WHEN YOU’RE SITTING
DOWN AT THE SEASHORE?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is a question: “What Do You See When You’re Sitting Down At The Seashore?”
It sounds like the tongue twister, “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
So the title of my homily is a question: “What Do You See When You’re Sitting Down At The Seashore?”
APPROPRIATE
Today’s gospel begins, “On that day Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”
As I read that I thought that it was interesting and intriguing that this is exactly what millions and millions of people do every summer. They leave their homes and head for the seashore or the water.
QUESTIONS
What do you think about when you go on vacation - that is, if you go on vacation?
What do all those people sitting on the sand at Ocean City or the Outer banks and Rehoboth and Deep Creek Lake, think about as they sit down by the edge of the water this summer?
What are your sea shore moments and memories?
Do you love to go back there?
JESUS
Jesus tells us what he’s thinking about.
Interestingly, Jesus gets into a boat and he’s looking at the land - while everyone is look at him on the sea - in a boat.
We’re in Chapter 13 of Matthew. Jesus has been somewhat banned from the synagogues. He’s now preaching using a lot more parables. In fact, there are 6 more parables here just in Matthew 13. And then there will be more parables to come as we continue with Matthew this year in the church readings.
Reflecting upon the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, some scholars think, they conjecture, that Jesus saw a farmer up in a field above the crowd and he’s sowing seed in the field there - and Jesus was watching all this as he sat there in the boat and begins preaching.
Jesus tells the people there are 4 types of people. Some people are hard headed - nothing can reach them. They have rocks in their head. They are like the path. The seed lands on it - but nothing happens. Some people look good, but they are shallow. They have no roots. The seed lands on them - but with nothing underneath - but hard rock as well, the seed dies for lack of anywhere to go and grow. Some people have possibilities. They have good soil, but they have too many things going on in their lives. They are too busy for new life - so the thorns crush new life. But then there are those who are good soil and they receive the seed and they grow and grow, 30, 60, 100fold.
The message is obvious. I have to go to the edge of my mind and look inside.
That’s what Jesus saw when he sat on the seashore.
QUESTION
What do you see, think about, if you were sitting at the seashore?
YESTERDAY’S BALTIMORE SUN
Yesterday’s
Baltimore Sun had a very interesting article about what’s in the water. I was wondering about how many people yesterday morning bought a copy of
The Baltimore Sun while at Ocean City or Rehoboth Beach and then took it with them to the sand - to read.
It had an article entitled, “Leaking Shipwrecks Could Threaten Coast.” It was by Frank Roylance of the
Baltimore Sun.
The article stated that there are 30,000 coastal shipwrecks. 233 of these are worst case scenarios. The W. L. Steed is out there off Ocean City, Maryland. It was torpedoed in 1942 - February 2nd. It had a crew of 38 and only a handful survived. There are 66,000 barrels of crude oil in its belly.
I was wondering if there are people who sit at the water and look out and wonder about what’s under that beautiful glistening surface. do some people worry about Jaws or think about dolphins? Do people think about all that’s at the bottom of the sea?
Well, now having read that article, will some types of people worry about leaking boats. at the bottom of our waters?
Will some people think further and think about themselves - about the ship wrecks in their life - wondering if toxic stuff from those wrecks in their memories, whether they can seep into their lives and destroy them - maybe stuff from a time in their life they were torpedoed or they had a ship wreck relationship.
Or do people think about all those people who founded America - coming here from other shores - other places. Some made it; some didn’t.
My mom and dad came here in the early part of the last century as immigrants.
I know when I see the oceans I think about Lindberg crossing the Atlantic. It’s so wide. I think about Columbus, the Vikings, the slave ships, the coffin ships, the stuff of story and life.
I think of Herman Melville’s book,
Moby Dick, and how that is the parable of so many lives - how some people can’t let go of their past - especially if they were wounded and hurt by another - and they keep on returning to going after what what killed them. I read the beginning of
Moby Dick a dozen times - but finally said a few years ago - I have to read that to the end. Some chapters are like being on a raft or small boat in the Atlantic for weeks on end - lost - and waiting for action - drifting, drifting, drifting. But having read it and then seeing the movie again, it is a major parable about life. And having lived by the water much of my life I love his quote in the first chapter: “Yes, as everyone knows, mediation and water are wedded forever.”
I laugh, but mostly cry at that, because there are people whose favorite watering place is a bar - and they seem wedded together forever.
