OYSTERS

Quote for Today:  December 14,  2012

"It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an r in their name to eat an oyster."

William Butler [1535-1618], Dyet's Dry Dinner [1599]

HAPPINESS

Quote for Today - December 13, 2012

"Happiness is a great love and much serving."

Olive Schreiner

Questions: Whom do you love and whom do you serve? Are you happy?

???????

LIFE TIME QUESTIONS

"Does everyone have lifetime questions?"

That’s one of my lifetime questions.

Somewhere along the line kids start asking questions.

Listen to kids and you’ll be listening to questions: “How come?” or “Why?” or “When?”

Look at the faces of babies. They hear a noise, They turn towards where the sound comes from.  At what point, long before words, does the baby’s face say, “What is that?” or “What was that?” or “Who are you?” Babies squint. Babies make faces - sometimes in the shape of a question mark. Babies seem to be asking questions long before they can talk. “When are we going to eat?” “When are you going to notice me?”  “When are you going to hold me?”

Listen to little kids as they start to grow. You’ll here more specific questions like: “How come she gets to stay up later than me and I got to go to bed?” “How come he gets a bigger piece of the pie than the piece I got?”

Is the most basic question: “How come life is unfair at times?”

Sometimes we get answers to our questions.

Sometimes we continue with the same basic questions all our life?

Sometimes we come up with new questions?

“How come she gets all the attention?”

“How come the rich get richer?”

"How come there is suffering?"

“How come he or she doesn’t see the way I see?”

“How could so and so be a Democrat and so and so be a Republican?”

“After all I did for you, how could you do that to me?”

“Why do people stop listening to what I have to say?

“Why do people walk away from me?

“Is everyone down deep lonely?”

“When am I going to die?”

“Will I ever accomplish anything?”

“Will I ever finish something?”

“What difference does it make?”

“What difference will I make?”

“How much does it cost?”

"Does everyone have lifetime questions?"

"If they do, are they aware of them?"

"Does anyone else ask this question or questions along this line?"

One of my lifetime questions is: “Motive?” 

I’ve been asking that question ever since I was a little kid.

“Motive?”

Then I go through my basic list of possible motives on why so and so did so and so or say what they said? Why? Why? Why?

What are the basic motives?

Is this a good list of basic motives: Fear? Shame? Ashamed?  “That’s why I lied. I was ashamed.” Insecurity? Security?  Hunger?  Love?  Attachment? Addiction? Guilt? Selfishness? Me. Myself. And I. I put myself first every time. Greed? Lust? Pride? Laziness?

When I’m watching NCIS or a detective show on TV or the movies, I’m asking what the investigators or the detectives are asking, “Motive?” Once we establish a motive or possible motives, we start looking for people who could have that motive.

"What does it profit a person, if they gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of their soul?” 

Great question by Jesus.

So motive has always been one of my lifetime questions.

So maybe that’s why I loved the moment in a college philosophy class  that I was taking and the professor was talking about Existentialism and he said, “I’m writing on the board the world’s shortest poem. It’s two words and they rhyme: 

                      'I 

                      Why?' 

I’ve never forgotten that. It’s a life time question. And I used it many times in sermons like this.

And I wrote the world’s second shortest poem. It also rhymes: 

                    “You 

                     Who?”

“I / Why” “You / Who” are two lifetime questions - that everyone asks all their life. We want to know who we are. Why do I exist. What am I to do with my life? We also want to know who the other people are in our life: friends, dates, teammates, family?

What are your life time questions?

This question was triggered by another one of my regular lifetime questions.

When you go into a Catholic Church like this one,  you always find at least one statue or picture of Mary the Mother of Jesus. Why? We have the statue of Mary up there above the tabernacle - above the center of the old altar. If you were a Buddhist or Taoist or Confucian and you were never in a Catholic Church before, would you want to know what that statue represents?

Every Catholic Church usually has one image of Mary. We have 2 - the one above the old altar and the one off to the side there - over there - Our Mother of Perpetual Help. What is that all about?

If you went into a Protestant Christian Church - other than Anglican - you most likely wouldn’t find such images of Mary. Why? Why not?

And this church and this parish is called, “St. Mary’s.”  And all the stained glass windows up there show images of this woman. “Why?” “What is that all about?”  “Motive?”  “You / Who?”

I’ve been asking that question for some 65 years now. It started when I was an altar boy as a kid. I’d see people praying at shrines and statues and images of Mary. Why? When I was a kid I used to also be a candle boy at our church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in Brooklyn, N.Y. People would come into church, light a candle drop a coin into the box and move on. Why? Motive?

