The title of my homily for this 4th Monday of Easter is,
“Recognizing His Voice.”
Last Thursday evening - give or take a day - on the evening
news they showed a scene from the front lawn of some house in the United States.
A soldier was just back from Afghanistan
and the family is waiting for him to get out of a car. He does and the family
dog breaks loose and runs towards the soldier and he gets down on his knee and
the two embrace.
As I watched that I wondered how long is a dog’s memory?
I also wondered do we have voice memory - and how does that
work? We get a phone call and the other doesn’t tell their name. They know whom
they are calling - but we don’t know the
caller - but the voice we know from the past.
We don’t want to ask, “Is this Tricia?” or “Penelope?” or
“Horatio?” Yet the voice sounds familiar and we probe our memory till we find
out whom this voice belongs to.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel, John 10:1-10, Jesus talks about sheep
recognizing the voice of the Shepherd.
Where did Jesus learn that?
I love to picture Jesus from 12 to 30 wandering and
wondering in fields and marketplaces, in synagogues and vineyards. I like to
read the gospels and try to picture when Jesus observed and came up with his
parables and images and pictures.
I remember hearing in a talk about a Jesuit priest who
taught at CreightonUniversity in Omaha.
He went up one summer to Montana
to work on a sheep ranch. Then he told his students in Scripture Classes what
he learned about sheep and shepherding from his experience. He said that the
image is very much part of our Scriptures.
When sheep are born they end up on the ground - unable to
stand. They bleat till someone hears them and helps them to stand for the first
time. He said the first voice the new born sheep hears is that of the shepherd.
Later on they’ll hear the sounds of the shearers and then the sound of the ones
who lead them to slaughter.
The Jesuit talked about how fragile newborn sheep legs are.
The shepherd has to be very careful in
standing them aright. One little sheep’s leg broke and the shepherd took him in
the front seat of his truck to the vet to set it right. He didn’t mention if he
used a seat belt. But then the Jesuit teacher said he noticed that sheep always
came running right towards the voice of the shepherd they knew. They would rub
up against his lets with affection for his shepherd.
CONCLUSION: THE
VOICE OF JESUS
Obviously, we who come to church - when we’re playful or
when we are broken - we get to know Jesus and his voice. That’s prayer.
Beginning prayer is talking prayer - saying prayers.
Deeper prayer is quiet prayer - listening prayer.
Those of you who come here to this 12:10 Noon Mass might
come early because it’s nice and quiet in here. You might feel blessed -
because nobody has pushed to say the rosary before or after Mass. We all need to be aware that some
people want talking prayers and some people want quiet prayers.
May our “baa’s” be authentic - and from the heart - and not
just baaaaaaaable from our lips.
May we know the Master’s Voice - may we learn to hear his
calls.
IDENTIFYING
MYSELF
April 30, 2012
Quote for Today
"Without a shepherd sheep are not a flock."
Russian Proverb
Questions: Do I identify with any particular or specific leader, philosopher, writer, speaker, religious leader? Do I identify with any groups? Have I grown out of any group? Please explain.
SUMMER NIGHTS
AND ICE CREAM CONES
On a summer night, everyone loves
to go for ice cream.
Two boys, one seven, the other
nine, stood there that hot summer night eating their ice cream cones. The ice
cream was leaking fast. They were experiencing a melt down. The boys were
finally “grown up”: mom and dad gave them total control over the choice of what
flavors their two scoops of ice cream could be.
Dad always chose two scoops of
vanilla. Cone in hand, he loved to step
back to observe the scene. “Great ice cream. Great wife. Great kids. Could
anyone be in a better place, on a clear
summer night, than the parking lot of ‘Ice Cream Delight’?” He was at peace.
Ice cream can do that. Inwardly he was also thinking, “These last four months
at work have been too stressful. Thank God, the project is finally over. The
orders are all filled. Things will slow down now -- at least till September.”
Mom was more flamboyant. Maybe
that’s why they married each other. They were “order” and “disorder”, vanilla
and thirty-seven different flavors. She stood their enjoying the taste of
chocolate-chocolate chip. And that was just the top scoop. Underneath was her
second scoop: raspberry sherbet-twirl with raisins! The kids loved this about
their mom: she ordered different flavors every time. And she always ordered
last. She loved surprises, last minute, spur of the moment choices She knew her
sons stood there waiting to hear her choices at the sliding window.
