The quiet after loss …. The emptiness that death leaves us with - echoes of loneliness – along with memories of moments we’ll miss. Yet it gives us time to thank, to appreciate, to put into words and prayer what another means to us.
“Holy
Saturday. The best reminder that the silence of God doesn’t equal the absence of
God.”
Tullian Tchividjian
Friday, April 2, 2021
April 2, 2021
GOODFRIDAY
Is the key word, “good”? We know “bad” as in, “I’m having a bad day.” Bad as in we’re judged and condemned …. Bad as in we’re hit by spit …. Bad as in slipping and falling …. Bad as in we are nailed down …. Bad as in dying on a cross …. What’s a “good” day? Good as in someone helping us carry our cross …. Good as in someone nodding support to us on the way …. Good as in someone helping us when we fall … Good as in someone hearing our mutterings and moans …. Good as in someone there when we are dying ….
What’s a good day? What’s a bad day?
Each day is a different day – but each day we can enter into the mystery of carrying the giant cross of the world and experience death and resurrection.
“On
Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an
hour on "the tree." That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a
man's hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing
backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and
hoist him up by it. His own weight twists his joints and pulls them apart...
Several of the priestswho were hung up
last year never recovered and died. If you don't have a strong heart, you don't
survive it. Many have a permanently crippled hand.”
― Jean
Bernard,
Priestlock 25487:
A Memoir of Dachau
Thursday, April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021
FOOT WASHING
My feet: skin flaking at times, hurting and aching as well, needing Vaseline or some type of soothing cream. I guess I’m getting old and dry. I’m needing kneading with my hands – but that’s not as easy as sit seems. Then surprise, YOU, walk into the room and wash my feet. Thank YOU.
“The
first days of January 1942 brought enormous amounts of snow. The reader already
knows what snow meant for the clergy. But this time the torture surpassed the
bounds of the endurable. At the same time the thermometer hovered between 5 and
15 degrees below zero. From morning till night we scraped, shoveled, and pushed
wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of snow to the brook. The work detail consisted
of more than 1,000 clergymen, forced to keep moving by SS men and Capos who
kicked us and beat us with truncheons.
We had to make rounds with the wheelbarrows from
the assembly square to the brook and back. Not a moment of rest was allowed,
and much of the time we were forced to run.
At one point I tripped over my barrow and fell,
and it took me a while to get up again. An SS man dashed over and ordered me to
turn with the full load. He ran beside me, beating me constantly with a leather
strap. When I got to the brook I was not allowed to dump out the heavy snow,
but had to make a second complete round with it instead.
When the guard finally went off and I tried to
let go of the wheelbarrow, I found that one of my hands was frozen fast to it.
I had to blow on it with warm breath to get it free.”
― Jean Bernard,
Priestblock 25487:
A Memoir of Dachau
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
March 31, 2021
SPY WEDNESDAY
Judas could feel the feel of the 30 silver coins in the side pocket of his cloak. Then guilt, regret, anger, resentment and 26 other rancid feelings rubbed against his brain. Judas resented being called “Thief” by Jesus, - yet he
knew that Jesus knew he helped himself from the money bag. He waited and waited for his moment - to sneak away to the chief priests and ask what would they give for him to betray Jesus. They gave him 30 pieces of silver. They gave him 30 pieces of hell – which ripped him up inside and out. When he realized what he had done, he threw the coins back and went searching for a rope to hang around his
neck and end it all.
Do little kids
feel unfair feelings 100 times more
than fair feelings? Do they kick
their feet against their high chair when they see the
adults sitting at the big table? Do they hate it
when the older folks can stay up and
they have to go to bed? Do they hate it
when their face is washed with the sink
cloth and others use clean napkins? Do folks get it
when they see Les Miserables and Valjean
goes
to jail for 19 years for stealing just a loaf of bread?` Did the people of
Ireland make The Fields of Athenry their national
anthem because Michael is sent on a prison ship to Australia for taking some food for his kid. Do we move from “Unfair”
to “Fair” when we learn to say, “Thank
You” for all the blessings we receive?
“All
the great thinkers have been masters of metaphor because all vivid thinking
must be images and the philosopher whose
metaphors are blurred and diluted is one whose thinking is blurred and
diluted."
