WE HARDLY KNEW YOU.
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 2nd Tuesday in
Ordinary Time is “We Hardly Knew You.”
TODAY’S FIRST
READING - APPEARANCE
I got that title and this thought from today’s first
reading from 1st Samuel. The author has God saying these profound words, “Do not judge from his
appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him.”
That is referring to Jesse’s 7 sons that were presented
to Samuel as a possible king and none of them had what Samuel thought God was looking for. Remember Samuel was told by
the Lord to go to Jesse - a man in Bethlehem - and anoint one of his sons king.
The Lord also says, “Not as man sees does God see -
because he sees the appearance - but the Lord looks into the heart.”
So Samuel asks if there is anyone else?
That’s when they call for David, the youngest, the 8th
child - who is out somewhere tending the sheep.
When he walks in, the Lord said, “There - anoint him -
for this is he.”
DAVID
This is now David is introduced into our Bible.
The year is around 1000 B. C.
The text from Samuel is dated between 630 to 540 B.C.
By the time the David stories are written down in the
Jewish Bible that we use, the spoken
stories were first made better. The
legends took over - and the group that favored David gave him good press
down through the years.
Whenever I read about David, Richard Gere appears - because he played David in the movie. That’s
not bad - compared to Ernest Borgnine and also John Wayne both playing the part
of the Centurion who says at Calvary, “Truly this is the son of God.”
WHO IS THIS
OTHER PERSON?
Years ago - after John F. Kennedy’s death, there was a
book called, “Johnny We Hardly Knew You.
I think of that book - it also became a song - as well as
a movie: Johnny I/we hardly knew you -
whenever the question of who is this other person is or was.
I think of my dad at times. He was an introvert - but
too, too quiet - and I have questions I’d love to ask him. Daddy we hardly knew
you. He was always there - the perfect gentleman - but I still have questions.
My mom and my only brother I knew the best, but not
enough. My sister Peggy and I did not get enough chances to talk. The only one
left, my sister Mary, I know the best and we’ve been working on this.
APPEARANCE
So this Bible text is relevant to me? How about you?
I’m not married, but I’ve been blessed that I have lived
in a community most of my life as a priest. As a result I have been blessed to
know some wonderful people.
Some obvious learnings are these:
We can be in the same house and not know each other.
We can hear people talk about someone we live and/or work
with and we say, “We hardly know you
Johnny.”
I have done hundreds of funerals and I try to find out
about another. I feel good when someone says, “You really captured her.”
I find out that some people can figure out another much
better than others.
I tell myself - you better have people who know you.
I try not to judge others. I like the Native America
saying more and more as I get older. Don’t judge another - until you walked a
mile in their moccasins. And I add the last part of that word - and also say,
Don’t judge. You won’t know another until you walk a mile in their
sins. As priest I have heard a lot of
confessions - and I noticed in today’s first reading - “the Lord looks into the
heart.”
CONCLUSION
This basic thought we all know. We’re surprised by it at
times.
And the one story - and warning - I have never forgotten is in the book, The
Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. It should be read once a year.
A doctor got cancer and died. He never told anyone. People said how brave he was. His family was
furious. He never told them.
