THE PUZZLE CALLED “GOD.”
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “The Puzzle Called ‘God’”.
There are 6 billion plus people on this planet – and there have been billions of people who have gone before us – and we assume there will be billions more to come.
Am I am just one piece of the puzzle?
Am I just one piece of the picture of God?
TIME OUT
Some times we take time out to try to understand this puzzle called “life” – this puzzle called “me” – this puzzle called “God”.
It could be while we are on vacation – and we’re taking an early morning stroll – an early morning all alone moment – walking along on the beach – and we look down and see all that sand – millions and billions of tiny different colored grains of sand – or we see a sand castle someone made the day before – half crumbled, half washed out – or we look out at the wide ocean – and we stop to watch wave after wave after wave of water coming in – and it’s been doing this for billions of years – steady, steady, steady, sometimes calm, sometimes crashing. Why, why, why?
What’s the answer to the “Why?” for all this?
I ponder. I wonder. I try to figure out the puzzle.
I pray.
The title of my homily is, “The Puzzle Called ‘God’”.
There are 6 billion plus people on this planet – and there have been billions of people who have gone before us – and we assume there will be billions more to come.
Am I am just one piece of the puzzle?
Am I just one piece of the picture of God?
TIME OUT
Some times we take time out to try to understand this puzzle called “life” – this puzzle called “me” – this puzzle called “God”.
It could be while we are on vacation – and we’re taking an early morning stroll – an early morning all alone moment – walking along on the beach – and we look down and see all that sand – millions and billions of tiny different colored grains of sand – or we see a sand castle someone made the day before – half crumbled, half washed out – or we look out at the wide ocean – and we stop to watch wave after wave after wave of water coming in – and it’s been doing this for billions of years – steady, steady, steady, sometimes calm, sometimes crashing. Why, why, why?
What’s the answer to the “Why?” for all this?
I ponder. I wonder. I try to figure out the puzzle.
I pray.
Sometimes all I hear is silence – in this conversation with God questions, this conversation called, “Prayer.”
But there have been moments – like those vacation moments on morning beaches or night moments when I look and scan the skies and see those billions and billions of stars up there. Yes, sometimes I get answers – wow have I had answers – not enough, but I’ve had answers, and I guess that’s why I keep coming back to pray – that’s why I keep coming back to church.
I sit back in the church bench, or the beach chair – or the porch chair late at night – after all have gone to bed. Sometimes I know God is near. Sometimes I feel God is here.
CALLED TO CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN
As I sit back from time to time, I remember a moment I had a long time ago. I don’t know if it was a dream – or what it was. But I heard God call me to climb a mountain. I was like Moses – being called by God to climb up a mountain – as we heard in today’s first reading.
I climbed and climbed and climbed. Finally, I heard God telling me to stop and look down to the valley below. I see this gigantic box. The lid is off. I look into the box and I see billions and billions of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle called “God”. I look outside the box and see billions and billions of people in the valley outside the box. Some are fitting together. Some are not.
I’m puzzled. What is the meaning of what I’m looking at?
Is it this: The history and mystery of life is the putting together of this great puzzle called, “God”?
Is God telling each of us that each piece is part of the picture called “God”?
And just as the cardboard pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – showing a beautiful mountain scene or a picture of sailboats in a bay are not the mountain scene or the sailboats in the bay – so too we are not God. We know we are not God. We know that all too well.
And we know people can hurt people and be so unGodlike – and we know we have hurt people.
Yet we know that people can be like God. We’ve met so many people who have been so generous, so loving, so giving, so amazing.
As scripture tells us, “We are made in the image and likeness of God” [Genesis 1:27]
I continue to wonder about the time I was called to climb the mountain and look down and see that open puzzle box. Is the message this: every time we mirror God, every time we image God, we help others catch a glimpse of God?
Is that it? Is that the message of life? Is that the purpose of life? Is it to mirror God?
