+ “Who loves you, baby?” trivia question for the day. What character from a seventy’s TV series used this catch phrase? Kojak.
+ Kojak was this great police detective in NY City who could solve any problem and every crime. So let’s put on our Kojak hats and ask this question again – “Who Loves You, Baby?”
+ First we have to evaluate the facts and the evidence.
+ We will start with today’s Gospel, our witness testimony. What is Jesus telling us?
+ Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in a field and out of JOY sells everything he has to purchase the field.
+ He then uses the parable of a great pearl and a person sells everything just purchase it.
+ He uses another story of the net thrown into the sea which collects fish of all kinds. The fisherman pulls the full net ashore, both good and bad, and then sorts them out - tossing out the bad.
+ Lastly, Jesus says, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven - is like the head of the household - who brings both the new and the old from the store room.”
+ So, what does all this mean? Put on your detective hats now… and check it out!
+ The answer is obvious – God Loves Us! HE loves us so much that Jesus gives a preview of what’s to come.
+ Stay with me here – Jesus loves us so much that He gives everything up, His own life, to purchase us for God. The price is paid with His horrific suffering, His blood, and His death.
+ WE are the treasure, the pearl, the fish… That he tells us about in the parables.
+ And like good detectives we have the hard evidence of His suffering, death, and resurrection to back our conclusion.
+ HE LOVES US THIS MUCH +. Msgr. Duffy used this symbol many times in his homilies - and I always looked at it as a loving hug from God. Wow, the symbol of torture and death, the cross, has become the symbol of love and forgiveness – only our God could make such a miraculous transformation.
+ “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16
+ Now let’s take this a few steps further and apply this to our own lives.
+ Is God asking us to sell everything we own? House, car, clothes… I think it’s a bit deeper than that.
+ God wants us to shed what the world tells us and live by His ways, love Him, and to love each other.
+ The world teaches us that WE are all that matters – that getting the STUFF we want is all that matters – which WE are the center of the universe. As long as I get mine - life is good. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt along the way – as long as my goal is achieved its goooood. I have even witnessed this idea in situations where people think if it is for the greater good then the lesser can suffer. Not the message of Christ!
+ We are called to let go of the ways of the world, - “selling” our worldliness and selfishness - and follow God’s way, buying the treasure. We need to turn away from the ways of the world but not withdraw from it.
+ Some of us think that if we shelter ourselves from the world and what it teaches - we will be better off. Kind of a selfish idea. We are called to live by the way of God IN the world so that we may help CHANGE the world and turn it back to God. This is being truly Catholic!
+ We are not isolationists, we are a communal people. St. Francis said,”The WORLD is my cloister!” Do you know what a cloister is? (Explain!)
+ We are called to live IN the world seeing through the eyes of our Lord and present Him by being an example to all we meet. St. Francis said it best, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words.”
+ Let us pray: Jesus, in the midst of an intense increase of wickedness in the cultures of the world causing the real meaning and practice of love to be confused and grow cold, make us burn with a raging blaze of love in who I am and through what I do, that I might be pleasing to You and a blessing to all. Thank you Jesus and bless us all. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit + Amen.
(Prayer is from Fr. Stan Fortuna’s book “U Got 2 Pray”)
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