THE POWER OF A PARABLE
INTRODUCTION
The title of my
homily for this 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - is, “The Power of a Parable.”
Subtitle or
Alternative Title: “The Power of a Story.”
I want to talk and
think out loud about the power of a story - a parable - an example - that moves
us so powerfully - that it challenges us to change our thinking - change our
behavior - change our lives - to make us different than we were.
Has that ever
happened to you?
Better: this has
happened to you. It has happened to all of us. It’s called life, growth,
mimicking. Why do babies smile? They
look into the mirror of our face.
But we might not
have done our homework, heart work, brain work, memory work - reflecting about and
considering the stories of our lives - the stories that have sculpted us.
ONE OF MY NIECES
At Thanksgiving a
few years ago we were at Virginia Beach as a family. I was driving back to Annapolis the next day
- Friday - and one of my nieces asked if I could drive her and her daughter to
BWI - so she could fly back to Miami - where they live.
Great experience
- because we had a chance for a 5 hour plus talk. She said she went to Spain
with her mother while in high school to visit an older sister who was spending
a year of college in Madrid. Experiencing that she said to herself, “This is
great. When I go to college. [She went to JMU] I’m going to do this year in
Spain thing. She did and that’s how she met her husband to be and the whole
direction of her life changed - living in Hamburg, Germany, Bogota, Colombia,
and Miami, Florida - bringing 3 children into the world.
GATHERING THE STORIES
That’s was one of
her stories - from that car ride.
What are your significant
stories?
By that I mean
the stories that formed and informed you - negatively and positively. I want to
do this. I don’t want to do that.
I have never drank because I saw an uncle drunk a lot of times when I was a little kid and I must have said, “I’m never going to do that!” and I haven’t.
So it might be our
childhood stories, our parent’s stories - brother’s and sister’s stories - our
family stories.
The first step is
to gather the stories.
The second step
is to name how our thinking has changed
- because of an experience.
It can be also be a non-family story - a book or a
movie or a play.
I saw a movie, The Black Hand, around 1950. It was a
cheap Saturday afternoon matinee. I was a kid with my older brother.
I don’t remember anything in the movie other than a scene on a deck of a
ship and a group of young men were talking about why they were coming from
Italy to America. Gene Kelly, playing the part of Giovani - Johnny - Colombo
pulls out a knife - opens it up - and throws it down into the wooden deck of
the ship - and says, “I’m going to America to avenge the death of my father.”
Was that the
first time I got in touch with one of life’s most important questions: motive?
In 1968, I
remember seeing on Broadway the play, The
Price, by Arthur Miller. A father dies. Two brothers show up to deal with
the selling of the furniture - and they are waiting for a buyer. One brother says
to the other brother something like this, “You want the God-almighty handshake
and you’re not going to get it.” One brother had left home and went to college and
became a doctor while the other brother stayed home to take care of their dad -
and became a policeman.
Is that when I
realized for the first time that some people won’t forgive some people -
especially family members?
That play by
Arthur Miller got me to think deeply about that question.
As Shakespeare
puts it in Hamlet, in the play he devises within the play, “The play’s the
thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
I’ve seen the
movie, Shawshank Redemption at least
7 times and every time something different hits me. Being a Redemptorist - I
hope I’d notice redemption stories - salvation stories - people being stuck stories
- imprisoned stories - becoming free - and longing for freedom stories.
I often think of
Andy Dufresne’s line in that movie, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice,
really. Get busy living or get busy dying.”
So the title of
my homily is, “The Power of a Parable.”
DAVID’S STORY
Today’s first
reading from the Second Book of Samuel
- refers to the life of David the King of Israel. He rose from the life of the youngest brother
in a big family of brothers - and a shepherd - to becoming a fighter - then the
king of Israel. Then his life got soft.
If you’ve seen
the comedy movie, History of the World
Part I, Mel Brooks says over and over again, as he breaks all the rules -
and does anything he wants to do, “It’s good to be the king.”
So David spots Bathsheba taking a bath and the king wants what he wants when he wants it and steals another’s man’s wife: Uriah the Hittite.
Then when she
tells David she is pregnant, David brings Uriah home - but he won’t go to his
house because he knows what’s happening. So David has Uriah killed. We hear that in today’s first reading. It’s Soap Opera stuff in the 11th
and 12th chapter of book Second Book of Samuel.
