SHE WAS GREAT

[Yesterday at lunch – 4 or 5 of us were sitting there – and someone said, “I don’t see any connection between tomorrow’s readings and Mother’s Day.” Someone else said, “You’re right. You have to preach on one or the other.” Someone else said, “You better say something about Mother’s Day or else?” Afterwards I was thinking to myself, “Maybe write a story – about a mother!” Then it hit me to just sit down at the computer and start imagining. So that’s what I did and that’s how I came up with this reflection. I don’t know what this actually is – other than a sort of poetic reflection about the gift and mystery of life. From past experience, some of you who don’t get poetry, won’t get this – but as my mom always used to say, “You did your best” So once more the title of my reflection is, “She Was Great.”]

I never met her – obviously – because this is the 21st century and she lived in the 13th century. I never knew her – obviously – because our family can only trace back its roots till the 1830’s or 1840’s – to a man named Edward the Carpenter. I have no clue to what this woman back in the 13th century looked like – sounded like – whether she had a long life or a short life – but obviously I do know she existed, and she had at least one child, because I exist.

I exist, therefore I know she existed.

Now that’s one of life’s most simple syllogisms – one of life’s great truths. Cause and effect! Sex and consequence: a baby.

Life! Praise God.

I always love to quote Groucho Marx’s words, “If your parents didn’t have any children, chances are, you won’t either.”

Existence – being alive – being here and now – like every blade of grass – like every flower in Mary’s Garden on the other side of these stained glass windows and plaster and red brick wall – exist – flower, flourish, grow – because of a cause greater than itself – a gardener, a planter, a pruner, a planner, water, sun, seed, fertilizer, earth, oxygen, birds and bees, the second collection …. and God the Creator of all this that surrounds us – all this that is around us.

So pinch yourself if you have a pulse, while you’re sitting here today – and thank your mother and grandmother – and all those in your line for the gift of life.

I am here – but I’m aware that I wouldn’t be here except for others – mother – father – grandmothers, grandfathers – love – God.

So too you. So too my great, great, great, great great – I don’t know how to calculate and label what number of great it is, for that woman, that mother, sometime back in the 13th century ….

I pinch myself because of her.

Without her I wouldn’t be here today.

I could do this same reflection on some other woman in my chain of mothers – who became a mother back in the 9th century – or 4th century – but this morning I’m thinking about this unknown woman in the 13th century – whoever she was.

Who was her husband? Did she have any other children? Did she love to dance like my mother? Did she have a smile and a love for walking like my father? Did she come from the same area of Ireland that my mother came from or did she migrate from somewhere else? I don’t know.

God, there is so much I don’t know – but I do know that one thing about her – this nameless woman – that she gave birth to a child, who gave birth to a child, who gave birth to a child, who gave birth to a child, who gave birth to a child, all the way down to me.

I think of these things when I see college kids on television who set up rows and rows and rows of dominoes – and then they knock over that first domino that hits another domino and we then see the so called “domino effect”. I think of these things when I see a pregnant woman. I think of these things when I see a grandmother at a baptism of her new born grandchild. I think of these things on Mother’s Day.

A lot of love and a lot of luck – a lot of mystery and a lot of happenchance – had to happen to get me and each of us into the specific skin we live in and the church and bench we are sitting in today – to get us to this moment of our life.

Thank you God. Thank you mysterious woman.

And I wonder: did she think about her grandmother – and back as far as she could think and how her story got to where her story got to in the 13th century? Did she think ahead to those who would come after her?

Life – a chain – like the beads on a rosary – with lots of mysteries – broken at times – but when repaired, it can continue and continue and continue and continue – even without batteries – just with life.

I think about this on Mother’s Day – and a pinch of sadness slips into my musings – that I became a priest – and my line – in a way stops with me – just like my sister Peggy who is a nun. Neither of us have children obviously.

But I am grateful – very grateful for my other sister having 4 children – two boys and two girls – and those two girls have 4 sons and a daughter – and my brother’s wife gave birth to 7 daughters and so my 9 nieces got me to know husbands and lots of grandnieces and grandnephews who will keep our line going – hopefully to the 23rd century and on and on and on.

Will someone on Mother’s Day in 3010 wonder about where they came from and how they got to that moment – and be grateful for people way back in the 20th and 21st centuries – and before that?

Life – “Ah sweet mystery of life….” – as the old song goes.

