THE BIG PICTURE
INTRODUCTIONThe title of my homily is, “The Big Picture.”
It helps to see the big picture – to have a vision – a plan – to scope out the whole scene.
A rather large priest once told me, “Whenever you are at a buffet restaurant – don’t get on the line. Step back and look at everything. Then walk around and check out the whole territory. They often put the best stuff at the end of the line – because people have their plates full by then. Then get your plate, get on line and go for the best.”
Life is a cabaret. Life is a buffet line. Life is a smorgasbord. Choose well. Okay, sometimes life is a card game – you have to play the cards you’re dealt. So study who’s at the table. Look at faces. Watch finger tapping. Discard the bad cards – if you can. Play well.
The title of my homily is, “The Big Picture.”
TODAY’S READINGS
I think that’s a good theme for today’s readings on this Second Sunday in Lent.
In the first reading from Genesis, God gives Abraham the big picture – that he will become a great nation. Then he tells Abraham he wants him to relocate – to move. That’s the first step in the plan. Move.
Concerning Abraham, we’ll hear this theme over and over again. It was a difficult plan to see. It was difficult to believe he would be a great nation, when he and his wife didn’t have any children yet.
The second reading from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy continues that theme as it talks about God’s design. Timothy is also called to follow God’s plan – to move forwards with the strength and grace that comes from God – through Jesus Christ.
And in today’s gospel, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain and is transfigured before them. They are given a great vision – a great view – the big picture. Then he leads them down the mountain – telling them to keep the vision quiet. To keep our mind focused and our mouth shut is not that easy.
MOUNTAIN’S, PLANES, TALL BUILDINGS
We’ve all had experiences of being on mountains or in a plane or in a tall building – and looking down and seeing everything in a big perspective.
We’ve all stopped in our car to look at a map – unless we have the guidance of GPS – The Global Positioning System – that uses 24 or more satellites up there to help us to see where we are down here.
If you use Google, and you haven’t downloaded Google Earth yet, do it. It’s neat. Then just type in your zip code or any zip code and the screen spins the earth and takes you to downtown Annapolis – or downtown San Francisco. For example, I put in 21401 and I can see our parking lot at St. Mary’s church and gardens and my car – or any place on the planet – from way up or up close.
Neat. It helps to see the big picture.
LIFE
But of course life is lived in the valley.
Life is the iddy biddy – the walking up and down the supermarket aisles with a hand written shopping list – sometimes a kid in a shopping cart reaching at stuff you don’t want him and her to touch or take. Then when you have everything you need and you get to the front of the store, you notice every check out lane is five deep.
The coach calls time out. There are 5 seconds left in the game. Your team has the ball. You’re behind by 1 point. He or she designs the big play on an erasable board. Then it’s time to get back on the court and the team to execute the design – to make the right moves.
It helps to see the big picture.
THE CROSS
It’s no accident that the cross is on top of churches and in churches – around necks – and along the highways of life.
Christ sees the big picture from on top of Calvary.
Christ on this enormous cross up here sees this whole church.
We too see a lot more when we are on the cross.
We too see a lot more when we are suffering.
We see a lot more in the hospital or on vacation – if we stop to look.
We see a lot more about a person at their funeral.
It helps to see the big picture.
Lent is a good time to step back – to take long walks – to look at our life – to see the big picture.
We see a lot more at 25 than we saw at 15.
We see a lot more at 50 than we saw at 25.
We see a lot more at 75 than we saw at 50.
We know a lot more about marriage or a job or kids or neighbors or friends in time – but not at the time. We all know hindsight is better than 20 / 20 sight.
We all know the old saying about the 6 people in a marriage: "The she, she thinks she is; the she, he thinks she is; the she, she really is; the he, he thinks he is; the he, she thinks he is; the he, he really is.” Try saying that ten times fast.
Then there is the better and the worse, the sickness and the health, death and sometimes we part.
We learn life when we move. We learn life in steps and stages – unless we stop seeing and stop growing.
We can become myopic. We can get tunnel vision. We can be dumb. We can give up. We can die, before we die. We can have eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear and have a heart and a mind that can become closed. Step back. What have you put on your plate?
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
One of my favorite books is, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. It was on the best seller list for years.
Lots of people read it. I’m sure many of you have it on your bookshelf – or in the attic, garage or cellar in a cardboard box.
If you haven’t read it lately, read it again this Lent.
Everyone who has read it knows the first line, the first paragraph, in the first section of the book after the introduction: “Life is difficult.”
Everyone who looks at or makes the Stations of the Cross knows that’s the meaning of the 14 Stations of the Cross: Life is difficult.
The book has so many examples that trigger good thoughts.
Today I’d like to refer to the example of the two generals. It’s on page 76. That’s easy to remember: 76 trombones – or 1776.
“Imagine two generals, each having to decide whether or not to commit a division of ten thousand men to battle. To one the division is but a thing, a unit of personnel, an instrument of strategy and nothing more. To the other it is these things, but he is also aware of each and every one of the ten thousand lives and the lives of the families of each of the ten thousand. For whom is the decision easier?”
