INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - is, “Glass Floors.”
"THE HOUSE OF SIMON AND ANDREW"
In Capernaum, a town and a tourist place in Israel, there is a church you can enter which the tour guides and archeologists say is built on top of Simon [Peter] and Andrew’s house - the house mentioned in the opening sentence of today’s gospel.
A first house - which some conjecture that Simon Peter and Andrew lived in - is dated from the 2nd century B.C. to late 1st century A.D.
Archeologists also think that house became a community gathering space as early as the 3rd quarter of the 1st century A.D.
As time moved on various changes took place. Walls were built which then separated that house a bit from the surrounding homes - because it became a house church. Graffiti, words in various languages, found on broken pieces of broken walls - indicate that it had become a church that was visited by folks from all over - hence the various languages on the graffiti.
So it moved from being a regular home to becoming a Christian gathering place to becomnig a church house in those early centuries. Then an octagonal Byzantine church was built on top of all that in the 2nd half of the 5th century.
Today a visitor walks up about 15 steps into a round - octagonal modern church - dedicated June 29th, 1990. It was built on huge pillars - over the old ruins. Surprise, there is a section in the center of this new church where there is a glass floor. A visitor can look down into the archeological ruins of Simon Peter and Andrew’s house below.
I was there during my one visit to Israel - January 2000. The glass floor was a neat surprise because it showed the dusty ruins of a house from long ago.
I’ve been to the Grand Canyon - but before they built a deck called - “the Skywalk”. It’s 70 feet out over the canyon. It has a glass floor. You can stand there and look down 4000 feet below. If you’ve been to the Governor Calvert House here in Annapolis, there is a tiny section off to the side after the lobby that has a glass floor. It shows a tiny, tiny, old, underneath section of the building from way back. It’s nothing like the glass floor over the Grand Canyon or the glass floor in the church in Capernaum - but I hope it would help with what I want to talk about today.
OKAY THAT’S MY OPENING IMAGE
Okay, that’s my opening image for this homily.
My main comment or homily thought would be the following. If someone could see into our home through a glass roof, or glass walls or floors, what would they see? It’s basically the fly on the wall image.
What would they see? What would they see going on inside of us?
Next if our skull was made of glass, and someone could see our thoughts and feelings, our dreams and our nightmares, our joys and our sorrows - what would they see and hear?
That’s a basic clear question. That’s my homily thought.
There is one person who can do just that: me, myself and I.
We believe God can do as well.
We would also hope that would be an ingredient in a great marriage - symbolized my nakedness - people seeing through each other - people getting to know each other. It is the value of transparency - which is very essential for marriage. It’s also essential for healthy relationships. Of course there is an “It all depends” in all this - as a notice on the side of label of the container called me. It all depends what kind of relationship we're dealing with. We don’t have to reveal all to all - unless we’re running for president - and investigators are hired to find out everything - otherwise ….
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s 3 readings let us look with our imagination through glass walls, floors, ceilings, doors, into the inner life of various people.
In the first reading we’re watching and hearing a play - a story - about Job. It’s one of most long running plays in history - the story of Job.
In today’s first reading we hear what Job is thinking.
Job, a wealthy man, loses everything - ten children, cattle, reputation. He gets leprosy or some kind of skin disease. The story, the play, tackles the question of suffering and God and how we deal with life - especially when horror comes. Does evil happen because of our sins? Well what about a just person - when he or she suffers? Do we scream at God?
Today’s first reading gives a tiny piece of one of the speeches by Job. Since we heard the New American Bible translation, I’ll use the Jewish Study Bible translation right now and put in verse 5 that has been cut out of our reading - maybe to avoid something that might see gross. We’re not eating right now.
“Truly man has a term of service on earth;
His days are like those of a hireling -
Like a slave who longs for [evening’s] shadows,
Like a hireling who waits for his wage.
So have I been allotted months of futility;
Nights of misery have been apportioned to me.
When I lie down, I think,
“When shall I rise?’
Night drags on.
And I am sated with tossings till morning twilight.
My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth;
skin is broken and festering.
