I made up two new words for this reflection:
ahellists and aheavenists. We all know the word
atheists. All three words begin with the
so called, "Privative Alpha". Alpha is the first
letter in the Greek alphabet.
Alpha-Privative words are words that have
the prefix "a" before a consonant and "an"
before a vowel. Notice the word privative.
The privative-alpha takes away from the
rest of the word. Some examples:
agnostic, without knowing. We are
unable to have knowledge of God.
The title of my homily is, “To Know What’s Killing Us.”
Have we ever said, “This is killing me!”?
It could be work - overdoing it. It could be - being out
of work - and we are feeling the stress of not being able to get a job. It
could be laziness, no exercise, letting our bodies sink deeper and deeper into
couches or Lazy Boy chairs. It could be
our kids on their cell phones - all the time - and nobody is listening to
anyone - and that causes us agita - agita. It could be alcohol or overeating.
It could be addiction to solitaire - or TV - or porn - or what have you. Name
your poison.
It could be aging parents - and nobody in the family is
helping - and I feel stuck with that job. But helping them is not what’s killing
me. What’s killing me is that the my
brothers and sisters don’t do squddily squat - and my parents are always raving
how good they are.
It could be envy,
anger, fear, worry, lack of trust - negativity - negativity - negativity.
Have we ever said, “This is killing me!”?
TODAY’S
READINGS
In today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers it’s the
saraph snakes in the desert. They are killing folks. People are being bit and they are dying.
So Moses orders that someone make a bronze snake and mount
it on a pole and point at it and tell the folks, “This is what is killing you -
being bit by this snake - this serpent. So watch where you walk and check your
tent site.
In today’s gospel Jesus says sin is what is killing you.
Not believing who Jesus is - is what is killing you - but if I be lifted up -
if you realize that I am the Son of Man - if your realize I AM - the one sent
from the Father - if you believe in me - then you will be saved - and not
condemned.
TITLE OF MY
HOMILY
The title of my homily is, “To Know What’s Killing Us.”
We need to know that - as well as knowing what will save
us - better who will save us.
So the medical profession puts the snake on the pole as
their emblem - that we go to the doctor to find out what’s killing us.
So our Christian churches put images of Christ on the Cross to tell the world,
“Christ is the one who will save us.” Christ
is the great doctor and healer of our souls.
So they point to Christ on the pole saying: this is what
we do to each other when we do nasty to each other - but we can also hear from
the cross - the great message of forgiveness. We don’t know where we are doing.
THE PARADOX
The paradox of the cross is that awareness of what’s
killing us - what killed Christ - can save us.
We are daily Mass goers, so we know the scriptures better
by hearing them over and over again.
How many times have we heard the gospels say, “The
Scribes and the Pharisees were looking for ways to kill him.”
Spending their time plotting venting nasty innuendos
against Jesus backfired - it always does - and killed the Holy Spirit within
the Pharisees. They were able to get Jesus killed - but they killed true
Judaism and true religion in their own hearts and minds.
CONCLUSION
Keep your eye on Jesus - and he’ll point out what gives
life and what causes the death - especially of the Holy Spirit within us.
April 4, 2017
ENTANGLEMENT
How and when, do rosaries
and necklaces, string and thread,
get tangled up? I don’t know.
Maybe it's when we are looking
for something else in the top
drawer - tangle happens.
Then again I don’t know why.
Our mind is a top drawer with all sorts of ideas and images, memories and moments - each next to or under each other, and
The title of my homily for this 5th Monday in
Lent is the psalm response for today’s
Mass, “Even Though I Walk In the Dark Valley I Fear No Evil; For You Are At My
Side.”
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s readings both have the situation of a woman being accused of
adultery and men want to kill them - stone them to death.
In the first reading from Daniel it’s 2 Dirty old men who lust after Susanna
and in the gospel it’s the woman caught in adultery - who the Scribes and the Pharisees want to use her
to kill her and Jesus as well.
The Psalm reading for today is Psalm 23 - which is very appropriate - because in
both stories - each woman needs God to be at their side in such a horrible
situation.
