“I trust everyone. It’s the devil inside them I don’t trust.”
John Bridger in the 2003
version of the movie,
The Italian Job.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
March 20, 2019
THE CHALICE
INTRODUCTION The title of my homily and thoughts for this 2nd Wednesday in Lent is, "The Chalice." PROPS [Holding a chalice] As you know Father Tizio and now Father Luyen Dau like to use props to help their sermons be more clear. A prop is something visible - to help us to see the invisible. So here is a golden chalice. What do you see when you see a chalice? What do you see when a best man and a maid of honor or the father or mother of the bride or bridegroom hold up a glass chalice or goblet at a wedding or any occasion and they toast someone? They are trying to make the invisible - their inner hopes for the future - visible. A STORY [Holding a chalice] I was once giving a retreat to some priests - perhaps in Richmond, Virginia. For a evening prayer I held a gold chalice like this one in my hand and said, "Here is a chalice. We see the outside of the cup, but we can't see what's inside." Inside of each of us is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Inside of us is our story. Our life. Our inner stuff.
I suggest you sit here in this chapel after this night prayer is over. Just sit here and look into the chalice called you - and see everything. See the mistakes and the moments of ecstasy. See everything. Then when you have some time this evening go up the chalice on the altar and stand where you stand for Mass and the consecration. Lift up the chalice. Look into the cup - then offer your whole life up to God Our Father with Christ. Well I did that and left the priests in that chapel to do what they wanted to do next. I went to bed. Around 1 PM I heard a knock on my door that woke me up. It was one of the priests on the retreat. For the next hour and a half - he told me what was in his chalice - in his life - and how profound a moment it was this evening when he lifted up his chalice - and lifted his life - the Good. the Bad and the Ugly. WHAT'S IN YOUR WALLET? CHALICE? We all know the Capital One slogan? What's in your wallet?
In today's gospel from Matthew 20: 17-28 -we have the story about what was in the chalice of the mother of the two sons of Zebedee. She wanted her boys to be # 1 and # 2 in Jesus' Kingdom. Can you hear those boys saying, "Mom!" We can hear the anger in the other disciple's chalices/ Jesus says to them, "Can you drink of my chalice?" They boldly answer, "We can!" Then Jesus tells them what's going to be in their chalices and what ought to be in them: service. And there also will be blood. CONCLUSION One more prop. Whenever I do baptisms here or at St. John Neumann I ask the mom and dad to take their baby and stand as priest at the altar. I have had well over 1000 babies on this altar. I ask them to put their hand on their baby and to say after me, holding - the chalice of their child. "This is my body. This is my blood. We're giving our life to you. I conclude: "This is the sacrifice of the Mass."
March 20, 2019
EDGES
Standing at the edge of rooms,
and the backs of churches,
sort of nervous at Your margins,
Oh God - not willing to sit down yet
and say, “Amen!” to You as Word,
hesitant to take and taste You, the
bread and the wine - to chew on, to
digest Your calls to be in communion with You. Not sure yet …. Not sure yet …. but I'm noticing You edging closer and closer ….
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph. We see statues
of him on pedestals— or pictures of him on walls - in churches and homes and on
memorial cards. We see images of him with the tools of his trade in his
hand—Joseph the Carpenter—or with a flower, a symbol of his purity—as husband
of Mary - or holding the Christ child or teaching him a trade.
QUESTION—WONDERING
When it comes to saints, I often wonder why it is or what it
is that makes this particular saint, this particular person stand out from the
rest of people. To stand out enough to be put up on a pedestal!
What is the energy! What part of us does the life of this
saint touch that we want to accentuate!
That’s what hits me about saints. Or in other words, “Patron
Saint of What?” and “Why?”
ST. JOSEPH
We know so little about St. Joseph. Yet the name “Joseph”, “Saint Joseph” hits
certain cords in people’s hearts.
What is it?
What is it about St.
Joseph?
What is it that makes him a big name among the Italians—a
Jewish boy—famous among the Italians. Giuseppe! Today is a big feast day. There
are lots of pastry and special ones just for this day.
What is that makes him a special saint among the Poles?
What is it that makes him so popular that so many orders of
religious women chose to be named after him: “Sisters of St. Joseph!”
Today, this has lessened, with less kids being named Joseph.
But still, what about Joseph? Why Joseph? Why the fame? What
myth, archetype does he touch? What does he touch in our life that makes him
famous?
OTHER JOSEPH’S
In the scriptures we know more about Joseph of Arimathea
than about Joseph of Nazareth. We know even more about Joseph of the OT. So
what is it about St. Joseph
that makes him so popular?
ANSWER
I think the answer is the reality that 99 % of the people on
our planet are what we call: THE NECESSARY PEOPLE BEHIND THE SCENES OF LIFE.
That is the universal vocation of all: to keep all moving—to
keep life going—to keep the planet going.
And I think Joseph is the patron saint of the anonymous
people—all those people behind the scenes—while the main characters and actors
on stage get the credit.
EXAMPLES
Take our everyday life.
Somebody puts the bread out and cereal out and someone fills
the juice machine. We only know those things exist till they are missing and we
have to go to the back box to get milk or the big plastic racks for bread. We
only know the juice needs replenishing when its light is blinking.
