What's my most treasured possession?

Homily

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

13 October 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

What is my most treasured possession?

I didn't really want to talk about sports this weekend, since I'm so heartbroken still about the Royals losing to the Yankees this week.  Yet something happened Friday that I have to tell you.  I saw a Holy-In-One.

Jon Arkin from our parish cut the corner on the 349 yard par 4 4th hole at Milburn Country Club on Friday afternoon, and did something that has never been done before in the 107 year history of Milburn He made a miraculous shot, and since a priest was there to see it, it may forever be known as the holy-in-one.

It was one of those incredible moments you never think you would see in 100 lifetimes.  It was an impossible shot, a camel through the the eye of a needle  kind of incredible.  A veritable albatross, double eagle, from 349 yards away.  I'm still incredulous.  No no no no way.

Chris Goodger was there, and he said something on the next tee that I'll never forget.  Chris said that this holy-in-one could not have happened to a better bunch of guys. At first. I thought that was such a silly thing to say, and I teased him for it.  It's was Jon's shot, not a group effort.  He's the only one who hit the ball.  But the more I thought about it, Chris said the right thing.  The best thing about this holy-in-one is that it happened within a group of guys who cared about each other, and were doing life and faith together.  Everybody felt so blessed to share the experience, and each of us was happier for Jon than if it had happened for one of us.

In short, the holy-in-one wouldn't have meant nearly as much if Jon didn't have someone there to share it with.  The holy-in-one couldn't have happened to a better group of guys.  Chris was right.  I learned a lesson from Chris - how about that?

What's your most treasured possession?  Jesus is clear in today's Gospel.  It's the people we get to do life and faith with, those we care about and show up for. A lot of us say our most treasured possession is our family, and that's a tremendous answer.  Yet Jesus is offering us 100x more family.  He says our true family is those we get to do faith with, the people who live together within the mystery of his passion.  Anybody that loves anything or anybody more than than the chance to do life together through Him, with Him, and in Him, is not worthy of Him.

Jesus calls us beyond our nuclear families into the family gathered around this altar of sacrifice, and around his passion.  As we suffer and die together, so we live together.  The guys I played golf with all said that going through the Journey retreat here at St. Ann has made the biggest impact on their faith, because it gave them people to do real life with through faith and through the passion of Jesus.  The guys have learned the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach the rich young man in today's Gospel?  What would it profit a man to have the whole world, but not have somebody to share it with.

What's my most treasured possession?  It's actually you, St. Ann, the people that I get to do real life and faith with.  Through you Jesus has given me 100x more than I could ever acquire on my own.  You are my most treasured possession, and Jesus' gift to me.  

What's your most treasured possession?  If we take Jesus at his word, it might be St. Ann.  How wise would we be if we really believed this?

+mj