ANGER TAKES ENERGY!

August  4,  2011

Quote for Today

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy. To be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, in the right way - now that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC], Nicomachean Ethics, Book ii, chapter 9.

On top: Roman alabaster copy of a Greek bronze original of Aristotle by Lysippus around 330 BC

MAYA

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 18th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Maya.”

As you all know, one of the meanings of the Sanskrit word, “Maya” is, “Illusion.” “Ma” is the Sanskrit word for “not” and “Ya” is the Sanskrit word for “that”. I believe they have other meanings as well. I am not a linguist.

Yet from what I investigated, “maya” means “not that”.

Or as we sometimes say to each other: “It’s not what you think it is.”

Sanskrit - the most basic and original of languages gives us these most basic words and ideas.

So a little baby points out, “ya” to what they want: “that”. And if we hand them the wrong color piece of candy or wrong toy, we’ll hear, “maya”. Not that, not that.

SERMON ALLUSIONS AND ILLUSIONS

The preacher preachers allusions - sometimes like impressionistic paintings - with the hope and prayer - images and words and metaphors touch people’s thoughts and memories.

The preacher also better be aware of illusion.

The preacher or teacher is under an illusion - maya - if he or she thinks people remember what they say - or hear what they say - or understand what they are talking about when they are speaking. Illusion!

The preacher forgets that he often doesn’t hear what others are saying - and worse, sometimes he doesn’t care what the other is saying. He wants to get home or somewhere else. And sometimes it all depends on who’s doing the talking.

This should not sound too dramatic. Husbands and wives have heard each other forever - and know what the other is saying or trying to say or not saying - sometimes from word one.

Listeners might listen to us priests or preachers at times to get the first few words so they can say to themselves “Okay what’s he off on today! Okay. Got it. Now back to what I’m talking to myself about right now.”

I do this when I’m listening to a sermon or a talk - or the evening news. You do this. We all do this.

I laugh inwardly at all this, because as priest I hear people confess distractions in prayers. I want to say, “Life is a distraction.” We all have “Monkey Brains” as they say in Hindu thought - with our thoughts jumping and swinging like a bunch of monkeys all over the place.

3 KEY STEPS ABOUT LIFE

Having said all this, I did hear something in a talk a good 20 years ago and it has helped me immensely.

Sister Maureen McCann of the Dallas, Pennsylvania Mercy Sisters said in a talk: “Life is: Illusion, Disillusionment, and Decision.”

Wow did that make sense. People date. People get engaged to marry. People discover months after the honeymoon, that what they saw before the marriage was an illusion. “Boy - girl - was I disillusioned.” Then they have to make a decision about, “What now””.

Life. The car, the house, the job, the trip, the vacation, the meal looked good on the menu - and on and on and on. I have a big hole in one of my socks right now. When I bought them in K-Mart - I never thought that one day, they would become “holy”.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

I said all of the above because that’s what the Israelites discovered - as we heard in today’s first reading: Numbers 13: 1-2, 25 - 14:1, 26-29a, 34-35.

The Israelites grumble, grumble, grumble - because getting into the Promised Land - the land of milk and honey - is not a cake walk. There are giants to conquer and they feel as small as grasshoppers.

Where have we heard that before?

We hear that every day in many ways.

I never promised you a rose garden - but sorry about all the thorns - and the rose petals have started to fall off the roses you gave me yesterday. Life! Life. What an illusion!

SAM  LEVINSON

Sam Levinson loved to say that the Jews of Europe - like all immigrants - were told that the streets of America were paved in gold. When they got here they found out not only were they not gold, they were not even paved and they had to pave them.

What’s with all this grumbling about immigrants - legal and illegal? They are doing what everyone has done who came to America. They are fighting giants - as they are being treated like grasshoppers.

In this year on St. John Neumann, I recently finished reading a big long life of St. John Neumann. - an immigrant who came to the United States and never lost his foreign accent. Now I’m reading a second life of St. John Neumman. He had to discover what all the immigrants to the United States or anywhere discover: where you arrive is not what you think it was going to be. It’s work. It’s lonely. It’s a struggle. It’s a decision to stay or leave.

Life is takes place with three steps or stages: Illusion. Disillusionment. Decision.

CONCLUSION

Does this mean we become cynics or pessimists or depressed?

Hope not!

I have made the decision to know and to say, "This is life! This is funny sometimes. This is realistic. This is reality. Sometimes there are laughs. Sometimes there are tears. This is life."

Tires and rugs and skin and the human body get wrinkled and wear out.

It’s an illusion that we’re going to live and last forever. Some people seem to think that - when they or someone they love gets big time health problems.

I also think all of us have to discover some of this on our own - with our own set of disillusions.

