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THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “The Theory of Relativity.”
You don’t have to be Albert Einstein to understand his, “Theory of Relativity.”
When some of his students at Princeton asked him to explain it, he said something like this, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours–that’s relativity.”**
One of my favorite ways of saying the same thing is, “How long a minute takes, depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.”
How long a minute takes depends whether you’re the doctor or whether you’re the patient in the waiting room; whether you’re the teacher or whether you’re the student; whether you’re the cab driver or whether you’re the passenger looking at the meter.
How long a sermon takes depends upon who’s preaching – or whether you’re wondering about a football game – or where your car is parked – or you're antsy about a crying baby or what have you – or where you are in your life. It’s all relative. It all depends.
TODAY’S FEAST: THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Today’s feast is the Baptism of Jesus. Today’s gospel from Mark has this sentence in an English translation from the Greek, “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.” [Cf. Mark 1:9]
“It happened.”
I like those two words.
Picture a kid throwing a basketball in the living room to another kid and the basketball hits and breaks a Waterford crystal vase. That kid would add the word, “just” and say, “It just happened.”
It just happened that there was a Waterford crystal vase there on an end table – and one kid seeing another kid with a ball went, “Throw” and just then Ed Reed made an interception and the kid with the ball was also watching the Ravens game on television in the background and the basketball when tossed didn’t go where the thrower intended to throw it – and “It just happened” to break the Waterford crystal.
Jesus at that moment in the river – far from home – just happens to hear a voice from the heavens say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” And Jesus sees the sky open – and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. [Cf. Mark 1:11]
And Jesus changes the pattern of his life.
He’s no longer the carpenter with wood. He’s now the carpenter with words.
He’s no longer the quiet man of Nazareth. He’s now the Word proclaimed to the world.
And then he began walking and preaching – reaching out and healing – and if people just happened to be at the right place at the right time, their life could change – interception – a change could happen in the direction of their game.
Old patterns can break.
It’s all relative. It all depends.
Grace can be amazing – and save a wretch like me.
TAKE SOME TIME
Take some time to look at your life – your moments – the moments you were intercepted – the moments you broke – or were broke – the moments in your life that you changed or were changed.
Other people were in the same place and the same time – and what happened to you didn’t happen to them. Experience is relative.
If I heard the following from priests once, I heard the following a dozen times. Someone comes up to a priest and says, “What you said changed my life.” And the priest says, “What did I say?” Obviously we would want to know the answer to that question. And the person says something the priest knows he didn’t say.
Surprise.
Life is the surprise – the serendipity – the juggling of so many different things – that make what happens, happen.
My mother in Boston said “Yes” to the last of ten years of love letters from my father in New York, and they got married and four kids later I was on this planet.
How about you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? What’s your story? What’s your great, great, great grandmother’s story? It’s all relative.
I also love the saying, “If you want to change somebody, you have to change their grandmother.”
MOMENTS OF CONVERSION
As priest I’m always amazed at conversion moments. In today’s first reading from Isaiah, I love the text, “… so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
To me that has always been an amazing insight from Isaiah 55 - verse 11
Every drop of rain has a purpose.
Life is the surprise – the serendipity – the juggling of so many different things – that make what happens, happen.
My mother in Boston said “Yes” to the last of ten years of love letters from my father in New York, and they got married and four kids later I was on this planet.
How about you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? What’s your story? What’s your great, great, great grandmother’s story? It’s all relative.
I also love the saying, “If you want to change somebody, you have to change their grandmother.”
MOMENTS OF CONVERSION
As priest I’m always amazed at conversion moments. In today’s first reading from Isaiah, I love the text, “… so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
To me that has always been an amazing insight from Isaiah 55 - verse 11
Every drop of rain has a purpose.
Every snow flake has a purpose.
Every word we say has a purpose.
I have never forgotten a sermon where someone said that Jesus rained the word of God on the rich young man to let go of everything and come follow him – and he walked away sad, but around the year 285 a man named Anthony – of Egypt - walked into church late – heard those words – dropped everything and followed Jesus. [Cf. Matthew 19:22]
So parents, every time you say good stuff to your kids – every time you pick up a cranky kid and you say, “I love you!” it’s like rain, it’s like seed, it’s like a love letter from New York to Boston. It’s going to produce results.
