32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - 32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
NOVEMBER 5-6, 2016
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM, 10:30 AM (SUN) ORDINARY FORM MASSES

Today is the start of Vocations Awareness week. Everyone has a vocation, that is a call … placed on their lives from God. God created each person with a purpose, and it is up to us to sift through the chaos of life and follow Christ … not only as clergy or religious … but also as spouses, parents, and singles.

I can trace my own call to the priesthood to the young age of 4. My parents were in the habit of seating all five of us kids in the front row so that we could see what was going on. As a toddler, there’s nothing worse than staring at the back of somebody’s head and wondering what everybody else is looking at.

Back then, in the 60s, the Mass was the old way. And in the summer of 1966, my youngest brother was born – so we all ended stuck in the back row with the baby. For the rest of the summer, I would attempt, mostly unsuccessfully, to get to the edge of the pew so I could look down the aisle at what was going on up front on the altar. Most of the time, I’d make too much noise, and be picked up and taken outside; or else I’d be told to sit still and be quiet. One Sunday, however, I managed to make it to the end of the pew. I was able to lower myself over the edge and onto the floor. Looking back, it seemed that nobody had noticed.

At that point, I saw my chance. I made a break for the front of the church, sprinting as fast as I could, hoped to reclaim my spot back in the front row.

Of course, my dad was faster … and scooped me up … and took me outside … where I wailed at the injustice of it all.

Off-and-on, we would play Mass, wearing a bathrobe or a blanket, with a beach towel around the neck … two flashlights pointed upwards on the coffee table in the place of candles; and then … the process of making hosts by smashing marshmallows between the pages of the dictionary or phone book … with Hawaiian Punch serving in place of wine … a handkerchief and a dish towel for altar cloths.

I’m not sure that we ever made it completely through a Mass before somebody ate all the marshmallows or drank all of the Hawaiian Punch; but I remember that we at least tried.

I was an altar boy, and sang in the choir or lead the music off and on. I also served as a Minister of Communion and a Lector, and helped with Jail Ministry.

Even with a job or while in the Navy, I did what I could at the local parish.

I got a lot of advice … much of it contradictory. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone. No two marriages are the same. And similarly, no two priests or religious are the same.

Eventually, I started taking night school classes in Theology and Philosophy, and after two years left my job to pursue full-time studies. And after seven years of school, I was ordained a priest.

The bottom-line to all of this is that when God calls, it’s not a one-shot deal or a lightning bolt, but usually there are threads and paths that connect throughout your life. It was less of my choice to go into a certain job or profession and more the choice to finally listen to God’s voice and answer His call … the call that God placed on my life from before I was born.

Through all of this, God knew what He was doing … My job was to figure out what it meant for me … and how I was going to follow Him.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us pray that we will all listen to … and hear … the voice of God … who calls us to follow Him in a variety of ways. A vocation is a calling, and that doesn’t always mean priesthood or religious life. The vocation of spouse and parent is a challenge. And living as a faithful single person is not always easy.

And so, let us pray for each other … that our hearts may be directed “to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.”

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