Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Image: JESUS MAFA. Jesus welcomes the children,
from Art in the Christian Tradition, 
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

September 20, 2015

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When I was beginning high school and was still on the first pages of my brand new Latin book, we read a simple story - our first in Latin.

It was a tale about a poor but noble widow named Cornelia who was visited by two of her friends.

Now the friends were described in Latin as femina superba, which sounds like "superb women," but in fact is best translated as "haughty witches."

From the moment of their arrival, these arrogant ladies flaunted their fine gowns and all their costly jewelry - rings, necklaces, and brooches.

Finally they looked down their very long Roman noses and sneered at their hostess. "Now tell us, dear, where are your jewels?"

Cornelia nodded serenely and looked to the other side of the room.

"There are my jewels," she said, smiling at her two young children.

Right on the mark!

It is hard to get our values straight and even harder to keep them straight.

 The apostles make that all too clear in Sunday's gospel as they walk along with Jesus and argue about which of them is the most important!

Is it the fisherman? The tax collector? Or perhaps the future betrayer?

They're all small fries but still they argue about who's the most important!

We all want to feel like winners and look like winners.

We all want to be somebody.

And so, very early on, we try to figure out what it takes.

In the beginning we're pretty sure a shiny, red tricycle or a Barbie with all the outfits would do the trick and make us feel important and whole on the inside.

Of course, it doesn't.

And before long our world gets bigger and bigger and we need sports cars and designer clothes, power boats and electric gates, board memberships and pictures in the paper to persuade ourselves we're important.

Or maybe we go for prizes: a little gold star on my paper now,

And a little Oscar for the mantelpiece later.

I remember when I was working at Notre Dame.

I bought a new MGB convertible.

I would drive down the street with the top down and people would look at me and I was thinking how great I was!

What a feeling!

But whatever our gimmick, it never quite works, never quite satisfies.

As nice as all life's goodies can be - and they can be pretty terrific ­they never leave us feeling quite whole and full on the inside.

Instead, after a while we find ourselves feeling a little sad and maybe even a little betrayed by life.

God loves us very much but knows we're slow learners.

So God helps us get our values straight by letting us feel the sadness that comes when we've invested our hearts in things that cannot fill us full;

 the sadness that comes when we've planted our gifts in fields that can yield no fruit.

Through that sadness and restlessness God is calling us, urging us to plant our hearts and invest our gifts in the only place where they will grow and bear fruit and make us real winners from the inside out.

God urges us to invest our gifts in one another, and to become, like Cornelia in the story, real jewel makers.

It's our opportunity for happiness, our chance to become real winners: by becoming jewel makers.

Let's not let this chance pass us by even one more day!