When we were in Dallas for the Divine Renovation Conference just a few weeks ago, we heard a lot about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit is kind of the forgotten person of the Trinity, especially in Catholic circles. They referred to a survey in which a lot of Catholics were asked, “Do you agree with this statement: The Holy Spirit is an impersonal force,” and a huge percentage of Catholics agreed with that statement. So, brothers and sisters, let me be the one to tell you: No, the Holy Spirit is not “the Force.” We’re not living in George Lucas’s world, okay? The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, the third Person of the Trinity, the Person who is the love shared between the Father and the Son for all eternity. And so that divine Love shared between the Father and the Son is a Person, a Person of the Trinity who wants to come to work in our hearts.
So we’re going to try out starting our homilies in a slightly different way because as Catholics, I don’t think we call upon the Holy Spirit. I think sometimes we approach the homily something like this: “Okay, well, we’re going to sit down now and Father or Deacon is going to just entertain us for ten minutes or so, and then we’ll get on with Mass.” But truly, what’s meant to happen here is that the Holy Spirit uses the words of the homily to change things in our hearts. So now we’re going to start out our homilies by calling on the Holy Spirit and inviting Him to come and be here with us right now, using a very simple ancient prayer that the church has prayed since the beginning. In Latin it is ‘veni sancte spiritus.’ In English, it’s ‘Come, Holy Spirit.’ So let’s pray that prayer together as we start the homily today. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit.
I couldn’t help but think of the movie Toy Story as I was pondering and praying with the readings for this weekend. Toy Story is one of my favorite animated movies from childhood, and I still enjoy it to this day. It’s a fun movie both for children and adults because despite being a kids movie, it actually contains some pretty deep themes relating to love and our sense of identity, of who we are. For instance, take Buzz Lightyear, one of the main characters. He’s memorable because he’s a Space Ranger toy who actually thinks he’s a real Space Ranger. So he’s kind of living in a delusional world at the beginning of the movie. And initially, this is played very much for comedy–Buzz being focused on that fantasy. It’s played for laughs, and it is humorous in a certain way.
I think all of us can kind of relate to Woody at the beginning of the movie, can’t we? As an adult watching Toy Story, I can relate when he’s yelling at Buzz, “You–are–a–TOY!” Then when Buzz gets slingshotted around the room everybody says, “Oh, yeah, he flew.” And Woody says, “That’s not flying, that’s falling – with style.” That’s a great line. But Buzz’s problem is that he’s fixated on a fantasy to the detriment of all his relationships with the other toys in the movie. In a sense, his fixation actually enslaves him. It isolates him and cocoons him away from other people.
We see a similar thing happening with the rich man that Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel. His parable is about a man who loses sight of who he is because of what he is fixated on, namely his riches, the produce of his land. And this parable should make all of us just a little bit uncomfortable as people living in the United States, because we’re a capitalist country, right? What the rich man says seems to make sense. “Oh, I’ve got all this grain and it’s overflowing my barns. What am I going to do?” The capitalist says, build bigger barns! It makes sense from a business perspective. But when we scratch a little bit deeper, why is he building the bigger barns? Not so he can help feed more people, but so he can serve himself. He says, “Oh, yeah, I’ll build these bigger barns, so I’ll just be set up for years and years.” And then, of course, his time comes to die. So the problem with that man’s mindset is exactly what Jesus is talking about at the end of the parable. He reminds us that life is about much more than riches. When the time comes for our judgment, we are not going to be judged on how full our bank account is. That’s not the most important thing. So I think it would be imperative for all of us to take to heart Jesus’s words at the end of His parable. “Thus will it be for those who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich in what matters to God.”
And what is it that matters to God? We know this. We know this, brothers and sisters, because Jesus came to show us what truly matters to God. He came to show us by His death, His resurrection, His preaching. Everything in His life was meant to draw us into this deep relationship with the Father. Everything Jesus did shows us what is most important: our relationships. The relationships in our lives are the things that last. When we pass on into eternity, God will not ask us how much money we made, but He will hold us to account for how well or how poorly we have loved. Love truly is everything.
