09/01/13 Dropping the Pose

Homily from the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"When I get to class the first day on Tuesday morning, when I walk into that classroom, how am I going to walk in? Am I going to walk in with the idea of, 'Okay, I need to keep the pose...', I want to be concerned with how people are looking at me, or am I going to say, 'You know what? I don't need to be caught up in that slavery. I don't need to be posing. I'm just going to drop the act, I am going to drop the pose, and I am going to focus on how to give. I am actually intentionally going to sit next to whomever, someone who doesn't help me, someone who doesn't offer me anything, but so that I can be the one who sees them in the way that Christ shows me to see them.' Because the reality is, here is God Himself, Jesus, and how does He go? He goes, not concerned with His own welfare, but concerned with us. And how does He give? He doesn't give with the mindset that says, 'What can I get from these people?' He goes with the mindset of, 'How can I make their lives better?'"

Mass Readings from September 1, 2013:
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24A
Luke 14:1, 7-14