HOW ARE YOU?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Sunday in Advent is, “How Are You?”

That’s one of life’s most basic questions - especially when we meet another. “How are you?” One translation: “How’s it going?”

For some reason as I began thinking of a homily for this First Sunday in Advent - that question - that title - that theme for a homily - hit me.

“How Are You?”

THANKSGIVING

We just celebrated Thanksgiving - and I’m sure that was the first question a lot of people asked a lot of people.

“How are you?”

It’s the same question we ask when we see someone at work or at a meeting or a party or coming into Mass.

At Thanksgiving - if we haven’t seen a family member or someone in quite a while - we might be expecting an actual answer to the, “How are you?” question.

“How are you?”

How are you today? It’s less than a month to go to Christmas. We’re headed for December and winter - and a New Year. For Christians it’s the First Sunday of Advent. For Catholics in the United States it’s the beginning of a new translation of words in the liturgy and its prayers.

How will these changes work? How will it turn out? My plan is to keep an open mind and find out from doing it - how it will work out.

Yesterday morning I heard a very positive piece on NPR radio about this change in the Catholic Liturgy - while driving back here from a great week of seeing most of my family - for Thanksgiving. How will we experience this change in our Mass? How will it go? Time will tell.

HOW ARE YOU?

As I drove to see my brother’s family last Sunday afternoon - they came from all over the country - for a week in a rented house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - I was wondering about “how” each was doing. Then early on Thanksgiving morning I drove from Rehoboth to see my two sisters and another side of the family - in Pennsylvania and then New Jersey and then back to Pennsylvania, and then back here yesterday. I hadn’t seen some of these people in a year or so. We talked about family - about jobs - and what’s happening - on how things were going.

It’s Thanksgiving - and I heard someone say Thanksgiving is the biggest time of the year for families visiting family.

I’m assuming this trip helped trigger this “How are you?” question.

How has to do with the practical. How to books and CD’s tell us what steps to take when we want to make something happen.

So I guess when we ask a relative or friend or someone we work with, “How are you?” we’re asking, “What steps have you taken since the last time I saw you?" So sometimes we really are expecting an answer to the “How are you?” question.

How about the reverse? What do we answer when someone asks us: “How are you?” - and they really mean it? Do we answer with health answers - work answers - relationship answers - or what?

GOD!

Then it hit me: what a great Morning Prayer or anytime in the day prayer: “God: how are you?”

Some people might skip the “how” and ask at or to God, “Are You?”

Some people who believe in a God might ask, “How could you?”

Thinking these questions, I thought, “This could be a homily. This could be a homily for the First Sunday in Advent.”

Do we ever picture God as a You - a You in my life?

Is God a “You” to me?

The person in the other car is a “you”. The person next to us in the elevator - or in front of us on the escalator at the mall - or in our home - or at work - is a “you”. Is God a You to me?

We spend a good bit of our lives thinking about the you’s in our life.

When we spend time with God - here at church - or at a funeral - or in the dark night - or on a beautiful morning - or waiting for tests from a medical procedure or blood work - how do our thoughts about God go? Is God a “You” in that 3rd word in the “How are You” question?

As I thought about this while driving and then while putting together this first draft of a homily - wondering if this homily might be a bomb - the next how thought that hit me was: people differ on how they see or think God works.

Isn’t that one of life’s biggest lessons: to learn that we all don’t see the same thing the same way - especially life? Isn’t that why they have 12 people in a jury? Isn’t that what happens when we’re listening to someone describe a movie that we also saw - and they thought it was great - and we thought that too was a bomb?

My two sisters went shopping on Friday - and asked if I wanted to go. I didn’t say, “Are you crazy?” - but I did get the thought to shoot up to the local library in Doylestown, Pennsylvania - and maybe get an inspiration or two for a homily - for this Sunday.

The library was nice and quiet. I guess a lot of people were shopping. I spent two hours going through an interesting book by Dr. Renita Weems, an ordained elder of the African Methodist Church. The book is entitled, “Listening For God: A Minister’s Journey Through Silence and Doubt.”

While teaching first year students at Vanderbilt University, she said that she announces every year to first year students who enrolled in her introductory course in the Old Testament: “This is not a course on what God said…. This is a course on what the ancient Hebrews said God said.” She adds, “This was my pronouncement the first day of class every semester.”

