The title of my homily for this 17th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “Prone To Evil? How
Prone?”
I take that title and that thought from what Aaron, the
brother of Moses, says to him in today’s first reading from Exodus 32: 15-24,
30-34, when Moses comes down from the mountain and all the people are singing,
dancing, chanting and worshipping the Golden Calf.
Moses was just up the mountain in ecstasy, in awe, in
worship, with God, Yahweh, the presence that brought them out of Egypt and
slavery.
How soon they fall into sin! How soon they drop the invisible God - for a
visible God - the Golden Calf.
Aaron says to Moses, “Don’t be angry. You know well
enough how prone the people are to evil.”
QUESTIONS THAT
COMMENT TRIGGERS?
That comment in Exodus 33:22 triggered for me the following questions:
·“How prone am I to evil?”
·“Are we all different in degree when it comes to
sinful tendencies?”
·“If different, what sins am I prone to?”
·“Have I changed through the years?”
·“What are my temptations?”
PRONE
Other translations of Exodus 32:22 use the word “bent”.
The New English Bible
has Aaron say, “You know they are troubled.”
The King James Version
says that the people “are set on mischief.”
The Good News Version
goes this way, “you know how determined these people are to do evil.”
KEY THEME
For a homily thought today, please answer this question
for yourselves.
Why do we sin? Why do our kids mess up? Why the horror
stories in life?
Why do we hurt ourselves or others?
Another series of questions:
·Are we predetermined?
·Are we born bent out of shape?
·Is it our parents or TV or friends that give us
good or bad example?
I’m serious. We need to reflect deep on this.
Genesis begins by saying, “All is Good. All God makes is
Good.”
Then we have the Adam and Eve and bad fruit story - and
we are the ones who choose evil.
Next Cain kills his brother Abel. In that Hebrew Story in Genesis 4 - we hear
about the “Yetzer hara”- a Hebrew term for the evil that lurks at our door and
we are the ones who invite evil into our house or tent.
All through the Old Testament we have this question - of
why Evil.
In the New Testament Paul’s answer in Romans is, “I don’t
know.” I tell myself, today I’m going to do this and I go out and do the
opposite. Why? Why?
Why do find ourselves saying on a regular basis after we
do a nasty, “Next time less wine, next time less whining, next time less
eating, next time less gossip and we do the opposite?”
CONCLUSION
I don’t have a conclusion.
This is the lifetime struggle. Paul will say in Romans - as Augustine read in
the garden - that the only person we can turn to is Jesus Christ. [Cf. Book 8
of the Confessions and Romans 13:11-14]
In the meanwhile, be like Moses and find some alone space
and listen to the 10 Commandments.
In the meanwhile, follow Jesus, the New Moses, and hear him tell us what he
learned on the mountain: the Sermon on the Mount.
Or scream out to the Lord, “Help! Bend me back into shape.
Prone me towards you.”
Sunday, July 26, 2015
I REMEMBER ____
FILL IN THE BLANK
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 17th Sunday in
Ordinary Time [B] is, “I Remember ______ Fill In The Blank.”
One of life’s key opening and recurring comments is, “I
Remember….”
And then we tell a story, a remembrance….
When we get older - our long term memory seems at times
to take over - and sometimes fills the room with a great story or remembrance -
and sometimes if we repeat ourselves enough - sometimes it empties the room.
When we get older - sometimes our key sentence, “I
remember…” changes to, “I can’t remember…” or “I’m trying to remember…” or,
“I’m losing my memory…” or “I forgot….”
So too the sadness in some - when losing family or faith
- and the loss of the sacred - and sadness invades or pervades the soul or the
room.
VACATIONS
It’s summer and sometimes people go back home and walk
the streets of the place where they grew up - and up come memories - like grass
through the cracks on the sidewalk.
I don’t have children - but I picture that it would be a
wonderful memory for a kid to have a dad or a mom or grandparent take them
through the places they were.
So too soldiers and sailors going back to Vietnam or
Korea or San Antonio or San Diego.
So too going back to the schools and playgrounds and the
places we used to go to. And the little children laughed and smiled seeing dad
sliding down the slide once again - or grandma on the swing of her childhood.
And if you haven’t and if you can, if you see people on
the front steps of your childhood home -
go up to them and tell them you used to live here and could you get a guided
tour - if possible.
So too the beauty of museums and photo albums. Let your
feet or your fingers do the walking - and let your mouth do the talking - if
you have an audience.
When I see people standing outside this church and they
look like visitors, I like to suggest, “Welcome. The church is open. Check it
out. And at times someone says, “I was married here,” or “I went to school
here.”
A POEM BY
CONRAD AIKEN (1889-1973)
Talking about memory and remembrance, I spotted a poem by
Conrad Aiken - an American poet - of Savannah, Georgia and New England and
elsewhere - and a very complex life. He
was big on remembrance and symbolism. I spotted in reading up about him, that
he has an autobiography along with his many poems and other writings. I might check
that autobiography out.
