STOPPER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is: “Stopper.”
Did you ever see a painting or a sculpture that stopped you?
I enjoy walking through an art museum – looking at paintings.
I love the joke about the American couple going into the Louve in Paris – that long, long, gigantic building that houses the Mona Lisa, etc. Husband to wife: “Honey you take this side and I’ll take that side and I’ll see you back here in twenty minutes.”
I love that joke because I did the National Air and Space Building in Washington DC in 45 minutes. I’m finished and I’m sitting there waiting for the three people I was with and I hear this kid say to his dad. “Wow! Amazing stuff here. It would take me at least two weeks to see everything in this place.”
Says I to myself, “Kid, I’m not part of your world.”
I could take a day in an art museum – and I can’t paint or draw. But I can look. And I don’t do a whole museum – I just slowly walk around and see what grabs me.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
I’m in Vienna, Austria, by myself – visiting Redemptorist sites there – and I go into this enormous museum. I come upon this statue something with a name like “Woman!” in German. It’s four statues actually – and the idea is to see them from four sides – north, east, south, and west. The first statue is a young woman; next a married woman; next a middle aged woman; and then an old, old lady, without teeth and somewhat bent over.” It was a stopper. It hit me big time: the aging process. It was like Shakespeare’s 7 ages of Man. (Cf. As You Like It, II, vii, 139)
So I stepped back and found a bench about 20 yards away. I wanted to see if other people would have the same reaction as I had. I especially wanted to see women’s reactions to the 4 statues.
Some just walked by as if it was nothing. Others seemed to be as shocked and stopped as I was. Wooo!
A painting or a statue can stop us in our tracks.
PAINTING: FISH ON FRIDAY
There is a painting. I forget it’s name. It might be called “Fish on Friday.” I’ve seen it several times in priest rectory dining rooms. As I picture it my mind, it has this big dining room table filled with lobsters and all kinds of rich, delicious fish on plates and platters. And around the table, if I remember rightly, are these fat, very fat bishops and priests – with the red and purple veins showing in their laughing faces. That picture forever changed my attitude towards “Fish on Friday”. Annapolis with its crab cakes and great fish dinners can also certainly put an end to the idea of fish as a penance.
Did you ever have a painting or a sculpture stop you?
The paintings of Dutchmen Bosch and Brueghel are stoppers – big time.
Obviously, the cross is meant to be a stopper.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel is a stopper. We can page through the Bible slow or fast, but today’s gospel is a stopper. It’s not a page turner – but if we get the message – we will want to turn the page as quick as possible.
Today’s gospel is a painting in words by Jesus. It’s a parable.
Once there was a rich man – dressed in purple garments and fine linen – and he dined sumptuously every day. At his door was a poor man named Lazarus – covered with sores – who would gladly have eaten his fill from the rich man’s table. Dogs used to come and lick the poor man’s sores.
During Lent - the Second Thursday of Lent - we also hear this story – and I think the Church has a great sense of humor – because the priest wears purple robes that day – and the rich man in the parable is wearing purple and linen. I know I go “uuh” when I read this gospel in Lent. Today it’s easier. We’re wearing green.
Both died. One went to heaven. The other went to hell.
The rich man in hell – down below – sees off in the distance – the poor man, Lazarus, resting in the bosom of Abraham. What a scene. It’s very easy to picture it. He screams out to Abraham to have Lazarus, the poor man, dip the tip of his finger in water and come down and cool his tongue.
Notice, he knows Lazarus’ name.
Abraham says, “Sorry! It doesn’t work that way. In your life time you had it all and Lazarus had nothing and you walked by him every day. Just as you had a big wall between you and him in life – now there’s a big wall between you and him in death. Sorry.
The rich man has a conversion. He thinks of others. He says, “Well, if that is the case, could you have him go to my father’s house – because I have 5 brothers – and please warn them so they won’t go to hell as well.
Obviously, we’re the five brothers. Obviously, the story is meant to stop us from missing those we might be missing every day.
Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.”
“No,” says the rich man, “but if someone went back from the dead, they would listen to that person.”
“No,” says Abraham. “If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded if someone rose from the dead.”
Today’s gospel is a stopper.
PLACARDS
Now I’ve never seen anyone walking around with a sign, “Luke 16:19-31” – the text for today’s gospel.
I have see people walking around with signs trying to get rid of people they don’t like – to abort people from wombs and from this country - people whom they have noticed in their stomachs or at their doors.
They are proof that people don’t listen to Moses and the prophets – and Jesus who rose from the dead – who tried to get us to notice people at our door – and then help – share – care – feed.
ST. MARY’S
St. Mary’s is good – because of the generosity of so many - for the poor – especially our support of people who come for help through the St. Vincent De Paul Society. Every Monday night and Wednesday afternoon there are people at our door – as well as other times – here and around town. And we have these wonderful volunteers in the parish who serve the poor. I know they do a lot more than what I do.
Each of us knows what we do and don’t do – for people at the doorsteps or in our eyesight. And obviously, we never do enough.
And obviously, Jesus’ comment is always current: “The poor are always with us.” (Cf. Matthew 26:11; John 12:8)
And our churches – more or less – try to help people here in this country and around our world.
I remember walking past a Catholic church in Denver and the line was around the block . It was a long line – of men – all men - and I wondered what did they do in the winter? I also remember walking past a Catholic church in San Diego in December and the line was triple what I saw in Denver. Is that where they go?
And on my one trip to Vienna, Austria, when I was checking out our Redemptorist roots, as well as going to the museum where I saw that statue of the four women I mentioned earlier, I stayed at our Redemptorist house there. I noticed one of our brothers putting together a big tray of sandwiches for the poor who came to their door every day – and the parish was in the rich part of town.
FATHER JACK LAVIN
Father Jack Lavin of our parish here has just finished his book, Noticing Lazarus at Our Door – and it will be out by Christmas. It details his 40 some years working with Hispanic folks here in Annapolis, Baltimore, New York, Boston, and Puerto Rico.
I really appreciate his witness of noticing all the Hispanics I might miss every day: folks on bikes, working in restaurants, doing lawns, cleaning hotels, doing construction, raising families, doing this and doing that here, there and everywhere.
He stopped to jot down his observations about all this – and he’s been coming to my door for computer help with his book and he drives me crazy at times. He’s Lazarus at my door – and I better not ignore him.
CONCLUSION
This parable scares me. This picture that Jesus stopped to paint with words stops me.
How about you? Does it stop you?
I wonder if I’m going to meet after death all the people I never noticed – or people I put down in my mind. I think of a kid on our block we picked on as a kid – calling him “Faggy” – way before any of us knew about homosexuality. I think of people through the years I made fun of in my mind or ignored – or thought uninteresting or what have you - because I judged them by their look or with my prejudices. They were not statues – or paintings. They were real people like Lazarus – people I sinned against by neglect or negative comments – or didn’t care for or about.
This parable has challenged me to ask, “Whom am I not noticing?” “Whom am I passing by every day – in the rectory – in the parish – in Annapolis – in our world?” “Where is hell here in Annapolis – because I don’t want to be in hell in the hereafter?”
Hopefully, this story will be continue to be a stopper – always challenging us to notice the Lazarus’ in the office, in our families, at work, on the road, in stores, in school, in the mall, in our world.
