CONGRATULATIONS

Looking for a neat Christmas gift? Margaret Wohlgemuth Burroughs of St. Mary’s Parish, Annapolis, has finished her labor of love – the book: Close-ups of History. It contains marvelous black and white photos by her late husband, AP Photographer, Henry Burroughs. It also has anecdotes and memoirs that Peg and so many others encouraged him to write down after his retirement and before his death in 2000.

You might have seen Peg’s picture and the front page story about the book in the Lifestyle section of last Sunday’s Annapolis Capital (August 12, 2007). The story was entitled, “A Focus on History” by Staff Writer, Theresa Winslow.

It would make not only a good coffee table and waiting room book, but also a book to sit on a couch with – going through the history of seven presidents of the United States from 1944 – 1974. I could picture lots of people doing this – alone or with a kid or grandkid.

When I mentioned the book to Evelyn Phelps of St. Mary’s – who has an astute eagle’s eye when it comes to editing – her first question was, “Who published it?” I told her, “University of Missouri Press.” She said, “I am impressed. They are top notch when it comes to historical books.” I said, “I didn’t know that.” She said, “Stick around kid and you’ll learn a lot more.”

Get this book and you’ll learn a lot more.

Last Sunday after Mass I got my first Christmas gift for 2007 – an autographed copy from Peg. Thanks Peg. I plan to buy some copies at our local book store for gifts.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

The teen-ager couldn’t wait for summer,
couldn’t wait for all those summer mornings
he and his grandfather
went fishing, went talking.

“Grandpa, what’s important?”

(LONG PAUSE)

“Well, you’ll have to sit back and listen to people
for the answer to that one.

“Or better, you’ll have to watch people.
Watch their hands, their faces,
but especially watch their eyes.
People always tell you
what’s important with their eyes.

“Why I once had a man tell me that his wife
was dead 3 years and 44 days
and he was still counting,
and his eyes were still crying

“Or listen to your grandma next time you take
her shopping. Listen to the things
she brings up -- the things she talks about
when she meets her friends.
I know you always find shopping
with her boring, but watch her
as she takes out her pictures of you
and all her other grandchildren
to show them to her friends.

“Watch people watch their watches.
They’re telling you an awful lot.
And yawns . . . Notice yawns.
They’re always a dead give away.

“Listen to the sounds behind words, behind voices . . .
what people get angry at,
when they get mad.
Then you’ll know when someone is stepping on somebody’s values or somebody’s nerves.
Then you’ll know that someone is going beyond
somebody’s ‘No trespassing. Private property’ sign.

“And don’t worry too much about people’s answers.
Listen to their questions.
Questions always tell you a lot more.”

(LONG PAUSE)

“By the way, why did you ask that question?”

© Andy Costello

WHY IS EVERYONE LAUGHING?

The title of my reflection for this feast of the Assumption is, “Why Is Everyone Laughing?”

Jack was still in a daze - standing there on the line – outside the gates of heaven. A lot of people had died that day. And it was a fairly long line – as everyone was heading towards the big main gate. And yes, he noticed, the gates were golden.

But he could see inside – through the fence. He could see these great, green fields – with high, high grass, waving in the bright sun. And he could see some people inside running and playing – and they all seemed so young – and everyone was laughing, laughing, laughing.

He felt old – but as he began to look at himself – he could see his body was young again. This was confusing - very confusing. He had just died at the age of 93 – and these last two years – were years of coughing too much, aching too much – feeling out of it too much.

He remembered he was scared to die – not knowing what was on the other side of life – whether there was really anyone or anything beyond death. Oh, he believed in God. He went to church much of his life. He tried to be a good guy; but there was always the wondering if there was anything beyond the grave.

Jack finally got to the main gate and walked in. Peter was there – greeting everyone personally – welcoming Jack – with this big smile on his big bearded face.

“Welcome into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Jack was stunned.

“You made it!”

Jack said, “Okay” – but very hesitatingly.

“Go and enjoy yourself,” Peter said. “And by the way, there’s a whole group of people waiting over there for you – wondering when you were going to show up.”

Jack looked. There was his wife, his three sisters, two brothers, his daughter, his parents, grandparents, tons of friends – all young, brand new, laughing and laughing and waiting and waiting for him. It was a great moment of reunion. In fact, with each hug, he found himself saying, “This is heaven?"

And he began to laugh.

In fact, he stepped back and laughed and laughed and laughed. He said to himself, “If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have worried about this down deep through the years.”

And everyone laughed with him – saying, “We know what you’re feeling. We know what you’re thinking. We went through what you’re going through right now.”

“Wow!”

And then his wife, his young wife, - and his sisters and his brothers, and their wives and his daughter, and his parents and their parents and their parents, all took him on a grand tour of heaven. No cars. No buses. Just walking and running, and laughing, in this vast paradise – with billions and billions and billions and billions of people from way back to just now – people of all races, languages and ways of life.