Today’s papers. Who are the people who put the paper on the print
presses? Who are the copy people? Who drives the newspapers to small and big
stores,so the store has them at 7:00 or
8:00 AM?
Who drives the bus? Who are the truck drivers?
Who does the dishes in the diner or the restaurant? Who put
the cable down or cable up for our telephones or TV?
We watch the evening news and there is anchor woman or man. We don’t see the camera crew. We don’t see the
people who drove Martha Raditzto
Capital Hill and set everything up. Their name might be at the end of the news
in small print, but we don’t stop to see it.
ST. JOSEPH
So I see St. Joseph
as the example, the model, the archetype, of the person behind the scenes.
He represents Parents, Teachers.Doctors, Truck Drivers, etc.
And what about telephone operators and air traffic
controllers. What about FDA researchers who look at drugs. And what about those
who put the weather together?
We only see the stars.
We really don’t see the dad after he walks his daughter down
the aisle.
THE ENERGY
That’s where I see the energy when it comes to St. Joseph. We need a bit
of encouragement every once and a while and on the feast of St. Joseph, the message is that everyone
counts. Everyone is needed. We are the little people on the planet, but every
little one counts. Today we celebrate Joseph. One of ours has made it. _____________________________________ Picture on top: Holding Heaven - Dicianne
Monday, March 18, 2019
March18, 2019
Thought for today:
“Waiting sometimes is the only thing left to do.You learn to wait, or your forfeit the lesson you were supposed to learn.”
The title of my homily for today -this 2nd Monday of Lent - is, “ThreeThoughts About Judging.”
Today’s gospel - Luke 6: 36- 38 - addresses the issue
about judging - which many people - judge themselves guilty about on a regular
basis.
Like everyone, I have often thought about this issue
about judging others.So let me give 3
thoughts about judging in this homily.
FIRST THOUGHT: SAY, “I’M WRONG.”
The first thought is to say to oneself, when one makes a
judgment about another,“I’m wrong.”
Everyone thinks differently. Even identical twins. Our
experiences effect our thinking - so our motives for doing what we do, comes
from our experience with why we say what we say, why we think what we think,
and why we do what we do.
1 million things, inner conversations, outer experiences,
are all different in every human being - so how can we think alike?
We get angry or we inwardly say when another judges our
motives, “Wait a minute. You don’t know why I just said or did what I just did, so stop judging me from your
motives.They are your projections - not
mine.”
Golden rule: We don’t like it when others judge us, so
stop judging.
I’m wrong every time - because motivation is multi-layered,
multi-reasons, multi-backgrounded.
Wait a minute! Get your hands ona memory when you judged someone and you
found out you were dead wrong. Say to yourself, “Remember that experience, that
last time youjudged and wow was I so
wrong.”
Here’s an experience: Someone is sitting there and they
see a boy turn around and look back at a girl - 3 rows behind. He keeps doing
it.Surprise we find out that he’s not
looking at her, but he’s turning to check the clock just over her head on the
back wall. He wants out of there because he has to go to the bathroom. She
thinks he’s looking at her. We think he’s checking her out. Nope.
2) THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JUDGMENT AND
PERCEPTION AND SECOND JUDGMENT.
Second message: some people are big on perceiving; some
people are big on judging.
It’s not’s virtuous.People are often just one way more than the other.
A person walks into a store or a church or a room and
says, “This room is stupid, the way it looks or is laid out.”
Another person walks into a store or a church or a room
and says, “Interesting, the way the pretzels are right across from the Coca
Cola.” Or, “Interesting the way the benches are.”
I score high on perception. Others score high on judgment
on Judgment-Perception Surveys or Self-Tests.
It’s the next step where judgment takes place - after we
understand our first reaction.
Some people automatically make a judgement. There is no
sin involved.Some people automatically
make a perception. There is no virtue involved.
3) GO FOR BIG COMPASSION
My third point comes from today’s 2 readings - especially
the Gospel.
Jesus says have great compassion and mercy in judging
others.
Jesus says that the measure we measure with comes back at
us.
If we’re stingy with compassion and understanding, yuck. There’s a better way
to be.
I love the joke about the one armed fisherman or a one
armed golfer.
Did you hear about the one armed fisherman? He caught a
fish this big.
Did you hear about the one armed golfer. He missed the
putt by this much.
In both cases I’m putting one arm out.
Well, with regards judging someone, miss by this much.
Hold out one arm.
Enough.
How are you judging my homily? Sorry, I had a crazy morning - and didn't get enough time to do this better.
Sunday, March 17, 2019
TRANSFIGURATION
MOMENTS AND PLACES
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Transfiguration Moments and
Places.”
I like these 2nd
Sunday in Lent readings: the transfiguration scene. We hear 3 versions of it:
Mark last year, Luke this year, and Matthew next year.
For this homily I would simply ask you to do what I’m
about to do: go through your life and pick transfiguration moments and places
that transfigured you - changed you - stunned and stopped you.
I’ll give you a list of some of the places and moments I
picked - so that you might do the same.
