27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
10 / 2 / 2005 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

”What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him; “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and leave his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

I have mentioned before that one of my favorite cartoons is where Carnegie Hall is packed and filled all the way to the rafters and everyone is anxiously awaiting the beginning of the concert. All eyes are fixed on the figure behind the baby grand or grand piano if it is Carnegie Hall. Behind the piano in an even bigger tuxedo is an elephant sitting on the piano bench. His eyes are rather large and he is looking down at the keyboard. The caption reads,

“What am I doing here? I don’t know how to play this thing!”

Yesterday was October 1st, the beginning of the month of the Most Holy Rosary. We had CCD for grades one through four, not only attended by the students but also by mom or dad. We went over the Rosary and some of the kids knew how to pray it while others did not. I began to introduce the Rosary to those who were not familiar with it; it was foreign to them. I have a very large beaded rosary they can see well, but this small one here is the one I carry in my pocket. Everyone should carry a Rosary in his or her pocket or purse at all times.

With my large Rosary it is very easy to show the children the different bead and prayers so that they can start to understand what the Rosary is and which prayers are said on which bead. They learn what a decade is, consisting of one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be, and at the same time as we go along, to disabuse them of any misconceptions that they might have such as, one wearing a Rosary around the neck, twirling the Rosary, hitting someone with it, or things like this. I bring this up to them so they will be informed of the proper use and the improper use of a Rosary.

The Rosary is like carrying a bible around in your pocket because as the prayer says at the end of the Rosary, we have meditated on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ in praying the Joyful, and Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. There are also the Luminous Mysteries. The Rosary is not something that someone can just pick up and intuit how it is to be used. Some could ask where the head or the tail is, so you have to model for your children how to use the Rosary so they will understand its logic and rhythm. Then after they learn the correct prayers and place them in the correct order, you add in the Mysteries, which are the meditations on the events leading up to the birth of Christ, then the Sorrowful Mysteries, which are events leading up to His death, and then the Glorious Mysteries, which are the events from the Resurrection of Jesus to the Crowing of His Mother in Heaven.

The Mysteries on which we meditate fills out the Rosary and so it takes many years to teach it to someone so don’t expect instant results. Rejoice when results come but don’t expect them because it is a log process to model the Rosary, because while you are modeling the Rosary you are also trying to pray it.

The picture on the front of the bulletin is the same as last week. This is the funeral picture of St. Therese’ of Lisieux, which is the same saint that is featured here in the Church. Maybe you have never had any knowledge of St. Therese’, who is also known as the Little Flower. This name makes her seem so dainty and fragile but she is more along the lines of a Steel Magnolia. Do they have Magnolias in France? I don’t know…we can only pray. St. Therese’ was a Steel Magnolia, very strong and full of fortitude.

The Little Flower is a favorite of mine and of the Church. She was recently named the 33rd Doctor of the Church, which means that she is so wise concerning the teachings of the Church and able to communicate this wisdom to others around her. She is most helpful. She is a Doctor of the Church and her “Little Way” is famous. I have heard about St. Therese’ now for many years. People have asked me from time to time if I’d ever read the “Story of a Soul”. I found out that it was the biography of St. Therese’. Her Superior made her write the autobiography under obedience. I was asked the question so many times I finally bought the book and would start to read it.

You know, the fair just started recently and one of the big attractions at the fair is cotton candy. Imagine if you will, going to the fair and eating an 18-wheeler full of cotton candy with no water. This is the experience I had when I began to read the Story of a Soul.

“Water…water….aggggg, water!”

It was too sweet so I put it down. I got the same questions again from people asking me if I’d read the biography so I would pick it up and try it again. I would get a few pages ahead of where I was the first go round and had to put it down for fear of diabetic coma. [Laughter] It was just so sweet! I thought that girls and women would like this kind of thing but that it really was not practical for men. So after a few years had gone by and I’d gotten the sugar out of my system I tried it again with the same results. I then bought the Story of a Soul on tape. Someone had probably said a prayer for me. I finally listened to this book on tape and I “got it”. It finally occurred to me what St. Therese’ was saying in her autobiography. She would talk about her father and how influential he was in making her a saint and helping her to be holy and pure. She spoke of her mother the same way as well as her sisters, Marie, Celine, Leonie and Pauline. She spoke of her aunt and uncle, the sisters and the priests.

