Catholic Community of Jeffersonville St. Augustine
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Catholic Community of Jeffersonville St. Augustine & Sacred Heart

Homily
by
Father Thomas E. Clegg

3 Sunday C          St. Augustine Sacred Heart               2010

This story is probably familiar to a lot of you,

   but it ties in nicely with our readings for this weekend,

     and so I’ll risk telling it again.

There was an old man walking down the beach after a heavy rainstorm.

   Fifty yards ahead of him was a little girl.

She was picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean.

When the old man caught up with her, he asked her what she was doing.

   She replied that the starfish would die unless they got back into the water

     before the sun began to beat down on them.

“This beach goes on for miles and miles,” the old man responded,

     “There are thousands of starfish stranded on this beach.

        How can your small effort make a difference?”

Picking up a single starfish, she looked at the old man and said,

  “It makes a difference for this one!”

       And then she tossed it into the sea.

To many people, being a Christian is all about what we believe.

   Christian faith is about the creed we profess;

     and you either accept it or reject it.

If one accepts the creed of the Christian faith, then they are Christian.

   If one does not accept the Christian faith’s creed,

      then they are not Christians.

This approach, as logical as it sounds, is fundamentally flawed.

  Because from its humble beginnings, the Christian faith was never about

       a series of propositions that were to be considered

         and intellectually evaluated.

On the contrary, the Christian faith from its beginning was all about

   following the way of Jesus Christ.

      The little girl in the story is an example of that.

Our scriptures are full of examples as well.

   Remember the story of the rich man who wanted everlasting life?

Jesus didn’t tell him; “study this book of our beliefs

    and if you agree with them you can become one of our group.”

Instead Jesus told him how to live,

    “Go, sell what you have and then come follow me.”

The woman caught in adultery: He did not tell her what to believe

    but how to live, “Go, and from now on avoid this sin.”

Jesus took a very practical approach to religious faith.

   He didn’t argue its credibility; he demonstrated its practicality.

We have a further example of that in today’s gospel.

   At the synagogue in Nazareth, he read the passage from Isaiah.

It spoke of God sending a messenger with glad tidings for the poor,

   with liberty for captives, with sight for the blind, and release for prisoners.

Now Jesus could have dealt with this academically.

   When will this prophecy be fulfilled?

      How will that happen?

         What will its fulfillment mean?

But instead of dealing with it academically, Jesus said simply,

   “Today this passage is fulfilled…lived out…in your hearing.”

My friends, we will never be able to understand Christian faith until we

  Really begin to see it in that light.

Jesus did not give many theories about faith;

   He lived a faith-filled life.

And those who might be his followers,

    The rich, young man,

       The woman caught in adultery,

          The people listening to him in the synagogue that day,

They all had a decision to make.

Would they or would they not try this way of living.

That choice has not changed in over 2000 years.

   You and I still face that same choice today.

And it affects every aspect of our lives.

In the “stuff” of living we sometimes get hurt by others,

    Sometimes others hurt us.

Our inclination is to avoid those who hurt us,

   Maybe even try to get even with them.

But then we remember the words of Jesus,

    “Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy.”

       And suddenly we know that we can’t harbor those feelings

           And at the same time live in Christ.

Now we could debate the credibility of those statements,

   But that would miss the point.

The question isn’t whether or not those statements should be true.

The question is can I live my life the way Jesus wants me to live it.

   Can we say as Jesus said, “Today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing!”

Because of us, have the poor heard the good news?

   Because of us, have eyes been opened?

      Because of us, have captives been freed?

Can we say as Jesus said, “Today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing!”

I’m not talking about working miracles.

  I’m talking about small things

    like reconciling with the person we hold a grudge against…

      saying a kind word to a person we know gets ignored….

Making a donation to a charity we’ve often passed by.

Remember the little girl in our opening story?

   The spirit of that little girl is the spirit every Christian should possess.

When someone asks us,

  “With the millions of people in the world crying out for help,

     how can your small effort make a difference.”

We need to reply, “it makes a difference for the one I help.”

If we don’t then we are Christian in name only.

   If we don’t , we really miss the point. 

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