2 cents worth of poetry

INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflections for today is, “2 Cents Worth of Poetry.”

I figure I have preached on today’s readings at least 15 times - that's 45 years. Yesterday afternoon and last night as I reflected on the readings, I got the thought, “What would it be like to look for poems that touch on some of the thoughts and feelings of the readings - especially the first reading and the gospel which talk about tiny things and tiny people?”

I hesitated because sometimes what I think is interesting is not other people’s cup of tea. People come to church for a good word - an inspiration - a challenge - and poetry can be esoteric or not what people need on a Sunday morning.

Then I noticed in the first reading these words from Elijah the Prophet to the widow of Zarephath, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose.” [Cf. First Book of Kings 17: 10-16]

SO

So looking at the readings I looked for poems that touch on the way Jesus sees - or at least as I think Jesus sees and thinks at different times.

In today’s gospel [Mark 12: 38-44] everyone is seeing the big contributors to the temple collection and treasury. Jesus sees the poor widow who puts in her 2 cents. Jesus then says she gave more than all the rest - because she gave from her poverty - and they gave from their surplus.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells his disciples to “Beware of the scribes - who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.”  

As a priest in long robes I get the thought, “Thanks a lot Jesus!” 

As priest I get greeted lots of times and sometimes get the best seat. Thanks a lot Jesus. 

I got a ticket once for speeding - going 39 MPH - coming down a bridge in New Jersey - with a broken muffler. No excuses. That time I got a ticket and I had my priest collar on.

Jesus also says, “They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthily prayers.”  I don’t know about the widows, but I have said long prayers and gave long sermons at times. “Thanks a lot Jesus.”

And in today’s first reading from the Book of Kings, we have the story of  the poor widow who has a son. She gives Elijah a little bit of the little she has - and she is rewarded. I love the poetic line, that because of her generosity to Elijah,  “the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry….”

God seems to notice the little people. We might not - but God does. Yet the little people sometimes say, “Where is God?”

And in the second reading from Hebrews, Jesus is presented as a priest. The author contrasts Jesus to the high priest in the big sanctuary in Jerusalem - who enters the sanctuary with blood that is not his own - but Jesus gives his own blood and his own life in sacrifice to take away our sins.  There is a world of difference between the big temple in Jerusalem - and the ugly dusty hill of Calvary where criminals are crucified. There is a world of difference giving one's own blood compared to a sacrificial animal's blood. [Cf. Hebrews 9:24-28]

To me a theme in these 3 readings is humility. 

It's the theme of smallness - the unexpected - the unnoticed - poverty - emptiness. These are values that we might not want - nor think are important. We tend to want to be noticed or feel important, so we do inflated things - or try to impress others with our things.

So I looked for poems that touch on what Jesus is getting at - when he talks about the scribes with their robes - the teachers with their looking for honors and prestige - the rich with their loud coins and contributions. I looked for a few poems that tell us what the small - the poor - the little folks might be thinking. So here goes.

1) NOBODY BY EMILY DICKINSON

The first poem is by Emily Dickinson - and is a favorite of mine. It’s called, “Nobody.” Ever feel this way?

Nobody

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you  Nobody  - too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d banish us - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!

How public - like a Frog -

To tell your name - the livelong June -

To an admiring Bog!

2) Ambition BY MORRIS BISHOP

The second poem is “Ambition”. This is for those with big cars and big needs to be ahead of everyone else.

AMBITION

I got pocketed behind 7X-3824;

He was making 65, but I can do a little more.

I crowded him on the curves, but I couldn’t get past,

And on the straightways there was always some truck coming fast.

Then we got to the top of a mile-long incline

And I edged her out to the left, a little over the white line,

And ahead was a long grade with construction at the bottom,

And I said to the wife, ‘Now by golly I got’m!’

I bet I did 85 going down the long grade,

And I braked her down hard in front of the barricade,

And I swung in ahead of him and landed fine

Behind 9W-7679.

3) An Old Jamaican Woman

Thinks About the Hereafter

The third poem is entitled, “An Old Jamaican Woman Thinks About The Hereafter”  by A. L. Hendriks. This poem is for all those want high places here and hereafter. Not everyone thinks that way. Here is another way of thinking.

An Old Jamaican Woman

Thinks About the Hereafter

What would I do forever in a big place, who

have lived all my life in a small island?

