STOP!
I’M NOT
WHO YOU THINK I AM

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 8th Friday in Ordinary time is, “Stop! I’m Not Who You Think I Am.”

How many STOP signs do we see in a lifetime?

How many STOP signs have we stopped at?

STOP! We know what STOP! means.

However, when it comes to people, when it comes to knowing and understanding other people, we often run the STOP sign.

We judge others. We think we know others. Surprise! I’m not who you think I am.

The title of my homily is, “Stop! I’m Not Who You Think I Am.”

The message of my homily for this morning is, “Before judging others, STOP! Before thinking that we know exactly what another person is like, STOP!

The message of my homily for this morning is: when you see another’s face, see a STOP sign on their forehead.

If I had the money, if I prepared this homily a month ago, it would have been nice to get printed up and then buy 100 or so little STOP Stickems and hand them out and have everyone have them stuck on our forehead. Imagine if all of you walked around today with a little STOP Stickems on your foreheads. That would get folks talking – sort of like Ashes on our forehead next Wednesday.

JOHNNY WE HARDLY KNEW YOU

After John F. Kennedy was assassinated I remember someone wrote a book or made the statement, “Johnny, we hardly knew you.” (1)

For some reason that stuck in my brain like a Stickem. I’ve often said that about other people. “I hardly know you.”

What makes you tick? What worries you? Whom do you love? What do you love? What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? What’s your favorite cake? What’s your earliest memory? What bugs you? What is the most interesting thing that ever happened to you? Where have you been? If you had to do it all over again, is there anything you would change? How do people see you? Do you laugh, because you know, they don’t really know you? Have you ever said, “If you only knew?”

The title of my homily is, “Stop! I’m Not Who You Think I Am.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading begins, “Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time” [Sirach 44:1].

Famous people – public people – sometimes are not the person we think they are. Sometimes they fall from their podiums and pulpits.

On a regular basis new biographies come out about our famous persons. Last Sunday I saw a book review of a new book about Wild Bill Donovan – a fascinating character in American history – who was asked by Roosevelt – FDR Roosevelt – to get into the spy business – and he’s background history for the C.I.A. and N.S.A., etc. (2) Then when the book reviews of a new biography come out – we sometimes read that the new biography is on the money or it’s “revisionist” history.

If they wrote our biography and those who knew us read it, would they say, “Jack, Jill, I hardly knew you”?

TWO SHORT STORIES

With that in mind here are two stories that mention famous Americans and one not so famous American.

The first story is entitled, “Haves and Have-Nots.”

HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS

In 1776, the independence of the United States foreshadowed what would occur later on from Mexico south.

To remove any doubts about the place of the Indians in the new nation, George Washington propose “the today destruction and devastation of their settlements.” Thomas Jefferson voiced the opinion that “this unfortunate race has justified its extermination.” And Benjamin Franklin suggested that rum could be the “appointed means” to get rid of the savages.

To rid any doubts about the place of women, the Constitution of the State of New York added the adjective “masculine” to the right to vote.

To remove any doubts about the place of poor whites, the signatories to the Declaration of Independence were all rich whites.”


And to remove any doubts about the place of blacks in the newborn nation, six hundred and fifty thousand slaves remained enslaved. Black hands built the White House. (3)

The second story is entitled, “Missing Father.”

MISSING FATHER

The Declaration of Independence affirmed that all men are created equal.

Shortly thereafter, the Constitution of the United States clarified the concept: it established that each slave was worth three-fifths of a people.

One drafter of the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, opposed the provision, but in vain. Not long before he had tried, also in vain, to get the State of New York to abolish slavery, and managed to extract a constitutional promise that in the future “every being who breathes the air of this State shall enjoy the privileges of a freeman.”

Morris, a central figure at the moment the United States acquired a face and a soul, was a founding father that history forgot.

In the year, 2006, Spanish journalist Vicente Romero looked for his grave. He found it behind a church in the South Bronx. The gravestone erased by rain and sun, provided a platform for two large garbage cans. (4)

Gouverneur Lewis Morris [1719-1798] we hardly knew you.

Next time you are in a graveyard walk around and read the names. Then say a name out loud and then chant, "_____ we hardly knew you.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

As I read today’s gospel [Mark 11: 11-26], I said several times, "Jesus I hardly know you. I receive you in Communion. I sit at table with you. I hear your words, but Jesus I hardly know you. "

In today’s gospel Jesus spots a fig tree that’s not producing, so he curses it. The next morning they saw the fig tree Jesus cursed withered. Jesus, why did you do that to a poor fig tree? The gospel story even says it’s not fig season. Jesus I hardly know you.

In today’s gospel Jesus goes into the temple and turns over all the tables and scatters the doves and money changers and causes curses and havoc. Jesus why did you do that? Don’t you realize things like that could cause crucifixion? Jesus I hardly know you.

CONCLUSION

And Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Why in the world did he do that?

So let me close with a short piece – entitled, “The Ass”

THE ASS

He gave warmth to newborn Jesus in the manger, and that’s why he is in all the pictures, posing with his big ears beside the bed of straw.

On the back of an ass, Jesus escaped Herod’s sword.On the back of an ass, he wandered all his life.

On the back of an ass, he preached.

On the back of an ass, he entered Jerusalem.

Perhaps the ass is not such an ass after all?(5)

NOTES

(1) Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye by Kenneth O'Donnell

(2) Wild Bill Donovan by Douglas Walker

(3) Page 175 in Eduardo Galeano’s book, Mirrors – Stories of Amost Everyone, 2009, Nation Books, New York

(4) Page 175-176 in Eduardo Galeano’s book, Mirrors – Stories of Amost Everyone, 2009, Nation Books, New York

(5) Page 70 in Eduardo Galeano’s book, Mirrors – Stories of Amost Everyone, 2009, Nation Books, New York