Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost—10 September AD 2017

As this is written, Hurricane Irma is forecast to come very close to South Florida as a category four or five storm. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday appear to be most dangerous days. If conditions do not seem safe for travel, please do NOT attempt to attend Holy Mass on those days (or any other). There is NO Sunday obligation to put yourself, your passengers, or any others on the road in danger. Father hopes to be able to offer Mass on all of these days, but It may not be at the church or at the usual time. If the telephones remain in service he will make his plans known on the recording (954-428-2428).

Please join us in the Fifty-four day Rosary Novena
For the return of Christian civilization under Christ the King and Mary His Queen.
www.rosarychurch.net/mary/54_day_novena.html

"Behold the birds of the air.... Consider the lilies of the field." (Gospel: Matt. VI. 24-33.)

Once a year we are reminded of that great Sidney Poitier move titled "The Lilies of the Field." For those of you too young to remember it, the plot has black Sidney Poitier playing a young non-Catholic American man named Homer Smith, just out of the Service, and not quite sure of exactly what he will do in life. The man meets a group of German Catholic nuns, who are sure that God has sent him to help them build a chapel for their convent. He does a few odd jobs for them, but the nuns have no money to pay him. They are living entirely on what they can produce from the land and a few chickens.

On Sunday, after taking the nuns to Mass, Homer learns from a local restaurant operator that the nuns are refugees from Communist East Germany, who somehow managed to get over the Berlin Wall, and make their way to to Arizona where the land was relatively inexpensive. To make a long story short, Homer takes a job operating heavy equipment which he learned to do in the Service. At first his wages go to pay for some creatures comfort for the nuns. There is a cute scene when he appears with lollipops for the women. But there is another scene where he arrives with a bathtub.

Ultimately, Homer Smith is convinced that he ought to build the nuns' chapel. The work starts very slowly as the nuns have no money for materials, and are unsuccessful in getting contributions from the usual Catholic sources. Out of his own labor Smith provides materials, and insists on doing all of the building work himself. Thankfully, he attracts local contributions, but refuses every offer to help with the actual construction. Intrigued by his attitude, the locals finally trick him into allowing them to help. The chapel is built, but Homer Smith sneaks away before the dedication. Because Smith was a black man, the grateful nuns dedicate the chapel to Saint Benedict he Moor, the sixteenth century child of African slaves, a Franciscan friar in Sicily who was known for his great charity.

The nuns are well named for the Lilies of the field, for they represent what out Lord meant in this morning's parable. Our Lord was demanding trust in divine Providence, but he was not advocating any sort of laziness. I have mentioned before that the Aramaic language He spoke did not contain superlatives (like good, better, best) so those who spoke it had to make their point by repetition or exaggeration. He listeners we're all practical people who knew the difficulties of scratching out a living in Palestine. They knew that he could not have intended for them to do nothing at all for their food and clothing. Like the nuns who bravely escaped communism and dug something of a farm out of the Arizona desert, our Lord is telling us that our work will be rewarded if we have confidence in God.

Jesus is telling us to give up the superfluous cares and worries which are unnecessary for our livelihood, and which may in fact interfere with proper devotion or even cause us to sin. An excessive lust for money may crowd out our attendance at Mass and the Sacraments, or distract us from proper devotion when we do attend. It might cause us to refuse to share our goods with the poor, even thought they be in great need. And, of course, excessive concern for material things might lead to covetousness or even outright theft. Our Lord is simply telling us--in very beautiful language--that we must keep things in perspective.

The birds of the air and the lilies of the field certainly glorify God with their great beauty and majesty. We too glorify God when we do our daily duties with his honor in mind. Without His honor in mind, our labors will be crass and without glory. But with God's honor as our motivation, our glory will be like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.