A Day in the Life of Jesus

by Jerry Fuller, OMI

• There is a priest who does a very unusual thing. He spends much of his off time riding with police officers on their shifts. For the first couple of times, he rode along simply out of curiosity. But after a while, police officers began to invite him to ride along.
  After some number of all-nighters in police cars, he began to appreciate what real evil could do to people. It can rob them of hope. A woman in the parish whose husband was a police officer approached the priest and asked him in secret if he would ask to ride along with her husband. The officer was Catholic but not active. The wife was afraid for her husband. He was distant and depressed. She thought a shift with the two of them together might give her husband the chance to talk.
  The priest asked and did ride along. He was struck by two things. One, the police officer had developed a horrible cynicism about people in the world--which came as no surprise since the priest had seen this before. Second, he learned that the officer no longer believed in God after all the things the officer had witnessed.
  The shift passed with mostly talk about the job. Surprisingly, the officer soon called the priest and asked if he would like to ride along again.
  Then he called again.
  After several shifts, the priest was pleased to see the officer join his wife at Sunday Mass. After Mass, the priest welcomed the officer, joked about the roof not falling in, and politely asked what brought the officer to church.
  "Seeing my job through your eyes!" came the reply. "I was just happier when you were with me. You made it fun to do my job again. The first night you rode you said you believed that police officers had a vocation just like you did.. I had never connected what I do with God, and somehow that thought helps." (1)

In today's gospel we see Jesus involving himself in the ordinary lives of people. He was at Peter's house where he healed Peter's mother-in-law. As a result of his presence among the people, the whole surrounding neighborhood brought their sick and ill so that Jesus could heal. That is why Jesus came: To be a human like us, to live and share our daily lives, to do whatever it takes to bring the Spirit of healing into our lives.

Jesus performed miracles in this account of a day in his life. But the pastoral worker, or any Christian, need not perform miracles. It is enough just to be there and listen.

• "A priest stopped to visit a poor family in the Kentucky mountains. As he greeted the mother she burst into tears and exclaimed: 'Oh, Father, I just knew you would come today. I know you can help me.' She poured forth a long list of problems and troubles. Here and there the priest offered a word of hope and encouragement but he seemed so utterly helpless in the face of all her miseries. Finally she finished. She paused a moment and then exclaimed: 'Oh, Father, you have been such a help to me. You settled all my problems.' The priest was bewildered; he had not solved a single problem. Then he began to realize it was sympathy she needed and wanted." (2)

Sometimes the best thing we can do is listen. Jesus did a lot of it in his ministry. But most of all, Jesus preached. After his day of healing and sleep, Jesus got up early in the morning to pray. When the apostles thought he should stay in the area and continue to heal--they thought he was "on a roll"--Jesus pushed on to preach in other territories where people had not yet heard the word. For to preach, he said, is why he had come.

To preach is why St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, had come also. You may have seen a letter in the "Dear Abby" column several years ago. It read like this: "Dear Abby: One of the toughest tasks a church faces is choosing a good minister. A member of an official board undergoing this painful process finally lost patience. He's just witnessed the pastoral relations committee reject applicant after applicant for some minor fault...real or imagined. It was time for a bit of soul searching on the part of the committee. So he stood up and read this letter purported to be from an application.

• Gentlemen: Understanding your pulpit is vacant, I should like to apply for the position. I have many qualifications. I've been a preacher with much success and also have had some successes as a writer. Some say I'm a good organizer. I've been a leader most places I've been. I'm over 50 years of age and have never preached in one place for more than three years. In some places, I have left town after my work caused riots and disturbances. I must admit I have been in jail three or four times, but not because of any real wrongdoing. My health is not too good, though I still accomplish a great deal. The churches I have preached in have been small, though located in several large cities. I've not gotten along well with religious leaders in the towns where I have preached. In fact, some have threatened me, and even attacked me physically. I am not too good at keeping records. I have been known to forget whom I have baptized. However, if you can use me, I promise to do my best for you."
  The board member turned to the committee and said, "Well, what do you think? Shall we call him?"
  The good church folks were appalled! Consider a sickly, trouble-making, absent-minded ex-jailbird? Was the board member crazy? Who signed the application? Who had such colossal nerve? The boardmember eyed them all keenly before he replied, "It's signed, The Apostle Paul." (3)

Jesus' life, like that of Paul, was also spotty in the eyes of the world. His enemies accused him of having devil; even his own family at one time thought he might be tetched in the head. Jesus was always fighting the religious establishment of his time. But he preached the truth, more powerful a thing than to perform miracles.

