October 10, 2022

Reflections

TRANSFIGURATION

To see God - another - gold - glass - time - life - a meal - in a new way - a new vision - a new view - wow - amazing - making tomorrow - different from today.

Transfiguration - I never thought of that before.

I never heard you speak or see or hear or sing - like this before.

Wow.

I never knew this mountain was here.

I never knew I could climb into this new view - but Christ you took me into this new view - a new scene - a new plateau.

Would I've able to understand the metaphor if I hadn't climbed the reality - having climbed a real mountain.

So thank you God for my younger days - days I climbed mountains in New Hampshire and Colorado with friends.

Jesus must have done what I have done - getting away - escaping - with friends - getting away from it all.

Go figure.

Do we have to go somewhere else - before we can figure out the right here - right now?

Transfiguration.

I like both parts of that word - the "trans" and the "figuring".

When was the last time I saw Jesus in a new light?

Go figure.

When was my last transfiguration moment?

Go figure

When was the last time I saw myself - and my life - and all life -  in a new light?

Go figure.

 October 10,  2022

Thoughts for Today

"Didn't you  hear me keeping quiet?"

Sam Goldwyn,

Quoted by Alva  Johnson,

The Great Goldwyn

 October 9, 2022

WHAT’S IT LIKE? 

20  QUESTIONS

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The title of my homily is, “What’s It Like: 20 Questions?

 

I have 20 Questions to think about as we come to the end of this retreat.

 

You have to be sitting here wondering – questioning - thinking about lots of things – just before you’re heading home.

 

I’m sure you’re wondering – questioning your life – or the lives of those you live with, work with, neighbor with -  without even realizing you have 4 or 5 good questions that came up while making this retreat.

 

Today’s First Reading and today’s  Gospel trigger the question: “What’s it like to have leprosy – a skin disease – when everyone goes, ‘Oooooh! Oooh! Ugly!  Disappear!’?”

What’s it like?

 

Maybe one of these 20 questions that I bring up – will trigger some questions you wonder about unconsciously.  Maybe one of these 20 questions will help you sum up this retreat – in a clearer way. Maybe you’ll realize it’s never over till it’s over – and you have more work ahead.

 

20 QUESTIONS

 

What’s it like to make a retreat on presence – real presence – with God and with each other – and you go home to the same old same old - being with people who are in the room  - but they are always on their phones with people in far distant rooms and interests?

 

What’s it like to go to Mass – where you experience God’s presence in the bread – and in the Love of God – and your kids and grandkids – are into sleep and sports and everything else on Sunday morning?

 

What’s it like to have terrible skin?

 

What’s it like to have dark skin – darker than anyone else in your family? You were adopted.

 

What’s it like to have more acne on your face than a stop sign has paintball gun splotches on the first road outside a paintball gun shooting range?

 

What’s it like to be alone at a wedding – and your spouse has died or left you or you had to break up – or what have you – and everyone seems connected to someone and you feel so single, so singular, and so all alone?

 

What’s it like to come into church late because it was tough getting an aged mother or four kids organized for church and the traffic was crazy and the only seats are the front row of church – and you got to go down that long aisle – feeling so conspicuous?

What’s it like to have a couple of kids – and grandkids - and you do everything possible for them and nine of them never ever say, “Thank you!”

 

What’s it like to have 2 kids with heavy duty tattoos – and at a lunch break or a coffee break – everyone is making fun of people who are so dumb for getting tattooed?

 

What’s it like to have wrinkles – lots and lots and lots of wrinkles?

 

What’s it like to have a sister with 3 college degrees and her kids college degrees on the walls of their  basement pool table and pingpong table room. You dropped out of high school – but did get a GED in your 30’s?

What’s it like to have had an abortion and you come to a church that seems to only have pamphlets and pictures at every entrance about abortion – and you don’t notice anything else and you have made your very difficult and painful peace with God twenty years ago - but it seems to get triggered every time you come to church?

 

What’s it like to be a kid that loves skateboarding and everyone curses you?

 

What’s it like to start telling a story – and you’re cut off by someone who wants to tell their story – which your story triggered – and they are louder and get more central than you?

 

What’s it like to be preaching and you notice 37 yawns and 23 watch watchings – in your 9 minute and 49 second homily?

 

What’s it like to be a Catholic and a couple of people at work say things like: “I would think someone like you would have got beyond church a long time ago?

 

What’s it like to have had a mastectomy?

What’s it like to be overweight and you’ve tried 316 different diets and you have estimated that you have taken off 1,160 pounds in your lifetime so far – and you’re 6 pounds heavier than when you started your last diet?

What’s it like to have had plastic surgery and you overhear some friends in the other room laughing at your plastic surgery?

CONCLUSION

What’s it like to be me?

What’s it like to be you?

 

October 9,  2022

Reflections 

VALUES

I have never sat down and listed my values.

I would assume two things: One, there is a list somewhere of things people think are of value; Two, I can judge for myself what my values are,

If my memory serves me, as the phrase goes, there are distinctions when it comes to talking about values.

For example, there are social values and there are religious values.

We studied stuff like this when we took Sociology in college.

I'm sure if I simply typed "values" in the search box on Google I'd get a good variety of hits.

What's the Greek word for value?

What's the Aramaic word for value?

Is Jesus talking about values when he talks about the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field?

Was Jesus getting at values when he gave us the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

I believe Christianity is teaching us that people are more important than things.

If I saw a row boat slipping and it looks like it's going to slide off a pier into the water, I would try to do something. I would look for the owner. I might yell to anyone nearby. If I thought it was going to hurt someone and I could do something, I hope I would try to do something. If there was a kid or an old man in the boat, I better try to do something.

That example tells about my values.

I would chase after a $100 bill in the wind - more than a $1 dollar bill.

In a marriage I would think listening has a higher value than speaking.

I think I would feel more sad over a 150 year old church burning that a 5 year old rather new church.

Yet I guess when it comes to values, there are many variables - and the need to say, "It all depends."

October 9. 2022

 Thoughts to Ponder

"The only  alternative to co-existence is co-destruction."

Pablu Nehru

Quote in The Observer, August 29, 1954

 October 8, 2022

Reflection

TIME

It takes time ....

Everything takes time....

There are some things I love to do and some things I hate to do.

I put off things....

I waste time.

I know the sayings and the proverbs.  Time gone is time gone forever.

The big question is: "Am I having the time of my life?"

Others would disagree. They would think the big question is, "How much time do I have left?"

Others might say, "Is there time or eternity after my time?  Or another's time?

I haven't really taken the time to figure out what the biggest question is.  Should I?

The book of Ecclesiastes has a list of the times we have and it has survived the test of time.

Time outs are important.

Sabbaths - breaks - vacations are important.

Clocks, watches, sun dials, hour glasses, water clocks, markings on prison walls - all help.

What do some people have more time than others?

Einstein's theory of relativity of time has some truth to it.

Clocks tick - Hearts beat - lungs breathe - they alll tell us something.

Why are some periods of time different than others - like the 13th Century - or the Renaissance - or the Dark Ages - or the Age of Reason.

For Christians - or should we say - for all people Jesus entered into time and lives changed.

 October 8,  2022

Thought for Today

"Minds are like parachutes; they only work when open."

Lord Dewal in a speech