Aug 29, 2010: 22nd Sunday Ordinary (C)

Click to hear audio homily

In this weekend's edition of Clarion Herald (the Catholic Newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans), several priests of the Archdiocese recalled their experience of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Fr. Walter Austin was inside the Superdome with 30,000 people, trying his best to comfort and calm people tired of waiting. Fr. Jose Lavastida made his way back to the New Orleans Airport which had become a medical triage center. Before him were many sick and dying evacuees. The dead were respectfully place behind tarps at Gate D-1. Meanwhile, Fr. Lavastida celebrated daily mass at Gate D-2. He said he now has flashbacks when he flies out on Delta Airlines at Gate D-1 or D-2. Father Lavastida who served as a Navy chaplain in Iraq in 2003 stayed for a whole month at the airport. He walked down every concourse, met with families and listened to their stories and anointed 300 people. He said, “I can tell you when I was serving in Iraq I never anointed 300 people."

 During Katrina you didn't have to be a priest to be serving. Most of you have your own story of how you served. Your home may have become a refuge for your relatives, strangers, and pets not of your own. You cooked and brought food to those in local motels which became their temporary home. You brought home clothes of utility workers and Red Cross volunteers and laundered them.You went out to various school gyms which had become temporary housing for many and you comforted them.

As we celebrate the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we pause to remind ourselves of what happened to us. There are a couple of ways to describe what happened to us. We can describe it in terms of what we lost. People will talk about Katrina being the costliest natural disaster causing $81 billion worth of damages which defaced landscapes and our homes. But there is another way to describe what happened to us. We can describe it in terms of what we gained. Simply put, we gained a heart of humility, a heart that allowed us to become a servant like Our Lord Jesus. We learned through our own hardships and helping others in hardships, what it took for Jesus to become a servant. He reminds us daily upon the Cross to empty ourselves, to be selfless, to give and to forgive repeatedly. Mother Teresa said, "I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." So Mother Teresa reminds us on this anniversary of that event that gave us the capacity to give the following:

"Today when the world is suffering so much, I feel that the Passion of Christ is being relived in our people. Let us serve Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor. Let us make sacrifices. Let us allow God to love through us." -Mother Teresa