17 MILES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “17 Miles.”

Sometimes it takes a long time - like a journey of 17 miles - before we finally understand something that can be explained in less than 2 minutes.

The journey from Jerusalem to Jericho is 17 miles.

THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM

It’s the year 2000. We’re in Israel. We’re in a bus heading for Jerusalem. I’m with a good priest friend of mine and about 20 other priests. The tour guide / retreat master, Father Stephen Doyle,  says over the bus loudspeaker, “We’re going to take the ancient road from Jericho up to Jerusalem - that is - unless we get a bad weather report - which could happen. We’re not sure yet.”

It was January - and when I heard that comment, I went inside myself and said, “Uh oh, oh no! No. No.”

I didn’t realize till that moment - till that comment - till that trip on that road - even if it was in a bus - that I was hoping to make that trip sometime in my lifetime. It was the road from Jerusalem to Jericho that we heard in today’s gospel - in the story of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10: 25-37] - but we would be doing it in reverse.

Father Stephen Doyle said that it was a very close road - with very high sides - and if it rains while we’re in that small valley of a road - it floods and is very dangerous.

The other road to Jerusalem was a major highway - the easier way. I rejoiced when it was announced we were going to take the harder road: the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.

I had a window seat, so I could see how dangerous a road it could be - not just in bad weather - but if you walked it - from robbers.

Some sections had very little shoulder - and 14 foot high cliffs or edges on both sides of the road. It would be easy for robbers to jump off the edges on either side and rob the traveler if they were on foot.

Father Stephen Doyle read for us over the bus’ loud speaker today’s gospel, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.”

We heard the words: He was beaten, robbed, left half dead. A priest went down that road and walked right by the wounded man. A Levite did the same. These stories often have 3’s. The third man was a Samaritan - making that same journey with his pack animal. He stopped. He poured oil and wine on the man’s sores and bandaged them. He put him on his animal and brought the man to an inn. He told the innkeeper to care for the man. He gave money for the inn and the care and told him if it costs any more, I’ll repay you on my way back.

ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST SHORT STORIES

There it is - one of the worlds most important stories. It can take a minute in the telling. It’s very easy to memorize. If you add the back-story it takes less than two minutes. And the back-story is essential to the story. Luke indicates that the scholar of the law gets the story - gets the answers to the questions he asks. Now whether he really got it - God only knows.

Do I get it? Do I put the Good Samaritan story into practice?

Sometimes it takes 17 years - 17 miles - 17 bypasses of those in need - before we get this story that Jesus gifted us with.

The Levite and the priest - were following the rules - the Law.

`

The Law quoted here in our text  - Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 are only about 29 words in English, 33 words in Greek, and 15 words in Hebrew. I counted them up last night - but I wasn’t too sure about the Hebrew.

We know the words by heart. The call is to translate them from any language into action.

THE MESSAGE - THE QUESTION

How many miles - how many hurts - injuries - problems - falls - denials - how many people in need do we have to pass by before we get the story?

How many years does it take - 17 or 37 or 77 - before we realize this story contains the meaning of life?

FIRST READING - FROM PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Today’s first reading is from Galatians. We have this Letter from Paul for our first reading every day this week and into next week.

I noticed that because my favorite text in the Bible is in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians - Galatians 6:2.

Bummer.  We get a lot of Galatians - but our Lectionary does not give us Galatians 6: 2 this week or next.

To me, since it’s my favorite text, I believe it’s the most important message for the world - for the church. It’s the message of today’s Good Samaritan story.

Here it is. Paul says in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way you’ll fulfill the Law of Christ.”

What’s your favorite Bible text? If you don’t have one, you can plagiarize mine.

CONCLUSION

I’ve traveled my 17 miles. I’ve reached the age of 72 and I think this is the Law for Life - to stop to help each other carry the burdens of life.

I think Pedestal Catholics fail on this over and over and over again.  Priests, Levites, bishops, cardinals and popes have walked by those in need - walked by those who are hurting over and over and over again. I know I have.

Thank God the Good Samaritans of the world stop to help from time to time the abused, the hurting, the poor, the divorced, the broken, the lonely, the war torn and ripped, the rejected, the abandoned, those whom nobody visits in prisons or nursing homes, the families of those with AIDS etc. etc. etc.

I also understand that people don’t seem to get this message till they are hurting - till they have been beaten up - till after they have a divorce, an abortion, a gay person in their family, an alcoholic, a drug addict, someone with HIV, those with cancer or what have you in their family,  then after traveling those 17 miles - they sometimes get it. Praise God.

