“Don’t let your egoget too close to your position, so thatif your position gets shot down, yourego doesn’t go with it.”
Colin Powell
Sunday, May 13, 2018
A LITTLE MUSIC
ON A RAINY DAY
STUCK
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Stuck!”
We’re celebrating at this time in the Church Year the
feast of the Ascension. In some dioceses they have this feast on Ascension
Thursday - and other dioceses like our Baltimore Archdiocese - we have this feast today.
I surmise that some people surmise that if we keep it on
Thursday, then a lot of people will miss out on the feast - so let’s celebrate
on the Sunday after Ascension Thursday.
As far as I know there has never been a move to put
Christmas on a Sunday - like the Sunday after December 25th.
So here we are: let’s not miss out on this feast of the
Ascension.
SCENE FROM THE FIRST READING
In today’s first reading from the opening of the Acts of the Apostles [1:1-11],
Jesus is lifted up and ascends into the heavens. Everyone is standing there
dumb - looking upwards. Two men dressed in white garments say, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up
from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going
into heaven.”
When I read that I heard the human shout in times of
trouble: “Don’t just stand there. Do something.”
When I read that I also thought of the human feeling: “I’m
stuck!”
So I began thinking about the human experienceof being stuck.
When was the last time you were stuck?
So the title of this homily is, “Stuck!”
LOOKING AT OUR LIFE
Looking at our life, we’ve all experienced being stuck.
Someone’s in the bathroom…. hurry up.
Stuck in traffic.
Stuck in the past.
Stuck in a horrible work situation.
Stuck in a marriage that is falling apart.A spouse is drinking - or on drugs. Stuck in a hurt. Stuck in a mistake. Stuck in a resentment. Stuck in a regret.
Stuck in a sickness.
Stuck with a noisy neighbor - who likes to do his lawn at
6:30 every Saturday morning.
We get stuck in our thinking, in our ways, in a depression,
in a darkness.
We get stuck in a 5 year period in our lives.We’re still back there when we were 17 or 27
or 37 - and here we are in real time but ….
We’re stuck with our kid whose marriage fell apart and
they need us - for a place and a place for their three kids - and we thought we
finally reached retirement, a nice clean empty nest, and the price of cruises
have come down.
Stuck. Now what?
Layne Stayly, a musician, said, “When everyone goes home,
you’re stuck with yourself.”
We’re with ourselves and this is all we got- and we’re not enough.
Stuck is a real reality to ponder from time to time -
maybe now, today. It’s a rainy day. It’s Ascension Thursday on a Sunday. It’s Mother’s Day. We’re in church.
I spotted the following excerpt from a novel by Catherine Lacey, Nobody is Ever Missing. It’s written
in befuddled language. It’s written in images and words that can give us a
feeling of what’s going on with someone. Let me see if I can read it and give
Catherine Lacey her due.
“I realized that even if
no one ever found me, and even if I lived out the rest of my life here, always
missing, forever a missing person to other people, I could never be missing to
myself, I could never delete my own history, and I would always know exactly
where I was and where I had been and I would never wake up not being who I was
and it didn't matter how much or how little I thought I understood the mess of
myself, because I would never, no matter what I did, be missing to myself and
that was what I had wanted all this time, to go fully missing, but I would
never be able to go fully missing—nobody is missing like that, no one has ever
had that luxury and no one ever will.”
Not being married, I
wondered what would that be like if I was married to someone who felt like that
way - someone who wanted to be missing.
Not being married, I would
hope married folks who feel stuck that way, would get counseling or would get
talking and listening.
It’s Springtime…. Couples: it’s Spring!What does your clock look
like after supper or Sunday afternoons?I am a strong stressor of couples at least once a week taking a walk
with each other.I know a couple. The
wife got big time cancer and she is recovery mode, thank God. They are in their
50’s and they find themselves walking each evening - well not every evening -
but many evenings - and it’s been the best move they have made in their marriage
so far. Death - the fear of death - cancer - can get folks moving.
Once more the words from
today’s first reading, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky.”
Get moving.
Ascend. Climb out of your pits.
