PARALYZED - AS METAPHOR

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in the First Week of the Year is, “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

How many times in our lives have we said, “I was paralyzed. I was stuck. I found myself unable to do anything. I just froze”?

That’s being “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

IN JESUS’ TIME

Here is Jesus  in today's gospel - Mark 2: 1-12 - experiencing a man who was paralyzed.

Jesus is preaching and surprise this man is being lowered down through a hole in the roof - right in front of him.

Mark who is known for details - certainly details a great story for all of us. We can picture the scene. We can picture the faces of the great crowd surrounding Jesus. Everyone's mouth must have been wide open big.

Being up front here in this church or any church - looking out - I can see how many people in church watch people walk  down the aisle during a reading or a sermon or after the Mass starts. I’m used to it - and I realize that the person coming down the aisle probably doesn’t see the crowd watching him or her. 

For example, last Sunday there was a guy - ¾ back in St. Malry's church - center aisle. I could see him standing up and turning around -  during my sermon. Obviously, he was looking for someone in the back. Finally they came in. I could see him getting out into the main aisle and going back to them. Then he marched them down the main aisle like an usher to where he had been sitting - and got them all into that bench. A good many folks in the back of the church were watching all this. I was watching all this as well. 

It didn’t paralyze me. It didn’t make me speechless. I’m used to it. I’ve seen some priests get miffed - and frustrated - at scenes like that. 

Or about two months ago -a guy fainted in a bench on my right. It was during the first reading.  I realized the whole back of the church was watching the doctors and nurses and then the EMT’s getting into that bench to help him. Finally, he was wheeled him out on a gurney. Later on, I jokingly said, “For those in the back who want to hear my sermon, I’ll repeat it after Mass.”

Those in front, who didn’t see all this, didn’t know what I was talking about.

Back to today's gospel.... Obviously, Jesus was way, way, way, way cleverer and quicker than us preachers. He moved away from whatever he was preaching or talking about to what was taking place right in front of him. He went with the obvious - going from paralysis of the body to paralysis of the spirit.

And then some of  the listeners - who were watching all this - hearing all this - became paralyzed - because they could not accept Jesus’ message about the ability to be forgiven.

As priest, as human, I have met all kinds of people who go through life paralyzed - with a limp in their personality - with a hurt in their memory - with a sore on their soul - that they won’t let heal.

They made a mistake and they can’t let it go. It wears them out. Something they did when they were 17 or 27 or 37 is still weighing them down at 57, 67 or 77.

PET PEEVES

Then there are those other things that bother us - and then paralyze us. 

What’s on your list of pet peeves? 

One that grabs me is translators of documents. For example today’s gospel for years translated Mark 2:8 this way: “Why do you harbor these thoughts?” Now they have Jesus saying - all this in  English mind you, “Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts?” I liked the metaphor - the image - of “harbor” - but someone dropped that translation.

Well I harbor the beauty of the use of the word “harbor” in this text. 

So that’s one of my pet peeves. So I can get paralyzed or stuck about - translators. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So enough. Move on.

CONCLUSION

The title and theme and thought of my homily for today is: “Paralyzed - As Metaphor.”

I’m asking: where do we get paralyzed, stuck, frozen? Is it sins? Is it the past? Is it others? Is it the iddy biddy?

Where do we hear Jesus saying to us, “Let it go. Let it go. Be forgiven. Give others a chance to be different or what have you. Pick yourself up and get moving. Amen.”

OOOOO

Painting on top: The Palsied Man Let Down Through the Roof [1886-1896] by James Tissot [1839-1902].

INSIDE A STONE

Poem for Today - January 17, 2014

STONE

Go inside a stone

That would be my way.

Let somebody else become a dove

Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.

I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:

No one knows how to answer it.

Yet within,  it must be cool and quiet

Even though a cow steps on it full weight,

Even though a child throws it in a river;

The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed 

To the river bottom

Where the fishes come to knock on it 

And listen.

I have seen sparks fly out

When two stones are rubbed,

So perhaps it is not dark inside after all,

Perhaps there is a moon shining

From somewhere, as though behind a hill—

Just enough light to make out

The strange writings, the star-charts

On the inner walls.

