VOICES: 

I  KNOW  WHO  YOU  ARE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time [Year B] is, “Voices: I Know Who You Are.”

Who knows our voice?  We answer the phone. The voice is familiar – but we ask, “Who is this?”

In time we get to know each other’s voice.

The title of my homily is, “Voices: I Know Who You Are?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

The two main characters in today’s gospel are the man who hears voices and Jesus Christ – who is the voice of God – and that Voice, that Word became flesh and lived among us.

The scene for today’s gospel is the synagogue in Capernaum – up there in the north – in a city just above the lake of Galilee.

Jesus walks into the synagogue in Capernaum.

It’s crowded.

The person who recognizes the presence of Jesus – is the man who hears voices – unclean spirits. He screams out convulsions and cries - the strange ranger. 

Whenever I hear this story, I often wonder if the gospel writer is telling us a story with a smile that went around the early church.

The joke might be that the person who knows who Jesus is, is the nut and not those who think they are the nuggets

Do I – who claim to be a normal church goer – recognize who Christ really is? Isn’t it funny that it’s often  the strange rangers – who hear God’s voice.

Yet, even people who don’t pray,  say things like, “Oh my God!” in scary moments – or “Jesus Christ” in panic mode?

THREE PERSONS

The title of my homily is, “Voices: I Know Who You Are.”

I’m going to speak in this homily about three persons.  They are the three persons we need to know in this life: myself, others, and God.

1)   Do we know ourselves? Do we know our voices, our inner conversations? Do we listen to our sound tracks?  Can we say deep inside ourselves of ourselves, “I know who I am?”

2)   Do we know those we are with? Do we take the time to listen to them, to hear their voices - to know their voices – to know what makes them tick?

3)   Do we know our God? Do we hear God’s voice – God’s whispers? Or do we harden our hearts as we heard in today’s Psalm and Psalm Response?

FIRST PERSON: ME

We spend a whole lifetime getting to know ourselves. If we put a stethoscope or microphone on our chest or inner ear – or on our mind – we can hear our history – our questions – our worries – and joys – our sorrows – our glory – our light – our mysteries.

We spend our whole lives listening to ourselves.

Listen.

Who am I?

What are my interests?

What am I thinking?

Hopefully as I grow, I know myself better and better.

How do I think?

How do I function?

Haven’t we heard someone say of themselves, “I haven’t found my voice yet”?

I’m sure lots of you have heard about Carl Jung’s way of understanding ourselves and others.

I’m sure lots of you have taken a test that gets at Jung’s way of typing people.

The Jung Test asks lots of questions to help people say if they are introverts or extraverts.  Which am I?  Do I get my energy by being alone and others drain me?  Or am I an extravert and I get my energy by being with others and being alone drains me?

Whether I’m an introvert or extravert, the Jung Test goes deeper.

It then asks in a series of questions how I function. Am I neat or am I sloppy?  Am I a dreamer or a doer? Am I artistic, a creator  - or a practical down to earth - hands-on worker?

In other words, for those two ways of functioning, the test is asking if I am an intuitive creative up in the air type – or  am I sensate type – very aware of time and my body and how my senses experience life.

Then there is the other functioning line: feeler vs. thinker? Emotional vs. Rational? See the person or see the issue?

Let me try to sum up the Jungian types.

First of all: we’re somewhat more introverted or extraverted.

Next, we have 4 ways of functioning: with our head and our heart, our hands or our hunches. One dominates – it’s opposite is our weakest skill. Then there is our next strength and it’s opposite is our second weakest skill.

That’s the Jungian Types. Many people are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality types test. It helps us get at our gifts more than our sins.

Then there is the Enneagram that gets at our predominant center: head, heart or gut?  Each of those 3,  have 3 types.  That gives us 9 types. “Ennea”  is the Greek word for nine.

Richard Rohr and others think knowing these Enneagram types and areas and issues about ourselves, can give us more self-knowledge than the Jungian Types.

The Enneagram asks where am I coming from?

It asks what is my predominant sin: anger, pride, vanity, envy, greed, fear, sloth, lust, laziness?

I have found people are fascinated by any type of Personality Test – whether on a workshop for personal growth or in a Dentist Office Magazine.

We’ve all seen the TV commercial for Dos Equis Beer – which features a man who is described as The Most Interesting Man in the World.

To ourselves, each of us is the most interesting person in the world.

I say that based on all the energy we spend talking and thinking about ourselves inside our brain.

I like to quote the shortest poem in the world:

I

Why?

SECOND PERSON

And I also love to quote the second shortest poem ever written. I wrote it. It also rhymes:

You,

Who?

We also spend lots of time and energy thinking and talking to ourselves about others.

Who are you?

We are constantly asking that question of those whom we live with, love, work with, are married to?

Most of the time those voices stay inside our mind.

Sometimes those voices – those inner speeches – those questions – are negative.

Sometimes we hear put downs of us – from others – and we play those tapes for our lifetime.

A friend, a teacher, a co-worker  calls us a “Jerk” or “Selfish”  or “Self-Centered” and those words are scratched into the cement graffiti on the floor of our being – for life.