The same parish holds the cottage I was born in, all my family, and the cool churchyard.

                  I have looked up at the stars from my front verandah and have been afraid of 
their pathless distances. I have never flown

in the loud aircraft nor have I seen palaces,

so I would prefer not to be taken up high nor

rewarded with a large mansion.

                   I would like

to remain half drowsing through an evening light watching bamboo trees sway and ruffle

for a valley-wind, to remember old times but not to live them again; occasionally to have a good meal with no milk nor honey for I don’t like them, and now and then to walk by the grey sea-beach with two old dogs and watch

men bring up their boats from the water.

                    For all this,

for my hope of heaven, I am willing to forgive my debtors and to love my neighbor ... although the wretch throws stones at my white rooster and makes too much noise in her damn backyard.

4) IN CHURCH

This next poem is entitled, “In Church.”  This is for us priests. It’s by Thomas Hardy who can  be heavy in his writings. This shows a good sense of humor. The vestry is the sacristy where priests vest their vestments. And the vestry-glass is the mirror in the sacristy - so the priest can come out so beautifully.

IN CHURCH

“And now to God the Father,” he ends

And his voice thrills up to the topmost tiles
Each listener pervades the crowded aisles.

Then the preacher glides to the vestry-door,

And shuts it, and thinks he is seen no more.

The door swings softly ajar meanwhile,

And a pupil of his in the Bible class,

Who adores him as one without gloss or guile,

Sees her idol stand with a satisfied smile

And re-enact at the vestry-glass

Each pulpit gesture in deft dumb-show

That had moved the congregation so.

5) AN EPILOGUE

The next poem is by John Masefield. It’s called, “An Epilogue” - and it contains one of the funny surprises of life that humble us.

AN EPILOGUE

I have seen flowers come in stony places
And kind things done by men

          with ugly faces

And the gold cup won by the

          worst horse at the races,

So I trust, too. 

6) At Becky's Piano Recital

The next poem is entitled, “At Becky’s Piano Recital.”  It’s about the surprises of life - what another person is thinking. It might not be what we’re thinking - especially when we are wrapped up in self.

AT BECKY’S PIANO RECITAL

She screws her face up as she nears the hard parts,
Then beams with relief as she makes it through,
Just as she did listening on the edge of her chair
To the children who played before her,
Wincing and smiling for them
As if she doesn't regard them as competitors
And is free of the need to be first
That vexes many all their lives.
I hope she stays like this,
Her windows open on all sides to a breeze
Pungent with sea spray or meadow pollen.
Maybe her patience this morning at the pond
Was another good sign,
The way she waited for the frog to croak again
So she could find its hiding place and admire it.
There it was, in the reeds, to any casual passerby
Only a fist-sized speckled stone.
All the way home she wondered out loud
What kind of enemies a frog must have
To make it live so hidden, so disguised.
Whatever enemies follow her when she's grown,
Whatever worry or anger drives her at night from her room
To walk in the gusty rain past the town edge,
Her spirit, after an hour, will do what it can
To be distracted by the light of a farmhouse.
What are they doing up there so late,
She'll wonder, then watch in her mind's eye
As the family huddles in the kitchen
To worry if the bank will be satisfied
This month with only half a payment,
If the letter from the wandering son
Really means he's coming home soon.
Even old age won't cramp her
If she loses herself on her evening walk
In piano music drifting from a house
And imagines the upright in the parlor
And the girl working up the same hard passages.

7) MOTHER TO SON

The next poem is by Langston Hughes. It tells you what a poor mom is telling her son   - who doesn’t seem to want to get moving.

MOTHER TO SON

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks on it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor --

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

When there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down in the steps

‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now --

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

8) THE CURATES

The next poem is The Curates by John Horder. It fits in with the gospel again - those up front trying to be so up front.

THE CURATES

How impeccably well-dressed they are

These curates!

This one’s whole body

Is spruced up in a sort of corset

The expression on his face, contorted.

At what cost to himself and to others

Does he spend his whole life suppressing his vital energies.
At what a terrible cost.

9) BLUE GIRLS

The last poem is called, “Blue Girls.” It’s by John Crowe Ransom. I don’t know the story behind the poem. It’s about a woman. It seems he sees some teen age school girls. Perhaps they are talking away or seem  self centered on the grounds of their school - called a seminary. The word “sward” is a grassy patch and the word “fillets” are head bands or ribbons holding their lustrous hair.

