BECAUSE I WATCH,
BECAUSE I LISTEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

This is the story of a remarkable young girl – a fourth grader – someone that others might not notice – someone who flies under the radar – someone who is quite quiet. Her name is Nancy.

How do I know about her? “Because I watch, because I listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

THE CANE

Nancy was with her mom at Goodwill. Her mom was searching for bargains – and there is some great stuff at Goodwill. While her mom was checking out a coat, Nancy spotted a whole collection of canes – wooden canes, metal canes, plastic canes – canes with all kinds of interesting handles.

Nancy took a good look at the whole collection – studied them – and then came the Nancy smile. She had also spotted a whole collection of yard sticks – each 3 feet long – each with some kind of advertisement on it. She borrowed one of the yard sticks and walked back to the canes. She measured several of them. “Okay, good,” she said to herself.

Her mom didn’t see any of this. She just knew Nancy liked to explore everything. Mom didn’t buy a coat – but she found a neat t-shirt for her husband who loved strange sounding t-shirts – especially all black colored ones.

That Saturday Nancy went with her dad to see his dad and mom. Nancy went with a yard stick that she knew her mom kept in a hallway closet. Her grandfather walked with a cane – and was always bent over. Not only that, he would always be moaning and groaning about his back ache.

While watching TV both her dad and his dad fell asleep. It was a boring baseball game. Nancy took her grandpa’s cane – went outside to the car – took out the yard stick and measured her grandfather’s cane. “Aha,” she said to herself.

The next time her mom was going to Goodwill – Nancy took a five dollar bill from her piggy bank and went directly to the yard sticks and then to the canes. Her mom was checking out coats once again. “Perfect,” said Nancy. She went up to the front of the store with this longer cane and bought it for 75 cents. “Wow!” said Nancy.

When her mom saw her with the cane, she said, “What’s that?”

“Just something,” said Nancy “and it only cost 75 cents.”

Her mom didn’t buy a coat, but she did get another t-shirt for her husband – only a dollar.

Nancy didn’t say, “I beat you mom.”

When she went with her dad – now wearing his latest black T-Shirt – with the words, “Chicago Auto Parts” on it – it’s a Rock Band nobody ever really heard of - to see his dad that following Saturday, Nancy brought the cane with her. “Grandpa, I got you a new cane.”

“Nancy,” said her grandfather, “thanks, but I don’t need another cane.”

“Grandpa, try it, you’ll like it.”

Two Saturdays later she went with her dad to see his dad again and Grandpa was all smiles. “Nancy. This cane is perfect. I no longer feel any pain in my back and I’m not bent over. How’d you know I needed a longer cane?”

Nancy said, “Because I watch, because I listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

"MEANY"

In Nancy’s 4th grade class there is this kid every kid in the class can’t stand. Her nick name is “Meany.” She was a bully, a pest and a pain.

But she never picked on Nancy. Nobody did. Nobody really noticed Nancy.

Nancy waited for the right moment.

"Meany" was sitting there eating an apple.

“Jessica,” she said, “is everything all right at home?”

“What do you mean?” Jessica meanly replied.

“Well,” said Nancy, "when someone has a sharp rock in their shoe it shows up on their face and their words.”

“What are you saying girl? What are you trying to say girl? I don’t have any rocks in my shoes.”

“Well, Jessica,” said Nancy. “You never pick on me, but some kids call you 'Meany' behind your back and I don’t like that. I figured that hurts. So I figured you have a sharp rock in your soul and it’s rubbing you the wrong way.”

“Get out of here girl. Get out of here.”

So Nancy quietly walked away.

The next day however, Jessica came over to Nancy, when she was eating an apple, and said, “That was nice of you yesterday to say what you said. When I get home my older brother and sister pick on me constantly, so that I come into school, I get back at them by picking on others.
But I was wondering how you knew this Nancy?"

Nancy simply said, “Because I watch, because I listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

THE BASKETBALL PLAYER

In the eighth grade there was this girl named Rhonda – who was 5 inches taller than any other girl in her class – or any other girl on the basketball team. Her mom and dad were both over 6 foot tall.

Rhonda made the girls’ basketball team – but never got any baskets.

Nancy’s older sister Pamela was also on the basketball team – so Nancy went to different games.
One day Nancy saw Rhonda playing in her drive way. She was visiting and practicing hoops with Pamela. The ball went down the driveway and Pamela went chasing after it.

Nancy had her chance. “Rhonda, I went to all of your games this year and I noticed that you are great at rebounds – but when it’s at your end, you always dribble once before you shoot a rebound. You would do much better to practice not dribbling. If you get the ball at your end, just put it up right away without dribbling.”

