POWER

June  23,  2012  Quote for Today

"A person is measured 
          by what they do 
                  with power."

Pittacus [650? - 569? B.C.]


Questions:

If someone asked you to name your 3 key strengths or powers, what would they be?
1)
2)
3)

Have you ever felt someone used their powers to overpower you - or to put you down - or use you to build themselves up?  Was it their looks? Was it their money?  Was it their intelligence?  Was it their age?

What's your take on Philippians 2: 5b-11?

WARS 

AND RUMORS OF WAR

June 22, 2012   Quote for Today

"In the last 4000 years of history,  there have been but  268 years entirely free from war."

Coronet

Painting on top: "Study for the Rescue of the Colors," 1899 by William T. Trego (1859-1909) - whose work  was on exhibit at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania - from June 4th till October 2, 2011.

Questions: At this time we are not only looking at the War of 1812 [200 years], but we also keeping in mind the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Have you done any reading or attended any reenactments or presentations on either of these wars that took place on our soil.

Looking at the quote for today, what's your take on it? Is it correct? What was considered a war? Could there have been a power grab and some big time infighting in some place in China or Africa or South America that was never recorded in written history?

What about family wars and fights?

MAKEUP

June  21,  2012   Quote for Today

"Once I tried to explain to a fellow feminist why I liked wearing makeup: she replied by explaining why she does not.  Neither of us understood a word the other said."

Nora Ephron,  "On Never Having Been a Prom Queen,  August 1972, Crazy Salad: Some Things about Women, 1975


Observations: Looking back at yesterday, re-look at a moment, when the above was true for you.  Look in the mirror, looking into your own eyes, say, "Hi in there!" Ask, "How are you today!" Ask, "What's going on?" Ask, "What's happening?"

EXCELLENCE

June 20,  2012   Quote for Today

"The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous."

Shana Alexander, The Feminist Eye: Neglected Kids - The Bright Ones, 1970

Questions:

Who makes you nervous?  What makes you nervous?  Where were you in your class rankings?  Were they accurate? Were they fair?  When you haven't prepared - and another or others have - what happens to your self perception?  Where do you feel you are excellent?  Where do you feel adequate?  Where and when do you feel inadequate? Does anyone make you feel inadequate? How about God's take on you?  Who says that is accurate?

WORK

June  19,  2012 Quote for Today

"No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling the field as in writing a poem."

Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery


Questions:  Do you have prejudices against particular jobs?

Do you value a job by the salary or the work or how much a person loves her or his job or what have you?

Have you done any farming or gardening or written any poetry lately?

Before you cut an apple, or a tomato or a banana, do you pause to think about how many hands have worked to get this apple, tomoato or banana to you?

Have you read the poems and writings of the farmer Wendell Berry? Here's a listing of 2 that are on my bookshelf:  Collected Poems, 1957-1982, North Point Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, Eleventh Printing, 1999; A Timbered Choir, Counterpoint, Berkeley, 1998

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 11 Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “Going Against the Grain.”

Today’s readings - especially today’s gospel -  triggered for me the thought: going against the grain.

I’m not a carpenter - but I assume this cliché has to do with cutting wood. It must be easier, if one works with how the actual piece of wood is.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel has Jesus the Carpenter telling us how to deal with our enemies. Love them. Greet them. [Cf. Matthew 5:43-48]

Yesterday Jesus told us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Tough stuff. Jesus wants to change the prevailing customs and culture. Difficult stuff.  His secret: change oneself and you’ll change half of a difficult relationship. Start with self. Go against the grain. Die to self. Die to the way you want to actually react.

There are opportunities every day to do just that. 

Yesterday on the way into church someone told me about what happened to her the day before just as she was leaving Sunday Mass.  She was stepping off the curb - heading for the church parking lot at St. John Neumann. She paused, hesitated, not knowing whether a car moving along slowly heading for the road out to the exit was going to stop or what? The man in the car signaled that she should walk across in front of him. She did, but then as he went by, he said to her, “Jerk!”

