WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE
WHEN YOU GROW UP?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this feast of Christ the King is, “What Do You Want to Be When
You Grow Up?”
That’s one of those questions that has been asked to young
people since the beginning of time?
“What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?”
PARENTS
Parents certainly have high hopes for their kids. They
might make suggestions - but they don’t want to have kids who are unhappy for
the rest of their lives - because they end up trying to make their parents
happy - and they are not.
Yet - sometimes a
kid - later on - thanks a parent for being stubborn and for pushing them into a
career - they didn’t want at the time - or entering into in a family business
or what have you.
Different folks …. Different strokes …. Different stories
…. Different surprises.
I just heard a story the other day about a guy named
Steve. He finished college and with great joy he says to his dad, “Dad I got a
job!”
His father says, “What job did you get?”
“I’m going to be a garbage man.”
His father says, “I helped send you to a great college
and you end up being a garbage man.”
His son says, “Dad, there’s always going to be garbage!”
He did that and moved up from picking up garbage to
picking up a pen and clipboard - to a great executive position in New York City
in the Sanitation and loved his job.
Don’t
you love the poster and the quote by Martin Luther King Jr: “If a man is called to be a
street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and
earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job
well.”
WHAT KIND OF A WORKER ARE YOU?
Hopefully we all do our job well and we give our employers
their money’s worth.
I remember hearing John Shea giving a talk in Chicago
about a talk he gave in Dallas, Texas.
He said something I have tried to keep in mind in every homily I give.
He was scheduled to speak at 10 AM at a convention in a big hotel. He goes down
for breakfast at 8 AM - gets his breakfast on a tray and looks for a table.
He sees a guy sitting by himself and asks, “Mind if I
join you?”
The guy says, “Sure.” Then he asks Jack Shea, “Are you
here for the convention?”
Jack Shea says, “Yep!”
But he doesn’t really introduce himself as one of the speakers or what
have you.
They get talking and the guy says to Jack Shea, “I always
look for two things when I come to these conventions. I also look for them in
most books that I read. I want to hear something about work and relationships.
That’s where we spend most of our lives - except for sleeping.”
Jack Shea said he finished up his breakfast - faster than
usual - said to the guy, “Nice meeting you. Thanks for your comments about work
and relationships.”
And he said he moved fast to get upstairs and revamp his
talk to include big time those two topics: Work and relationships.
So here I am in this homily talking a bit about work.
How are you doing with your work and your relationships?
What did you have in mind about those two areas as you
were growing up?
Did you want to be when you grew up: a quarterback, chef,
veterinarian, garbage man, teacher, engineer, airline pilot, nurse, window washer, stained glass window maker [now that would be a great job if you want your work to last - the windows on both sides of our church here are well over 100 years old], mechanic, spy, tennis champion,
photographer, farmer, race car champion….
Did you want to in your relationships to be a good friend
and to have great friends. Did you want to be married with a wonderful spouse
and great kids.
TODAY IS CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY
Today we celebrate Christ as King ….
But as today’s gospel puts it: it’s not a title that
Jesus seems to be after or sort of like….
Pilate says, “Then you are a king?”
Jesus says back, “You say that I am a king….”
We read in the gospels about Mary and Joseph wondering,
“What’s going to happen with the child.” The Gospel says that Mary pondered in
her heart all that was happening.
It’s the same story with John the Baptist and various
characters in the Old Testament.
Preachers on the feast day like to talk about what kind
of king Jesus was: he washed feet, healed people, fed people, helped people see
better.
Jesus tried to
point out what kind of king, queen, priest, prophet, we ought not to be: one who is all ego - all self - or one who gives bad example.
What do we want to be when we grow up?
What skills do we have? What do we love to do? What do we
hate to do? What do we have to do?
I can’t cook - but I can clean pots and pans. I watched the whole meaning of life take place
in one day - just the other day: Thanksgiving Day. I was with about 35 people -
family at Virginia Beach - and I saw my
nieces and their husbands going out and coming back with bags and making phone
calls to supermarkets to others about things they forgot - desserts bought and brought and baked. I saw
folks cooking and connecting - the whole story of life. We had a nice Mass at a
gigantic table in the beach house they were renting and on that same table we
had our meal.
Work and relationships….
The Mass is a meal and a key word for the Mass is
eucharist - which is the Greek word for thanksgiving.
That’s why we’re
here at Sunday Mass - to give thanks. That’s what this Past Week was all about.
Give us this day our daily bread - and turkey and
cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies.
Give us this day our daily words - our conversations - our
stories - our news. We talked about everything - yes politics - yes jobs, yes
trips, yes a new baby and another on the way.
I was wondering what these young college kids who had
graduated - what they were starting to do with the rest of their lives.
They were telling me some of the things they want to do
and be as they are growing up.
I hoped and prayed they would have religion - a
relationship with God - with Christ - probably not as king - but a servant - a
giver of his body and blood to us - a wisdom figure. I worry about a few of
them who find religion boring or they have left church because of the scandal
and all that.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily was, “What Are You Going to Be
When You Grow Up?”
Some of us are on our way - some of us have a long way to go - some of us look back and
celebrate our choices and some of us have our regrets - knowing we can still
wash pots and pans and feet.