Pinch yourself if you’re a mom or a dad – and you brought new life into this world.

Read Shakespeare’s Second Sonnet every once and a while – that is, if you are a mother or a father – because it’s a powerful poetic reflection – much more literary than this poetic reflection – on one of life’s most amazing realities: being a mother or a father.

The poet – is standing there at the age of forty and he’s feeling older – at 40 – well it was way back when – when people died younger – and he says, “When forty winters besiege your brow – when you look in the mirror and see all those wrinkles in your face– when there are deep trenches in thy beauty’s field – when your youth and its pride is tattered and falling apart – when your eyes are sunken – when your lusty days are less – when you look at your life and have to make a shameful confession of greed and self-obsession – that you could have done better with your talents and your life – when at that moment you ask, “what have I done? – what stands for me?” – see your child and say:

“This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count
and make my old excuse,'
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.”

Wonderful!

Hopefully those with children are thankful for their children.

Hopefully those who have children have wonderful children.

Yet I wonder: no wonder parents of older kids hope parents of younger kids really enjoy their kids when they are small – and so innocent – before they disappoint or break hearts. Is this why grandparents love to be with their little grand kids?

And what about those of us without kids?

I rationalize and realize that every act of kindness can be mother to another act of kindness – that a baby smiles – because a mom and a dad – grandparents – siblings – a woman in the supermarket – smiled and the child mimicked that smile – something that people have been doing since the 13th century – since the 1st century – since the beginning of time?

Love begets love. I know that Jesus who didn’t have children told us to love one another – and that love begets more love – and more love begets more love – in our homes, in our workplaces, in the park – giving another parent a chance to put her kid on the swing – or letting others out into traffic or out of parking lots – ahead of us – and on and on and on.

Peace begets peace.

What happened to Cain and Abel? How come Cain killed his brother Abel? How come there have been wars and so much destruction – and so many people are killed before they had a chance to become parents?

Life – it can be as fragile as a spider web anchored on the passenger side of a car to a side mirror and the other end of the web to a garage shelf – a web spun out in the night – only to be destroyed and disappear without the driver knowing it as she or he pulls out of their garage in the morning to get to work.

Life – it goes on – like people in all those cars on Route 50 and 97 – as well as the Bay Bridge – people heading somewhere – with stuff in their trunks and glove compartments – with stuff on their back seat – with stuff in their minds – with stuff in their stories – experiences of love and hate, patience and impatience, hopes and giving up.

Life – today we celebrate our moms and all the moms who have gone before us – back to the 13th century – back to the beginning of time – all those who got us into this great chain of life and existence that we are part of.

In today’s gospel Jesus says he and his Father and the Spirit can dwell within us.

On Mother’s Day we can also say our moms and all the moms who have gone before us – also dwell within us – otherwise there would be no me called me.

Life – amazing stuff – pinch yourself and thank God for your mom and your grandmom - and all those who got you to this day. Amen.

MOTHER'S DAY

Quote for Mother's Day - May 9, 2010


"My child looked at me and I looked back at him in the delivery room, and I realized that out of a sea of infinite possibilities it had come down to this: a specific person, born on the hottest day of the year, conceived on a Christmas Eve, made by his father and me miraculously from scratch."


Anna Quindlen, New York Times, Mary 13, 1986

GOD - EVERYWHERE

Quote of the Day - May 8,  2010


"I didn't know what she was saying when she moved her lips in a Baptist church or a Catholic cathedral or, less often, in a synagogue, but it was obvious that God could be found anywhere."


Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, 1969

THE SACRED

Quote of the Day - May 7, 2010


"'One sacred memory from childhood is perhaps the best education,' said Feodor Dosteoevski. I believe that, and I hope that many Earthling children will respond to the first human footprint on the moon as a sacred thing. We need sacred things."


Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons, 1974

STORIES:
TELL ME YOUR STORY

Quote for the Day  - May 6, 2010


"All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by ... religion, whatever else it has done, had provided one of the main ways of meeting this abiding need."


Harvey Cox, The Seduction of the Spirit, 1973

DEFINITION OF RELIGION

Quote for the Day -  May 5, 2010


"If I were personally to define religion I would say that is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance."


Attributed to Theodore Dreiser [1871-1945]

BEING IN
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Tuesday after Easter is, “Being in the Kingdom of God.”

I was debating whether to use the words "being in" or "entering into" the Kingdom of God.

