The title of my homily is, “Opening the Scriptures for
You….”
Today’s gospel - the story of the 2 disciples who were
walking the 7 mile trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus - is a favorite gospel story
for many. [Cf. Luke 24: 13-35]
The two were
followers of Jesus - but Jesus was arrested and killed - and it looked like
their dream was over. They were walking
along talking and debating about Jesus - and without recognizing who he was - a stranger on the road Jesus comes along and
starts walking and talking along with them. He asks them what they were talking
about - and they say, “Are you the only one who was in Jerusalem these past few
days - and you don’t know what happened there?”
And Jesus says, “What sort of things?”
They blurted out to him, “The things that happened to
Jesus the Nazarene….” And they told the stranger - Jesus - the whole story - how they hoped Jesus would
redeem Israel.”
Then they tell this stranger about the rumors that there
were reports that Jesus was alive - making appearances.
Susan R. Garrett
Then Jesus said to them, “Oh how foolish you are!”
Then Jesus told them all that was in the scriptures about
himself.
Michael Torevell
They reached their destination and Jesus gave the impression
he was continuing on the journey - but they urged Jesus, “Stay with us, for it
is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
They sat down at a table and Jesus took bread, said the
blessing, broke it and gave it to them.
“With that,” the scriptures says, “their eyes were opened
and they recognized him….”
Significant!
Significant!
It was then that Jesus vanished from their sight.
Then they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures for us.”
OPENING THE
SCRIPTURES FOR US
In all your years of coming to church, who have been the
preachers who really opened up the
scriptures for you? Who were the
preachers who opened up your tear ducts for you - when you were here at Mass? Who have been the preachers who helped you to see Jesus walking along with
you in your life?
Wow, would I love to do that kind of preaching. I hope
every preacher does.
Sorry.
Let me practice what I'm preaching. Sometimes - maybe 3 times since I’ve been here - something in a homily -
something in the scriptures - hits me and there are tears. I don’t know if it
hits anybody else. And I have also looked out
- from up here - at times - and it looks like something is hitting someone -
and it looks like they are crying.
Church stuff - Jesus stuff - God stuff - hits all of us -
hopefully down deep - inside - like that place we see in movies at times -
behind and underneath a waterfall. Back
there…. In there …. underneath there.
And we preachers know - it’s not what we said, but it’s
what the listener is talking to herself or himself about - or what they are going through in
their life at the time.
There was one priest in Brooklyn, who had a column in the
Brooklyn Tablet, the Catholic newspaper, who wrote great columns on spirituality
and the gospel. They would often get me thinking.
John Shea did that for me at times. He liked to retell the scriptures
for the day in a modern story or retelling of the gospel for that day. I like
to try that at times. [1]
I mention all this - because something like that hit
these two disciples that evening - on their sad seven mile journey from
Jerusalem to Emmaus.
MORE - IS THERE
A SECRET FOR OPENING UP THE BIBLE?
There is a statement from the documents of the Second
Vatican Council on the Liturgy that every priest and deacon has heard at least
10 times, “The treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so
that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s Word.” Then it continues, “In this way a more
representative portion of the holy Scriptures will be read to the people over a
set cycle of years.” [2]
That was stated in 1963 - and we have seen - better we
have heard - much more of the Scriptures in the last 50 plus years.
I hope the homilies
- and the sermons - have been better.
And the document on the Scriptures from that same Vatican
Council - in 1965 - quotes St. Jerome,
“For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” [3] His dates are 347-420, so he would have said
that around 400 or so.
I hope - because of opening up of more of the Bible for
us - has given all of us more knowledge of Jesus Christ.
I know I don’t preach enough on the first and second
readings.
I also know Catholics certainly have opened up their
Bibles and know the Bible a lot more because of the opening of new life for
Catholics after the Second Vatican Council.
Before I was stationed here in St. Mary’s I worked out in
Ohio - Pennsylvania - down South a bit - etc. etc. etc. preaching many, many
parish missions and I noticed in many, many parishes, Bible study groups - like
the one that takes place here. Thank you
Chris Cable and all those who do that. And I noticed that when Father Joe
Krastel gave his talks on St. Paul - people showed up and sang his praises.
The founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus de
Liguori, said, “The whole of our religion can be summed up in the practice of
the love of Jesus Christ.”
THE SECRET
In My Fair Lady,
there is a song line, “By George, I think
she got it.” It's a great movie - showing us how far a person can come till she finally gets it.
Life is growth - and we grow by glimpses.
I think I got a glimpse of how to open up the scriptures
- so we all can get to know Jesus Christ better. I want to do what Jesus did
for these 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus.
For starters, the disciples recognized Jesus in the
Breaking of the Bread.
At Mass we break bread.
At Mass we break words.
It’s called a meal. We have 3 of them a day: breakfast,
lunch and supper.
Okay it varies.
Jesus chose a meal, a supper, his last supper with his
disciples, and during that meal, he did two things. He broke bread and he broke words.
When we sit down to eat, we break bread and we break
words.
How was your day.
Can you pass me the bread. Can you pour me some wine.
If we don’t eat with each other, we will not have
communion with each other.
If we can’t stand each other, we will not talk and listen
to each other. We won’t be able to
stomach each other. We will not get strength from each other.
We will avoid eating with each other.
When teenagers start breaking away from the family, they
stop eating with the family. When families start falling apart, they stop
eating with each other. They are no longer called a Mass - the Mass of people
called the Smithtonian Family. People have to eat, but when they eat on the
run, in fast food places, or when they are in communion with a TV or someone 15
or 150 miles away on a phone with them,
they have dropped out of the little church called the Jonestonian Family. So too we see how people drop out of church. They start dropping out of the Meal called the Mass.
For starters that’s how to read and understand the
Scriptures and get Christ and be in communion with him.
THREE MORE AND
THEN CONCLUDE
Let me give 3 more ways to understand the scriptures.
First, the book of Genesis. That’s the creation account and where we come
from. Every human being has a creation account - where we started. Start
talking to each other - inter generationally - where we come from and who the
characters are - where the geography is, etc. Then look at Genesis the first
book of the Bible. It tells about Roots. Read the Acts of the Apostles - our first reading for
today. It tells us a good bit about how our church began.
Second, the books of the Prophets, who are our prophets.
Who challenges us. Last night at Distinguished Alumni celebration of St. Mary’s High School,
4 people were honored. It was wonderful. All 4 told of their mentors, people
who challenged them - to get them where they got to so far. Who are your
mentors. Who has challenged you to get you to where you have gotten to. Then
read the prophets.
Thirdly, Letters. what have been the letters of your
life? This might be disappearing with
e-mail. But what have been the letters of your life. I love the story about my
father writing love letters for 10 years from New York to Boston telling my mom he loved her
and will you marry me. Finally the last letter worked with its message, "If you don’t marry me, I
will become an Irish Christian Brother." She wrote back, "Yes." Thank God, otherwise
I would not be standing here right now. What have been the significant letters that put you in your skin and
your seat here today? Get that and
you’ll get a bit of the letters in the Bible - especially why they saved the letters from St. Paul.
Enough.
***********************
NOTES:
* Painting on top: Daniel Bonnell, Road to Emmaus
[1] John Shea, An Experience Named Spirit, The Thomas More Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1983
John Shea, Elijah at the Wedding Feast and Other Tales, Stories of the Human Spirit, Acta Publications, Chicago, Illionois, 1999
John Shea, Starlight, Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long, Crossroad, New York, 1992
John Shea, The Spirit Master, The Thomas More Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1987
John Shea, Stories of God, Thomas More, A Division of Tabor, Allen, Texas, 1978, 1996
John Shea, Finding God Again, Spirituality for Adults, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford, 2005
John Shea, Stories, Acta Publications, 2008
[2] Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), page 155 in The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., Herder and Herder, Association Press, 1966.
[3] Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, (Dei Verbi), page 127 in The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., Herder and Herder, Association Press, 1966.
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.