Instead of the book being so saccharin and sweet, I began to finally hear that she was crediting everyone around her for helping her on her way to sainthood, for helping her to learn about holiness and in a sense, putting her to work. “Story of a Soul” is worth reading if you can break the code. What she is saying is that she had very good models to understand the Christian life and its work. Therese’ studied those models; her mother during those five short years she was alive, her father, sisters, extended family, priests and nuns.

The model of St. Therese’ herself is a valuable model today because there was nothing extraordinary about her, nothing. So, why are we talking about her? Why are we presenting and promoting her if there was nothing special about her? St. Therese’ was an ordinary person who did small things with extraordinary love and in this we see the secret of the “Little Way”.

In “Story of a Soul” St. Therese’ admits that she was very, very sensitive; she wasn’t just very sensitive, she was over sensitive. Of course we understand this because we can see how sensitive women are, that is how we (men) see it. Women have amazing antenna for something sensitive; they just note everything. Men just walk right past things women will notice

Woman: “Did you see that?”

Man: “What?”

Woman: “That!”

Man: “Oh that!”

Woman: “Gasp! What am I going to do with you?”

It is so funny because at all the Masses only the women laugh at that part. Men do recognize that women are incredible sensitive, but St. Therese’ wasn’t just sensitive, she was overly sensitive as a small child and she had to work against being over sensitive to the people and events around her.

Father holds up a book

This is a book on the life of St. Therese’ of Lisieux titled, “St. Therese’ of Lisieux, By Those Who Knew Her”, written by Christopher O. Mahoney. Whenever a “cause” is opened for the Canonization of someone to be made a saint the church does an investigation. They talk to everyone they can, the friends, enemies, neighbors and family members. They ask many questions. When it came time for St. Therese’ cause to be presented to the Church, they interviewed the sisters in the convent that she lived with. Some of these sisters were her biological sisters and who knows you better, excluding the parents, than a sibling? So this book contains the interviews of those who knew Therese’.

Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart was the oldest biological sister of St. Therese’ and in the book she is asked questions and also makes comments about the saint. She speaks of the time when Therese’ was very young.

“Even when she was still very young, Therese’ loved to give alms to the poor. Therese’ did it with a compassionate and respectful expression on her face as if it was our Lord Himself she saw in His suffering members.”

This is very insightful at such an early age. You know how hard it is to get kids to part with their money when they are little. Try to borrow money to pay the paperboy with the promise to pay it back and the child wants to know when you will repay them. Possessive, right? Anyway…

“When she was ten she asked her father if she could go and care for a poor woman who was dying and had no one to help her. She wanted to take some food and clothing to another woman who inspired her with particular compassion because the woman was burdened with several children.”

Not everyone has the good fortune to have a Fr. Paul as a child so evidently these children were a handful and the lady needed help with them. Pause for coughing, I understand. Of course St. Therese’ was doing all of this because she wanted to be famous. Uh, no…not at all. A few weeks before she died, which was September 30, 1897, Therese’ confided a secret to her sister, Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart. She said;

“If God were to tell me that I would have a very great reputation if I were to die immediately, but that if I died at the age of twenty-four my reputation would be less at His pleasure, much greater, then I would not hesitate to reply, “My God I wish to die when I am twenty-four because I am not seeking my reputation but your pleasure.”

She had her priorities straight and understood that she was given work to do. The last few weeks you have noticed that the emphasis in the Gospel is on work in the Vineyard of the Lord. In the First Reading today a man puts a hedge around a vineyard, hewed out a vat and then builds a tower. What is a vat for? A vat is a place to put the grapes and they are then pressed. Then from the grapes comes the juice from which the wine is made. You can’t make wine without crushing the grape; it is just not possible. So Saint Therese’ understood that suffering in her life was not accidental and it wasn’t God chasing her to squash her like a bug but, having meditated on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ and having seen this modeled for her in the sufferings of her parents, family and extended family, St. Therese’ has been a good student and learned quickly.

Again, going through the account of her life and getting to know St. Therese’ is always beneficial. Her biological sister, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart talks about something that happened when Therese’ was about ten years old; her fortitude showed itself right from her early years. When she was reprimanded she never made excuses.

“One day she received a severe scolding from my father for something that was not her fault but she did not utter a word in self defense.”

