WHAT’S  GOING  ON 

IN YOUR HEART?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Friday in Lent and St. Patrick’s Day is, “What’s Going On In Your Heart?”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings triggered that question for me.

They are not St. Patrick’s Day readings - but readings for this Friday in the 2^nd week of Lent. However, they trigger some St. Patrick’s Day thoughts in me. How about you?

What’s going on in your heart?

What’s going on in my mind - which is connected to my heart - which is connected to my whole body?

While preparing this homily, I took a 12 inch ruler out of top desk drawer. I put one end to my head and the other end to my heart. They are less than 12 inches from each other.  When I hear something with my ears and I see something with my eyes and I process what I’m sensing with my mind, if it’s a horror story on the news or I’m seeing a car accident on the street or a house on fire, I grab my heart and say, “Oh my God.”

Eyes, ears, mind, heart. they are all interconnected.

When tense,  we clinch our fists and our jaws a bit more. We feel it in our back side when someone is a PITA. That’s exactly what that phrase means. Some people are a pain in the A. I know I have been described that way at times. How about you? We feel stress in our bodies when we feel stress in our souls. Relax! It happens to the other person as well.

So what’s going on in our hearts today - St. Patrick’s Day - March 17, 2017?  I don’t know about you, but let’s be honest, there is more stress going on in our country  - say right now compared to 6 months ago.

RED ENERGY

Today’s readings have a lot of red energy going on.

In today’s gospel there is a lot of red blood shed in the vineyard.

Jesus, the dreamer, is talking about his future.

In the first reading Joseph’s brothers want to kill him. He is their father’s favorite - the dreamer - the one who got the coat of many colors.

Dreamers - sometimes get killed - or criticized - or ostracized.

Luckily his brother Reuben saved him. Instead of killing him, Reuben sandwiched into his words a plan that he came up with. Let’s throw him into this well here in the wilderness.

Reuben figured he could double back and save his brother. They took off Joseph’s coat and tossed him in the well.

Surprise! Just then they spotted some  Midianite merchants  heading to Egypt - so they sold Joseph off to them for 20 pieces of silver.

By the time Jesus comes along they sold him for 30 pieces of silver.

The price of living and dying had gone up and these stories and these details are in here in the Bible  for a reason.

Reasonable people come up with reasons on why things happened long after they happen.

The brothers slaughter a goat. They take the blood and spread it on Joseph’s coat and they tell his dad, Jacob, that a wild animal must have killed Joseph.

And that’s how Joseph got to Egypt - which in the long run - becomes big time in Israel’s history and mystery.

THE COW THAT DIED

Recently my sister Mary told me a family story.

Our people come from Galway, Ireland - better Ballynahown, Ireland, County Galway, right on Galway Bay.

It’s the land of rocks - lots of rocks - and lots of cows.

In winter some of the cows took a boat over to the Aran Islands - especially Inis More - because it was warmer in winter.

Well a cow died.

An uncle was told in the spring when he came to pick up his cows that one cow of his had died.

He knew it was a lie - an alternative fact - because there was his cow - standing there mooing when he went over by boat to pick up his cows in the spring.

He told the cow sitter, “That’s my cow!”

“No, that’s my cow. Your cow died.”

Then the cow came over to his owner - who said, “See!”

He didn’t win the case or the story so he came to America.

How did your people get to America and why?

I remember hearing a story about a Jewish family in the deep south - I think it was Tennessee.  When asked why they settled there - in some small town in the middle of nowhere, the Jewish guy said, “The horse died.”

How did you get to where you got and why?

America is the country of stories - how people came here like Joseph - getting to Egypt - and in time new stories happened.

There are an estimated 50,000 illegal Irish immigrants in the United States.

My cousin married a construction worker in New York City - someone who was a teacher in Ireland - and  illegal at the time of their marriage - which I did.

How did your people get here and why?

Today’s New York Times - with lots of Irish stuff - like all papers today - talks a bit about how so many Irish got here to the United States - and we could add Australia, South America, Canada and so many other places.

Fintan O’Toole of the Irish Times has an article in the New York Times today entitled, “Green Beer and Rank Hypocrisy.”

He begins with this question: “Does green beer taste better laced with hypocrisy? Does shamrock smell sweeter perfumed with historical amnesia?”

The title of my homily is, “What’s Going On In my Heart Today?”

It’s right there!

My heart is worried about all the illegal immigrants in the United States. I don’t want them rounded up and deported.

Here’s a comment from that article: “The Irish are at least as fond as anyone else of being told how great they are, but as an Irish person, I find this more than a little disconcerting. It is like having your chastity praised by a brothel keeper, or your temperance and thrift eulogized by a drunken sailor. The whole thing would be funny if it did not raise the most uncomfortable question: Is it right to applaud the legacy of mass immigration from Ireland because the Irish are white and Christian?”

My parents came to America for jobs. They came here because of poverty. I heard my mother say many, many times, “Ireland has nothing.”

When I finally saw where we came from I agreed and said out loud to my dead parents, “Thank you mom. Thank you dad.”

And this was in 1995 when Ireland was doing well. Where we came from was not so well.

Recently my sister sent me two pages from the late 1800’s records from two churches - with references to grandparents. I asked what the X was and my sister said, “Hello. You didn’t know our parents and their parents couldn’t write?”

We have come a long way baby.

Well that New York Times article by Fintan O’Toole talks all about all these people who have come legally and illegally to America for a new life - for something.

So I would challenge you with the gospel - with the words of Jesus - who didn’t get into the Inn Place to be born. I challenge myself and all of us to take a look what’s in our mind, in our heart about all this.

What’s in my mind? I see these folks with Irish last names  - who want to deport people. I wonder: “Do we know our roots - and when are we going to start rooting for this new generation of Americans?”

Don’t we know history? Don’t we know one of the most common charges against  the Irish in the 19th century was “in the words of one Yankee, ‘Irishmen fresh from the bogs of Ireland’ were led to the polling booths ‘like dumb brutes’ to “’vote down intelligent, honest native citizens.’”

We’ve come a long way. Lots of immigrants  - legal and illegal - have made America great again and again and again.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “What’s going on in your heart today?” 

What’s in your mind today?

The mind and the heart are less than 12 inches from our mouths.

A good message could be: Think before we speak.

I’ve been thinking about this stuff for quite some time now. It’s past November so I can say some of these things - without being criticized as making this pulpit a bully pulpit - trying to get votes for a candidate.

Time helps one move from red to another color  - today green - the color of peace and serenity and grass with roots in the common brown earth we all come from. Our skins are our coat of many colors.

Dreamers keep this dream alive.

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Cartoon on top:1850 cartoon mocking poor Irish immigrating to America.