They could be an early morning moment at Rehoboth beach
when you got up all alone and walked down to the water to watch the sunrise -
or a night time moment- when you
stopped to look up at the sky like Abram did in today’s first reading and you
counted the stars - and there you were with God.
Here are 7 places I picked. What are your 7 or 10 great
moments - or places - where God was transfigured before you - and you saw the
light - and you said in prayer, “God it is good that I am here.”
#1- MOUNT OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
The first would be the day we took a bus up to the Mount
of Transfiguration place in Israel. It might be the place. It might not be the
place. But it was a place there or near there that got the tradition: “It was
here that Jesus experienced a transfiguration moment.”
We went by bus - 24 priests with aFranciscan, Father Stephen Doyle leading us -
up the mount of the transfiguration. The bus was easier than doing it on foot.
We had Mass in the church up on top.Stephen read the gospel story of the
Transfiguration and then after Mass he gave us an hour of silence.
For the hour of quiet prayer, I went up
the roof of anotherbuilding up there. I
was all by myself in the quiet - seeing the Golan Heights in the distance and
the green pasture lands down below.
A guy had asked me when he heard I was going to Israel,
“How do the sheep get fed? Whenever I
see Israel on TV, it’s desert and dryness. Well when I got back I told this
guy, “In the north there is plenty of green pastures and sheep and goats.
After the hour of quiet we had a lunch at a Franciscan
monastery up on top as well.It was a
spaghetti dinner.
Lord, itwas good
to have been here.The bread was good as
well….
# 2 - ZION NATIONAL PARK
The next place I would pick is Zion National Park in
Southern Utah. I never knew it existed till I went there.
If you ever get a chance to see National Parks in the
southwest - make sure you include Zion National Park. If you get to the Grand
Canyon, you’re in striking distance of Zion.Wow. Well worth it.
I was with another priest, Tom, whom I worked with for 8 ½
years before I came to Annapolis. I was preaching in Tucson - and he flew out
when I finished and we had a great 2 week vacation.Zion was the best.
Lord, itwas good
to have been here.
#3-LAKE
OF SOLITUDE
The next place would be Lake of Solitude in the
Rockies.4 of us were backpacking - and
were headed for a place called Black
Lake.Well, we met these 3 guys from
Boston who were also backpacking. They asked us where we were headed and we
said, “Black Lake.”They said they were
there - but much better was Lake of Solitude.They gave us directions and we had maps - and we changed our plans.
We made it. Sure enough. it was like a church without a
ceiling - and the sanctuary was a pool of water - holding the blue sky and some
clouds. that flowed into a small lake - listed as the Lake of Solitude. We
immediately started saying an Our Father.
Lord, itwas good
to have been here.
# 4CHARTRES CATHEDRAL
I always wanted to go to Chartres Cathedral - not that far a
distance from Paris - and it was all I hoped for.
A Malcom Miller gave the tour - 2 hours in the morning -
2 hours in the afternoon - and we came back the next morning - for another 2
hours. He would explain 2 stained glass windows at a time - and some other
aspects of medieval cathedrals.
Lord, itwas good
to have been here.
Chartres was Lourdes and Fatima - a great Marian Shrine -
long before Lourdes and Fatima - and people from all over Europe made
pilgrimages to there.
# 5 THIS CHURCH
Next I would add this church. It’s been here since 1858.
Sense all the prayers still moving around this sacred
place.
Think of all the tears shed in this sacred space.
I mention this church to trigger the thought: What have
been the sacred places and spaces - the churches of your lifetime.
Where is your spot in this church?
Do you have a favorite bench?
Is it up here where babies are baptized or right there
where couples make their vows.
Is it a confessional - or a place where you went to a
special communion - maybe having dropped out for a while.
Let me point out two spots in this church - that have
deep lingering feelings for me.
A woman died right there - after a wedding - when they
were taking pictures. [Point]
I had a funeral for a 3 day old baby. Her remains were on
a small table - right there [Point]
Lord, sometimes it’s sad to be here. Lord sometimes we’re
glad to be here. Lord sometimes we need you.
# 6 MOM AND DAD’S
BURIAL VAULT
Next - and this is true for so many people - there is the
place where our loved ones are buried.
Where are you cemeteries?
My mom and dad are buried on the 4th floor of
an enormous building - a mausoleum at St. John’s Cemetery in Queens, NY.
It’s neat. It’s clean. It has piped in music. It has
marble seats. It’s a sacred place.
I was looking this up today on line and Google said that
Lucky Luciano, John Gotti, Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese are buried in this
same cemetery.Fine Irish men to mention
on a day like today.
Lord, itwas good
to have been here.
# 7 IRELAND - FIRST
TIME.
And my last place would be a moment when our plane came
towards the coast of Ireland. I had a great window seat. I could see the coast
as we headed for Shannon Air Port. I could see the green. And a thrill came over
me. I’m about to see for the first time, the place where my mom and dad are
from.
The green was beautiful that bright morning.
Lord it is good to be here.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homilywas “Transfiguration Moments and Places.”
I just mentioned 7 places that are sacred - and I ask you
to name 5 or 7 of yours.
