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Connections...
September 29th, 2002- 26th Sunday of the Year
The parable of the two sons:
"Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came in the name of righteousness, you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did."
Matthew 21: 28-32
ICE CREAM FOR THE SOUL A mother took her six-year old son Martin to a restaurant. Martin had been learning about prayer in religious education, so he asked his Mom if they could say grace in the restaurant. As they bowed their heads, Martin prayed: "God is great. God is good. Thank you for this food. And would thank you even more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all. Amen."
The people at the nearby tables laughed--except for one woman who remarked: "That's what wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream. How crass!"
Martin heard the woman and, with tears welling, said to his mom, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me now?"
His mom hugged him and assured Martin that he had done a good job with the prayer and God was not mad at him. An elderly gentleman came up to their table and said to Martin, "Son, that was a beautiful prayer you said."
"Really?!" Martin asked.
"Cross my heart," the man answered. Then, in a theatrical whisper, just loud enough for the indignant woman to hear, he added: "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. Sometimes a little ice cream is good for the soul."
At the end of the meal, Mom ordered ice cream for them. Martin stared at his ice cream for a moment. Then, to his mother's surprise, he picked up his sundae and carefully brought it over to the critical woman's table and placed it in front of her.
Martin politely said, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul, and my soul is good already." [Anon.]
CONNECTION: Throughout the Gospels, Jesus upholds the importance of the spirit and sincerity and compassion behind our words and actions rather than the words and actions themselves. Martin's prayer while not as formal nor as liturgical as some of us would prefer, is nonetheless worthy of God in its simple joy and humility. Sometimes we put too much emphasis on the words and expressions and not enough on the spirit of the heart behind the words we say; we are often too quick to gauge people according to our own very dubious standards. The externals of dress, speech and pedigree fail to take into account the true measure of a person's worth: the love that is contained in one's heart. Christ calls us to look beyond labels and stereotypes like "tax collector" and "prostitute" and recognize, instead, the holiness that resides within the soul of every person, who is, like us, a child of God.¦
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