The title of my homily for December
19th is, “Heroes.”
“Heroes.”
Today’s two readings give us two big bible heroes: Samson
and John the Baptist.
They are placed together here in our readings for today,
because both have similar stories.
Both readings begin with moms who were barren - without
a child - and then there is a promise of a child. After their birth, the story
of Samson and John the Baptist growing up have incidents of surprise and
strange patterns of eating.
And if you put both readings side by side you can see
Luke knew the story of Samson in the Book of Judges. For example Samson’s mom is told to be
careful and take no wine or strong drink and to eat nothing unclean. John the
Baptist in turn is described as drinking neither wine nor strong drink.
Then we read in the Book of Judges and the gospel of Luke
what made them heroes.
QUESTIONS
Do we all have heroes?
In growing up do we all need heroes?
Who have been our heroes?
Then the big question: have we ever done anything heroic?
HEROES
The bible presents us with some amazing heroes.
Our Catholic church presents us with many heroes,
especially the saints.
Our sports world and our world history provides us with
outstanding examples of presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.
Of course there are degrees and disagreements about heroes.
Heroes are big sandwiches with the right ingredients:
integrity, leadership, security, saving others, giving hope to others.
Heroes provide
support, hope, victory, and courage.
They give us nerve. They embolden us. They help us to be unafraid.
They are givers not takers. They are movers and they are shakers.
They teach us how to live and how to die.
MOVING TOWARDS
A CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Heroes.”
It used to be a title just for men - and heroines for
women. Now the title, "heroes" works for both men and women.
Thanks for listening. I want to do some more thinking
about the topic - especially the question, “Who have been my heroes?”
I grew up as the youngest and my brother was the oldest
of us four. Like most younger brothers I lived in my brother’s shadow - but it
wasn’t till his cancer - which began with a doctor giving him the news - ironically - on a Good Friday, “You
have 18 months to live at the most.” I asked him then and there, “How are you going to
deal with this?” His answer: “I’ll let
you know.”
It was how he dealt with death and his cancer treatments
that I realized he was a hero to me. Near his death, he said to me, “You asked
me how I would deal with this. Well, thank God for mom and dad who gave us
faith.” Then he added, “Besides faith, I tried humor. I tried to think only of
others. Also I did my exercise and whatever the doctors told me to do.”
CONCLUSION
So give the idea of heroes some thought.
Check out Davie Bowie’s song, “Heroes” as well as Bette
Midler’s song, “Wing beneath my wings.”