I’ve heard lots of answers. Lighting a candle is a prayer that stays here burning for me after I’m gone. It’s a tiny sacrifice. I put my money in. The candle burns - disappears to itself - giving some light - as it dies.

I particularly thought of this question of Lifetime Questions this morning - because today the Catholic Church - especially in Mexico and the United States, and other countries of the Americas celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Why the following? What’s that all about?  Why are there other churches and shrines all around the world dedicated to Mary: Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa, Chartres, Medjujorje, and Guadalupe?

What is that behavior, that energy about?

I’ve been asking that question all my life.

One answer is that God is concerned with women and children - two people who are often treated up till the last century as nothing. Mary and her baby Jesus are often sculpted together - and we come and pray with and for all mothers and all their children.

Another answer is that mothers are central to life. All through our lives they represent security and home - and so we come to church for a feeling of security and home. 

I love the definition of home: “the place where they have to take you in.”

Does Mary represent God - who takes us in?

Do mothers represent God - who takes us in?

Do we all need all our lives - the comforting presence of our Mothers - living and dead - as well as the womb of a church?

Does Mary represent that God welcomes all people - especially the little person - like Juan Diego - as well as all native people? Amen.

OOOOOOOOOO

[This was a question type homily I preached this morning to St. Mary's High School - December 12, 2012]

THE MOST LONELY PERSON 

IN THE WORLD

Quote for Today - December 12, 2012

"There is no lonelier person than the one who lives with a spouse with whom he or she cannot communicate."


Margaret Mead

LOST SHEEP: 

THE LITTLE ONES 

ON THE PLANET

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Tuesday in Advent  is, “Lost Sheep: The Little Ones on the Planet.”

ADVENT READING

One of the recommendations for Advent is that we do some Advent Spiritual Reading. So we have those blue books in the back of church the past few years and some other Advent pamphlets. People take them and people give feedback saying they appreciate them.

Just at the beginning of Advent, I noticed an Advent Sourcebook - from Liturgy Training publications in Chicago. It gives lots of prayers and some interesting quotes from all over. This week I’m reading the material for the Second Week, entitled, “Wealth of the Poor”.  

Last night I spotted a piece by Eduardo Galeano - a Uruguayan journalist and writer. I had never heard of him - and I know nothing about Uruguay - except that its capital is Montevideo. He’s around my age. I’m born in 1939. He’s born in 1940. He wanted to be a soccer player. He says every boy in Uruguay wanted to be a soccer player. He becomes a journalist and a writer.

HE WRITES ABOUT THE LITTLE GUY AND LITTLE GAL

I looked up on line last night just who this Eduardo Galeano is. He writes about the poor of the earth - especially the unnoticed - the nobodies of our world. This does not go down well at times with the big guys.

In 1973 there was a military coup in Uruguay and Eduardo Galeano is arrested and his book, Open Veins of Latin America is banned in that country - as well as Chile and Argentina. He escapes and settles in Argentina - till there is a military coup there a short time after he gets there. His name is on the list of those to be killed. So he goes to Spain. He returns to Uruguay and Montevideo in 1985 - when the country has elections and goes the opposite direction.

Here’s the quote and the story that I found in the Advent Book.

The Uruguayan political prisoners may not talk without permission, or whistle, smile, sing, walk fast, or greet other prisoners; nor may they make or receive drawings of pregnant women, couples, butterflies, stars or birds.

One Sunday, Didsasko Perez, school teacher, tortured and jailed “for having ideological ideas,” is visited by his daughter Milay, aged five. She brings him a drawing of birds. The guards destroy it at the entrance of the jail.

On the following Sunday, Milay brings him a drawing of trees. Trees are not forbidden, and the drawings get through. Didasko praises her work and asks about the colored circles scattered in the treetops, many small circles half-hidden among the branches: “Are they oranges? What fruit is it?”  The child puts her fingers to her mouth: “Ssssshhh.”

And she whispers in his ear: “Silly. Don’t you see they’re eyes? They’re the eyes of the birds that I smuggled in for you.”

That’s the story. Till I read up on the life of Eduardo Galeano I didn’t really get the story - other than it being interesting and puzzling.

TODAY’S READINGS

Combining it with today’s readings I got this out of it.

Today’s first reading is from Isaiah 40: 1-11. It’s the beginning of Second Isaiah. The Israelites are in exile - in the prison of Babylon - and Second Isaiah draws pictures of hope in words for this people. Right now we’re in a wasteland - but the Lord is going to lead us out by a brand new road - lowering the mountains and filling up the valleys to get us home. It’s a picture of hope. He’s saying, “Enough already. See the way out of this. Open your eyes to a better future.”

