THE  GREAT  DIVORCE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Great Divorce.”

That theme was triggered from today’s two readings - which present strong story and challenging teaching.

In the first reading from Ezekiel 16: 1-15, 60, 63, we have a powerful parable about Israel. She is pictured  being born as a little baby girl. She is thrown on the ground as something ugly. She grows and develops into a  beautiful young lady. Then God says that as I passed by you I saw you were mature and ready for love. I put a cloak over you to cover your nakedness. I washed you. I anointed you. I put on you the finest embroidered gown and leather sandals and robes of silk and a linen sash. I put on you jewelry - bracelets, a necklace. I put a ring in your nose, pendants on your ears, a crown on your head. They I fed you with the finest food. You were a queen. Then you forgot me. You became captivated by your own beauty. You became a prostitute. In spite of all this, God says He will forgive Israel. He’ll remember his covenant and his promise.

The gospel from Matthew talks about the question and the horror of divorce and applies it individual couples breaking a covenant. People can make wrong choices and hurt the other.

The title of my homily is, “The Great Divorce.”

BOOK: THE GREAT DIVORCE

That’s the title of a book by C.S. Lewis that began coming out in serial form in 1944-45. It was next put into a book. It has had an impact on many people - down through the years.

It’s short: 118 pages in paperback.  It’s an easy read - with a very challenging message.  It can still be found in libraries or on line - like the other key books by C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia and Surprised by Joy.

The Great Divorce is a parable. It’s also a great dream.

The Great Divorce would be separating and breaking up with God.

The main character - the narrator -  is in a grey zone - a gray area. Everything is vague - strange - unsure. The figures he sees are ghostlike figures. They are floating - moving along. It’s hell. It’s purgatory. It’s not heaven. Heaven is the bright light area ahead - that he and all are being called to - but the ghosts are hesitant to go there.

He senses his thinness of spirit. He’s feels his self-deception through and through. He feels called to go backwards. Yet he’s also called to move forwards towards heaven.

It’s a good read. It’s intriguing.

At the end he senses great blocks of something falling on him.

He wakes up. It’s books that have fallen in his room.

And much of The Great Divorce is interspiced and interwoven with ideas for other books: Augustine, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Dante, Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and science fiction works. They are the books that can wake us up.

Except for the Science Fiction books, I’ve read them all. They are the type of book that I need to get back to - the classics - the great parables. If we keep those classics in mind, we can be inspired more by Ezekiel - and his parables and stories.

I gave a sermon here a bunch of years ago - about dying and waking up in the outskirts of heaven and we find ourselves heading for a bus stop - and we get a choice to take this bus ride and tour of heaven to make our choice where we want to get off. Surprise, I’m reading about The Great Divorce which I had read in the seminary - only to discover that C.S. Lewis used the image of the bus heading for heaven as well. It wasn’t plagiarism. I was a good bit different - but the major image was there in C.S. Lewis. After being humbled for not being that original, I got the message to keep reading good stuff - because it sticks to us.

CONCLUSION

Good news. The Great Divorce has been put on as a play in 2004 and February of this year - and is going to come out as a movie in 2013. I don’t know how major it will be, but I’m sure it will be around for us to see and be moved by - and allow it to become part of our thinking - so that we’ll avoid The Great Divorce: Hell, separation from God.

TRUST

Quote for Today - August 17, 2012

"If his word were a bridge, we'd be afraid to cross."


Yiddish Proverb - Anonymous

CHANGING ONE'S MIND

Quote for Today - August 16, 2012

"To go through life
without ever being converted
to anything seems a mark 
of insensitiveness.
The ideal world would be
a world in which everybody
was capable of conversion
and in which at the same time
the converts would admit
the possibility that
they might be mistaken."

Robert Lynd [1879-1949]

ASSUMPTIONS 

ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Assumptions About Life After Death.”

The feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven is very interesting.

It was not declared a dogma, i.e. something we’re asked to believe in as Catholics till November 1, 1950. Yet  it has been an understanding - an assumption - since at least  the 5^th and 6^th centuries. There are earlier documents - some of them are of  “iffy”  origin - which  talk about the Assumption of Mary.

Next there is the issue whether Mary died or whether Mary simply fell asleep - the so called “Dormition of Mary” and was asssumed into heaven. In the proclamation and declaration of Mary’s Assumption on November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII cleverly worded the  decree leaving both traditions as possibles. From what I was taught and from what I have read, Mary’s death and then Assumption is the better position.  

