St. Maria Goretti

Our children and our young people are such blessings to all of us. Children, by their nature, bring a new hope and new possibilities to every situation. Children live in that world where everything is good. Birds sing. Penguins dance. Fish talk. The sun shines. Toys come alive. It is a very idealistic, make-believe, world, that more and more of us as adults would like to go back to. We protect that world for our kids. We want to preserve their innocence, their idealism, and their hopefulness for as long as possible. And yet, the older we get, the more we realize that we have to live in a world that is not so innocent, and that is not always such a nice place. That’s when we need a hero like Jesus. Our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews told us “we are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” Our kids have many heroes. I love it, because with kids, it is so obvious who their heroes are, because they are surrounded by all the representations of who they respect. It could be Peyton Manning or Under Dog, or it could be Tiger Woods or Bart Simpson, or it could be Pope Benedict or Spiderman. But with kids, you’re going to know. For all of us as adults, we’re not always sure what it means to have Jesus as our hero. We probably don’t have posters of Jesus on our bedroom walls. We don’t wear underwear with pictures of Jesus on it. We don’t wear the same brand of clothes that Jesus wore, or have his number on our jerseys. I met a little guy last week whose hero was Peyton Manning. He had the shirt, and he the autograph, and he a poster. It was real clear who this little boy was following. Is it clear to others who we are following? Is it clear to ourselves? We are to keep our eyes “fixed on Jesus”. What does that mean in 2007 terms? What does that mean for us as adults? I think Jesus is talking about something much more than just putting a crucifix in our family room. He wants to be the center of our lives.

This is extremely important today because then in our Gospel, Jesus reminds us that things aren’t always going to be the way we want them to be. Jesus is warning us today about the tough times in life. He is admitting that life is not always going to be easy, even for those who are close to Him. He talks about divisions, and hatreds, and wars. This is a far cry from the Kumbaya Jesus that we usually expect and sometimes allow ourselves to get lulled into anticipating. Jesus is telling us that we can’t be naïve, and we can’t pretend, and we can’t live in fantasyland. We’ve got to grow and become adults even in our Faith. And while we must be realists, we also cannot lose our innocence, and our idealism, and most especially our hope. How do we keep this balance of being “in the world” but not “of the world”? We do it by making Jesus our hero. We keep Him firmly centered in our lives. We remind ourselves every minute of every day that we belong to Him, and that He is supposed to be what we are all about. We don’t have to eat Jesus cereal or buy Jesus t-shirts to do that. But we don’t want to forget who we belong to either.

There are divisions. There are wars. There are plenty of terrible things going on in our world at any given time. And Christians are not immune from these things. I met a man once who converted to Catholic Christianity from another faith, who was amazed to find that after he became a Catholic Christian, that his problems didn’t all just disappear. This was an adjustment for him. He said that he gradually learned that being a real Christian didn’t exempt you from life’s problems, but it did give you the help that you need to deal with life’s problems.

This is a hard-hitting Gospel that is supposed to make all of us really think and re-think our attitudes and perspectives, while we’re living in this world. May all of us keep maturing in our Faith. The Faith of a child is an amazing thing, but even our Faith has to keep growing and maturing as we get older. We can’t stay at the same level forever. Life does come at you fast, just like the commercial says. God is at work. We are being perfected at this very moment. Prophets just like Jeremiah are challenging us to keep growing towards God. The flame of Faith has been ignited in us. Now, may we keep it burning!

May God bless us today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!