Homily
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
5 August 2012
Football Complex at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
You all as football players know the difference between fans and friends. Fans can be fickle. They want results. Their support not always, but oftentimes, reaches a frenzy when you're winning, and fades when you're losing. They are quick to judge and have a hard time seeing things from your perspective. They don't see things from the inside out. They don't see all the Sundays in August when you are working your tail off for Saturdays in October. This is not to say anything bad against fans. Every team needs fans, and the more fans the better. But they are not friends. They are not companions.
To be a companion means to be the one whom you break bread with. The Latin 'cum' means 'with' and the Latin 'pane' means bread. A companion is the guy that is with you most often, the one you eat with most often. In this light, although I am breaking bread with you this morning, I am more often a fan than a companion. I am a KU grad, and have had KU football tickets for 20 years. My priest friends call me a sports fan who happens to be a priest, and I'm looking forward to this season, and am privileged to say this Mass for you, because I am one of those KU fans who truly likes football more than basketball. Still, I am not with you day in and day out - I'm not a companion. I'm a fan. A companion will always be there. A fan is fickle and weak.
Both Moses and Jesus in today's scriptures are working through this distinction between fans and companions. Moses realizes that he had lots of fans when he performed the signs against Pharaoh in Egypt, but few friends when things got tough in the desert. Jesus warns those who started following him because he fed the 5000 that they will need to be more than fans of the bread that feeds stomachs, but must be true disciples and friends and companions of the one who himself is the bread of life if they are to follow him through the tough time of the cross to the glory of the Resurrection.
As you all build this new era of KU football, you know that there are thousands of fans who want to be inspired by you, but it all starts with you believing in yourself. The improvements and victories on the football field are dependent upon the victory that starts in your own heart, and if you can honestly say in your heart that I am a man who does not turn back at the sign of trouble, who will never give up no matter what on myself or on my teammates, then you are firmly on the road that our Lord Jesus himself trod, and you already share in his victory over sin and death. I pray that you find not just fans, but companions on this journey that you have committed yourself to. I thank you as a fan for the hard work that you are putting in. But more importantly, I bring you the Bread of Life this morning, the one who is more than a fan of yours, but he who is your deepest and truest companion, not only through a tough season, but through the end of your life, even through the grave to the eternal life God has promised you. May Jesus coming among us humbly this morning help you to seek true companionship, as you strive with you coaches and teammates to make manifest on the field, the victory that Jesus has won in your own heart. Amen.
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
5 August 2012
Football Complex at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
You all as football players know the difference between fans and friends. Fans can be fickle. They want results. Their support not always, but oftentimes, reaches a frenzy when you're winning, and fades when you're losing. They are quick to judge and have a hard time seeing things from your perspective. They don't see things from the inside out. They don't see all the Sundays in August when you are working your tail off for Saturdays in October. This is not to say anything bad against fans. Every team needs fans, and the more fans the better. But they are not friends. They are not companions.
To be a companion means to be the one whom you break bread with. The Latin 'cum' means 'with' and the Latin 'pane' means bread. A companion is the guy that is with you most often, the one you eat with most often. In this light, although I am breaking bread with you this morning, I am more often a fan than a companion. I am a KU grad, and have had KU football tickets for 20 years. My priest friends call me a sports fan who happens to be a priest, and I'm looking forward to this season, and am privileged to say this Mass for you, because I am one of those KU fans who truly likes football more than basketball. Still, I am not with you day in and day out - I'm not a companion. I'm a fan. A companion will always be there. A fan is fickle and weak.
Both Moses and Jesus in today's scriptures are working through this distinction between fans and companions. Moses realizes that he had lots of fans when he performed the signs against Pharaoh in Egypt, but few friends when things got tough in the desert. Jesus warns those who started following him because he fed the 5000 that they will need to be more than fans of the bread that feeds stomachs, but must be true disciples and friends and companions of the one who himself is the bread of life if they are to follow him through the tough time of the cross to the glory of the Resurrection.
As you all build this new era of KU football, you know that there are thousands of fans who want to be inspired by you, but it all starts with you believing in yourself. The improvements and victories on the football field are dependent upon the victory that starts in your own heart, and if you can honestly say in your heart that I am a man who does not turn back at the sign of trouble, who will never give up no matter what on myself or on my teammates, then you are firmly on the road that our Lord Jesus himself trod, and you already share in his victory over sin and death. I pray that you find not just fans, but companions on this journey that you have committed yourself to. I thank you as a fan for the hard work that you are putting in. But more importantly, I bring you the Bread of Life this morning, the one who is more than a fan of yours, but he who is your deepest and truest companion, not only through a tough season, but through the end of your life, even through the grave to the eternal life God has promised you. May Jesus coming among us humbly this morning help you to seek true companionship, as you strive with you coaches and teammates to make manifest on the field, the victory that Jesus has won in your own heart. Amen.
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