I have a confession to make. Oh! Oh!? Well, it’s not really a bad
confession. Last weekend, we had the parish auction, and I really
don’ t like those people who run the parish auction ..... (pause)
because I’ll tell you why. Last Saturday morning, I said the eight
o’clock Mass. I went quickly up to Napa, said a Nuptial Mass. I came
back to St. Bonaventure at five o’clock. Father Mangini had his
fortieth anniversary of priesthood. That was two hours long. And
then, I get back here. I didn’t have anything to eat or anything to
drink and I was running around all day. So, when I walked into the
auction, they are giving out these little pink drinks. They are
called “Cosmopolitans.” As a result of that, I ended up spending
$1800 on an eighth grade picture and a second grade quilt. So now I
see the logic of the little pink drinks.

When I was at the ordination the other night, I had to tell the
Bishop this because people/parishoners at Christ the King have a
habit of meeting him and telling him things that I say. So, I thought
attack is the best form of defense. I offered a dinner, a Carlos
Murphy’s dinner for ten, along with the celebration of the Eucharist,
in somebody’s home. Last year, I got eight thousand dollars for it
(two four-thousand-dollar-dinners). So I went around all of the
tables at the auction and I said “Bishop Vigneron only got $2000 for
his Cathedral Fund when he had his dinner. So I want to beat the
Bishop!” OOPS!? No. And he said, “And Fr. Aidan, how much more did
you make?” I said, “Well, Bishop, I quadrupled what you made.” No?
Was that a bad thing to say to the Bishop?

I love this feast and I love the fact that it’s been moved from
Thursday. It shows you that the Church can be very pragmatic and very
sensible in some of the things that we do. God has a dream for the
Church. And we are human and sometimes the dream doesn’t always come
to full fruition. But here, we get an opportunity to celebrate this
wonderful feast that all of us sometimes are too busy during the
weekdays. But on a Sunday we have an opportunity to celebrate
something as beautiful and wonderful and also as mysterious. And it’s
not really “Goodbye.” I often think of it as you know when you have a
caterpillar, and it’s sort of small and not too cute, in a little
local area. And all of a sudden, it blossoms into this beautiful
butterfly, and it is present and it’s beautiful and has this aerial
view and it’s bigger and we all have access to it because it’s up
there. We are not called to be standing as the apostles were, gazing
up into the sky and heaven. He has commissioned us to go out and
produce his mission, his love to the whole world. We are missioned
and commissioned to go out into the whole world and give the gospel
of love in the best way that we can. And he has a dream for the
disciples and the apostles, and he has a dream for each one of us.

I remember well the day that I was dropped off at college, at
seminary. How many of you, as parents, have ever had to do that, to
drop off one of your children for freshman year? C’mon.... Some of
you have done that. And you are wondering about, is this child of
mine, are they ready? Are they going to have all the information that
they need, and how are they going to do? You have all had those
feelings..... Hello? you’ve all had these feelings? (lots of
laughter!) Some people visiting from otherwhere think we’re a little
weird here. (To an individual, seated nearby) Do you think we are
strange? So, anyway, you do have those feelings and Jesus must have
had those feelings about the apostles. He’s looking down at them and
he is saying to himself, “Are these guys ready?” Clearly, sometimes,
they were not ready, and they asked all the wrong questions. And
really, you have to wait til next Sunday to hear this story played
out. You have to wait til the gift of the Holy Spirit, before they
really, really get it and go out, and that’s what the Acts of the
Apostles is, about them getting it and spreading the Church. Are they
ready? Did they have all of the information? Well, clearly, they had
all of the information. Jesus has imparted everything that he knows
and he has given it to them. And, lastly, how are they going to do?
Well, we know, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they did
incredibly because we are all sitting here. Their gift, after two
thousand years, is that we have the ability to celebrate this
wonderful gift. It’s the same for a parent, a teacher, or a coach.
You say it to the kids. Are they ready? Do they have all of the
information, the little pep talk that the coach gives? You send them
out unto the world and you hope that what you’ve imparted to them
will be good for them as individuals, and for the community at large.

I was at the gym this week and it was funny enough that the parents
of this particular young man, who is twenty-two and was working out,
were sitting right here last night. They knew exactly who I was
talking about. But, anyway, we will call him “Paul.” I’ve gone back
to the gym this past few months with another parishoner, and, so I
said to him, “You know, I have been thinking about my homily this
Sunday and I’m wondering, I don’t see you at Mass very
often.” .....Does this resonate with some parents? And he says,
“Well, Father, I don’t know. I just find it very boring.” I said,
“You find my homilies boring?! .... Well, Dibbles’ is not boring!”
I said, “We’re pretty good for the most part, compared to a lot of
churches.” “... Well, I’m just too busy. I’m too busy doing my
sports thing and I’m too busy, and I don’t really like being called
by some church to tell me to do something every Sunday. But I do
believe in a God and I do believe in a higher power.” And I said, “Do
you believe that God has a dream for you to be the best possible you,
the best possible Paul that you could be?” And he said, “Yes I do. I
believe that. Would my parents love to see me go to Mass every
Sunday? Yes. Am I going to do it? No.” And he walked away. So, that
was fine.

