The title of my homily for December 20th is, “On Being the Favorite.”
I don’t know about you, but I love to ask parents who
their favorite child is.
Most of the time parents respond that they don’t have a favorite.
Others nuance their answer by saying, “It all depends. I
like this about this one and that about that one. So it all depends.”
And sometimes a parent says they have a favorite.
I never had problems with someone being the favorite,
because I had favorite teachers and favorite priests I’ve been stationed with.
And sometimes I add something people don’t like to
report: there are some folks who are not my favorites.
WHY I’M
BRINGING THIS UP?
I’m bringing this up because this is a way of translating
Luke 1: 28 - which is part of today’s gospel. It’s where the angel Gabriel says
to Mary, “Hail full of grace. The Lord is with you.”
Most translations say, “Greetings, most favored one.” or
“Hail , O favored one.” The King James Bible has , “Hail, thou art highly favored.
The Lord is with you.” In Greek: it’s “kecharitomene”
- favored one.
Our Catholic translation goes with the beginning of the
Hail Mary, “full of Grace….”
I’ve run into Protestants and others who don’t get the
Catholic thing about Mary. I like to
say, “Walk into any big city art museum and walk around and look at the
pictures. You’ll find out she’s the favorite of so many artists. Then I am tempted to add, “And you think Mary
is our favorite. Talk to God and you’ll find out that Mary is God’s favorite as
well.”
So when we say the Hail Mary, we’re not only saying what
the Angel Gabriel said - but we’re joining with billions of people who have praised
God for picking Mary to be his Mother. God chose Mary to bring Christ into our world - because she
is the Father’s favorite.
Moreover, God gives Mary to us and Christ gave her to us
from the cross.
Hail full of Grace, most faithful one of God.
CONCLUSION
Then the call to all of us is to be like Mary - to favor
those we’re with.
We know people who have run out of wine of life. Mary helped the couple at Cana in
Galilee when they ran out of wine. We
know people who are hurting along the way of their cross - and those who are
dying. Mary was there for all - on their
ways of the cross - and she is under our cross when we’re dying.
We pray for that in every Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother
of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
If I hear anything about Jesus it’s he noticed who was
stuck - who was touching the tassels on his cloak - those who were under the
tree of a cross.
So I assume he learned much from Mary. Hey the apple doesn’t fall too far from
the tree.
December 20, 2016
BALLPOINT PEN
It sits there quietly on my desk
and sometimes in my shirt pocket.
Without knowing it, it has a poem
or an article in it - but I’m guilty of laziness. That's my form of birth control or too many abortions.
Imagine it’s Christmas morning - and it’s the tradition
in this family to open Christmas gifts on Christmas morning.
A teenage boy sees a neat pile of gifts under the
Christmas tree with his name on them.
He opens one gift - from mom - two nice dress shirts. He
says to his mom, “Thanks.” At least it
wasn’t underwear, the gift he got from her every Christmas till 2 years ago. He
gets a game he wanted from an older brother. And then there is this small box -
the shape of a tissue box. It’s not wrapped as neat as his mom’s gifts to him -
but it’s wrapped.
He shakes it and then opens it. It’s from his dad. “Love
Dad.”
It’s 5 movies.
“Strange gift - but interesting,” he thinks. Then he says, “Thank you!” to his
dad, because they are 5 movies that he knows of. In fact he likes them.
It’s two evenings
later and he’s in the car with his dad and he asks him, “Dad, that was
an interesting Christmas gift you gave me: 5 movies. What was that all about? You got me wondering.”
His dad says, “I
was wondering what to get you for Christmas - and I spotted some DVD’s near the
TV set in the basement that you and your brother always use. So I went into a
CD movie place in the mall and checked out the movies.”
“I found one you have mentioned from time to time - then
a second - then a third - then I remembered two others - but they didn’t have
them - so I got them on line.”
“Wow,” he says. “Thanks!”
But the thanks doesn’t stop there. He begins thinking
about all this during the rest of the month - and he gets a glimpse that his
dad really is aware of him - thinks of
him from time to time - and is listening.
What that teenage boy doesn’t know is that 20 years from
now - he’ll be giving his father’s eulogy - at his funeral - and he’ll make
reference to that Christmas 20 years ago when his dad gave him 5 movies as a
Christmas gift.
More…. There’s more. He wonders what his dad’s 5 favorite
movies are - along with his mom - and along with his two sisters and his
brother.
More…. He starts talking more with his dad as well as the
family - all because of that gift from his dad that Christmas.
More…. He pushes to make it a practice once a month - to
have movie night as a family - and it brings their family together even more.
