An egomaniacal character in the T.V. show Harry's Law said, "I don't know which is worse, to wake up and realize you're not what you used to be or knowing you're still what you always were."
In real life our time is now; this is not a rehearsal. A sign doesn't appear below our screen saying three hour earlier That's why we have Grace. I mean the gift God gives us to help us decide the right course, the road to heaven: turn right and go straight.
"The best I've heard in a long time," Simon Cowell, creator of The X Factor, told a singer (I believe it was Andy Abraham or someone as talented). Two measures of success Simon asks for: "having my spirit stirred and the hair on my arms raised". This particular performer did both, eliciting Paula Abdul's reaction to the once-in-a-life-time performance, "This is your time."
Our time is now! And the X factor, that hard-to-describe influence or quality; that important element of unknown consequences is Grace we are endowed with. Thanks be to those who hold us up in prayer, who enable us to move in grace and style.
Jesus held out his arms on the cross to embrace the world, to embrace us. He holds us up. So do those who pray for us - our loving family, friends and Mother Church. It is up to us to realize what is enabling us and to pay it forward.
Grace enables us to move forward from each moment. Knowing who is in control helps. How do you make God smile? Tell him your plans.
Picture a child putting together a bird house. He tacks the floor to the framed walls. He attaches the completed roof, adding the perch by turning the threaded peg into the pre-drilled hole. Then he says proudly, "Look Daddy, what I built!"
The greatest attitude of creature to Creator is gratitude. And God gave us the example when he rested on the seventh day after creating the world. That is our proper place and attitude Sunday morning. This probably explains why so many are inclined to snooze during the homily.
Sharing our gifts is the product of grace. I am reminded of the story of a woman waiting in the check-out line. As she came up to the checker to put her groceries through, the man in front of her handed her an envelope. On the outside, it said, "There is $50 in this envelope for your groceries. If you need it, use it. If not, pass it on to the customer behind you."
So she handed it on to the customer behind her. And as she went through getting her groceries checked out, she saw the envelope pass from customer to customer and over to the next line, from customer to customer. It wasn't the passing on of the envelope that touched her. It was the fact that people added to the $50 and rewrote on the outside of the envelope, "now $60, now $70, now $100."
That is what we need to do with our gifts; be it gifts of prophecy, of care and comfort, of patience, of wisdom, or of kindness that we can pass on to others.
