HEADS  UP! 

EYES,  EARS,  TONGUE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 23 Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears, Tongue.”

We just heard this Sunday’s 3 readings.

3 different people stood here and voiced sounds with their tongues. 

We heard from Isaiah, James and Mark. We heard from ______, ______ and Andrew. We saw them get up out of their seats and walk to this pulpit. Did we hear them - what they said?

Did they trigger any inner speech and thoughts, insights or questions?

If they did, voice those thoughts for yourself.

Next,  talk to each other in the car after this Mass or at the brunch table or restaurant or wherever. Share with each other what you were talking to yourself about when you heard these 3 readings.

We’re talking to ourselves all the time - often while at the same time talking and listening with/to another.

It’s amazing what our brains can do. [TOUCH HEAD]

A funny thing hit me about two years ago.  It was a question: who are all these people walking and talking with their cell phones? I see them everywhere, talking, talking, talking.

Then the obvious hit me: they are talking to all these other people on their cellphones.  It’s that simple.

I make fun of people who are always on their cellphones. I don’t want to interrupted 24/7.

Then it hit me and I said to myself, “Surprise! Way before cellphones people were spending a whole life time talking to themselves - 24/7/365. [POINT TO MY SKULL] There’s a vast command center in here.

We’re doing that right now. How many of us are really here? I’m yada-yada-yada, yak, yak, yaking up here in the pulpit, but you might be talking to yourself about yesterday or this afternoon or tomorrow. Hey it’s Labor Day long weekend.

I laugh at that, because I’m doing the same thing. I can be preaching - while being somewhere else.

Hey this is easier  for me - because I type out my homilies.

While standing up here, I’ve often found myself thinking about those little kids running around in the lobby back there. I’ve often thought during a homily or during the Mass, “Isn’t that neat. And I bet you the architects and designers of this church never ever planned or got the thought how great that baptismal font in the lobby will be for kids to play around - and run around and around and around it.

Keep kids busy.

So we’re all talking and thinking inside our minds about a whole lot of things all the time.

I heard a speaker years and years and years ago say that the tongue is always moving - ever so slightly - and sometimes ever so loud - when sounds come out of our mouth.

That same speaker said there is a Buddhist meditation technique to silence that tongue - to silence those inner thoughts - and just be there - in the quiet of the here and now. He said, “Put your tongue on the bottom of your mouth or against the back of your bottom front teeth.” 

Shush! Become quiet within brain. Shut off all this inner chit chat chatter.

Christian Buddhists would say to be there in the silence of the here and now God - the Deepest Quiet One - Present - and the One who is holding up our existence.  Our God is a very Quiet God - but sometimes we hear God’s roar - God’s powerful groanings.  “Let there be light!”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading is from Isaiah. He has the Lord saying, “If you feel frightened, be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense, he comes to save you.”

Then Isaiah continues, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”

There they are - eyes, ears, tongue - and also legs. I’m just choosing 3 - parts what’s above our neck. That’s why the title of my homily is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears, Tongue.”

The second reading from James features our eyes - how we see each other - how we see folks here in this church today. Our church is some 2000 years old - imagine all the inner comments folks have made about how people are dressed and who’s who in this church today?

Do you see what he’s wearing? Do you see what she’s wearing?  Do you see who people are noticing, sneering at, looking up to, and what have you?

You have to have a sense of humor - especially when it comes to Church - especially when it comes to ourselves.

Today’s gospel has the story of a deaf man - who also has a speech impediment. And some wonderful people bring him to Jesus to have Jesus heal him. Great.

And it’s great that Jesus takes him off from the crowd - and puts his finger in the man’s ear - and spitting, touched his tongue and looks up to heaven and groans, “Ephphathata!” That’s Aramaic, Jesus’ tongue, for “Be opened!”

And the man immediately hears with his newly opened ears - and speaks with his speech impediment gone.

It’s a great story.

Hopefully it can become our story.

