MAYA

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 18th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Maya.”

As you all know, one of the meanings of the Sanskrit word, “Maya” is, “Illusion.” “Ma” is the Sanskrit word for “not” and “Ya” is the Sanskrit word for “that”. I believe they have other meanings as well. I am not a linguist.

Yet from what I investigated, “maya” means “not that”.

Or as we sometimes say to each other: “It’s not what you think it is.”

Sanskrit - the most basic and original of languages gives us these most basic words and ideas.

So a little baby points out, “ya” to what they want: “that”. And if we hand them the wrong color piece of candy or wrong toy, we’ll hear, “maya”. Not that, not that.

SERMON ALLUSIONS AND ILLUSIONS

The preacher preachers allusions - sometimes like impressionistic paintings - with the hope and prayer - images and words and metaphors touch people’s thoughts and memories.

The preacher also better be aware of illusion.

The preacher or teacher is under an illusion - maya - if he or she thinks people remember what they say - or hear what they say - or understand what they are talking about when they are speaking. Illusion!

The preacher forgets that he often doesn’t hear what others are saying - and worse, sometimes he doesn’t care what the other is saying. He wants to get home or somewhere else. And sometimes it all depends on who’s doing the talking.

This should not sound too dramatic. Husbands and wives have heard each other forever - and know what the other is saying or trying to say or not saying - sometimes from word one.

Listeners might listen to us priests or preachers at times to get the first few words so they can say to themselves “Okay what’s he off on today! Okay. Got it. Now back to what I’m talking to myself about right now.”

I do this when I’m listening to a sermon or a talk - or the evening news. You do this. We all do this.

I laugh inwardly at all this, because as priest I hear people confess distractions in prayers. I want to say, “Life is a distraction.” We all have “Monkey Brains” as they say in Hindu thought - with our thoughts jumping and swinging like a bunch of monkeys all over the place.

3 KEY STEPS ABOUT LIFE

Having said all this, I did hear something in a talk a good 20 years ago and it has helped me immensely.

Sister Maureen McCann of the Dallas, Pennsylvania Mercy Sisters said in a talk: “Life is: Illusion, Disillusionment, and Decision.”

Wow did that make sense. People date. People get engaged to marry. People discover months after the honeymoon, that what they saw before the marriage was an illusion. “Boy - girl - was I disillusioned.” Then they have to make a decision about, “What now””.

Life. The car, the house, the job, the trip, the vacation, the meal looked good on the menu - and on and on and on. I have a big hole in one of my socks right now. When I bought them in K-Mart - I never thought that one day, they would become “holy”.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

I said all of the above because that’s what the Israelites discovered - as we heard in today’s first reading: Numbers 13: 1-2, 25 - 14:1, 26-29a, 34-35.

The Israelites grumble, grumble, grumble - because getting into the Promised Land - the land of milk and honey - is not a cake walk. There are giants to conquer and they feel as small as grasshoppers.

Where have we heard that before?

We hear that every day in many ways.

I never promised you a rose garden - but sorry about all the thorns - and the rose petals have started to fall off the roses you gave me yesterday. Life! Life. What an illusion!

SAM  LEVINSON

Sam Levinson loved to say that the Jews of Europe - like all immigrants - were told that the streets of America were paved in gold. When they got here they found out not only were they not gold, they were not even paved and they had to pave them.

What’s with all this grumbling about immigrants - legal and illegal? They are doing what everyone has done who came to America. They are fighting giants - as they are being treated like grasshoppers.

In this year on St. John Neumann, I recently finished reading a big long life of St. John Neumann. - an immigrant who came to the United States and never lost his foreign accent. Now I’m reading a second life of St. John Neumman. He had to discover what all the immigrants to the United States or anywhere discover: where you arrive is not what you think it was going to be. It’s work. It’s lonely. It’s a struggle. It’s a decision to stay or leave.

Life is takes place with three steps or stages: Illusion. Disillusionment. Decision.

CONCLUSION

Does this mean we become cynics or pessimists or depressed?

Hope not!

I have made the decision to know and to say, "This is life! This is funny sometimes. This is realistic. This is reality. Sometimes there are laughs. Sometimes there are tears. This is life."

Tires and rugs and skin and the human body get wrinkled and wear out.

It’s an illusion that we’re going to live and last forever. Some people seem to think that - when they or someone they love gets big time health problems.

I also think all of us have to discover some of this on our own - with our own set of disillusions.

In the meanwhile - I also like to say to myself Thorton Wilder’s words from his 1942 play, The Skin of Our Teeth, “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate - that’s my philosophy.”

The bummer about that is I always loved that saying and always loved ice cream - and then I got diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is a bummer! Yet I've discovered and decided on sugar free ice cream at times. And in the meantime, there is always peanut butter on rye bread.