IT’S  A  WONDERFUL LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this October 2^nd, Feast of the Guardian Angels is, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

It’s the title of the wonderful 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

It’s on TV every Christmas for at least the last 50 years. And I've often heard high school kids like you say, "I love that movie! It's part of Christmas in our house every Christmas."

It’s a wonderful life.

It's listed as one of the top 100 movies of all time. I've seen it listed as #11.

Hopefully every one of us says at least once a month, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone of us went home today and said to our parents, “It’s a Wonderful Life!”  and then added, “Thank you.”

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone of us said to one of our teachers, “It’s a wonderful life. Thank you for  being part of it.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every one of us said before we went to bed every night, “It was a wonderful day God. Thank you.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone of us said every morning as we woke up, “It’s another day God, wonderful, thank you.”

As you know - the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” is on TV every Christmas season - at least 10 times. It’s the story of a very generous guy named George Bailey - who works in Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. George helps all kinds of people and is loved by the whole town - except for Mr. Potter.

In every story there always seems to be an antagonist - someone who goes against the protagonist - the good gal or guy.

George’s Uncle Billy brings $8,000 to the bank to deposit it. He’s distracted - thinks he deposits it - but doesn’t. Leaves the money there in the bank and Mr. Potter the bad guy finds it - but hides it - and George is in trouble.

That’s the movie. George realizes when he can’t come up with the money and people in town will go down - so he wants to commit suicide. He wishes he never existed.

ANGELS

In the meanwhile an angel appears.

Angels don't have bodies - yet we picture them - with robes and wings and angelic smiles.

Angels are messengers.  You might have heard about a question philosophers used to ask in the middle ages, "How many angels can sit on the head of a pin?"

If angels are messengers - we can say that there are millions and millions and millions of messages flying around us right here, right now in this church. Cell phone messages, iPhone messages, radio messages, millions and millions of messages are flying around our pin heads all day long - and we can hear some of them if we have a receiver.

Some messages - hopefully most messages are angelic, wonderful, encouraging, but there are also demonic, gossipy, evil, ugly messages as well.

I'm sure you've heard in religion class there are good angels and bad devils. They fly around whispering messages into our consciousness.

Listen to the good voices. Chose good choices.  

Today is the feast of our Guardian Angel or Guarding Messenger. 

I would like to describe our Guardian Angel as the whisper, the voice, to see life as wonderful and make it wonderful for those around us. 

In the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, it’s Clarence - an angel - who is sent to save George - and he does - showing George all that would have happened if didn’t exist.

Without ruining the movie any further -  but I will ruin it at the end of this homily. I take that back, you can't ruin this movie. Well George discovers he is loved - that he is necessary and that “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

It’s a wonderful life.

BAROMETER

I like to use the image of the barometer. It tells us the weather - what’s going on in the atmosphere.

I like to ask folks to come up with a barometer for their marriage, for their job, for their life.

I think the statement, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a great barometer.

Kids like to write words on their hands. It could be the name of the person they love or an answer for a test.

I think the statement, “It’s a wonderful life.” It should be written on our hand and if someone asks us the secret of life, cheat, and read the answer on our hand and say, “It’s a wonderful life.”

Clarence taught George Bailey that message.

There are people out there who say every other day, “It’s a horrible life.”

I was reading the papers this morning to see if they have come up with the motive of this guy who killed those folks in Oregon at a community college. I’m willing to bet that he walked around thinking, “It’s a horrible life.”

BEING WONDERFUL

I would like to say that the call of life is to be wonderful and how do you do that?  Answer: make life wonderful for those around us.

How do you become wonderful: each day see all the wonders that surround us.

When someone sees us, do they say, “I want to sit with that person at lunch.”  “I want to be next to that person at a game.”

I want people who come to my funeral to say, “Andy was a wonderful person - a wonderful priest.”

I hope every teacher here has that as their goal, “I want to be a wonderful teacher.”

Does any teacher want to be a loser - a disaster? Of course not.

Well, to a wonderful teacher, student, person, priest, principal, you have to do what Jesus kept stressing: be welcoming, understanding, serving, giving, forgiving, caring to and for others.

A WONDERFUL GUY

I did a funeral yesterday of a wonderful guy. His funeral ceremony - and the eulogies - spelled and yelled that out loud and clear.

About a month ago his wife asked me to go see him with her in a nursing home. He was basically shut down - from a rare form of Parkinson’s disease.

On the way to the nursing home, I asked how they met. I love that question. Well, his wife told me that she was on a date with this other guy and she spotted Jerry.

She said to herself, “What a wonderful guy!” and she asked him if he could go on a date with her. Being a wonderful guy he asked the former boyfriend if he could. The guy said, “Yes.”

In the drive to and from the nursing home she told how wonderful a husband he was for 50 years this year. She told me that he did great things in his life in the Aerospace Industry - developing materials for going deep out into space and coming back home. She told me how much she wanted to see him at the nursing home as much as possible - because she loved him so much. 

No she didn't sing the song, "Wonderful Guy" but those were her sentiments.

CONCLUSION

A barometer of a wonderful person is to be a person that others want  - in their life - at their table - in their conversations - on their teams.

Remember the movie, My Cousin Vinny. Vinny is a disaster as a lawyer for his nephew. He falls asleep in the courtroom. He can’t figure out what to do. But surprise, he comes around and becomes so great, that his nephew’s friend dumps his lawyer and says pointing to Vinny in the court room, “I want him.”

Be so wonderful that people say of us, “I want him.”

Who doesn't want to be with wonderful people?