Some business entrepreneurs can give us believers an example when it comes to commitment.

• "At the end of World War II, Robert Woodrufff, president of the Coca-Cola company from 1923 to 1955, had a mission. 'In my generation,' he declared, 'it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca-Cola.' With vision and dedication rarely matched in corporate American culture, Woodruff and his colleagues spanned the globe with their soft drink." (4)

I think we can say Mr. Woodruff has accomplished his goal. Are we as enterprising in the way we spread the Gospel, either by word of mouth or our example, as he was?

• Emily Westaway was in her nineties when as her pastor I used to visit her at Twin Towers [says a minister], a United Methodist retirement home in Cincinnati. Emily was a positive person. "Oh, yes!" she would say, "Oh, yes!" A single parent, Emily had reared her family and supported them by working as a nurse in a doctor's office. She loved her Lord. It got so that I arranged my call to Emily so that my spouse could accompany me. Being with Emily was too good to keep to myself. We would visit and read Psalms and pray, and always Emily would repeat her theme phrase, "Oh, yes! Oh, yes!"
  Emily didn't complain. I had to resort to secret conversations with the medical staff to keep track of her physical condition. But about her spiritual condition I was never in doubt. Emily majored in appreciation. "Oh, yes!" There was just no way you could be with Emily and not feel yourself lifted up.
  As the years went by, I would comment to my spouse, "Isn't it remarkable, the way the core of a person's personality remains? The years have stolen away just about everything Emily ever had, and now, here at the last, she's losing her health. But that positive soul remains victorious!" And so it did right on through the day Jesus took her hand and lifted her up to heaven. "Oh, yes!" (5)

Such a woman witnessed to Jesus by her suffering, her positive attitude. By her imitation of Jesus, about whom Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not 'Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes" (2 Cor. 1:17). Paul, like Jesus, was willing to do whatever it takes to win souls. Paul said: "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law...so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law...so as to win those not having the law."

A motivational speaker once said there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say "whatever" and those who say, "Whatever it takes." And he's right! Some people live their lives with the motto of a petulant teenager on their lips, "Whatever." Have you ever asked a young person to do something that you think is important and have them shrug their shoulders and respond, "Whatever?" Some people are like that with regard to their faith. In fact, let's turn this into a responsive reading. I'm going to make some statements. After each statement I want you to answer with a shrug, "Whatever." Say it with a loud sigh. "Whatever." O.K. Jesus said to love your neighbor. "Whatever." Jesus said there is more rejoicing over one sinner who is found than the ninety-nine that stayed within the fold. "Whatever." Jesus said that when you have done it to the least of these. "Whatever."

Now, let's change our response from whatever to "Whatever it takes." OK, let's try it. Jesus said to love your neighbor. "Whatever it takes." Jesus said there is more rejoicing over one sinner who is found than the ninety-nine that stayed within the safety of the fold. "Whatever it takes." Jesus said that when you have done it to the least of these. "Whatever it takes." Are you and I, like St. Paul, willing to do whatever it takes to win the world to Christ?

Like Jesus, Paul was willing to go the limit, to do whatever it takes to win souls. In today's glimpse of a life in the day of Jesus, we can see that Jesus was too. He did not glory in hanging around where he had performed miracles, but he went on, with the aid of his life of prayer to the Father to guide him, and he spread the Gospel, he preached in season and out of season. We are called to do the same.

1) Fr. Edwin F. Steiner, "Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time," The Priest 56, (01): (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750) Feb. 2000.
2) Msgr. Arthur Tonne, Five-Minute Homilies on the Gospels of Cycles A,B,C, (Marion, Kansas: Multi Business Press, 1977) pg. 72.
3) "Whatever it takes," Dynamic Preaching 15 (1): 37 (Seven Worlds, 310F Simmons Road, Knoxville TN 37922) Feb 2000.
4) Ibid.pg. 38.
5) "Illustrating text and theme," Lectionaid 8 (1): 65-6 (LectionAid, Inc., P.O. Box 19229 Boulder 80308 - 2229) Feb. 2000.
6) "Whatever it takes," Dynamic Preaching.

(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)