In the first reading it’s Daniel who saves Susanna. In
the gospel it’s Jesus who saves this woman caught in adultery.
WHEN WE ARE IN
A DARK VALLEY AND EVIL WANTS TO STONE US.
Everyone from time to time finds themselves in situations
where others want to condemn us.
Till this day in India this same situation happens -
because of male domination. Culture, custom control whom you can date and
marry.
To this date in Islamic cultures where Sharia Law is
imposed, sometimes women are stoned to death because of whom they date, want to
marry, whom they fall in love with.
Back in the time of Puritan New England we had amongst
the Puritans the same type of laws. We’ve all read or heard of Hawthorne’s
book, The Scarlett Letter.
In our families there are stories about judgment for whom
someone wants to marry. He’s a Muslim.
She’s of another color. He has tattoos and jewlerly.
He’s a mechanic or a maintenance man or a butcher or a
baker or what have you.
STEPPING BACK
AND SEE THE BIG PICTURE
In listening to people I have discovered some good news.
It’s when people are worried when they become too judgmental.
To get the big picture, we need to say, “I don’t know why
so and so is doing such and such a thing.”
There’s an interesting new book out, It Didn't Start With You: The Mystery of Inherited Trauma by Mark Wolynn. It’s worth reading because of his thesis -
that perhaps we are still influenced by what our great-grandparents have done.
He walks people back 3 or 4 generations.
The dark valley is a long dark valley.
I have to think about that. I did remember hearing, if you want to
change someone, you have to start with your grandparents.
Maybe we picked up attitudes, religion, strictness, legalism, from our
parents who picked it up from their
parents and they picked it up from their parents and on and on and on back.
Maybe we have to pause and realize God is at our side - walking with us
- all through the generations.
Maybe once we sense God’s presence in our life - perhaps our God whom we
think is fast asleep - we have to wake God up or let God shake us up and begin
to influence us and others for the better.
Many of you worry about faith and grandkids.
Keep practicing your faith. Someone is picking it up. Maybe today we are influencing 4 generations
to come. Amen.
Today is one of the 2 times in the Sunday Mass liturgies
we use Psalm 130 - so for that reason and a few others, I want to preach on it
today.
Do you want some good prayers? Try the Psalms. There are 150 of them in the Bible. They are
the Book of Psalms. They are the song
book of Israel in the Bible - but without the music. It’s been my experience
that if you read the psalms you’ll find at least 7 that will grab you - because
of their words and images. Every funeral we hear The Lord Is My Shepherd - Psalm 23.
Today I’m featuring Psalm 130. Pray
Psalm 130 all through life - especially in the last third of our life.
We have heard of it with its Latin title: “De Profundis.” “Out of the depths …. Out
of the pits …. Out of the bottom of my
dirty bird cage - with old newspapers and you know what on its bottom, I cry to
you oh God.”
LET ME REPEAT
THE PRAYER - PSALM 130
Let me recite the prayer in full once again. It’s only 89
words in the translation from the Hebrew that we have here in our Missalette. Psalms
sort of slide by us without much mention - especially by preachers.
PSALM 130 - OUT OF THE DEPTHS
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities [sins],
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities. There it is: a
profound prayer.
In some
synagogues it’s recited every weekday. Shir
HaMa’alot. Those are the first two words of the psalm in Hebrew - as “De
profundis” are the first two words in
the Latin translation.
And De Profundis in Gregorian chant is
powerful. Just type into Google, “De
Profundis - YouTube” - and you can hear renditions by the greats: Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart and
Salieri. Leonard Bernstein has it in his
Mass.
DEATH IN TODAY’S READINGS
Did you notice
the theme of death in today’s readings?
In the first
reading from Ezekiel he has the Lord saying two times, “I will open your graves
and have you rise from them.”
In the second
reading from Romans, Paul says even if we are dead - if we have the Spirit of
the One who raised Jesus from the dead in us - we will receive life in our
mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in us.
