Be Grateful. Be Generous. Be Joyful

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much.

This gospel passage always reminds me

of the movie, Spider Man.

To those who are given great responsibility,

much is demanded.

My nephew is a big aficionado of Spider Man,

so I have seen all the Spider Man movies

multiple times over the years.

This phrase resonates for us in these comic book heroes

because it resonates with the human spirit.

For those who have been given a lot, we expect a lot.

Those who are given a little less, we expect less.

It resonates with our human spirit or our fairness scale.

For example, if you are doing some work in the garden

and you are moving some soil or sand.

If you have your ten year old child with you,

you would not expect your ten year old child

to lift as much sand or soil as you do.

Because, well, they are just ten years old.

They are small. They can not do it all.

We have that internal fairness scale that measures that.

And it is true in in life too. 

That is why I suppose that we have higher standards

for those who hold higher places in office.

Especially the way we we regard our politicians,

we have high expectations for them.

Regardless of what party they are in,

we have a certain sense of violation

when they do not hold up their highest standards.

We feel like they are not doing what we expect.

Regardless of the party,

we have a sense of common shared values

of fairness and decency and civility.

But it is not just politicians.

We have that of everybody,

anyone who holds any office,

whether it be a bishop or priest,

whether it be a judge

or a lawyer or a CEO of any company.

We all have that high level expectation.

And when that gets violated, we are feel that is not right.

I do not know if you saw recently,

even in Italy while I was on vacation,

the video on the Coldplay concert.

Did you see that?

We all we laugh about it.

But for those of you who did not see it,

maybe you have been hibernating!

Here is a summary.

At a Coldplay concert recently,

the video cam that they show at a concert

zooms in on a couple, and they are hugging one another.

The couple was the CEO and the HR director of the company

and they were both married but not to each other!

They got caught, and they realized they were on the video.

Oops. Yeah.

Their reactions have been mimicked on internet for weeks!

The video went viral all over the world.

There are those who say, he deserves it.

And then there are those who say, this happens all the time.

We have higher expectations of those who are in authority.

We just we do.

If you are the CEO and you are the HR director it is just not right.

But it is not just for people in high office.

It is for all of us.

As Christians, we have high expectations.

The gospel holds a high expectation for all of us,

especially for those of us who come to church.

We are expected to hold a higher standard. Why?

Because, if we are coming to church,

then we need to hold the line a little bit more.

People tend to watch us, and when we fall,

they tend to point a finger very quickly at us.

That is hard to hear, but that is the truth.

That is the way it is and that is what we hear in today's gospel. 

Jesus is telling us that there is a high standard.

For those who are measured out a lot of of gifts.

Much is expected of those who are given much. 

That is hard to hear even for the disciples.

Like Peter, who is one of the apostle, hears this

and pulls Jesus aside and asks him about it.

Now bear in mind, they have left everything to follow Jesus.

Peter says, “Is that parable for us?”

You can hear him saying,

we have left everything, surely that is for everybody else?

Are you asking us to do that?

Are you pointing that at us?

And Jesus doubles down and he says, “Yes!”

You have been given much,

so a lot more is expected of you as disciples.

But even more will be given if you do this well. 

When we hear this gospel,

we are called to really hear this for ourselves.

This is a call to action for us to to step it up,

because we have been very blessed.

That is the starting place, gratitude.

It is very hard to be generous if you are not grateful.

The starting place for us is to be grateful,

to think about what and who are in our lives

that we are we are blessed with.

And that is, of course, why we come to the table each Sunday.

We call it Eucharist, a place of Thanksgiving,

to take time and remind ourselves how blessed we are.

And we are so blessed.

We have to pause and really reflect on that.

Sometimes when we go away and come back,

we realize how blessed we are.

It is not just we are blessed with simple things.

We are blessed with health or our health care system.

We are blessed with clean water  

and access to so much fresh food in stores

that we never have to ever think about that.

That is not true for every part of the world.

We are blessed with an incredible community here

and we have beautiful music and beautiful buildings

and wonderful people who care for each other

and that is not true for every place.

We are blessed with with good health.

We are blessed with family and friends

who who care about us and love us.

Again, not necessarily true in every place.

And so we have to pause and be thankful for that.

And we can not just settle there and say,

“Oh, thank you. That is great. I feel great. I am grateful.”

No, we then have to be generous

with what we have been given. Yes.

That is a call to action on our treasure for sure.

Father Jay, our annual Missionary Appeal guest from India,

is going to be asking us to be generous to his cause, 

and we should be because we have been blessed

with great gifts of financial stability.

But it is it is also more than that.

It is about our time and talent too.

We are called to form in this community.

How we step up and give back to our community

so that the next generation can have more.

How we get involved with our time,

with neighbors, with people who are who maybe are homebound,

who are online, who can not come to church.

How we reach out to them and visit them

and make sure that they not only know

but experience this loving community.

Maybe we need to reach out to a a family member

who we have been a little bit distant from

who are wounded and need a phone call. 

Who need a shoulder to lean on,

or maybe just need a listening ear.

Somebody who is willing just to listen to their story.

My friends, we have been incredibly gifted.

We have been given so much.

So we have to be mindful and grateful,

and then we are called to generosity.

Now I promise if we do that,

that will lead to the joy of the gospel

which Jesus has always called us to,

but it comes through gratitude, and it comes through generosity.

That is the pathway.

So today, as we come to the table once more,

let's remember that we have been blessed with much,

and we will be expected to share that much with others.

Be grateful. Be generous. Be joyful.

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much.