IS  THIS PARABLE 

MEANT  FOR  ME? 

INTRODUCTION 

The title of my homily for this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time  [C] is, “Is This Parable Meant for Me?”

It’s the question Peter asks Jesus in today’s  Gospel.  There it is in the beginning of the 3^rd paragraph in today’s gospel in our missalette on page 199:  “Then Peter said, ‘Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”

That’s Luke 12: 41.  Luke is our Gospel for this year - and if any gospel is the gospel with the parables - it’s Luke.

So listen up when you come to church - especially this year.

So when we come to church and we stand for the gospel - or if we’re present for the readings we ought to  be asking Peter’s question: “Lord, are any of the readings for today meant for me?”

So once more that’s the title of my homily for today: “Is This Parable Meant for Me?”

That’s one of the things the preacher is trying to do: prepare this meat well for these hungry customers.

The preacher’s job is to be a good cook - a good meat preparer.

In the seminary, during the summer, I used to be on the hamburger crew. Every Wednesday evening we prepared, grilled and served over 100 hamburgers.

Years later, in our retreat house in New Jersey - where I’m about to be stationed again - I was in on the steak cooking.  We had these big baking pans each with about 25 rectangular sirloin steaks - the size of two fists.  

On the lawn, near the picnic area, we had a 55 gallon metal drum cut in half - loaded with charcoal - with a grating on top. 

Someone came up with a  secret for serving over 100 people in quick motion. Put those pans - each with about 25 steaks - in the oven to slightly  warm them up beforehand. Then bring them out just in time to these large folding tables outside.  Then when the boys were ready to eat - they would line up with plates in hand - and head for the steaks. We the cooks would toss them on the blazing charcoal fire and the customer would yell, “Raw red”, “Medium” or “Well done.”

The raw babies would be on that stove for seconds - with the blazing flame getting better and better because of the fat from the steaks. Medium and well-done would take a little longer.

Guys would yell, pointing, “I want that one. That one is meant for me.”

There it is my sermon:  “Is This Steak, Is this Parable, Meant for Me?”

QUESTIONS

In the gospels there are about 33 parables - but often counted in various other ways.

Here’s my first question for this homily: “Pause and ponder: which parable in the gospels is meant for me?” 

Is there one parable you have wrestled with all your life?  For example: The Parable of the Prodigal Son, or at times have you felt like the Lost Sheep? Am I the man in last Sunday’s parable with the barns who is about to rebuild bigger barns and the poor sucker, Jesus tells us, is about to die that night? How about the Good Samaritan?  How about the 4 types of people who hear the word of God: the hard cement heads, the shallow, the busy with lots of projects or pots on their stove, and those with great soil?

So which parable is meant for me?

There’s a whole adult-ed course there.

Get your Bible - get a spiral note pad - do your homework?  Or you can use a computer, etc.,  etc., etc.

List them. Pick your steak. Chew it. Digest it.

Let Jesus feed you as we heard he would do in today’s gospel. He said if you are a good servant, if you wait on him, he’ll come and knock on your door, sit you down and wait on you. Yep, that’s what it says in today’s gospel, in this tricky parable for today. It’s not as clear as last weeks, but it’s here for our meal this Sunday.

NEXT  QUESTION

Looking at your life, what have been the parables that grabbed you? What have been the novels, the stories, the movies that moved you? What have been the conversations that have helped convert you, change you?

Who have been the most significant people in your life - whose questions, challenges, messages, comments - or silent example have made you who you are today?

What were the scenes you were meant to see?

Once more, the title of my homily is, “Is This Parable Meant for Me?

My dad took us four kids  to the park every Sunday when we were kids to give my mother every Sunday a break. I see my brother did the same thing taking his 7 daughters to museums in Washington every Sunday to give his wife a break. I saw my nice Jeanie’s husband David doing the same thing with their 3 kids to give her a break.

That was a parable from my dad and my brother and my niece's husband.

I saw a play on Broadway once, The Price. It was an Arthur Miller, of Death of Salesman fame, play.  One brother did college. One brother dropped out and became a cop - to take care of their father. The cop on stage says to the older brother who comes back for the will and the appraisal and the question about who gets the father’s furniture. 

The cop brother says to his brother, “You want the God Almighty handshake from me after all these years and you’re not going to get it.”  

It went something like that and I’ve seen that parable, that scene,  play out in front of me many times - in various ways - through the years - especially as priest - dealing with moments around hospital beds and wakes and funerals.

That was a parable meant for me.

They are the scenes - the moments - the stories that get stuck in our memory.

Years ago I went to a Broadway matinee  with a group of staff at a retreat house where I worked - the one I’m going back to. This parable also happened years ago.

The musical, the matinee was  No, No Nanette. The plan was to get the tickets at the door. Someone had called and they were told that there were plenty of seats - because the play had been running for quite some time.

Well, we got balcony seats along the wall and all we could see was the first third of the stage - the up-front  part.  But what we could see was the orchestra pit right down below us - in front of the stage.

I noticed a violinist playing away in the beginning and all through the musical  reading The New York Daily News and then The New York Daily Mirror.  The papers fit perfectly on the music stand.

It was a parable.

Someone was doing their job mechanically. What I got out of it was this. A priest can do mass - homilies - weddings, funerals, baptisms mechanically like that guy reading the paper while he played - or a priest can be into the music - into the prayers and the words and the ceremony completely every time - at least like the other musicians.

I was judging - but it was a parable and I heard it - so I have never, ever, ever, in the middle of a homily looked at my watch.

I try to do personal.

CONCLUSION

So that’s my homily.

The title was: “Is This Parable Meant for Me?”

And then after that main question I asked two specific  questions:

First Question: “Pause and ponder: which parable in the gospels is meant for me?” 

Second Question: “What have been the moments, the movies, the plays, the  incidents, the people doing or saying something that changed my life?”

Amen.

___________________________________________________________

P.S. I'm assuming this is my last homily at St. Mary's.

I'm also assuming that I am going to keep this blog going. I started it on June 17th, 2007 - with the help of Norm Constantine from our St. Mary's High School. He encouraged me and  set it up.

This piece is Number # 6755.

I'll be on the Atlantic Ocean in Long Branch. New Jersey at our retreat house: San Alfonso Retreat House. I'm tempted to rename it: Reflections by the Waters, but I'll stick, Reflections by the Bay.

Here's a picture of some of us Redemptorists at San Alfonso Retreat House at a recent meeting.  Like St. Mary's Annapolis, not a  bad place to be stationed.