The title of my homily is, “5 Movies.”
MY FIVE
As I thought about all this, I started wondering what my
favorite 5 movies are. I jotted down about 10 and then started cutting out
5. Difficult.
So here are 5 favorite movies. The list is not chiseled into stone.
But here are 5 with something I got out of each.
THE BOURNE
IDENTITY
I like the Bourne movies. The first was The Bourne Identity [2002]
Jason Bourne is found floating in the water off Marseille,
France by Italian fishermen. He’s rescued by some fishermen - but surprise, he
doesn’t know who he is. He doesn’t know his identity.
He spots a gal with an old car - and she’s his ticket to
Paris - so he asks her to drive him for a price. She goes for it.
On the road to Paris, they stop into a road restaurant -
like the one’s on Route 95. He says to Marie Kreutz - the gal - “I don’t know
who I am, but why do I know where there might be a rifle in here - underneath
that counter over there.
He continues and asks why do I know who might be a police
officer - that guy over there - and who’s right handed and who’s left handed.
“Why do I know what I know?”
For some reason that’s a great question.
It’s a good idea to pause every once and a while and ask,
“Why do I know what I know?”
And hopefully that will lead to great gratitude towards our parents or some
teacher or some significant person in our lives - who taught us key life
lessons.
Ask why a movie grabs us.
Figure out scenes and situations in favorite movies that impact our
lives.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
The second movie that grabbed me was Doctor Zhivago [1965].
It taught me how much in life is out of our control.
We have it easy in the good old U.S.A. Doctor Zhivago has his life all planned out,
but in the meanwhile a war, a revolution [the Russian Revolution] breaks out and he is grabbed and his whole
life falls apart.
Weather, divorces, deaths, sickness, loss of a job, new
teachers, new principals, coaches, etc.
etc. etc. can change our lives - and we find ourselves out of control.
So Doctor Zhivago puts us in another person’s living
room.
LAWRENCE OF
ARABIA
The next movie that I would list is Lawrence of Arabia [1962].
He thinks outside the box. He thinks the different. He’s
the one who said when the European powers were drawing the lines for mid-east -
you don’t know what you are doing. You have to go tribal - not your way. Well,
look at what happened? We’re dealing with those mistakes to this day.
In the movie, Lawrence decides to attack Aqaba by going
across the desert. All the guns are pointed out to sea - and all the trench
works and forts leading to this Red Sea port are there for attacks from the
water. There is no protection from the desert - and so that’s how Lawrence
moves on Aqaba.
That seeing what nobody else was seeing - that planning
from another point of view. Isn’t that what our world needs?
There is another scene that I remember. While crossing
the desert to attack Aqaba a guy
falls off his camel and is lost in the desert. Lawrence overhears this and
mounts his camel to go in search of the guy. Someone says, “It is written in
the book you can’t do that.”
Lawrence basically says, “Watch me!” He then goes out and rescues this guy.
I hear people all the time who think that God has written
the plan, the script of their life and they have to follow that plan.
I like people who laugh at life and hear God laughing at
life as that person writes their own script as their life unfolds - and they
work to make their life go the best ways they can make it work
GROUND HOG DAY
I’ll list Groundhog
Day [1993] as my fourth movie. Bill Murray plays the part of a TV
weatherman, Phil Conners. In the movie he gets to do Groundhog Day over and
over again till he gets it right.
There are various messages from this movie, but the basic
clear message I get is that every day we get a chance to do it all over again -
and to make it a morning prayer to say: “Lord, thank you for one more
opportunity to get it right.”
The next message I get is that we do make mistakes -
definitely - so a key message is: “Lord, help to learn from my mistakes.”
Name the mistake. Name the learning from that mistake.
The third message I get from that movie is this. Sometimes I walk into a room or someone else
walks into a room and someone attacks right away with a “wrong word”. When I hear that - sometimes - not often -
but sometimes, because of the movie Groundhog Day, I get up and walk out of the
room and then come back again and say, “Now let’s try that entrance once more -
but this time with nice!”
IT’S A
WONDERFUL LIFE
And lastly, I better include the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life.
It’s the wonderful movie
- released on December 25th, 1946.
I’m sure Frank Capra - never thought his movie would be
seen every Christmas ever since.
It’s on TV every Christmas season at least 2 dozen times.
It has so many lessons for so many people.
A key message for me is to realize that what I do has
consequences - like the domino effect.
A priest walked into a classroom when I was in grammar
school - asked, “Who here would like to
be a priest?” so I raised my hand and became a priest.
I wonder: if he didn’t become a priest, would my life be
different - because he never would have walked into that classroom? Would I
have become a priest? If he didn’t walk into that classroom, would my life have
been different?
