THE SON ALWAYS

RISES!

Quote for the Day - October 4, 2010

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

"Praise to you, my Lord,

for all your creatures,
above all, Brother Sun,
who brings us the day
and lends us his light!"

St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226)

TINY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27 Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - is, “Tiny!”

As soon as that title and thought and theme hit me yesterday after I read today’s readings, it hit me that this sermon better be tiny – to prove the point. Let’s see if I can make this a tiny homily. If there is anyone here with that nick name, I am not picking on you. However, I do remember picking on a tiny guy – standing on my tippy toes when I was standing next to him – till he told me – off to the side – my doing this really bothered him – and that tiny comment – changed me from doing that. I can be insensitive – till someone tells me.

JESUS

Jesus saw tiny – tiny specifics – like mustard seeds – eyes of needles – rocks in hands – a poor widow putting two cents in a poor box – that you can buy 5 sparrows for 2 pennies in the market – the lilies in the field – the new patch on an old garment that had a hole in it – someone touching the hem of his garment – a servant coming in from the field after a long day at work – Zacchaeus that tiny tax collector guy up in a tree – the little child being yelled at – as the disciples tried to push them aside – and Jesus stopping what he was doing to say, “Let the little children into your life – if you want to see and experience the kingdom of God.”

Jesus saw tiny.

LIFE

Life is made up of millions of tiny moments – moments that become memories – the mosaic of our life. Each day contains the tiny things: the holding the door – putting out the garbage – putting the seat down – a hot dog and two hamburgers left on the plate – and we know so and so prefers hot dogs to hamburgers - and we do too – but we take the hamburger – and leave the hot dog for the other – and nobody notices our tiny moment of decision but ourselves.

Life is the tiny: a tiny leak coming through a tiny hole in our roof, especially in a big downpour and it can ruin our wooden floor. A stitch in time can save nine. A thank you note or a post card can make someone’s day. Remembering birthdays and anniversaries – are better than the gift – but a gift is also nice. Shopping and getting him, his favorite mustard and getting her, her favorite mustard – another type – and there they are next to the one hot dog that is left – and often nobody notices the tiny – and sometimes the mustard taker realizes the TLC – and lets the cook know, making the cook very grateful.

Life is the tiny.

What is it like to be one of those tiny, tiny, tiny bugs that live in books? I learned a long time ago not to kill them – just to admire them – and wonder about them. What do they eat? What is their life span? Can they read? Do they realize they might become an endangered species if everyone buys a Kindle or a Nook – or some other e-Book?

The stars look so tiny up there – and the planets – and some of them are so much bigger than tiny earth in comparison.

Distance effects size and perspective – so too our awareness of God and each other. What ever happened to our 4th grade teacher or “Tiny” that big 250 to 300 pound happy guy every high school had?

Life is the tiny.

We all remember hearing Ben Franklin’s words, “A little neglect may breed great mischief … for want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.” George Herbert said the same thing – but who notices tiny plagiarism?

Yesterday at a wedding I’m just observing a couple taking their vows – and I’m sort of off to the side – a visiting priest did the vows – and at one point spontaneously – they were arm in arm – they both did a pinky hold for a moment. I never noticed a couple doing that tiny pinky coupling gesture before. Neat.

A NEGATIVE TAKE ON THIS

The tiny can make or break us.

There is a tiny poem by the African American Poet, Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946) called “Incident”. The scene is a Baltimore City bus or streetcar. It goes like this:

INCIDENT

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

We all know the truth about that one. It’s been my experience that everyone here could write that poem – because we all have had tiny experiences that we still remember – with hurt and anger. The whole vacation, the whole trip was perfect, but we remember that one tiny thing that went wrong – something the waiter or waitress said in a tiny restaurant in Bulgaria or something our father-in-law said at our wedding 37 years ago. It ruined everything and we can’t forgive him.

At other times the tiny can be our own worst enemy.

