INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time is, “Context.”
When dealing with the Bible - reading it in a rocking
chair on a back porch or in a quiet place - or hearing it read at Mass - sometimes
we say to ourselves, “Wait a minute? What’s this all about? I don’t get this.”
Without using the word, “context”, sometimes that’s what
we’re asking about.
“Con” means “with”.
“Text” means the text itself. We
want to know something more about the text - the background, the reason this text is here or what have you.
IMPORTANT LIFE
ISSUE
As I began reflecting upon this issue of context I realize
- obviously - it’s important for everything.
How many times have we said, "Wait a minute, you have to know the whole story!" or "the rest of the story."?
How many times have we sat on the sidelines listening to someone spouting off and we've said inwardly, "If you only knew"?
How many times have we heard the saying, "A text out of context is a pretext"?
Context is central to all our conversations - all our
actions - all our communications with each other.
We jump to conclusions without knowing why so and so did
so and so - or said so and so - and too
often we don’t listen to each other - and get the background and back story of
why we do and say what we do and say.
THE CONTEXT OF A HOMILY
In this homily I’m mainly going to get into preaching
because that’s what hit me as I was preparing this homily. Maybe my description of some of my context will get your connecting to your context.
While sitting in church during a sermon or a homily, don't be scared to say to yourself, "Why is he off on this today?" "Where is he coming from?"
And if I pull this sermon off, maybe you'll be thinking during homilies and everyday conversations, "What's this all about? Where is this person coming from? Where is this going?"
Actually, we're all doing this already....
AN EXAMPLE OF A COUPLE
Somewhere in some conversation, I heard someone say that
every weekend in their parish church they had this visiting priest who taught
scripture at Catholic University. The
husband said, “I love his sermons because he always tells us stuff about the
background of the text.” The wife said, “It sounds too much like a classroom. I
want to hear something practical - something that will help me in my everyday
life during the week." Her husband said, “We disagree!”
A SHORT FILM
In a preaching workshop I attended, the presenters showed us a short film of
people being interviewed outside of a church on a Sunday morning. Same gospel,
same readings, same priest, same sermon, but the responses were all very different.
The last person interviewed - was the priest himself. When told about all the
different responses, the priest said, with a smile on his face, “Were all these
people at the same Mass I was at?”
THE PREACHER
As preacher I often wonder what people are thinking and
feeling and wondering about during Mass. I do notice folks looking at their
watches during the homily - or looking at the bulletin. That sends me a message. Sometimes that speeds
me up as well.
However, I really don’t know the context of any person in
church.
I don’t even know where I am at that moment at times. Sometimes I figure out the why of a sermon or a homily or a conversation - a week later.
I always liked the quote, "Don't write in your diary what happened that day, because you really won't know till a month later."
When I'm preparing a homily, I like to sit somewhere and read the 3 readings a few times till a homily idea hits me.
When stuck I pray.
All kinds of comments and conversations and thoughts hit me
while sitting there at my computer or I take a few books down from the bookshelf in my mind and jot down various ideas triggered by the readings.
For example, last week was Father’s Day. I’ve heard from
teachers of preachers: "Don’t miss the obvious. If it’s Mothers’ Day, you gotta
say something about Mothers. Otherwise you're chopped liver." So too on Father’s day. Other preachers say, “I never do that. I try
to preach on the Bible readings for the day. Others
say, “Mention Fathers in the prayer of the faithful and not in the sermon.”
I preached on Father’s last Sunday. I wrote a story about
a father - who had a storm in his life. The gospel story was about Jesus
crossing the lake and a storm hit.
I wrote a story about a father of 5 kids - and his wife. It
was one of their 5 kids birthday. His
wife bought a 7 layer chocolate cake that morning. After supper - with the
father and their 5 kids still at the dinner table, his wife went into the
kitchen to get the cake. When she opened up a kitchen drawer to get birthday
candles - there were no candles. She looked at the clock - put her winter coat
on - yelled into the dining room to her husband and kids - “Gotta get something
quickly down at the dollar store. Will be back in 10 minutes for cake. Talk to
each other. Mary and Timmy clear the table.”
She gets into the car. She skids on the ice getting out onto the street - and is hit by a
dump truck. She was killed.
I had tied together Fathers’ Day and the storms of life
that just hit that Father and his family.
I headed back to the chair after the story homily. It felt like
a long, long walk. It was a loud moment
of silence.
Then came the Creed.
It hit me, during the creed, “Dumb move. That’s was a
dumb move for a Father’s Day homily. Tough stuff. You should have been more joyful.”