Whenever I do a baptism, there is a space in the ceremony where the priest or deacon reads a Gospel text. In the book there are 12 options at least, but I always pick the same gospel every time: Mark 10: 13 -16. It’s the scene where Jesus becomes indignant with his disciples for trying to push people away who have brought their children to Jesus to have him touch them.

I picked that text originally because we were taught it was an early baptismal text that establishes that the early church baptized babies. After using it about 10 times, I began to realize the great message in the text when Jesus says, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

I like to say to parents and those at a baptism that a child gets us out of ourselves and into the mysterious world of childhood again. A baby cries in the night and a husband says to his wife, “I’ll take care of the baby. You’re tired after a long, long day being a mother.” Selfish self- centered people can change when they have to change babies and schedules and their whole life – to raise a child – to be family.

I like to say to parents and those at a baptism that a child gives us glimpses of the mysterious world of imagination – that "Kids say the Darndest Things" – as Art Linkletter used to put it – that if someone takes the time to hear a kid explain his or her crayoned drawing – the adult goes, “Wow!” And a great smile comes on one’s face. Sometimes parents and grandparents need an audience to describe what their kid or grandkid said or did.

It could lead us to have God show us what God makes – spiders and squirrels and skunks and shrimp – trees and stars – a drop of sweat or a pinch of salt. And we go “Wow!” to God’s masterpieces.

When we get out of our state and into a child’s state – we can get into God’s state. We can leave the kingdom of me and entered the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of we.

SUFFERINGS

Well, last night when I read today’s first reading I began thinking about all this. Paul and Barnabas are giving us another way to enter into the kingdom of God – besides learning from children. It’s suffering.

Paul and Barnabas, as our text for today puts it, say, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Ba Boom! There’s a second threshold and entrance into the Kingdom of God: suffering.
I prefer the being a child – but Paul and Barnabas are talking to us.

It’s the way of the cross. It’s the seed dying, otherwise it’s just a seed, but if it’s buried, planted in the earth and dissolves to self, then surprise new life rises through the soil.

It triggered the memory of the old saying, “Suffering enters the human heart to create there places that never existed before.”

It triggered for me what I hear the Liberation Theologians of South America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and much of Asia, say for years now: with the poor we can discover the riches of God. Discover them. Be with them. Don’t put them down. If the term “liberation theology” is one of your buttons, then check out Mother Teresa. She was saying all this but even louder. The poor can be our best teachers – and bring us to Jesus. And more, it’s what Jesus is saying over and over again – when he talks about the Kingdom of God – those who were getting it – and those who weren’t – those who have fit through the eye of the needle – and discovered the riches of the kingdom.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Being in the Kingdom of God.” I talked about two keys to the Kingdom: being a child and suffering.

RELIGION

Quote of the Day - May 4,  2010


"Religion to me has always been the wound not the bandage."


Dennis Potter (1935-1994)

THE TIMES 
THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Quote of the Day - May 3, 2010 - A song ....


THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin
’Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’


Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Picture: Bob Dylan singing with Joan Baez during the Civil Rights "March on Washington" August 28, 1963 - photo found on a Bob Dylan site.

Song Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music

Now compare Bob Dylan's song with yesterday's second reading from the Book of Revelation 21: 1-5a - which I place below.


SECOND READING – REVELATION 21: 1-5A

Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.

I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death
or mourning, wailing or pain,
for the old order has passed away.”

The One who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”

DOORS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this  5thTuesday after Easter  is, “Doors.”

I’m sure we’ve all thought about doors as an image or a metaphor from time to time. There certainly are poems, but is there a homily behind the image of a door?

When you hear the word, “Doors!” – what hits you? The rock group from the second half of the 1960’s – Jim Morrison etc. “The Doors”? I never listened to them – but I did like some of Bob Dylan and the Beatles’ songs. But I was more a Simon and Garfunkel listener. They didn’t have as hard a sound.

What thoughts, what images, what stories, what fantasies, what possibilities are on the other side of the door?

Today’s first reading closes with this sentence which triggered the title and theme for this homily: “And when they arrived [Paul and Barnabas in Antioch], they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” [Acts 14:27]

DOORS

In gift shops around the world have you seen those big paper posters to buy – rolled up – but when opened up – they are “The Doors of Dublin” or “The Doors of Paris” or “The Doors of Amsterdam”? They even have, “The Doors of Buffalo” and they are very interesting.

