HOW’S YOUR
SECOND ACT?

INTRODUCTION


The title of my homily for this 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, is, “How Is Your Second Act?”

“How Is Your Second Act?”

PRODUCER ARTHUR HOPKINS

When I read today’s gospel I thought of an example that I had read and jotted down somewhere along the line.

Years ago – 1931 to be exact – the theatrical producer Arthur Hopkins [1878-1950] wrote a book entitled, “How’s Your Second Act?” I never read the book, but I love the title. He used to receive dozens of manuscripts for plays. Before he would read any script, he would always ask, "How is your second act?" Playwrights would have a wonderful first act. The question was: does your drama begin to fade and fall apart as the play moves on. You might have a great beginning, but how’s your second act?

He also held that “the final test for producers was the amount of new talent they brought into the theater.”

How’s your second act? Are you bringing new life into our world?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel has this group of people finally getting a glimpse of whom Jesus is and what he is about.

And they are beginning to realize that Jesus is more than just giving free bread. He’s is much more. He is the Bread of Life - and so much more.

And they respond by saying, “You’re feeding us tough stuff. These are hard sayings.”

And they leave.

And Jesus asks Peter and the other disciples, “Are you going to leave as well?”

And Peter responds, “No. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Now of course, this is early church stuff. The new Christians are over their initial enthusiasm of baptism and conversion. They are now entering the second act. And the first act is a tough act to follow.

HARD SAYINGS IN THE GOSPEL

There are lots of hard sayings in the gospels:

Go the extra mile.
Turn the other cheek.
Take up your cross and follow me.
The grain of wheat must die, otherwise it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it brings forth abundant life.
This is my body.
This is my blood.

SECOND HALF, FIFTH INNING, ETC.

How’s your second act?

The honeymoon ends. Marriage enters its second year. The football team gets off to a great start, but there is the second quarter and there is the rest of the game. There are the adjustments the other team makes at half time. People get injured. How good is the bench? How good has the conditioning program been? Who will be tired when the going gets tough?

In baseball, the pitcher has to face the same hitters a second time. Can he adjust? How good is his second act? How good is his second time around the league? And there is also the next game and the game after that and the game after that. The baseball season has 160 games plus.

Life has its second acts, its third acts, and its fourth and fifth acts. How’s your second act?

Bernard Basset had an excellent book entitled, “The Noonday Devil.” Each day is like a lifetime. We might get off to a great start, but how do we deal with The Noonday Devil?

JURY ROOM EXAMPLE

I don’t remember where I read the following story – so I don’t know who gets the credit – but it’s a good story. Once upon a time there were twelve men sitting behind closed doors as a jury after a trial. Eleven of the men were working farmers. The twelfth was a retired farmer. The eleven working farmers pushed for a guilty verdict. The retired farmer wanted a “not guilty” verdict.

Problem: the verdict had to be unanimous.

The eleven jurors did everything they could to convince the “Not Guilty” farmer to switch to a guilty verdict. A rain storm was predicted for later on in the day, so they wanted to get in their hay. The retired juror just sat there looking out of the window as dark rain clouds slowly approached. Time ticked on. The eleven Guilty verdict farmers kept looking at their watches and the clouds. There was a loud clap of thunder. The eleven panicked and all eleven changed their votes to not guilty – and after the trial the retired farmer walked down the courthouse steps with a big smile on his face – as he looked at the dark clouds getting closer and closer.

How good are we when it comes to sticking to our convictions?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

In today’s first reading, Joshua calls together the 12 tribes and says that it’s test time. Then he says, “As for me and my house, we are going to follow the Lord.

TODAY’S SECOND READING

Today’s second reading is about marriage. The words about a wife being subordinate to her husband often rankles some people.

I like the wisdom in the saying, “A text out of context is a pretext!”

We have to remember that Paul is writing this letter in the first century. And in the first century, in the Mediterranean Basin, males were the bosses. It was a patriarchic society. Marriages were arranged between families. Individualism was not in. Family was in. Romance was not a priority. Women and men might not have feelings for each other or become friends their whole marriage, but that wasn’t the main aim. It was to continue the family. A husband's place was outside the home; the wife’s place was inside the house. She cooked, made babies, and continued the family. Her friends would be the other women in the village or town or her sisters down the street or on the other side of the village. She would be very close to her children. However, sons came into the father’s ambiance when they came of age. And sons were more important than daughters.

Sound familiar? Some of these ideas are still around – and not just in other parts of the world.

In that context, today’s reading from Ephesians [5:21-32] has some challenging comments for the people of his time. Paul is telling couples to love one another and for the man to cherish his wife. Too often people just look at the “subordination” of wife to husband words. Formerly, the word used was “submission”. Notice in the missalette these “buzz” words can be left out. However, the words are still there in Paul and he is calling for radical thinking both in the family and in the structure of the church.

To do all this in a marriage, as well as in the church, especially in the second act, and in the third act, that’s the tough stuff. These are hard sayings.

To make life work, we must die to ourselves. The ego must go. Eeeee goooooooooo!

CONCLUSIO AND SUMMARY

The title of my homily is, “How Is Your Second Act?”

Where are we in the game of life? Where are we in our marriage?

As the old saying goes, “What’s so remarkable about love at first sight. Love is when people have been looking at each other for years and still love each other.”

Where are we in the trial? Do we have staying power – even when dark clouds are moving in and there is thunder in the distance?

What inning, what quarter, what stage, of life are we in?

How good are we in the long run? How good is our staying power? How good is our growing power? How good is our renewal power?

The first day or week on the job might be great, but how are we in two years, ten, twenty years?

The priest might be great in his first three years, but how is he in thirty-three – forty three – fifty three years?

Today we come to the end of the sixth chapter of John for our Sunday Gospel. We have been listening to this chapter for 5 straight Sundays.

We notice that many of the crowd that started the 6th chapter have dropped out – in the second act – or the 4th inning – or when Jesus’ words became tough – when they heard that the bread of life is not just our daily bread – but is Jesus himself - and we need to eat him - for everyday and for eternal life.

John writes, “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.’”

So here we are – because we have come to believe and are convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God – and we walk the walk each day with Jesus as our staying power. Amen.