[Since 1993 I’ve been writing a story for Christmas in
memory of an old priest - a friend, Father John Duffy - who died Christmas Eve,
December 24th, 1993. He wrote a Christmas story every year for his
niece - and I have continued that tradition. I had typed a few of them up for
him. He was a horrible typist - and never got into computers. So here’s my
Christmas story for this year - typed up - nice and neat - for you. It’s based
on a few true stories. It has deep sadness in it, but I decided to go with it,
because of some tough stuff I’ve heard from some people this year - people who
need to hear Happy Endings. So a story
with just that title: “Happy Ending.”]
When a baby is born, when a baby is baptized, when a
little kid slides down the slide in the park - mom, dad, sometimes slide into the future and
wonder what will become of this little
one of ours.
Tom and Gladys didn’t expect what was to happen in their
future when they slid into the stretch limo - that afternoon as they left
church - after their picture perfect wedding ceremony and Mass.
Tom and Gladys - in time - had two kids - a boy and a
girl. Tommy Jr. came first - then came Penny. Gladys didn’t like the name
Gladys - never no how - and growing up said, “If I have a girl. She won’t be a
Gladys. She went by her nickname “Glad” - even enduring - sometimes hearing -
during her high school years, “Here comes Gladbag!” when she walked into class
or onto the soccer field.
Time slid on - as their kids grew up. Tommy and Penny did well in school and sports
- and bringing neat kids - friends - into their house - and into their lives.
Tommy Jr. went to college - but went by the way of R.O.T.C.
and ended up in the army and ended up in Afghanistan. Penny went to college
with a partial scholarship for soccer.
Tom Senior and Gladys adjusted to all of life’s changes
up to then. Most were ups - and the downs were not that down.
Only Gladys or Glad was home when they came to the house
to tell her that Thomas Jr. had been killed in Afghanistan. It was December 23rd,
just two days before Christmas. An I.E.D., an Improvised Explosive Device
killed him and two others in the vehicle - they were in driving - down some dirty dusty
road.
The glad obviously switched to sad. The funeral was a daze - in that same church
where Tom and Gladys were married 27 years earlier.
And then things got worse - much worse….
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary are 5 and the
Stations of the Cross are 14. Sometimes troubles double and then multiply. Sometimes life can be really tough - really rough. Sometimes
life contains the stuff we don’t want to talk about - or think about - especially
at Christmas time.
And everyone knows Christmas time can very, very merry -
and for some - very, very lonely and sad.
Penny had gotten pregnant - but was on the other side of
the country - and as a single mother struggled - but she was stubborn and trying to make it
on her own - a day at a time.
Her parents invited her back home over and over again -
especially when her brother had been killed.
Penny - like her parents - didn’t take her brother’s
death well - obviously.
Tom and Gladys didn’t know it at the time - but Penny had slipped into heroin
abuse. It started with pain killers after blowing out a second knee. The first
knee went while playing soccer years and years ago. Being a single mother made
things even tougher.
This time Tom - dad - husband - was the one who got the
news that Penny was found dead - from an overdose of heroin. They didn’t see it
coming.
How could she do it? Couldn’t she think, think, about her
baby girl, Judy.
They flew out to where she was living and were able to
start the preliminary paper work to acquire Penny’s little girl and bring her
back home with them. They had a small, small funeral out there - because back
home it would have been too much.
People who had experienced Tom Jr’s death and found it so
difficult - when they heard about Penny’s death - were speechless. Yet close friends
knew that silence, just standing there with either Tom or Gladys helps very
deeply.
Thank God, Tom and Gladys now had a granddaughter, Judy,
to raise.
Thank God, Tom and Gladys were still working - and Gladys
was able to retire - early.
Thank God, Tom and Gladys had a good marriage. They
worked on it.
They held onto each other. They put one foot in front of
the other. They often went out for walks with each other. Now they could take
their granddaughter with them on walks through the neighborhood and to the
local park. They made it through the night
- and then through the days ahead.
In time they loved it when folks in the mall or the
supermarket or outside church or at the park would say, “Wow you have such a
beautiful daughter.”
They would smile and love to say, “Thank you.”
Judy grew more and more beautiful and kept her
grandparents young.
When Judy was in the fifth grade, Tom and Gladys had another surprise.
Judy became “BF” “best friend” with another fifth grader,
Mary, from just up the street.
