A Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
One day an old professor was asked to speak as an expert to some large North American corporations on personal time management. He decided to try an experiment. Standing before a group ready to take notes, he pulled out from under the table a large, empty glass vase. He placed a dozen tennis-ball-size rocks in the vase until it was full. When he was not able to add more rocks he asked those present: “Does the vase seem full to you?” and they all answered “Yes!” He waited a moment and then asked: “Are you sure?”
He again bent down and pulled a box full of pebbles from under the table and carefully poured the pebbles into the vase, moving the vase a little so that the pebbles could reach the rocks at the very bottom. He asked: “Is the vase full this time?”
His audience, having become more prudent, began to understand and said: “Perhaps not yet.” “Very good!” the old professor replied. Again he bent down and this time picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the vase with care. The sand filled all the spaces between the rocks and the pebbles.
He then asked again: “Is the vase full now?” And they all answered without hesitation: “No!” “Indeed,” the old professor said and, as they expected, took the pitcher of water from the table and poured it into the vase up to the brim.
At this point he looked up at his audience and asked: “What great truth does this experiment show us?” The bravest of the group, reflecting on the theme of the course — time management — replied: “This shows us that even when our schedule is full, with a little effort we can always add some other task, some other thing to do.”
“No,” the professor answered, “It’s not that. The experiment shows us something else. If you don’t put the big rocks in the vase first, then you will never be able to put them in afterward.”
There was a moment of silence and everyone took in the evidence for this affirmation.
The professor continued: “What are the big rocks, the priorities, in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Defending a cause? Accomplishing something that is close to your heart?
“The important thing is to put these big rocks on your agenda first. If you give priority to a thousand other little things — the pebbles, the sand — your life will be filled with the meaninglessness and you will never find time to dedicate yourself to the truly important things.
“So, never forget to pose this question to yourself: ‘What are the important things in my life?’ Put these things at the head of your agenda.” Then, with a friendly gesture the old professor bid farewell to his audience and left the room.
To the “big rocks” mentioned by the professor — health, family, friends — we need to add two others, which are the biggest of all, the two greatest commandments: love God and your neighbor. [I am borrowing this story from Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household]
The two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor, seem so very easy, but they are so very challenging for many of us. The main reason we struggle so much in loving as God calls us to love is because God does not call us to love with merely human love. Rather, God calls us to love with Divine love. Human love is tainted with pride and self-interest. Divine love is selfless and sacrificial. Human love is too often limited by our own prejudices. Divine love is universal.
Of course we cannot give what we have not first received. In St. John’s First Letter we are reminded that the source of all love is God. This is why the first commandment that Jesus cites in today’s Gospel is to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind, and all one’s soul. We must first open ourselves up to the love of God, and in return totally love Him. Loving God is not nebulous. It places demands on us. Loving God means that we are in a relationship with Him and desire to do all that He has told us to do for our happiness. With love comes responsibility and the necessity of making sacrifices for the other. Pope John Paul I, in an imaginary letter to St. Francis de Sales, define love of God this way, “…the man who loves God must board the ship of God, determined to accept the course set by his commandments, by the guidance of those who represent Him, and by the situations and circumstances of life that he permits” (A. Luciani, Illustrissimi, pp. 106-107). Divine love unites us to God and makes us abide in Him as He abides in us. The principle ways for us to participate in the divine love that God gives us is by receiving those gifts which Jesus has given His Church that enables us to keep in a loving relationship with God, namely, the sacraments. How can we say that we love God if we do not worthily receive Holy Communion frequently, and experience God’s mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation?
The first fruit of this divine love, our abiding in God and He in us, is charity towards others. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Love of neighbor is not meritorious if the neighbor is not loved because of God” (S. Th. II-II, q.27, a. 8). We must love our neighbor because they are made in the image and likeness of God, just as we are. We must love them as God loves them; in fact, in loving our neighbor it really should be God’s love shining through us. Christian love is not just “being nice,” or philanthropy. Without God’s grace, our philanthropy is limited and will only sacrifice so much. In order for us to love our brothers and sisters in a divine way, we must have a conscious love for God foremost in our minds.
The key is to keep our priorities straight. First we must love God with all our being, then our love for all people will be pure. We would do well to follow the counsel of St. Teresa of Avila who wrote this lovely poem:
Let nothing disturb thee;
let nothing dismay thee:
All things pass;
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.
[St. Teresa of Avila, Complete Works, III, Poem IX]