And the gospel
has the great story of Jesus calling Lazarus back from the dead - even though
he was in the grave 4 days.
And then there is
Psalm 130, “Out of the Depths,” “De Profundis,” “Shir HaMa’alot” - which I’m commenting on today.
THE INGREDIENTS IN PSALM 130
First Psalm 130
is a scream. The psalms as prayer are often cries - screeches - shrieks - shouts. The
psalms teach us how to yell at God and to God. The psalms teach us how to
scream.
In preaching I
have said several times, the loudest
scream I ever heard in my life was from my sister Mary. It was at Lutheran
hospital in Brooklyn - just outside of surgery. My mother was hit by a car
while walking across a street on her way to church and then to work. It was a
hit and run. She was flipped in the air and came down on her head. I got to the
hospital and went upstairs to surgery. They were working on her brain. She
died. It was April 7, 1987. The doctors came out and told my sister Mary and me they couldn’t save
her. The family was downstairs in the waiting room. I said to Mary, “Let’s suck
it in and go downstairs and tell everyone.” She yelled, “Suck it in yourself!”
And she screamed the loudest scream I ever heard. It stopped everyone. So many of the psalms
are screams. When was the last time you
screamed to God or at God?
And God hears
screams from this planet every day - from Syria, Iraq, Baltimore, Chicago,
North Korea, the Sudan and right now, Colombia. As of this morning the death
today in Colombia is over 230 in those mud slides.
Next Psalm 130 is
all about worrying about our mistakes, our sins, our iniquities. It gets us in
touch with what every human being that I have ever talked to me as priest -
what they worry about. People have and
hold onto memories of mistakes. And this psalm says, “Who can stand up if the
Lord has a ledger, a book, a list on which God marks down when we were naughty.” We don’t worry about when we were nice.
I already
mentioned that Mozart and Salieri wrote music for Psalm 130 - De
Profundis. If you remember the movie Amadeus - about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and Antonio Salieri - I would dare say that Mozart didn’t feel the depths of
Psalm 130 - especially dying at the age of 35 - and being a genius and a
spoiled child all through is life. Salieri however, needed Psalm 130. He dies at 74. In the movie and play, he’s looking back in his
old age and talks about his life, his mediocrity, his jealousy, his envy -
especially towards Mozart. He calls himself the patron saint and the champion of
mediocrity. He could pray Psalm 130 I’m sure with great depth. He cries near
his death about his life, “Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I
absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all.”
Thirdly Psalm 130
says with the Lord there is forgiveness.
Couple that with the memories of our sins. That’s a big act of faith. There is forgiveness
with the Lord. Everyone over 65 worries about their life. We drive alone at times with the hope that
God is a forgiving God - who doesn’t have a score sheet.
Fourthly, there
is the issue of trust - which goes along with remembering and forgiveness.
Hopefully, we trust in that statement from the Lord that there is forgiveness. Trust
is not only a child’s issue - the first stage of life according to Eric
Ericson. It’s also the last stage in life - as we move into our second
childhood.
Fifthly, we have
to learn to wait for the Lord before we can experience this statement from the
Lord.
We know about the
experience of waiting. It’s like the military or police or people who work
night shifts waiting for the dawn. We all experience waiting every day: waiting
for that slow clock to get to 4 PM or whenever time is up. We wait for kids to
get home. We wait up for spouses. We wait for kids or spouses to come back to
the faith. So we know waiting.
Sixthly, the Lord
is kind and he is filled with plenty of redemption. We Redemptorists have as
our motto and meaning those words from this Psalm130. “With him there is
fullness of redemption.” In Latin it’s “Copiosa apud eum redemptio.” That’s our motto. That’s our mission. We preach trust in God. We preach “not to worry”
when we look at our past. With the Lord there is fullness of redemption.”
CONCLUSION
Every one of us
will die.
Every one of us
hopes, Jesus is going to stand there at our grave or our remains and just as he
stood at Lazarus grave - 4 days after he died, Jesus is going to scream out our
name, “______ come out!”
