THAT  MAN  IS  YOU

INTRODUCTION

The title of my  homily for this 3^rd Saturday in Ordinary Time  is, “That Man Is You.”

Around 1964 – 1965 – there was an insightful  spiritual reading book, That Man Is You – by Louis Evely.

I’m sure some of you here had a copy of that book. It was a best seller in the world of religious books.

I looked it up last night on Google and one can still buy a copy of it: used. Today's prices are from 6 dollars to 60 dollars to $851.90. Same book. I noticed that it was only $1.45 on its cover.

2 SAMUEL 12: 1-7A, 10-17

The title and the thought for that book comes out of today’s first reading from 2 Samuel 12.

You know the story; you heard the story Nathan tells David the king.  A rich man has lots of sheep; a poor man has one sheep – a lamb.

The rich man has guests and steals the poor man’s one sheep for a dinner for his visitors.

David upon hearing that story – screams – “Who is this rich man?  I’ll make him pay back fourfold.”

And Nathan  the prophet says, “That man in you.”

“What?”

Nathan explains: “You got it all and yet you steal this poor soldier’s wife – one of your own soldiers – Uriah the Hittite – and then you have Uriah placed in a situation where he’ll be killed in battle.” 

David gets the message and repents.

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE

Louis Evely who wrote the book, That Man Is You, says there is a secret here – a great way to use and read the Bible here.

Read the stories of the Bible and put yourself in the place of every person in a  story.

This person is me.

Be Adam. Be Eve.

Be David. Be Uriah.  Be Bathsheba.  Be David’s other wives.  Be the soldiers who saw all this.

Be Nathan.

Be the Pharisee. Be the Tax Collector.

Be the Lost sheep. Be the Good Shepherd.

Be the father, the older brother and the younger brother in the Prodigal Son story.

Be the good tree, the good grape vine, or the tree that isn’t producing figs or the vine that needs pruning.

It’s basically the apostles’  question at the Last Supper. Hearing that one of them is about to betray Jesus they ask, “Is it I, Lord?”  [Cf. John 13: 25.]

In prayer, in reading the scripture, we can ask of many characters, “Is this me, Lord?”

Louis Evely wasn’t a Jesuit, but that’s how Ignatius told people making the exercises – how to read and how to get the scriptures.

It’s what Shakespeare and the storytellers know.

I’ve been doing this for some 55 years now and it still works – especially when we put ourselves into the stories, into the parables, especially when we think about what it’s like to   someone we probably wouldn’t ever think ourselves to be.

You know the old American Indian metaphor: walk a mile in the other persons moccasins – or as Hawthorn put it in a story.  He told of a lady who walked around town going, “Tch. Tch. Tch” with her nose up in the air – till another lady said to her – sort of Nathanesque.  “You ought to go out and commit a really good sin and then maybe you’ll understand the rest of us.”

That’s like saying, “Walk a mile in someone else’s sins.” 

Those of us who are “Pro Life” people or verbal rock throwers – need to walk around town with that kind of attitude – walking a mile in someone else’s sins.”