ON NOT BEING 

A VULTURE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 32 Friday in Ordinary Time  is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

Today’s gospel ends with this comment by Jesus, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” [Cf. Luke 17:37]

Was Jesus quoting an everyday saying from his day - like “A stitch in time saves nine” - or did he see a dying animal with vultures circling overhead - or eating away - and incorporate that scene into his thinking?

I don’t know. And the message from Jesus in today’s gospel is not telling us not to be vultures. It is, however,  the short message I’d like to preach on today. I think it can be a specific way of putting today’s first reading into practice - a way of loving one another. That is perhaps the key message in the Letters of John. [Today's First Reading is 2 John 4-9]

So the title of my homily is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

THE MUSIC MAN

If you saw the movie, “The Music Man,” you might remember the song - “Pick-a-Little” and the scene where a group of women are  gossiping and the sounds out of their mouths are that of chickens. They are taking apart the people of their town - River City.

Did anyone seeing that movie - get moved to stop picking people apart? Did anyone see themselves on the gigantic mirror called a movie screen?

We were just up in New Jersey for a convocation for our province. I noticed on a table each morning a copy of The New York Daily News and The New York Post. I miss those two papers because both have a great sports section with various articles on two of my teams: the New York Knicks - who are now 6 and 0 - and the football Giants. What I noticed, however, on first glance, was the front cover of those two papers each day - and then the first 3 pages - all on General Petraeus. It’s news. It’s gossip. It sells papers.

The title of my homily is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

I picture some of those reporters as vultures. You see them outside homes - whenever there is a big story - especially a tragedy. I realize they are making a living. I realize that some news has impact. Yet, I for one prefer to avoid that kind of news - on paper or TV.

I’m not preaching this as gospel here. However, I prefer to avoid “Bad News” and want “Good News” about people  - from which the word Gospel comes from - “Good Spiel”.

THE THEME OF SPREADING “GOOD NEWS”

We are called to be Gospel people - preaching and spreading good news. If someone comes to me in Confession and confess that they gossiped - I like to give as a penance - "Go out and say something 'good' about someone." It’s easy to say something good in prayer to God. It's more difficult to praise another. So I rather give the penance medicine of spreading good news - to another or about another.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve hoping for Holly Petraeus to be okay. After that I don’t know anything.

And I try - emphasis on try - to avoid being a vulture when bad news hits the fan in a family - in our parish - in our church - in our neighborhood - or what have you.

CONCLUSION

Enough said. It’s easy to knock the heck out of reporters, paparazzi. The better place to put this message of "Not Being a Vulture" is at the immediate and local scene. I need to look a me - how I speak about others.  I need to look in the mirror and see my face. I need to picture a vulture circling a dying body. We’ve seen that scene in many a Western movie. I then need to say to myself, “I have a choice of being my best self or my worst self: a vulture."