*

RECOGNITION

AND

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

I would like to preach on the theme of “Recognition and Acknowledgement.”

It’s a theme that hit me as I reflected on today’s readings, especially today’s gospel.

I began wondering, “Where would this theme take me?” I ask you: "Where would this two step dynamic of recognition plus acknowledgment take you?"

AIRPORT

We’ve all had the experience of being at an airport and we see someone walking towards us or sitting there and we think, “Isn’t that?” We recognize someone famous – an actor, a politician, an athlete. That’s recognition.

If we go “Hi!” with a slight wave of our hand or a smile, that’s acknowledgment.

If we see a teenager going over to the famous person and ask for their autograph, that’s both recognition and acknowledgment.

If you’re looking for a conversation starter, just ask folks to mention famous people they have met. I’ve discovered everyone has their list of famous folks whom they have spotted.

I’ve seen Deon Sanders, Tiny Tim, Oscar Robinson, Billy Jean King, The Everly Brothers, F. Lee Bailey, Howard Cosell, at various airports and I don’t travel that much. Whom have you met?

Whom have we missed? Ooops! you can’t answer that one. If you can, you didn’t, didn’t see them.

QUESTIONS
A question: Who’s famous? Who should be recognized?

A second question: Who should be acknowledged?

We have all heard Andy Warhol’s famous quote, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”

Have you had your 15 minutes of fame yet? Did you want it? Did you have it all at once? Or are you accumulating it an instance at a time.

Or you might say: “Who cares?” Or, “What is fame?”

Do you really want to be on the American Idol show?

Isn’t it more important, that we are recognized and acknowledged by people whom we recognize and acknowledge: family, friends, neighbors, parishioners?

In a church this size, in a parish this size, is it important to sit in the same seat – or close to the same seat each time we come to a certain Mass? Doing that, we could get to know each other a tiny bit more each time. Isn’t it important to recognize, to acknowledge, to give a nod or sign of peace to each other when we are here?

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Another conversation topic is accomplishments. Why not ask each other: “Did you ever do anything that was famous?” At some family get together – when there are several generations present, ask that question. Watch the faces of kids as they listen to the answers given off by us older folks. And afterwards, surprise, you might overhear kids telling other kids, “You aren’t going to believe what my grandmother did way back in 1937. She was in Paris and she went up in a hot air balloon that almost hit the Eiffel tower. There were pictures of it in all the papers.” Wow!

Or, “My uncle won a spelling bee and went all the way to the state finals when he was a kid.” “Wow!”

Or, “My mother had her picture on the front page of The Washington Post when she was a little girl. It was a parade and she was sitting on the curb. She even showed me the picture. She had it carefully saved in a see through plastic folder.” Wow!

TIM RUSSERT
I’m sure you heard that Tim Russert gave the commencement address here at the St. Mary’s High School graduation on May 22nd. That was just 22 days before his sudden death.

I lucked out getting a chance to shake his hand – look him in the eye for a hundredth of a second and get in a foursome picture with him. I was also just 6 feet away from him up on a small platform as he gave his address. Wow!

I’m saying to myself during his talk, “I hope these kids are thrilled that their high school commencement address is being given by Tim Russert." I had second thoughts two days later when I said to someone, “Guess who gave the St. Mary’s H.S. commencement address this year?”

“Who?”

“Tim Russert!”

“Who’s Tim Russert?”

But after his sudden death, a lot more people know who Tim Russert was.

When I get a chance I’m going to ask some of our high school graduates what they now think. I’d like to hear what they recognized and what they would acknowledge. But as Tim Russert said, “Who remembers what is said in commencement addresses?” Then he added, “Who even remembers who gave their commencement address?”

I laughed at that because I had given the commencement address last year.

TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s first reading is from Jeremiah. Stories about his life and snippets of his sermons can be found in the Bible in The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Evidently, different people recognized his words and experiences were significant enough to be acknowledged in writing.

Jeremiah was a strong character and a challenging prophet. He keeps on yelling to God: “Why have you put me in this position? Why do I keep on getting trapped and persecuted? Why are people whispering against me? Why do they love it when I fall?” Then he has his follow up theme – where he acknowledges God’s presence: “God, through all this, you keep rescuing me, saving me, pulling me out of the pits.”

Today’s second reading is from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It is recognized and acknowledged as his most important letter. In this letter Paul recognizes that sin is around us. The pattern of Adam, the Old Man, is still in all of us. The story of Adam and Eve is everyone’s story. We all are tempted to eat forbidden fruit. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. However, Jesus came to be the New Pattern, the New Adam, the New Man, the New Type of person God calls us to be. The New Story has the same words as the Old Story in Genesis, when the serpent tempted Eve and Adam to take and eat the forbidden fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. Jesus says at each Eucharist, at each Mass, from the table and from the tree of the cross in the "center" of the church, “Take and eat.” Notice the Eucharistic words at the end of today’s first reading, “The grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus overflow for the many.”

