Thought for today:
"I'm working my way toward divinity."
"I'm working my way toward divinity."
Bette Midler
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Monday, January 7, 2019
THE PRESENCE OF PEOPLE,
IN PEOPLE, PLACES
AND IN STUFF
AND IN STUFF
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “The Presence of People, in People, Places and In Stuff.”
Rings and things …. Places and spaces….
COMMON EXPERIENCE
I was wondering if you have had the following experience.
You’re in some place - any place - and you sense the presence of people - from
the past - being in this spot - where you’re in right now - in this present
moment.
When I see chairs, sometimes - I get the thought, “I
wonder how many people have sat in this chair….”
Like, sometimes, we see a bunch of little kids pushing
and trying to all together squeeze together into one big Lazy Boy lounge chair.
Like sometimes I sit in a church bench or pew - [I prefer
the word bench to pew] - and think about all the people who have sat in this
spot and I unite myself to their prayers in this spot right now. That’s a nice prayer - that’s a nice way to
have or receive communion - with the body of Christ.
Like sometimes we’re in our house and there is the chair
our mom or dad from long ago - and long dead - used to sit - and their presence
crowds that chair - in this present
moment.
Like - there are roads - especially in Pennsylvania -
when I’m driving - and I see a long low
lying mountain up ahead of me and I picture Civil War soldiers heading to Gettysburg
or somewhere - and I wonder what it was like that day - heading towards battle
and possibly death - and tough climbing up that hill ahead to get there.
Like I see carvings in trees or initials in sidewalks
where teenagers from long ago are
telling the world in a carved tree or in fresh cement - that J.L loves
M.T. We go to Malvern for the high
school retreats and I open up a drawer in a small dresser in the room I’m
assigned and there in pencil on the wood I read a message: “Jane, St. Elizabeth’s,
February, 1997.”
Kilroy was here.
I can’t count how many people have come up to me at St.
Mary’s - and pointing towards the front of the church - they say: “We were married
here 25 years ago this year.”
Where have you been? Where do you feel present again from
way back?
In every restaurant, who has sat where we’re sitting? Who
has used the silverware, the menu, the plates we’re using.
In 1984 - I went to a small restaurant in Rome with
Father John Ruef. The owner came over
and said to me: “You’re sitting in the seat that Pope John Paul II used to love
to sit in when he came here to eat when he was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla.”
During this Mass close your eyes and be in the presence
of all who celebrated Mass and sat in the bench you’re in right now.
When I drive by Parole I think of all the Civil War
Prisoners who were on Parole there.
History, ambiance, memories, are everywhere.
Someone on TV said the other evening that people live in
12 different houses in their lifetime?
Have you ever gone back to the street of your childhood and felt the
presence of so many people from 12 or 25 or 50 or more years ago.
Look at your hand and pray for peace for all those whose
hand you have shook. You can do this with lips and hugs, etc.
You hear a song - and it was your love song at 22!
TV commercials - songs - movies - move us - to remember,
to tear, to get in touch with.
CONCLUSION: TODAY’S
GOSPEL
Today’s gospel gave me this theme for this homily.
I was in Israel once - in January of 2000.
That first night we got our hotel rooms in Capernaum on
the Lake of Galilee. We didn’t unpack.
We walked out of the Palestinian Hotel we were in and walked about 2
blocks to the water. I stood there at the water’s edge and could feel the
presence of Jesus in that spot. Looking out on the lake, I said to myself,
“Jesus was here.”
And I felt his presence in so many places on that trip to
Israel: in Nazareth, Jericho, Nazareth, on the mountain, at the place of the
beatitudes, in Jerusalem on the way of the cross.
To be human is to do this. Welcome to the Human Race. Welcome to the
human place. We’re all here.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
EPIPHANY
She went to Mass that Sunday morning.
It was for the feast of the Epiphany: January 6th.
She had been a Catholic for some 83 years now.
Mass: she has been here - done this - at least some 10,000 times or was it 20,000
times in her life, but this time Mass was to be different?
