“Half of the harm that is done in this world /
Is due to people who want to feel important.”
T.S. Eliot, The
Cocktail Party, 1949
Thursday, January 16, 2020
EXTRAS FOR EXTRA HELP
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Thursday in the First Week in Ordinary Time is, “Extras for Extra Help.”
If there is anything we Catholics know about - it’s the extras - extra prayers - extra items - extra external souvenirs and symbols of
religion - that people add on for help.
We
know about crucifixes, medals and chains and rosaries around necks, religious
magnets on refrigerator doors and 14 to 18 inch crosses on walls – and in cars
tiny 2 inch crosses and St. Christopher medals – which are still being sold.
Go through any Catholic home for people over 55 and you'll spot an image or statue of Mary somewhere. I'm of Redemptorist background and we were tasked since 1867 to get images of Mary, the Mother of Perpetual Help, in homes and churches all around the world.
Perpetual Help - How's that for an extra!
If
there is anything we humans know about it’s the external souvenirs we have for
extra help: rings and things.We went
to the movies yesterday – to see 1917.They had a black and while photograph on a wooded beam in a German trench – and of course when a soldier was shot
and killed they found in his pocket a black and white picture of his mom and
sisters.
What’s
in your wallet?
I remember listening to an audio tapetalk by Robert Fulghum or someone and the
speaker asks his audience to take out their wallets and tell the members of the
small group they are in what’s in their wallet.It can be very revealing.
What’s
in your wallet?Do you have something
that reminds us about who we are all in the mind of others or they in us or what have
you?
I
asked people once to write on a small piece of paper afavorite Bible text andkeep it in your wallet. Mine is Galatians
6:3. “Bear one another’s burdens - In this way you are fulfilling the Law of
Christ.”I figured if I preached it, I
better do that myself.
Knowing
it’s there, it’s helps me keep that text and theme in mind and put the text
into action.
So, we
have these mementos, these souvenirs, these tokens to give us an extra edge.
I
love the image of having a small prayer book – and making it a portable
cemetery – where we put all our death cards – and we can go through our cards
once a month
I
remember a period in my life when I got interested in Native American life and
literature, etc.. I’m in Washington DC –
andI dropped into the Bureau of Indian Affairs - which is in the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was in an off season and well before the It was a good experience.
I
asked at the front information desk, if I could see someone important – so I
could ask some questions.
It
wasvaluable moment and I got to ask
lots of questions.
One
thing the curator said was this: much of Native Americanlife was to get power – good medicine – over
others, one’s enemies. So, Indianshave
lots of beads and feathers etc. and traveling souvenirs.
This happened way back - before the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.
Check that out - with an eye to jewelry and items people use to extra help and strength - the theme of this homily.
Jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher in a magazine article about her work said, "Jewelry is like your armor. Personalizing it gives you strength and power."*
CONCLUSION
So
what else is new? The Israelites had the ark of the covenant. Reread today’s first
reading about how they personalized that box to give them strength and power. [Cf. First Samuel 4: 1-11.]
So
what else is new? Christians have this gospel text to tell us that Jesus is there when our
skin feels ugly or we feel crappy and small and unclean. Amen. [Cf. Mark 1: 40-45.]
Footnote *"Chains of Love," by Eric Wilson, Instyle, magazine, page 515, September 2015
January 16, 2020
SEMITRANSPARENT
Sometimes we’re good at hiding
our feelings; sometimes we’re not.
Sometimes it all depends on whom
we’re with and what’s going on in our lives.
Mostof the time
we’re semitransparent and it’s
only those who care - who dare to ask, ”What’s up?”
“Righteous people terrify me … Virtue is its own punishment.”
Aneurin Bevan, Quoted
MichaelFoot, Aneurin
Bevan, 1897 - 1943
January 15, 2020
GOD TUGS
God tugs.
God tugs the tassel
of our thoughts –
not just in church,
temple or mosque.
God touches us
when we stop to
watch the deep dark
night sky. God taps our wallet when we walk down the street and see a beggar's out stretched hand. God takes our hand when we tumble on our way of the cross, wipes our face with his cloak, and gets us to our Calvary.
“There are many who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God any more.”
Arthur Miller,
The
Crucible, 1953
Thursday, January 9, 2020
January 9, 2020
DIRECTOR’S CHAIR
While watching the making
of the movie of another’s life,
sometimes we notice the other has
someone else in the
director’s chair.
It could be Mommy, Daddy, Spouse, trends, that are pulling the strings, arranging the scenes – controlling the lines, directing the action and the cuts.
“Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”
Sholem Asch,
New York Herald Tribune,
November 6, 1955
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
BELIEF IN
MIRACLES
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Belief in Miracles.”
Today’s gospelhas the story of Jesus walking on water. It’s a classic miracle story and metaphor. So,last night in preparing this homily I decided
to think about miracles.So the title of
my reflection is, “Belief in Miracles.”
MARTIN
O’MALLEY
I
got an e-mail Christmas card from a friend of mine, Martin O’Malley. Great name.
I had told him I now live next to the ocean.
Some
of his roots are from Galway, Ireland and my parents are from Galway, Ireland. I
told him I like to stand down by the water and say to myself - pointing out into the Atlantic , “Galway, Ireland is right there.”
He
had said he did the same thing with his kids at the beach in Ocean City,
Maryland when they were kids.
Then
I told him about the statue of Mary on our property here that has Jesus doing
the same thing: pointing out to the water.
Did
Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Sea of Galilee when he was a kid?It’s not that far from Nazareth.
He
slid into a follow up e-mail the following words, “The miracle is to walk on
land.”
I
wrote back to him, “Great quote. I’ll give you credit if it’s yours.”
THICH
NHAT HANH
He
wrote back, “Sorry. It’s from Thich Nhat Hanh – whom I met and love to read. Thich
said, ‘The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green
earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.’”
Wow
is that classic Buddhist spiritual visioning.
I’ve
been thinking about that and surprise today’s gospel appears and I’m down for
saying a few words.
Last
night I looked up what other folks have said about miracles and how we see.
Jon Bon Jovi said, “Miracles happen every
day, change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around
you.”
Change
your attitude – open up both your eyes – and open up the third eye – the inner
eye the mystics talk about.
Have
that faith and you can stand on our beach and be in communion with all the
people on the waters and the land they lap and wave to all day long.
Have
that faith – have that way of thinking and seeing – and you can be in communion
during this meal with all people at 8 o’clock Masses in this time zone and all
people having breakfast, lunch and supper around the world at this time – the
constant daily miracle of the multiplication of the loves of daily bread around the world.
Have
that faith, that way of seeing, and every time you see visible signs of love,
you’ll see and sense the presence of the invisible God all around you- as today’s first reading from the First Letter
of John puts it. [Cf. .4:11-18]
Have
that faith – that way of perceiving – and you can write the song in the Rogers
and Hammerstein’s musical, The Flower Drum Song. “A Hundred Million Miracles”.
The
refrain is saying what I’m saying in this homily,
“A hundred million
miracles,
A hundred million
miracles are happ'ning ev'ry day,
And those who say they
don't agree
Are those who do not hear
or see.
A hundred million
miracles,
A hundred million
miracles are happ'ning ev'ry day….”
Notice today’s gospel
has that very same message when Mark tells us about those who don’t get it,
“They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their
hearts were hardened.” [Mark 6: 52]
But those who get it
see Jesus walking with them when on the water, in a boat, at a meal, at this
mass, when walking on this planet.
As the flower drum song puts it, those who get this
ability to see miracles see the miracle of children growing, the rivers flowing,
the sun rising, flowers flowering, stars staring and a little girl in China – standing up today and starting to walk for the first time.
CONCLUSION
As Albert Einstein put
it, “There are two ways to live: you can live
as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
“The last years of his life had become so precious to him that, as he said, he would
willingly stand at street corners hat in hand, begging passers-by to drop their
unused minutes into it.”
“Everyone
wants to understand painting. Why don’t
they try to understand the singing of birds?
People love the night, a flower, everything that surrounds them without
trying to understand them. But painting –
that they must understand.”
Pablo Picasso,
Quoted Gerald Brennan,
Thoughts in a Dry
Season,
1979
Monday, January 6, 2020
TOE TAPPING
Does God love it when
people go toe tapping?
I know I notice toe tapping when people are just sitting there on the subway heading home or uptown or downtown or in church during hymn time.
How about music makers:
do they try to build toe
tapping into their pieces?
If they do that, I’d like to
know just how they do that,
so I can build some bounce and joy and toe tapping into
“I always tell students that it is what you
learn after you know it all that counts.”
Harry
S. Truman
Sunday, January 5, 2020
DON’T
BOTHER ME!
Well, I don’t want to say it like that.
But sometimes I just want space.
I just want some time to be alone.
I want to just do nothing but read,
walk, think, pray, and be with myself.
How about you? Are there times
that you too want to be alone, to
have some space – to ponder, to
wonder? Hey Jesus had his garden,
his cave, his 30 years of privacy. Wait a minute. Saying it that way, seems too much. I need a minute or a hour to think this all out. When things are moving too fast and all are talking, I simply want to slip slide away.