Today’s gospel from Matthew 18: 12-14 has Jesus telling us he cares for the little ones. He paints a picture in words of a  lost sheep - and see how he leaves the 99 to find the little one. He doesn’t worry about the 99 who are doing okay.

CONCLUSION

The message is to open up our eyes and see and then care for the lost ones - for those who feel like they are in exile - for those in prison - for those in nursing homes - for the children - especially the poor who are neglected and hurting. We need to be like that little girl and draw pictures for those who need  eyes to see how to escape from their littleness - and their poverty.

I plan to check out more about Eduardo Galeano - because I picked up on the little research I did on him last night. I see that he’s labeled a “Leftist”. I see that he challenges the First World foreign policies - including the United States - since the 1970’s - and before that. I see that he gets people thinking outside of their boxes - especially if they are narrow. He doesn’t like borders. He sees us as citizens of the earth. Caesar Chavez at a meeting of the countries of the Americas publicly handed Barack Obama Eduardo Galeano’s book, Open Veins of Latin America - which made it a best seller. In his writings about the poor of the planet - the lost sheep - people like the Somali Pirates and those in prison, I picked up that he upset lots of folks - and challenges lots of folks.

I  assume that the writers of the Advent book I picked up think that  is something we need for Advent - as Christians - to understand why Christ came in the first place - and why he drew us the picture of him looking for that 100^th sheep that was lost - and let’s hope we do as well - noticing each other - especially when we’re lost.

OPEN VS. CLOSED MIND

Quote for Today - December 11, 2012

"My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts."


Many people

SEEING THE DESERT BLOOM

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2 Monday of Advent is, “Seeing the Desert Bloom.”

DESERT HOUSE OF PRAYER: TUCSON, ARIZONA

The Redemptorists of our Denver Province have a retreat house just outside of Tucson, Arizona - along with a place called, “The Desert House of Prayer.”

A bunch of years ago I was asked to do two weeks of talks out there. My hope each day was that it would rain. I’ve always heard it's one of life’s most beautiful sights: desert rain and then to see what happens to the earth right after it. The desert comes to life big time.

It didn’t rain - so that’s one of life’s disappointments. It's still on my bucket list.

BUT - LOTS OF BUTS

But I did see an empty lot on the Lower East Side of New York City go from being dump  - containing rusting shopping carts, tossed  toilet bowls, thrown away mattresses, etc. etc. etc. - becoming a tiny park - with benches - shade trees - a small community vegetable garden - some cement chess and card tables - and people sitting there enjoying a quiet nook in the middle of a busy neighborhood.

But I have seen family members and priests recover from alcoholism and getting into AA 12 Step Programs for their recovery.

But I have seen a junky, dilapidated house become a beautiful home where a family lives - in both New Orleans and Philadelphia.

But I’ve seen many a road go from one with pot holes and bumps to a brand new road - black topped - new white lines and it flowed.

But I’ve seen people walking well with new knees and new hips.

But I’ve seen people recover from a gambling addiction.

But I repaired and rebuilt a boardwalk by the ocean that was totally destroyed by a Nor’easter.

But I read about Grandma Moses - Anna Mary Robertson - mother of 10 children - 5 of whom died in childbirth -  started painting in her late 70’s and did some 1600 paintings till her death at 101. She sold her first paintings - small ones 2 dollars - large ones 3 dollars. In November of 2006, her 1943 painting, Sugaring Off sold for 1.2 million.

But I’ve seen old folks dancing up a storm at many a wedding.

But I’ve seen people recover from stuttering, Bell’s Palsy, a stroke and what have you.

TODAY’S READINGS

Recovering, renewal, beginning again, new life, roads finished, safety, flowers blooming, healing, redemption - are all themes in today’s two readings.

In the first reading from Isaiah  35: 1-10, we hear that the desert and the parched land will exult, The earth will bloom with beautiful flowers. Everyone is singing. Sore hands and knees will be strengthened. Hearts that are frightened will stop being afraid. The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The lame will leap. Those who can’t speak, will speak out.

In today’s gospel from Luke 5: 17-26, the man who is paralyzed by sickness and sin is forgiven and healed - and stands up praising Jesus - saying, “We have seen incredible things today.”

CONCLUSION: TODAY

Today - it’s been raining. It’s kind of dreary. Remember the old saying, "Bloom where you're planted." A question then: What can I do to make life bloom around us today?" Amen.

OOOOOO

Painting on top: Blooming Cactus by Amy H. Whitehouse