A parent screams at us, “You’ll never amount to anything.” Then we fulfill that prophecy.

A compliment can go a long way as well.

So what are our voices from others?

So we spend a lifetime asking not only ourselves who we are, but also who others are – as well as how they see us.

It’s best when we have relationships in which we can talk about our take on each other.

Check Google for Jungian  and Enneagram types. Then while reading the material, we’ll find ourselves saying, “That’s Chuck!” “That’s Catherine!”

GOD

Let’s get to God – finally.

However, I think we all need to go through these 3 voices – starting with ourselves – then to others – before we come to God. We need to go from the known to the unknown.

The strange man in the temple knew who Jesus was.

Do I?

How do I picture God?

How do I describe God?

Is my image of God, God?

Are my words about God, God?

If I say my dad or mom is as I describe them in words or images, am I right?

Is the person commenting on a television talk show  about another person, necessarily correct. For example someone is describing President Obama or Rush Limbaugh – in such and such a way. Are they correct? Are they on the money?

I hear all kinds of people telling me how another is and I too have a take on that person – and I say to myself: “Hello!”

I hear all kinds of people telling me about how God is and I say to myself, “That’s not my God?”

God can’t be nailed down by words.

“Hello!”

God can’t be sculpted into a statue and then that statue is God?

The early commandments warn us about false gods. It’s idolatry.

I don’t know if I can put what I’m trying to say here into words.

Have you had this experience?

I’m trying to describe something that I have thought about. I try to put my thoughts into words. I’m an intuitive feeler type, so I’m often not that clear – especially to thinkers, analytical types. I talk in images better than in words. I know this about myself.

Lots of times in the back of church after a Mass someone says, “I have no clue what you were talking about in your homily. Too much poetry.”  Then the next person says, “Thank you for your sermon. Right on target.”

That’s happened to me all my preaching life.

Sometimes in a conversation the other says, “Let me see if I have what you’re saying correct?” 

Then they tell me what they thought I was saying and I say, “No, no, you have me all wrong.”

That’s me on someone talking about me about me?

What about  my take, my words on who President Obama or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin or another priest or a neighbor is?

What about me on God?

Saying so and so is so and so – doesn’t make it so and so, so and so.

Things are easier to describe than people. 

If there is one cookie left in the box and I say, “There is one cookie in the box” I’m correct – but I didn’t make it so. It’s simply true.

All our lives – down deep – we’re trying to sculpt God with words.  All our lives we’re trying to put God into words - into a box.

I like the contrast between being kataphatic and apophatic.

In describing God some people use images to explain God. God is a Shepherd. God is a Father. God is a Mother. God is a King and on and on. That’s being kataphatic. It’s from a Greek word – KATA – meaning “TOWARDS” – and PHATIC – meaning “revealing - telling”.

Apophatic means “without images.” “APO” is the Greek preposition meaning “AWAY FROM” Different spiritual writers say they don’t want to use any image of God because God is God and he can’t be nailed down by some image. It might have some truth – but God is God and we’re always in the dark when it comes to God.

CHRISTIANITY

Here’s where I become very thankful for being a Christian.

I didn’t choose it – I was given the gift from my parents and Catholic school and the seminary – and a bunch of other people, places and factors.

Then at some point I choose to be a Christian – as an adult.

SPEAKING IN DIFFERENT TONGUES

I am grateful for theologians who have gone before me – who tell me with their voices – their writings – their studies - what they are hearing about who God is.

I like the writing style of the Dutch Catechism of 1966 more than the writing style of Catechism of the Catholic Church  of 1992. That catechism doesn’t talk my language and the Dutch Catechism did. I assume it went on many a Bishop’s shelf – and gathered dust – or was tossed somewhere – as it was blackballed.

Some of the documents of the Second Vatican Council II – for example, Gaudium in Spes, The Church in the Modern World speaks in a language like I speak.  Then in the last 50 years we slipped back into Officialese Roman Catholic Document  Language. It’s my opinion that most Vatican Documents are written in a voice that’s not the voice I hear when I pray or am with God or with others.

I can relax about all this. It’s normal. People see differently from each other. Hopefully that leads to dialogue more than monologues.

I’ll add, if you get what I’m getting at here, that we speak in many tongues – it can help us to have an understanding what happened in the Early Church on Pentecost.

I don’t interpret Acts 2:5-13 – as many people do.

Many understand that text as people understanding all kinds of different languages: that of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Jews, Cretans and Arabs, etc. etc. etc.

I understand that text as people understanding the common language of handshakes, welcoming embraces, listening to each other, smiles and common body language – as well as interpreters and translators helping people explain who they are and what they are thinking and feeling to each other.

I’m not a literalist.

People, as I reported above, might not get what I’m saying – as I don’t get what they are saying  or I stop listening.  They  would call me wrong. When that happens,  I might remain silent or say to the other, “Hi. I think we see differenty. I might say, “I see that your arms are folded and your fists and your jaw seem very  tight. Has what I said turned you off?”

Hopefully all of us Christians know that Jesus walked into a synagogue one day and a man knew who he was: The Holy One of God.

That man experienced God in the flesh – human and divine.