Listen to this poem by Conrad Aiken. It
will lead me to today’s gospel about Jesus and Bread.
The poem is entitled, “Bread and Music.”
BREAD AND MUSIC
By Conrad Aiken
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you, belovèd,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.
For it was in my heart you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,―
They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
Anyone who has lost a loved one - as you move among their stuff gets this poem
big time - first time.
The stuff of life is filled with flashbacks - and history
- her and his story.
The feel of others is on so many things in a house -
especially in the living room. They don’t have to have the words “In memory of”
like the stained glass windows here in church. We just have to talk to each
other - in the living rooms of our lives.
THE MASS
I have met with various people who have left the church
and want to come back. Often - if they are old enough - they discover the Mass has
changed - but they were not here to witness and change with the changes.
I don’t listen enough or too well - but I make an effort
to listen to what they saw and missed - or didn’t like or what they wondered
about as they left.
The bread is the same. The wine is the same. The key
words are the same: “This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in memory of
me.”
Jesus spoke in Aramaic.
What he said went into Greek - and spread through the Mediterranean Basin - and
then into Latin and into the languages of our world.
I like to take people into the sacristy here at St. Mary’s
and show them the safe in there where there is the gold and silver cups and
plates.
We were brought up not to touch them. That has changed. I
ask them to take the chalice and take the gold plate - and feel the Mass in
them - the thousands of Masses and more in them.
Sometimes they have engravings in them: “In memory of
Luigi and Mary Mellaci.”
I show them the unleavened bread. It’s unleavened like
the Passover Bread - which Israel
gobbled down before their run, their exit, their exodus from slavery to freedom
- wanting the promised land. Don’t we all?
I tell them the joke a deacon Dave Page at Millersville
told Father Harrison, “At Mass we believe that the bread becomes the Body of
Christ, but the greater miracle is to believe this is bread.” There was a post Second Vatican Council
statement to try to make the Bread of the Mass to look and taste a lot more
like bread.
To feed 500 or 5000 as in today’s gospel, the Church got
practical and came up with the round bread, hosts, we use in Catholic Churches
in the West. The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches use little cubes of
leavened bread - and have longer Masses.
In the poem I read we heard about a sad man at a table
where he broke bread with his beloved - bread that was more than bread -
because of his love for her - and her hands touched a glass where they shared
perhaps wine. Memories and moments at the family table.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
To me Conrad Aikens’ poem obviously triggers Eucharist, Memories, Moments from way back. To
me I have met various people who want to come back to the Eucharist - because
they need the bread and the wine and the table and the words of Christ. Down
deep they don’t miss nostalgia. They miss Christ - the bread of life. They miss the Word of God.
As you know scriptures mean writings - script. As you know the 4 gospels didn’t get
formalized till after 60 and up till 100 at least for the gospel of John.
Before that the followers of Christ met and shared bread and wine and stories
of Jesus and someone finally said, “We’re getting old. Our minds are going. We
better write down these stories and sayings that Jesus told us. We better write
down his story for the next generation - and by the way, here’s a letter that
we just received from Paul that is going around. And notice how this story
about Jesus feeding 5000 people is like this story in the Book of Kings when
Elisha the prophet fed the people with 20 barley loaves - as we heard in
today’s first reading.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “I Remember ____ Fill In The
Blank.”
We’re here at Mass this Sunday to “Do this in memory of
me” - Christ.
We come here because we are like this crowd in today’s
gospel. We are hungry. We are thirsty for this table and any table that can
bring us together.
Let me fill in that blank after that I remember in my
title this way.
“I remember Sundays in my childhood when we went to
Sunday Mass and came home and my dad made us grey cooked cereal that was
sometimes lumpy and demanded lots of sugar and then we all went to Bliss park -
us 4 kids and him - and mom got a break from us - and we came home had a Sunday
dinner together - all around the table
and then we went up to the drugstore on 4th avenue and got a gallon
of Breyer’s Ice Cream - and all was good and all was wonderful….
July 26, 2015
HURTING
Some hurts hide deep in the bottom
of the human heart. Some haven’t
had enough time to sink down there yet.
They are still too close to our face muscles,
too close to our tears and fears - so one stays busy or hides - or wears dark sunglasses - lest these recent hurts provoke those who know us to ask, “What’s going on in there? Are you okay?”
The title of my homily for this Feast of St. James is, “Simplicty and Service”.
Today’s two readings for the feast of St. James have great
simplicity. They also have truth and depth.
They give us two thoughts for the day.
FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from 2 Corinthians 4: 7-15 has the famous
“earthen vessel” text.
When it comes down to it, we are simply earthen vessels.
We’re like a flower pot. Better: We’re like a coffee mug.
