HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN 

AN “Oh no!”?

 

The title of my homily is, “Have You Ever Gotten an “Oh no!”

 

Years ago when I was stationed in Ohio, I got an,”Oh no!”

 

Have you ever gotten an “Oh no!” 

 

Sometimes they hurt.

 

I went to a skin doctor – a dermatologist – who found some pre-cancerous stuff on my forehead.  I had to put this skin stuff – white cream from out of a tube  - on my forehead for a month.  Then after the month was up I had to put another type of cream – stuff that will heal the mess – for  a second month.

 

Then “Presto!” I’d be handsome again.

 

He suggested January when I would not be on the road preaching.  He said this because in two weeks my face looked like peperoni pizza. I asked not to preach – but I could hear confessions – in the dark.

 

It was back around 1998 when people used the confession boxes almost always.

 

I was happy that people wouldn’t see my face – that is – till this lady came in – and sat in a chair facing me.  You could go to confession either way.

 

Well her head was down and I had my head in my hands. Then at the end, when it came time to make the sign of the cross and give her absolution, she saw my face as is – all red – all bloody – like a pizza as I said.

 

I didn’t know what to do, but I put out my hand to shake her hand and to say, “Go in peace.”  She didn’t know what to do either, so she shook my hand in return.  That’s when I got the “Oh no!”

Then she took her hand as  she was standing up, She rubbed her hand on her backside – and got out of there.

 

I said nothing.  It didn’t seem to be the time or the place to explain.

 

Then I said to myself, “So this is what people with leprosy must have felt like at times.”

 

Then I inwardly added, “I got a sermon here. I got a sermon here.”

 

 

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GOSPEL READING: FOR 1^ST THURSDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: MARK 1 40-45