WHAT’S IT LIKE?
[The title of my homily is, “What’s It Like?” Looking at today’s readings, especially the first reading, the key theme of “What’s It Like?” hit me. It’s the theme of “What’s it like to walk in another’s shoes or moccasins or clogs?” It’s the central theme of Christianity – the Word becoming flesh – incarnation – becoming human – announcing to us the Good News that God knows what we’re going through - what it's like to be human. Been there. Done that. So my homily is on: “What’s it like?”]
What’s it like to be a freshman in a college or university – and it’s your first night there and you don’t know any other person in the whole school – and your mom and dad who dropped you off – who helped bring your 18 plastic cases of stuff to the 4th floor of your dorm room – said “good-bye” after having pizza with you, and they are on their way back and they are not answering their cell phone – and you’re homesick already – and you feel stupid – it’s only 4 hours since you said “goodbye” and you’re thinking – maybe this choice was too far away?
What’s it like to be on vacation in some country where nobody knows English and your wallet and passport are stolen on the first day of your vacation – and it’s Sunday morning and the U.S. Embassy seems to be closed – at least nobody is answering the door bell right away?
What’s it like to go to Arizona in the summer and you get to the Grand Canyon – and you had wanted to see the Grand Canyon for over 50 years and you’re finally retired and you see it – and it is an overwhelming experience and you come back home and someone says at a tail gate party, “How was your trip out west? I heard you were going to see the Grand Canyon?” And just as you’re about to tell this captive audience about your mystical experience someone else jumps in with “Grand Canyon. Yeah. What a great place. I was there 27 years ago with my family” – and they go on and on and on and on and you never get to tell your story?
What’s it like to be a dental hygienist and you hate to floss?
What’s it like to be Saint Paul and you blush when the people of Thessalonica – whom you had no clue would be so great – saved two of your letters – and just love you – and pinch themselves for being so lucky that you just happened to come into their city and you told them all about Jesus Christ – and they caught him?
What’s it like to love the Lord our God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind – and your kids could care less about God?
What’s it like to be a priest and you’re giving a weekend retreat to a group of 87 men and you sit down after lunch with a man who asks to talk to you one to one - and he tells about his only son – his only child who is homosexual – and how difficult it was to come to an understanding of his son – the struggles both of them had – but they finally talked about it – one stressing disappointment, worry about what others might be saying – the other stressing how he felt for the lack of support and understanding and compassion – and then that evening you as priest are running a question and answer period for the whole group of 87 men and one man stands up and starts blasting homosexuals and you look over and see the face of the man who talked to you that afternoon after lunch about his only son?
What’s it like to be a ESL teacher – English as a Second Language teacher - at St. Mary’s – volunteering to do it one evening every week – and you’ve been doing it for the last 4 years now – and you have met some remarkable men and women – who work all day – and get to the classes in the evening – and then you’re at work and people are making nasty comments about immigrants – attacking these foreigners, who are lazy and not willing to learn English?
What’s it like to be here in church right now and you heard today’s gospel that we are called to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind – and then we hear that that’s the greatest commandment and then we hear Jesus say the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves – and we start to tighten our fist – because a co-worker comes to mind – a face and a name is applied to the word neighbor – and we say to God in prayer, “Do you realize how hard it is to love so and so– after all she has said about me behind my back?”
What’s it like to be a Eucharistic Minister – and you’re standing there with the Body of Christ in your hand and 98 % of the people come up to you and you say, “Body of Christ” and they say “Amen” and receive the Lord Jesus and you feel overwhelmed with the love of Christ – and then afterwards you hear one person say, “I’d never receive communion from a lay person. I will only go to a priest.”
What’s it like to feel that way and you feel singled out by a priest from the pulpit saying such a thing and you feel attacked or disrespected for your way of understanding Church?
What’s it like to be a freshmen in high school and your parents are killed in a car accident and you have to move across the country to be raised by your grandparents – whom you really don’t know that well – and now it’s just you and your older brother and he is already in college – and you feel all alone in a new home, in a new school, in a new part of the country – with these older folks – whom you wonder “Will they understand?” and then a month later – you realize they too are grieving – because they too lost their daughter and son-in-law in that accident – and you feel stupid for being so self-centered?
What’s it like to have a dad who gets bombed out of his brains every weekend and at every tail gate party and you’re in your room and you know your mom is also embarrassed to death – and also your dad’s mom and dad – and nobody is saying anything – and you love your dad with all your heart and you wish he would stop drinking?
What’s it like to have a bumper sticker for a candidate for president and also their running mate and someone sees it and sneers at you – as if you’re dumb or stupid or what have you – and you can’t wait till Wednesday November 5th?
What’s it like that first week in a nursing home – and you know your kids are doing this out of love – but it’s not home and the person in the room with you keeps losing their teeth and their glasses – and keeps calling, “Nurse. Nurse!”
What’s it like to be out of work and you’re 54 and you sent out 37 resumes and your savings are depleting fast and you’re nervous, very nervous and you don’t want your family to be nervous?
What’s it like to be a single mom or a single dad and you both tried a hundred times and then some to make your marriage work – and you both couldn’t make it work and you know it’s ripping the heart out of our kids – but this was the best compromise you could come up with – and you have kids in school and things are tight, stressful, and you want to scream?
What’s it like to be in Ireland this past May and from the bus window of our tour I saw 10,000 sheep and 100,000 rocks. I saw lots of old castles, pubs, churches, lakes, mountains, but surprise, surprise, here it is October and the most vivid memory of the whole trip took place while walking in Dublin one evening after supper. I spotted 3 young adults with backpacks and suitcases walking down the street. They looked Eastern European. They looked like strangers in a strange country. Then I saw them going into a place with triple bunk beds for the night. I could see the well lit rooms on the second and third floors – each with 3 big windows – no curtains or drapes - and lots of bunk beds in the big rooms that I could see from the street. I had no idea who they were. My imagination brought me to my parents coming to America at probably the same age having spoken Irish as their mother tongue - but they could also speak English – with only a minimum of education. Mom and Dad, what was that like?
What was the experience the writer of today’s first reading from Exodus that got him to have God say, “You shall not molest or oppress the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.”
What did the scholar of the law feel like when he tried to catch Jesus by asking him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” and Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” How did he feel that night? Did he think about that moment for the rest of his life? Did he hear that Jesus was crucified – and forgave his crucifiers from the cross?
What’s it like to make a mistake – and you feel totally alone –and there is nobody in the whole world you feel you can turn to?
What’s it like to be you?
What’s it like to be me?
What’s it like to die – and you wake up on the other side of death – feeling totally scared and totally alone and you hear this great crowd in the distance. It sounds like they are at a banquet. There is music and dancing* – and as you get closer you hear someone say, “Welcome. You’re in the right place. And you find yourself in the eternal embrace of God.
What's it like?
*Cf. Luke 15:26
THE HOOK
