COME AND SEE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of St. Bartholomew - August 24, is, “Come and See!”

TODAY’S GOSPEL FROM JOHN

"Come and see" is a comment by Philip to Nathaniel in today’s Gospel - after he says, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” [John 1: 45-51]

We know that Nathaniel is thought to be the Apostle Bartholomew by some, so that’s why we have this Gospel text from John for St. Bartholomew's feast day.

So Philip says to Nathaniel, “Come and see!” And he brings him to Jesus.

“Come and see.” [John 1: 46]  The Greek is basically the same sentence Jesus uses a few verses earlier in that same first chapter of John to Andrew [John 1: 39].

“Come and see!”

COMMON EXPERIENCE

It’s a common experience we’ve all had.

We’re talking with someone and they don’t seem to be getting our explanation - so we say, “Wait a minute. Come and see!”  And we get up and bring the person to the thing we’re trying to explain. We show them what we’re talking about.

Several times I’ve been in St. Mary’s Parking lot and someone asks how to get downtown. I start explaining - then I stop and say, “Come follow me.” Then I bring them through the garden into the rectory - and then to the front door - and then I point to Newman Street across the street and say, “Walk down that street and turn left at the bottom and you’ll see Ego Alley and the Naval Academy and Main Street.”

“Come and see.”

Once upon a time I was out talking my afternoon walk heading for a walk through the Naval Academy. I walked down Newman Street. At the bottom - just across from the playground and basketball court - a lady standing outside her car yelled over, “Sir. Sir!” 

I went over. She wanted to know where a downtown bed and breakfast where she was staying with her husband was. I began explaining. She wasn’t getting what I was pointing towards.  She said she had tried 2 times - and got lost each time and had to go back up to the top of the street and come around again - going down Duke of Gloucester Street both times.

“Oh,” I said, “Okay, is it alright for me to get into your car with you and I’ll get you over there? I’m heading towards the Naval Academy for a walk.”

Then I added, “Relax. I’m a priest.” 

She laughed and said, “That’s okay. My husband is a monsignor.” 

Then as we were driving the 3 minute drive over there to the street behind Storm Brothers Ice-cream, she says, “We’re members of the Old Catholic Church which allows married priests.”  Then she told me that her husband and she were visiting Annapolis. He had a touch of something and she went out to find a drug store and buy Imodium. Then she invited me  into the bed and breakfast to meet her husband the monsignor. We had to wait a minute or two because he was in a special room.

Come and see.

CONCLUSION: EXPERIENCING JESUS

There have been various programs in the Catholic Church entitled, “Come and See!” For  vocation promotion, we Redemptorists have “Come and See” weekends. We can’t become monsignors, but we do promote what we can become - hopefully good priests and brothers.

Hopefully all of us know we can talk about Jesus - but when people come and see us - hopefully they come and see and experience Jesus in more than words.

Walk the walk is better than talking the talk.

Or as the song goes, “Don’t talk about love, show me!”

Come and see in me - the love of Jesus Christ for thee.

OOOOOOOO

PAINTING ON TOP: St. Bartholomew - holding his flayed skin in a Last Judgment scene by Michelangelo

GOD'S  SHABBY  CORNER

Quote for Today - August 24,  2012

"That shabby corner of God's allotment where He lets the nettles grow, and where all unbaptized infants, notorious drunkards, suicides, and others of the conjecturally damned are laid."

Thomas Hardy [1840-1928] Tess of the D'Urbervilles [1891] Chapter 14


Questions

What's your take on the above quote from Thomas Hardy - who can be dark?

I'm 72 and way back I heard folks with this kind of thinking. I had doubts about Limbo - when we studied its history when studying theology - then there was a document from Rome - finally - moving all those babies who had died without baptism into God's hands.  Then there were attitudinal changes when it comes to the death of people who committed suicide or had serious drinking problems. People heard more and more about the copious redemption of God. People re-read Luke 15 and ba-boom - Thomas Hardy's quote above is challenged. Have you seen these attitudinal changes?

         

SUICIDE PRAYER

Lord, embrace her. Embrace him.

Lord embrace us as we try to figure

out just what happened here.

Suicide is often filled with silence

and questions - words and feelings -

sometimes made of razor blades,

sometimes made of rope, bullet or pill.

Sometimes we just don’t know what

happened here. What to do?

Take time, spend more time

with others, step back, embrace each other,

take long walks, step back, help each other

get through this dark night. Go to the waters.

Take long showers. Pray. Write. Talk.

