Do we do it to bebig ourselves a bit? Do we step on the person we tried to
make small - so we can feel bigger and
better - because we actually feel small?
Isn't it better to try to see others as different than we actually see them, to inwardly say, “Hey,I haven’t been
in their skin? Hey, I haven't read their story to know what they have been through to get to where they are right now."
The title of my homily for this Opening Mass for this
2015-16 St. Mary’s High School year is, “Merci Beaucoup”.
That’s French for “Many thanks.”
If you’re in Paris or in a French restaurant say, “Merci beaucoup”
to the waiter if it’s a great meal - and he or she will say, “Merci beaucoup!”
if you leave a good tip.
When we were growing up my brother Billy was studying
French in high school and he loved to yell French phrases at me. When I’d come
into our bedroom he loved to say, “Ferme la porte.” Translation: “Shut the
door.” As a result of that I understood
the French command, “Ferme la bouche”. Translation: “Shut your mouth.”
To this day I still remember that shut the door command
when I walk into rooms - especially when it’s expected of me to close the door.
If this sermon works, I would hope some of you will find
yourself this week, next week, and for the rest of your lives opening your
mouth and saying to others when you feel grateful, “Merci beaucoup.”
THE MEANING OF
MERCY
The French word, “merci” means thanks.
It also means, “Mercy!”
The English word, “mercy” means pardon, help me, show
some compassion, bear with me, be kind to me, give me a break, please understand my situation, be lenient, be tolerant….
However, its background is much wider and deeper and has
many more meanings.
The Latin word, “Mercedes” means wages, rewards, pay me,
ransom me, ….
It goes back to coming up for a word for “paying for
someone” - “rescuing another”. In a
restaurant, the meal is over, who’s taking the check? Someone takes the bill
and pays for all - and all say, “Merci!”
In our parish and in our high school and grammar school,
the theme for this year is, “Be Witnesses of Mercy.” This year’s theme comes
from the writings and thought of Pope Francis.
Show mercy. That we be merciful
towards those we need to forgive. That we be merciful to those who are stuck.
That we give the coins of our pocket or some cash out of our wallet to those
who are begging on our streets.
And hopeful the other says, “Merci beaucoup” or “Thanks”
or “Gracias.”
Another word for what we doing this morning is,
“Eucharist” - which means thanks to God.
As I said the other night at the high school Athletes’
Mass, “We see athletes on TV after a great play - raising their index finger
and pointing to God. Give God the glory.”
Well a Mass, this Mass, is our way of pointing to God and
giving God the glory.
It’s a way of saying to God, “Merci beaucoup.”
THEME FOR THIS
YEAR
You can see signs on our lawn - outside of school -
outside our churches - that the theme for this year is to be a witness of God’s
mercy.
That means this year we forgive each other. That means
this year we are grateful for each other. That means this year we show mercy to
others.
So this year say, “Merci beaucoup” to our maintenance
people, to people who wait on us, to people who hand us a movie ticket, to
those who referee our games, to those who teach us, to our parents.
This year is a year to witness the gifts of God
surrounding us.
Here we are in this green setting. Here we are by the
water. Here we are together on a beautiful September morning.
Let’s give God a shout out: “Merci beaucoup.”
PICTURE OF A
KID
As you know there is a major crisis going on right now in
Europe and the Middle East. People are escaping Syria and all kinds of other
places - besides all the people from Latin America who are trying to get into
our country.
On the evening news last night and in our papers today
there is this picture [show picture] of this 2 year old boy, being picked up by
a Turkish soldier on a beach. His father and his mother and his brother and he
had gotten into a smuggler’s small fiberglass boat that held about 12 people.
They wanted to to try to get to the island of Kos in Greece and then make their
way to Vancouver in Canada or Sweden.
The small raft overturned and the small boy Aylan Kurdi and his brother,
Galip, and their mother, Rehen, drowned. Only their father, Abdullah Kurdi lived
- but he is in despair.
Hopefully this picture and the scenes of thousands and
thousands and millions of people on the move around the globe will turn the
hearts of people to show mercy to these families and folks trying to find a new
life.
Obviously that’s what mercy means.
We’re told in today’s gospel to turn the other cheek, to
go the extra mile, to give the shirt off our back.
The call of God is that we be people of mercy - not just
to opening and closing doors for others - but to open and not close our eyes
and our wallets and our countries and our hearts to others.
And others in turn will not only say, “Merci beaucoup”
but they too will open up their lives to others and on and on and on.
CONCLUSION
This year let’s show mercy and compassion to each other.
This year, let’s show gratitude to each other.
This year, let’s do things that will get others to say, “Merci Beaucoup.”
