GOD? 

ONION OR GOLF BALL?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “God? Onion or Golf Ball?

This Sunday - the Sunday after Pentecost - we celebrate the feast of the Trinity.

This feast about God - God as a Holy Trinity of 3 Persons - is a challenge each year -  not just to the preacher - but to all of us to take some time - to unpeel - U N P E E L -  [Spell out] - our notions - our take - our understanding - our relationship with God - especially as the Most Holy Trinity.

That verb “to unpeel” leads me to think of an orange, then an apple, then an onion, then a golf ball - then a person - all of which we can unpeel - all of which we can look underneath - all of which can lead us to mystery - to wonder - to surprise - but also to “uh oh!”

UNPEEL

I always liked the quote, “Life is like an onion. You peel off a layer at a time - and sometimes you cry.”

I always -  also - don’t like that quote because - when it comes to an onion -  it’s a bummer - because one discovers nothing in the center - in the inside - yet one cried - yet one tried.

I try to get inside another - or a situation - or a worry - and I find nothing inside. Bummer!

Those moments remind me of those moments when I get  stuck in traffic on an interstate. It’s bumper to bumper to bumper forever. I’m wondering how much longer and what the heck is causing this problem? Finally traffic starts flowing again and I never did find out what caused the backup and the problem in the first place. Bummer.

I like it when I see - along the side of the road - some broken red glass - or tire skid marks or a red flare still burning.  Obviously, I hope nobody was hurt - but at least I knew a crash caused the delay.

I like a peach because it has a pit inside - or an apple with a core - or an orange with some pits. But that onion - you peel off a layer at a time - you cry - and when you get to that last layer, there is nothing in the inside. It doesn’t have a center. It’s the pits when there are no pits - when there is an, “I don’t know! I just don’t know.”

Sometimes that happens to people with God. Jean Paul Sartre, the French Existentialist,  once said, “For several years more, I maintained public relations with the Almighty. But privately, I ceased to associate with him.”

Let me repeat that - because that can be the autobiography of a lot of people when it comes to God - including us priests:  “For several years more,  I maintained public relations with the Almighty. But privately, I ceased to associate with him.”

As priest with some family members - it’s a bummer when someone in the family - has no interest in God - in the inside and in the center of their life.

As priest I preached the Graduation Mass for our High School kids on Thursday. I tried to slip God into the inside of my words - into the inside of our students lives. I tried to trigger that moment in their future - when the whole enterprise falls apart - and they are sitting there in the dark like the people in and around Moore, Oklahoma - where everything has been unpeeled by a twisting tornado. Some 24 people have been killed - including 9  kids - and we wonder, “Where is God in all this?” We want more and there is so much less.

Also when I think of unpeeling - and the underneath - and the unknown inside,  I remember something we used to love to do as kids: to find an old golf ball - on a lawn - with it’s cover starting to uncover. Then  we would peel with great effort that hard outside cover off it.

That was tricky. I remember putting an old golf ball into the heavy metal vise grip thing my father had in our basement at his work bench. I’d twist that iron handle so that the two iron sides with teeth would grab that golf ball - so it wouldn’t and couldn’t escape. Then I would jam the front of a screwdriver under the covering. Then with a hammer I would drive that screwdriver tip into the golf ball - in under the unraveling cover. Once the cover was off I could more easily unpeel it.

I don’t know what golf balls are made of now - but when we were kids they had that fascinating rubber band like stuff just under the cover. It would take forever to get that off. Finally - underneath the rubber bands - after all that unpeeling - there was this neat hard rubber tiny pith ball.

They were great to have - much better than glass marbles. I loved to have one in my pocket in a boring grammar school class room. With my thumb and finger I would flick the ball up my desk to try to get it into the inkwell hole.  The desks no longer had ink bottles in them. When I scored - it would go “blup blup” as it fell onto the shelf underneath the desk top. The nun up front would be startled - owl or eagle like - trying to figure out, “Uh oh! What that was?” On went my fake nonchalant face - knowing that tiny ball was safe - out of sight - in the underneath space of my desk.

That rubber ball bounced fabulously in the play ground - high and hard to figure out where it was going to land. It was a unique toy for the few of us boys who knew how and where to get them.

An old golf ball looked useless - but that center ball always seemed so fresh - so bouncy - that is, if you could unpeel and get to it.

