A SENSE OF HUMOR

Quote for Today - July 5,  2012


"A sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to our steps as we walk the tightrope of life."


Anonymous




Questions:

Has anyone described you as having a sense of humor?


Of those you know who have a sense of humor, does the quote above ring true for them?


Do you see life as a tightrope walk?  Is that too tight a metaphor?  What is your metaphor for what life is?  Or do use a combination of metaphors - because you realize - life is an "it all depends" sort of an adventure?

AMOS 5:24

"THEN LET JUSTICE  

SURGE  LIKE WATER 

AND GOODNESS 

LIKE AN UNFAILING STREAM."

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Thirteenth Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Then Let Justice Surge Like Water and Goodness Like An Unfailing Stream.”

This is just one text - one verse - 5:24 - from the book of Amos.

BUMPER STICKER

I’ve never seen on a bumper sticker or a sign at a football game: “Amos 5:24.”

It wouldn’t be a bad text to base one’s life on - that I be a person of justice and goodness.

Most translations of English from the Hebrew use the word “justice,” but most don’t use “goodness” like our New American Bible does. Most translators use the word “righteousness” over “goodness”.

The Hebrew is just 6 words. The English translation is 12 words - twice as long.

I like the Hebrew word for “unfailing” - as in “unfailing stream”. It’s “ETHAN” or “ETAN”. Besides “unfailing,” it’s translated “endless” - “never failing” “ever flowing” “mighty”.

In a Biblical commentary I like the note about that word which I spotted last night while writing this homily. “…the seventh month, just before the early rain, was called ‘the month Ethanim [Cf. 1 Kings 8:2], that is, the month of the perennial streams, when they alone flowed. In the meaning ‘perennial,’ it would stand tacitly contrasted with ‘streams which fail or lie.’ True righteousness is not fitful, like an intermitting stream, vehement at one time, then disappearing, but continuous, unfailing.

WHAT SHOULD BE  EVER FLOWING IN EVERY PERSON?

Amos is calling all of us to be like a rolling river and like an ever flowing stream. Amos is calling each and every person to examine if justice and goodness are flowing out of us - like a river and a stream - or am I all dried up when it comes to justice and goodness.

I’ve seen dry river beds in Tucson and Phoenix as well as in the Salton Sea area or region of California - 100 miles east of San Diego.

I’ve seen the opposite - where there was lots of water. I lived on the Hudson River in upstate New York for 14 years of my life. I grew up in Brooklyn 3 blocks away from the Narrows - where the waters of the East River and the Hudson River meet and flow out to the sea. I lived for 7 years in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. Tobyhanna means dark river. It was only a stream in the Poconos. I lived on the Atlantic Ocean in Long Branch,New Jersey for 7 years. I also lived on Lak LaBelle in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Oconomowoc is the Native Americans or that area word meaning “where the waters meet.” As an aside, it was on July 4th evening, there that I discovered the beauty of mid-America. Everyone was at the park listening to a band concert - followed by fireworks. 

So I get the imagery of Amos. We get it as well. When the electricity is out - when the pumps ain’t pumping water - it’s then we appreciate water. We appreciate a cold water fountain and a good shower.

I’ve backpacked in the Rockies and in White Mountains of New Hampshire, so I know steams.

I’m sure you had similar experiences of water and flowing water in your lifetime. Please God, people who experience us, experience the flow of Justice and Goodness.

The opposite is desert dryness. The opposite is the horror story in today’s gospel - where 2 men are filled with demons - who cry out for release - and Jesus lets them roam and roar out of the men and into the pigs who run down the slope and jump into the Lake of Galilee.

CONCLUSION

There’s two prayers for us today. That we be to our families and coworkers  a delicious ongoing - ever flowing river and stream of delicious water and we not be filled with demons. Amen.

QUALITY

July 4, 2012  Quote for Today

 “To me it’s always been about fighting for quality.”

Sigourney Weaver statement in an interview in the latest issue of Time magazine - July 16, 2012 [Page 64]. She's commenting on TV and movies. 

Questions:

Is quality Job #1 for you each day?

If you're a hair dresser or a dress designer, if you're cutting your lawn or washing your car, is quality key for you?

Is there any task, you do haphazardly or lazily or you just don't care?

Would preaching, celebrating Mass and parish services be better if there were evaluation forms in the benches like there in restaurants for how the food and service were?

page. 64

   

 THE SAINT THOMAS PRAYER

Lord, my name isn’t Thomas,

which means “Twin,” but  ---  but when

I hear his story I feel like his twin,

because I’ve been through some

of the same moments he went through.

Lord, like Thomas, help me not

to hesitate to ask:  “Where are YOU?”

and how do I get to the Place called, “YOU” -

the Inner Space where You are with Your Father.

Help to me hear what You told Thomas,

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!”

Lord, like Thomas, sometimes

I find myself absent - out of the loop,

not in on what’s happening in upper rooms,

with what’s going on in the group,

so I end up with so many questions.

