SHOW ME YOUR RULES 

AND I’LL TELL YOU 

 WHO YOU ARE?

TITLE

 The title of my homily for this 3rd Wednesday in Lent is, “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

 TODAY’S READINGS 

 Today’s two readings both talk about rules and regulations, statutes and decrees laws and parts of laws. The speaker in Deuteronomy is saying, “Look at our rules and you’ll see how great we are.”

ONCE UPON A TIME - I MADE THE RULES 

 Once upon a time I was in on making the rules. I had a job called “Novice Master.” Myself and another priest, Gil Enderle, had to come up with a rule book. We had General Statutes from Rome and Provincial Statutes from our province to guide us. We had to come up with particular laws - for our particular situation.

The first thing we did was to come up with other people’s rules books. We read them out loud to get the feel of them.

That was the first time I came up with the title of this homily, without really knowing it at first. “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are.”

You could get a flavor of the author or authors every time. One Rule book from one of our European provinces was quite picky and particular. It was extremely specific - naming names on whom you could talk to or what have you. It had lots and lots of iddy biddy die picky, picky rules. So we came up with our own rule book and it was revised every year. “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

By looking at rules and regulations, laws and decrees, you can know an awful lot about a group or a people or the lawmaker.

SECOND REALIZATION: EVERYWHERE THERE ARE RULES 

The next realization I discovered is that there are rules and regulations everywhere.

If you check into a hotel, check the fine print rules behind the door in your room.

To get on an airplane, you can’t have this or that in your carry-on bag. Once inside the plane, right at the beginning of the flight we always hear, “No smoking!” and “No tampering with the smoke detector in the bathrooms under pain of a fine.”

Rules… rules … rules…. There are rules about drinking and driving and there are the rules of the highway. Every school, college, bar, has rules.

 Then there are house rules - the rules of the house. They are unwritten but listen carefully when you stay overnight in someone’s home.

 I was at a retirement of a Navy Captain a few weeks back over at the Naval Academy. The guy in his talk - with his mom present - the mother of 10 or 11 kids - described his mom this way: There are two kinds of mothers - helicopter mothers and B-52 bomb mothers. Helicopter mothers hover over their kids and B-52 bomb mothers drop their kids off from a distance and let them land and learn on their own. Our mom was a B-52 bomber mother.

 There it was 2 different personality types. I would assume the helicopter mom or dad would have a lot more rules and regulations for their kids than the B-52 bomber mom or dad.

As I thought about all this, sure enough everyone has rules and regulations for life. They are called assumptions and expectations and what have you. Two people date. There are expectations and rules and regulations - whether articulated or not.

THIRD OBSERVATION 

We all have a whole list of commandments in our skulls. Everyone does. It’s our expectations on what makes a good Mass, sermon, meal, conversation, etc. etc. etc.

If somehow we could jot them down, like Moses did before coming down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments - could we say what the Book of Deuteronomy says today - that our rules are the best.

In fact, wouldn't we be embarrassed? Wouldn't some of our personal rules be rather selfish or what have you?

Listen carefully to  little kids. If someone gets a hug or the ice cream or the toy first, they let everyone in their surrounding sound area or arena know that they are angry and resent being #2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. Isn't the # 1 rule for many people, "Me, Me, Me First!"

Listen carefully to people - and not just parents to their kids. Their first commandment seems to be, “I want what I want when I want it.” 

Listen carefully to parents give counter commandments. “Share you toys with Jonathan.”  Dig deep into that command. Isn't that parents  trying to get kids to learn the Golden Rule - in just one more version, “How would you like it, if someone did to you, what you just did to your sister.”

CONCLUSION

 And on and on.

So the title of my homily is, “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

I’m saying that if we discover the rule book that is written on our heart, we’ll could learn a lot about ourselves.

So be honest. Be humble. Write. Look at. Share. Compare. Then rewrite and keep revising your own personal rules for life. Amen.