ME, MYSELF AND I

Quote for Today - August 2, 2013


"It is said the average person speaks eleven million words yearly - one-half of these are I, my, and mine."

Anonymous

PARADISE! 

FOR GOD, 

IT'S THE HUMAN HEART 

Quote for Today  - August 1st, 2013

"The human heart is, 

so to speak,

the paradise of God."

St. Alphonsus de Liguori [1696-1787]

Hit Full Screen to see whole dance floor.

PRAYER FOR 

GENEROSITY

Quote for Today - July 31, 2013

"Teach us, good Lord,
to serve You as You deserve:
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not mind the wounds;
To toil and not seek for rest;
To labor and not ask for reward
Except that of knowing
that we do Your will."

St. Ignatius of Loyola [1401-1556], Prayer for Generosity [1548]

Painting on top: Ignatius of Loyola - Anonymous - 16th century.

Feast day: Today, July 31st. 

SOUNDS FAMILIAR

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 17^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Sounds Familiar.”

All of us who come to Mass a lot - all of us who have heard scripture passages over and over again - from time to time - we start to hear sounds in the Bible texts that remind us of other texts.

If that happens, that's a good sound....

It’s like music. We’re hearing a song, but we say about part of a piece of music, “I heard this somewhere before.”

When that happens with the readings at Mass, we’re getting into them; they are becoming us; we’re connecting with the Bible in the tabernacle of our head.

The words are becoming flesh - and then especially when we put them into practice in our life.

AND WE’RE ONLY HEARING THE SCRIPTURES IN ENGLISH

We are hearing the scriptures in English - in different translations.

I have been hearing ever since I started taking courses on the Bible in the seminary  - and then in reading books and articles on the Bible as well as workshops after that -  that there are many, many interconnections and cross references in the original languages - word plays - what have you -  with other texts in the Bible.

Moreover, I’m sure you have heard that the chapter and the verse numbers - in the Bible - were not in the original texts. They were added much later on - from the 1200 to 1500’s A.D.   So when we want to refer one Bible text with another Bible text  we use numbers for the chapters and the verses. Sometimes the original texts make references to other texts by using a word or an image or a phrase that people upon hearing the it will connect it with a similar word or words in another text. It’s not plagiarism.

So it’s not by accident that the Gospel of John begins with the words, “In the beginning” - which is telling Jewish Christians - this is a new beginning - a new Genesis - because Genesis begins with the same words: “In the beginning.”

I always heard that there is a lot more of this going on in the Bible that those of us who can't read the Bible in it's original languages would know. Ooops. I’m assuming that none of us here speak Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek - so we miss these word plays in the original  texts connecting one text with another text.

TODAY’S FIRST READING FROM EXODUS 33

Today’s first reading from Exodus 33 talks about Moses, tents, and going apart.

Today’s first reading talks about Moses in the desert 40 days and 40 nights - fasting.

I’m sure that triggers for us a connection of Moses with Christ - who did those very things - except for the tent. Jesus was the tent - sometimes translated in English by the word “tabernacle. Jesus is also the temple after it replaced the tent in Jewish life and worship - and we Christians are familiar with the veil in the temple when it was ripped in two at Jesus’ death and his presence went into the great tent and temple of the world. [Cf. Matthew 25:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45.]

The early church was saying to Jewish Christians that Christ was the New Moses and he was fulfilling Judaism.

Notice in today’s first reading that Moses liked to go apart - by himself - to hiding places - to the Holy of Holies in tent form - so  I hope it triggered the many times Jesus in the gospels is going apart to be with his father - our Father, our God.

And we can do the reverse: we can take a New Testament text - especially from the gospels - or the Letter to the Hebrews - and we can see all the references in those New Testament texts to Old Testament texts.

Let me also add that to grasp the scriptures, we need to know allegory - as well. For example, today’s gospel is an allegory. All these references to seed and earth - bring us right into the minds and earth of Israel and its people.

