The title of my homily is, “The
Gamaliel Principle.”
It’s worth hearing this principle
articulated every once and a while because it contains good wisdom.
The Gamaliel Principle is very
simple: If God wants something, it’s going to happen – no matter how much
anyone tries to stop it.
People say, “You can’t fight City
Hall.” Wrong. You can fight City Hall – and at times people have won.
But if people say, “You can’t
fight God!” they are right.
We heard in today’s first
reading: the High Priest, the Sadducee's, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and their
councils, all wanted to wipe out the Apostles – that is, till Gamaliel stood up
to speak.
Verse 34 of Acts 5 says, “But a
Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all
the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time.
They he spoke to them.”
Gamaliel said: “Look, we’ve seen
this kind of thing happen in the past and in the long run, we found out it
didn’t work. These so called reformers fell and were destroyed. So time will
tell. If this is not of God, it will disappear; if it’s of God, let’s not find
ourselves fighting God.”
Great advice. If possible, don’t
sweat craziness. Remember stupidity has it’s own reward. Remember greed is quicksand
and it swallows up those who jump into its hole.
Then there are Church scandals. Relax,
the Church rights itself – in time.
We’ve all heard the story about
Napoleon saying to Cardinal Consalvi, “I am going to destroy the church!” and Consalvi
said, “Best of luck. We clergy have been trying to do it for centuries and we
still haven’t succeeded.”
I love the story I heard a few
times about the old lady from Jersey City who said, “The 5 marks of the Church
are: it’s one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and it survives its clergy.”
In the meanwhile, if possible, wait.
Eventually ….
This doesn’t mean we sweep stuff under the rug. This doesn’t mean there
shouldn’t be whistle blowing – and there will always be letter writing. This
doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have councils to reform the church. We need
ongoing conversion – but what do you do, when nothing is changing?
I found two new stories or examples last night while preparing this sermon–
stories I never heard before.
The first one has to do with
Francis of Assisi. In the 1200’s times were not too moral for the church and
it’s clergy – so one of Francis of Assisi’s brothers asked him, "Brother
Francis," he said, "What would you do if you knew that the priest
celebrating Mass had three concubines on the side?" Francis, without
missing a beat, said slowly, "When it came time for Holy Communion, I
would go to receive the sacred Body of my Lord from the priest's anointed hands."
The second story or example comes
from traditions about St. Francis deSales. It has much more substance and you
can vehemently disagree with this.
“Once, St. Francis deSales was
asked to address the situation of the scandal caused by some of his brother
priests during the 1500s and 1600s.
He said, "Those who commit
these types of scandals are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder,"
destroying other people's faith in God by their terrible example. But then he
warned his listeners, "But I'm here among you to prevent something far
worse for you. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual
equivalent of murder, those who take scandal - who allow scandals to destroy
their faith - are guilty of spiritual suicide."
We all know people drop out of
church because of scandals. St. Francis deSales is saying, “It’s spiritual
suicide.”
Not easy. But Jesus said, “I am
with you all days, even to the end of the world.”
So don’t go crazy. Trust in God. Now,
of course, there is a catch. It’s patience. It’s frustration. It’s the slowness.
The catch is the “in the
meanwhile, the poor get poorer and people go bananas with sinfulness, etc.
Relax: sin and selfishness and
stupidity – all have their own reward.
Relax: those who play with fire, get
burnt.
Remember there is always the
reckoning. There is a wash day. There is a judgment day.
Stink stinks.
Sin eventually rises to the
surface and sin floats.
Time tells all things.`
Trust the process, if you live a good life, goodness will prevail.
God sees the big picture – we go
crazy at little stuff like who’s going to communion and who’s winning and who
is getting all the credit. The universe is estimated to be 5 to 15 billion
years ago – and now with the Hubble Telescope, one number is 14 billion and
another figure is 11.2 billion.
And we humans haven’t been around
that long yet - just becoming a little
more conscious in the last 4000 years.
CONCLUSION
So the Gamaliel principle: Wait
and see! God does what God does in the way God does what’s what.
The title of my homily is: “Starting
Over and Over Again.”
I’d like to reflect a little bit on
the basic theme of conversion – or starting over and over again.
Today’s gospel continues the story
of Nicodemus from the 3rd chapter of John. The obvious theme that
keeps hitting me is the one we’ve been hearing: being reborn, starting over and
over again.
But the nuance I’d like to stress is
not one conversion or two conversions, but one’s whole life as a series of many
conversions, so called on-going conversions.
I LED THREE LIVES
When I was a teenager in the 1950's there was a book and later
a TV series, staring Richard Carlson, years ago, that was called, “I Led Three Lives.”
I only remember that he was a spy as
well as a counter-spy – with the name, “Herbert Philbrick.”
