Lord, Jesus, aren’t the words I want to hear when someone stands at my grave to be: “generous, served, gave without counting the cost, fought for what was right, even when it meant wounds and the hurt”?
Painting on top by Pieter Bruegel
the Elder, 1565. It can be seen in
the Courtauld Gallery in London.
Then there is another version,
which is attributed to his son,
Pieter Bruegel the Younger.
It is dated to around 1600
and it can be seen in the
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
FACE TO FACE WITH GOD
INTRODUCTION
The title of my
homily for this 17th Tuesday in OT is, “Face To Face With God.”
Today’s First
Reading from Exodus, especially the words about the tent and the cloud and
Moses seeing God face to face, is very ancient - around the 9th
century BC. [Cf. Exodus 33: 7-11, 34:5b-9, 28.]
Because of their
sins and their sinfulness, Moses set up his tent outside the camp. The people’s
tents were set up inside the camp.
The cloud would
settle over Moses’ tent and the people like little children got the message
from Moses - through his words and body language - that God was not happy with
them because of their sins.
Moses - like God - distanced himself from the people - and only met with God
outside the village. They were not worthy of God. They would stand outside
their tents and worship God from a distance - unlike Moses - who is described
as seeing and being with God face to face.
In yesterday’s first reading from Exodus, we heard how they sculpted a
golden calf and said this was their god - from their golden rings and
things. We can do things like that.
I was thinking
that the basic instincts going on here are wanting to be close to God - good -
and to get God under our control - according to our image and likenesses - not
good.
IN THIS HOMILY
In this homily we
could look at our relationship with God.
When we were little kids, what was our relationship with God like? Does every parent - like Moses - use God to
get their kids to be good? Where do people pick up that when things go wrong,
they ask, “What did we do wrong?”
Answer: sometimes
yes - sometimes no. Obviously there are things we can do to stop global warming.
In the meahwhile we can bring an umbrella when it really looks rainly and wear
a cool t-shirt when it’s going to be hot.
When did people
pick up that God gets angry with folks? Where do people think that when
anything goes wrong, it’s God punishing people?
In the New
Testament we’re going to hear Jesus countering this thinking in various stories
- especially ‘The Story of Man born Blind” - Chapter 9 of John.
FACE TO FACE
I think the
solution is to ask the Lord to have an intimate, face to face, relationship
with him - and to let go and let God be God - however the mystery of God works.
Yet to still
strive to be with God….
Yes, to be like
little children, who see their father in the corner reading the paper and they
go over - climb up on his lap and pull down the paper wall - or to get up into
their father’s face and climb closer - face to face - nose to nose - and to look into God’s face and say hello.
In fact, if we
have a relationship with a distant God -
we might tend to be way off when it comes to knowing God.
LIFETIME EXPERIENCE
God is a lifetime
experience.
The Jewish
Scriptures - give us many people’s perceptions of God. That’s why we read them.
We read them - we hear them - and we act and react to them.
The Jewish
Scriptures - the New Testament - give us the gift of Jesus - and how he
struggles to tell us who he his - and who his Father is - and what they are
like - and to pray to and for their Spirit - as we slowly move deeper and
deeper into the mind of God.
It’s a lifetime
experience like any close - face to face relationship - we have with each other
- not from a distance - not outside our tent - but inside the tent called our
family and the bigger tent called our places of worship - and hopefully
somewhat before we die - but definitely after we die - the cloud with disperse
and we will be with God - in a face to face eternal experience - or however
eternity works.
Monday, July 27, 2015
July 27, 2015
KINGDOM PRACTICES
Hold the door open. Let another in ahead of us.
Enjoy the food and thank the cook or the waitress.
Say, “Hi” to those in the elevator with us.
Give a smile to the driver in the car next to us.
Pick up garbage, wrappers, etc. on the sidewalk.
If there are crayons, and there is paper, draw.
Say to the dog walker, “Nice dog. What kind?”
Give the street musician at least a quarter!
Take the grandkids out for ice cream!
Turn the other cheek. Answer anger with peace.
Go the extra mile - especially for the stuck.
Forgive 70 times 7 times and then some more.
See the good the others do; Miss the mistakes.
Wave! Smile! Greet! Acknowledge others.
Give glasses of cold water.
Say, “Beautiful baby. Wow. Lucky mom and dad.”
“Want a cookie?” "Want a cup of tea?" Break and share your bread.
Give positive comments about great T-shirts.
Check your baggage - free up the overheads.
Tell others to tell that story about their kid.
If a kid loves chess - ask her to teach you the game.
Pray with others - especially when they are facing a problem.
Call you old coach when you see his name in the paper - especially after
a tough loss.
