THE BOOK
AS A MIRROR
Quote for Today - July 9, 2011
"A real book is not one that's read, but one that reads us."
W.H. Auden [1907-1973] Recalled at his death on September 28, 1973.
Photograph of W. H. Auden
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
MIGRATIONS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 14th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Migrations.”
Today’s first reading from the end of the Book of Genesis describes the final step of how Jacob - now called “Israel” - and his family migrate to Egypt. Hunger and famine in the land of Canaan dictated Jacob to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain to survive.
The Book of Genesis is preparing us for the second book of the Bible, Exodus - which begins with how the Jews began to become persecuted and forced into slave labor - and so they escaped - exited - migrated from Egypt - and headed for the Promised Land of Palestine in order to set up their nation.
Today’s first reading from Genesis describes carts and livestock, husbands and wives, children and grandchildren - all migrating to Egypt.
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The history of the world is a history of migrations.
It’s the stuff of story. It’s the story of families.
It’s good to know history. I would assume by the year 3011 the world will be very different - with different boundary markers - with more cocoa colored sking - and those living will know by DNA and whatever else they will have come up with by then - their origins - much better than we do today.
I celebrate that in 1996 I got to see for the first time where my mom and dad migrated from: the west coast of Ireland. However, right now, I don’t know how and why their relatives settled there a long, long time ago. And I’m sure that’s a long, long story.
I have a picture on my wall right above my desk - that shows what my mother would see if she walked out her back door. It’s a picture of rocks and water. She liked to say she could sit on their back step and put her big toe into Galway Bay. The house is gone. But the flagstone for that back step was still there. My mom’s sister, Nora, was there in 1996 to point all this out to us. My dad’s house - less than a stone throw away - as the Irish put it - is still standing.
My mother said she would kiss the land of America - every time she came back here - because she knew where she came from: poverty. She made it in America. One of her last jobs was working on Broadway - 32 Broadway - where she cleaned offices at night.
OUR SCRIPTURES
I like to point out that what people did for us with our Sacred Scriptures - telling us our faith roots - where we come from - we need to do for our families. In other words, we have to put together our scriptures.
The good news is that people have been doing this a lot in recent years. Alex Haley’s book Roots - with some of its roots in Annapolis - the genealogy movement - The Story Project program - and various other movements have certainly helped with the push.
Everyone’s story is a story of being rooted and being uprooted - moving and settling - and then moving on - settling down and on and on and on.
Aware of this and having an interest in all this gives me a greater love for all peoples.
So I’m saying that the Book of Genesis - Beginnings - is telling us that people come together in all kinds of different circumstances. I’m saying that all people are migrants. I think that’s why one of the first questions we all ask people, “Where are you from?” and “How did you get here?”
We are a world of migrants.
America more than most places….
The timing is the different. Native Americans are migrants from Asia - between 40,000 and 17,000 BC. Vikings sailed to Greenland, Newfoundland, Vinland in 962 AD. Whether Vikings got to Minnesota seems speculative - but it gave a football team a good name. And we have to laugh about comments that people make about other people. I love to say that Hispanics were here before the English - but don’t tell some people that - because they aren’t ready to migrate in their mind to some new thinking and on and on and on.
So I think it’s important to read good histories of our national origins - or watch good documentaries on TV.
It’s good to know where we come from - as well as where others come from. I am grateful for some good books I’ve read about Ireland. I am very grateful that I took the time to jot down my father’s story - at least 47 hand written pages before he died - and I taped my mother telling me her story before she died so suddenly.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study and in our research and in our story telling we’ll find what we find in the scriptures: good times and bad, sickness and health - as well as great gratitude for our deep roots - as well as the surprises when we get out of our carts and begin again in some new spot.
And the New Testament will bring us to the great story: that we are migrants into the next world.
++++++++++++++++
Scene on top of a painting I saw in a funeral parlor somewhere - showing a priest blessing a family heading to America and leaving land and friends behind.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
OH, I’M JUST WRESTLING
WITH SOMETHING
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 14th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Oh, I’m Just Wrestling With Something.”