Mom was smiling “big time”. She
was enjoying the summer night sky. Summer. Vacation. Her boys. Her husband. But
she also loved September when the house returned to quiet with the boys back in
school. She had a computer and was back
to writing while the boys were at school and her husband was at work.
Back to the boys.
One stood there delighting in his
pistachio and peach cone. He too enjoyed the night sky. And after each twirling
lick of his ice cream, he would close his eyes. He loved to feel the cold ice
cream against his teeth and tongue and then to feel it slide down his throat
heading for his tummy.
His brother wasn’t happy. He
usually wasn’t. He was hardly tasting his ice cream. Once more he felt that he
made the wrong choices. Seeing the delight on his brother’s face, he was
wishing he too had gotten pistachio and peach. And it dug deeper into his pain,
especially when his Dad said to his brother, “You really seem to be enjoying
that!”
“Yeah, dad, I really am. U-m-m-m
good!”
And that’s the way the four of
them were for the rest of their lives.
The title of my homily for this Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year
B, is, “Does God Micromanage?”
VOCATIONS
We are supposed to preach today on Vocations? What to say?
We pray to the Holy Spirit as today’s first reading begins that we all do good deeds to others.
We pray for parents to be good parents - to impart and be examples of love and giving - aware that kids pick up everything
they see - except their toys. Kids learn by imitation. So to pray and then try
to practice the good stuff.
We pray that
teachers and nurses and doctors and accountants and engineers - and all workers - be wide awake servants - working for others - giving a good day's work for a
good day's salary.
We pray that there be priests and nuns and brothers - for the
service of the church - the people of God - teaching people how to get to know
God as today’s second reading proclaims - as well as knowing the voice of the
Shepherd as today’s gospel proclaims.
In other words - that all be Good
Shepherds with an eye on people as the focus - rather than be the hired man -
as Jesus says in today’s gospel - with an eye on the pay check.
DOES GOD HAVE A PLAN?
As I thought about vocations, I asked myself a few questions: Does God
have a plan for every person? Does every
person have a vocation - a calling in life?
If we don’t discover and then do that vocation, that calling, will we be
basically unhappy, incomplete, unfulfilled - always have a spiritual and a
human itch for more - for that something that is missing?
Obviously, as priest, I hear mention of “God” a lot - but
what about “God having a plan” - or what about “God’s will” for us?
Big questions. I think we all think about God’s plan, God’s
idea, God’s Will, from time to time. Does God have blueprints or scripts?
Is it God’s will or in God’s plans that Charlie die while on
vacation in Italy - at the age of 66 - just after he retired - and he and his wife Cassandra never had a
real trip like this since their honeymoon - and that was in the Poconos a long
time ago? Does God send snow in April
and the flowers and trees and animals are all faked out? How does weather and a
deer running into a car work?
How does God work? What are we praying for when we say in
the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”
If God has plan, a will, how specific is it? Or in other
words the title and question of my homily for today is, “Does God Micromanage”?
FIRST OF ALL: WHAT
DOES MICROMANAGE MEAN?
Those who use the word, usually mean it to complain about a
boss or a someone above them - who is picky, picky, picky.
Those who use the word “micromanage” use it to describe
someone who is a “control freak” or shriek. They delegate a job to us - but
they keep checking up on us - keep looking at the small details of a job. They
are at the door looking in or over our shoulder and they are breathing down our
neck. They keep telling us how to do a job they gave us to do. And they keep feeding us with tiny, tiny ways they want
us to do a job.
SECONDLY: WHY
WOULD SOMEONE MICROMANAGE?
I assume there are two kinds of people who micromanage. The
first type would be those who are neat, very neat by nature. They see
everything. They want the job done and done rightly.
I’m definitely not that type. Show me your
room or the trunk of your car and I’ll tell you who you are.
However, I’ve met those who are that way and it doesn’t
seem to take much effort to be that way. “Just doing what comes naturally.”
Years ago I was preaching at all the Masses in a parish
where we were going to preach a parish mission that coming week.
I’m standing in the back of church on a Saturday evening -
all ready for the 5 PM Mass. It’s about 10 to 5.