Is the message: every person is necessary to complete the puzzle – whether our name is one of the names mentioned in today’s gospel, Peter or Andrew, or James, or whether we’re one of the unnamed people mentioned in today’s gospel, the sick or the lost? Are we all necessary pieces of this puzzle called, “God”?
I remember standing there on the mountain looking down – and I said, “Aha. That’s the meaning of it all. I’m having an ‘Aha!’ moment.”
I remember sitting down on a rock – up there on the mountain – scratching my head – pondering, wondering, do I have it right? Is that the meaning of that mountain vision I had a long time ago?
What was God trying to tell me that day when I had that strange – surrealistic experience?
From time to time, I sit back and ask God over and over again, “Why did You call me up that mountain and show me that gigantic half empty, half full box of people down below in the valley?”
FATHER’S DAY
It’s Father’s day – we think of our dads – how he was so like God – providing for us – teaching us quiet love – teaching us giving love – teaching us so much – with so few words.
We think of Tim Russert – figuring every preacher in the United States will probably mention him today – and his relationship to his dad – as well as his family dealing with his death – his wife, Maureen, and his one son, Luke, and his three sisters – and his dad – all still living.
Yes, we think to ourselves. Every time a father gives, protects, loves, leads, shepherds, he is telling us what God is like.
No wonder Jesus often talked about God as Father.
MOTHERS
We think of our moms – all they do and did for us. No wonder Jesus used that image for God as well – not as much as Our Father – but we laugh, women have the last laugh – because the Church has ever since put Mary his mother on a pedestal – telling us how to love one another as she loved.
OURSELVES
Is that it? Is that the message of life? Is that the purpose of life? Is it to mirror God?
Is the message: every person is necessary to complete the puzzle – whether our name is one of the names mentioned in today’s gospel, Peter or Andrew, or James, or whether we’re one of the unnamed people mentioned in today’s gospel, the sick or the lost? Are we all necessary pieces of this puzzle called, “God”?
I remember standing there on the mountain looking down – and I said, “Aha. That’s the meaning of it all. I’m having an ‘Aha!’ moment.”
I remember sitting down on a rock – up there on the mountain – scratching my head – pondering, wondering, do I have it right? Is that the meaning of that mountain vision I had a long time ago?
What was God trying to tell me that day when I had that strange – surrealistic experience?
From time to time, I sit back and ask God over and over again, “Why did You call me up that mountain and show me that gigantic half empty, half full box of people down below in the valley?”
FATHER’S DAY
It’s Father’s day – we think of our dads – how he was so like God – providing for us – teaching us quiet love – teaching us giving love – teaching us so much – with so few words.
We think of Tim Russert – figuring every preacher in the United States will probably mention him today – and his relationship to his dad – as well as his family dealing with his death – his wife, Maureen, and his one son, Luke, and his three sisters – and his dad – all still living.
Yes, we think to ourselves. Every time a father gives, protects, loves, leads, shepherds, he is telling us what God is like.
No wonder Jesus often talked about God as Father.
MOTHERS
We think of our moms – all they do and did for us. No wonder Jesus used that image for God as well – not as much as Our Father – but we laugh, women have the last laugh – because the Church has ever since put Mary his mother on a pedestal – telling us how to love one another as she loved.
OURSELVES
We become quiet. We have learned that prayer is quiet much more than words. We remember sitting up there on that rock – on that mountain – looking down at that that big box in that valley below.
We see groups of people paring off – not willing to be part of the task of putting the puzzle together. We see individuals and groups fighting with each other. We see people ignoring each other. We see some people still stuck in that box.
From a distance – from high up that mountain – we see the craziness of it all.
We see Christ walking through the valley trying to bring the pieces of the puzzle together.
We realize the meaning of the opening words of today’s gospel, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
We see Jesus calling people pieces of the puzzle to join him as he says, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
We see so many having eyes that don’t see him, ears that don’t hear him, feet that don’t follow him.
We think back to a moment during a summer vacation – when we were with a whole collection of cousins and aunts and uncles at the beach, and we found a jigsaw puzzle – 2,500 pieces – and we went around trying to round up volunteers to work on the puzzle and nobody wanted to join us.