But it’s today’s gospel that grabbed me the most with this theme of recognition and acknowledgement.

Jesus says nothing is hidden. All is recognizable. There are no secrets. All will be revealed [acknowledged]. Uh oh!

Then Jesus gets into the question of fame, the Who’s Who stuff, the who’s recognizable stuff. Haven’t we all been driving along the highway and surprise, we see a whole flock of sparrows come sailing like a thousand Blue Angels twisting and turning right there to our right in the sky as we look out the front window of our car?

We go, “Wow!”

Haven’t we been in the barber shop and spotted all that hair on the floor or been in church and the person in front of us has beautiful hair – glistening in the sun – or the person in front of us is bald and the sermon is horrible and we start counting their hairs, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,” This guy has 11 hairs on his head. Does he know that? Then we remember Jesus’ words, “Even the hairs on your head are counted.”

Jesus is telling us in poetic ways that God knows us. God recognizes us. God acknowledges us. Don’t be afraid. We are more important than a whole flock of sparrows.

Then Jesus makes a switch in thought from us to himself. “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”Scary stuff.

The first step is the recognizing Jesus – recognizing God. The second step is the acknowledging.

Pearl Bailey once said, “People see God every day, they just don’t recognize him.” [New York Times, Nov. 26, 1967]

Imagine dying and saying to God, “I thought I saw you.”

Imagine dying and God saying, “I don’t recognize you”?

Wow! Now that’s a scary thought.

It seems so foreign to hear Jesus say that. If I read Jesus correctly, he walked down streets recognizing folks whom others rarely recognized. The Gospels are loaded with stories about Jesus recognizing people – little children, people who were blind or deaf or had leprosy – poor widows with only two small coins.

So I hope when I die Jesus will recognize and acknowledge poor me, even though I didn’t recognize and acknowledge him enough.

ANTHONY DRAGONETTI
I once gave a communion breakfast talk in Trenton, New Jersey. The guy who invited me to give the talk – did it as a way of promoting weekend retreats at the retreat house where I was stationed. His name was Anthony Dragonetti. After the breakfast he invited me back to his and his wife Philomena’s house for lunch. I noticed a whole collection of neat porcelain birds in glass cabinets in their living room. So I asked him about the porcelain birds.

He told me that he had a small store in Trenton and one of the things he sold was souvenir plates with, “Welcome to Trenton N.J.” on them. Then he told me, “One day a man dropped into the store and spotted the plates. He asked to see one of them and said, ‘This is good work. Do you know the person who makes them?’ I told him that I did.’ Well, the man said, ‘Anytime you want to work for me, just give me a call.’”

The man was Mr. Boehm and he made the famous Boehm Birds and the ones in the glass cabinets were some that Anthony helped design.

He took one out and handed it to me. I asked him how much this one was worth. He looked at it and said, “That one is worth about $1500 dollars.” “Ooops,” I quickly handed the glass bird back to him.

While driving home, while looking out the front window of my car, the words of Jesus hit me. “You are worth more than a whole flock of sparrows.” I remember saying there is a sermon here. I remember milking that experience in a sermon. We are worth more than a whole cabinet full of Boehm birds. I added, “Some people treat collector’s items and this and that as more important than persons.”

Somewhere along the line this theme of Jesus recognizing and acknowledging people has entered into my spirituality.

I got this from my dad and from so many others. Thank you.

Just yesterday, I’m standing there at the hors d’oeuvres part of a wedding reception. I find myself talking to one of the men who were serving us. I found out he was from the Philippines. I also found out he made the big ice sculpture on the table next to the dip and the veggies – a sail boat made out of ice. I also found out where he learned to carve ice and wood – all the while trying to be aware that his job was to serve.

And I get home last night and start reading today’s readings to get a sermon for today. Surprise! The first reading talks about Jeremiah recognizing he was going through some tough times – but he still acknowledges God. The Gospel talks about how Jesus recognized and acknowledged how everyone is more important than a whole flock of sparrows.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Recognition and Acknowledgment.”

Why do we come to Mass?

The first and obvious reason is that we recognize we need God and we want to acknowledge God. Lots of people recognize God. Not everyone acknowledges God. Being here is like being like that teenager who recognizes the famous person and goes over and asks for their autograph.

The second reason we come to Mass is to be challenged to go out from Mass and recognize not just the famous – but to see that every person we’re going to be with this week is worth being with this week. Spot folks this week – especially the little folks. Recognize and acknowledge them – even if you only look into their eye for a hundredth of a second. Amen.

* Boehm Chipping Sparrow

with Clematis

Porceline Sculpture