The title of my homily for this Tuesday after Easter is, “The Earth Is Full of the Goodness of the
Lord.”
That’s the Psalm Response for today - from Psalm 33.
Most of the time I preach on something from the Gospel
and sometimes the first reading, but it hit me last night to reflect upon the
Psalm Response for today: “The Earth is Full of the Goodness of the Lord.”
We said that 4 times - so it hit me: Try to come up with
4 examples where we see the goodness of the Lord.
FOUR EXAMPLES
The first example would be this earth itself which we
live on. It has water, air, food. It has temperatures in which we can live - or
move to and move away from. We have our seasons. The average temperature on
earth is 61 degrees Fahrenheit. That
doesn’t mean it’s not hot in a desert in Libya or Death Valley in California
which has registered the hottest temperature on earth - 134 Fahrenheit in the
air and land that registered 159.3 Fahrenheit. The coldest spots would be Antarctica
which register minus 128 Fahrenheit. Mars is tempting with 70 degrees Fahrenheit
in summer at its equator, but it can jump to 100 below that same night. Talk
about cold. It can be minus 400 on Pluto.
So for starters, we have a wonderful home to live in and on - with
variety and something to talk about besides sports and each other.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
The next example would be people who are full of
goodness: family, friends, volunteers, especially people who give their lives and time and energy
and study in service to others - doctors, nurses, teachers, researchers, fire
fighters, police, EMT folks, etc. etc., etc.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord
Third would be places and scenes of natural beauty all
around the world: mountains, oceans, beaches, lakes, the Mississippi, the Grand
Canyon, national parks, city parks, ski slopes, glaciers in Alaska. There are whales,
sea lions, eagles, robins, roses, magnolia trees, pugs and puddles, black and
white cats - that sometimes look like the ying-yang black and white spiral
circle.
There are wonderful surprise twists and paradoxes: ugly gnarled trees
sometimes end up as beautiful furniture. In churches like ours we see the cross
flowering. THEN…. Then there are unique
surprisingly beautiful interesting like the brown yellow glisten of the sunset
on the back of a brownish hippo in a mud hole in Africa.
I add mention of a hippo because of a favorite quote from
Albert Schweitzer, “Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset,
we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my
mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase, ‘Reverence for Life.’” [1] Out of My Life and Thought (1949)
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
And fourth and last we could list our creations. We’re
all made in the image and likeness of God. So check out our creations: paintings by Van Gogh, statues by Michelangelo, crayon drawings by
grandkids, buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright or Frank Geary, monuments like the
Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. designed by Maya Lin, cities like
Paris or gardens like those in Kyoto, Japan.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord
CONCLUSION
Ooops! Better bring in Christ and Mary, and Mary
Magdalene and St. Peter whom we hear about in today’s two readings and all those who have given us, passed down
to us the gift of faith - and hope - and love.
Ooops! Better say:
Isn’t it our daily call: to do nice, to be neat, to be caring so others
at the end of the day will say spontaneously, “The earth is full of the
goodness of the Lord. Amen.
Monday, March 28, 2016
FEAR IS A PIANO
[This is a reflection for Monday after Easter - coming out of one sentence in today's gospel, Matthew 28: 8-15 - the sentence being, "Do not be afraid."]
We walk into someone’s house and there is a black piano.
Most of the time it’s a stand up piano - against a wall.
Most of the time it’s closed - but not always. When open,
we see the black and white keys.
Some homes - have a baby grand or an adult grand piano.
But as I have heard reported on TV - people are buying
pianos less and less. Sales are down.
Some people have key boards. They take a lot less space.
And sometimes people walk up to a piano and hit a key or
two and the sound resounds through the air - through the house.
And sometimes we’re walking down the street and we hear a
piano - like when I take a walk from St.
Mary’s - out the door - up the street - down Green Street - walking through Ego
Alley - heading for the Naval Academy - and I hear a piano playing in a house
on Green Street - just across from the public school.
Piano sounds trigger thoughts…. Piano sounds triggers
memories….
Pianos do that. Fears do that.
Pianos hit notes. Pianos hits memories. Lessons.
Songs. And the sounds resound through
our souls.
Pianos….
Fear is a piano.
Phobias - the Greek word for fear - abound - resound - rebound in our inner being and our
inner attic or basement.
A piano has many keys - and each has a distinctive note.
Phobias have different keys. Each have distinctive notes.
There are fears of elevators and fears of
escalators - fear of planes and fear of submarines - fear of bridges - fear of
cracks in the sidewalks.
