MALE MEN
February 8, 2012
Quote for Today - Eight Day of Black History Month
"No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other."
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
INSIDE AND UNDERNEATH
THE WORDS AND THE PRAYERS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 5th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Inside and Underneath The Words and the Prayers.”
TODAY’S FIRST READING
In today’s first reading, (1 First Kings 8:22-23, 27-30) Solomon is in the temple that he helped build. He stands there before the altar of the Lord - praying out loud in the presence of all the people.
We can picture the scene. We can hear his prayer. Our first reading gives us the words Solomon prayed.
The same thing happens here in church. We can see each other praying. We can also see a priest praying up front at an altar - saying words and prayers out loud in front of the people.
The title of my homily is, “Inside and Underneath The Words and the Prayers.”
I’m sure you have heard some of us priests voicing our frustration with this new translation. Some might have said it out loud - and some of you might have seen it in our faces.
I have various thoughts and questions - some of which I am still trying to figure out for myself. The outside of many of these prayers are tongue twisters with words that are foreign to my ear. However, the words and prayers are now set - so I hope as time goes by we somehow get used to these prayers - so we can pray the prayers and not just read them - or fumble through them.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel (Mark 7:1-13) has a central issue that Jesus is off on: not being a Pharisee, not being a hypocrite, not being an actor - not just being muttering words with our lips while our heart is in a far country.
Have you seen the TV commercial where a guy is sitting down with his wife or girlfriend at a table in a restaurant. It’s a romantic moment. A woman and a man at a small table. He’s looking down and she says, “Were you just looking at your phone to get the scores?” And the guy lies and says, “No, well, no, no, no…” or something like that. The ad is for buying some new kind of great fast cell phone or gadget.
We’ve all seen priests in the middle of a prayer or a sermon look at his watch. We were taught in the sermon classes is deadly dumb.
How good are you at reading minds - or understanding another’s motives?
Women are supposed to be better than men in multi-tasking. Can someone have their mind on two or four things they are doing at the same time? Can a wife be kissing her husband while watching the boiling water on a stove - shaking a lid? Is a kiss just a kiss - a word just a word - or is much more or less. “As Time Goes By” the truth from underneath will finally boil over.
I remember going to see a matinee of a musical on Broadway. We got some seats in one of those small balcony boxes just up the side aisle. We couldn’t see the whole stage - but we could see the orchestra pit below. It was very interesting watching a play for the whole musical. I began noticing that a violinist had on his music stand a copy of the New York Daily News and he read from the newspaper the whole matinee.
I remember hearing priest gossip about so and so somewhere who was always looking over people’s shoulders as he scanned and worked the room - as he was supposedly talking to someone up close and personal?
Where are we when we’re talking to each other? Where are we when we are praying? Sometimes - as we all know - we are not where we are.
I preached about distractions being part of prayer on Sunday.
However, I found myself thinking afterwards a corrective. Is prayer also an attempt to say to God, “I’m giving you my undivided attention and then trying to do just that?”
In doing that - does that better help us to give each other our undivided attention all day and vice versa?
Tricky stuff. We’ve all heard each other’s stories many, many times. We’ve all said our prayers many many times.
So maybe there is a crazy value to all these prayers in the new translation. We have to stop and think more about what is really being said. Time will tell.
CONCLUSION
Where are we this morning - right now - in this temple - at this Mass right now.
Where are dental hygienists when they are in someone’s mouth? I don’t know, but I hope they are not with the gunk between in between my far back lower teeth. I have a cleaning this Thursday morning at this time. I’ll have to ask.
In the meanwhile, let’s mean what we say and sing what we sing - and enjoy the presence of our God with each other.
“Play it again Sam.” “As time goes by.”
WHAT'S
YOUR HANDICAP?
February 7, 2011
Quote for Today - the Seventh Day of Black History Month
"One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he [Sammy Davis Jr.] was asked what his handicap was. 'Handicap?' Talk about handicap - I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew. Do I need anything else'?"
This story is referred to in the Wikipedia article on Sammy Davis Jr. [1925-1990]
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
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.
++++++++
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.
ROSA PARKS
February 5, 2012,
Quote for Today - Fifth Day of Black History Month
“If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.”
Ramsey Clark, on effectiveness of individual protests, New York Times, April 14, 1987.
Picture on top: Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, February 4, 1013 - October 24, 2005. The picture is dated 1955 with Martin Luther King Jr. in the background.
Have you ever publically protested for or against anything?
Have you ever publically protested for or against anything?
Saturday, February 4, 2012
EXCEPTIONAL RACE
EXCEPTIONAL COLOR
February 4, 2012
Quote for Today - Fourth Day of Black History Month
"Please stop using the word 'Negro' .... We are the only human beings in the world with fifty-seven varieties of complexions who are classed together as a single racial unit. Therefore, we are really colored people, and that is the only name in the English language which accurately describes us."
Mary Church Terrell [1863-1954], letter to the editor, Washington Post, May 14, 1949
In Wikipedia she is described as "one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree." She was quite a woman. Check out her biography in Wikipedia.
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