Some let me know that after mass.
Some said, “Have a good
week.”
I was thinking during the creed - saying the words - with my mind somewhere else. I asked myself, “What was that all about? Where did that
story I had made up, come from?"
By the time the Creed was over I said to myself, “What
you were doing there Andrew was trying to put into the minds of folks the storm on
the lake story in the gospels. You were doing that so that when storms hit folks, they will have
that gospel story and the story of father of 5 kids who lost their wife and mom. Hopefully, that will help them deal with the storms of life."
Then I went on with the Mass.
Two people said to me afterwards, “That was tough what
happened to your mom. I hope you’re okay.”
At first I said to myself, “I wasn’t talking about my
mom. That was a story about a Father that I made up totally. My father died
long before my mom. My mother was killed in a hit and run - while walking to
Mass.
Further thinking about all this, I began wondering about
a personal issue: I never cried when my mother was killed. I cried at all the other family deaths.
During the telling of that story last week, I cried a few times in pulpit - not
breaking down - but I was moved while telling this imaginary story. So maybe I
mentioned my mom’s death in a sermon years ago and these 2 people made the
connection.
I don’t know.
I do know the comment, “No tears in the
writer, no tears in the reader.” I'd assume it's the same with a homily.
I also know that when I started to work on a homily for last Sunday's Father’s Day, I was going to tell a personal story about my dad. It was a
Father’s day story from 1970. I had bought a present, a Numbers Painting - over
50 numbers - for my dad. He loved to paint the window frames and tiny sections
of woodwork - when doing house painting. So I got him this numbers' painting. He
had emphysema and couldn’t move too much - so I thought this was a good
present. He never got to do it - dying a week later on June 26th. So I felt obligated or what have you - to finish that painting in his memory. Now that was a struggle - not liking
numbers paintings. I did numbers 1, 2, 3 - and then put it aside. Then further numbers till I finished it in memory of him.
Thinking further, I didn’t use that story about my dad,
so I made up this other story, because I had mentioned my mom and dad in my
homily the week before for my 50th anniversary.
Why did I do that. Context: I
remember hearing someone complaining about their parish priest - “Stories,
stories, stories. All he talks about is his own family.”
I was also taught the preacher has to do three things:
tell their story, tell the gospel story, tell the people in church their story.
CONTEXT
So that's the seesaw in the brain that goes on for this speaker or preacher.
The title of my homily is, “Context.”
I just gave an elaborate example of “Context.”
Now where are you this morning?
What I’m saying in this homily is that everyone of you in
this church this morning is sitting in the middle of their context.
Some of you are in the middle of something you're going to do this afternoon. Some of you are sitting here in church wanting a homily on the deaths in Charleston. I was aware of that also, but I stuck it in my final blessing. I noticed this week it's going to be mentioned in the Prayer of the Faithful.
Last Monday, The New York Times, mentioned that very few
priests in the Catholic Church talked about the encyclical on the ecology
and environment by Pope Francis, “Laudato si.”
I had thought about that, but (a) I hadn't read it yet and (b) it was Father's Day, and (c) it would be tricky to tie that into the readings.
This Sunday how many preachers will address the Supreme Court decisions about the health
care and same sex marriages decisions.
Context: preachers make decisions about topics and themes - hot button issues - or what have you. We have our background and folks in the church benches have their views and their context as well.
If a preacher goes into any issue, some folks will say, “About time” or “Oh no”.
To answer some of this you’d have to know the mind set or
the context of the speaker. That awareness is the context of my homily today.
At my 50th Anniversary June 14th
there were family and friends at the Mass. One was a same sex married couple and
there was a transgender daughter of a family friend. I'm sure there were lots of folks who were helped by the Affordable Care Act and some were inwardly screaming about costs.
Pastors get phone calls and e-mails about comments from the pulpit.
Context....
CONCLUSION
The title and theme of my homily was “Context”.
Hopefully, you heard this preacher talking about some of the background that goes on in putting a sermon together.
In the meanwhile, is there anyone sitting here saying, "Wait a minute, I have questions from today's three readings that I would like to have heard something about. I would like to know the context of today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom, which
begins, “God did not make death.” Or the
sentence, “and there is not a destructive drug among them….”
And what about today's second reading and today's gospel about this 12 year old girl Jesus healed - and this woman who had blood problems for 12 years that Jesus also healed?
Is there any significance to the number 12 - or what about etc. etc. etc. and on and on and on. Amen, Amen, Amen.
