SO WHAT BOOK
ARE YOU READING NOW? *

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “So What Book Are You Reading Now?”

I would like to challenge you in this homily or sermon to be readers.

QUESTION

Years ago I was at a family gathering and a family friend nonchalantly asked, “So what book are you reading now?”

“Ooops,” I thought. Silence. Pause. Then I said, “I’m not reading anything now.”

I was in my late 30’s and I was too busy with work – and I had forgotten the importance of reading.

Looking back I was very appreciative that this guy Marty asked me that question, because it made me face the importance of reading books. It got me back to reading.

If he asked me right now, I would answer, “I’m reading a book of poems by Mary Oliver entitled, New and Selected Poems, (Volume One). And I just finished reading, on my sister Mary’s recommendation, a book on Warren Jeffs, When Men Become Gods. It was about a fundamentalist off-shoot group from the Mormons. It was a page turner. The author is, Stephen Singular.

QUESTION

So if I asked you, “What book are you reading now?” what would you answer?

And I don’t mean school books. I mean a book that you can’t wait till you get back to it. I mean a book you finish your chores and school work and disappear into a corner – a favorite place – a back porch – or a secret place where you love to read.

I grew up seeing my dad read – as well as my sister Mary and my brother Billy. In fact, when my older brother Billy played baseball, when he got off the field, sometimes you could see him on the sidelines reading a book at times.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

The gospel I chose for today is from St. Luke. It’s the scene where Jesus came to his home town of Nazareth. He went into the temple on the Sabbath. Luke adds, “as was his custom”. Then the story says, “He stood up to read.” He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Then he unrolled the scroll and read that, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” He read how “he was anointed to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim liberty to captives … recovery of sight to the blind … to let the oppressed go free.” [Luke 4:16-19; Isaiah 61: 1-2].

As far as I know this is the only place in the gospels where it specifically says that Jesus read. In several places he asks people, “Haven’t you read in the scriptures…?” He also asked folks to read the signs of the times. [Cf. Matthew 16:3]

We know Jesus was very insightful - and aware of what others were thinking and saying. Joachim Jeremias in his book, The Parables of Jesus, writes about the background of many of Jesus’ parables – and connecting some of them to similar stories from the same time.

I love the story in Luke of Jesus being lost in the temple at the age of 12 and his Mary thought he was with Joseph and Joseph thought he was with Mary on their way home – but he was back in the temple “sitting among the doctors, listening to them, and asking his questions; and all those who heard him were astonished at this intelligence and his replies.” [Cf. Luke 2:41-50.]

And if one reads the gospels we read not only his stories – but also his wisdom sayings.

QUESTION

So what are you reading?

We have the elections coming up and I hear people saying, “We don’t know who a candidate is.” I say to myself, “Well, both John McCain and Barack Obama have books out. John McCain has a book, Faith of Our Fathers and Barack Obama has a book, Dreams from My Father. People often ask me if I read such and such a book. One recent book was Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope.

So what are you reading?

I noticed that Sarah Palin was asked what her favorite book was or what’s she reading now – and she paused for a moment and said, C.S. Lewis.

His books, Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters are books I recommend very highly. I’m sure some of you read The Complete Chronicles of Narnia.

What would you answer if someone asked you your favorite book or what book are you reading now?

I noticed in Time, Newsweek, People Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and other magazines that athletes and stars are asked, "What book are you reading now?”

If you were asked that question, what would you answer?

POEM

I was looking for a poem the other day and came across a wonderful poem by Rita Dove which gave me the theme for this homily.

The poem is entitled, “The First Book.”

Bill Moyers in this book [Hold up book] The Language of Life asked Rita Dove the background of her poem, "The First Book".

She said she went into her daughter’s school and found out that the kids seemed to be scared of reading. She grew up in a family of readers, so she wanted to encourage reading. That’s the background of this poem. Let me read it from this book entitled, The Language of Life. [Hold up book]

THE FIRST BOOK

Open it.

Go ahead. It won’t bite.
Well … maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.You may fall in.
Sure. It’s hard to get started;
remember learning to use

knife and fork? Dig in:
you’ll never reach bottom.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world –
just the world as you think

you know it.

BOOK BAG

I have here a bag with a few books in it. I have a lot of books in my room, so I grabbed a few books as props for this sermon.

Rita Dove said books can take you into worlds you never thought of.

Here is a book entitled, I Will Bear Witness. [Hold it up] It’s by a man named Victor Klemperer. You can open up this book and find yourself inside another person’s diary. What would it be like to be a Jew in Dresden, Germany from 1933 to 1941? Open up this book and you can find out.

Well, there are lots of books like this. Just walk up and down the aisles of Annapolis Public Library on West Street.

Here is one of my favorite books. [Hold up book] It’s entitled, Reality in Advertising. It can take a person into the world of advertising. Years ago I read about this book and finally found a copy of it in a second hand bookstore. In the preface, the author Rosser Reeves, makes this remarkable statement. “I do not think it is out of order to say that it cost $1,000,000,000 to write this book.” How’s that for a catchy advertisement? How much is that? Anyone here good in math? How much is 1 followed by 9 zeros? A billion dollars. Then he adds, “We spent that much of our client’s money, and made many mistakes, to isolate these principles.”

CONCLUSION: WRITE

This homily or talk asked the question, “So What Are You Reading Now?”

I stressed the importance of reading. I would also suggest writing – not just for school – but for your own pleasure.

I have written several books – and a favorite story is that a former student that I had told me he saw one of my books in a used book store in Chicago for 25 cents. I asked him if he bought it. He said, “No.”

About a month later someone called me from somewhere wanting to buy a copy of that same book and I had to say I had no copies – that the book was out of print. I suggested they search for a copy on-line. After I hung up I went on-line to see if that was a good suggestion. Surprise. Surprise. Someone was selling that book for $127.00. If I had known that, I said to myself, I would have saved a case of them. I immediately called the guy who saw it for 25 cents in a Chicago bookstore – telling him that if he had bought it, he might now be able to sell it for $127.00 on-line.

So I hope from upi as students of St. Mary's, there will be some writers and that all of you will buy my idea of enjoying the gift of reading.

Read!

Now can I have one person who loves to read – not just for school work – but for enjoyment – give me the name of the book they are reading right now.

[Two students raised their hands. One person said they were reading a book about vampires and the other person said they were reading, The Call of the Wild by Jack London.]

* Surprise. I just heard that were further comments about my homily to our high school freshmen and sophomores. So the above is the written version of my homily to them. However, it should be noted that I left my written text in my room. I decided not to use this script for the homily. I did not stay in the pulpit. I walked around a bit while preaching trying to be energetic and alive as I pushed my message to read.

If you check my blog, there are not that many comments after individual pieces - unlike some blogs that have comment after comment after comment sometimes into the hundreds. This homily created some comments out in the real world of "buzz". If anyone wants to make a comment in the world of "blog", go for it. Thanks.