Summary: Lucy is at her office dispensing advice for a modest fee, and Charlie Brown walks up. Lucy says to him: “Physicians can learn a lot about a patient by asking what may even sound like a very simple question... which do you prefer, a sunrise or a sunset?” To which Charlie Brown says after a pause: “Well, a sunset, I guess!” Immediately Lucy responds: “I thought so! You're just the type ! I might have have known that! What a disappointment! People who prefer sunsets are dreamers! They always give up! They always look back instead of forward! I just might have known you weren't a sunrise person! Sunrisers are go-getters! They have ambition and drive! Give me a person who likes a sunrise every time! Yes, sir! I'm sorry Charlie Brown. If you prefer sunsets to sunrises, I can't take your case. You're hopeless!” At which Lucy leaves. Charlie Brown looks out at us and says: “Actually, I've always sort of preferred noon!” In your presence, Father John, there are certain traditions worthy of respect and repetition. What I want you all to know is that finding that quote was hard. I spent an unreasonable amount of time reading cartoons which is why some phone calls this week were slow in getting a response. I believe that the sunrise days are over, and we are nowhere near the sunset. The ambition and drive of the sunrisers brought us to this day. Now I believe it is the noontime for this community. The first planting has been done. God’s many gracious gifts described to us in last week’s liturgy are generously sown. It isn’t time for harvest; but the fruits of that harvest are already obvious. What has been sown is up and growing. Your leadership in this community and among the parishes of this Archdiocese is extra ordinary. You lead in generosity with Catholic Charities, with the Archdiocesan Development Fund, with Saint Vincent de Paul, in food and clothing and shelter for the poor. You care deeply and know children in Haiti to be our children because they are God’s. You lead with ministry to men and to women, with a school and religious formation programs that set the pace in central Oklahoma. You pray and worship with commitment and dignity. You respond to calls for help and for prayer, and you seek to grow in a deeper knowledge Jesus Christ in His Word and His Church, you are impatient with mediocrity and by your faith you draw people into the Covenant of this Table by great numbers year after year at Easter. Our children and our young people grow more attentive to God’s call, and already two are open to formation for a life time of service as priests. More will come. It is part of the harvest and fruit of faithful living. Some day there will be a harvest from all of this, and then only God will judge what is His suggests Matthew’s Gospel today. It is not our business to root around and judge today what will bear fruit and what will not: what is a weed and what is wheat. In this place and in this community from the very beginning the hospitality of the Kingdom of God has marked our identity. This parable insists that we must resist the temptation to assume the role of the divine judge. Our role as disciples is to nurture what the divine sower has so generously planted, and remember that we too are part of what has been planted here. We cultivate, water, prune, fertilize, and then we wait with confidence that the good work begun in us will be brought to a fruitful conclusion. In this time of waiting, we give thanks, and rejoice for the faith and hope we share as Stewards of these great gifts for the glory of God while at this altar we begin to savor just the first taste of the banquet promised us in the Kingdom to come.