In the meanwhile - I also like to say to myself Thorton Wilder’s words from his 1942 play, The Skin of Our Teeth, “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate - that’s my philosophy.”

The bummer about that is I always loved that saying and always loved ice cream - and then I got diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is a bummer! Yet I've discovered and decided on sugar free ice cream at times. And in the meantime, there is always peanut butter on rye bread.

WRITE THAT POEM!

Quote for Today - August 3, 2011

"Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?"

William Shakespeare [1564-1616], Much Ado About Nothing, Act V, Scene 2, 1, 4

P.S. Did anyone ever write you a poem? Do you still have it? Will they find it with your stuff after you die? Have you read it over and over - long after the moment? Have you ever written a sonnet about / for another? What happened next? What has been your greatest compliment? Tell me more.

Photo on top: a gal who posed at the doorway of a shop we went by in Tallin, Estonia in 2009.

SIBLING RIVALRY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 18th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Sibling Rivalry.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

When I read today’s first reading from Numbers 12: 1-13, I scratched my head and said, “Now what is this all about?” Next I thought: “No wonder we ignore the first reading for homily consideration at times - because this is too complicated. It’s too early in the morning. Will anyone get anything out of this first reading?”

I read the first reading again. Then I read what the commentaries say about the text. I smiled when I read that a few of them say it’s complicated. It has various threads of thought and experiences that come from various times and sources of Israel’s history. What I found most intriguing was the comment and the text is being used in struggles between two types of prophets in Israel in the 8th century BC - using a story that came down from word of mouth from earlier - from a story from the time of the Exodus - which some date in the 1400’s. [1] So because it’s a mishmash part of the stories about Moses and others, no wonder it’s a head scratcher.

Then a new thought hit me. That's what I am usually hoping for when reading the readings of the day and trying to come up with a short thought for a homily.

The new thought: people at times ask about how to read the Bible. New thought: why not suggest going through the Bible using the issue of Sibling Rivalry?

Someone could go through the Bible - cover to cover - and jot down any and every sibling rivalry story that comes up. Put down character’s names and then the text numbers like: Cain and Abel Genesis 1-16; Abram and Lot Genesis 13: 1-18; Ishmael and Hagar, Genesis 16: 1-16; and on and on and on.

It could be done. And here in Numbers 12: 13 we a sibling rivalry between a brother and a sister with their brother Moses.

SIBLINGS

When I was growing up, if someone asked me how many siblings I had, I would wondering if they were asking about a type of gold fish or a yo yo or what have you. I never heard the word, “Sibling” - so when I began to hear the word, I wasn’t sure just what it meant. Now it’s as common as words like “texting” or “twittering”.

THE RESULTS

By going through the whole Bible and jotting down various sibling rivalries - like the Prodigal Son and his older brother, James and John, and a whole list from the Old Testament - like Joseph and his brothers, we could do some heavy thinking about all this.

One thought would be the question of whether the world is hurting itself by less and less kids in families. What will China be like by only wanting boys and limitings? What will Europe be like by not repopulating itself and then comes the influx of folks from other parts of the world - who are having lots of kids? Kids are expensive. Kids are the stories of life.

The Catholic Church has always stressed the importance of children as the key to marriage and life.

How about listening to therapists and grandmothers and grandfathers and people from big families and people from small families? What’s their take and what’s their experience of where they come from?

Is it important for people to experience family - and their place in a family? Is it important for people to wonder about what it meant to be the oldest of 5 or the youngest of 6 or the middle child of 3 or the only boy of 7 or the only girl of 4 or to have experienced the death of a brother or a sister at an early age - or to get hand me downs - or be in packed bedrooms - or to think mom or dad likes so and so more than me or him or her. Is it important to deal with contrasts and comparisons? What it like to be the Black Sheep of the family - or to have teachers compare us to an older brother or sister - or to be an only child and one visits cousins in abundance from bigger families. What’s it like for an oldest in one family marry the youngest in another family? I’ve heard there are optimum situtations. What about step-children and adopted children - in the family mix?

It’s the stuff of story and it’s the stuff of Bible.

CONCLUSION

So today’s first reading begins with something that happens in various families. It begins this way: “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman.”

Were they unhappy with their sister-in-law? Were they unhappy with their brother’s choice of a wife? Or was it something else? Jealousy? Comparison? What have you? Then Miriam gets leprosy - a skin disease and turns white. What is that all about? And God is described as angry with Miriam. Does God make us itch and scratch our heads and body when rivalry and messy family stuff is going on?

Scratch the surface of all this. Family stuff is Bible stuff. Family stuff is our stuff. Family stuff is learning stuff.