BLUE GIRLS

Twirling your blue skirts, travelling the sward

Under the towers of your seminary,
Go listen to your teachers old and contrary

Without believing a word.

Tie the white fillets then about your lustrous hair

And think no more of what will come to pass

Than bluebirds that go walking on the grass

And chattering on the air.

Practice your beauty, blue girls, before it fail;

And I will cry with my loud lips and publish

Beauty which all our power shall never establish,

It is so frail.

For I could tell you a story which is true:

I know a lady with a terrible tongue,

Blear eyes fallen from blue

All her perfections tarnished - and yet it is not long

Since she was lovelier than any of you.


NOTES:

Painting on top: The Widow's Mite -2008 - by Liz Lemon Swindle

MY  OWN  DARKNESS

Quote for Today - November 11, 2012

"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people."

Carl GustavJung [1875-1961]

In a "Letter to a former student on reassessing relilgious values outlined to Sigmund Freud a half century earlier, quoted in Gerhard Adler ed Letters, Vol 1 Princeton 73" - page 189 in Webster's II, New Riverside Desk Quotations, James B Simpson, Home and Office Edition Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, London, 1992

THE WRECK OF

THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

Quote for Today  November 10, 2012

Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

Music and lyrics ©1976 by Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

when the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more

than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,

that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed

when the "Gales of November" came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side

coming back from some mill in Wisconsin.

As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most

with a crew and good captain well seasoned,

concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms

when they left fully loaded for Cleveland.

And later that night when the ship's bell rang,

could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound

and a wave broke over the railing.

And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too

'twas the witch of November come stealin'.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

when the Gales of November came slashin'.

When afternoon came it was freezin' rain

in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'.

"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya."

At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,

(*2010 lyric change: At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said,)

"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"

The captain wired in he had water comin' in

and the good ship and crew was in peril.

And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight

came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes

when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.

They might have split up or they might have capsized;

they may have broke deep and took water.

And all that remains is the faces and the names

of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.

Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;

the islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario

takes in what Lake Erie can send her,

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know

with the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

in the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."

The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times

for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee."

"Superior," they said, "never gives up her dead

when the gales of November come early!"

 Notes:

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank this day, November 10, 1975

TEMPLES, CHURCHES,

MOSQUES AND SYNAGOGUES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Temples, Churches, Mosques and Synagogues.”

If you drive through Annapolis, you’ll find churches, temples, an old synagogue - but I don’t know about mosques. Up Duke of Gloucester Street from St. Mary’s is the Presbyterian Church. Up at the top of Duke of Gloucester at Church Circle, you’ll see St. Anne’s church. You can also see on our street  a building that was a Jewish synagogue.

If you go up Rowe Boulevard you’ll spot two churches - the Methodist and then the Lutheran Church. On Spa Road you can see a Jewish Temple.

Right near us here at St. John Neumann there are two churches down the road and the Unitarian Church next to us.

If you drive around the United States or many places in our world, you’ll find, temples, churches, mosques and synagogues.

Why?  Why do people build temples, churches, mosques and synagogues?

OTHER BUILDINGS AND PLACES

There are cemeteries, cemeteries, cemeteries everywhere. They tell us people die and we have to bury folks in special places.

There are stores, stores, stores, everywhere. That tells us people need and buy things.

There are banks, restaurants, gas stations, car dealers - everywhere. That tells us people need places to save their money or to borrow money - as well there are places to eat, which tell us we’re hungry, as well as car dealerships that tell us people buy cars and there are gas stations to fill up - unless the car is an electric and battery powered car.

We know the answer to the why question when it comes to all those places. But what about temples, churches, mosques and synagogues? Why do people build such places?

THE WHY OF temples, churches, mosques and synagogues

Here we are in this church. Why? For what reason?

We’re here to pray. We’re here to thank God. We’re here to ask God for help. We’re here to say we’re sorry. We’re here to do these together.

People come here to thank God for new babies and have them baptized and blessed. People come here to get married. People come here to pray together when someone dies and have a funeral Mass for them. We use this particular church for a graduation Mass for our 8^th graders. Today we’re having this 12:10 Mass for our regular mid-day Mass crowd - as well as our St. Mary’s high school freshmen and women - who are on retreat today.

We come here to celebrate the great feasts of Jesus - Christmas, his birth into our world - and Easter - his Resurrection back into Eternity.