Suicide can be filled with anger, guilt, shame,

the dark unknown- the fish hook of questions.

Bring some good out of his - please.

Lord, in the meanwhile look

from your cross - your tree on Calvary -

see Judas hanging on his tree in the distance

and let him hear before he dies your words,

“Father forgive them because they don’t know

what they are doing.” Amen.  

©  Andy Costello, Prayers 2012

Painting on top Mindy Newman - the Judas Tree

SUICIDE

Suicide kills not just the person who kills him or herself.

The person is found. Sometimes there is a note;

sometimes there isn’t. Ugh. Ugly. Horror. Mess.

Help! Scream! Now what? What now?

The blood flows onto the floor: the tile, the wood,

or the rug - then down through the floorboards -

down into the basement where the next generation

lives. Suicide seeps down deep, so down, down, deep.

Blood - dark red blood is its color. After that

suicide is very difficult to explain.  Words are tried.

Words are blurted out with tears - with closed fists -

along with guilt and, “Why didn’t I talk to him - to her?”

“Why didn’t - she - he -  know I would try to understand

or be a shelter - a hiding place - a chair of comfort?

With suicide along come words and feelings: anger,

depression, wanting to disappear - failure, mistakes -

guilt, shame, hurt, hatred. With suicide sometimes

there is just silence. Sometimes we have no words.

We have no idea what happened. It’s hard to form

and sculpt questions made of barbed wire or venom

or what have you. There is so much of the unknown.

Or maybe their mind was mixed up because of drugs

or medicine. Sometimes that warning is on the side

of the bottle. Suicide can be  a side effect - that

nobody picked up on - and the person killed themselves -

with a brain gone confused. Too bad the label wasn’t

on a face - but it’s always too, too late - after the jump

or the rope or the gun or the pills or the poison.

It’s not a relief, but we certainly are more understanding

or sympathetic about suicide than 100 years ago.

Yes, people kill themselves. Yes, people don’t want

to face the future with a sickness or a guilt or an

anger or a hatred stabbing their heart or wrists.

I once saw a man shoot himself in the mouth -

in a cemetery near Covington, Louisiana. This

happened in the same burial place as Walker Percy -

who wrote and thought deeply about suicide -

having had several people in his family kill themselves.

It was just the two of us - in the early morning quiet.

I didn’t know the man. I thought it was good

that he was standing under a stone statue

of the Blessed Mother. As I walked towards him -

now just 30 yards away from me - he put the gun

in his mouth. I was shocked as I heard the shot
and watched him fall to the ground.

I have always wished he saw me instead of

the stone statue above him. I wish he would

have hesitated. I don’t know what his wife

and kids went through before and after

the horror. I don’t know. I still don’t know.

I always hoped the Gospels would have a story

that Judas dropped the rope below the tree

he hung himself on and he came running to Jesus'

tree and fell on the ground before Jesus and
Judas would have heard an eight word from the cross

that would have helped him and people ever since

who have wanted to kill themselves. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2012

++++++++++++++++

Painting on top: Suicide by Eduard Manet

ANOTHER CRUCIFIXION

Quote for Today - August 23,  2012

"Ever since I could remember I'd wished I'd been lucky enough to be alive at that great time - when something big was going on, like the Crucifixion.  And suddenly I realized I was. Here I was living through another crucifixion. Here was something to paint."


Ben Shahn [1898-1969] on painting, Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco [1932]. They were electrocuted this day, August 23, 1927 - accused of murdering 2 men in an armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, back in 1920. The trial, the conviction, the appeals, were controversial. They were anarchists - part of the roaring twenties - with its social upheaval. 

AUTHORITY'S  AXE

Quote for Today  - August 22,  2012

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish."

Anne Bradstreet [c. 1612-1672] in Meditations Divine and Moral [1664], 12


Questions:

Have you ever been in a position of authority? What was your take on how you did or how you are doing?

Do or did you have a feedback process in place?

Have you ever heard someone say to a person who challenges an authority, "You have an authority problem?"

What's your take on St. Thomas Aquinas' words, "In the field of human science, the argument from authority is weakest"?

Do you agree with the saying: "It's not what you are saying, it's how you say it"?

HE THINKS 

HE’S GOD ALMIGHTY! 

THREE WONDERINGS. 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 20th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “He Thinks He’s God Almighty! Three Wonderings.”