NOTES

[1] Cf. God Day By Day, Following the Weekday Lectionary, Vol. two, Ordinary Time: Matthew, Marcel Bastin, Ghislain Pinchers, Michel Teheux, page 183; The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, "Numbers", p.85, #28, by Conrad E. L’Heureux.

IT  HURTS

Quote For Today - August 2,  2011

"The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness, than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings."

William Hazlitt [1778-1830], in Works, Volume X, page 324.

Photograph by Ruth Framson of the New York Times, November 2008, showing a girl in Shivpuri, India, suffering from malnutrition which stunts growth.

ON HEARING CONFESSIONS

Quote for Today - Feast of St. Alphonsus - August 1, 2011

"Be a lion in the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional."


Saying of St. Alphonsus de Liguori [1696-1787]

FINDING JESUS

IN A DESERTED PLACE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 18 Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, is, “Finding Jesus In A Deserted Place.”

Looking at your life have you ever been deserted - dropped - rejected from a relationship or a marriage that didn’t make it? Or you’re out of work or you’re out of meaning or out of sorts? Have you ever felt like you’re left all alone? You feel like burnt toast - a single slice of hard toast, no longer hot - you’re cold, dumped - tossed into a boneless garbage bag in a plastic garbage can - along with soggy spinach tossed on top of you - it too rejected after hiding in the back of the refrigerator for a week, and you’re just there - slowly becoming more and more soggy because you’re soaked in spinach juice - there along with egg shells, coffee grinds and a used t-bag or two?

Did you notice if Jesus was there in that same place - along with you and others?

Today’s gospel begins, “When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”

We can picture that. Jesus, who was connected to John the Baptist, hears that John was killed, beheaded. Tough stuff. Wouldn’t we all become silent - like when we hear on the evening news about someone who was kidnapped and then found dead, beheaded, left behind some building next to or in a dumpster? Uggh! Tough stuff.

The gist or movement or argument of my homily is the following question: “Do we find ourselves reaching out for Jesus - looking for Jesus - finding Jesus - discovering Jesus more - when we are feeling deserted - when things are not right - than when we feel all is going well, all is flourishing - all is right?”

Do we pray more when in a storm than in calm cool weather?

Do we knock on God’s door more when someone is dying - or when we get a cancer scare - than in the middle of a golf game and we’re doing well - or we’re at Ocean City on vacation and the weather is perfect?

EMPTINESS AND FULLNESS

As I read today’s three readings as well as today’s Psalm 145 - I hear the themes of emptiness and fullness. We know both feelings - but I dare say - we know the feeling of emptiness more than the feeling of fullness. And paradoxically, sometimes when we feel filled, bloated, full of the wrong stuff, we can feel empty. Life is tricky. Life is intricate.

Here at St. Mary’s  Parish we have a lot of funerals. As priest I know the feeling of doing a funeral on a Saturday morning and then switching gears and doing a wedding on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes, it’s hard to switch gears.

So there is a difference between at a wedding and at a funeral. There’s a difference between a honeymoon and a divorce. There’s a difference between winning and losing. There’s a difference between being cold watermelon on a hot day than being tossed toast or being that week old spinach in the back of a cold refrigerator and then tossed into the garbage on top of toast that was burnt and rejected.

And sometimes we all feel the need to escape, to run, to take a good walk - alone - to get in a boat, take a vacation, and get away from it all - to sort it all out - but sometimes we can’t catch a break.

When do we feel empty? When do we feel full? Do we ever spot Jesus in those places - in those moments?

If I heard 3 people say it lately, I’ve heard a dozen people say it: sometimes the evening news is too wrong - especially when it shows the wrangling and the theater and the push and pull and politics - this time using the debt. Then the play of that news is followed by a story about a bombing in Iraq or Afghanistan or Norway or wherever. Then there’s a story about fires or drought in the south or southwest and the hope for rain and on and on and on. Then they play a feel good story at the end of the evening news - maybe out of guilt - or maybe people on the staff feel a need for more balance.

How do newscasters switch gears? How do they stop from being robotic? How do they tell a story with integrity and authenticity night after night after night? I like to hear that some TV anchor is on vacation - because we all need “time-out’s” - escapes - from the everyday - especially when it’s hot and humid or it’s too much.

Is that what Jesus was doing when he escaped in a boat to a deserted place?

TODAY’S READINGS

Like a newscaster let me make a review of today’s readings.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah 55 is a classic text. We know the words. We’ve heard it sung: “Come to the water!” “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy.”

Powerful words about basic human feelings of being thirsty and being hungry, wasting our money and our lives on what does not satisfy. We know the feeling. We’ve been there. Do you spot Jesus there?

