WATCHING MY OWN NOSE
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 22 Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, is, “Watching My Own Nose!”
Unconsciously we human beings watch other people’s noses without knowing we’re watching their nose.
We are! We do that. Body language is often louder than mouth language - more subtle - more unconscious.
We’re watching other people’s noses …. I’m up here preaching and you can see my nose. If you watch very carefully - you could spot my nose rise a tiny bit whenever I put someone down in my homily - ever so subtly - trying to paint others as stupid or sinful - wrong or irreligious. In fact, for this sermon, which provides a lot of opportunities for nose lifting, we could put those tiny yellow golf pencils in the benches with a piece of paper and ask all of you to watch the preacher very carefully and every time he lifts his nose in judgment or put down, you mark a check on that piece of paper. Then on the way out, you’d hand those papers to the preacher.
And surprise, every time - you’d notice one, without knowing it, your nose is lifted a tiny bit as you say to yourself, “Aha, I got him!” Check.
So I’m telling myself for starters - to keep an eye on my own nose. Yet, surprise, it’s very difficult to see one’s own nose - except in a mirror. And, there is one other way: I can sort of see the side of my nose if I close one eye and go cross eyed. I discovered that yesterday while working on this homily. It’s an interesting topic. I began thinking about all this after reading today’s gospel. Hey I had to come up with a homily for this Sunday - so I don’t know if all of this is true. Check it out for yourself. So be aware of your nose!
HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEK
This week keep your eye on your own nose - and catch yourself when your nose goes up in the air - any tiny little bit.
To misquote Jesus - or to twist Jesus’ words a bit, “”We see the lift in our brother or sister’s nose, but don’t see the twitch of our own nose.” [Cf. Matthew 7:3-5.]
Sometimes it happens with a silent sound - an “uh!” that is ever so slight - sort of like this, “Uh! [lift head a tiny bit]. Did you see my head go up?
The inner give-a-way is when we inwardly say about another, “Uh, who does she think she is!” or “Look at him. Uh! A bit uppity there aren’t you?” or, “Thank God, I’m not like her or him!”
SOUND FAMILIAR?
Does that sound familiar? That’s the sound of the Pharisee in all of us. That’s the sound of the Pharisee in the Gospels.
Jesus loved the Pharisees - but he loved them enough to challenge them to humility. Lower those noses. Stop being nosey and wanting everyone to do what they were doing to impress others on how holy they were.
I would suspect, subtly they wanted mess up by others - because mess ups made them look better.
So in today’s gospel, they are presented as the ones who washed their hands - purifying, cleansing, washing, washing - because that was something you could see - who did and who didn’t.
And when they prayed, they prayed perfectly - to be seen - to look holy - to look clean.
But Jesus knew the human heart. He knew that’s where the action is. Today’s gospel reading from Mark ends with Jesus calling the crowd together and saying, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
But Jesus knew the human heart. He knew that’s where the action is. Today’s gospel reading from Mark ends with Jesus calling the crowd together and saying, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
These inner urges, temptations, inner feelings - these nasty thinkings - can’t be measured - they can’t be used for one upmanship on another. I can’t lift my nose and say, “I only had 3 thoughts of licentiousness and two feelings of envy today, and you had 16 of licentiousness and 234 of envy, “Aha! I’m totally more holy than you - you arrogant greedy sinner!”
And so we pick externals to show we’re holy and better than others.
Bummer. Can’t put our nose up on the inner stuff - so let’s stick with who comes to church and who’s dressed churchy-like or what have you.
But I’ve had heard people make comments like: “Her nose is out of joint!” and “He has his nose up in the air again.”
Once more, no wonder they crucified Jesus - he knew the human heart - and could really challenge us to be holy - really holy - really whole - the way God made us.
LETTER OF SAINT JAMES
Today’s second reading is from James. We have him for 5 Sundays in a row here. He caught Jesus’ tone and teaching big time - so listen these 5 weeks for nose lift stuff - especially.
Today he tells us to be doers of the word - and not hearers only - otherwise we’re deluding or fooling ourselves. Then James stresses what religion really is: caring for the orphans and widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
The world has a whole list of possible nose lifts - on how to make oneself better looking than others. Keep your eye on them. They are the ones we use to get out nose up.
One of mine is cell phone users. They are everywhere - using them all the time - driving, walking, and we have to tell folks to silence them before Mass - and when I see someone get interrupted at a meal, I think they are nuts and up goes my nose. I’m better than you.
And when I say I don’t have a cell phone - noses go up at me for being a Neanderthal.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself - but James has some great nose lifters in next week’s second reading - stuff that happens in church.
Yet his stuff happens everywhere. It’s life stuff that take in comments and comparisons at and about weddings, parties, cars, office location, body shape, age, weight, clothes. You name it. There’s lots of stuff that can give our noses exercise - even making fun of people who get nose jobs or other plastic surgery jobs.
CONCLUSION
So that’s my homily for today: “Watching My Own Nose.”
Notice I’m only taking about noses. I’m not talking about touching one’s nose with one’s hand. Some body language folks say putting one’s hand to one’s nose while saying something can be an indication that lies are happening. That’s the stuff of Pinocchio fame. Today I’m just talking about that tiny nose in the air lift that goes with the inner sin of pride.
Now how many nose lifts did I get off in this sermon?
I’ll be expecting about 3 people to slip me a piece of paper after Mass with at least a dozen checks on it.
