doing something unusual for God - 29th Sunday C 2013

Have you done something unusual in your life in order to do what you believe Jesus is asking from you?  Have you done something unusual or even something outrageous for what you believe is the right things, for what you believe that wants you to do?  Recently there has been a barrage of unique, unusual and even outrageous things people do to propose a marriage – some popped the question, “will you marry me” in the middle of a busy airport, some did it by proposing 20,000 feet in the air, some did it by buying ads on TV and others did it on billboards, some asked Tom Cruise to do it for them and some have even proposed by making a privilege speech in the august halls of congress.  The crazy things we do for love.

But back to the question – have you done something unusual for God, something ridiculous even, something people don’t expect you to do?

For these past months now there is one person from very far away doing something unusual, outrageous even to some, that has somewhat disturbed the way things are even us priests have a hard time following.  The culprit is no less than the Pope, Pope Francis.

The first sign that things will no longer be “business as usual” was on the day he was elected Pope when instead of riding the papal limousine he rode the bus together with the other cardinals.  Then the next day after praying in the church of our Blessed Mother in Rome he went on a side trip to a modest hotel where he had been staying before the conclave to pick up his things and pay his bill.  These things would have been dismissed as an aberration if not for an incident about a Swiss Guard, who was standing guard on the door of the papal office and was politely offered, and when he refused, politely ordered to sit on a chair and eat a sandwich by no less than the pope himself – something nobody ever thought of doing in its more than 500 years of guarding the popes.

Then things just started rolling.  Some priests taking the cue from the pope sold their personal cars and changed it to simpler ones.  Some even forgo the car and rode the bus.  A bishop in Europe saw his big but empty seminary building and got the idea from Pope Francis to convert this into a low cost temporary housing for the poor.  It was unusual, it was even outrageous for some, nobody even thought of it before but then all of sudden it was catching in on us and many of us priests are having difficulty catching up.

I have read so many papal documents before telling priests to be simple and it never made such a tremendous impact as seeing a pope riding the bus with the other cardinals as they were herded to the Casa Santa Marta. 

So going back to the question, what unusual things did you do for Jesus, something people never expected you to do, something you do not usually do, something funny, something weird, something unexpected from you, or at least from the usual you.

This came to mind because in our first reading we see Moses striking an unusual pose on top of a hill while battle was raging on down the hill.  He was standing with hands outstretched.  And when Moses got tired they got a big stone, had him sit on it and held both his hands in the air. The Israelites must have looked up in between sword fights and saw this figure on top just standing there with arms outstretched and this may have encouraged them to fight further. The enemies must have seen him too and they must have wondered what he was up to this time and this must have made them afraid.  It was an unusual pose, unexpected, but it made a difference in the battle’s outcome.

And here is another story by Jesus.  Widows in Jesus’ time were the makaluluoy, the miserable, the pitiable.  With the death of their husband they lose a lot of rights and many times they could not fight for themselves even if they want to.  But in the story of Jesus this widow is not your usual widow, she was not the typical, the regular widow.  She did things not expected of her.  She did the unusual so much so that the judge, who neither feared men or God, had to give in to her lest he received a black eye from the widow.  Yes black eye is the term used by Jesus if translated literally from Greek.  The judge was afraid the widow would give him a black eye.

So ok, aside from giving somebody a black eye which I would not encourage you to do, what unusual thing would you do for Jesus, what unusual thing would you do for love?  What unusual or even a ridiculous thing would you do for the gospel?