And these two became best friends for life. In fact, when Judy got married years and
years later, Mary was her maid-of-honor and Judy was her maid- of-honor when
she got married - and Tom proudly walked both of them down the aisle as dad -
when each got married.
What? What
happened? What happened here? Tom going down the aisle as dad for both Judy and
Mary?
Well, as Mary told
me the story years later - here’s what happened.
It too was a very sad story - but it too has a happy
ending.
You never know what’s going on inside that front door of
the other houses on your street.
Mary’s parents were heavy alcoholics and when she would
come down the stairs in the morning to go to school, there would be no
breakfast - and often no parents. Sometimes she would spot them both passed out
on the family room couch.
Mary would get dressed by herself - put on her back pack
with her books and walk up the street
and up the front steps to Judy’s house. The door was always open in the morning
for Mary. Gladys made sure of that.
Then - as Mary told me - with an amazing smile of joy on
her face: “Mrs. Glad would get me breakfast, comb my hair, clean me up, give me
a nice morning kiss on the top of my head - and get me ready for the day.”
Then looking back on all this, Mary told me, that what
Mrs. Glad did for me saved my life. And Mr. Glad did too. My dad disappeared
along the line. He left us. And so Mr. Glad gladly walked me down the aisle
when I got married as well.
She also said the following. It was around Christmas
time. She didn’t know she was giving me my Christmas story. Mary said, “One
door was closed - like the Inn in the Christmas Story - but another door was
open - the house of Mr. and Mrs. Glad - like in the Christmas stable or cave
story. Amen.”
The title of my homily for today, December 22, is, “Magnificent.”
Since we have Mary’s Magnificat as today’s gospel, the word and the
theme of magnificent hit me.
What would it be like to have an ink pad and one of those rubber stamps
with the word, “MAGNIFICENT” on it?
What would it be like to go into Office Depot orStaples and ask to have
such a rubber stamp made up with that word “MAGNIFICENT” on it.
I wonder if the person at the counter would be surprised. They would
have seen and sold standard rubber stamps with words like “FRAGILE,” “SEND,”
“APPROVED,” “REJECTED,” and “FYEO - For Your Eyes Only.”
But the word “MAGNIFICENT,” I don’t know if they would have that.
MARY IN HER
MAGNIFICAT
Mary in her Magnificat stamps as magnificent the goodness of the Lord, the
realization that the Lord spotted her - a lowly servant up there in the tiny
village of Nazareth - that the Almighty has done great things for her, that God
has shown mercy on those who fear him in every generation and on and on and on.
She rubber stamps God’s valuing the poor and God’s frustration with the
rich and powerful who don’t do for the poor and the weak enough.
LOOKING AT OURSELVES
Looking at ourselves, looking at our
neighbors, our parish and our world, what would we stamp as magnificent? Do
this slowly and we might see moments we saw a beautiful sunrise or a forest of
rich red Autumn leaves or the volunteers in the St. Vincent de Paul Society
helping the poor.
We might stamp as a MAGNIFICENT moment seeing
kids coming towards their Christmas presents on Christmas morning.
We might stamp as MAGNIFICENT being at marriages,
baptisms, Thanksgiving dinners with a filled house - and anniversaries.
We might stamp as MAGNIFICENT a kid’s choir
or an adult’s choir singing Christmas carols - or a mighty chorus singing
Handel’s Messiah full blast.
We might stamp as MAGNIFICENT a funeral
that was quiet, simple, sweet for a mom or a dad - or a big funeral like the
one we had for Bernie Bernsten who was always here for this Tuesday morning 8
AM Mass.
I don’t know about stamping a big
chocolate chip cookie in milk as MAGNIFICENT or a juicy pulled pork sandwich at
Adam’s Ribs. I don’t know about a team
winning the National Championship, the World Series or the Super bowl or the
Stanley Cup.
We have the mouth - we have the mind and
the words - the eyes that see - and we could have an imaginary stamp to stamp
anything we see as MAGNIFICENT. So it could be a great play - a great song - a great meal - a great piano recital or
violin solo - or a radical moment with God in prayer.
It could also be in French - MAG NI FIQUE
- spoken with a hand gesture and with a kiss smack of the lips.
CONCLUSION
A test - some homework - a questionnaire:
Looking at our life, imagine yourself stamping
5 top moments from one’s life with the word “MAGNIFICENT” on it - especially
moments that were full of grace - and the Lord was with us.
