ARE YOU NUTS?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Are You Nuts?”

Different people use that phrase, “Are you nuts?” or “Are you crazy?” or, “I don’t believe you.” or “No way!” or “Muy loco!”

Today’s readings have the great theme of resurrection or life after death. The theme is put here this Sunday because next Sunday is Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week and then Easter – when we celebrate Christ rising from the dead.

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading is an excerpt from the great scene from the 37th chapter of book of the Prophet Ezekiel. He finds himself in the middle of a big valley filled with dead bones – skeletons – and God tells him to walk up and down among the dead bones. He sees that they are quite dried up. God tells him to prophecy over the bones that they come back to life – and they do. If you have time today or this week, read the 37th chapter of Ezekiel – or go to a cemetery and walk around the grounds. Think of the bones beneath the stones.

And then God tells Ezekiel, “This is Israel. The people are dead. Call them back to life. Tell the people to come out of their graves – and I will put a new spirit in them.” And Ezekiel does that and they come back to life.

The message is twofold: here and hereafter people are dead. God calls people here and hereafter to rise from the dead – to have a new spirit – to come back to life.

Ezekiel’s stress is on the here and now. The Gospel of John is a stress on both here and the hereafter. I tend to stress the here more than the hereafter. What about you? Is it a question of age?

To me the message is obvious: people are dead. People are sleep walking. People need to hear “Alarm clock words!” People need to hear, “Wake up everybody!”

POST OFFICE

I always remember a moment when my niece and I were to meet my brother, Billy, in New York City. He worked for the post office out of Washington DC and he was working on changing a procedure in the main New York office – over near the Old Penn Station. We went in and met him. Then he took us into this big room with about 40 desks – with someone at every desk. There was a big clock on the wall and it was at 3:55 and he sort of whispered to us, “Wait till you see what happens at 4 o’clock. It’s finishing time. The bell will ring and if anybody doesn’t believe in resurrection from the dead, they should be standing here ever afternoon at 4 PM.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel we have the great story about Lazarus – who has been dead 4 days. He and his two sisters were good friends of Jesus – so when Jesus gets there – they are crying. They are wishing he had come sooner, because then Lazarus would not have died. When Jesus sees how sad Martha and Mary are, he too cries. Then after Jesus speaks they remove the stone that locks the tomb and Jesus cries out in a loud voice into the tomb , “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus comes out – tied hand and foot – with burial bindings. His face is wrapped in cloth. And Jesus says, “Untie him and let him go.”

It’s a great scene to picture. It’s one of the key stories in the gospel of John – right in the center – and it can evoke all kinds of theological themes.

Each main character in the gospel of John is us: Nicodemus, the man born blind, the woman caught in adultery and people want to stone her to death, the man at the pool of Siloam who is sick and stuck for 38 years, and this Sunday, Lazarus.

We hear these stories and we pray that Jesus calls us, heals us, hears us, saves us, enlightens us, challenges us, changes us.

We hear the story of Lazarus and we pray that Jesus will raise us from the dead – both here and hereafter.

POEM

I’d would like to read a poem that I love. It’s by the Swedish poet, Ingemar Gustafson. It’s where I got the title of my homily for today, “Are You Nuts?”

LOCKED IN

All my life I lived in a coconut.
It was cramped and dark.
Especially in the morning when I had to shave.

But what pained me most was that I had no way
to get in touch with the outside world.
If no one out there happened to find the coconut,
if no one cracked it, then I was doomed
to live all my life in the nut,
and maybe even die there.

I died in the coconut.
A couple of years later they found the coconut,
cracked it, and found me shrunk and crumbled inside.

“What an accident!”
“If only we had found it earlier.”
“Then maybe we could have saved him.”
“Maybe there are more of them locked in like that …”
“Whom we might be able to save,”
they said, and started knocking to pieces
every coconut within reach.

No use! Meaningless! A waste of time!
A person who chooses to live in a coconut!
Such a nut is one in a million!
But I have a brother-in-law
who lives in an
acorn.

To me the poem has the same message as today’s first reading from Ezekiel and today’s gospel from John.

TODAY’S SECOND READING

In today’s second reading from Romans Paul says we have the choice to live by the flesh or by the Spirit.

The obvious call is to live by the Spirit.

The Spirit of God is in me – in these bones called “me”.

Am I living in the Spirit? Or am I living like the man in the poem cramped and crumbling inside a coconut? Am I all wrapped up in myself – small and tiny – when I could be so much more alive and spirited?

HERE AND NOW

Here and now – don’t we all hear the call to new life – from time to time – the call to a deeper spirituality – especially during Lent – to be a better Christian, a better worker, a better mom, dad, wife, husband, kid, servant?

Friday I was driving to Pennsylvania to go to my grandnephew Benjamin’s confirmation. He asked me to be sponsor. How about that? But I had to get a letter indicating that I was a practicing Catholic. While driving I was listening to a talk by John Shea on a CD. I had heard the talk in person – and didn’t really hear till yesterday something that I found very interesting.

Looking at his own life, John Shea, the speaker, said something like this: “When it comes to adult education, I find that I go through different periods. Sometimes the window is closed and I’m not learning anything. Sometimes I need to read and eat all I can. Then I need other periods to digest things. Then I become silent for a while. Then looking back I realize I put some of those new learnings into practice.”
I said to myself: “That’s so true.” Then I said, “Where am I right now in my growth process? – in my adult ed process?”
Where are you?

We’re nuts or crazy if we’re not growing.

MICHAEL HIMES

I was watching a video tape this week by Michael Himes, a theologian, who was giving a talk on today’s readings. Plagiarizing an image that he uses in his talk, he says that today’s gospel reminds him of a baby in the womb – comfortable, living a leisurely life, being fed as is, being told, there’s another world you’re going to have to enter one of these days and it’s going to be exciting. You’re going to experience all kinds of new adventures and the baby says, “I’m perfectly satisfied with the way things are right now.”

Then we’re born. The doctor yells out, “Come forth!” and surprise we meet faces and tears, smiles and celebration. “Welcome to a new world.”

He says that’s a glimpse of what eternity will be like.

Looking back I’m sure the baby would say, “Are you nuts? I’m satisfied being just where I am right now.”

We never hear what Lazarus’s thoughts are after he comes back.

We do know that Israel fought Ezekiel’s call to new life.

CONCLUSION

I see Jesus going around calling out our name. He sees right through our hard shell, our mask, the walls of our tomb, our barriers and he keeps knocking – hoping that the person we are called to be will come out to play – come out to pray – come out to live life to the full.

And we say, “Are you nuts? I satisfied to be who I am and where I am right now.”

And Jesus laughs and cries and keeps knocking on our skull, on our coconut shell. “Is there any body in there?”

What would it be like to die – as an acorn – only to find out we could have been an oak tree? Now wouldn’t that be nuts?