“All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.”
Tennessee Williams,
in The Milk Train
Doesn’t Stop Here
Anymore,
New Directions, 1964
Friday, April 5, 2019
DID YOU EVER WANT
TO KILL SOMEONE?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Did You Ever Want to Kill Someone?”
A homily is a
reflection on the readings.
Both readings for today - this 4th Friday in
Lent - talk about people wanting to kill people. So that’s where I got the title of this
homily: “Did You Ever Want to Kill Someone?”
I asked myself the question and thought about it and I
have to say, “I have never wanted to kill anyone.”
Thank God, obviously.
Don’t call 911 on me.
Then I asked, “Did I ever want someone dead?”
“No.”
Next question: “Did I ever wish someone would disappear -
be on the other side of the street from me - or they are taking the down
staircase and I’m on the up staircase?”
Answer. I hesitate and then answer, “Probably, yes!”
I heard someone say, “There’s one in every office.”
A what? I PITA - a
person who is dysfunctional - someone who de-energizes everyone.
In hearing that there problem people around us, I think of the gospel text, that I jokingly
use at times, “Is it I, Lord?”
TODAY’S READINGS
If you read the Bible, then you know that prophets, those
who challenge us, are often threatened with extermination.
If you read the gospels, especially near the end of Lent,
you know that Jesus is often threatened.
And they got him killed!
The person on the cross and the cross are central to
Christianity.
MOTIVE
People who correct us or challenge us or get under our
skin are people who can anger us.
Is anger the #1 cause of murders.
Combined with booze - that can become a lethal dose of
poison for our relationships.
Yesterday we got the news - the verdict - in a murder
case in New Jersey. My brother-in-law’s nephew, Richie Doody, was murdered
around Thanksgiving 2015, by a guy named Conrad Sipa.
We still don’t know the motive: but by the violence in
how Richie was murdered, there was a lot of anger there. Richie was beaten by a
golf club, a lamp and his neck was slit with a knife.
Conrad Sipa was out on a million dollar bail for the past
3 years - so the long awaited trial was a source of frustration on the part of
the Doody families. Conrad was found guilty of 8 out of 9 charges.
ANGER: SOME SUGGESTIONS
So I would list anger as one of life’s major issues.
Since anger shows up in our neck, our fists, our
shoulders, our words, here are a few suggestions - on what to do with our body.
When angry, walk.
Walk out the door and walk about the block.
Stand there or sit down and make a fist or two fists as
tight as you can. Then raise your fists,
your hands, as if you have all your anger in your hands - in your grasp - then
open your hands, release the anger in
your hands, as if you’re
releasing pigeons into the sky.
Or open your mouth, stick your tongue out. Now bite your tongue saying, “Enough with the
anger.” Or “Enough with the friction.”
Bite your tongue with every prayer and pray, “Help!”
