By Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
oOo
for November 15, 2020 (33rd SUN in OT – A):
oOo
Kindly open your Bible and Read Mt. 25:14-30
oOo
Points for Reflection: I am sharing to my dear readers a story which has been a part of my collections to help you reflect as the Universal Church celebrates the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Times – A .
oOo
The Reader’s Digest is translated into 15 different languages. It sells over 28 million copies each month. Assuming each copy is read by four people, the Reader’s Digest touches the lives of 100 million people monthly.
One of the magazine’s occasional features is called “Heroes for Today.” For example, the May 1987 issue featured three people whom it considered to be heroes for our time.
One of these heroes is Bob Wieland. When Bob went to Vietnam in 1969, he was six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds. When he came back from Vietnam a few years later, he was three and a half feet tall and weighed 87 pounds.
Bob had malaria and a temperature of 106 degrees. He was strapped to a board and packed in ice. Later he joked, “Outside of having no legs and being a physical wreck, I wasn’t in bad shape.”
Now, nearly 20 years later, at the age of 40, Bob had just competed in the 26-mile New York Marathon. He covered the entire distance on his hands, propelling himself along in leapfrog fashion.
The second Reader’s Digest “hero for today” is John Penne, a retired businessman.
He and his wife both developed cancer at the same time. His wife died, but John lived;
and his cancer went into remission.
While driving back and forth from the hospital for regular treatment, John noticed the number of sick people waiting at the hospital’s bus stop.
Sometimes the weather was bitter cold and these people, many of them elderly,
were obviously in pain.
John went to the local chapter of the American Cancer Society and said, “Give me a car and a little gas money, and I’ll volunteer my days driving these unfortunate people home.”
For ten years now, John has donated all of his time doing just that.
The final hero is a bit different. He’s Bubba Smith.
A former college and pro football star, Bubba won national fame for his beer commercials on television.
In October 1985, Michigan State University honored Bubba by making him
the grand marshal of its homecoming parade. Bubba was thrilled to be back at his old alma mater.
As he rode through the student-lined streets, one side started chanting, “Tastes great!” The other side chanted back, “Less filling!” It was obvious that Bubba’s commercials had impressed a lot of young people.
That night Bubba was deeply disturbed. At a rally, he saw many of those same students. Only this time they were intoxicated.
Then and there he made a decision. He would stop doing the beer commercials.
Bubba was concerned that his commercials were influencing a lot of young people. “I was selling to children,” he said.
Bubba’s decision cost him a lot of money. But Bubba was convinced that something more than money was at stake.