By now two weeks in you have all seen and / or heard about our theme for the new school year, “Not Me, But God.” This little saying from Blessed Carlo Acutis could be taken a lot of different ways, but there are a few ways that it is present in today’s readings.
In the first reading, St. Paul is addressing a problem in the community where people have formed parties or groups around particular leaders, namely Paul, Apollos, and Peter. Those were the 3 big leaders who had been in Corinth.
It would be like saying here, when thinking about different priests who have been here in Bellevue recently, “Oh, I will only listen to Fr. Kruse” and then other people say “I liked Fr. Dennis the most” and then others say “Fr. Gross is my priest.” But then rivalry exists, like debating who is the GOAT: Michael Jordan or Lebron James - there is endless debate, but it is unnecessary in the Church.
St. Paul says it unnecessary by saying this, “Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” In essence he is saying, “Not Me, But God.” “Not Paul, Not Apollos, Not Peter, But God.” Us priests are here to serve God too, so there should be no rivalry there either, “Not Fr. Kruse, Not Fr. Dennis, Not Fr. Gross, Not Me, But God.”
As Paul says we are simply “stewards of the mysteries of God,” which means we celebrate Mass, and Jesus shows up here in the Eucharist, as He does in all of the Sacraments we celebrate, we don’t understand perfectly, but we believe God is here and this is all to help us go to Heaven.
Next, Paul goes on to talk about judgment, and first he talks about the need to judge if priests or ministers are trustworthy. He said, “Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” But it seems like he wants you to assume the best from them, because he says he isn’t the judge, that he won’t even judge himself, God will be the ultimate judge of who is best between him and Apollos and Peter. Who is judge? “Not Me, But God.”
We do have to judge some things, so don’t hear what I’m not saying here, we should judge if someone is trustworthy, you can judge me that way, but we probably shouldn’t be judging between who is the best priest, or who is the best teacher, we all have our gifts, and we are all trying to teach to the best of our ability, you know?
And God will reward us for that, for what we did individually with the gifts He gave us at our birth. Paul finished that reading by saying, “Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.”
What are the motives of our hearts? This is what really matters. We always like to compare each other in school or on the court... We can do that with our grades or with our athletic ability, but we can’t really do that with our hearts, you know? Only God can Truly judge our hearts, but it is good for us to judge and to know our own motives, to understand what is going on in our own hearts.
One way that we can know the motives of our heart is to look at what we sacrifice for in our lives. This was a big part of today’s Gospel. Here is how that Gospel started again: “The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.””
There is an underlying, unspoken concern here, they are accusing the disciples of Jesus of not really loving God, because if they did love God, they would sacrifice, they would fast from food and drink on two days a week, just like they did.
But Jesus sticks up for His disciples and says that they will fast when He is no longer with them, essentially, after they crucify Him, His disciples will fast then.
I said this in all of the 6th thru 12th grade classes last week, “we sacrifice for what we love.” God wants us to make sacrifices for Him, because it shows the motives of our heart, that we love Him more than food, that we love Him more than we love our stomachs. Again, “Not Me, But God.”
Think of your favorite food. What is your favorite food? My favorite food is probably bacon, I think I could eat it with every meal, it goes great with many things. My stomach sometimes just yells at me saying “Feed me bacon! Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!”
For the last couple weeks though, I haven’t had bacon in my house, my fridge is empty of bacon, but I've got other food. Every day I think to myself, “I should really go to Bender’s and get some bacon.” But I don’t, because I have more important things to worry about then if I have bacon in my meal.
Maybe it’s not the best example, but it’s a small sacrifice of self-control, self-discipline. And don’t worry, I just went to the doctor, my cholesterol is good, but he told me I should cut back on sweets. But we shouldn’t, and can’t always have what our stomach wants, you know? Our doctor will say that, the doctor of our souls, Jesus, says that too.
In those days, they Jews would fast on Monday’s and Thursday’s. After Jesus died, Christians began a new schedule, they began to fast on Wednesday’s and Friday’s. I’m not sure why they chose Wednesday, but Friday is obvious, that is the day Jesus was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. So we fast on that day especially as a way to say thank you to Him, to show our love to Him for His sacrifice for us. “Not Me, But God.”
We sacrifice for what we love. Think about your parents for a minute. They love you, so they sacrifice for you, by going to work each day, by taking care of you, by taking you to practices, taking you to different places.
You know, I bet if you ask them, your parents used to do a lot of stuff for themselves and by themselves, like the used to play in sports leagues, and go to concerts, and go out on dates together, but now, they sacrifice that stuff and that time for you. And you know you are loved by those sacrifices.
How do you sacrifice for God? We are all different, we all have different motives, however, it is expected that we sacrifice for God. Jesus said the time will come when we will fast, we will sacrifice.
Maybe that comes as a surprise to you, but, at every Mass I say it even, I say, “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father” and you respond back “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.”
What that means is you have to put your sacrifice at my hands. How? Well I thought about coming down and getting a kindergartner to put on the Altar, but really, all you have to do is mentally put your sacrifice there, or even better, ask your Guardian Angel to put it there.
We believe that Angels are messengers, right, so just ask your Guardian Angel to take your sacrifice, those times when you have denied yourself for the good of your family, those times when you really wanted bacon and went without, whatever sacrifices you have made since the last Mass, put those on the Altar with the bread and the wine.
And if you don’t have any sacrifices to give because I just told you this today, start thinking for Sunday. Pay attention next week for school Mass. Do something, sacrifice something. Like doing a chore you don’t want to do.
For example, yesterday I was walking through the Church on the way to the volleyball game, and I saw a bulletin and a book in a pew, so I picked them up. Then I saw a dirty kleenex, so I picked that up too. Then I went to the back and couldn’t find a garbage, so I went into the basement, into the bathroom because I knew there would be a garbage can there, and I noticed a dirty towel on the floor, picked it up too. I didn’t want to do it, but I did it out of love. You can do this too.
Don’t announce it, don’t make a big deal about it, God sees your heart, He knows how you sacrifice for others, which is really to say, you sacrifice for Him.