I have a classmate who can’t eat chicken - because as a
kid he was visiting a relative on a farm and the farmer cut a chicken’s head
off - and the chicken ran across the yard without a head on.
Ooooh.
Fears can get us to run around without our head on.
And many fears evoke the “Oooh!” or “Eeeck!” sound. They can be like a sound
from a plunked piano key going down and sending a high note rising up and going
through a room.
The little child fears the dark - so too the tourist who
won’t go into the cave - in which the whole group of tourists goes into - but
this person says, “I’ll see you when you come out.”
Fears cripple, paralyze, scare - and get people to call
for a priest - or say to another, “Hold my hand.”
In today’s gospel Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!”
“Fear not!” - “Don’t be afraid!” - those words - that message appear over 450
times in the scriptures.
Easter is a time of hope. Remember that T-shirt message
from a few years back, “Fear not!” -
well it’s the Easter Message -
How not to fear:
realize the Risen Lord walks with us. Amen.
Fear is a piano - it has many notes.
Jesus is the music - the Alleluia to hear and to play and
pray when fears abound and sound warnings at the entrance of our cave. Amen.
Pianoaphobia - Fearaphobia - Pantophobia are around.
How to learn to play the piano? “Practice. Practice. Practice.” “Take lessons
from a teacher - from a Rabbi.”
How to deal with fears? “Practice. Practice. Practice.” “Take
lessons from a teacher - a Rabbi - named Jesus.”
the dead look when trees are losing their leaves? How does God show up as a baby in the summer time? Does everyone down there look up at the night sky stars and wonder and ponder the Southern Cross?
The title of my homily is, “Easter: Dawning on Us.”
East - obviously - the direction of the sun rising.
East - where we first see the dawn - the morning light.
East? When was the last time we took the time to attend
the liturgy of the rising sun? At the beach? Out our bathroom window? When?
Easter? What has dawned on us about the meaning of this
faith belief?
CENTERPIECE
Easter: the
central feast of Christianity.
As St. Paul put it in First
Corinthians 15: if Christ did rise
from the dead, our preaching is useless. What are we doing here in church this
morning? Let’s head for the doors. If Christ did not rise from the dead, we’re
liars. We’re committing perjury. We’re saying something - that is, that there
is life after death - and it didn’t happen for Christ. If Christ did not rise
from the dead, we’re still stuck in our sins. “And what is more serious, all
who have died in Christ, have perished.”
In other words, if Christ did not rise from the dead, we
won’t either.
It’s like one of my favorite sayings - from Groucho Marx,
“If our parents didn’t have any kids, chances are, we won’t either.”
The human world anthem will be Peggy Lee’s song: “Is that all there is … and if
that is all there is, my friend, then let’s keep dancing.”
Easter. It’s the central belief in Christianity.
LOTS OF ROCKS
I read somewhere that one of the key moments in human
development was when pre-historic migrants moving across the hills somewhere
stopped to bury their dead. Before that the body would be tossed off a path and
folks kept moving on. Moving on. But for some person who died, the person was
buried under some rocks and a marker
marked the spot - so that it could be spotted when that family group came along
that path in the future.
I am reading right now an interesting book, A
History of Religion in 5 ½ Objects -
by S. Brent Plate. One of the 5 ½ objects is stones.
He gives example after example of the significance of
stones when it comes to spirituality. The little girl goes camping with her
family for the first time and has a great time. She picks up a stone that last
day and brings it home with her and keeps it on her bureau as a reminder of a
great time. Then she keeps it in her significant life stuff box as a memory.
Millions and millions of people have done that before and after. Gift shops at
the shore and T-Shirt stores with crab magnets in Annapolis have made their living on that
human quirk and quest. We want solid reminders of where we’ve been. Memories.
Stones - the solid - lasts.
Israel has its mountains and its Wailing Wall of hundreds
of huge stones - with the dome of the rock of Islam just above it. Islam has
its square stone quadrant in Mecca.
I have a piece of the Berlin Wall on a shelf in my room.
Christianity has its stone marble altars - but it also
had its stone that locked in the dead body of Christ - in his borrowed tomb and
in today’s gospel we hear the words that the stone has been rolled away and
Christ is not there.
Our graves are everywhere. Christ’s grave is nowhere.
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again
and again and again - but he’s not locked in some stone tomb.
The stone has been rolled away.