OOOOOO

Painting on top: Echo of a Scream [1937] by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Duco on Wood, 48 X 36", The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Edward M.M. Warburg

LOVE OR HATE?

Quote for Today - October 8, 2012

"I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Martin Luther King Jr. [1929-1968]  


Questions:

Have you been hearing a lot of hate going around lately?

I have. It seems there is a lot of rock throwing going on that usual.

Maybe we need to read John 8: 1-12. What do you think?

NAME THE KEY INGREDIENT 

FOR A GREAT MARRIAGE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27 Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, is, “Name The Key Ingredient for a Great Marriage.”

Today’s readings beg for a homily on Marriage.

The last time I preached on these readings I preached on divorce - so today I decided to preach on marriage.

Today’s first reading has a great folk tale. It's great literature. As you hear it, you can hear it being acted out in Jewish synagogues and circles for thousands of years and thousands of times.

You can hear a character up front playing God and saying, “It’s not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”

Silence!  The audience waits to see who will be the suitable partner.

You can see Adam standing there as well - waiting for God’s answer and God’s gift of a partner. Next you start to see God going off to the side - making out he’s sculpting something out of the ground - just as he had made Adam out of the earth.

Drum roll: and God presents Adam with a goat and everyone laughs. Next comes a monkey, then a dog, then a cat and then a bird - and everyone laughs as Adam gives thumbs down or gives a frown to every one of these creations of God.

In his rejections Adam gives each animal a name as well.

It’s a great story - but Adam still has no suitable partner.

So the storyteller of Genesis has God casting Adam into a deep sleep. Then God reaches into Adam’s chest and dramatically pulls out a rib - and then you see God creating out of Adam’s rib a woman.

When the audience sees her - when the audience sees Adam’s face radiate in seeing the woman - the suitable partner - I’m sure they clapped and shouted - if the play was done well.

Then Adam bursts into his closing speech. Pointing to the woman, he says, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

Then the narrator of the play closes with the very familiar words, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”

I think Bill Cosby does this skit the best when he has Adam saying when he sees Eve,  “Wow Man!” - the last great naming!

WELL: NAME THE KEY INGREDIENT FOR A GREAT MARRIAGE.

The title of my homily is, “Name the Key Ingredient for a Great Marriage.’

In the story,  Adam named the animals - but none proved a suitable partner. Then God gave him a partner: woman.

As I pictured today’s first reading I wondered what would it be like to have a play with God creating all kinds of ingredients to make a marriage work - and Adam is asked to name the most important ingredients and then  the  key ingredient for a great marriage.

If I polled all the married folks here, what answer would you give? What would be the key ingredient that would make you a suitable partner: love, respect, caring, communication, trust, making time, listening, children, working on making it work?

I would say that 66% of the marriages that I’ve been the priest for, couples pick for one of their readings, the love is this and love is that text from First Corinthians 12:31 to 13:8. Paul tells us that love is the greatest gift - the greatest ingredient. He spells out what it is and what it isn’t. It’s not rude, it’s not crude, it’s not pushy or pompous. Nope. It’s patience. It’s acts of kindness. It’s trust and hope. All these ingredients and more are what love is all about.

When heard, when done well, that would get a lot of Amen’s.

If we asked the divorced, "What happened?", we would get some of the same answers. They might say the negatives ran the show and the positives had disappeared and failed to show up. Those are ingredients for a disaster - an actual disaster or a silent divorce where a couple are still together - but where two are two and not one.

MY ANSWER

I’m not married - so I’m a bit hesitant to give my take on what it would take to make a great marriage.

As I thought about this, I wondered how Protestant ministers or Eastern Rite priests and now various former Anglican priests who are or were married would preach on marriage. Would they be much more practical and down to earth than a celibate?

Would there then be pressure to make sure they practiced what they preached?  Would they feel under the microscope in their marriage? What happens when a minister or a rabbi and his or her spouse break up and divorce?

As I thought about all this yesterday - after coming back from doing a wedding at the Naval Academy, I wondered if I could present an ingredient - that if it was made key - in a marriage - it would it be so convincing that married folks upon hearing it - would decide to work at putting that ingredient into their marriage - if they haven’t already - and married life for them would be great this coming week - and any week or day they put that ingredient into practice.

Then it hit me - that ingredient - would also make a great priest - a great boss - a great teacher - a great person to spend a lunch break with - a great person to spend one’s life with.

