MICAH’S  

THREE COMMANDMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16^th Monday in Ordinary time is, “Micah’s Three Commandments.”

In today’s first reading we have Micah’s three commandments.

JEWISH THEOLOGY

If we study Jewish theology, one of the things we would learn is that different prophets and people in the Jewish scriptures came up with different answers to the question: “How do you sum up the Law?”

There are 613 commandments revealed to Moses. Some are positive commandments and some are negative commandments. In other words, “Do’s and Don’ts.”  If we knew Jewish theology, we would know that there were 365 negative commandments - one for each day of the year. There are also 248 positive commandments - one for each part of the body [based on one count of one’s body parts].

Next Jewish theology and Rabbi’s like to present a list of how different prophets and Biblical characters narrowed down the 613 Commandments to make them more manageable. For example, here is a short listing:

·        David had 11 principles; [Cf. Psalm 15]

·        Isaiah had 6 principles; [Cf. Isaiah 33:15-16]

·        Habakkuk had 1 principle [Cf. Habakkuk 2:4]

·        Micah had 3 principles or commandments; [Cf. Micah 6:8]

REFLECTION

It would be wise for us to reflect once and a while on what principles, no no’s and do do’s - that guide our lives.

It would be wise to jot down what we come up with. Then compare them with other people’s lists.

At the big funeral at St. Mary’s this morning, the brother of Kellie Shiley said he received a poem at St. Mary’s - a long list of guidelines for life. Then he added that he gave them to his sister who taped it on her door. Then she put them into practice. I don’t have a copy of what the list was, but a few would be these - depending on how good my memory was. “If you think you can’t, you probably won’t. If you think you can, you probably will.” “Do it today, because you might not have a tomorrow.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel talks about how people look for signs.  Has that been your experience? People often want signs from God. They look to the heavens. They look to the waters. They look to prayer and they light candles looking for light.

In today’s New York Times there is an article about a tree in West New York, New Jersey. Some people are seeing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the tree trunk. Some think this is bunk or crazy or idolatry and some swear by it. Whatever, the article says it’s costing the police $1,000 a day.  I think the cost of a similar happening in Conyers, Georgia was costing the area a lot of money because of traffic and the crowds. [1]

Every once and a while you’ll notice the same story of people seeing Jesus or the Virgin Mary in doors, barns, donuts and vegetables.

When I was a kid I remember going with lots of people to a church about 20 blocks away. It was supposed to have an image of Mary on the wall.  In time it was a water stain on the wall that looked like an image of Mary.

When it comes to these kinds of events and signs, I would hope people would see God and Christ in us. I would hope we would be a sign of the presence of God and his love.

CONCLUSION

How do we do that. That brings us back to our way of doing our life - what commandments, what principles, what plan we’re following. We know that Jesus was asked to sum up the Law and the Prophets and he gave the Great Commandment to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength - and then to love our neighbor as ourselves [Confer Luke 10:25-28]

Another answer would be Micah’s Three Commandments - the title of this homily - the message he gives at the end of today’s first reading - the famous Micah 6:8 quote. His words are translated in various ways. I prefer to list his 3 commandments this way:

1) To do life justly - to be fair with one another;

2) To love mercy - to do the works of mercy each day;

3) To walk humbly or modestly with our God.

NOTES

[1] Confer New York Times, July 22, 2012, “In New Jersey, a Knot in a Tree Trunk Draws the Faithful and the Skeptical” by Nate Schweber; confer Google, Conyers, Georgia, Apparitions of Jesus and Mary. If you’re really interested in doing research on “apparitions” just type that word into Google or your favorite search engine.

RESPONSIBILITY

Quote for Today - July 23,  2012


"It was up to me to bring my nerves to heel."


Albert Camus, The Stranger


Questions:

When another upsets our day, how much is it our responsibility on how we deal with others and ourselves for the rest of that day?


Can a person bring their nerves to heel?


Is there anyone whose day I ruin - someone I bother? Is it my fault - or both our faults - or just the other's fault? Can we talk about it with this person?

WALLS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16 Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, “Walls.”

W A L L S:  we know about walls. They surround us. They are everywhere! Walls.

That’s an image and a possible theme for a homily that I noticed in today’s second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians.