CONCLUSION

Together with all these word connectings,  these familiar sounds, we can go deeper and deeper into spiritual understandings of our scriptures.  

The title of my homily was: “Sounds Familiar.”

How many times have Christians gone to a Jewish Temple or Synagogue and looked up and saw a tabernacle. 

We pause and think: "That looks familiar."

Then they saw a rabbi or someone open up the tabernacle door and out came the Sacred Scriptures. 

Then we said inwardly, “Oh my God we believe the same thing - but we believe the Word became flesh and lives among us."

Then we conclude: "Wow! When it comes to religion so much looks familiar and so much sounds familiar. Amen.

GOSSIP

Quote for Today - July 30, 2013

"Gossip should be spelled gassip, as it is flammable, combustible, and should be capped."

Anonymous


Footnote: Another New Word: "Guessip"

In the April 28, 2013 issue of The New York Times Sunday Magazine I spotted the following:

"That Should Be A Word

by Lizzie Skurnick

GUESSIP

(GEH-sip), n.

1. Particularly amorphous rumor conjecture. 'Troy grew so impatient with the guessip that he installed himself at the hair salon until he knew who was stepping out on whom.' See also: fauxment (to dramatize with each telling)." page 19, One Page, The Magazine.

CORRECTIONS -

 SECOND DRAFTS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of St. Martha - July 29^th, is, “Corrections - Second Drafts.”

There are 2 choices for a Gospel reading for today: John 11: 19-27 when Martha proclaims her belief in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world”; and Luke 10: 38-40 where Jesus comes to Martha and Mary’s house and Mary ends up being praised and Martha is corrected or chided by Jesus for being anxious and upset about many things - and Mary your sister has chosen the better part.

I chose the Gospel from John to read today - only because we heard the other gospel 2 times recently.

As I read over John’s story about Martha - there are only 2 stories about Martha in the gospels - I got the thought: maybe someone said Martha was corrected too tough by Jesus - maybe someone should give her a better story.

I doubt that is what happened, but I do know from taking many courses and workshops on our Sacred Scriptures - the Bible is a lot of re-writes.

The Catholic documents on the Bible certainly spell out that we Catholics are not fundamentalists. God did not tell the different authors to grab a quill - some parchment - and God dictated word for word the Bible for us.

Not all accept this. I am aware of that - and I also learned not to fight about this. And smile - because in today’s first reading from Exodus we heard God engraved by himself the ten commandments on tablets  - with writing on both sides.

CORRECTIONS - SECOND DRAFTS

The title of my homily is, “Corrections - Second Drafts”

Anyone who writes - knows writing is rewriting. Writing is second and third and fourth drafts. Writing is asking others for comments. Pick up most books and you’ll find in the introduction or first few pages - the author thanking someone for reading their manuscript and making comments, suggestions, and corrections.

How many times have we seen a movie scene with someone at a typewriter - or writing - and they are crumbling up paper after paper - till they get what they want to say correct.

The beauty of computers is you can do this much easier - writing and re-writing and re-drafting our thoughts.

OUR LIFE

Who Moses was and who Martha was - was who Moses was and who Martha was.

The person whose life we can correct and re-draft - and freshen up - is me, myself and I.

Conversion is possible. We can come out as a new edition.

I’m not talking about lies - but I am talking about taking a fresh look at our life - and bring all to Jesus and have him bring us resurrection and new life.

We can glory in our mistakes as the saints have - but only if we have learned from them - grown in understanding from them - and can laugh with God about life with them..

One of the definitions of a saint that I love is from Ambrose Bierce who defined a saint as: “Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.”

CONCLUSION

So if we’re still alive - the call is to become the best we can become - the call is for a second or third or fourth edition - containing the learning we have picked up from life - especially our mistakes. 

LEARNING THE ROPES

Quote for Today - July 29, 2013

"We learn the rope of life by untying its knots."

Jean Toomer, Definitions and Aphorism, Li, 1931