Last weekend at the 10:45 Mass we had a Youth Mass, and the young homilist at that Mass was Danny Zemler. His idea was that, long ago, Godhad given each one of us a blank check, and that the check represents all the good things that we have in our lives. He went on to say thatit's up to us to decide how we might use that check during our lives andhe made a strong point, that the material blessings that have been givento us by God are really gifts that have been given to us on loan, thatwe are to use them to better our lives but also to better the lives ofthose around us.

Danny painted an interesting picture for us last weekend thatcreatively represents exactly what it is Jesus asks us to do. And today,in the face of our country's recent disaster, we haven't had to lookhard to see examples of our generosity toward one another. The responseacross the country has been incredible. Donations continue to pour in toblood banks and to relief agencies. And New Yorkers, who often pridethemselves on their individuality, are seen on TV opening up their homesto one another and offering shelter and basic necessities to oneanother. And, as Father Brian pointed out in his letter a couple ofweeks ago, the money sent by our own community to help with the reliefeffort is a credit to our understanding of the Gospel and its command toaid and protect the stranger. So, Jesus' parables of these past fewweeks meant to help us to understand the power and responsiblilites ofmaterial wealth have been timely. And I would argue that we haveresponded well in faith.

But there is something that is particularly interesting about today'sGospel, and that is that in all the stories that Jesus tells, this isthe only story in which He gives the man a name. He calls him "Lazarus"and He gives him an identity. In his time of need, Lazarus is recognizedand accounted for by Jesus. Jesus chose not to leave him nameless foreternity probably because Jesus knew that the homeless and the dismissedwould be with us forever, and that they have names. But, even when therich man knows his name, he chooses not to recognize Lazarus. Instead,the rich man clings even harder to his possessions and to his life ofabundance. He ignores Lazarus and he refuses to even toss him the scrapsoff of his table.

Now the rich man in this story doesn't get a second chance, but we do.We get a second and a third and a fourth chance to make a difference andto do the unexpected. Today's gospel offers us that chance. We have anopportunity today to look again and to see if maybe there is someone wemight have overlooked or dismissed, and to ask ourselves, "Who's missingfrom our tables?" It's a hard question to ask.

Recently Commonweal Magazine had a contest for young writers, and youngwriters sent in their essays. One of the young writers said, "BeingCatholic doesn't give me the answers, but it does give me the questions,and when we come together in community with one another, it gives me thestrength to ask the questions." And so we ask, "Who are thedisenfranchised in our communities?"....The Vietnam vets on the streetsof San Francisco, teenage moms and dads struggling along, and refugeeslooking for a new beginning and a safe place to raise their kids.... Weare all aware of the needy people that fill our streets and sleep in ourparks, work for minimum wage and show up here at Christ the King dailyto be helped out by our own St. Vincent dePaul. But do we know theirnames? Do we know where they come from? And have we stopped to considerthat they probably have children, just as we do, and that they lovetheir kids in the very same way as we love our kids, and that they wantthe same thing and same opportunities for their children. And when westop and do all this wondering does it then motivate us to ask ourselveswhy, when we seem to have so much, are there still so many around uswith so little.

I think we do stop to consider and I think we take action because it'swhat Jesus tells us to do, to respond to people, to their needs as wellas to their gifts, and to trust that it's God's will that we risk alittle kindness, to act out of our baptism, and to be a people ofcourage and of compassion, to be a people who seek to do the unexpected,to befriend a stranger without expectation of absolutely anything inreturn. Mother Teresa said once, "I would rather make mistakes inkindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness."So, we continue to give to the homeless and we collect Christmaspresents and send them to the kids at Juvenile Hall, and we house thehomeless for a whole week here in our gymnasium during Lent. We arelearning, day by day, year after year, how to befriend and care forthose in need.

Yet, I wonder if there is not more room for some "mistakes of kindnessand compassion" in our lives. And, if so, I bet that they are of themore personal nature. It's always a good time for us to stop and tocheck in with one another, and ask, "Who is without a name? Who ismissing from the table, in our politics, in our church, and in ourfamilies?"

And in our politics, we can continue to keep working together to makesure that the needy and those who have so little are protected and thattheir dignity is held up. And with our refugees that are right here inour own land, in our parishes, and in our schools, and our places ofbusiness, we can help them as they struggle to learn our language andour customs. We can work at discovering if we have things in common withthem. And, perhaps if we don't have things in common, religiously orculturally, we will discover that we have things in commonhumanistically.

In our church, one of the questions we struggle with today is "Who'smissing from the table in our church? Who feels dismissed?" Well, aslong as the discussion continues, no one is missing and no one can befully dismissed. But it is a discussion we need to continue to struggleto have. Because, when the discussion stops, then by nature, dismissalwill likely follow. We can try to remember the words of Sister JoanChittester, when she spoke at a conference in Los Angeles lately and shesaid, "People do not question because they reject the Church. Theyquestions because they love the Church." So we can work hard andintentionally to keep talking with women as well as with our gay andlesbian brothers and sisters. And I would add to this list, thedivorced, the youth, the young adults, and the newly-arrived Catholicsfrom foreign lands. We can work to remind one another that ours is atradition with a very, very large umbrella, and there's room enough foreverybody under this umbrella, and that being Catholic is in our veryfibre, in each and every one of us, and if one of us were to leave theChurch, it would never leave us. So we all might as well stay and talk.

Finally, our families.... perhaps the place that we experience ourgreatest exchanges of love, but also a place where we can feel as thoughwe are living with total strangers. So we should ask ourselves, "Who arethe strangers or the estranged in our own families?" When we sit down todinner or to celebrate a holiday, who is missing from that table and whyare they missing?" The challenge will begin when we can start to movebeyond the "why" and remember the love. We can recall that Jesusexperienced the same thing with His disciples. Like us, Jesus got angry,and Jesus got hurt, and Jesus even left for awhile at times. But Jesusshowed us how to forgive, without forgetting, how to stay in theconversation and start again, and how to be people who carry plowsharesinstead of swords.

What a time, what an opportunity in our history for this generation, tobecome a people who push plowshares and refuse to pick up the sword. Inthe repercussions of Sept. 11, how are we going to show the world, howare we going to show our young people that there is room for the Gospelin our world today? How are we going to pull together all the best ofour Catholic tradition and sit down at the table, inviting those who aredifferent from us to sit down with us and then begin together to worktowards building a discussion and a social order that honors andconsiders the experience of all? It's the same model of justice that wasoffered to the rich man. It's not based on economics or political power.Instead, it places the value of the dignity of others above materialwealth and personal gain.

Now the rich man rejected this offer, and he chose instead to deposithis entire check into his own account. Will we accept the offer todaythat Jesus makes to us? I think we will. I have to think we will....because it is what Jesus shows us to do. Amen.