WORMS AND WORRIES

Quote for Today - March 9, 2013

"Verem essen toilerhait un deiges lebedikerhait."

"Worms eat you up when dead and worries eat you up alive."

Yiddish Proverb - from 1001 Yiddish Proverbs, edited by Fred Kogos

Question: Name the 10 top worries you have - that are squirming around inside of you - eating up your life energies?

SERMONS

Quote for Today - March 8, 2013

"The half-baked sermon causes spiritual indigestion."  

Austin O'Malley

Comment: O my God, I am partly sorry....."

DO PEOPLE EVER CHANGE?

Quote for the Day - March 7, 2013

"Frenzy, heresy, and jealousy, seldom cured."

English Proverb

Question: Agree or disagree?

INDIGNATION

Quote for Today - March 6, 2013

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."

H. G. Wells

Question: Do you agree with this statement?

Read Matthew 23 in light of this comment by H.G. Wells

A LIFE SKILL CALLED “FORGIVENESS”.

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent is, “A Life Skill Called ‘Forgiveness.’”

BASKETBALL

In my early thirties I used to play basketball once a week with a group of thirty-year old priests in the Archdiocese of New York Seminary. We were taking a two year course - one morning a week - on Pastoral Counseling and Spirituality. It was great. Updating ourselves in the morning and basketball after lunch.

We’d play 5 on 5, 4 on 4, 3 on 3. One day this guy Neil Connelly is guarding me. I have the ball and I’m standing there dribbling trying to see if I should drive, shoot, or pass the ball. While dribbling I noticed that Neil is not standing directly in front of me as is usual - but off to my right. While dribbling I said to him, “Why are you guarding me like that?” He laughed and said, “Because you can’t drive to your left.” I said, “What?” He says, “Yeah that was one of the first things we were taught in basketball. Find out if the other guy can go to his right and to his left - and guard him accordingly.”

At the age of 33 or 34 or so I learned I could not drive to my left.

Well, let me tell you, I practiced that after that. Never got good at it, but I practiced it over and over again - trying to get that skill.

A SKILL CALLED “FORGIVENESS

The title of my homily is, “A Life Skill Called ‘Forgiveness.’”

If you got it, great. If you don’t have it,  work on it. Practice. Practice. Practice.

I met a Rabbi at a wedding once who asked me if I had read the Koran. I said, “No!”  He said, “You better.”

So I bought a Koran and read it - from cover to cover. I have to admit, I didn’t get it. I kept hoping there would be something in there that would grab me. I said to myself, “If this book is so important, there has to be something in here that’s enlightening.”

It didn’t happen to me.

Then I said, “Maybe it’s the translation. Maybe there is something great in here in Arabic - but I don’t have that skill.”

So nothing grabbed - except all the times it used the words “fire” and “burn”. I got a magic marker - an orange high lighter - and went through the whole Koran again and magic marked in orange the word “fire” or “burn” every time either appeared. Ugh too many times - too much violence.

Then I began to notice that there is a lot of destruction and violence in the Jewish and Christian scriptures as well. There is.

People get burned by people; people want to wipe people out. God is crushing armies and enemies. Ugh.

Then I began to notice how much in our scriptures there is to call for forgiveness - especially in families - in relationships - in both the Jewish and the Christian scriptures - brother with brother, father with son, but there is some sister stuff as well - but the document is heavily masculine and patriarchic. It’s up to us to translate it to deal with all our relationships especially  in our family.

If we listen to the scriptures and if we listen to people - every family needs the skill called “forgiveness” - not just 7 times, but 70 times and over and over again. We need this skill in dealing with others - with God - and in forgiving ourselves.

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel - Matthew 18: 21-35 - is a powerful challenge to forgive and be forgiven - from the heart. That’s how Jesus put it in the last sentence in today’s gospel. Forgiveness includes brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, God and life - as well as ourselves - being able to go this way or that way with forgiveness - whatever it takes - difficult moves at times.  

Want to learn how to forgive and be forgiven - practice, practice, practice till the skill is our’s. Amen. Amen. Amen.

TROMBONE

Quote for Today  March 5, 2013

"Love your neighbor, even when she plays the trombone."

Jewish Proverb

OPEN UP YOUR EYES.

IT’S ALL SURPRISE!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday of the Third Week of Lent is, “Open Up Your Eyes! It’s All Surprise!”

Every morning it’s nice to sit there, to pray there, and say to God, “I wonder what you have in store for me today!”

Every night it’s nice to sit there, to pray there, and say to God, “Now lets take a look at all the surprises I had today.”

That kind of a morning prayer and that kind of a night prayer - will open up our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, to all the surprises life offers us - that God puts on our plate for the day.

PEOPLE

You can’t tell the book by the cover. You have to open it up and read the story. Expect surprises.

You can’t tell the other person by his or her skin, you have to meet them and greet them and be with them. Expect surprises.

I remember reading a long time ago about the 6 people in every marriage: the he, she thinks he is; the he, he thinks he is; the he, he really is; the she, he thinks she is; the she, she thinks she is; the she, she really is.

Besides that, people change.

Well, this morning I was looking up a quote to put on my blog - for a Quote for the Day, and I spotted the following quote by William James. “Whenever two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.”

I was wondering who realized that theory first - and who else said something like that 1000 or 2000 or 2500 years ago.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading - 2 Kings 5: 1-15b - has several characters: Naaman an army commander who had a skin disease,  his master the King of Aram, a little girl who was captured in a raid who became Naaman’s wife’s servant, Elisha the prophet in Israel, the king of Israel, and Naaman’s servants.  If this reading was being staged that would call for various actors - as well as animals, chariots, silver, gold and garments.

That’s a lot of people and the possibility of a lot of surprises in a story.

In today’s Gospel - Luke 4: 24-30 - the scene is Jesus and a lot of people in Jesus’ hometown synagogue. They are not going to accept Jesus as is. Jesus tells them about one of the great mysteries of life - that the Spirit of the Lord can come upon us and all kinds of surprising changes can result.  He tells the people about Elisha the Prophet healing a foreigner and Elijah the prophet taking care of a poor widow of  Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

Surprise! They are deaf. They are blind. They are imprisoned in their own inner prisons.

They can't believe that someone from their own town can be different than the way they see him to be.    Jesus has come back and he is different. They want the story to go their way. They have already written how the story should develop. Surprise. Life is the surprises.

The title of my homily is, “Open Up Your Eyes! It’s All Surprise!”

What a sad ending to today's gospel story. After planning on killing him - Jesus passes through their midst and went away. Their loss....

Surprise Naaman, the army commander, who has leprosy, can’t open up his eyes to the surprise on how life and healing can  happen for him. However, he changes. Unlike the people of Nazareth who want to throw Jesus off the cliff and out of their lives, Naaman finally opens his eyes and surprise his eyes are opened and his skin in healed.

CONCLUSION

Pray each day: morning, noon and night:  “Lord open up my eyes and my mind and my heart to your surprises today - not what I expect, not what I’m planning. When I meet the people I meet today - help me Lord to realize that they not to the person I think they are, but they are person they really are - and help me to enjoy the surprises!"