How many times in our lives has someone said, to us, “What’s wrong?” and we respond, “Oh nothing.” Then the other says, “Well you look like you’re worried about something.” And we say, “Oh, I’m just wrestling with something.”
QUESTION
Is everyone wrestling with something?
Not always, but is there always something there that we wrestle with from time to time?
At times I’ve wondered about Professional Wrestling. It’s still around - not as much as years ago - but it’s still around - and what I wonder about is why do people get really into it - when it’s fake?
Now I don’t wrestle with that kind of a question, but I do wrestle with why some people get excited about things I’m not interested in or why some people are the way they are. How’s that for being self-centered?
And I know people wrestle with questions about their kids - and their neighbors - and co-workers. And I know people wrestle with their conscience. And I know people wrestle with the church and politics and government and with people who think differently than they think.
Now this inner wrestling doesn’t go on all the time in our minds. At least I hope not - but sometimes it’s just an inner battle we remotely click to at times on the TV screen called our mind. I assume we’re watching other things in our lives at most moments - but sometimes we wrestle with people and they are miles and miles away.
What do you wrestle with?
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s readings triggered this theme - especially this first reading from Genesis 32: 23-33, where the word “wrestle” and the theme of wrestling is used - when telling us about Jacob.
Today’s gospel - Matthew 9: 32-38 - talks about demons. Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus went around casting out demons. Today a man who couldn’t speak is healed by Jesus. And the Pharisees who are always arguing and wrestling with Jesus - just don’t want Jesus around. He’s doing too much good and helping too many people and the crowds are following him. In the meanwhile the leaders of the Pharisees are not being good shepherds. They are not getting top billing as “holy” people - in the everyday arena of life.
But it’s really that first reading that triggers this question of wrestling.
GET IN THE RING
It’s important every once and a while to get in the ring - and face our opponent - face to face - to meet our match - to name our demons.
Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and faced the Big Three when it comes to temptations. We have the 40 days of Lent - a good time each year to do some good soul searching and see what’s pulling us in strange directions. We can’t be wrestling 24/7, 365. We need “Time outs” - breaks - before we break.
It’s good to make a retreat. It’s good to take long walks. It’s good to take time for prayer - like a night prayer - and take a look at what happened that day. This practice should get us in touch with moments we're thankful for and moments we're sorry about. If there are resentments - maybe we can make some resolutions for the morning - to have a better day, the next day. It’s good to read scripture and reflect upon what we're reading - especially texts that grab us - because they might give us hints at what we’re wrestling with inside the inner ring of our consciousness.
JACOB
Today’s first reading is all about Jacob.
The Book of Genesis has remarkable material for getting us in touch with key wrestling matches.
God is wrestling with Satan. His name means “Adversary”.
Then we hear about God wrestling with human beings: Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and on and on and on.
Today we’re hearing about Jacob.
We all know that Jacob was a sneak and liar. We know his mother liked him more than his twin brother - Esau - who was born first. Genesis has great stories. She figured out a way to fake her husband, Jacob’s father, into giving the oldest son’s blessing to Jacob the younger son. And several more times he’s sneaky and a trickster Once he told his brother, “I’ll meet you at such and such a place” and he headed in the opposite direction - immediately.
Life has consequences.
The Book of Genesis hints that Jacob had to stop to face his demons - face his lies and what he was avoiding - eventually.
In today’s reading he wrestles with a mysterious someone - all through the night. There are lots of theories who this someone is. Some say it’s an angel. Some say it’s God. Some say it’s with himself - for what he has done in the past.
Life is a banquet of consequences. Sin is a boomerang. Sin always has an aftertaste.
CONCLUSION
Forgiveness is forgiveness.
However, there is always the residue - the memory - the consequences - of what we have done.
The Bible is wonderfully vague - challenging us to be the twin of Jacob and become all alone and face our demons - our life decisions - etc. And when we do, there can be growth and maturity.
Jacob grew. As a result of his wrestling that night after he forded the river near Jabbok - he changed for the better. However, for the rest of his life he had a slight limp. Don't we all? Some say it came from the wrestling that night - when his hip was knocked out of it’s socket.
He also got a new name Israel - which some scholars translate it to mean, “One who wrestled with God.”
May we do likewise.
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