Christ is in the bread and the wine. Christ is in his
followers. Christ is in his words. Christ is with Our Father and all those who
have gone before us in Christ. Christ is everywhere. Christ is all time: the
alpha and the omega.
Take and eat, this
is my body. Take and drink, this is my blood. Listen and hear my words. Close
your eyes and feel my Spirit.
The Spirit of God is in the wind and in the fire. The
risen Christ is everywhere.
Easter us, O Lord. Dawn upon us. Let your light shine
upon us and we shall be saved.
ST. ALPHONSUS
The priests in this parish are members of a religious
order called the Redemptorists. We’re around 6,000 members - all around the
world. We’re getting older here in our Baltimore Province. We are much younger
and growing in India and Vietnam, Poland and Brazil, Paraguay and Africa.
Our founder, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, 1696-1787, wrote
over 100 books - but he didn’t write a book on the Resurrection.
He wrote big time about the Suffering Jesus Christ being
the meaning of our faith - our hope - and our charity.
The other day I was talking to Father Mickey Martinez -
from Paraguay - a member of our Community here in Annapolis. He does much of the Latino, the Spanish, ministry
here in St. Mary’s. He mentioned that Good Friday has much more meaning for
Latinos than Easter Sunday. He added, “Just look around….” Then he added, “They
have a lot more struggle in their lives.”
That hit me.
St. Alphonsus wrote over and over again about the cross
and the struggles and the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He has a whole book on
the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. He wrote a small booklet, The Stations
of the Cross, which is still used almost everywhere - especially during Lent.
Up till 1950 in the Catholic Church, Good Friday was the big moment in Lent.
Easter Sunday was celebrated. People dressed up. Flowers were central - but in
theology it was still the Suffering Christ of Good Friday.
In 1950 out came a book by a Redemptorist F.X. Durwell.
It was entitled, “Resurrection”. The horror of World War II was over.
The Catholic Church made a leap in its theology and the
meaning of Easter around that time. The
Easter Vigil became prominent . The RCIA became prominent - when thousands and thousands
of people on Holy Saturday evening became Catholic.
CONCLUSION
Becoming Catholic ….
The title of my homily is, “Easter Dawning on Us.”
Becoming Catholic….
We’re all still becoming Catholic. We’ll renew our
baptismal vows today - in a moment.
What has dawned on us - so far - about what it means to
be a Catholic?
If we are still having babies and raising them, Christ,
Christmas, still means a lot to us.
If we are having struggles, sickness, family problems,
Christ on the Cross, means a lot to us.
If - if - if -
what __________ fill in the blank what it takes to be going through, for Easter, for the Risen
Christ to mean a lot more to us.
Is the meaning of Easter - dawning on us - in a new way?
Has that stone been rolled back and the dead Christ risen
in a new way in our life?
Hopefully our answer is, “Oh yeah. Oh yeah!”
Saturday, March 26, 2016
March 26, 2016
PASSOVER MOON
Bright white light in a dark monstrance sky….
Jesus was in the garden - just two nights
ago or so. It was after
the Passover Meal.
Praying - he was hoping they would pray
with him - but no, they were sleeping.
Then came the arrest - because of Judas’
betrayal - money and a kiss. Jesus was
arrested - mocked - put on trial - dragged
and killed on a hill - on a cross that Friday
afternoon. He was buried in a borrowed
tomb. Then the Father pulls him out of
that stone tomb tabernacle - to rise, to
proclaim: hope,
peace, new life, resurrection
to those in locked upper rooms - brains in
stubborn skulls - minds that were Thomas
sure that there was no more. But there
was
more at Galilee’s shore - bread - full nets
of caught fish - breakfast with Jesus on
the beach of the future - still going -
2000
years later. Looking at the
Passover Moon,
does anyone have Thomas doubts that therewon’t be more - much, much, more - to come?
The title of my reflections for this Good Friday Mass tonight is, “Last Words.”
On the death bed of our cross - what will be our last
words?
On Good Friday - down through the years - it’s been a tradition - to reflect on one or
two or all of the traditional 7 Last Words of Jesus.
Actually they are seven sayings or statements of Jesus - like, “Father,
forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Or “Father, into your
hands I place my spirit.” Or “I thirst.” Or, the words which Jesus said to the Good Thief on the other cross, “Today you’ll be
with me in Paradise.”
Someone wasn’t under the cross with a tape recorder or a Cross
Ball Point pen jotting down these last words of Jesus.
But in time to help us, they were written down in Greek
in the Gospels - and we find three of them in Luke and three of them in John.
