TREAT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30 Sunday in Ordinary Time A is just one word: “Treat.”

T R E A T [Spelled out] “Treat”.

You Wheel of Fortune pros will notice that the last 3 letters of that word are “E A T”.

I read today’s readings a few times and I said, “Come Holy Spirit!” a few times - and for some reason, the word, “treat” hit me.

TODAY’S READINGS

I wondered why that word “treat” hit me - so I re-read today’s readings.

The first reading from the Book of Exodus challenges us with the Golden Rule to treat the stranger - the unknown other - with hospitality and respect - just as we would want to be treated - if we were a stranger or a new person in the area or on the job or in the school or in the parish.

The second reading from 1 Thessalonians has Paul saying that good things happened when we were with you. You treated us well and we treated you well - and we both grateful.

And today’s gospel from Matthew has the Pharisees not treating Jesus well. In today’s gospel, one of the them, a scholar of the law, tests Jesus - trying to trap him. And Jesus says that the whole of reality boils down to love - that we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and we should love our neighbor as we love oneself.

Get that and you got it all.

All three readings stress the value of having a sense of deep respect of people for people and people with God.

HAVE A COOKIE

We know that dog owners like to give their “woof woof” a treat. It’s part of the ritual. “Want a cookie!”

We know that human being like to treat themselves now and then to a new pocketbook or toy or ice cream as well as give another a treat.

“Have a cookie.” “Want a treat?”

About 25 Thursday evenings a year for the 8 ½ years before I came to Annapolis I began noticing a very interesting experience happening. Another priest and I worked on the road - mostly in Ohio. However, we also worked in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and various other places. We were giving what is called, “A Parish Mission”.

On the last night of the parish mission there would be coffee, tea, soda and cookies - in a parish hall. It was part of the plan. We recommended it as a way to celebrate being with some people for 5 evenings. We had prayed and heard some preaching. We had celebrated our Christian faith and Catholic heritage together.

We’d arrived in the parish hall and there would be a line of people working their way towards trays of cookies - all kinds of wonderful cookies - on trays or dishes or platters.

At some point in doing this for 8 ½ years I discovered the following.

Each lady - it was always ladies - who made a tray or plateful of cookies - treats - would be standing there watching who took whose cookies. “Make it mine! Make it mine! Make it mine!”

I didn’t have diabetes at the time - thank God - so I would make my choices of 3 or 4 cookies - 3 or 4 treats. It was like election night. It was like a voting booth. There were winners and there were losers.

And I would feel guilt for bypassing someone’s cookies. I could imagine it was a recipe they got from their grandmother or from somewhere and it was always a winner - but not that night - if I didn’t chose someone’s cookie.

It was like a personality test. Some women would say, “Father take mine. You’ll love it.” Others would stand back and say nothing, but as someone took their cookie, out came a neat smile or a “Thank you!”

For some reason that was the main thing I remember from 8 ½ years of preaching parish missions all over the mid-west and elsewhere.

Have a cookie! Want a cookie. Have a treat.

I look back and hope that it was a treat for the people of that parish to have taken 5 nights - and for some 5 mornings as well - to treat the great issues of our faith - in their lives.

I look back and also realize that I also spent 7 years of my life in a retreat house in New Jersey preaching retreats - and 7 years in Pennsylvania in another retreat house preaching retreats.

That’s 22 years of my life dealing with treats!

A METAPHOR

Was the cookie moment, the cookie lineup, the cookie choice a metaphor for life?

Are we all standing there wanting to be taken - wanting to be chosen - wanting to be loved - wanting others to want what we can uniquely create?

Do we all want to be a treat?

Do we all want to be treated and retreated with respect?

Do we all want to be honored and celebrated - and eaten up?

Do we all want to be the bread and wine of life for others - Eucharist - that when others receive us - they receive Holy Communion - Christ - Christ’s spirit - Christ’s life - and they experience us as delicious?

Does anyone stand on line to receive me?

Isn’t that one of the great moments of life - when kids stand on line to go up to their parents at their 25th - but especially at their 50th Anniversary or 75th Birthday Party and say, “Thank you mom!” or “Thank you dad!” for being you. You were a treat and you treated us so well.

Do we all hate it when we are mistreated - rejected - never chosen?

WHAT WENT RIGHT? WHAT WENT WRONG?

Why are some people so wonderful? Why are some people a treat to be with? Why are some people as delicious as raison oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter filled brownies?

My dad worked for Nabisco - and sorry to say - broken cookies were not given to the employees to take home to their starving children. Nope, as our dad told us, they were all collected - all those broken Oreo Cookies and fig Newtons, etc. and they thrown into big vats and used for fruit cakes - lots of fruit cakes. Yet at different times during the year my dad would come home with a great treat - a big white box of cookies. It had no writing on it. The box was about 18 inches by 12 inches - and was 2 layers high: fig Newtons, Oreos, Lorna Doone, chocolate chip cookies, etc. It was a great treat and we kids had our eye on that box for days - waiting for a treat!

Why are some people so mean, grumpy, grouchy and edgy at times? Why are some people like razor blade cookies. They cut us - by cutting us off in a conversation or in traffic. They slice us and dice us. They hurt us. They don’t treat us nice. Ugh. Why?

Were they hurt? Did they get lazy? Did they forget where they came from?

Yesterday morning at a baptism a guy says to me, “Thanks for the nice baptism. We were just down in Virginia at a baptism a few weeks back and the priest said, “If any kid comes in sanctuary, I’m going to kick him out.” I winced at that. As priest I hear the horror stories as well as the good stories. But why did that priest become like that - not treating people right. At baptisms I always choose the baptismal reading that is in the baptism book - about Jesus telling his disciples not to shush kids away, but let the kids come to him.” Were Jesus’ disciples being like that priest - if that was something that priest does on a regular basis?

Why do we treat people the way we treat people?

We’ve all heard the jokes or the complaints from husbands and wives: “He treats his car better than he treats me.” “She treats the dog better than she treats me.”

Why do we treat people the way we treat people?

Is it because of a recipe that we picked up from our parents - from others? Was it something that we came up with on our own.

I was standing in the back of a church in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a Saturday night - 4:55 - and the Saturday night mass started at 5 PM. We were going to preach a Mission in that parish starting on Sunday night - and I was going to invite the folks to make the parish mission. A lady is standing there and says to me. See that young girl up there at the podium. She has a great voice. I’ve been trying to get her for a year now and I finally got her. She’s a senior in high school and will be going off to college next year. Hopefully, she’ll be a great addition to some Newman Club at some college and in years to come a great cantor in some parish. I don’t think the lady said, “She’s a treat!” but she was saying this young lady might be a treat to some parish in the future and she got her start here.

How did that lady get that big picture - that large outlook - that big way of seeing life and church and others?

CONCLUSION

I don’t know about you, but I hope to proclaim that Jesus treated everyone with great love and respect - and I hope to do likewise.

That’s my creed. We’re supposed to say some words about the Creed today - about some changes in its wording. I assume that will take less than a year to happen - but I think it takes effort and insight to get our hands on a good recipe for life.

Today I’m pushing: Be a treat.

Today I’m not saying all this to get cookies. I’m a diabetic and the good cookies have sugar.

Today I’m not saying this so you say to me, “You’re a treat!”

Nope. I’m saying all this so that all of us be a cookie - a delicious cookie - a treat - to each other - and the place to start is to treat all others with deep love and respect. As Roy Blount puts it bluntly, “Be Sweet.” [1]

Be sweet and you’ll be a treat.




Notes:



Roy Blount Jr. Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story, 1998