I wrote that down. That is a very profound and provocative statement.

I wonder how students reacted to that. Did hands go up? Did minds open up? Did minds close down? Did reactions set in?

I sat there in that library and gave that some thought - knowing that I will continue to think about that one: how God works - stress on how.

If all of us here in church today were in a big discussion group and the question was: “How do you see God working?” Or “How is God?” would we get our hands on a wide spectrum of answers?

Does God zap people? Does God cry when people get zapped with cancer or a family disaster? Does God care about the starving?

I know I read the Good Samaritan story in the New Testament and I read that Jesus talked about the man who is beaten up and two people walk by him - and the third person, the Good Samaritan - stops and helps the man who was beaten up by the robbers. I sometimes ask God, “Why don’t you stop and help the guy?” “Why don’t you prevent the man from being beaten up in the first place?”

These questions bring us face to face with the “How are you?” question if we ask it to God. How does God work?

Does God ever intervene? Does God ever come to our rescue? Does God ever help? Does God expect us to be his helpers - that we do the stopping to help our neighbor who is stranded and hurting?

This woman minister, Dr. Renita Weems, in that book talked about her doubts and her questions. She said that a preacher once wrote to her, “The difference between you and me is that you preach your questions, whereas I preach my answers.”

That caused a pause in me? How do I preach? I have well over 3000 homilies on my computer that I have preached - and I laughed because I don’t know how to answer that question.

Is that how life works? Others know us. We don’t know ourselves.

CONCLUSION

I do know I’m on page 5 of this particular homily and that means I have to come up with a conclusion.

The title of this homily is: “How are you?”

I said I’m aware that we ask this question of others as well as ourselves at times. I’m preaching this morning that we ask that question to God: “How are You?”

I think I hold the following. Answers to the “How are you God?” question can be found in the Scriptures and in the lives of people who live a life with God - especially people who have questions and struggles with God - people like you and me and this preacher, Renita Weems. So - yes - we have answers to that question and we have questions to some answers. I’m pushing in this homily to spend time in our God space - with the prayer question to God: “How are you God?”

Then it hit me that the Advent Season and the Advent Readings - as well as this upcoming Christmas Season and Christmas Rush - that has already started - has many messages - and they deal with this question.

For example, there are a whole series of W words for Advent: watching, waiting, wondering, wandering, waking. Advent in the Northern Hemisphere - I don’t know how they do this in the Southern Hemisphere - is all about moving towards darkness - December 21st being the darkest day of the year - and then we move towards more and more light. That’s life. We are in the dark - some more than others. Sometimes we have sparks of light - one, two, three, four, like the Advent Candles - where we have answers - but sometimes the light goes out - and needs to be re-lit - over and over again. But like Christmas shoppers - like the Magi or Wise men - like the servants in Advent gospels - we keep searching and watching - and surprise God comes as a little baby. Only God could come up with that one. Isn’t that how God of Surprises works all the time - coming up with answers that we - we never expected? Amen.

MARTHA GRAHAM

November  27,  2011

Quote for Today  November 27, 2011

"The great contemporary choreographer

Martha Graham was once asked

by a group of journalists, after a premiere, 

what the meaning was of a particular dance

she had performed.  She responded: 

'If I could have told you what it meant,

darlings,  I wouldn't have had to dance it.'"  

Opening sentence by John Baldovin, SJ, in the Intoduction of the book The Postures of the Assembly During the Eucharistic Prayer by John K. Leonard and Nathan D. Mitchell, Liturgy Training Publications, 1994, A Project by the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy.

Picture on top: Martha Graham [1894-1991] - by Yousuf Karsh (1948)

A SENSE OF HUMOR

November  27,  2011

"Among animals, one has a sense of humor. Humor saves a few steps, it saves years."

Marianne Moore, "The Pangolin," 1941

ANOTHER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of Christ the King is, “Another.”

Let me spell it out to broadcast it clearly: A N O T H E R.

Another….

As in, “another person”….

I don’t know if I ever stopped to think and reflect on that word: “another”.

The theme of my homily is to look at how aware are we of another or of others.

