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Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C, January 24, 2016, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

Ok, I would like to get to know all of you a bit better. Please raise your hand if you . . .

 

left handed when you write

born in the Princeton Hospital

hazel eyes

had your wisdom teeth pulled out

 

graduated from a high school in the Elk River District

have had a grandparent pass away

wear glasses or contacts

never had braces on your teeth

 

have had a broken bone (that needed a cast)

colorblind

not married

usually get about 8 hours of sleep each night

 

How many of you didn’t raise your hand for any of those?   Who raised their hand for at least three of those items?   Was there anyone who raised their hand for all?   Well, congratulations because all those items describe me!   So we have lots in common.

 

Now I could have asked all sorts of questions . . . like your nationality, or height . . . but do you get the concept that we are all different. Thank goodness that we have diversity. Thank goodness we are not all alike. If we were, it would be pretty boring. But instead we as Church have lots of various things about ourselves that others don’t have.

 

But the problem would be, if we started thinking that one set of attributes makes one more important or more entitled. For example . . . raise your hand and keep it raised if you:

 

consider yourself somewhat in good physical shape

if you have a regular work out schedule or routine

if you run/jog as part of that routine (whether inside or outside]

if you have run a race (a 5K or a marathon)

 

OK, I would like the race runners to please stand. [I ask them questions about their marathon . . . when, where, etc.] Please keep standing.

 

As you know we recently had Presentation Meetings about building a new Church or remodeling one or both of our current buildings. What is going to happen now is to interview some of you to get more details about what you think and how much you would contribute.   But let’s say that I only asked those who have run a marathon.

 

Well that would seem pretty rotten. Because why would I signal out one group and somehow assume that they know more than the rest of you. [Invite race runners] Or we interview only those who are Wild Hockey fans. But why would we assume that one group is better, or knows more than another group . . . ?

 

Well, that is exactly Paul’s point in the second reading when he uses the image of a body to describe the community of faith. A body needs all the parts. And one part can’t say that it is more important than another part.   Just as we can’t say that those who have blue eyes [have them raise their hands] are more important than those with brown eyes [invite brown eyed people to raise their hands.]

 

But we do this ALL the time. We keep making judgements about anyone who is not like us . . . whether that is the color of their skin, their age, their background. Paul is reminding the Corinthians to “knock it off.”   Just as the body needs all parts, so does the Church.

 

Don’t you ever feel that you don’t belong. Don’t you let anyone tell you that because of what you’ve done or who you are . . . that you have no place here. We are all important.

 

And that sense of belonging extends not only in this parish family, but also to the broader family of all humanity. This past week was the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Wade vs. Roe decision to legalize abortion. It is our held belief that all life is sacred from the womb to the tomb. That all life deserves dignity and respect, no matter what the condition.

 

This was demonstrated a few weeks ago on a wrestling mat. Our Princeton Tigers were wrestling against Hibbing High School and it was clear that Princeton was dominating the team

. . . and that none of the Hibbing players would score a victory. At the 160-pound match, Princeton’s Elliot Arens was to wrestling a young man who hadn’t won a match all year. This wrestler was mentally challenged.

I contacted Elliot about the match.  Elliot wrote me, “I let him wrestle all 3 periods and he knew what to do. I just had to help him finish some moves to get him his points. Right at the end I did have to hold his ankle down to keep him on top . . . so he could win the match."

 

The Princeton Union quoted Assistant Coach Jay Grove, “Although other matches were in progress, the spectators stood and cheered louder than for any other match of the day. The look of joy on the victor’s smiling face was priceless.”   Coach Hellman said, “The referee and the rest of us were all in tears. I could hardly talk to Elliot, I was so touched.”

 

Elliot said, "When he won he was pumping his fists and pounding his chest and it was pretty cool. He is the one who gave everyone in the gym a gift, not me.”

 

It makes it seem like kids never do good things and we all do all the time. Not needing the world to know every little kind thing we do in a day is more important than doing one great thing in an entire wrestling season. Getting up early to go shovel the neighbor’s sidewalk and driveway when it was freezing cold last week was a lot harder than letting that kid win the match."

 

“I was just doing what every other kid on the team would do.

 

I wish that was true. Would you have done it?

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