Either way the Assumption is a Resurrection teaching. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, if Jesus wasn’t assumed into heaven, Mary wasn’t either. Mary is linked to Christ - obviously.

I’m assuming that this homily should be reasonably short, because folks have had long days and have to get some supper. So let me assume to put three possible ideas on your plate - to chew on for today - on this Feast of the Assumption.

As to the readings of the day, I can’t identify Mary with dragons and battles in the sky as we heard in the first reading from the Book of Revelation, but I can identify with her in down home story of Mary visiting Elizabeth - and then proclaiming the Magnificat.

FIRST IDEA - ON THE TABLE

Theoretically someone could put set up a series of folding tables in a big hall and put on each table various teachings of various peoples and groups about what’s going to happen after we die.

On one table someone could put one piece of paper with the words: “Nothing. That’s it. You die. That’s the end of you!”

On another table or tables could be teachings about reincarnation - and the various religious strains that teach and promote that.

On other tables could be teachings from various religions about an afterlife: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc.

At the Catholic Table - there would be the central teaching: “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.”  That was the main refrain at Mass after the consecration from the 1970’s till 2011. It was the one we all knew - could sing easier - and it’s the one they dropped. On that same table would be a Greek ikon - a picture or image of Christ rising - because the Eastern Orthodox and Greek and Russian Uniate Christian Churches stressed the Resurrection more than the Western and Roman Church up till the 1950’s. There would also be a picture of Mary - being assumed into heaven. There could also be a copy of Dante’s Trilogy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso.

At other tables could be some really interesting off beat takes on what happens after we die.

If I was setting up the exhibit I would have a separate table for jokes about the afterlife. There are many. You’ve heard variations on the scenario that when you get to heaven you get a tour given by St. Peter. As he takes us by different rooms he goes “Shhh!” Then he gives us a peek into a big room filled with a lot of people.” Then he closes the door and we ask, “Who are they?”  “Shhh,” he says, “They are the Baptists and they think they are the only ones here.” Then they go by another room, “Shh!” and we find out they are Catholics. Some of them also think they are the only one’s there. And on and on and on - room after room - till we get to this really big room where everyone is laughing and eating. We ask Peter who they are. He says, “It’s a mix of folks from  everywhere.” Then St. Peter says, “Which room do you want to be in?”

That’s my first thought: the image of the tables - and the rooms and all the different known possibilities on what happens after death.

SECOND THOUGHT

The second thought would be to chew on and digest two biblical texts. Both are from Paul. Both are from 1^st Corinthians. In chapter 15   Paul is saying, “Everything is based on the resurrection of Christ. If he didn’t rise from the dead, the whole enterprise called our faith is fake - false. We’re a bunch of fools.”  The second biblical text is from chapter 2:  “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it ever really entered into the human mind, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

So the basic thing to chew on is what Paul is saying, “We are basing our whole life on Christ - here and hereafter.

The image I thought of this morning for this position is from one of my favorite movies: My Cousin Vinny. Two young men - Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein  - are going through rural Alabama on their way to school in Florida. They are arrested and charged for a robbery and a murder in a small grocery store - Sack of Suds. One has a cousin, Vinny Gambini, who is a lawyer - and calls him in New York for help. Vinny at first is a disaster. The other kid goes with a public defender who also is a disaster.  It looks helpless. However, Vinny starts becoming spectacular and the non-nephew, Stan says “I’m  dropping my lawyer. Then pointing to Vinny says, “I’m with him. I want him.”

We want help. We want freedom, salvation, redemption, liberation, life after death and we Christians are yelling to Jesus, “I want you!”

THIRD THOUGHT TO CHEW ON AND DIGEST

The third thought or image to chew on and digest is that the Mass - is a glimpse and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and table.

We come in here today - on Sundays - funerals - weddings - etc. because we believe it’s all connected.

But hopefully, there is no “Shush” if someone looked in the door and saw us here today. We’re proud to be in here - folks from all over the world - born Catholic Christians - as well as folks from many different religions - who believe God is calling all - to eternal life - and the eternal banquet - starting with Jesus - followed by Mary - followed by us. Amen.

ASSUMPTION: 

THE MOST NECESSARY 

OF ASSUMPTIONS 

Quote for Today -August 15,  2012

"That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions."

George Santayana [1863-1952] The Life of Reason [1905-1906], Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense, a

Questions

If someone asked you what is the most necessary of assumptions, what would your answer be?

If someone asked you the greatest of assumptions, what would it be?

