Quote for Today - December 18, 2012 "If you want to be miserable, HATE someone." Anonymous Questions: Do you agree with that statement about hatred? Have you ever hated anyone? What happened next? Have you ever unhated? How did that icy fence come down between you and the other?
Monday, December 17, 2012
ALIVE ON THE EDGE
Quote for Today - December 17, 2012 "We are always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy." E.L. Doctorow, in the Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1989 Questions: Always? If we stop being attracted to the edges of what we are, does that mean we're dying? Who can better tell us what we are: ourselves or others? If we can name what we are like, name what is a little raw and nervy? Picture: Mohawk Men Working on a Skyscraper - found on line.
Now with a true bell your story becomes final. Now men in monasteries, men of requiems,
familiar with the dead,
include you in their offices.
You just stand anonymous among thousands, waiting in the dark at great stations on the edge of countries known to prayer alone, where fires are not merciless, we hope, and not without end.
You pass briefly through our midst. Your books and writings have not been consulted. Our prayers are pro defuncto N.
Yet some look up, as though among a crowd of prisoners
or displaced persons, they recognized
a friend once known in
a far country.
For these the sun also rose
after a forgotten war upon an idiom
you made great.
They have not forgotten you.
In their silence you are still
famous, no ritual shade.
How slowly this bell tolls in a monastery tower for a whole age, and for the quick death of an unready self!
The title was just “Joy” - till the news out of Connecticut on Friday.
TODAY IS JOYFUL SUNDAY
This Sunday we celebrate Joyful Sunday - Gaudete Sunday -
the half way point in Advent.
We heard in the first two readings and the Psalm the theme of joy and rejoicing, giving
thanks. We also heard the theme of motive for rejoicing: it’s new life - change
- and we heard this especially in today’s gospel - with the preaching of John the Baptist - to
various groups.
This morning a question: On a scale of 1 to 10 am I a joyful
person?
I think I’m usually a 9 or a 10 on that. So I think I am a
joyful person.
However, others have a voice, a vote, about that vote. They have to deal with
me. Each of us experiences each of us.
Everyone has to ask at times: “When I walk into a room, do I
get a ‘Yes’ - an ‘Oh good’ vote or an ‘Oh no!’ vote?”
That’s an “Uh oh!” if I get an “Oh no!” vote.
And if I give myself an, “Oh no” vote when it comes to being
a joyful person - being a person who
brings joy to the world - when, where and how can I change?
CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE
I like to say that everyone has the following experience I once had. I’m
playing stickball as a kid on 62nd
Street in Brooklyn,
New York and the pink Spaldeen
ball goes into the man up the streets front yard. He’s sitting on the stoop. He
won’t let us get it. He’s a grouch. What happened? I’m standing there watching
him yelling at us kids and I say to myself, “I don’t want to be like that when
I grow up.”
Each of us has to ask, “Have I?” I think everyone has that kind of an
experience and I hope everyone chooses to be a joyful person. Have I?
A CHRISTMAS CAROL - BY CHARLES DICKENS
I saw A Christmas
Carol again Friday night put on by the Colonial Players of Annapolis - up
at the Colonial Players theater on East
Street. Once
more there were lots of little kids there. Did any one of those kids
consciously or unconsciously decide, “I don’t want to be like Scrooge when I grow up.” Once more I had to look at
myself and ask: “Have I become a Scrooge?”
As I looked around the theater - before the play - which
they put on every other Christmas - I
noticed lots of little kids. It’s an every other Christmas event for some
families. This time it was extra significant - because I noticed all the little
kids there. It was just like these kinds
of kids who were killed on Friday in Sandy HookSchool in Newtown, Connecticut.
A prayer, “Oh my God, no!”
I was doing what millions of Americans were doing - aware of
little kids a lot more - since the shooting. Last evening I got an e-mail from
a friend of mine in Ohio.
She wrote, “Today - Saturday - I went
with Marilyn and her family - including her 3 year old granddaughter Phoebe -
to see the Toledo Ballet/Symphony perform ‘The Nutcracker’. Most of the dancers
were professionals, but they did incorporate around 20 children dancers from
the Toledo
area. It was delightful. I enjoyed it so much. But, a few times, when the young
children were dancing, I thought of the little ones who lost their lives
yesterday in Connecticut,
and the tears began again.”
Life like the rosary beads has the sorrowful mysteries along
with the joyful ones. I prefer joy.
REVIEW OF THE WEEK
We come to Sunday Mass and in our moments here - 50 to 60
minutes - we do what the Sunday morning
talk shows do. We look back on our week and we look forward to a new week.
How was your last week? What would it sound like to each
other on a Sunday morning talk show? What are your hopes for this week - 9 days
before Christmas?
To practice what I preach, I looked back on last week.
Last Sunday night we went out to dinner - Date night - as a
community to Adam’s Ribs. We toasted Father Blas who was leaving on Tuesday
morning for home - for Paraguay
- to celebrate his 25th Anniversary a priest. Nice. It was joyful.