Once we were brand new, but after many washes and many uses, we get chipped and
worn out. Some of us break early and some of us last a long time.
Doesn’t that sound so pessimistic? Yes!
But no! Because Paul adds, because of Jesus, there is risen
life - resurrection, hope, a future beyond our death - when we will all
celebrate newness of life.
GOSPEL
Today’s gospel has as simple and as clear a message, but it
too is a message that is filled with truth and depth.
Our purpose for existence is to serve, not to be served.
The mother of James and John wanted her boys to be the big
shots.
Nope, says Jesus. What it’s all about is service.
Life is not to be one of those fine fancy cups kept behind
glass -- special -- to be “Wows!” No life is like being a coffee mug, to be
used every day -- in service.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “Can you drink this cup?” And
they say “Yes”. He says “You will!”
Can I get you a cup of coffee?
Can I serve you?
Amen
CONCLUSION
Two simple thoughts for the day. To be simple and to serve....
Two simple thoughts to think on while you sip a cup of
coffee or tea.
Amen.
July 25, 2015
THE STATE OF MARRIAGE
Going by the Court House,
on Church Circle, I walked
by a couple ready to walk
in on a Friday afternoon
to get married. She was in
a white knee length dress -
a bouquet of flowers in her
hands and a large butterfly
tattoo on her left shoulder.
Going by them - not 5 feet
away - was a guy with a
back pack and a glare in
his eye as he silently faced
a young woman his age.
She with a little boy in hand
The title of my homily for this 16th Friday in
Ordinary Time is, “If You Got a Dream, Scream It.”
In looking up some stuff for a homily for today for the
gospel story of The Parable of the Sower,
I found a quote from the prophet Jeremiah that I never saw before: “Let the
prophet who has a dream, tell the dream....” Jeremiah 23: 28.
Let me basically say some words about that text for a homily
for today.
The simplicity of that quote grabbed me. On second thought,
for me the word “dream” comes with great baggage. I think of Doctor Martin
Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” sermon and Langston Hughes “A Dream Deferred”
poem.
“Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream....” Jeremiah 23: 28.
So that dream theme text is my homily thought for today.
That text has the possibility for a sermon about the reality
that we have our dreams, expectations, and our hopes.
More dreams - less nightmares.
Nightmares are too much with
us. Just watch and listen to the local evening news at 10 PM every night - out
of every big city. We notice the first 5 stories are 5 murders, shootings or
fires. It’s not the stuff of dreams, but the stuff of nightmares.
I dream that TV stations do more work - crime stories are easy to be had - and
tell us the Good News happening in our cities and neighborhoods each day.
THE CONTEXT OF
JEREMIAH 23: 28
Jeremiah 23:28 is
not today’s first reading, but that was the text that hit me while beginning
some research for today’s gospel about the Parable of the Sower.
Next, I looked it up and read the whole verse from Jeremiah where we these words about voicing our dreams are located. They all grab me. Listen
carefully to these words from Jeremiah:
“Let
the prophet
who
has a dream,
tell
the dream,
but
let him who has my word
speak
my word faithfully.
What
has straw in common with wheat?
says
the Lord” (Jeremiah 23: 28)
I had never remembered hearing those words before -
including that last question about, “What has straw in common with wheat?”
I’ve gone through Jeremiah many times in life, but I
wondered, “Maybe I’m used to other translations, that don’t use the word,
`dream’?”
Surprise! Most translations of Jeremiah 23: 28 use the word
“dream”. So I guess I’m like the soil that the seed of the word can’t
penetrate. I guess I’m that hard earth that Jesus is talking about in today’s
gospel when it comes to seed germinating.
DIFFERENT
TRANSLATIONS
Let me hit you with some of the translations of Jeremiah 23:
28.
The Jewish Study Bible puts it this way: "Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream; and let him who has received My word report my word faithfully! How can straw be compared to grain? - says the Lord."
The Jerusalem Bible
puts it this way: “Let the prophet who
has had a dream tell his dream as his own. And let him who receives a word from
me, deliver it accurately! What have straw and wheat in common? It is Yahweh
who speaks.”
As already indicated, The
New American Bible puts it this way:
“Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream, but let him who has my word
speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord”
(Jeremiah 23: 28)
The King James Bible
puts it this way: “The prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word
faithfully. What is chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.”
The New English Bible
puts it this way: “If a prophet has a
dream, let him tell his dream; if he has a word, let him speak my word in
truth. What has chaff to do with grain? says the Lord.”
The New Revised Standard Version puts it this way, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the
dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw
in common with wheat? says the Lord.”
JEREMIAH 23:28b-32
I then noticed that the words that follow after that text
have power as well.
