Deacon Mike Meyer / Tuesday, September 9, 2025 / Categories: Blog, Homilies I Can’t Do It Alone Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C After the Meyers relocated to Hunterdon County some twenty-three years ago, Jessica and I decided to get chickens. The first task was to build a chicken coop, which wouldn’t be easy, because I’m nearly inept when it comes to construction projects. Growing up, my father didn’t trust me with his tools, so while my older brother learned to build things at the knee of the master, I stood safely out of the way holding the flashlight. Apparently, I wasn’t good at that either. Dad’s payback for not sharing his construction know-how with me was having to help me build the chicken coop (and, this time, the tools were mine). The project was a little tricky because we were retrofitting a section of our existing barn, but Dad was an engineer; it was all going fine. At one point, I had to fit an oddly shaped piece of plywood into an oddly shaped hole on the wall, and I struggled. So much so that Dad looked at me with a wry smile and said, “It’s a good thing you’re a lawyer.” Dad then picked up the other end of the plywood, adjusted the angle of our approach, and helped me nail the plywood to the wall. Dad knew what I didn’t—I couldn’t do it alone. None of us can, and that’s the message of today’s readings. Jesus makes clear in our Gospel that we don’t become his disciples by simply dipping a toe in the waters of Christianity, warning us that we need to calculate the cost of discipleship before we take the plunge. What’s the cost? Total immersion, a complete surrender to Christ and his teachings. But how can we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus and his mission when we don’t understand everything that Jesus taught us and still grapple with the mystery of God? How can we love someone who hurt us badly? Why should we remain faithful to an all-powerful God who doesn’t stop school shootings? Why should I prioritize Jesus over my family? If you ponder these questions, you’re in good company; we all do. Fortunately, we aren’t left to deal with these questions alone; God remains with us through the Holy Spirit to help us “in our pursuit of wisdom and knowledge as we persevere in the Christian life.”[1] Our first reading, an excerpt from King Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, offers us good news and bad news. The bad news is we don’t know everything because we’re not God, and our inclination to sin turns us away from God’s ways. The good news is that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God gives us wisdom to help us on our Christian journey.[2] Wisdom comes from God. We don’t develop it on our own; it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to understand God’s plan and carry it out. While knowledge includes the facts, information, and skills we acquire through experience and education, wisdom helps us “judge well and act for the good.”[3] Think of it this way: “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” We’d all like to think that we’re wise, but as Shakespeare says, “wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.”[4] We’re an independent, stubborn lot who think we can do anything we set our minds to without any help. We’ve amassed vast scientific and technological knowledge, but shun the God-given wisdom that would stop us from using it to build weapons of mass destruction and perform abortions. We see our limitations as signs of weakness, rather than opportunities to acknowledge that we can’t do it alone and invitations to receive God’s help, God’s wisdom, as the gift that it is. Accepting our limitations leads us to God, the fount of all wisdom that flows freely and abundantly in and around us all the time. Whether we pass it up, take a sip, or dive right in is up to us. Remember, “the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”[5] Accepting that we can’t do it alone is also very liberating. Think of all the overachievers and overextended you know. What’s one attribute most of them share? Anxiety. When we try to do it all, we put too much pressure on ourselves because we can’t. We don’t know everything and can’t do it alone. Only God is omniscient and omnipotent. We need to rely on God. “Hand it over to God.” Let “Jesus take the wheel.” Invoke whatever prayer, song, or mantra that gives you the blessed assurance that God’s there to help us every step of the way, because God loves us. You’ll be all the wiser for it. That lesson I learned from Dad has served me well over the years. I now hire plumbers, electricians, and contractors to help me with those household chores and spare my home and family from the havoc I would have wreaked if I had tried to do it alone. It’s also given me more time to do the things I am good at and enjoy much more, and it’s saved me a lot of money on tools. Most of all, that little lesson has brought me closer to God. In learning to trust and rely on God for help, I’ve developed a deeper relationship with God that’s made me happier and led to—this. Jesus doesn’t hide the fact that discipleship’s hard, but he’s shown us through his perfect example that we can do it, too, with God’s help. Our journey toward discipleship begins with five simple words I invite you to repeat after me now and every morning before you get out of bed: “I can’t do it alone.” Readings: Wisdom 9:13-18b; Psalm 90; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33 [1] Maria Enid Barga et al., Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers, and Proclaimers of the Word, Year C (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2025), 255. [2] Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle C) (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire, 2021), 622. [3] Michael Kolarcik, “The Book of Wisdom: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 5 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997), 519. [4] William Shakespeare, History of Henry IV, Act 1, Scene 2. [5] William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 1. What Matters to God Print 115 Please login or register to post comments.