Playing to Win: Homily for the Mass of Christian Burial for Lisa Mims

Lisa Mims was a fierce competitor.  No, I didn’t face off with Lisa on the tennis court.  Ours was no game.  We competed once a year, for eight years of my life, at the Immaculate Conception School Gala fundraising auction.  Paddles in hand, Lisa and I launched bids at each other like our lives depended on it.  Let’s just say that whenever Lisa and I had our eyes on the same auction item, I went home empty-handed, and Rod l went home with any empty wallet.  Lisa played to win, and her competitiveness revealed some of her best qualities:  she believed that she would win (and that Rod would pay), she played well, and she really enjoyed the competition.  Those qualities made Lisa a fierce competitor, but more importantly, they made her a great Christian. Our readings this morning explain why.

This morning’s readings teach us how to win the game of life.  In our first reading, Isaiah encourages us to believe in God by ensuring us that with God on our side, we can never be defeated.  With God’s help, we will always be victorious.  In our Gospel, Jesus tells us why:  God wants us to win!  It’s God’s will that every one of us should be raised on the last day and win the crown of eternal life.  All we have to do to win is believe in him.  Saint Paul, then, in our second reading, writes the rulebook for the believer’s life:  those who believe in God do good and rejoice.    

Now, I’ll let you in on a little secret: Our victory in the game of life begins and ends with believing in God because when we believe in God, doing good and rejoicing come naturally.  Now, I know that believing in God may be the toughest rule to follow.  Our seemingly endless encounters with tragedies, injustice, sickness, and death can make us wonder whether God really exists and if he does, if he’s really on our side.  But believing in God transforms our lives, and always for the better.  Believing in God and all that he promises brings with it “a quiet confidence and joy that enable [us] to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in [our lives].  Men and women of this kind of faith face catastrophe or confusion, affluence or sorrow, unperturbed, [they] face opportunity with conviction and drive, and [they] face others with self-forgetting charity.”[1]  Remind you of anyone?     

Lisa believed in God, and she played the game of life to win it:

+ Her profound belief in God gave her that quiet confidence and joy that gave meaning to her life.  In my mind’s eye, I picture Lisa peacefully smiling the smile of a faith-filled woman – and sporting a tennis outfit and pink Coco Chanel lipstick. 

+ Lisa’s practical belief in God inspired her to live a life of self-giving charity.  Whether serving as a class mother, a cheerleading coach, a Girl Scout Troop Leader (God bless her), driving for Meals on Wheels, knitting caps for Lexie’s sorority, getting up at 4 am to help Sammie get a cow ready for a 4H competition (God bless her, again) and especially as a devoted wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend, Lisa was a doer; her belief in God was faith in action, and we all benefitted from it.

+ Last, but certainly not least, Lisa’s steadfast belief in God brought her great joy and peace that helped her face her greatest challenge with grace, hope, and love.  Lisa was very private about her illness because she didn’t want it to dominate her life, or the lives of her family and friends.  Lisa wanted to enjoy life with all of us.  And with God’s help, she was victorious.  For as long as she could, she kept on doing the things she enjoyed the most:  playing tennis, appreciating the arts; hauling bags of feed out for the deer, and especially spending time loving her family.  Though she may have loved cats just a little more than you, Rod.  Just a little.  Lisa lived her life living; she refused to live her life dying.  That kind of strength and perseverance only comes from an unwavering belief in God and all that he promises.

You know, my life as a preacher is a piece of cake with people like Lisa in it.  I simply point to their good example of profound, active, steadfast faith and say, “Do that!” Lisa’s great example confirms that believing in God compels us to do good and brings us great joy, no matter what life may serve us. Lisa’s great example proves that believing in God gives us the strength and courage and perseverance to play to win. Whether life hands you a foot fault or a bad call, don’t sulk, don’t pout, don’t whine, don’t complain:  Listen to our readings; follow Lisa’s life example; play to win. 

In the game of life, Lisa Mims was a fierce competitor.  She believed that she could win, she played well, and she really enjoyed the competition. Throughout her life, and especially at match point, she aced the serve.  Game, set, and match.  I have no doubt that she’s won the eternal crown of glory.

Readings: Isaiah 41: 10-13; Philippians 4: 4-9; John 6: 37-40

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[1] Charles Hefling, Why Doctrines?, 2^nd ed. (Chestnut Hill: The Lonergan Institute, 2000) at 20.

