Deacon Bob Huber

The Virtue of Hope

We have all heard the expression “hope springs eternal.” But what does this really mean? Of the three great Christian virtues, faith, hope, and charity, hope seems the least clearly defined, or at least the virtue on which we focus less. We have a pretty good idea what faith means to us, and we have a pretty good idea what charity, that is love in its various forms, means to us. But hope is a little more elusive in its meaning.

At the outset, we need to clarify what Christian hope is. It is not about winning the lottery, or hoping our favorite sports team will do well. That is faint hope. Christian hope is a confident hope because it is hope for eternal communion with an all-merciful, all-loving, and all-powerful God. Jesus told us that He would be with us always, even to the end of time, and He sent the Holy Spirit to give us the hope that springs eternally in our hearts for an intimate communion with God.

Christian hope is also a desire for attaining something that has not yet been attained, but which is possible to attain. We have a faithful and loving God who keeps his promises, so we have reason to hope that with God’s grace we can grow in holiness, in the perfection of which human beings are capable, and be successful in our journey to salvation.

But sometimes, Christian hope can get sidetracked. Jesus, the greatest human being of all time, suffered, and so Christian hope is not hope that we will go through life and never suffer. We will. Many are suffering now, particularly in this time of serious economic downturn. So hope is not avoidance of bad things happening. While we all work for economic and social justice for people of all ages, Christian hope is not the expectation that life will necessarily be fair. Nor is hope is the anticipation of life without bad things happening to us. The presence of sin in the world prevents that from being possible.

Misplaced hope is the mistake of the hero of the Book of Job, from which we read this (evening) morning. Job was a very successful man, innocent and just. He thinks he is a really good guy, and by all accounts, he was. But Job becomes plagued by unexplained misfortune. He loses his children, his property, and his health. All of this leaves him puzzled and disheartened, and he soon becomes angry with God for punishing him unfairly. He becomes increasingly hopeless.

There is a mystery to suffering. Why do bad things happen to good people? We don’t always have good answers to this. Life can create great obstacles to hope. These are despair, pride, doubt, fear, and impatience. These emotions all feed on each other, and they can be ruinously sinful in the destruction of Christian hope. We see so much injustice and violence and we wonder where God is. There is pride that also misdirects hope. We think we need to fix the world all by ourselves, or decide what needs to be done all by ourselves, and that we don’t need God.

We then fail and then it becomes easy to despair. We can wallow in sin or see only evil in ourselves and others in a way that makes us think that a perfect union with God is impossible. Our failure then turns to fear. Fear that violence and injustice will overtake us if we try to stop it, so just don’t get involved. Fear that what God asks of us is just too much. Fear in relationships when people have hurt us so we don’t want to love again in love’s many meanings. Fear of economic downturn impacting directly in our lives.

In the face of all this is the reality of Christian hope. We do know that God himself endured the most unfair suffering for us through the death of Jesus Christ. But Christ conquered sin and death through the Resurrection. And in the process he enabled us to do the same. God is always with us, and He gives us the tools to grow in holiness, and move closer and closer to His enduring love.

In the Book of Job, God restores Job’s life when Job accepts the fact that to live in hope is also to trust. For God is loving and merciful. God is also all-powerful. We do not control much of what happens to us. But whatever our suffering, and the greatness of it, God gives us the tools to overcome that suffering by joining it to the redemptive power of God. A living hope involves a living trust, a surrender to God by choosing to live our lives in a certain way that is ultimately invincible to suffering just as Jesus was invincible to suffering.

And in that invincibility comes spiritual, sometimes even physical healing. We see Jesus in our Gospel from Mark (tonight)today bringing that healing to Peter’s mother-in-law. The story provides evidence of an all-loving and merciful God.

But every day, we encounter people who are like Jesus. I call them snapshots of heaven. They are the people to whom we are naturally drawn. They endure their suffering, bear wrongs patiently. Even in the face of their own suffering, they always have a kind word and an invincible generosity and love for God and others. I sincerely believe these people carry the hope, the trust of heaven, proof that we can build a better world in anticipation of the next world, and hope that we can get there.

With God’s grace, we can even be one of those snapshots. Our hope is not only individual, it is communal. The great Catholic concept of the communion of saints reminds us that our hope is joined to those both past and present who lived and live Christian hope effectively. The grace they received we can receive as well. Such people build us up and remind us of the confident Christian hope even as we feel the world is trying to tear us down. The saints of yesterday and today follow the example of St. Paul in our second reading (tonight) this morning. They offer the Gospel life to others free of charge.