And the other statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” we find in
both Matthew and Mark.
What will be our last words? I would say that we can’t plan on what we’re
going to say when we’re dying. In books of quotes we find various death bed
words from famous people - and some are apocryphal like Lincoln saying to his
wife, “I told you - I didn’t want to go to - a damn play.”
I remember reading - that
Goethe’s last words were, “More light.”
This afternoon in writing this homily to get some light - I looked up on
Google, “Death Bed Words” and found some interesting comments.
One woman said, “My mom's last words to me were 'You have to learn the
difference between Chinese and Japanese people, because they don't like it when
you mix them up.' I wish I was joking. Those were my mom’s last words.”
Another lady said, “I was a health care aide on a geriatric ward - when
a woman - so old and frail - she looked dead already - motioned to me to come
to her. I put my ear next to her mouth and she quietly said, 'I just wanted to
say 'goodbye' to someone.' It broke my heart. She died a few days later….”
Another person said, “When I first started as a 911 dispatcher - I had a
call come in - and all that the person said was 'Tell them I'm sorry,' and hung
up….’ “I knew right away what we were going to find when we got there. It was
the worst feeling. I just felt so dirty that I was the last one to talk to this
guy, and no matter how fast we sent help it didn't matter - it was just too
late. So I guess he was confessing, but it just made me feel icky.”
“In nursing school a lady in her mid-40s came in after a car accident.” “She
needed surgery, and before she went in - she made me promise to tell her
husband that she had a child before she met him and put it up for adoption and
should her son ever come looking for her to let him know she was sorry and
loved him every day.” Then this nurse said, “She lived and I hope she got to
tell him that herself.”
Frank Sinatra died after saying, “I’m losing it.”
William Henry Seward, architect of the Alaska Purchase, was asked if he
had any final words. He replied, “Nothing, only ‘love one another.’”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, died at
age 71 in his garden. He turned to his wife and said, “You are wonderful,” then
clutched his chest and died.
As he was dying, Alfred Hitchcock said, “One never knows the ending. One
has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have
their hopes.”
Father Tizio would love this one. Former baseball player “Moe” Berg’s
last words: “How did the Mets do today?”
The night before my brother was to have major surgery in the Washington
Hospital Center on his brain cancer, I
talked to him on phone from New York and my last words to him were, “I love
you.” And his last words to me were, “I love you too.” I got down to D.C. the
next day - but he didn’t make it.
I have my last words with my mom on a tape recorder - 45 minutes’ worth
of wonderful words. I got the thought to get her story on tape. She was still
very healthy and still working - at the age of 82. So I set up a small tape recorder and asked her about her
life. After a while she got tired and said, “The moo is out of me.” She then said, “Next time we’ll get the rest of
the story.” She was killed in a hit and
run accident two weeks later - so that tape is very precious - very, very
precious. And I got the moo part of her
comment when years later we visited a family graveyard not too far from where
my mom was from in Galway, Ireland. To
get into the graveyard, they had like a turnstile to keep cows out. I was with
my two sisters and my brother-in-law. Wow was my sister Peggy the nun surprised
when she stepped in you know what. Evidently the cows had an Easy Pass Path in
some other way.
Nope what she said was not her last words. I got to hear a few of them
in a last chance conversation with her in Scranton, Pennsylvania before she
died.
The title of my reflection for tonight is, “Last words.”
Jesus had some wonderful words on the wooden death bed of the cross. The
one I like the best and have said 1,000 times is, “Father, forgive them for
they do not know what they are doing.”
I would like and love to add something my classmate Larry told me. He
had had a sort of fight or disagreement with his mom over something as he was
going back to Brazil where he was stationed - and he gets back and gets a call
a short time afterwards that his mom had died.
He flew back to Brooklyn but before going over to the funeral parlor he dropped
into church and had a great prayer talk with his mom - that was filled with
forgiveness - and then he was able to face her in the casket.
We Christians have Easter. We have our great faith gift that there is
life after this - and we only have metaphors and hopes what heaven is like -
but my hope and my faith tell me - we can all love one another for all eternity
and say the things we always wanted to say - the “I’m sorry’s” - the “I love
you’s” - the saying, “With you and God I am in paradise.”
And sad to say, God walked away that day - hoping someday I’ll show mercy, forgiveness and understanding to someone else as well as to myself and that will be the day I’ll hear God standing at my door once again knocking, knocking, knocking and this time I'll let God in.[1]
