Saturday, 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II

Published: September 17, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily during the Mass to honor the 2016 religious jubilarians at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016.

Bishop Taylor

One of the joys of my childhood was that there was a baseball player with my name: Tony Taylor. His major league career was from 1958-1975 with the Cubs, Phillies, Tigers and back to the Phillies. I think I have all his cards. He was a good fielder and a good batter.

Of course he didn't bat 1,000. His 17-year-career batting average was .262. No one bats 1000. Indeed, a major league baseball player who hits the ball one-fourth of the time is a good batter — 1.) even though he misses the ball three times as often as he hits it; 2.) even though most of his hits are singles; and 3.) even though most of those singles never do turn into runs.

Tony Taylor was a good player, but he didn't expect to score every time he was at bat. I he had, he would have been very disappointed.

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about realistic expectations in his, and our work to establish the reign of God. Farmers plant lots of seeds: many get eaten by birds or wither for lack of roots or get choked out by weeds. But some do fall on good soil and produce a great harvest: 30-, 60- or 100-fold.

If a farmer expects every seed to produce, his expectations are unrealistic. He has a successful plant batting average of only .250 — about the same as Tony Taylor. But multiply this 250 by the 30, 60 or 100: One yield of the one in four seeds that do produce, and you'll see that he's getting a tremendous return on his overall effort.

Even if a player were to hit a home run with bases loaded every time he's at bat (a very unlikely scenario) he'd only be getting a four-fold return on his effort.

You jubilarians have spent a lifetime working very hard to accomplish things that the Lord has asked you to do. Some in teaching, some in health care, others in pastoral work and so on. And yet we often don't get the results we hope for.

For instance, those of you who were school teachers made incredible sacrifices for your students, but then many of them just took it for granted and didn't even do their homework. Others of you in health care work hard to help patients recover, and then some go back to old, unhealthy habits when they get home.

And those in parish life work hard to prepare people for sacraments and they disappear once the sacrament has been received. Sure, all of us in teaching, health care and parish work do bat a lot higher than .250.

Even so, we mourn those who didn't turn out very well. Places where our efforts fell on the footpath, or on rocky ground or among thorns. Those who later got carried away by a bad crowd, those who later abandoned the faith you had worked so hard to cultivate in them, and still others who have given themselves over to a life of selfishness, greed and ambition.

Looking back over all our efforts we have to be realistic: There's only so much we can do and not even Jesus bats 1,000 —and he's the Savior; not us.

And for that matter, the same applies to ourselves and our own struggles with sin. We don't bat 1,000 in our own personal lives. We stumble and fail for sure, and if we expect perfection in everything we do, our expectations are very unrealistic and we will be tormented by scrupulosity.

But even though we miss the ball more often than we hit it — so to speak — God can make our best efforts bear far more fruit for the Lord than we could ever produce on our own: 30-, 60- and 100-fold — in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Just consider how the yield of your teaching efforts is multiplied through your former students into the children they parent and grandparent. And the yield of your nursing in the additional years you add to your patients' lives. And so on.

Jubilarians, we are grateful for you! We are gathered today to honor you and pray for you. Your batting average is a lot higher than Tony Taylor's and throughout your lives you have hit lots of home runs. May God bless you abundantly!