DIFFERENT STAMMERS,

DIFFERENT SOUNDS,

DIFFERENT DIALECTS

Poem for Today - April 4, 2014

STAMMER

Stammer is no handicap.
It is a mode of speech.

Stammer is the silence that falls
between the word and its meaning,
just as lameness is the
silence that falls between
the word and the deed.

Did stammer precede language
or succeed it?
It is only a dialect or a
language itself? These questions
make the linguists stammer.

When a whole people stammer,
stammer becomes their mothertongue:
as it is with us now.

God too must have stammered
when He created Man.
That is why all the words of man
carry different meanings.
That is why everything he utters
from his prayers to his commands
stammers,
like poetry.

(c) K. Satchidanandan

Translated from the

Malayalam by the author

DREAMS AND DESIRES

Poem for Today - April 3, 2014

DREAM OF KNIVES

for Ric de Ungria

Last night I dreamt of a knife
I had bought for my son. Of rare dagger
with fancily rounded pommel, and a wooden sheath
which miraculously revealed other, miniature blades.

Oh how pleased he would be upon my return
from this journey, I thought. What rapture
will surely adorn his ten-year princeling's face
when he draws the gift for the first time. What quivering
pleasure will most certainly be unleashed.

When I awoke, there was no return, no journey,
no gift, and no son beside me. Where do I search
for this knife then, and when do I begin to draw
happiness from reality? And why do I bleed so 
from such sharp points of dreams.

Alfred A.Yuson

from Dream of Knives

 and Mothers Like Elephants 

Selected Poems and New 

(Anvil Publishing)

 Copyright (c) 1986, 

by Alfred A. Yuson

WHAT  DOES  REDEMPTION 

SOUND AND  LOOK LIKE? 

Today’s readings help us to understand what  Redemption – Salvation – Being Saved  - Being with God – Being in Christ - sounds and feels like.

This is a very easy homily. I am simply going to repeat today’s 2 Readings and the Psalm in light of my question: “What Does Redemption Sound and Look Like?”

Today’s first reading from Isaiah 49 gives great images to help us get our hands and our minds on what Redemption sounds and looks like.

It’s like feeling one is a prisoner and one hears the words, “Come out!”

It’s like feeling one is in the dark, and one hears the voice, “Show yourself. You no longer need to hide in the dark.”

It’s like feeling you’re a hungry sheep and the Lord will lead you to pastures.

It’s like feeling thirsty and the Lord leads you to wonderful  springs of water.

It’s like being out on the road in windy weather or scorching heat and the Lord  gives you protection from both.

It’s like having to climb a mountain to get to the other side and the Lord cuts a road straight through the mountain for you.

It’s like being on a bumpy or pothole road and the Lord makes the highway smooth as possible.

It’s like feeling all alone and people come from all over to be with you.

It’s like feeling down and out and you start to sing and feel like you have an in.

It’s like being uncomfortable and the Lord comforts you.

It’s like feeling you’re a motherless child and you hear the Lord said, “I won’t forget you – even if a mother forgets you – I won’t forget you.

Today’s Psalm 145 continues telling us what Redemption is like.

If you think the Lord is angry with you,  you got it wrong:

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.

If you think the Lord has disappeared, let me tell you:

The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.

If you think the Lord is unjust remember:

The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.

Today’s gospel from John 5 also tells us what Redemption looks like.

Jesus and his Father are forever working in our behalf.

If you want to know how the Father sees and thinks, see how the Son sees and thinks. The Son shows us what the Father is like and he does the works of his Father – in fact the Father will do even greater works than the Son.

If you’re worried about death,  realize that the Son raises the dead and gives them life.

If you’re worried about judgment, realize that the Father doesn’t judge, He leaves that to the Son. So study the scriptures and the stories about Jesus – and then you’ll know he doesn’t throw rocks – he won't refuse you even in the last hour – rather he'll welcome you home like a lost sheep, found coin, or lost son.

And if you miss your dead – and worry about what happened to them, be at peace, because Jesus is in graveyards, amongst the tombstones, calling the dead into Risen Life.

Amen.