The Jerusalem Bible states:"Does not my word burn like fire - it is Yahweh who speaks - is it not like a hammer shattering
a rock?" "So. then, I have a quarrel with the prophets - it is Yahweh who speaks -that steal my words from one other. I have a quarrel with the prophets- it is Yahweh who speaks - who have only to move tongues to utter oracles. I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophesies out of living."
It goes like this in the King
James Bible, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a
hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces? Therefore, behold I am against the
prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, He saith. Behold I am
against them that prophesy false dreams saith the Lord, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them
not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,
saith the Lord.”
The New English Bible
goes like this, “Do not my words scorch like fire? Says the Lord. Are they not
like a hammer that splinters rock? I am against the prophets, says the Lord,
who steal my words from one another for their own use. I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who
concoct words of their own and then say, ‘This is his very word.’ I am against
the prophets says the Lord, who dream lies and retell them, misleading my
people with wild and reckless falsehoods. It was not I who sent them or
commissioned them, and they will do this people no good. This is the very word
of the Lord.”
The New Revised
Standard Version goes like this, “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord,
and like a hammer which breaks a rock in pieces? See, therefore, I am against
the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. See, I am
against the prophets, says the Lord who use their own tongues and say, `Says
the Lord.’ See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord,
and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their
recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit
this people at all, says the Lord.”
WHAT DOES THE
QUESTION ABOUT STRAW AND WHEAT MEAN?
Next, each time I read the 23:28 text, I wonder about what that part of the text mean when it compares wheat
and straw?
Before going to a commentary, I got an answer when I read
the Good News for Modern Man translation of this section of Jeremiah. With
the addition of a few words it made the whole thing make more sense to me. In
the first few translations I thought the word dream was referring to something
good. We all have our dreams. Well Good
News for Modern Man translates the text as follows: “The prophet who has had a dream should say it
is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that
message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat? My message is like
a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces. I am against those
prophets who take each other’s words and proclaim them as my message. I am also
against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me.
Listen to what I, the Lord, say! I am against the prophets who tell their
dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray
with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go,
and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
That made it a whole new ball game - a whole new
understanding of the text.
It was the same with The
Way. They put it this way, “Let these false prophets tell their dreams and
let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference
between chaff and wheat! Does not my word burn like fire? asks the Lord. Is it
not like a mighty hammer that smashed the rock to pieces? So I stand against these `prophets’ who get their messages from
each other - these smooth-tongued prophets who say, `This message is from God!’
Their made-up dreams are flippant lies that lead my people into sin. I did not
send them and they have no message at all for my people, says the Lord.”
JESUS THE PROPHET:
JESUS THE DREAMER!
Jesus was a dreamer. Jesus was a prophet. His dreams and his
prophecy are not false! And at the age of 30 or so he began to tell his dreams
- his dreams for the human race, his dreams about how we can begin to live the
dream of God. He had a dream about a Kingdom where all people would be foot
washers and all would stop to help their brother along the way. He had a dream
of a kingdom where brothers and sisters wouldn’t throw rocks, but would forgive
70 times 7 times.
Boom. He experienced the horror of not being listened to.
But he didn’t give up.
PARABLE OF THE
SOWER
So he dreamed up the Parable of the Sower. He wanted his
listeners to look at themselves - to see which of the 4 types of people they
were.
Early Church dreamers and prophets took that same parable
and used it to understand their own loneliness in not being heard or not being
followed up.
HERE WE ARE TODAY
We today sit here.
Our brains are like a field - and lots of everyday words and
experiences are being thrown at us - as if we were a field.
Today’s gospel challenges me to ask what’s sinking in? What
am I hearing? What am I missing? Do I still realize Jesus is dreaming big dreams
for me?
We have our everyday patterns - our regular ways of doing
things - things we never even think of. Eating, drinking, brushing our teeth,
our schedules, our robotic things.
Part of us is shallow. It looks good, but underneath is rock
- rock solid patterns that can’t be penetrated or changed.
Part of us is good soil, so good we got our best stuff going
and growing there.
And part of us very good soil, soil that is or can be
producing 30, 60 and a hundredfold.
Now in those areas where we are robotic, if there are self-destructive
patterns or eating or drinking or scheduling, to change is almost impossible.
We need conversion there - changing of roads, stop living by rote, stop being a
robot. Instead the call is to change our regular patterns that are us. Our
grooves, our ruts, must go, that is if they are self-destructive.
In the areas where we are shallow, obviously, we need to
purge ourselves - rip up and move out those big boulders of habit that need to
be removed - our stumbling blocks, etc.
In those areas where we are alive, we have to look for any
weeds that are flourishing, but detrimental to our well-being.
And in those areas where we can or are producing 30, 60 and
a 100fold great. More!
CONCLUSION
Jeremiah said, “Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the
dream.” Jesus has a dream, have we heard it yet, or are we stone deaf. Or do we
have so many rocks or weeds growing within us that we never have time to uproot
them as well as planting in our rich soil.