So how do we live in hope? A formula is available to us. We have all heard of ESP. But there is also 3SP (sacraments, service, Scripture, and prayer). These are the means for a living Christian hope. They keep hope alive in ourselves and others by a life of love and service. Living a life of love and service is how Jesus lived his life, and He invites us to do the same. He gives us through 3SP, the fruits, gifts, and charisms of the Holy Spirit to guide us, inspire us, give us direction, and show us the benefits of hope for own lives and the lives of others.

It is in loving action, the use of 3SP that we come to see the promise of the virtue of Christian hope. For in the final analysis, we not only live in confident hope. With God’s help we live that confident hope.
 

The Lord’s Baptism and Ours

The Christmas season comes to an end this weekend with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. On first glance, it would seem this solemnity is ill-suited for its place in the liturgical calendar. For in the Christmas season, Masses are filled with stories of Jesus’ birth and his very early childhood in the case of the Epiphany. Suddenly, today’s Gospel propels us to the beginning of Jesus’ public life.

So what gives here? Well, the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord during the Christmas season reminds us of three important things. First, the birth of Jesus is only the beginning of the story of Jesus’ impact on all human beings from the time of his earthly life to the present. Celebrating this solemnity now reminds us that Jesus was not just born as a man, but was to redeem the world and provide a practical model for how we should live our lives. And so this solemnity helps us to transition from the birth of Jesus to the life of Jesus that we will celebrate the rest of the liturgical year,

Second, something even more important is happening at the Lord’s Baptism. It would seem at one level Jesus asking for Baptism seems rather a waste of time. For Jesus was God, and was incapable of sin. Nonetheless, Jesus did agree to take on a human nature in order to feel the full intimacy of God’s relationship to humans. He would take on people’s fears, doubts, joy, and sorrow, even suffering death on a Cross. So Jesus’ request for Baptism is part of his loving covenant with human beings.

Jesus’ Baptism in our Gospel according to Mark this evening provides the answer to the meaning of the solemnity and its significance for us. The baptism John the Baptist performs unleashes the Holy Spirit, demonstrating that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. But it gave Jesus’ human nature the ability to do things that no man could otherwise do; to act in a manner beyond human capacity. Our first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah confirms this action of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah tells us that the Holy Spirit will anoint Jesus the servant with power to bring justice on the earth.

Thirdly, the Baptism of the Lord is not just about Jesus. For Jesus not left us with a model for how to live, he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us so that we could indeed live that model of life. The Holy Spirit, through his gifts, fruits and charisms, gives us the same ability that Jesus’ human nature received from that Spirit to also bring justice to the world by the way we live. This is why Baptism is so important to any Christian. For it is the means by which we share in the power and the love of Jesus, and receive the ability to love God and others effectively. Without the sending of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism, we do not have the efficacy of the power of God in our own lives and in those of others. Jesus’ Baptism is joined to ours for the benefit of ourselves and the whole Kingdom of God of which we become a part through Baptism.

One of the main reasons the Church spread so quickly from Palestine throughout the world in the first few centuries after the time of Jesus was the ability of its followers to offer spiritual and physical healing to others. As Christians received Baptism and Confirmation, they were able to address the spiritual and very practical needs of people in a world of great sickness, anxiety, and insecurity.

Over time, we lost touch with our ability to perform such healing as Jesus had taught and empowered his followers to do.  As such, it is good to remember that all of us receive the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. IT IS A MOST UNDERRATED PART OF OUR FAITH. The ways in which we put the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit into action are called charisms. Charisms vary widely in their manifestations. Some can be quite controversial if we do not understand them, like speaking in tongues and performing physical healings. Others like music ministries and skills of administration are far more accepted. But whether we realize it or not, all Catholics, if they practice their faith are charismatics.  We all have the ability to build up the Church and to provide healing, albeit in different forms. 

The late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, and the current one Pope Benedict XVI, neither of whom could be considered blow dry preachers, are both charismatic and spiritual healers.  The very Constitution of the Catholic Church, paragraph 12, says that charismatic gifts “whether they are the more outstanding, or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation, for they are exceedingly suitable and useful to the needs of the Church.”

Now to be sure, there are different kinds of spiritual and physical healers.  Some, like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, combine their spiritual healing with God’s gift of science to perform physical healings.  For others, our abilities may seem less concrete but they can be just as effective, even in professional settings that can hardly be described as religious or spiritual.