Looking at our life, with an imaginary
rubber stamp, stamp the word "MAGNIFICENT" on 5 people who have been "MAGNIFICENT" to us and for us.
The title of my homily for December 21st in Advent is, “The Hail Mary! Savor it! Say
it Slowly!”
I have a complaint - but I don’t want to make this a
complaining homily.
The complaint is the rushing of prayers: like the Hail Mary.
Instead of complaining, I want to suggest a few things
about saying the ancient prayer: the Hail Mary.
This is a very easy homily - because we all know and say
the Hail Mary all the time.
So a homily entitled, “The Hail Mary! Savor it. Say it
Slowly.”
BREAK IT DOWN
Let’s begin with
“Hail.”
It’s a greeting - a
message - a connection - we say 100 times a day. It’s simply, “Hi!” or “Hello.”
In German, it’s
“Heil!” We’ve heard that before.
So “Hi Mary!” I’ve
never heard anyone who tried to modernize the Hail Mary to “Hi Mary!” - but “Hi” or
“Hey” or “Hello” is what we’re saying. It’s the call to connect - to greet. It’s the
beginning of communion and connection - be it long or short.
Next comes the
other’s name. Who are the names of the persons in our communion - connection.
Mom, dad, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends.
Name tags are an
attempt to help communication.
I read somewhere that
the number one word people who are in love say is the name of the person they
love. They are saying it inwardly all the time.
I’ve been with many high school groups - and I've noticed that girls write the name
of the kid they like, love, are after - 100 times on their note pads or loose
leaf fillers. Men sometimes do the tattoo.
Full of grace comes
next. We’ve heard people say, “You’re
full of baloney", etc. etc. etc. Mary is filled with grace, which means for
starters: gifts - the gifts we need, especially, faith, hope and charity.
We’ve all heard
someone begin talking to us - buttering us up - and we wonder what they want - what they want to
eat up in us - probably our time.
Does Mary say back to
us, “Okay what do you want?”
And in the Hail Mary
we express what we want. Help - for us sinners - for our family - for health -
for patience - for strength.
We add, “the Lord is
with you!” Translation: Mary, you can do it.
You can help. You have the Lord on your side.
All those who think
we think Mary is God - tell them we don’t. But we do think “The Lord is with
her.”
And because of the
Lord we think she is blessed among all women - because blessed is the fruit of her womb, Jesus.
I noticed on the
Democratic debate on Saturday night each candidate was asked about roles their spouse might take on if elected president. Fun was made of Bill Clinton if Hillary wins. Martin
O’Malley our former governor - made a double blessing - that his wife, Katie,
doesn’t need me to be delegated any duties - and besides that she gets her skills
and gifts from her mother. One commentator said, “Smart move, praising not only
his wife, but also his mother-in-law.”
So praise is key to the
Hail Mary - not just prayers of petition.
We know the first
part of the Hail Mary contains 2 scripture texts from here in the Gospel of
Luke. We heard one here in today’s gospel.
We also know that by
at least the 13th Century the Hail Mary was being used in the
Western Church and had added two words, “Mary” and “Jesus” to make the prayer
clearer. We see that in various writings. St. Thomas Aquinas is often mentioned
for saying this.
We also know Part
Two, the "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of
our death" - is first found in print by 1495 in Girolamo Savonarola’s “Esposizione sopra l’Ave Maria.”
We know that the
Dutch Jesuit Saint, Peter Canisius - whose feast is today - has that second part
of the Hail Mary in his 1555 catechism.
Scholars next say
that it made its way into the Catechism of the Council of Trent 11 years late.
Here’s the sentence in that Catechism. "we render to God
the highest praise and return Him most gracious thanks, because He has bestowed
all His heavenly gifts on the most holy Virgin ... the Church of God has wisely
added prayers and an invocation addressed to the most holy Mother of God ... we
should earnestly implore her help and assistance; for that she possesses
exalted merits with God, and that she is most desirous to assist us by her
prayers, no one can doubt without impiety and wickedness.” CONCLUSION
So when saying the Hail Mary, say it slowly. Savor it. It has a long history. Say it to Mary - not
at Mary.
Didn’t Jesus - the fruit of her womb - say something like that - not babbling
our prayers, but praying our prayers.
