The Heavy Lifting

Acknowledging our dependence on our parents and on God

05/23/2018

James 4:13-17 Beloved: Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit"– you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that." But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.

There’s an old saying that goes: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Do you know what that means? You can easily see in your mind’s eye how when an apple falls from a tree limb, it lands close to the tree that produced it. In the same way, children end up being strikingly similar to their parents. Some of you have your father’s eyes or your mother’s smile, or even your grandfather’s laugh. Thanks to my parents, my skin is brown and I can speak with an Indian accent while shaking my head. So much of who you are and who you will become originated with your mom and dad, just like apples depend on the trees they fall from.

But your parents are not responsible for everything you are, God the Father also has a hand in your life and personality. Your ability to be holy, your desire to pray, your capacity to believe in angels and heaven, your whole spiritual self comes from God. Just like the sunshine and rain from above are also needed for a tree to produce an apple, so God’s grace helps you to be who you are, not just a “good person,” but also a “holy person,” not just a good American but a good Christian.

Now, here’s the sad part of our story. We usually don’t realize how much we depend on our parents and on God. Sometimes we think we fell straight out of the sky being this smart and good-looking. Let me tell you when my dependence on God finally clicked for me. Scott Hahn tells the story of going jogging one morning. He ran by a house where a man was mowing his lawn, but his 3-year old son was playing with his toy lawn mower and disturbing the dad, crossing in front of him. Hahn was curious how the man would resolve the dilemma, so he circled around the block. When he came back around, he noticed now the father had picked up his son in one arm, and was pushing the mower with his other arm. The small boy, meanwhile, had both his hands on the real mower, and a huge, beaming smile on his face. Why? Well, the boy thought he was really mowing the lawn himself. Of course his father was doing all the real work, the heavy lifting, but the boy didn’t realize it. We are often like that small boy, too, thinking our accomplishments are our own, instead of giving thanks to our parents and to our God, the tree from which we apples fall. Perhaps humanity’s greatest failing is forgetting who does the heavy lifting.

The letter of James sharply reminds us whom we should thank for our blessings. St. James, one of the two Sons of Thunder, writes: “You should know better than to say: ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there and make a lot of money!...You should say, ‘If the Lord lets us live, we will do those things.’” In other words, don’t forget you are an apple that has fallen from a tree, that your talents were given to you by your parents.  Only because your parents have given you so much will you be able to make a lot of money one day. But furthermore, everything you have, and all you are, is a gift of God, especially the gift of faith and holiness. In a word, do not forget who does the heavy lifting in your life; indeed, it is always God who lifts you up high, like the father who lifted up his son so he could mow the grass.

Tonight, thirty-four students are graduating from Immaculate Conception School, and you have already accomplished some pretty amazing feats even in your fairly brief life. For instance, Asher Ellis won the Georgraphy Bee for the past two years, and placed 6th in state. Carson Lane was the School Spelling Bee Winner, and he beat me on a Quiz Bowl question.  (I’m not sore about that at all.) Our Quiz Bowl team placed second at the Trinity Invitational and Michael Freitheim was selected for the All-Star game. The coveted Covenant Awards went to Mary Albertson, Ella Pennington, Jose Manjarrez and Maxwell Martin. The girls basketball team has gone undefeated all four years at I.C. and the boys basketball team won the league championship this year. In the City Wide Track meet, the sixth grade boys placed 3rd and the girls placed 6th. But do you graduates realize how much these achievements have to do with your parents?  Those talents came from that tree.

But here are some abilities that come more directly from God. We had three new students join our class – Dorian Cordero, Eddy Rezindez and Ali Rodriguez – and the whole class made them feel comfortable and welcome and it seems they’ve been here since kindergarten. The sixth graders were responsible for organizing Christmas baskets for needy families. They love serving the poor. Our graduates serve at Mass and see it as a privilege and not a punishment. Holiness and helping others are hallmarks that you came from God, because you are like him. When you do these things you are God-like, because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Boys and girls, in a few minutes you will come forward to receive these diplomas in your hands. As you grab hold of these diplomas, remember the little boy who grabbed hold of the lawn mower thinking he was mowing all by himself. You earned this diploma today, and you will achieve anything good in your life to come, only because Someone (God) is lifting you up and holding your in his arms. Someone else is always doing the heavy lifting. Be sure to give him the glory.

Praised be Jesus Christ!