FR. KEVIN DILLON’S HOMILY DATED 26.07.2020 I just had an ideas and I shouldn’t announce ideas on YouTube because someone else will steal it but I thought maybe, maybe we should there’s still a lot of priests saying mass all over the world, may be should have masks in liturgical colours so I should have a green one now and a white one Christmas and Easter and a purple one for Advent and Lent and a red one for the Feast of the Martyrs and the Apostles. Now, don’t tell anyone I just had that idea but that might be a marketing opportunity for someone, so let’s see what happens with that. On another note – question for you, have a think, what is the most beautiful song ever written? Now that’s probably pretty hard because there’s lots of songs around. But if I was to make a list there’s one song that would definitely be on it and it was in my mind during the week because I received a card from a granddaughter of a lady whose funeral I conducted a couple of weeks back and when I had met with the family, they were searching around for music to put behind the photos. At that stage I think that we were still able to have 50 people at the funeral and anyhow, the song is one which I have suggested a few times for use at funerals in similar circumstances behind photos or special reflection and it is for me one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It goes back a few years but it was written by a singer in the most well-known version. His name is David Gates and he was the lead singer of a band which operated under the name of Bread B-R-E-A-D, mainly in the 70s. David Gates is a very interesting fellow. He’s about 80 years of age now and he’s been married to his childhood sweetheart who he first met when he was only 19, and still married to her, they have four children. One is a cardiothoracic surgeon, and the other three are all lawyers. Can you imagine what Christmas dinner is like with three lawyers gathered around the table for goodness sake. But any I’m not surprised when I read that about him because this song that a young woman read to me about during the week to say thank you for the use of the funeral, it really is an extraordinary song with a great message to which very much links in with what Jesus is talking about in the gospel today. the song is called “Everything I Own” and it was interpreted when it first came out as probably about a broken relationship. Now I meant to bring, I did print out the words and I left them behind but I think I can remember most of them. But the beginning of the first verse is: “you sheltered me from harm, kept me warm, kept me warm, you gave my life to me, set me free, set me free, the finest years I ever knew were all the years I had with you, and I would give everything I own, give up my heart, my home, I will give everything I own just to have you back again.” And as I say it was thought to be a song about a busted up romance but it wasn’t. It was a song that he’d written for his dad when he died. Now the song came out in 1972 and his father had died in 1963, but he indicated that when he was struggling, young musician he had sent his mom an orchid for her birthday and his father wrote to him, h wasn’t living at home at the time and thanked him for a gift which he knew he probably couldn’t afford and said you have no idea how much that meant to your mother and as far as she was concerned, she would give you anything she had in return. Well, that didn’t have to happen of course. His mother had already given it, to her that was the whole point but he wrote this in recognition of his dad and this dad he was the treasurer. This was the treasure in the field. This was another parable - A Pearl of Great Price. This is for the thing that was of most value in his life and he would give everything he owned to have his dad or his mum back again. Now for those of you who know anything about music, not that I’m any great musician but not a little bit, but there’s a thing in music called ‘the bridge’ which is a bit of music that is different from the rest of it and it sort of links the song and sometimes the lyrics of the bridge are almost the most important part of the song and the bridge in this song: “If there’s someone you know, you’re loving them so but taking them all for granted, you may lose them one day, someone takes them away and they won’t hear the words you long to say.” Extraordinary insight in those lyrics born out of his own experience and beautifully sung and presented and well worth reflecting on. As Jesus challenges us in the gospel to think about, year what are the things that are really important? What is our treasure hidden in a field that will give everything to have and of course sometimes that treasure is hidden. It’s not sitting on top of the grass in the paddock, it’s hidden in the field and we might have to dig and search around to find it, not in the paddock but in our own hearts, in our own minds. So often we get caught up in the things that are so superficial but the challenge today is to say what is our, what is my treasure in my field of life? One of the things I would give everything I own just to have it back again if I lost it. Jesus is talking about a few things here. He’s talking about relationship with God as being the most important thing. How true and real that can be. I’ve lost count over my years as a priest that people have said to me after going through some major trauma or difficulty or bereavement or illness or whatever and they would say I don’t know how I would have got through this without my faith. So what they are saying is “yeah, it’s my faith in God, my love of Jesus that somehow got me through whatever it is that’s been so difficult and such a burden and a challenge” and they are saying “yeah, that’s my treasure in the field and I value it now more than I ever did because it got me through and I am here today I’m able to manage life today because of that.” But there’s also the other challenge that we have on that, not only on the spiritual, faith level but also on the human level – to say, okay, what is my treasure? Is my treasure my new sound system? Is it the car I bought a few weeks ago that’s sitting in the garage? Is it the holiday that I plan to have and now I can’t even go to Tullamarine or whatever? What is my treasure? What are the things that are really important that if I didn’t have it, what is that and maybe, maybe we can look at that from a material thing and say, okay if someone broke into my house and took something, what is the thing that I would be absolutely devastated by if it went. It may not be the most valuable thing in monetary terms and probably isn’t but it’s the sentimental, the sense of connection that it might be and I can think of a number of things in my life and I’m sure you can think of some of the things in yours. Maybe we should spend a bit more time with that item and maybe think of it a bit more if the house were to burn down and we could take one thing with us, before the fire brigade rushed us out the front door, what would that be? And don’t say the grandfather clock because we couldn’t carry that out the front door anyhow. But what would it be the thing that we would most miss and we give everything we own just to have it back again. But as well as material things of course, there’s a whole sense of what Jesus is talking about, the relationships. I was watching awhile back an interview with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and this might be extraordinarily successful musical group for the best part of 50 years. There were four brothers Gibb. Barry, I think was the eldest. He had two younger brothers – Morris and Robin and the younger brother, Andy. Andy died back in just as young man, I think there were drug issues as I recall back in the late 80s. So he’s quite a young man. A little later on, I think, Morris, then Robin and Barry is the sole survivor.