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Priceless Living
January
12, 2003 Homily
Fr. George Smiga
Mark
1: 7 - 11
What do
you get for nothing? Not much. At least that would be our
immediate response. We live in a materialistic culture and
it is almost impossible to remain unaffected by finances and
marketing. We intuitively assume that "everything has
a price" and "you get what you pay for."
Therefore there may be a shock when we hear the words of God
given to us by Isaiah in today's first reading. God says "All
you who are thirsty, come to the water. You that have no money,
come buy food and eat. Buy wine and milk without money and
without price."
What then, are these things that God is giving and how good
can they be if they come to us for free? The short answer
is, very good. I stand here today to say that the most valuable
things in our lives come without a price. The things that
we could not imagine living without come to us for nothing.
This truth is focused in today's Gospel. When Jesus comes
out of the waters of the Jordan after his baptism, there is
a voice from the heavens that says, "You are my beloved
Son." God freely chooses Jesus as a Son. This was no
financial interaction. No money exchanged hands. It was a
free choice by God to claim Jesus as God's own. God chooses
you and me in a very similar way. God chooses us to be beloved
sons and daughters and then surrounds us with an amazing variety
of free gifts.
How much did you pay for the breath you just took and the
thirty that came before it? Where would you be if those breaths
had not been freely given? How expensive are the relationships
in your life, your family, the people that you depend upon?
Do you pay an annual fee for relating to them? What is the
price per minute that you are charged for the conversations
that you have with the people that you love, those conversations
that allow your life to be shared together. Have you ever
been billed for the wisdom that guides your life, the advice
of family and friends, the ideas that God inspires in your
mind that direct you upon a certain course? What did you pay
for your last laugh, for the last time that you felt the joy
of living, for the warmth that comes from the people that
you love? All of these things are spiritual gifts and they
come without a price, without cost. They come from a God who
has freely chosen us to be God's own.
Now in saying this, I am not negating the value of material
things, those things for which we have to pay a price. The
material possessions of our life do, in fact, contribute to
a full life. Mae West in a famous statement said, "I've
been happy poor, and I've been happy rich. Rich is better."
I would not argue with her. Financial security, material possessions,
can give us a certain amount of comfort and satisfaction.
But, the truth is, to have these things without the spiritual
gift of happiness is not enough.
There are many very wealthy people who are not as happy as
you and I, because happiness is a spiritual gift. It comes
without a price. You cannot buy it. You can only accept it
from a God who loves you. Therefore, the secret of a full
life is thankfulness, thankfulness for those things that have
been freely given to us without any price, thankfulness for
our health, for our abilities, for our relationships.
Never take any of these spiritual gifts for granted. Never
think that they are secondary to the material things that
absorb so much of our thoughts and energies. God has made
us God's own. God has chosen us as sons and daughters and
God continually surrounds us with gifts that bring us life
and joy. I do not know whether the author of that famous song
from the forties was a person of faith, but the words of that
song certainly conform to the truth of the Gospel. We who
have been chosen to be God's sons and daughters, we who claim
God's love and recognize God's blessings, are the people who
can say without hesitation that "the best things in
life are free."
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