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Who
We Belong To
May
4, 2003 Homily
Fr. George Smiga
Luke
24: 35 - 48
I don't
know what you think of bananas. For me, I could take them
or leave them. But banana cupcakes are an entirely different
matter.
When I was about in the third or fourth grade, my favorite
thing to eat was my mother's homemade banana cupcakes. They
were moist. They were sweet. They had about an inch of frosting
on the top of them. When my mother would make banana cupcakes,
the whole house would smell wonderful and my little sister,
Margie, and I couldn't wait until they came out of the oven.
I remember one weekend, my mother made about two dozen cupcakes
and by Sunday night there were only two left. My mother looked
and said, "Where are my cupcakes?" My sister and
I looked at the ceiling as if there was somebody else in the
room. "Well," she said, "these last two cupcakes
are for you snack when you come home from school tomorrow.
So, I don't want you to eat them until then." And she
lifted up the cake cover and put the last two cupcakes underneath
it. She said, "George, this is your cupcake and Margie,
this is your cupcake. Children, do you hear me?" My mother
knew that she had to be very specific when it came to banana
cupcakes.
I couldn't wait to get home from school the next day. I ran
into the house and lifted up the cake cover. There were the
last two cupcakes. I ate mine immediately. It was delicious!
Now there was only one cupcake left. It looked delicious,
too. I carefully turned the cupcake around to observe it from
every angle. I took my finger and scooped just a little bit
of the icing and put it in my mouth. It was wonderful! It
even tasted better than the one I just ate. There was only
one problem. It was my sister's cupcake.
Just then, I heard my sister saying goodbye to her friends
and starting to come up the driveway. I knew that time was
short. Then I did something that was not good. I'm sure none
of you here this morning would ever do anything like this.
But when I was younger, I loved to tease my sister. I loved
to make her scream. And so when I heard her coming home, I
grabbed the last cupcake and ran outside and met her in the
driveway. "This is the last cupcake," I yelled.
My sister dropper her books and cried, "That cupcake
is mine!" "Not anymore!" I shouted and shoved
it into my mouth.
My sister screamed. She went running into the house. "Mommy,
Mommy! George at my cupcake! He's terrible!" And my mother
came out. I was still standing in the driveway. I had icing
all around my mouth. My mother did not yell. She just said
six words that terrified me, "Wait until your father
comes home." I realized now that this game had risen
to an entirely new level.
And so I waited. I waited thinking what was going to happen
to me. Would I be grounded? Would I not be allowed to watch
television? Would I be forbidden to go over to my friend's
house? I didn't know what my punishment was going to be.
When my father came home, I heard him and my mom talking and
then he came to me and he said, "George, I'm very disappointed
in you. What you did was selfish and it hurt your sister.
And so, until you can show me that you can be a better brother,
you must eat supper in your room alone." "Hmmm!"
I thought, "that's not so bad. I still get to eat. I
still get to watch television. I'm not grounded." "O.K.,"
I said.
So, that night, I took my tray to my room and I ate dinner
by myself. It was good. And when I finished, I stretched out
on my bed. I thought, "This really isn't so bad."
But then I heard the voices of my mother and father and sister
talking at dinner. I heard the dishes clinking. I hear my
family them laughing about something that they thought was
funny. I began to feel alone. I began to realize that eating
by yourself, away from the family, was not as easy as I had
thought it would be. Before the night was over, I apologized
and my dad said I could come back to the table.
I learned something very important that day. I learned that
eating was not just about food. It was also about the people
you eat with. The people you eat with are the people you belong
to. That is why Jesus in the Gospel, after he rose from the
dead and came back to his disciples, ate a piece of fish with
them. Because he wanted to tell them that their mistakes were
forgiven and that they still belonged to him.
This is something very important for all of you here today
who are going to be confirmed and make your first communion.
The sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist are sacraments
of initiation, they are sacraments that tell us who we belong
to. Those who are confirmed will be confirmed in their baptism.
In baptism God claimed each one of you to be God's own son
or daughter. The food that we share here at the Eucharist
will be the very presence of Jesus within us. In this meal
Jesus recognizes each one of us as his own.
This is a meal that we should share often. We should come
to this table regularly. Because it is in this meal that we
find out who we are and who loves us. The people you eat with
are the people you belong to. In this meal, we learn that
we belong to one another, that we belong to Jesus, that we
belong to God.
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