And these posters show 20 or 36 doors – or lots of doors – often beautifully painted – rich dark red or blue or yellow or glossy black – with expensive looking shiny brass door knobs or door openers.

The poster for “The Doors of Paris” – show 110 doors. Interesting. What’s behind those doors? Who’s behind those doors?

SOME HOMEWORK FOR YOU TO DO

Get a piece of paper and draw 10, 20 or 30 doors.

If you can’t draw, just take an 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper – and draw boxes and put on the bottom or top: “The Doors of My Life.”

Then write in the boxes or on the doors you drew – words like, “4th grade classroom” – “Front door Elon College”, or “Maryland” – the door to a bar where you met your spouse – a wrong door, a right door – a door that was slammed in your face or the place of a job you turned down or walked away from – or the front gate of Paris Island.

If you’re on a roll, you might come up with 20, 30, 40 doors. If you want to put them in order of importance or significance, do that.

Talk to each other! Get another’s take on your life. Surprise! The other might say, “I never knew that about you and here we are married for 14 years now.” Or have the other guess the most significant doors of your life. And we might say, “I didn’t know you thought that way or wondered that way about me.” Ask others about the doors of their life.

Doors – an interesting topic to open up. Doors: a great metaphor.

GRAHAM GREEN

Graham Green – in the first chapter of his 1940 novel, The Power and the Glory, wrote, “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”

That’s an intriguing observation. Is it true? I suspect on first instance people would go “ho hum” or “not something I ever thought about”. Yet, on second thought, I would think it has a lot of mysterious possibilities for wonderings. If you were asked point blank to jot down 3 key turning points in your childhood, what would they be?

Notice the word “key” as in the key that opens a door.

So who knows what people would answer to what they thought was a key moment in their childhood – that opened up for them – the future – and it came pouring in?

Someone might say it was the moment that my father walked in the door when I was 8 years old and he announced that he got this great job in Minneapolis and we moved and our life was changed.

Another might say, “It was when we visited my cousins' house in Wilmington, Delaware, one summer and my cousin, whom I really didn’t know, was playing a guitar down the basement – and I opened up the door and went down there and he let me try his guitar. That was the moment. When I got home I asked my dad if I could get a guitar and he said, ‘Sure, if you pay for it – so start saving.’ My dad knew from experience with me that I was a fad person – and nothing ever lasted. Well, I was determined to prove him wrong. I saved and saved till the day came when we walked to the music store on Main Street. When we walked in that front door – I knew music was my future and it was – starting from that day when I heard my cousin playing a guitar.”

It could be a door called death, divorce or disaster. Doors ….

For me it was a priest who opened up our grammar school classroom door – OLPH Brooklyn, NY – and gave us a talk about his work in Brazil. He showed us pictures of priests wearing pith helmets on horseback. He talked about his work with great excitement and asked, “Is there anyone in this classroom who would be interested in being a Redemptorist Missionary in Brazil?” I raised my hand.

I never got to Brazil – but we had horses in our major seminary and I got to shovel horse manure morning and evening – one week every month – for six years. It was great training for speaking in public.

MADELINE ALBRIGHT

In a commencement address a few years back – some May day – on some university campus, Madeline Albright said to the graduating class, “Remember: it’s not who you know. It’s whom you know.”

I read her address – but that’s the only thing I remembered – probably because there are a few grammatical things I never get straight. Who or whom? Affect or effect?

Door question: whom do you know who has opened up doors for you in this life?

My nephew Gerard was out of work for about a year. He sent out over 100 resumes. Nothing worked. He goes to a party – meets a guy he used to work with on Wall Street in New York who asks, “Gerard, where are you working now?” “Oh, I’m out of work!” “Oh, okay, here’s my card. Drop in and see me Monday morning.” He’s been working there ever since.

DOORS: OPEN OR CLOSED?

If you had one of those 8 ½ by 11 inch laminated signs – that hang on doors – with a chain or a string on it – one side saying, “Open” and the other side saying, “Closed” – which side would better describe you: open or closed? Which side do you show to your family?

THE DOOR CALLED “FAITH”

You’re here this morning. You walked through these doors?

In the first reading Paul and Barnabas reported to the Christian community at Antioch all the doors God had opened up for them – especially the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Who opened up the doors of faith for you?

Yesterday we had in our parish two weddings, a baptism, a funeral, and two large first communion Masses.

People walked through our doorways – maybe for the first time in years – maybe for the first time in a week. What were they thinking when they sat there at these key life moments?

