The title of my homily for this 20th Wednesday
in Ordinary Time is, “The Big Scream:
‘It’s Not Fair!’”
I WONDER
At times I’ve wondered: Is the big scream coming out of
every gripe, every depression, every angry person, every child, every family, marriage, every person: “It’s not fair”?
At family gatherings - like every year I spend 4 or 5
days at Thanksgiving with my brother’s girls and their families - I watch
actions and reactions.
Kids eat first. Then the adults. While we're eating the kids disappear into
various nooks and rooms and floors of the house they rent. The last few years
it’s been at Virginia Beach - Sandbridge - on the ocean. Before that it was an Rehoboth
and before that Deep Creek Lake. After the adults eat comes dessert. Somehow
every kid arrives very quickly after the ice cream and brownies and pies and
cakes are placed on the counter.
That’s when I really watch.
That’s where I first started to wonder if a kids’ basic
scream is, “It’s not fair.”
I wonder if I screamed that scream: “It’s not fair.”
I’m the youngest of four - so I don’t know if the
youngest is at the biggest disadvantage.
I wonder if our nation’s families - our world’s families
- are losing out - by having smaller families.
I wonder if the question of fairness comes up more often in bigger
families than smaller families - because there many more moments for comparisons.
I also wonder if a bigger family helps a person
resolve the fairness question better than being in a family with less brothers
and sisters.
Was having one bathroom a better teaching possibility? In fact, is the bathroom in a one bathroom house, the best classroom in the house - because it offers the most moments to think of others.
ADULTS
Does the question of fairness continue longer - even all
life long - for some folks?
Is the issue behind every whine - the “It’s not fair!”
scream.
Obviously some cars - some homes - some salaries - some
seats in church or a restaurant - are better than others.
I don’t know about you, but I am glad I was born in
Brooklyn compared to Bagdad. And there’s a town there in Ohio between Lima
where I lived and Paulding where I did a bit of work - that I’m glad I never
lived in the in between town.
When it comes to music, I have a tin ear. When it comes
to ability to draw, I am still a baby with crayons - doing scribble and stick
figures.
Not everybody has the same skills, skin, figure, family
than the next person.
So what about the “It’s not fair!” question.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Does the Parable of the Generous Landlord in today's gospel [Matthew 20:1-16] help with this
question?
He needs laborers for his vineyard so he starts hiring at
dawn - and they workers and owner agree for the usual daily wage.
He spots other laborers at 9 AM, noon, 3 and then 5
o’clock. Each time he hires them to work in his vineyard.
At the end of the day - when he starts handing out the daily wage - he starts with those he hires at 5
PM and gives them the usual daily wage - so too those he hired at 3, noon, 9
AM and at dawn.
Seeing that, those who worked a lot more expected a lot more.
They all get the same piece of the pie.
Not fair. Not
fair. Not fair.
DAVID
We have a family story about my brother.
He stopped in to see his buddy Marty - who was playing ping pong with his youngest son, David.
My brother says to David, “Let me
see what kind of ping pong paddle you have?”
The little kid hands the paddle to my brother who then
moves to the table and says to Marty, “Three over for serve.”
And David screams, “That’s not fair. I was playing with
my dad first.”
And my brother says to David, “Kid, let me teach you one
of life’s greatest learnings, ‘Who said life is fair?’ Three over for serve,
Marty.”
David told that story at my brother’s funeral and we all
laughed - but we all got the message - especially that of my brother dying of
melanoma at 51.
CONCLUSION
What is the conclusion?
What is the lesson?
What is the message?
Jesus says to the disgruntled whiners, “I didn’t cheat
you. I gave you the usual daily wage.
Am I not free to do as I wish with my money
Are you envious because I am generous.
Hey, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
“Hey, God, that’s not fair.”
August 17, 2016
WOOD
If the tree knew it was going to become a solid wooden dining room table - hearing hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of supper talk, homework talk, tears, spilled milk; if it knew it would become a rich brown - very, very visible
- dining room floor or door; or part of the underneath of a bedroom wall,
then….
Then would it cry "NO!" when it was about to be cut down? Would it? Really.... When would wood scream, “Pick me!”? How about a cross? A toothpick? No. A chopstick? Well, maybe…. but tell me more?
Today’s readings sort of po poos riches. Today’s readings warn us about riches
and power. Today’s readings talk about the top being toppled.
So at first I wondered if the title of my homily should
be, “Is Poor Better?” Or, “Is Weakness
Better than Power?” Or “Is Sickness Better than Health.”