She said it ruined the rest of her day. The natural way to react to that is not to turn the other cheek - but to yell back at the person or point a  finger at such a person. She said she had turned toward him to say, “Thank you” and give him a smile.  

Afterwards I thought to myself, that would have been the perfect response when called a “Jerk!” The best come-back at times is a “Thank you!”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from First Kings continues the story of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab changes - just a bit - when the prophet Elijah challenges him.  But notice, his motive is not love. It’s fear. Warnings can be like a slap on one cheek - slap in the face. Elijah tells him that he’s going to die in the fields with wild dogs licking his blood and birds will  be pecking on his flesh. Tough stuff. [Cf. 1 Kings 21:17-29.]

As we know fear gets us on the right path more often than goodness or love or the high, high ideals of Jesus.

We might want to scream back at the person who cuts us off or calls us names - but we fear the kids will see us or someone will think less of us. 

Fear works. Fear works more than love.  However,  hopefully, in the long run, we know that love lasts longer than fear.

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

Going against the grain can be a pain. In fact it is. It’s a dying. It’s the cross once again. Yet, we know that Jesus taught while on the wood of the cross forgiveness comes before resurrection. Saying inwardly or outwardly, “Father forgive him or her, she doesn’t know what she is doing,” can bring an end to that violence. That’s vintage Jesus.

That’s what Gandhi got out of Jesus big time.

CONCLUSION

As I’m listening to the words of this homily, they sound somewhat to be against the grain. They are a bit jarring and somewhat edgy. So too love. It’s going against the grain to put into play Jesus’ kind of love.

Change can be jarring - because change is a reversal - it's a going in a new and different direction. I think that’s the key message with this cliché about going against the grain.

Virtue is going against the grain.

Anger [the bad kind] - or  violence - or retaliation - don't go against the grain. They are just a sliding along - a reacting the normal way.

We've seen on Discovery Channel or somewhere that salmon have to swim upstream to spawn - to deposit their eggs. They swim against the flow - against the stream. And if they don’t struggle to swim upstream - they will end up floating themselves out of existence.

I suppose - whatever works - has taken hard work.

You see that nice clean waxed - shiny car - it didn’t just happen.

You see those beautiful varnished glistening wooden floors in my house, they too just didn’t happen.

The farmer needs to remember last year’s harvest - as he works the fields for this coming harvest. To get eucharist, you need bread and wine; to get bread and wine, you need wheat and grapes; to get wheat and grapes, you need to do some hard work.

To be a Saint, to be a Christian, means traveling the tiny, narrow, difficult road.

To love one’s enemies is a dying to self. It’s difficult to put a zipper on our mouth so as to stop the flow of angry words. It’s Jesus way to break the cycles of anger and easy hate and bring peace to our peace of land - our brain. That’s the perfect garden - the perfect plot of land - we all want: a cultivated peaceful brain.

A DIET OF ANGER 

CAN CAUSE EMOTIONAL 

INDIGESTION

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Eleventh Monday in Ordinary Time  is, “A Diet of Anger Can Cause Emotional Indigestion.”

TODAY'S READINGS

That’s the thought that hit me when I read today’s 2 readings.

The gospel is from the Sermon on the Mount which offers lots of peace giving messages about how to be at peace in this life.

Questions: Have you ever met someone whom you and others describe as, “He’s an angry person!” or “She’s an angry woman!” and you slowly slip slide away whenever your see him or her if possible. Has anyone ever described me or you as an angry person? If I am and if they think that, I’m sure the comments are made behind our backs.

In the Sermon on the Mount, we’ve already heard about killing and cursing and anger. We've heard about making reconciliation before coming here to offer our gifts at the altar. In today’s gospel Jesus addresses the issue of retaliation. You hit me. You yell at me. You curse at me. I come back at you double fold. Listen to children - but especially adults - in a fight - and you'll notice that Jesus knows what he’s talking about. Jesus today and tomorrow tells us to double our reactions the other way: turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, pray for those we hate or don’t like.