I was thinking about it, and it reminded me of Matthew Kelly. Matthew
is this fantastic speaker from Australia, inspirational. He is
totally in love with his Catholic faith and what the Catholic Church
is and what it means and the dream of the Catholic Church. And so he
gave a wonderful talk down at the Catechetical Congress in L. A. in
February. And he said there are four things for us to participate in
the dream that God has for us, for each of us to be the best possible
person that we can be, that God wants us to be. Four things. The
first thing is, (And I am saying this now because I’ve lost a little
bit of weight.) exercise. The temple of the Holy Spirit is a total
gift to us. So, if every week we walk around the block once or twice,
if we do something that honors the gift of our bodies, if we do
something with it, it will give us more energy, more zest for life
and the ability just to be more present. Has anybody ever found that,
if you do some exercise? .... Help me here!! (a Big “Yes” response
follows!) Some people here, I know, walked to Mass this morning. Mr.
Quinn there exercises a lot. Who else? How many of you exercise? What
about the rest of you, all sit in front of the TV? So, we know, if we
are going to be happier, to participate in God’s dream, if we
exercise that’s going to be a good thing for us. Isn’t it? YES or
yes? (a large “YES” response!)

Second of all, if we honor the emotional relationships in our lives,
if we are not too busy.... I’m not talking about sort of giving
your partner, your husband or wife, a little peck on the cheek. I’m
talking about maybe even having a date night. I’m talking about
taking time out of your busy schedule of your life because, you know
what, for all your busy-ness, in a hundred years, it’s not going to
be worth anything. Is it? A hundred years from now, it’s not going to
make a hill of beans of a difference. But the emotional relationships
that you have in your life, the significant one, taking time out to
do that.... Some of us don’t do it because we get so busy and we put
it on the long finger and it is something away in the future. Every
single one of us has relationships that we can encourage and love. Do
you ever see a teenager be on the phone maybe for two or three or
four hours? Is this true? It’s true, folks! And you ask them what
they are talking about. They don’t know. “Who are you on with?” ....
my girlfriend or my boyfriend. But they waste time with one another.
There is something very innocent and good about that. And I think we
are called to do that.

The other thing that we are called to do is to pray. Now, whatever
that means, a taking time out. Sometimes, I have a confession to...
ANOTHER confession! (laughter!) But sometimes I get caught up in the
professionalism of what being a priest is and I forget to take time
out, and I have to really get up early in the morning and spend time
just being quiet, being reflective, and it’s so important to have
that connection with the God who has created us. It makes us happier.
And then, when we don’t have it.... I don’t care if it’s those
prayers that your mom taught you when you were three years old, and
sometimes they are the most wonderful prayers. Yesterday, when I was
thinking about this homily, I was sitting outside in the sun and I
started to think of the moment my mom taught me “O Angel of God, my
guardian dear to whom God’s love commits me here....” And it just
brought tears to my eyes to think of that moment when I was a little
kid learning, and I said a prayer for her. And so, prayer is so
important. It keeps you connected to the God who loves you.

Now, there’s another thing I have forgotten, and I am glad I have
notes. You know what I did last night? I always get to three and I
got to three last night and I couldn’t remember but I mentioned the
one I am about to mention, but I forgot prayer last night! ... I’m
just being honest! Another thing that’s really, really powerful, that
you can stimulate your intellectual acumen and ability is to keep a
book, a good book that’s going to inform your soul and make you
better. There are tons of them! This guy, Matthew Kelly, is an
example. But there are loads of wonderful books. Take ten minutes a
day just to read a good book that’s going to help you to be more of
the person that God is calling you to be.

God has a dream for his church. God has a dream for each and every
one of us. And in order for us to participate, to be happy, to be
productive, to be loving and to be caring people, we have to be
engaged with our free will to participate in this gift. And so, as we
have all of the information that is given to us as well, through the
cycle of the year from this lecturn and hopefully from some of the
gifted things that are said by some of the priests, present company
excepted, of course, and then we go to the altar of the Lord and he
gives us and enriches us with our food to go out to the world, to be
mission, to be and live our lives in a way that makes Christ present
to the world. Let us give thanks to the God who is so good. Amen.