EXTRAS FOR EXTRA HELP
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Thursday in the First Week in Ordinary Time is, “Extras for Extra Help.”
The title of my homily for this Thursday in the First Week in Ordinary Time is, “Extras for Extra Help.”
If there is anything we Catholics know about - it’s the extras - extra prayers - extra items - extra external souvenirs and symbols of
religion - that people add on for help.
We
know about crucifixes, medals and chains and rosaries around necks, religious
magnets on refrigerator doors and 14 to 18 inch crosses on walls – and in cars
tiny 2 inch crosses and St. Christopher medals – which are still being sold.
Go through any Catholic home for people over 55 and you'll spot an image or statue of Mary somewhere. I'm of Redemptorist background and we were tasked since 1867 to get images of Mary, the Mother of Perpetual Help, in homes and churches all around the world.
Perpetual Help - How's that for an extra!
If
there is anything we humans know about it’s the external souvenirs we have for
extra help: rings and things. We went
to the movies yesterday – to see 1917.
They had a black and while photograph on a wooded beam in a German trench – and of course when a soldier was shot
and killed they found in his pocket a black and white picture of his mom and
sisters.
What’s
in your wallet?
I remember listening to an audio tape talk by Robert Fulghum or someone and the
speaker asks his audience to take out their wallets and tell the members of the
small group they are in what’s in their wallet.
It can be very revealing.
What’s
in your wallet? Do you have something
that reminds us about who we are all in the mind of others or they in us or what have
you?
I
asked people once to write on a small piece of paper a favorite Bible text and keep it in your wallet. Mine is Galatians
6:3. “Bear one another’s burdens - In this way you are fulfilling the Law of
Christ.” I figured if I preached it, I
better do that myself.
Knowing
it’s there, it’s helps me keep that text and theme in mind and put the text
into action.
So, we
have these mementos, these souvenirs, these tokens to give us an extra edge.
I
love the image of having a small prayer book – and making it a portable
cemetery – where we put all our death cards – and we can go through our cards
once a month
I
remember a period in my life when I got interested in Native American life and
literature, etc.. I’m in Washington DC –
and I dropped into the Bureau of Indian Affairs - which is in the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was in an off season and well before the It was a good experience.
It
was valuable moment and I got to ask
lots of questions.
One
thing the curator said was this: much of Native American life was to get power – good medicine – over
others, one’s enemies. So, Indians have
lots of beads and feathers etc. and traveling souvenirs.
This happened way back - before the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.
Check that out - with an eye to jewelry and items people use to extra help and strength - the theme of this homily.
Check that out - with an eye to jewelry and items people use to extra help and strength - the theme of this homily.
Jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher in a magazine article about her work said, "Jewelry is like your armor. Personalizing it gives you strength and power."*
CONCLUSION
So
what else is new? The Israelites had the ark of the covenant. Reread today’s first
reading about how they personalized that box to give them strength and power. [Cf. First Samuel 4: 1-11.]
So
what else is new? Christians have this gospel text to tell us that Jesus is there when our
skin feels ugly or we feel crappy and small and unclean. Amen. [Cf. Mark 1: 40-45.]
Footnote *"Chains of Love," by Eric Wilson, Instyle, magazine, page 515, September 2015
