When we hear the words - when we think about Memorial
Day, what hits us? That is my question
for the moment.
It’s a sacred day!
It’s a day of Thanksgiving.
It’s a day to rethink the gift of life.
It’s a day to say some prayers.
It’s a break - some extra time - some extra space. Hope
the weather is good for Frisbee or the beach - a cookout - hot dogs and burgers - beer and watermelon.
It’s a time for flag waving, patriotism, parades, bands,
and to remember our dead.
It’s the time to reflect upon the craziness - and
sometimes the necessity of war - because sometimes some people are crazy and
need to protect one another and stop each other. Sometimes we don’t just say
“Hi!” to each other as human beings, sometimes we don’t accept each other as
brother or sister - and so we have wars when people kill each other.
I always remember on Memorial Day a tiny little story I
spotted in Time Magazine years and years ago. The story talked about a young sculptor,
who during World War I. In his spare time in a foxhole he had carved the wood
stock of his rifle handle into the figure of another human. I don’t remember who
or what the sculpture was of. It might have been of baby or a woman. What I
remember all my life - and won’t forget - that this man’s talent, future,
possibilities all ended there in his early 20’s in the mud and the machine guns
and mustard gas in the middle of a war.
So that’s one reason I began thinking about all the people who never got a
chance to live life - because someone’s life line stopped - with a bullet or a
bomb or a blast there in a battle in some woods or battle field or beach.
I think of all the Veteran’s cemeteries I’ve been in or
have gone by in my life so far: Gettysburg, Antietam, Arlington, Crownsville,
those two veteran’s cemeteries on West Street - and so many more.
I think of dust - earth - the paths we travel, the dust
on our blinds - how this is all part of a billion living beings - that once was
alive. I don’t believe in re-incarnation. I believe this is me and I get one
shot - but I also believe I am part of all kinds of past life containing the
life of men and women and children and squirrels, bears and bugs and hippos and
deer - and trees and roses and onions
that grew and left their mark on this planet - for millions and millions of
years so far.
I think of the urge and the hope in every human being to
be remembered - that someone knew I was here - and so people leave letters,
words, children, a legacy for someone to read - someone to see - someone to
hold.
I’m glad there are cemeteries, obituaries, ship
manifestos, baptismal records, marriage licenses, photos and graffiti - that we
are not an I but a WE.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
COME HOLY SPIRIT!
GOING FROM THE KNOWN
TO THE UNKNOWN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Come Holy Spirit! Going from the Known to the Unknown.”
Today is the Great Feast of the Holy Spirit. We sing,
“Come Holy Spirit:” We sing, “Veni Sanctae Spiritus.”
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s readings obviously feature the Holy Spirit -
often called, “The Unknown Person of God.” “The Unknown Person of the Trinity.”
We often hear of the Father and the Son - but not enough
of the Holy Spirit.
So the title of my homily is, “Come Holy Spirit! Going
from the Known to the Unknown.”
I’m simply going to move through 3 images of the Holy
Spirit: Wind, Fire and the Dove.
ACTION STEP
I’m going to stress the action step of seeing and
reflecting - using our eyes and our mind - to notice and to consider.
FIRST WIND
One of first images of God is that God is Spirit - Wind -
Air.
Sit with a morning cup of coffee and look out the window
or if you have a porch and look around you. Sense. Listen. See. Sit there and
watch the leaves shaking like a fan in a hot church - fanning the air - getting
us cooler. Watch the grass do a wiggle dance in our yard. Just sit there on
most mornings - and sense the air, the wind, the breath of creation. Things are
moving.
Remember the stories that begin our genesis in The Book of Genesis.
The Book of Genesis
begins: “In the beginning of Creation, when God made heaven and earth, the
earth was without form and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and
a mighty wind that swept over the
surface of the waters. God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light; and
God saw that the light was good, and he separated light from darkness. He
called the light day, and the darkness night. So evening came, and morning
came, the first day.”
Those are just the first 5 verses of the Bible - the book
called Genesis - The Beginning.
I like to pick up any book and read the first 5 or so
sentences - especially a novel or a short story.
“Mom and dad had me! Wow what a story so far. Wanna hear
it?”
Read on.
Wind, air, breath are essential for life. Catch your
breath.
Then God forms us out of the clay - the mud of the earth
- like a sculptor - and breathes life into that clay and the statue called me becomes
flesh like Adam and Eve - we walk with God especially in the cool of the
evening.
Then God the Birth Mother and Father slaps us - gives us breath
- not artificial resuscitation - fresh
breath, fresh air and we’re moving - living - breathing on our own.
That word for breath in Hebrew is “Ruah” - wind, air,
breath - and the Rush of God is in us.
Life!
Primitive people figured this out. We are from God - we
depend upon God - because when we stop breathing - we’re dead.
