THE REAL PRESENCE
OF THE LITTLE GUY
AND THE LITTLE GAL

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 33 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “The Real Presence of the Little Guy and The Little Gal.”

We had today’s gospel – Luke’s story of Zaccheus – just a few Sunday’s back – and I don’t remember what I preached on.

Last night when I read this gospel story – the story of Jesus spotting the little guy, Zaccheus, up in the tree – the thought that hit me was Jesus’ awareness of being in the presence of people other people didn’t notice.

He spots Zaccheus up a tree and he invites himself into Zaccheus’ life and home. Then some complain that Jesus’ stays at the house of a sinner.

If there is one thing Luke tells us about Jesus – it’s his uncanny ability to spot people – especially the Little Guy – as well as the Little Gal.

He felt the touch of the woman in the crowd who had blood hemorrhaging problems for 12 years when she touched the hem of his garment in chapter 8.

He begins with the call of the unknown young woman in the tiny hamlet of Nazareth: Mary. In the Magnificat she describes herself as "God's lowly handmaid."

He talks about shepherds as the first to see the new born baby in the stable when Jesus was born. There is no mention of the Magi – that was Matthew. Then he talks about the old man and the old woman in the temple: Simeon and Anna.

His first disciples are fishermen. He reaches out to the blind and those with leprosy. He heals the Centurion’s servant and the widow of Nain’s son.

This is vintage Luke – aware of the Little Guy and the Little Gal.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

This is the Catholic Church – hopefully always aware of the little guy and the little gal. We are a mass of people – all around the world – most of us: The Great Unknown.

Last night I was down at Holy Family in Davidsonville – where a mission is going on. I got there for the sermon before hearing confessions. I enjoyed it because I had the chance to sit in the back and be the little guy and be part of the crowd.

During his sermon, the speaker didn’t seem to mind it when people were getting up – heading for the bathroom or somewhere else and then coming back – little people, kids, and men and women. Up and down, up and down, back and forth, back and forth.

This is vintage Church – to be in the presence of the whole human family – crying babies and old men with having to go to the bathroom problems – or maybe answer cell phone calls for this or that.

I know some priests and some people don’t like crying babies. I always like to tell the story of a baptism of little baby who was born and then died after about an hour at Ann Arundel Medical Center on an early Sunday morning. I got the phone call around 5:30 A.M. The parents of the baby were a couple were here from Western Canada – because the guy was trying out for the Capitals. I left the hospital around 7:15 because I had the 7:30 at St. John Neumann. During Mass I asked if anyone had a baby, please pinch your kid and get him or her to cry – because I was just with a baby that never got a chance to cry.

Or I love a drawing by Rembrandt that I saw – where Jesus is preaching – and this little kid is playing on the floor with some toys – totally oblivious to Jesus – who is up front preaching. It was real. Rembrandt was aware of the real presence of little children on the floor in churches or crowds.

I like to look at faces of folks paintings. I think the paintings by Brueghel are wonderful for this.

Or I like to look at the faces of the background folks in Stations of the Cross. These images of background people – like all the people in the background of our every day. I assume that Jesus was really present to them. He heard the women who are crying in the 8th station and says to them, “Weep not for me but for your children.” What were those soldiers in the 11th Station thinking who nailed his hands to a cross? Were they aware of a person – or was this just a job – a job they had done too many times – and no longer saw a person?

What do toll collectors on the Bay Bridge going east think about all day? I always like to try to make that moment of moment of “Hello! How’s it going today?”

Every day is a day to meet everyday people.

Fascinating – and I hope that all of us who come here to Mass on a daily basis and experience the real presence – the body of Christ in communion – will be really present to the whole body of Christ every day. I pray that all of us who pray to Jesus in the Real Presence in Eucharistic Adoration – that we don’t just see the presence of Jesus in the bread but in the whole body of Christ around this round Eucharistic world.

CONCLUSION

If the real presence of Jesus does not get us to be really present to each other, then we will not spot the little guy and the little guy – people who feel like they are stuck up a tree without a paddle.

We haven’t heard Jesus knocking on our door as we heard in today’s first reading from Revelation [Revelation 3:20].

We haven’t even gotten to the First Station of the Cross yet.

We’re not in communion with the great Mass of humanity yet.

We’re still locked in the upper room – filled with fear or shame – and the Holy Spirit and the Risen Christ has not come through our closed doors and windows yet.

We haven’t hit the road yet with the Risen Lord.

We haven’t heard what Paul discovered on the road to Damascus: The Body of Christ is us. Amen.