When's the best time to risk it all?

Homily

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time C1

10 August 2025

St. Ann Church - Prairie Village, Kansas

AMDG

When's the best time to bet it all?

You know from the urgency demanded in the Gospel what the answer is. Don't pretend you don't.

August 10th is the Memorial of St. Lawrence, who knew when to bet it all.  Martyrs are always ready for the moment.  Lawrence witnessed the martyrdom of the Pope and several of his brother deacons under the 3rd Century persecution of the Roman emperor Valerian.  Lawrence's life was spared so that he could gather all the treasure of the Church and hand it over to the Roman authorities.  You may remember what Lawrence did.  He gave anything the Church had to the poor and then presented the poor little ones to the Emperor as the Church's greatest treasure.  For this Lawrence was grilled at the stake, but with his life already given away through supernatural love, courage, faith and hope, he famously said to his persecutors - I'm done on this side, you can turn me over now!  He is the patron saint of barbecue - so feel free to honor him by having some today. 

Lawrence knew when to bet it all?  Do you?  Do I?

The biggest risk I've ever made was deciding to go to seminary.  I was set to go to medical school, and had someone I wanted to marry and have a family with.  I gave those up to go to seminary, and gave them up for good when I promised obedience and celibacy, to conform my life more closely to the one whom I represent in personal Christi capitis.  Not nearly as dramatically as Abraham giving up Isaac, did I sacrifice the chance for my own kids, as a sign of faith in God's ability to raise even from the dead.  It's a test of faith that the Church invites of her priests even today. 

I was asked in my final year of seminary if I thought celibacy would be hard.  It was a trick question, and I failed it miserably.  I thought it wouldn't be that hard, that the risk of faith was more behind me than in front of me.  Most of my classmates answered correctly, that it's a risk of faith that only gets more dramatic over time.  Harder, and yes better, but no less dramatic.  

When's the best time to bet it all?  I think you know the answer. Do I?

This week I faced the question at least 100 times - Father, are you ready for school to start?  I hate the question.  I bet you do too. So why do we keep asking it?  It's because readiness and urgency are proper to one who is good at life.  Are you ready is a favorite question for one who knows the best time to bet it all is right now, in the dramatic moment that is right before us.  Procrastination costs us everything, even the kingdom of heaven.  Life is not to be lived in regret or fantasy, but by faith.

Faith is that readiness to respond to what is being made possible right now.  New and greater things are always opening up before us.  Faith is the exploration of the more that attains to the fullness of life and the kingdom of heaven.  Faith is a readiness to respond to the faith that God has first placed in you. Through the gift of Jesus God has bet it all on you.  God got to Mass before you tonight, ready to serve you at that banquet of charity, believing in the love you are capable of.

Since becoming pastor here you all have challenged me not to be afraid of what is possible, and definitely not to settle for what I can manage or control.  Now is the time for me to bet it all on you, in a more dramatic and compelling way than I have ever risked before.  Now is the time for me to believe that each one of you is made for this moment in time, and to believe that you will all respond to the chance before you to attempt the impossible, suffer and die for what you believe, to believe in the fullness of life available in Christ Jesus, and to play your critical part in His redemptive mission.

When is the time to bet it all in faith?  If you haven't guessed it yet, you better answer now.  It's not in the past.  It's not in the future.  The time is always now.

+mj