QUESTIONS

What, who is God to me: onion or golf ball?

Question: Am I still trying to get to know, to love, to discover, to find, God - underneath it all?

ANSWERS

I assume that those of us who come to church are the still searchers.

I assume from time to time all of us have come up with our metaphors - our images - our takes - our experiences - our moments - when we met God in the central as well as surprise moments in our lives.

I picture couples standing there - being toasted by their family and friends - as they celebrate a 25^th or 50^th wedding anniversary.

I picture parents at graduations - feeling - especially feeling - but realizing - it was all worth it.

My grandnephew Sean graduated from the Naval Academy on Friday and the moment for one of my nieces - was when she stood back and saw his grandfather hugging his grandson - after the graduation. Everyone knew how much it meant to Joe. I knew it meant so much for Sean’s parents.

The moment for me - that brought tears to my eyes - even though it was cold and rainy - was when different  group and pockets of people - spread throughout the stands - heard their kids name called and they erupted with cheers and joy.

Life is to spot those moments. Sometimes we cry.

Life is to unpeel those moments - and see what’s inside. 

Life is to feel those moments and discover the bouncing, bouncing life that is inside our life.

Life is to discover that God - Father - Son  - and  - Holy Spirit are here - and there - and everywhere.

BUMMERS

Of course the bummer is when we peel and peel and don’t find anything.

It’s a bummer of a marriage when the other has become a couch potato or a lump - or a grouch - or a disaster - and after the unpeeling of the clothes and the unpeeling of the years - someone discovers that there is nothing inside the other - and in the meanwhile there are children - there is family. Now that’s an, “Uh oh!”

It’s a bummer of a life - when you give it all for your children or for your parents and nobody seems to give a rats tail for what you consider important: caring for each other.

GOOD NEWS IN TODAY’S READINGS

There is Good News in the readings for today’s Mass.

The good news is when one unpeels life and discovers the heights and depths of Jesus Christ - sometimes in the tears and the afflictions as today’s second reading from Romans puts it. [Cf. Romans 5: 1-5]

Paul in this reading says that in the midst of afflictions one can discover God - one can discover the Holy Spirit - one can discover endurance - and character  - and proven character - along with proven hope - one can develop a strong cover - like that of the outside of a golf ball - and in my heart, in my center,  I have the love of God which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

The Good News is when one unpeels life - one can also discover God in the beauty of creation - in the mountains and the hills, in the fountains and springs of water, in the earth and in the fields, in the heavens in the deep. God can be found in play and delight - in all the joys of life within our sight - seeing God the Craftsman - as today’s first reading from Proverbs  8: 22-31 puts it - in all that God has made - and created.

Are we missing seeing  what we could be seeing outside of us - because are we blind in the center of our inside?

My brother Billy is long dead - but I am very grateful for his teaching us about the value of going to art museums. If we were coming down to see him and his family in Bowie and then Laurel, Maryland, the week before he would skip lunch from his job in Washington, D.C. He would then go to the National Gallery or the Hirshorn Museum and memorize the names of all the paintings he could grasp. Then when we arrived, he would suggest that we and the kids go to DC to see paintings. As we were browsing he would say, “That painting over there looks like a Renoir.” Then he would add, “It’s name is probably….” 

Sure enough he was right every time. His daughters, knowing he loved to do this, would try to move all of us in a different direction to throw him off.

I enjoyed him doing this - plus seeing the paintings, but what I really learned by going to art museums - was what happened to me when we went outside. I realized: everything was art. Everything was works of art and sculpture: people, cars, hot dog wagons, trees, flowers, blades of grass, dogs, the sky.  God the artist was everywhere. We humans, we artists - had also been working everywhere to make this a beautiful world to live in.

CONCLUSION

Today is the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Well, somewhere along the line I heard someone preaching and saying, “We are made in the image and likeness of God and it’s only when we are in wonderful and loving relationships with each other - that we are imaging God the Trinity.”

“Oh,” I said, upon hearing that, “People living and working together are a much better image of the Trinity  than the shamrock - 3 leaves - one plant.  We can be one - in our relationships with one another - whether we are 2, 3, 4, 5, 100. That’s when we mirror God and what it’s all about.”

And sure enough, if we unpeel any person, isn’t it when we are in love - when we are working together as family, as friends, that we feel the presence of God in our center.

