The title of my homily for this 21st Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Jesus as Teacher.”
I like to promote Jesus as Teacher - even if people drop
him as “My Lord and My God.”
It often takes a gift of grace to accept Jesus as Lord,
Savior, Redeemer, Son of God, Second Person in the Blessed Trinity. But anyone can study Jesus as a teacher - and find him one of the greats.
So I like to promote Jesus as teacher.
BEST TEACHER
I was with our high school freshman for a Mass today.
It got me thinking about a moment from our first science class in my first year of high school. The teacher said, “If you have 2 good teachers by the time you finish all your
education - in becoming a priest - you’re lucky.” Was he wondering and was he worried about himself as a teacher? He was looking us ahead to 4 years of high school, 4 years of
college - and 4 years of post graduation work.
I told the freshman kids this morning that I had more than 2 good teachers. I had named for myself these 4 and there are more: Koerber, Rowan, Abata and Meehan.
So I have that question for you: to talk to each other -
and come up with at least 2 good teachers you had in your
life. Name the names and share those answers with each other.
WHAT YOU
LEARNT
Next for homework, list
2 things you learnt in your life from teachers.
Then share that with each other. I learnt somewhere along the line that the first step in answering that kind of question is to jot down all the answers that come to mind. Then the second step is to circle two. Then the third step is to share one's answer with another.
So the first step - in my first question - is to jot down the names of different teachers that come to mind - who were helpful. Then pick the top 2. Then share with each
other who they were - as well as two
things you learnt from teachers.
The title of my homily is, “Jesus as Teacher.” JESUS AS TEACHER For starters Jesus is often called "Rabbi" or "Teacher" and different folks came up to him with questions - asking for answers. Jesus answered questions - but as a good teacher he also asked questions back at people - especially to those who were trying to trap him. I've noticed that Jesus as teacher liked to tell stories - especially parables. And two things he did in parables was his use of comparison and contrast. C and C: comparison and contrast. Jesus knew people often compare themselves with others. Jesus also knew that people identify with characters in a story. So Jesus liked to use 2's. A man had two sons ... in a field there are sheep and goats ... if you check out fruit, some is good and some is bad... two people went to the temple to pray ... there are two roads you can travel ... there are two doors you can enter ... Read the gospels of Luke and Mathew especially for parables. Read the Gospel of John and ask yourself - who am I most like in this story - or am I like the woman caught in adultery or am I like the Blind Man or like the couple who have run out of wine. MORE SPECIFIC In today's gospel we have 5 smart bridesmaids and 5 foolish ones. The wise ones, knowing that marriages in that area were often fun filled and you never knew when the bridegroom would show up - sometimes at 2 in the morning - brought extra batteries for their flashlights - but the dummies didn't. So when he showed, 5 were in the dark and wanted the smarties to help - but hey you never know with these events - so they told the foolish bridesmaids get to the all night food mart and get some batteries. They did - and just after they left - the bridegroom showed up - had the wedding - locked the doors and when the bridesmaids showed up they found themselves locked out. Uh oh! Compare and contrast: which am I, foolish or wise. [Cf. Matthew 25:1-13.] A man had two sons. He asked one son to go out and work in his vineyard . The first son said, "I'm on my way...." but he never goes. The other son is asked and he says, "I will not..." but he changes his mind. And Jesus says, "Which son did his father's will." [Cf. Matthew 21: 28-32.] A man had 2 sons. One son says, "Why wait for death? Why not give me my inheritance now? The father divides his property up and gives this son a big cut. That son goes out and wastes it all, hits bottom, comes home with the idea of becoming a hired servant - but fed." He comes home and is forgiven and welcomed back with great joy and hugs and celebration by his father. His older brother - upon finding out - becomes furious - won't go in the house -even when his father begs him. Compare and contrast: which of the 2 brothers am I lost. [Cf. Luke 15: 11-32.] Two people went to the temple to pray. One stood up front and said to God. "Hey God, look at me. I don't cheat or rob. I fast and give to the poor. Ain't I great compared to that slob back there?" And the guy in back fell down, wouldn't look up, and said to God, "Have mercy on this big slop?" Compare and contrast: Which of the 2 am I like? [Read Luke 18:9-14.] At the end of the world God is going to gather everyone there ever was - into a big field - and they are going to be either sheep or goats. The sheep are those who donated to folks in Houston and Southeast Asia -visited the sick and those in prison and gave and gave. The goats are those who didn't give anything to anyone - and both will say, "Lord, when did we see you without?" And Jesus will send those who gave to heaven and those who were total selfies, to hell. Woo! [Cf. Matthew 25: 31-46.] CONCLUSION The title of my homily is, Jesus as Teacher. For your homework jot down the 2 best teachers you've had in life and 2 best learnings. Hopefully, Jesus makes your list. Then compare and contrast your life with what he taught. Am I sheep or a goat, smart bridesmaid or dumb, on the narrow road or the highway that leads to self-destruction, good grape or sour grape, good son or daughter or unforgiving and lazy self centered self?