Jesus reveals that to us. He reveals to us the Trinity, that eternal Communion of Love, and invites us into the life of the Trinity through the Sacraments. And so the Holy Spirit from the Trinity is poured into our hearts through our Baptism and our Confirmation to remind us who we are and to give us strength to live from that identity, to live as we’re created to live. The Holy Spirit in the depths of our hearts, brothers and sisters, calls out and reminds us what’s most important, that we are made by Love for love. We are made by Love for love. Jesus shows us that all of the Commandments are summed up in love. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s a simple little phrase, but very complicated to live it out.
If we compare the rich man in the Gospel parable to Buzz Lightyear, they’re both fixated on a fantasy. Buzz is fixated on the fantasy of a false identity. He thinks he’s a space ranger, but he’s really just a toy. And the rich man is fixated on the fantasy that his riches will ultimately make him happy. And in both these cases, being fixated on something false cuts them off from themselves, from God and from other people. So how can we avoid the trap of the rich man in our own lives? I propose to do this. Brothers and sisters, let’s ask ourselves three important questions and let the Holy Spirit give us the answers in our hearts.
Question number one: how’s my communication? Question number two: how do I spend my time? Question number three: am I serving God and others? So let’s just quickly go through these.
How’s my communication? It’s important for us to ask God to reveal how we’re doing, because it’s too easy for us to lie to ourselves. It’s too easy for us to just excuse ourselves, pat ourselves on the back and say, “You know what? I’m fine. I’m doing all right.” But quite often, God wants to tap us on the shoulder and say, “Yeah, no, you still have a long way to go.” In regard to our communication with God, we should ask: do I have an appointment with God? That’s actually the name of a book written by Father Mike Scanlon, who was a longtime president of Franciscan University. I love the idea of having an appointment with God. So do I have a set time of prayer in my day; time to talk to God and to listen?
Also, how’s my communication with other people? Do I try to get to know them more deeply, or do I just stay on the surface with my communication? If we always stay on the surface, we’re never going to have those deep relationships that make us truly rich in this life. And we should ask, how is my communication with myself? We don’t realize how often we talk to ourselves, and how easy it is to fall into negative self talk. There’s a way that we tell ourselves things, and often the things we tell ourselves are false. We should consider, with the help of God, what’s my self-talk when I’m sad or angry or down or when I’ve failed at something? What are the things that I’m telling myself? And then ask God to help us improve that self-talk, because often we’re harder on ourselves in those moments of weakness than God actually is. So we want to consider: how is my communication with God, with others and myself?
Let’s consider the second question: how do I spend my time? How do I spend my time with God? It’s so easy to treat our time with God like a checklist. “Ok, I’m going to do my rosary, check, I’m going to do my spiritual reading, check, and a chaplet, check.” And treat it as something to do rather than time to just be with a loved one. Once I heard someone say that God made us “human beings,” not “human doings,” and that always stuck with me. While it is important for us to do things, it’s also important for us to simply spend time with others, just be together. And that’s really hard for some of us. So do we ever make time to just be with God, to listen, to be open to what He’s trying to tell us? And there are great opportunities to do this in our parish: coming to Adoration on First Fridays; coming to daily Mass. Or at home, spending time daily in Scripture, listening to what God is trying to speak to us, doing spiritual reading and taking time to listen. So let’s ask ourselves, how am I spending my time? Am I giving God time? Am I spending a good chunk of time with God every day?
Am I giving others time? How am I doing at giving others time? Am I spending a lot of my life on projects, or am I spending a lot of time with people? I think in our society, in our culture, it’s so easy to fall into the temptation of thinking, “I’ve got this project and that project and that and that and that.” And we’re so busy all the time that we don’t have time for others. But I guarantee you, brothers and sisters, when we come to the end of our life, one thing we won’t say is, “I wish I had spent less time with my loved ones.” So let’s have an honest conversation with ourselves. How am I spending my time? Am I giving time to those who are important in my life?
