GAMBLING
Quote for Today - March 2, 2013
"A racetrack is a place where windows clean people."
Danny Thomas [1912-1991]
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
FAVORITES
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Friday in the Second Week of
Lent is, “Favorites.”
This is one of my favorite themes: favorites.
I love to ask parents who have more than one kid, “Who’s
your favorite?”
The first response is usually a blocking hand [Gesture] and then, “I have no
favorites.”
The second response is often, “I love them all - but differently.”
The third response is sometimes, “The one I’m with.”
The fourth response is sometimes, “The one who needs me the most.”
The fifth response - but only later on - and usually out of
ear shot of all the kids - and often one to one - and often with a bit of hesitation - and
sometimes with lowered voice, “Joey! I always loved Joey. He is my favorite.”
TODAY’S FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from the first book in the Bible, Genesis 37: 3 begins quite bluntly and without hesitation, “
So he makes Joseph a long tunic. It’s the famous coat of
many colors. Then the story quickly
gives the plot, the conflict, the turn, the twist, “When his brothers saw that
their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much more that
they would not even greet him.” Bummer!
Then when they see him coming from a distance - his father had
sent him to them when they were sheperding out in the fields - they plot to kill him.
The Book of Genesis has many key stories. This one ranks up
there near the top - because it’s tells us how the Israelites get to Egypt .
And today’s story ends with them not killing him, but selling
him for 20 pieces of silver.
We know Jesus is sold out for 30 pieces of silver. The price
of betrayal had gone up.
The Joseph story is great story telling. That’s why it has been preserved in the Writings - the Sacred Scriptures.
The Joseph story is great story telling. That’s why it has been preserved in the Writings - the Sacred Scriptures.
The bottom line is that the tellers of the story are not
mainly concerned with favorites - but with how God saw Israel as his favorite -
and how he rescues them from their slavery in Egypt - the key theme of the
second book in the Bible, Exodus.
And I’ve heard Scripture Scholars saying that Creation is
not the favorite theme of the Bible. It’s Redemption. The key book is Exodus not Genesis. Genesis just
sets the scene.
Where we are from, who are parents are, our childhood, our
growing up, that’s all setting the scene stuff. Exodus - Redemption - Starting again after our falls - after
finding ourselves addicted to self, money, sex, drugs, youth, or whatever, that’s when real life begins.
Want to be God’s favorite: mess up. Become a lost sheep - a
lost Son - a lost coin with God’s image stamped on us. [Cf. Luke 15]
THE CHANGE - CONVERSION STORIES
I remember visiting a couple once. The kids were grown up and gone. The husband was sitting there in the living room - within ear shot of his wife - who was pulling together the last stuff of a supper salad. He says to me, “I married her because she was beautiful. I married her for sex. Then after two years I had to change. I had to stop being a jerk. I had to turn off the TV and be attentive to her and talk to her.” In that first sentence his wife yelled from the kitchen - her husband’s name - when he said he married her for sex. Translation: shut up. But she lit up at the second part. He came to his Book of Exodus.
Most people who consider the movie, The Natural, as one of their favorite movies, knows the scene when Roy Hobbs [played by Robert
Redford] is in a hospital bed in a maternity ward. Iris Gaines [played by Glenn
Close] says to Roy Hobbs - who is feeling horrible for what he did to her in
his life and what he had done to ruin his life. As it is worded in the novel by
Bernard Malamud from which the movie was based, Iris says to Roy , “We have two lives... the life we learn
with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards
happiness.”
There it is: the
story of how life works.
7 CONCLUSIONS
Here are 7 conclusions on this theme of favorites:
Of course we don’t say to one kid over the other, “You’re
not my favorite!” or “So and so is my favorite.”
Sometimes we say to every kid, “You are my favorite” - so that long after we’re gone, they’ll discover at some Thanksgiving Dinner we said that to everyone - and they laugh at it.
If we aren’t the favorite, maybe we didn’t do what is right
and there is work and self growth called for.
Of course teachers, neighbors, friends have favorite friends,
neighbors, co-workers, teachers. We do. They do. Get over it.
We have our favorite priests etc. etc. etc. I love the
saying about priests and others, “One third like you. One third don’t like you.
One third don’t care.”
We have all heard the saying: “Be yourself!” Well, there’s a healthy, “Be yourself” and an
“Unhealthy be yourself!” It’s unhealthy if you are insecure and you do things
to buy friendship or to try be the favorite or what have you. It’s healthy if
you after 25 buy the saying, “Be who you is, because if you be who you ain’t,
then you ain’t who you is.” And then you don’t care who’s the favorite. It’s
nice to be, but it’s also nice to not have to work at it as a motive.
