{"id":2795,"date":"2008-09-20T19:38:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-20T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/homily-for-september-21-2008-25th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html"},"modified":"2008-09-20T19:38:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-20T19:38:00","slug":"homily-for-september-21-2008-25th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/homily-for-september-21-2008-25th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Homily for September 21, 2008: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The middle of last week, I exchanged e-mails with a friend of mine who has what must be the worst job in America.<\/p>\n

He works for Lehman Brothers. <\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t heard from him in several weeks, and given the news of the last several days, I wanted to find out how he was doing. <\/p>\n

He wrote me back, \u201cGreg,\u201d he said, \u201cif this is hell, I really want to go to heaven.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s been working very long hours, and hasn\u2019t been sleeping. Monday night, he stayed at the office and just slept on the couch. He said a big part of his pay is in Lehman Brothers stock, which is now worthless. There\u2019s a good chance that he\u2019ll be unemployed by the end of the year. He has two kids in college. And he asked me to pray for him. <\/p>\n

That kind of story is playing out over and over and over right now. A colleague at CBS passed on to me an e-mail he received from his accountant with the headline: \u201cDuring A Panic, Don\u2019t Panic.\u201d <\/p>\n

Of course, you see something like that and all you want to do is just panic. <\/p>\n

But the upheaval in the country right now isn\u2019t just financial. <\/p>\n

Last week, millions in Texas found themselves without power after Hurricane Ike. Homes were devastated. Thousands had to move into shelters. The pictures were incredible \u2013 boats resting on street corners, neighborhoods strewn with debris. Sewage had backed up onto the streets and mosquitoes were starting to swarm. The mayor of Galveston even warned people not to try to return home. <\/p>\n

Suffering is a mystery as old as time itself. It is impossible to comprehend, or rationalize. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy ways aren\u2019t your ways,\u201d the Lord tells the prophet Isaiah in today\u2019s first reading. <\/p>\n

St. Paul obviously understood that. He yearned for an end to his suffering. Writing from prison, where he faced near-certain execution, he said, \u201cI long to depart this life for Christ, for that is far better.\u201d <\/p>\n

But he also knew that God may have had other plans for him and that, no matter what happened, \u201cChrist will be magnified in my body.\u201d <\/p>\n

And there, I think, we find a valuable lesson that is larger than any storm, more powerful than any plunge in the world markets. <\/p>\n

In our moment of distress, when things seem hopeless\u2026what do we do? <\/p>\n

We can give in to despair. We can torment ourselves with worry and fear. We can lash out or rail against the injustice of life and wonder \u201cWhy me?\u201d <\/p>\n

Or we can make room for something else. We can make room for God and, despite whatever hardship we\u2019re enduring, offer the world a glimpse of grace. <\/p>\n

\u201cChrist,\u201d said Paul, \u201cwill be magnified in my body.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whether he realized it or not, that apostle was echoing the words of the very first apostle, Mary. <\/p>\n

At a moment of great uncertainty in her own life, that unwed pregnant teenager from a poor town gave us one of the greatest prayers in all of scripture: <\/p>\n

\u201cMy soul magnifies the Lord.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

What a breathtaking leap: to peer into the void of your own future, to stare over the edge, and to not see danger\u2026but to see, instead, the greatness of God. To tell yourself: out of this, God will be made even greater. And others will know it. Mary celebrated that. And so did St. Paul. Even in their most anxious and desperate moments, they let God in, and let Him work. Sometimes, it is all you can do. <\/p>\n

The responsorial psalm today reminds us: <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon him.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

I know: it sounds so pretty in church on a Sunday morning. It is hard to remember that, though, when you\u2019re staring at a mortgage that can\u2019t be paid. Or when you\u2019re standing in the middle of a rain-swept street and looking at the ragged pieces of wood that used to be your child\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n

Yet, in Texas last week, some did call upon the Lord. <\/p>\n

Last Sunday in Galveston, 80 people showed up for mass at a cathedral that seats 2,000. It was a great testament of faith. One woman said it was just good to be there and to be able to worship during a time of disaster. The archbishop preached about hardship, and the need for patience and kindness for one another. <\/p>\n

And then there was the story of Pedro and Maria Chavez, who fled their home and found shelter in Corpus Christi Catholic Church along with other families. There, last weekend, unable to return home, they had their youngest child, Guadalupe, baptized. \u201cOn a rainy day,\u201d the godfather said, \u201cthere was a little blessing.\u201d <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of a better way to \u201cmagnify the Lord\u201d than with the baptism of a child, named in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Floodwaters had taken life; the flowing waters of baptism created new life in Christ. <\/p>\n

The challenge for all of us is to \u201cmagnify the Lord,\u201d even when life tries to diminish Him by diminishing us. Doing that requires faith. It demands prayer. It asks us to surrender, and to trust. It\u2019s the same trust that led Peter to climb out of a boat in the middle of his own storm — and walk on water. <\/p>\n

It asks us to hope, even in moments of hopelessness. <\/p>\n

And what are we, if not people of hope? <\/p>\n

We are people who know that the greatest story ever told didn\u2019t end with an earthquake on Good Friday\u2026but continued with the sunrise on Easter Sunday. <\/p>\n

And it continues here, this Sunday, at this altar. <\/p>\n

In a few moments, when we pray the Lord\u2019s Prayer, we will also pray that God \u201cfree us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.\u201d <\/p>\n

My prayer is that this \u201cjoyful hope\u201d will sustain all those suffering this Sunday morning. <\/p>\n

All who are struggling to give shelter to their children, or make a future for their families. <\/p>\n

All those swept up by life\u2019s storms. <\/p>\n

In time, the tide will turn. The waters will ebb. <\/p>\n

And in the blazing light of a new morning, God will be magnified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The middle of last week, I exchanged e-mails with a friend of mine who has what must be the worst job in America. He works for Lehman Brothers. I hadn\u2019t heard from him in several weeks, and given the news of the last several days, I wanted to find out how he was doing. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily for September 21, 2008: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/homily-for-september-21-2008-25th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homily for September 21, 2008: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The middle of last week, I exchanged e-mails with a friend of mine who has what must be the worst job in America. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}