24th Sunday in OT B – Catechetical Sunday
1
2 gentleman were sitting next to one another on a plane.
To make small talk, one turned to the other and said
“What do you do?”
The gentleman replied, “I am a priest.”
Oh, said the first man,
“I don’t believe in that religion stuff. “It’s or kids.”
You know, “Jesus loves me yes, I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
The priest politely laughed and asked the man what he did for a living.
“I’m an astronomer.”
“Oh, that stuff”, the priest said.
“I thought that was just for kids.”
You know, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star how I wonder where you are.”
2
Today, across the United States,
Catholic communities are celebrating Catechetical Sunday.
They are commissioning catechists to teach in classrooms
and asking the gospel question: Who do you say that I am?
Is it kids stuff?
Our Church challenges us in these times,
to be open to the ever-unfolding response to that question at every age
We see another image or picture of Jesus in every moment, experience,
prayer, reflection on scripture, in every neighbor and stranger
and at same time, knowing that each answer, each description, each image and picture
enforces a truth – Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God’s love.
3
The first step today is to answer the question: who is Jesus Christ?
The next step is to ask, how do I teach it?
What is the language?
How do I articulate it?
How do I live it?
It’s easy to slip a card in your wallet that says:
I am Catholic, in an emergency, call a priest.
It also costs very little personally to be baptized as an infant,
or even go to mass every Sunday.
The Catholic church doesn’t even enforce a tithe,
as some churches do.
Theoretically, you could go to church for a life time
and never put a dime in the collection basket.
Catholicism is remarkably cheap, as religions go.
The only real expensive sacraments are Marriage and Holy Orders
and they are both optional.
Wearing the name Catholic may be inexpensive,
but being a Catholic Christian with integrity comes at a price of every decision you’ll make for
the rest of your life.
As St. James reminds us in our second reading,
You can not prove your faith by your words but only by your actions.
Faith is measured in how you spend your time, your resources, and your love.
Spend some time watching those three expenditures
and you’ll have a fair idea what kind of Christian you are.
4
CAUTION
Worry about you.
Teach by example.
Jesus, in our gospel,  asks the question of himself.
If you are centered in Christ, others will want to know what gives you life.
You will ask the question, “Who do people say that I am.”
–
“What do people see in me?”  “Do people see yet another image of Christ?”
5
A mature Christian, a Catholic with integrity,
 is one who would not hesitate
to sell his or her talking parrot to the town gossip.
I have a bird, she doesn’t talk yet, but one day she might.
She lives in a cage in my office – she has heard a lot.
Are you interested in bird sitting?
A priest was building a wooden trellis to support a climbing vine.
As he was pounding away, he notice a boy watching him.
The youngster didn’t say a word, so the priest just kept to the task.
After some time, the priest, assuming that the boy was amazed, said:
“Son, trying to pick up a few pointers?”
“No.” the boy replied,
“I just want to hear what a priest says when he hits his thumb with a hammer.”
A mature Christian is one who would not hesitate
to sell his or her talking parrot to the town gossip.
6
We teach by faith and works St. James tells us.
We teach by putting His Word and our faith in it – in practice.
Jesus says to Peter: in the gospel, -
you are thinking “as a human being does.”
I think that we could imagine, that Peter is thinking “and, how else am I suppose to think?”
To live like Jesus, is to think like God.
It begins as kid’s stuff
and then as answers to youthful questions
and it constantly become deeper and more serious.
It is who we are. It is what we do for a living.
We should always give it our all and want all to be apart of it.
Children learn what they see and hear and do with you.
It’s kids stuff…and more.
It’s the perfect place to start when life gets grown-up.
“They know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love”