JUST  ONE  MORE THING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 20^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Just One More Thing.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

We just heard the gospel story about the young man who approached Jesus and said, “Teach, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”

Jesus backs off a bit and says, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

So the young man says, “Which ones?”

And Jesus says, “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. Don’t bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The young man said, “All these I have observed. What do I still lack?”

I sense that he is saying that in his gut he feels something is still missing.

So Jesus says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”

When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Just One More Thing.”

If Jesus said to us, “Just one more thing….”  What would that be for us?

Do we have that inner sense or feeling, “Something is missing in my life?”

What is that one key comment Jesus would say to us today?

Years ago there was a TV detective named, “Lt. Colombo.” 

He would show up at a murder scene and check things out.

Then when he was heading out the door, he would stop, and come back in and say, “I was thinking….”

He was saying, “Just One More Thing….”

He’d say “I noticed on my way in that there were 3 empty garbage cans in front of the garage door and yet you said you put the garbage out last night and you were out at the store this morning. Did you move them out of the way and then put them back the same way.”

Or he’d say, “There is one chair here in the living room that had floor indentations on the rug, so who moved that chair and why was it moved?”

He’d always have one more thing….

From time to time we get the itch that there’s something missing in my life. I’m doing everything right - but there is something more I should be doing- to be a better parent, church goer, teacher, what have you.

So that’s my point in this homily to ask the Lord in prayer and in thought:
“Is there one more thing I’m supposed to be doing with my life?”

OUR TOP TEN THINGS TO DO

We all have our 10 top things to do as a Christian.

We’re doing them and doing them well.

The inner itch for the more is what I’m looking at.

THE ONE MORE THING

I have something that’s been hitting me the last few years or so.

Do you ever have an inner quest or itch - that’s there in the background of your every day - and it slowly rises to the surface.

Mine is to learn to zip my lip.

Mine is to learn better how to pause more - in that 5 seconds - we have before we say something - especially something that is harmful.

I want to be more conscious of that little voice that says, “Don’t say that. It could hurt that person.”

I want to make that little voice louder.

Not this past weekend - but the weekend before that - I drove with a good friend of my brother who lives in Rockville.  My grandnephew was getting married in Middletown, Connecticut and I knew Marty wanted to go - but can’t drive with his poor eyesight. His wife was his driver - but she just died a year ago or so.

It was a 7 hour trip, so he asked on the way back if I wanted to listen to some stuff he had on his iPhone. I said sure.

So we listened to a program entitled, “Is That What I Look Like?” from This American Life - hosted by Ira Glass.

The program gave some examples about how someone says something about what we look like and it hits us for life.

The first example was that of a lady who goes to a MAC store - Makeup Store - and wants to get foundation makeup - whatever that is. The salesman - and he’s a male - says, “Your next is yellow - but your face is a different color.”

Well, that was the first example of something said about our body that ended up lasting forever.

The second was about a lady in a play. Someone made a comment about her butt - being large - and said, “I thought it was a prop in the play.”

Well, that comment won’t go away.

The last one I remember was about a teacher - and one of the kids in class kept asking about “Jerry” and the teacher’s name was Matthew. Well, he finds out that the kids call his bald spot “Jerry”.  He didn’t know he had one, so he heads for the men’s room and sure enough he has a ball spot in the back that the kids noticed.

Well, I hope I zip my lip more - that I pause more - and say, “Don’t say something that will linger or hurt someone for life.”

So that’s my one thing more.

THE POSITIVE

Then it hit me - what about saying a positive - a compliment - to praise one’s good spots?

Imagine giving someone a compliment - that stays with them all day - all week - best - the rest of one’s life.

I gave that example of the negative from that NPR radio program, This American Life. Give me an example of a positive reminder?

I thought of a wonderful example that I use sometimes when I’m doing a wedding homily and I don’t know the couple - but I want to give something personal and practical.

So let me give this example and close with this example.

A grandfather is sitting on a couch reading to his granddaughter.

She spots his wedding ring and says, “Grandpa can I see your wedding ring? Will it fit on my finger?”

Her grandfather takes it off and says, “Here - try it on.”

He thought that would be cute.

She tries it on and laughs - especially how bit it is on her tiny finger.

Then she looks inside the ring and notices some letters.

“Grandpa what does SSNTST mean?”

She knew her letters.

“Oops,” says her grandpa, “That’s a secret code.”

“But what does it mean?”

“Well, darling, some time when we have a lot of time I’ll tell you.”

“But what does it mean grandpa?”

“Darling, can you keep a secret?”

“Yes.”

“Well, this is our little secret - and you’re the only one who knows about it.”

Well, every time she came over to see her grandparents or vice versa, she would tap his ring finger and wink at him.

But then after about 2 months - which felt like an eternity for her - she told her dad.

He then asked to see the secret code - on his ring.

“The little squealer,” he said. “She told you and I told her not to.”

So his dad told his son. “The story goes like this and I’m sure you can relate to this. After a while, after your mom and I were married for a bunch of years, our life together got too normal - too busy - too stale. So I was talking to a friend of mine - who said, “Come up with a  way to thank your wife every day and do it.”

“Okay, I get that dad. What did you come up with?”

“Well I went to the jeweler and had him engrave inside my wedding ring the letters, ‘SSNTST.’”  

“Okay dad, but what do those letters stand for?”

“Oh” said his dad, “It stands for Say Something Nice To Sarah Today.”

“Great dad, I think I can explain that to your granddaughter and we’ll keep it a secret - and in fact I think I’m going to do the same thing and tell her to watch for it when I give Terri a compliment and I’ll wink to her.”