So the beginners knew God - absolute fear and trembling -
mysterious God - especially when they stopped to have their cup of coffee each
morning and see - feel - the breath of God.
So the primitive spiritual leaders told people to be
aware of their breath, the wind, the air, “Breathe!”
“Come Holy Spirit.”
SECONDLY FIRE
In the Bible - the Holy Spirit is also pictured as Sparks
of Fire - coming down on people.
As we know - fire needs air - oxygen. It’s all connected.
People - us primitive people also know the power of fire
- volcano, the sun, the fire place, the stove, the blast off fuel of rocket
ships going to the stars.
So too fuel - coal, oil, gas, wood, - get a light -
ignite it - go deeper and discover atomic or hydrogen power - and who knows
what’s next - in the next thousand years - where we’re headed.
Fire, power, fuel, sit looking into a fire place in the
dead dark of winter or scouts while camping - or young people on the beach with
a big beach party - stir sparks of light. There is something basic burning here
in these moments - and we’re moved into deeper mystery - and we know more than
we know - we go into the deep unknown - and get hints of God - so too in the
absence of God and heat - we know we can freeze to death - and die.
Come Holy Spirit.
LASTLY, THE
DOVE
And lastly we see a bird - a dove gliding on the invisible
air - singing - sometimes with a sprig from a branch in its mouth. It might be
building a nest - for the next generation.
Like Noah - after 40 days sailing in his boat on an empty
looking sea - we see the message from the bird with the branch in its mouth and
know there’s land near.
So too Columbus - as the myth and the legends and the stories go
- they saw a bird with an branch and they too knew land was close by.
So from early, early times, the bird, whether it’s a
raven or a dove, an eagle or a hoot from an owl, there is a message here for us
to hear, to see, to notice and to learn from.
CONCLUSIONS
The title of my homily today is, “Come Holy Spirit! Going
from the Known to the Unknown.”
I talked about wind, fire and the dove.
The action step is to see and reflect - notice and
consider.
I love to see people on sail boats - looking and smiling
- feeling and embracing a breeze off the water - filling a sail - or just the skin on their face - and with eyes closed
- their minds are filled with God and the beauty of life.
I love to see people on the New York or Toronto subway or
metro - smiling to each other - people of all colors and shades - but their
faces speaking the same language - and I get Pentecost - there is a language we
all speak and signal - a sign language that says we are all brothers and
sisters.
So too scenes around the fireplace - or a barn or beach
fire. When we’re all one without words.
I love to watch the birds of the air. Wow can they fly.
I loved watching the birds of the air last Tuesday and
Wednesday here in Annapolis, with the Blue Angels doing some of things real
birds can do. Amazing.
All of the above tells me the Spirit of God is still
involved in Creation.
Come Holy Spirit - you’re here. Thanks.
May 24, 2015
PENTECOST
I guess I don’t/won’t get it, till I’m all shook up. [1]
I guess I don’t/won’t get it, till I’m burned - till
I have a fire lit under me - or over me. [2]
I guess don’t/won’t get it till I try to be in peace
and to be in holy communion with every person -
no matter what the language - or the culture. [3]
I guess I don’t/won’t get God till I sense his presence not just in storm - when I scream in terror, “Oh my God!” but in God’s still soft whispering voice. [4]
I guess I don’t/won’t get it, till I keep praying,
The title of my homily for this Graduation Mass for the St. Mary’s High School
Class of 2015 is, “Awesome.”
Ginny
sent me an e-mail with the readings to reflect upon for this Mass. She added that the
theme for this Graduation Mass is the ongoing theme: “You are never alone - I have awesome plans
for you.”
Let
me repeat that. Hear God saying right now, “You are never alone - I have
awesome plans for you.”
The
first reading from Jeremiah 29:11-14 begins with the message that God has plans for us.
The second reading from a Letter of St.
Paul to the Philippians 4:13-19 has Paul saying,
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” And when we do with our
lives God’s plans we are salt and light to those who experience us - as today's gospel reading puts it -Matthew 5:13-16.
Awesome!
I
thought about this and decided to think out loud about the feeling called, “Awe.”
We’ve
all experienced some awe in our lives. Awesome.
Awe:
it contains amazement, some fear, some tremble. It contains wonder and surprise
- beauty and the spectacular.
It’s
a roller coaster of a word. It’s a roller coaster of a feeling.
How
many times have we heard some little kid say, “Awesome”?
How
many people in Annapolis said yesterday as they looked up into the sky and saw
the Blue Angels, “Awesome”?