He was looking forward to seeing his brother Gustavo who was recovering from
cancer. That was sorrowful. We find out
when the bill came, someone paid for it. Woo. Thankful. Nice.
I was on duty - and no calls came when we were in the
restaurant. Good. The Giants had won that day. It was joyful. I was rooting for the Ravens to beat the
Redskins - which would help the Giants. It wasn’t meant to be. I learned long
ago not to let sports results dominate my spirit. I made that decision when the
Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants way, way back, in 1958 - in Sudden
Death - 23-17. Bummer. I was stuck in a convent that day in Scranton, Pennsylvania
visiting my sister Peggy a nun. And there was a TV set in the big room we were
sitting along with lots of families. Bummer. I didn’t find out they lost till
we got back home to Brooklyn. That got to me.
Somewhere along the line I said, “I won’t let that sap my spirit like that ever
again.”
I got a call to the hospital that night - a lady was dying
of cancer. I anointed her and I prayed with her for her - along with her
family. She said, “I’m ready!”
Translation: I’m ready to go home to God. It was a sorrowful moment for
me - triggering more sorrow than joy.
Each of us is our own translator of life’s moments.
Early Monday morning I got another call to get to the
hospital - a baby was dead - stillborn. The duty guy is on till 8 AM. This was
6:35 AM. That was a sorrowful mystery. Why God? Why? 33 weeks old. We prayed. I
baptized the little girl Alexa - and prayed with and for her parents - and
grandmother. A sorrowful - sorrowful mystery.
I found out when I got back from the hospital last Monday
morning that Father Blas had just found out that his brother Gustavo had died.
Ugh. That was a sorrowful mystery. What would that be like planning on flying
home on Tuesday morning to celebrate - and to see one’s family - and to find
out on Monday morning - one’s brother had died.
I had Mass with the whole St. Mary’s high school on
Wednesday. It was a wonderful Mass. The
psychic energy - was calm and mellow. Sometimes the kids seem so elsewhere.
Sometimes they seem noisy and upsetty. Last Wednesday morning it was a joyful -
prayerful Mass. Mystery. Mystery. Mystery.
Thursday morning I was at the School of the Incarnation for
the Sacrament of Reconciliation - confessions. They had lined up 8 priests - so
that made it easier to hear all those confessions. The kids come face to face.
The kid walks over to one of the priests who is sitting there and the kid sits.
We begin with a greeting and a sign of the cross. Kids sins are mentioned and a
penance is given. I usually ask the kid to do something nice for mom or dad or
brother or sister. Then there is the pardon and absolution prayer and Go in
Peace.
I think this way of confession is much better than we were
kids - going into the box and sometimes making up numbers and sins. I like it
that a little kid has the experience of talking to an adult for a moment and
you can see their face picturing moments - usually at home - talking back to
parents, skipping homework, fighting with siblings - Amazing they use a word
like “sibling”. I never had siblings when I was a kid. I had a brother and 2
sisters.
A thought hits me. I see a kid’s face. Is this the kid for
life? A smile? A worry? Joyful? Sorrowful? What will become of this child? I
pray that the kid has a great life. Since they are mentioning a moment when
they did a negative, a so called “sin”, I like to ask, “What are you good at? A
sport? A subject in school? Soccer. Social studies. Music. Lacrosse.
I drive back to St. Mary’s after a second session with the
kids after lunch and get back just before school gets out: a joyful moment.
Friday I turn the radio on while driving back from the 12:10
Mass and hear the first sounds for me - about the horror in Connecticut.
People will want us clergy to pray for the kids and the
folks up there and parents and teachers everywhere. People will want us to say something that
helps. Uh oh!
Translation: will they be angry when we say, “Horrible.
Don’t know what to say. Scary? Terrible”?
I see the last name of the killer. Sounds Catholic. Always
wish that our faith would challenge and help us not to make such horrible
decisions - do such horrible actions.
Want to know motive - like the rest of people.
Want to say: presidents cry. I cry. God cries?
Could say: there is evil in life - in people.
Could say: there is sickness in people - craziness - mixed upness.
Could say: there is sorrow in people - as well as joy.
Could ask: does Christmas really mean - Christ’s Mass - and
does each Mass - or at least Christmas Mass have any impact on the lives of
those who are there?
Could say: Joy is the echo of God within us - as someone put
it.
Could ask: if that is true, does sorrow mean, God is absent
- from the minds and hearts of some people?
Yes at times. That night in the garden and that afternoon on
the cross Jesus screamed, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me.”
Felt some joy last night when that priest, Monsignor Robert
Weiss up there in Newtown
or close by spoke some words that this is horrible and we just need to be with
each other in moments like this.
Recalled one of my lifetime learnings: “Teach thy tongue to
say, ‘I do not know.”
