WHOM DO YOU
LOOK TO?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Whom Do You Look To?
When you’re looking for an answer or for help, Whom do
you look to?
I have found out that some daily Mass goers - more than
those who only go to Sunday Mass - like
to read the Mass readings for the day before Mass - either here in church or at
home.
I read them because I have to do that in order to come up
with a short weekday Mass homily. So I’m surprised when others tell me they
also check the readings before Mass. Some even read commentaries or other’s
homilies to see and hear what other folks are saying.
This tells me that there are folks who want to be
nourished by the word of God - the scriptures.
And that gives the first clear answer to the question
that is the title of my homily for today: “Whom Do You Look To?”
Folks look to the Bible, the scriptures, for light and
insight.
LAST NIGHT
Last night I sat down with the readings for today. I read
them a few times to see what possible themes and issues they are looking at.
Sometimes I ask myself, “Now the folks are going to hear
these readings tomorrow morning. What
questions will they hope to get an insight about?” Then I work on a short homily on that
question.
Sometimes I remain self-centered and just think about
what hits me. I might say, “Preached about that…. Preached about that ….
Preached about that.” Then hopefully, there is something new to think about and
I say to myself, “But what about this other issue right here?”
Well right there near the end of today’s first reading
from Jeremiah 14: 17-22, a question hit me.
Jeremiah says different nations have idols, but idols don’t give rain. Then he says: “It is to you alone, O Lord,
that we look.” Then Jeremiah concludes,
“You alone have done all these things.”
So that’s a second answer to the question: “Whom do we
look to?”
We look to the Lord.
So besides the scriptures, we look
to our Lord.
NOW LOOKING AT THE SAME QUESTION - BUT LEAVING OUT THOSE
FIRST TWO ANSWERS - THE SCRIPTURES AND THE LORD -TO WHOM DO WE TURN?
A third answer might be good food for thought on a
Tuesday morning. It’s others…. We turn
to others.
I immediately thought of my dad - the perfect gentleman
and dad. It’s been hitting me in my old age, that I didn’t talk to my dad
enough. It was neither our fault. I went to the seminary early and we never got
home in those days. So I pause and
wonder how lucky some men are to have a dad to turn to for advice. As priest, I didn’t have family and kids, so
I didn’t have that father and son conversation. And my dad wasn’t a priest,
so….
Next I thought about folks to whom I did turn to in life.
I once spent 2 weeks at Wernersville, Pa - at the Jesuit
retreat house there - on a workshop on some of the discernment principals of St.
Ignatius of Loyola.
Today, July 31st, is his feast day.
I have been looking at what I learned there those two
weeks for more than the last 30 years at least. I discovered a wonderful Jesuit
priest, Frank Miles, whom I had great conversations with. I also had a good
Jesuit priest - Father Jim Gladstone - of the Midwest Province - as a spiritual
director when I was in Wisconsin. He was at Marquette.
I also made about 5 directed retreats at Wernersville and
I taught Jesuit discernment stuff for 9 years.
So when it comes to Jesuit or Ignatian spirituality, I learned to ask myself on a regular basis the
following two questions: “What gives me life?” and “What kills me?”
That’s one of the learnings I picked up at Wernersville:
“What gives me life, do more of; what kills me, do less of.”
In reality, it looks like just the opposite at times.
For example, exercise looks like it might kill me and lying
around - relaxing looks like it will restore me.
Not always….
Next I learned at Wernersville, that we learn most of
this life stuff, by looking backwards - by hindsight - by reflection. That’s one good reason to make retreats and
take reflective walks.
Experience is not the best teacher. Learning from our experiences can be the best
teacher.
My next learning at Wernersville was to make scripture
texts my own piecemeal - that is, one at a time. A wonderful spiritual director
whom I had, Frank Miles, SJ. told me that he owned about 75 scripture
texts. They were his. So we don’t have
to know the whole Bible, we just have to own our key texts. And learn them
slowly.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Whom Do You Look To?”
In this homily I said we can turn to the Lord. I said we can turn to the Scriptures. And
thirdly I said we can turn to one another - a saint like St. Ignatius of Loyola
- or a director - or a good friend - or one’s dad.
