Today’s Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Peter Wells and we are so blessed to have him with us this year. He serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.
We all desire to feel loved, important, cared about. It is in our nature. We want to know we have people who see us for who we are. We desire to know our worth, but at what cost? In his homily this morning, Fr. Dave Pivonka challenged us to examine our true worth.
What is our worth?
Fr. Pivonka started his homily by defining worth as what one person is willing to pay for something, and what one person is willing to sell something for. As he addressed the youth he stated, “As a high school student your world is all about defining worth: you are a starter on the football team, you got an A on a test, you are in theater. You say that is what gives us value and worth, but brothers and sisters those are not the things that define us…you are worth more.”
This was the resounding message of Fr. Pivonka’s homily: YOU ARE WORTH MORE! The world we live in tries to define us for our worth: the size of our home, the car we drive, the money we have, the clothes we wear. Our world makes it so easy to assign a value to someones worth. But as we heard in today’s Gospel, we are worth so much more than that!
Where does our true worth come from?
John Chapter 10 states: “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet none of them falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs on your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Our souls are constantly in search of our worth. We move to certain groups because they make us feel worthy. They value us, but is it for what truly matters? We gravitate towards them because they tell us we are worthy. We “sell” ourselves to them because they notice us, they give us attention, they tell us we are beautiful and important, because they increase our status, our “likes” or our reputation. The reality is, though, that we are not property that can be sold or bought; regardless of what our world tells us.
In doing this we begin to define ourselves because of the things we have done or what others tell us is important, and not by the One who gives us value. The One who truly gives us worth.
Fr. Pivonka ended his homily with an analogy of a penny’s worth: Pennies go through a lot of “stuff”. They get passed from person to person, stuck in the mud, left behind, but no matter what they’ve been through, their worth always stays the same. Pennies are just like people. Some of us are shiny, some are dirty and beaten up; but we are all of equal worth and we are all loved.
Our worth in the Lord
Jesus tells us that we are worth more. How much more? So much that the Son of the living God came to earth to offer His life for us; regardless of our past or our history. We are worth so much that Christ was willing to take on flesh, become vulnerable, and to die for us. We have been purchased at a great price. In the eyes of our Maker we are worth more than anyone could ever imagine!
“Allow the Lord to speak to your heart in safety this morning. To tell you that you are worth more.”
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