As someone said on TV last night: at a moment like this,
some people need words - some people need silence. What do you need? If it’s
silence, take some good walks this week. If you need words, talk and listen to
each other. Communion with Christ doesn’t just mean 5 minutes here in church on Sunday
morning.
CONCLUSION
Christmas is coming. It’s going to be different in the lives
of a lot of people this year because of this tragedy.
Christmas comes every year - and every year we sing, “Joy to
the World the Lord Has Come.”
And Jesus keeps coming into a world where are plenty of
moments of sorrow and moments of joy - and hopefully most of us choose to be
people who bring joy to our world - at home - at work - at school - on the
roads.
Each week - each day - we have lots of experiences - and it’s our choice to
bring joy, light, hope, a good word to that experience.
Each newspaper has good news and bad - its announcements of births and deaths, victories
and defeats, ads and arrests, cartoons and crossword puzzles - along with
Sudoku.
Our move. Of course tragedies kill us. Ugh. Every death is our death. As John Donne
[1572-1631] the preacher and poet said, “Every time that bell tolls it tolls,
don’t ask for whom? It tolls for thee.” We
are all related toe each other. We are all God’s children. We are all sisters
and brothers - siblings. Hopefully, we will be resurrection, hope and joy to
others as well. Hopefully we hear Jesus’ call to us to “Go into the whole world
and bring Good News to others. Amen.”
LOVE EQUATED
WITH JOY, BUT ....
Quote for Today - December 16, 2012 "I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well. Devastation, balm, obsession, granting and receiving excessive value, and losing it again. It is recognition, often of what you are not but might be. It sears and it heals. It is beyond pity and above law. It can seem like truth." Florida Scott-Maxwell, The Measure of My Days [1972]
Saturday, December 15, 2012
VIOLENCE
Quote for Today - December 15, 2012 "To whom can I speak today? Gentleness has perished And the violent man has come down on everyone." From, The Man Who Was Tired of Life, c. 1990 B.C., translated by R. O. Faulkner
Friday, December 14, 2012
EITHER OR -
LIGHT OR DARKNESS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Either Or - Light or Darkness”.
That’s the thought that hit me this morning - when working
on a homily for the Feast of St. John of the Cross - today December 14th.
SOME PEOPLE
Some people don’t like “Either Or’s”. They like one’s. They
like singular answers. Some people like variations. There’s more than one way
to skin a fox. There are options.
We have a family story. We were in a restaurant with my mom
somewhere along the line and she ordered salad and the waitress asked, “Blue
Cheese, Vinaigrette, Russian, or ThousandIsland?” And she said,
“Yes!”
It didn’t make any difference to her. She would put on her
salad whatever dressing she pulled out of the refrigerator at home - or put two
or three on - depending on the amount left in the bottle or what have you.
JOHN OF THE CROSS
John of the Cross preferred the Apophatic Approach to God -
that is the removal of all images. There’s a whole tradition in spirituality
about this approach. The opposite is the way of light - the way of images - the
way of pictures. It’s called the Kataphatic Approach.
So John of the Cross wrote about the Dark Night of the
Senses and the Dark Night of the Soul.
Either Or or Both And can bring us to God.
Sometimes we experience God when looking at a great sunrise
or sunset.
Sometimes we experience God in the deep dark of the night. You
might have heard the often quoted words of F. Scott Fitzgerald: “In a real dark
night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.”
Sometimes when we can’t sleep, we turn to God.
Sometimes people only experience God or come to a God awareness moment when
they lose everything - and they are in the dark about what’s next. A spouse
dies. A spouse leaves for a younger partner. Kids go haywire. A home is lost in
a storm or fire. Someone is fired.
Sometimes we experience God in the midst of light - and joy
- and celebration. I was just sitting there at Thanksgiving in this big, big
room that had all kinds of sections. I was off to the side - before the big
dinner - and there were about 30 people in that big, big room, laughing,
playing cards, playing Boggle, playing Scrabble, - all in different areas. A
few were just talking. There was
laughter and joy everywhere. I was thinking: all these people are here because my
brother met and fell in love with Joanne, my sister-in-law. Thank You God.
Thank You.
Either - Or - we can meet God.
Good Friday is good - so too Easter - so too Christmas - so too Advent. CONCLUSION
In today’s gospel - Matthew 11: 16-19 - Jesus goes after the Pharisees. They are not
happy whatever Jesus does. If he would call for fasting like John the Baptist
or if he was having a great meal, either way they would be unhappy. They are
like kids in the market place. You sing a sad song, someone complains. You sing
a joyful song, someone complains.
Life is morning and night, the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and
light bearing mysteries. Someday when I’m made pope, maybe I’ll propose that we have the dark bearing mysteries as well?
OOOOOOO
Pictures and Paintings
On top: Interior of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - 2011.
Near Bottom: Drawing by John of the Cross of the Crucifixion and then the famous Corpus Hypercubus [1954] by Salvador Dali - inspired by the drawing by John of the Cross.
