| Homily
for Catholic Schools Week Mass: January 31, 2006
Given by the Most
Reverend Stephen E. Blaire at the Cathedral of the Annunciation
in Stockton.
Last week while I was waiting in the airport for my flight from Washington
D.C. to home, I was sitting where I could easily see the counter and the monitor. A man approached
who was loaded down with luggage and was carrying an orange slurpy. He fumbled and dropped the slurpy
splashing people near him and spilling all the contents on the floor. He apologized to the people
around him, picked up the empty cup and threw it in the trash. I then thought that he was going to
get paper towels to clean up the mess. But he never came back. And people we walking into the slupry
without realizing it. Obviously he did not go to Catholic school where he would have been trained to take responsibility for his actions.
In Catholic school we are taught to love and reverence God and to respect
one another - to treat each other with courtesy. Even if we sometimes forget and get rude,
we usually remember afterwards that we should not have acted in this way and we can apologize.
Hopefully we do tell the person to whom we were unkind that we are sorry.
Jesus in the gospel story of today's Mass teaches us how to get along with one
another in the Church - how to be responsible for our actions. The child is presented by Jesus as
our model since children depend on adults. You depend on your parents to feed you and to give you a
place to sleep at night, and you trust them to do so. You depend on your teachers to teach you and
to help you learn.
When Jesus says to become like little children he means that we should trust in God;
that we should rely on God to be with us. When I was a very little child I learned about God and
have loved God all my life.
Then Jesus says: "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives
me." When we welcome others; when we respect others; when we are kind to others Jesus considers that
kindness as done to Himself.
So, if we make a mess we need to clean it up because we respect others and above
all because we love and reverence God and rely on God.
Last Update January 31, 2006
|