Psalm 145’s response - which we sang 4 times - has the message “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”

Today’s second reading from  Romans  proclaims fullness and emptiness in a very powerful way as well: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” Christ is fullness. Then Paul mentions empty feelings: anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. Then Paul mentions fullness as well as emptiness again: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tag that. I’m going to get back to that at the end of this homily.

And then in the gospel for today we hear about food - 5000 plus people wanting food - food glorious food.

There are a lot of takes on today’s gospel. To me it’s a Eucharistic Text from the Early Church. We find it in all 4 gospels. (1)

I think of this gospel scene at the moment of the Mass when giving out communion. This gospel story gives us the beginnings of the never empty basket, the never empty ciborium, the never empty tabernacle, the never empty hands of Christ giving bread to our world.

I love giving out communion - the Bread of Life. I love it when a parent comes down the aisle at Mass with a little kid - who hasn’t made his or her first communion yet - and the kid reaches out for the Bread of Life. When I see the kid doing what the parent did - putting their hand out to receive, I pray: “Keep reaching kid, keep hungering kid, keep wanting kid.”

Christ tells his disciples to keep on handing out the bread - today - tomorrow - and forever.

The dish - the cup - the basket never runs out of the bread.

Come to the banquet!

DESIRE - FIRE - HUNGERS - THIRSTS - OUTSIDE AND IN

Being a priest I have thought an awful lot about the Mass - especially the Mass as a banquet - the Mass as a meal - when thousands and thousands and thousands of people come week after week to be fed with Jesus the Bread of Life.

Being a human being I have also thought about food - the place of food in our lives.

The four gospels feature food as central to life - obviously.

The four gospels feature Jesus talking about food, feeding people, eating with people - being in communion with people.

When we find ourselves in deserted places - or on a bottom shelf in the back of a refrigerator - we sometimes ask ourselves, “What am I after? What am I searching for? What are my hungers and thirsts? What are my needs? What are my desires? What are my fires? What am I buying?”

Do we find Jesus sitting there in the deserted places where we find these questions often arising in?

For starters we know we need food and drink, bread and wine and fish.

Everybody does.

TV news reminds us of places around the world where people are reaching out for food and drink - especially the starving.

We see children down to bare bones reaching out for bread and water - anything.

Food glorious food. There is enough for everyone - if we can get our act together - if we can change our priorities - especially if we put into practice the cry of the prophets: "to hammer swords into ploughshears, spears into sickles - nations not lifting sword against nations - nor train for war no more." This might be thought to be poetry - but I'll take Isaiah, Joel  and Micah as my prophets and profits. (2)

THE DESIRE FOR MORE

We always want more.

On these hot days the cold water font or the bottled water section of the store screams, “Come to the water!”

I love it when people coming up or down Duke of Gloucester Street stop in here for the water cooler down the corridor - so I can’t wait till this reconstruction is finished - so that scene will be playing again.

Come to the water.

There’s a message here!

Jesus hung out at wells. (3)

Jesus said he was the living water.(4)

Jesus said he was living bread. (5)

Jesus took bread and wine and said, “This is my body. This is my blood. Eat me. Receive me. And if you do eat me up, you’ll have everlasting life. (6)

As Christians we believe that Christ challenges us to look at what we are thirsting and hungering for in life. We're hungering for meaning - for what makes sense - for good news - for stories of people serving people - doing their job as parents - as engineers - as sales people - as computer experts - as public servants - as teachers - as doctors. I love the story that Martin Luther King was down in Memphis, Tennessee in support of garbage collectors when he was assassinated. Horrible, but he was there for others.

Next there are all those inner hungers and thirsts that every human being has.

As Christians we believe Christ taught us everyone is hungering and starving for love, for recognition, for appreciation, for acceptance, to be listened to.

As Christians we believe that we all need these signs of love and acceptance - and we in turn can do these things to one another - love spelled out.

Each of us has our five loaves and two fishes of love inside our cloaks and Jesus is calling us to give these gifts of love: recognition, appreciation, acceptance, affirmation, being listened to, taking time to be with, sharing food with - every day - and the miracle is these 7 gifts will never run out - if we love one another.

This week look people in the eye - people whom we are with all week - look deep into their eyes. Recognize them. Wonder what makes them tick. What are they hungering and thirsting for from me?

This week listen to people with our ears - people we’re with all the time. Listen to them deep into their ears. Hear what they are saying and not saying. What are they hungering and thirsting for from me?

CONCLUSION

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola who founded the Jesuits - whose great principle for how to discern in life is: if what you're doing is giving life, more; if what we’re doing is killing self and others, less.

