PAUSE 

OR  CHECK  YOUR  SHOE  SIZE 

BEFORE  YOU PUT YOUR FOOT 

IN YOUR MOUTH 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the first week of Ordinary Time is, “Pause Or Check Your Shoe Size  Before You Put Your Foot In Your Mouth.”

How many times do we have to misjudge someone before we stop misjudging someone?

EXAMPLES

We’re at Country Buffet and we see this big - big person - going back for seconds. And we think to ourselves, “Fatso, no wonder you’re so fat - going back and for seconds.”  Then we notice they’re not getting this round of food for themselves, but for their mom or someone in a wheelchair right next to them.

We’re sitting on the porch. It’s summer. We see someone with their dog on the other side of the street. The dog does his or her business on another person’s lawn. Then the dog walker walks away without scooping up the poop. We think, “Those are the people who make this world one selfish planet.” Five minutes later we see the dog walker coming back with a plastic bag and their super dooper pooper scooper.

So and so is in the restaurant in the booth across from us with this other woman. Wow. She’s gorgeous. We think, “Hope his wife doesn’t know about this.” Surprise his wife walks in and says “Hi sister-in-law - I got caught in traffic. There was an accident. Did you order yet?  I’m starving.”

The title of my homily is, “Pause Or Check Your Shoe Size  Before You Put Your Foot In Your Mouth.” Or: How many times do we have to misjudge someone before we stop misjudging someone?

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from the first Book of Samuel Eli judges Hanna to be drunk and says to her, “How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine.” [Cf. 1 Samuel 1:14

She says, “It isn’t that my Lord, I am an unhappy woman, I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the Lord.”

Did Eli learn from his foot in mouth moment?

In today’s gospel the crazy man in the temple knows who Jesus is - the Holy One of God! - but misreads Jesus’ motive for coming into the temple.  Yet Jesus heals him and the whole crowd is amazed. [Cf. Mark 1: 21-28]

LEARNING

So a learning for today is to pause more - before our tongue jumps words out of our mouth - to make room for our foot.

Pause: think of the first 3 letters in the word mistake - or misjudge - or misread - or misquote - or mislead - or misconnect - or misperception - or mislabel - or misinform - or  misappropriate…. Mis:  the prefix simply meaning miss. Pause - something might be missing. Sometimes we might not know the whole story. Maybe we haven’t been called to be on jury duty to judge our neighbor.

Pause: before speaking. Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe what we think we’re seeing is not what we’re seeing. Maybe what we’re spreading is rumor, gossip, whispers - and not the real story, the whole story, and we’re simply putting you know what on someone else’s lawn - and not cleaning or clearing it up.

CONCLUSION

We all know the old story about the town gossip and the man with the wheelbarrow. Every day a man walked home from his gardening job with his wheelbarrow. Every day he stopped in for a beer on his way home - and left his wheelbarrow out in front. It was a safe town.  One day - when about to leave - the rain came pouring down. A buddy said, “My car is out back. Let me drive you home and you can pick up your wheelbarrow  on the way to work in the morning.  Well, the town gossip spread the rumor that he was dead drunk on the floor of the bar - all night long. She peaked out her front window every hour on the hour.  The guy with the wheelbarrow got wind of what the town gossip had done, so that night - on his way home from work - he parked his wheelbarrow right under her window just across the street from the bar.