DIG,  DIG,  DIG

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Dig, Dig, Dig.”

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It’s good on January 1^st, to stand there with two calendars in hand: the one you’re taking down, 2018 - and the new one you’re about to hang up: 2019.

Unless you’re totally electronic….

Does anyone save their old calendars?

They are an archeological treasure - a historic document - especially if you use a calendar to box in appointments - celebrations - moments. They are great to have in a box somewhere - for when you hit 80 and you write your life.

I wonder if anyone digs that idea.

It’s good on January 1^st to look ahead - to look at the stars tonight - if they are visible. Last night I saw the fireworks - but mostly mist and rainy skies. It’s good to look at the stars and say, “Someday - besides those in planes up there - right now - there will be people out there in outer space.”

It’s good to look into the future on January 1^st - what will this year be like?

Surprise!

It’s good we can’t see the actual future. Woo!

It’s also good on January 1^st to look backwards - at calendars - at newspapers and news programs - that collect 2018.  What were the 10 top moments in our lives and year?

On the evening news, every night, I hope Baltimore stops the killings. I see the yellow tapes around crime scenes and over 300 people killed on the streets of Baltimore last year.

I’ll look at the papers and magazines from the last week or so - someone took the time to dig into 2018 and come up with top persons etc. etc. etc. We remember  our people from The Capital who were killed and made part of the Time Magazine persons of the year.

Past and future - looked at in the present moment of January 1^st.

Do you dig doing the digging and the dreaming - backwards and forwards, past and future, up and down?

NUMBERS 6:24-26

I like today’s first reading from Numbers 6:24-26 when we hear the Aaronite Blessing.

I like to tell a story about Gabriel Barkay in my January 1st homily. 

He was an archeologist in Israel - who loved digs.

In 1979 he was working on a dig in Jerusalem and he was with a group of diggers. They used teenagers to help - so the young people could make some money and do some digging - hoping I’m sure that some of them will be future archeologists as well.

Well there was this teenage boy - Nathan - who was a nuisance and a pest - so Gabriel put him in a place to dig where he wouldn’t be bothering anyone.

Surprise he hears a  hollow sound from under a floor in  an old Byzantine Church which they discovered under the earth.  With a hammer he breaks open a floor and finds stuff - lots of stuff: over 1000 artefacts: 125 silver items, gold items, 40 iron arrowheads, gold stuff, etc. etc. etc.

One was a silver amulet - which people might wear using a leather cord - to hang around their neck.  It had writing on it. It was rolled silver. It took them at least 3 years to  unroll it  - carefully. They used specialists from all over the world.  On this particular necklace piece was the Aaronite blessing.

May the Lord bless you and protect you.

May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.

That blessing goes back 2800 years - from around the 7th Century BC.

SUGGESTION FOR THIS YEAR - NOT A RESOLUTION

My suggestion for this year - just finished - besides saving your calendar for 2018 is this: get a ballpoint pen and start writing - but write in spiral note pads.

I have here in hand - 3 different sized spiral pads.

In any supermarket, drugstore or Staples or Office Depot you can buy these babies: spiral pads.

I have hundreds of them with information from the last 50 years at least.

My preference is the mid-sized ones - those that are 9 ½ by 6 inch.

I have one for very night.  I put today’s date on the top of the page - then the time and place where I’m writing - and then a one or two word prayer like: thanks, help, good, or great. Then I jot down a list - of one or two words - describing a moment from that day.  Then I put a circle around the event or moment that had the most energy. Then I say a quick one or two word prayer about that moment.

I also use these medium size spiral pads to write a  2 page short meditation on any theme or topic - all first draft. I am almost finished volume 11. They have about 145 reflections in them.  So that’s almost 1500 short 2 page written meditations.

I also have at least 100 of these little spiral pads and lots of these big ones.  They too include lots of information.

CONCLUSION:  WHO KNOWS?

So what am I suggesting here?

Keep a note pad.  Keep a couple of note pad. This is like keeping a journal - but this is more practical - and time centered a bit.

Write down stuff in 2019.

Who knows?

You’ll be like Mary in today’s gospel pondering things in your life and your day.

And maybe 30 years from now - you might read - you might dig, dig, dig  - something up interesting things that happened to you in this new year of life.

And my bet is that paper will outlast the stuff in the cloud or wherever this electronic data goes. Amen.