Billy
Chrystal in his movie Cowboy Slickers talks about the first time a little kid
goes to a Major League baseball game. His was Yankee Stadium with his dad. Mine
would be with my dad, Ebbet’s Field, 1947. Jackie Robinson had just been brought
up to the Major Leagues. In his experience Billy Chrystal said he was all eyes - all ears - going
into the stadium. He handed his ticket to the collector. He and his dad walk and walk inside in the belly of the stadium. They finally come to the moment they are going up a ramp. They start to
see the light of day - the crowds - the players practicing. Then this little kid sees the green,
green grass and rich brown dirt infield of Yankee Stadium. For some of you it was Camden Yards.
Awesome.
It’s
could also be the same feeling at one’s firsts Ravens or Redskin game.
Awesome.
It could be the same at a birthday party or going into Disneyworld or 6 Flags
or the first time one goes on a plane and we look out the side window and start to feel sky. It could be the first time getting on a horse or a roller coaster. It could be getting on a mule and heading down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
The
short 3 letter word “awe” is an automatic mouth opener. It's also an
eye opener - as well as an amazement opener.
Awe.
Graduation
… going to college … the next step … falling in love … getting married … having
a baby … seeing one’s kid reading, writing, saying his or her’s first word …
first prayer before going to bed - before meals - going to school …. making his or her First
Communion - graduating from K-school, Elementary school - high school - graduation - going off to college - and on and
on and on. All are awesome moments -- and on and on and on.
School
- life - education - great teachers - a great book - a great trip - a great
concert - a great game - all hopefully are eye openers - mind openers - mouth
openers.
Awesome!
Could everyone here say “Awesome!”
Could
you say “Awesome” again - but this time feel what your mouth is doing and how
it ends up.
Open
up your mouth as the doctor or the dentist tell us and say, “Ah!”
Then
open up your mouth and say, “Awe” and again sense and feel where and what your
mouth is doing.
It’s
opening.
The
bore - the kid - the old person - not open to new life - has a closed mind and
a closed mouth and a closed “awe”.
Bummer.
The
person who is salt and light to every situation - is the person who is still in
the school of life.
When
I was a kid in Brooklyn we went on a class trip to the Hayden Planetarium in
New York. We sat there in this round theater. We looked at this gigantic machine - in
the shape of a 3 dimensional 8 - with holes - metal acne on its skin, with lights shining
out of every one of those openings - light that put stars,
planets, galaxies on the ceiling. Then we heard a voice and an arrow telling
us what they were. It was an awesome moment - much more exciting than any
moment in any classroom.
Awe!
Then
there was a moment when I was older in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado - in the
night - in a clear dark night - 4 of us lay there on the ground in sleeping
bags looking up at a star studded sky - awesome - much more than what we saw in
Hayden’s Planetarium in New York. There is nothing like the real thing.
If
you only get to page 1 - in the Bible - if you only read the first chapter of
the first book, Genesis, meaning “Beginnings” - if you only memorize one verse
from the Bible - remember, say, mean, these 7 words, “And God saw that it was
good.”
See
everything. Appreciate everything. See that all that God makes is good. It’s
awesome. And when we make things - and when we walk around - see that all is
awesome. A chocolate milkshake at Chick and Ruth’s - a Reuben sandwich on
Houston Street in New York City, a concert by the Philadelphia Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Amazon river in Brazil, a little kids first step and all clap,
the subway in Stockholm, Sweden, etc. etc. etc.
When
you’re sitting in some quiet moment - with a computer or laptop or iPhone type
into Google, Sainte-Chapel Paris.
It
opened up again yesterday - May 20 -
after 7 to 10 years of repair and restoration. Instead of those lead lines - between the
thousands and thousands of pieces of stained glass - is a transparent new glue. It helps make the light and the colors even more awesome. This chapel in the heart of Paris was built way
back around 1250 - and contained the most important relics from Christ’s Death
in the world. The Crown of Thorns was #1.
Whether they are the real relics is not the issue. People thought they
were. And this was all seen in a spectacular setting.
What
would it be like to be in that chapel in Paris this Sunday - Pentecost Sunday -
for Mass and for a concert? Awesome.
What
is awesome is the place. Check it out on Google. Like me seeing the stars in
Hayden’s Planetarium in New York and then seeing the stars in the mountains in
Colorado, see it yourself before you
die.
Or
go into this church or any church - and realize you’re in an awesome
place. We believe we’re in the presence
of Christ. Awesome.
Also
take a good look at the crucifix - on the wall here - facing us. Life has its
crosses as well. Sometimes life is also awful. So this church is telling us
that Christ is also with us when we’re on the cross - as well as in our daily
bread.
The
title of my homily is, Awesome.
If
there is one word I hope someone will say about me and about you at your
funeral it’s this: He saw the world as good. Better: awesome.
And
when we get into heaven - you heard it here: It will be awesome.
If you haven’t started yet: start now - graduate to awesomeness.