Would it be about the here or the hereafter?

What's your take on the Resurrection of Christ after his death on the cross?

Slowly read what Paul is saying in his First Letter to the Corinthians 15: 12-19 - better 15: 12 to 58.  Is he saying the Resurrection of Jesus is the greatest assumption we can make.

What's your take on the Assumption of Mary in light of that assumption?

What does Fulton J. Sheen preach as the key to what makes life worth living - the name of his TV Show?



Ikon on top: Up there near the ceiling in the Hagia Sophia Museum - formerly a Christian Basilica - in Istanbul. How come it and the ikons of Christ were not removed?

EAT THE WORDS
SO THAT
THE WORD CAN

BECAME FLESH 

AND DWELL 
AMONG US

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is from John 1: 14,"Eat The Words So That The Word Can Became Flesh and Dwell Among Us.”

In the Jerusalem Bible - there are lots of text references - next to the text -  more than most other Bibles. Along side John 1:14-15 there are 10 references - but there is no reference to today’s first reading from Ezekiel 3: 1-3. Well, I would add it so as to connect the 2 texts.

Ezekiel in the temple is told to take the scroll with its words and eat it - digest it - be satisfied with the words - experience them as sweet as honey - and then go and proclaim that word to the House of Israel.

MARY

Isn’t that what happened to Mary? She heard the word of God from the angel - the messenger. She said “Yes” to that word and she became pregnant with the Word of God - which was as sweet as honey - and she brought  forth Jesus 9 months later - to the House of Israel - to the world.

BIBLE STUDIES

Eating words - digesting words …. Isn’t that a great image for those who preach and those who attend Bible Studies? We eat up the word - we digest the word - the word becomes us - and we bring that word - Jesus Christ - to our world - in our flesh.

When I see folks eating donuts and cookies, sometimes - sometimes - I love to say what I heard some thin guy once say to his wife in a church hall, “A minute on the lips, a year on the hips” and of course she threw the rest of her donut at him - and we all laughed.

A word on our lips - a word in our ears - a word moving into our heart - and then that word can be in us not just for a year - but for a lifetime.

HOW MUCH OF THE BIBLE HAVE WE  DIGESTED?

How much of the Bible have we digested?  How much of the Bible has become us? How many times have we sat down at the banquet of the word?

We are our parents' egg and seed. We are our mother’s blood and love. We are our parents' language, their words to us, their care for us. We are their values, their attitudes. We are their style. We are them and so much more: all the other stuff we have picked up in our lives.

As Ulysses says in Tennyson’s poem with that title, “I am part of all that I have met.”

We know the old saying, “We are what we eat.” Well, we are, but we are also what we read, what we have seen. We are all that example, all that education. We are all that mix called “me”.

I am what I remember. I am a walking library. I was moved with something I heard at the death of an 80 year older. The eulogist said, ‘When an old person dies, it’s like a library is burnt down.”

I ate that statement up. It became me. It made sense. I digested it. I incorporated it. It has led me to say, “We need to read each other. We need to listen to each other. We are talking books.  We need to ask old folks, ‘What was it like?’” It has led me to push and promote writing one’s autobiography.

How much of the Bible is us? We’d be amazed. We have done what Ezekiel has done in today’s first reading. Many of these texts are me, myself and I. These words of the Bible are in our DNA of our thinking - and our attitudes.

They are behind our behavior. They have helped and pushed us to love others - to forgive others - to love children - especially the neglected one’s as we heard in today’s gospel - to have compassion on the people who mess up - the lost sheep in our families and our lives - that we heard about in today’s gospel as well.

Today - August 14 - is the feast of St. Maximillian Kolbe. In 1941 he was in Auschwitz. Three prisoners  had escaped - so 10 prisoners were picked to be starved to death as a warning. Franciszek Gajowniczek screamed out, “My wife. My children.”  Maximillian Kolbe heard those words. He volunteered to take his place. When he was dying by starvation, to make room, they gave him a lethal injection of poison. Motive: what was his motive. Answer: Love. Answer the text: “Greater love than this no one had - but to lay down his or her life for his or her friends.” (John 15:13)

CONCLUSION

So keep feasting - keep digesting - keep on eating the word of God like Ezekiel did. A minute in the ear, a lifetime in our way of being for the rest of our years. Amen.

BIBLE - GET IT

Quote for Today August 14,  2012

"Many things in the Bible I cannot understand;  many things in the Bible I only think I understand; but there are many things in the Bible I cannot misunderstand."

Anonymous