QUESTION
What do people think and reflect upon when they sit at the edge of the water?
I think about living right on the Atlantic Ocean in Long Branch New Jersey in a retreat house for 7 years - 1969-1976 - from ages 29 to 36 - and how those years were very significant and life forming years of life for me. I think about how every morning for the first 6 months I would go out and walk along the water’s edge - but after 6 months I got used to the water - too used to it - and I no longer noticed the Atlantic Ocean right there lapping at the edge of my life.
I think about living on the banks of the Hudson River for 14 years of my life - 2 different times. 6 years in the Major Seminary and then 8 years later on as an assignment. The second time I began seeing the Hudson River and its presence. And somewhere there I began an interesting practice: every morning I would wake up - get dressed - and walk down to the water - dip my fingers into the water - as if it were a holy water font - and make the sign of the cross - as if I was in God’s big, big cathedral - and I would say a morning prayer thanking God for the gift of life and this great big beautify world that he has graced us with.
QUESTION
What do you think of when you sit down at the edge of the water?
I think of a wonderful old man I once met. His name was Clement Jedrejewski. He told me how at 19 he left Warsaw Poland and went to the Sorbonne in Paris for college. He was all by himself and he wondered if he had made the right move. He noticed that fall a notice on a bulletin board at the Sorbonne the invitation, “Young Men’s Retreat”. Being a Catholic he went. The retreat was given by a famous French priest, Sertillanges [1863-1946]. He said that Father Sertillanges began the opening talk of the retreat for these young college men with a gospel reading of Jesus down at the waters of the Sea of Galilee. He read the gospel story - one different from today’s gospel - and then he paused. Then after a long quiet moment - a moment Clement said - Sertillanges looked at all of us and into all of us. Then he said, “In this Gospel Jesus was with young men your age and he pointed to the waters and said to them, “Go out into the waters - launch out into the deep - and lower your nets for a catch.” Then Clement told me: “Sertilannge then said, ‘Jesus is looking at each of you here this evening and he’s looking at the rest of your lives and he’s saying, “Launch out into the deep and lower your nets for a catch.” And Clement with a great smile said, “Wow did I do that. It’s been a great life.”
QUESTION
What do you think of when you sit down at the edge of the water?
I think of a man who told me that one summer on vacation at the ocean he woke up early in the morning and went by himself to the water and walked along and he looked out into the Atlantic and saw God and how far he walked away from God and he had a God experience and came back to God - and all changed.
QUESTION
What do you think about when you sit down at the edge of the water?
I think of kids building sand castles and forts by the water’s edge. Then when all is built - when they look at their magnificent structures - behind their back the tide comes in. Waves come rushing in - and everything they built comes crumbling down. I wonder if they see in all this one of life’s big discoveries. Real life, the important structures, true riches are the deeper realities. Life is not to be built on sand. When you build on sand, expect crumble. When this happens every kid screams or feels those inner groans we heard about in today’s second reading - screams that can lead us to God. Will we ever learn that the one constant is the ocean - the waters. It’s more than 75 % of the world that is surrounding us. And the waters are the big metaphor of God - and God is right around us, surrounding us - all the time even if we don’t notice what’s right in front of us.
QUESTION
What do you think about when you sit on the edge of the water - here in Annapolis, or the Maryland beaches, or in a boat out there in the Bay. What do you see? What do you think of?
Do you see the ship wrecks of your life, or the crumbled castles at your beaches, the projects - seeds planted - plans planned - that never grew - but do you also see good times - wonderful family moments as a kid running into the waves - looking back to see if your mom and dad are seeing you body surf or diving into the waters? Do you see a honeymoon when you got married, being with your own kids on vacation at the beach, the beauty of the scene in front of you? Do you hear Jesus telling you to launch out into the deep - lower your nets for a catch and as you pull your nets into shore now and then - you celebrate the good stuff you have netted - and can you toss aside the not so good stuff you’ve netted in your life so far?
Or do you tend to look at the land and hear Jesus saying there are 4 types of people when it comes to this earth?
Some of us are hard headed - rock, well walked on path, we’ve heard all this stuff too many times that we don’t really hear anything? If we’re like #1, may we move to becoming “#2 - shallow - without roots, but at least we hear the word, #3 good soil, but we’ve got too much going on. we’re too busy, but it’s better than 1 and 2 - but that we become #4 good soil and we’re producing 100, 60 or 30 fold. Amen.
