did I show up to my wedding?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

16 January 2022

AMDG +mj

Did I show up to my wedding?

First, a side story.  My sister called the sheriff on my dad last Sunday.  The Zimmermans are off to a great start in 2022.  Happy New Year to us!  Now, this is not a common thing.  My family has never knowingly broken the law, or had a domestic disturbances.  

What we had last Sunday was a missing person!  You see if there's one thing you can trust in my family, it's my dad answering his phone.  He always answers, without exception.  That's why my brother Norman was worried last Sunday when he called my dad at 4pm, then 6pm, then 8pm, without an answer.  Norman called Shauna, who knew the quickest way to check on dad would be to call a neighbor.  Yet in Hoxie, Kansas, the sheriff is your neighbor.  So she called the sheriff to check if my dad's truck was in his driveway.  It was gone.

So a couple siblings high-tailed it to Hoxie to solve the mystery, while Shauna put the rest of us on prayer alert.  I'll admit.  I was worried to death.  Either dad's phone was broken or he had an accident.  Or, there was just one other possibility. The only time dad doesn't answer his phone is when he goes to Church.  He doesn't know how to silence his phone, and he's scared to death of it ringing in church. so he doesn't take it.

Well, it turns out that my dad was not the victim of a crash or bad farm accident.  It turns out he was at church from 3pm to 9pm, first for a wake service then for a parish council meeting.  None of us knew he had those commitments, so we assumed the worst. Thank God he's fine.  He got a kick out of us calling the sheriff to report him as missing.

Which brings me to the second thing I can always count on. Dad always goes to Church.  His priest son has missed several times over his lifetime.  My dad and his dad Jake, who turned 104 this week, have never missed.  They have never missed.

We hear in today's Gospel Mary's last 5 words in recorded scripture - Do whatever He tells you!  What will your last words be?  What do you want them to be?  The witness of my dad's life are these eight words.  I answered the call.  I went to Mass.  

Here would be my 7.  I showed up for my wedding.  I know that sounds strange from a celibate priest, but it's not.  This Mass is nothing less than the consummation of my marriage to God.  It's no less for you, for we are all married to Jesus in the Eucharist.  Today's Gospel sign is that of Cana, the last of the triple play of signs that consummate the Christmas season.  The first was Epiphany.  The second the Baptism.  The third of the last signs of Christmas is a wedding, Jesus' revelation to be the eternal bridegroom, the ultimate and definitive fulfillment of God's desire to be one flesh with His bride.

The last two years have desensitized me to this marriage.  This time of social distancing and Mass abrogation has made it less clear than ever who has to be at Mass, and who doesn't.  Yet my desire is not for a Church that goes back to obligation, but one that moves forward to a new sensitivity.  It's been scary for me to see how easily I can divorce God.  It's too easy to fill my need for intimacy with secular distractions and obsessions.  There have been moment when I can no longer feel how I am different because I have been touched by the Eucharist, by the physical consummation and intimacy this sacrament alone can give.  Too many of us are addicted to getting along on our own.

Let's take this year to restore our sense of touch.  So much damage has been done to our sense of touch by scandal and distancing.  Yet to stop being affected by the Eucharist is the ultimate definition of being out of touch.  To think only about what I want, or what I get, is to be insensitive to Jesus' invitation to consummate his marriage to you at Mass.

Let's not go back to Mass.  Let's go forward yearning for the sense of touch to be healed.  Let's go to Mass because I love the person who wants to consummate his marriage with me here.

This is the pivotal question I want to answer with my entire life.

Did I show up to my wedding?