ANNIVERSARIES

Poem for Today - April 2, 2014

AN ANNIVERSARY

What we have been becomes
The country where we are.
Spring goes, summer comes,
And in the heat, as one year
Or a thousand years before,
The fields and woods prepare
The burden of their seed
Out of times's wound, the old
Richness of the fall. Their deed
Is renewal. In the household
Of the woods the past
Is always healing in the light,
The high shiftings of the air.
It stands upon its yield
And thrives. Nothing is lost.
What yields, though in despair,
Opens and rises in the night.
Love binds us to this term
With its yes that is crying
In our marrow to confirm
Life that only lives by dying.
Lovers live by the moon
Whose dark and light are one,
Changing without rest.
The root struts from the seed
In the earth's dark - harvest
And feast at the edge of sleep.
Darkened, we are carried
Out of need, deep
In the country we have married.

5/29/72

Wendell Berry, 

Collected Poems,

1957-1982, 

page 168-169

WATER  PRAYER

[Since both readings for today  – the 4^th  Tuesday of Lent -  talk about water – the first reading from Ezekiel 47 – which pictures rich images of a temple where water is everywhere - and then in the gospel of John 5 - where we have the Healing Pool of Siloam story – my homily this morning will simply be a poetic prayer which I wrote last night thanking God for  water.]

God,

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

we praise you for this first day of  April  – this Spring Day – we praise you this day for water, water, water everywhere.

God,

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

when I look up into the night sky – I see stars and planets – dead, dead, dead - because they have no water on them that we know of – as of now.

God,

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

when I look at our earth, our planet – especially here on the edge of the Bay – which leads out to the ocean – we see nature – grass which will get greener and greener with each Spring rain. We’ll see flowers that are about to sprout and shout to us – in a whole cascade of colors – better than all the colors in those big box of crayons – flowers ready to Spring – ready to show us how creative You are with the fabrics of flowers -  wave after wave of so many varieties of flowers.

God,  

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

we are amazed at water – its forms and flow – its twists and turns – rivers, mist, spray, waves, dew drops on spider webs and Eucharistic Bread, creeks, waterfalls, rain, water that boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 100 degrees Centigrade, water that freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, 0 degrees Centigrade – water bubbling when hot – floating when cold – amazing water, water, everywhere.

God, 

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

we are aware of the water which is  in our blood, in our drinks, water that is over 70 percent of our earth and then there is so much more under our soil – millions and millions and millions  of gallons of water  – water under our deserts – water in aquifers and trees and clouds. Water – water – water everywhere.

God, 

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

we enjoy watching little brothers loving puddles – especially when they can splash little sisters – wearing big rubber booths – but then again, kids sometimes hating baths – but loving pools and Ocean City and water slides – and water balloons - and water guns – water, water, water, everywhere and in everything.

So God,

Creator of all gifts bright and beautiful,

is it any wonder why we have such a sense of wonder about water? Some scientists tell us that we have the same amount of water we started with from the beginning.  We sense your presence, your parenting power, your creative presence, when we wonder about water.  May we use it well. May we always be amazed at it. May we always protect it. Remind us to be living water, refreshing cool water on a hot day, warm shower water on a cold day, the gift of a cold drink of water to each other each day. Amen.

WATER, RIGHT 

BELOW YOUR FEET

Poem for April 1, 2014

LIFTING THE HAGAR HEEL

Dying for water,
Hagar went racing
back and forth in the valley
but forgot to look
in the obvious places first

What she needed most
was right there all along,
under the heel of her foot
All it took was a nudge
from an angel's wing

Little self, panting the world,
take a hint.
Lift your heel,
look! - find your own
long-buried Zamzam spring.

(c) Mohja Kahf

page 84,

Language for

a New Century,

Contemporary Poetry

fomr the Middle East,

Asia, and Beyond

Hagar Text: Read

Genesis 21: 1-21

THE DEAD 

ARE WAITING FOR US 

Poem for Today - March 31, 2014

THE DEAD

The dead are always looking down on us, they say,

while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,

they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven

as they row themselves through eternity.

They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,

and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,

drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,

they think we are looking back at them,

which makes them lifts their oars and fall silent

and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.

(c) Billy Collins