THE DONKEY

When fishes flew and forests walked,
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood,
Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry,
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
Of all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient, crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hours and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

G.K. Chesterton  [1874-1936]

MARRIAGE  101

March  31,  2012

Quote for Today


"To maintain a successful marriage,
according to research 
by psychologist John Gottman, Ph. D.,
husbands and wives must offer each other
at least five acts of love and kindness
to balance each single act of spite or selfishness.
You may walk around carrying negative incidents
like daggers in your heart,
ignoring the thousands of positive things
that happen to you every day."


page 68, "In Praise of Rose Colored Glasses", O Magazine, September 2011

WHISPERS  
OR   STONES?

INTRODUCTION

Which hurt more: whispers or stones?

The title of my homily for this 5^th Friday in Lent is, “Whispers or stones?

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from Jeremiah 20: 10-13 begins with Jeremiah hearing “the whisperings of many….”

Today’s gospel from John 10:31-42 begins with these words, “The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.”

That’s where the thought for this homily came from.

Then the question: “Which hurt more: whispers or stones?”

CHILDHOOD SAYING

Children were taught to say to those who taunted or bullied them with words as kids, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

But the adults who  taught their kids to say that knew that names hurt both kids and adults - often much worse than sticks and stones.

Kids learn fast that the rule on the bus and the playground is: “Bully rather than be bullied.”

There are 2 kinds of people: those who bully and those who are bullied.

There are many articles and comments on talk radio shows lately about this issue of bullying. The goal is to cut down bullying - even stop it - if possible.

I don’t know about what your childhood was like - but I know that kids don’t know what they are doing - but they can be challenged to learn to know what they are doing. I know I joined the pack to pick on those who were different: those who were overweight, had glasses, pimples, or big ears. If we got past the stage of our mom bringing us to school (we could walk in our day), and some other kid didn’t, we might pick on that kid as a “momma’s boy”.

ADULTS

We know that once a person is accused of something - if it was a false accusation - it’s hard to put mud back into the puddle - it’s hard to remove graffiti from a person’s reputation.

In small print we read from time to time about someone who was accused of sexually abusing a kid - commits suicide - and sometimes the accusation is false.

Jeremiah goes down in history as the man who was in the pits. That’s where his accusers tossed him.

Jesus goes down in history as the man whose whispers against ended him up at Calvary. Jesus goes down in history as the man who died on the cross - with spit on his skin - along with blood and bruises from falling and being beaten. 

CONCLUSION: GOLDEN RULE

I’m still learning - because I still whisper and sometimes spit or spurt out a comment about another - getting a laugh from the others - but a pained look - if I look - on the face of the person I throw a word rock or stone at.

I know if I take the time to pause before I open my mouth - for a whisper or a shout - and ask, “Would I like it, if someone did this to me?” 

I believe the Golden Rule is another saying parents teach kids - along with “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

GLAD,  MAD  OR SAD?

March  30,  2012

Quote for Today

"The repercussions 
of one person 
living in stubborn gladness 
are incalculable."

Martha Beck, O magazine, page 67, September 2011

ABRAHAM

INTRODUCTION

Both readings for today - and Psalm 105 - in between - talk about Abram or Abraham - so let me pull together a few comments about Abram or Abraham - on this 5th Thursday in Lent.

5 OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ABRAHAM

Since this is not an actual pulpit homily - I don’t have to worry about boring a reader with the following observations. If interesting, they might continue; if not interesting, they can simply push that X up in the corner and move on like Abram or Abraham did.

FIRST OBSERVATION: MANY APPEARANCES

In the New American Bible, the name Abraham appears 254 times - mostly in Genesis. Abram appears 63 times. So that’s 317 times.

It’s not as many as Jesus - who has 1049 name appearances or David with 1025 or Moses with 814 name appearances.

Yet Abraham must be noticed - and paid attention to - as one goes through the Scriptures - Jewish and Christian.

SECOND OBSERVATION: MODEL OF FAITH

In both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures - Abraham is seen primarily as an example of faith - moving forward - with trust - and without clarity what will happen next.

In the Jewish scriptures this message appears in the 12th Chapter of Genesis - when Abram’s name is the shortened version of Abraham and he is asked to move to a new land and a new life. The second big faith struggle takes place when Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

The so called, “Letter to the Hebrews” certainly proclaims this motif and message. We find it loud and clear in Chapter 11: 8-19.

THIRD OBSERVATION: COVENANTS AND PROMISES

If one wants to understand the Jewish and Christian religions, one must understand covenants.

We know the meaning of the words, “I promise!”

We know the meaning of, “Let’s make a deal?”

We know the meaning, “Let’s handshake on this.”

We know the meaning of, “I give you my word.”

We know the human sentiment behind the advice, “Get it in writing.”

Human beings make agreements, deals, contracts, covenants with each other. The Bible is filled with them.

The Jews believed that God made a covenant with Abraham - that God spoke to this man - which included the promise of a son - whose seed would fill the world.

FOURTH OBSERVATION: REVELATION

When talking about Abraham - when seeing him as one of the founding pillars and fathers of the Jewish religion, we’re accepting the concept of revelation - that God reveals Himself to some humans - in somewhat mysterious ways.

Artists and story tellers have to be creative on how they present this experience of revelation. Check out the You Tube version at the beginning of this blog piece.

FIFTH OBSERVATION: A LONG TIME AGO

When talking about Abram or Abraham, we’re talking about a long time ago. The story is in the bosom of legend and the ancient history of a people. The story develops in time - to become core religious tradition for a people.

Scholars place him sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C.

