It is all about who you know

I went to Denver on the occasion of World Youth Day with thirty young people from my parish. I was led, with a few hundred other priests, to a roped off area to concelebrate and help with communion. Amazingly, the Holy Father had his vehichle stopped. He got out, walked over to where we were standing, and started to shake hands. I happened to be right at the rope, so I was ready with my hand out. Just as he was about to turn to me someone who looked like a line backer from the Patriots wearing sunglasses, gave me a body block and said, "Stay back everybody." The Pope walked around the bodyguard, past me, and continued to greet the priests and he was gone.

When I got back to the parish the pastor said to me, "I covered for you while you were in Denver, now you cover for me while I am in Rome." When he came back he was all smiles. I asked him why he was so happy and he said, "I got to concelebrate Mass with the Pope." I said, "Well so did I." He said, "I got to concelebrate with him in his private chapel." I said, "You can't do that without a special invitation. You're not a bishop." He pulled out a few eight and one half by eleven glossy pictures with him and the Pope standing together like two close friends. I said, "That's not fair. I didn't even get to shake his hand." He smiled, "It is all about who you know."

While I was in church praying with my Bible, I read the passage where Jesus got out of the boat and there was a vast crowd with illnesses including the possessed, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

I tried to picture in my mind what it must have been like to be in that crowd. I said to my self, "I know exactly what it is like to be in a crowd. I was in the front row and I couldn't shake the Pope's hand." What about the people in the back of the crowd? They don't have a chance to see our Lord. I went back to the crowd in my mind and saw a blind man hoping that our Lord will cure him. I asked him, "Do you really think you have a chance to get to Him? You will never be able to get through this crowd. He will never see you back here." He calmly said to me, "Of course He will cure me. I was personally invited to be here. He came for me. I am a blind man. He will find me." Then he said, "It is all about who you know."

I looked down at my Bible and continued to read. Do you know what the next line said? He cured them all. Jesus said, "I have come to give sight to the blind, to bring good news to the poor, to set captives free." He came for us.

God cursed us. Do you know how? With work. He put us to work. As He was throwing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Paradise He cursed them saying, "By the sweat of your brow you will till the field. By the sweat of your brow you will wash the dishes. By the sweat of your brow you will cram for your final exam. By the sweat of your brow you will shoulder the eighty-pound shingles and carry them up the roof." God cursed us with manual labor. But today we think work is a blessing. We pray for those who lost their jobs. We even have a day to celebrate work. We love work. It puts food on the table and puts the kids through college. We love to see the work that comes from our hands when we work in the garden or fix the house. It is amazing that God can take a curse and turn it into a blessing. That is what God does. That is why He came to take our curses and turn them into blessings. There is a catch. You have to believe what the blind man said is true, "It is all about who you know."

Fr. Peter

January 24, 2010 | Third Sunday in Ordinary Time