We are going to play a quick game of name that movie (father poses and a parishioner
answers). “Karate Kid.” See that was easy. I’m a child of the 80s so that’s one of my favorite
movies growing up. If you don’t remember the story of “Karate Kid,” it is about this young kid
who moves from the Bronx, all the way to California, and he starts to get beat up by this gang
and in the apartment complex where he lives is this Asian man and his name is Mr. Miyagi. He
meets Mr. Miyagi, and he starts to discover that Miyagi used to know karate and he asked Mr.
Miyagi if he would take him on as a student.
Danny LaRusso is the boys name. Mr. Miyagi takes him on, but he starts doing very weird
things in terms of training. He doesn’t do the normal karate things that Daniel&s expecting. One
of the famous ones that we all know is, wax on wax off, right? He learns wax on wax off and
he’s doing it on one car and when he gets all done with the car Mr. Miyagi’s telling him you
have to wax on like this and wax off like that. Daniel’s thinks, I don’t know why, I just want to
wax it. He finishes the car and then he says, “Now do the rest the cars”. Then the next day he
comes there and Mr. Miyagi’s telling him paint the fence, so Daniel starts painting the fence.
Mr. Miyagi says, “No paint the fence like this like this.” Daniel says, “Alright I have to paint it
exactly like he’s telling me.” He paints the whole fence around the yard, which takes him a
couple days; he comes back and Mr. Miyagi says, “Now sand the floor,” so he’s now sanding
the floor with both arms, doesn’t know why he’s doing it. He works on that day and night and
then finally he comes back, and Mr. Miyagi says, “Now paint the house but do it this way,” so
Daniel’s learning to paint the house.
Finally, he gets really upset with Mr. Miyagi and he says, “Listen I’ve been coming to you for
weeks and you’re using me like a slave. You’re just having me do your work what’s the point of
all of this?”
Mr. Miyagi’s been teaching him the whole time, only Daniel doesn’t realize it. Mr. Miyagi says to
Daniel, “Wax the car.” Daniel begins to make that motion and as he makes that motion Mr.
Miyagi goes to punch him and Daniel knocks his hand out of the way. Then he says, “Sand the
floor.” Daniel goes to sand the floor, and Mr. Miyagi kicks his foot out of the way, and he
realizes that this entire time Mr. Miyagi was teaching him. He was teaching him Karate. Daniel
didn’t understand. By the end of all of this painting and waxing and sanding his body was sore
it was aching, but he was learning something from Mr. Miyagi. It’s neat because as the story
progresses, Mr. Miyagi kind of adopts as a son. He takes him in and begins to share his life
with him. It’s a beautiful movie towards the end.
For us, God the Father is always teaching us and sometimes we don’t realize what we’re going
through, we think, ‘why God. why is this happening?’ Well, it’s important to know that
everything that happens to us, He is training us.
We hear about the word discipline in the Second Reading. A lot of us have struggles with
discipline, either because we’ve been abused with discipline, or it just becomes something that
we don’t understand. But God’s discipline is always making us a disciple; that’s where we get
the word disciple, from discipline.
In the Second Reading, we hear this: My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose
heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son
he acknowledges. Endure your trials as discipline; God treats you as sons. For what son is
there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all disciples choose a cause not for joy
but for pain, yet later when he brings the fruit of righteousness and peace to those who are
trained by it.
Everything that has ever happened to you in life and everything that is happening now and
everything that will happen, God is training us as disciples. There is nothing pointless, just like
Daniel thought some of the things that he was doing was pointless. All of it had a purpose. God
disciplines us makes us disciples through what we endure in life.
I know many of you know that my father is progressing with his Dementia and Alzheimer’s and
I’ve been going over there at night to put him to bed because he’s beyond the point where he
can really stand on his own or walk. I’ve learned how to use this sit to stand machine, I’m sure
many of you know what that is. I didn’t, but it’s a machine. Basically, you push it in front of him,
you put a brace around him, and then it loops up onto the sit to stand. There’s a button to push
so you can lift him up and I’ll say, “Dad going up, you ready?” I noticed the other day, he wasn’t
strong enough to stand and so it lifted him up like this and his arm and his head hang and his
legs were crossed, and I looked at him and I saw Jesus hanging there. Then, as I moved him
over to the bed and picked him up and put him into the bed, I noticed his legs were crossed
like you see Jesus on the crucifix.
I’ve been just pondering Lord what, what’s going on with all of this and watching as my father
continues to weaken. He said something to my mother the other day he said, “Dee, all my life I
have prayed for patience and now I’m finally learning it.” All his life he’s prayed for it and now
he’s finally learning it. The Father’s not done with my father; he’s continuing to make him a
disciple and through this enduring of suffering he’s learning patience. My mother and all of his
children are learning to love even at a deeper level.
Nothing in our life is beyond what God can do with it. Everything that happens in our life, He’s
allowing or permitting to happen that we may be disciples, that we may endure through our
suffering, that He may bring about virtue in us and good in us by that which we suffer.
Maybe there’s some times in your life where you don’t know the reason for it and you’re waxing
on and you’re waxing off all day long. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He loves you as a
Father and everything that he does is making us His disciples.