If you saw the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it was that zit that the bride got on her face on her wedding day. Ugh. What about the dress, the cake, the dancing, the ceremony – in comparison?

We all do this. We get up to read something at Mass or a meeting or a wedding and we flub one line or even one tiny word. The flub stands out like a zit on the pope’s nose – or whatever that was on Gorbachev’s forehead. Or we make one tiny mistake and so and so lets us know every time.

Picky, picky, picky. Tiny, tiny, tiny.

In the winter Olympics I never like the figure skating because they pick out one tiny flaw – or one fall – and then they show it in slow motion. I know it’s the way they do the score – but ugh – picky, picky, picky. I prefer hockey, they fall all the time and crash into the boards – but all is forgiven if you get the winning score.

THE TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Tiny.”

In today’s gospel Jesus says faith is like a mustard seed. It’s the extra that makes our faith, like mustard on a ham sandwich – that is if we like mustard on a ham sandwich.

Our faith – the flame of faith as today’s second reading puts it – grows and glows by a tiny example we heard in some sermon 37 years ago – or by a moment at the Ocean – one summer morning – when we were all alone and walked the beach – and we stopped and looked at the sun rise or the waves crashing – and the gift of adult faith landed on our shore. Or we worked with someone – who was a person of faith – and without show – they planted the faith in the soil of our soul – or our moms and dads brought us to church – or we said grace before meals or a night prayer together. My mom used to bless us with holy water when we went off to school each morning. And we found out years later she’d go back to bed.

So it’s not the big, but the little things that build or destroy a life, a marriage, a relationship, a day.

I’m ending this tiny sermon right here, right now. Amen. Now that’s a tiny word, we all like to hear. Amen!

COMING  BACK 

DOWN  TO  EARTH. 

Quote for the DaY - October 3, 2010

"The universe is one of God's thoughts."


Friedrich Schiller [1728-1805]

ANGELS

Quote of the Day - Feast of the Guardian Angels - Oct. 2, 2010


"We do not realize that, as Chesterton reminded us, the angels fly because they take themselves so lightly."


Alan Watts (1915-1973), The Way of Liberation, 1983 - Notice the G.K. Chesterton quote on a T-shirt. Someone observed that the 300 pound Chesterton (1874-1936) also took himself lightly - but as those who have read Chesterton know, he still is a "heavy" - and well worth reading.

UNSELFING!

Quote for the Day - October 1, 2010

"Conversion is primarily an unselfing."

E.D. Starbuck [1866-1947], The Psychology of Religion (1901)

THE FACE 

CHECK IT OUT

Feast of St. Jerome - September 30, 2010

Quote for the Day

"The face is the mirror of the mind,

and eyes without speaking

confess the secrets of the heart."

St. Jerome [342-420]

YOU’RE AN ANGEL

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this September 29th feast day of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels is, “You’re an Angel!”

Has anyone ever said to you, “You’re an angel!”

Did anyone ever call you an angel?

THEY DIDN’T MEAN

I am sure they didn’t mean you have wings and you fly around wearing long white floating garments.

However, I did have a wedding three Saturday’s ago when 2 flower girls came down the aisle at St. Mary’s Church wearing wings. They were dressed as angels. And I’m sure someone without thinking said to the littlest one, “You’re an angel!” or to the older one, “You’re an angel for getting your little sister to come down the aisle with you – because she was so scared.”

THEY DID MEAN

I would assume when someone says to us, “You’re an Angel!” they mean we saved them. We helped them big time. We did something good to them.

For example, someone is trying to open a door and they have 5 packages – and we step in and help them – and they say to us, “You’re an angel. Thanks.”

And all of us have seen a dozen times the movie, It's A Wonderful Life. In order for Clarence to get his wings, to become a full fledged angel, he has to help someone. And movies and TV programs about angels ever since present angels as helpers - saving people from a problem.

TODAY’S FEAST

Today’s feast is that of the three archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. On October 2nd we celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels. I think that’s all the angel feast days of the Church year.

