The title of my homily for this Good Friday Service is, “Just Sitting, Just Thinking,
Just Praying.”
A little girl came into church one day - and saw all
those people sitting there - and it was a very quiet moment in the Mass and she
asked her grandmother, “What are all these people doing?”
And her grandmother answered, “Just sitting, just
thinking, just praying.”
So the title of my homily is just that, “Just Sitting,
Just Thinking, Just Praying.”
And if someone asks you, “Why do you go to church?”
there’s a good answer. Simply say, “Just Sitting, Just Thinking, Just Praying.”
MOVIE - OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
Around 1970 - during the Vietnam War - I went with a
couple of guys to see the movie, “Oh What
a Lovely War.”
Amazingly, it was
a musical. It was a shoot-em-up. It was a horror movie.
It contrasted what was going on back home in England
during World War I to what was happening
in the trenches and the killing fields of Europe.
The war - dubbed “The War To End All Wars” - went on from
1914 to 1918.
We’re in the midst of its 100th anniversary -
right now - and not as much has been made of it - as should be made of it.
70 million military personnel were involved - 60 million
European.
9 million combatants and then another 7 million civilians
were killed.
The war ended in 1918 with the armistice.
The movie ended and something very unusual happened in
that New York Theater that night. I heard after wards, it happened many times
after the movie ended.
Nobody moved when the movie ended. People were just sitting there. People were
just thinking there. I don’t know how many people were praying there. Nobody
was talking.
It felt like forever - till we all stood up - and quietly
walked out of the theater into the night.
The final scene of the movie had 4 women dressed in
white: a grandmother, two young women, and a young girl. They were sitting in
this great big - enormous green hilly field. It was easy on the eyes and a
welcome sight on the screen after two hours of seeing mud and water and rain
and machine gun fire and bomb blasts and soldiers dying, dying, dying, just to
get less than a hundred yards of dirt brown ground and holes.
And the little girl in white says to her grandmother in
the presence of her mother and an aunt, “Granny, what did daddy do in the war.”
And the song that answers that little girl’s question has
the refrain, “Oh, we’ll never tell them,
no we’ll never tell them ….”
And across the movie screen - across the big green field
on the movie screen - comes a lone soldier - the war is over and he comes to a place where there are 4 soldiers - laying
there alive but not talking in the waving green grass - eyes closed or looking
at the sky.
And the lone soldier plops himself down - without any
words - on the grass - and then the 5 men fade and disappear - and the field then has 5 white crosses and
then the camera in this last scene in the movie - pans back the scene and the
field now has 5 thousand - then 50
thousand at least - white crosses all lined up in perfect symmetry in this
gigantic military cemetery.
It’s worth seeing this movie.
It’s worth seeing bits and pieces of this movie on You
Tube snippets - especially that last scene - with all those crosses.
IT’S GOOD
FRIDAY
Today we come to church to: just sit, just think, just pray.
As priest I get to kiss the cross of Christ early on - up
front - and personal. Then all of you
come up to kiss the cross as well.
I love to then sit back and watch.
I remember reading Karl Rahner - the famous German Jesuit
theologian’s sermon - for Good Friday.
He thinks out loud about 10 or 15 people who kiss the cross and tells you what
they might be thinking and praying about at that moment.
Tonight do the same. Watch each other. Think about each
other. Pray for each other.
The big long gospel reading mentions 10 or 15 people whom
we might think about on Good Friday.
Jesus the Nazarene entering a garden on the last night of his life - needing to
find space and time to pray - but with his disciples and they bottom out and
fall asleep. Then there is Judas and the Pharisees and the soldiers. What were
they thinking? Then there was Peter who denies knowing Jesus. What did that do to
him for the rest of his life? Did his failure make him a better first
pope? What about the chief priest? What
was his take on the weak and easily manipulated Pontius Pilate? What about Barabbas? Did he pinch himself when
the crowd screamed for Jesus’ death and spared him that day? What about Mary
and the Beloved Disciple under the cross.
What about those who heard Jesus say, “Father forgive them for they
don’t know what they are doing?” What did Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
think - when they asked for Jesus body so they could bury him? Did their faith
that day - die as well?
