TREAT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30 Sunday in Ordinary Time A is just one word: “Treat.”

T R E A T [Spelled out] “Treat”.

You Wheel of Fortune pros will notice that the last 3 letters of that word are “E A T”.

I read today’s readings a few times and I said, “Come Holy Spirit!” a few times - and for some reason, the word, “treat” hit me.

TODAY’S READINGS

I wondered why that word “treat” hit me - so I re-read today’s readings.

The first reading from the Book of Exodus challenges us with the Golden Rule to treat the stranger - the unknown other - with hospitality and respect - just as we would want to be treated - if we were a stranger or a new person in the area or on the job or in the school or in the parish.

The second reading from 1 Thessalonians has Paul saying that good things happened when we were with you. You treated us well and we treated you well - and we both grateful.

And today’s gospel from Matthew has the Pharisees not treating Jesus well. In today’s gospel, one of the them, a scholar of the law, tests Jesus - trying to trap him. And Jesus says that the whole of reality boils down to love - that we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and we should love our neighbor as we love oneself.

Get that and you got it all.

All three readings stress the value of having a sense of deep respect of people for people and people with God.

HAVE A COOKIE

We know that dog owners like to give their “woof woof” a treat. It’s part of the ritual. “Want a cookie!”

We know that human being like to treat themselves now and then to a new pocketbook or toy or ice cream as well as give another a treat.

“Have a cookie.” “Want a treat?”

About 25 Thursday evenings a year for the 8 ½ years before I came to Annapolis I began noticing a very interesting experience happening. Another priest and I worked on the road - mostly in Ohio. However, we also worked in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and various other places. We were giving what is called, “A Parish Mission”.

On the last night of the parish mission there would be coffee, tea, soda and cookies - in a parish hall. It was part of the plan. We recommended it as a way to celebrate being with some people for 5 evenings. We had prayed and heard some preaching. We had celebrated our Christian faith and Catholic heritage together.

We’d arrived in the parish hall and there would be a line of people working their way towards trays of cookies - all kinds of wonderful cookies - on trays or dishes or platters.

At some point in doing this for 8 ½ years I discovered the following.

Each lady - it was always ladies - who made a tray or plateful of cookies - treats - would be standing there watching who took whose cookies. “Make it mine! Make it mine! Make it mine!”

I didn’t have diabetes at the time - thank God - so I would make my choices of 3 or 4 cookies - 3 or 4 treats. It was like election night. It was like a voting booth. There were winners and there were losers.

And I would feel guilt for bypassing someone’s cookies. I could imagine it was a recipe they got from their grandmother or from somewhere and it was always a winner - but not that night - if I didn’t chose someone’s cookie.

It was like a personality test. Some women would say, “Father take mine. You’ll love it.” Others would stand back and say nothing, but as someone took their cookie, out came a neat smile or a “Thank you!”

For some reason that was the main thing I remember from 8 ½ years of preaching parish missions all over the mid-west and elsewhere.

Have a cookie! Want a cookie. Have a treat.

I look back and hope that it was a treat for the people of that parish to have taken 5 nights - and for some 5 mornings as well - to treat the great issues of our faith - in their lives.

I look back and also realize that I also spent 7 years of my life in a retreat house in New Jersey preaching retreats - and 7 years in Pennsylvania in another retreat house preaching retreats.

That’s 22 years of my life dealing with treats!

A METAPHOR

Was the cookie moment, the cookie lineup, the cookie choice a metaphor for life?

Are we all standing there wanting to be taken - wanting to be chosen - wanting to be loved - wanting others to want what we can uniquely create?

Do we all want to be a treat?

Do we all want to be treated and retreated with respect?

Do we all want to be honored and celebrated - and eaten up?

Do we all want to be the bread and wine of life for others - Eucharist - that when others receive us - they receive Holy Communion - Christ - Christ’s spirit - Christ’s life - and they experience us as delicious?

Does anyone stand on line to receive me?

Isn’t that one of the great moments of life - when kids stand on line to go up to their parents at their 25th - but especially at their 50th Anniversary or 75th Birthday Party and say, “Thank you mom!” or “Thank you dad!” for being you. You were a treat and you treated us so well.

Do we all hate it when we are mistreated - rejected - never chosen?

WHAT WENT RIGHT? WHAT WENT WRONG?

Why are some people so wonderful? Why are some people a treat to be with? Why are some people as delicious as raison oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter filled brownies?

My dad worked for Nabisco - and sorry to say - broken cookies were not given to the employees to take home to their starving children. Nope, as our dad told us, they were all collected - all those broken Oreo Cookies and fig Newtons, etc. and they thrown into big vats and used for fruit cakes - lots of fruit cakes. Yet at different times during the year my dad would come home with a great treat - a big white box of cookies. It had no writing on it. The box was about 18 inches by 12 inches - and was 2 layers high: fig Newtons, Oreos, Lorna Doone, chocolate chip cookies, etc. It was a great treat and we kids had our eye on that box for days - waiting for a treat!