Catholic Theology states that angels are these creations of God – unique spirits without bodies – that praise God and go about doing good. Now some of these beings, these “forces”, are given names. Most are just called “angels”. The 3 for today – Michael, Gabriel and Raphael – are found in Scriptures – by name.

Then there was the great angel, Lucifer – who fell. This fact, indicates they have intellectual powers – or free will. After that we don’t know much or enough about angels.

They are invisible. But just as we picture God – who is invisible – we picture angels.

Because they are messengers – they are pictured with wings – and so that's the way they are often sculpted. We see them that way in art work all through the middle east and middle ages. Just go into any “old” Roman Catholic church building and you’ll see pictures of angels in stained glass windows – and other pictures and statues. I counted them here in St. Mary’s. They can be seen everywhere.

In reality, I don’t go with the physical wings and stuff – because people have enough trouble believing in God.

However, they are worth studying – and pondering – and the question sits there: “Are we missing something since the Enlightenment – when angels seemed to fly out the window?” What was the world like in the Middle Ages and earlier ages? Did people picture Guardian Angels hovering on people’s shoulders – protecting them? Did they picture millions of angels on the head of a pin – in theology classrooms? Did they feel like they were joining a multitude of heavenly angels at each Mass – especially at the Sanctus, the Holy, Holy, Holy? Did they picture a great ladder – as indicated in the gospel for today – Christ as Ladder – with angels coming up and down from heaven to earth on him? [John 1: 51] What was life like with a sense of angels and demons at one’s door?

MESSENGERS

Yet, what I would stress about angels that they are God’s servants. They are God’s messengers. That’s their calling.

And that’s our calling – and when we fulfill that call, sometimes people might say to us, “You’re an angel.”

A key would be to concentrate on the message we’re called to deliver in the places we visit each day. So the stress would be the message not the messenger – as in the old saying, “Don’t kill the messenger!”

What is the message? What is God’s message that he sends us to be messengers of? Answer: “Take and read! Take and read.” If we read the scriptures we can hear God telling us to love one another – and giving various other best practices to go about doing.

Sometimes I picture angels as inspirations – with wings – that is, messages with wings – flying through the world – and into our consciousness. After all there are all these other invisible messages in the air – energy – radio waves – whatever it is that goes through the world wireless – and we have to turn on some gadget to receive them.

I also picture temptations as messages that fly around and sometimes we hear them and then we have the challenge to resist them and to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”

THESE 3 SPECIFIC ANGELS

Michael’s message is to be like God – because that is what his name means from the Hebrew.

I prefer war to peace – so I would prefer picturing Michael as a being who loves compared to the being who fights. However, in the literature, Michael is usually the angel who is pictured with a sword in hand fighting dragons and demons.

I’ve also wondered why do cult like groups – doomsday like groups – feature Michael in their camp. They often voice revelations of Michael fighting and killing the enemy?

I would think – if we really need an advocate and an angel – pray to Michael the archangel. Other Christian communities – other than Catholics – prefer to stick with Jesus himself or the Spirit and not Mary, the Saints or the Angels.

Gabriel name means “the strength of God”. Obviously, once more, we would all like to have God’s strength and bring that strength to others.

In the New Testament Gabriel is pictured as the messenger who comes to Mary with the announcement that God wants her to bring a Son into the world. And Mary has the strength to say yes. [Confer Luke 1: 26-38; Daniel 8: 15-27]

And Raphael is the angel who heals – as we see in the Book of Tobit. I see the message that our call is to be peacemakers – healers – of those around us. “Rophe” is the Hebrew word for a medical doctor. [Confer Tobit 5: 5 to 12:22]

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Sketch on top: This is the work of Gustave Dore (1832-1883) in an illustrated book of Dante's Paradiso. This is a scene from Canto 31 - Rosa Celeste - in which we see Dante and Beatrice gazing up into the highest heavens: The Empyrean.

Check the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 328- 336 for much clearer details and dogma on the angels.