A Servant Church - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

          A hungry traveler, with nothing more than the kettle he carried on his back, came to a small village looking for a little food. As he entered the village square, the peasants stared at him suspiciously, quickly returned to their homes, and locked their doors and windows. The traveler took the kettle from his back, placed it on a small fire he had built in the square, and filled it with water from the village well. He then picked up a stone, cleaned it up a bit, and dropped it in the pot. Now curious, one villager asked, “What are you making?” “Stone soup,” he said, as he snuck a taste from the pot. “How is it?” another villager asked. “It’s the best soup I’ve ever had, but it could use an onion.” With that, a third villager quickly produced a chopped onion and added it to the pot. One after another, the villagers emerged from their cloistered homes calling out, “How about some carrots?” “And some barley?” “And a little meat?” Within an hour, all of the villagers had contributed a little something, and the kettle was filled to the brim with a delicious, savory soup that the traveler and the villagers enjoyed together. With just one pot of soup, that village learned what it means to be a Servant Church, the kind of Church that today’s readings encourage us to be.

          There’s no shortage of powerful lessons in the story of the Wedding at Cana, but I’d like to focus on the great example of a Servant Church we find in today’s Gospel.  Throughout the Bible, as our first reading and Gospel attest, wedding imagery “symbolizes how God and people are united in love to co-create spiritual life,”[1] to bring about God’s Kingdom here on earth.  In our Gospel, we find Mary doing just that:  she identifies a need, she calls on Jesus for help, and she invites the servants to join Jesus in solving the problem.  That’s Church in a nutshell, and a Servant Church at that!  Allow me to explain.

          In his most celebrated work, Avery Cardinal Dulles presents us with five Models of the Church.  Those who’ve been paying attention can probably guess that one of these models is “The Church as Servant.”  Cardinal Dulles tells us that “The Church announces the coming of the Kingdom not only in word, through preaching and proclamation, but more particularly in work, in her ministry of reconciliation, of binding up wounds, of suffering service, of healing.”[2]  Simply put, we’re not just a Church of words, commandments, and dogma, we’re also a Church of work, good deeds, and service.   Just as Jesus came to serve, not to be served, “The Church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving.”[3]

          So what’s the recipe for a Servant Church?  We start with good disciples.  Good disciples follow Jesus; they pattern their lives according to his perfect example; they share God’s love with others.  The Miracle at Cana, then, is a great example of discipleship.  Just think about it: Jesus’ ministry begins when a friend needed help at a wedding.  “His friends’ predicament gave him an opportunity to share the love that God had first shared with him.”[4]  Through the intercession of his mother and the help of the servants who did whatever he told them, Jesus worked a miracle, sparing his friend from embarrassment and “proclaim[ing] God’s glorious deeds to all the nations” by bringing divine abundance to a world of human lack.  Good disciples allow God’s love to draw their attention to the needs of others, and good disciples do something about it.  That’s why good disciples are the key ingredient of a Servant Church.

          Every one of us is called to fulfill our unique role in God’s Servant Church.  “The Church is the body of Christ, and the characteristic of a healthy body is that every part in it performs its own function for the good of the whole; but unity does not mean uniformity, and therefore within the Church there are differing gifts and differing functions.”[5]  As Saint Paul tells us in our second reading, God has given each of us special gifts, but these gifts aren’t given to us for our own glory or advantage.  They’re to be used for the benefit of all in service to others.  Whether we’re the onion, the carrots, the barley or even the after-dinner fruit and nuts – you know who you are, we all have an irreplaceable something to give, to build up the body of Christ, and make God’s Servant Church manifest here on earth.

          Fortunately, we’re blessed with wonderful examples of a Servant Church right here at Immaculate Conception.

+When the Altar Rosary Society members join together in union with Christ and our Blessed Mother to pray for the needs of our community, we’re being a Servant Church;

+ When our Knights of Columbus, the members of our Right to Life group, our parishioners, our school children and 300,000 others join together in union with Christ to march and pray in support of life for the unborn, we’re being a Servant Church;

+ When our Church family joins together in union with Christ to donate countless coats, seas of school supplies, and dozens upon dozens of diapers (and that is a shameless plug for this month’s diaper drive), we are being a servant Church.

There are so many other examples; I could go on and on.  Yes, our Church has its flaws, but when we act as a Servant Church, we are Church at its best.  If you’re not already involved in a ministry, I urge you to join us.  I can tell you this:  serving others is the most rewarding thing you can do. 

And that reminds me; I left out the best part of the Stone Soup story.  After everyone had enjoyed the wonderful meal they’d created together, those sad, self-absorbed villagers became happy.  They learned that “being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone other than oneself.”[6]  They learned that being human means serving others.  When we come together in union with Christ for the benefit of others, stones are turned into rich soup, water is transformed into good wine, and we become happy.  When we come together as a Servant Church, miracles happen.

Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5; Psalm 96; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11; John 2: 1-11

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[1] John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: The Relentless Widow, Luke Year C (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2006), 20.

[2] Avery Cardinal Dulles, Models of the Church (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 85, quoting Richard Cardinal Cushing, The Servant Church (Boston: Daughters of Saint Paul, 1966), 6.

[3] Dulles, 87.

[4] Michael Simone, “The Good Wine,” America, (January 7, 2019), 45.

[5]  William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Louisville, The Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 127.

[6] Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 110.