My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle,
And come to an end without hope.
Consider that my life is but wind;
I shall never see happiness again."
Today’s second reading gives some thoughts from Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He’s telling us his motives for preaching - which are invisible to outsiders. He says things like, “To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.”
In this Sunday’s gospel, we hear of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law at the house I began this homily with. Then the whole town was at the door and Jesus healed many who were sick - as well as driving out many demons. Then we read about Jesus sneaking out to find a deserted place - to find some time and place for prayer. Then the search is on to find Jesus. Simon comes with others and finds Jesus in prayer and says, “Everyone is looking for you.” And Jesus says, “Let us go on to nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”
MOTIVE
Today’s 3 readings get us inside people’s minds and hearts - to see what they thinking and what their motives are.
In the Book of Job, the devil argues with God about people’s motives.
Suggestion: attend the play called “Job”. Be with those who down through the centuries have found a quiet place to read the Book of Job. It’s a classic. Better suggestion: do this with another or others. Read out loud and ponder, discuss, and think out loud with each other the Book of Job.
Next, look up on line or find a copy of the play, "JB" by Archibald MacLeish - and read that out loud.
As you know, a good play is like sitting there looking through a glass wall and getting inside people’s minds. Shakespeare - as well as good movie - or plays of folks like Arthur Miller - do the same.
Brian Friel’s 1964 play, Philadelphia, Here I Come, was a great play for me. The scene I remember the most had a family saying the rosary together - something we did all through our childhood. I never enjoyed that - 15 minutes felt like 15 hours. And in Friel’s play, we see on on stage the family praying together and then on stage the light goes on and we see scenes about what the different people in the family saying the rosary were thinking during the rosary.
Talk about distractions in prayer ....
In time I found out: that is one of the most important parts of prayer. It is to see through the glass - watching and learning from one’s distractions.
Yet people still confess having distractions during prayer. I preach that we ought to become more and more aware of our specific distractions during prayer, during Mass. See them as if you’re watching a play - and you’ll be seeing through a glass floor down deep into what’s going on in your soul.
The key is to get to motives.
Today’s second reading and gospel challenge me this weekend about why I’m preaching - and how I preach. It asks me about my motives. My goal is that nobody notices me in the pulpit - that nobody hears me - but they only see and hear themselves and what’s going on in their inner life - what their motives are.
Where do these readings take you this weekend? Why do you do what you do?
I’ve said in a dozen sermons that my favorite poem has just two words in it - and it rhymes - and it’s very easy to memorize.
I
Why?
And then I like to add, and it usually gets a smile and a tiny chuckle, that I wrote the world’s second shortest poem . It also has two has two words and it too rhymes.
You
Who?
In this homily my stress is on me, myself and I - the I Why question.
Relationship questions is another sermon - the You Who Question.
CONCLUSION
Coming to church is a time to close our eyes and look down through our glass floor and see our “why’s”. Sometimes it's like looking through "a glass darkly" - the old translation of an image in First Corinthians 13:12 - but in time hopefully our motives become clearer.
Coming to church is a time to close our eyes in prayer and look down through our glass floors and see who we really are.
Coming to church is a time to close our eyes in prayer and look down through our glass floor and see all the people in our life - our mother-in-law, our brother, spouse, children, friends, co-workers, neighbors, all those people on the stage of our life all week - and see how we’re treating each other.
Coming to church is a time to close our eyes in prayer and look through our glass floor and see if there is anyone in our life we are hiding from - and they are looking for us - like Simon went looking for Jesus in today’s gospel.
Coming to church is a time to close our eyes in prayer and look through our glass floor and see how we might be like Job and we need patience in dealing with life’s horrors: deaths, loss of jobs and stuff, etc. and how God is not just looking at us from afar - as it seems to be happening in Job and many people’s lives - but then there is Jesus who is looking for us to heal us where we need healing. Amen.
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Pictures:
On top: Picture of interior of church above Peter and Andrew's home.
Next picture: picture of 1990 church above the ruins. Notice glass floor.
Next picture: Skywalk Grand Canyon.
