Msgr. Michael Woster
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 25, 2023

A number of years ago, a priest by the name of Father Mark Link shared this story, and I would like to share it today. Tom Brown’s School Days was a famous British novel. It was made into a movie and became an overnight success. Tom Brown was a popular boy who attended a boarding school in England, and he lived there with about a dozen other boys in one of the dormitories. Tom was a good athlete. Whatever Tom said, whenever he did, always had a big impact on the other boys in the school, and they would say and do what Tom did. 

One day a new boy came to school. When it came time for bed that night, the new boy innocently knelt down beside his bed to say in his prayers. A few of the boys began to snicker. A couple others began to laugh and to joke. One even threw a shoe at the kneeling boy. And all of this to the young lad’s great embarrassment. 

That night, Tom didn’t go to sleep right away. He lay awake. He was thinking about what happened to the new student. But he also began to think about his mother and the prayers that she taught him to say each night before he went to bed. Prayers that he had not said since coming to boarding school. 

The next night, several of the boys in the dormitory were looking forward to poking fun, once again, at the new student, but when bedtime came, something totally unexpected happened. When the new boy apprehensively knelt down to say his night prayers, Tom also knelt down. That changed everything. When the other boys in the dormitory saw Tom kneeling and praying next to the new student, they sheepishly went silent, and that was the last time they made fun of the newcomer about his prayer. In fact, even after a few nights, a few other students began to silently kneel and pray beside their beds as well. 

That story I think illustrates the last line in the Gospel today. When Jesus says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in Heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I will deny them before my heavenly Father.” 

Why is it so difficult for us to witness to our faith? Why is it so difficult to give an example in living truth and doing what is right? So much evil is done in our world today because Christians, and others too, fail to stand up for what they believe and what they know is right, and to oppose what they know is wrong. We can understand this when we were young. As in the story I shared with you, it’s due to the fear that we will be rejected, made fun of. But why does this fear remain with us long into our adult years? When will we Christians grow up and learn not only what we should do but then have the courage to carry it out even when people ridicule us or reject us? 

That new student was in for a very difficult year if Tom had stood up for him, and you notice that Tom didn’t stand up for him by yelling at the other boys or threatening them in any way. He simply decided it was time to start practicing his faith again. 

It reminds us, examples always speak louder and words. You notice that Jesus referenced fear several times in this passage from Matthew today. He knows this emotion and its power that paralyzes so many of us, that we fail to acknowledge Christ in our example, and our actions, in our speech, each day. But the Lord concludes his teaching by saying, in effect and I’m paraphrasing just a teeny bit, do not fear. I’m always with you. Every hair of your head is counted. Nothing will happen to you that I do not allow. In this world, you will have trouble, but I’ve overcome the world and by my grace so will you. 

So, my dear people, let us live in such a way that Jesus will recognize us and receive us at the time when we come before his throne in heaven. Let us live in such a way that he will proudly bring us before his heavenly Father and say, “Look Father. This is one of my faithful disciples. This one is your son. This one is your daughter. Let us welcome them with great joy.” 

Finally, remember as you begin each day in the presence of the Lord, watch what you will do that day. Watch what you will say that day. And always, always remember, that you may be the only book of faith that someone will ever read.