OUT THERE

OR

IN HERE?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Out There Or In Here?”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s two readings for the Second Monday in Advent are rich in imagery, story, poetry and visualization.

We can picture what Isaiah 35:1-10 is talking about. We can picture a desert and parched land blooming with flowers.

It happens in Arizona every time after a rich rain fall. Surprise! All those flowers underneath it all were just waiting for the rain. If you haven’t been to Arizona - perhaps you’ve walked into a church near the end of Lent or Advent and surprise - the church sanctuary is blooming with lilies or Christmas trees!

We can picture today’s gospel from Luke 5:17-26. Jesus is standing there preaching in a house - surrounded by people. We’ve seen that scene on a dozen Catholic calendar pictures or in an art museum. Suddenly stuff starts falling from the ceiling. A small group of men have brought their friend to Jesus on a stretcher. Because of the crowd, they can’t get in to see Jesus. They had faith in Jesus that he would heal their friend. So they went up on the roof and opened it up to lower this paralyzed man down in front of Jesus.

I love babies to cry at Mass - especially during a sermon. It’s life. It challenges all of us to be patient and be pro life especially when we have the surround sound of screaming hungry babies. However, I think I would stop and be distracted if our roof and ceiling started to open up or if someone brought someone up in a wheelchair down the aisle during a sermon to be healed.

So it’s easy to picture today’s two readings.

TITLE OF MY HOMILY: OUT THERE OR IN HERE?

The title of my homily is, “Out There Or In Here?”

The catch would be to move these stories - these images into our being - into our soul - into our lives.

How many times have we heard or seen the saying, “Bloom where you are planted”?

How many times have we felt stuck, paralyzed?

How many times have we had friends who are frozen in the past - because of a death or a divorce or a disaster?

I was listening to David Brooks on the radio yesterday. He was talking about two kinds of people over 70. Those who are stuck in the past and they keep repeating what happened. They keep rehearsing it. They keep rehashing it. They keep reinforcing it. And then there are those who have moved on and moved up and out to new life.

Timing is everything. So if you’re paralyzed in the past or a friend is still there, at some point scream, “Enough already.”

Stand up and walk. Get in your car and take yourself or the paralyzed friend for a big milk shake at Chick and Ruth’s - supposedly they have the best milkshakes in this area. Or say, “Let’s go for a walk. I’ll carry your crutch and then toss them in a dumpster or the South River.”

If you’re a painter, when was the last time you painted a picture? Make a blank canvas bloom and splash with color. Or even if you’re not a painter buy a box of crayons or get some play dough and make out you’re Michelangelo.

If you’re a photographer, when was the last time you went to Quiet Waters Park for a photo shoot - or picture the leaves on the trees around your house - and shoot them. Have you stopped to look at all those beautiful leaves still on the trees or running around on sidewalks?

If you’re a poet, when was the last time you wrote a poem?

If you’re a book reader, when was the last time you read a book you couldn’t find enough time to get back to?

Both of today’s readings feature before and after. Both readings feature weakness and then healing. Both readings feature old life changing to new life.

How do people change?

Today’s readings give two answers: with a little help from my friends and with a lot of help from the Lord.

ADVENT PRAYER: MARANATHA

The advent prayer is Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus.

If you’re dry and dead, mad or sad, paralyzed and stuck, get ye to Jesus.

The title of my homily is, “Out There or In Here?”

Open up the roof your head and pour these readings into your life today? There not meant to be out there in a book or in the air around a pulpit - but in here.  [POINT TO THE TOP OF ONE’S HEAD]

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Picture on top: not sure of its origin.

SPECIFICS

December  5,  2011

Quote for Today

"Cadilacs are down at the end of the bat."

Baseball player Ralph Kiner [1922- ] when asked why he didn't choke up and hit for average.

A GLIMPSE

OF THE UNDERGLIMMER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Sunday in Advent B is, “A Glimpse of the Underglimmer.”

Those are words of the Japanese poet, Basho, which I found in a book entitled, “The Art of Pilgrimage” by Phil Cosineau. (1)

THE SOUND OF WORDS WITH L AND M IN THEM

That phrase, “A Glimpse of the Underglimmer,” with 2 neat words, “glimpse” and “underglimmer” grabbed me for two reasons.

First of all, I liked the sounds of the words - “glimpse” and “underglimmer”. Those of you who are poets know that the letters “L” and “M” - are liquid sounds - important sounds for poems. Back in high school, Father John Duffy - one of our English teachers and a poet once said that he considered the most beautiful word in the English language to be, “oleomargarine”. Notice the “L” and the “M” in “oleomargarine”. The word was shortened to “oleo” - and/ or was replaced by “I Can’t Believe Its Butter” butter.

