Homily

It happened at the Safeway. I took my cans there this past week. I took them to the bottle return machine. Trouble. Just like these last two times I was there, the machines were broken. "Out of Order," the sign said. But there was a teenaged Safeway employee there, and he was counting the cans of the woman ahead of me who had brought her bottles and cans in numerous garbage bags. I did not allow myself to get disturbed by this unhappy chain of events. "I will be patient," I told myself. Everyone once in a while, I felt the initial stirrings of anger start to well up within my bosom, kind of like when you feel a little nauseous but you're not sure if it's going to get worse or not. Thankfully, I managed to squash those tiny, baby thoughts before they grew into teenagers and I avoided the bitterness and frustration they had planned for me. I was extraordinarily patient. Cool as a cucumber. I checked my phone. No messages. I thought, "This would be a good time to pray for the sick." And it was. I forced myself earlier not to look at my watch so I could not be outraged by how long I stood there waiting for him to finish counting her bottles. One cart is now full. He leaves to go fetch another shopping cart. Finally, the end is here. "388 bottles," he announces.

Wait a minute. The store sign says they will only take 144 returns from a customer per day. A number from the Book of Revelation (times 1,000.) "Don't go there," I warn myself. "Do you have a piece of paper?" he asked the lady. "I think so," she says as she begins to dig into her purse. Digging, digging—she finally finds a scrap of paper and he writes down her count.

My turn. I have three boxes of cans, each holds 12 cans. "Thirty-six," I tell him. I thought that was obvious, but he replies, "Okay, I will trust you." I feel a little stirring inside me again, but I tamp it down. "Do you have any paper?" "No." "I'll have to go get some." "I'll go with you,"--and into the store we went. We're at the Customer Service area and he begins opening one drawer after another in search of paper. He finds none. I am very calm, even after he opened the same drawer for the third time and it still had no paper in it. I notice a wastebasket in front of me, with a large sheet of paper on top. I pick it up and one side is blank. "How about this?" I suggest to him. "Okay," he replies, as he begins to write his authorized bottle count on the sheet, hands it to me and goes back outside. Thirty-six cans times 5 cents equals $1.80. All that for $1.80. But I had kept my patience throughout and that was a much more valuable thing. Then I look at the paper. He has written "$1.55." I know not why. I was still standing in a pool of calmness. I'll come back to this later.

In today's epistle to the Corinthians as St. Paul is getting to the end of his letter, he tells them, "Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Act like men!" What does he mean by that? Well, probably more than one thing, but the central theme of Paul's letter is unity—union with Christ, unity in the family and especially unity in the parish. The Corinthians had allowed divisions of different kinds to take hold of their Christian life together and it was having a bad result on the community and preventing them from growing in faith.

Often one image of male power we see in films and on TV is the guy who comes on the scene, ready for action and he begins to start doing his thing no matter who or what may be around him, and the action is fast and furious. I don't think that is necessarily a sign of masculine maturity. Any three-year old can create chaos. But being a source of unity, being a person who looks to bringing people together, that takes real courage and strength. A true man is someone who wants to make his marriage stronger, to help his family become more loving, more united, and more peaceful. He is the guy who looks for harmony at his job and never tries to create division or bad feelings between people. He's ready to take one for the team, especially at home, if taking that hit will help to make things better. He sees the "us" before he sees the "me."

I was thinking about what other qualities might come under Paul's command for the Corinthians to "act like men," and I thought of patience. How very, very patient St. Paul was with the Corinthians. They were unbelievable, those parishioners. They weren't like you guys. As soon as he turned his back, they were at it again, fighting, arguing, trying to be seen as better than others, turning back to their pagan ways and splitting up into groups, each one thinking they are superior. Paul comes and lays a great foundation for them and as soon as he leaves, they begin to tear it apart. Paul doesn't mind correcting them and even yelling at them sometimes when he needs to, but even so he shows great patience over and over again.

I think of the patience shown by our Lord as he Preached and healed and taught the people. He was constantly misunderstood not only by the people He wanted to save, but even by His closest disciples. There are some places in the Gospels where He shows His disappointment and His frustration with the way people react to His good news, and the way they react to Him. But He is the man of extraordinary patience—and by His ability to keep Himself in peace, He is able to perform the work He came to do. And think of our Lord standing before Pilate, before the jeering mob in Jerusalem, and then hanging upon the cross—He is patient, patient until the end. He will take what He does not deserve, He will not lash out in anger and revenge, self-absorbed by what is being done to Him. And in His patience, He loves them all. In His patience, He loves us too.

So my Safeway story is not about great patience, but rather minor league patience. And even though it was only minor league, it was still difficult enough to pull off. But to "act like men" is to be patient on a much higher scale. It is to be patient even if you are right, even if you are hurt, even when you are frustrated, even when it happens again, even when rudeness, accusations, arrogance, hatred, lies and slander are being thrown at you. Why be patient? So that we may do well. So that we may do well even when it's difficult. So that we may do well in the unity of our marriage, instead of harming it. So that we may do well in keeping our families united and strong rather than divided and weak. That we may add to the life of our parish and benefit from the peace and grace that it can bring us. So that we can stand up for Christ in the world, even when the world shows no love for Him or for us.

St. Paul is right. Let us "Be on our guard, stand firm in the Faith, act like men, and be strong."