THE WAITING ROOM
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “The Waiting Room.”
These past two weeks
or so I was in a few waiting
rooms of eye doctors - taking Father Joe Krastel for his cataract preparation
and operation and follow up meetings. He needed a driver. I was also at the
dentist for a cleaning and then a tooth pull and then Friday to get the
stitches out. And recently I was at the skin doctor to take care of
precancerous stuff on my forehead and face.
Was that why I began thinking of waiting rooms - when I
read the Bible readings for today?
When we’re in a doctor or dentist’s waiting room, we
think of our teeth and our health - and what will they find. They take our
blood and we wait for the results.
Waiting rooms trigger health and reality stuff.
Waiting rooms trigger health and reality stuff.
POEM BY THOMAS
MERTON
The title of my homily is, “The Waiting Room”.
When I read today’s readings I remembered a poem by
Thomas Merton - the writer and Trappist monk. It's a poem he wrote when Ernest
Hemingway shot and killed himself.
So did I get the idea of “The Waiting Room” - for this
homily from a poem by Thomas Merton which he wrote about Ernest Hemingway - who had killed himself? I went and found it
last night - while working on this homily.
Merton pictures Hemingway moving along in the dark with
all those who died that night - moving forwards - like in a crowd of prisoners
for what’s next. Here’s the poem.
An Elegy For Ernest
Hemingway -
by Thomas Merton
Now for the first time on the night of your death
your name is mentioned in convents, ne cadas in
obscurum. [cadas - "to fall" as into obscurity]
Now with a true bell your story becomes final. Now
men in monasteries, men of requiems, familiar with
the dead, include you in their offices.
You stand anonymous among thousands, waiting in
the dark at great stations on the edge of countries
known to prayer alone, where fires are not merciless,
we hope, and not without end.
You pass briefly through our midst. Your books and
writing have not been consulted. Our prayers are
pro defuncto N.
Yet some look up, as though among a crowd of prisoners
or displaced persons, they recognized a friend
once known in a far country. For these the sun also
rose after a forgotten war upon an idiom you made
great. They have not forgotten you. In their silence
you are still famous, no ritual shade.
How slowly this bell tolls in a monastery tower for a
whole age, and for the quick death of an unready
dynasty, and for that brave illusion: the adventurous
self!
For with one shot the whole hunt is ended!
A SERMON
Before I came here to Annapolis I was working out of our
parish in Lima, Ohio - preaching parish missions - mainly in small towns all
over Ohio. I did that for 8 ½ years. Myself and another priest would give a
series of sermons - morning and night - for a week and then move on.
What I liked about giving those sermons was that we could
keep on improving them as we gave them week after week for a year - hopefully
making them better.
One year I gave this sermon - and now I wonder if I got
the idea from Merton’s poem or something C.S. Lewis wrote about the afterlife.
In the sermon I had someone dying and waking up walking on this big long line moving towards
God with thousands and thousands of people who had recently died as well.
And as I walked - and as I began talking with those I was
walking with - we began wondering what it would be like when we get to God.
It was a long and a big waiting room.
The title of my homily for today is, “The Waiting Room.”
THE CHURCH
The church, this church is a waiting room.
We come in here and we wait for an hour….
And like a doctor’s waiting room or when we’re on a line,
we look around to see who’s with us.
Yesterday I was at 3 weddings here at St. Mary’s - and at
every wedding I wonder what all these people sitting here are wondering about.
I welcome them.
I figure most are from far and wide - other states -
other churches - or other states of mind.
I pray that God waits on them and gives them a big
welcome and a challenge.
I say the prayers - and it seems that most don’t know the
answer to “The Lord be with you.”
I hope and pray the married folks present will look at their
marriage - their vows - their lives since they were married.
I listen to the grandparents after the wedding. They
remember the bride or bridegroom when they were tiny little kids - just
yesterday.
The church is a waiting room - and like any waiting room
- it’s a place where people do a lot of thinking - whether they are at a
wedding or a funeral - a baptism or a regular Mass.
THE READINGS
In the doctor’s waiting room after looking around we pick up a magazine and we
start reading.
We read something - that gets us thinking.
In this waiting room we read the scriptures - we hear the
scriptures - we think the scriptures.
Last Sunday we heard in the gospel about this slick guy
who got caught cheating on the job and used his skills to plan for his future for
when he lost his job. And Jesus said - Jesus actually said this - to be slick,
to be smart, to plan for your future - to sort of steal heaven.
The week before that we heard about a lost sheep, a lost
coin, and a lost son and we might have thought about times when we were lost -
or how hard it is to forgive family members who mess up.
Today sitting in this waiting room, we might have thought
about Amos in our first reading. He was an ordinary farm worker - who worked on
sycamore trees when there was work and worked with sheep at other times.
And he started to get up on his soap box yelling to people who didn’t care at
all about the poor - just themselves - fat catting it - couch potatoing their
life away.
Today sitting in this waiting room we might have read or
heard from Paul in his second reading for today. We might have heard the call
“to pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gratitude".
Today standing and hearing today’s gospel, we might have
felt a big time, “Uh oh! Oh no!”
And we might be sitting here scared about the condition
of the health of our soul.
We might be saying, “Oh my God, I’m like the rich man in
today’s gospel, who didn’t realize he was not seeing the poor man - who has a
name - Lazarus - at my door step.”
And both die.
And there is this big chasm that the rich man built
between himself and the poor man.
And it’s hell and it’s forever.
And sitting here we pray
that we get out of the hells we have found ourselves in.
And leaving here, this week hopefully we'll notice people in our own
homes - our own streets - our work place - where there is a great chasm between
us - and we sit here in this waiting room - realizing the times we’ve been in
hell - and we say, “Sartre was right. Hell is other people.”
That became perhaps the most remembered story line that Jean
Paul Sartre, the French Existential writer, ever wrote.
And we also say, “Sartre was wrong. Heaven is other
people - when we are in communion - holy communion with each other.”
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “The Waiting Room.”
And we come to this church, this waiting room to be with Jesus the healer. We come here to receive Jesus the doctor’s
prescription on how to live a healthier life. Amen.
Painting on top: The Waiting Room by George Tooker, 1959
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Painting on top: The Waiting Room by George Tooker, 1959
