THE TRIP HOME
AFTER THE CLASS REUNION

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Trip Home after the Class Reunion.”

How many times have we heard folks say, “If you ever get an invitation to a class reunion, make sure you go to it”?

TRAIN RIDE

I was sitting by myself on a Metro-North train heading south from Poughkeepsie, New York to Grand Central Station. In the 4 seats behind me were 4 ladies facing each other. I’m reading a book. Slowly their conversation and laughter, their comments and wonderings, became much more interesting than my book.

I closed my book and took a spiral note pad out of my bag and began jotting down all that I could hear. I wished I had the skill of a court stenographer. The 4 ladies were heading for their 25th Anniversary class reunion at Hunter College in New York City.

If I could, I would have loved to be on the same train with them on the way back to hear Chapter Two of their stories.

I never even turned to see what any of the four ladies looked like. I just finished my notes and stood up after they got off. I felt a tinge of guilt for eavesdropping – but I’ve heard it all as priest.

I have often wondered how novelists learn to write dialogue. Is it a talent? Is it a skill achieved? Do some have it better than others? Do they sit in restaurants and bars with spiral pad and pen and listen to how people talk and what they say? I wonder if writers do a lot of secret listening – in their efforts to be heard. In fact, to me writing, like preaching, is not noticing the speaker, just hearing the story.

While sitting there on that hour plus train ride to New York City, I jotted down many of their comments. One lady said she took off 15 pounds for this class reunion. The others laughed – but it was a nervous kind of laughter. How many different types of laughter are there? I heard lots of, “I hope she’s there.” “I wonder if she ever married that jerk.” “I can’t wait to see who looks the best.”

Have you ever been to a class reunion?

The title of my homily is, “The Trip Home After The Class Reunion.”

OUR CLASS REUNION
Three years ago our ordination class of 1965 met for a class reunion. 10 out of the 16 of us who were ordained showed up.

The trip home afterwards was the moment for me. Amazing wonderings hit me. Some of us had stayed as priests; some had left and got married. We talked about what happened after we finished studies and headed out into this great big world we live in.

A year earlier, 2004, 3 of us had talked about the importance of having a class reunion. I went with 2 classmates, Tom and Clem, on a two week vacation driving through Montana. Tom had spent most of his life as priest in Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo in the Caribbean and Clem had spent most of his life as priest in Brazil.

We saw Montana – under the guise of following part of the Lewis and Clark trail in that state. It was the bicentennial of their expedition [1804-1806] – but the real reason was to talk about what happened to us. It was a two week class reunion. We answered the “What happened?” question. I had joined the Redemptorists to become a priest and work in Brazil. I never got that assignment.

That trip and the class reunion got me to look at my life: Where did I go? Whom did I meet? What was it like?

It cleared up some, “What if’s” and added some new “What if’s?” It gave me many “Thank you’s” and “Thank God’s,” etc. etc. etc.

IT’S GOOD
It’s good to attend class reunions.

It’s interesting to listen to others on cell phones if they are being public about it – in fact, that’s better than complaining that they are being rude or uncivil – unless it’s stuff we shouldn’t be listening to.

It's interesting to take notes of what others are saying and then reflecting on what was jotted down afterwards. I do this and sometimes turn people's comments into poems or what have you.

It’s good to go down memory lane.

It’s good to take long walks.

It’s good to get a window seat in a plane when flying alone. We see a lot more from a distance.

It’s good to make retreats.

It’s good to read biographies and autobiographies.

It’s good to come to church – and listen to the readings.

TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s’ first reading from the Book of Proverbs gives us a wonderful poetic description of a great wife. Her value is beyond pearls. It’s a reading heard at weddings and funerals. It’s good to go to weddings and funerals. They are real eye and memory openers. It’s good to tell one’s wife, "You're a pearl!" – and she might add, “Thanks. Any chance for the real thing?” It’s good to tell each other, how much we appreciate each other – while we’re living. Harold Molz, one of the great old pillars of this parish, said, “Why wait to say great things about someone after they die? Tell them while they are living.”

Today’s second reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians presents a theme we’re all familiar with: the surprise phone call – the bad news in the middle of the night – the accident – the disaster. It’s a theme we hear at the end of each church year – as well as in the season of Advent that is coming up. It’s good to read old letters. It’s good to realize life has term limits and surprises.