Amazing.
It’s also scary.
I still remember walking along Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York as a little kid and going by a gas station. A guy inside one of the bays starts screaming words at this other guy – words I never heard from my mother or father or at home. Then the guy doing all the screaming throws a tire iron at the other guy. Till this day I can still hear the metallic clanging sound of that tire iron bouncing along macadam.
No wonder e.e. cummings said, “be of love a little more careful than anything.” He could have said the same of hate.
BAPTISM
So Jesus heard those words of love that day at his baptism, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
So we baptize our babies. So we have birthday parties for our spouse and our kids. So we go on vacation with each other. So we visit each other. So we eat with each other. So we send words to each other.
Every moment is sacred – and every person will experience their every moments differently – based on how lightning strikes them in the big moments of their life – and how a lightning bug strikes them in the little tiny moments of their life.
During this meal, during this Mass, just become quiet, and listen. Listen and hear God saying over you, “You are my beloved daughter. You are my beloved son – with you I am well pleased.”
Just as the priest at Mass says Jesus' words over bread and wine – and they become the body and blood of Christ – so too God’s words over us can have a profound change.
Listen God is speaking.
Listen and God is saying many other things to us as well.
God is sending down messages – like rain – like snow – like lightning – like seed – on everyone of us here – all the time.
Listen – the atmosphere is filled with God – with the Spirit – silent like a dove – as amazing as light traveling at 186,282 miles per second – but a split second different if we were at the equator than if we were at the poles.
CONCLUSION
Of course this is all relative. We couldn’t take all these realities at once. That would be like having Christmas or our birthday 365 days a year. But sometimes – sometimes – some days we have a moment like Jesus experienced that day at the Jordan River. We experience God’s presence and God’s love for us – all around us – surrounding us – embracing us – and we lose consciousness of time. It might happen in a split second and it feels like an hour. It might be an hour and it feels like a split second.
The Spirit of God comes down on us like a dove – and we feel loved – beloved by God – and our life is changed – rebaptized – washed – refreshed in the downpour – the showers – the waters – the rivers – the ocean – the atmosphere of God that surrounds us every moment of our life.
The Spirit of God comes down on us like a dove – and we feel loved – beloved by God – and our life is changed – rebaptized – washed – refreshed in the downpour – the showers – the waters – the rivers – the ocean – the atmosphere of God that surrounds us every moment of our life.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
* Picture on top by Lotte Jacobi
**There are some excellent short film clips on the Internet that explain Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Just type into Google, “Einstein: Theory of Relativity.” Go into the Wikipedia article and go to External Notes at the bottom. Then click on films and animations. There is one short film that shows twin jugglers – one on land – one on a boat – both juggling at the same time – and because the boat is moving – there is a difference. There is another film that shows a man with a right angle box mirror as he watches lightning hitting two poles. If he is on land it hits both polls at the same time, but it hits the poles at different times for a man with a right angle box mirror on a moving train. Huh? You have to see the film. But I guarantee if you looked at these short films and experiments, you’d get something different out of what you were seeing from what I was seeing. It’s all relative. Amazing. Moreover I'm more a poet than a physicist.
* Picture on top by Lotte Jacobi
**There are some excellent short film clips on the Internet that explain Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Just type into Google, “Einstein: Theory of Relativity.” Go into the Wikipedia article and go to External Notes at the bottom. Then click on films and animations. There is one short film that shows twin jugglers – one on land – one on a boat – both juggling at the same time – and because the boat is moving – there is a difference. There is another film that shows a man with a right angle box mirror as he watches lightning hitting two poles. If he is on land it hits both polls at the same time, but it hits the poles at different times for a man with a right angle box mirror on a moving train. Huh? You have to see the film. But I guarantee if you looked at these short films and experiments, you’d get something different out of what you were seeing from what I was seeing. It’s all relative. Amazing. Moreover I'm more a poet than a physicist.
