Homily – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) October 12th 2014 Fr. Kevin Dillon If I said to you – ‘Who is Nolan Bushell?’ Would you know who I was talking about? Nolan Bushell is a very wealthy man. He was one of the pioneers of computer games back in the eighties. He founded the firm called ‘Atari’ which you might have seen. Anyhow, he’s a very wealthy man, but – he could have been a lot wealthier because in the eighties one of his employees came to him and said: “I’m starting a firm of my own… would you like to be part of it? For $50,000 I’ll give you a one third share.” Nolan Bushnell said: “No, I’m not particularly interested; I’ve other things to do with my money.” So he passed up the offer. The fellow who made the offer to him was Steve Jobs. He founded a firm called “Apple” which is now worth four hundred and eighty billion dollars! So for fifty grand he could have had a third share which is a hundred and sixty billion. As a businessman he probably looks back at the choice that he made, where an invitation was given, and he passed it up and - well, that was yesterday, and today is today. Another fellow Ronald Wayne was also offered a share in Apple and he was actually one of the three founders. Two weeks after it was founded he sold his share, which was ten per cent of the company, for $800! That would now be worth about forty billion dollars. The stories particularly in this day and age, with technology and so on, there are lots of them where people who had great opportunities and people have come along and said: “Would you like to be part of this?” During the week I was asked if I wanted a share in a race horse. I said ‘no thankyou’ - and when that race horse goes on to win the Melbourne Cup or the Cox Plate I’ll probably be none too happy. Nonetheless we make decisions. Life if full of being invited to things and this parable that we have today has a very obvious meaning in the sense that Jesus was talking about the way in which those who had come before Him, as prophets and heralds and so on as Him as Messiah, had been so appallingly treated. That’s an obvious and important application of the parable. But it also has an application on a more broad level to all of us as we work through the various opportunities that are offered to us, because we are all given invitations… I was given an opportunity to buy a share in a horse. (I did have a share in a horse in the past, and I think I lost more than I won, but that’s what happens.) The tricky bit with invitations is in knowing what to accept and knowing what not to accept. It’s not straightforward when someone asks whether you want to ‘do this?’ Or ‘would you like to be part of this?’ And we might say ‘yes’ - because obviously sometimes we can’t and sometimes there’s something inside us that says ‘this is not a very good idea’. We listen to those stories of people who have lost a fortune because they said ‘no’ when they should have said ‘yes’ … and how many people have said ‘yes’ and lost a fortune, or whatever; or made a wrong choice? The whole notion of recognising opportunities is a very difficult one. A lot of it is to do with attitude. It’s a bit like the ‘glass half full – the glass half empty’ idea. Some people will always see the down side, some people will always see the upside. There’s a story that I read some years ago of a guy who was employed by a shoe company, to go to Africa. He went to a third world country and he sent a message back saying: “No use coming here; nobody wears any shoes.” And so they sent another sales person and he sent a message back saying: “Send me as many shoes as you can. Nobody here wears shoes so this is a magnificent market for us!” Often it depends on how you look at things. Some years ago in the early part of the twentieth century a Belgian priest by the name of Joseph Cardijn, who was eventually made a Cardinal - only for a couple of years. He was in his eighties and it was just before he died. His enormous ability and vision was recognised but he, way back in the early nineteen hundreds, decided on a strategy of developing a ministry for young people, especially those in the work force. And he founded what we now know as the Young Christian Workers or the YCW. It was based on three major areas of activity. He talked about it as “See, Judge and Act”. Some of you have been brought up on that but it was a strategy, and I must say that in forty five years of parish work I’ve never come across anything as good as that. It really was the goods. It was based very much on the sort of things that Jesus is talking about in this parable today, in terms of our day to day opportunities…. there’s three parts to the whole story of making the right choices in life. First of all you’ve got to recognise an opportunity for what it is. Just think about today. What are the opportunites that have been there for you today? Often you might look at the end of the day and think… ‘This happened’… or ‘That happened’… or ‘Somebody rang me. I didn’t see that as having any real meaning.’ First of all you’ve got to see it as an opportunity for what it is; then the real tricky bit is – ‘judge’. What is this all about? Having seen this opportunity is there something to accept; something to reject? Is it something that is a good opportunity or something that is really not worth much at all? Is this an invitation - to go back to Our Lord’s terminology….that I want to accept…..? or is this an invitation that I will say: “No, too busy” or “not interested” or whatever. So we see and recognise an opportunity. We judge as to whether it’s worthwhile, positive, good, helpful; or whether it’s something we want to steer clear of. In the event that it is something that we think is a good opportunity, and we welcome the invitation and something that we really think is worthwhile, then the third step is to ‘act’ …. to actually do something about it. The other day I was talking to the children who were being Confirmed … it’s like the gift of the Holy Spirit; it’s like a present that you’ve got that has remained unopened in the corner, or opened but not used… what good is that? The action that comes with seizing a worthwhile opportunity is always important. And that can be almost as tricky as judging because the acting on that opportunity might still require a lot of courage. It might still require a lot of daring. It might still require a considerable risk and that’s where the help and the Grace of God is always going to be there. But.. ‘See, Judge and Act’ made an enormous difference to young people - I think at one stage, about forty-five years ago when there were over two million people, members of the Young Christian Workers across the world – in over sixty countries. It’s been an amazing movement which has formed any number of people in countries throughout the world. On another level though, the sense of accepting opportunity can have a very personal meaning of just how we value and interact with one another, recognising the preciousness of those people in our lives – where perhaps we don’t really recognise them for what they are and therefore if we don’t see, we don’t judge, and if we don’t judge then we don’t act. It’s on that personal level, also, that Our Lord’s parable of invitation can be taken. I came across this little piece which I felt expressed this quite well, particularly when we go down the track, as I do every week, of funerals, where relationships (in this world) have been brought to a conclusion where family membership has been completed and someone is missing. These words are words of opportunity which perhaps are worthy of thinking about…. We live in an uncertain world. When we leave home in the morning we assume that we will return in the evening. When we say goodbye to loved ones we take it for granted that we will see them again. We presume that they know we love them, so maybe we don’t say the words as often as we should. Fortunately we fail to consider the mortal reality that this may not be the case until it’s too late. Tomorrow does not always come. Someone once said that life if short, so keep short accounts with God. That’s wise advice but we should also keep short accounts with every person who is in the circle of our lives. We never know when life will be dramatically changed; sometimes permanently. Think about it. Don’t allow the regrets of “If only I knew” to be the final marker in your life. Be swift to love; Hurry to be kind; Take time to make someone feel special. Be quick to forgive and realise that in relationships there are two people; don’t hold back. Freely give hugs and kisses and may “I love you” be often on your lips. If only we knew that this was our last hug we would hold that person tight and hope to never let go. If only we knew that this was the last time that I would see that person I would take the time to treasure everything about them. If only I knew that disagreements did not mean a lack of love, I would have been hurt less often. If only I knew that tomorrow wasn’t coming I would ask for forgiveness for any wrong I might have done. If only I knew that this was a final kiss, or hug, I would use it to tell that person how precious they were to me. If only I knew I could never share another day with that person, I would make the most of every second. So, the parable we have today is the number of applications. There is the scriptural, biblical application in the context of the welcome and rejection of those who preceded Jesus and the welcome and rejection that He experienced Himself. There’s also the sense of opportunity that’s given to us each day on any number of different levels, (not just buying a horse for instance)… but any number of different invitations that we need to process. For those…we see, we judge, and we act – and also, very importantly, there’s what we are to one another. There’s the recognition of the fact that all of us are on limited time and so often we act as if we’re not. That sense of treasuring every day as a new invitation and opportunity to love other people is something which is very much at the core of the very wise words of Jesus today. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. *** * ***