Holiday
season is here – sometime during the next month, you may travel you to NYC – perhaps
to see the tree at the Met or the Tree at Rockefeller Center. Might I suggest _
walk up 5th Avenue – Stop for a moment on 5th Avenue
across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral – see the giant statue of Atlas – holding the
weight of the world in his hands. The
world is too heavy for him, and he is breaking under it, like a child trying to
carry something all alone, without any help or grace or faith in God. Some think it has been put there deliberately
as a rejection of God – there is no God – we have no need of God - we have the
whole world in our hands. It is ours.
Then, I
invite you to walk across the street and go into the Cathedral. Enjoy how
beautiful it looks after the recent repairs. You will probably want to go up
and see the nativity scene which includes the dog “Lexington.” Then walk to the back to the Lady Chapel. Turn
and face the front door of the Cathedral. Notice a statue, very small, almost
insignificant. Christ as a child – about 8 or 9 years old. Holding the world in
his hand. He’s got the whole world in His hands! No breaking or straining. It
is his. He shared in its creation – and now he shares it with us, as a gift. A gift, not a possession. To be shared.
Now we can
understand Jesus teaching today as he speaks of the end of that world. What we
have received as a gift – have we given as a gift?
So many love
St. Francis of Assisi and rightly so. But he did some very hard things. Coming
back from a night of partying as he rode his horse, he saw a leper upon the
road. He got off his horse and gave the man the money in his pocket. Then, he
took the leper’s hand and kissed it. Then he hugged the leper. Later Francis
would say it was the first time he experienced true inner peace. What he received, he gave as a gift.
Ah, there
are so many. Mother Teresa would say – I don’t look at everyone as my
responsibility. I look at the individual. I can only love 1 person at a
time. So, you begin with one.
So, we do
our best – one by one – as we feed families through St. Vincent de Paul and
grow vegetables for them in our garden, as we listen to an elderly person or
bring them to the doctor or to church through Ministry of Care, as we build
Bunk Beds so every child has a bed, as we chat with someone on Midnight Run, as
we make Rosaries for our Troops, as we take a gift tag today from the Giving
Tree, as we all do so many other good things.
Because, in
the end, we know we will not be judged by the people that we know or the cars
that we own or the house we live in or the money in our bank account or the
people that we know or the power that we possess.
As St. John
of the Cross said – “In the evening of our lives – we will be judged by our
love!” Whatever you did for a brother or
a sister – you did for me!