It’s then we are bouncing like that bouncing rubber ball in the center of the golf ball  - if they still make them that way - well if they don’t - well that’s still how we are made. Amen. 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Quote for Today - May 26, 2013

"Would to God 
  we might spend 
  a single day 
  really well."

Thomas A Kempis, Imitation of  Christ.

JUDGING

Quote for Today - May 25, 2013

"The guilty person is always the first to judge."

Anonymous

Questions:

Agree or disagree?

Is this why Jesus did not judge?

Is this why people throw rocks?

NAVY

Quote for Today - May 24, 2013

"No matter what the atomic age brings, America will always need sailors and ships and shipborne aircraft to preserve her liberty, her communications with the free world, even her existence. If the deadly missiles with their apocalyptic warheads are ever launched at America, the Navy will still be out on blue water fighting for her, and the nation or alliance that survives will be the one who retains command of the oceans."

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 1963

Picture taken today at the end of the graduation of the the Class of 2013 from the Naval Academy here in Annapolis, Maryland. Congratulation to the Class, their teachers, the people who serve the academy - as well as to my grandnephew, Sean Lavelle.

LIGHT AND DARKNESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Light and Darkness.”

Basic stuff: light and darkness.

That’s the theme that hit me - when I read the readings, you  the class of 2013,  picked for this your Graduation Mass - especially the gospel text you chose for this Mass: Matthew 5: 14-16

                     “You are the light of the world.

            A city built on a hill 

            cannot be hidden.

            No one lights a lamp and then puts

            it under a measuring cup.

            They set it on the lamp stand

            where it gives light 

            to everyone in the house.
            In the same way 

            your light must shine before all,

            so that, seeing 

            the good things you do,

            they will give praise 

            to our heavenly Father.”

“Light and Darkness?”

We’ve all seen t-shirts and maybe even a tattoo or two with ying and yang on it. In the middle of the white light sliver side  of the ying yang circle, there is a belly button circle of darkness and in the stark dark sliver of the other side of the ying yang circle there is a white button of brightness in the middle of the darkness.

There’s a message there in that ying yang circle.

There’s a message there in all the circles and wheels of our life - in the joy rides - as well as when life is a flat tire.

Life: there is always something else. There’s always the twist and the turn - as the circle spins. When things look bright, the dark button sounds its warning signals - if we listen. When things look dark, look for the light - of hope.  There’s always the light of dawn after the dark of night - and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

To see the light, we need the dark - we need contrast - otherwise we'd be blinded by too much light. But to see the dark, we don’t need the light. You see: there is always a twist. There’s always a surprise. There’s always a sunrise. There’s always a sunset. Expect them. There’s always the  expected as well as the unexpected difference.  Expect them.

Light and darkness. Expect them.

Grace and sin. Expect them.

Opportunity and temptation. Expect them.

Mistakes - as I’ve heard Mr. Matt Hogan tell you and your parents several times. Expect mistakes. Be honest about them. Learn from them. Get moving again from them.

And that goes for life - not just your life here at St. Mary’s.

THE GARDEN STATE PARKWAY AND 27,000 FEET IN THE SKY

When driving at night, there is a curve on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey - somewhere above Exit 105 - when you come up a slight hill and around an easy curve -  and you start to see the light - lots of light.  There is a town sitting there. There’s people sleeping there - with some lights still on.

When walking at night through Palestine, Jesus came around a bend - or a curve - and there in the distance - he saw lights - the lots of lights of a  town or a city.

And Jesus said to his disciples that night or after sunrise the next day the words we heard in today’s gospel,  “You are the light of the world. A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden.”

When flying at night in a plane some 27,000 feet or so above the earth - if you have a window seat - you can look out and down into the darkness and spot a sort of circle of city with its lights because of the darkness.

THE NEXT 50 TO 60 YEARS

When looking to your future, graduates,  the road ahead has ups and downs,  curves and twists and turns and you can only see so far ahead. I’m hearing you have your colleges picked out: Anne Arundel Community College, Gettysburg, Wheeling, Pepperdine, South Carolina, High Point, Fordham, Steubenville, Penn State, Boston College, Etc. Etc. Etc.