Maybe you have gone to the Mall and you have seen these six to eight year old kids who are really lawyers, right? His father bends over and says,

“Stop pushing your sister!”

“I didn’t push her!”

“I am sorry but I saw you push her!”

“I did not!”

They argue as if they were little eight-year-old lawyers. My dad had a solution for this, it hung in his closet and sometimes he would wear it around his waist. I guess they don’t make them anymore.

When St. Therese’ was scolded by her father at the age of ten we must remember that she’d lost her mother at the age of five. She loved her father dearly but he had it all wrong, he had the wrong man…or daughter in this case. Saint Therese’ didn’t say,

“Bbbb..But…but…but…”

She imitates Christ and accepts her suffering.

“The day my father decided that Celine should take painting lessons, he asked Therese’ who was barely ten years old, “And you my little queen, would you like to learn to draw too, would that please you?”

Oh gee, painting lessons…yeah! Right? You can just imagine her heart soaring. She ended up being quite an accomplished painter and some of the things that she drew and painted are still at the convent in Lisieux. So because Therese’ father had asked her older sister Celine in a family setting if she wanted to take painting lessons he offers it to Therese’ as well. Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart was there, she was the oldest sister, and she says,

“Not realizing that I was going to be the cause of her making a great sacrifice, I intervened and said sharply, “No, that would be a waste of money. Therese’ doesn’t have the same aptitude for painting as Celine does.”

Therese’ was shot right in the heart and said nothing.

You may run into people who are forty or fifty years old and one of the first conversations you have with them is,

“Hi, what is your name?”

They tell you their name and say,

“My parents didn’t teach me piano.”

“I am sorry? What?”

“Yea, my parents didn’t teach me to play the piano.”

“So, when did you move out?”

“At eighteen.”

“I guess you went to university and studied piano or have been taking lessons all your life.”

“No, I still don’t know how to play the piano!”

Thrown into a dungeon without a piano? Therese was not allowed to take painting lessons but she didn’t fall on the ground and pull out her hair. She suffered and offered it up. People err when they look at the Little Flower and see someone so weak and sweet. She was sweet and gentle but not weak. She was tremendously strong.

Look at the funeral picture of her on the front of the bulletin. See how the flowers are arranged around St. Therese’ and form a crown on her head after she died? Some of the nuns in the convent were very creative. When Mother Genevieve passed away they laid her out in the parlor in preparation for her funeral Mass and the Mother Superior told St. Therese’ to arrange the flowers around the body of Mother Genevieve. She gave Therese’ a lay sister to help her. Now this lay sister was below Therese’ station and was there to just offer help. So here is St. Therese’ working quietly and doing a nice job arranging all the flowers around the body of Mother Genevieve. The lay sister evidently has a axe to grind and says to Saint Therese’,

“Obviously these flowers have come from your family. You are putting them in front of all the others and disregarding these flowers of the poor.”

And then it says that St. Therese’ scratched out her eyes! Oh wait a minute, I misread. See what happens when you drift off? You aren’t sure what you heard. The situation with the lay sister and the flowers sounds like the beginning of something worthy of the WWF, right? St. Therese’ and the lay sister in a death match, right? Marie of the Sacred Heart said,

“I was wondering what Sister Therese was going to say to such an unfair comment, but she looked affectionately at the Sister and quickly hastened to satisfy her wishes by bringing the less beautiful flowers to the front.”

This is the same thing you or I would do in that circumstance, right? Right? The last days of the St. Therese’ life were very difficult days. She had tuberculosis and there was nothing that could ease the pain. One of the saddest symptoms of this disease is throwing up blood and this is what was happening to St. Therese’ while in the convent without a lot of pain relief as we know it. Three days before her death when she was tormented with fever, her sister, Marie of the Sacred Heart was there at her bedside. When someone can’t take medication you always want to make them as comfortable as possible, giving them their favorite things. Here is what Sister Marie says of those days.

“Even though she had a high fever she didn’t ask for ice water nor would she ask for some grapes when someone had forgotten to leave them close by where she could reach them. I noticed her sacrifice when I saw her looking at her empty glass so I asked Therese’ if she would like some ice water.

“I would very much,” she replied.

Marie said,

“Mother Superior has obliged you to ask for all you need; do so out of obedience.”