I once read a whole book by Marcus Barth on just this theme - which was triggered from the text in Ephesians that we heard this morning. The book was entitled, The Broken Wall: A Study of the Epistle to the Ephesians. I’ve been working on a book on this theme ever since - and every once and a while I add a chapter. This homily will be one more itch to finish it. By the way, after finishing this homily I realized, this homily is going to sound like it’s a book. Smile.

Paul pictures Jesus as the one who breaks down the dividing wall of enmity - E N M I T Y - ECHTHRA - in Greek - better translated, I think, by the word HATRED, the opposite of AGAPE - LOVE.

Walls - sometimes we love them, want them, need them. Walls - sometimes we hate them. We don’t like them. We wish they would fall down.  Walls.

ROBERT FROST

Robert Frost - one of our national poets - sums up both feelings - the ambiguity or mixed feelings - the pros and cons - about walls.

In his poem Mending Walls, Robert Frost says one man wants to repair the stone wall that separates his property from another man. Both meet every spring to check out their wall.

The second man wonders why they need a wall in the first place. If they had cows, smart move, but they have trees. The first man always says “Good fences make good neighbors.”  The other man reflects, “Before I’d build a wall I’d ask what I’m walling in and walling out.”

Obviously, we need walls. It rains. It gets cold. It gets hot. We need privacy when we go to the bathroom and when we go to sleep. We need skin to keep our insides in and stuff from the outside out. We need tents and mosquito nets. We need umbrellas and laws - and front doors and windows with locks. We need cages and jails. We need places to live - with closets and bottom drawers and a good kitchen table. Now with this Aurora, Colorado horrible shooting, we're going to have to have more safety walls and screening at theaters.

Arab proverb: “Keep you tents separate and bring your hearts together.”

Arthur “Bugs” Baer said, “A good neighbor is a fellow who smiles over the back fence but doesn’t climb over it.”

Ben Franklin said, “Love your neighbor, yet don’t pull down your hedge.”

In a book of poems and reflections Carl Sandburg says, “A fence should be horse high, pig tight, and bull strong.”

Looking at your life - if you own your own home -  how many times - have you pointed out to a guest - your property line - if you don’t have a fence or a wall? Why did you do that? What’s the back story?

Looking at your life - if you have kids - how many times have you told them about boundaries - when they have to be home - the rules of the house - and you add, “They are for your protection”?

SO WE KNOW ABOUT WALLS

We know about walls - and barriers - and obstacles - and blocks - and red tape.  We know about our homes - our protections - our man caves - our hiding places - our escapes - the boundaries we have for human behavior.  We know about covenants and contracts. But we also know about the beauty of freedom - and national parks - and the ocean and the sky without boundaries - and the vast unknown.

We know today’s gospel. We need vacations. We need a break. In today’s gospel Jesus says, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” Then Mark adds the comment - I hear him telling us this with a smirk in his voice - because there is wall to wall people in the scene. “People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.” Then Mark continues the humor, “So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them.”

We know about walls - sometimes we are surrounded by them - especially people walls.

Tom, a priest I worked with for 8 ½ years before I came to Annapolis, told me a great story. He said, “Maryann called today and her voice sounded funny. So I asked her, where she was. She said, ‘In the cabinet under the sink. The four boys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Sean, haven’t discovered this hiding place yet.’”

We know about the walls down the middle of our families, broken friendships - problems with people  at work. We know walls down the middle of the marriage bed. We know walls inside our souls - mistakes we made many years ago - walls with pictures of the mistake that hang there on that wall for the rest of our lives.

We know about walls - those we build against those who are too loud or too fat or too thin or too different than us. We know that we just don’t understand why the other person doesn’t see what we see - and how we see - and they are so, so wrong, narrow, strange, different from us.

There’s a value in reading - and traveling - and discovering and dealing with the different. I love the story about the tourist in Mexico. He sees men riding their donkeys and the women are walking. He finally asks a man about this who says calmly,  “But senor, my wife doesn’t own a burro.”  We then think: maybe she does.

We know about walls. If we’re over 30 we know about the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9^th, 1989.

