INSIDE AND UNDERNEATH

THE WORDS AND THE PRAYERS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Inside and Underneath The Words and the Prayers.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

In today’s first reading, (1 First Kings 8:22-23, 27-30) Solomon is in the temple that he helped build. He stands there before the altar of the Lord - praying out loud in the presence of all the people.

We can picture the scene. We can hear his prayer. Our first reading gives us the words Solomon prayed.

The same thing happens here in church. We can see each other praying. We can also see a priest praying up front at an altar - saying words and prayers out loud in front of the people.

The title of my homily is, “Inside and Underneath The Words and the Prayers.”

I’m sure you have heard some of us priests voicing our frustration with this new translation. Some might have said it out loud - and some of you might have seen it in our faces.

I have various thoughts and questions - some of which I am still trying to figure out for myself. The outside of many of these prayers are tongue twisters with words that are foreign to my ear. However, the words and prayers are now set - so I hope as time goes by we somehow get used to these prayers - so we can pray the prayers and not just read them - or fumble through them.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel (Mark 7:1-13) has a central issue that Jesus is off on: not being a Pharisee, not being a hypocrite, not being an actor - not just being muttering words with our lips while our heart is in a far country.

Have you seen the TV commercial where a guy is sitting down with his wife or girlfriend at a table in a restaurant. It’s a romantic moment. A woman and a man at a small table. He’s looking down and she says, “Were you just looking at your phone to get the scores?” And the guy lies and says, “No, well, no, no, no…” or something like that. The ad is for buying some new kind of great fast cell phone or gadget.

We’ve all seen priests in the middle of a prayer or a sermon look at his watch. We were taught in the sermon classes is deadly dumb.

How good are you at reading minds - or understanding another’s motives?

Women are supposed to be better than men in multi-tasking. Can someone have their mind on two or four things they are doing at the same time? Can a wife be kissing her husband while watching the boiling water on a stove - shaking a lid? Is a kiss just a kiss - a word just a word - or is much more or less. “As Time Goes By” the truth from underneath will finally boil over.

I remember going to see a matinee of a musical on Broadway. We got some seats in one of those small balcony boxes just up the side aisle. We couldn’t see the whole stage - but we could see the orchestra pit below. It was very interesting watching a play for the whole musical. I began noticing that a violinist had on his music stand a copy of the New York Daily News and he read from the newspaper the whole matinee.

I remember hearing priest gossip about so and so somewhere who was always looking over people’s shoulders as he scanned and worked the room - as he was supposedly talking to someone up close and personal?

Where are we when we’re talking to each other? Where are we when we are praying? Sometimes - as we all know - we are not where we are.

I preached about distractions being part of prayer on Sunday.

However, I found myself thinking afterwards a corrective. Is prayer also an attempt to say to God, “I’m giving you my undivided attention and then trying to do just that?”

In doing that - does that better help us to give each other our undivided attention all day and vice versa?

Tricky stuff. We’ve all heard each other’s stories many, many times. We’ve all said our prayers many many times.

So maybe there is a crazy value to all these prayers in the new translation. We have to stop and think more about what is really being said. Time will tell.

CONCLUSION

Where are we this morning - right now - in this temple - at this Mass right now.

Where are dental hygienists when they are in someone’s mouth? I don’t know, but I hope they are not with the gunk between in between my far back lower teeth. I have a cleaning this Thursday morning at this time. I’ll have to ask.

In the meanwhile, let’s mean what we say and sing what we sing - and enjoy the presence of our God with each other.

“Play it again Sam.” “As time goes by.”