A quote to think about is this: “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.” John Ruskin [1819-1900]

SOME WONDERINGS

I was wondering: at what age does a person truly know - consciously - with its ramifications - that I’m not the only person there is on this planet? Of course we’re surrounded by others - much of the time. Of course, kids play and bump into - and interact with other kids - but -when does a person really know the impact of another?

I would assume it comes slowly - from parents - from siblings - from classmates - from friends - from losing a game or a spelling bee more than winning a game or spelling bee.  I would assume it comes more from not getting my way - than when I get my way.

I would assume that someone who grew up in a house with one bathroom would get this quicker than someone who grew up in a house with several bathrooms. The old saying, “How long a minute takes depends upon which side of the bathroom door you’re on” doesn’t have the same impact in a house with three bathrooms compared to one.

I would assume it blossoms with dating - and falling in love - in discovering that another human being knows I exist - and is interested in me. And then there are the breakups. The petals of the flower come lose and fall to the ground and shrivel. Or the green leaves of a friendship turn to tan brown and red brittle - the step before drying up, dying, and falling from the tree - to the ground - the feelings one has when someone dumps us - or ends a relationship. These things can hurt - if they are not a mutual breakup.  It can hurt, what another can do to another. When we’re cut - the result can be tears. The twist of the sword - being stabbed in the back - the sharp pain of being rejected can certainly help us to become very aware of another - much more than trying to get out of a parking lot after Mass - having to deal with all these other cars and drivers.

Then there is the more serious dating - the falling into a deeper love - engagement, marriage - loving and living with another - nature’s big ways when humans grow in dealing and communicating with another.

That’s why I like John Barth’s statement: “Marriage is our last, best, chance to grow up.” I’m not married.

But of course, nature’s big way of teaching this big lesson about another arrives when a baby - enters into one’s life.

Another…. a baby - and unlike another adult - this one is totally dependent - totally leaking - totally unpredictable - totally beautiful - totally life changing. Another….

At a wedding reception yesterday afternoon and into the evening at one point I was almost all alone at a table. It was the ¾ point into a wedding - when things transition - before the big dancing, before the saying, “Good Night.” The cake cutting, the toss of the flowers and then the garter were finished.

It was then I spotted someone sitting directly across from me - in a crowded room - totally spaced out. She was staring into that mysterious nowhere which is about three feet in front of  the eyes. Here was someone somewhere else. She was sitting there on that chair at a table - but the real she, the real other was is in that mysterious self place inside one;s mind - behind one's eyes.

If I’m at table with someone who is just staring ahead - sometimes I go like this [wave], but most of the time, I just let people be. They might be simply recalculating - wondering about the babysitter - wondering how their mom is - who was just operated on a week ago. Sometimes it’s good to be waved to - to realize there is another at the table - that there is another in the room. Sometimes it’s good to be alone - even in a crowd.

Another…. Another can get us out of ourselves. Another can get us into ourselves.

Who are the anothers in our life? What’s going on with us and  with them?

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

Today is the feast of Christ the King. As you know the Christian meaning of this feast is that Jesus was not your ordinary kind of king. He was a king who washed feet and gave bread. He was a king who went incognito for 30 years. He was a king who reached out to the disenfranchised - unwashed - unwanted.

He was the other who asked us to be aware of others.

He was a king who was eventually rejected and killed on a cross - with 4 letters above his head: INRI. Jesus of Nazareth, King (Rex) of the Jews.

There is no J in Latin - so we have I for Jesus and I for Jews.

And we know that Jesus did not die alone. There was another on his right and another on his left. We know that Jesus was very aware of the two thieves who were crucified with him that day - as well as his mother and John and some of his friends down below.

It’s good to be with another when we’re dying. We know that and try to be with those we love - especially when they are dying.

It’s the Golden Rule. We would not want to alone when we are dying.

Today’s first reading and today’s gospel have the stark contrast question: Am I a sheep or a goat? It’s basically a good/bad contrast.

I’m a sheep - if I’m other centered and aware of others. That’s heaven.

I’m a goat -  if I’m self centered and totally unaware of others. That’s hell.

I’ve always been intrigued by Jean Paul Sartre’s often quoted quote, “Hell is - other people.” It’s from his 1944 play, No Exit.