TAKE A MOMENT RIGHT NOW

Take a moment right now and take one of your hands and touch your head.

Heads up!

Thank You God for my brain - my thought center - Thank You God for my being alive - being able right now to know I’m me.

Take a moment right now and take a finger and touch your eyes.

Thank God for your sight - and all the wonderful sights around me.

Take a moment right now and take a finger and touch your ears.

Thank God for your ability to hear. Laugh if you’ve lost some of your hearing. Then touch your hearing aid - if it’s in your ears or home on your dresser.

Take  a moment right now and touch your tongue and thank God for the great gift of speech.

Thank God for all the wonderful words you have spoken and heard others say to you in your lifetime.

The title of my homily is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears and Tongue.”

THREE RECOMMENDATIONS

First our eyes: This week see those around you. This week see what’s around you. This week use your eyes well.

Next our ears:  This week listen to those around you. Really listen to those around you.

If you’re married, when was the last time you really listened to your beloved.

If they are dead recall your best conversation.

Write down the best thing the person you married ever said to you.

This week have the other say something to you about how they see the state of your union - where you are at - how it’s going - where it needs improvement - or what have you and then repeat back to the other, “Let me see if I have this correct. You’re saying …..”

And watch their eyes and their face if you got it right - to their satisfaction.

If you didn’t get what they were saying, let them tell you that and try again to hear what they are saying.  Sometimes the speaker is not that clear in what they are saying. Hey listen to preachers…..

Lastly, one’s tongue: This week touch your tongue and say, “Tongue thanks for all you’ve done for me in my life. Tongue I’m sorry I used you at times to say things I regret.  Thank you for all the times I said good things, all the I love you’s - all the thank you’s - all the I’m sorry’s.

MICHAEL MCCARTHY - FINDING ONE’S VOICE

Speaking about speaking and listening, let me move towards a conclusion  with an example of an Irish priest named Michael McCarthy. I had never heard of him. I read about him in a magazine article in the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet. [1]

Father Michael is just coming out with his 3^rd book of poems, The Healing Station. It’s poems about people he met while being 3 months with them the Adelaid and Meath Hospital in Dublin. He was working with people with acute strokes and dementia.

Each poem gives voice to a different person he met.

Each poem is like stopping at a different station of the cross - like those around our church.

Wouldn’t that be great?

Wouldn’t that be great if all of us gave a voice to the voiceless - like that 2 year old little boy on the beach in Turkey who drowned along with his 4 year old brother and his mother - and all those refugees - and escapees from violence and war and horror and poverty around the world.

My parents came to America from poverty - so I don’t want to hear the voices of anyone who wants to block anyone from wanting a better life.

I heard an Australian on the radio last night say, “Let  Australia. We have plenty of land.”

In this article about Michael McCarthy when he was a tiny little kid his dad who loved stories said, “Let Michael tell it.”  He had noticed that Michael could tell a story and tell it well. Wouldn’t it be great if every father figured out what each of his kids did well and affirmed that gift and skill in front of others?”

The article continued that Father Michael McCarthy slowly started bringing poetry into his sermons - and then adds that it wasn’t till he went to Chicago for a year-long exploration of Ignatian Spirituality that his gift found its voice. He writes, “I was changed both as a man and as a priest.”

The article continues, He attributes the transformation to a personal healing experience through Ignatian imaginative and practical Spiritual Exercise.  In meditation, he discovered that he had  never been able to get over a tragic event from his childhood farm. “I was five years old, and the mare was taking milk to the creamery,” he recalls. “She took fright and turned over the cart, killing my brother James.”

In Chicago - on that Sabbatical - he got in touch with this inner horror story - told it - and it came out in poetry.

CONCLUSION

Every one of us here is the man in today’s gospel and every one of us here is Michael McCarthy. There are things inside our head that we need to voice and we need someone to hear us.

NOTES

[1] Tablet Interview, Michael McCarthy, Healing Spirit, The Table, , pp. 8-9, August 29, 2015