That’s a lot of people to think about - those at the time
of Jesus, those who are with us in church tonight, those out there tonight in
battle zones and in harm’s way in the killing fields or our world.
CONCLUSION
Picture a little girl coming into the back of this church
tonight. Hear her seeing us here tonight and then thinking and saying, “What
are you doing here in church tonight? What
did you do in your life so far?”
And unlike the men in the movie, “Oh What a Lovely War,”
talk to each other about life’s big questions - what you have seen so far in
life - what you’re thinking about each day - and what you’re praying about.
Amen.
The title of my reflection for this Holy Thursday Morning is, “Wearing
a Crown.”
I think I’ve had this Holy Thursday morning reflection every year for
the past ten years or so, so I look for something new every year from this
short reading from Hebrews - Chapter 2 - verses 9b-10.
"We
see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, that through
God’s gracious will he might taste death for the sake of all. Indeed, it was
fitting that when bringing many to glory, God, for whom and through whom all
things exist, should make their leader in the work of salvation perfect through
suffering."
Last night I read this text a few times to see what would hit me. This year - it’s
the idea of being crowned. The reading
begins, “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.”
If Father Tizio was preaching this I’m sure he would have found a golden
crown - like one from Burger King - or asked if they had a crown as a left over
prop in our school. He’s the best I’ve
ever seen with props for preaching. I love the way he introduces a theme and
then goes over behind the altar or a chair or the podium and brings out a prop
we all can see.
From this reading I could see him holding two crowns: a gold one for a
king - and a crown of thorns which Jesus gets tonight or tomorrow - when being
ridiculed by the Roman soldiers who arrested him.
This week we see Jesus both in glory and honor - and Jesus in sorrow and suffering.
On Palm Sunday Jesus is hailed as Prophet, Priest and King - coming
into Jerusalem in honor and glory - but by Friday - Bad Friday - which was
renamed Good Friday because on the cross - he dies and saves the world.
If we look at our lives there are days when we felt like a king or
queen - for example on our 25 or 50th birthday or anniversary - or we were the one chosen to crown Mary Queen
- in a Marian May Procession. We might have had a solo in a musical or hit a
solo home run in a baseball or softball game - and we were the hero - or there
was a game when we struck out or made an error and we were booed.
Life is both! Life is both successes and failures.
Which do we learn from the most?
Many say we learn the most from our mistakes - our sufferings - our failures -
when we are hurting.
Many say we learn the most from our crosses.
It’s when we recover - when we rise.
That Holy Thursday evening Jesus sat down and ate his final meal with
his disciples. He talked about the great themes - that he had preached and
talked about - all through his trips through Palestine.
Life is all about being last - being the servant of all - washing feet
- providing bread and wine - food for others - proclaiming what life is all
about - saying to each other, “This is my body, this is my blood, I giving it
to you, I’m being poured out in love for you.”
Do that yourselves in memory of me.
That Holy Thursday evening he needed his disciples to pray with him -
at least for an hour - in the garden - but they didn’t get it - they still
didn’t get what Jesus was about. They
were still sleeping.
That Holy Thursday evening he experienced betrayal by a kiss - when
Judas arrived with those who gave him 30 pieces of silver - and Jesus was
handed over - dragged away for trial - a scene we’ve seen on TV and news clips
a hundred thousand million times ever since - from Calvary to Auschwitz to
Tijuana.
That Holy Thursday evening Jesus experienced the crown of suffering -
that would lead to his death - but we know the rest of the story: Easter - the
rising - the being lifted up of Jesus - up out of the tomb.
This Holy Thursday morning I’ll close with our reading from
Hebrews once again, “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered
death, that through God’s gracious will he might taste death for the sake of
all.”
April 13, 2017
LENIENT
I know the word, but I don’t remember
anyone ever being called, “lenient”.
“Lefty,” “Liberal”, yes, but “lenient” no.
Yet, come to think about it, who of us
wouldn’t mind being called, “Lenient”?
That’s the father of the Prodigal Son.
That’s Jesus on the cross. “Forgive them…”
