COMING  AND  GOING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Tuesday in the Easter Season is, “Coming and Going!”

These readings after Easter are filled with the human reality of coming and going.

So what? That was my next thought as I said that. So what?

Paul is coming or going. Jesus is coming or going.

We come to church; we go from church. We come to work; we go from work. We get into the car; we get out of the car. We go into the house; we go out of the house. We take the first sip of chicken noodle soup; we take the last lip of the chicken noodle soup.

Life moves on. Clocks tick forward. Calendars change  their pages - month to month, year to year.

It hit me just yesterday: another school year is almost up - there are graduations again - and then there’s another Summer Bible School coming and on and on and on.

So what?  Once more I heard myself saying just that. Then a key question: are there any lessons to learn about all these comings and all these goings?

BE  IN  THE  NOW

The lesson I came up with is not to become stale - not to get stuck in feeling that life is the same old, same old, same old. 


I was thinking: here we are at Mass - again this morning - and we’ll do this again tomorrow morning and we did it yesterday morning. How does one do the same old same old and make it new - fresh - actual?

I have noticed in many sacristies a sign - right near the door of the sacristy: “Priest of God celebrate  this Mass as if it is your first Mass, your last Mass, and your only Mass.”

I read somewhere that that sign is in every sacristy of  The Missionaries of Charity - Mother Teresa’s community.

I know when I read that sign I say Mass a bit more attentive that day.

That tells me that attentiveness, awareness, pausing before doing, can help someone be more aware of what they are doing - even though they have done what they are about to do a thousand times.

I learned from listening to a CD talk by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, not to eat a bag of potato chips - but to slowly eat and savor every single potato chip in the bag. It’s the difference between stuffing and enjoying. It’s the difference between eating with one’s fingers  than eating fist full’s of potato chips. This is easy to forget when the Orioles have based loaded and might be able to beat the dreaded Yankees.  That simple message from Thich Nhat Hanh  taught me to try to eat all meals and snacks that way. It’s difficult, but it’s worth it. He calls it mindfulness.

I learned from a Broadway Musical that some people are into the show and some people are just going through the motions. 


We’re not supposed to judge, but I’ve been at Masses where the priest simply seems to be going through the motions. I can fake it with the best of them - but I have to warn myself, this isn’t something you fake or be mechanical at. It’s real. 


The Broadway musical where I learned this lesson was a revival of No, No Nanette. I went up to New York and Broadway with the staff we had at our retreat house in New Jersey. The seats we got were horrible. They were off to the side looking down into the orchestra pit. 


Surprise! What I remembered more than the show was what I began noticing in the pit. One violinist had on his music stand, not the music, but the New York Post or the New York Daily News. As everyone turned their pages, he kept on reading that paper. Obviously he knew the score by heart. I've never forgotten that scene.  I don't want to do life like that violinist.


CONCLUSION

That scene got me wondering: how do opera and country western singers do the same song the 500^th time? 


Did Jesus tell the Prodigal Son story a second time in the next village? If he did, did he make it better? Did  he change the happy ending of the father welcoming him home and with the twist that the older brother  refused to forgive his younger brother?  


How about those who flip hamburgers in Wendy’s or those who say “Hello” to customers in Giant when the 83 person comes to their register?  


Does an “I love you” or a “Thank you” ever become mechanical? 


How about the “Our Father” or “This is my body” - “This is my blood” at Mass - or “Peace!” or coming up the aisle for communion today and hearing “Body of Christ” and going back down the aisle having said, “Amen.”  Will this Passover Meal be any different than every other Massover Meal?