We come here to hear the sacred readings from our Holy Scriptures and to eat and be in communion with Christ in the Eucharist.

Notice the “we”. We do these things not just by ourselves - we do these things in the presence of others. It’s called “community”.

Those are a few brief answers to why this church has been built. I leave answers to the “Why?” question about temples, mosques and synagogues to leaders and teachers in those religions.

TODAY’S FEAST

I brought up the topic of “Temples, Churches, Mosques and Synagogues” - because today the Catholic Church celebrates the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome - way back on November 9^th 324.

Back in 1984, I visited that church in Rome  - dedicated to our Savior Jesus Christ. It was also dedicated to St. John and ended up being called St. John Lateran. It’s a big church - but not a church that grabbed me - by its look. I visited it on an off hour, so it was rather dark.  It’s a big long rectangular box of a church - not that far from the Redemptorist headquarters in Rome. The priests who serve this parish are Redemptorists - so I add that comment.

What grabbed me when I visited St. John Lateran church was not its look - but its history. It was the site of 5 ecumenical councils. It’s the episcopal seat of the pope - the bishop of Rome - way before St. Peter’s - which Catholics consider the “mother church” of the Catholic Church. The popes lived there - till they moved to Avignon in France in 1309.

So that visit St. John Lateran - had me visiting history.

NOVEMBER 9^TH - BIRTHDAY OF THE REDEMPTORISTS

Today - November 9^th - Redemptorists celebrate the opening day of our congregation - not in Rome - but in Scala, Italy, a tiny town above the beautiful Amalfi Coast. St. Alphonsus Liguori who started our community picked November 9^th - because he wanted to call his group - not Redemptorists - but Priests of Our Savior Jesus Christ - the other name of St. John Lateran's Church in Rome.

The year was 1732. Six men showed up for that first day.

Within 6 months all had left St. Alphonsus but 1 person - a brother named Vitus Curtius - stayed.

Thank God St. Alphonsus kept at it - and we are still around after all these years. We were up to 9000 + members in our best days in the middle of the last century. Now we’re around 6000.

I add the numbers because today’s readings bring out that the church is buildings - but more importantly - it’s made up of people - living people. [1]

We are called to be church and temples and houses of prayer.

I don’t know if they have that theology in Islam.

CONCLUSION

Enough. I close with the message of Christ in today’s gospel: We are called to be houses of prayer and the gate of heaven for each other - so let us be that. Amen.

OOOOOOO

NOTE:

[1] First Reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-1, 8-9, 12; Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17; Gospel John 2: 13-22.

HAVE MERCY 

ON ME, PLEASE

Quote for Today  - November 9, 2012

"Unless we learn the meaning of mercy by exercising it towards others, we  will never have any real knowledge of what it means to love Christ."

Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness, [1963]

THANK YOU, LUKE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 31st Thursday in Ordinary Time  is, “Thank You, Luke.”

If we didn’t have the Gospel of Luke - or if we had a gospel of Luke without this 15^th Chapter of Luke - and if someone preached on its theme for today - the preacher might be turned into the pope because of the content and its key message: Jesus celebrates communion - Jesus eats with sinners.

“Oh my God, did you see whom Jesus walked up the aisle to be in communion with!”

YOU CAN’T  TAKE IT WITH YOU

We’ve heard a hundred times in our life that we can’t take it with us.  I don’t know how it works after death, but as of now, I’m going to take with me the 15^th Chapter of Luke.

Of course, what happens after death is out of our control - obviously!

As I was reflecting on today’s gospel I remembered about a time when I was praying. I was half asleep or half awake or half something. I imagined that I died. I  meet God.  I say to God, “I’m expecting You to be the God that Jesus talked about in Luke 15 and if you’re not like that, the hell with you.  I’m going to go find that God.”

Ooops! Having blurted that out woke me up big time. I went, “Uh oh!” putting my hand over my mouth for saying such a thing to God. Then I halted and said, fully awake, “Well, if you are not the one Jesus talked about in Luke 15 - I mean that: the heck with you!” Noticed I softened it up a bit when I was more awake - moving from hell to heck. Yet, that’s the God I expect to meet when I die. I’m banking on you, Luke!