Go to high school musicals and plays - even when your kids are long
finished college. Never stop being like a little child.
The title of my homily for this 17th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “Prone To Evil? How
Prone?”
I take that title and that thought from what Aaron, the
brother of Moses, says to him in today’s first reading from Exodus 32: 15-24,
30-34, when Moses comes down from the mountain and all the people are singing,
dancing, chanting and worshipping the Golden Calf.
Moses was just up the mountain in ecstasy, in awe, in
worship, with God, Yahweh, the presence that brought them out of Egypt and
slavery.
How soon they fall into sin! How soon they drop the invisible God - for a
visible God - the Golden Calf.
Aaron says to Moses, “Don’t be angry. You know well
enough how prone the people are to evil.”
QUESTIONS THAT
COMMENT TRIGGERS?
That comment in Exodus 33:22 triggered for me the following questions:
·“How prone am I to evil?”
·“Are we all different in degree when it comes to
sinful tendencies?”
·“If different, what sins am I prone to?”
·“Have I changed through the years?”
·“What are my temptations?”
PRONE
Other translations of Exodus 32:22 use the word “bent”.
The New English Bible
has Aaron say, “You know they are troubled.”
The King James Version
says that the people “are set on mischief.”
The Good News Version
goes this way, “you know how determined these people are to do evil.”
KEY THEME
For a homily thought today, please answer this question
for yourselves.
Why do we sin? Why do our kids mess up? Why the horror
stories in life?
Why do we hurt ourselves or others?
Another series of questions:
·Are we predetermined?
·Are we born bent out of shape?
·Is it our parents or TV or friends that give us
good or bad example?
I’m serious. We need to reflect deep on this.
Genesis begins by saying, “All is Good. All God makes is
Good.”
Then we have the Adam and Eve and bad fruit story - and
we are the ones who choose evil.
Next Cain kills his brother Abel. In that Hebrew Story in Genesis 4 - we hear
about the “Yetzer hara”- a Hebrew term for the evil that lurks at our door and
we are the ones who invite evil into our house or tent.
All through the Old Testament we have this question - of
why Evil.
In the New Testament Paul’s answer in Romans is, “I don’t
know.” I tell myself, today I’m going to do this and I go out and do the
opposite. Why? Why?
Why do find ourselves saying on a regular basis after we
do a nasty, “Next time less wine, next time less whining, next time less
eating, next time less gossip and we do the opposite?”
CONCLUSION
I don’t have a conclusion.
This is the lifetime struggle. Paul will say in Romans - as Augustine read in
the garden - that the only person we can turn to is Jesus Christ. [Cf. Book 8
of the Confessions and Romans 13:11-14]
In the meanwhile, be like Moses and find some alone space
and listen to the 10 Commandments.
In the meanwhile, follow Jesus, the New Moses, and hear him tell us what he
learned on the mountain: the Sermon on the Mount.
Or scream out to the Lord, “Help! Bend me back into shape.
Prone me towards you.”
Sunday, July 26, 2015
I REMEMBER ____
FILL IN THE BLANK
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 17th Sunday in
Ordinary Time [B] is, “I Remember ______ Fill In The Blank.”
One of life’s key opening and recurring comments is, “I
Remember….”
And then we tell a story, a remembrance….
When we get older - our long term memory seems at times
to take over - and sometimes fills the room with a great story or remembrance -
and sometimes if we repeat ourselves enough - sometimes it empties the room.
When we get older - sometimes our key sentence, “I
remember…” changes to, “I can’t remember…” or “I’m trying to remember…” or,
“I’m losing my memory…” or “I forgot….”
So too the sadness in some - when losing family or faith
- and the loss of the sacred - and sadness invades or pervades the soul or the
room.
VACATIONS
It’s summer and sometimes people go back home and walk
the streets of the place where they grew up - and up come memories - like grass
through the cracks on the sidewalk.
I don’t have children - but I picture that it would be a
wonderful memory for a kid to have a dad or a mom or grandparent take them
through the places they were.
So too soldiers and sailors going back to Vietnam or
Korea or San Antonio or San Diego.
So too going back to the schools and playgrounds and the
places we used to go to. And the little children laughed and smiled seeing dad
sliding down the slide once again - or grandma on the swing of her childhood.
And if you haven’t and if you can, if you see people on
the front steps of your childhood home -
go up to them and tell them you used to live here and could you get a guided
tour - if possible.
So too the beauty of museums and photo albums. Let your
feet or your fingers do the walking - and let your mouth do the talking - if
you have an audience.
When I see people standing outside this church and they
look like visitors, I like to suggest, “Welcome. The church is open. Check it
out. And at times someone says, “I was married here,” or “I went to school
here.”
