We had already learned of his incarnation in Mary, one of the poor of that time.  The poor and outcast of society witnessed his birth and he was baptized in the Jordan River by a preacher named John the Baptist.  Jesus began his ministry by choosing apostles and delivering to them a series of teachings that gave hope to the poor.  He taught them and he said, “Woe to the rich; woe to those who have full bellies.”  His Beatitudes were totally foreign to his disciples and those around him. He taught them to uphold the poor and hungry. He encouraged them to love their enemies, to forgive one another, and to be merciful.  All of these teachings were totally different from what they had been hearing from the Law of Moses.

To accept Jesus' teachings, his disciples needed to be convinced that he was who he said he was – The Son of God. It was difficult to really make sense of these teachings that Jesus was espousing at that time.  He got their attention by doing great deeds, by doing miracles and healing.  He showed them that he was greater than the nature and fertility Gods of the Canaanites that they were so fascinated with.  He showed that he was greater than the Gods of the Romans and the Gods of the Egyptians that seemed so powerful.  He showed them that he was greater than nature as he calmed the seas and walked on the water. He miraculously fed thousands.  But that only seemed to get their attention for a moment.  He continued his teachings, his miracles, and healings as they continued on his final journey south to Jerusalem. 

There came a time when he no longer was showing his greatness through great deeds and miracles.  His teachings began to point back to his original teachings – his Beatitudes.  He began to reflect that his kingdom was for the lowest of the low.  To the Samaritan leper he said, “Get up. Go, your faith has saved you.”  The leper was the lowest of the low.  He showed mercy – the prodigal son was an example of that. He talked about the poor widows and how they would obtain the Kingdom of God.  He encouraged his disciples to be less rather greater.  He favored the children who came to him.  He showed his love for Lazarus by raising him from the dead. He taught his apostles a very important lesson that they never did understood – to be servants to each other.  They were to make themselves vulnerable by kneeling to each other and washing each other’s feet.  Peter would not have it done but Jesus said to him, “Unless you do this you will not have life within me.” 

Jesus then entered Jerusalem on a donkey and gave the greatest gift that he could possibly give to us at the last supper - he gave us his own Body and Blood.  He went on to demonstrate how serious he was about doing all of this for the poor and for the weak when he made himself totally vulnerable by giving himself up on the cross.  He taught us to strive for the ideal of loving one another as he had loved us.  We were to seek the greater by becoming servants to one another and by becoming weak.  This required total self-giving rather than self-serving.  In other words, we could not be selfish. 

When I was very young, it was a different era down in the Gila Valley in southwestern NM. There was a house in every canyon as you drove up the river.  Every house had a dog and in time everybody knew the name of every dog going up the river.  As you went driving up the road, you could say, “that's the house of Pit, that's the house of Fido, that's the house of Fluffy.”  That was that era. After all, dogs at that time were very important and knew their role.  Their role was to guard the chicken house.  They had to guard it against the skunk, against the coyotes, against the foxes, against anything that came over – anything.  They took it very seriously, these dogs. They were a very important part of each family.  The dogs knew that they were very loved and needed by each family. The families did not feed them the dog food of today, they just fed them the scraps off the table.  This was the life of a dog. 

There were some people who had the king of the dogs.  There was this one person who had a great big dog. He wasn't a St. Bernard but he was the same size as a St. Bernard. I can remember so well that he sat on the top of an old pickup cab where he had been chained because he was so big.  He sat up there and you would know when that dog was going up the river because every dog came out barking back and forth, This loud barking went on and on and you knew that that was Charlie driving his pickup with Rex on top. It was fitting that he was named Rex because he was the king of the dogs. Every now Charlie would say, “Who is the mightiest dog in the valley.” Everyone knew it was Rex.  So every once in a while somebody would challenge Rex. Charlie would say, “Sic him” and they would have a tremendous dogfight.  Understand that this was different era.  Charlie would go to the bar and say,  “Boy, did Rex do this and that to that little mutt” and he went on like this for years.  This was his life.

Then one day, he had Rex up on the cab. It was getting late in the evening and about that time, as he was driving back up the road, a cow went out in front of the pickup and he had to stop really fast and Rex slid off the cab and broke his leg.  Charlie was really upset about this.  He was so upset that he went and shot the dog.  He could not stand to see that his mighty dog was now crippled.  He could have fixed Rex’s leg but then he would not be king of the valley any longer. The people were so upset that he killed the dog.  He would go to the bar and say, “I did it for him.  I loved that dog. I did it for the dog.”  The dog's leg could have healed. Everybody knew it. Charlie kept telling these stories of Rex’s fights but it just wasn't the same; nobody listened.  He did this for years and he began to get depressed. One time, he fell down and broke his hip. After he broke his hip, he would still go to the bar to tell the stories of Rex but nobody listened to him. He died a sad man.  He had taken away the very thing he loved so much and that loved him because he was so self-centered that he missed out on the greater because he chosen the lesser. The lesser being his own ego, his own self-centeredness, his own ability to tell stories about how his dog was king of the valley.  In other words, that this was his life and the dog had failed him in his eyes.  But, the people looked at him and knew he had failed them. 

In today's Gospel reading, we are taught to make ourselves vulnerable to God and to one another as the tax collector did. We are not to deceive ourselves by being self-righteous and by being self-centered as the Pharisee was.  The Pharisees met all the legal requirements: they sat in a prominent place in the synagogue, they prayed with apparent gratitude to God, they thanked God, they fasted, they prayed for hour upon hour, they tithed and this Pharisee meticulously observed the letter of the Law of Moses.  But he lacked one thing: he lacked true humility, humbleness before God and those around him.  He was full of pride and had contempt for the tax collector.  That was his life and he deceived himself into believing that he was so great. 

At this Mass you are given the opportunity to become vulnerable to God by lifting your hearts up to Jesus on the cross.  We can become more vulnerable by being with Jesus, if even for a moment by sharing the cross.  We make ourselves vulnerable to one another by showing our faith in Jesus.  Catholics who go out and actually are proud of their religion, their faith, are looked on many times with scorn.  You make yourself vulnerable by showing your faith.  Priests and deacons - we make ourselves vulnerable by coming up here, standing in front of you and giving a homily and many times taking a chance of making a fool of ourselves and many times we do.  But that's what we chose to do and we have people who sing, people who are readers, all the ministries.  We can all do things that make ourselves look foolish.  But we do it for one reasons and one reason only: because we love Jesus.  We are willing to look like fools for Jesus. We're clowns for Jesus.  We love the church and in so doing, we make fools of ourselves.  But that's part of faith. We love each other.  We love you and we seek eternal life for each one of you and that's why we are willing to make fools of ourselves. 

Just before we receive Communion we offer each other the sign of peace.  “Peace be with you,” we say.  Jesus said, “My peace I give you.”  And what was his peace?  Jesus gave everything up to the Father because he totally and completely loved the Father.  And he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Father loved him and so he had peace and so he offered that peace, even from the cross.  We can have that peace ourselves, when we make ourselves vulnerable to God and to each other. 

So today, “Peace be with you.”