Jesus knows life. Jesus knows people. Jesus knows reactions.

EATING AND ANGER

I’m have been convinced many - many - many times - that Jesus figured out somewhere along the line the deep and obvious connection between eating and  anger - eating and relationships - eating and communion. I am convinced we too know this down deep. Our tummies hurt when we’re hurting with another. We can’t eat when we’re very angry - or we over eat. Communion means community.

Jesus is seen in the scriptures often eating. And whom does he eat with? Sinners. He’s in communion with them. 

Now I know people disagree with this: but I don’t get this communion blocking stuff. Jesus says: go out into the highways and byways and bring them in. My banquet must be filled. But some want to block some from eating at the banquet - because of inner anger - theological anger - ideological anger - mysterious anger. 

I catch that they are eating too much anger. I have avoided  MSNBC and FOX News - and I can't wait till November 7th. It's my perception: some of these news programs spread out a table full of spicy words and a diet of diatribe. 


By their fruits - you will know them. By my reactions - I can feel "ugly energies" in my tummy and in my mind. "Quick turn the channel!" "Is there a ball game on or an old Western?"

Saying even this much is a contradiction to my own words - because I'm venting my "spleeny stuff". Enough already!!!!

Jesus is saying today: turn that other cheek. Go that extra mile. So, it's smart to cool the anger. 


Life is supposed to be a banquet. It's a meal. When we get upset with each other - if anger is our steady diet - if we're always chewing on what bugs us about each other - then expect indigestion.

I really got this thought from today’s first reading. Ahab wants what he wants when he wants it - and he can’t get what he wants when he wants it. And today’s reading from 1^st Kings says that Naboth doesn’t want to sell or give up his family land and roots - even if the king wants it.

Notice what 1^st kings next says about King Ahab, “Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.”  Then the text has Jezebel entering the story. It says, “His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, ‘Why are you so angry that you will not eat?’”

There it is: anger has caused him emotional indigestion.  It also will cause Naboth his life - and it will also eventually destroy his life and Jezebel’s life.

QUESTION:  ONCE MORE

Once more, Jesus is challenging us today to get in touch with our angers - and see what they can do to us. And he offers wonderful solutions: going the extra mile and turning the other cheek.

CONCLUSION

Let me offer one more solution.

It’s this: when angry against another, say to self: “Self! You might be wrong!”

I know I have my list of life’s experiences when I was dead wrong - in what I thought was going on.

Let me close with a good strong story on this from today’s New York Times. I love to read Metropolitan Diary every Monday morning and it rarely disappoints me. People simply write into Metropolitan Diary something that happened to them on the streets of New York City.

This story is entitled, “Grabbing a Quick, and Unpleasant, Bite. It’s by a someone named, Winton J. Tolles. It came in on June 13, 2012, at 8:59 AM.

Dear Diary:

I am walking down Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. I have missed lunch and am late for a meeting when I pass a store handing out free samples. I grab three pieces, say a quick thank you, thrust the nourishment into my mouth and keeping moving.

The cheese tastes awful, but maybe it is an acquired taste. The more I chew, the worse it tastes, and my mouth is now full of a horrible, dreadfully unpleasant concoction. Since I am walking on Lexington Avenue, it is not appropriate to spit up on the sidewalk or the curb, so I have to keep chewing.

I use all my tenacity and swallow this horrid cheese sample.

At this point I am so angry that a store would foist this dish on a consumer that although I am late for a meeting, I reverse course and return to the scene of the sample.

I accost the young lady who is handing out the samples in a very loud voice: “That cheese was horrible. How can you give that out!”

She looks at me, hesitates, and then says uncertainly, “But these are samples of soap.”

I retreat quickly.