THERE ARE MEETINGS 

AND THERE ARE MEETINGS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “There Are Meetings and There Are Meetings.”

Today’s two readings talk about significant meetings.

The Gospel talks about the meeting of Christ with Martha and Mary.

The first reading from Galatians talks about a meeting between Paul and Peter.

TWO  QUESTIONS

Two questions for the sake of a homily: What have been the most significant meetings in our life? What has been the most significant meeting in our life?

To get the answer to the second question, I would think the first step would be to just brain storm and come up with significant or special or key meetings we’ve had in our life:  Meeting one’s spouse. Seeing a doctor about cancer. Meeting the pope. Being called in to see a boss and we’re told we’re no longer working there.

It’s a great conversation starter and ice breaker to ask people whom they have met. The answers are often quite surprising.

When my mom worked as a maid in the Boston area she met Charles Lindbergh a few times. The daughter of the family she worked for was a college friend of Ann Morrow - who married Lindbergh. People tell you about the time they met John Fitzgerald Kennedy or Johnny Unitas or Mother Teresa or Elvis Presley or their aunt or a college professor

So in this homily I would suggest making  a list of significant meetings that changed our life and then pick the most significant one.

MARTHA AND MARY, PAUL AND PETER

When Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the better part, did Martha get over that - and accept Jesus’ verdict on the differences between his meetings and his experiences with the two sisters?

Another question, “Looking at our life, was there a meeting we had where we got burnt or told off or we felt we were not treated fairly or we were ridiculed?  Whenever I read the Martha-Mary story - I side with Martha every time. Maybe she was making Jesus a great lunch with delicious bread and wine. Sometimes a hurtful meeting or a painful or a nasty meeting is the most significant moment in one’s life.

Today’s Letter from Paul to the Galatians has Paul saying that after 3 years he went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas. To me that is one of the most mysterious and interesting comments in the scriptures. It took Paul 3 years before he met  Peter? What happened at that first meeting that took 15 days? Tomorrow we’re going to hear that the next visit - at least according to Galatians - took 14 years before they met again. That sounds strange to me!

We find out in tomorrow’s first reading from Galatians that Paul challenged Peter when he seemed to be two-faced - in giving different answers to the same question - depending whether the listener was a Gentile Christian or a Jewish Christian. [Cf. Galatians 2:11-14.]  We find out in the Second Letter of Peter 3: 16 a criticism of Paul that he is hard to understand at times. So I don’t know about these two - and the times they met.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “There Are Meetings and There Are Meetings.”

It’s important to meet with each other - and talk with each other - and surprise - some of these meetings are profound. If we never meet, we’ll never have significant meetings.

It’s important to pray with Christ - because if we never do that - we’ll never have a profound meeting with Christ - like Paul had on the road to Damascus and Mary had with Christ at their home.

So we come to Mass and go to the Eucharistic Chapel - and take prayer walks when the weather is decent and we meet with each other and surprise some of those moments make our list. One might become the most significant meeting and moment of our life - the key that opened so many other doors.