A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “A Room of One’s Own.” (1)
QUESTIONS
When growing up, did you have a room of your own?
Family sizes way back were bigger than today. Homes way back were smaller than they are today. Of course, those two comments are made with broad strokes and call for one of life’s key comments: “It all depends.”
How does a room of your own or the size of one’s family – affect and effect – one’s personality? How does being an only child – or being the youngest – and one finally gets a room of one’s own when another or others go off to college? If there was only one bathroom in the house when we were growing up – and there were lots of others in the house – especially sisters – would that make a difference in giving someone a sense of others better than if there were several bathrooms or what have you?
When we were small we lived in a two bedroom house and then the dining room somewhere along the time line became a bedroom for our parents – and I was in a back bedroom with my older brother and my two sisters were in the other back bedroom. We lived in a one bathroom house.
I went to the seminary – and we lived in a big dormitory. So I didn’t get a room of my own till after I had finished two years of college and headed for our year of novitiate – where I finally had my first room of my own.
REPEATING TITLE OF HOMILY
The title of my homily is, “A Room of One’s Own.”
I was trying to figure out where the title and theme of this homily came from – and why it hit me from today’s readings. There’s no mention of a room in the readings – only a sheepfold or sheep pen. It would seem more logical this theme might come up with the readings right around Easter when Jesus says, “Peace! Peace I give to you!” after he comes through the thick walls of the upper room and says to the apostles who are scared to death that they might also be arrested and killed.
IT’S INTERESTING
It’s interesting where homily ideas come from – and I’ve discovered for me, they are not just from the scripture readings for the day. They usually just trigger ideas. As I was trying to figure out where this thought, “A Room of One’s Own” came from, I remembered watching some of a Dr. Wayne Dyer talk on public TV from last week – as part of a fund drive for Public Television.
Dr. Wayne Dyer was talking about Mimetics. The word “Meme” – “MEME” was on a wall or curtain just behind him as he spoke. I put the clicker down and sat there and listened. I had heard or seen that word before, but I had not clue to what it meant.
He said MEMES are like genes and viruses that float around the world and take root in people’s brains. They are styles and patterns on how to think and act. They get into us from others, from TV, from parents, and they quietly sneak into us – like a virus.
Well, Dr. Wayne Dyer said that our heads, our minds, are filled with all kinds of ideas and thoughts and assumptions about all kinds of things. And many of these thoughts he called, “MEMES.” And obviously there are good memes and bad MEMES – healthy or unhealthy memes – or what have you.
What I saw when I saw that word was the word “me” said twice. Me Me.
I found that very interesting. I was just sitting there watching TV and that idea was snook right into my brain – and I just snook it into your brain – unless you were talking to yourself about something else in your brain – and you clicked me off before or after I began.
Surprise! We all do that. And double surprise: I might not be up here too. I can talk and be thinking of something else. Everyone can. Interesting.
So that’s how I began thinking about MEMES. I want to do some more thinking about this topic. You can too. Just type into Google, “MEME” and go from there.
I began to wonder: “Is the me that is me my vast REM – Random Access Memory – that contains a zillion billion thoughts and memories?” For your grammarians the more correct English would be, ‘Is the I that is I, all these MEMES – all these thoughts, ideas, memories, that are in here – in my brain?
Well, if that’s true, that’s very interesting to me. I don’t know if this will be interesting for you.
Then I noticed in today’s Gospel the idea of knowing “voices”. Today’s gospel talks about sheep knowing the sound of the voice of the shepherd. And the shepherd knows all the sheep and he knows them by name.
Is that where this idea of a room of one’s own came from - that our skull – our mind – our brains – is the room of our own – where we can go every time we want privacy – and we do just that? If someone is boring – just up here in the pulpit babbling, you can take your secret clicker and just tune the speaker out and you can start listening to yourself.
Then the old idea hit me than in this church right now there are voices of tons of cell phones, radios, TV programs, all flying through the air – and it takes a gadget to hear them.
BIN LADEN
Then the Bin Laden story hit me – entered my brain – entered my thoughts – via TV and all the news services and from lots of conversations.