If we know history and if  we’ve been following the news down through the years we know about the Great Wall of China, the Iron Curtain after World War II, the practice of segregation in the United States, the program called, “Apartheid” in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. the difference coming in and out of the United States and airports before and after September 11, 2001, the call for walls on our southwest borders,

If you know your family and neighborhood history, you know stories and gossip about walls. The story that still intrigues me happened in a place I won’t mention, but you know this kind of a story. Two brothers got the family home when mom died. Dad had died earlier. Both brothers had their own family. One brother thought he should have gotten the whole house. A fight began. It  was going on for 22 years when I was brought in on the story. The front door was broken open so two doors could go up. Behind the front walls - walls went up where needed right down the middle of the house. Both brothers didn’t talk for 22 years.  That’s how I heard the story. I’ve often wondered how did it. There are a lot more particulars - but let me just say that much. That story can be a déjà vu story - for individuals, families, neighbors, churches, countries.

Walls.

NEW YORK TIMES STORY

Every Monday morning I read a section of the New York Times called, Metropolitan Diary. It presents 4 or 5 vignettes from life in New York City that people send in. One of the 5 usually grabs me - and I jot it down - for possible use in a future sermon.

Here is an incident from June 27 - this year. It’s entitled, “An Existential Guard.” A gal named Marcia Epstein writes,

Dear Diary.

A friend and I were wandering around the Metropolitan Museum of Art, trying to find the exit. The Met being enormous and full of hallways that turn into other hallways and exhibition rooms, we were not having much success.

Finally, I approached a museum guard and said to him, “We’re looking for the way out.”

His reply? “Aren’t we all.”

AREN’T WE ALL?

Aren’t we all trying to find a way out - or a way through - or a way to knock down walls and barriers that we don’t want or like - or that drive us crazy.

Paul is telling us that Jesus came to break  down the walls between God and us. Jesus came to break through the walls that appear in religion and worship.

Read the four gospels and you’ll hear Jesus reaching out to all sorts of people - the strangers and untouchables - the little people and the sinners - over and over and over again. Listen to the gospels and you’ll hear what folks have been saying in churches for the past 1980 years, “Oh my God, look who’s in communion with Jesus! Look who’s eating Jesus. Look who Jesus is feeding and nourishing. Oh my God.”

Read the four gospels and hear Jesus giving solutions on how to get through walls. I love the Easter Gospels where Jesus comes through walls - notice the little comment - even though the doors were locked - and said to his scared, fear filled disciples, “Peace! I forgive you! Whose sins your hold onto they are held onto - whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.”

I love that and I think that’s why so many people love Edwin Markham’s short piece called, “Outwitted.”

“He drew a circle that shut me out.

Heretic, rebel a thing to flout

But love, and I had the will to win.

We drew a circle and took him in.”

Notice the word “love” there. “But love, and I had the will to win. We drew a circle and took him in.”

November 7^th, 2012 can’t come fast enough for me. The walls are going up and up and up - from both sides and all sides.

Erase the circles - or draw bigger circles - change the conversation - turn the other cheek - go the extra mile - and then some.

Jesus speaks to us many ways - 2 clear ways - as a baby and in suffering and dying - two moments that bring us together dramatically.

CONCLUSION

Here in church - we have an opportunity - to be together as Catholics - which means With the Whole Human Race - Kata Holos in Greek - the whole Catalogue of Peoples.

I loved Rome - seeing all those Catholics from all over the world - in St. Peter’s Square - with a German Pope right now - the one before him was Polish - the ones before that were Italian - but wasn’t the first one Jewish. Wouldn’t it be great if the next one was Chinese or from some country in South America or Africa? Surprise.

Let me close with one wall breaker - because I’ve heard this enough to know it’s some people’s sentiment. Some people see things differently than us - that’s a gigantic wall - we all face every day. Some people knowing our walls say, “Get over it!”  The complaint, the barrier, the wall, the rule, some people want is that of what folks wear to church. Some people go crazy with that. Some people say, “Close your eyes!” Some people say, “Glad everyone is here.”

When I was in Rome last September, the guide had said women can’t have bare arms and shorts or something like that. Men couldn’t wear shorts either, so this one guy bought paper pants. I loved it. Then I saw men outside the bus ready for us to get off - selling shawls for the ladies. I thought, “Isn’t that great? Someone is capitalizing on the rule. I love it. It’s helping someone put food on the table.”