Those are lights in the darkness called the future - that you already see. You’ve visited those universities and you liked what you saw. Those are slivers of the known, but who knows - who really knows -  what’s around that next curve, and the curve after that curve, over that next hill and over that next hill after that. Expect surprises. Expect the unknown. Expect the opposite in the circle of what you’re expecting. Expect the ying in the yang and yang in the ying.  

Life is the unexpected. Otherwise: boring, boring, boring.

50 to 60 years from now you’ll be sitting on a porch on a summer night - and you’ll spot the lights of tiny planes high, high up there in the night sky and like the passenger 27,000 feet in the sky - in the window seat - you’ll see the bright lights of your life - from a distance - in the dark.

You’ll also see the times the lights went out - and all went wrong - and you were plunged into the mystery of life - into the ying and the yang of life - and by then you should have the hang of life - well at least a tiny bit more figured out  than what you have figured out by today - May 23, 2013 -  as you graduate from this school -  because you were in circles of lights and darkness - from time to time.

Life. Light and darkness.

Jesus saw on the road - that his road would graduate. It would gradually head towards Jerusalem - a city on a hill - and he would confront darkness and evil - even more - big time -  and he would lose - that day - some Bad Friday in the distance. The darkness would crush him on the cross on Calvary - but he trusted that the darkness would not win in the long run - that those who got that message - the message that’s what we all are called to do in life - to confront darkness and be the light - and turn Bad Fridays - Bad Days - to Good Fridays - to Good Days - because we are here.

Jesus knew darkness. Jesus knew light. Jesus knew people. Jesus knew life.

Jesus spoke about being the Light of the World. Jesus called his disciples to be the Light of the world.

That’s the plan of St. Mary’s - that you would go forth from here and bring light to our world - to bring the  lights that you have - that will overcome the darkness.

The plan is that you will leave St. Mary’s and bring you - a better you - to other schools - to other cities and countries - that you will improve media, meetings, marriages, messes - our world - that needs your light.

The plan is that you will not self destruct - that you won’t have to rip up or throw away your wedding photos - or delete the scenes of your life from your cell phones that show wrong moves and wrong relationships - but you live in the light and bring Christ’s light into our world.

That’s the plan - that Jeremiah - spoke about in the first reading we heard today read by Brad Beard. [Cf. Jeremiah 29: 11-14]

When young we think that plan by God is carved in cement or in a Bible or some book somewhere - out there - and it's up to us to find it.

When middle aged - we laugh - because we will have discovered that life is not a plan of what we’re supposed to do with our life - and who we’re going to marry - what’s going to happen in those marriages - and that God is the author of our autobiography. Hopefully, we will see the light. We will know we are the author of our life. Hopefully, we’ll also know the Lord is with us. Hopefully we will have learned and experienced what Saint Paul said in his letter to the Philippians [Cf. 4:13-19] which Meghan Norwood read for us today:

“I have the strength for everything

through him who empowers me.” 

That’s the plan.

CONCLUSION

Graduates - and here comes the graduation day stuff.

Some days will be bright. Some days will be dark. Some days will be sunny. Some days will be funny. Some days will be sad.  Some days will be rain or storm - but we hope not all day - not till the graduation or the picnic or the game or one’s life is over.

Some days we will need to be challenged. 

Some days we will have to speak up - challenge our family - our church - our world - ourselves. That means sometimes we’ll have to be the whistle blower. Some days we’ll have to shine our light into the darkness of a job situation when selfishness and evil is running the show.

Some days we’ll step back. We’ll walk alone on some early morning beach - at Ocean City or Hawaii  - and we’ll realize that the morning sunlight - is always there. We just have to be there to see it rising. We will have learned how life is learning how to start again over and over again. And on that beach, hopefully we’ll  meet Jesus and have the humility to admit that too often we were fishing in the wrong places and we’ll hear him tell us where to cast our nets in the right places and our nets will be filled to breaking point.

God’s plan is that we experience abundance - not of stuff - but of love and joy and giving. God’s plan  is that God is with us as we love and serve - as we give without counting the cost - that we give our life for our family and for a better world - that our life is a life of light and we take away some of the darkness each day.

             Light and darkness,

             Ying and Yang,

             Yackety Yack,
             Give it all back.
             That’s the plan.

GRADUATION

Quote for Today - May 23, 2013

"Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars."

Richard Halliburton

AVOIDANCE

Quote for Today - May 22, 2013

"You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it."

Goldie Hawn