STEPHEN COVEY

As I was thinking about all this - trying to come up with the key ingredient - I remember listening to a tape of Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He died recently, but his stuff is still good.  Habit # 5 was to “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.” What I heard with this habit was the message to forget self and take the side of the customer - or the other. Instead of giving the sales pitch, find out what the buyer feels fears about  - what the buyer is wondering about - what his or her questions are.

In other words - to shut up - and find out what the other is thinking, feeling, wondering about - and then the buyer or the other might ask, “What are you selling?”

JESUS CHRIST

As I remembered that, I realized that is a key idea about Christ. “For a little while” as today’s second reading puts it - the Second Person in the Mystery of God - was made “lower than the angels”.  That’s what we Christians believe - when we believe in the Trinity. We believe that God did just that in becoming one of us. Jesus Christ started as a baby. He came into our skin - into our flesh.

The theological word used is “Incarnation” - but the specialists tell us - not to use such words in a sermon.

Still, whatever word is used, there it is: Christianity. There it is:  Marriage. There it is: the secret of life and love.

The key ingredient to a happy marriage and a happy life - is become like Jesus - who said, “Everyone wants to be served, but here I am in your midst as one who serves.” There’s the key ingredient: to die to self - so the other can rise.

So the couple who are there for the other - who listen, who ask, who is concerned what’s going on inside the other - incarnation - it is they who understand sex - understand life - understand Christ - understand partnership.

It is they who understand the Mass - and every meal. It’s all about serving the other. It’s all about letting the other person eat us up - because we’re willing to be consumed by the other - and if we’re blessed by children - to give our lives for them as well. Listen carefully to the prayer at the end of Mass today. It basically says what one woman told me after the 7:30 Mass. She said, "It says, 'We become what we eat!'" We become Christ. We become the other. We become one!

CONCLUSION

So the key ingredient for a great marriage is: you before me. 

It's to serve rather than wanting to be served.  It's to let the other eat us up - to be Eucharist - Christ - for the other. St. Thomas Aquinas said it this way when he described what love is: Love is wanting and working for the well being of the other. 

OOOOOOOOOO

Painting on top: The Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck [1434] - National Gallery London. The wedding took place in Brugge in 1434 between Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami.

MARRIAGE 

AND DIVORCE

Quote for Today - Oct. 7, 2012

"A successful marriage demands a divorce; a divorce from your own self love."

Paul Frost

INCENSE

Quote for Today  October 6, 2012

"Better to be kind at home than burn incense in a far place."

Chinese Proverb


Question: Is there a comparable proverb for lighting a candle in a church or going to Mass or saying a rosary?

GOING TO CONFESSION 

TO FATHER 

FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS

What would it be like to go to confession to a Saint? Would I be nervous, anxious, scared? Would a Saint see right through me – knowing more about me than I know about myself – seeing my embarrassing behaviors and hidden prejudices? But would I also come out confession whispering, “Phew!” – having received a sacrament – having received a breath of fresh air –  having received the gift and grace that God forgives me? And in time for some sins, can I forgive myself?

What would it be like if there was a holy priest here at St. Mary’s, Annapolis, who had a great reputation as a saint – the “go to” priest for confession? What would people walking or driving down Duke of Gloucester Street think, if they saw a single line of people all the way up from the bridge over Spa Creek heading into church?

Such a priest was stationed here at St. Mary’s way back in the 1860’s. His name was Father Francis Xavier Seelos. In the literature about Father Seelos, writers keep saying lots of people wanted to go to confession to him – here at St. Mary’s, as well as in Pittsburgh, in Baltimore, Cumberland, Detroit, New Orleans, and in the many places where he preached parish missions.

As to long confession lines at St. Mary’s to get to Father Seelos, I was disappointed because I didn’t find any writer saying exactly that - especially  because I did read about  long lines of people wanting to go to confession to him in several other places where he was stationed.

Listen to what the Annals of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists from 1867 say about Father Seelos when he was stationed in New Orleans, his last assignment. “Here, as in all other places where he had been, he soon became a universal favorite. Germans, English, French, Creoles, negroes, mulattoes, all admired and loved F. Seelos. Though he was by no means a great proficient in English, and still less so in French, there were hundreds of highly educated Creoles and Americans who came miles, and stood for hours before his confessional, in order to have the happiness to make a general confession to him. And we all remarked that whoever went to him once, would never afterwards go to any other director. It was a common belief among the people that he could read the secrets of the heart.” (p. 317, Vol. 5)

It was at St. Philomena’s Parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1845-1854), that Seelos’ reputation as a great confessor began. It was his second assignment as a Redemptorist. Perhaps it was because he was stationed with a future Saint – John Neumann – whom he went to confession to – that he knew what it was like to go to confession to a saint.

