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As I read through the Scriptures – each week – certain words,
phrases – just seem to pop out at me and cause me to wrestle with
them and see how they speak to my everyday life. An example of this came in the Second Reading of Paul to
the Ephesians, “Be Imitators of God.”
How can I do that I thought? I started thinking about people in
my life experience that had impressed me by the way they were
trying to imitate this Compassionate God that we talk so much
about.
I have a very powerful memory of some people of faith just like
those of us here, putting flesh and blood, hands and eyes, a heart
on the Compassion of God.
Some years back, I had the opportunity to attend a convention near
Stanford University on Parish Life Today. A lot of people from 4 or 5
different states – very practical workshops on various aspects of Parish
Ministry I chose to attend one A A workshop entitled, “Ministering to Persons
with AIDS and their Loved Ones.” The speaker was Fr. Tony Maguire,
at that time the pastor of Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco’s Castro
District, the heart of the gay community.
The description of the workshop went like this:
How a parish of “gays and gray” became a healing presence to a
community ravaged by AIDS? This was done by means of growth in
prayer, (liturgical, personal, devotional) and by developing service
programs inspired by unconditional love and by opening the parish to
the real needs of local community.
Fr. Maguire began to explain how all this took place.
A. The parish leadership began to realize there was a problem.
Many young gay men dying all around them. What was the
parish doing to minister to these people, children of God. The
leadership believed all people deserve to die with dignity and
with support and care of people around them.
B. The first thing the parish began to do was to pray – the petitions
at Mass often mentioned the names of people with AIDS and
their families. They reframed an old church practice called the
40-hour devotion and prayed for healing. What they found was
that the more they prayed as a parish – the more their hearts
become open – more sensitive.
C. What happened next was a process of education. Through
lectures by doctors, nurses and psychologists they started
dealing with the prejudices – phobias – questions/fears people
had. This was a very slow process – which is ongoing. What
all this did was to build some bridges of understanding between
people.
D. They developed and trained working groups, 60 home care
volunteers, (regular people like you and me), who made
personal visits to people who were dying of AIDS. They
brought them to Church, gave them attention, and listened to
them. 80 support volunteers sent letters, cards, and hot meals to
the families.
Maria Sorentino, an 80-year-old Italian Nonna had been in the
parish for 50 years; her ministry, hugging people in wheel chairs.
When someone would question her, she would say “MA!” They are
people – just like me and you.
E. Fr. Maguire made it very clear that there were limits to the
parish’s involvement. There was a clear moral line, anything
and everything was not okay. That line however never got in
the way of compassion.
Some real miracles began taking place; — people became more
open to the Church that they had been away from for years. They
experienced a more compassionate and hopeful and sensitive
church.
Grieving parents found a place where they could come and express
themselves. One lady said, “I come here each week from San Jose,
(50 miles away) to find the support I need to cope with my son who is
dying of AIDS. I can’t say anything in my own parish.
F. Fr. Maguire ended his presentation by quoting a male prostitute
who was dying of AIDS, whom the parish was ministering to:
–“In this death bed – I have finally found human love that I
spent so long looking for. In this death bed through these
people, I have finally found my God.”
Be imitators of God – Be compassionate, love one another. It does
not say love one another (if) they are healthy – young – good looking
– get good grades – agree with your moral standards – live like we
think they should live.
It simply says: LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Thank you, people of Most Holy Redeemer, for being
Imitators of God.
Thank you, people of San Carlos, for also being Imitators of
God.

She enters the church and sits in her usual place. She mouths the
words of the prayers and hymns, but her thoughts are of her daughter.
How can she make her realize that she is making a big mistake that she
is heading down a road that will lead to pain, anguish and regrets? At the
appointed time the woman makes her way from her place up the altar to
receive the Eucharist–the sacrament of Christ the loving Brother who
says to her, “Just be there for your daughter as I am here for you”.
Right now, he doesn’t want to be in the church or any church. His
heart is filled with anger–anger at the disease slowly taking his wife
away form him, anger at God for letting it happen to her. He files up to
the communion station and takes in his hand the bread of the Eucharist–
the sacrament of Christ the Healer who says to him, “Don’t look for me
in the disease. I am not in death. I am with you in the loving kindness
and support of your family and friends who reach out to you and your
family. And I will be there to take your beloved’s hand when you must
let her go”.