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Alphonsus de Liguori who founded the Redemptorists - the priests in this parish. His great principle for a spiritual life was practicing the love of Jesus Christ. Be careful. There are things that can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ. So practice loving Christ. Practice loving how Jesus Christ loved. Wash feet. Give glasses of cool water. Eye ball people. Listen to people. Be with people in their broken places - in their painfilled places. That’s where Jesus hangs out and waits. Feed them. Be present to them. Be Jesus for them in those deserted places. Amen.

Notes:

(1) Matthew 14: 13-21 today's text - as well as Mark 6: 31-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6: 1-15.

(2) Isaiah 2:4; Joel 4: 9-11; Micah 4: 3.

(3)  John 4: 5-42

(4) John 7:37-38

(5) John 6: 32-66

(6) Luke 22: 14-20; Matthew 26: 26-28; Mark 14: 22-24; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-25.

REGRETS

Quote for Today - July 31,  2011

"Regrets are as personal as fingerprints."

Margaret Culkin Banning, "Living With Regrets," Reader's Digest, October 1958

P.S. Check out the truth of the above theory. Share your 3 top regrets with someone you trust one to one - and see where that takes your conversation with that person.

A GOOD LIFE

Quote for Today - July 30, 2011

"You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful."

Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express, Houghton Mifflin, 1979

P.S. Having read that, a question: "Now - how would you describe your life again?"

ICE  CREAM 

Quote for Today - July 29, 2011

"My tongue is smiling."

Abigail Trillin, aged 4 - on finishing a dish of chocolate ice cream, quoted by her father, Calvin Trillin, in Alice, Let's Eat, Random House 1978

OUR OLDEST MEMORIES

Quote for Today - July 28, 2011

"Most of our oldest memories are the product of repeated rehearsal and reconstruction."

Ulric Neisser, cognitivie psychologist, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, quoted by Sharon Begley, "Memory," Newsweek, September 29, 1986

Sorry!

Get that and you got glimmerings of how the Sacred Scriptures were put together and how people pull together their meaning and story.

KITCHEN  TABLE

 Quote for Today - July 27, 2011

"He sits at the kitchen table, which is the only authentic way to touch down at home in Queens."


Francis X Clines, On a man's return home from prolonged hospitalization, NewYork Times, June 16, 1979

SACRED PLACES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Sacred Places!”

Objectively one can say: all places are the same. Or, “Any place is as good as any other place!”

Subjectively: “It all depends!” On a hot day we might rather be in the Poconos - but I’ve lived there for 7 years - and these kinds of days could be hot. Rome, Italy is different than Rome, New York, which is different from Rome, Georgia.

Or as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) - - said to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) - - in Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris.”

The title of my homily is, “Sacred Places!”

Where are your sacred places? Where are your places where you can be one with God and one with yourself? Where are the places where you are at peace?

A favorite chair…. a corner with a window looking out to a street or a back yard …. a walk alone or with a friend …. a garden .... a church …. the Eucharistic chapel …. the beach early in the morning while on vacation…. the sky late at night when all is dark - when all seems still …. morning Mass …. a bench at Quiet Water’s Park or the Naval Academy …. the cellar …. a back porch …. a gazebo …. early morning kitchen table - coffee …. a rosary or a Bible or a prayer book in hand….

Where are your sacred places?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading [Exodus 33: 7-11, 34: 5-9, 28] when it talks about tent and meeting places, gives us a thread that will wind its way through both the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

In the Jewish scriptures there is the quest for a temple. The descendents of Abraham see all these other religions with their holy buildings and all they have is a tent - and the wilderness.

Eventually, Solomon will build the big temple in Jerusalem.

There is evidence of various holy places and shrines before that: Bethel, Shechem, Shiloh, Nob.

Moses begins with a tent - a meeting tent.

But he also went into the wilderness - as well as on mountains.

Jesus did likewise.

HOLY PLACES

Where are your holy places? Where are your sacred places?

Today, July 26, is the feast of St. Anne. We know that lots of people find going to a novena or a shrine - especially on a feast day - discover new life, new spiritual life, in a new way. I know of the big shrine at St. Anne de Beupre - which will be packed today. I also know of the St. Anne novena and shrine at St. Anne’s Scranton, Pa. And I preached the St. Anne novena in Erie Pa. two times.

Father Joe Krastel talked yesterday at this Mass about the big holy place of St. James in Spain - Santiago de Compostela - which millions have visited down through the year.

Novenas, missions, retreats have helped a lot of people get into God’s place, space and face, down through the years. Where are your holy places?

KEY - CONCLUSION

The key would be to enjoy the visit. The key would be is presence. The key would be prayer: prayer of gratitude, prayer of need, prayer of awe. The key for us here in this sacred place is to welcome God and each other. Amen.

