Homily
for July 13,
2003
Year B -
Cycle I
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. John Carney
Topic: Too Much Stuff
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Gospel Reading: Mark 6:7-13
“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them
out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He
instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick --
no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to
wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, 'Wherever
you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place
does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust
off your feet in testimony against them.' So they went off and
preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they
anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."
I think it was odd that Jesus sent his first evangelists out with no food, no money, no second shirt, not even a change of underwear. Why did he do that? I believe he did it because throughout the Scriptures we see that God empowers people to work in his name, but he selects people that, if the work is successful, it will be clear that it wasn’t their doing. Let me try to explain that. He chose Abraham and Sarah to be parents of a great nation when they were in their nineties, clearly the work of God. Moses wasn’t articulate, yet he chose Moses to lead the people. Jeremiah was too young; Abraham and Sarah were too old. We see that throughout the Scriptures, he chooses people who are weak so that when they do his work, it will be clear that it is his work, not their work. Had he organized his disciples and funded them well and sent them out with a great plan, and they were successful—they were successful. There are a billion of us today alive, more than that, who claim Christ is Lord. But it’s clearly not their credit; it’s the credit of God. When they went out by themselves with no resources of their own, they were also saying, “We trust you, Lord. You will provide. We trust in your providence.” They were more convincing to the people that they met who became Christians. It’s a hard thing to imagine being sent out with nothing.
I was challenged by this Gospel when I read it because I just came back, as you know, from vacation. I went 8,000 miles or something, and I hauled around a bag that weighed 59 lbs. That’s heavy. In and out of cabs and cars, it was just ridiculous. When I unpacked when I got home, I realized I didn’t use 30 pounds of that stuff. Now that’s the definition of stupidity. Traveling 8,000 miles carrying 30 pounds of nothing that you’re ever going to use. I brought my gym and workout stuff. Like I was going to use that, right! I’ll work out, yeah, yeah, right. I have a shaving kit that weighs nine pounds - I don’t know what’s in that thing. I really was convicted because this has happened to me before. I went to France on pilgrimage about six years ago with two friends, one was Fr. George McKenna, a retired priest now, from Chicago. I met George at the airport; I rendezvoused with him in Chicago. He had a valise with him. I said, “Did you already check in your bags?” He said, “No. This is it.” Of course I had my 60 pounds of stuff. We spend 11 days, the three of us, in tight quarters…George just with his little valise, and he had an alb, a stole, a sacramentary, and a lectionary in there as well. I tell you, I never smelled the guy and I was next to him. He was okay. What was I doing hauling 60 pounds of stuff I didn’t need? I think it makes the point.
We have, or at least I have, too much stuff. I think maybe some of you have too much stuff as well. Stuff takes our time, our energy away from us. Stuff can enslave us. We can spend more time and effort with our stuff than with the people that we love and the God that we worship. Possessions can separate us from God and from each other. They separate us from God because when we gather wealth and things around us, we think we insulate ourselves from trouble. The more stuff we have, the less likely we’ll have trouble. In the Gospel we read about the guy who had so much grain he built so a second bin. The Gospel says, that fool, that night his life was taken from him and what good was the second bin? Leave your possessions to your kids who squander them, so spend it first, or give it to them now and watch them enjoy it. So we get this feeling of independence -- we’re self-made, we’re successful, and then the doctor says cancer. Then none of that means anything, does it? Or the doctor says your child is sick and might die. Some of you parents have experienced that; have lost children. You would have given every penny you own, you would have signed a statement of slavery for your child to live. Wealth and possessions can separate us from each other. We don’t need each other as much when we have other stuff. I hear a lot of stories on the Cerro Grande Fire, which clearly devastated this community. It has recovered. It was certainly a tragedy. It caused tremendous grief, especially to those who lost their homes, many of you. Interestingly, over this past year, I spoke to four or five people, who, when explaining the grief of the fire, smiled, and said, “But you know Father, there was a moment there we had nothing and I was free.” They didn’t have any stuff. As a matter of fact, I know a man and a woman who each lost their home in the fire and they met because of that in a temporary place. They said, “How you doing?” Don said, “I ain’t got no stuff”, and Kathy said, “I ain’t got no stuff”, but they have each other. Isn’t that true. Amen. God Bless you.
I don’t want to denigrate in any way the tragedy of that fire, but there’s a couple that is happy and that benefited in some way from it. Possessions separate us from God. I was in Ireland a couple of years ago, and in Ireland there is something called “Ceili”. That’s an Irish word and it means, “just getting together and talking.” Years ago the Irish would Ceili. They would show up uninvited and unannounced in your kitchen. You’d go out to check the cows and you’d come back and there would be four people in your kitchen. Then more people would come and they would gather. It was spontaneous and unplanned. They would tell stories and laugh and I never heard a bit of gossip at a Ceili, interestingly. Then someone would break out a fiddle and an accordion and there would be music and the next thing you know it would be 2 o’clock in the morning. The Irish don’t Ceili as much as they used to because they have found wealth. They are wealthy today, just like we are. Although they are still themselves in many ways, there is a part of them that’s missing now. I first visited Ireland in the late sixties, it was a friendlier place than it is today. It is still friendly, but what happened? Stuff. Too much stuff…stuff that occupies them. It weighs them down.
General Ulysses S. Grant, in the Civil War, when the battle was joined, would take nothing with him, not even a staff. The only thing he carried was a toothbrush because he wanted to be free to exploit any opportunity. I think that’s analogous to being free of possessions for us. We’re free if we’re not weighed down with too much stuff. What I’m talking about, and what Jesus talked about, is not wealth. The Bible doesn’t say money is the root of all evil, it says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It’s our attitude towards wealth that gets us into problems with God and with each other. Jesus tells us in the Scriptures that, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the needle’s eye than it is for a rich man to get into heaven.” There is a needle’s eye gate in Jerusalem. Camels, beasts of burden, couldn’t fit through that thing. They had to be off-loaded of their stuff before they could enter into Jerusalem. We need to be off-loaded of our stuff. You know, you came into this world naked, and you’re leaving naked. My mother used to say, God rest her, that she “Never saw a hearse pull a U-Haul trailer.” I’m going to do that. I’m going to rent a hearse and a U-Haul and just drive around town, and that’ll be the homily for the week. You’ll get out 10 minutes early.
We know this is right and we know we need to lead simpler lives, most of us. Let me leave you with some questions today and ask you to ponder these questions this week:
If you would please bow your heads now, and we will pray. This prayer is from St. Ignatius.
Lord, take. Take, Lord, and receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All that I have and call my own, you have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your Grace. That is enough for me. Your love and your grace is enough for me. Amen.