When I started hearing that story, the first thought that hit me was this: I hope the SEALS had lots of those big black plastic garbage bags with them – and they scooped up all the evidence they could find.
I’ve seen that on CSI shows.
Sure enough I began hearing that the SEALS found hard drives and videos and those thumb sized computer gadgets that hold lots of bytes – and carried them out with them along with Bin Laden’s body.
Then the weird thought hit me: what would happen if someone or someone’s like SEALS could helicopter over my brain and come down by ropes and break into my brain – into my skull – this room of my own – on my shoulders. What would they find?
Surprise!
I thought that was a funny as well as a scary idea.
GOSPEL PARABLES, SAYINGS, ETC.
Next I’m sitting across from someone at a wedding rehearsal dinner this Friday night – and the guy says he reads the parables of Jesus. He doesn’t read the Old Testament – or other stuff. He just reads the parables of Jesus and thinks about them.
So if someone could break into his upper room, is that what they would find – lots of parables – the parables of Jesus – floating around in his brain?
In today’s gospel Jesus talks about being the gate to the sheepfold. He talks about the shepherd knowing all his sheep and knowing them by name. That’s interesting.
I grew up in the city, but I’ve been in barns and zoos and I’ve heard flocks of geese and birds and I’ve seen people walking the street with several dogs. So I’ve heard animals and their sounds.
So is my brain like a zoo or a sheepfold and there are lots of voices going on inside my mind?
The room I have of my own over in St. Mary’s rectory is rather messy. When someone calls me on the intercom and says, “Can I come over or down to talk to you about something, I say to myself, “Uh oh!” and quickly push and pile stuff up as neat and as fast as I can. Father Denis Sweeney the past before Father Jack was very, very, very neat and when he knocked on my door, I got very nervous. I could see his eyes scan my room before he’d ask me a question. Down through the years, I’ve noticed that neat priests keep their doors open – and us slobs don’t.
Most of the time, I’m relaxed. This is me. And I have a great rationalization for living in a barn: Jesus was born in a barn.
CONCLUSIONS
Okay, wrap it up….
I hear that sound coming through the air into my upper room.
My thought for today – in this messy, sloppy sermon, is for all of us to walk around in the most important room of our own. It’s our skull on our shoulders.
Get in there. Close the door and listen to all the voices in here.
Check out the MEMES.
Check out all your thoughts and beliefs and opinions and takes on life.
Ask where did that thought – that idea – that assumption I have – come from?
Can I hear Jesus’ words in my skull? [Hold head!]
Do I know and recognize his voice – in the midst of a lot of voices – MEMES – advertisements – gossip – chatter – what have you?
Could I sit down at a computer or take a pad and write down the voices of Jesus – the words of Jesus – that are part of my life?
For example, do I hear Jesus say from the cross – “Father forgive them for they have no clue what they are doing?” That's my translation that I use all the time when I think about Church, priests, people, drivers – including myself.
For example, do I hear Jesus’ voice. It can still be heard around the world, “Go the extra mile!” or “Give the shirt off your back!”
For example, do I hear Jesus’ voice saying, “Some people go by the Ten Commandments. Good, but I’m telling you the big commandment is to love our Father with one's whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself.” Then I can hear Jesus say, “There’s a big difference in how you see and live life with those two commandments. Picture a tombstone with the ten commandments carved into it. Then picture the two stone side walls of the Grand Canyon – and the vast space between both sides and down to the bottom. When you live my commandments and you fill all that space between the two rock sides – all that emptiness – with the kind of love I’m talking about – the love of God and neighbor and self – your life will be very challenging and much more joyful." Now we’re talking.
Enough already. I thought you were going to wrap this up.
So what’s in your upper room – that room of your own?
When was the last time you sat still in your upper room – in a chair or on a pile – and if you do – “You might hear a “Hhm, hhm, hhm, I’m in here too. I’m with your all days – even to the end of the world – which by the way is next Saturday, May 21st.”
Just kidding.
***********************
(1) Credit has to be given to Virginia Woolf [1882-1943] - who had published a famous extended essay in 1929 entitled, "A Room of One's Own." The quote that is often mentioned is: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