We look down from the mountain and see Jesus or his disciples being rejected down there. Nobody seems to want to work together to put the puzzle together.
Sitting there on the mountain seeing all this – seeing that gigantic puzzle down there, I say to God, “Do I have it right? Is that the meaning of what I’m seeing?”
And all I hear are the closing words of today’s gospel, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Frustrated, I blurt out to Jesus, “Every time I want a clear answer, you give me silence or these word puzzles. I want more of an answer than that.”
But that’s the only answer I get at that moment.
I become quiet – pondering, wondering – trying to figure out these puzzling words.
Is this the meaning? Is life all gift? And then we give the gift of our life to others. Is that it: that we too have to say what Jesus said, “This is my body. This is my blood. I’m giving my life to you. Take and eat. Take and drink. Eat me up.”
We think for a moment. We pinch ourselves. “Yes, I have been gifted with the gift of life? Thank you mom and thank you dad. Thank you God.”
We continue, “But, God, why me? Why was I created? Why am I alive? Why do some people only have a few moments of life and others have years? Why do some people have 21 years and 2 months and die in a car crash or in a bomb exploding and another lives to 58 years and another makes it to 88?”
CONCLUSION
What is the meaning of life? It’s all so puzzling?
We laugh. Is that the answer? Life is a puzzle – and that I am a piece of the puzzle?
Then I realize it’s time to come down from the mountain and go back down to the valley. I am out of the box.
But now, because of my mountain experience, I have an answer. I am to be like God. I am to go around and try to fit together with others and slowly we’ll put together this jigsaw puzzle called “God”.
We see groups of people paring off – not willing to be part of the task of putting the puzzle together. We see individuals and groups fighting with each other. We see people ignoring each other. We see some people still stuck in that box.
From a distance – from high up that mountain – we see the craziness of it all.
We see Christ walking through the valley trying to bring the pieces of the puzzle together.
We realize the meaning of the opening words of today’s gospel, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
We see Jesus calling people pieces of the puzzle to join him as he says, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
We see so many having eyes that don’t see him, ears that don’t hear him, feet that don’t follow him.
We think back to a moment during a summer vacation – when we were with a whole collection of cousins and aunts and uncles at the beach, and we found a jigsaw puzzle – 2,500 pieces – and we went around trying to round up volunteers to work on the puzzle and nobody wanted to join us.
We look down from the mountain and see Jesus or his disciples being rejected down there. Nobody seems to want to work together to put the puzzle together.
Sitting there on the mountain seeing all this – seeing that gigantic puzzle down there, I say to God, “Do I have it right? Is that the meaning of what I’m seeing?”
And all I hear are the closing words of today’s gospel, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Frustrated, I blurt out to Jesus, “Every time I want a clear answer, you give me silence or these word puzzles. I want more of an answer than that.”
But that’s the only answer I get at that moment.
I become quiet – pondering, wondering – trying to figure out these puzzling words.
Is this the meaning? Is life all gift? And then we give the gift of our life to others. Is that it: that we too have to say what Jesus said, “This is my body. This is my blood. I’m giving my life to you. Take and eat. Take and drink. Eat me up.”
We think for a moment. We pinch ourselves. “Yes, I have been gifted with the gift of life? Thank you mom and thank you dad. Thank you God.”
We continue, “But, God, why me? Why was I created? Why am I alive? Why do some people only have a few moments of life and others have years? Why do some people have 21 years and 2 months and die in a car crash or in a bomb exploding and another lives to 58 years and another makes it to 88?”
CONCLUSION
What is the meaning of life? It’s all so puzzling?
We laugh. Is that the answer? Life is a puzzle – and that I am a piece of the puzzle?
Then I realize it’s time to come down from the mountain and go back down to the valley. I am out of the box.
But now, because of my mountain experience, I have an answer. I am to be like God. I am to go around and try to fit together with others and slowly we’ll put together this jigsaw puzzle called “God”.