They are sports celebrities and politicians, bankers and high-
powered lawyers. They come every Sunday to the altar and receive the
Eucharist–the sacrament of Christ the humble Redeemer who says to
them, “As I have become bread for you, you must become bread for
others; as I have been lifted up for your sake, you must lift others up”.
They are the poor, the forgotten, the troubled, the sick, and the
rejected. They come to the table and extend their hands to receive the
Eucharist–the sacrament of Christ who welcomed tax collectors and
prostitutes into his presence and now welcomes them too, “Come
blessed ones, to the feast of my Father, it is good that you are here; You
are always welcome here”!
The Eucharist demands more than the opening of our hands to take
and our mouths to consume; it demands more that we open our hearts
and spirits as well so that we may become what we receive. The AMEN!
We say when we take this bread and wine is our assent to the Holy One
who gives us himself in this sacrament–a gift that is given to us to give
to others.
An old monk prayed many years for a vision from God to
strengthen his faith, but it never came. He had almost given up hope
when, one day, a vision appeared. The old monk was overjoyed. But
then, right in the middle of the vision, the monastery bell rang. The
ringing of the bell meant it was time to feed the poor who gathered daily
at the monastery gate, and it was the old monk’s turn to feed them. If he
failed to show up with food, the poor people would leave quietly,
thinking the monastery had nothing to give them that day.
The old monk was torn between his earthly duty and his heavenly
vision. However, before the bell stopped tolling, the monk made his
decision. With a heavy heart, he turned his back on the vision and went
off to feed the poor. Nearly an hour later, the old monk returned to his
room. When he opened the door, he could hardily believe his eyes.
There in the room was the vision waiting for him. As the monk dropped
to his knees in thanksgiving, the vision said to him, “My son, had you
not gone off to feed the poor, I would not have stayed”.
I close with a 2-part challenge:
1. To become what we receive.
2. To Always Remember: The Mass never ends it must be lived.

Los Angeles is one of the last public-school districts in the country
to offer free musical training to students. At a converted warehouse, the
L.A. Unified School District’s Musical Instrument Repair Shop
maintains more than 6,000 instruments each year for more than 1,300
student musicians. The team of four technicians repair and restore
thousands of instruments – as a result of their work, a whole new world
of music and creativity opens up for Los Angeles’ students. As they
lovingly maintain these instruments, the four craftspeople are fully
aware that the piano or clarinet or violin they are restoring or fixing
could very well change the life of a young musician.
The story of this unique repair shop and its impact on the lives of
student-musicians in the Los Angeles area is recounted in the
documentary The Last Repair Shop, winner of an Academy
Award for best documentary short film. In the film, students proudly
play their instruments and share the profound impact their music studies
have had on their young lives – over and above their learning to play.
And the four technicians tell their own stories of how their own
experience with music has transformed their lives from poverty,
isolation and oppression to purpose, dignity and self-determination.
Since the film premiered , the shop has received boxes
of hand-written thank-you letters from L.A. students and teachers. “This
is our Oscars right there”, the shop’s supervisor says, pointing to a box
of letters. “Every note (from a student or graduate) is our Oscar. Every
thank-you email from a teacher, that’s our Oscar”.
The work of the Last Repair Shop reveals the miracles that can be
realized with “leftovers” and fragments – whether scraps of bread or
musical instruments in need of some “love”. Throughout his ministry,
Jesus always knows what to do with what had been lost, overlooked or
left behind. Jesus realizes the possibilities contained in such pieces; he
knows the value that lies within what has been broken and discarded.
He sees the abundance that lies hidden, the feast that remains within the
fragments, the possibilities for new “miraculous feedings”. As the
twelve wicker baskets of leftovers attest to the sign Jesus had worked,
our own basket of “leftovers” are signs of the many blessings we have
received in our lives and the promise we can realize from our generous
and creative use of those fragments. Today’s Gospel also challenges us
to realize the many things we waste in our lives that can be the
difference between life and death for our brothers and sisters, that our
stored “wicker baskets” of clothing, food, and household goods – and
musical instruments – can become signs of the providence of God in our
midst, that what we casually throw away can be the means of something
good and grace-filled for the hungry, the broken and the discouraged.
God calls us to the work of repairing, of restoring, for making whole
with the “pieces” and “fragments” that bless our lives.