SUBJECTIVE:

SUBJECT TO 

MY BAGGAGE

Quote for Today - July 26,  2011

"Show me a man who claims he is objective and I'll show you a man with illusions."

Henry R. Luce, Quoted in The New York Times, March 1, 1967

EARTHEN VESSELS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Earthen Vessels.”

It’s from the first sentence in today’s first reading on this feast of St. James: “Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.”

Earthen vessels…. is an image that made its way into song - as well as into the consciousness of Christians down through the centuries.

WE KNOW BOTTLES AND BOXES AND BAGS

We know about bottles and boxes and bags.

We store and shop. We box and save. We shop and bag.

We have wallets and pocketbooks, shopping bags and storage bens.

When throwing away plastic bottles or a I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter plastic bucket, I’ve often had the thought, “Wouldn’t someone 1000 or 2000 years ago love to have these containers. It would have made life so much sweeter and so much easier for them?”

In the meanwhile they are tosses or saved as recyclable - but I think they are crushed first.

ST. PAUL

Well, Paul is saying a lot here in his “earthen vessel” message.

Boxes and pocketbooks, bottles and bags, might look nice, but it’s what’s inside that counts.

The human body holds the treasure called Jesus - but the human body will be broken and broken up from time to time - and finally will give way to death and burial.

Jesus and the human person in Christ - is the treasure within us.

Some think he’s preaching humility to those who think they have great bodies - or to the clergy who think their vestments and titles are what makes us important.

St. Alphonsus would say, “Read my book priests and bishops! It’s called, ‘Preparation for Death.’”

So it’s not the cover of the Bible or the condition of the Bible or the book or the speaker, but the words inside that are dying to become us - become our flesh.

POUR PRAYER

I wrote a poor prayer for a conclusion for this homily. The prayer is called, “Pour Prayer.”

                                 POUR PRAYER

                   Pour yourself into me today, Lord.
                   Pour yourself into me, today, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself today, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself today, Lord,
                   because I’m an empty earthen vessel.

                   Bring me to others today, Lord.
                   Bring me to others today, Lord.
                   Others who feel like they are
                   empty vessels or those who are
                   too filled with themselves, Lord.

                   Empty me of myself, Lord.
                   Empty me of myself, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself, Lord,
                   so I can pour yourself out to others.

THE SELF-EVIDENT GOD

Quote for Today  - July 25, 2011

"God is the mysterium tremendum that appears and overthrows, but he is also the mystery of the self-evident, nearer to me than my I."

Martin Buber, recalled on his death, June 13, 1965

THY KINGDOM COME!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Thy Kingdom Come!”

At the end of today’s gospel, Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you understand all these things?” They answer, “Yes!”

Have you ever lied when someone asks you, “Do you understand?” I know I have - many times. Sometimes I have no clue to what someone is talking about. I know if I say, “No! I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” they might try to explain what they are trying to explain again - or feel insulted or think I wasn’t listening. Most of the time when this is happening, I just want to get away - get out of there.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Jesus often talks about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Do we understand what he means by “kingdom”?

I'm  tempted to ask for a show of hands - but no hands might go up.

I know I don’t understand what the kingdom is - but sometimes I do - or I think I do. It’s a mystery. It’s an attitude. It’s a reality. It’s an outlook. It’s a way of seeing and doing life. It's here and now. It's here and hereafter. It’s an understanding.

I have glimpses about what Jesus means by kingdom - but then again I wonder if I’m right.

Jesus gives lots of parables to try to explain what he came up with in trying to describe this so called “kingdom.” That tells me that it’s a mysterious or a difficult concept to get one’s mind around it.

It’s like this. It’s like that.

Thy Kingdom come!

What does that mean?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us it’s like 3 things. It’s like a treasure buried in a field that is discovered. It’s like a pearl found in a market. It’s like a net thrown into the sea that collects all sorts of things.

Today’s gospel tells me it’s a discovery - a “Eureka moment” - an “aha moment” - an “eye opening moment” - a conversion moment.

TWO SCENARIOS - REFLECTING ON TODAY’S GOSPEL

First Scenario: A parent dies - our other parent had died sometime earlier. It’s our job now to go through their stuff - because the house is going to be sold or what have you. And we discover all sorts of things.

Some things would be labeled “priceless” as the TV commercial puts it. Some thing might be a total surprise - and worth a lot of money after we bring it to Antique Road show - or get it appraised.

Using today’s 3 parables we might find some thing we want - so we sort of hide it - so our other siblings don’t see it or get it. Or we find a pearl of great price. Or we find some stuff that needs to be tossed - and then we invite everyone in to take their pickings of what is judged to be “good” - and the rest is tossed or brought to Goodwill or what have you.