Francis Xavier Seelos was a creative preacher, but it seems to me, he loved being in the wooden confession box more than the wooden pulpit. But he was not wooden. He was warm and compassionate. Being a Redemptorist, he knew our motto and vision statement, “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio.” With Christ there is copious or fullness of redemption.

In Father Carl Hoegerl and Alicia Von Stamwitz’s book, A Life of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, they mention a sermon by Father Seelos where he says: “I here publicly give you permission to bring it up to me in the confessional and to call me a liar, if you come to confession and don’t find me receiving you in all mildness.” In other words, you might be filled with fear and trembling, but I promise peace (p. 49) – and if you don’t experience that, yell, “Liar!”

It was great to read that, because being good confessors is supposed to be a key trait of Redemptorists. Our founder, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, not only has the honorary titles of Doctor of Prayer and Patron Saint of Moral Theologians, he also has the title of Patron Saint of Confessors. He wrote a whole book for priests on how to be a good confessor. He wanted Redemptorists to bring Christ’s redeeming love to folks – and one key way was to experience God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation – still usually called “confession”.

So when people went to confession to Father Francis Xavier Seelos here at St. Mary’s, they were going to confession to a wonderful and warm saint.

Whenever I sit in a confessional at St. Mary’s, I think about all the Redemptorist priests who heard confessions here in Annapolis for the past 150 years. I say to myself: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos heard confessions in this very church – well not in these boxes – but in this church. I read in Robert L. Worden’s book which just came out, “St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis, Maryland: A Sesquicentennial History, 1853-2003” (pp. 125-126) that the present confessionals were constructed in 1914. Henry Robert, our sacristan, took me outside the church and pointed out how the outside walls of our church on the prayer garden side or the street side protrude where the present confessionals are.

Sometimes when I see people lined up to go to confession, I reflect about how going to confession has helped me all through my life. I begin by thinking about going to confession as a kid in the Redemptorist Parish of OLPH, Brooklyn.  I’d tell the usual kid stuff – “distobeying”, lying, stealing, fighting with my brother – and at times probably made up some stuff to make it sound good. In time, I didn’t have to make things up – graduating to sins of pride and laziness, etc.

I also remember what happened one Saturday afternoon when I was a kid. It was back in the 1950’s, when Catholics went to confession a lot more than today. Every Saturday eight confession boxes were in operation in our big parish. That afternoon every priest had a line except for one confession box. The light was on – meaning there was a priest in there - but nobody was going to him. I didn’t know why, but I guess I had a kid’s intuition: don’t go near the lion’s den. Then a man came into church – stood in the back for a moment – measured the lines – and perhaps because he was in a rush – headed for the confession box that had no line. Wrong move. Suddenly, everyone in the church smiled as well as being shocked, because they heard quite clearly the priest in the “forbidden box” yelling at the guy who thought he was making a great move.

“Woo! Uh oh! O no!” And I must have said to myself, “If I ever become a priest, I’ll never do that.” It was the same thing I said about a grouch on our block. We’d be playing stickball on the street. There weren’t that many cars back then – hey it was just after World War II and New York City had great public transportation – so our street was not that busy. The black macadam street was our “Field of Dreams”. Sewer covers in the center of the street were home plate and second base; two trees were first and third base. It was great, until a ball went into the grouch’s front yard. That was a “No! No!” The rule was: don’t get caught by the grouch trying to retrieve a Spalding – that wonderful red bouncy ball every kid loved in the 1950’s. And when the grouch grouched, I’m sure everyone said, “When I grow up, I won’t yell at kids who hit a ball into my yard.”

Was Francis Xavier Seelos yelled at – or did he hear the stories every priest hears about someone leaving the Catholic Church because some priest yelled at them? I don’t know, but I do know, he loved hearing confessions.

In fact, when he was semi-conscious, dying of yellow fever in New Orleans at the age of 48, he thought the Redemptorist priests and brothers around his bed were there to go to confession, and he would start with the confession prayers.

Confession is good for the soul. The sacrament or reconciliation is a great gift. It’s a chance to name our sins, to confess them, and hopefully in time to get beyond them.

