GOOD SAINT NICHOLAS

Poem for Today - Saturday, December, 2014

THE STORY OF SAINT NICHOLAS

Once

there was a little boy

who lived by the shore of the sea.

He watched the ships go sailing by

all wrapped in mystery.

"What do you carry,

where do you go?"

he said as he saw them there.

I hope you bring many good things

to girls and boys everywhere."

Nicholas

was the little boy's name,

in case you'd like to know.

He loved surprising others with gifts

and seeing their faces glow.

Then he would hide

and no one would know

the one who loved them,

who loved them so. 

Once a father

had grown so poor

as to sell his daughters three.

Three nights

to his window Nicholas came

with gold to keep them free.

Nicholas

went to church one day

and all the people stood:

"You have a heart like God's,"

they said,

"A heart that is so good.

Will you be our bishop

And lead us as God would?"

When Nicholas died

God welcomed him

to heaven's great applause:

"Well done, well done,

good Nicholas,

for serving well my cause."

Now every Christmas

Nicholas comes with gifts

for girls and boys.

You know his name as Nicholas,

But it's also Santa Claus. 

O Good St. Nicholas, children's friend,

friend of girls and boys,

through the clouds come again,

and fill your bag with toys.

Give me too a giving heart,

for loving others too,

I want to know how good it is

to give good gifts like you.

© Victor Hoagland, C.P.

DO  YOU  SEE 

WHAT   I   SEE?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in the First Week of Advent is, “Do You See What I See?”

I think that’s a song line in a Christmas carol.

"Do you see what I see?"

#1 LIFE LESSON

At times I wonder what is the greatest life lesson one can learn.

If we took a poll at a senior citizens center – asking that question – “The # 1 thing I’ve learned about life is ________” – I’m sure the answers would broadcast great wisdom – as well as similarities as well as differences.

What have I learned about life so far?  What do I see? What’s been my life lessons from my life experiences? What have those experiences been?

I like to ask couples celebrating their 50^th Wedding Anniversary, “What have you learned?”  “What’s the secret?”

I hear comments about communication, communication, communication.

I hear folks says, “Listen, Listen, Listen.”

I hear folks says, “Forgive – Forget – 70 times 7 times.”

I often hear cute – joke – comments like, “Always say,  ‘Yes dear’ or ‘You’re right!’”

The answers differ – and the same folks give different answers on different occasions to the same question. 

When asked about changed comments – folks often say, “It all depends!” 

Is that one of life’s great secrets: The ability to realize - It all depends.

It seems that those 3 words are often in the mix of many a conversation – so maybe that’s are one of life’s lessons.

ONE MORE KEY LIFE LESSON: WE ALL SEE DIFFERENTLY.

At times I hear someone say: “We all see differently.” 

And then they add, “In fact everyone sees differently – and the sooner you get that – the happier you’ll be.”

I once heard a speaker say, “The whole of life can be found in the verb, to see.”

I was never that sure just what that meant – but if it means, “We all see differently”– I get it.

Let me give a few examples.

The first is my Forest Gump example.

Years ago I was attending a scripture conference in Chicago with 3 other priests – each of us a Redemptorist. On Wednesday night we had off – so the 4 of us decided to go to a movie. A diocesan priest asked if he could join us. I asked in the car on the way out to the movie theater, “What’s the movie?”

The guy who was organizing the deal said, “Forest Gump.”

I said, “Never heard of it.”

So I went into the movie thinking it was a western and happy to be with 3 guys I knew – as well as a stranger.

The movie is over. We’re standing in the lobby – waiting for the guy who went for the car. I said to the stranger one to one, “How’d you like the movie?”

He said just to me, “I didn’t and I didn’t get it.”

That surprised me. I thought it was a great movie – a great way of doing biography and history and what have you.

In the 10 minute car ride back to the conference center two of the five in the car were talking and laughing and telling all  kinds of things that hit them about the movie. They loved the movie. One even said, “I’m willing to bet it’s going to win an Oscar.”

We get back to the conference center. A friend of the diocesan priest who went with us asked him about the movie. I was the only one who heard him make the following comment. “We saw a movie named Forest Gump. It was really great and worth seeing and I got a lot out of it.”

I’ve never forgotten that moment. It was a life lesson. People change their minds. People start to see differently. Was it because of peer pressure? Was it because he doesn’t see things till someone else points them out?

I don’t know. I don’t know how this guy sees and does life.

The second example I call, “The Pope’s White Robe” story.

I’m at a Jewish wedding of a good family friend in Ann Arbor Michigan. Near the end of the wedding, the father of the bridegroom asks me to drop a friend of his and his wife at the airport in Michigan on their way back to California. Marty knew I’d be driving right by the airport.

We’re in my car and this Jewish guy says to me, “What do you call that white robe the Pope wears?”

I say, “Cassock!”

He then says, “Now don’t take me wrong. Every time I see him wearing that white  garment – I think of a great way to solve any money problems the Catholic Church might have. All they would have to do is put advertisements on that white garment – like a Pepsi Cola or a Coca Cola  image and message.”

I said, “No offense. Great idea – but no – I’m sure they would never do that.”

What I got out of that moment was this: he was seeing a great space for advertising something – I see the pope.

We all see differently.

My sister Mary doesn’t like t-shirts with messages on them. I see t-shirts with messages on them as great conversation starters.

So maybe put a biblical text – like “Love one another as I have loved you.” on the pope’s cassock.”

