Do you know how much you are worth?

At one point last night, there was an amazing grace for me. As people continually bid items higher than their dollar value, it got me to thinking: How much can some of these things really be worth? Though there is always an intrinsic value to things, when my dinner went for $3600 dollars, besides thinking: “What can I possibly cook that will be that good,” I began to realize that the value comes, not from within, not from the item itself, but from what the bidder brings to the item, what the bidder brings to the auction.

Which cued me back into what I had been praying on and struggling over in terms of today’s gospel. “No one can take them out of my hand,” was the line that had captured my heart during the week. But I kept thinking about that in terms of ‘strength’ and the qualities of the shepherd. That got me no where in terms of a homily. So after about three hours of dead ends, I gave up that line of thought. But then I remembered a talk that Fr. Gary Braun gave to his Newman Center Seniors during a ‘transitions night’, preparing graduates for the leaving process. At the end of the evening he said very simply, yet so profoundly to the assembled students. “I want you to know that you are worth my life.” I want you to know that you are worth my life.

And like the value that the bidders brought to the auction items last night, everyone in that room came to know how much they mattered, how much they were worth. Whether they had screwed up in amazing ways or been a tremendous ongoing gift to the community, it didn’t matter. What matters is that they were loved by their shepherd. And I heard that line from the gospel, not in terms of the strength of the shepherd, but in terms of his protective, enduring, passionate love and valuing of the sheep. That’s what a shepherd’s love does. That’s what a shepherd’s love does.

So, in my own way, as I approach being pastor here for 5 years, let me say the same thing to you, no less true because someone else said it first. “You are worth my life.” You have always been worth my life. I trust you know that. I hope you know that.

I hope you have known that from every priest who has been stationed here, every woman religious who has been on staff or taught in your grade schools or high school. I hope you feel that in every encounter with Tracy or Julie or Cheri or me. And I hope that you know it in each other – the tremendous gift you are to each other, the rare and amazing ways that you care for one another in very concrete and practical ways. You are so valued and so worthwhile and so loved here at the Newman Center…

And if you don’t experience that in the ways you need from your fellow human beings, then I invite you to look at the cross this week in a different way. Let it say to you: you are worth Jesus’ life as well.

One corollary: The annual Catholic Appeal is our way to say to the many people who are served by its funding: They are worth our lives as well. It is the way that we get in on the act of continuing the shepherd’s love in real and concrete ways. Please be generous with your pledge.

$3,600.
Woof!

…I guess I am going to have to buy gourmet hot dogs.