Life. Things and people get replaced.

Yet, still hear those two letters, “L” and “M” in both those words “glimpse” and “glimmer.” They are onomatopoetic words - that is, words that suggest what they mean. In the meanwhile name your sons and daughters: Miriam and Marlon - Lorraine and Larry - and say they are lovely and marvelous. And what ever happened to L and M cigarettes?

THE UNDERNEATH

And secondly, as priest I’m to be aware of and to preach about what’s underneath - the underneath realities of life and love.

What’s underneath you today - December 4, 2011?

What’s underneath you - what are the foundations of your life? Do you see any underglimmer in your life? Do you have glimpses of your lights?

As Catholics we are overwhelmed at times with what’s underneath the bread and the wine: Jesus Christ the Lord. So we come here to hear the call and desire to eat and drink Jesus up, so that He can become more underneath our life.

As Catholics we are overwhelmed at times with what’s underneath each of us: Jesus Christ the Lord. We are the Body and Blood of Christ - member with member - member in communion with each other - hopefully in holy communion with each other.

Faith is underneath stuff…. Faith is about glimpses of the underglimmer of God’s light - in the darkness - God’s reality in this vast universe that we are hanging onto at times for dear life.

At Christmas time I like to picture the universe as a gigantic Christmas tree with all these beautiful globes and stars hanging on its branches - and we’re just one small round earth in the midst of millions and billions of God’s round differing globes hanging and glimmering on this billions and billions of year old universe tree.

Advent is a time to become quiet - and to pause - and to sense the underneath presence of God in and with and through all that is around us - all that surrounds us.

Don’t you love George Eliot’s words in her novel, Middlemarch? I love to read and stick into homilies these words: “If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.” (2)

Do you ever hear the roar of God’s silence?

Did you ever hear God described as Silent Music? (3)

Just listen!

[LONG PAUSE]

We don’t listen enough? We fill our universe sometimes with too much noise, too much stuff, too much busy.

Yet God is still all around us.

Yet God is still so silent - in this revolving, spinning, expanding, contracting, pulsating, universe.

I just saw in the news yesterday that they have discovered 10 objects - that might be rogue Jupiters in the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way? That’s a stopper! Talk about busy. We are part of a busy universe and what seems a very silent God.

And so we pray, we speak, we ask, “God what are you doing - creating and spinning - and moving all these globes in this vast dark universe we’re a tiny, tiny, tiny part of? And how am I part of all this - tiny, tiny, tiny me?”

PATTY’S HOUSE

I love to go to my niece Patty’s house for Christmas. It’s just up in Reisterstown - so it’s not long a drive on Christmas afternoon. I love it because every Christmas she puts 5 new ornaments on her Christmas tree - something that symbolizes and signifies something from the life of the 5 in her family - mom, dad, Patrick, Michael, and Molly - from that year. I love going over to the tree and looking at the new ornaments as well as the history of their life together all these years with all those tiny figures hanging like planets on their tree. They scream out - they roar out - “Story!” “Story!” “Story!”

Tell me the story of each new ornament! And if you have time, tell me about some of the old ornaments - especially your favorites.

There is a roar behind the silence in all of us. What is our story? What are our ornaments? What have we collected? What has happened to us since last Christmas? Do we still have the Christmas looking forward attitude that we had as kids? Do we see all the Christmas gifts all around us each day - always ready to be unwrapped - because we get glimpses of the underglimmer underneath all of us? Stop and talk to each other? Take time to discover all these planets revolving all around us? Who are we? Where have we been? What are the most beautiful sounds in our soul? What are our roars and our cheers? Who claps for us? Whom do we clap for?

Do we pause to applaud each other?

During Lent we can look at our wounds - our hurts - as well as our crosses.

In Advent we can look at movement towards births and rebirths in our being - the times we moved from being unstable to becoming more stable.

What are our glimpses of the underglimmer of God in our lives?

In this homily, I’m saying, “That’s Advent stuff.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings contain prophetic stuff? What are the roars, the voices, we’re hearing?

What I’m saying is poetic. Yet it’s not too far fetched. Did you hear that comment in today’s second reading from Second Peter, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day”?

God thinks big and God thinks small? God creates big - check out the night sky and the Milky Way. God creates small - check out with microscopes the inner workings of our cells, our DNA or simply see God’s glimmer in a baby’s fingers or a baby’s toes.

We are surrounded with glimpses of the underglimmers of God.

What are the places God is calling us to look at and move towards? Today’s first reading asks, “What are the roads to those places? What mountains have to be leveled to get there? What valleys need to be filled in to get there? What roads need to be straightened to get there?”