Over the past few years, I have tried to show you the power of the Holy Spirit and how it can change lives. I have shared with you the story of a how a small child with 57 cents eventually helped to build a new church, a modern hospital and a research university. Or the story of Rose, the 80-plus year old little lady who went back to school to get her university degree and in the process inspired hundreds of her classmates to live better and more productive lives. The story of a little girl on the beach, who though dying of cancer, inspires a cynical grownup to consider how we are called to love ourselves and others. People contemplating suicide saved by simple acts of caring from others that reminded them that the world was not created to be an evil place. Kindnesses extended to little children that changed their lives and made them loving adults.

Brothers and sisters, I have not brought these stories to you just to make you feel good. The anxieties, challenges, and yes even the sufferings of life are   virulent and strong. There is so much suffering and need. And we can fall prey to indifference.  But every one of us, sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Baptism are given the ability in our homes and workplaces to change people’s lives for the better just as Jesus after his Baptism. God gave us this ability no less in their meaning than that given to the apostles, as Peter talks about in our second reading today.

So start out today by forgiving yourself, your husbands, your wives, your children, your brothers and sisters, your in-laws, your relatives, your co-workers, your neighbors, and anyone else you need to forgive. Ask for their forgiveness. And then, sometime this week, perform a spiritual healing. You won’t need a new hairdo, a fancy suit, or a shrieking voice.  Just ask for the healing powers that God have given all of us to be activated in you. If you do, I promise you; you will feel Jesus’ joy and peace. And you will see the power of the Baptism of the Lord come shining through in your own life.
 

Mary’s New Year’s Resolution Can Be Ours

 Happy New Year to all of you!

I have the somewhat unenviable task this morning of preaching at a morning Mass on New Year’s Day.  So I salute those who are here this morning.  You have decided, on the morning after one of the most intense secular celebrations of the year, to overcome any painful residue of merriment and come and worship the Lord and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary on New Year’s Day. And so as long as you are here, I have decided to reward you by giving you a 45-minute homily this morning! (Just seeing if you are alert!)

As a child, I always wondered why I should have to go to Church on New Year’s Day.  After all, in the midst of all those Christmas cookies, delicious Christmas leftovers, more wonderful New Year’s food to come, and 453 college football bowl games, why did I have to go to Church to honor Mary as the Mother of God.  As a son of devout Catholic parents, there was never an issue of whether we were going.  My father watched all those bowl games, so we usually went to church, oh, about this time of the day. I used to think to myself: of course we like the Blessed Virgin, but why on New Year’s Day?  Couldn’t the Church have found a different day for us to celebrate Mary?  Why not Christmas Eve when she was after all, in Catholic tradition, actually becoming the Mother of God?  But in those days in Catholic families, particularly as a kid, you accepted it because you knew you were exercising one of the few rights of children, the right to remain silent.

Theologically speaking, it turns out my doubts actually had some merit.  In Church history, celebrating Mary as the Mother of God has occurred at many different times during the year. In Orthodox Churches, it is celebrated on December 26, in keeping with the Byzantine liturgical tradition of honoring Mary on days after we honor Jesus. The Coptic Church, a Christian church in union with the Roman Catholic Church, celebrates the feast on January 16.  For centuries in many countries the feast was celebrated at various times. In France, the feast was celebrated on January 18, in Spain on December 18, and in Portugal on October 11. 

In Roman tradition however, the feast was always celebrated a week after Christmas (the so-called octave day, which means eight days; we celebrate it however seven days after Christmas for some reason which even today escapes me; I guess you count Christmas Day when you are counting to January 1). This liturgical decision was put into effect to overcome paganism in the Roman Empire by celebrating Mary as the Mother of God instead of the pagan holiday of New Year, which was dedicated to the god Janus. But while many countries followed the Roman tradition, it was not until 1974 when Pope Paul VI declared that the feast be celebrated universally on January 1.

Despite this chaotic march through Church history concerning the celebration of Mary as the Mother of God, when we separate ourselves from narrow liturgical debate, and think about things with a goodly dose of common sense, celebrating Mary on this day makes a great deal of sense.  For if we are to celebrate anyone on the first day of the calendar year, why wouldn’t it be Mary?

With the exception of the human Jesus, Mary is the most important human figure in our lives and in the lives of everyone throughout the world. Without her discipleship in agreeing to be the Mother of God, our lives would have no meaning.  Each new year would have no meaning.  For it is Jesus’ willingness as God to take human form and die for our sins that redeemed us and opened the gates of heaven for those who wish to follow Jesus. And Jesus’ human form was not possible without the motherhood of Mary.