In the movie, It’s
a Wonderful Life, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, finds out all
that would never have happened if he never existed - especially in Bedford
Falls.
My comments this morning have lifetime consequences. You might
go home and be nicer to your dad - who then is nicer to your mom - and both of
them go out for supper and start talking to the waitress - who was having a bad
day - and their words prevented that woman from planning to kill herself or
what have you.
Hey, you never know.
It’s a wonderful life.
December 19, 2016
WHEN….
When your regrets outweigh your begets,
then get moving, get creative, get going.
When your forgets, outweigh your remembrances,
then you have too many irons in the fire or you’re
The title of my homily for this 4th Sunday of
Advent [A] is, “Asking for a Sign.”
It comes from the first sentence in today’s first reading
from Isaiah 7, “The Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying: ‘Ask for a sign from the Lord,
your God….’
As soon as I read that I said to myself, “Hey, everyone does that.”
Everyone wants signs from God.
FOR EXAMPLE
For example, someone is sick so they ask God for a
healing. And then we start looking for signs that we or a love one is getting
better.
For example, a kid has stopped going to church. Christmas
is coming. We want to hear them say something like, “We’re going to the
Christmas eve Mass and we hope there is parking.”
For example, we know a family marriage is shaky and we’re
listening for a brother or sister or one of our kids to give off a sign that
things are better.
TO BE HUMAN
So to be human is to look for signs.
We look for the handshake. We look for the other’s eye in an
interaction, to see if they will look us in the eye. We had a fight the last time we were with
them and we hope things are now better.
We listen to sound tones - in phone calls - to see if
forgiveness might be coming or has already happened.
We get new neighbors.
We look for signs about what kind of neighbors they might be.
We get a new boss.
We’re watching. We waiting. We’re wondering. We’re hoping. We’re trying
to figure what they might be off on.
I hold that we have unwritten lists of what to look for
in a good doctor, plumber, mechanic, restaurant, teacher, book, priest, TV
program, barber or hair dresser.
We have our signs - our leading indicators.
We sing the old song inwardly, “Don’t talk about love.
Show me!”
To be human is to look for signs.
THE OLD
TESTAMENT
In the book of Exodus, the pharaoh is given 10 signs, 10
horrors, 10 tragedies, before he’ll let the Israelites go. He doesn’t believe
in Moses’ message from God.
Divorces, splits or break ups, don’t happen after 1
mistake. There is always the 10 plagues or 10 disasters before someone sees the
light.
THE FOUR
GOSPELS
If we read the gospels, we see this question about
looking for signs happening from time to time.
People nag Jesus for a sign to prove he has the right to
say what he is saying and to do what he is doing.
Sometimes he gives signs; sometimes he doesn’t.
He challenges people’s faith - that it’s all based on
signs and wonders - and not on faith - faith is better.
Jesus tells us to read the signs of the times.
In the gospel of John we notice a dynamic happening: This
is the first of his signs. It happened at a wedding in Cana of Galilee where
Jesus changed water into wine. We can follow that thread - that pattern - to
see all 7 of Jesus’ miracles: the 7th being the resurrection.
Last Sunday we had the scene in the gospel when John the
Baptist - in prison - sent some of his disciples to ask if Jesus is the
One. And Jesus tells them to tell John
the Baptist what they see: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, people with leprosy are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raise, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.”
Today’s gospel gives us one of the birth of Jesus stories
in the gospels.
Joseph believes the dream he has and takes Mary into his
home.
Christmas - the Christmas story - the Christmas sign - is
one of the two great signs of Christianity - of our faith.
The sign of the baby and the sign of the cross are
central to our faith.
They touch the beginning and the end: birth and death.
We just had our Parish Mission and on the last night
Father Kevin MacDonald asked folks to bring to church a faith or a love sign
from their home. He and Deacon Leroy went through the church on Thursday night
and blessed those signs. Right behind me a lady had a cross and right next to
her a lady had a painted nativity scene.
St. Francis of Assisi stressed the crib and the cross as
two great signs.
St. Alphonsus stress the big 3 signs: the crib, the cross
and the tabernacle.
If you are looking for signs - meditate on the two great
signs - one at the end of Advent - and the manger will be put up this coming
week and we’ll venerate the cross on Good Friday.
And isn’t the Eucharist the great faith sign of Catholic
Christians?
And we do, but we shouldn’t, make fun of C and E
Catholics.
This Christmas put on your fancy winter coats - but also
a rich smile, so that those who come to Mass - get a glimpse of great Christmas
joy. Amen.
