July  17,  2020

HEZEKIAH 

PUT  YOUR  HOUSE  IN  ORDER 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 15^th Friday in Ordinary Time  is, “Put Your House in Order.”

That’s what Isaiah says to King Hezekiah in today’s first reading.

It would scare me to have someone come up to me and say,  “Put your house in order, for you are about to die.”

It wouldn’t be putting my room and stuff in order – I’m a slob – but someone else would have to take care of that.  It would be the thought of, “Well, that’s it and I don’t know about the next.’

This scene appears in almost identical words and details in both Isaiah 38 – today’s first reading – as well as 2 Kings 20: 1-11.

So that means we’d hear this story more frequently. Yet,  I’ve never used it or heard it used for a funeral.   I think we say, “Obviously” to that  - but a funeral can have the same effect at times.  Death can get us thinking about our death.

Or think of the daily reading of Cherished Memories – that long list we have of all the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province from our beginnings. We know the thoughts we have when we hear that today is the anniversary of some guy we were stationed with – or someone who died at an age much younger than we are today.  It can make us think about  ourselves – that some day our name will be read out  -  but we add, “Not yet!”

Isaiah tells Hezekiah to put his house in order – now - for you are about to die. “You shall not recover.”

Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays. He weeps bitterly.

Surprise!

Isaiah is told to go back to Hezekiah  and to tell  him that the Lord has heard his prayers and seen his tears – and he’ll be healed in 3 days and get 15 more years of life.

He’s given a remedy for his boil as well as a sign  - the strange sign of the shadow of the  sun going backwards ten steps. Commentators think it’s referring to a sun dial.  I think it’s simply the shadow on a certain set of steps that one can see every afternoon.

So that’s something to reflect upon this morning and today.

GOOD FRIDAY 1984

This story about Hezekiah triggered a memory.  I remember going down to see my brother in Laurel, Maryland on Good Friday, April 20, 1984.

The front door was open, but nobody was home.

He had told me that he had a doctor’s appointment for a fatty lump on his shoulder – so if you get there early, just go in the house.  They were going to cut the fatty lump.  I made a joke, “What are they going to do cut your head off?”

He didn’t laugh.

I’m standing there all alone in his house and  the phone rings. It was Gloria Goldberger - a good friend of our family. She asked if my brother or sister-in-law was there. I said they are at the doctors.   She said, “I know.”

Then she said, “You heard, didn’t you?”

I said, “Heard what?”

She blurted it right out loud: “Your brother has 18 months to live at the most. He has melanoma – cancer.”

Silence.

Realizing what happened, she said, “I’m sorry. I figured you’d know.”

My brother and sister-in-law came in about 10 minutes later.

Somewhere in there I asked my brother how will he be able to handle all this.

He said that he’d let me know.

They were on the money. He died around 18 months later.

Just before he died, he said to me, “Remember that time you asked me how I’ll  be able to handle all this and I said I’ll let you know?”

“Well,” he said after a pause, “Thank God for mom and dad – for giving us the gift of faith.”

Then he added, “I learned two other things. Think of others. That made it easier – and you better have a sense of humor.”

I remember he used a magic marker a few  times to draw a monthly calendar on his chest – and then he’d put an X when he took chemo that day.

He said the doctors and the nurses really got a kick out of that.

SO THE SAME QUESTION FOR ALL OF US

Us ….  What are our wonderings about this human reality called “life and death”?

The story of Hezekiah gets me thinking thoughts like this. It triggered the memory that my brother had a  Hezekiah type moment.

Last year I was in a hospital for the first time overnight.  I had a Hezekiah type experience partially last year with my heart surgery. That first night I thought would be my last night.

And like you I’m sure – we’re all  having our personal thoughts – in this experience with this virus – seeing and hearing about the numbers dying.

What are our 2020 thoughts?

CONCLUSION

Like Hezekiah we might want signs – but the only signs are  those personal faith stories – hopefully we all have – on how we’re doing life – and thoughts at times of death.

At times I’m sure we’ve been like Pharisees  in today’s gospel – and we would like some kind of control over life and what happens with death.

They used keeping the Sabbath as a sign they are doing what is right . It gave them some control of the narrative of how to guarantee salvation when death comes.  

I’m sure that so many of these gospel stories about the Pharisees trying to control their God and our destiny  gets us laughing.  We know we don’t know our date on the calendar – so we better have faith.