Does everyone need a theme song, an anthem, to get moving again - like the people of Texas and South East Asia - all those who feel life rained on them and didn't seem to stop - that life gave them - a knock out punch. Do everyone need music - song - support - from all the rest of us - cheering us on - to rise again from the canvas and start again. Amen.
* "Watch and pray ...." Mathew 26:41; Matthew 6: 11-13
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
IS ANYTHING
SACRED
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 21 Wednesday in Ordinary
time is, “Is Anything Sacred?”
We were watching NCIS last evening. It was a rerun.
Gibbs disappeared - and they looked everywhere - till
they discovered he had gone undercover for an old, old case. He had spotted
someone from way back while looking out the window of the diner he often goes
to.
Quinn and Bishop [?] are checking his house - to see if
he was there - but they had no luck.
However, Quinn broke a plate. Bishop said
he can always get another one.
She could only see the underside of the plate - so Quinn
said to her, “Not this plate.” It was a
plate that Gibbs’ little girl made when
she was in the 3rd grade and made it for her parents. It had a kids drawing and writing on it.
The plate was sacred. The plate was special. The plate
was unique.
HOUSTON
FLOODING
We were also watching the evening news - earlier - and
there were all kinds of scenes showing people with plastic bags getting into
boats - heading for higher ground.
Imagine all the sacred photos, knickknacks, afghans from
grandmothers, that people grabbed as the water was rising?
They were grabbing what they cherished as sacred.
ANY HOUSE
If you went into any house, any room of any person, and
you would find out that everyone has their sacred treasures - that connect us
to each other - often to people long gone.
What are your sacred items?
They are unique to every person. They are special to
every person.
The title of my homily is, “Is Anything Sacred?”
If I can get a person to state that some object that they
own is precious, sacred, unique, then I can point out an important teaching.
The message is this: we are the ones who consecrate the
object.
We are the ones who make an object sacred.
Then I can jump to places. We all have sacred places -
like where we proposed marriage to someone.
Then I can jump to people. We are the ones who name
another person as sacred. That’s why we cry at a loved one’s loss.
That naming is stamping another person, place or thing -
with sacredness and the naming is invisible.
YESTERDAY - A
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Yesterday - after the Mass here for the juniors - I was
standing in the back of this church - waiting to say goodbye to as many kids as
possible - to wish them a good day and a good new year here at St. Mary’s.
A man walked in before the kids started down the aisle.
He held up his cellphone to take a picture. I said, “If you can wait for 5
minutes, all the kids will be out and you can take a picture of the sanctuary
up close.
The man said to me, “Today is our wedding anniversary. My
wife and I were married here at St. Mary’s 19 years ago today.
Not all days are the same. Some days are more sacred than
others.