Did he mean that - or was he simply putting that feeling and those words into the mouth of a character in a play? He certainly had his relationships with friends like Simone de Beauvoir - and he certainly enjoyed his time with others in the coffee shops of Paris.

Then what about another? If the other is a goat - self centered - a royal pain in the butt - then another could be hell.

Jesus says as much in another of his great parables: that of Lazarus at His Gate. The rich man walks by the poor man, Lazarus, laying on the ground outside his gate every day. He never bothers to give him a “hi” or a “hello” a piece of bread, a glass of wine - and when both die - the poor man goes to heaven and the rich man goes to hell. [Cf. Luke 16: 19-31]

Jesus is saying that another can put us in hell - here and hereafter - because of our lack of awareness of another. Jesus is saying just that in today’s gospel - that the great judgment is - whether we were aware and did something for the hungry and the thirsty, whether we ever stopped to visit the sick or those in prison. [Cf. Matthew 25: 31-46]

If we’re aware of and help another, we’re a sheep and get a good judgment; if we are unaware of another and don’t do for another, we are a goat.

THE FUGITIVE

Every time the movie, The Fugitive, comes on TV, I watch it. That is, if I have some time and the clicker or remote and if I’m with another who doesn't mind  mind if we leave it on.

If has so many scenes I like. The one I remember today is the scene when Harrison Ford, Dr. Richard Kimball, goes to the Chicago Cook County Jail. He has come up with a list of people in and around Chicago who have only have one arm and have a prosthesis. The guy in the jail is there for armed robbery. The Fugitive goes in - asks to see the guy for a visit. It takes time for the guy to be brought down for his visit. Dr. Kimball remembers roughly what the guy looked like - because he fought with him the night his wife Helen was killed in their home. The door opens and the guy heads for the visiting booth - where another can talk to another through the filters. The one armed man with a prosthesis is not the man. He’s African American and Richard Kimball knows  it's not he. Kimball says something like, “Sorry, wrong person.” Well the guy says, “Wait. Don’t leave. You got me all the way down here. Talk for a little while.”

In today’s gospel Jesus says, “I was in prison and you did or didn’t visit me.”

I always wish Harrison Ford stopped to talk to the guy. From another angle, it’s a good thing - because he might have been caught that very minute. But I’ve often thought: “How many people are there in this world who are in prison and nobody ever talks to them?”

How many people feel like they are in prison - feel alone - because they have lost loved ones. And it’s hell!

THIS PARISH - OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

One of the things that stand out for me about Annapolis - besides the red bricks in town - is that Annapolis is neighborhoods.

How many people are there in all the homes around each of us - who feel all alone. They don’t have another.

When we read the gospels we sometimes apply the lessons and the message to people in the abstract - or people whom we don’t meet - like all those in state prisons or Somalia or the undocumented. How about those next door? How about those in our families? How about another whom we see and go by every day?

My hope for today: Maybe because of this sermon - someone will stop from being a goat and they become a neat sheep - and another has someone who meets them.

CONCLUSION - GOD: TRINITY

All this leads us to the great Another - God.

If we can’t get out of ourselves to another - people we can see in supermarkets and on lines - and in conversations - how can we see God whom we cannot see?

I don’t know about you, but the more I think about the Christian God, I find myself more grateful.

Another gave me this gift of faith: my parents. And their parents and their parishes gave it to them.

I didn’t choose being a Catholic for starters - but I’m grateful that it was chosen for me.

As kids we make the sign of the cross - an acknowledgment that there are three persons in God.

Amazing - for starters, God is not alone.  God is Three. There is Another Who is connected to Another - Who is connected to Another. Father - Son  - and Holy Spirit. Amazing.

And even though our God is, was, and ever shall be three  - Another, Another and Another, - our God became one of us - another human being - Jesus - and that’s the theme we’ll be starting to look at again next Sunday - the First Sunday of Advent - as we prepare for the great feast of Christmas - the gift of God in another - a baby - then the growing Christ in our world.

PRAYING

November 25,  2011

Quote for Today

"Pray till you pray."

D. M. McIntyre

THANKSGIVING  DAY

Quote for Thanksgiving Day - November 24, 2011

"I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes."

e.e. cummings

OLD  AGE

Quote for the Day - November 23,  2011

"If you prepare for old age,  old age comes sooner."

Anonymous