WE CAN BE IN
TWO PLACES AT
THE SAME TIME
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 8th Sunday in
Ordinary Time - Year A - is: “We Can Be
In Two Places At The Same Time.”
We’ve all heard the saying, “You can’t be in two places at
the same time.”
Someone wants us at their house - and someone else wants us
at their place at the same time. Help. And we want to say, “Hey, I can’t
bi-locate.” Or we want to say, “I’m
sorry. Life - for me - is too often a
tug-of-war between time and effort - pulls and pushes.”
Well, I’ll be saying in this homily, “We can be in two
places at the same time.”
PLUS OR MINUS
Sometimes it can be a plus. Sometimes it can be our loss.
It’s a plus, it can
be to our benefit - when we use it as a skill when we are at a boring homily or
a boring class or meeting. We can go elsewhere in our mind and our imagination.
In our present space - we can escape to another place.
So yes, we can be in two places at one time.
I remember hearing a story about a meeting. The boss was
running it. The participants around the table found it boring, boring, boring.
People started shuffling their coffee cups and computers and
paper clips and pads. They started looking at their watches - coughing - moving
back in their chairs. Scratching. Itching.
Rubbing their neck. Well, the boss didn’t get the message.
Later on - well after the meeting - and a safe distance from
the boss, a guy says to this other guy, “That was the worst meeting I was ever
at - but you seemed so calm and cool and present.” The other guy said, “Well, to be honest,
after about 10 minutes, I was fishing up on this lake in Minnesota. You should have seen the trout I
caught. It was one perfect day.”
So yes, we can be in two places at the same time.
It can be a minus when we are pulling ourselves apart
because of choices we make in the actual situations of life.
For example, we can’t be in High School A and High School B at the same time.
Pick and choose. Choose you win and choose you lose.
We can’t be in the
band and be on the football team at the same time. Chose one.
In football, sometimes when the game comes down to whether a
kicker can make a field goal or not, sometimes the opposing team call “Time
Out!” to maybe make the kicker start worrying about past misses.
So yes, we can be in two places at the same time, but at the
same time, we need to build skills how to deal with this skill we have.
We’ve all seen people spaced out. We put out hand out and
wave to them and they don’t see our hand. They are out in left field. So we
say, “Hello! You hoo, where are you?”
THE HEART
One of main themes of Jesus is: “What’s going on in your
heart?” In other words, “Where are you?”
In today’s gospel, for example, Jesus wants us to see what
we worry about. Is it clothes, food, drink, the look? Is it worry about the
future?
So today’s gospel begins with Jesus, “We can’t serve 2
masters. We will either hate one and love the other or be attentive to one
despise the other.”
So the question is: What’s going on in our heart? Who’s
running our show? Who’s in charge of our life?
To find answers to this question we need to watch ourselves
for a month. Maybe a year would be better – and to monitor first of all what we
are doing, where we spend out time, where we rather be at times, etc. This
should lead us to our motivations. This should lead us into our heart. That’s
where Jesus is always trying to get people to go. Go into your heart. Find out
what’s going on there.
What I’m getting at is Jesus’ theme of the divided heart.
It’s his call for self unity.
Jesus is aware that people can be divided. People can try to
go it with two bosses in their heart. People invite both the devil and God to
eat with them every day - and as a result they eaten up by too many inner
desires and fires - fires that need to be attended to.
What’s in your heart?
STATE LINES
I’m sure everyone has seen state lines - as they drive along
the highways of life. Welcome to Maryland.
Welcome to Delaware.
Welcome to Virginia.
I’m sure some of us have stood on actual state lines.
I’ve never been to the Four Corners
Monument in the Southwest - where one
can stand in 4 states - Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado at the same
time.
I noticed in the pictures of the place that they have
benches - probably for ceremonies at the spot. I wonder if they let marriages
take place on the spot. If yes, how are they registered? I’m sure older folks
sit in those benches and watch kids dancing and stepping back and forth in
those 4 states - almost at the same time.
