Homily 508 | 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Year B
The following homily was given to scouts gathered for the annual Holy Smokes Cookoff and Family Campout at Prairie Star Ranch in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas
There is something special about people who run towards trouble rather than away. It’s normal to want to avoid pain or suffering. But some people almost instinctively are able to overcome this tendency and instead rush toward dangerous situations to help other people. If there is a positive side of the terrible events of this day 20 years ago, it’s stories about such people.
I used the word instinct just now, but really the heroism seen on 9/11 and in so many other examples is more the result of a lifetime of decisions. Most of these decisions are comparatively small when held next to the decision to storm the cockpit of a highjacked airplane or to run into the World Trade Center knowing you likely will not come out alive. You only have that kind of selfless bravery if you’ve been practicing for a very long time.
Scouts have sacred words that we call the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. They are just words and often don’t mean a whole lot to new scouts. But little by little scouts learn to live by these simple but often repeated words. “On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country.” Something as simple as the scout slogan, “Do a Good Turn Daily,” becomes a life-changing secret to building character.
In the second reading today, St. James reminds us that faith is dead, just empty words, if not backed up by our actions. “We the People;” “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness;” “Liberty and Justice for All”… these are just words. Except sometimes people live their lives by these words and they become who they are. These are the people that ran into buildings on 9/11 and enlisted in our armed forces in the days that followed. Witnessing to words by their actions is what the heroes of 9/11 did. It’s also what scouts are trained to do every day. And that’s why scouts are tomorrow’s heroes.