The man told me that his wife and their 2 teenagers are
over in Ireland for a 2 week vacation. He said he couldn’t go - but he would
stay home with Mollie their little kid. Their little girl would cut down on the
mobility of the 3 to so some neat traveling. He convinced his wife and Mollie
that he would take Mollie to see Great Adventure - and be in Switzerland,
Germany, France and Britain.
So I walked up front with the man and had his phone ready
for the picture when Ginny said, “Let me take the picture. It’s not your
talent.”
The guy stood there where couples stand every Saturday at
a wedding. He took off his wedding ring and pointed it to the camera - and he
said, “I’ll send this picture right to my wife in Ireland.”
It was a sacred moment.
It was in a sacred place. The guy wanted to share that moment - their
day - with each other - in a unique way.
CEMETERIES
What triggered this thought for today was the first part
of today’s gospel - Matthew 23: 27-28. Listen to it again.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the
outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even
so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with
hypocrisy and evildoing.
The Gospel of the Lord
Jesus must have been standing there and he spotted some
Pharisees strutting - to make themselves
look better than others. Then he looked over his shoulders and spotted a
cemetery - with it’s beautiful whitewashed tombs - but underneath there was the
smell of death.
SACRED OBJECTS
I looked around my room and with this box I gathered a
few sacred objects from my room.
Here is a porcelain cross that a little girl named Harper
game me 3 weeks ago. She and her family life in London, but she wanted to make
her first holy communion here in this parish. By this request - by this
behavior - she’s telling me that she senses the sacredness of this place.
Here is a lapel pen - that has the fleur-de-ly on it. It
looks just like the fleur-de-ly lapel pins from our parish. I put it on my suit
jacket. Some little tiny kid came up to me after Sunday Mass and handed it to
me. His parents said the family was in New Orleans and they saw this New Orleans Saint lapel pin
is the same as they have in St. Mary’s. Then he added, “And I want to buy this
for Father Andy.”
That was at least 3 years ago. That’s how things and
moments become sacred.
Next - about a month ago someone handed me a plastic bag
of photographs and stuff from my sister who had died two and a half years ago.
Inside I found this envelope and on the outside it said,
“Ring.” Well I opened up the envelope
and there it was, the Claddagh ring my sister Peggy, a nun, wore most of her
life.
There is a world of difference between a Claddagh ring in
a jewelry store than one that was on a person’s finger for most of her life as
a nun.
Next - here is a small plastic bottle of prescription pills.
It has an expiration date of September 1988. [SHAKE BOTTLE]. Now when I die
someone will toss this out along with my prescriptions.
But this little bottle of cancer pills was my brothers and when he died I took this
out of the medical cabinet in his bathroom. [SHAKE IT]. It is sacred to me when
he died of cancer at 51 years of age.
Notice this watch I’m wearing. It’s a Rolex. I met a man
with a gold Rolex watch the other night. It was worth 25,000. Mine is $37
dollars. It’s fake - but it has more meaning to me than the $25,000 Rolex - which
I had asked him to wear for 10 seconds.
Mine was lighter.
Which one is more valuable?
What would make a watch invaluable?
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily was, “Is Anything Sacred?”
My thought is: “Check everyone - and we will find out - ‘Everyone
has some things they find sacred.’”
Then build on that and realize: Besides sacred things we
all have our sacred places and persons.”
Building on that: pause before anyone thrashing or
hurting another - or someone’s sacred places
- but especially another.
P.S. For the Sake of Transparency, I'm a Dodger fan - and I caught that Kirk Gibson moment in 1988. I was all alone and hence I came up with a new definition for celibacy. "Celibacy is you're all alone. You're a Dodger fan. It's the World Series. Oakland is favored. And Kirk Gibson is following the game from the training room. He was banged up and couldn't play the game. He gets off the training table - heads for the dugout and announces that he wants to pinch hit. There are two outs. It's the bottom half of the ninth inning. The Dodgers are losing 4 to 3 - with one guy on base!!!!!!