Rhonda said, “What?”

Just then Pamela came back with the ball and Nancy went inside.

But that Thursday afternoon Rhonda got 11 points and their team won – and Nancy noticed she didn’t dribble after any rebound at her basket. And after the game Rhonda went over to Nancy. “Nancy, where did you learn that?”

“Oh,” said Nancy, “because I watch, because I listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

ONE LAST NANCY STORY

Nancy was on the phone with her grandmother – her mom’s mom - and Nancy made a mistake. The door was open and her dad just happened to hear the whole conversation.

He heard Nancy say, “I hope you are okay grandma. It looked like you were really hurt with my dad’s mother-in-law jokes.”

Silence.

Her grandmother was very quiet.

Finally her grandmother said, “How did you know that? Yes, I am very sensitive, but how did you know I’m hurt every time he tells a mother-in-law joke?”

"Well, last Sunday’s gospel was about Jesus’ healing Peter’s mother-in-law and I was thinking of you."

Her grandmother asked, “But how did you know your dad does that?”

And Nancy answered, “Because I watch, because I listen.”

Could everyone repeat that, “Because I Watch, Because I Listen.”

And her dad overhearing all this said to himself, “Oh no! How could I be so stupid? My own kid is picking this up at her age. Well that’s the end to all this.”

And her dad never told another mother-in-law joke that hurt his mother-in-law again. Amen.

O O O O O O O O O

This was a kids homily at our 8:00 AM kids Mass - 5 Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B - February 7, 2009. The basic inspiration came from the second reading - the call to be a preacher. Nancy is a preacher. Here's the reading from the Children's Lectionary:

A reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 9: 16-18

Brothers and sisters:

I don't have any reason to brag about preaching the good news.

Preaching is something God told me to do,

and if I don't do it, I am doomed.

If I preach because I want to, I will be paid.
But even if I don't want to,

it is still something that God has sent me to do.

What pay am I given?
It is the chance to preach the good news free of charge

and not to use the privileges that are mine

because I am a preacher.

ANXIETY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Anxiety.”

The word “anxiety” or “anxious” appears 5 times in today’s second reading, so I began thinking about anxiety – and did some research on it for this homily.

Anxiety.

Since it seems to me to be a psychiatric term in English, I looked up the Greek text from which we get our New Testament to see what word they are translating with the words “anxiety” and “anxious”. All 5 times the Greek word is “MERIMNA” or “AMERIMNA” It’s Greek root verb is, “MERIZO” – which means to be pulled or drawn in different directions and as a result of these pulls, these cares, these distractions, a person can feel anxious, tense, nervous, confused, apprehensive, sweaty – or even have heart palpitations.

Ever feel that way? We’ve seen movies where someone is tied arms and legs to two or four horses and the horses are driven in different directions – and we’re sitting there, going, “Uoooooh that hurts.”

FEARS AND ANXIETIES

Do you ever feel anxious? About what? Do you have any fears? What are they?

I’ve always heard that the difference between fears and anxieties are the known and the unknown. If we know what we’re scared of, that’s a fear. If we don’t know what we are scared of or antsy about, that’s an anxiety. I assume that not everyone agrees with this distinction, but it works for some people.

We can know our fears – but when it comes to anxieties – it helps to try to go back in our life to find possible sources of our antysiness. It could be an aunt – who baby sat us when we were a little kid and kept on telling us we were going to go to hell if we didn’t eat our broccoli or spinach – if we didn’t go potty right or we didn’t shut up in the afternoon when she wanted to watch the soaps – or we were going to go to hell if we didn’t fold our hands just right when she forced us to say the rosary with her. But that could seem unfair – picking on an aunt – or anyone – and fairness and unfairness can often be a source of anxiety.

We’ve also heard people use big words for fears or phobias: claustrophobia – fear of enclosed places; acrophobia or altophobia – fear of high places; arachnophobia – fear of spiders; but do we know that doraphobia is fear of fur and eisoptrophobia is fear of mirrors? And we might remember the cartoon when Charlie Brown hearing about all these phobias says, “I have pantophobia.” And when asked what that means, he says, “Fear of everything.”

MOVIE: HIGH ANXIETY

Remember the Mel Brooks movie, “High Anxiety.” It’s a spoof on all this to make us laugh. Mel Brooks, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn go through a whole series of scenes – some of them take off’s on Alfred Hitchcock movies – that also deal with anxieties. Alfred Hitchcock said he liked to have his movies take place where people think they are in a very safe place – and then birds – thieves – killers appear.

Anxiety is not a laughing matter. People out of work – not knowing what to do next – or wondering and worrying about the economy can be the stuff of real anxiety. Sometimes anxiety gets us moving. Sometimes it gets people into not only economic depression – but also emotional depression. Uh oh’s can be the real deal. Uh oh!

Yet, sometimes laughter is just what we need. While reading about the movie “High Anxiety” which goes back to 1977, I laughed when someone said that for the scene that mimicked Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, the plan was to use fake bird droppings made from mayonnaise and chopped spinach. They were dropped from a helicopter – but real birds got scared because of the real helicopter – and people down below didn’t know what they were being hit with. Was it really mayo and spinach?

Is there a word, “birddropophobia”?

And surprise last night while watching soccer on TV with Father George, at a break, we noticed on the menu that the movie, “High Anxiety” was on at 10:30. Surprise. I put it on. It was quite corny – and goofy spoof's – but it had a few laughs. George went to bed.

PUSH AND PULL

We’ve all seen on doors the words, “Push” or “Pull”.

We all have our pulls – as well as our pushes.

What’s pulling us in different directions? What’s pushing us?

Sometimes we feel like a door with two signs on it: push and pull. We have many doors we go through in life – some with signs we don’t like: boss, principal, undertaker, angry brother or sister – or nursing home where dad or mom is.

Push. Pull. Uh oh! Oh no! Anxiety is knocking on our door. Different doors can be the source of different anxieties.

TODAY’S SECOND READING

St. Paul says the single person has different anxieties than the married person. Some of you might remember the movie, My Cousin Vinnie. There’s Mona Lisa Vito - single – still wondering if Vinnie will marry her. Many say the most memorable scene in the movie, My Cousin Vinnie, takes place on a porch out in the woods. There’s Mona Lisa, Marisa Tomei, wearing perhaps the greatest one piece outfit of any movie of all time kicking her foot on the wooden deck outside the house and whining, “My biological clock is ticking … ticking… ticking.”

Anxiety – not being married – not having kids – being married – having kids – worried about mortgages – and bills and keeping one’s job – and where our kids are and it’s after 10 PM or this and that – can pull a person apart.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus enters the synagogue in Capernaum and meets a crazy man – a man with an unclean spirit. The man yells out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.”

What a great scene! The crazy guy knows who Jesus is – the rest of the crowd don’t.

I wonder if it’s Mark’s sense of humor appearing here.

What a great scene! Jesus yells back and says to the unclean spirit, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulses him and with a loud cry came out of the man.”

Amazing. Isn’t it a strange scene? Isn’t this scene much more powerful than the pea soup scene in the movie, The Exorcist. Isn’t it much more immediate?

Mark in today’s gospel says the crowd was amazed. It would be better if they had anxiety. It would be better, if they too knew who Jesus was – the Holy One of God.

JESUS IS IN THIS PLACE – RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, FOR US

Hopefully, we hearing this story, seeing this movie here in Mark, we can feel Jesus standing here – in this place, right here, right now, for us. Hopefully, we feel some anxiety. Better, hopefully we have some Jesusphobia – that he might come over to us and say, “Quiet! Bad spirits come out of this person.”

Don’t we all have evil spirits within us – that rattle our cage at times: meanness, jealousy, envy, snarkiness, nastiness, laziness, anger, impatience, inability to control life – especially people?

Wouldn’t it be great that we too – like this crazy man – knew that Jesus is the Holy One of God – that he can come up to us and heal us of our evil spirits.

Any of you who have taken Bible Courses or Workshops on Prayer – or know the Jesuit exercises from retreats or this or that, know that the secret of prayer and reading the Bible is to place oneself in the scene. See it. Hear it. Be the different characters in the story. Use their lines. Make them our prayers.

I’m assuming that today’s first reading from Deuteronomy was chosen to say that Jesus is the new Moses – a prophet – here in our assembly – here in this synagogue – here on this Sabbath – and hopefully we know who Jesus is – “the Holy One of God” – that we let him heal us – and we walk out of church today better than when we walked into this church today.

CONCLUSION

There is a German proverb, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.”

Anais Nin, wrote in her diary, “Anxiety is love’s greatest killer.” [The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. V, 1974]

Hopefully, by coming here to church, we can become free from sin and feel and find the peace, love and healing power of Jesus Christ.

Hopefully, by coming here to church, we can stand here this moment – crazy, anxious, nervous, with our fears and anxieties – and we hear Jesus say to our evil spirits, instincts, moods, “Quiet. Come out of her. Quiet. Come out of him.”

In every Mass, right after the Our Father, there is a short prayer that the priest says. Right in the middle of it, there is the word “anxiety”. I often wondered who pushed to put it there. Maybe it was someone who liked today’s second reading. Maybe it was someone who had a lot of anxieties to deal with. Listen to it carefully this morning:

“Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Picture ? -Not sure where I found this. Sorry. I like to give sources.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

P.S. Received the following in an e-mail. It gives a different slant or glance on how to deal with anxiety - so I plugged it in. Don't know the author or source. Sorry.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied: “The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.”

“If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

He continued, “And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.”

“So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others -- (that one killed me!!!)

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are dull; some are plain, some are pretty. Some have weird names. They all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

HOW GOD CALLS US?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “How God Calls Us?”

How does God call us?

Yesterday morning I was sitting here at St. John Neumann in the front bench for the service in preparation for the Kids’ First Confession or Sacrament of Reconciliation. I found myself wondering, “What am I going to preach on tomorrow morning?” It was my distraction while trying to listen to something else. Smile.

I thought about the Sunday readings – especially the Gospel story of the call of Peter and Andrew, James and John, - as well as tomorrow being the feast of the call and conversion of Saul – who becomes Paul – and the question, “How God Calls Us?” hit me.

If you ever wonder where or how or when we priests get our ideas for sermons, that’s a glimpse.
I jotted down on a scrap of paper, “How God Calls Us?”

When I got back home to my desk at 11:30 AM and started working on a homily for today, two things had already hit me about this question on how God calls us.

First: you’re assuming that God calls people.

Secondly: you’re assuming that there is a God.

Assuming those two things, how does God call people?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel, we have the stereotypical God call. Jesus walks up to two brothers, Peter and Andrew, and calls them. Then he walks along the beach and sees two more brothers, James and John, and calls them. They drop everything and follow Jesus.

OUR CALL TO BE A CHRISTIAN

Why are you here today? How and when were you called to be a Christian?

I am a Christian and a Catholic because my mom and dad were Catholic and their parents, and their parents, and their parents were Catholic. When I was doing a bit of genealogy, I got back as far as a guy named, "Edward the Carpenter" – and I assume that he was a Catholic there in Galway Bay, Ireland.

I assume people way, way back somewhere started going to church and people kept on going to church or dropping out and then coming back and I’m the beneficiary of their decisions.

As to the call to be a priest, I’ll find out after I die, whether this was the thing to do or not to do in my life – if that’s the way it works. I know a priest came into our classroom in grammar school and talked about the need for Redemptorist priests in Brazil and asked us to think about a vocation to choose such a life and I thought about it and that’s what I did. So far, so good – except for not getting to Brazil as I hoped.

I love Father Andrew Greeley’s “Call Story”. It's in his autobiography. It went something like this: someone came into his second or third grade classroom and asked, “Does anyone here want to be a priest?” He said, “I raised my hand and I’ve never taken it down.” *

CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL

Today, January 25th, is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul – and Pope Benedict asks us to reflect upon his life and letters this year. Deacon Tony Norcio is offering a series of talks on St. Paul on Thursday evenings here at St. John Neumann’s. Check it out in the bulletin for details.

Christianity was off and running. Jews were joining this reform movement in Judaism – that Jesus started. A man named Saul, a Pharisee, didn’t like this dangerous trend and started persecuting Christians. On the road to Damascus in Syria this man, Saul, was hit by a bolt of something – fell to the ground – heard a voice, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He answered, “Who are you?” And Saul, blinded for the moment, gets the insight that he is persecuting Christ. He discovers the followers of Christ are the Body of Christ – the Risen Christ – walking our world. Wow!

How did Saul or Paul get called? It was a very direct conversion – being knocked off one’s feet. Artists and preachers often add that he was knocked off his high horse – but the scriptures don’t have him on a horse. He might have been - but the message is that he had a major conversion, call, change, on his way to arrest Christians in Damascus.

In A.A. – Alcoholics Anonymous – and the many 12 Step programs that use its methodology, there is the saying, "You have to hit bottom – before you can stop hitting the bottle." Does it come from this story of Paul? I don’t know. But many people only change, only hear God’s call, when they hit bottom big time.

HOW DO PEOPLE HEAR GOD’S CALL?

Some people hear God’s call dramatically. Some people hear God’s call slowly? Some people hear God’s call without even knowing it’s happening – and their life changes and grows quite gradually.

How do you hear God’s call?

The big message I’m hearing in spirituality for today is adult religion – having an adult relationship with God – and for the Christian – an adult relationship with Jesus.

People reading the Gospels see Jesus walking into their lives – knocking at their door – sitting down to table with them – and they have heart to heart talks with him. I am the Pharisee. I am the blind, the lame, or the deaf - or all three. I am the rock thrower. I am the woman at the well. I am the one caught in adultery. I am the one who is paralyzed. I am the one who has to forgive and be forgiven 70 times 7 times.

Looking at your life, when have you experienced God’s presence? God’s call? When do you have time to sit down with Jesus?

The Religious Education folks in every parish hope that parents who bring their kids for First Confession and First Communion – also get wind of God’s word.

Yesterday I’m sitting here hoping and saying to myself, “Okay parents you are here this Saturday morning. I hope you’ll be here tomorrow – Sunday morning.”

WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS

I was not a parish priest from 1969 till I came here to Annapolis in August of 2002.

St. Mary's has been a wonderful experience – great people – great parish. Of course we have to listen to the Gospel a lot more – and grow a lot more – and conversion is a lifetime experience.

As to God’s calls – in the last six years I have heard at least 50 times the following. Someone is here for a wedding or a funeral from Chicago or Boston, Virginia or Nevada, and they say after the funeral or wedding, “Thank you for the nice service. I guess I got to get back to church.” Jewish folks have also said that to me. I even got two offers to be a rabbi. That moment makes all the hard work of preparing a wedding or funeral homily and service worth while.

We work. God gives the increase. [Cf. 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9]

HOSPITALS AND DOOR BELLS

Father Joseph McManus, whom I was stationed with in New Jersey in a retreat house around 1970, liked being a parish priest much more than working in a retreat house. Joe is buried in our cemetery in the back lawn of St. Mary’s on Duke of Gloucester Street. I’ve stood over his grave many times. I find that's one way God talks to me – as well as the person whose grave I'm standing on. I read those numbers on tombstones. I wonder about those who have died. I find standing on cemetery ground to be standing on holy ground.

Joe McManus often talked about the importance of hospital ministry as a priest – that the key folks were not the person in the hospital bed – but the spouse and the family of the sick person. He said a hospital is a great place where God speaks to lots of people. How about you? Have you heard God’s call when loved ones got sick and / or died? Today's second reading has those very intriguing words: "... the time is running out." The world hasn't come to an end - like various people in the Early Church expected - but we run out of time. That is to be expected.

Joe also said that Jesus often rang door bells in the skin of the poor looking for help. This parish is one of the best parishes I’ve seen for the generosity of people putting money in the poor box. We also have a great group of parishioners who serve the poor as part of the St. Vincent de Paul team - interviewing, listening, helping the poor in our name with great love, respect and care.

READING AND WRITING

I started writing in the 8th grade – stream of consciousness writing – a la James Joyce writing – long before I heard of James Joyce. I did it for laughs as well as for the joy of writing.

Without knowing it, I was to slowly discover that I wanted to not only be a priest, but also a writer. And both were very possible as priest. I’m finding less and less time for writing the longer I am here – but people are more important than words. That’s obvious. However, I jot down thoughts from this and that while experiencing people and situations here in Annapolis – so that when my legs go – but I hope before dementia sets in, I’ll have lots of notes to do some more writing.

I want to do that because I have found God speaks to me through writing – and I’ve had folks write and tell me that something I wrote helped them. That’s enough for me.

I also have discovered that God speaks to me through reading good stuff. I also would like more time for reading.

How does God speak to you?

Read any good books lately – novels – non-fiction – what have you?

SCRIPTURE AND PRAYER

And obviously, reading scripture and praying with scripture is a classic way God speaks to so many of us. I’m blessed as priest with the opportunity over and over again to preach. That means I have to sit down with the readings for each Mass and let them speak to me.

For instance, today’s first reading from the Prophet Jonah triggers so many powerful thoughts. Jonah was called “The Reluctant Prophet”. When God called him to preach in Nineveh he got on a boat and headed the other way – but finally God forced him to preach in Nineveh. Surprise! People heard the word of God and changed dramatically.

I pinch myself for all the places I have been in the United States – never Brazil – where I had to a chance to preach – the 8 and ½ years I was on the road before I came here to Annapolis – plus 14 years in two different retreat houses – where people came to pray and hear the call of God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God.

CONCLUSION

How does God speak to you?

P.S. I’m trying to reach you through this homily. Are you listening? Are you praying? God is speaking. God is calling you. God is challenging you. "Shush!" [Put finger to lip] Listen. Amen.

* Andrew Greeley, Confessions of a Parish Priest: An Autobiography

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “What Are You Looking For?”

I’m sure I preached on this question somewhere along the line because it’s so obvious a life theme, but if I did, I’m not sure just what I said.

It has to be the theme of many songs. I think of Mariah Carey’s song, “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?” with the line, “Do you like the things life is showing you?” and the haunting refrain, “Do you know?” “Do you know?”

How many times have Best Buy sales folks, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and best friends, asked us, “What are you looking for?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus says to these two disciples of John the Baptist, “What are you looking for?”

It’s one of those questions that we’ve heard a thousand times in our life – and if we’re over 65, we’ve said it to ourselves a half dozen times a day – scratching our head, having walked into another room and wondering, “Now what was I looking for?”

“What are you looking for?”

ANSWERS

Our first answers might be:

· Peace in the world.
· That the economy gets better.
· That people out of work would find jobs.
· That the new president and congress and staffs and state and local governments would help turn things around.
· Good Health and Good Health Care for everyone.
· Peace in our families
· Laughter. Joy. Peace. Hope. A good day every day.

Our second answers might become more specific:

· Health and healing for so and so who has cancer.
· An end to drinking and drugs for so and so.
· That a kid’s marriage will turn around – especially because there are kids involved.
· That there be no plane crashes today, but if there are, let them be as lucky as the one the other day in the Hudson River.

Our third answers might be wider or deeper or different, because we might turn to God more or go down deeper into our soul:

· I would want my life to be more pleasing to God.
· I would want my life – what I’m doing each day – my work - my time at home - my outside interests - to make sense to others and be helpful to others.
· I would want to have loved and been loved.
· I want to see my children’s children!
· I would want the world – well at least the places where I’ve been – to be better because I was there. If you cry every Christmas as you watch the black and white movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” you’re there. You get it.

POEM

I gave two talks to the Anne Arundel County Catholic Catechists yesterday in St. Jane Frances de Chantal Parish in Pasadena and I used a poem by the Sufi poet Hafiz. It’s entitled, "With That Moon Language."

WITH THAT MOON LANGUAGE*

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud; otherwise someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in the world is dying to hear?

He’s saying if we want to be loved, look deep into the full moon in every eye that is saying the same thing. “Love me.”

What are we looking for? To be loved – so love one another. Sounds familiar? Read the gospel of John – especially his account of the last supper. It’s all about love.

What are you looking for?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

When Jesus asks the disciples that question, they answer with another question, “Rabbi – Teacher – where are you staying?”

Jesus says, “Come, and you will see.”

This scene takes place in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John has been reworked and reworked in the early Joannine Community – and it has a rich, well developed theology.

I was recently reading my notes from a book on preaching, Imagining a Sermon. It's by Thomas Trogher. He urges the preacher to use imaginative theology. The preacher has to evoke. He writes, “I will not cheat the congregation by handing them a souvenir from my trip on the river when I can take them along on the voyage and let them feel the current and the water for themselves.”

How do you do that? The Gospel of John can do that. It can take you on the journey to meet, feel, taste, experience Jesus.

The Gospel of John wants us to come and see Jesus – come and be with Jesus – come and stay with Jesus – come and experience Jesus.

And if you have the overpowering experience that one of the disciples, Andrew, has, then you will go about bringing others to Jesus – so they too can have the same experience.

This is the year of the Gospel of Mark for Ordinary Time – but I smiled when today’s gospel for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time is from John. This is the year of Paul. The Pope also said it’s the year for us to be thinking about Africa.

So if you want to be contrary, make this the year of John or the Letter to James for you.

When I say the rosary I only say the Joyful Mysteries. One of these years I might find myself moving into other mysteries, but I haven’t found myself so moved yet – and this has been going on for about twenty years now. And surprise – I’ve met people who said, “Thank you for saying that. I thought I was the only one.” One lady told me she makes only one station of the cross – the fourth station. Isn’t religion interesting?

The gospel of John provides many, many great questions. But notice this one in Chapter One: “What are you looking for?”

And notice the question in Chapter Twenty: “Whom are you looking for?”

Or the question in Chapter Twenty One, the Last Chapter of John, "Have you caught anything yet?"

Notice the other line in the last chapter of John’s gospel, “None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’; they knew quite well it was the Lord.”

Then they had a meal and Jesus asked Simon Peter three times, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” and three times Peter says “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” And three times Jesus says to Peter, “Look after my sheep – feed my sheep.”

CONCLUSIONS

What am I looking for?

Love – and hopefully in all the right places. Isn’t that what Paul is telling the Corinthians in today’s second reading - to realize our bodies are temples that can hold the Holy Spirit – that we are the body of Christ – and life is to give glory to God – not to immorality?

Today’s first reading has a great text from the first book of Samuel. Three times the Lord calls the young man Samuel – and he is too young to get it. He has to sleep some more. The prophet Eli is there to help him process his calling. [Oh would that the Giants won last Sunday and in that story it was Eli who was sleeping and he didn't wake up.] It seems that for most people we spend a good period of our life sleep walking. Maybe today or this year is the day or year to wake up – if we haven’t yet – and we say and pray to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

And today’s Gospel challenges us to discover what and who Andrew discovered in the first chapter of John, “We have found the Messiah. It’s Jesus.” Please God we’ll find Jesus, that we’ll realize that he like everyone else has a sign in his eyes that says, “Love me!” and if we haven’t found him yet, we’ll find him now, love him as the one we are looking for in whatever chapter of our lives we are in now. Amen.**

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*I found the poem by Hafiz in Chapter 8 of “Ten Poems to Change Your Life Again and Again”, by Roger Housden. It is translated by Daniel Ladinski. It is worth reading to get a far better explanation of this poem than the quick comments I made.

** And then there is the book, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists. He discovered that the meaning of life was to practice loving Jesus Christ. How? By putting into practice all those wonderful descriptions of love that Paul gives in First Corinthians 13:1-13 that so many couples pick for a reading at their wedding. Alphonsus had a great love for Jesus being born for us, giving his life for us, especially in the Eucharist and dying on the cross for us. Alphonsus, like Andrew in today’s Gospel, went around telling everyone, especially the poorest and most abandoned, that they are loved by Jesus. Yes – even the poorest and forgotten have that message in their eyes, “Love me!”

*

THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Theory of Relativity.”

You don’t have to be Albert Einstein to understand his, “Theory of Relativity.”

When some of his students at Princeton asked him to explain it, he said something like this, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours–that’s relativity.”**

One of my favorite ways of saying the same thing is, “How long a minute takes, depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.”

How long a minute takes depends whether you’re the doctor or whether you’re the patient in the waiting room; whether you’re the teacher or whether you’re the student; whether you’re the cab driver or whether you’re the passenger looking at the meter.

How long a sermon takes depends upon who’s preaching – or whether you’re wondering about a football game – or where your car is parked – or you're antsy about a crying baby or what have you – or where you are in your life. It’s all relative. It all depends.

TODAY’S FEAST: THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

Today’s feast is the Baptism of Jesus. Today’s gospel from Mark has this sentence in an English translation from the Greek, “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.” [Cf. Mark 1:9]

“It happened.”

I like those two words.

Picture a kid throwing a basketball in the living room to another kid and the basketball hits and breaks a Waterford crystal vase. That kid would add the word, “just” and say, “It just happened.”

It just happened that there was a Waterford crystal vase there on an end table – and one kid seeing another kid with a ball went, “Throw” and just then Ed Reed made an interception and the kid with the ball was also watching the Ravens game on television in the background and the basketball when tossed didn’t go where the thrower intended to throw it – and “It just happened” to break the Waterford crystal.

Jesus at that moment in the river – far from home – just happens to hear a voice from the heavens say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” And Jesus sees the sky open – and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. [Cf. Mark 1:11]

And Jesus changes the pattern of his life.

He’s no longer the carpenter with wood. He’s now the carpenter with words.

He’s no longer the quiet man of Nazareth. He’s now the Word proclaimed to the world.

And then he began walking and preaching – reaching out and healing – and if people just happened to be at the right place at the right time, their life could change – interception – a change could happen in the direction of their game.

Old patterns can break.

It’s all relative. It all depends.

Grace can be amazing – and save a wretch like me.

TAKE SOME TIME

Take some time to look at your life – your moments – the moments you were intercepted – the moments you broke – or were broke – the moments in your life that you changed or were changed.

Other people were in the same place and the same time – and what happened to you didn’t happen to them. Experience is relative.

If I heard the following from priests once, I heard the following a dozen times. Someone comes up to a priest and says, “What you said changed my life.” And the priest says, “What did I say?” Obviously we would want to know the answer to that question. And the person says something the priest knows he didn’t say.

Surprise.

Life is the surprise – the serendipity – the juggling of so many different things – that make what happens, happen.

My mother in Boston said “Yes” to the last of ten years of love letters from my father in New York, and they got married and four kids later I was on this planet.

How about you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? What’s your story? What’s your great, great, great grandmother’s story? It’s all relative.

I also love the saying, “If you want to change somebody, you have to change their grandmother.”

MOMENTS OF CONVERSION

As priest I’m always amazed at conversion moments. In today’s first reading from Isaiah, I love the text, “… so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

To me that has always been an amazing insight from Isaiah 55 - verse 11

Every drop of rain has a purpose.

Every snow flake has a purpose.

Every word we say has a purpose.

I have never forgotten a sermon where someone said that Jesus rained the word of God on the rich young man to let go of everything and come follow him – and he walked away sad, but around the year 285 a man named Anthony – of Egypt - walked into church late – heard those words – dropped everything and followed Jesus. [Cf. Matthew 19:22]

So parents, every time you say good stuff to your kids – every time you pick up a cranky kid and you say, “I love you!” it’s like rain, it’s like seed, it’s like a love letter from New York to Boston. It’s going to produce results.

Amazing.

It’s also scary.

I still remember walking along Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York as a little kid and going by a gas station. A guy inside one of the bays starts screaming words at this other guy – words I never heard from my mother or father or at home. Then the guy doing all the screaming throws a tire iron at the other guy. Till this day I can still hear the metallic clanging sound of that tire iron bouncing along macadam.

No wonder e.e. cummings said, “be of love a little more careful than anything.” He could have said the same of hate.

BAPTISM

So Jesus heard those words of love that day at his baptism, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

So we baptize our babies. So we have birthday parties for our spouse and our kids. So we go on vacation with each other. So we visit each other. So we eat with each other. So we send words to each other.

Every moment is sacred – and every person will experience their every moments differently – based on how lightning strikes them in the big moments of their life – and how a lightning bug strikes them in the little tiny moments of their life.

During this meal, during this Mass, just become quiet, and listen. Listen and hear God saying over you, “You are my beloved daughter. You are my beloved son – with you I am well pleased.”

Just as the priest at Mass says Jesus' words over bread and wine – and they become the body and blood of Christ – so too God’s words over us can have a profound change.

Listen God is speaking.

Listen and God is saying many other things to us as well.

God is sending down messages – like rain – like snow – like lightning – like seed – on everyone of us here – all the time.

Listen – the atmosphere is filled with God – with the Spirit – silent like a dove – as amazing as light traveling at 186,282 miles per second – but a split second different if we were at the equator than if we were at the poles.

CONCLUSION

Of course this is all relative. We couldn’t take all these realities at once. That would be like having Christmas or our birthday 365 days a year. But sometimes – sometimes – some days we have a moment like Jesus experienced that day at the Jordan River. We experience God’s presence and God’s love for us – all around us – surrounding us – embracing us – and we lose consciousness of time. It might happen in a split second and it feels like an hour. It might be an hour and it feels like a split second.

The Spirit of God comes down on us like a dove – and we feel loved – beloved by God – and our life is changed – rebaptized – washed – refreshed in the downpour – the showers – the waters – the rivers – the ocean – the atmosphere of God that surrounds us every moment of our life.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
* Picture on top by Lotte Jacobi

**There are some excellent short film clips on the Internet that explain Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Just type into Google, “Einstein: Theory of Relativity.” Go into the Wikipedia article and go to External Notes at the bottom. Then click on films and animations. There is one short film that shows twin jugglers – one on land – one on a boat – both juggling at the same time – and because the boat is moving – there is a difference. There is another film that shows a man with a right angle box mirror as he watches lightning hitting two poles. If he is on land it hits both polls at the same time, but it hits the poles at different times for a man with a right angle box mirror on a moving train. Huh? You have to see the film. But I guarantee if you looked at these short films and experiments, you’d get something different out of what you were seeing from what I was seeing. It’s all relative. Amazing. Moreover I'm more a poet than a physicist.

LOST

UMBRELLA

It rained all day.

It kept us inside
till we got restless,
till we wanted to
go outside.
Sometimes
searching for
lost umbrellas
gets us talking.
Sometimes
searching for
lost umbrellas
we find things
we forgot we
were looking for
and we decide
to stay inside
and talk some more.

© Andy Costello,

Reflections, 2009

GAMES

Games. Games. Games.
Who wants to play games?
I’m even sick
of the word, “Games”.
Give me names, names
names of people
who don’t want
to play games?

© Andy Costello,

Reflections, 2009