CHRIST:  THE  PAUSE 

WHO  GETS  US  

BACK  ON  TRACK  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 21^st Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Christ: The Pause Who Gets Us Back On Track.”

IMAGE OF TOY CAR OR ELECTRIC TRAIN SET

I don’t know about the girls here, but I assume we’ve all seen in our lives those toy racing cars that run around a track on a big piece of plywood board.  They spin around and around – but sometimes a car goes off the track or crashes in the rush.

Then there’s the pause.  Someone picks up the car that went off track and puts it back on board and the car gets rolling again.

We’ve all seen a similar thing happen with electric train sets.

Sometimes a train jumps the track and crashes.

Then comes the pause – the train is carefully put back on track – and it gets rolling again.

When it comes to those toy cars or electric trains – the kid with the control needs to know when to roll and when to slow down and pause a bit – to navigate the turns – and then speed up again.

Sometimes kids get so excited with speed they lose it – and crash, crash, crash.

TODAY’S GOSPEL: THE FIRST 3 WOES

Today’s gospel from Matthew gives us the first 3 of the 7 “Woes” of Jesus.

We often picture Jesus with the smile and being a warm fuzzy – ready to forgive and embrace everyone.

That’s more Luke. That’s a broad generalization, but Matthew can give us some of the hard sayings of Jesus.

Now let me connect the first part of this homily – the stuff about the pausing to get a train or a toy car back on track.

The title of my homily is, “Christ: The Pause Who Gets us Back on Track.”

Well, I translate “Woe” this way: “Whoa!” or “Stop!” or “Halt!” or “Wait a minute!” or “Pause.”

I’m assuming that Matthew is dealing with Pharisees in his local Christian community or church – and he uses Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees in Judaism – to challenge folks – who are off the track when it comes to religion.

Religion can go crazy. So called “religious people” can get off on iddy biddy strange stuff.

Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, we have the 7 “woes” of Jesus.

Jesus is saying to people who come to church that they can be hypocrites, phonies, blind guides.

I hide from people who go to church who nick pick how I say Mass.

They can be like someone with a strainer trying to remove a gnat that got in the soup – but in the meanwhile they don’t notice the sink is overflowing. Jesus uses the metaphor of the camel. That must be a local joke.

I do get the image of someone who wants to look good outwardly – faking it with religious practices – but underneath they stink. They are like a nice graveyard – beautiful green lawns – bright white tombs – but underneath the stones and the grass is death.

CONCLUSION

Jesus gives 7 woes – 7 ways people get off track – and the title and theme of my homily is that Jesus is the Pause – that gets us to see this and pick up the pieces and start again.