Why are some people so mean, grumpy, grouchy and edgy at times? Why are some people like razor blade cookies. They cut us - by cutting us off in a conversation or in traffic. They slice us and dice us. They hurt us. They don’t treat us nice. Ugh. Why?

Were they hurt? Did they get lazy? Did they forget where they came from?

Yesterday morning at a baptism a guy says to me, “Thanks for the nice baptism. We were just down in Virginia at a baptism a few weeks back and the priest said, “If any kid comes in sanctuary, I’m going to kick him out.” I winced at that. As priest I hear the horror stories as well as the good stories. But why did that priest become like that - not treating people right. At baptisms I always choose the baptismal reading that is in the baptism book - about Jesus telling his disciples not to shush kids away, but let the kids come to him.” Were Jesus’ disciples being like that priest - if that was something that priest does on a regular basis?

Why do we treat people the way we treat people?

We’ve all heard the jokes or the complaints from husbands and wives: “He treats his car better than he treats me.” “She treats the dog better than she treats me.”

Why do we treat people the way we treat people?

Is it because of a recipe that we picked up from our parents - from others? Was it something that we came up with on our own.

I was standing in the back of a church in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a Saturday night - 4:55 - and the Saturday night mass started at 5 PM. We were going to preach a Mission in that parish starting on Sunday night - and I was going to invite the folks to make the parish mission. A lady is standing there and says to me. See that young girl up there at the podium. She has a great voice. I’ve been trying to get her for a year now and I finally got her. She’s a senior in high school and will be going off to college next year. Hopefully, she’ll be a great addition to some Newman Club at some college and in years to come a great cantor in some parish. I don’t think the lady said, “She’s a treat!” but she was saying this young lady might be a treat to some parish in the future and she got her start here.

How did that lady get that big picture - that large outlook - that big way of seeing life and church and others?

CONCLUSION

I don’t know about you, but I hope to proclaim that Jesus treated everyone with great love and respect - and I hope to do likewise.

That’s my creed. We’re supposed to say some words about the Creed today - about some changes in its wording. I assume that will take less than a year to happen - but I think it takes effort and insight to get our hands on a good recipe for life.

Today I’m pushing: Be a treat.

Today I’m not saying all this to get cookies. I’m a diabetic and the good cookies have sugar.

Today I’m not saying this so you say to me, “You’re a treat!”

Nope. I’m saying all this so that all of us be a cookie - a delicious cookie - a treat - to each other - and the place to start is to treat all others with deep love and respect. As Roy Blount puts it bluntly, “Be Sweet.” [1]

Be sweet and you’ll be a treat.




Notes:



Roy Blount Jr. Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story, 1998

THE  I  AM, 

WHO  I  AM, 

IS THE ME, 

WHO IS ME 

IN THE ENCHANTED 

PLACE PLACE, 

CALLED 

THE REAL ME.

October  23,  2011

Quote for Today

"All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song - but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our science in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny."


Pablo Neruda [1904-1973], Toward the Splendid City, upon receiving the Nobel Prize [1971]

Note:

Deep within each person is a place called, "The Garden,"  or "The Inner Room," or "The Real Me That is Me."   Check out Genesis 2: 8 to 3: 24 and Matthew 6:6 and  Matthew 12: 43-45 and Matthew 23:25-28.

NOT IN 

OUR CONTROL

Quote for Today   October  22,  2011

"In nature there are few sharp lines."

A.R. Ammons [1926-2001] in Corson's Inlet  [1972],  line 31

THE ABILITY TO 

LAUGH AT ONESELF

Quote for Today  October 21,  2011

"You grow up the day you have the first real laugh - at yourself."

Ethel  Barrymore [1879-1959]

SEEING 

THROUGH APPEARANCES

Quote for Today  - October 20,  2011

"Most people have eyes and therefore they can see. However, few people have the ability to reason. Therefore, appearances are everything."

Niccolo Machiaveli [1469-1527], The Prince [1532]

WONDER:

HAVING A SENSE 

OF PARTICULARS

Quote for Today  - October 19,  2011

"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not see them all."


Edward O Wilson, Professor of Science, Harvard University, Time Magazine, Oct. 13, 1984

Picture on top: pigeon in Piazza San Marco,  Venice, Italy, October 8, 2011

READING - RE-READING -

AND READING AGAIN

INTRODUCTION


The title of my reflection for this feast of St. Luke, October 18, is, “Reading - Re-Reading - and Reading Again.”

SACRED SCRIPTURES

Isn’t that what we do and have been doing with our Sacred Scriptures in the Liturgy and in private Bible reading down through the years - and we keep on seeing the new in the old?