THE EXCOMMUNICATORS

Reading today’s gospel - especially its opening sentence - I sense what was happening in Luke’s community - was what happened to Jesus as well as Christians down through the history of our Church. There have always been people who thought certain people shouldn’t be in church - certain people shouldn’t be in communion with Jesus and the community. Yes. That's what I'm saying here. In the history of the world, there have always been people who are excommunicators.

Without knowing who they were and what I said that was offensive, I’ve had people point their finger at me - and shaking their finger at me in the parking lot - yelling something at me. I think they were saying, “You’re wrong! You’re in the wrong space. You shouldn’t be here!”

Sticks and stones will break my bones and names will always hurt me as well.

I have learned in my mind to simply say, “Hi!” or “Peace!” or say nothing - especially when someone seems to want to excommunicate me from their Church or their vision of the Church - or from “Who’s Right?” or what have you? I have to be careful not to do the same thing in return. I think Jesus learned to turn the other cheek - from many rejections - way before he was smacked around on the night before he died - as well as the following day.

Laugh! I know Jesus Christ and I'm no Jesus Christ.

I sense that Jesus ran into this full time - this urge to exclude people from communion with each other. And Jesus experienced the ultimate excommunication. They killed him. They way of the crossed him till they had pushed him outside the city of Jerusalem. They excommunicated him. They refused communion with him. And from his wooden pulpit - the cross - he said, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Wow! We all need to learn to say that prayer every day!

ALL

Recently with the new translation of the central prayers of the Mass - the Canon - those in charge changed the words “for all” to “for many”.

If a priest doesn’t go along with this and is turned in - he won’t be excommunicated - but he might be in trouble.

There are two traditions on this: those who push for “for many” and those who push for “for all”.

I say what’s in the book - “for many”  but I’m aware that different bishops around the world disagree with this “for many”. [1]

It feels strange to me every time I say “for many”, because I’ve been saying “for all” for all these years.

But I sense all this is deeper than that. I’m not sure about this, but I sense that Luke was more wide open than Matthew.

I sense that is because Matthew was writing  mainly for Jewish Christians and Luke mainly for Gentile Christians.  We hear in the New Testament readings various struggles about  the uncircumcised from the circumcised. I’m sure you noticed that in today’s first reading from Philippians 3:3-8a.

If we read the New Testament we certainly get a feel for the struggles about intercommunion of people with people - insights with insights - theology with theology.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

So today’s gospel - the beginning of Luke 15 -  begins with the words: "The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"

There it is - the shock, the anger, the attempt to not allow Jesus to be in communion with sinners - to eat with them - to welcome them.

So in Luke 15,  Jesus tells 3 stories - 3 stories of welcome - 3 stories of Jesus loving sinners: the story of the Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and the Lost Son.

The third story - which we didn't hear today -  that of the Prodigal Son - ends with a note of sadness - the elder brother would not welcome his brother home. He stayed outside and would not come into the banquet that the father threw for his found son.

I’ve heard that same Elder Brother in various churches not wanting younger brothers - people they judge to be sinners - to be there. I hope all brothers and sisters - when we meet each other - at least in heaven, we’ll reach out and be in communion with each other - and celebrate the Great Supper of the Lamb with each other.

CONCLUSION

Let me close with one more moment from my life that has impacted me ever since. It’s a personal example. I hope you are in touch with your personal examples about your God experiences.

Once upon a time I was making a holy hour of prayer in front of Jesus in the tabernacle. I was by myself. And once more - like many people in prayer - I spaced out.

Once more, somewhat out of it, I had a moment of grace. I imagined Jesus the Good Shepherd, standing there with me as a lost sheep around his neck. I felt tremendous grace and light - because in the experience I sensed that the underbelly of a sheep is smelly of urine, etc. yet Jesus wrapped me around his neck and had a great smile on his face.

I was loved - no matter what. I was the Lost Sheep and Jesus found me.

Later on I realized the tabernacle door had on it an image of Jesus - the Good Shepherd in bright bronze.

Later on I realized this experience was  not far fetched. It’s Luke 15. So that’s why I said I’m taking Luke 15 with me into heaven. Thank you, Luke. 

OOOOOOO

Notes

[1] "Bishops Irked by Vatican Interference," by Christa Pongratz-Lippit, The Tablet, October 20, 2012, page 31; "Letter from Rome," Robert Mickens, The Tablet, May 5, 2012, page 31

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

Quote for Today - November 8, 2012

"But Lord,
Be merciful to me,
a fool!"

Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887), The Fool's Prayer.

Check out Luke 18:14