Wisdom
of Solomon 3:1-9; Psalm
24; Revelation
21:1–6a; John 11:32-44
A
homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given
at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon,
Illinois on Sunday, November 4, 2012.
“JUST
WHAT (OR WHO) IS A SAINT?”
We begin our homily with a bit of
humor this morning…..
It is Saturday morning, and the line
outside the confessional booth is quite long.
The door opens, and the good Father
hears someone sit down on the other side of the divider. The unknown person begins, “Bless me, Father,
for I have sinned.”
After the usual preliminaries
involving the length of time since the individual’s last confession and other
formalities, the Father asks, “What do you have to confess, my son?”
The man says in reply, “Oh, Father,
you don’t understand…one day last week, I was driving through town and passed a
construction site. There, on the ground,
was a wonderful pile of brand new lumber.
Being a carpenter, I could appreciate the quality of that lumber. I was overcome with temptation, loaded up
that pile of good wood, and I stole it.”
The priest launches into the
standard lecture about “Thou shalt not steal,” and assigns some penance. He ends with the admonition, “Go your way and
sin no more.” The carpenter leaves.
The following Saturday, as usual,
the line outside the confessional booth is, again, quite long. One by one, the penitents make their way into
and out of the booth. Then, at the end,
is the unmistakable voice of the carpenter:
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
No need to ask how long it’s been
since the man’s last confession….Father knows exactly how long that’s been.
“What do you have to confess, my
Son?” Father asks.
In reply, the man says, “Oh, Father,
it’s me, the carpenter again. You see, I
was driving down another street in town where they are building another new
house, and I saw another really good-looking pile of lumber….well, you know the
rest of the story: I was overcome by
temptation, loaded it up, and stole it.”
The priest is beginning to think
that he’s not getting through to this wayward man, so he makes the “Thou shalt
not steal” lecture a bit sterner this week, ups the amount of penance, and
sends the carpenter on his way.
The following Saturday, despite the large number of parishioners who come seeking absolution for their transgressions, Father notes with joy that the carpenter wasn’t in the line that morning….He thinks to himself, “Perhaps I finally got through to that guy.”
However, after the lapse of that one
week, the carpenter again appears on the other side of the divider, saying,
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
This time, for the third time, it is the same crime as before: more stolen lumber.
Father is exasperated…. “What should
I do to get through to this guy?” He
pauses for a moment, says a silent prayer, and then asks the carpenter, “My
son, do you know how to make a Novena?”
The carpenter says, “No, Father, but
if you can get the plans, I can get the wood!”
Now, you may be asking, what does
this joke have to do with being a saint?
After all, it is All Saints Sunday, the occasion that comes to us once a
year to focus in on the matter of sainthood, and to give thanks for all the
saints, those with capital letter “S”, and those with a small letter “s”, whose
lives have shown forth the holiness of God.
Having mentioned holiness, it might
be good if we pause for a moment to note that the dictionary definition of
“saint” involves the idea that a saint shows forth holiness of life. Put
another way, we could say that sainthood involves being a godly person, a
person who shows by what they do and what they say that God’s image is shining
in the person’s actions and speech.
Being a saint has to do with an integrity of life, that sort of living
that involves not only what a person says, but what they do, day in and day
out. Here we come to a good illustration
in our joke this morning of the wrong path to sainthood: The carpenter recognizes that he’s done
something wrong in taking the lumber, and realizes he needs to seek God’s
forgiveness, but he can’t seem to apply that knowledge to his everyday
actions….there’s a disconnect between his words, “Bless me, Father, for I have
sinned,” and his inability to keep the commandments of God which show forth the
signs of living a holy life.
St. Francis of Assisi is believed to
have said something like this: “Preach
the gospel. If necessary, use words.”
Francis’ wisdom remains today: Those around us will recognize that we are
saints (OK, saints with a small “s”) by the way we behave and by the things we
do, more often than by the words we utter.
Why is this so?
Perhaps the reason is that our
actions are often the first and most reliable indicators of our innermost
thoughts, conceptions and ideas. Others
can see what we do, long before they have an opportunity to hear what we say,
in many cases.
Living a life of integrity, that
state where our deeds are matched by our words, is – in essence – sacramental living. If we recall that a Sacrament is defined as
being “An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,” we can
see that the outward appearance of our behavior ought to mirror the inward
disposition of our thoughts, attitudes and outlook on life and on others.
Of course, that was the heart of the
carpenter’s problem, wasn’t it? And,
while we are returning to the carpenter’s problem, we should also notice that
it was in the time of temptation and trial that he failed the test of
sainthood. Oftentimes, saints are most
easily seen when the times of testing come.
Then, the saints of God shine most brightly.
May we, by the grace and power of
the Holy Spirit, be able to bind our hearts and minds so closely to what we do
and say that others will be tempted to exclaim, “I’ve seen a saint in action!”
AMEN.
