The priest’s homily called my attention when he suddenly said, “I’m going to perform a magic trick!”
I became very curious about what he proposed to do because it was something that didn’t blend too well with a liturgical atmosphere.
Anyways, I mentally fastened my seatbelt and listened on.
He took out his handkerchief, and spread it neatly before everyone.
He held the hanky at its ends, twisted it several times until it was a taut rope between his two hands. He then slowly positioned it vertically and said, “What I intend to do is to let go of the upper part of my hanky so that it will stand from the bottom end.”
The people were more intensely captivated.
“However, I will need your help. After I count to three you must blow at the hanky and if the magic works, then it will stand.”
“One, two and three…,” he blew gently at the hanky while some individuals, especially the children, also blew from their seats.
He let go of the top part but the hanky (naturally) crumpled down.
“I think we didn’t blow too hard and well,” he remarked. “Let’s try again!”
“One, two and three…,” he repeated the same thing.
He let go and it folded on itself once again.
“Wait! Something seems to be wrong!” He carefully examined his handkerchief. Ruffled it a bit and then said, “Let’s try one more time!”
A third time the same thing happened.
“I knew I would never make a good magician, that’s why I became a priest!”
Everyone laughed.
“But I don’t give up easy. What do you say we try one last time?”
The faces of the people beamed a clear affirmative.
“One, two and three…!”
To everyone’s surprise, he let go of the bottom part instead while holding on to the top.
The priest proudly showed the people that finally the handkerchief was suspended in the air.
Everyone in church was amused, but a few faces revealed a bit of disappointment.
The priest was quick to address these who felt they were duped.
“If you think I was only fooling you,” the priest said, “I wasn’t!”
As the people settled down he continued.
“All the time you were expecting that through some trick, the hanky would have magically stood on its own, right?”
People in the front rows nodded.
“I wanted to underline through this, how often we expect things to happen only according to what we do given our talents, our experience and our connections. How casually we forget that if we are capable of really doing anything, it is because God is actually the one who makes them possible. What is done by man has only a temporal effect and easily crumbles to the ground. But what God does is fruitful and eternal!”
Message delivered and captured, a brief graphic homily ended.
That very same evening I continued reflecting on that good priest’s wisdom.
I realized that there is also another lesson that we could learn from his purposely defective trick: valuing the ordinary but simultaneously profound things of daily life.
Today, we have lost sight and touch of what is essential in things, persons and events. Our digital-media lifestyle restricts our capacity to appreciate common daily miracles.
Instead, it bombards us with a constant desire for what is new and apparently better.
This is what Pope Francis described as a ‘throw-away’ mentality.
What is ‘old’ is no longer useful or attractive and is only worth trashing.
This results to an unrestrained frenzy for new gadgets, apparel, trends and many other external things which contribute very little to the growth of one’s personal identity and esteem.
People are now attached to things over persons, visuals over virtue and goods over grace.
We are no longer satisfied with simple things and are easily bored with the ordinary, common and the obvious.
But how is it that people, for example, never get bored with their hearts, brains, or livers.
Otherwise, even if there was nothing wrong with these, there would be endless lines of organ replacements. Imagine what our society would be if we would just trade-off our parents and siblings out of petty whims or arguments?
How do we gradually undo this mentality? Somehow it goes back to the lesson of the ‘magic trick’.
We must often remind ourselves that if things are up and about, it is because God is really holding them up for us.
We must simply allow ourselves to be, as Pope Francis also reminded us so often, “surprised by God, who always gets ahead of us, because He loves us.”
This is when you and I can –with His help– really do magic!