“For Catholics before Vatican II, the land of the free was pre-eminently the land of Sister
Says - except of course, for Sister, for whom it was the land of Father Says.”
Wilfred Sheed, Frank and Maisie: A Memoir
with Parents, 1985
WARNING SIGNALS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Warning Signals.” LOUD AND CLEAR
The train is coming down the tracks. The train is coming towards a crossing. The train gives off warning signals. “Warning Signals”. Sometimes we hear them; sometimes we don't. Sometimes we see them; sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we do something about them;
sometimes we don’t.
There they are on the dashboard of our car!
Sometimes we take care of them; sometimes we say, “They mean
nothing. I’ve had these here before - and nothing happened. I’ll have them look
at it - next month - when I get my car checked.”
Warning signals are
present in our life - but most of the time they are not as clear as those little icons that appear all lit up
- on the dashboard of our car.
So often we don’t see them. We don’t hear them. We have eyes
that don’t see or ears that don’t want to hear.
The paint is peeling. The oven is giving off a funny smell,
but we don’t want to know. It would take too much time to check the oven. We
don’t get the message till the house goes, “Boom!”
Then after we get hit with reality, we find ourselves out on
the street or on the floor saying, “I should have seen this coming a long time
ago. I should have seen the handwriting on the wall.”
GO TO ANY AL-ANON
OR AA MEETING
Go to any Al-Anon or AA meeting and you’ll have folks
saying things like, “I am a slow learner. Her father was an alcoholic. I was an
alcoholic. I didn’t get the connection that she might be marrying me because I
was an alcoholic.”
One guy said, “I look at my sister’s family. It’s a total
mess. I’m in the same mess, but I wouldn’t look at myself and how I was
treating my family.” Then the pause. Then the sad statement, “Now it’s too
late.”
We’re slow learners. We’re lazy. We don't get off the tracks till the train hits us. We wait till the drip ruins
the rug before we call the plumber.
HIGHWAY ANIMALS
Animals that cross the highway don’t seem to get the message
that crossing a highway is dangerous business. They don’t seem to ask, “What
are these black birds waiting for near highways?” They don’t seem to see the carcasses
that they bypass. The bright lights seem to get them. They don’t realize that
they could be next. DENIAL IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT - AS THE SAYING GOES
Denial runs the world. Illusion so often is the reality.
People build castles in the air and then they try to live in them.
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s readings are end of the year readings. They appear
here and we’ll hear them again during Advent - which is coming up.
They are warning signals type readings. They contain all kinds of warning
signals. Today’s readings are written in what is called “apocalyptic”
literature. “Apo” is the Greek word for “un”
to un something. Un Cola, etc. “Kalyptein” means to cover.
So Apocalyptic literature is a literature that uncovers reality.
However, paradoxically, it picks symbolic language and
mysterious analogies to do it.
It’s a literature that flourished in the Middle East from
200 BC to 150 AD.
Israel
was going through some tough times - and they were refusing to look at how they
themselves were self-destructing. So the prophets tried to get them thinking.
Nothing seemed to work, so they came up with a language that used metaphors
that might penetrate their dense skulls.
The same thing happened in Christian times.
So as we hear in today’s gospel, people can see a tree
having sap rising. Hey, spring is coming. We see that, but we don’t seem to see the
whole world collapsing.
Jesus talked about waiting for the bridegroom and then
forgetting him and getting drunk or what have you. OR waiting for the boss and
then forgetting him and getting drunk. Well, when he comes, we’ll be out of
time or without candles, or without oil.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is simply, “Warning Signals.”
There seems to be two types of people: those who hear the
alarm clock waking them up and they get out of bed and get moving and those who
hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.