Also, how do I spend time with myself? Again, we don’t want to neglect self care. So often the temptation is to go, go, go until we’re just a completely empty bucket and have nothing left to give. We have to let God fill us up now and then. It’s important to take time apart for ourselves, to let ourselves be rejuvenated and filled up so that we have something to give. Because the old axiom always holds true: we cannot give what we don’t have.
Question number three is: am I serving God and others? This one may seem a little bit more abstract, but it’s actually very concrete. A question that I like to ask myself often, and it really gives me a little bit of fear and trembling, is this: if I were put on trial for being a Christian, would I be found guilty? What am I doing in my life that shows the faith that I have in Jesus Christ in His resurrection, that shows what He’s doing in my heart, that makes physical the spiritual realities happening within me? Because Jesus did not create us just to have knowledge of Him. He said to go out and love people and to spread the kingdom of God and to proclaim the kingdom of God. So what we should ask God in our relationship with Him is: “God, how can I serve you better? What am I doing in my life that is not putting You as a priority?” And all of us, if we’re honest, can think of ways where God could be a greater priority and we’re just kind of putting Him to the side and saying, “Well, I could do this, and I think God is nudging me to do that, but there’s this or that hobby or other thing I’m interested in.” There are so many ways we distract ourselves from where God is trying to lead us.
We should ask ourselves, how am I serving others? Who is that person or persons that God is putting in my path right now? That person who could use my love, that could use my service, who can use what only I have to give them? What’s the concrete way that I could serve them this week? So make a mental note. Ask God who He is putting in your path this week that needs your loving service.
And then finally, am I serving myself? And this one is kind of tricky because we don’t want to be like narcissists. We don’t want to have the attitude that says, “I just need to serve myself all the time.” But there’s a way in which we can grow in those gifts and talents that God has given us. He’s given each of us unique gifts. Think of the people in the parable of the talents. Those who were given many talents and increased those talents were praised for their diligence. And that’s where we want to be when we face the judgment seat of God. We want to be able to say, Lord, here are the talents you gave me, and here is how, with your help, I worked on improving those so I could serve even more.
It’s like the rich man, right? If he had wanted to build new barns to hold all of his riches, but been outwardly focused in the use of those riches, it would have been fine. Building a bigger barn isn’t an evil thing, but the problem was that he was doing it just for himself. If he had just allowed God to give him conversion of heart so as to build bigger barns for the sake of serving others more, then God would have praised him. So just keep those three questions in mind. How’s my communication? How do I spend my time? Am I serving others? These questions that we ask ourselves can help us to see where we are in our relationship with God.
I pray that we all come to a place where we’re like Buzz at the end of Toy Story. At the end of the movie, he’s broken out of his cocoon. Spoiler alert! I don’t think any of you haven’t seen Toy Story yet, but if you haven’t, it was made in ‘95, so get with the program. But at the end of the movie, when Buzz and Woody are gliding through the air into Andy’s car, what does Buzz do? He references Woody’s little dig at him earlier. Woody says, “Buzz, you’re flying!” And he responds, “I’m not flying. I’m falling – with style.” He’s able to make fun of himself because he’s in a different place. He’s in a place of being outwardly focused with his new friend. And that’s where we want to be. We want to be those people who are serving God and others; who spend our time in service and who communicate well so that we grow in the relationships that are most important to us in our lives. So let’s pray for that now.
+ Father, we thank you that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Jesus, help us to love you and others well by your grace. Holy Spirit, give us your grace to make us missionary disciples. Help us to communicate well, to serve others, and to spend our time well on this earth so that as we journey through this life, we are on a journey toward the eternal life to come. We pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen. +