Going through another’s stuff - one’s treasures - could be very, very interesting - and sometimes we have to protect our parents or one parent - because of some thing we discovered or what have you.

Doing this could be an “Aha moment!” or it could be an “Uh oh!” moment.

Second Scenario: I’ve been on a lot of retreats and on a lot of retreats there is an exercise called, “The House on Fire Exercise”.

The retreat leader asks: “If your house was on fire and you could only bring 3 things out, what would they be? In this exercise the leader usually says, “Not counting people or pets!”

It’s a great exercise.

Once I was actually in a barber shop in Port Ewen, N.Y. waiting to get a haircut. A radio was playing music. Suddenly an annoucement came over the radio about  a fire happening on such and such a street - at such and such an address - in Kingston, N.Y. which was just across the bridge. A guy in the barber chair with half a hair cut, jumps out of the chair, tosses the barber’s cloth on a chair, and says, “I’m out of here. That’s my house! There’s some stuff I’m going to see if I can save.”

Next time you’re stuck in traffic or there’s a long line in the supermarket or at the airport and there is a delay, try that exercise. What are your 3 most important possessions?

Or you can go into any room of your house and just sit there and look around at what you got and then ask yourself , "What are the 3 most important things in this room?" Or "What are the 3 most important things in this house that I would save if this house were on fire?"

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN

It seems that when Jesus is talking about the kingdom, he’s talking about an inner reality - an inner outlook - but he uses outer realities like finding a treasure in a field or a pearl in the marketplace or casting a net into the waters - to help us to understand what he’s talking about within.

So he's talking about finding something - discovering something - that becomes our most important possession - but it's invisible. It's within. It's a spiritual reality. It's our most precious reality.

Jesus knows we are citizens of place - but we can also go into inner places - inner spaces.

We know what our outer labels are: American, female, male, liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Italian, Lithuanian, Lebanese, immigrant, native born, young, old, fat, thin, tall, short, baby boomer, X generation, Annapolitan, Washingtonian, Snow Bird, teacher, accountant, engineer, nurse, retired, or what have you.

Jesus uses the metaphor of kingdom to ask us to belong to and become a citizen of the kingdom of God.

And this kingdom transcends all boundaries - and barriers - all labels - all titles.

If someone asked us to describe ourselves, what would it be like to describe oneself as, "I am a member of the kingdom of God"?

Such a description or label is not on any form that others ask us to fill out.

A DRAMATIC CHANGE - A DRAMATIC CONVERSION

What would it be like to go through the rest of one’s life - seeing oneself mainly as a citizen of the Kingdom of God?

What would it be like discovering this? And then we realize: this is what I've been looking for all my life.

People would be seen differently - boundaries would be seen differently - the world would be seen differently - some labels and divisions would disappear.

Some say the Church is the Kingdom. Some would say to that: “It all depends on how you see Church.” Some would say that the Church could be seen as a means - not as an end. The Catholic Church’s call then would be seen as a call to people to be Kingdom people - so that the world would see practiced and hear proclaimed that Jesus is Lord and he has a vision for this life - leading us into eternal life.

See! It is complicated and mysterious. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? If you say “Yes” you have a better glimpse and grab on this than me. I would assume you'd say what a dozen people said to me after the last Mass: "I get about 25% of what you're saying." I replied, "Thank you. Nor bad. You made my day."

IN THE MEANWHILE

In the meanwhile, pray, “Thy Kingdom come!”

Let me now push something that I find practical. It’s one of my babies. It has to do with rosary beads. You might have heard me make this pitch from time to time from the pulpit.

Practically every Catholic has a rosary somewhere in their possession. If it was blessed by a pope or it was your dad's rosary and you took it out of his hands when they were closing his casket, then that rosary might be one of the 3 things you'd grab if your house was on fire.

Well, for the past 40 plus years,  I’ve been pushing people to use the rosary for prayer - for Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s. I've also stressed using the beads for shorter prayers - like “Lord have mercy!” or “Patience today Lord. It’s hot.” or "Hello Mary!" or  “Help!” To say a decade of those short prayers or a whole rosary of those prayers takes moments - two minutes - and for many it makes the rosary make a lot more sense as one’s worry beads or prayer beads. Get that and we got what Muslims and many people around the world are doing with their beads - including little old Italian and Irish and Polish ladies around the world are doing there - praying for their kids and grandkids and their neighbors kids.

Today I’m suggesting saying, “Thy Kingdom come” as a morning prayer. Using 10 beads on a rosary puts the prayer in hand and in mind. So after waking up, after a shower, after coffee or with coffee or before leaving the front door - or in the car say, pray, “Thy Kingdom Come!” “Thy Kingdom Come!” “Thy Kingdom come!” 10 times or a whole rosary.

At various times I have suggested this practice using other short prayers and folks have come up to me at various times and said they have been praying like that for 3 years now or what have you.

Three years from now, I hope one of your comes up and says, "You suggested saying, 'Thy Kingdom come!' and I've been using my rosary beads for short prayers for the past 3 years now. Thanks!"

So today I’m suggesting praying ,“Thy Kingdom come” that short prayer in the Our Father prayer.

Now comes the action step. Then that day we try to make that kingdom come.

Translation: we try that day to be understanding. Today’s first reading has the wonderful story of Solomon’s dream when God says to Solomon, “You can have one gift. What do you ask for?” So he asks for an understanding heart. Then God says, “Solomon you could have asked for riches - like to win the Jerusalem Lottery, you could have asked for a long life, or for your enemies to be killed, but because you asked for understanding, you’re getting it all.”

At the end of last evening’s Mass a guy came up to me after mass - when shaking hands and said, “I’ll tell you why Solomon asked for understanding. He had 700 wives and 300 other women in his harem!” I had never heard that one before.

Understanding: Well I hope they say about me in the funeral parlor, “Andy was understanding.”

Besides understanding, what else would be the practices, virtues and values of an invisible card carrying member of the kingdom?

Besides understanding, besides having Jesus as one’s Lord and Center, I would think it would be how we treat one another each day: we listen, we forgive, we respect, we try to make sure that folks have their daily bread - that we put into practice all those neat qualities that are in the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.

CONCLUSION

Thy kingdom come.

In this homily, I pushed and tried to proclaim the Kingdom of heaven - that we pray to discover good glimpses of this mysterious vision of how to live life that Jesus pushed. Do you understand all these things - or did I complicate it? Should I have stuck with those 3 simple images Jesus gave us: finding a treasure in a field or a pearl in a marketplace or a pulling up a net and checking out what we have come up with?

JUST 

ME 

AND MY 

CIRCUMSTANCES

Quote for Today - July 24, 2011

"I am I plus my circumstances."

Jose Ortega y Gasset,  Time, October 31, 1955

HAVING  A  BABY 

Quote for Today - July 23,  2011

"Making the decision to have a child - it's wondrous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

Elizabeth Stone

READ THE LAST CHAPTERS!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of St. Mary Magdalene is, “Read the Last Chapters!”

Today’s Gospel story of Mary Magdalene from Chapter 20 of John, which most consider is the original last chapter of John, 21 being an appendix and add on, triggered for me the title and theme of this homily, “Read the Last Chapters.”

DEATH

There have been a lot of funerals lately - and those of us who reflect upon death - wonder at times the universal question: “Is this all there is?”

Is this life, it?

For many death is the last chapter of life - but is it?

If you want the answer to that question, read the last chapters of the 4 gospels - and I would add, “Read the last chapter of 1st Corinthians.”

THE STONE

We’ve all seen movies when someone has a stone pinning them down - on their legs or even more of their body - and they can’t escape. Then he or she is discovered and different people unpin the person.

Well, many people have a big stone pinning them down to earth. They think the tombstone is it. They think the cemetery is it. Some want their ashes scattered on the bay or kept in a urn on a mantelpiece. Maybe - stress on "maybe!" - there are many motivations and sometimes they are mixed - they see these moves as ways of hanging around.

The Christian teaching - belief - is that Jesus lifts that stone - rolls back that stone - tosses aside that stone - and we rise to eternal life in Christ - because of Christ.

Matthew has Jesus earth quaking that stone - and he rises to Eternal life.

It’s a great day, an Easter Day, when we experience Jesus as the Risen Lord - not just Jesus as this famous historical person - who died on a cross a long time ago - or Jesus the great teacher in the gospels.

The experience - that meeting - is like the scene in today’s gospel - when Mary first thinks that this person talking to her is the gardener. He is a stranger - till he speaks her name - and then she says, “Rabbouni!” “Lord” - “Master!” and embraces him.

SUGGESTION

Read the last chapters of John, Mark, Matthew and Luke.

Ponder them. Savor them. Compare them.

Next read the last chapter of First Corinthians - then close the book - and hear Jesus call us by our first name - our baptismal name - or God’s pet name for us - or as others call it, “Our First Name of Grace” - the name God used in sending us into our mother’s womb - the name God uses when God pictures us - knows us - loves us.

Hear Jesus calling you - Listen - and you’ll cling to him - like Mary Magdalene did - and you will rejoice like she did.

And the stone called death will no longer pin you down.

And you’ll find yourself proclaiming your faith - that Jesus died and was buried - but that’s not the end. Jesus is Risen. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

HEAVEN AND HELL

Quote for Today - July 22, 2011

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven."

John Milton [1608-1674]