© Charles Simic [1938- ]

Check out and compare 
this poem with the poem 

for January 9 2014,
 "Locked In".
Thanks to Pat Tyrrell 
who sent me this poem
called, "Stone"..

BE OF WORDS
A LITTLE MORE 
CAREFUL THAN ANYTHING....

Poem For Today - January 16, 2014

Primer Lesson

Look out how you use proud words.

When you let proud words go,

it is not easy to call them back.

They wear long boots, hard boots;

they walk off proud;

they can’t hear you calling -

Look out how you use proud words.

                             - Carl Sandburg

© Carl Sandburg: ‘Primer Lesson’ 

from Slabs of the Sunburnt West, 1922 

Top caption is based

on e.e. cummings  words, 

"be of love a little more 

careful than anything

Painting: Vincent Van Gogh,
A Pair of Shoes, 1886

LETTING  GO -

NEW  BEGINNINGS

Poem for Today - January 15, 2013

THE LAST LEAF

 I saw him once before,

As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.

They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.

But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone!"

The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.

My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago--
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;

But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!

And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.

© Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-1894]

Check out the following on NPR program. It's all about leaves. Just hit that http!


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114288700

“WHAT HAVE YOU 

TO DO WITH US, 

JESUS OF NAZARETH?” 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Tuesday in Ordinary Time comes out of today’s gospel [Mark 1: 21-28] A man - described as having an unclean spirit - is in the synagogue that Jesus entered. He cries out at Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”

I always thought the first part of that moment - the question - is a great morning prayer. Wouldn’t it be a great idea to pause each morning after waking up and asking Jesus, “What have you do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

Then to pause again…. Then to think about what we are going to do this day …. Whom we’re going to see? Then to ask Jesus in prayer: “How can you be with me - with those I’m going to be with today?”

Then to pause again, to think, to listen to Jesus…. Then to receive Jesus in communion…. Then together - with his Spirit - to work together to make today the best day we can make it….

Jesus didn’t come to destroy our fun - our spirits - our smarts - our lives - our daily work load - our daily stuff - our creativity. He came to restore, to renew, to build up daily moments - daily expenditures - daily happenings - daily breaks - chats - chance meetings.

That’s how I see why Jesus came - not just 2000 years ago as a baby, but for today ….

PRAYER: LORD MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE

If that question of that guy in the synagogue in Capernaum that day doesn’t grab you as a good morning prayer, then by default go to St. Francis’ Peace prayer as a daily morning prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace today - where there is hatred, let me sow love, where there is injury pardon, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy - not so much as seeking to be consoled as to console, not to be understood as to understand, not to be loved as to love.

Either way - have a quick morning prayer - each day.

CHARTRES CATHEDRAL - MALCOLM MILLER

Everyday we don’t learn something new, but wouldn’t that be neat if we did, if that happened?

I love what I call Malcolm Miller Moments. They are learning moments. They are moments when someone says something that gives us a life wisdom - an insight - an, “Aha! Okay! Got it!”

It’s 1996. I’m standing amongst a crowd of about 40 people in Chartres Cathedral in France - listening to a famous expert tour guide, docent. He says the following: “Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to this cathedral for centuries. This was the Marian Shrine of Europe. And what did they come to see? It was Mary’s cloak…. a relic from her life.”

Then Malcolm Miller said the following: “It didn’t make any difference if it was the cloak of Mary. What made a difference was that everyone beloved it was the cloak of Mary.”

That comment had a great impact on me. I didn’t know it would - when I heard it, but looking back it became what I would call a Malcolm Miller Moment. It’s a moment when someone provides me a great insight - that impacts for life.

I thought of that comment when I was reading William Barclay’s commentary on today’s gospel. He said: in Jesus’ time some people believed that there were seven and a half million demons here on earth. Each person has 10,000 on their right and 10,000 on their left.

Evil spirits were everywhere. Then Barclay said the same thing that I heard Malcom Miller say, “It does not matter whether or not we believe in all this; whether it is true or not is beside the point. The point is that the people in the New Testament times did.”

