TALK IS CHEAP

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Friday in Ordinary Time  is, “Talk Is Cheap!”

We have heard that message all our lives - and we’ve said that all our lives.

How many times have we heard dozens of people describe someone else: “He talks a good talk - but he’ll never do anything about it.”

How many times have we said the following - in loud - silently - inside our brain: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard you say that before.”

Then we add our own little twists of the message - like, “The proof is in the pudding.”  The proof is in the emptied dish washer.  The proof is the garbage taken out. The proof is in the cleaned garage and the washed car for the other.

It’s a theme in the folk wisdom of every culture.

I didn’t have time this morning to look up Aesop’s Fables and see if he has a fable with this as the moral of the story: “Talk is cheap!” - but probably.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

We have - as they say - the heart of James’ message in today’s first reading.

James says: “We say to another. ‘Best of luck. Stay warm. Hope you get something to eat.’ Then we do nothing.”

He’s saying: “If that’s our song and dance - and we say or think we have faith - we’re kidding ourselves.”

Faith is footwork. Faith is time consuming. Faith costs. Faith calls for action - service.

We’re aware of kids saying, “I was just about to do it,” but they never do,  do it.

So that’s James’ bottom line: “Faith without works is dead.”

Mouth without follow up - is hot air.

 TODAY’S GOSPEL

Isn’t that what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel?

His message is giving: Giving one’s life. I like it when we use the word “time” - giving one’s time - bummer.

I don’t know about you - sometimes the phone drives me crazy - because it usually means - someone wants me - and that means time and many times I tell myself, “I just don’t have time.”

Well, what else does Jesus mean but that - when he said in today’s gospel,

“Whoever wishes to come after me

must deny themselves
take up their cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
What profit is there for one 

to gain the whole world
and forfeit their life?
What could one give in exchange for their life?”

Jesus says that 100 different ways.  

For example, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the 3 who bypassed the man who needed help on the road, had their reasons in their mind - why they couldn’t help the man who was beaten up. 

So another word for gospel is inconvenience.

CONCLUSION

So we come to Mass to hear the secret of life. It’s dying to self. It’s giving one’s body, one’s blood, to others. It’s saying to everyone - Here I am take me - and then letting people take our time and presence.

Or as Mother Teresa told her nuns, “Let the people eat you up.”

Or as Nike says it, “Just do it.”