I’m sure they do the same thing at Mosques.

Then I saw the signs about modesty - a value of course. However, I would rather see at the door of every church or mosque, the sign they have at the Taize monastery in France,

“All you who enter here

Be reconciled

The Father with his son

The husband with his wife

The believer with the unbeliever.

The Christian with his separated brother.”

PRAYER FOR 

A BREAKTHROUGH

Quote for the Day   July 22, 2012

"Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations."




Carl Sandburg [1878-1967] Prayers of Steel [1920]

QUESTIONS! 

YOU NEVER KNOW 

WHERE THEY ARE HEADED

Quote for Today -  July 21,  2012




"Grandma," asked the kid, "were you once a little girl like me?"


"Yes, of course I was."


"Then, " continued the kid, "I suppose you know how it feels to get an ice cream cone when you don't expect it."




Someone

PUT YOUR 

HOUSE IN ORDER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 15th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Put Your House in Order.”

That’s a comment in today’s first reading.

Listen to it in context:

“When Hezekiah was mortally ill,
the prophet Isaiah,

son of Amoz, came and said to him:
‘Thus says the LORD:

Put your house in order,
for you are about to die;

you shall not recover.’” [Isaiah 38:1b]

That is scary: “Put your house in order….” 

Is that an internal order to all of us? I don’t know about you, but I think of that whenever they knock me out for a colonoscopy or what have you. Will I wake up? I also think of that when I’m going on vacation or on a trip. I look at my room and say, “Oh my God. I gotta clean this mess - because if I die, someone is going to be cursing the dead - me -  when they have to clean this up - all this clutter - all these books - all these papers  - all these magazines.”

Six of us were in a house over on the eastern shore yesterday evening - for crabs. Even though I’m very messy, hammering crabs and breaking them up on a table is too messy for me.  I was offered a burger and took the deal. The owner of the house was neat. Very neat. Very, very, very neat.  Being a slob, I got nervous. Everything in the house and outside the house was neat, perfect, exact and sparse.   

The owner said, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

Well, when I read today’s first reading, that message of putting your house in order, made me laugh. I started to wonder, if a very, very, very, very neat person would miss hearing that text in the first place?

Or is it true, that even the neatest person in the world has a closet or a cellar or a bottom drawer that is a mess?

Then there are the inner messes.

SURPRISE

When Hezekiah hears the message from Isaiah that he’s about to die, he  turns to the wall. H starts to pray.  He starts to weep bitterly.

I was a funeral of an 17 year old last Monday  - Sarah McMahon - and at the funeral of Lillian Dabney - 94 - this morning and will be at the funeral of Kellie Thompson Shiley - age 31 this coming Monday. So the question of death hits me - not just from these readings - not just when going on trips - but also from funerals - and also from going  by cemeteries or hearing from TV or the paper of a famous person passing away.

When am I going to get my house in order? There are boxes to empty, papers to sort and toss, things to line up.

Surprise, Hezekiah gets 15 more years to live.

Did he fall back into his old patterns of procrastination or what have you - if that was bent? I don’t know.

A Bible text is helpful, if gets me to be specific about my life and my stuff.  That’s always the question.

CONCLUSION

So today I won' turn to a wall - but to myself - to my laziness - to my lack of lists that work - to my need to toss and sort and clean - to catch up on unanswered letters and Christmas cards or what have you.

Hezekiah’s initial response to pray and to cry are good. However, those are easy, compared to the work of putting things in order. I guess the very simple solution is what Nike keeps advertising: “Just do it!”

RELIGIOUS REVELATIONS 

IN THE HARMONIES 

OF CREATION

Quote for Today  July 20, 2012

"Religion cannot be kept within the bounds of sermons and scriptures. It is a force in itself and it calls for the integration of lands and peoples in harmonious unity. The lands [of the planet] wait for those who can discern their rhythms. The peculiar genius of each continent, each river valley, the rugged mountains, the placid lakes, all call for relief from the constant burden of exploitation."




Vine Victor Deloria, Jr.  God Is Red [1973], chapter 16