Thomas
Sharper Knowlson [1867-1947]
THE
METAPHOR OF FRAGRANCE
INTRODUCTION The title of my homily for this Monday in Holy Week is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.” Or perfume. We go into church on Easter Sunday morning. We pause. We’re stopped. We stand there. We breathe in the fragrance of the lilies. “Uuuuum good!” It’s Easter. Christ has risen from the dead.Alleluia. Again and again.Alleluia.Alleluia. Have you heard Leonard Cohen’s Halleluiah.
A lot of people are singing it and variations on it. It contains various narratives. Sorry to say, some of them are fuzzy for me – but the way
they sing the word “Halleluiah” seems to
sell the different versions –the different narratives.
But there are variations with wonderful spiritual
soundings as well.
I would hold that the Easter Vigil Exultet Resurrection
Narrative is deeper and better – and has more religion – Christianity and
Judaism.
THE FRAGRANCE METAPHOR ON AN ELEVATOR The title of my homily is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.” Spring has sprung. We get on an elevator. A beautiful young woman gets on the same elevator with
us. It’s Monday morning. The elevator rises upwards. The young woman fills the elevator with the fragrance of
a rich perfume – as well as her beauty – her youth- and her smile. The fragrance is not overwhelming. We close our eyes and breathe in everything. She gets off on the 5th floor in her dark blue
suit. It’s the floor for an accounting firm – where she works. Her fragrance remains – in the car – along with us. We’re going to the 8th floor of this same office
building. It’s filled with lawyers – one of whom we are scheduled to meet - to take care of some family business – paper
work -for our mother – who is in a
nursing home – sometimes with the fragrance of mom’s perfume and now
incontinence at times. Life. The old and the young. Fragrance. We get the metaphor – the fragrances of life. TODAY’S GOSPEL We get today’s gospel – John 12: 1-11- the story of Jesus feet being anointed by
Mary. We get the wordsin today’s gospel, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil”
– “theliter of costly perfumed oil made
from genuine aromatic hard”- which Mary
used to anoint the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair….” As priests here today on retreat we know what it’s like
to be like Martha.We serve.We sweat the little stuff of service. As priests we know what it’s like to be like Mary too.We anoint babies with the sacred oil.We anoint people when they are dying. And the fragrance of the sacraments remains with us – after the
baptism – after we walk from the church – or the drive home from the hospital
or the home of someone who is sick and we just visited them. We itch our nose or chin and the fragrance of the oil is
still on our right thumb. We like the change of pace today’s gospel gives us. The house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus – has the scent of
wonderful. Lazarus catches the scent and smiles – Lazarus who
recently had the scent of death all over him – till Jesus showed up andbrought him back from the dead. That house was sacramental. That house had the scent of Christ in it. A MESSAGE We Christians are called to be like Christ: to be salt
and light. The world needs both. How about the metaphor of fragrance? How about the world needing the fragrance of Jesus Christ
in it? How about the Christian being described as a breath of
fresh air? None of us hopefully would like to be described as “stinkos” – of full of s or
being a bs-er. None of us hopefully wants to be described as dead. Death stinks. Hopefully we are alive – all our life – that we fill the
rooms we enter with the fragrance of grace – thefragrance of Christ. I love the question: what happens when we walk into a
room? Do we get an “Oh yes!” vote or an “Oh no!” vote? I was stationed with a priest who told me he was standing
there in the back of church and the announcer announced his name – Our main
celebrant today is Father X – and he heard someone say out loud, “Oh no!” That hurt – the fragrance of that hurt lingered in his
brain for weeks. I found out who said that. I told him that the “Oh no!” voice guy was a PITA person – but that didn’t help. CONCLUSION I’ve said enough for this homily on the metaphor of fragrances. Right now I gotta come up with a conclusion. I guess today it could be – Be like Mary and spray the
world with words of beauty – with the fragrance of love and care – not hurting
words, etc.
Monday, March 29, 2021
March 29, 2021
WHAT TO SAY AND WHAT TO SING AT A FUNERAL!
If you’re ever asked to say something at someone’s funeral, “Don’t say ‘No!’”
Pray about it, think about it, and then say something about the good of this person. Make us laugh, make us cry, help the rest of us deal with this person who has died. Keep it short, keep it sweet, tell us their story with faith and hope and please God, lots of charity. Of course, they made mistakes, but we’re not here for hell – we’re only here for heaven. Amen.
Everyone once in a while we have to say it – loud and clear, “Well, this is me!” Type those three or four words on a card and keep it in your wallet till the right moment. Then take it out and hand to the person who won’t accept you as is – and as you are. Let them read that card you handed them. Let them read, “Well, this is me!” “This is me!”