God has his favorites. The poor. The downtrodden. The
dumped. The hurting. The Sinner. So the key thing is to bring to God into our
conversations about where we stand in life with ourselves and our God. Maybe through suffering we need to learn to say
to God what Teresa of Avila said to him - when asking him, “Why do you let me
suffer?” And God said, “Because that’s how I treat my friends.” And she said
back to God, “Well maybe that’s why you have so few friends.” Ouch!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
INNER ADULT
Quote for Today - February 28, 2013
"The pursuit of the Inner Child has taken over just as the moment when Americans ought to be figuring out where their Inner Adult is, and how that disregarded oldster got buried under the rubble of pop psychology and specious short-term gratification."
Robert Hughes [1938-2012] Culture of Complaint, Oxford University Press, 223 pages, 1993
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
HUMILITY - JOB #1 FOR A
POPE!
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the Second Week
of Lent is, “Humility - Job #1 for A
Pope!”
There’s all
kind of stuff in the papers - this and that - positive and negative - about
this upcoming election for a new pope. The Capital called Day 1 for comments from a priest here at St. Mary’s. I’m glad I wasn’t asked - because a) Down deep I don’t know enough of what is involved in all this and b) I’d probably make some kind of a cute statement which would be a dumb statement in the long run.
Since then I’ve been thinking.
In one sermon I said, the Number 1 requirement for a new pope is that he proclaim Jesus Christ - not himself. The pope is an important symbol to our world - of our Catholic faith - and from what I read - more for U.S. Catholics than other places. He himself has to see that Jesus is the reason for the whole institution. I see that Pope Benedict in his writings was quite Jesus centered.
I also put on my blog a fun piece - having the Cardinals getting deadlocked - for 100 ballots - so they decided to ask the whole church for what they want and on the 101st ballot they came up with a total surprise. They don’t pick a cardinal. Nobody noticed my blog piece and I haven’t been called to the
If asked to explain, I would simply say that I was just being cute - while at the same time very serious.
What would you consider the top qualification in a pope?
The title of my homily is, “Humility - Job #1 for A Pope!”
HUMILITY
I’d say humility has many ingredients. Here are 4: being
human, having a sense of humor, being honest, and having a sense of horror.
Human, humor, honesty, and horror.
Humility comes from the word “humus” earth - from which God
formed us from the clay, the mud, the soil of the earth. On Ash Wednesday we
heard we’re made from earth and we’ll be going back to earth. And the food we
eat - that becomes us - some more than others - comes from this earth to make
us who we are.
To be human is to recognize this. We leak. We flake. We
crumble. We are humbled by our slow sinking feelings - heading on the long
journey to the grave.
Humility then is being down to earth - human.
Pope John XXIII comes to mind for me with this quality. He
was born of a peasant sharecropping family in Northern
Italy . He had farmer’s hands. You probably heard this story: A
soviet diplomat and his wife came to see Pope John XXIII. The pope handed the
diplomat’s wife a rosary. When he placed the rosary beads in her hand, she said
to her husband in Russian, “Look, he has the hands of a worker, he is one of
us!” Of course she did not expect this peasant-pope to understand Russian.
He did - along with French, Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, as well as his native
Italian. These were skills he needed and picked up in his work as a diplomat
himself. He also got his doctorate in Church History and knew the Fathers of
the Church well. So he was smart yet quite human - which to me is a key ingredient
to being humble.
Next John XXIII had a
good sense of humor. You’ve heard his comment when made pope he looks in the
mirror in his new outfit and says, “My God, this pope is going to be a disaster
on TV.” Being able to laugh at oneself is key to being humble.
Next honesty is part of humility. If the church needs
anything it’s honesty.
Lastly, part of humility is to have a sense of horror. Horror
happens in this world - in this life: suffering
- craziness - war - abuse - hunger - the haves having the advantage over the
have-nots. We need to be able to cry - not just laugh.
CONCLUSION
Today’s two readings say all this a thousand times better
than I just put it.
I wish they were electing the pope today and the boys had to hear today’s readings.
The readings have a call to humility in them.
The first reading - Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20 - talks about the call to get things right - to put an end to sin -
cease doing evil - start doing good. Make justice your goal. Defend the widow
and the orphan.
The gospel - Matthew 23:1-12 - calls for humility - enough with the tassels and the titles - front seats - and public show. Honors are not one of the H’s for humility.
John XXIII called for cutting down the robes and stuff - and
Benedict put some of this stuff back - but his red shoes were not Prado’s - in
spite of that report.
Humility. Humility. Humility. Humility - a la Jesus.
These boys and all of us ought to be praying the old prayer
of the Church to Jesus: “Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
Amen.”
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