An usher standing back there introduces himself and spots a
Cheerio on the floor. He picks up that one tiny Cheerio and pockets it. I’ve seen parents come with those little zip
lock see through plastic bags with Cheerios in them for their kids at Mass. A kid must have
dropped a Cheerio on the way in or out of church.
The usher then spots the pastor coming in the vestibule door
and he’s talking to some parishioners. He asks me if I met the pastor yet. I
say, “Yes!” The usher says, “He’s very neat - very, very neat.”
Then while the pastor is still out there in the vestibule, the usher says to me with a smile on his face,
“Come with me and watch this.” I follow
him. The usher then reaches into his pocket and takes out the Cheerio that he picked up on the floor. He
places it on the flat edge of the back bench about 20 yards away. We are out of the
view of the pastor. Then he tells me, “Come back to the center" - we're still in the back - "and watch what happens when the pastor comes in. He’ll spot that Cheerio
in about 1 second and a half.”
Sure enough the pastor comes in: black suit. French cuffs.
Hair perfect like mine always is. Shoes shinned bright. He says to me, “Nice
crowd!” and while saying that he spots something and walks the 20 or so yards,
picks the Cheerio up and pockets it. Then he comes back and says that he’ll go
up front now and introduce me. He made no comment about the Cheerio. He did the Cheerio removal move while on remote.
That coming week I experienced a very neat and very detailed
pastor in action. Being a slob, I was a bit nervous at time - but I knew, come
Friday morning I’d be on the road again.
WILLIE NELSON
Speaking of Willie Nelson, myself and another priest, named
John, who was my boss, and about 86%
neat, were watching the 10 o’clock news one night. On came a story about Willie
Nelson and marijuana. Willie was wearing his jeans and faded T-shirt - his red
bandana around his head, which had long braids as well as a scraggily beard. John says
to me, “Who is this guy?” I say, “That’s Willie Nelson!” And he says, “That’s
Willie Nelson! Oh my God no. I liked his songs till now.”
I always liked Willie Nelson’s songs before and after that
incident, - especially, “On the Road Again” - “Can’t wait to get back on the
road again!” That song hits me at times
when I have to deal with rigid, my way or the highway, micromanaging, type of person on the road of life - someone who gets me to want to be on the road again.
Then there are a second type that micromanage. This type we like. These are the ones who spot viruses - and terrorists - and hair in the French Fries - before they get to a customer's tray.
BACK TO GOD
Now is God a micromanager?
That to me is a great question - and it sounds to me that I'm hesitating to get to it.
Don’t you love it when you are at the Q. and A. session - after
a talk? Or are you the type that wants to run. Gentlemen start your engines. I love it when someone asks a question and the speaker says, “Now that’s a good
question.” You figure it’s giving the speaker
time to figure out where to go with what the speaker thinks the person
is asking or really asking.
I like Q. and A. situations - because they can provide “Ah ha”
moments - sometimes better than a whole speech.
A significant learning moment
in my life took place way back in the late 1960’s - in the Hilton Hotel in New
York City - where well over a thousand people met for a power breakfast on the
Drug problem in New York. The main speaker was Governor Nelson Rockefeller and
someone asked a question. I don’t remember the question, but I remember the
answer. Rockefeller didn’t say, “Now that’s a good question.” He said, “Are you crazy? I wouldn’t answer
that. Next!”
For the past 45 years I’ve sort of used Nelson Rockefeller's approach. When someone asked
certain questions, I would say, “I can’t answer that!” Or, “I wouldn’t know how to answer
that.” “Are you crazy? That’s a set up question.” Sometimes I add, “I don’t
think that’s a question. I think you already have an answer to your question.”
Now back to the question: “Does God micromanage?”
Answer: “I don’t know!”
That would be my primary answer.
I don’t know. I don’t know God.
In fact I get scared when people say, “This is what God wants!” or “This is God’s
will.” I don’t know if it’s true in that
situation - other than to say, “God wants us to love one another and care for
his stuff!”
I noticed in the paper the other day that some priest in that trial
that’s going on in Philadelphia was said to have said to some kid that it was
God’s will that the kid do what the priest wanted him to do. Now that’s a horror
show. And when fanatics of any religion think they have God’s will and then do
other horrible things, uh oh.
Think about your life and your experiences. Have you ever
winced or squeezed you face muscles in disbelieve when someone pulled the,
“This is God’s will” statement on you one to one or from the pulpit or what
have you?
