Oct. 23, 2011: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

 At the Ascension Catholic School mass this past week, I asked our students what are some of the wish items that they have asked from their parents recently. A first grader said, “a cookie cake.” Another said, “a toy.” A junior said, “ a car.” “How many of you juniors have asked for a car,” I asked. Most of the hands went up. Then I said, “I’m sure for most of you that your parents asked, ‘What for? Are you going to take responsibility for your car?’ Then I asked, “How much do you think car insurance cost for you per year?” “$500,” a young man said. Then I asked, “How many teachers here have paid anywhere from $1500 to $2000, a year for insurance for your children?” Many hands of faculty went up. Then I asked, “Guys, if you were to work at McDonalds, how many hours do you have to work in order to earn $1,500?” Many shrugged. I said, “A gift comes with responsibility; there is a cost to every gift. Someone made a sacrifice of working many hours to pay for your insurance so that you can drive.  Similarly, the reason we sit here in church every week is because Our Lord made a great sacrifice for our life. He asks that we take responsibility for this great gift.”

How are we to take responsibility for our life? Our Lord was asked in the gospel today what were the most important responsibilities of our life. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We have all heard this scripture before so this is not new information for us.  We know that we have been given tremendous gifts, and we must use these gifts to help others, especially to help others grow closer to Our Lord.

I was watching one of Dr. Phil’s shows recently and he began with, “What do you do when your kids are hanging around with the wrong crowd and making destructive choices? Today we’re going to talk to parents who say that their kids will end up either in jail cells or dead." Dr. Phil was interviewing a troubled 14 years-old teen and his distraught mother. The young man named, Isaac, was involved with a gang and already risking going to jail and losing his life. On the show Dr. Phil invited a Jesuit priest, Father Greg Boyle to help understand the problem Isaac is going through. Fr. Greg runs the largest gang intervention center in America called “Homeboy Industries” in the heart of Los Angeles gang turf. In his talks and interviews to many media outlets like Dr. Phil’s Show, Fr. Greg points out that it would not be possible for him to tell about the changed lives of young people apart from God, Jesus, compassion, kinship, redemption, mercy, and our common call to delight in one another. He said, “We are put on earth for a little space that we learn to bear the beams of love...this is what we all have in common, gang member and non-gang member alike: we’re just trying to learn how to bear the beams of love.”

Dr. Phil asked Fr. Greg, “What is it that winds these kids up in this life style?” Father replied, “The common misconception is that these kids are pulled or attracted to this. But there is always a push factor. The common denominator is the lethal absence of hope. If a kid can’t imagine a future for himself, then his present isn’t compelling.  And if his present doesn’t compel him, then he doesn’t care whether he inflicts pain on others or duck to get out of harm’s way. You really can’t scare a kid straight. Isaac knows, more than anybody else, the consequences of what he has chosen. When he doesn’t care about himself, then we try to infuse him with a sense of hope. Gangs are what kids flock to when they feel miserable about themselves, and misery loves company. We can’t scare them straight when adults in their life have let them down. We have to care about them to set them straight.”

Fr. Greg said, “they say a person becomes a person through other people." If you jog back your memories, can you think of a person who has infused that gift of hope in you, who believed in you, who led you to get closer to Jesus? In high school, I wore a lot of black clothing (similar to what they call goth.) At the time, the clothing reflected what I was feeling inside, dark, somber and alone. An upperclassman who was in the same school choir with me took an interest in me. He had a great gift of writing and singing music. He asked me, "Paul, do you want to go to an A'Capella concert in Waco?" "Yeah," I replied. "Good, well, you have to drive because I'm legally blind." On the way there and on the way back, we talked a lot. He listened to what I had to say and he talked a lot about the Lord. I still remember that from 20 years ago. Little did I know then, but it was the beginning of me coming out of the darkness. It shows how somebody can make a difference in another person's life by caring. (I haven't changed much on the exterior color of my clothing, the inside certainly has been filled with love that I had not known before). We can see why Our Lord said one of the greatest responsibilities of this gift of life that God has given us is to love one another and to infuse hope for another. It is through loving our neighbor, that we love God Himself.