But Mary was not just a vessel. Mary’s discipleship extended to raising the Son of God as an ordinary human being, to seeing, together with Joseph, to his secular and religious upbringing, to watching over him even he did things like take off and preach in the temple, to enjoying the great honors and great things given and said about her Son and enduring the predictions of his fate, to prodding him to begin his earthly ministry at the wedding of Cana, to enduring the extraordinary pain of watching her Son be declared a criminal and be crucified, to rejoicing at his Resurrection, to accepting John the Evangelist as her adopted son, to strengthening and encouraging the Apostles, before and after Pentecost, to spread the Christian faith throughout the world.

If we think about it further, there is also a distinctively American cultural reason for honoring Mary as the Mother of God on January 1. Americans have a tradition about New Year’s that is widely practiced.  It is the tradition of New Year’s resolutions.  Each year, millions of Americans take stock of their shortcomings and try to improve themselves. We try to lose weight, stop or cut back on drinking, seek to improve relations with family or others we do not like so much, and dedicate ourselves to improving the quality of our work. In my case, I always tell people that my resolution each year is to not only look like Santa Claus, but also act like him!

Most times, these resolutions, despite the best of our intentions, get broken. Even so, the tradition is not really a bad thing.  But we could all save ourselves a lot of time and energy by simply reflecting on Mary’s discipleship on this the first day of the calendar year.  For Mary, as our Gospel according to Luke says this morning, reflected on her motherhood of Jesus in her heart.  It can be said that from the moment the angel Gabriel told her she was to be the mother of God, she made a New Year’s resolution of her own: she would be Jesus’ disciple and be the human model for all who chose to follow Jesus.

And so it is with us, brothers and sisters.  Our reading from the Book of Numbers reminds us that the Lord blesses us and keeps us.  Through Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, his face shines upon us. The Lord gives us the true peace of service-based love to God and one another. St. Paul also reminds us this morning that the God calls us to be his children.

What will be our response?  My suggestion would be to adopt on this New Year’s the resolution of Mary.  Let us be a disciple of Christ every day of our lives.  Let us follow the example of Mary.  God gives us all that we need to follow him.  He instructs through Scripture: love of God and others, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes. God instructs us through the teachings of the Church. And when this special kind of New Year’s resolution in broken, Jesus offers us the cradle to grave health insurance for the soul: the seven sacraments.

And so on this New Year’s morning, let us join Mary in taking a New Year’s Resolution: to be a disciple of Christ every day of this year.  We could even save time and energy.  Let’s make this a resolution not just for 2009, but also for every day of our lives.  For as Mary, the Mother of God understood, it is the only resolution that really matters.   
 

For What Do We Wait?

We celebrate today (tonight) the Third Sunday of Advent. In Church liturgies, this Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday. It marks the halfway point of Advent, a time when we continue our process of waiting for the Lord through greater commitment to prayer and reconciliation for the anniversary of the coming of the Lord at Christmas. The hope we feel that our wait will soon be over is symbolized by the wearing of rose vestments.

Now you have probably heard all of this before. To those of us who have been Catholics for a long time, the idea of hopeful waiting symbolized by the rose vestments is something we sort of accept without much thought. It is also kind of a nice antidote to all that purple we wear during Advent. But (tonight) today, I would like to engage you in thought by asking a rather simple question: For what are waiting?

Many of you know I have often decried the lost season of Advent. Oh, we celebrate it alright, but our secular culture has all but buried its meaning unless we work hard in our faith life to restore it. Having Christmas parties and Christmas trees in the Advent season, taking our lives into our own hands to buy Christmas presents in Advent which we then often take back during the real Christmas season have become some of the more irritating misplaced aspects of the Advent season.

Now don’t get me wrong. Low-key symbolic giving to each other is a fine thing. But there are bigger spiritual issues that should concern us. Advent is indeed a time of preparation and waiting for Christmas but we usually don’t know for what we are waiting. Because if all we are waiting for is presents on Christmas Day, it is no surprise that Advent becomes about Christmas parties and presents and the so-called Christmas spirit begins to fade away at the beginning of Christmas.

What we are celebrating in Advent is the reality of Jesus Christ in the lives of all of us yesterday, today, and forever. And we should understand that our lives both materially and spiritually are better because of the reality of Jesus in our lives.

