“And they left everything and followed Jesus.”
When I was young, growing up in Ireland,
remember I am the youngest of 12 children,
it was hard to get attention from Mum and Dad.
There was a lot of competition to get individual attention.
You have to figure out a system as to how to get that attention.
You can get negative attention but that is not what you want. Right?
You are looking for positive attention. Right?
I found a way!
When my father would come home from work after a long day,
he would still do projects around the house for a couple of hours
while the dinner was being made.
He would eat dinner and then after dinner,
he would sit down and he would pull out the newspaper,
partly to protect himself from all the children
and partly to read it.
He would fold out the newspaper fully and then read it;
I don’t know whether he read it or whether he fell asleep
but that is the way he did it.
And I figured out a little trick.
I would slip underneath the newspaper.
Then I would climb up in his lap and I would just lie on his chest.
No sound. No extra energy necessary.
And then I would look up at him.
He would hold me,
he would pull the newspaper over me
and kind of like cover me, hiding me.
Then grab me with the edge of his elbow, holding me up;
and then he would smile at me, a smile of approval.
Sometimes, he would fall asleep, yes.
I always remembered that moment
because I was able to make my father smile after a long hard day.
It was incredibly intimate and tender moment.
I didn’t do it every day because it would be too much
but I would do it a few times a week.
It seemed to work for him and it certainly worked for me.
I didn’t realize how important that
little tender and intimate moment was and what it meant to me
because it assured me that I was valued;
that I was loved by my father.
In Ireland, we are not very touchy-feely.
We didn’t hug or kiss or say, “I love you”
but those moments like that were enough to say in volumes
how much I was loved by my father.
I always remember it because, you know,
later on you sometimes doubt yourself
but I would always remember those little moments
when my father was communicating his love to me
and how I was valued;
not for what I did and not for what I brought to him
but just for who I was, his child.
I think of that image today that tender and intimate moment
when I hear this reading from Luke’s gospel about Peter;
how Jesus climbs into his boat and just sits down and says,
“Pull out a little bit from shore.”
How incredibly intimate that must have been.
Here he was preaching to thousands of people on the shore
and Jesus chose his boat and sat down right next to him.
Peter must have been in awe because he would have been sitting
—talk about front row seats—I mean he was right there.
And he was hearing everything.
Peter’s heart must have swelled to an enormous size,
feeling that sense of intimacy.
What does the Lord say to Peter?
After he does that sort of intimate moment of assurance
that he is valued and he is loved
then he tells him to do what he does, which is fishing.
He says “Go fish.
Go on out to the deep water and put out the nets.”
Peter sort of protests and says,
“Well, no. We’ve already done that
but if you want me to do it, I’ll do it.”
So what the Lord says is this
“Be assured that I love you for just who you are
and go do what you do and I will bring it to life.”
He doesn’t ask us to do anything other than what we do
but he is asking us to do what we do in his name.
And he makes what will be ordinary, extraordinary.
In this case, the catch is so big that
they have to bring in their friends into the house to help.
The idea of recognizing the ordinary is so important
and to recognize the little moments of assurance
that we are valued is so important in our lives.
Boys and girls who are involved in the Cub Scouts,
it is all the little things you do and all those little badges you earn;
they are all trying to assure you of your value.
All those little things matter.
All those little things build up your character to who you are.
And for our part, because you are part of St. Simon’s
and part of a religious community, we do it also for the Lord.
We do not just build up our character
but we do this because we want to be of good character
and good girls and boys in the Lord’s name.
Today we launched the Annual Diocesan Appeal
and here is what I want to say about it:
I have lots of people who protest about the Annual Diocesan Appeal
“We don’t really need that.
We do not use their services
and I don’t want . . .”
And I asked them, “Have you ever been down there?
Have you ever seen the work that the Annual Diocesan Appeal supports?
All the staff that it supports?
And why is it that they are so important?”
The majority of the money that we raise
through the Annual Diocesan Appeal
goes to what I would call “back-office job support.”
It is all sort of non-descript jobs.
The people who process all the back-office work for the Finance office;
the back-office work for the Human Resource office;
the back-office work for the Catholic schools;
the back-office work for the Tribunal.
And I could go on and on about all the back-office work that is done.
If we did not have their work,
then we could not do what we do at the parishes.
We have to acknowledge that all of that hidden work
that they get done is the ordinary work but we need to value it.
We need to say that we value it.
And to say to those people that they matter to us
and that we thank them for doing it.
I understand that we do not always see the work
but it is still so important.
So how do we acknowledge this work?
There are a couple of things:
Some people say, “They don’t do anything for us.”
And that is just simply not true.
We rely on them and over this last year during COVID,
we completely relied on them to get and interpret
all the different rules that were coming at us, often changing daily.
They would bring the different rules together
and help us interpret them especially at the schools and in the parish.
We continue to do the enormous work that we do.
It's a bit like going into an ordinary grocery store
and insisting that the only person
who is of any value to us is the manager
because that is the only person you see.
Then you do not value the clerks who check you out;
or the person who stocks the shelves
and makes sure all the food is there;
or the person who is in the back, receiving all the food
that comes in off the trucks;
or the truck driver who brought all that food to the store.
All of that matters. You do not see it.
It all is built into the price of your groceries but we do not see them.
But it matters to respect that and to honor it.
So what am I asking of you?
There are envelopes at the end of your pew.
I am asking you to do two things:
take the envelope home and to pray about considering a financial gift;
to at least consider giving according to your capacity.
Some of you will be able to give only $30 a month.
Some of you will be able to give $300 a month.
We ask everyone to give according to their capacity.
Also, I am asking everyone to write a note inside that envelope
to whichever office or just in general
and say thank you for all the back-end work that we never see.
Thank you for all the support that we never see
but we rely on them.
All that staff support not just us but all those other parishes;
there are 54 other parishes in our Diocese and the 28 schools.
Some of those parishes are completely reliant on the work of the office.
Here, we might be a little bit more self-reliant
but that is the reason why we ought to support them.
The other question I am asked is:
“Why has our goal gone up so much?”
The formula is quite simple.
It is a formula that is done fairly;
our ordinary income as a ratio to every one else’s income
is what we get as our share of the goal.
Our income went up significantly this year.
Their income went down significantly this year.
So our goal went up a lot.
It is not a mystery.
It is actually a sign that we have done well
but we are also asked to help all the other parishes
and to help the Diocesan staff.
In conclusion, I want us to take that envelope home;
write a note on it and thank them and then make a gift.
For all of us, I would like us to recognize
the ordinary little acts that we do and to value them.
Every single one of us is valued.
Every little boy and girl.
Every man, woman and child is a child of God.
And everyone of us is called to acknowledge the little ones in our life;
to allow them, if you do what the Lord has said,
if the Lord could do it, he would put us on his proverbial lap
and he would hug us and assure us
that we are valued;
that we are loved.
Can we do that for each other in some small way?
Maybe not on each other’s laps
but at least in that intimate way,
that feeling, and assuring people that we love them
for who they are and not what they do or what they give us;
but who they are.
Christ always try to communicate to us
this tender and intimate love to us;
may we accept that and then do the ordinary things
that he calls us to do and to follow him in all that he calls us to do.
“And they left everything and followed Jesus.”