And Nathan the
prophet hears about the story. He goes to the palace and tells David, “David I
want to tell you a story, a parable.” It’s in the 11th Chapter of
the Book of Samuel. He tells David about a rich man who has a huge herd of
sheep and he has a guest coming for dinner. Instead of having one of his sheep
slaughtered for the feast, he steals the sheep of his neighbor down the road -
who is dirt poor and has only one sheep.
David upon
hearing the story yells, “Who is that man who did this? He deserves to die. If
he’s part of my kingdom I’ll have him pay back fourfold.”
And Nathan the
prophet says, “That man is you!”
And Nathan points
out that David has a harem - many wives. He doesn’t mention how he got some of
them - only Bathsheba.
And here in our reading in Chapter 12 of Second Samuel, David takes the parable, the story, and points it at himself and repents.
And here in our reading in Chapter 12 of Second Samuel, David takes the parable, the story, and points it at himself and repents.
I’m sure some of
you heard in sermons and talks that Louis Evely, a Belgian priest and writer
wrote a whole book on that phrase, “That Man Is You.”
HOW TO READ THE BIBLE
That story from
Nathan the prophet - that book by Louis Evely - was an eye opener for me.
That 1964 book taught me how to read the scriptures.
I open up the Bible.
I start reading. I start saying: “That man is me.”” That woman is me.” “That
person is me.” “That character is me.”
I read the story.
I read the saying. I read the parable and I ask, “How is this story, this
parable, this comment, me?”
I am the prodigal
son - who needs forgiveness. I am the older brother - who won’t forgive a
family member. I am the forgiving father. I am the lost sheep, the lost coin. I
am the man wounded, hurt, on the roads of life and I need someone to help me.
Or I am called to be the Good Samaritan. Or I am like the two characters in the
parable of the Good Samaritan who walk by people who are hurting. I am wheat or
I am weeds. I am a tree producing good fruit or bad fruit or no fruit. I am
Adam. I am Eve. I am Judas or I am Peter. I am David or Uriah or Bathsheba.
Wu Yuen-kwei, Her Sins Are Forgiven
In today’s gospel, we heard about the Pharisee who invites Jesus to eat with him. Don’t we all want to eat with Jesus? Isn’t that why we are here today? Next a woman comes into the house because she heard Jesus was there. She starts crying. The tears fall on Jesus’ feet - washing them. She dries his feet with her hair. She kisses his feet. She then anoints his feet with the precious perfumed oil she had with her.
The Pharisee
thinks - and Luke tells us what he is thinking - and that Jesus knows what the
Pharisee is thinking. “If this Jesus is a prophet, he would know who and what
sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”
Then Jesus says
to Simon, “I want to tell you a story.”
Simon says the same thing David said to the prophet
Nathan in the Second Book of Samuel,
“Tell me the story!”
Jesus says, “Two
people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred day’s wages
and the other owed fifth. Since both were unable to repay the debt, he forgave
them both. Which of them would love him more?”
Simon answers,
“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
Then Jesus says,
“You have judged rightly.”
Then Jesus turns
to the woman and says to Simon. “Do you see this woman? When I entered your
house, you didn’t give me water for my feet, but this woman bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them
with her hair. You didn’t greet me with
a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since the time I entered. You
didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.”
We know how David
took the story from Nathan. We don’t know how the Pharisee too this story from
Jesus.
We do know that
Jesus says about the woman, “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven
because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves
little.”
Then he says to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The others at the
dinner table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
Jesus doesn’t
respond to them, but says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in
peace.”
We all heard the
story?
Am I the
Pharisee? Am I the woman? Am I Jesus? Am I the others at the table?
That man…. that
woman …. is me.
CONCLUSION
These stories in
the Bible are for folks long after they happened. These stories are for you and me.
I worked in a
retreat house in Pennsylvania for 7 years and a well know Mafia guy used to
come on retreat and the men complained and finally the priest in charge said,
“Aren’t you glad he’s here?”
I’ve been in
churches where folks complained about women’s cleavage, elected officials, so
and so being at Mass - and I wasn’t Nathan enough or Jesus enough or a priest I
worked with enough to say, “Aren’t you glad she’s here? Aren’t you glad he’s
here?”
Better I should
have said, “I’m tempted to say, I’m glad you’re here, but I better say, I’m
glad we’re here.”