Fritz Kunkel once described the purpose of confession as: “To bring to light the unknown, the unconscious darkness, and the underdeveloped creativity of our deeper layers.” Certainly people who receive the sacrament of reconciliation down through the years have had this experience. It begins with the call and need for confession – the call to sit and pray in a church for a while, and then to stand on line with other sinners – to articulate one’s sins – the roots of which are deep – and often need a lifetime of weeding from the garden of our soul.

Jesus was off on helping people discover forgiveness and healing. And he tells us to forgive seventy times seven times. He also said, “Let him without sin cast the first stone.”

Hopefully, all of us have had wonderful experiences in the sacrament of confession – experiencing Christ and his forgiveness seventy times seven times – and if any of us have experienced some rock throwing from a priest, that we can forgive him and get beyond that horror.

Everyone knows the priests here at St. Mary’s are not saints. Hopefully everyone who goes to confession here will taste a bit of the joy and “Good News” people who went confession to Father Francis Xavier Seelos experienced. He’s has not been canonized a Saint yet, but he is half-way there, being beatified on April 9, 2000. Hopefully the priests here, keep moving forward one step at a time – as a result of the example the long line of great Redemptorists who have gone before them. 

[From Moorings, Father Andy Costello]

SIT DOWN WITH

BLESSED SEELOS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Sit Down With Blessed Seelos.”

Today is the feast of Blessed Francis X. Seelos - a former pastor of this parish - one step away from being named a saint in our church.

When you have a chance - when you are at St. Mary’s Church - if nobody is around - head for the Marian Garden and sit down by yourself on the Seelos Bench - with Blessed F.X. Seelos.

WHAT TO TALK ABOUT - WHAT TO PRAY ABOUT?

It’s just a statue - a nice one at that - but do what I see lots of people doing: they sit down next to Blessed Seelos.

What to talk about - what to pray about?  Here are 4 suggestions:

1) MAKE A GOOD CONFESSION

The first step thing to do is to make a good confession.

I’ve read 3 lives of Seelos and one of the things that stand out is that people loved to go to him for confession. They said he could read minds. I don’t know about that - but he had great insight into people - and people loved to go to him.

I wrote an article for Moorings about Seelos and Confession and I don’t know if I put it on my blog - but I’ll check that out today - if I have some time.

Sometimes when I see someone in St. Mary’s Prayer Garden sitting on the Seelos Bench by themselves next to the bronze statue of Seelos, I walk by and say, “He hears confessions.”

Sit there and make a good confession to him of your life - where you’ve gone right and where you’ve gone wrong and ask his blessings in prayer.

And from time to time, go to confession in the box or confession room. Hopefully you get a good confessor.

2) PRAY FOR A SENSE OF HUMOR

As you probably know Francis X. Seelos was known for his sense of humor - trying to get people to laugh. Life can be funny - and if you don’t have a funny bone, get a transplant. Sit next to Seelos and rib him - elbow him - laugh with him.  Sit rib to rib and ask God for that funny bone. Hey God took Adam’s rib out of him and made Eve - and that’s always been a great story - with lots of humor.

3) PRAY FOR FAITH

Seelos came to America because while in school he read about the Redemptorists working in America. We came here in 1832. Redemptorists wrote letters and visited seminarians and schools in Austria and Germany and begged young men to become priests, to become Redemptorists, to come and serve the church of America.

Next week, next Thursday, October 11^th, the pope is beginning a year of faith for our church. It’s going to go longer than a year - till November 24, 2013. It’s the 50^th Anniversary of the great council of the last century, the Second Vatican Council. It’s the 20^th anniversary of the Catechism of the church. So the pope is asking all dioceses, all parishes, all Catholic Schools to work and pray for an increase in one’s faith.

So sit on the Seelos bench and pray the simple prayer in the Gospel of John when Thomas prayed, “Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.”

4)  PRAY FOR THE ABILITY TO CHANGE - TO ADJUST TO LIFE

Blessed Seelos came from Germany to America. He was stationed in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cumberland, Annapolis, Detroit, and New Orleans. He was willing to go to where he could help the most.

He not only had to adjust to different places, he also had to adjust to different folks. Some Redemptorists thought he was too easy going - so they didn’t want him in charge of students. He said, “No problem. There is plenty of work to do everywhere.”

CONCLUSION

So that's 4 suggestions for a good conversation with Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos. I'll be looking to see you sitting next to him on the Seelos bench in our very unique Marian Garden.