FIRST WONDERING

Today’s first reading from the prophet Ezekiel triggers one of those life questions I think about from time to time. Ezekiel blasts the prince or king of Tyre for saying that he is a god. In today’s first reading we hear that over and over again. Ezekiel keeps saying, “You are not a god!” [Cf. Ezekiel 28:1-10]

My life question has always been: “Did this king or any king or emperor really think they were a god - even if others said they were or even if they said they were?” Really think. Actually. They might have acted as if they were a god - but did they down deep in their heart think they were God almighty?

If they were ever tempted to go that way, then did a cold or a fever or a slip on a banana peel get them to hesitate? When things didn’t go their way, did that give them deep pause? What about diarrhea or a rejection by one of their wives - if she was the one he wanted? We know when things don’t go our way, how frustrating that can be. We know we can be boring. What did the prince or king of Tyre do - when he was telling a story - perhaps for the 17^th time, and he sees several people yawn or look elsewhere or give a signal across a room to someone else saying with body language, “Oh no not again. It’s the story about how he killed a fox - on a hunting trip 17 years ago.”

So I’ve often wondered if the human mind could ever get itself into a mind set to actually think, "I am a god"?  Could someone really fool themselves that much? So keep yawning and looking at your watches when you see us too "ego-ie" or mighty "mouthy" in the pulpit.

Seriously, the "Who does he think he is, almighty God?" question is something I wonder about when I read about a  king being called a god in the scriptures. I also wonder about this when I see  those movies about ancient Rome - when the Christians are asked to make sacrifices to the emperor as a god - and if they don’t, it’s torture time or time to be thrown to the lions or put in ovens.

A SECOND WONDERING OR QUESTION: POWER YES

I wonder if the real issue that needs to be addressed is power.

I was saying a few Masses at Millersville this Sunday and before Mass a lady was mentioning how wonderful Bishop Newman - a now retired auxiliary bishop of Baltimore - was. She said, “He once told me that once you’re made bishop you never have a bad meal and you never hear the truth again.”

I think of the movie, “History of the World, Part I,” during which the king - played by Mel Brooks -  looks into the camera from time to time and says, “It’s good to be the king.” He says that while wenching and while playing chess - taking more moves than allowed. “It’s good to be the king.”

I think of Lord Acton’s famous comment in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton - April 5, 1881, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

That quote shows up over and over again in articles about bishops and popes and public figures.

It’s not good to be the pope or president - because it can go to one’s head - especially with the power a pope or president can have - and I assume it can lead to laziness in thinking and listening and getting one’s hands on the truth - and losing touch with reality.

A THIRD  WONDERING -  THE BIGGER LAZINESS

So that leads me to a third wondering: what about me myself and I?

It’s easy to say this stuff about others, but what about myself? Do I think or do I act as if I'm god almighty at times or has anyone said that of me?  

Response: "Oh my God! Hope not!"

Yet we do have powers.  Yes at times we can also feel powerless.

We have power to listen - to ask questions - to step back and remind ourselves - we are not God. 

We judge others as if we know their motives. We don’t. We don't know what this other person is thinking or who this other person is and why they do what they are doing.

It’s so easy to forget to say that we don’t know how another person got to where they have gotten. There was an article a few years back that my sister Mary saved for me to read - about a fellow who said he had criticized and made fun of the poor and the homeless - that is, till he lost his job and fell through the cracks.

At the bottom of the pits, we can realize we don’t know what’s going on inside the skull of another person. We are not God. We don’t know what’s it like to be in another’s shoe or skin.

It’s good to be the person we are - and it’s good to be the person the other is. In reality, how can we be but that? So if we treat ourselves and others with deep respect and love - then we might discover what Jesus taught us - our poverty as well as our richness. 

We might discover the power of humility - that we are of the earth and God formed us from the earth - breathing life into us in our mother's womb. [Cf. Genesis 2:7; Psalm 139:13; Job 10:11-12.]

So we begin small. We begin on the bottom. We begin within - like every baby ever born.  Then we begin helpless, a wiggler, a leaker, a crier, a crawler, a learner.

It's everyone's journey.... We're all equal.

I always loved the saying, “Each person is in the best seat.”

With true humility, we’ll be able to  fit thorough the eye of the needle - as Jesus talks about in today's gospel - Matthew 19:23-30.

CONCLUSION

When we think wonder about all this, we can learn that the call is to reach towards God Almighty - and eventually enter into God - into the Kingdom of God - and eventually become God in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Now that’s power. [1]

NOTES

[1] Confer Colossians 3: 1-4; Philippians 1: 23-26