The yesterday is Jesus’ arrival as a human being on this earth. Jesus’ arrival is foretold by the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today. Jesus was sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God. Through Jesus, Isaiah says, the Lord God will make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, Jews were pursuing a number of means to deal with the misery of their lives. For some, accommodation with Roman authority seemed to make the most sense. This is what the Jewish religious class, the Pharisees and Sadducees did. They basically took the position that if pillage and exploitation were the name of the Roman game, better to go along to get along. Causing trouble would help no one, and keeping the peace, even without justice, was the primary requirement of their role as pastors of the people. And it was a pretty good deal for them, for they could maintain their elitist lifestyle, with its physical comforts and fancy robes and titles.

At the opposite end of the spectrum were the political revolutionaries. These were people, sometimes very religious, who nonetheless believed that God’s covenant with Israel could not be carried out as long as they were occupied by the Roman Empire. They believed that the Empire must be overthrown for God’s covenant to be fulfilled. These were the so-called zealots, which included in their ranks some of Jesus’ apostles and disciples. The most notable of these was Judas Iscariot, who became so angry at Jesus’ rejection of violent revolution that he betrayed him to the very Jewish authorities Judas supposedly hated.

A third group were those who chose self-imposed exile, living in the harshest conditions way out in the desert so as to have a personal relationship with God outside the reach of secular authority. To some degree, John the Baptist came from this tradition. Jesus had great respect for the personal piety of many of these hermits, called the Essenes. But undoubtedly what they sought was escape from, not freedom or justice for their people.

Finally, there was the great silent majority of Jewish society, those who simply lived in despair and exploitation, who gave up any real hope of bettering their lives materially or spiritually, eking out an existence in a most unjust society and taking whatever excitement they could find, moral or immoral.

Jesus’ message represented none of the above responses to deliver God’s people. This was in part why his people ultimately rejected him. Jesus’ message was better than any of the above ways of coping with suffering. It was the message that John the Baptist proclaims in the Gospel today (tonight). Jesus came to free us from the failings of our human conditions and the weakness of human solutions for dealing with them. At the same time, Jesus’ conquering of sin made it possible for us to work with Him in the building of what he called the Kingdom of God.

The term “Kingdom of God” or “reign of God” appears no fewer than 142 times in the Gospels. It transcends any political system, and therefore holds the potential to overcome the weaknesses of all of them. It applies not just to Palestine two thousand years ago, but in every place in the world today, including our own country. It has, little by little, brought at least some justice and a modicum of prosperity and spirituality to millions.

The Kingdom of God begins in our hearts. When we have set ourselves right, living as Jesus did, the Kingdom of God begins to take shape in our communities and our world. The Kingdom of God calls us to insist on equality for all. It places responsibility on all, especially the wealthy and powerful, to ensure the sharing in God’s material and spiritual gifts for the benefit of all, not just a few.

The Kingdom of God places service to God and others above the achievement of political goals of this or that “ism.” It rejects the efforts of political leaders anywhere to turn themselves into self-serving ventriloquists for what the will of God is. It involves prayer, service, sacrament, and the putting of God’s justice into practice. It demands that belief in the Kingdom of God can never be divorced from concern for the fate of all of God’s people not just in heaven but on this earth.

Finally, rather than wallowing in misery and a feeling of desperation about life, living in the Kingdom of God is the seeking of ultimate freedom by serving God and others, by recognizing and advocating personal dignity for all. The Kingdom of God stresses giving in order to receive, for all give of themselves and share in the bounty of God. The joy of being a Christian is knowing that no matter how much we suffer, we can never be separated from the love of God, the Lord of love, who came into this world, to usher in the Kingdom of God. As subjects in the Kingdom of God, we share the authority of the King of the World, for we are all kings in that kingdom.

That brothers and sisters, is what the Jews received in their waiting for when Jesus appeared on the earth. And it is what we wait for in Advent season. It is what we are supposed to be working for and enjoying the rest of the year. Not MP3 players or a big screen TV. Not crowded malls and angry shoppers.

Rather, we wait and work for the Kingdom of God by letting God change our hearts and the hearts of others. Advent celebrates the joy of serving God and others, and the more equitable sharing of the abundance God has given us. It focuses on the need to preserve not just property rights but labor rights, the expectation that to whom much is given, much is expected. The growth in a loving relationship with God rather than worship of material possessions which fade away. The serving of all by public authority not just a few. The preservation and strengthening of the quality of life at all ages. This was the message of the Incarnation (Christmas past). It is the joy and challenge of the Christmas present. Whenever in the course of the last 2000 years, substantial human progress in the quality of life has been made, the principles of the Kingdom of God were at the heart of that progress, whether people realized it or not.