In 5 years, that’s May 12,
2023, if you call me here at St. Mary’s or in our nursing home or you’re standing
at my grave and you and your spouse have been walking these 5 years and it has
done wonders for your life, your relationship, your perspective, I would love
to hear a “Thank you.”
And I thank the couple who
told me they havebeen doing a lot of
walking these past two years. I have. We're blessed to have the Naval Academy and Quiet Water's Park. Where are your walking places?
IT’S MOTHER’S DAY
Today is also Mother’s Day.
We celebrate with gratitude - not just our birth - not
just the gift of life - but for all the times our mother was there when we were
afraid, when we were stuck, and we sucked our thumb - the most basic sign
language message, “I want my mommy.”
Just watch the optics of a baby - of every little kid -
when they find themselves in a scary, sticky, stucky place. They look for their
mom.
Dad’s relax. We’ll give you a plug, next month. MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD - AND MOTHER OF OUR CHURCH
As priest, as Catholic, I’ve often wondered about the
Catholic practice of honoring and praying to Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Sometimes Protestants ask us about our "thing" about Mary. Answer: one answer is right
here at the experience of being stuck. Watch kids when stuck, when scared, when afraid. and see how they want their mother.
As a Redemptorist, I’ve wondering about the picture or
ikon of Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help. Why is it so popular? Answer: it’s that last word, “Help!”
Help is the one word prayer and answer for anyone who is
stuck.
In the English classic book on spirituality, The Cloud of
Unknowing, the author says, “When a person is in a burning building, they don’t
have to taught the most basic human prayer and scream, “Help!”
Mom. Thanks for all the times you’ve been there to help.
CONCLUSION
I think of the refrain in the Beatles song about all this.
They have captured the scene of Mary under the cross at Calvary as they sing,
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
"Let it be."
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
"Let it be".
I prefer the Serenity Prayer. Sometimes we have to learn to let it be, that is, to accept the things we cannot change. However, there are times when we are stuck, but we can work to change the things we can change.
In other words: don’t just stand there. Get moving and do
something that you can do.
May 13, 2018
Thought for today:
“My child looked at me and I looked 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.”
There are times in life when we say that, “Uh oh! I’m not
God.”
We make a mistake. Something’s gone wrong. We thought we
were in charge, but parents divorce or someone won’t talk to someone. Or worse,
someone dies.
“Uh oh! I’m not God.”
ROSARY
I like to push using the rosary, not just for Hail Mary’s,
but for other prayers as well.
So take your rosary and say 59 times - there are 59 beads
on a rosary -
“Uh oh. I’m not God.”
THE READINGS FOR TODAY
In the first reading for today, from the Acts of the
Apostles, Paul walks around the city of Athens. He sees all kinds of statues to
all kinds of different gods. [Cf. Acts of
the Apostles 17: 15, 22 to 18: 1.]
He has met the true God first as a Jew - so when he began
to hear about the Christians teaching the Jews that Jesus is Lord and Savior,
he got furious and tried to arrest and jail all Christians.
He was there when Stephen was killed for proclaiming
Christ as God.
Wow was he surprised on the road to Damascus to discover
Christ - in his fullness.
Christ was the unknown God to him - up to that moment.
It took him a while. It took him baby steps. It took him
a while to remove his blindness and discover Jesus.
So in Athens when he spotted a statue to “The Unknown God”
he saw his chance to tell them about this Unknown God.”
But they dissed him and only a few people heard him out
and heard Jesus into their lives.
Today’s gospelfrom John’s Gospel, tells us the Spirit of God is coming and he will
tell us about all - all that Jesus was trying to tell them. [Cf. John 16: 12-15]
In this homily I’m preaching about who God is - when we
say, “Uh oh! I’m not God.”
CONCLUSION
So we have time limits - God doesn’t.
And sometimes it isn’t till we run into - or crash into
the reality - that we are not God - that we reach out to Unknown God - and he
becomes known to us. Amen.
The title of my homily for this 6th Monday after Easter is, “On The Water.”
I would like to trigger good thoughts about the water -
which makes up over 70% of our earth.
TODAY’S FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles 16: 11-15 touch on two experiences Paul had from
being on the water or at the water.
The first takes place in the Aegean Sea - which goes from
the Mediterranean Sea up to the Marmara Sea and then into the Black Sea.
The second takes place at a river in Philippi.I looked up on several maps and found the
name of the river - the Krenides River. It’s also named the Gangas or the
Gangetes river.But I also found the
names of other rivers in and around Philippi: the Strymon and Nestus Rivers -
so I’m not sure just what river in Philippi is in place here. I’ll keep these
in my notes and keep figuring out what’s what and where’s where.
I’ve been to the Mediterranean Sea and to Istanbul and to
Athens - so maybe I was on the Aegean Sea. All I know is I saw a lot of water.
WATER EXPERIENCES
In this homily I simply want to address water
experiences. We’ve all had our water experiences.What are yours?
The river in Philippi was a place of prayer.
Here in Annapolis, we’re blessed with being near the
water.
Nearby, we have the South River and the Severn River.Iremember being at a blessing service for a bench or two on a point at
the end of Quiet Water’s Park - in memory of a man who was killed in a big
machine accident here in Maryland. I also remember being part of a funeral service
on the Severn River for a young lady who died from an overdose. Her father was
part of the band that sang, “Down by the Riverside.”
In other words, rivers as we heard in today’s first
reading, can be sacred places.
We have the Chesapeake and then on the other side of
Eastern Maryland the ocean.
Are they holy places for you?
I have on my wall a picture of the rocky shore line in
Galway Ireland where my mom is from. She’d said, “I could step out our back
door and put my big toe in Galway Bay.”
It was a great moment of life for me when we visited that
place and seeing the flag stone where her house was - and stepping on it - and
then lean over and put my hand into the water and then bless myself with that
holy water - made famous in the song, “Did you ever go across the sea to
Ireland and maybe at the closing of your day -Galway Bay…..”
Where do you come from - what was the nearest source of
water?
Water makes up over 70% of this planet. Without it - no
us.
Every Sunday as a kid we would go down to the Narrows -
the water between Staten Island and New Jersey and Brooklyn NY - the water that
leads to NY Harbor - out into the Atlantic.
For 14 years of my life I lived on the Hudson River
between Poughkeepsie and Kingston NY.For my second stint there, 8 years, every morning around 6:30 I’d walk
down to that river, put my hand in it, and bless myself with that Holy Water -
unless there was too much snow on that river road.
Blessings…. Blessings…. Blessings….
Water …. Water …. Everywhere ….
How about you?
I lived on a Lake in Wisconsin for 1 year - Lac La Belle
in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
I’ve never heard anyone say they wanted to be on all the
Great Lakes or on all the Finger Lakes.We have a place on Lake Canandaigua NY. I know some folks want to say
they were in every major league ball park. How about lakes?
I know people who did some of the Mississippi - and a few
the Amazon - and more - the Danube.
What have been your River or lake or Ocean experiences.
CONCLUSION
Today I just want to trigger those experiences and ask: “Do you see all water as Holy Water, all water
as living water, all water as a blessing, all water to make sure we’re taking
good care of it?
Without being political, which I have got yelled at
because of comments from the pulpit, that weren’t meant to be political, I want
to push for taking good care of our waters and our earth. - Pope Francis has
his whole encyclical Laudato Si - On Care
for our Common Home.That’s the
earth and that’s the waters.
As you know there are those who want to deregulate
protection for our air, water, and earth. Protecting the earth costs money.
If you haven’t seen air - water - and earth that has been
messed up, take another look. When you do, do all you can do for our home.
When we were kids, when we took the subway to Coney
Island, in Brooklyn, we used to go by a place called, “Perfume Bay” - because
it had such a horrible smell. Finally, it’s in the process of being cleaned up!
May 7, 2018
RECOGNITION
Sometimes it all depends who’s doing
the recognizing - and who’s being recognized. Sometimes I just want to hide in my hood. Sometimes I don't want to be just a potted plant. Sometimes I don't know what I want. How about you?
