PICKING YOUR PART
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Picking
Your Part.”
50
years ago - today - as you know - the first people on the moon landed at 4:17
in the afternoon - July 20, 1969 - but they didn’t step out of the landing
module till 7 hours later.
Relax
- it’s a hot day - and we’ll be out of here before that.
TITLE OF MY HOMILY
The
title of my homily is, “Picking Your Part.”
On
May 20th - I was in
Washington Hospital Center for triple bypass heart surgery. My niece Patty
drove to Annapolis from Reisterstown and picked me up here at St. Mary’s - that
Monday morning at 3:45 AM. She got me to Washington Hospital Center at 5:30 and
they prepped me for surgery at 6:30 AM. I woke up that night about 9:30 or so. There was Patty. It's great to have such a neat niece.
That
night and in the days to come I thought I was going to die. That night and in
the days to come I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the parts I’ve played in my life - especially as a priest
and the scenes I’ve been in.
It’s
now 2 months later - it’s July 21th - and I have a lot of thoughts.
I
just played the part of someone recovering from heart surgery.
Thank
you God for a wonderful life and the chance to play the part of a priest.
Thank
you God for all the wonderful people in my life - whom I have met on the stage
of life. Priests meet a lot of people. Thank you for being some of those
people. Lucky me.
I
think of Shakespeare’s line: “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they
have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts,
his acts being seven ages.”
I don’t
know what stage in life I’m in right now.
I know I just played the part of priest for 17 years here at St. Mary’s
Annapolis. Thank you God.
Thank you
all for being on stage with me - for supporting me - for being so nice to me.
Thank you for all the prayers and cards and hopes I’ve heard from you. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you!
BEING
AN ACTOR
I was blessed with a good
education. I was blessed with a good
life choice.
Was it my choice or what
to become a priest? I’m still wondering
about that.
First you act out that
part - then hopefully one becomes that part.
Before I came here to
Annapolis, August 2002, I worked with a guy named Tom and I heard him once say
in a talk - a sermon - that when he was a small kid in OLPH Brooklyn - he saw a
priest being a priest - at an OLPH novena service. And he said to himself, “I’d
like to do that.” Then he added, “I’d like to try that.” Then he said, “I’d
like to become a priest and I did.”
I’ve often wondered if I
thought the same way. I’m not sure. I
heard a priest come into our Catholic grammar school classroom and tell us
about his work as a missionary in Brazil. Then he asked us to raise our hand if
we’re interested in being a priest some day.
I raised my hand - and
it’s still up.
At times I’ve wondered,
“What did I do?” It’s been tough these
past few years with the priest scandal - priests on the stage of life - playing
the bad guy. Ugh.”
In the seminary I was
blessed with being in lots of plays.
In college, in a play,
Dracula, I played the part of Renfield.
He was a weird character - who worked
for Dracula - the one who ate
flies. Fun part. Yum .... Yum .... Yum.
In another play, this one
was in high school, I played the part of
Reggie. In Act 1, I played the part of someone
in their 40’s. Then as the play
progressed, I slowly got younger. My lines in the 3rd act were the
easiest: “Goo Goo! Ga. Ga!” “Boo Goo Goo
Ga!” That’s all I remember.
I once had the lead in another play. We were in the first act and someone
forgot their line. As you can imagine a second of silence on stage - with a
forgotten line - feels like 10 minutes. I quickly grabbed a line and got the
play going again. "The show must go on."
Well - when I did that - I saw the director in the wings - waving his
arms - “Oh no!” “No No No!” Finally Act
1 ended. The curtain closed. I headed right towards the director and said,
“What happened?”
“What happened? What happened! You cut 4 people out of the play. Their names are on the program. Their parents are in the audience. Ugh!”
“What happened? What happened! You cut 4 people out of the play. Their names are on the program. Their parents are in the audience. Ugh!”
I don’t know if anyone
else remembered that moment. But I did.
I’ve often worried about cutting people out of the play of life. I do it
regularly in conversations.
I thought of this again
last week when I heard that John Means -
the only Oriole on the American League All Star Team - didn’t get into the
game.
Bummer. But that was the
part he was asked to play: to be there as a long reliever - just in case the
game got tied.
HOW TO READ THE
SCRIPTURES.
Without knowing it, by being in plays, I was learning a great way
to read the scriptures - to hear the Bible stories. Take the script. Read the
parts.
Listen to the story - especially
if it has characters - and ask, “What part am I playing?” “What part would I like to play?” “What part don’t I want to play?”
Many of the Bible stories
were acted out - before they were written out. They were shown - so people can see themselves on the stage
called, “Life.”
I also learned all this from
a book called, That Man is You by
Louis Evely.
Evely pointed out what the
prophet Nathan did to David the king. He told David a story about a rich man
stealing a sheep from a poor man. David
upon hearing the unfairness in the story, asked, “Who is the man who did this? If he’s a
member of my kingdom, I’ll punish him big time.”
At that Nathan told David, “That man is you! You stole
another man’s wife.”
Today we heard the story
of Martha and Mary. Did you hear Jesus' words to Martha, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."
I was wondering, is that where I got the thought and the title of this homily: "Picking Your Part"?
So who is more me in the Martha-Mary story?
What part am I playing? Serving? Working my butt off - but spending my life complaining? Worried about everything - but missing out on the essential?
I was wondering, is that where I got the thought and the title of this homily: "Picking Your Part"?
So who is more me in the Martha-Mary story?
What part am I playing? Serving? Working my butt off - but spending my life complaining? Worried about everything - but missing out on the essential?
Last Sunday in the gospel we heard the story about the Good
Samaritan. Which of the characters is
me? Do I feel hurt, beaten up in life?
Do I walk by the hurting - like the priest or the Levite? Do I hurt
others? Or do I stop and help my brother
or sister in need?
So a great way to read and
hear the Bible is to pick a story. Pick it apart. Pick a part. Or ask, “Which
part am I playing right now?”
Then ask, “What’s the
message here for me?”
GRATEFUL
I’m glad my parents chose the
part to love each other and chose to have 4 kids - especially that last one:
me.
I am grateful for all the
folks I have met on the stage of life in New York City - New Jersey - in
Wisconsin - - on the road - in Ohio - in Pennsylvania - in upstate New York - Annapolis
and in so many other places.
AFTERWARDS
I don’t know about you,
but I learn from afterwards - after the play is over.
As I said, “I’ve been
doing a lot of thinking and thanking for the past two months.”
Next, I was totally
surprised when I got a phone call telling me that I was being transferred to a
retreat house in New Jersey.
Bummer?
Blessing?
I'll find out.
Bummer?
Blessing?
I'll find out.
But now I'll have a chance to
figure out what I’ll learned from 17
years here in Annapolis - well over 300 weddings - hundreds of funerals - 1,000 baptism - and
having met so many different people - some I’ll figure out afterwards.
This got me thinking of a story I heard from a guy named Marty which
he told at a family get together.
He told us about a cousin
of his who went to Brooklyn for a family gathering one Thanksgiving. He was
asked to run over to the local deli to get rye bread and some cheese and
stuff - and he meets an old friend named Carol.
“Carol it’s great to see
you?”
“What’s happened in your
life since when we were kids here in Brooklyn?”
She says, “Well, what
happened to you?”
He says, “Well, I got married
and moved to New Jersey and I work in New York and I have 3 kids.”
“Nice,” she says.
And he says, “And Carol,
what’s happened to you?”
She says, “You know who I
am, don’t you?”
“Yeah, you’re Carol Klein.
What’s happened to you?”
And she says, “I changed
my name when I became a singer”
“Wow he says, “What’s your
singing name?"
And she says, “Carol King.”
Then she said, “You don’t know me.”
He started singing and
yelling, “Carol King. Carol King. Oh my God You’re my favorite singer and I went on a date with my favorite singer and didn’t know it.”
I’m like that. I figure
out things afterwards. I’ll look back at many of you whom I met here at
Annapolis after I’m gone and say, “Wow!”
CONCLUSION
From her 1971 Tapestry Album, I'm dating myself - Carol King sang in one song these
words that sum up for me much of my life - but afterwards, “My life has been a tapestry
of rich and royal hue / An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view /
…. A wondrous woven magic in bits of
blue and gold / A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold.”
In another song - “So Far
Away”…. It’s in that same album, Carol
King also sang, “Doesn't
anybody stay in one place anymore? / It would be so fine to see your face at my
door / It doesn't help to know you're just time away.”
I’m
about to play that part this August - the part of a human being on this stage called
“Life.” who is moving. It’s called. “The
moving part.” We all play it and let’s
hope we all play it well on this stage called “Life.”
Sometimes
we pick it; sometimes it’s picked for
us.
Let’s
hope we all learn from it - afterwards - and the learning is gratitude -
especially for the people whom we were on stage with. Amen? Amen!