She sat there, stood there, knelt there, stood up again,
sat down again, sang a tiny bit, prayed a tiny bit - but in her mind a two by
four board of wood shook a bit - because
of a bit of stress. “Uh oh!” she felt in
her being.
She asked the question that edged around in her being - a
semi-sounding sort of conscious questionable question: “Is this real? Is this all real? What am I
doing here in this church at this moment, called, 'The Mass'”?
Her faith was being questioned - which had happened to
her - from time to time in different ways - then it would slip away.
She knew the name of a priest who had been outed - for
sexual misconduct - in a parish she lived in 14 years ago.
She remembered hearing about a priest who had siphoned
off a bit of money in a parish she grew up in - in a far city.
Sex - money - mischief
- sin - life has its “Uh oh!” and messy moments.
Most of the time motives for crime and mischief -
mentioned on TV and in the papers - didn’t have the impact it had on her - till
it happened in church this Sunday morning.
Why did this hit her at this moment in January - in
church - at the beginning of a new year? Why now? Why here?
Is this all real?
She looked around the church.
Is anyone - here - where I am now?
Then she had an epiphany on the feast of the Epiphany.
She was looking off to the side to the church Christmas
stable.
She saw herself in a hospital bed - being presented a new
born baby - 5 times - her babies - 3 girls and 2 boys: Mike Jr. (who became
Mack), Marsha (who became Marshmallow all her life and she learned to love that
nickname. She was a Marshmallow if there ever was one), Maxine (who became
Maxi), Martin (who became Marty) and Melody (who became Music - and she did -
growing into that name - playing the guitar and piano - and she had a great
singing voice as well).
She said to herself, “Okay - only 3 of them go to church
on a regular basis - but 4 out of 5
don’t live too far away - and Maxi who lives far away with their 3 kids is quite near a Southwest
Airlines hub.
The epiphany continued. She closed her eyes and was with
Mary in the stable with the kings or Magi bringing gifts. "These 5 kids have
been the gift of my lifetime. They earned her the degree 'Mom' and then the
master’s degree of 'Granny' - 15 times, 15 grandkids." She loved cellphones: and
she was still very good with her thumbs,
“Want to see their pictures?
Epiphany. Epiphany - she thought - no wonder God came to
us as a baby.
She prayed. She cried. She smiled. She laughed there in
her church bench - on the left side - side aisle - middle of the church - sitting
where her husband and she loved to sit when he was alive and could slip out and
head for the bathroom if necessary.
This epiphany was like a slide show - all these scenes from her life
- like the monitor screen pictures she was seeing more and more at each wake at each funeral home she went
to - with old friends going home to God, please God.
A big epiphany hit her - their 50th anniversary - a
blessing and some prayers in this church - with all their kids - and then after that at Macaroni
Grill for lunch and only one of us was half-Italian.
Then the death of her Mike - who came up with the idea of
all M names for their kids - because his parents were Mike and Mary as
well. His death was horrible - cancer,
emphysema, but it was a blessing - and as he had said over and over again, “I hope I go
first, because I wouldn’t be able to live life without you.” His breathing those last 3 months of his life
- it seemed you could hear it a mile
away at times.
Epiphany. She sat
there in church that feast of the Epiphany
- seeing all the beautiful vacations they took in their lifetime - with
and without the kids.
Mountains - the ocean - Rome - The Grand Canyon - Barcelona - all 5
kids graduating from college - grandkids, baptisms, Little League games,
playing 45,000 pinochle card games, a granddaughter making it to the state
finals in a spelling bee.
She laughed - remembering a priest in confession telling
her once, “Distractions at Mass can be prayer moments. They are not sins. Just
share them with the Lord.”
So at that Mass - at that personal epiphany - that’s what
she did - especially when she got back to her bench - left side - near the
aisle - middle of the church. It was a
moment when she half knelt and half sat
- in communion - her favorite time of Mass. Deep in the stable of her heart - she prayed to God a deep, "Thank You!"
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