondered how large must be the groundskeeper staff to fight to keep that golf course looking that good every day. As I prayed with this Sunday's gospel, I thought how similar that golf course is to our soul. If lush green grass can be compared with a soul whose life is about self-giving, self-sacrifice, and virtues of humility, patience, kindness, and gentleness, then the dry cracked desert ground can be compared with a soul whose life is about self-absorption, selfishness, pride, rebellion, anger, lust, gluttony, envy, jealousy, and greed. As a fig tree cannot bear any fruit when the ground is cracked from drought, a soul likewise cannot experience any peace when he's preoccupied and self-absorbed with himself.

This week I saw on a video a priest giving a homily illustrating an example of a soul lacking any peace because of selfishness and vice--a soul who was like the cracked, dry desert. The priest said,

"I know a young man 11 years ago who was not a Catholic, who was not even a Christian, baptized Episcopalian when he was 10 years old. But his family never lived the faith. This young man did everything possibly imaginable from the ages of 12 to 21. You name it, he did it. He used every kind of drugs you can possibly imagine; alcohol was a given. Everything! Dropped out of high school. He was literally kicked out of a country for crimes of felony at the age of 14. He went to jail 3 times, twice in another country, once in Louisiana. He was once homeless, living in a tree trunk on macaroni and cheese and drugs. He had tatoos and long hair down to his waist, extremely foul mouthed. A word that described him was dead; his body may have been working, but his soul was dead in sin, because he never humbled himself to the Truth that can set free hearts of men. One day in 1992, this young man read a book at his mom's house, just returned from yet another unsuccessful drug rehab. The book was called, "The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje," and it rocked his world. At that time he was an avowed atheist. He opened the book, saw photos of kids staring at a direction of Blessed Virgin's apparition. He was drawn to it. When he finished that book at 4 in the morning, he knew he finally found the woman he was looking for. He wanted to give all of himself to this woman named Mary, even though he did not know who she was. Next morning, he ran to the Catholic chapel on the military base where his parents were living, found a Catholic priest, and began to unload. The priest was overwhelmed with this young man's confession. He had him wait in the back of the church so that he could say mass. A group of Filipino ladies were praying rosary in the front, and one lady turned around walked back to him and asked, "Young man, would you like to lead the next decade of the rosary?" She held in her hand what looked like a necklace, and he thought she was asking him to pray the next 10 years, for he has never heard of the words rosary, decade, or mass. He said no. When the mass began and when the part where the priest raised the host in the air saying, 'Take this all of you and eat it,' this young man knew by infusion of knowledge that it was Jesus, body, soul and divinity. The priest did not know what to make of this young man, so he gave him a picture of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope John Paul II, and a crucifix and told him to come the next day. This young man went home, got seven large garbage bags and went into his room. He bagan to tear down all the sinister posters he hung of Grateful Dead, emptied his drawers of drugs, and dark clothes. After he put out the full trash bags outside of the driveway, he hung the crucifix, the picture of Pope John Paul II, and the Sacred Heart. He knelt before the image of Sacred Heart, not knowing how to pray. But he folded his hands like the kids in the book he read the night before, and said to himself, "Okay, set. Ready." As he looked at that image of Sacred Heart, miraculously, he knew that this man who is in the picture was God-man who died for him and loved him. Tears of repentance flowed uncontrollably. He then slept like a baby. A while later, he was awakened by something sinister trying to grab him and his soul. He was seized with mortal fear. The only person he knew to cry to was Mary. So he cried out, "Mary!" Then that sinister presence vanished. Then he heard the most beautiful woman's voice, "Donny, I'm so happy."No one called him 'Donny,' except his mother, and he knew which mother it was.

The priest continued, "That experience changed everything in that young man's life. Everything! Even the addictions! Within in 8 months, he became a Catholic. Within a year, he joined a religious community, and he's never been to Medjugorje. But he's here now before you in Medjugorje, as a Roman Catholic priest, celebrating mass, for you. Yes, that young man is me. God has His ways. When we humble ourselves. God comes down and says, 'I want you to know Me and love Me passionately. All those times you pursued worldly things in your life with zeal and ardor and fervor. Yet now, turn to Me.'

As I listened to his homily and testimony, I could see the peace in his eyes. In the video old photos of himself was shown with his long hair, tattoos, and his eyes drooping and dead from all those abuse of drugs and sin. Yet as he stood there on the pulpit, looking so clean cut, giving that homily, you would have never known that he led such a life before. Fr. Donald Calloway's life is a testament to Heavenly Father who can change a dead, lifeless cracked desert into a lush green patch of life. As Fr. Calloway closed his homily he said this to us. "Friends, these are days of God's grace. Don't let His grace pass you by. If you are dead to sin, come to Jesus. May be you have never confessed some things. Unburden yourself. Go to Jesus. Go to confession. May be you got shameful things on your soul, shameful things you never confessed. Go to Jesus. Jesus is the Divine Mercy. There is nothing that falls outside of His shadow of His Cross. Nothing. Go to Him. Lay it all out. Let the tears flow if you are given that gift."