And then he met God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and what a welcome. He fell to his knees – but they lifted him up and embraced him laughing and what an embrace.

And weeks and weeks went by – but not weeks – because this was eternity – but it was some kind of time going by, but he didn’t know how to describe time that wasn’t time, and eternity with ever changing moments.

And each day Jack and those with him would meet new people – and the story telling was wonderful – and he met thousands and thousands of people – and every once and a while he would meet someone he had heard about or read about in his lifetime. Wow.

One day he met this beautiful young woman. She had this most amazing smile on her face. No wrinkles. Just a warm wonderful smile. And she was singing and laughing to herself. Jack had seen her sitting there, so he went over introduced himself to her.

She said her name was Mary.

"Where were you from Mary?”

“Nazareth.”

“Nazareth, Pennsylvania, near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?”

"No,” she laughed. “Nazareth, Israel, a good distance from Bethlehem, Israel.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “Did you have any children?

“Yes, a son,” she said.

What was his name?”

“Jesus,” she answered.

Then came the moment of shock on Jack’s face.

“You’re the Mary! Wow!”

“I wasn’t a Catholic – so tell me why Catholics hold you so dearly?”

And she told him the story and he laughed and she laughed – and they laughed so loud – that people going by stopped and said, “Oh, once again, Mary’s telling him what Catholics knew about her and we didn’t know till we got up here.”

And everyone laughed.

And Mary said, "Would you like to take a walk? I'd like to introduce you to my cousin, Elizabeth. She has a son with the same first name as you."

FAITH IS RISKY BUSINESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Faith is Risky Business.”

Today’s three readings urge us to reflect upon the issue of faith in our lives. And when we do, we often find out, “Faith is Risky Business.”

Hopefully, we also say, “It was worth it!”

· To get married takes faith.
· To stay married takes faith; to stick to one’s vows, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 years, takes faith.
· To have a baby takes faith.
· To be a priest or a nun or a religious for 10, 20, 25, 50 years takes faith.
· To sell a house or in these days, to try to sell a house and move takes faith.
· To take a job – or to switch jobs takes faith.
· To communicate – to talk to each other takes faith.
· To volunteer takes faith.
· To come to church takes faith.
· To become a religious drop out or an agnostic or an atheist – takes faith – different from what we consider faith, but it takes a kind of faith.
· To return to our faith or become a Catholic takes faith.
· To go in a car with some drivers takes faith.
· To get out of bed in the morning takes faith.

Faith is risky business.

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from Wisdom refers to the night of Passover – the great Exodus – the great exit of the Jews out of Egypt – to leave all and to follow Moses – to move from the know into the unknown – with only a promise and a dream of a land of milk and honey.

This country is a country of people from all over the world who made exits from elsewhere to experience new life here.

SECOND READING
Today’s second reading from Hebrews presents Abraham as the Father of faith. He obeyed God’s call and moved into the unknown.

Today’s second reading is one of the classic texts in the scriptures on faith – especially because it gives several great examples of faith.

The author of this Letter to the Hebrews says that faith is a hope in something using evidence that we can’t see. Faith is a test – and we don’t know the outcome.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel continues the theme of faith. Jesus asks his disciples to let go of what they have for a treasure they cannot see. Faith is waiting for the Lord – without knowing when he is coming. In the early Church there was a strong belief that Jesus was about to return almost immediately and the world would end – so, “Be prepared.”

It didn’t happen. Christians kept waiting. But it wasn’t happening. Maybe Jesus meant something else. St. Luke begins the Acts of the Apostles asking, “Why are you still looking up? Go back to Jerusalem and start listening to how you are called to go into the world and reshape it in Jesus’ Spirit.”

FAITH

So faith has to do with the here and the hereafter.

Faith has to do with everyday decisions and eternal decisions.

Whether the here or the hereafter, faith has to do with the future.

Sometimes we have to practice blind faith; sometimes we have time to think things over and get a second opinion.

In fact, it’s smart, it’s wise, it’s prudent, to step back before we leap. It’s wise to see our options. It’s good if we can say, “No” as well as “Yes!” It’s called freedom.

Then knowing the pool has water in it, we climb the steps to the diving board. We head for the end of the diving board. If we can’t dive, we can hold our nose tight and jump, closing our eyes on the way down – then come up out of the water to the clapping of our family or friends on the edge of the pool. We did it – or we can turn and go back down the ladder – red with embarrassment – with support from our family and “chicken” from our friends.

Faith is a leap!

Someone said faith in life is like you’re holding onto the trapeze bar and you're swinging and you have to let go – if you want to make the show go on – and you have to believe the other will catch you.

