BROKEN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Broken.”
We all know about broken: broken dishes, bones, a rosary,
a heart, a family, a marriage, an egg,
window, cookie, life, etc. etc. etc.
Broken….
TODAY’S FIRST
READING: EARTHEN VESSELS
We all know the theme in today’s first reading for this
feast of St. James.
Our bodies are earthen vessels. We are made from the clay of the earth and
our bodies break at times like a fragile earthen vessel.
The dream seems to be Unbroken - as in the movie, the
book, or an expensive vase - but the reality is that we go through life - and
we are broken at times.
The middle east is filled with broken vessels - lots of pieces
of clay pots are everywhere.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in earthen vessels in caves and the museum that
holds the Dead Sea Scrolls is formed in the shape of those same earthen
vessels.
A clay pot is a great prop for preaching. It’s a very clear image in the song that the
St. Louis Jesuits came up with: Earthen Vessels. Why don’t we sing that more? It’s in our Breaking Bread Missalette, #408.
Speaking of broken, how about out missalettes in our
church benches. Every year - if they are used - they break - a page or two comes out by
November, the plastic breaks, pages get ripped and folded.
So too people, if we work, if we serve, if we are useful,
if we help others, we break. Life.
THE TREASURE
WITHIN
The key to the message is what’s inside the earthen
vessel.
In the middle east people kept property deeds - in
earthen vessels.
So too coins, jewelry, and what have you.
We’re all made of clay.
It’s what’s inside that counts.
And Paul tells us all the things in life that can be
inside us. They are realities of life that can make us valuable. We heard them
again this morning: afflictions, persecutions, sickness, death - yes death. Get
cancer or any sickness inside this clay pot, and the struggle that results - the faith struggle
that comes, the questioning God that
happens - can cause us growth. Suffering can bring us the treasure of wisdom
and understanding.
And it’s not just cancer - lots of other sufferings can
be our teachers. Loss of spouse, loss of
children, family misunderstandings, loss of jobs, addictions, all that can make
and/or break us.
I know a priest whose alcoholism - and his recovery in AA
- helped make him a treasure house of kindness, understanding and wisdom.
I would guess the embarrassment that the Sons of Zebedee
experienced because of their mom in today’s gospel - and the anger against them
of the other 10 when they saw this happening - her wanting her sons to be #1
and # 2 - brought some changes into their life and her life. [Cf. Matthew 20:20-28.]
The glue of humility and learning from our mistakes is a
crazy glue that works and repairs broken vessels.
Brokenness can do that….
AN EXAMPLE: THE
CRACKED POT
Last night - in reading up on this first reading - I
found a neat example called, “The Cracked Pot.”
It was in a sermon by a Missy Butler entitled, “Wonderfully Flawed.”
“Many years ago,
in a very poor Middle East village, stood an ancient stone well. Alongside of
that well sat two large watering pots [which people would use to bring water from the well to their
homes]. One of them was like new, beautifully formed, even had
graceful etchings along its curved handle.
“The other, not
as new yet still useful, had become cracked over the years. Time after time,
the pot was passed over by the people with the exception of a little village
girl. She had grown fond of the neglected pitcher. Every day she would chose it
instead of the beautiful pot.
“One morning, the
old pot asked the little girl, ‘Why do you continue to use me, when you know I
am flawed and cannot hold the water you and your family so desperately
need?" The little girl spoke not a word, but carried the broken pot to a
familiar pathway that she traveled daily.
“With her tiny
voice she said, ‘This is why I pick you.’ There before the pot was a row of
delicate wild flowers that had bloomed along the trail because of the water
that had trickled and leaked from the pot. The buried seeds of the flowers had
been watered as she made her way home each day. The cracked pot for the first
time had seen its worth through the eyes of a grateful little girl.”
CONCLUSION
My conclusion is the last sentence in today’s first
reading. Notice the word “overflow” in it. The sentence: “Everything indeed is
for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may
cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.”