Picture on top by Joshua Naylor. Here he is on what he says about his art:
Cubism 2004-2005
In the summer of 2004, I began photographing my friends and family in their most private spaces. My idea for this project was obviously inspired by the cubist paintings of Picasso and so I modeled my portraits very closely to those he painted. I wanted to show more than what just a single photograph could show. My attempt was to give the viewer the same scattered, cluttered vision of what someone might see if they were to reflect on a memory. We do not simply see a stagnant image, but a fluid moving world from many different angles. I felt that this was the best way to show a person, to show their space. The project continued to the spring of 2005 where it culminated in the piece Bereft of Lucidity which I exhibited at the 8th annual BFA Alternative Show in Bloomington, IN. This piece, inspired by a dream, was the first piece that I had photographed many different environments to incorporate them as one image. It measures 4' by 4' and uses real cut out photographs with varying depth to create the cubist look and feel.
Hey you never know who’s next to you?
You never know the person standing there
in front of you at the ticket counter. “Hi!”
Sometimes I ask, “Where are you headed?”
Sometimes my belly tells me, “Silence.”
Sometimes the other tells about a death
in the family or a sick brother or sister ….
Sometimes I tell the other things about me
that I didn’t even know I was thinking about.
Sometimes I realize - that night or next week -
it’s good to travel by plane, train or bus because it's a chance to be in holy communion with others - but sometimes I feel the long uneasiness of an "Uh oh!" silence from another.
The title of my homily for this 22nd Tuesday
in Ordinary Time is, “Bible Discoveries - Take Time - Then Keep Them in Mind.”
This will be a teaching homily.
One of my Bible discoveries is that people get more out
of reading the Bible when they have a couple of theories about the how the
Bible works - about what’s going on in the Bible - and they spot it when
reading the Bible on their own or when they hear it being read in church.
FOR EXAMPLE # 1
For example, the word Bible comes from the word “biblia”
- plural for books.
The Bible is a library of different books and different
types of literature. It’s a whole stack of books. Better: it’s a lot of
different scrolls. If you were at Mass
yesterday you heard in the gospel of Luke how Jesus was in the synagogue and
was handed one such scroll - that of Isaiah.
It was kept in a box - a tabernacle - and the attendant like a
Eucharistic Minister would open up the tabernacle and take out the word and
hand it to someone.
Sound familiar?
We come to Mass and are fed with the word and the word
made flesh Jesus.
So the first learning is to ask what kind of literature
am I reading or hearing? A kid’s story is different than a book in the history
section of the library. The Bible has fiction and non-fiction. Both contain
truths. And they have various other types of literature as well.
So those who see the Bible as the same kind of literature can end up taking
everything literally. Then some give up, because they know a person can’t be in
the belly of a whale for 3 days and live. Then when they hear it’s fiction and
non-fiction they throw up their hands saying, “I don’t know what to believe any
more.”
FOR EXAMPLE # 2
When listening to and hearing the New Testament we
discover that from after Jesus was killed and then rose from the dead as we
believe - there was a major question about the Second Coming. So after he left
us around the year 33 till sometime after 100, people weren’t sure if this
whole world was about to end.
When it wasn’t happening, when it wasn’t ending,
different people got on a new train - the one that was saying, “Jesus didn’t
mean what we thought he meant.” Keep
your ears open for that one. You could cut and paste a whole series of texts to
show that this was happening. Think about all those texts we have at the end of
the Church year - when we hear about not
knowing with the Bridegroom would appear.
In today’s first reading we have the oldest New Testament
text is 1st Thessalonians and it’s dated around the year 50 and 51.
Those of you who have Magnificat, or This Day or a small Missal - re-read
today’s first reading and this question is front and central. The end is going
to come like a thief in the night. It’s like being pregnant. Couples near the
time of birth are anxious - and make all kinds of contingency plans - not
knowing when the baby would arrive..
So read the New Testament remembering this question is
front and central at times.
FOR EXAMPLE # 3
The gospels and the letters of Paul etc. have in mind an
audience who want to know who this Jesus is. Peter is not the only one who is
being asked, “Who do you say I am?”
That question is aimed at everyone - and the gospels etc.
are probing and pushing us to answer that question.
In today’s gospel we have the funny story that this crazy
guy in the synagogue in Capernaum knows who Jesus is, “the Holy One of God” but
the crowds don’t get it yet - and the Scribes and the Pharisees never get it.
Keep that in mind when you hear the gospels. A main
question is discovering and coming up with answers to the Who is Jesus question
CONCLUSION
So that’s my homily. When we come up with some key
questions and key issues to keep in mind, we’ll grasp the scriptures that much
better. Amen.
