Podcast: 

homily20100829.mp3

A farmer discovered an eagle egg and he brought back and put it in with the hen. The hen kept it warm until it hatched and the eagle hatched and lived with the rest of the little chickens. He did what all the chickens did: he plucked for worms, he ran around the backyard of the farm and he would flutter his wings just like the chickens would but he came crashing down to the ground.

When the eagle got old, one day he looked up into the sky and he saw a beautiful bird, flying, soaring above. He asked “What’s that?” The chickens said, “That’s the king of the sky called the eagle. It soars on the currents of the wind and can go anywhere it wants. We are just chickens and we are on the dirt, on the ground.” And so the eagle lived as a chicken and died as a chicken because it believed it only was a chicken.[i]

The challenge we have as Catholic Christians is that we often believe so little in ourselves. We often settle ourselves for just plucking away at “worms in the ground.” We are destined and designed to soar like the eagles on the current of the air. But today’s gospel comes at us slightly differently, today’s gospel says for those who think they are eagles when they are nothing but chickens and warns them about being arrogant and taking the places of honor. This gospel was preached to the Pharisees;
it was aimed at the Pharisees who were corrupt, those who did not understand the true meaning of the gospel. However, my experience of this community is different. I rarely see that happening around here: I don’t see people grabbing for places of honor, I don’t see people fighting in that way here. We have the other problem here:
we don’t believe in ourselves enough; we don’t believe that we have something valuable to give. The real challenge we have is that we are so humble, we are so small thinking of ourselves that we never, ever get off the ground like the chickens. I truly believe that each one of us have incredible gifts; we are like that eagle who has the ability to soar and to fly on the currents of the air. We can make a huge difference, but we have to believe that.

Sometimes we don’t believe we can make the difference but I think we can, we can make a huge difference in the lives of those around us. We can really make an impact but we got to believe that reality. We got go out and act as if believe in that. We can make a difference in our family when we’re the ones who choose to forgive and to let go of stuff when it’s everything else tells us to not do it. When everybody else around us does not want us to forgive someone, we can choose to forgive people who have hurt us. When everybody else is hopeless in a given situation we can be the ones who are the people of hope for our community. We can be the community to reach out to those who are in need when society tells us it’s every man for himself, you lift yourself up by the boots and if you can’t— you’re out!

Instead we choose to make a difference, but we need to believe we can make a difference; we need to believe in ourselves that we really can fly. We need to listen carefully to God when he tells us he gave us incredible gifts and we are called to share those gifts with others. True humility is recognizing that we have many gifts and we were called to use those gifts for the good of all. May we not settle ourselves to be chickens who pluck away at the small things around us, but instead may we choose to be eagles who can soar, soar above all the pain of life, all the material distractions, and truly be majestic like birds of the air. Today our humility is to go and to serve in the Lord’s name, to make a difference and to soar like an eagle.