Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday Mass - Nov 15, 2020 - Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Jason Malave
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Homily Video

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily Transcript

So, it turned out that a, a very long time parishioner of a parish had a stroke and she wasn’t able to care for herself, so she went into an assisted living. And the stroke left her without the use of her right hand. And she was there at the, uh, retirement facility and she was seeing a therapist.

Well, the therapist that she was seeing after a couple of months said, “I have somebody for you to meet.”

And this young lady was anxious to meet other people. Especially because she was very sad about that fact that she couldn’t play the piano with both her hands, like she used to. So, very happily she went to meet this friend of the therapist.

Therapist introduced her to another lady living at the facility who also had a stroke and had lost the use of her left hand. And the therapist, knowing that both of them played the piano introduced the two of them and said, “I wonder what would happen if one of you used your one good hand- the other used your other good hand.”

And they were good sports and they sat down and they tried. And the two of them; one with one hand- one with the other hand played the most beautiful music ever and they got the nickname, over the course of time, they got the nickname ‘ebony and ivory.’ They got the nickname.

I like that little story because it reminds us of how we’re called to use whatever gifts we have. No matter what those gifts are we’re called to place them at the service of our God, at the service of our Lord, the service of our community. We’re invited to place our gifts in service, at the service of God. You know, that really is one of the marks of discipleship.

Last week I spoke about discipleship, I want to speak about it again. Because I heard discipleship, one of the pope’s actually, describe discipleship like this:

It’s really being a disciple of Jesus; committing ourselves to three things. One, is committing ourselves to prayer and we are good prayers. The second mark of a disciple is making sure that we serve our brothers and sisters. And we do service really well. We serve our community, we serve our church very well. And the third mark of a disciple is that we share- our time, our talent, our treasure, our faith.

You know, we are only okay at that. I mean, I think we’re good at sharing our time and our treasure. But, how do we share our faith with our brothers and sisters? How do we actively find ways to share our faith with our brothers and sisters? That is one of the marks of what it means to be a disciple. Not only praying and serving, but also sharing.

And so, I’m going to invite you as we get close to the advent season, I’m going to invite you to find ways that you can share with others your faith. Perhaps, you can share with somebody why watching this mass every Sunday is important to you. Share with somebody what you receive; the spiritual blessings you receive when you watch this mass. You are, perhaps not receiving communion but you are in communion with the rest of the church around the world.

Friends, to be a disciple means to pray and to serve and to share. I invite you to work on sharing that faith that was given to you in such great measure and then you’ll find with the master great joy.

Readings

First Reading:

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

Second Reading:

1 Thesolonians 5:1-6

Gospel:

Matthew 25:14-30 or 25:14-15, 19-21

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