Today’s gospel from the 25th Chapter of Mathew is also worth reading. It has three parables. Last week, because of a feast day, we missed out on the story of Ten Virgins – 5 of whom were wise, 5 of whom were foolish. This week we hear about the 3 servants – one of whom was given 5 talents, one of whom was given 2 talents and one of whom was given 1 talent – each based on their abilities. Next week we’ll hear the 3rd parable in Matthew 25. It’s the last judgment – when we’re judged at the end of life as a sheep or a goat – depending on what we did with our life in caring for others. Strong stuff. Judgment stuff. Challenging stuff.

It’s good to look at our life – to see what we’re doing with our talents. It’s good to look at our life and ask, if we’re caring for each other. It’s good to have a class reunion with ourselves on a regular basis – and give an account of our stewardship – how we used our talents.

IN THE DARK – WAILING AND GRINDING OUR TEETH
How many people have gone to a class reunion – and wow were they surprised?

How many people on the way home from a class reunion – and for weeks afterwards, found themselves down – in the dark – inwardly wailing – outwardly grinding their teeth – because they realize they buried too many of their talents?

How many people have gone to a class reunion – and on the way home they realized the power of comparisons. So and so – didn’t have that many talents, but wow, look what she did with her life? So and so had so many talents, and wow did he mess up his life. In fact, he didn’t show up, but so and so told us how the star, the one most likely to succeed in our class, died 7 years ago of alcoholic poisoning.

CONCLUSION: THE WORD TALENT

The word “talent” appears in today’s gospel 9 times and it’s the bottom line thought I’m thinking about in this homily. The English word “talent” comes from this gospel. This Gospel story is the word’s history and background. Check your dictionary. In fact, the Greek word used in this New Testament text is, “talanton” – from which we get our word “talent”.

It's good to go to class reunions. They can be judgment moments. They can get us to look at what we have done with our lives. It’s good to take train rides and sit and eavesdrop on ourselves – to listen to the story of our life. If there have been blessings; praise God. If there have been disasters, ask God to get us moving. It’s never too late. Why spend time whining in the dark and grinding our teeth?

As I was working on this homily, I found a great anecdote about talent, so let me finish this homily with it. In April, 1962, John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline hosted a White House dinner and reception honoring Nobel Prize winners. He said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

ON VISITING CHURCHES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “On Visiting Churches!”

[I was going to entitle this homily: “For History Buffs, Look It Up!” Most of this homily or sermon will be history. And I like history, but it so easy to mix up facts and figures. It’s so easy to make mistakes, so it’s important to keep looking up stuff to make sure one is right. But let me stick with my title: “On Visiting Churches.”]

Today we celebrate something that might seem odd: The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. We celebrate this feast on November 9 – because on this day in 324 – this first major cathedral church in Rome was dedicated in honor of Jesus our Savior. Later on the cathedral was also dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.

We celebrate this feast on this Sunday because today is November 9th. I have had all this schooling, but I’m still not sure when and why some feasts take over for Sundays and some don’t. So I have to do some homework.

ON VISITING ROME

Father Pat Flynn and 60 plus folks from this parish are in Rome today, I think it’s today, on their trip to Italy.

Is it a trip or a pilgrimage? Pilgrimage connotes visiting holy places.

I’ll have to find out when they come back if they went to the cathedral of St. John Lateran.

I was in Rome once – and I made sure I visited St. John Lateran’s. Ever since I was a kid, we were told at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Church in Brooklyn that the church where the original picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is in the small church of St. Alphonsus on Via Merulana – between the two major churches of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran.

That information helped, because when I came out of the airport in Rome, the first bus I saw had “Santa Maria Maggiore” on it. I took it because I knew it was close to the Redemptorist House in Rome where I was going to stay.

The next day I went to the church of St. John Lateran. It was big – but I wasn’t impressed. But I knew I was standing on history. It was too dark for me – and too boxy. Sorry.

But what hit me was history – a long history. Here was the place of the first major church of Christians in Rome. Here was the wooden altar that Peter was supposed to have said mass on when he was in Rome. When news that Constantine was fighting under the banner of Christ – Christians knew they finally made it. Up till then they were a minority – often persecuted. This cathedral was our coming out party. Constantine had acquired the land through marriage – so he gave it to the church. It was land owned by the Laterani family – and they had a long history going back for centuries as well.

It was to be the place of the popes for 1000 years plus. Besides the cathedral, it was the place where the pope’s house was – along with several other buildings. The cathedral has a long history – and many rebuildings: it was sacked by the Vandals; it was devastated in a major earthquake; it had two big fires; it went into big crumble when the popes – 7 French popes - had moved and then lived in Avignon in France for 68 years. Then when the papacy came back to Rome, they settled in what is now the Vatican, a place on higher ground with better drainage – and St. Peter’s became the place to visit.

Yet, St. John’s remains the cathedral church of Rome.

So when you visit Rome, you have to visit St. John Lateran’s as well as St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum and St. Maria Maggiori and the small St. Alphonsus’ church when you can see the original picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help which we Redemptorists have promoted since 1867.

TODAY’S READINGS
The three readings for today all have to do with holy places – holy buildings.

We just listened to the readings them. What thoughts and feelings do they touch?

The first reading for the Prophet Ezekiel 47 talks about this imaginary temple that has the wonderful sound and sight of running water.

The water flows out of the temple down to the Arabah River. Then Ezekiel says that there are fruit trees of every kind along the banks of the river. Each month the trees give fresh fruit.

Isn’t that a great image of what a temple or a church should provide?

Wouldn’t that be a delicious place to visit every Sabbath? Wouldn’t that be a place that would restore our energies – going to the temple and seeing all this delicious water and then walking outside and picking fresh fruit.

Delicious fruit is very restorative. My sister always says, “If you want to get men to eat fruit, you have to cut it up for them.” Women: is that true?

A cold glass of water – the water cooler down the corridor here at St. Mary’s – seeing the creeks and bay of Annapolis – swimming – sailing on the Bay – going to Ocean City – taking a shower or bath – seeing, tasting and experiencing water restores us.

To be human is to hunger and thirst for good food and good water.

Aren’t families restored by picnics? Visits to Ben and Jerry’s? Tail gate parties? Cook outs? Sunday dinner?

Restoration – rest – revival – renewal? Isn’t that the purpose of temples, church, mosque, synagogue? When we feel broken and need a break after a long week of work – and sometimes Saturdays, we need Sunday. Isn't that why we’re here today. Give me a break!

The second reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Church of Corinth has Paul saying the people are the building – the temple. This was written before we had buildings – when the church was in hiding – when the church met in homes – long before cathedrals and churches could be built.
Question: when people meet me - this temple called "me", do they experience rejoicing, rest, restoration, renewal? Do they experience the presence of Christ?

The Gospel from John has the great message that Jesus is the temple.

The great temple in Jerusalem was the center of Israel’s life and culture. Jews would make pilgrimages to it many times in their life – just as Moslems today want to make pilgrimage to Mecca and their holy places.

Well, Jesus sees the money changers and sheep and oxen being sold on temple ground and Jesus became angry. Filled with zeal he overturned the money changers tables and yelled out, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

Jesus then says that he is the temple – he is the center – he is the place to visit.

It took the church and it takes us a long time to grasp this deep theology.

BUILDINGS
Do we need buildings? Do we need holy places?

The history of the world of us human beings answer a loud, “Yes!” – but of course the key is we come here to experience God first. And as Christians we come to church to feast on the great food here: Jesus. We come here to be washed with the delicious water: Christ. We come here to hear we are the body of Christ – and then to go out from this holy place – and treat each other with sweet sacredness.

CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “On Visiting Churches.”

Up front I said, I find it a bit odd celebrating the feast of church. Do we just give history? What? What do you need this Sunday morning?

So my theme was the value of visiting churches. When you’re a tourist do you drop into churches? I notice folks who come to Annapolis visit St. Mary’s. What is their experience when they come through our doors? I notice that visitors who come here for weddings, baptisms and funerals, often say, “This is a beautiful church.” So churches do something to some people.

If you’re a history buff, read Robert Worden’s history of St. Mary’s Parish here in Annapolis. * I believe there are still copies for sale.

As one reads and digs into the history of this church or any church, interesting tidbits of information – as well as questions arise. For example in putting together this first draft homily for today, I kept noticing things that were very interesting. I read that in 1784 there were 15,800 Catholics in Maryland – 3,000 of them being African Americans. What’s their story? How did they get here? What churches did they go to? Start digging. Research is a great hobby.

If you haven’t been to Rome yet, and you get the chance and if the economy improves, visit St. John Lateran – and St. Peter’s, and St. Alphonsus, and St. Maria Maggiore, and the many interesting churches there.

If you want to keep the money in this country, if you go to Florida visit St. Augustine – the oldest European city in the United States. Nibble on Spanish Catholicism there. It goes back to Ponce de Leone who was searching for the fountain of youth in 1513 and so many snow birds doing the same since.

If you go to California, take in the history of the 21 Spanish Missions along “El Camino Real” – each mission a days walk from each other – 1769-1823 – and how those missions are part of the history of that state – how the buildings were left to ruin – how in 1863 Abraham Lincoln gave all the mission lands back to the Catholic Church – and those mission buildings were restored in the 20th century.

Or if you stay local, visit the basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore. It’s been restored big time. Take the guided tour. Or to save gas and time, go on line and drink in its history. It’s the key cathedral for this diocese – and some would say for the United States – but those in Washington D.C. who like the Immaculate Conception Cathedral might differ. Whatever. Enough. Amen.


* Robert L. Worden, Saint Mary's Church in Annapolis, Maryland, A Sesquicentiennial History

PRAYER FOR OUR DEAD

Lift up our dead
strong Son of God;
You are the God of the living
and not the God of the dead.
Come into our upper rooms
with words of “Peace”,
when we feel dead
because of our dead.

Remember their goodness,
their acts of kindness,
all the many ways they
have lifted up our life with their love.

Lift up our dead
strong Son of God;
You are the God of the living
and not the God of the dead.


Andrew Costello

(© Markings Prayer for November 1997)

ALL SAINTS

Lord,
I don’t know
any of your Saints personally,
but I do know mine:

- a lady in our church
who quietly and faithfully
has run the soup kitchen
all these years;

- a guy at work
who would give you
the shirt off his back;

- my mom and dad
who taught me how to love,
how to forgive
and how to pray;

- a friend who always listens
when things just aren’t going right,
and you can count on this:
that’s as far as it goes.

Oh yeah, there’s this old nun in our parish
who takes care of the school library in the morning,
visits some people in the nursing home in the afternoon,
and answers the rectory phone in the evening.
She just doesn’t want to retire.

Lord, I don’t know any of your Saints personally,
but I’m sure you know mine.

Andrew Costello

(© Markings Prayer 

for November 1995

NOVEMBER PRAYER

Lord, it’s November Month:
All Saints, All Souls, All People
called to be pilgrims gathering for Thanksgiving.

Lord, it’s November Month:
bright autumn leaves finally all falling down,
old age, crisp and cold, retired,
traveling across the country,
leaves swept with wind across the sidewalk,
across nursing home lawns, till finally we are leaves,
dead, resting snug and secure
as cemetery stones in November Month.

Lord, it’s November Month.
Aren’t we all pilgrims,
stopping this moment for prayer, with food - Eucharist,
at the family table, the family altar,
filled with Thanksgiving for it all:
the gift of family, the gift of place, the gift of time -
the journey from birth to death, one’s lifetime:
the budding leaves of spring,
the green years of our summer,
the splash of autumn life,
till death do we part and find our rest,
All Saints, All Sinners, All Souls,
All Pilgrims headed for a far country, Heaven,
the Promised Land, the place with many mansions
the place of the Great Banquet, the eternal Eucharist,
the eternal Thanksgiving dinner.


Andrew Costello
(© Markings Prayer for November 1990)

NOVEMBER DAYS

Someday we’ll arrive
at the November days of our life.
We’ll have our particular aches and pains,
walkers and canes.
We’ll have the struggles of our last days,
our hands like hanging on November leaves
shaking in the cold wind,
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s.
And then we’ll finally move into
our December days,
to the day we’re buried in the earth.
But we shall all rise at the call of the Risen Christ,
“Lazarus, come forth!”
“Mary.”
“Thomas, take your finger 
and examine my hands. 
Stop your unbelief! Believe!
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Come to the banquet.”

Andrew Costello

(© Markings Prayer

 for November 2002)

ALL SOULS DAY

All Souls Day:
prayers sinking from our hearts
down deep into the graves
of our dead beneath our feet
or in the cemeteries in our hearts,
prayers for those we talked
at table with,
prayers for those we walked
these streets with,
prayers for all those
who have gone before us.
Amen. Come Lord Jesus!
Come Lord of the Living
and not of the dead,
because our creed is:
we believe down deep
you have risen from the grave. Alleluia.

Andrew Costello
(© Markings Prayer

for November 2000)