The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

June 14, 1997

A sculptor stood before a great block of ice and decided to chisel a statue out of it. Into every pound of the mallet he put the tortured experience of long years of toil. Into every twist of the chisel there was a grace born of talent and sweat. Slowly, carefully, the figure of a hero emerged. At long last, when the work was done, a monument worthy of acclaim stood before him.

The fruit of the artist serves the purpose of being a gift to another. This labor of love he bequeathed to his son. The son received it with appropriate gratitude, put it somewhere among his goods, and shortly forgot about it.

The ice man melted. The noble, upraised arm become a stump; the muscled torso, a ridged pillar; the strong legs, spindles.

On Nov. 17, 1982, at 5:43 a.m., after 16 hours of exhausting labor, my wife gave birth to our first born daughter. I witnesses this as my wife's coach--all the while thinking, "thank God I'm a man". I remember the overwhelming feeling of joy, wonder and sheer awe at that time. Needless to say tears are the only reaction possible at this time. After my wife and I stopped crying we eventually went up to a room. Later that day I was sitting in the room, now a bit more focused and sober, thinking to myself: " Wow, another life, that I am responsible for ! I wonder if I am up to the task ? I've read the books, but now I really have to be a Dad. These are the same feelings and questions I experienced with the birth of each of my beautiful children.

I don't know about mothers, but I think most of us fathers think these things more than once in our lives--even after 3, 4 or 8 children ! These children are like the block of ice we mold, chisel, with our words of praise, our hugs and kisses, our looks of affection, our humor, our prayer or our neglect and abuse or our shaming them. We could also say that OUR lives, the lives of others, and the world is that block of ice God has given as a gift to us ! Who then is the sculptor ? Is it God ? Ourselves ? Others ? our culture ? Yes, all of these!

Jesus tells us about the mustard seed. It is the smallest of seeds--its life potential is locked deep within. This life can only be released by being planted, receiving adequate water and sunshine. It is so small a seed that one might not notice it, or think it insignificant. That is the way God's reign comes to us. It starts small, but mysteriously often imperceptibly, it grows as pure gift from God until it stands to support and nourish all.

This reign begins in Jesus, it continues to grow in a special way in all the members of the Church. As parents, the children we receive from God's prior "yes to Life", stands before us with this seed. Each child stands before as a question : "Can you help the seed to grow ?"

Each person carries this seed within them--each stands before as this same question to us--both the person and God asking: " Can you help this seed to grow ?" The seed comes in many shapes and sizes in each person. Often the seed grows , other times it dies. Why ? Because the seed did not have the care necessary to grow and flourish. Such a seed can only begin to sprout in the good soil of freedom, creativity and love. And yet, the potential is still there for those seeds that seemed to have died. That is important, for God's grace is so powerful that it does not allow us to give up on anyone. It reminds us that we may be the instrument through which God will touch another.

This happens in the concrete, day to day of life, especially as we open ourselves to this grace in prayer. Prayer in its manifold forms deepens our awareness of the seed of God's reign in us and in our world. Prayer is more than saying prayers--its living our lives as a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord in a life that nourishes in love, others, our society and world. That is Paul's concern today ! Our longing for heaven, to see God face to face, must not result in forgetting or ignoring, or even rejecting, the "face" of the other, and our own face! Paul reminds us that God is a God of life, and gives the reign of God to us freely. We are called with others to to work with God in helping this reign to grow in our personal lives, the lives of others and the world. We are reminded by our Lord that God's growing reign is one of intricate, subtle and interdependent relationships. All is connected, all creation is loved by God--what we do to one part affects the whole. We can reveal the reign of God at hand or hide it by our response to the gift we have been given. Jesus tells us then that the Reign of God is both gift and responsibility; promise and command. Our response to the gift in love will have many forms. Sometimes this love will be tender, soft, embracing and gentle. Sometimes it will be provocative, tough, demanding and assertive. Other times it will be simple, at home with us, rocking in a chair on the porch on a breezy summer evening.

We see these loves in a father's smile of affection between himself and his children; when he plays catch despite being exhausted from work; or when he is the first his son or daughter when they strike out with the bases loaded. We see it here at St. Joseph's parish in those who walk and work to feed the hungry, cloth the naked. We see it when someone sits and listens to the suffering and troubles of another. Each of us is in process, we change, we grow with care, love and challenge. We are responsible to answer the call to embrace God's reign in our lives, we are called to help others do so as well!

" Recalling the love with which his father had bestowed the gift, the son decided to salvage the monument and put his own efforts and talents to bear upon it. After long and hard labor, the ice man reemerged as a magnificent water bird ."

For all fathers let us do like wise. On behalf of all fathers and myself I want to say to our children: That I love you, and I am very proud of you.

Happy Father's Day.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000