Today’s gospel – and many of the gospels for Sundays after Easter take place in the Upper Room. It was the place Jesus met for his Last Supper with his disciples. It was the place whose doors were locked shut after Jesus was killed – and Jesus appeared in the midst of his disciples and he said to them, "Peace".

In the scriptures we discover that doors go two ways. We enter into rooms where God is and sometimes God– Father, Son and Holy Spirit - enter into our rooms. Sometimes we knock on Jesus’ door; sometimes Jesus knocks on our door.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says we have inside of us an inner room. I always found that image fascinating. An inner room – somewhere inside of this mystery called “me”. What does that room look like? Empty? Clean? Cobwebs? Well used? Locked? [Cf. Matthew 6:6]

C.S. Lewis in his writings – talks about the secret door – in the back of the wardrobe – that if opened, leads to mysterious places.

Lewis Carroll in his story of Alice in Wonderland talks about the mysterious hole Alice falls into and leads her to mysterious places deep down inside her life.

Today’s second reading has God coming down to us – and creating a new heavens and a new earth . God comes down and recreates the earthly city into the New Jerusalem – the new earth. He wipes away every tear. There will be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain – for the old order has passed away. Isn't that close to a line in a Bob Dylan song? And the one on the throne says, “Behold I make all things new.” [Check my Quote of the Day for tomorrow, May 3, 2010]

Am I open or close to new life – to a marriage with God - to an amazing relationship with God?

Imaging going through life and never opening up the door of our soul? The door to our inner room?

Imagine never going into that mysterious, wonderful room, where we can sit with Jesus and talk about life to – where he feeds us – where he washes our feet?

Knock on that door!

CONCLUSION

Let me close with a short mysterious poem by Emily Dickinson. It’s called, # 49 – and was written around 1858.

“I never lost as much but twice,
And that was in the sod.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God.”

Angels – twice descending
Reimbursed my store –
Burglar! Banker! – Father!
I am poor once more.”

When I read this, I can picture myself standing before the door of God. What do I need? What am I begging God for today?

MAYBE  I'M  WRONG

Quote for the Day

THE SAD TALE OF MR. MEARS

There was a man who had a clock,
His name was Matthew Mears;
And every day he wound that clock
For eight and twenty years.

And then one day he found that clock
An eight-day clock to be;
And a madder man than Matthew Mears
You would not wish to see.



Anonymous

Picture: A longcase clock with a pine case, c. 1790, by Thomas Ross of Hull. The two keyholes on either side of the dial show this to be an eight-day clock.

LONG  RUN  ROMANCE

Quote for the Day - May 1, 2010


“Will you love me in December as you do in May?”




Song by James J. Walker, [1881-1946], Beau James, [Mayor of New York 1926-1932]. It was set to music in 1905 by Ernest R. Ball [1878-1927]. Perhaps the thought came from words by John Alexander Joyce [1842-1915] who wrote, “I shall love you in December / With the love I gave in May.” Question and Answer, stanza 8. (The picture of Jimmy Walker is from 1926 - when he was mayor of New York City.

APRIL 

Quote for the Day


"April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."



T. S. Eliot [1888-1965], The Waste Land [1922]. I, The Burial of the Dead
Today is the last day of April. Is April the cruelest month for you?

A GOOD TEACHER

Quote for the Day -- April 29, 2010

"A good teacher is one who helps you become who you feel yourself to be. A good teacher is also one who says something you won't understand until 10 years later."

Julius Lester, "College Teachers," Quest, September, 1981

DON'T TELL US 
WHAT YOU HAVE BEGUN!
SHOW US WHAT YOU
FINISHED!

Quote for the Day


"The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings."




Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-1882]
And women too!

A  GOOD  GUY

Quote of the Day  April 27,  2010

A TOWN'S TRIBUTE TO ITS FRIEND

The other day in Emporia [Kansas], the longest funeral procession that has formed in ten years followed the Rev. John Jones three long miles in the hot July sun out to Dry Creek Cemetery. Now, a funeral procession may mean little or much. When a rich and powerful man dies, the people play politics and attend his funeral for various reasons. But here was the body of a meek, gentle little old man - a man "without purse of scrip." It won't take twenty minutes to settle his estate in probate court. He was a preacher of the gospel - but preachers have been buried before this in Emporia without much show of sorrow.