Today’s gospel calls us to head for the desert - to move towards quiet places - to find deserted spots for prayer - to hear God’s messengers and messages to us? Do we hear the John the Baptist inside us saying, “I am not enough. One mightier than myself is coming after me. Look for him!”

I’m being poetic in this homily, so to be practical, I would suggest in this homily to find a quiet spot - some silent chair - in some quiet spot in your house - at some quiet time to sit down before you go to bed - with a window in view to look at the vast dark night sky - and ponder the serious. See and sense the glimpses of the underglimmers of God that you experienced that day. Just 5 minutes each night.

I do this every night. I have one of those spiral pads. I put the date on the top of the page. Under that I put the time and place. My room - usually around 11:30. Then I make a list of what happened that day - short, quick descriptions, and then I look at that list and say, “Which one has the most energy?” Tonight I’ll ask - as a result of this homily - “Which one has the most glimmer?” Then I say a quick prayer. All this takes just five minutes. I’ve been doing this for years now - and I recommend it to everyone who wants more spiritual direction in their lives.

Advent time screams out the need to see light in our darkness. Christmas comes in December not by accident. Those Christmas lights in our windows and on our lawns are all about glimpses of the underglimmer of Christ the Light of the world - wanting to come into the life of each of us.

The crib beneath the tree - roars - Christ comes - when we are silent in the night.

When the crib is put up here in church - make sure you stop to watch parents this Christmas who bring their kids to the crib. Remember when your parents brought you to the crib as well. The straw is important - but Christ is the one we approach.

T.S. Eliot - another Eliot besides George Eliot - whom I mentioned earlier - in the quote about the roar on the other side of silence - described what happens to many of us in a 1925 poem called, “The Hollow Men.” To be P.C. correct it includes women as well. Listen:

                       “We are the hollow men
                        We are the stuffed men
                        Leaning together
                       Headpiece filled with straw.” [4]

How do we move from being straw to person?

In a poem called, “Ash Wednesday” T. S. Eliot tells us how we become hollow and filled with straw.

               “Where shall the word be found, where will the word
                 Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence.” [5]

In that piece he is also telling us the solution: silence. To take time to become quiet.

December believe it or not - is a good time to become quiet and indoors and go underneath - not just under blankets and the comforters - but also underneath ourselves and each other. If the cold doesn’t do it, the snow of January will.

Stay indoors.

Go within!

Go underneath.

CONCLUSION

So Advent and Christmas is not about the rush. It’s also about the underneath it all - the stopping to look for and to listen to the roaring word of God - on the other side of silence - who comes as the Word made flesh - the baby - and that this Christ grows in us - underneath our lives - in our lives - this Christ who is Light and who gives us glimmers and glimpses of God every day. Amen.

The Shepherds will hear it - the Magi will search for it - hopefully we will catch the glimmers and glimpses of God again this Advent and this Christmas. Amen.


NOTES

(1) The quote by Matsuo Basho [1644-1694] can be found on page xix in Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage, Conari Press, Berkeley, California, 1998.

(2)  George Eliot - Marian Evans Cross [1819-1880] in Middlemarch [1871-1872], chapter 22.

(3) William Johnston, Silent Music, The Science of Meditation.

(4) Thomas Stearns Eliot [1888-1965], The Hollow Men, 1925, 1.

(5) Thomas Stearns Eliot [1888-1965], Ash Wednesday, 1930, V.

EXPERIENCE

December  4,  2011

Quote for Today

"I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world."


Alfred Lord Tennyson [1809-1892] in Ulysses, 1842, part of line 13

Picture on top: a scene from Sagrada Familia church that I took at the end of September this year.

BOYS 

WAR IS HELL!

Quote for Today  - December 3.  2011

"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell."

General  William Tecumseh Sherman [1820-1891]

Photo on top by Matthew Brady c. 1864

AN EYE OPENER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for the First Friday in Advent is, “An Eye Opener!”

MY  GRANDNEPHEW  PATRICK

I have a grandnephew, Patrick, who is doing a job I always thought I’d love to have: making TV commercials.

After graduating from Maryland that was his dream - and he landed a job in New York City in an advertising firm - but he didn’t get into the creative side of making TV commercials. It was the business side. And so he switched to a second firm. Once more: business - when he thought he’d get into the actual being a part of a team that puts together a great ad that people would be talking about the next morning at a coffee break. He’s now in his third firm in three years. He’s getting closer and closer to his dream.

I have to ask him: “Patrick! What opened your eye to the dream of wanting to do TV commercials?”

I assume that it was great TV commercials and he said, “I would like to do that.” Then he said, “I could do that.” Then the inner comment, “I will do that!”

