(For C.) Painting on top: Three Nuns by Dorothy Mary Braund (1926) Australian, 1965
SEEING YOUR GOOD DEEDS, THEN
GLORIFYING
YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 10th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Seeing Your Good Deeds, Then
Glorifying Your Heavenly Father.”
Today’s gospel ends: “Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
There’s 2 steps there: seeing and then giving God the
Glory.
If I had to put these 2 steps into gesture it would be
like this: two fingers pointed to the eyes. That symbolizes seeing. Coaches are
telling players to be doing this all the time. See. See. See. Look. Look. Look.
Be aware. Be aware. Be aware. Watch. Watch. Watch. Secondly, lifting that one
hand – one finger pointed up to God – giving God the glory.
I’ve been noticing in sports these past few years that an
athlete makes a great play or makes a great shot or what have you and then that
athlete raises his one hand and index finger - signifying: “Give God the Glory.”
TODAY’S 2
READINGS AND PSALM PROVIDESOME KEY SCENES TO SEE
First scene to
see. There is mention in this first reading –
1 Kings 17: 7-16 - of seeing a dry brook – without rain – and then
picturing that same brook – flowing with rain water after the heavens open up
and pours down rain.
This is going to
happen in the next chapter – 1 Kings 18: 41-46 – when torrential rain falls
when Elijah calls on God for rain – and he succeeds whereas the priests of Baal
– are weak – when calling upon their fertility gods for water.
I look out my
window every morning and I see Spa Creek. Every day it is still filled with water. It’s looking good – all year long. Give God the
Glory.
When I drive down
Rowe Blvd – with the State House in
front of me - heading back to St. Mary’s – I always spot the spot - there off to my right - where water
is down below – under what is the first
of the two flat bridges. There always
seems to be water down there the whole year – even in August. I always look
there and wonder, “Has that creek ever dried up?”
Next scene…. The
first reading talks about a widow – this woman with one son – how she gets water
for this wandering prophet on the run – and then bread and cake as well. The
food doesn’t run out.
I think of all
the people on the planet who help feed other people on the planet – people who
help fill the food banks in local centers for the poor – as well as churches –
etc. etc. etc. As well as countries and big organizations like the Red Cross,
Catholic Relief Services – helping other countries after national tragedies.
See people helping one another. Give God the Glory.
Today’s Psalm
response is, “Lord, let your face shine on us.”
See all the
people who see God’s smile on the faces of so many other people on the planet –
every day. May we be the smile of God. May we be the joy of God. May we be the face
of God for another today. Give God the glory. We all remember the comment the
little kid made who said, “I want to see a God with skin on.” We are called to
be the face of God – the hand of God - the lift of God - the smile of God – for
those around us each day.
Today’s gospel – Matthew 5: 13-16 – part of the Sermon on
the Mount - tells us that same message with our call to be salt and light to
our world. When we are that – when we
are shaking salt, shining light, on others, then we are giving God the glory.
CONCLUSION
Why do people
give up, why do people dry up, why do people not show up – when it comes to
being bread and water, cake, a smile, salt and light, for each other.
The answer ought to be: because they haven’t met us yet. Amen.
TO BE
IS TO BE
FOREVER
Poem for Today -Tuesday - June 10, 2014
I DIED
I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind e’re conceived, Oh, let me not exist! For Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, ‘To Him we shall return.’*
The title of my homily for this 10th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “Streams of Living Water.”
At the end of today’s first reading from 1st
Kings 17, I noticed the words, “he drank from the stream.”
The “he” refers to Elijah, the Prophet. He is thirsty and
on the run and is hiding from Ahab and
his soldiers.
Elijah is hungry and thirsty and he hears the Lord
telling him where to hide and where there is water – at the Wadi Cherith, east
of the Jordan.
A wadi is the bed or valley of a stream in dry regions.
In rainy seasons that’s where the rain flows into. It’s a gully – a shallow
depression in the earth. It’s from the Arabic word “WADIY” – meaning just that.
I read the readings to come up with an idea for a homily.
I’ve read and heard dozens of sermons on the Beatitudes,
so I was looking at this first reading especially.
It hit me: “Ask what are and where are my streams of
living water?”
TRIXI
One my best friends was a priest with the nickname of “Trixie”. He was a fat little Italian guy. I
was standing with him once in our old seminary in Upstate New York on a hot
day. He says, “Let’s go down to the library and get a drink of cold water at
the fountain there.”
I said, “There’s no fountain down there.”
He says, “Yes there is, Fat People always know where
there are cold water fountains.”
I said, “Thanks for the compliment.”
Well, maybe not any more with bottled water.
Where are our fountains, our streams of living water –
the one that woman in the Gospel of John asked Jesus about? [Cf. John 4: 15]
A wonderful prayer is to say what that woman said, “Jesus,
I want that water – that living water you’re talking about.”
SOMETIMES WE’RE
DRY – SOMETIMES WE’RE IN A SPIRITUAL DROUGHT
Any of us – who are religious searchers – know what it is
to be spiritually thirsty and spiritually dry.
It’s an image that is part of spirituality literature. It’s part of marriage as
well. We have dried up. And marriage is also a powerful image often found in spiritual literature.
Another image is The Dark Night of the Soul and Senses and
Spirit.
Basically they are the same.
SO WHAT ARE OUR
STREAMS OF LIVING WATER
So what are our streams of living water?
It is wise to ponder this and see what are our answers to that question.
Why? So we can go to those sources. Any of you who have
read The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila – know of her 4 sources of water - so as to water our garden for the Lord - so as to be in union with God. The first is the bucket. It's more us - the going back and forth to the well, lowering the bucket down into the well, pulling up the rope, and then walking back and forth to the garden from the well. The second is the windlass. It's a bit easier than lowering and lifting a bucket up and down into a well. I went searching in Google, but I've haven't found a picture of this kind of a "machine" in Spain in the 1500's, so I find this image the hardest to picture. The wind part of the word and the image is from a rope that winds around a piece of wood. One turns or winds a handle around and around to make it a bit easier to get water in a barrel from a water source. The third image is the trench or canal one builds to let water flow from a stream into one's garden. Self first and then one sits back and lets the water flow and do its work. The last image is simple: it rains. God does all the work. Let go, laugh, and let God drench us completely.
Anyone who has seen the famous statue by Bernini of
St. Teresa in Ecstasy in Sancta Maria Della Church in Rome knows that image. She’s
standing there in an ecstasy – as in a rain fall.
When people are deeply in love – when people are on their
honeymoon – it’s like being in rain storm of love. I’m not married, but that’s
my romantic image of it.
Any of us who have spent time in prayer – know moments of ecstasy.
So then the question: what are our streams of living
water? What are our spiritual sources - that fill our reservoir.
CONCLUSION
The answer for me is time: taking time to read
scriptures, taking time for Mass, taking time for a brief morning and night
prayer. It’s taking time to go to Jesus the stream, the source, of living
water.
