Homily

Many of you have seen the animated movie “Toy Story” which is about a collection of toys who come to life and are active as long as no people are present. One scene in the movie I particularly enjoy. It’s about one of those coin-operated machines you see sometimes in the lobbies of restaurants and other places. The machine has a claw that you operate and place over the toys inside, and you use the controls to try and grab an item, pick it up and then drop it in the chute so you can take it home.

In the movie scene the machine is full of little green alien toys, with three eyes. One of the toys on a mission gets into the machine and asks the little green alien toys, “Who is your leader?” They all point upward and say, “The Claw. The Claw is our master. The Claw chooses who will go and who will stay.” A boy shows up and puts his money into the machine and starts to operate the claw. He closes it around one of the little green alien toys and as the claw pulls the little guy up from the bottom of the pile, the little toy tells his fellow inmates, “Farewell my friends. I go on to a better place.” Seconds later the machine starts again and another toy is grabbed. “Ooooh! He has been chosen…chosen by the Claw,” they exclaim in awe and wonder.

In a somewhat different way today we heard of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and of James and his brother John being chosen by Jesus to become His disciples. These men simply get up, leave their boats and nets, leave their homes and families, leave everything behind and immediately begin to follow Jesus. St. Matthew, writing in this way, wants us to be amazed by this rather shocking response to Jesus’ call. They, immediately, right away, at that moment, leave all behind to follow Jesus. There was something about Jesus that was so inviting, so welcoming, so attractive that He was now the most important person in their lives, and they would never stop following Him for the rest of their lives. In fact, they would end up dying because they were His disciples. And they were chosen.

You were also chosen; chosen to receive the gift of faith from Christ. Jesus called you too. It’s tempting to think that we are the ones who choose Jesus, and it is true that have chosen to answer His call. But He called us first. Without His loving invitation none of you would be sitting here today. It was not just a blanket invitation, offered to the masses. It was not an invitation sent to “Resident, 624 Green St., Eugene, Oregon.” You were, each and every one of you, specifically called to follow Christ, to share in His divine life. This is how much the Lord loves you. You have not paid for it, nor earned it in any way. Despite your great unworthiness, the Lord of heaven and earth loved you and called you by name. And when we stop to think about that we should be amazed.

Christ shows the depth of His love, first of all, by humbling Himself to become a human being, a creature. St. Augustine writes, “Christ only sought a mother on earth because He already had a Father in heaven. He, by Whom we were to be created, was born of God, and He by Whom we were to be re-created was born of a woman….So you can say to yourself, ‘God had a reason for wanting to be born of mankind because He considered me as someone important, someone He might make immortal, someone like me who was born as a mortal human.’”

St. Augustine then goes on to say that it is amazing in itself that each one of us is given natural life by our Creator, but it is astoundingly amazing that He has called us, each one of us, to also live in His divine life. The Lord loves you more than you love yourself. That’s hard to believe. In my pride I would like to think I am so much better than I am, but deep down inside I know it’s not true. Why would God Himself love me. It’s only by faith I can know that. It’s only by the cross that I can believe that.

One thing I hate about this virus problem is that, in order not to breathe in your face when you come up to receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I cannot say your name, I cannot pronounce that Christ comes not you just in some general, “you are part of the crowd” kind of way. He comes to you individually, uniquely, He comes to you by name. I do say your name in my mind, and Jesus calls your name from His heart.

As we pray today let us listen to hear Him calling. And let’s be as ready as we can possibly be, even to leave all else behind, to answer and to follow.