Fr. Jose Kaimlett In the famous movie “Mass Appeal” Jack Lemmon was playing an older priest who had been more interested in pleasing his people than God, but, then, had a conversion. So this Sunday he stands up and begins: “My homily this morning will be exactly 30 seconds long. That’s the shortest homily that I’ve ever preached in my life, but it’s also the most important homily I’ve ever preached. I want to make just three points. First, millions of people in the world are hungry and homeless. Second, most people in the world don’t give a damn about that. Third, many of you are more disturbed by the fact that I just said damn in the pulpit than by the fact that I said that there are millions of hungry and homeless people in the world.”
With that, he made the sign of the cross and sat down. Like this elderly gentleman, we (I mean all of us, not just priests) are more interested in pleasing our people, or at best, in not offending them, than for standing up for truth or for principles. ‘To call the spade, a spade’ you don’t need a lot of words, but courage.
