HEZEKIAH
PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 15th Friday in
Ordinary Time is, “Put Your House in
Order.”
That’s what Isaiah says to King Hezekiah in today’s first
reading.
It would scare me to have someone come up to me and say, “Put your house in order, for you are about to
die.”
It wouldn’t be putting my room and stuff in order – I’m a
slob – but someone else would have to take care of that. It would be the thought of, “Well, that’s it
and I don’t know about the next.’
This scene appears in almost identical words and details
in both Isaiah 38 – today’s first reading – as well as 2 Kings 20: 1-11.
So that means we’d hear this story more frequently. Yet, I’ve never used it or heard it used for a
funeral. I think we say, “Obviously” to that - but a funeral can have the same effect at
times. Death can get us thinking about
our death.
Or think of the daily reading of Cherished Memories
– that long list we have of all the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province
from our beginnings. We know the thoughts we have when we hear that today is
the anniversary of some guy we were stationed with – or someone who died at an
age much younger than we are today. It
can make us think about ourselves – that
some day our name will be read out - but we
add, “Not yet!”
Isaiah tells Hezekiah to put his house in order – now - for
you are about to die. “You shall not recover.”
Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays. He weeps bitterly.
Surprise!
Isaiah is told to go back to Hezekiah and to tell
him that the Lord has heard his prayers and seen his tears – and he’ll
be healed in 3 days and get 15 more years of life.
He’s given a remedy for his boil as well as a sign - the strange sign of the shadow of the sun going backwards ten steps. Commentators
think it’s referring to a sun dial. I
think it’s simply the shadow on a certain set of steps that one can see every
afternoon.
So that’s something to reflect upon this morning and
today.
GOOD FRIDAY 1984
This story about Hezekiah triggered a memory. I remember going down to see my brother in
Laurel, Maryland on Good Friday, April 20, 1984.
The front door was open, but nobody was home.
He had told me that he had a doctor’s appointment for a
fatty lump on his shoulder – so if you get there early, just go in the house. They were going to cut the fatty lump. I made a joke, “What are they going to do cut
your head off?”
He didn’t laugh.
I’m standing there all alone in his house and the phone rings. It was Gloria Goldberger - a
good friend of our family. She asked if my brother or sister-in-law was there.
I said they are at the doctors. She
said, “I know.”
Then she said, “You heard, didn’t you?”
I said, “Heard what?”
She blurted it right out loud: “Your brother has 18
months to live at the most. He has melanoma – cancer.”
Silence.
Realizing what happened, she said, “I’m sorry. I figured
you’d know.”
My brother and sister-in-law came in about 10 minutes
later.
Somewhere in there I asked my brother how will he be able
to handle all this.
He said that he’d let me know.
They were on the money. He died around 18 months later.
Just before he died, he said to me, “Remember that time
you asked me how I’ll be able to handle
all this and I said I’ll let you know?”
“Well,” he said after a pause, “Thank God for mom and dad
– for giving us the gift of faith.”
Then he added, “I learned two other things. Think of
others. That made it easier – and you better have a sense of humor.”
I remember he used a magic marker a few times to draw a monthly calendar on his chest
– and then he’d put an X when he took chemo that day.
He said the doctors and the nurses really got a kick out
of that.
SO THE SAME QUESTION FOR ALL OF US
Us …. What are our
wonderings about this human reality called “life and death”?
The story of Hezekiah gets me thinking thoughts like this.
It triggered the memory that my brother had a Hezekiah type moment.
Last year I was in a hospital for the first time overnight. I had a Hezekiah type experience partially
last year with my heart surgery. That first night I thought would be my last
night.
And like you I’m sure – we’re all having our personal thoughts – in this
experience with this virus – seeing and hearing about the numbers dying.
What are our 2020 thoughts?
CONCLUSION
Like Hezekiah we might want signs – but the only signs
are those personal faith stories –
hopefully we all have – on how we’re doing life – and thoughts at times of
death.
At times I’m sure we’ve been like Pharisees in today’s gospel – and we would like some
kind of control over life and what happens with death.
They used keeping the Sabbath as a sign they are doing
what is right . It gave them some control of the narrative of how to guarantee
salvation when death comes.
I’m sure that so many of these gospel stories about the
Pharisees trying to control their God and our destiny gets us laughing. We know we don’t know our date on the calendar
– so we better have faith.