That title, “I Led Three Lives”hit me as I reflected on this theme of
conversion and starting all over again and again. We live and lead many lives.
Conversion is moving towards the
best life we can life – to move towards what the Marine advertisement says, “To
Be all we can be.”
THE NATURAL
Then there was the book and later
the movie, The Natural. It had a
scene that fits right in here loud and clear.
Glenn Close, plays the part of Iris Gaines. She is standing by the bedside of Roy Hobbs, played by Robert
Redford. He just told her how much he messed up his life. On the way to spring training to join the team that signed him, he met this mysterious woman in black. He saw her once. Once. That obviously changed the path of his life. He had a
very promising baseball career and he is shot by her. Glenn Close is standing
there listening to him tell this story in a hospital room. And she says, “I think we
have two lives. The one we live and
learn from and the one we then do the rest of our life with after the learning.
Hopefully, we live and we learn and
then live.
PATTERNS
But looking at my life, thinking
about issues which I need to change, and grow from, eating patterns, sleeping
patterns, work habits, prayer habits, etc. I see that there are many
conversions, many ups and downs in life.
POEM CALLED NICODEMUS
Here is a poem - called "Nicodemus" - which I wrote way back for a book of night prayers.
NICODEMUS
(John
3:1-21)
This time
in the wind,
in the night,
I stand at the door, Lord,
and knock once again.
I come,
empty and afraid,
asking, seeking, knocking,
hoping you will open up
your door to see me once again.
I enter
with fears and doubts,
questioning whether
it’s really worth it
to start my life all over once
again.
I’ve been
reborn too many times.
There have been too many
conversions.
Why should I rise this time
knowing that I’ll probably fall once
again.
And yet, Lord,
after each fall
this urge to come back to you,
the way, the truth and the life,
stirs in me once again, like the
Wind.
PROBLEM
One conversion can often be great.
There is the honeymoon and the
infatuation period. Then there is the struggle and often disillusionment period
that follows.
And then if we fall again, that
second conversion, doesn’t have the bells and the whistles, and bragging
rights, that the first conversion had.
I would think there is a vast difference
between a second marriage or a third marriage - compared to a first marriage.
THE LORD DOES NOT GET ANGRY
Today’s gospel talks about the wrath
of God and I often feel antsy when I mention that while reading the gospel.
One writer, speaking of the text
says what’s going on here is projection of our inner feelings onto God. The
text has a anthropomorphic sense. God is not a God of wrath - but we are.
One person described the after-effects
of sin as, “The recoil of sin upon the
sinner.”
When we sin, we get angry at
ourselves, not God.
When we sin, we damage ourselves at
times over relationships with each other.
So the recoil in on self, the wrath
is on the self.
GENEROSITY
Rather the Lord is generous.
Today’s gospel talks about God not being cheap.
He does not ration out his spirit.
He pours out new life on us. So go
to God and ask, seek, knock.
DESERT STORY
I found a good example of the
surprise side of God’s love. It’s about the copious redemption of God. All we
need to do is cry out of our depths for his overflowing, over abundant
redemption.
Here’s the example, “Two hundred
miles northeast of Los Angeles is a baked-out gorge called Death Valley – the
lowest place in the United States, dropping 276 feet below sea level. It is
also the hottest place in the country, with an official recording of 134
degrees. Streams flow into Death Valley only to disappear, and a scant two and
a half inches of rain falls on the barren wasteland each year.
“But, some time ago, an amazing
thing happened. For nineteen straight days rain feel onto that lone dry earth.
Suddenly all kinds of seeds, dormant for years, burst into bloom. In a valley
of death, there was life.” p. 61 in ed. Floyd Thatcher, The Miracle of Easter, p. 61, Word Books, Waco TX.
CONCLUSION
Now, we might ask, well why doesn’t
God pour down water on that desert all the time?
I don’t know.
But I’d rather see the story as an example that I can bloom, I can blossom,
over and over again.
I can call on the Lord and be saved.
If we are really honest, God is
calling us to conversion, to blossom all the time, Death valley doesn’t I can.
ONE LIFE TO LIVE,
ONE LIFE TO GIVE
I love the
question
that Mary
Oliver asks
in her
poem, The Summer Day,
"Tell
me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
I suspect every person
and every poet asks
that question.
I suspect that's why
commencement address speakers either uses Mary Oliver's question
or ask it in their own words.
Our family poem is
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
We all have many roads ahead of us -
and many times we come to a fork in the road:
"And I - I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
So whether its doctor, lawyer, maintenance or mechanic,
priest or prophet, nun or nurse,
mom, dad, advocate or actor,
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
Listen to what a man with the name of Adolfo Kaminsky did with his life.