I was thinking what a great metaphor - for the power of the
human mind to choose.
The first step would be to look at the possible states of
the human mind.
·
Worry - vs. - Not
worrying
·
High Anxiety - vs. - Calm
Peacefulness
·
Sad - vs. - Happy
·
Ungrateful - vs. - Thankful
·
Lost - vs. - Found
·
Bored - vs. - Excited
Then to ask: “Hello where am I right now?”
2 STATES
TO AVOID
Here are two states of mind to avoid getting stuck in:
1) Resentments
2) Regrets
They overlap, but in general
resentments have to do with others and regrets have to do with
ourselves.
1) STATE OF RESENTMENTS
Resentments often revolve around fairness issues.
Listen to little kids. They are often screaming inwardly,
‘Unfair!”
All my life I have not forgiven a guy named Walter Eckard
who coached our Little League team when we were kids.
I wanted to play first base - for our team - the Bay Ridge
Robins - but Walter put his brother at first base - and I only got into one
game - for one out - the whole season.
“Unfair!”
I even got my own brand new first baseball glove - just like
the one my brother Billy had - but he was a lefty. I practiced, practiced,
practiced. I got the needsfoot oil and broke that glove in - keeping a baseball
in the pocket - and rubber bands around it - to make it the perfect glove.
“Unfair!”
My red Bay Ridge Robins top had number 4 on the back. Hey
that’s a starter’s number. That’s a start’s number. But I never got a chance to
star or start.
“Unfair!”
How about you? Do you have a teacher or a coach or a dad
named Walter and you have deep resentments against him all these years.
Who are your Walter Ekhards? Everyone has at least 1 of them
all their lives.
Resentments: Ongoing “Ugh” Ongoing Mad. Ongoing anger.
Fairness, teachers, could be unfair, could be our unfairness. Not studying,
teachers. Father Tom in miniature golf. Baseball.
Resentments can be about looks, height, weight, acne,
Christmas gifts, skills, studies, marks, what have you.
Resentments can be about relationships - how so and so
walked away from us - or how mom and dad treated another in the family better
than they treated me - or how so and so got the promotion and I didn’t.
Well, I’m saying here that some people can get stuck in the
state of resentment all their lives and then won’t move - or can’t seem to move
- out of that state.
Check it out. There are other states - like the state of joy
or celebration or being able to humble or laugh at oneself.
2) STATE OF REGRETS
I have to think more about this, but I think that regrets
have to do more with me - my attitudes, my mistakes, my hurt, because of me,
myself and I.
At times I regret that I gave up playing the trombone - and
only after two weeks.
I regret a moment in my life - when I chose to play a
pick-up game of basketball in Connecticut -
instead of driving back to New Jersey
and finish a term paper. I got back 4 hours later than I would have - finished
the paper - which I got a C in - and ended up with a C in that course - and
that dragged down my marks - and they are forever chiseled in stone in the
report card in my memory.
I can stay in that state and not remember my A’s and B’s.
If you ever have a chance, read John Updike’s 1960 novel, Run Rabbit Run. It’s a classic story
about living in the past. It’s about how Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom gets stuck in
what might have been. I have to reread that book, but I assume that he spent
the rest of his life rejoicing in his great high school basketball career - but
also regretted that he never moved onwards.
Run Rabbit Run.
Move to a new state.
Scratch the surface of any person - and listen carefully -
you’ll hear the regrets of a person’s life. They will take up a lot more air
time than one’s smart moves.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “We Can Be In Two Places At The
Same Time.”
It’s good at times - to grab some time - and ask ourselves, “Where
am I spending most of my time? What state am I living in? If it’s in the state
of resentments or regrets or what have you, at that same time, we can move in
our mind and attitude - to a better state of mind.
The next step is to start moving towards a better place to
be.
As Lao-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher put it, “A journey of a 1000 miles begins with that first
step.”
As Christ put it: “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