We have a whole generation of Redemptorists in our province
who went through the seminary with a priest in charge who thought that whatever
he decided when it came to telling a seminarian that he didn’t have a vocation
- and he would have to leave - that his decision was God’s will. I think many
of us who reflected upon that experience, hesitate when anyone says, “This is
God’s will.”
It took me a while, but that experience taught me
experientially that I think that’s crazy.
Years later, I ended up having a
similar job for 9 years and I had to make decisions on future priests and
brothers. If I cut someone even though it was not their choice, I inwardly prayed deeply to God. I would say to them, “Sorry, I don’t
know if this is God’s will or not, but this is my decision.” And I made it with
advice from an assistant and I forced myself to put my reasoning into writing
and I’d give the seminarian a copy and gave him time to challenge me - if he
wanted to. Then I had to send my recommendation to those above me for a
decision.
To say something is God’s will can be a form of idolatry -
just as it is to say or think that my image and likeness of God is God.
What is your image of God? Have you ever checked it out with God in prayer and
study and reflection with others?
So does God micromanage?
I think God is aware of everything in the universe as well
as a billion, trillion, gazillion other things, all the time. He’s keeping in
existence the tiniest little algae at the deepest part of the ocean as well as
germs on the head of pin as well as a door knob as well as a sore left back
foot on an old elephant in Kenya
right this second.
I think God gave us humans free will - choice - selection -
and we can choose what we choose - within our limitations - so if we decide to
fly up to the ceiling in this church to change a light bulb if it was out - we
can’t. But we can choose to change a light bulb that is out with whatever
gadget or machine they have to change light bulbs in a place like this.
Then there is grace, nudges, notices, angels, experiences, messengers,
messages from God to help us - but these are mysterious and I am not scared to
say out loud, “These have me baffled!” They always have and always will.
I see that we are what we eat - we are what we choose - what
we buy - what we say. Just as there is a law of gravity, if I drop a book, it
will fall to the ground and make a noise on certain floors, so too there is the
law of consequences.
People do what they do in life - and when they make bad choices - the consequences can be harmful.
Much of what happens to us - health problems - this or that - is often what happens as the consequence of our decisions and actions. Sometimes when things go bad, people then blame God for what happened.
We become our habits. Our habits become us.
If they are good, we become better. If they are bad, we
become worse. Good habits are called virtues; bad habits are called vices.
So does God micromanage? Does God rain on Cassandra’s parade
and not rain on Charlie’s parade? I don’t know. I know if it’s raining, and
there is a parade scheduled for that time and place, it’s going to rain on our
parade.
There is an Earth Day thing today up near TargetCenter. It was cancelled last Sunday because of rain. I was told, if it rains, it will be called off again. And there will be no
third chance. I won’t pray for either. I do pray for rain, but I have to admit
I don’t know how that works. That will be one of my questions for God, after I
die, if God has a personal Q. and A. session.
CONCLUSION
So what do I know about how God manages people and things?
I know by faith that God sent his Son Jesus into our world
and we have a choice to say “Yes” to him or “No” to him - that I be a wise builder - building my house on rock and not sand - asking Christ to be the cornerstone of my life. [1]
I know by reflection and luck and blessings and grace that I
got that gift of faith from my mom and dad. They had it and I got it. And I
thank those way back before them who made faith and life choices that came down as gifts to our family.
I know by reflection - especially on experiences - that God
is fascinating.
I also know from experience that when I keep the Great
Commandments - the consequences are inner peace.
I know from experience, that if we didn’t have freedom of
choice, life would be rather boring. What makes life fascinating is that a
human being can choose his or her life in the way he or she chooses to live it
- as well as deal with what happens to us by nature or others actions. So if
someone chooses to want to marry us - then what makes marriage so great is
precisely that. And what kills us is when another stops choosing to love for
whatever number of reasons. I’ve seen
divorces and I’ve seen disasters and I’ve seen classmates and friends leave the
priesthood - as well as see people I know get divorced - and sometimes when I hear this kind of bad news, I want to run - and get on the road again.
So I don’t think God micromanages the choice to love - except to send his
Son - the great lover. Amen.
NOTES
[1] Matthew 7: 24-27; today's First Reading Acts 4: 11; today's Responsorial Psalm 118: 22.