TOM BARRETT

I say that because I once heard a Tom Barrett, a priest friend of mine, say - how he got the dream of becoming a priest.

As a little kid he was sitting in church with his mom - attending the Our Lady of Perpetual Help novena every Wednesday at their local church.

He watched and listened to the priest giving the novena, preaching, saying the prayers, blessing everyone with the picture of Mary.

One day he said, “I would like to do that.” Then he said, “I could do that!” Then he said, “I will do that.” And then he did that.

THE  BIBLE  AS  AN  EYE OPENER

The stories and the sayings and the moments in the Bible can be eye opening experiences for people.

A TV commercial often gives you a before and an after. It gives an opening scene or sight to catch your eye. Two people are playing Scrabble. One is a caveman. A gecko is crossing the road. A plane is sky writing. Someone is being hit with a water balloon.

You’re caught. Then comes the pitch about the product: insurance, beer, a new car.

The hope is that you’ll remember that product, that insurance company, that car, that beer when you’re shopping for beer or car or insurance.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah Is 29:17-24 gives scenes of good and bad, positive and negative, prosperity and desolation,  good times and bad times.

Then it gives hope: the deaf hear, the blind see, forests bloom and become orchards, tyrants and the arrogant are blown away, the empty is filled.

Buy God and your desert will bloom, your eyes will see, your ears will hear, your children will laugh, the lowly will rise, the dark gloom will fade and you'll experience morning. You'll see the light.

Today’s gospel - Matthew 9:27-31- talks about two blind men - the gospel often talks about blind people - and they cry out to Jesus and they see.

It would make a great TV commercial.

You could see  a blind person suddenly seeing a field full of flowers and then a rush of the birds making circling sweeps in the air.

Then it could jump to someone who was "blind" for years finally seeing what their parents were trying to tell them. You could see kids finally seeing what their parents were trying to tell them. You could see husbands and wives  finally beginning to see what the other has been saying and seeing for years.

YOU TUBE FILMS THAT PRESENT EYE-OPENING MOMENTS

How many of us received that e-Mail film that was about 2 minutes or so. A blind beggar is sitting at the bottom of some steps in a plaza. He has a piece of cardboard and a can to collect coins from people walking by. A lady walks by - she stops - comes back - looks at his sign - picks it up. It says, “I’m blind. Please help!” He touches her shoes while she takes out a pen and changes or adds to the sign or writes on the back of the tan cardboard. After that people reading the newly revised sign start putting lots of money on the cardboard in front of him. Then that woman walks by later on. She stops and he touches her shoes and asks, “What did you do?” And she tells him she just said what his sign said in other words. She walks on and you now see the revised cardboard sign. It simply says,  “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see.”

And just the other day I received a similar short film. A father and a son are sitting on a bench. The son is reading a newspaper. The camera focuses on a bird. “Chirp. Chirp.” The father says, “What’s that?” The son says, “A sparrow.”

Then there is another sparrow. The father asks again, “What’s that?” The son says, “A sparrow.”

The father asks again at another “Chirp. Chirp!” “What’s that?” And now the son is annoyed. And once more says, “A sparrow.”

And this goes on and on - and the son gets furious - and yells at his father.

Then the father gets up and goes into the house and comes out with a book. I’m think it’s a Bible. The father sits down. The book is open to a certain page. Pointing to a page the father hands the book to the son.
I figure it’s the quote from the gospels about seeing the birds of the air or better, the piece by Jesus about all sparrows being noticed by God. Nope it’s a diary or journal from the father. He tells the son to read what’s written. “My son - aged 3 - asked me 21 times in a row “What is that?” and 21 times in a row, I answered, “A sparrow.” and each time I gave him a hug.

And the son hugs the father and kisses him on the side of his head.

CONCLUSION

We need pauses - commercial breaks - in the movie or show of our life - to hear and to see advertisements for patience, love, service - to care for and about each other.

Then I get the eye opener as I'm putting together this short weekday homily. As priest, I'm  into making TV commercials dummy. You’ve been doing your dream job all these years by being a priest. Each sermon, each Mass, is advertisement of Jesus telling us his values. Each Mass is an invitation to a Supper with Jesus to let him wash our feet and to let him give us his body and blood. Then to hear: Do the same in memory of me! Go out and give your body and blood for everyone you meet today.

GREED

Quote for Today     December 2.  2012

"Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps the first occasion when men succeded on a large scale in swindling themselves."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929, 1955

Picture on Top: "(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.) Depression: Breadlines: long line of people waiting to be fed: New York City: in the absence of substantial government relief programs during 1932, free food was distributed with private funds in some urban centers to large numbers of the unemployed. (Circa February 1932)"