CONCLUSION

People today don’t believe there are evil spirits everywhere - but listen carefully, people worry about influences around them - that they don’t like - and don’t want for their kids - or for themselves.

This day they might feel like Hannah in today’s first reading - because they have a bitter spirit. Or they might feel like Eli in today’s first reading and they have a judging others spirit - and they don’t like that they are doing just that - thinking Hannah to be a drunk. [Cf. 1 Samuel 1: 9-20]

So we know what it’s like to have bad spirits pervading us.

So do we believe we can ask Jesus to be in us today - as we deal with influences, attitudes, demons - our ugly spirits - whatever you want to call them and Jesus can help us make today a great day? Amen.

LOSING ONE'S SOUL

Poem for Today - January 14, 2014

MAN OVERBOARD

When they call out

          “Man overboard!”

The ocean liner, big as a house

Suddenly stops

And the man

          is fished out with ropes.

But when

          a man’s soul is overboard

When he is drowning

          in horror

          and despair

They enter his own house

Does not stop

          but sails on.”

© Sergei Chudakov, a dissident Russian Poet, on page 2 in Denys Thompson, What To Read in Engish Literature, {Totowa, Jew Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield, 1975, pp. 154

THE DIGS THAT DIG

DEEP INTO THE HUMAN HEART

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Digs that Dig Deep Into the Human Heart.”

They can kill us - slowly. They can bury us.

Being hit by a sharp word - can be like being hit in the head by the edge of a steel spade shovel. Now that would hurt.

Other titles could have been: “The Words that Wound!” or “The Comments That Cut or Crush!”

Whatever title chosen - the challenge in this homily is to try to challenge each of us to stop with “The Digs That Dig Deep Into the Human Heart.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading triggers this homily….

Today’s first reading from the opening words of the First Book of Samuel tells of a nasty habit that happens amongst us humans: put downs! We put each other down.

A man named Elkanah has two wives: Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah has sons and daughters by him; Hannah is barren.

It’s a sad story - because even though the text says Elkanah loved Hannah more, when they went to the temple in Shiloh, he gave Peninnah more food from the sacrifice - because she gave him children. The worse words in the story is that Peninnah would taunt Hannah just to annoy her.

Being barren, not having children, caused Hannah great tears and great sadness. Seeing this, sensing this, today’s text ends with her husband saying, “Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you refuse to eat? Why do you grieve? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

The Jewish storyteller of 1 Samuel is obviously echoing the story of Sarah and Hagar in the book of Genesis 16: 1-5. He is also echoing the reality that goes on with people down through the years.

Hey world, look at me, my kids are A Students at The School. Hey world, look at me - look at my skin, my thinness, my car, my house, my gold, my vacations, my dog, my Mass going, my place of birth.

Unspoken message: I’m better than you!

Motive: Perhaps we human beings put each other down - so we can step on the person down below and look taller.

DRAWING

I noticed a drawing in The New York Times Book Review years and years ago. It simply shows a mouth - with a zipper on it - and the zipper is closed.

The obvious message is to zip our lips.

Stop the zingers.

Instead build people up.

It’s my experience, no matter what positive things Hannah’s husband says to her, like you’re worth more to me than ten sons - one zinger weighs 100 times more than the weight of one compliment.

Isn’t that why scenes in the movie As Good As It Gets - jump off the screen - every time Jack Nicholson puts his foot in his mouth and says the wrong thing every time.

CONSCIOUSLY AND UNCONSCIOUSLY

We humans do this consciously and unconsciously.

If we zip our lip and slip into our minds - and think about the “Ouch” comments we make, maybe we can get in touch with our unconscious feelings of inferiority and inadequacy.

Innuendos - like arrows have that pointed tip. If we don’t shoot them into the air at others, we can follow the arrow back to its quiver - and see inside ourselves - what’s really going on with us.

What’s true richness? What’s real success? What really matters.

Our gospel is also a beginning - new beginnings for Peter and Andrew, James and John. They leave all to follow Jesus,

My message for today is to leave the dig a hole in the ground and throw the digs in them - bury them and move on and discover the Kingdom of God. Amen.