ON HEARING THE “BOOS!”

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the Second Week of Lent  is, “On Hearing the Boos!”

Do umpires and referees hear the boos?

We’ve all been to a basketball, football or baseball game and the referee or umpire was booed.  Bummer!

We hear phrases like, “Throw the bum out!” “Horrible call ump!”  “You’re blind!” “Get a pair of glasses!” and phrases we can’t repeat.

Nobody likes to be booed.

ARMANDO GALARRAGA - NO HITTER

On June 2, 2010 in Detroit - Armando Galarraga was pitching a perfect game for the Tigers - no runs, no walks, no errors. 26 batters - 26 outs - in a row. One batter to go.  Up comes Cleveland’s Jason Donald who hits a ground ball which would be the final out. The umpire calls him safe at first base. The crowd screams, “No way!” Etc. Etc. Etc.

Shortly afterwards - but too late -  the umpire, Jim Joyce, said he made a mistake and apologized to the pitcher. The baseball commissioner, Bud Selig,  would not reverse the call and say it was a no-hitter. Detroit won the game 3-0 - but Armando Galarraga does not go down in history for pitching a no hitter and a perfect game.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel from the 6^th chapter of Luke, Jesus speaks about one of his key themes: not judging.  [Luke 6: 36-38]

Jesus tells us to be merciful as his heavenly father is merciful.

Jesus tell us to  “Stop judging and you will not be judged.”

Jesus tell us to  “Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.”

Jesus tells us to “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

Jesus tells us “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Evidently Jesus spotted a lot of judging going on.

BOOS

The title of my homily is, “On Hearing the Boos!”

Life’s a game!

There are plenty of players on the field as we sit here in the stands judging the plays.

We all do a lot of umpiring - refereeing, officiating - on how our brothers and sisters are behaving.

Too bad we didn’t hear God booing us!

Last night was the so called, “Woman’s Super Bowl” the Oscars. I didn’t watch it. However, I read in the papers various articles that voiced complaints about the Oscar voting for last night - before and afterwards.

There was that big call at the end of the Raven’s Super Bowl game.  If the ref called “holding” the Ravens might not have won that game - but then there were those other calls that went against the Ravens.

If our movie or team doesn’t win or get the call, then we boo.

But we don’t hear any boos for our judgments about how we see people behave, how people dress, what people  wear in church or on stage, where people sit in church, or what have you. I know I’ve made lots of bad calls.

CONCLUSION

The title of this short homily is “On hearing the Boos.” I wanted to examine our calls - our judgments - on others.

We haven’t walked in our neighbor’s shoes. And when we make a bad call on someone, maybe we should have the courage to say, “I blew the call! I made a mistake!”

And surprise, the more forgiving we become, the less judgmental we become, the more we become like God. 

Ooops! I would also suspect - how unGodlike of me to be suspicious - that some people would boo me for saying that. Yet I suspect - if we become that forgiving - that God like - others will knock the heck out of us. Hey they judged Jesus and threw him out of the game by crucifying him. Expect as much.