THERE’S  GOT  TO  BE 

A BETTER  WAY 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time, A,  is, “There’s Got To Be A Better Way.”

How many times in life have we said that, “There’s got to be a better way.”

A spouse – a son or a daughter – a brother or a sister – has fallen again.

We’ve tried anger – we’ve tried silence – we’ve tried showing them the door or not showing up at their door – or what have you – and we scratch our head in frustration saying,  “There’s got to be a better way.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings trigger that thought.

In the first reading from Ezekiel 33: 7-9 we hear about the way of warning.

We’re all called to watch – to be watchmen and watchwomen – and warn those we are with who are destructive of self and/or others. Ezekiel tells us to say, “If you continue down this path, you shall surely die.”

Ezekiel is warning us: we are our brother’s keeper; we are responsible for each other – even if the other refuses to listen to us.

Today’s second reading from Romans 13: 8-10 says we only owe one thing to one another: to love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s the only thing really that we ought to be debt to each other.

Today’s gospel from Matthew 18: 15-20 gives us a way to deal with a brother or a sister who is doing dumb. Quietly go to him or her - one to one – and tell him or her their fault. If they listen, great. If they refuse to listen, get one or two others and go to that person and challenge them to wake up. If that doesn’t work, go to the community – and a bunch of you go to him or her – and tell him or her what you see is happening and how much you are worried about them.  Obviously we need to speak with kindness.

If that doesn’t work, well, then write them off. Tough love is a better way – as long as we love the dummy and hope and pray that they wake up.

ALCOHOLISM

A Redemptorist priest once told me - one to one – that years ago he had been drinking too much and he was losing it. People had dropped hints. People had confronted him. People ignored him. Well, one day he went in for morning prayer in the house chapel where they were living. Surprise! His local community were there – as well as his whole family and other Redemptorists.  They confronted him – big time. It was an intervention. Without him knowing it, they planned it. They rehearsed it. Good thing he was awake and showed up that morning. They all told him what they were seeing – big time – that they loved him – and that he needed help.

Then the rector – the priest in charge of that community said to him, “I’m going with you at 12 Noon today to Detroit. You’re going to a rehab place. I got the tickets. I got you signed in. Now let’s pack and get to the airport.”

And the guy told me, “Looking back at that moment, that intervention, that group of people saved my life. I had had my last drink and drunk the night before.”

They had come up with a better way.

Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn’t.

FATHER ALEC REID

About three months ago - one Sunday morning – after the 10:30  Mass  - a group of 4 people came up and introduced themselves. They told me they were from Ireland – visiting some relatives here in the United States.

They gave me a black and white picture of their brother and cousin – an Irish Redemptorist with the name of Father Alec Reid. He had died in Ireland last November 22, 2013. I had heard a couple of wonderful things about Father Alec – but had never met him.

They gave me this booklet – with articles about him. And now I know better about someone who knew there had to be a better way of coming up with peace in Northern Ireland: Father Alec Reid.

I was looking for a Sunday – that had readings – that  would be perfect to use Father Alec Reid as an example.

His life tells me about someone who came up with a better way to be a peacemaker.

As many of you know, there was for centuries long fighting going on in Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants – with those who wanted to be connected with England and those who wanted to be connected to the Republic of Ireland. There was the Easter Rising in 1916 – which eventually lead to the Treaty of 1922 – with the division of the Counties 26 in the South, 6 in the North – mostly a Catholic-Protestant majority solution.

In the north in the last century, the 1900’s the troubles between Protestants and Catholics in the north was called “The Troubles.”

As I read this booklet that these family members of Father Alec Reid gave me – as I read about the long difficult process that led up to the Good Friday peace accord – of 1998 – I thought it was a good model to look at – when it comes to the Troubles we have in family, our country and our world – and it’s similar desires for peace.

I noticed in what I was reading about Father Alec Reid – that Gandhi’s method of non-violence is another way – and each of us has to make a decision on whether it’s a better way.

