October 20, 2020
GET IT IN WRITING
INTRODUCTION
The
title of my homily for this 27th Saturday in Ordinary Time is, “Get It In Writing.”
I
suppose that’s one of the secrets of peace – the theme of this weekend’s
retreat.
Get it
in writing.
In
literature courses in school, we heard of Tolstoy’s famous book: War and
Peace.
Is that
a three-word description of life? War and Peace?
In
history courses in school, we heard of history telling us of wars and then
peace treaties.
Get it
in writing.
Is that
the history of the world: War and Peace?
In
marriage get the ring and get the license – and sometimes if it’s a second or third marriage: get the
prenuptial agreement in writing as well.
Hey you
never know. Money – paper money and
pensions - etc. etc. deal with deals in
writing.
If
you’re starting a company or a country, get it in writing – contracts and
constitutions.
Peace
be with you.
WHY THIS
TOPIC AT THIS MASS ON THIS RETREAT
Well,
around 57 A.D. Paul – an apostle of Jesus Christ – wrote a letter to the people of a few Christian communities in
Galatia. It’s broken down to 6 chapters
in writing.
Today
we heard what’s in writing:
“For
through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free person,
there is not male and female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
That’s
revolutionary.
That
could cause wars.
It
can also bring peace.
The history of the world
can also be described in another 3 words: walls or bridges?
Each of us has to ask
ourselves: Am I a wall maker or a bridge builder?
SEPARATIONS
The history of the world
is a history of separating people i-
divisions – putting people into all kinds of boxes:
male and female,
rich and poor,
black and white,
white people and people of
color,
red states and blue
states,
old and young,
gay and straight,
liberal and conservative,
friends and enemies,
lost and found,
religious and
non-religious,
etc. and etc.
CHANGES
The history of the world
is a history of barriers broken and people discovering there are other people on
the planet – other people on the other side of the wall.
How do we see the
world? How do we see each other?
Someone said, “The only
way we will have a united world – is if we discover a whole other planet with
another whole group of people and we better get united because here we go again
– we always need another us against
another them.”
Paul said:
That’s in writing.
It’s 2020.
What will the world look
like in 20 years – or 200 years – or 2000 years?
I won’t be around for any
of those three – at least with a mind.
If we read history – if we
travel the New York Subway – if we watch TV – if we have ever been on a cruise
to another part of the world – if we look around us – we see the results
of the world changing – women getting
the vote – women running the house – people with different color skin – people
speaking other languages - people with
different eyes – people with different opinions and different ways of seeing
than us.
We can fight it or them –
or we can listen and hopefully live and neighbor ourselves to each other.
The Jewish Temple in
Paul’s time had the women’s court, the men’s section, the Gentiles space –
mostly outside.
There has always Upstairs
Downstairs – not just in Downton Abbey.
WOMEN PRIESTS
Take women priests in the
Catholic Church.
Talk to me.
I’m sure in the talking
about this, today’s gospel about Mary comes up.
Is Jesus putting his
mother down – when a woman in the crowd called out, while he was speaking:
“Blessed is the womb that
carried you
and the breasts at which you nursed.”
And he replied, “Rather,
blessed are those
who hear the word of God and observe it.”
There was Jesus bringing
in not just his mom – not just all women, those who had children and those who
didn’t have children – but all men as well.
The parish I was in for 17
years before I came here to San Alfonso had a practice of new altar servers getting a
shout out for the first time they served.
A guy named Scott Meehan – who was in charge of
training the servers - would come into the sacristy before Mass and tell the
priest who had the Mass – “We have a new server today – Max or Mary – or
whoever.”
This one Sunday he comes
in and tells me that we have a new server, Jill or Mary – I wrote the name down
– to make sure I had her name right. The Mass is almost over. It’s after
communion. It just happened to be the
exact time Pope Francis was chosen. So before the final blessing - I say to
those present: “We had a new server today, Jill. Could we give Jill a hand?”
Everyone claps and then I
say, “Were you nervous?”
She pauses. Then she says, “A little bit.”
Then I said, “Keep on
keeping on. Someday you might be pope.”
Once more the whole church
clapped. I was being cute.
Then I blessed everyone
with the final blessing.
Then I found out, not
everyone clapped.
This one lady came up to
me in the vestibule of the church – when I’m saying, ‘Good bye. Have a great
week.” and she says, “You just said you were for women priests.”
I said, “What?”
She said, “Women can’t become pope.”
I repeated, “What?”
And then I got it. I said
something like, “Relax. I was just trying to give the kid an extra shout out.”
Well, she showed up in the
rectory that afternoon with her husband, with a big book by a German theologian saying “Women can never be priests.”
I said, “Never read it.”
Then I said, “I’m not
going to fight with you. I know the
theology of the church right now, but who knows what the church will look like
in 3035?”
CONCLUSION
To be honest I put up a
mental wall with that lady.
That’s the gist of “Up the
Down Staircase” metaphor.
To be honest we all have our wall builders – instead of our bridge builders.
To be honest we have our
walls and our comments about people who
are different from us – like I just did.
It could be young people
or old people, fat people or skinny people.
I walked into breakfast
this morning with a shirt that was really wrinkled.
I don’t iron – and don’t
plan to – till death does its part to me.
Father Jack McGowan
looked at me and said, “Andrew never had
a wrinkle he didn’t like.”
And I said, “Who said,
‘Wrinkles aren’t beautiful?”
If I was around Paul’s
time I would get him to put it in writing, I would have him change today’s
first reading to:
There is neither Jew nor
Greek,
there is neither slave nor free person,
there is not male and female;
there is neither wrinkled
nor unwrinkled.
