Father Chris – THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY ORD TIME 2021 - Homily

 “The Wonderful Counsellor”

 
As he sat on the bench in the prison holding cell, John suddenly remembered it was Armistice Day or Veteran’s Day as they liked to call it now. He was a Veteran himself, having served in Afghanistan. Seemed like it was all for nothing now. He was surprised people even knew what a veteran was. But he was glad he’d been picked up for vagrancy. At least he could look forward to a hot meal. He’d been pretty desperate, searching trash bins all around town. It wasn’t easy being poor. And it was getting harder as he aged.
 
He watched the clock. It was now 10:30am. He promised himself he’d spend those important 2 mins of silence at 11am, especially in honour of the friends he’d lost in battle; but suddenly, there was shuffling and shouting coming from down the hall. “Not another one?!” he thought to himself.
 
John was joined by Herman, a stout, obviously well-fed chap, who had a stormy demeanor, and a look of overwhelming determination and anger.
“It’s the end of the world!” he shouted.
“That’s fine,” John said, “they told me that in Afghanistan, too, several years ago!”     
“But all the signs are here, they’re everywhere!!” Herman emphasized.
“Well, you’re in a safe place for it, because nothing happens here,” John said.
John could tell Herman was in for disturbing the peace. He’d be out in 24 hrs, but John knew he wouldn’t be. They’d keep him here as a kind of duty to the poor.  
“You need to ‘prepare’ yourself!” said Herman.
“Well, you’ve got that right. You should stop worrying about the end of world, because even Christ said no one, not even angels, would know when it is coming; but in the meantime, that’s what you should be doing, preparing yourself by living a decent, generous, productive life, and stop all this dramatic bellowing!” John said.
 
In a cell next to them, a young lad was groaning. He was coming out of a stupor from the ‘fentanyl’ he’d injected the night before. John figured the lad, Tyler, was lucky to get picked up, since he might have died of an overdose, so common now. All night the boy had been saying in his disturbed sleep, “Nobody loves me! Nobody cares! No family. No friends. No work. No future. No reason to live.”
 
Then more noise came from the hall. Several young people were being ushered into cells, chanting, “No more war! No more suffering! No more climate change! What do we want? Climate Justice for All! When do we want it? We want it Now!”  
 
But there was also an adult chap among them who was silent and composed, quietly observing John, Herman, Tyler, all of them. Suddenly, he stood up and said, “Can I tell you a story? It’s about someone who suffered as a child in WWII, but managed to survive, become a mega, movie star, then devoted her later adult life to the poor and destitute. I think she has an important, hopeful message for all of you.”
 
Tyler said excitedly, “Hey! That’s what I want to be! A movie star, or Canada’s Singing Idol!” John himself knew who the man was referring to: it was Audrey Hepburn. Everyone knew of her tremendous work with the poor and suffering as the 1980s spokesperson for UNICEF. He could still hear her on TV after her visit to an orphanage in Ethiopia which housed over 500 starving children. She said:
 
“I have a broken heart. I feel desperate. I can't stand the idea that two million people are in imminent danger of starving to death, many of them children, [and] not because there is not tons of food sitting in the northern port of Shoa; it can't be distributed. Last spring, Red Cross and UNICEF workers were ordered out of the northern provinces because of two simultaneous civil wars. … I went into rebel country and saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling on the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. Horrible. That image is too much for me. The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering.”  
 
Sadly, John thought, things haven’t changed much. The end of the world? Who cares about that, when you need to get on with helping people here and now. And the world is to be reborn, not destroyed. He knew that from his own bible study.  
 
The adult chap had finished telling them how Audrey was like the children in the Netherlands during WWII seen in old B&W films scrounging through waste cans for food. After the war, her mother moved them to England to escape the carnage. “Little Audrey” remarkably studied ballet thanks to a generous sponsor, was later spotted by Hollywood, and became the Oscar-winning film star we know today.  
 
But she never forgot her roots, her suffering, her love of children, and would later express that in a profound way: touring with UNICEF among the poor, raising hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in her heartfelt, earnest campaigning.
 
John asked this chap who he was. “I’m a ‘counsellor’”, he said. “I like to visit the prison off and on to help give you folks some peace and ‘hope’. Do you remember Audrey? She was a true example of what a human being is capable of.”
“Yes, I do,” said, John. “She died far too young, too; 63 years, I think.”
“Correct! Audrey is a beloved mentor to people, especially to Christians, of what our lives should really be about: savouring the joy of being alive, taking care of the beautiful temple of the Holy Spirit which our bodies are, and balancing care of the self with the care and nurturing of others, because all human beings are in fact God. ‘Whatever you do for the least of these among you, you do for me.’”
 
The counsellor was listened to with awe and rapt attention. A charismatic man, he was certainly making some very important sense, far beyond ‘common’ sense.  
 
“And don’t’ worry about tomorrow, nor the ‘end-times’. Let go of fear!” he said. “Get on with living, learning and doing for others. Don’t bemoan your troubles and emotional ups and downs. Learn from them instead. That’s why they happen to you, to give you wisdom. They even help you learn ‘limitations’ in your life. And don’t seek love. Give love! The day Audrey died, she told those around her bed she could see friends in the room greeting her. “I know you can’t see them, but I can!” she said smiling! Then, she told her son her special ‘secret’: “The most important thing I carried through life is that whatever I have suffered, has helped me later on; and not to seek love, but give love. And when I love, I love unconditionally.”
 
As the Counsellor left his now opened cell, he said, “All is well. All is just as God wishes. Don’t worry. He will not let his creation be destroyed. Peace be with You.”
 
John asked the guard, “I’ve never seen you send in a ‘counsellor’ before. Where did you get him?” “Get who?” said the guard. “Nobody here but you trouble-makers.”
At that moment, John looked up to see the clock striking 11am, and suddenly the entire jail went quiet, everyone was still, and all was filled with silence and peace.
 
– Rev Fr Chris Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario