SHOW ME YOUR RULES 

AND I’LL TELL YOU 

 WHO YOU ARE?

TITLE

 The title of my homily for this 3rd Wednesday in Lent is, “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

 TODAY’S READINGS 

 Today’s two readings both talk about rules and regulations, statutes and decrees laws and parts of laws. The speaker in Deuteronomy is saying, “Look at our rules and you’ll see how great we are.”

ONCE UPON A TIME - I MADE THE RULES 

 Once upon a time I was in on making the rules. I had a job called “Novice Master.” Myself and another priest, Gil Enderle, had to come up with a rule book. We had General Statutes from Rome and Provincial Statutes from our province to guide us. We had to come up with particular laws - for our particular situation.

The first thing we did was to come up with other people’s rules books. We read them out loud to get the feel of them.

That was the first time I came up with the title of this homily, without really knowing it at first. “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are.”

You could get a flavor of the author or authors every time. One Rule book from one of our European provinces was quite picky and particular. It was extremely specific - naming names on whom you could talk to or what have you. It had lots and lots of iddy biddy die picky, picky rules. So we came up with our own rule book and it was revised every year. “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

By looking at rules and regulations, laws and decrees, you can know an awful lot about a group or a people or the lawmaker.

SECOND REALIZATION: EVERYWHERE THERE ARE RULES 

The next realization I discovered is that there are rules and regulations everywhere.

If you check into a hotel, check the fine print rules behind the door in your room.

To get on an airplane, you can’t have this or that in your carry-on bag. Once inside the plane, right at the beginning of the flight we always hear, “No smoking!” and “No tampering with the smoke detector in the bathrooms under pain of a fine.”

Rules… rules … rules…. There are rules about drinking and driving and there are the rules of the highway. Every school, college, bar, has rules.

 Then there are house rules - the rules of the house. They are unwritten but listen carefully when you stay overnight in someone’s home.

 I was at a retirement of a Navy Captain a few weeks back over at the Naval Academy. The guy in his talk - with his mom present - the mother of 10 or 11 kids - described his mom this way: There are two kinds of mothers - helicopter mothers and B-52 bomb mothers. Helicopter mothers hover over their kids and B-52 bomb mothers drop their kids off from a distance and let them land and learn on their own. Our mom was a B-52 bomber mother.

 There it was 2 different personality types. I would assume the helicopter mom or dad would have a lot more rules and regulations for their kids than the B-52 bomber mom or dad.

As I thought about all this, sure enough everyone has rules and regulations for life. They are called assumptions and expectations and what have you. Two people date. There are expectations and rules and regulations - whether articulated or not.

THIRD OBSERVATION 

We all have a whole list of commandments in our skulls. Everyone does. It’s our expectations on what makes a good Mass, sermon, meal, conversation, etc. etc. etc.

If somehow we could jot them down, like Moses did before coming down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments - could we say what the Book of Deuteronomy says today - that our rules are the best.

In fact, wouldn't we be embarrassed? Wouldn't some of our personal rules be rather selfish or what have you?

Listen carefully to  little kids. If someone gets a hug or the ice cream or the toy first, they let everyone in their surrounding sound area or arena know that they are angry and resent being #2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. Isn't the # 1 rule for many people, "Me, Me, Me First!"

Listen carefully to people - and not just parents to their kids. Their first commandment seems to be, “I want what I want when I want it.” 

Listen carefully to parents give counter commandments. “Share you toys with Jonathan.”  Dig deep into that command. Isn't that parents  trying to get kids to learn the Golden Rule - in just one more version, “How would you like it, if someone did to you, what you just did to your sister.”

CONCLUSION

 And on and on.

So the title of my homily is, “Show Me Your Rules And I’ll Tell You Who You Are?”

I’m saying that if we discover the rule book that is written on our heart, we’ll could learn a lot about ourselves.

So be honest. Be humble. Write. Look at. Share. Compare. Then rewrite and keep revising your own personal rules for life. Amen.

CONSEQUENCES

March  14,  2012

Quote for Today

"It seems to me 
probably
that any one
who has a series of intolerable positions
to put up with
must have been responsible for them
to some extent ...
they have contributed to it
by impatience or intolerance,
or brusqueness -
or some provocation."

Robert Hugh Benson [1871-1914]

IT’S A LONG ROAD 

FROM FORGIVENESS TO TRUST

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “It’s A Long Road from Forgiveness to Trust.”

TV PROGRAM

Last night Father Harrison and I were watching some TV show. I missed the beginning of it - so I’m not sure what it was. Two guys who worked together had a fight. One guy was trying to get back into the other guy’s good graces. The guy who was being asked to forgive said to the other guy, “It’s a long road from forgiveness to trust.”

Hearing that I said to Father Harrison, “That’s a great line for a sermon: “It’s a long road from forgiveness to trust.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Then last night I read today’s gospel to come up with a homily. Surprise! It’s all about forgiveness. It talks about forgiving over and over and over again.

I’ve always said to folks that forgiveness is a choice. It does not mean that we put a hurt out of our mind. In fact, we might feel the hurt for the rest of our life.

I’ve also said, “Forgetting is dementia.”

Moreover, it's my experience - for us old folks - long term memory is better than short term memory.

I’ve also said, “Sometimes by forgiving, the memory of a hurt, can fade a bit - perhaps because we chosen to forgive another and we have made an effort to stop rehashing and rehearsing the hurt over and over and over again.” Or as Marlene Dietrich said, “Once a woman has forgiven a man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.”

So for starters there are two steps here: forgiving and forgetting.

Forgiveness has to do with the will.

Forgetting has to do with our memory - and when it comes to memory, there is nothing wrong with remembering. I believe that people need to hear that.

In fact, people like Thomas Szasz, who can be controversial as well as wise, says, “The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive, but do not forget.”

TRUST

I think this last quote has the issue of “trust” underneath it.

If someone hurts us big time, it’s wise to forgive them, because hurts need to scar - but if the other is into repeat performances - then why get hurt again?

Has this ever happened to you? We’re driving along and someone out of nowhere makes a left turn or a move and we brake - but if we didn’t brake, we might have hit them - right where there is in the other car - a big dent. And we say to ourselves: “This person will never learn.”

If any of you studied the 8 Stages of Life according to Erik Erikson in college, you know that the first stage is,  “Basic Trust vs. Basic Non-Trust”. The key developmental skill the little child needs to learn is to trust his mommy and daddy. Just watch little kids. When nervous their hand goes to their mouth - food is comfort and security - or they look for their mom or dad to run and cling to. If kids cry out for love and help and presence in the night or the day and nobody appears, uh oh, they can end up being in trouble for life. I was taught in pastoral counseling the following axiom: the bigger the problem, the earlier the problem. And the way I understand Erikson's last stage of life: “Ego Integrity vs. Despair” is this: at the end of my life, I look at my life and if it makes sense, great. Even though their were bumps and big potholes and crashes at times - along the road of life, I trust myself enough to say, “It was good!” If I look at my life and it was a disaster, then I could despair - or turn to God. That's why so many love the story of the Good Thief who stole heaven at the last hour. Good move!

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “It’s A Long Road from Forgiveness to Trust.”

To get started, we need to begin to forgive others as well as ourselves. How many times: “not seven times, but seventy-seven times” - or as many times as it takes.

We make mistakes. Others make mistakes towards us. These mistakes don’t have to erase us - or reduce us to nothing or put us to shame as today’s first reading puts it.

So I assume the secret is get on the road and move along it from forgiveness to trust - step by step by step. Amen.

LISTENING 

March  13,  2012

Quote for Today

"Listening brings wisdom; 
speaking brings repentance."

Italian Proverb

LISTENING

March  12,  2012

Quote for Today

"Years ago, I tried to top everyone, but I don't anymore.  I realized it was killing conversation.  When you're always trying for a topper,  you really aren't listening. It ruins communication."

Groucho Marx, The Groucho Phile, 1976

IS  ANYTHING  SACRED?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Third Sunday in Lent - Year B -  is, “Is Anything Sacred?”

That’s the question that hit me as I reflected on today’s readings - especially today’s gospel.

SITUATIONS

Have you ever found yourself saying, “Is Anything Sacred?” or “Isn’t Anything Sacred Anymore?”

What was the situation? 

Was it something that happened in the park or on a train or bus - or even in a church?

Was it something said in a song or a scene in a movie?

Was it the tone in political discourse - in debate - in talk shows - in conversation with coffee?  November the 6^th is a long way off.

Why do we talk differently when we talk about people when they are absent compared to when they are right there in our presence?

I think our everyday situations - can be looked at - in the light of Jesus’ everyday situations.

So what are the situations that get you to say, “Is Anything Sacred?”

What happened?

What was going on?

What triggered the feeling - the mismatch - the something’s wrong here reaction - the ugly anger in the moment or the situation because we didn’t expect what was happening to be happening?

TODAY’S GOSPEL: UPROAR

In today’s gospel Jesus walks into the temple area in Jerusalem. It’s near the feast of the Passover. The place is filled with buying and selling. Something’s wrong. There’s a discord. Jesus makes a whip out of cords and drives all the animals out of the temple area. He turns the tables on the money changers. Coins and doves go flying. Jesus yells out his motive: “Take these out of here. Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” Uproar results. Want to know why they crucified Jesus - as mentioned in today’s Second Reading? Here’s one reason. Here’s one scene.

What causes you uproar and agita?

What pushes your buttons?

What does your list of beefs look like?

Abuse of children? Offensive language? Going to a movie with kids and there’s a scene you didn’t expect? Noise in libraries? People who write in library books? People late for the play or the symphony and they come down the aisle rug in the semi-darkness  and their seats are is in Aisle C - numbers 11 and 12 - right in the center middle? Or a similar moment happens  at Mass. The reader is proclaiming the Second Reading.  Someone walks down the main aisle heading for a seat close to the front - and the person in that seat doesn’t  move in because they are going to give out communion or they like the aisle seat and the whole center of the church is watching - and missing the whole Second Reading?

REVERENCE - RESPECT - COURTESY - AWE

What’s going on here is the issue of “awe”.

Where and when do we learn a style of courtesy?

What do we find awesome?

What do we find awful?

What demands our respect?

What do we reverence?

Answers: persons, places and things.

Today’s First Reading gives us a list of commandments - which have as their underneath bottom line: the sacredness of God, the Sabbath, each other, marriage, children, neighbor, aliens, animals, property.

When I was at my first assignment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 1960’s, someone started a movement to clean our streets and improve our neighborhood. So on Saturday mornings in the Spring people came from all over the city to a street - say, “East Fourth Street from Avenue D all the way up to  2^nd  Avenue.” With plastic bags and brooms, shovels and trucks, an army of cleaners cleaned the street.

Then there was a lot - the lot with lots of stuff. I often walked down a certain street and there was this small lot in the middle of that street where a building once stood. It was filled with bathtubs, sinks, shopping carts with 3 wheels, mattresses, bottles, newspapers, garbage bags ripped with insides spilling out, etc. etc. etc. It was a place where you dumped what you wanted to dump and get rid of.

This lot was more difficult to clean than to clean a whole street. Some folks took the time to find out who owned the property. They got permissions. They got dump trucks and front end loaders. They went to work on that lot. Volunteers cleaned it all out. They made brick  paths. They got topsoil. They planted grass and flowers. They built a fenced in area for dogs. They put in some cement tables - with nice benches.

It took a lot of Saturday mornings, but folks made it happen. Walking down that street after that - seeing old men playing cards or chess - seeing grandmothers with little children - going by that open space that once was a dump, a different feeling would hit me.

Awe was my reaction. “Oooh!” was my sound. If someone videoed my face when I went by the dump and compared it to my face when it was a space and place of beauty, I’m sure you could see a vast difference.

Everyone has the ability to feel awe. This is the major proposition of this homily.

What do you find awesome?

The teenage boy with the skateboard - and a buddy with a video camera - going down banisters and steps - when looking at a replay goes, “Awesome!”  Homeowners and those in charge of maintenance at schools go crazy at scraped paint off banisters caused by skateboarders.

Some people like Beethoven; some people like Bach; some people close their eyes and sway back and forth during a Taylor Swift concert.

It’s in us - the possibility of awesomeness as well as reactions to the gross and the awful - whether it’s graffiti or people talking in the middle of a great scene in a movie - and we’re crying or emotionally caught up in the story.

Respect is called for. Consideration of others is called for. Reverence is necessary.

PROBLEMS RESULT

Problems result when there are differences of how we see what we see or don’t see - compared to what others see and how they see.

My face twisted. My mouth said, “Ooooooh!” I winced when someone showed me their brand new blue car that was keyed by somebody in a Mall parking lot. Someone scratched it along the side from the front door to the gas cap.

If the culprit who did this - could be caught - what would they say - if anything? Would it be cruel and unusual punishment to put such a person in stocks in the city square - like the Dutch did in colonial American times - with the description of their crime listed next to them? Would they or their parents have the cash to pay for the restoration? Could their trinkets be sold for the cost of restoration? How could they be helped to grasp the golden rule?

When it comes to just dumping paper or plastic coffee or milk shake cups and cardboard wrappers on our parking lot here at St. Mary’s it seems better to me than in the past. How do we get people to have reverence not just for their living room floor - but the living room floor of a parking lot? Do we give a specific class in the school the job of cleaning a street or parking lot - and surprise, they get the message?

This past week we went with some high school juniors and seniors to a 4 day retreat in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Mr. Matt Martelli - a wonderful teacher at St. Mary’s high school - announces before and after we get started: “Keep this bus clean. There is a plastic garbage bag up here. Put your trash in it!”

The team asked that the kids have the same respect and reverence for the retreat house. I sense that people treat rented cars and rooms and places with less reverence and care than their own stuff.

Is reverence and a sense of the sacred innate or earned or learned?

DOES IT START WITH SELF?

How do we gain respect, reverence, a sense of awe?

A few weeks ago, out in the corridor here at St. Mary’s, I bumped into a couple visiting from somewhere. They dropped into St. Mary’s as part of a self tour of Annapolis. First or second graders had been in the church for a kids’ prayer service. The lady said, “It brought back memories and tears to my eyes when I saw the little kids walk into church with hands folded.”

Does reverence, respect, awe, come from practice, practice, practice?

Does the reverence kids who making their First Communion depend upon their parents? How much does the reverence teachers who prepare kids for communion effect what the kids pick up? If they are told to make a throne to receive the king of kings with their hands - would that excite and insight their being when they receive Jesus for the first time in communion?

I like to drop into the space of this church - when it’s empty - quiet - and just imagine the sacredness and history of this place. I think of the prayers said in this space during the Civil War, World War I, II, the Korean, Vietnamese, Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars. I close my eyes and think of all those baptized, married, and buried from here. I think of the priests from here serving the Naval Academy and the Naval Academy people coming up the hill to worship and pray here.  Just as these benches have gum under the seats - maybe over 100 years old because chewing gum goes well back into the 1800’s - so too these benches have history sticking to them. I like to sit in here and read Robert Worden’s book on the History of Saint Mary’s Church. I sense the Jesuits who came here in the early 1700’s and said Mass at the Carroll House on the top floor next door - and on and on and on. Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos preached and prayed in this church.  Do we, do visitors to St. Mary’s, feel the same awe folks feel when they enter or are at  sacred spaces - like St. Peter’s in Rome, the Grand Canyon, Chartres Cathedral or Lourdes in France, the Lake of Galilee or the Wailing Wall in Israel? 

Would growing in reverence by being in this sacred space effect and affect how we receive Holy Communion, how we treat each other, how we visit folks in nursing homes, how we look at baby pictures by overwhelmed grandparents who meet us at a Lenten Soup Supper, how we feel when we drive by a cemetery or a funeral hearse and a stream of 25 cars in procession.

CONCLUSION

Is anything sacred?

The answer is, “Yes!”

Rearranging just two letters in the word "sacred" we have the word, “scared” - and I would hope we would be scared when we and our families and our society lose our sense of the sacred.

PLEASE  LISTEN TO ME

March 11,  2012

Quote for Today

"The first duty of love is to listen."

Paul Tillich, recalled at his death, October 22, 1965

WISDOM  LESSON  # 234

Quote for Today   March 10, 2012

"One way to be popular 
is to listen to a lot of things 
you already know."

Anonymous

LIMITATIONS

Quote for Today           March 9, 2012

"We have to make peace with our limitations."

Dr. Harold Lindsell

Questions: 

How old does a person have to be to be able to realize that?

How old was Dirty Harry Callahan when he said, "A man's got to know his limitations." Magnum Force - 1973

Name 3 of your limitations:
1)
2)
3)

What were your life experiences that helped you learn that lesson?

Ask your spouse of a close friend - what they think are your 3 key limitations:
1)
2)
3)

THE  FACE  

IN  YOUR  MIRROR

March  8,  2011

Quote for Today - Thursday

"Take care that the face which looks out from your mirror in the morning is a pleasant one. You may not see it again all day, but others will."

Anonymous

DROPPING  

OUT  OF  CHURCH 

Quote for Today - Wednesday March 7, 2012

"Don't stay away from church because there are so many hypocrites; there is always room for one more."

Anonymous

Drawing: The Pharisee and the Publican, Unknown illustrator of Jerome Nadal's 'Evangelicae Historiae Imagines." 1593

Questions:

What are the 3 reasons you have noticed why people stay away from church?
1)
2)
3)

If you could tell the pope three things, what would they be?
1)
2)
3)

If you could tell God three things, what are they?
1)
2)
3)

HUMOR AND HUMILITY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Tuesday in Lent is, “Humor and Humility.”

Father Tizio likes to use props in his homilies - and he uses them very well. They are not the message. They help his message. And they don’t get in the way of his message - which I always find very clear - not just with kids - but with adults.

So I have a prop for my homily this morning. It’s a Whoopee Cushion. Someone gave me a present recently that had 2 Whoopee Cushions in the box. Why? I don’t know. I gave one away and kept this one. One evening last week I filled this one with my hot air and placed it on the cushy chair that Father Joe Krastel uses. However, the cushion of the chair doesn’t lift, so I put this Whoopee Cushing under a blanket on the chair. I’m sitting there watching the evening news when Joe walked to the chair. He grabbed the blanket first and spots the Whoopee Cushion. He laughs and the laugh was on me. My little game didn’t work.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

The reason I mentioned the Whoopee Cushion is because every time we have this gospel, I remember a story I heard it from a bishop telling a story about another bishop.

In South America they had this very, very pompous bishop who was the top guy in the Bishop’s Conference. Well, before he came into this big room for a big meeting of bishops, this one bishop put a Whoopee Cushion under the  cushion of the big shot’s chair and told all the bishops in the room to be ready. All were waiting for the big moment. In marches the bishop, serious as a bishop, in all his regalia. He sits down on the chair and you know what a Whoopee Cushion does. And all laughed except himself - at first. Finally he smiled.

Well, in today’s gospel [Matthew 23: 1-12], Jesus talks about the Scribes and the Pharisees taking their seat on the chair of Moses.

And Jesus says “they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.' As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant.” Then Jesus finishes this blast with the message: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Tough stuff. The title of my homily is “Humor and Humility.”

Jesus after blasting and ridiculing the scribes and the Pharisees here in Matthew 23 - which is close to the end of his gospel - gives us one more clear reason why they wanted Jesus killed.  I’m sure some of the folks hearing Jesus speak these words laughed - seeing the humor in hypocrisy - seeing those who exalt themselves being humbled.

We priests - as well as bishops and the pope -  are voicing these words from pulpits and podiums around the world today. Obviously, we need to hear these words more than others. These past years we have certainly been humiliated with our sins and our mistakes - especially in the abuse cases - the harming of so many young people. Will we ever learn? [Pause!]  I sense that some good has come out of the horror cases:  more protection for more young people. It also seems that Rome is broadcasting to the dioceses of the world to wake up. Obviously abusing others is wrong. No more cover-ups; much  more vigilance. It hurts as priest to hear comedians use the abuse stories for laughs - but in another sense, may the humor and the humiliation make us better - protecting the innocent everywhere.

Humor and humility are connected. Humility and being human are very connected. In the Book of Genesis we read that God bent down and created us from the clay, the humus, of the earth and then breathed the spirit of life into us. Then we rise - and sometimes we stop being down to earth. We think trappings and titles - seats of honor - will make us better than others. When we start to think that way, it’s a signal we actually down deep think less of ourselves. That’s the paradox of wanting power - seeing it at times as the power to put down others - to humble them - to make ourselves feel better.

If we can laugh at ourselves - when the air is knocked out of us - when our inflated ego is deflated - then we’ll see what we’re really doing and who we really are - just one more human being in the room.

As I thought about this stuff last night preparing this homily, I asked myself, “Should I put this in my homily - say this stuff in church?”  Then it hit me, “Hello! Isn’t this the kind of stuff Jesus is getting at in this gospel - which the church is asking us to listen to today?” So we better laugh and laughter helps us with humility.

CONCLUSION

I’ll close with a Jewish proverb: “Don’t make yourself so big. You are not that small.”

LAUGHTER

Quote for Today  March 6,  2012

"Man is the only creature endowed with a sense of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?"

Fulke Greville

HO! HO! HO! 

Questions:

Would part of your life resume be: "I have a sense of humor"?

Have you ever been described as over-sensitive?  Can you take a joke about yourself?

Have you ever made fun or someone and you realized afterwards that it hurt that person? What happened next?

What is one thing about you that is funny? Your ears? Your belly? Your walk? A mannerism? Your way of eating? Your way of driving? Your way of talking?

KYRIE  ELEISON

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Monday in Lent  is, “Kyrie Eleison”

For the Penance Rite,  the first part of the Mass, before the recent changes in the Liturgy, we were encouraged to use variations - and one was “Kyrie Eleison.”

I suspect we priests didn’t use that too often - or it all depended on which priest or deacon was up here - and I suspect we’ll use it a bit more now with the new prayers - because there seems to be less variation - or what have you.

I know I’ve been using it a bit more.

IT’S GREEK TO ME

When I was a kid in grammar school at OLPH Brooklyn, N.Y. we grew up saying or singing this Greek prayer at every Mass. I have to read up on this, but it seems it  sort of dropped out with the arrival of the Liturgy in the language of the people.

Greek was the language of the scriptures and I assume that of the Liturgy before Latin - and after Aramaic - the language of Jesus.

Kyrie is a variation of the Greek word, “KURIOS” meaning Lord.

Eleison is a variation of the Greek word “ELEOS” - meaning mercy.

Christe is a variation of the Greek word  “CHRISTOS” - meaning anointed.

So Kyrie eleison is a most basic prayer: “Lord have mercy.”

It touches a normal human saying we use in our basic interactions with each other, “I’m sorry.” “Forgive me!”

So we pray to God, “I’m sorry!” “Forgive me!” “Lord have mercy.” “Kyrie Eleison”. Want a simple act of contrition. There it is.

As priest in confession I hear people unfolding a crinkled piece of paper that has an Act of Contrition on it or they struggle with a long formula that is an Act of Contrition. I suggest as an Act of Contrition to simply say, “Lord have mercy” or “Kyrie eleison”.  If some priest complains say some priest said “Lord have mercy” was a beautiful Act of Contrition.

MARKET PLACE

Whenever we come to today’s gospel I wonder when did Jesus come up with his comments about the measuring that takes place in the market place. [Cf. Luke 6: 36-38]

Was he a teenage boy and he was shopping with Mary?

Was he an adult - just walking through the market and saw a grain merchant doing just what Jesus said one did in the marketplace?

A lady is shopping and asks for a certain amount of grain and the merchant pours some into her garment.  Then he packs it together. Then he shakes it and pours some more in - till it’s falling out.

Did Jesus stop to watch this marketplace ritual? Did he watch the woman’s face as she watched the ritual? Did he see her face change and she added layer upon layer of success, smile, wonderful, at each step by the merchant. Did he see the merchant’s face light up gradually in making one more customer happy?

Did he see the faces of those who judge - as rigid tight faced folks?

Did he see the faces of those who don’t judge as more relaxed?

CONCLUSION

There you have it. And let me conclude with a repetition of  today’s gospel:

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."

SERMONS

March  5, 2012

Quote for the Day

"A preacher recorded his sermon, then sat down to listen to it and fell asleep."

Anonymous

Questions:

What was the worst sermon you ever heard?

What was the best sermon you ever heard?

If you could preach a sermon or homily, what would its title be?

“WHO COULD EVER KNOW THE   MIND OF THE LORD?”

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Sunday in Lent, Year B, is a question, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Today’s readings trigger that question for me. Like everyone, at times I wonder about  the what,  the why and the how of the mind of God.

And as I thought about this yesterday, I realized it’s easy to ask the question - but very difficult to come up with answers on reading the mind of God. Hey, we often can’t even understand each other. Moreover, after I finished this homily, I found out that my homily is  more of a question than an answer. How’s that for covering oneself?

IT’S   PAUL’S  QUESTION

Paul near the end of his letter to the Romans - which we have an earlier part today as our second reading [Romans 8: 31b-34] - quotes an Early Church prayer and hymn, “How rich are the depths of God - how deep his wisdom and knowledge - and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mind of the Lord?” [Romans 11: 33-34]

That last sentence - that's where I got the title for this homily. “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Yet we hear people talking about God, how God works, what God’s will is - on a regular basis. Just listen - especially when tough things are happening.

Next, just listen to our own inner conversations when it comes to God.  We ask the question:  what does God want of me? We ask: what is God’s will? People lose their jobs and they wonder: maybe God has other plans - and maybe that's why I lost my job.

Fortunately, we haven’t heard anyone shoot off their mouth telling us that God is angry with the United States by sending these recent tornados. But we’ve heard things like that from time to time.

We also hear people voicing to others statements like these:  “This is God’s will.” “This is God’s plan.” “This is what God wants.”

I don’t know about you, but some people need to have some doubts before making these statements.

Francis B. Sayre said, “Religion isn’t yours firsthand until you doubt it right down to the ground.” [Life, April 2, 1965.]

Hesitation is part of humility. Not being so sure of everything is part of humility.

I love to quote the following from the Talmud: “Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading  places us up on a mountain - where Abraham takes his son Isaac - to holocaust him - to kill him -to sacrifice him - because he hears a voice from God to do just that. [Genesis 22: 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18]

It’s crazy - to kill one’s own son - as a sacrifice - because someone heard  a voice from God to do that. Was God really putting Abraham to a test? Check Chapter 11 of Hebrews which highlights this theme. 

There’s a half-dozen attempted explanations on what’s going on here in this story in Genesis. I don’t know what the true story or the motive why this story was put into the sacred Jewish scriptures. It's difficult to read the minds of those who got scriptures in the Scriptures.  Abraham is dated to have existed between 2000 to 1500 B.C.  These writings are a combination of several writers - the most primitive being from roughly around 1000 B.C. Some see this story as a "come back" at Abraham - because of his behavior towards his other son, Ishmael - by another woman , Hagar - whom he sent out into the wilderness. The theory that many scholars of today say is underneath this old, old story is that it’s addressing infant sacrifice - the killing of one’s first born in sacrifice to God. There is evidence that this was part of some people’s thinking in the Middle East around 1000 years before Christ. Then they say that this story was an insight - a breakthrough - that God wouldn’t want that. Put an end to this  practice. There is evidence that this was what happened in the Middle East around that time. A switch was made to sacrifice animals instead.

One of my questions is this: if God made an intervention in this story, why doesn’t He make interventions in our times?

Maybe God does. Maybe the story is an attempt by story to tell us how life works. Maybe God’s  interventions take place in human brains. Someone starts to think and says, “I just realized that the way I'm  thinking might not be right.” Realizing that they  might be wrong might be the first step towards a new way of thinking and they change. Is that the plan? Is that the way God works life?  Even that is tricky. “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Listening to how people think, I have heard some people think God wanted their child to die. Then they find scripture texts to back that way of thinking. I would add that the Bible, our Scriptures, give lots of ways to think about lots of things.

What’s your take on the mind of  God? Which Scripture text do you gravitate towards to support your thoughts? Are there other texts you might want to check?

Once more I say that I have taught my tongue to say, “I do not know.”

However, I still ask the question: “God, why can’t you intervene and not let children die?”

Or I ask why didn’t God zap Hitler with a heart attack in the night or let those who were trying to assassinate him be successful? Why didn’t God intervene in the death of all those people killed in the holocaust? With the slaughters going on in several cities in Syria right now, why doesn’t God just let  Bashar Assad die in his sleep? Those being slaughtered scream out to the West to help? And I’m sure when they see mortar shells and bombs coming flying out of the sky towards them, they scream to God for help.  Why doesn’t God help? Why doesn’t God take on the role of Good Samaritan? He tells us to be one. Why doesn’t he stop everything to help those who need help?

Based on the evidence, God’s mind doesn’t work this way. Based on Scripture texts, God does help at times. Other times it seems like a great silence comes from God. In the meanwhile, the history of the world is War and Peace and then déjà vu all over again - again and again - and then again.

Soren Kierkeggard was fascinated by this story of Abraham - and writes about it big time in his book, Fear and Trembling. Israel was fascinated by this story - called the Akeda - or the binding or tying Isaac down for the slaughter. Why would God ask anyone to kill their child? Kierkegaard’s thought brings people to the reality that many times in life we face what Abraham faced: the death of a child or a parent or a spouse - and today we’d add that they are tied down by tubes and cords in a hospital bed.

Kierkegaard gives 4 variations on this story of Abraham and Isaac on that mountain. Rabbis in their sermons give lots of possibilities on the story. Once more it triggers the reality that sometimes we just don’t know. We don’t know what’s in God’s mind. We don’t know God’s motives and methods -  we don’t know the “why” of the here and the now as well as the next life - and so we cry.  And it seems God is asleep in the boat of life.[Cf. Mark 4:38]

Once more the title of my homily is, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel brings us to another mountain. And Jesus goes up that mountain with his 3 favorites, Peter, James and John, and Jesus is transfigured before them - and they get to see a new side of Jesus.

Peter, James and John hear a voice from the heavens - God the Father - says, This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him.”

Then we have Mark’s take on the scene: Jesus talks about his death and rising from the dead.

Compared to Matthew and Luke, Mark stresses the cross - the heading for that reality - much more than the others.

And that leads us back to the Abraham and Isaac story. Christians have to ask whether God the Father wanted his own son killed so as to save the world. Why would God want such a thing? Why wouldn’t he be satisfied with the sacrifice of a lamb or the offering of the first fruits of grapes and wheat?

As Christians we hold that Jesus lets us in the door into the mind of God. That’s the great teaching of the New Testament.

Jesus said, “See me, you see the Father. Know me, you know the Father.”

Christianity holds that Jesus is the door that leads to the Father. Yet it’s Paul who says, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

CONCLUSION

In this homily, I put on the table the question: “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?” I added that it’s easier to raise the question than to give answers to the question.

I don’t know the answer, other than to say, “I don’t know the answer.”

I don’t know the answer, other than to say, “Jesus Christ.”

Paul, when he was Saul, thought he knew what God wanted. He was sure that those who were following Jesus were in the wrong. He wanted to right them. So he want after them with the idea of closing them down. He fell on his face on the way to Damascus. He slowly saw that he was blind - and started to see that Jesus was the way to the Father. He saw that the followers of the Way were the Way to go.

Then Paul because of Christ started to enter into the mind of God.

Today’s second reading begins. “Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how we he not also give us everything else along with him?”

So we come here to Church to look at the cross - and look for answers to why people crucify each other. We come here to church and listen to the scriptures and we hear questions and answers. We come here knowing that God has spoken - his Word - to us. And that Word became flesh and walked with us.

Christ walked and talked. Christ at the end was willing to be bound to a cross and to die - saying he was doing this for us.

Why?

Why did he go this way?

Was it that people will stop crucifying each other? If that’s true, then that stopping has got to start with me - with us.

Just as Abraham put down the knife - we have to put down the knife - sometimes it’s our tongue - and we have to realize we come here to church to be released  like Isaac - and then come down for the high place and then live life to the full like Isaac did.

Just as the disciples went up the mountain with Jesus and heard, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” - we come here to do the same thing - especially to hear God say to us, “You are my beloved Daughter - You are my beloved Son - Listen to me”

I would also think that we come here for listening prayer - listening to God’s mind and our own mind - and we’ll slowly put both together. 

******

Painting on top: The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio

CONVERSION TO GOD MOMENT

March  4,  2012

Quote for Today

"I gave in, 
and admitted 
that God was God."

C.S. Lewis [1898-1963] when giving up being an atheist at the age of 31 in 1929. The quote is from William Coffin, Clive Staples Lewis, Harper and Row, 1986

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Questions:

Have you ever had a moment like C.S. Lewis' moment as mentioned in the above quote?

Have you ever told another - about your God experiences? Why that person? Is there another you wouldn't talk to about your faith life? Why?

Have you ever talked one to one with someone about a conversion moment in your life?

OH, IT MEANS THAT?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Saturday in the First Week of Lent  is, “Oh, It Means That?”

PRIEST IN OHIO

Before I came to Annapolis I worked on the road in Ohio - and various other places - giving parish missions. Some priest in some parish told the following story at supper one evening. He was saying Mass and this baby was crying - and babies crying didn’t bother him. “In fact,” he added, “I liked it, because the parish I had just been in was all old people and no babies.”

“Well, after Mass,” he said, “this lady came up to me complaining about the lady with the baby - how she shouldn’t been there - and should have taken herself and the baby outside. Then the complainer added, ‘That Lady with the baby is obviously Spanish. What is she doing here?’”

The priest said, “I was surprised at all this - not angry - but surprised - so  I said to the lady after some silence, ‘Isn’t that what it means to love one another?’”

“Big pause.”  The he said, the lady said, “Oh, it means that?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel, Jesus says to love our enemies. In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “What’s so great about loving and greeting only your own?”

I don’t know about you, but I like to hear these gospels over and over again, because I need to be challenged by Jesus’ words over and over again.

There are two or three kinds of people: those we like and those we don’t understand or can’t stand.  Life is easy with those we like - but Jesus wants us to love the pains - the drainers - the different - the strange rangers.

“Oh, It Means That?”

I don’t know about you, but I could relate to the title of that book, “Up The Down Staircase.”

Thank goodness for fire codes - because that means  there are back doors - other stair cases - because sometimes some people wear us out.  I had a funny one recently. I snook out the back door, so as not to be caught by so and so - and surprise, he was waiting for me in the garden.

When we priests come down the aisle for Sunday Masses - sometimes we hear the words, “Oh no, not him!”

That hurts. That kills morale. That’s a wipe out.

And I’m a priest 46 ½ years now - and I know we priests say the same thing about some parishioners.

That’s the nitty gritty stuff of life. And this doesn’t just happen in churches,  it happens at family weddings and funerals and at the work place. And if I hear Jesus in today’s gospel and at various times, this is exactly where Jesus goes - when he says, “Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Take up the cross.”

No wonder they killed him. A tiny whispered “Oh no!” when we come down the aisle is nothing compared to the whole crowd screaming, “Crucify him.”

“Oh, it means that?”

Yup, it means that - and a lot more.

“Oh no!”

CONCLUSION

Those who get this - and try to live this - who try to be like God who sends his sun [SUN] - and Son [SON] and rain [RAIN] and reign [REIGN] on the just as the unjust as we heard in today’s gospel - will be considered peculiar - as we heard in today’s first reading. God is peculiar and calls us to be peculiarly his own. God is also perfect - and calls us to be perfect. Tough act to follow. “Oh, it means that?”

++++++++

Picture on top: Cover of The New York Times Magazine, Sunday Nov. 13, 2011. Title: "The Human Swap - How a single Israeli came to be worth 1,027 Palestinians. Illustration by Tim Enthoven.

ABILITY  TO  LOVE 

March  3,  2012

Quote for Today

"It is sad not to be loved,
but it is much sadder
not to be able to be love."

Miguel de Unamuno [1864-1936],  To A Young Writer.

* * * *  *

Questions:

Who has loved you in your life?  Have you ever been rejected, dropped, disappointed in love?

Do you agree with Miguel de Unamuno's statement?

Have you ever met someone whom you thought was not able to love?