The image I like is this: It’s winter. You’re walking. You come to a street corner. To get to the other side of the street you have to step off the curve. However, there is all this slush and water and ice. You hesitate. You look up around to see if there is a better place to cross. You decide: this is it. To leap or not to leap. You can simply step into the slush and icy water – but you’re not wearing boots. So you decide to jump. You can do it. You’ve done it before. Oops, sometimes there’s a catch. You have to do all this in the dark.

That’s faith.

We have to make acts and actions of faith when we’re experiencing relationship decisions - health decisions – job decisions – raising kids issues – money issues, life decisions etc.

Faith is risky business.

DEATH

The biggest leap is the leap through death. When we die, we are totally out of control about whether there is anything after death or not. Is there a God in the aftewards? Will there be this person called "me" in the afterwards? If there is a God, will God be there to catch me?

Death is the moment of the great act of faith. Make great acts of faith now, and often, so when you have to really make it, you’ve practiced, practiced, practiced.

FAITH IS A JOURNEY

But before we get to death, let’s look at life.

A great message from Jesus is, “Life is a journey.”

Jesus calls people to hit the road with him.

Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

By being here today, we are saying to each other and with each other, we’re all in this together – making this journey through life with each other – with Christ as our leader and model and presence.

TWO EXAMPLES

As I was thinking about this yesterday - I remembered two moments from long ago.

COLORADO – ESTES PARK – ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

The first example that hit me was a vacation we made – 4 priests – one summer – probably around 1980.

What were your best vacations? You only know looking backwards from a distance.

A vacation is an act of faith. It sounds good on paper – you map out the possibilities. You talk to each other. You say, “Let’s do it!”

We had back packed 4 years in a row in the presidential range of mountain peaks in New Hampshire. Someone suggested the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

We started from our church in the Bronx, N.Y. We looked at our watches on the George Washington Bridge. Then we drove 32 hours to Colorado – switching drivers every two hours automatically – rotating seats counter clockwise – stopping just for meals and bathroom breaks.

We got our camp sites from the Park Rangers and started climbing at 8,000 feet. One of our goals was to climb to the top of the continental divide. We chose Mount Alice – 13,310 feet high. The first assault failed. We didn’t know how close we were, but two guys went down a good bit and took a picture of two of us up there from below. We didn’t know till we were home and got the pictures back how close we were to the top.

The next day we did it. We chose the most direct way which was pulling ourselves up by hand – rock by rock – like climbing a ladder against a building. I thought the top would be just a narrow peak. Surprise it was a boulder field – the size of two football fields.

Looking back all these years afterwards, I still have fond memories of that day as well as that trip

Great vacations take great faith – and smart risks.

SECOND EXAMPLE - HANNAH HURNARD

As I was thinking about all this yesterday another memory came floating back – something I had completely forgotten.

Before that trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado someone suggested that I buy a paperback book, Hinds Feet on High Places, and read it when I was in the high places.

I paged through the book a bit on the trip out – and it seemed "smaltzy maltzy" - but I didn’t really read it till we were in the mountains.

Looking back now – years later – the book as well as that vacation were significant moves for me.

The book, Hinds Feet on High Places, (1955) by Hannah Hurnard, is an allegorical novel about a young woman whose name was "Much Afraid". She had two physical handicaps. She had a crooked mouth and her feet were a bit crippled – which made walking difficult.

She took care of sheep and lived in a valley – the Valley of Humiliation.

The book is a true allegory. Like the medieval play Everyman, the names of people and places tell the audience about the person or place.

Well this young lady, Much Afraid, had to deal with a lot of negative relatives and neighbors: Craven Fear, Bitterness, Resentment and Self Pity.

Things changed when she would meet the Shepherd at the watering hole and he suggested she climb to the High Places. Being Much Afraid she expressed her fears and doubts about being able to do this to the Shepherd – especially being crippled.

The Shepherd says she can do it – that her feet will become like hinds feet and she’ll be able to climb to the High Places.

So with faith she makes the journey. She has to go through a desert and then through the Forest of Danger and Tribulation – and then up into the mountain.

As she climbs she grows in strength. She needs Grace and Glory which she meets and receives in each step she takes.

Then after having a high – in the high places – with the great Shepherd, she is called to go back to the Valley of Humiliation. However, she’s a new woman, transformed, changed.

CONCLUSION

That’s what a vacation should do for us. It’s also the stuff of faith in the journey of life – here and hereafter. Today is a nice day. It's cooled off a bit. Take some time to look at your life – to look at the moves you’ve made, the trips, the vacations, the decisions, the choices of a lifetime.

Not every move was smart. Mistakes are made. But celebrate the great leaps of faith you’ve made – and the gifts you’ve received. And dream new dreams and great vacations – and great life moves.