EXTRAS   FOR  EXTRA  HELP

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Thursday in the First Week in  Ordinary Time is, “Extras for Extra Help.”

If  there  is anything we Catholics know about -  it’s the  extras - extra prayers - extra items  - extra external  souvenirs and symbols of religion - that people add on for  help.

We know about crucifixes, medals and chains and rosaries around necks, religious magnets on refrigerator doors and 14 to 18 inch crosses on walls – and in cars tiny 2 inch crosses and St. Christopher medals – which are still being sold.

Go through any Catholic home for people over 55 and you'll spot an image or statue of Mary somewhere.  I'm of Redemptorist background and we were tasked since 1867 to get images of Mary, the Mother of Perpetual Help, in homes and churches all around the world.

Perpetual Help - How's that for an extra!

If there is anything we humans know about it’s the external souvenirs we have for extra help: rings and things.   We went to the movies yesterday – to see 1917.  They had a black and while photograph  on a wooded beam in a German  trench – and of course when a soldier was shot and killed they found in his pocket a black and white picture of his mom and sisters.

What’s in your wallet? 

I remember listening to an audio tape  talk by Robert Fulghum or someone and the speaker asks his audience to take out their wallets and tell the members of the small group they are in what’s in their wallet.  It can be very revealing.

What’s in your wallet?  Do you have something that reminds us about who we are all in the mind of others or they in us or what have you?

I asked people once to write on a small piece of paper a  favorite Bible text and  keep it in your wallet. Mine is Galatians 6:3. “Bear one another’s burdens - In this way you are fulfilling the Law of Christ.”  I figured if I preached it, I better do that myself.

Knowing it’s there, it’s helps me keep that text and theme in mind and put the text into action.

So, we have these mementos, these souvenirs, these tokens to give us an extra edge.

I love the image of having a small prayer book – and making it a portable cemetery – where we put all our death cards – and we can go through our cards once a month

I remember a period in my life when I got interested in Native American life and literature, etc.. I’m in Washington DC  – and  I dropped into the Bureau of Indian Affairs - which is in the U.S.  Department of the Interior. It was in an off season and well before the It was a good experience.

I asked at the front information desk, if I could see someone important – so I could ask some questions.

It was  valuable moment and I got to ask lots of questions.

One thing the curator said was this: much of Native American  life was to get power – good medicine – over others, one’s enemies. So, Indians  have lots of beads and feathers etc. and traveling souvenirs.

This happened way back - before the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.

Check that out - with an eye to jewelry and items people use to extra help and strength - the theme of this homily.

Jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher in a magazine article about her work said, "Jewelry is like your armor.  Personalizing  it gives you strength and power."*

CONCLUSION

So what else is new? The Israelites had the ark of the covenant. Reread today’s first reading about how they personalized that box to give them strength and power. [Cf. First Samuel 4: 1-11.]

So what else is new?  Christians have this gospel text to tell us  that Jesus is there when our skin feels ugly or we feel crappy and small and unclean. Amen. [Cf. Mark 1: 40-45.]

Footnote *"Chains of Love," by Eric Wilson, Instyle, magazine,  page 515, September 2015