January 20, 2019

FAIRY TALES DO HAPPEN

OPENING IMAGE: FAIRY TALES

If you read the folk tales and fairy tales of the nations, from Finland to Italy, from Russia to Spain, there is a story plot that pops up over and over again. It's this: the person you would least expect, the poor girl or the Ugly Frog, ends up marrying the prince or the princess.

For example, take the Brothers' Grimm story of Cinderella. Literally, "Cinderella" means, "the little cinder girl". She was the one who was left at home to do all the "dirty" work, while her step-sisters went out partying. Fairy tales do happen. Surprise! Cinderella is the one whom the prince falls in love with and wants to marry.

However, before happy endings happen in these stories, there is always some kind of conflict or trickery. The story teller introduces a series of problems that have to be overcome in order for the happy ending to happen. The king or queen or someone screams when they hear the news: "The prince certainly doesn't want to marry a dirty little nobody named `Cinderella'".

Then one by one the obstacles are overcome. There is a riddle to figure out or a treasure to be found. Or there is poison to avoid, arrows that just miss, or knives that sometimes wound, but don't kill.

In the end, the golden slipper fits Cinderella's foot and the marriage takes place. Or the princess discovers that  the Ugly Frog that she can't stand is actually a prince. And they live happily ever after.

HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS

In today's first reading, Israel, the least of all the nations, a place called, "Desolate" and "Forsaken" by so many, is chosen by God for his bride. It is then given a new name, "My Delight." It is no longer a God-forsaken place. It is now  "Espoused" to the Lord. Isaiah 62 develops here the theme of Hosea. The Lord forgives Israel her adultery. He is willing to forgive and forget and  start once again. Happy endings can happen. "For the Lord delights in you, and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you."

In today's gospel, a newly married couple run out of wine at their wedding feast. Surprise! The Creator of the World, the Lord of the Harvest, changes water into wine. And the celebration accelerates. The Lord, who in the desert refused to change rocks into bread, in the community changes water into wine. The kingdom has begun to come.

And this couple, we don't know their names, end up having the wedding of all weddings, the wedding of the centuries.  Hasn't their story book wedding been told and retold as a story of hope at so many other weddings ever since?

Fairy tales do happen. Water can change into wine. Disasters don't always have to happen. Happy endings can happen.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Now to be practical, using today's three readings, let me make three points.

1) No One Needs To Feel Forsaken

The message of today's first reading is quite blunt. If God doesn't give up on people, why should we ever give up on another person?

Don't count Cinderella out. Her step-sisters tried to, but she didn't count herself out. Somehow she got herself to the party and the prince on seeing her, would dance with nobody else but her. Meanwhile, in their blindness, her sisters had no idea who the beautiful girl in the arms of the prince was.

Too many kids end up as disappointments, because parents or a parent or teachers or coaches give up on them.

Too many marriages die after the honeymoon is over, when someone finds out that the other person isn't "prince charming" or a princess. Too often we stop there and don't communicate. As a result, we don't discover the rich gift that the other person is. Maybe this ugly frog really is a prince.

Fairy tales do happen. Don't count out the person we consider the "poor slob". Don't count out any person or for that matter any country or company or family or community or city.

Unfortunately, we do. We write people off all the time - especially the people we make no effort to get to know or understand. We don't believe that fairy tales can happen.

The message of today's first reading is: Don't ever call a person or a place or a city, "Forsaken" or "Desolate."

Conversions happen. Marriages turn around and blossom. Kids surprise us. Addicts recover. Abuse can stop. Budgets can be straightened out.

Haven't persons and places been known to make great turnarounds? Bill W., the person who started AA was written off by many people. He changed and millions of people in 12 step programs have also changed as a result of his change. Or take Lake Erie. Lots of fish and lots of people gave up on it. However, if you look at it today, you'll see lots of people swimming and fishing in it once again. Or take  downtown Cleveland and a host of other cities that are recovering. We saw the Berlin Wall come down,  didn't we? 

People of hope can hope that South Africa, Palestine, Appalachia and a lot of other places, as well as many United States cities can recover and get their act together.

2) Cooperation and Teamwork are the secret.

Today's second reading gives us the secret of how dreams become reality, how miracles can happen, how water can change to wine. It's through cooperation and teamwork. It's when individuals pull together and each person does their part.

Paul tells us that each person has their particular gift, their unique manifestation of the Spirit. Yet, there is one Spirit, one Lord.

So far so good. So where do our problems in parishes and organizations come from? Don't our nightmares happen when everyone is out for oneself, when jealousy is sitting in too many seats, when the group is pulling in 100 different directions? Pull too many ways at once and the body ruptures.

Cinderella's step-mother and her two step-sisters had a fit when the prince chose Cinderella. Her sisters, instead of being happy, were blinded by jealously. And in one version of the story, they actually went blind. Because of their jealousy, their was no happy ending for them.

Paul discovered in the Church at Corinth, what all of us have seen in so many parishes, choirs, and organizations. Problems arise, happy endings don't happen, when we use our different gifts, our different ministries, our different manifestations of the Spirit, in attempts to try to  top one another in so many unannounced talent contests. Our gifts are not for competition, but for the common good.

3) We Run Out of Energy.

Because of self-interest or too many outside interests, we can lose interest in the relationships and groups that we belong to. They can become uninteresting. Or as we go through life, we often lose interest in the familiar. We love the new model and grow weary with the old.

Marriages, communities, families, cities, all can run out of energy, life, joy and excitement. The marriage that was a bubbling, vintage wine can turn into sour vinegar. It can become water - stagnant water. There is no inebriation, no celebration left. So too our buildings and our organizations. The infrastructure of a marriage, a home, a parish, a city, a country can begin to crumble.

At that point, we need to stop, look and listen. We need to observe, judge and act. We need to make some heavy duty decision making. Isn't that also a good time to invite Jesus to the funeral that once was a wedding? Jesus, is the Lord of Resurrection and Life. He is the Lord of the Kingdom. He cries over cities, as well as individuals. He attends both weddings and funerals. "This is my beloved son. Listen to him." His hour has come.

Mary tells us in today's gospel to do whatever he tells you to do. Jesus told the waiters to fill the jars with water. Don't just stand there, do something.

It might seem simplistic, but I would assume that the solution to so many of our problems would be to follow that simple dynamic of doing whatever Jesus tells us to do.

If we pick up the Gospels, we would hear Jesus tell us to do all sorts of things that would make persons, places and situations that much better: love one another, forgive one another, listen to one another, wash feet, use your talents, build your house on rock, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give the thirsty a glass of cold water, visit the sick and those in prison, stop on the road to help the person who has been hurt, officials give an accounting of your stewardship, don't throw rocks, don't give bad example to kids, love one another as I have loved you, greater love than this has no one that they lay down their life for their friends.

CONCLUSION

We all different gifts and different ministries, but don't we all have the gift of the Spirit to do all those things that Jesus tells us to do? And if we do them, miracles will happen. Water will change into wine and we'll be surprised to discover that God wants to marry us - the Ugly Frogs or the Cinderellas of the world.