Father William Guri, here at St. Mary's told me about an African practice of saying to someone who is in a room - or just walks into a room - and you can't talk to them just yet. So one says, "I see you!" After he told me this, I found myself saying, "I see you!" when I was unable to talk to someone in the moment. Neat! As priest - after Mass - or what or when have you - people come at us - and I find I can't catch them all - at once. Well this practice of saying, "I see you" solves the dilemma for me - or at least tries to take care of it. Surprise I spotted and heard U.S. Senator Kamala Harris say just that on YouTube. I place it here on my blog. Give it a hearing. Say to me or Kamala or William, "I see you."
Then add, "I hear you."
GOD
LIKES TO HIDE
Did you know, God likes to hide?
Yeah, God likes to hide.
A guy in a state prison in Tennessee just found God in
his cell two months ago at 4:33 on a Tuesday afternoon. You should have heard this
guy’s language and his ugly angry attitude towards everyone else before that
moment. Now he’s becoming a different person - not too many people noticed it
yet - but some are starting to. God brought him back to his growing up years
and some of the angry things that happened back then and on that Tuesday
afternoon at 4:33 he woke up and met God - a much different God than the God of
his constant, “God damn it.”
And there is a lady in Cincinnati - who has a great 2nd
floor apartment window seat on a busy street - with lots of people going up and
down that street - morning, noon and
evening. Well, it’s going to get darker
early now…. Well, she likes to sit there and spot people - walking on the other side of the street…. And she says to God - picking out a specific someone,
“God give that young lady there with the blue backpack and white sneakers and yellow jacket - give
her a nice surprise faith moment today. God come out of her shadows and do that
to her today. Please.”
God likes to hide.
But sometimes God likes to come out of hiding.
He sometimes sneaks into a baby’s smile - I don’t know
how God does that - but God sneaks and slides into a baby’s smile. I think God
likes doing that more than a lot of other things God does. We’re in the
supermarket. We come up on a baby on her
mother’s shoulder - soap aisle. And God
smiles at us - well a baby smiles at us. And we’re grabbed by God at that
moment. It’s just a moment of grace and
peace and smile in the soap aisle. And we stop and look at that baby with the
smile. And we smile and go, “Wow, God, wow!”
A philosophy professor in a major college - has been an
atheist - for a good 33 years now and his sister dies - brain cancer. Well, he’s sitting there at the funeral - oops he
was sitting there at the wake the day before for two long sessions - afternoon
and evening. He’s down - sitting down - off to the side - without wanting to get up and greet - too many folks - a few yes -
but still not too many. And at the funeral Mass the next day - which he dreaded
- he started crying - which surprised him. Three days later he went to a Catholic
church - after calling ahead of time if he could talk to a priest - and he went
and told the priest, “God came to my door. God asked, sought - thought - and knocked on my door the other day at my
sister’s funeral and I want God back again. He closed his eyes - tears coming -
nose running - and he blurted out a prayer, “God I want back with you. Back
with you.” And this man found himself -
back with God.
God liked that one.
And someone heard someone on talk radio - while driving -
talking about God. It was a panel. And one person said, “Well, that’s your idea
about God. It’s not everyone’s idea about God.”
Then this somebody added, “How you see your mom and dad at 7 or 17
or 47 or 77 - is different each time. So
too God.” And God slipped into that
someone’s brain that day - in that way - without that person knowing it. And God laughed because that someone - said that same thing
to his college son - ten years later - without knowing where that thought came
from - a thought that got hidden in his brain 10 years ago.
God hides in corners of memories and one’s brain.
Sometimes God likes to slide like one of those paper bugs
onto a piece of page in an old book - that has been sitting on a windowsill for
years. And God loves it when the tiny
paper bug sits on a dot above the small letter i - and then moves in the light
of day - when a person opens to that page.
And the opener goes, “Wow!” and begins wondering, “What does that bug
eat? Does that bug mate?” and then the
big question, “Why in the world did God create tiny - size of a dot - paper
bugs in the first place?” And that
question about a hidden God - and God’s ways of being creative - and
imaginative - and what have you - gets one more person thinking about our God.
And God laughs - thinking, “The Grand Canyon and Hawaii and Niagara Falls and
their great spouse didn’t get that
person - but a tiny paper bug did. Who would have thunk.”
And God thinks even more…. Why did we ever wait till billions
and billions of years before humans evolved - and why did we wait till even
later till you my son arrived - as a baby - then a carpenter - then a story
teller and a preacher - then a criminal - then a crucified - then a Savior -
hiding in bibles and bread and wine and in Tennessee and Cincinnati and in
supermarkets and on the radios of people driving to and from work - and
sometimes found in churches and funerals and talking with priests and dead
sisters.
God hides. I guess you know that by now.
I read today’s readings last night a few times to come up
with a homily and for the life of me, I don’t know where this homily came from. It doesn’t sound like
anything from these readings - yet maybe
someone did or said something years ago that today’s readings triggered…..
P.S. Or maybe today - Nov. 5 - is the 4th
anniversary of my sister Peggy’s death. She was a nun and she taught me some
things about God. Thanks Peg.
take: # 1: Look around. #2: Get up. # 3: Listen for the sound of voices. # 4: Scream, “Help!” # 5: Go towards the light. # 6: Start moving. # 7: Don't give up. # 8: Pause. # 9: Listen some more. # 10: Keep moving slowly. # 11: If you meet someone ask them where we are. #12: Say, "Thank you."