Then M.Scott Peck answers his own question: “It is easier for the general who has blunted his awareness precisely because he cannot tolerate the pain of a more nearly complete awareness. It may be tempting to say, ‘Ah, but a spiritually evolved man would never become a general in the first place.’ But the same issue is involved in being a corporation president, a physician, a teacher, a parent. Decisions affecting the lives of others must always be made. The best decision-makers are those who are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain their ability to be decisive. One measure – and perhaps the best measure – of a person’s greatness is the capacity for suffering. Yet the great are also joyful. This, then is the paradox. Buddhists tend to ignore the Buddha’s suffering and Christians forget Christ’s joy. Buddha and Christ were not different men. The suffering of Christ letting go on the cross and the joy of Buddha letting go under the bo tree are one.” (p. 76)
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, we’d all like to be the second general – to have the big picture.
How to have the big picture?
We too see a lot more when we are suffering.
We see a lot more in the hospital or on vacation – if we stop to look.
We see a lot more about a person at their funeral.
It helps to see the big picture.
Lent is a good time to step back – to take long walks – to look at our life – to see the big picture.
We see a lot more at 25 than we saw at 15.
We see a lot more at 50 than we saw at 25.
We see a lot more at 75 than we saw at 50.
We know a lot more about marriage or a job or kids or neighbors or friends in time – but not at the time. We all know hindsight is better than 20 / 20 sight.
We all know the old saying about the 6 people in a marriage: "The she, she thinks she is; the she, he thinks she is; the she, she really is; the he, he thinks he is; the he, she thinks he is; the he, he really is.” Try saying that ten times fast.
Then there is the better and the worse, the sickness and the health, death and sometimes we part.
We learn life when we move. We learn life in steps and stages – unless we stop seeing and stop growing.
We can become myopic. We can get tunnel vision. We can be dumb. We can give up. We can die, before we die. We can have eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear and have a heart and a mind that can become closed. Step back. What have you put on your plate?
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
One of my favorite books is, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. It was on the best seller list for years.
Lots of people read it. I’m sure many of you have it on your bookshelf – or in the attic, garage or cellar in a cardboard box.
If you haven’t read it lately, read it again this Lent.
Everyone who has read it knows the first line, the first paragraph, in the first section of the book after the introduction: “Life is difficult.”
Everyone who looks at or makes the Stations of the Cross knows that’s the meaning of the 14 Stations of the Cross: Life is difficult.
The book has so many examples that trigger good thoughts.
Today I’d like to refer to the example of the two generals. It’s on page 76. That’s easy to remember: 76 trombones – or 1776.
“Imagine two generals, each having to decide whether or not to commit a division of ten thousand men to battle. To one the division is but a thing, a unit of personnel, an instrument of strategy and nothing more. To the other it is these things, but he is also aware of each and every one of the ten thousand lives and the lives of the families of each of the ten thousand. For whom is the decision easier?”
Then M.Scott Peck answers his own question: “It is easier for the general who has blunted his awareness precisely because he cannot tolerate the pain of a more nearly complete awareness. It may be tempting to say, ‘Ah, but a spiritually evolved man would never become a general in the first place.’ But the same issue is involved in being a corporation president, a physician, a teacher, a parent. Decisions affecting the lives of others must always be made. The best decision-makers are those who are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain their ability to be decisive. One measure – and perhaps the best measure – of a person’s greatness is the capacity for suffering. Yet the great are also joyful. This, then is the paradox. Buddhists tend to ignore the Buddha’s suffering and Christians forget Christ’s joy. Buddha and Christ were not different men. The suffering of Christ letting go on the cross and the joy of Buddha letting go under the bo tree are one.” (p. 76)
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, we’d all like to be the second general – to have the big picture.
How to have the big picture?
One answer: make a good Lent.
How to make a good Lent?
Some answers: Take good walks. Sit in quiet churches. Sit under the tree of the cross. Visit cemeteries. Drive with the radio off. Walk along the water in the Naval Academy or Quiet Waters Park. Read obituaries. Better: read autobiographies – or biographies. See the big picture of one’s own life by reading about another’s life. Write your own life – or your parent’s biographies. Take out your family pictures. Sort them out. Study them. Who’s next to whom? Who’s missing? Who’s up front? Who’s in the back? Sometimes looking at lots of individual pictures will give us the big picture. Or just look in a mirror. Look deep into your own eyes. Pause for a few moments of quiet. Then ask, “Hey you. How’s it going on in there?”
See the big picture. Are you enjoying being on the great buffet line of life? Are you making good choices? Are you choosing the best stuff to put on your plate?
Some answers: Take good walks. Sit in quiet churches. Sit under the tree of the cross. Visit cemeteries. Drive with the radio off. Walk along the water in the Naval Academy or Quiet Waters Park. Read obituaries. Better: read autobiographies – or biographies. See the big picture of one’s own life by reading about another’s life. Write your own life – or your parent’s biographies. Take out your family pictures. Sort them out. Study them. Who’s next to whom? Who’s missing? Who’s up front? Who’s in the back? Sometimes looking at lots of individual pictures will give us the big picture. Or just look in a mirror. Look deep into your own eyes. Pause for a few moments of quiet. Then ask, “Hey you. How’s it going on in there?”
See the big picture. Are you enjoying being on the great buffet line of life? Are you making good choices? Are you choosing the best stuff to put on your plate?