Lord, like Thomas tell me to put my hands

into your hands - tell me to put my fingers

into the cut in your side. Help me to discover

what Thomas discovered:  You are the

Risen Lord on the other side of suffering

and death and what seems like no more.

Lord, like Thomas, I have my doubts

and that’s where I really feel twined to him.

Yet like him, I have learned my lesson:

if you don’t have doubts, you won’t get

a chance to make great acts of faith,

like the real prayer of Thomas,

“My Lord, and my God.”

OOOOO ***** OOOOO

NOTES


Painting on top: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas - by Caravaggio [1601-1602]

Today is the feast of St. Thomas. Instead of a homily on St. Thomas - which I have given many - instead of an imaginary story with St. Thomas explaining his life - which I’ve done one of, this feast of St. Thomas I decided to write a prayer using the themes from the life of Thomas as noticed in the Gospels. 

DOUBT

July  3,  2012  Quote for Today

Doubt: "What gets you an education."

Wilson Mizner [1876-1933]

BURY THE DEAD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 13 Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead!”

Let me repeat that. It’s the last message in today’s gospel. Jesus is finishing some comments about what it takes to follow him. He’s about to get into a boat to go to the other side of the Lake. He says to the crowd, “Let the dead bury their dead.” [Matthew 8:22]

It’s a very tough saying - no doubt about it.

Some think it’s more about folks hesitating to do something - because they are waiting for the day when their parents die. That could be years to come. In the meanwhile, they haven’t lived their life. Jewish law said there was an obligation to take care of the burial of one’s parents.

THINK ABOUT THAT SAYING

Think about those 6 words: “Let the dead bury their dead.”

I don’t know about you, but I heard that saying since I was a kid and from time to time I think about those words of Jesus - and not just when they are part of the readings at Mass.

How about you?  What have been your experiences of how you and others have dealt with death?

I remember hearing a story in a sermon from a long time ago. A mom lost her son in the Second World War. Every day she put fresh clothes on a chair in his bedroom next to his empty bed - and everyday she would wash the clothes that were sitting there from the day before. His room was kept as a shrine in memory of her lost son.

That takes energy - that takes time - to feel that pain - to wash those clothes which were never worn. Looking back I don’t remember the specific point the speaker was trying to make. What hit me was her need at some point to get over her son's death - and use her energy and time for the living.

In time I also learned that everyone has to do their grieving in their own way - and most of the time it’s not helpful for outsiders to tell the person feeling the inside pain: “Get over it!” I remember a wife telling me how angry she was at a priest who told her to get over the death of her husband. The priest said something like, “Enough already. Get on with your life.”  She said to me: “What did he know of marriage and love!”

We have all watched people and how different they are when it comes to grieving. We've all seen ourselves grieving differently for different people.

I always remember seeing a television documentary on how humans have evolved. It might have been Jacob Bronowski’s, The Ascent of Man or Civilisation by Kenneth Clark. Both were a wonderful series on TV and I went out and bought the books. In one of those programs, the commentator said something like: "It was a significant moment in the history of us humans when early people didn’t just throw the body of someone who died off the side of a migratory path and move on. No. They stopped to bury the dead person. They stopped to pause, to pray, to cry, and to leave a marker."

To be human is to do that. I get that. Father Joe Krastel loves western movies and he usually has the clicker and when commercials come on in a ballgame, he switches to the western channel. I feel woozy bad when someone is shot and killed and the group doesn’t stop to bury the dead person. I feel better when they stop to bury their dead - even if they lose time and another group is pursuing them. So I get that.

Isn’t that why folks often want read at the funeral of a loved one, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 - when the author says, “There is an appointed time for everything … a time to be born and a time to die … a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance….”?

What have our family deaths taught us?

My sister Mary lost her 15 year old son Michael from cancer with only 4 days notice. I remember her telling me years later that the first stage takes 7 years and then there is the time after that.

When my dad died,  I cried. It was my first real death - so too my nephew Michael - so too my brother. I still have not cried at my mother’s death and that was back in 1987. I wonder why - perhaps because it was so violent and so sudden - in a hit and run accident - as she was walking to morning mass and then to work. Someone suggested listening to Irish music…. Time will tell....

So each of us has our own deaths. Each of us has our own private cemetery deep in the village or town or countryside of our soul or memory. And we go by it from time to time. And we visit it from time to time.

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel - the last sentence in today’s gospel - those words of Jesus - “Let the dead bury their dead” - triggers these thoughts.

Two key thoughts. Mourn! It's part of what makes us human. It tells us how much we love and miss the people who have been part of our life. Secondly, at some point, we have to bury our dead. That doesn’t mean we don’t have the pictures on the top of our bureaus - the death cards in our prayer books - the conversations about our dead. But at some point, we have to bury our dead. That’s why there are cemeteries. That’s why those who keep the ashes of loved ones  in their house, sometimes say, “It’s time to bury the dead. It's time to move on to the other side of the lake."

OPEN AND SHUT CASE

July  2, 2012  - Quote for Today

"One way to keep people from jumping down your throat is to keep your mouth shut."

Anonymous