The reason so many people lined up behind the hearse that held the kind old man's mortality was simple: they loved him. He devoted his life to helping people. In a very simple way, without money or worldly power, he gave of the gentleness of his heart to all around him .... When others gave money - which was of their store - he gave prayers and hard work and an inspiring courage. He helped. In his sphere he was a power. And so when he lay down to sleep hundreds of friends trudged out to bid him good-by with moist and with cramped throats to wish him sweet slumber."

William Allen White [1868-1944] - American newspaper editor and politician.

RANDOM  ACTS 
OF KINDNESS 

Quote of the Day April 26, 2010


"Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame."


Alexander Pope [1688-1744]

OH, OKAY
NOW I KNOW

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Teen Mass for this 4th Sunday after Easter – C – is, “Oh, Okay, Now I Know.”

PHONE CALLS

How many times have we had the following experience?

We get a phone call and we recognize the voice, but we don’t know who it is, who is calling? We’re trying to figure it out – but the answer is not coming. It can be frustrating.

The person calling didn’t introduce himself or herself at the beginning of the call. They take it for granted we recognize their voice and who they are.

They know who we are, because they are the one who is calling.

Finally we have to ask, “Wait a minute, I have to ask a very important question, who is this?” Or, “I embarrassed to ask, but just who is this calling?”

Then the person – surprised – says, “Oh, this is Sue or Tim or Jack or Jill.”

And we go, “Oh, Okay, now I know….”

And then it becomes a different conversation.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

How many times have we had the following experience?

We’re walking in Borders or Best Buy or in some store or somewhere and we hear music. We hear a beat – a rhythm – some background music – and we say to ourselves, “I know that beat. I know that tune? What is it?” But we can’t come up with a name. And we keep trying – keep listening trying to “Name that tune!”

Last Friday evening I was visiting this home and three people played some music: piano, guitar, then piano again. When the host started to play some piano pieces and I knew none of the pieces – and the same thing happened with the two earlier players. The host played some classical music pieces. But then he played a piece that I recognized. It was the music from The Sting – a movie I loved. It was a Scott Joplin piece and because he loves Tango pieces – he transformed or whatever the verb is – the Scott Joplin piece by adding some Tango rhythms into it. Interesting.

I said to myself, “Oh, okay, now I know!”

PREMISE OR POINT

Here’s a premise. Just like the phone call, just like musical pieces, the more time we spend with a person, the more we remember their voice and their rhythms – their beat – what they are off on – what they are about.

More time – more know.

Common sense – common experience.

FIRST READING

Now a jump to today’s readings. This is a homily – a reflection on the readings at a particular Mass.

In this first reading Paul and Barnabas are preaching to a group of Jewish people. They are telling them that Jesus is background and background music for Jewish scriptures. They are playing that tune. They are trying to point out how Jewish Jesus is and how he fits into Jewish songs and psalms, prophecies and hopes.

The crowd rejects Paul and Barnabas.

If we knew Hebrew and Aramaic – if we knew the sounds and words of these languages – and then we heard the Gospels in Aramaic we would hear similar patterns, rhythms and sounds. Jesus grew up with the Jewish scriptures. We hear that when we hear him quoting Isaiah – the Psalms – and various other pieces of Jewish Scripture. The words of the Jewish scriptures had become flesh in him.

The folks here in the first reading reject Paul and Barnabas. They reject what Paul and Barnabas say is the word of the Lord. They reject the connecting of Jesus to their story.

So Paul and Barnabas bring their song to the Gentiles.

SECOND READING

In today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation, we have the powerful image of the Lamb. It’s a powerful image of Israel. We find it all through the Jewish scriptures. And John in this second reading is saying that Jesus is the Lamb who was sacrificed – slaughtered – just like Israel had been slaughtered – and sacrificed so often.

GOSPEL

And in the gospel, Jesus says that the sheep that are his – know his voice.

I remember hearing a talk once during which the speaker told about a Jesuit priest – who taught scriptures at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, that one summer he went to work on a ranch – a sheep ranch in Wyoming – I think it was Wyoming. The experience gave him new, fresh, understandings of what sheep and shepherds were like.

When a new born sheep is born and dropped in a field – they are very helpless. They need the shepherd. The only voice they know is the “Baa” of their mothers. Well, the shepherd goes through the fields finding the new sleep – makes sure they are all right – and they get to know the voice of the shepherd – so that when he calls – they will come running. Those of you who have a dog – know that dogs knows the sound of your voice. They come running when you call – for a treat – for a trip outside, etc. etc. etc.

