Show Him Your Hands

The wedding party and I were waiting outside of the church for about half an hour. A car drove up and an elderly priest got out and let us in. I set up the altar for the wedding so we could start the practice. I went into the sacristy and I asked the priest if I could borrow a few chairs. He asked, "What for?" I said, "For the bride and groom, so they can sit during the ceremony." He said, "Tell them to kneel." I explained that it was going to be a rather long ceremony. He said, "They are young." About five minutes later, I convinced him and I got the chairs. Fifteen minutes into the rehearsal I went back into the sacristy again and I said, "I am very sorry to disturb you, but could I borrow a few more chairs for the musicians." He said, "Tell them to sit in the pew." I said, "Well, one has a cello and I don't think that will work." After a few more minutes, I got a the additional chairs. Then the bride and groom asked me if I would get copies of the readings to give to the readers. I said, "Let me get this straight; you want me to go in the sacristy and ask the priest to borrow the copy machine?" The bride said, "Yes, could you do that?" I said, "Okay." This time I walked very slowly to the sacristy. Normally it takes me half an hour to do a wedding rehearsal. This time, it was over two hours.

The next day I was sitting in the sanctuary waiting for the bride to show up. She was fifteen minutes late. One of the guests stood up in the middle of the church and told us that the limousine was stuck in traffic because of a parade and the limosusine wasn't going to be moving for awhile. After the wedding, I went back in the sacristy and the elderly priest came over to me. I thought I was going to get another verbal beat down but he said to me, "I want to apologize to you for being so difficult last night. I am too old to be running two churches. On top of that, the bride was over an hour late." I said, "That happens some times." Then he said to me. "You are the most patient man I have ever met."

I tell you that because in Paul's letter he does not say that love is romantic. He does not say that love is happiness or easy. He says, "Love is patient."

On the day of the Resurrection, Jesus walked through locked doors. I am sure the apostles were surprised. They probably thought it was the angel of death coming to wipe them out for being such lousy followers. Jesus had a small panic attack on His hands. The first thing Jesus did was to show them His hands. They immediately recognized Him. They had seen those hands many times before. They were the hands that took the bread and broke it and fed five thousand families. They were the hands that made clay out of a little earth and spittle and placed it on the blind man's eyes. Peter would recognize those hands. He was drowning and he called out to Jesus, "Save me." Jesus grabbed Peter and pulled him out of the water. Peter knew those hands. When the disciples saw the hands they rejoiced.

When I was growing up, my father didn't blow loving kisses at me and he didn't say, "I love you" all the time. He did hold my hand a lot. One day I asked him, "Dad, why are your hands so hard." He explained, "That's because I frame houses all winter. You can't wear gloves when you hammer nails and I have to hold ice cold nails all day. Often your hands get so numb from the cold that the wood slips from your hand and you get splinters. When you carry wood you get calluses and that is why my hands are so hard." I said, "Oh."

I will tell you this. If I ever had a doubt that my father didn't care, I would just go up to him and shake his hand. All the doubts went away.

When we die, God will ask one question. Not how many people you impressed with your skills, or how much money you made or how many books you wrote or people you saved. He will ask, "Did you love?" If you spend your whole life engaged in that one activity you will not need to say anything. Just show Him your hands.

Fr. Peter

January 31, 2010 | Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time