“Of course not,” came my inner answer. Of course I thought of Simon and Garfunkel's song, "Richard Corey" - from the poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson.
Of course, I also thought about Woody Allen’s comment: “Money is
better than poverty, if only for
financial reasons.” Cute… but….
Then I added to my thought process, the wisdom statement,
“It all depends.”
And in saying that, I realized that rich could be better than poor or vice
versa, depending on what we learn, what we know, and what happens next in
whatever situation we’re in.
In thinking about all this, I came up with my question
and my title for this homily for this 20th Tuesday in Ordinary Time:
“Do The Poor Know More?”
GREAT QUESTION
I think that’s a great question.
I don’t have answers - but I do have wonderings and comments.
I think of the British TV series: Upstairs Downstairs
or Downton Abbey. The comments by the servants - their observations about the
life of the rich and the famous - interesting…. sometimes very sharp and very
insightful.
I’ve noticed many a waiter and waitress eavesdropping on
the conversations of those being served at the dinner. Is watching and
listening as good a course as a college course while serving a 4 course dinner?
TODAY’S
READINGS
In today’s first reading from Ezekiel 28: 1-10, the
prince is stupid with all his wisdom and intelligence, if he thinks he’s a god.
Doesn’t he realize what is about to happen?
Once we think we’re god, we might think nothing is going
to go wrong. After all, all is in our power.
The poor - the powerless - often don’t know what’s going
to happen in the next hour. They certainly know they are not God!
Not knowing what’s going to happen next, knowing things
are out of our control for the most part, can trigger nervous habits - or
better bending skills. It all depends.
Of course there are things we can control. We can pitch our tent not so close to the river in the rainy season.
Earthquakes? Yes - some know where some of the fault lines are.
Yes - some places are worse than others. Yet, our whole kingdom could quake and crumble
at any time. I’ve heard that dogs get the signals that an earthquake is coming
- long before humans know. And when the
earth crumbles - when it’s attacked, the
real me - is more or less - human like
every other human being. We are not a god.
So in today’s first reading Ezekiel the prophet is saying
to the rich and the powerful: wake up - the future is fragile.
And in today’s gospel from Luke 19: 23-30, the one who is
the fat cat ain’t going to be able to slide through the eye of a needle. Nor will the loaded down camel with all the riches
in the world - be able to fit through
the eye of a needle. Camels think thin....
Both Ezekiel and Jesus are telling us to let go - lighten
up - simplify - smart up - then we will be able to start slipping through the
needle into God’s kingdom.
It’s then we can get glimpses of God’s plan for all of us
- that we’re all brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children - with the
same Father - the true God of all of us.
We’re all called to serve - as well as to have a seat at the table. We’re
all rich. We’re all poor. So it all
depends what we’re looking at - and what we're learning.
THE BIG
CLASSROOMS
The poor, the people of Aleppo in Syria with battle
raging right now, the person out of a job and on the street - are in a bummer
of an experience, but they could become better by those experiences or worse. It all depends.
Experiences can make us better or bitter.
Absence can make the heart that much smarter, fonder,
quicker - but also angrier.
Poverty can bring us to our knees in prayer. Poverty can bring us to go back to school for new skills.
Sickness, cancer, can get us to grasp what’s really
important.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Experience is the best
teacher.”
I’ve heard people say to that, “Not necessarily so.
People can have the same experience a dozen times and still be stupid.”
So once more, it all depends.
So the secret to life is learning from life.
So a secret is to ask: “What’s the lesson here?” “What’s the message here?” “What’s going on
here?” “Where are you, God, in this darkness or blinding light?”
Those who learn - can become the wise - and then they can
bring their gifts to their others.
The poor, the uneducated, can become very rich and smart -
with inner insights - even when there is nothing in the refrigerator.
Once we learn - that we don’t know - that we’re poor -
that we’re not god almighty - then we can start to listen to others. It’s then
the true richness of others starts to appear.
So the poor can know more.
CONCLUSION
Once we have that attitude towards others - that we really don't know each other - that we're not better than others - we are becoming rich with attitude. Once we know that the
waiter and the waitress, the wheel chair bound and the toll collector at the
bridge - the guy with the lawn mower - who can’t speak English - who is illegal
- as well as his wife who cleans big houses - are all members of the
kingdom - are all children of God - then
we’ve slipped through the eye of the needle - and now we can sew together the
world God has called us to be part of - in this quilt called, “Creation.”
The title of my homily for this 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “In The Pits.”
For the sake of transparency, I’m an optimist, but
today’s 1st reading from Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10, and today’s gospel from Luke 12: 49-53 basically talk about being in the pits.