The title of my homily is, “Guided Tours - Especially
Churches.”
NEW YORK CITY
Let me begin this way.
Years ago my niece Maryna invited me to go with her on
guided tour in Manhattan, New York City. She was attending NYU at the time - getting her degree in English literature
and - she was asked to write a review for the school newspaper of one of 10
guided tours this company invited folks to make.
This one started at the Chrysler Building and ended up
in Columbus Circle. Two hours in the morning - 10 till 12, then lunch, then 1
to 3 PM.
It didn’t include churches. Looking back, maybe one of
the 10 tours was 10 churches or holy places in Manhattan or where have you?
I still remember a good bit of that day - and how
enlightening it was - and for years later it gave me places I would take people
who had never been to Manhattan before.
STATIONED IN
LIMA, OHIO
When I was stationed in Lima, Ohio later on - in the 90’s
- myself and a good priest friend of mine - were in a different parish - preaching a parish mission - for a week for about 20 weeks a year. We did that
for 8 ½ years.
These were small parishes, so when we were there we began
asking folks, “If you had visitors to this town, where would you bring
someone?”
Annie Oakley
We went to Annie Oakley’s birthplace near Willowdell and Miamisburg, Ohio, and we went to Joe E. Brown’s birthplace near Holgate, Ohio
and on and on and on.
Joe E. Brown
One place we preached was Delphos, Ohio. It was a huge
church in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. The steeple was 222 feet high and you
could see it from every farm for some 20 miles around or so.
The church was built in the 1800’s and it was in pretty
bad shape when we first saw it. Different pastors raised money for a renovation
- but a major fix up was rejected by parishioners down through the years. It
was a big beautiful old German church with great wood carvings inside.
A Father Tom Gorman became pastor. He was a renaissance
man and managed to get the church renovated. He didn’t destroy the treasures
within - but enhanced and updated the church.
Surprise! The renovation that folks had rejected became
honored. After all was finished, I found out that whenever folks had visitors
from other parts of the country or what have you, the first place they brought
folks to, was their church.
AN ASIDE
The following is an aside. Father Tom Gorman asked me
once if we Redemptorists had a place in Manhattan, he would get a few
overnights in - with two couples from his parish.
I called and asked our provincial house if 5 people could
use the guest house there for 3 nights. A priest from Ohio wanted to visit New
York City and see St. John Divine Church for the blessing of the animals on the
feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
I got the rooms and they went. I was anxious to hear
after they got back that they had a good time and received wonderful
hospitality.
I met Tom at a meeting and he said it was a great trip
and the Redemptorists showed him and his friends great hospitality.
The best news he told me went like this.
They wanted to get from Shore Road up to 4th
Avenue to get a subway car over to Manhattan. It’s a big hill and they were
pointed in the correct direction.
However, when they saw a UPS truck they asked the driver, “Do you know
how to get up to 4th Avenue so we can get the R train.” The UPS driver said, “Hop in.”
Then Tom said, “You’re not going to believe this. That
evening when we got off the subway on 4th avenue and 75th
street - Bay Ridge Avenue - they spotted a different UPS truck and they asked
the driver if he knew how to get down to Shore Road. He said, “Yes, hop in.”
I felt great. Not
only did our house at Shore Road show great hospitality, but Brooklyn did as
well.
NOW ST. MARY’S
- TODAY’S FEAST DAY
Let me get to my last point.
Where do you take folks who visit you here in Annapolis?
My suggestion is St. Mary’s Church - Annapolis, Maryland.
Next suggestion: buy Robert Worden’s book - Saint Mary’s
Church in Annapolis Maryland, A Sesquicentennial History, 1853-2003.
Since today is the feast of St. Martin de Porres, it hit
me to make a visit to the statue of St.
Martin de Porres at St. Mary’s. It’s about 2 feet high. It was placed in
the church in 1974.
By Reading Robert Worden’s book - taking notes - one
could give a brief history of the Black Community in Annapolis. There was a St.
Augustine’s church which lasted till
I have to admit that I have not done my homework. So I
have that on my agenda list.
Next one would have to do one’s homework on the life of
Martin de Porres, a black or mulatto Dominican brother who worked in Lima,
Peru. His dates are ….
I love the story that when there was a money shortage at
the church he served he said, “Take me and sell me as a slave.”
CONCLUSION
So that’s a few thoughts about Guided Tours - especially
of local churches. Amen.
November 3, 2017
SACRAMENTS
Sitting there, waiting for my plane,
in an airplane terminal, I began
listening to two men in the seats
just behind me. One said, “I used
to be a Catholic - but then I realized
I don’t believe in things like priests
and sacraments and all that religious
stuff.” Silence. Silence. Silence.
“Well,” the other man said, “I used
to be an atheist - but then I realized
we are all priests and we're all called to give and to receive the body and blood - of Christ - and all of creation - with all of creation - which we are all part of each and every day.”
“It was as simple as that,” he continued.
I had been baptized as a baby - but
