The Homily of Sunday MassBy Fr. KimmIn Morris West's novel, The Shoes of the Fisherman, the main character, Kiril Lakota, the first Russian pope, has an interesting experience on the night before his coronation. Wishing to see more of this place of which he has just been made bishop, he dresses up as a simple priest and, undetected, slips out of the Vatican and into the streets of Rome. Eventually, he comes across a coffee bar and decides to sit down and have an espresso. As he's sipping his coffee, an old man comes up to sell him a newspaper. Reaching into his cassock for some change, Kiril realizes that he has forgotten to bring money. The bartender, hearing of his inability to pay for anything, begins to curse "priests who suck the blood of the poor." "You think I have so much that I can buy coffee for every priest in Rome?" he exclaims. It's only when the newspaper vendor notices the striking resemblance between the impoverished priest and the new pope pictured on the front page of the paper that Kiril discloses his true identity. "Tell your friends that you have seen me," he says to those watching. "[A]nd that I didn't have enough money for coffee." It is dangerous to judge by appearances. That's just what happens in our gospel. "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?" the people murmur. "How can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Judging by appearances is so easy to do. We see people's homes, the kind of car they drive, the style of their hair, the color of their skin, and we think we know everything about them. Consider for a moment what happens right here at church: we are all guilty of observing and drawing conclusions about what people are wearing, the expressions on their faces, when they arrive and when they leave, whether or not they take a neighbor's hand. Those who perform some ministry in full view of everyone are particularly vulnerable to the uncharitable comments of the people they are trying to serve. For example, I can't tell you how many times in the last 16 years I have been criticized for what I do or don't do as I celebrate mass. There was much more to Jesus than just what the people saw: he was "the living bread that came down from heaven," the one who could let them live forever. Similarly, there is much more to people than just what they may appear to be. We do not know their needs, their struggles, their triumphs, their hopes. Perhaps ever more important, we do not know how God has touched their lives, the unique gifts and blessings he has given them, the way he is working in them at this moment. I wonder what our fate would be if God judged us only by what is visible on the outside. When you think about it, we Catholics should be the last ones to judge by appearances. After all, we are the ones who believe that in just a few minutes God himself will come to us under the appearance of nothing more than bread and wine. * see John 6:41-51 <
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