The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday
after Easter [C] is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”
Last Friday - April 22nd - was Earth Day. It's something that has been going on since 1970.
At our last staff meeting we were asked to say something
for the good of the earth this Sunday - so here goes.
THREE READINGS
I read today's 3 readings with the hopes that something in
the readings would be a good lead in for this theme of “Earth Day.”
Sure enough today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation is perfect. It begins,
“Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.” It ends, "Behold, I make all things new."
Perfect.
The reading talks about the heavens, the sea, the earth,
the city, dwellings and the human race. [Cf. Revelation 21: 1-5a]
Perfect.
Let’s work - let’s complain - let’s do our part to make everyone and everything better.
Next the reading uses the metaphor of a wedding.
We had two weddings at St. Mary’s yesterday. Seeing a
bride on her wedding day: what better image of newness and new life. Now at a wedding nobody
notices the bridegroom - except for two moments. The bride is
it. He’s chopped liver. I've noticed that the first moment is when the bridegroom is all alone at the top of the sanctuary steps. Then the music starts: "Here comes the bride..." or what have you. All stand and turn to see the bride coming down the aisle. At that moment
all the bridesmaids in the seats turn to see the bridegroom's face as his face sees his bride come
down the aisle in all her beauty. Tears and tissues. It's an awesome moment.
The other bridegroom moment is at the reception when he is called
out on the dance floor to dance with his mom.
Perfect.
Life is the moments.
AWE AND AWFUL
MOMENTS
The title of my homily is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”
Not all moments are the same - obviously.
Some are same old, same old, same old. These are the moments we are on automatic pilot and we don’t notice
anything awesome. These are mac and
cheese moments.
But then there are moments that are awesome - moments that overwhelm
us.
These are Lobster Thermidor or Baked Maryland Lump Crab Cake moments - or great
burritos moments - depending on your taste buds.
I saw the following in someone’s house recently. It was
handwriting on the wall: “Life Is Not Measured By the Number of Breaths We Take,
But By the Moments That Take Our Breath Away.”
Of course.
It’s good to sit down at the end of each day and look at
the moments of that day.
You saw a little kid put a dollar in the hat of a street
violinist. She creeped up carefully - looking back at her parents twice - her
parents who signaled her to go on. She looked up at the musician - and put some
green in his hat - looked up at his face again - and then ran back to her
parents with great delight and a great smile on her face.
You stopped to smell the roses or the lilacs on a
neighbor’s lawn.
You bought yourself an ice cream cone. Hey it’s good to
treat oneself besides the kids to ice cream and your got yourself two scoops -
rum raisin and pistachio with chocolate chips. Nobody was looking. Uuum good. Uum.
Great lickings. And you even toasted yourself with the cone.
You saw an old couple holding hands as they were headed
for an afternoon matinee movie.
You stopped to watch a flock of birds flying north.
It’s good to pause to look at what you saw that day on
the planet - and hopefully you had some awesome moments.
I hold that if a person does this every evening - as a
night prayer - you’ll see a lot more the
next day - because you have to do homework every night. I discovered this from
vacations - keeping a journal - and making a report of my journey that night -
on what I saw that day.
But there are also some moments that are awful - and we
spot them each day as well.
Ugh.
We saw a fight. We saw someone yelling at a kid. We saw
someone dump their garbage or wrappings or coffee cup on the street.
I notice in putting this homily together the close
connection between awe and awful and
awesome.
Life can be the good, the bad and the ugly.
Life can be the awe - the awful - and the awesome.
ACTION
I also began thinking about action - the action step - in
life.
By declaring a day as Earth Day - the hope is to get
action.
It works.
Mother’s Day helps florists and card shops - and moms get
a lot more “Thank you’s” that day compared to other days.
So too Father’s Day.
So too Qingming Day. I never heard of this till I was
looking up stuff for Earth Day.
Every April 4 to April 6, in China, it’s Qingming Day - a time everyone heads
for the cemetery where their parents or grandparents are buried and they sweep
and clean up the graves. Neat.
They also bring flowers and burn paper money and incense at their graves.