CONCLUSION

I would suggest reading the material in Genesis on Abraham at first and then go to the Abraham material in the Letter to the Hebrews.

I would then suggest reflecting on the human condition of making promises, covenants, and wanting revelations and surety from God that we are moving in the right direction. Amen.

HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD

March  29,  2012

Quote for Today

"Big eat small."

Someone....

Someone else said, "Fast eat slow."

What's your take on what's happening?

REMAINING IN A WORD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Wednesday in Lent is, “Remaining In a Word.”

In the beginning of the English translation of today’s gospel there is this interesting sentence, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples.” Next comes the famous comment, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It’s from John 8: 31-32.

DOODLING

When you were in school - and the moment was totally boring - and you began to doodle, what did you doodle? What did you draw? Was there a cartoon character - a number - a day - a date - a letter - a word - a name - that your drew over and over again?

If by any chance you still have your childhood notebooks, why not check them out - or textbooks - or what have you? You’ll find words underlined or highlighted or you might find question marks or comments.

A classmate of mine - who had a very, very, very high I.Q. - Jack Hamilton - used to draw a character - just his head - eyes, no ears - just his skull and hair line. He drew perhaps 100,001  sketches of this skull. Why? I asked him once and I forgot what his answer was - but I remember seeing him during many a boring class drawing his skulls. No,  he didn’t become a plastic surgeon or a skin doctor.

I used to write the number “5” and write it thousands of times. Why? I don’t know why. But I’ve drawn that number “5” on foggy windows and mirrors - and lots of pieces of paper. No, I don't play the lottery.

I also loved letters that I could put characters inside that letter - in the caves of an “O” or an “A” or an “D” or “g” or "e" or  “B”. I loved the shelves I could put tiny little drawings of tiny little figures of people on with the letters “E” and “F”.

In time I got to love the history of the development of letters - studying that “B” - which in Hebrew is “Beth” - the word for “House” - and I’d think, “Two Story House”. "Bethlehem" - meant "house of bread". I liked to dabble in and then doodle Chinese Characters - to see the reason for the curves and lines. Fascinating. That's another lifetime - along with Arabic script.

REMAINING

With the time remaining, I love to look up the origins of words - their parts, their roots, their possibilities - with prefixes and suffixes. If I have time - some extra time - when preparing a homily for the day’s readings from the Bible, I like do look up the Hebrew or the Greek - of a word that grabs me in the English translation.

What it does for me is trigger good stuff when I spot certain words that I spent time with in the past. Every time I read the Gospel of John I spot the word “REMAIN” - as in today’s gospel. I hear the Greek word echoing in my memory: “MENO.” I looked up the word in Webster's Dictionary. It  has for “remain” that it comes from the Latin word “remanere” - which comes from “re+manere” "to remain" - and Webster adds, “more at mansion”. At "mansion"  it tells me that mansion is about what is not destroyed, what continues unchanged - what stays. Then I also notice at  “mansion” - that it's from the Greek word “MENO” - dwelling, residence, manor, house. Next I noticed the very interesting comment in Webster under “Mansion” - “one of the 28 parts into which the moon’s monthly course through the heavens is divided”. Isn’t that very intriguing? Who had time to doodle those 28  images - while looking at the moon in the night sky?

What do I doodle? Where do I dwell? Where do I spend my time? What are the life experiences that remain?

If I read anything into the Gospel of John, it’s John’s desire that I remain with Jesus. It’s that we dwell in Jesus. It’s that this word “Jesus” - this person, Jesus, becomes flesh in me.

CONCLUSION

My name is Andrew and I love it in the Gospel of John that it was Andrew who is the first person there in the first chapter who goes up to Jesus and asks him, “Where do you live [MENEIS]?” and Jesus says to him, “Come and see” and Andrew went with Jesus “and saw where he lived [MENEI] and stayed [EMEINAN] with him the rest of the day” and the next day he went to his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah” - and the rest is history.

Okay, I have to admit - for the sake of honesty - besides you can look up the First Chapter of the Gospel of John as well,that it was John the Baptist who pointed Jesus out to Andrew. However, it was Andrew who made that first move …. and the rest is history.

So if you doodle, if you like to doodle words, doodle the word “remain” - draw yourself into those little caves in the small letters “e” and “a” or hide under the “r” or the arches in “m” and “n”. Remain with Jesus in there in prayer - and let Jesus - the word sent from the Father - become flesh and fresh in you.

And by the way, I don’t think this is too far fetched - have you ever stopped to look at Gaelic lettering - and monastic copies of the Bible? Those monks and those artists did some amazing doodling on their manuscripts. I’m sure monastery bells rang - and some monk was lost inside some letter he was painting and remained with it for the longest time - perhaps deep, deep in prayer, deep, deep in Jesus - missing a meal, but not missing Jesus..

+O*+O*+

Image on top: Portrait of St. John the Evangelist in the Book of Kells. It was a wonderful moment when on a trip with folks from this parish we saw some of the Book of Kells in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Notice that soft cushy chair John is sitting on. I was wondering: "Did the monk who drew this wish he was on a soft easy chair like that?"

Image on the bottom - below this: Ornamental text, "In principio erat verbum", Chapter 1, verse 1, of the Gospel of John - repeated in the bottom margin in a later hand."

Both Images can be found in  The Book of Kells, Forty-Eight Pages and Details in Colour from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin, selected and introduced by Peter Brown, Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, Thames and Hudson, 1980, pages 41  and 43.

P.S. This was a "Doodle Sermon" - didn't have to preach today - but I enjoyed fooling around with the word "remain" in today's gospel. Amen.