Today’s second reading from Hebrews 12: 1-4 tells us to start running. Run away! Rid ourselves - “of
every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that
lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”
A homily calls us to reflect upon the readings of the day….
JEREMIAH - IN
THE PIT
In today’s first reading - the King, Zedekiah, crumbles
in - to the princes - who want Jeremiah silenced, removed.
The king abdicates. He tells the princes: “He is in your
power.”
They took Jeremiah and threw him a cistern.
The text says “threw”. However, they describe it as lowering him down into the
muddy hole with ropes. It had no water - only mud.
What would that be like? I picture being dropped into a big bowl of chocolate pudding. Uuuuuh!
How many movies have we seen where they throw someone
into solitary confinement - to silence them - to shut them up?
How many Rambo and Chuck Norris movies have we seen where
there are POW’s in concentration camps and Rambo or Chuck are flown and then dropped
into the jungle or wilderness to rescue people who are trapped.
FAMILY PROBLEMS
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about family fights -
where there is no peace - only division. “From now on a household of five will
be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided
against a son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a
daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Talk about mud and mudslinging.
As I read that - I wondered about how many people hearing
this reading around our world today - will actually hear it. It’s the same
readings in lots of churches - not just Catholic - but we’re worked out with
many Protestant Communities - to have the same readings - at least on Sunday.
How many people will get antsy and edgy and “Uh oh-ing”
when they hear Jesus’ words about family divisions?
His stuff - especially
about forgiveness and putting down the rocks and loving one another - can cause
division.
We’re all been part of the drama of our own family stuff. We’ve
been on stage or we watched from the audience.
We all could have written Tolstoy’s well know comment in Anna Karenina, “Happy families are all
alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
There will be at least 1 million, 999 thousand - phone
calls today or bar talk or beach chair conversations about unhappy family
situations. that people are in.
It’s being in the pits.
Many people feel like King Zedekiah in today’s first
reading: there are people we can do nothing about. We want to push them out of
our lives and say to someone else, “He is in your power.”
We want others to solve the problem that we can’t - even if
they have to throw that person down into a muddy hole - to hide them away.
So and so is drinking and drinking and drinking some
more.
So and so is mouthing off - again and again and again - and they can’t let go
of something someone else said or did - last week, last year - 25 years ago. YOGI BERRA'S TRUISMS
He was also right when he said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
He was right when he said, “I didn’t really say
everything I said.”
He was right when he said, “We made too many wrong
mistakes”
What to do: first step - STEP BACK!
Yogi Berra also said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”
He wasn’t just a player. He was also a manager.
It takes time and lots of watching and learning and figuring,
to figure some things out about our family - and our life and how the game is played.
And remember two other things, Yogi Berra said:
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.”
The world, our family, our marriage, our parish, our job,
our evenings, our days, our past, our future, are never perfect.
And sometimes they are the pits.
WHAT TO DO
Two years ago someone sent out thousands of those
refrigerator magnetic stickers. I have one on a metal door in our second
corridor at St. Mary’s.
It has a smiling picture of Pope Francis and it says, “Pope Francis says: you
need 3 phrases in a family: 1) May I? 2) Thank you. and 3) I’m sorry.”
Come to think about it, Pope Francis does look a bit like Yogi Berra. That's an aside! If you want more from Pope Francis - much more than what a refrigerator
door can hold, read his 225 page exhortation: Amoris
Laetitia, The Joy of Love. If you want more of Yogi Berra's quotes simply type that into Google.
CONCLUSION
Or if you want just one word to work on - it’s “forgive”. It’s that 3rd family message from
Pope Francis: “I’m sorry.”
That second reading for today tells us to get into that
Olympic “running the race” with Jesus and crowds and crowds of other people -
who want to go for the gold in life.
If anyone was hoped to be silenced - like Jeremiah thrown into the muddy pit -
it was Jesus - nailed to the cross - to shut him up. One of his seven last
words or statements from the cross was, “Father forgive them because they don’t
know what they are doing.”
You probably heard me say this before, but I’ll say it
again and again, because it works and people told me that it works.
Find your rosary. Keep it handy - in your pocket or your
purse. A rosary is not just for Hail Mary’s. Every day - while driving - or just sitting
there - take out your worry beads and say, 59 times - or just 10 times, “Father
forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” “Father forgive them
because they don’t know what they are doing.”
And I guarantee, if you say that enough, if you pray that
enough, you’ll say and pray that the next time you and your family or someone
is in the pits.
