Belonging to Jesus
Fr. George Smiga
April 25/26, 2009
Luke 24:35 - 48
This is a very important day for our whole parish and for everyone here. It is important for the candidates who are going to be making their Confirmation and their First Communion. It is important for their parents. (Can it really be eight years already since you presented them for baptism?) Of course it’s a great day for our whole parish because we celebrate God’s gift of life and grace for us all. But what is most important today as we celebrate Confirmation and First Communion is that we understand what these sacraments mean. Why are they so important? So I thought I would tell you a story from my own childhood that might help you understand what is so important about these sacraments.
The story takes place at our parish carnival. When I was growing up I went to St. Paul’s parish in Euclid. Each summer we would turn the parish parking lot into a big carnival. There would be rides like a Ferris wheel and bumper cars. There would be food like elephant ears and pierogies. There would be booths where you could play games and win money and prizes. The parish would raffle off a car and do everything to attract attention. One year they even had some guy jump off a high tower into a tub of flaming water.
As much fun as this was, the best part for me was that I got to be with my dad. Because for the parish carnival, my dad would take off from work early so that he could work in one of the booths. He would bring me along with him. It was the best thing. I got to stay up late because the carnival didn’t close until about 11:00 at night. I got to wear a special apron that showed I was working in the booth. And in time I was even allowed to run the booth with the adults. The booth that we usually ran was called “Go Fish”. There was a big tub of water and in it were plastic fish that were floating and on the bottom each fish was a number. If you wanted to play the game you had to pay a dime. (Big money in those days.) Then you would get a stick with a little net at the end, and you could scoop up one of the fish out of the tub. If it had the right number on the bottom of the fish, you would win a prize. The prizes were very cool: purple teddy bears and those big foam dice you could hang from your rear view mirror. So everyone was coming to our booth.
My dad was very careful to explain to me what I had to do to run the booth. First of all I had to make sure that all the fish were floating with the numbers down. Secondly, I couldn’t give anyone the net until they gave me the dime. Then when I got the dime I had to put it immediately into my apron so that I wouldn’t lose it. And then as soon as there was a break, I took all the dimes from my apron and put them into the metal cash box. My dad was very clear on this he said, “Now George, this is NOT your money this belongs to St. Paul’s so you have to be very careful with it.” And I was.
Well that gets me to the heart of my story because, of all the times at the carnival, my favorite time was closing up at night. After all the other people left, it got quiet. The men who were working the booths would get together and share a beer and talk about what happened that night and count the money. And I loved to just sit off to the corner of the booth under the glow of the carnival lights on those warm summer nights and listen to the men talk and laugh. It made me feel grown up and that made me feel pretty good.
One night, however, things were different. One night the laughing stopped and the men began to talk very seriously about something. So I listened in to what they were saying. They had counted the money and there was some money missing. The men talked to the men in the other booths and they had some money missing too. So everyone was trying to figure out what had happened to the money. One of the men from another booth who I did not know said, “You know I saw someone walking around here earlier today and he didn’t look like he belonged. I wonder if that person stole some of the money.” I was shocked. Somebody would steal money from the church? It was hard to believe. So the other men, asked what did this person look like? “Oh he wasn’t very old, just a young boy. But he was clearly not where he was supposed to be.” I was even more shocked. Someone my own age was stealing money? I couldn’t believe it! Then the men asked what did this boy look like? The man who had seen him thought and then said, “He was about this high and he had brown hair in fact, he looks like that boy right there!” He pointed right at me! All the men looked at me like I stole the money!
I froze. I wanted to say all kinds of things like wait a minute I didn’t do that; I put the money in my apron and then I put it in the box and I put ALL of it in there. I wanted to defend myself. But I was too afraid to say anything. But soon I didn’t have to, because my dad came out and put his arms around me and said, “No, no, this is not a thief, this is my son, George. He is working with us here. He would never steal anything.” Then the other men who knew me said, “Oh yea, don’t worry. That can’t be the boy. He is Mike’s son. He’s working with us and you can trust him.” So everyone agreed, and went off to tell the pastor that the money was missing. But I was safe. I didn’t have to worry. Nobody thought that I was a thief, because I belonged to my dad.
I think all of you making your First Communion and Confirmation today know who you belong to. You belong to your parents and your family. You know that they are there for you and if you have a problem you can talk to them about it and they will try to do the best they can to make you happy and safe. But you do not only belong to your family, you belong to Jesus. That is what we celebrate today in these sacraments. You became a part of Jesus’ family at baptism. Today Jesus is going to give you strength in the Holy Spirit and then Jesus is going to give you his very self in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. That is what the apostles discovered in today’s Gospel. When Jesus rose from the dead be came to them and said “Peace be with you.” I am with you now and we are going to face whatever we have to face together.
That is the best thing about being a Christian. We belong to a God who will be with us always, both when things are easy and when things are tough. We belong to a God who will lead us through life and lead us to happiness with God forever. So that is the Good News of what we celebrate today in Confirmation and First Communion. The Good News is that Jesus is with us. We don’t have to be afraid. We can always have hope, because we know who we belong to. We belong to Jesus.
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