Muscles
bulging, taking on the bad guys, Bullets bounce harmlessly off him, explosions
are mere nuisances, and nobody but the bad guys ever get hurt. He has x-ray
vision, can hear through walls, flies through the air, and is impervious to
pain. At some point growing up, most of us have wanted to be that superhero…
Here he comes to save the day!
But
as we grow up, we realize that person doesn’t exist. People let us down. Situations don’t work out like we wish. Bullets really DO kill the heroes as well as
the people they’re trying to protect.
This
past week, in the barrage of articles and Facebook posts about Connecticut, one
of them caught my attention – she said as a child her Mom always told her that
whenever something bad happens like that, to look for the heroes. The heroes in this case were the teachers and
principal who put themselves into harm’s way to try to save their students.
By
looking to the heroes, we find people who have lived up to what God intended them
to be – they put forth superhuman efforts in the face of situations that would
make ANY person freeze with unbelievable fear.
There
is a hero in today’s Gospel as well. The
words Elizabeth used made it obvious that for her, Mary was a Hero. She had said ‘yes’ to God when any normal
human being might have cowered in fear:
being unwed and pregnant, her fiancé would probably disown her, her
parents would be severely embarrassed, and the Jewish community – who thought
of her as the purest example of womanly virtue, would be scandalized – and
might even stone her. No – this was too
much to ask a young girl to bear.. but she bore it with her ‘Fiat’… her ‘let it
be done to me according to your will’.
That's why she was Elizabeth's hero.
There’s
another way that Mary is a hero in this reading. Having just found out that her cousin was
about to have a baby, she dropped everything and went IMMEDIATELY to help.
We
have heroes like that in our own community.
For example, every week, somebody in our parish takes communion to the
people who cannot be here. This is so
much more valuable than you and I can know.
These people tend to feel cut off from our community, and just to have someone
visit is a God-send. To bring them
Communion is a direct way of keeping them connected to our worship here as the
Body of Christ. All of us are members of
this Body of Christ – and when one part of the body hurts, the rest of the body
turns its attention to that part. Think
about it – if you have a back ache, nothing else matters – the rest of your
body will keep changing positions until it finds a way to help the back ache
less. So it is with the members of our
community: when one is hurting, we
should do whatever we can to help.
This
is especially important this time of year – when there is so much
darkness. People are more prone to
depression anyway – but the Holidays actually make it even worse for some. Experiencing Christmas alone for the first
time – or just with one family member missing – can lead us to dwell on the
hole in our heart and actually dread the season because we don’t Feel
holly-jolly. That’s a normal response,
so if that’s how you’re feeling this Christmas, know that you’re not alone.
The
job for all of us is to be like Mary – in a way, when we come here to receive
Jesus into us… we become ‘pregnant’ with Jesus – and then we are compelled to
drop everything and take Jesus to those who can’t be here. Seek out those who might have a reason to be
depressed – or maybe they’re just physically unable to get out. Stop and visit. Offer to help. Offer them a meal…. Then every one of us can
be a hero.
I
have two examples of heroes in our community that I heard just this week. One was a family of young kids that went to a
nursing home. The Mom didn't really want
to go, but she was blown away by the reaction of the residents when she walked
through the doors with those kids.
People who were so focused on their own pains and depression suddenly
lit up with excitement!!… and the infant!!… EVERYbody had to hold that
baby. Besides that - the kids loved all
the attention, so it was a win-win for everybody. That family was a hero for those residents
that day.
The
other situation was a father who got called to the hospital because his son had
had an accident. He and his wife rushed
to the hospital and actually beat the ambulance. At this point, they didn’t know exactly how
bad off their son was, so they were emotionally a wreck. As he stood there waiting, he made one phone
call to a buddy from church – asking for prayers. 20 minutes later, 5 heroes showed up. 5 prayer warriors – there to knock on
heaven’s door – and to do anything they could do physically to help the father
and mother deal with whatever awaited them – even if it was just to be there
and sit with them to wait for the news from the doctors.
Every
person here can be that kind of superhero… think about it – is there anybody in
the world who thinks that YOU are their hero?
If not, who might God have put in your path who NEEDS you to be their
hero?
A
parishioner sent me a story this week which was perfect for last week's
homily... But it also ties last week to this week's message.
A group of salesmen were running late getting to the
airport after their convention. In order
to make their flight, they had to run through the concourse. Jerry rounded a corner and accidentally
bumped into a to a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew
everywhere. Jerry mumbled a quick "sorry" then continued running to
catch up with his buddies. They made it
just in time as they were giving the last call for boarding. Jerry breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped
up to the gate... But then he experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl
whose apple stand he had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without
him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived and
explain that he would be taking a later flight. His buddies looked at him like
he was crazy... but Jerry turned around and jogged back to the terminal where
the apples were all over the floor. He
was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was
softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same
time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her;
no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
Jerry knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the
apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did
this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he
set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and
said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are
you okay?"
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with,
"I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As Jerry started to walk away, the bewildered blind
girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look
back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride ... and he wondered. He
gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus - He is good,
kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the
first place."
The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I
prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me.... He
sent you to be my hero! "
Kind of in shock from the turn of events, he slowly
made his way to catch the later flight ...with that question burning and
bouncing about in his soul: "Are you
Jesus?"
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