Ordinary Time 19 - Beggars With Empty Hands

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 19

August 10, 2025

Empty Hands

 

            Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the British General who founded the Boy Scouts, chose as the organization’s motto: “Be Prepared.” One time he was asked, “Be prepared? For what?” And he responded, “Why, for any old thing!” And I must admit that Boy Scouting did prepare me – for camping, first-aid, swimming, and learning how to play poker (a critical life-skill!).

            But when Jesus tells us to prepare, it’s not like we’re preparing for a disaster. Rather, it’s that we’re preparing to receive a gift. If a friend came to you and said, “I work for a Ferrari dealership and we have an overstock of some vehicles, I’m giving one to you.” After the initial excitement, the first thing we’d do is clean out our garage – a gift so valuable requires that we make the proper space, rather than leaving it out in the driveway!

            Likewise, what is the gift? Eternal life. Jesus says that He is preparing to give us a Kingdom. But then He says that if we want the Kingdom, we should sell what we have – in other words, we have to prepare by emptying our lives of anything that would hinder the Kingdom.

            In the deep South, there is a creative way in which people catch racoons. They drill a small hole into a log, and put something shiny in there – maybe a shard of a mirror, or a piece of tin foil. Then they put a couple nails into the hole. A raccoon will see the shiny thing, reach in and grab it, and once the racoon’s fist is balled up by grabbing it, he won’t be able to retract his hand because of the nails. It would be so easy to get his hand out – he would just have to let go of the shiny object. But he is so intent on gripping the worthless shiny object that he stays trapped, allowing people to capture the raccoon. Apparently this does work – I’ve heard from people who have successfully tried it.

            And how frequently we find ourselves trapped, too, with things that prevent our hands from being open to receive the gift of eternal life!

            For example, many of us are trapped by our reliance on the digital world. A couple weeks ago I visited Lancaster, PA to tour the Amish country. I must admit that I was a bit envious of how simple their life was. They were so close to God because their whole life was imbued with the rhythm of the seasons: planting and harvesting, the rain and the sun. They literally needed God for their daily bread. Plus, they’re committed to love one community. They have a rule that they cannot ride on bicycles but only scooters. And at first that seems like a silly, arbitrary rule but upon further inquiry, I discovered it was because on a scooter they could only ride about 15 miles per day, while on a bike they could ride 60 miles per day. This was meant to keep them physically – and spiritually - close to the people around them.

            How different that is from us! How often do we not notice God’s glory in creation because we’re on our cell phone or watching TikTok! How often have we gone out to dinner and seen an entire family lost in their own digital worlds, completely oblivious to those people sitting three feet from them? If the Kingdom is an intimate union with God and a loving union with one another, then we must limit our digital world to desire the Heavenly world.

            Many of us have our hands full with our sports and extracurriculars. Sports are great – but how much time and effort and money are given away to…a game? I played baseball in college and our coach had a great line: “Nothing in sports is eternal.” How many times do I hear parents tell me, “Oh, we couldn’t make it to Mass because of a sports game.” God wants to give us His very divine life in the Eucharist – and we prefer a soccer game? Ask your child in one year what the score of the game was – I’d bet they won’t remember. But the graces we receive from one Mass are literally infinite!

            Some of us are too preoccupied with our daily self-indulgences and pleasures to think much about the Kingdom. I remember speaking with a retiree one time and I asked him how he spent his days. His response surprised me: “About seventy-five percent of my waking hours are filled with food preparation and clean-up.” Isn’t there more to life than eating and pleasure? Yet we’re consumed with striving, striving, striving for a little more indulgence, as if that can give our life meaning!

            Some of us are clinging to unholy relationships. Maybe we’re living with someone that we’re not sacramentally married to, or are in a relationship where we are constantly led into sin. This relationship might be preventing us from radically abandoning ourselves to Christ – but Jesus was being real when He said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…if a relationship leads us into sin, walk away!”

            Sometimes our hands aren’t open to receive the gift of eternal life because they are filled with the desire for possessions. We spend our waking moments thinking about that new car, that second home, and we’ve got no space in our life for true riches, for the grace of God. It’s no coincidence that poor countries tend to have a much higher level of faith than rich countries – who needs God when we have a steady income and food on the table? We forget the Giver when our lives are focused on the gifts.

            Sometimes we’re trapped by our own plans. How many of God’s gifts come about when our plans have failed! A young man named Louis Martin failed out of seminary, and was pretty despondent and saddened. At the same time, a young woman named Zelie Guerin had tried to become a nun but her bad health caused her to be dismissed. Both were pretty lost and floundering when they happened to be walking across a bridge from opposite directions, and at the exact moment when they passed each other, they heard the voice of God saying to each one separately, “This is the one I have prepared for you.” They began dating, got married to each other, and had five daughters, all of whom became nuns, and one of whom became a saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. And St. Louis and Zelie Martin were also recently canonized – when they abandoned their plans, even their good plans of trying to serve God as a priest and nun, they discovered God’s real plan for their life – and what a gift that was!

            Finally, we’ve got our sins that prevent us from embracing His gifts. Every sin is, at its heart, a rebellion – it is often said that Satan’s motto is “Non Serviam” – I will not serve. So we cannot accept the gift of eternal life from a God Whom we have turned against.

            So we must give up all these things if we are to prepare for His gift of eternal life, grace, love, meaning and purpose. Our Lord wants us to come to Him as beggars with empty hands – only then can He bestow on us the gift of His Divine Life here and for eternity. He is pleased to give us a Kingdom – but do we even want it?