In a talk entitled, “Lessons on Peace Making” – I read that Gandhi had 2 fundamental principles for peace making. First: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  I’ve seen that on banners. It’s difficult – but I sense and I believe it is a better way.  We’ve all heard, “Don’t just talk the talk; walk the walk.” And the second principle is the one I’m harping on today: “There is always another and a better way.”

Father Alec was born down in Tipperary but was stationed up in Clonnard, in Belfast, in a Redemptorist monastery that just happened to be on the border of the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.

Catholics and Protestants hid together  in the lower crypt of the monastery at Clonard during the Belfast bombing German “Blitz” in 1942. After the war the Clonard Community offered a series of lectures every year  - starting in 1948. It was more aimed at Protestants becoming Catholics. After Vatican II which started in the early 1960’s, it was more ecumenical and more equal.

In Derry, Ireland in 1968 “The Troubles” – the riots – the Catholic-Protestant fighting erupted. Shootings, killings, round ups and imprisonment became the scene in Derry and Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.

Father Alec Reid began visiting the prisons – saying Mass on Sunday mornings – spending Sunday afternoons calling up family members with news and notes from their sons and husbands. He found himself in the middle of the hunger strikes of 1981.

Father Alec’s health broke down in the midst of all this and was told to go to Rome – to get him out of Clonard – and the troubles – to get his health back. On May 13, 1981 – a Redemptorist gave him a ticket to a great spot in St. Peter’s Square to be at the Pope’s regular audience – and it was the moment that Pope John Paul II was shot four times by Mehmet Ali Agca.

That summer of 1981 Father Alec was feeling better and headed back to Belfast with the goal to “take the gun out of Irish politics.”

And that became very significant. In the literature I read that Father Reid and a Rev. Harold Good – a Methodist minister – were the ones who were the witnesses that the guns were to be buried – secretly – in the dark,- especially because the IRA had in their constitution to hold onto the guns and never let anyone see you giving them up.

At a funeral for three IRA Activists who had been killed in Gibraltar – which Father Reid helped negotiate that they be buried in Belfast near Clonard - all hell broke lose when a Loyalist gunman shot and killed 3 mourners. 

At the funeral of these 3 mourners on Saturday of that week – two British Soldiers accidentally found themselves in the funeral procession. All hell broke loose again and this time the 2 soldiers were shot and killed.  There is a famous iconic black and white photo of Father Al anointing one of these two young soldiers as he was dying.[Cf. top picture on this piece.]

And significantly, in his pocket was a secret letter, and even more significantly it got covered in blood. It was a letter between from Sinn Fein – the IRA in Northern Ireland - to John Hume  the Protestant Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party. Peace – a better plan than killing each other was on the way.

Let me speed this up – but the peace process is rarely sped up. But here is what I learned about the Peace Process in Northern Ireland – that might serve as a model for our world and for our families.

One to one – letter by letter – small secret meeting after small secret meeting - step by step – missteps included – peace can be brought about.

Back stage is more important than front stage. Father Alec and Rev. Good and other players in the game met in all kinds of secret places – with the key players. A first step was to find out who they were.

Endurance – and not giving up.

Avoid the press – but press on.

Listen, listen, listen to everyone's grievances and gripes – get them on the table.

Pray - and keep praying to the Holy Spirit.

Compromise, compromise, give in, give in – but don’t give up. That certainly helps make marriages work.

In the Irish peace process there was the question of justice when it came to prisoners. Some went to other prisons. Some were released – even though they were in on killings and bombings.

Get out on the table mistakes and learnings - and the "if we had to to do this again step."  For example, Alec said we certainly didn't get the voices of women into the process enough. 

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “There’s Got To Be A Better Way.”

Jesus’ way of turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, forgiving others because they don’t know what they are doing, forgiving 70 times 7 times, dropping the rocks, is his way.

Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Rev. Harold Good and Father Alec Reid tried the way of non-violence – and through it was a better way – even though the first two of those 4 names were shot – Gandhi and King.

I challenge myself and all of us to pray about all of us – not just by myself – and to talk to not just myself about all of this – but with 2 or 3 others. This is what Jesus is suggesting at the end of today’s gospel.

And if you do this, watch. You’ll experience exactly what Jesus said – once more his closing words: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”