CONCLUSIONS

So we come here to church to get to know the sound of Jesus – the voice of Jesus – the vision of Jesus – the music of Jesus – so that we can go out into our world be the love, music, hope, the voice of Jesus to our world.

That’s my homily. I hope you said somewhere in my homily, “Oh, Okay, I know what he’s talking about.”

VOICES AND VISIONS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4th Sunday of Easter - C - is, “Voices and Visions.”

If you hang around religion long enough, you’ll run into people who are off on “Voices and Visions.”

It’s tricky to preach on this – because some of you sitting here might be off on voices and visions. Relax I’ve been to Lourdes and I’ve been to Chartres in France – the most famous shrine of Mary in the Western World – up until Lourdes and Fatima.

Whatever…. yesterday this is what hit me – to say a few words about voices and visions – something I’ve been thinking about for a long while now.

Just the other day I saw a lady outside of church holding a little baby and I said to this other lady who was also standing there, “Isn’t that a beautiful baby?” And this other lady says looking right at the mother and the little baby girl, “Yeah, but you know what Nostradamus says about the world ending in 2012.”

At that I was hoping the little baby girl would give her a Bronx cheer, “Pfatt!”

If you hang around religion long enough, you’ll run into people who are off on “Voices and Visions” – “Predictions and Prophecies.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s 3 readings triggered for me this question about voices and visions.

Today’s second reading from The Book of Revelation begins this way, “I, John, had a vision….”

Today’s gospel has Jesus saying, “My sheep hear my voice.”

If you come here to church, you’ll hear 3 readings every Sabbath and 2 readings on weekday Masses. The reader says at the end of the first and second reading, “The word of the Lord” and we all answer, “Thanks be to God.” The deacon or priest reads the Gospel and concludes by saying, “The Gospel of the Lord” and everyone answers, “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”

By making those two responses, we are saying something very profound. In today’s first reading a whole group of people rejected Paul and Barnabas when they said they were speaking the word of God.

And there are billions of people around this world – who don’t hold what we hold – that the Bible is in a profound way – the Word of God.

PRIVATE REVELATIONS

If you hang around the Catholic Church long enough, you’ll run into people who are off on religious revelations: visions and voices.

And voices and visions sometimes fill churches and collection baskets. That’s a dig – but I’ve seen that taking place here and there.

Down through the centuries there have been many, many, many predictions about the end of the world – giving dates.

I always think that’s stupid – because dates come and go. Of course it has impact, if you give an exact date – and it’s coming soon.

Here we are in 2010. We made it past 2000 and 2001.

I loved the comment that someone made to someone in California who was worried about the world ending at midnight on January 1, 2000. “Relax it was midnight hours and hours ago in Australia and we’re still here.”

Volcanoes, hurricanes, violence and war – expect more.

Predictions of the end of the world – expect more – but it’s my take to say, “Don’t believe them – unless someone says that the sun is going to run out of fuel 5 to 8 billion years from now – or whatever scientists figure out.” We know that by just watching a fire in our fire place fade or the battery in a cell phone running out – till we recharge it. So when the sun runs out of fuel, this world will end – but folks might be on a dozen other planets. There’s a lot of future ahead of us.

I spent 8 and ½ years before I was stationed in Annapolis, preaching all over the country – and let me tell you – it’s my experience that people are fascinated by religious revelations. I also spent 14 years of my life working in two different retreat houses – and people would ask from time to time about books that claimed to be voices and visions from God or the Blessed Mother.

To be transparent, to be P.C. correct, I have to announce that I’m a skeptic when it comes to private revelations.

To be priest, I’ll say that the Church is very, very hesitant to approve private revelations. The Church also has announced non-approval of revelations that people claim – voices from Mary and Jesus – and who have you.

So if someone pushes some of this stuff on you, do what I was hoping that little baby would do to the Nostradamus lady, “Pfatt!” Or just say, “Interesting – and ooops I’m late for an appointment.”

If you want to know more about this stuff – and if you’re a Google Doodler on your computer – just type in, “Private Revelations” or “End of the World Predictions.” And if you’re retired, you won’t run out of stuff on private revelations.

Just know that the basic position of the Catholic Church is that you don’t have to accept private revelations. That statement is well documented – and has been publicized many times.

