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A reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians

 Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them.

 If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me.

In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

 The difference between a boy and a man

• A boy has his room tidied for him, A man tidies his room
• A boy makes excuses for what he has not done, A man does the work he needs to do
• A boy needs to be told when not to speak, A man knows when to speak, and when not
• A boy needs looking after, A man looks after those that need help

A man will also identify when he needs help.  Sometimes we need help for things we do not have the skills to cope with.  A man will ask for help and he will learn how to cope again.  There is no shame in asking for help when it’s needed, nor is there any shame in being told you need help.

Think of some of the Gospel stories we know where Jesus helped others (ask if they can think of any)

Have we ever asked for help and it has been denied?  Have we ever said ‘no’ when someone asks for our help?

Mr Garrido told the story of the boy who was playing in the garden but his playing was impeded by a large rock.  He tried to move the rock in all sorts of ways.  Finally he gave up and tearfully told his father of his frustration.  His father said “have you tried everything?”  “yes everything” replied the boy.  “Well there’s one thing you have not tried” said the father, “you have not tried asking me”.

I would suspect that each person in the chapel has, at one time or another not received the help they need, take a moment now to think  how that makes you feel.

The American writer Maya Angelou tells us “I have learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Doing what we know to be right is what adults do, doing what we want is what children do.

When people see you in your St Joseph’s blazer, do they see a boy, or a young man?

Dearest Lord,

teach me to be generous; teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your will.