Therese’ answered,

“I ask for all that I need but not for what gives me pleasure. I would not ask for grapes either if they were not there.”

None of this is extraordinary, it is all ordinary stuff done with incredible charity. The virtues that we read in the Novena Prayer to St. Therese’ says,

“St. Therese’, you are so pure…St. Therese’ you are so good…etc.”

All of the virtues in the life of St. Therese’ were modeled by those around her and she picked it up and was a quick study. That is exactly the kind of work that is expected of us in the vineyard. St. Therese’ was squeezed; in fact, in the case of St. Therese’ it was the grape squeezing the juice out of the grape to produce wine. When the owner of the vineyard came back for St. Therese’, she had produced much wine and much fruit.

How many of us can look at an average week and find even forty hours of work in the Vineyard of the Lord? For parents it should be quite easy, one hundred and sixty eight hours in the week…one hundred and sixty eight hours in the Vineyard of the Lord. Parents are tried and tested almost beyond their limits every day.

I remember a summer day when I was thirteen or fourteen…a terrible age. Anyway, I had nothing to do. You should hear alarms going off by now, a teenage boy with nothing to do in the summer. It was about three or four in the afternoon and I walked out into the garage. No, I didn’t clean the garage although it needed to be cleaned. Did I clean it? No! Instead, I was looking around out of boredom and looked over and saw an air-conditioner. It wasn’t moving; it was a defenseless air-conditioner huddled over in the corner cringing. It noticed that I saw it. I walked over to the window unit. We had two that cooled the entire house but my dad had this one in case one of those went out and we could just slide the old one out and slip the new one in and still have air-conditioning.

So, I walked over there and I was looking around bored, and do you know what was sitting on top of the air-conditioner? An ice pick!

“Well, you know, I have heard that these things are full of Freon, I wonder if it’s…psssssssssssssssssssssss.”

All the gas was coming out. I remember that day when my dad came home after a long days work.

“Dad, can you come out in the garage for a minute?”

“What’s up?”

“Just come over here, uh, air…condit…uh…pssssssss.”

My dad is looking down at me and I am so amazed that he didn’t say,

“YOU DID WHAT? WHAT?”

My dad asked me,

“Why did you do that?”

I gave him the answer. Teenagers today never, ever use this answer today, but back then it was the only answer we had. No teen ever says this to a parent today. When he asked me why I did it I looked up at him and said,

“I dunno.”

[Laughter]

The incredible patience of my father…I am just surprised that one of my sisters or my brother didn’t have to call 911.

Children have to see these virtues modeled in such a strong way that they are quick studies. They have to see these actions in your lives as parents, and if not in your lives then in the lives of extended family.

The Lord expects us all to be working in his vineyard and if we are working according His plan and model then others will see how things are done especially if they have wondered how to do them. They will see that suffering is not something that is extrinsic to life, but because of Original Sin it is part of our everyday life. He expects us to produce much fruit.

Look at the Gospel for today where Jesus is speaking to the Chief Priests and Elders, who had zero faith in him and who would plot to kill Him. Jesus asked them a question.

“What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when He comes?”

They didn’t answer, “I don’t know”, but answered correctly.

“He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.

In the Second Reading St. Paul says to look at him, imitate him and look at what he does. St. Therese’ is held up as a model for you and me to imitate in many ways. We have to study her and learn from her. Like St. Pio when he was on earth, St. Therese’ also said that she would not enter the gates of Heaven until all of her spiritual children have entered first. Doesn’t that sound like a mother and a father? The children go first. All of the everyday sacrifices that are called upon us, yet we drag our bottom lip around on the ground because life is so unfair.

“It is not my turn to clean the table. It is not my turn to wash the car and mow the grass.”

You can just fill in the blank. Our Lord wants us to be producing much fruit. The reason the vat was dug was because He expects much wine to be produced but it can only be produced when the grape is crushed. Look at the life of St. Therese’; the Little Flower allowed herself to be crushed over and over in the Imitation of Christ and following His example. She didn’t know how to do this at first but she learned from His example while others prayed for her.

For those who would rather not clock in, for those who would rather not do the work in the vineyard, for those who would rather not embrace suffering and for those who would rather avoid all of this, just read the last line of today’s Gospel.

“Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the people that will produce its fruit.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen