IT'S EASIER TO SAY,
"I UNDERSTAND!"
THAN TO UNDERSTAND.

Quote of the Day:  March 13, 2010

"If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused."

Walter Mondale, 

Poughkeepsie Journal

March 26, 1978

TWO PERSONS WENT UP
TO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3rd Saturday in Lent is, "Two Persons Went Up To The Temple To Pray."

One of the main questions in parish surveys is: "Teach us how to pray better."

Well, today's readings, especially today's gospel is a great place to begin.

HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR

Can I laugh - especially at myself? That's a good place to begin.

In today's gospel Jesus shows us that he has a sense of humor. He shows us as we are. Hopefully, we can laugh at ourselves.

Hopefully we can see ourselves as both of these two characters in today’s gospel.

Today’s gospel is a mirror.

When we look in a mirror - do we ever laugh at ourselves?

Can we see ourselves in the mirror? Can we see ourselves in the story?

FIRST MAN: PHARISEE
First of all, I am the Pharisee in today's gospel.

The Pharisee sees everyone in the temple - and he wants everyone in the temple to see him.

The Pharisee in me spots those who come down the aisle every Mass after the first reading - and we make those inner comments about their motives. "For crying out loud, why don't they sit in the back if they're late and not have the whole church turn and follow them down the aisle with their eyes?"

But can we spot ourselves as we are? Do I come to pray for eyes to see me?

Do I come to pray filled with ego, filled with "I" -- “I” in capital letters?

Do I come to pray to God -- but “god” in small letters. Am I all me, me, me -- for others to see, see, see?

And when I finally see myself as I really am, then this man’s prayer becomes so powerful. I love the first part of the Pharisee's prayer, “Lord, thank God, I’m not like the rest of people.”

Thank God, because hopefully the rest of this world, is not like me.

So a first teaching on prayer is to read this gospel story and turn a bad prayer into an excellent prayer in the long run.

"Thank God the rest of people are not like me!"

SECOND GUY

When we see that, when we see ourselves as we are, then we can end up as the second person. We can end up praying his prayer, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”

LAUGH
So this parable can help me to see ourselves and help us to laugh at ourselves. It can also help me to see ourselves and cry.

FIRST READING
The first reading asks that God come like the spring rains.

Pray for rain. Pray for the Reign of God to fall upon us.

Please God, at times in prayer we’ll have the experience of Teresa of Avila in prayer. Bernini’s sculpture of St. Teresa in Ecstasy in Rome is worth reflecting upon.

In deep prayer God will flow down on us like rain.

What a great image, God coming like a rain storm in spring.

What a great image.

Sometimes God comes like the dew on the morning grass, or the morning clouds, but dew soon disappears.

Teresa of Avila says ask for me. She asks for rain storms of Living Water.

Ask for the ocean!

Why not dream that when I pray I will get caught in a rain storm of God’s love and that I am soaked with God’s mercy and love?

When was the last time - when it was really raining - we walked outside and stood in the pouring rain and loved the feeling and the moment?

CONCLUSION

Today’s readings provide good stuff for prayer.

Today’s gospel gives us two persons and their prayers.

Both people give us two real prayers.

Let us pray. Let us pray these two prayers. Amen.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.




Picture on top, the statue of St. Teresa of Avila [ 1515-1582], in Ectasy. If you get to Rome find St. John Lateran church and ask someone where Santa Maria della Vittoria is. Check out this famous work of art by Gian Lorenzo Bernini [1598-1680]. It's 11 feet and 6 inches high.

SERMONS: "TO SLEEP: 

PER CHANCE TO DREAM; 

AY, THERE'S THE RUB...."

Quote of the Day: March 12, 2010

"People don't come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God."

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007], N.Y Times, April 30, 1980

IS THE FIRST MOMENT 

WE MEET GOD 

A LAUGHING SPREE?

Quote of the Day: March 11, 2010

"Thank God, I am still an atheist."

Luis Bunuel [1900-1983], Time, November 29, 1969 - He was born in Spain and died in Mexico. He was a moviemaker.

COMMITTEE

March 10, 2010

Quote of the Day:

"A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours."

Milton Berle [1908-2002] , News summaries, July 1, 1954

HOW MANY TIMES?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “How Many Times?”

I want to preach on the theme of forgiveness – the obvious theme from today’s gospel.

PETER’S QUESTION

As you know from listening to the New Testament Peter had at least one brother – and his name was Andrew. So when Matthew tells us this story about Peter mentioning his brother, I’m going to listen two times more to this story than other stories.

Peter comes up to Jesus and asks him, “Lord, by the way, when my brother wrongs me, how often must I forgive him? Seven times?”

What? If the brother was Andrew, what did he do to bug Peter? Andrew – such a quiet, background type of guy in the gospels. The only time you hear about him, it’s good stuff.

Andrew should have been the one who asked Jesus that question.
But nope, it was Peter, and once more he puts his foot in his mouth.

Trying to impress Jesus, it seems he wants to appear the really good guy. The Rabbis said, “Forgive 3 times. That’s how many times you need to forgive your brother before you let him have it.” So big hearted Peter makes it 7 times.

Jesus laughs and says, “77 times.”

Others translate what Matthew has by saying Jesus said, 70 times 7 times. That’s 490 times. That calls for a lot of patience and good counting.
Either way, the Greek text can be – 77 or 490. Either way it’s a lot.

Some think Matthew is connecting this to an ancient text in Genesis – 4:24 – where if you think Cain was bad in killing his brother Abel –Cain’s only going to get 7 times vengeance for what he did. Worse, there is this descendent of Cain, a guy name Lamech – who was a really bad guy – he’s going to get 77 times vengeance for the blood he’s spilled.

Whatever, 77 or 490, that’s a lot of patience and forgiving being called for.
And in case Peter doesn’t get the message of forgiveness, Jesus tells this fascinating parable about the man who is asked to pay back a huge amount of debt. He whines and cries. He begs for mercy. He gets it. Then he goes out – meets someone who owes him peanuts – and he won’t forgive him. In fact, he has that servant put in jail – till he gets his money back.

Well, word got out. It always does. These kinds of unfairness always come back to haunt us. So when the master hears about this – he has the unforgiving servant brought back in and he says, “You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me for forgiveness, shouldn’t you have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”
And the unforgiving servant is handed over to the torturers till he pays back all the owes.

CONCLUSION

I like to think that Peter got the message – because when he denied Jesus 3 times – when he ran away from Jesus – he didn’t do what Judas did. When Jesus appeared to him, Peter experienced forgiveness big time.

And I hope he went out and forgave his brother Andrew the next time he was ticked off about him – and the next time after that – and the next time after that – and I hope Peter kept a tab on how many times he forgave Andrew.

I say that because Andrew’s are always perfect, so I’m sure he never got anywhere near 77 times – or 7 times for that matter. Amen.

DUST 

Quote of the Day: March 9, 2010


“Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.”


From John Taylor, “Fringe Lunatic” in Manhattan Inc. July 1986