(audio of Homily #136b - 10am)
(audio of Homily #136a - 8am)
When athletes train for boxing, martial arts, or
basketball, we hear stories of their humble beginnings. Bruce Lee lost many street fights; Manny
Pacquiao came from extreme poverty before training in Manila, and Steph Curry
was an overlooked recruit because he was considered too short even at a few
inches above six feet. Whether it’s Lee,
Pacquiao or Curry, all three of them have one thing in common: The early seeds
of their humble beginnings grew into a great tree of excellence that the world
sees today.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus asked, “To what shall I
compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?” Well… the Kingdom of God is like an athlete
in training. You and I are that athlete. Just as these 3 figures grew from their small
seeds, so too you and I spiritually train and grow in the game of life with God.
Our training started when the mustard seeds of faith was
planted in the ground of our souls through Baptism. Then, over time, we learned the basic rules
of the game, such as boundaries, what we can or cannot do, and the rule book of
God’s Commandments which we learned make us happy and help us love the game.
This seed grew into a strong trunk when we nourished our
training with our First Holy Communion, and the Communions after that which produced
many strong branches. These branches rooted
in love for God grew into serving and loving others. The leaves of our merits and delicious fruits
of joy followed. And boy oh boy, it took
a lot of discipline, didn’t it?! As it
is written in the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, “It shall
put forth branches, and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it.”
But sometimes, dear fellow spiritual athletes, we didn’t
want to come to the heavenly training gym called “The Lord’s Gym of Sunday Mass”
to exercise our muscles of faith. And perhaps
whenever we missed our Sunday-Mass-spiritual-workouts for only an hour, it later
showed during the week because our spiritual muscles atrophied. Perhaps the few birds of that once to us for spiritual
help did not want to stay on our weak branches because we cannot give to other
birds what we ourselves do not have. Or
maybe our powerful left boxing hook of personal prayer like the rosary or other
personal prayers were not fully well-developed yet.
On the other hand, we noticed that whenever we worked
out frequently in “the Lord’s Gym of Sunday Mass,” this helped us little by
little overcome those sloppy moves in the boxing ring of life. In training, we also learned that we can’t always
be on the spiritual defensive (just doing the bare minimum) and that if we are
not progressing forward then we are regressing backwards.
I mean, what if Bruce Lee just kept blocking and blocking
and blocking without punching? Then he
would lose. What if Pacquiao kept dodging
and dodging and dodging without punching?
Then he would lose. What if Curry
just played defensively and didn’t shoot the ball, there he would lose.
The point for Father’s Day is this: We must proclaim
the Kingdom of God. We cannot simply be reactionary
or be passive waiting defensively to when God or the Church or our families are
attacked— we will lose. But, esp. dear
fathers, we must be proactive and share the good news about the Kingdom of God in
our own little “domestic churches”. We are
doing this right now by working out in “the Lord’s Gym” today at Mass to ask the
Heavenly Father, the source of all fatherhood, to bless us, to heal our
mistakes as fathers, to heal and forgive the “father wound” from our earthly
fathers, and to pray for our fathers at Mass whether living or deceased.
Some examples of being proactive in the game
are reading Scripture, praying every day, and consecrating our families to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must also trust in the Sacrament of
Matrimony. This is why we should be
married in the Catholic Church for us Catholics. We receive graces and help needed [for marriage
and family according to God’s plan]. There’s
a website listed in the parish bulletin called ForYour Marriage.org which will enrich
marriages. After my diaconate
ordination, Deacon Bobby Peregrino told me, “The best thing you can do as a
deacon isn’t homilies or assisting at the altar, the best thing you can do as a
deacon is to bring your family to Mass.”
The Kingdom of God is like an athlete in
training. Whenever our pre-season game
of life had a big loss with our sins, we quickly need to go back to the spiritual
locker room of the Sacrament of Reconciliation for healing [PAUSE] and a good
spiritual shower— to get back up when our chips are down during half-time. And like good athletes, we get back up by verbally
admitting our faulty plays with our priest-coach in Confession. “Father Coach” encourages our downtrodden
soul to make the 3-point upright moral life and not give up and quit the game [even
when we’re down by 30 points]. And perhaps
this season we didn’t win, but the next season [pause for effect] of Lent or
Advent we will try again to win and do better. Perhaps we may yet make it to
the semi-finals of overcoming 2 of the 3 habitual sins in our life that season
(like avoiding that quick temper or avoiding that affair at work), so that our
record moves from being zero for three to being two for three.
Finally, my dear fellow spiritual athletes, the seed
of our training prepares us for the Championship Finals of our Judgment Day. As Coach St. Paul wrote to Team Corinthians
from today’s Second Reading, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ.” [I, as a father, will be accountable
to God for my children on my Judgment Day.]
Here, esp. us fathers, we must not only be champion-saints ourselves,
but we are called to help others in our families be holy champion-saints, too. The birds of the sky that dwell in the cool shades
of our Christian fatherly love are our very wives and kids and others in need
of our fatherly role. Let our children be
the championship trophies; let our grandchildren and godchildren be our championship
rings; not gold or silver, but flesh and blood with souls that are destined for
Heaven. Heaven! Let us fight for their salvation! Let us be their spiritual champions. Let us train well in the Lord’s Gym.
The Kingdom of God is like an athlete in
training. The athlete is the smallest of
seeds, but once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants, so
that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.
[Happy Father’s Day!]
Amen.
“The Kingdom of
God is Like an Athlete in Training”
(Homily #136 w/Message for Fathers on Father’s Day)
By Deacon Dennis
Purificacion
June 17, 2018
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