As for the future, St. Paul tells us in our second reading to use all that God has given us to prepare for his second coming. We build and indeed make progress in building a new earth that is the Kingdom of God. We work with God to raise up saints that will populate a new heaven now open because of Jesus Christ’s coming at Christmas. We strive for a growth in holiness in loving God and others by the way we live, the way we strive for a more just and free society. We build Christmas present, while waiting for Christmas future. As the priest says at every Mass, we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

This is what Advent means. This should be why celebrate it. Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever. Let this be the rosy hope of Gaudete Sunday. Let us pray that building and enjoying the Kingdom of God is the real joy of the Advent season for all of us.
 

It’s All About Cooperation

We celebrate today the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In homilies about this solemnity, there are some common themes. We can emphasize for example, that we believe that Mary was conceived without original sin because it seems only natural and right that the woman who was to give birth to a sinless Jesus Christ should herself be sinless.

We can also emphasize that Jesus and Mary represent in the history of God’s saving plan for all human beings the new Adam and Eve. We read in our first reading from Genesis today how both Adam and Eve said no to God’s saving plan. Through their no, sin came into the world. As our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians, Jesus and Mary said yes to God’s plan to restore and extend the loving covenant to all human beings by conquering sin and death.

All of this points are valid points around which to build a homily. There certainly are true. But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees when we look at this solemnity. For what we are really celebrating is Mary’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are celebrating the beginning of the process of Mary’s incredible loving act of agreeing to be the Mother of God. Look at our Gospel from Luke. The love is so clear. Mary feels she is not worthy to be the Mother of the Son of God. She is a poor peasant girl, wondering what this all means. And yet she agrees. She puts others first. She cooperates with the Holy Spirit. And with that incredible act of love, all human beings that follow will get the chance for the intimate communion that Mary had with God.

Undoubtedly, Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and her role as the Mother of God make her exceptional, the most exceptional of all human beings. And yet, we can also overemphasize her exceptionality. When we do, we ironically marginalize Mary’s meaning for own lives. We can put Mary on a pedestal, worthy of praise, but irrelevant to the challenges for today’s people. That would be very wrong.

For in God’s eyes, we are all exceptional. We are all sons and daughters of God. And if we cooperate with the Holy Spirit much like Mary did, we too can do great things.

Many years ago, a little girl lived in a destitute slum area of Philadelphia. But her parents were devout Christians even though they were very poor. They could not even afford to pay for the costs for the little girl to go to the overcrowded Sunday school. The pastor of the church one day saw her on the steps of the church sobbing because she could not go to Sunday school. He promised her that she could go, that he would pay for the costs, and somehow they would make room. The girl was so thrilled that when the pastor announced in church about plans to expand the church and Sunday school, she wanted to help.

Sadly, a flu epidemic swept through her tenement shortly thereafter. The little girl succumbed to illness and died. The parents asked the kindhearted pastor to handle the funeral service. After the funeral, as the parents began to put aside their deceased daughter’s few possessions, they came across a worn-out old red purse. Inisde the purse was 57 cents and a note, scribbled in childish handwriting which read: “This is to help build the church bigger so more children can go to Sunday school.”

The pastor was so moved by the loving generosity of the little tenement girl that he took the note and the worn out old purse into the pulpit at Sunday service. He challenged everyone and himself to get busy and raise enough money for a larger building. Eventually, the newspapers got word of the story. A wealthy realtor offered the pastor a parcel of land for a reduced price. The pastor said they could not afford it. So the realtor sold it to the pastor for 57 cents.

From that 57 cents also came $250,000 in donations from all around the city of Philadelphia and around the country and world. I recently visited Philadelphia and you can see the church that was built; the Temple Baptist Church.You can also can go to Philadelphia and visit Temple University, where thousands of students are educated each year. You can also have a look at the Good Samaritan Hospital. There is also a fine facility for Sunday school instruction, so no one can ever be denied for reasons of space or money. In the Sunday school building I am told, is a picture of the little girl, whose act of unselfish love and cooperation with the Holy Spirit accomplished so much.

Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the remarkable act of loving generosity that Mary undertook and thereby changed the world forever, let us also be mindful of what all of us can also do when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Look at what the little girl’s 57 cents did, and how much more we might do when the Holy Spirit calls us in prayer, sacrament and Scripture to also cooperate for building up the Body of Christ. Let this be the legacy of the girl with the 57 cents,and the girl at the Immaculate Conception.