“Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra - not choreography to
the audience.”
George Szell [1897-1970],
Newsweek January 28, 1963
Monday, August 13, 2018
UNFORGETTABLE SCENES
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for the 19th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “Unforgettable
Scenes.”
Before dementia, we can sit back and sort out some
unforgettable scenes from our lifetime.
That’s one of the great gifts we have as human beings:
our ability to remember - especially our unforgettable scenes.
Memories…. Moments .... Scenes from a lifetime ....
TODAY’S TWO READINGS
Today’s two readings trigger that thought.
The first reading from Ezekiel has some electric images:
huge clouds, strong storm winds from the north, flashing fires in the sky. It
also has sounds - as if the sky was filled with images that looked human - but with
wings.I picture 1,000 gulls squeaking
at the shore - if you ever saw that.Then Ezekiel sees a throne - like a sapphire - with someone seatedon it - filled with fire and light. Then he
sees a rainbow. [Cf. Ezekiel 1: 2-5,
24-28c.]
The gospel has Jesus telling his disciples about his
future - being killed and rising on the 3rd day. Then there is the
fish story about having to pay taxes and they toss a hook into the lake and
they catch a fish - with a coin in its mouth worth twice the temple tax. [Cf. Matthew 17: 11-27.]
QUESTION
What have been your great life scenes? What have been
your memorable scenes.
Pick 10. It’s a good exercise. It’s good discussion stuff
with one another. Here are 10 scenes in my life. I did my homework. Practice what you preach. These are in no particular order - and I have hundreds more. I had a crazy morning, so I read the readings and thought this might be interesting homework.
#1Four of us in a
light blue car drove from New York City to the Rocky Mountains in
Colorado.The plan was to drive till we
saw mountains. We went 32 hours straight - switching drivers every 2 hours -
stopping for bathroom breaks and hamburger breaks. We crossed the border into
Eastern Colorado. It was evening. There were the mountains finally. We parked
the car on a dirt road - next to a field - got out - pitched our tents and went
to sleep.We woke up the next morning
surrounded by cows and looked out from our tents and saw no mountains. It was a
mirage. What we thought were mountains the night before simply were clouds in the west.
#2 We climbed Mount Alice. There we were - us 4 priests -
trying to climb up to the top of what was called Mount Alice. It was part of
the Continental Divide. We didn’t make it. 2 guys below us took pictures - but
we didn’t know till we looked at the pictures when we got back - that we were
very close. We took another way the next day - got to the top of Mount Alice.
Surprise! What we thought would be a tiny peak - some 14,000 feet up - was a
gigantic boulder field - the size of 3 football fields.
#3.On a Mediterranean cruise, we took a
bus and then walked up to the edge of Vesuvius above Naples, Italy and looked
down into a deep crater that had smoke coming up our of different fissures.
#4. I was giving a priests’ retreat on the other side of
Lake Poncetraine - on the other side from New Orleans and I was walking outside
by myself early in the morning - and a man in a car came into the property -
went into a cemetery - and I was walking towards him - and he had a gun and
shot himself to death while standing in front of a statue of Mary.
#5 I was with my brother in his sailboat in the Chesapeake
- not too far out from the Naval Academy and we were able to go right up close
to a nuclear submarine.
#6 Mary Decker. I was at Madison Square Garden one night
for the Millrose Games and we saw Mary Decker break the world indoor record for
the 10,000 meter run and somewhere around 7000 meters the whole of Madison
Garden stood up and cheerer her on.
#7 I saw the Codex Sinaticus - in the British Library in
London.
#8 I saw 1 million people all togetherin Washington DC for fireworks on the evening
of July 4th, 1976.
#9 I once gave a sermon to 15,000 people - one evening -
in a park in Reading PA and couldn’t see any of the people in front of me. The stage had a pond in front of us - and bright,
bright lights shining in our faces.
#10 I saw the New York Marathon a couple of times. The
one I picture was the first time I saw the Marathon. We were standing there on
4th Avenue in Brooklyn - and suddenly we could hear the helicopters
overhead - then the lead runners coming off the Verrazano Bridge - then over
20,000 people ran by us.
CONCLUSION
Those are 10 of my unforgettable sights. There are a lot
more. What are your 10 more.