Neat - for the flowers. I wonder about the smoke - and
the stuff left on the cemetery grounds.
So too because of Earth Day - schools and churches and
organizations and cities do stuff to sweep up the mess. They plant trees. They
challenge us to not dump on Mother Earth. Let’s clean up the air and clean up
the water.
I noticed in a story in the New York Times the other day
about a parish in Brooklyn. They marched to the Gowanus Canal and prayed over
the water and poured holy water onto it. It’s still a mess. It was close to the
last stop on the subway before we got to Coney Island as a kid. We’d go over a
small bridge and we kids would hold our noses as we did and yell out, “Perfume
Bay.” I guess it’s still a mess. Some day - someday. The first step is
awareness and then action.
This year’s theme for Earth Day is not to waste food -
not to dump food - and awareness of the amount of food that is just dumped into
landfills - has gone down.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”
I talked about the reality that there are moments when we
see things happening on our earth that take our breath away.
I remember my first trip into Mexico - going over the
border in a car in Nogales Arizona into Nogales Mexico - and as we went down
the highway I began to realize in 5 minutes the value of emissions control here
in the United States. Cough. Cough. Cough.
We have seen smoking going down in our lifetime. Cough.
Cough. Cough.
For the sake of transparency my dad died of emphysema -
not because of smoking however - but
from what they called “White lung”. He
worked with flour at Nabisco in New York and New Jersey.
Awareness hopefully leads to action
So where can make the earth more beautiful today - this week - in this life.
Last Sunday I suggested picking up at least one piece of trash - paper - what
have you - each day.
And be awesome for each other - each day - and when
another is awesome - give them an awesome “Atta girl” or “Atta boy” or “Atta
earth.”
And “Ooops!” it’s
Spring - and awesome beauty surrounds us - so make sure you see all around and give God at least one good, "Atta God" each day. Now that's a great Atta Prayer.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
April 23, 2016
SHAKESPEARE! TODAY IS THE
400th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH
William Shakespeare - dates - were from April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616.
“What’s in a name…?”
“I’ll note you in my book of memory.”
“He’s sudden if a thing comes into his head.”
“An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.”
“There is something in the wind.”
“How long a time lies in one little word.”
“Play out the play.” “All the world’s a stage ….” “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” “The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
“Let me tell the world.”
“There is a history in all men’s lives.”
“We are in God’s hand.”
“Bait the hook well: this fish will bite.”
“Everyone can master a grief but he that has it.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
“I have bought / Golden opinions from all sorts of people.”
“Come, give us a taste of your quality.”
“To be or not to be: that is the question.”
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
“A politician … one that could circumvent God.”
“Words pay no debts.”
“Good counselors lack no clients.”
“Necessity’s sharp pinch.”
“Pray you now, forgive and forget.”
“The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”
“My salad days / When I was green in judgment.”
“Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.”
“You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely.”
“Let us not burden our remembrances / With a heaviness
that’s gone.”
Is this a first? I spotted with today's newspapers - April 23, 2017 - the above picture on page 13 of the Target Ad 18 page Input Insert. Is this a first? How about that! Nice going Target!
A First
Friday, April 22, 2016
April 22, 2016
JUST SAY SOMETHING
Just say something to the person right there with you: while holding the door, on the plane, on the short elevator ride - even if it's only to the second floor. "Hi!" "Beautiful day." "How's it going?" "Welcome home!" "Where have you been?" Hey! You never know what a word - just a greeting - or an eye shake and a head nod - might mean - to the person in the car right next to you at the red light. Just say something. Eye to eye something. At the end of a day, at the end of a life - all those words might have taken flesh - and both of you might have met Jesus Christ in each other's life: at a well, on a road, at a table, on another's cross - and both of you experienced Easter Joy.
Sun sliding down the sky into the west - into the water.... The end of another day. Thank You God. Thank You God. The dark of land - low lying mountains - holding the bay in her arms. Thank You God. Thank You God. The glistening tablecloth of water covering the top of the in-between. Thank You God. Thank You God. The slow gradual of dark night bringing peace and grace and sleep to my soul. Thank You, God. Thank You, God.
