WALLS:

SOMETIMES  WE  LIKE THEM;

SOMETIMES  WE  DON’T

INTRODUCTION

Hi. The title of my homily is, “Walls: Sometimes We Like Them; Sometimes We Don’t.”

BOOK BY MARCUS BARTH

Years ago I read a book with a great title, The Broken Wall: A Study of the Epistle to the Ephesians by Marcus Barth.  He’s the son of the famous Protestant theologian, Karl Barth.

That title and theme – The Broken Wall – is the key to today’s first reading.

Paul says to all of us, “Once we were aliens – outside the community, outside the covenant, without the promise, without hope and without God in this world.”

Then Paul preaches the Good News: “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near by the Blood of Christ.”

Then Paul says Christ is our peace. Christ broke down the wall that divides us – and makes all of us one.

Christ makes us part of the temple sacred to the Lord. We are being built – becoming part of - that  temple day by day.

What a great message. What a great invitation. What a great way of seeing ourselves: we’re connected to each other – we’re connected to the Lord. 

Everyone who sees St. Mary’s says, “What a beautiful church!” Do they mean the building or do they mean us?

Yesterday a bus with 50 people from an assisted living place near Baltimore visited our gardens – this church and then St. John Neumann for Mass at 12:10 and then lunch at Seelos Hall out there. Last night did they bring good news with a smile to the others there – that they were in a wonderful parish yesterday in Annapolis. Did they say, “What a beautiful church”? Besides our two buildings, did they mean us – at least those of us whom they met?

RELIGIONS

Religions – like every organization - seem to like walls, steps, dividers, titles, hierarchies, lowerarchies, places of honor and levels of recognition.

Paul discovered that his religion Judaism – put up lots of walls – walls that separated people:  the saved from the unsaved – the savory and the unsavory - the chosen people and the people God didn’t chose.

Check out in the back of Bibles – the divisions – sections – courts within the temple – from the room called the Holy of Holies – to the court of the Gentiles. Then there was the section for the men – and the section for the women.

Paul discovered he didn’t like that wall – and that’s what he wanted removed – torn down. We catch glimpses of that idea and that vision in Isaiah – but many didn’t get it.

And then Christian communities – as we see in Paul  - and in his letters and in the Acts of the Apostles – ended up putting up walls.  The gospels were written after the year 55 till around 100. The messages in there were not about the scribes and Pharisees Jesus dealt with – but the Christian scribes and Pharisees folks were dealing with in local Christian communities.

People put up walls. Some people like walls; some don’t.

HEDGES IN ANNAPOLIS

Recently I was at a Baptismal Party in a house here in Annapolis.

We were standing in the kitchen – looking out the window – into a nice big backyard – and then there were the hedges. High – tall – hedges – that prevented a view of next house.

The owner of the house – the grandmother of the baby – told me her father in law came to the house from the mid-west and asked, “What’s with the hedges? You can’t see your neighbors and they can’t see you. Why don’t you cut them down?” Her father-in-law came from a mid-west city where you could talk to your neighbor window to window – porch to porch – backyard to backyard.

“Walls: Sometimes We Like Them; Sometimes We Don’t.”

ROBERT FROST

Robert Frost the poet says just that in his poem, The Mending Wall.

It begins, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall….”

The poem tells of two neighbors meeting together every spring to mend the wall between them. It’s a New England boulder wall – that  fell apart in places during the winter. One asks about the need for the wall in the first place. “He is all pine and I am an apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines” He tells his neighbor and, “He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.”

There it is, “Walls: Sometimes We Like Them; Sometimes We Don’t.”

CATHOLICISM

One of the metaphors for laws in Hebrew thought was, “The law is a hedge.” Yes a group needs some guidelines, schedules, this and that – but the message of Christ – is resurrection – the breaking of the walls of death and division – when they do harm or sinful separation or apartheid 2014 style.

Remember the old message – when people yelled for Latin: “You could go into any Catholic Church in the world and you knew you were home – because we all spoke the same language?

Remember the new message – which is the old message – when people said, “You could go into any Catholic Church in the world and you knew you were home – because we all spoke different languages – had different costumes and cultures – different skin colors – and eyes – and we were welcomed.”

At this synod in Rome that just finished – it was refreshing to read the call was to be more and more an inclusive church – more than an exclusive church.

To put those walls up – is the tendency and temptation of every religion – and chop the heads off of those who differed

The Catholic Church can says, “Been there, done that – still trying to silence and put in the corner those who think differently, pray differently live differently – and we still look around and sing, “All are welcome all are welcome in this place,”

CONCLUSION:

So yes, we like our privacy, our gates, our fences, our walls. They keep us comfy – but hopefully – when we stop seeing, being with the other guy and gal – hopefully we become Catholic – which means we are one with the whole catalogue of people on the planet. Amen.