In today’s first reading - from the 2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy, there is a sentence that stands out. It sort of jumps off the page. Did it jump out for you? “When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas, the papyrus rolls, and especially the parchments.”

Or did the comment by Paul that the Lord is going to give Alexander the Coppersmith a pay-back for the harm he did to Paul?

I would think that today’s first reading is not trying to tell us about the cloak, the papyrus rolls and the parchments. I would assume it was chosen because Luke is mentioned in this 2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy - and today is the feast of St. Luke.

However, for me, that little detail about a cloak and papyrus rolls and parchments was rather intriguing. How many times have we gone somewhere and left something behind - a favorite sweater, a book, an umbrella, our reading glasses or what have you?

Of course this was written in Greek and the Greek word,  PHAILONEN,  tells us that it was a cloak or heavy winter garment with a hole in it for one's head  - something like a poncho.

However, what intrigued me most was the mention of papyrus rolls and parchments.

Last night I did a little research on writing materials for that time and came up with the following. Scholars think the text is referring here to the two types of materials that people back then used to write on. They did write on stones, but record keepers and letter carriers might not be too happy with rocks.

The papyrus rolls would be the writing material - often from Egypt. It was made from plants. Stalks were cut and then their white pith insides were taken out and sliced and laid side by side. Then another layer was laid on top of the bottom pieces, but in the other direction. Then that was pressed and processed and we had papyrus - the great writing on product from Egypt.

Meanwhile in other parts of the world, parchment was used. This was skins:  the leather of sheep and goats etc.

Paper - didn’t hit the west from China till the 11th century. So when you hear complaints about “Made in China” - think about it.

As you know we don’t have any original copies of the New Testament. An original would be what is called an  autograph copy. We have copies of copies of copies or copies - and as you know changes can happen when copying something.

The good news is that there has been a lot of  research on the New Testament.    Scholars looked at all the extent copies of copies that we have - plus many of the New Testament references in other writings that we have. Comparing all that, scholars have agreed that we now have  to the best of our knowledge, what is very close to the original Greek New Testament. This project started in  earnest in the mid 1800’s  was completed in the second half of the last century. Having that best Greek Text in hand, translators then try to work out the best translation in  the different languages.

As a footnote to that, I have read that the process for doing all this for the Hebrew Scriptures,  the Jewish Bible, will be complete in the next 100 years. That means that a large majority of research scholars will have agreed that we have in hand the Hebrew Scriptures as they were finally written down - at some date. Up till the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the oldest Hebrew Scriptures were from well into the Christian era.

TWO STORIES - ONE CONCLUSION

Let me now give 2 stories and 1 conclusion. Some of you have to get to work - or get to stores or what have you.

First story:  Anna Freud - the daughter of Sigmund - once told Robert Coles - a wonderful child psychiatrist at Harvard - to re-read his notes - his extensive notes - from his vast amount of work with poor children here in the United States and in various other countries. She told him that he would find lots of stuff he missed the first time he wrote those notes. If you have letters, love letters, diaries, stuff you wrote when you were younger - find those writings - some of which are your sacred scriptures. Re-read them and then re-read them again. You’ll find all kinds of things you never saw the first time you read those letters or what have you. And as you touch that paper, you’ll be grateful that you were brought up before the digital age.

Second story: Yesterday in The New York Times there was an article about an exhibit in Baltimore - at the Walters Art Museum. It's entitled, "Lost and Found: The Secret of Archimedes." It  will be there from October 16, 2011 till January 1st, 2012.  It features the research on a parchment document that has a really varied and tricky history. It was discovered over 100 years ago in a monastery in Istanbul, Turkey. It became  an old prayer book - used for centuries - and was in various countries.

Surprise! With all kinds of modern gadgets they found that underneath the prayers was some writings of Archimedes that had been erased - along with other materials - to make ready for the next use of that parchment. All this makes this document an extremely valuable document and worthy of lots of research. If you know about this kind of research, you know about various examples of these kinds of discoveries.

So if you are looking for a museum to go to, get to the Walters in Baltimore and check this out. Once more, the exhibit is called, “Lost and Found: The Secret of Archimedes.”

You’ll get lots of information about documents - old documents - which will be good background for all scriptures.

I hope to go and also pick up a book that goes with the exhibit. If you can't get there, check out this book.

ONE CONCLUSION

With modern technology much of what is being written is being lost in cyberspace. However, we always hear that stuff in the deep bowels of one’s computer, even if erased, might still be in there somewhere.

In the meanwhile, we can read and re-read things like our own letters and memoirs or what have you - along with the scriptures and find things that are very interesting. If you’re like me, you like this kind of stuff.

I also like comments written in books - except library books. People who write in library books should be written on - as in branding or tattooed. Just kidding - yet I'm serious about the not writing in other’s books.

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The pictures above were taken from the Walters Art Museum website. I assume they are happy I'm promoting their exhibit.