THE SCRIPTURES

Next pinch yourself – for being a Catholic. When it comes to the Bible we have wonderful teachings. And the Bible is filled with voices and visions.

It took us a long time and a lot of struggle to get to where we are today when it comes to how we understand the Bible – and there will be more growth in years to come.

The best thing I like is that we are not fundamentalists.

Today’s second reading from The Book of Revelation has been a great source for many interpretations and conjectures. If you want to know more about The Book of Revelation – take courses – and do your homework.

Now we made mistakes. When scholars at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century said that The Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible, were not written by one person, Moses, the Catholic Church criticized such scholars – even when some of them were heavy duty specialists like Pere Marie Joseph Lagrange – a Dominican priest who taught and wrote from the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. The scholars said there are various authors and voices in Genesis and the next four books. It’s like a scholar saying, “If I picked up a play by Shakespeare and another play by Arthur Miller, or a story by Hemingway and a story by Dickens, I can tell these are different writers.”

So someone like Pere Lagrange – after a lot of study and research – said such things about The Book of Genesis and from 1902 till 1938, he was labeled “suspicious”. In 1912 he was exiled.

By now many Catholics have heard about the 4 schools of writers in The Book of Genesis. It’s a theory – but to many it makes some sense – and we understand the Adam and Eve stories, etc. a lot better.

Years ago we priests hesitated to say something like this from the pulpit – because folks who had different assumptions about the Bible would make an inner, “Uh oh!” But Catholics for the past 50 or so years have read and attended Bible classes and talks and heard preachers from time to time go from these different premises. And folks instead of saying, “Uh oh!” would say, “Oh okay, that makes sense.”

And it helped very much when Pope Pius XII in 1943 came out with his liberating encyclical on the Bible, Divino Afflante Spiritu. Pere Lagrange didn’t live long enough to see this.

And then we have development in The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation [Dei Verbum] by the Second Vatican Council on November 18, 1965.

When I see people pushing or reading private revelations – especially in prayer groups, I say to myself, “I wish they would read the Bible and the Documents of Vatican II instead.” I wish they would use the many excellent commentaries on the Bible, like “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”. I would add, there are very few – if any - scholarly commentaries on private revelations.

HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD

In Thomas Szasz’ book, The Second Sin, [1973] which I found fascinating and challenging, the several times I’ve read it, he says, “If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic.”

Today’s gospel begins, “Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice ….”

Have you ever heard Jesus speak to you? Have you ever had a God experience?

Andrew Greeley – in his work as a sociologist – said that many people have had God or Jesus experiences. I’ve had a few – but I don’t make them Gospel.

I’ve found out many people have had so called “private revelations”. A few times I thought they were crazy – I didn’t use the word, “schizophrenic” – but many times I have been moved by people telling me stories and experiences they have had of God’s presence and love and voice of reassurance after a loved one died or on a vacation in the mountains or at the ocean or while sitting in the Eucharistic Chapel – or sometime in the middle of a late night moment when they looked out the window at a star filled sky.

CONCLUSION

In fact, I hold – and I hold this very strongly – that if we pray – and sit or kneel in the presence of God on a regular basis – even though one has many distractions and doubts in prayer, at times in doing this, we’ll have so called “God’s presence feelings and moments.”

Having taught spirituality for 9 years, I add that saints who write about this sometimes say, “God is more present in the dark nights of the soul than in the bright morning light of spiritual delights.”

Then I add, if we pray on a regular basis, we will see and hear God’s voice on a regular basis. We’ll hear God’s voice and see God’s presence in a baby’s looking at us in church or an old person’s smile at a 90th birthday party or and old person with a great smile sitting there at the edge of a dance floor at a wedding watching everything – or a wave from a little kid to us when there is a car next to us at a red light – or when we see the beautiful green of a piece of steamed broccoli or a bird on a branch outside our kitchen window – over and over again. We’ll hear God saying, “I’m here. Hi! I’m with you all days – even to the end of the word and we say, “Thanks be to God.”

GARDENS 

Quote of the Day:  April 25,  2010

"God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man .... I do hold ... there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year; in which ... things of beauty may be seen in their season."

Francis Bacon [1561-1626], Of Gardens

A  TEACHER  CALLED, 
"UH  OH!"

Quote of the Day:  April  24,  2010


"A good scare is worth more ... than good advice."


Edgar Watson Howe [1853-1937] - Country Town Sayings, 1922