A POEM BY
CONRAD AIKEN (1889-1973)
Talking about memory and remembrance, I spotted a poem by
Conrad Aiken - an American poet - of Savannah, Georgia and New England and
elsewhere - and a very complex life. He
was big on remembrance and symbolism. I spotted in reading up about him, that
he has an autobiography along with his many poems and other writings. I might check
that autobiography out.
Listen to this poem by Conrad Aiken. It
will lead me to today’s gospel about Jesus and Bread.
The poem is entitled, “Bread and Music.”
BREAD AND MUSIC
By Conrad Aiken
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you, belovèd,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.
For it was in my heart you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,―
They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
Anyone who has lost a loved one - as you move among their stuff gets this poem
big time - first time.
The stuff of life is filled with flashbacks - and history
- her and his story.
The feel of others is on so many things in a house -
especially in the living room. They don’t have to have the words “In memory of”
like the stained glass windows here in church. We just have to talk to each
other - in the living rooms of our lives.
THE MASS
I have met with various people who have left the church
and want to come back. Often - if they are old enough - they discover the Mass has
changed - but they were not here to witness and change with the changes.
I don’t listen enough or too well - but I make an effort
to listen to what they saw and missed - or didn’t like or what they wondered
about as they left.
The bread is the same. The wine is the same. The key
words are the same: “This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in memory of
me.”
Jesus spoke in Aramaic.
What he said went into Greek - and spread through the Mediterranean Basin - and
then into Latin and into the languages of our world.
I like to take people into the sacristy here at St. Mary’s
and show them the safe in there where there is the gold and silver cups and
plates.
We were brought up not to touch them. That has changed. I
ask them to take the chalice and take the gold plate - and feel the Mass in
them - the thousands of Masses and more in them.
Sometimes they have engravings in them: “In memory of
Luigi and Mary Mellaci.”
I show them the unleavened bread. It’s unleavened like
the Passover Bread - which Israel
gobbled down before their run, their exit, their exodus from slavery to freedom
- wanting the promised land. Don’t we all?
I tell them the joke a deacon Dave Page at Millersville
told Father Harrison, “At Mass we believe that the bread becomes the Body of
Christ, but the greater miracle is to believe this is bread.” There was a post Second Vatican Council
statement to try to make the Bread of the Mass to look and taste a lot more
like bread.
To feed 500 or 5000 as in today’s gospel, the Church got
practical and came up with the round bread, hosts, we use in Catholic Churches
in the West. The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches use little cubes of
leavened bread - and have longer Masses.
In the poem I read we heard about a sad man at a table
where he broke bread with his beloved - bread that was more than bread -
because of his love for her - and her hands touched a glass where they shared
perhaps wine. Memories and moments at the family table.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
To me Conrad Aikens’ poem obviously triggers Eucharist, Memories, Moments from way back. To
me I have met various people who want to come back to the Eucharist - because
they need the bread and the wine and the table and the words of Christ. Down
deep they don’t miss nostalgia. They miss Christ - the bread of life. They miss the Word of God.
As you know scriptures mean writings - script. As you know the 4 gospels didn’t get
formalized till after 60 and up till 100 at least for the gospel of John.
Before that the followers of Christ met and shared bread and wine and stories
of Jesus and someone finally said, “We’re getting old. Our minds are going. We
better write down these stories and sayings that Jesus told us. We better write
down his story for the next generation - and by the way, here’s a letter that
we just received from Paul that is going around. And notice how this story
about Jesus feeding 5000 people is like this story in the Book of Kings when
Elisha the prophet fed the people with 20 barley loaves - as we heard in
today’s first reading.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “I Remember ____ Fill In The
Blank.”
We’re here at Mass this Sunday to “Do this in memory of
me” - Christ.
We come here because we are like this crowd in today’s
gospel. We are hungry. We are thirsty for this table and any table that can
bring us together.
Let me fill in that blank after that I remember in my
title this way.
“I remember Sundays in my childhood when we went to
Sunday Mass and came home and my dad made us grey cooked cereal that was
sometimes lumpy and demanded lots of sugar and then we all went to Bliss park -
us 4 kids and him - and mom got a break from us - and we came home had a Sunday
dinner together - all around the table
and then we went up to the drugstore on 4th avenue and got a gallon
of Breyer’s Ice Cream - and all was good and all was wonderful….
July 26, 2015
HURTING
Some hurts hide deep in the bottom
of the human heart. Some haven’t
had enough time to sink down there yet.
They are still too close to our face muscles,
too close to our tears and fears - so one stays busy or hides - or wears dark sunglasses - lest these recent hurts provoke those who know us to ask, “What’s going on in there? Are you okay?”
