I need a volunteer. [Have the person hold onto the end of a long piece of thread]. There is a phrase that is used, “Hanging on by a thread.” It refers to the idea that we can feel like we are barely surviving, hardly getting through the day, or an event.
I need a volunteer. [Have the volunteer hold onto the end of long piece of thread as tight as they can as I pull/lead them across the sanctuary.] It’s difficult, isn’t it? It can be done but it isn’t easy. Let me say this clearly . . . LIFE IS TOUGH. Many of you here feel that you are just “hanging on by a thread.”
-There is the near-crushing weight of relationships that feel fractured.
-There are those financial pressures (how am I going to pay those bills, or
find money to simply get by).
There are marital issues (“This is the person I am to spend the rest of my life with and
sometimes I doubt if I even like them.”)
There are physical illness (“Will I ever start not feeling that pain anymore?”)
There are woes of being a kid or a teenager, and wondering if you will ever fit in,
ever have friends.
And also all those goofy pressures . . . from finding another gray hair, money spent on anti-wrinkle cream (that doesn’t seem to be working) or the woe lik the story of a woman who was worrying about buying a new car. She wanted a fast car. So she asked her husband, “What can get me from zero to 170 real quick?” He says, “How about a bathroom scale?”
Oh, the weight of things.
Well the gospel is about miracles. It is Jesus’ first miracle. It’s a weird miracle, but it is also so symbolic in many ways:
The event is supposed to be happy, joyful . . . our lives are meant to be of joy and goodness.
The big jars are empty . . . we often feel empty.
Jesus provides what is needed . . . the same is possible for us.
People ask me if I believe in miracles. I tell them, “Believe in them? I depend on them!” Every day, God intends to fill our emptiness, to change our sadness into joy, to provide what we need.
But perhaps it’s not so much you receiving the miracle, but you participating in the creation of a miracle. Maybe the big miracle that needs to occur is going to occur through you not for you!
Here are some ways to create a miracle:
SPEAK LOVE Offer some kind words to as many people as you can. Give compliments and encouragements freely.
EXERCISE SIMPLY DECENCY Hold doors for people, offer to carry their bags, over tip a server, don’t sit at the each of the pew . . . move in, so another can feel welcomed.
ANTICIPATE A NEEED AND FILL IT Keep your eyes open for people around who might be facing a difficulty. Go shovel their driveway. After a death don’t say, “If you need anything call me. NO. You call them!” When you know someone has that tough exam coming up, or is going to have a tough day, plan something nice for them.
And the best one, which I got from Pope Francis which he announced at the end of DVD (A Man of His Word) about his life. He said, SMILE. It’s as simple as that. As many people are just hanging on, perhaps how you interact with them can make a huge difference.
Saint Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
For when you think of your one thread that you hanging onto, look down at your shirt or blouse. It is made up a many threads woven together and that’s what makes it tough [attempt to pull on my vestment] and what makes it beautiful.
In the second reading, St. Paul says that there are many gifts of the Holy Spirit and that we all have some part of the giftedness. You are connected, woven into the fabric that we call community, a family of faith. We are all in this together.
Perhaps the miracle that is needed today, a miracle that says life is of joy, a miracle of filling an emptiness, a miracle that God is always present . . . that miracle that is meant to happen . . . is you.