The Word of God the Father became flesh and walked among us.

Christianity – Christians believe just that. Christians believe that God is a Trinity.  God the Father speaks a Word – “Son” – “Beloved Son” – for all eternity – and in time – in the fullness of time - with help from Mary – with her “Yes” – that word became flesh and lived amongst us -

Yet when it comes to us putting any of this into words  -  we have a lot of difficulty. We are not God.

Heresies happened and still happen.

Misunderstandings happen and still happen.

BIG QUESTION: WHO IS JESUS TO YOU?

Back around 1990 – I was in the dark.

I was in a dark chapel in Ossining, New York.

It was around midnight.

The only light in the chapel was the red light near the tabernacle.

As Catholics know – that signals that consecrated bread, the Body of Christ, from a Mass, Communions that were left over – or there for sick calls – are in the tabernacle.

That red light is usually a lit white candle in a red glass. The tongue of light from the lit tip of that candle – is a tongue  that says what the man in today’s gospel said: “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.”

Okay, I’m babbling here. I’m being kataphatic. I’m using images.

That night I’m simply sitting in the dark – sitting in the corner.

The door opens. Someone walks in. The person walks up to the front of the chapel. I could see by the light from the candle that the person sat down on the floor – between the altar and the tabernacle.  I hear the person open up something. I figure it was a guitar case because the person tunes up their guitar. The person is a young woman – who was on the religious program I was attending. She sings a love song to Jesus.

I was nervous – still totally quiet in the corner.

I’m wondering: “Is this her night prayer every night?”

I was hearing her voice – beautiful.

She finished. I could hear her putting her guitar back into its case.

She sat there for about ten minutes – got up – and left.

What voices was she hearing?

That young woman has been sitting there in my inner sanctuary for all these years – still singing – still praying.

I keep hearing her voice.

I keep thinking – she is saying, “I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”

I make my act of faith in knowing who Jesus is from moments like that.

I’ve experienced Jesus – the Word made flesh living amongst us – in many a dark chapel – and many a light bearing moment – when I was in the dark.

I’ve heard lots – LOTS – of people tell me they experienced and know Jesus while visiting the sick in a hospital as an Eucharistic Minister.

I’ve had many people tell me that they’ve met Jesus in poor, the blind, the sick, the smelly, the hungry – while volunteering at a soup kitchen or our Light House here in Annapolis  – or in the great St. Vincent de Paul Society here at St. Mary’s and so many other places.

Many people after Matthew 25: 31-46 – have then heard  the voice of Jesus whom they experienced in the flesh – in the corridor – or in the need – when they visited the sick or the hungry or the thirsty or those in prison.

So too in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37. I have met Jesus on many a road – or sitting next to me on a plane ride or a train ride – or a bus ride.

So too people have told me that they met and know Jesus in the Bread and in Communion with Christ in Church – or when they walked into the Gospel of John 6 – and met Jesus in the flesh like the man in today’s gospel.

A BUS RIDE THROUGH ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

Today’s gospel was a great memory grabber for me. In January 2000 I got to Israel. Our provincial was looking for someone to carry the bags of Leo – one of our priests. George, the Provincial, knew Leo and I knew each other when we worked together at our retreat house in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.

We left from JFK Airport.  We joined with about 25 other priests – for a retreat – pilgrimage - at some of Jesus’ places in Israel/Palestine.

Nothing hit when we landed in Tel Aviv. Nothing hit me on the road to Tiberius.  Everything hit me when we walked down to the lake of Tiberius/Galilee after supper that first night. I stood there and remembered a moment when my brother told me about his trip to Israle. He had told me that the Lake of Galilee was his best experience – thinking, “This had to be what Jesus saw – just like this.”

Me too. 

The next few days we went to Cana, the Mount of Transfiguration, the place of the Sermon on the Mount, the place of the feeding of the 5000. We saw Jerusalem and Jerico.

I remember a neat moment when we went out on the lake in 3 boats – supposed to be replicas of the kind of boat Jesus would have been. A storm came up on that lake and I thought. “Same experience Jesus!”

This trip to the Holy Land was a retreat – so after a Gospel reading from a moment Jesus was there, we’d have an hour or a half hour of quiet – and each time I’d listen to my questions, my voices, mainly to Jesus: “What were you thinking when you were here?

We went to the 4^th century remains of the synagogue in Capernaum and Steven Doyle read today’s gospel and that was enough for me.  We sat on stone seats around the rectangular building – missing its ceiling.

“I know who you are, the holy one of God.”

VOICES – VOICES – VOICES

In this homily I’m asking about how we recognize Jesus – and others – and our thoughts about Jesus and others – in the words and tone of voice our voice talks – and we listen.

CONCLUSION

This is a life task – recognizing God in our midst – and without God in our midst – we disappear when we start to disappear – and when those who know us stop remembering we were in their synagogue – in their brain – in their memories.

[This is a much longer and different version and wording of what I said at the 9 AM Sunday Morning Mass at St. John Neumann’s Church, Annapolis, Maryland. I didn’t write that sermon out – for a change of pace – but for the sake of this blog, I wrote the above. Thank you for listening to my voice, if you got this far.]