My sister Mary and I were together for a whole week at Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law and 6 of her 7 daughters and their families in a big rent-a-house in Virginia Beach.  Surprise my grandnieces and nephews and 2 girl friends came out of a room wearing t-shirts with my picture on them – celebrating my 75^th Birthday – with the message, “Hi Turkey!” on the shirt. That’s one of my favorite sayings. I’ve discovered that it’s a great ice breaker. It’s a great instant conversation starter with people. I’ll have to ask my sister Mary if she liked those t-shirts with a message on them.

A last example goes like this. A young teenage girl came out of her room and told her daddy she lost a contact lens. She said she searched everywhere in her room and couldn’t find it. “I looked 2 whole hours,” she said. He went in and in 3 minutes came out  with her contact lens. 

She said, “How did you find it so quickly?”

He said, “You were looking for a contact lens. I was looking for $200.”

Obvious message: we all see differently.

CONVERSATION STARTER – COMMUNICATION STARTER

I’m saying in this homily that “seeing” is a great life message.

I’m saying in this homily that knowing we often see differently – both of us or all of us looking at the same movie or thing, and then checking it out – can lead to conversations, communication, communion – as well as growth in understanding each other

CONCLUSION

I’ll start and end my homily this way, “The title of my homily is, ‘Do You See What I See?’”

Say those 6 words 6 times each day to 6 different people, and see what they see.  They might help you see things you never saw before.

SEEING

"I remember standing on a street corner with the black painter Beauford Delaney down in the Village waiting for the light to change, and he pointed down and said, 'Look.'  I looked and all I saw was water. And he said, 'Look again,' which I did, and I saw oil on the water and the city reflected in the puddle. It was a great revelation to me. I can't explain it. He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw. Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you've had that experience, you see differently." James Baldwin

CHRIST WILL COME

Poem for Today - December 5, 2014 - Friday

ADVENT CALENDAR

He will come like last leaf's fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

© Rowan Williams

(The Poems of

Rowan Williams,

Perpetua Press 2002) 

TURN, TURN, TURN

Poem for today, Thursday, December 4, 2014

TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Too often our answer to the darkness

is not running toward Bethlehem

but running away.

We ought to know by now that we can't see

where we're going in the dark.

Running away is rampant ...

separation is stylish:

separation from mates, from friends, from self.

Run and tranquilize,

don't talk about it

avoid.

Run away and join the army

of those who have already run away.

When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace

comes only when we turn and face the darkness?

Only then will we be able to see

the Light of the World.

© Ann Weems

Kneeling in Bethlehem

ADVENT: THE ARRIVAL

Poem for Today - December 3, 2014

ON THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION

It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

© Denise  Levertov  (1923–1997)

GERARD HUGHES:

GOD IS A GOD OF SURPRISES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the First Week of Advent is, “Gerard Hughes: God Is A God Of Surprises.”

GERARD HUGHES

A month ago – in England - November 4, 2014 – Gerard W. Hughes – the Jesuit died.

Back in 1985 he came out with a book entitled God of Surprises. It’s still selling and it’s still having impact on people.

Interestingly – this theme – the God of Surprises is a favorite theme of Pope Francis and various other people – including myself – of course.

TODAY’S READINGS

 I began thinking about this when I read today’s readings – and then working on this homily.

The first reading  - from Isaiah 11: 1-10 - talks about the surprises of God.

I can see Isaiah spotting a stump in the ground.

It’s dead – how can it give life.

So he talks about qualities a king needs: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord. He urges that the king not judge by appearances – nor decide by hearsay. He urges the king to judge the poor with justice – and decide what will help the afflicted. He shall prevent and block the ruthless and the wicked about taking over.

If the king does all this, then the stump of Jesse will blossom.

I’m sure this text was chosen for Advent, because Christians applied this text from Isaiah to Christ.

From the stump of Jesse – from this tribe – which was filled with promises - new life comes – Jesus – who shows up in Mary – who shows up in Nazareth – who shows up in carpenter shop – and then in the synagogues and marketplaces and roads of Israel. He shows up in the person of Jesus – to announce justice and peace.

Buds blossom – buds burst up and flower from the side of the tree stumps.

Buds will blossom from the wood of the cross – dead wood – which becomes the tree of life.

There is always hope. There are always shoots shooting out of chopped down trees.

Hear Isaiah’s poetry: the wolf will be the guest of the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the kid goat. The calf and the young lion will graze together. The cow and the bear will be neighbors. The little kid will be able to play near the cobra’s nest.

Isaiah is painting a picture in words of the Peaceable Kingdom – hopefully the dream of everyone. Hopefully, we want to be surprised by beauty, by peace, not death and the ugly. 

I’m sure we’ve all seen pictures of  “The Peaceable Kingdom”  by the Pennsylvania Quaker preacher and painter: Edward Hicks. Starting in 1820 he painted 61 versions of that scene and that hope from Isaiah 11.

GERARD HUGHES BOOK: GOD OF SURPRISES

Gerard Hughes presented hope to lots of people in his books and his talks. He gave hope to our world and to our church – in images – stories – comments - that were quite surprising.

For starters he stressed not being afraid to question. He did. He told listeners and readers that it’s real to have doubts.

In his obituary I read, “His book God of Surprises (1985) sold nearly 250,000 copies and was translated into more than 20 languages. For many readers, the book became a spiritual lifeline that kept them within the church at a time when they were thinking of leaving.”

He described his book, God of Surprises as “a guidebook for the inner journey in which we are all engaged”.

That’s a key message for Quakers – to go within – in search of Inner Light.

Gerry Hughes talked about the inner life of folks – both the dark and the need for light. He would tell listeners on his retreats that he and his father suffered at times from depression. Two of his sisters committed suicide – and he would say he had this worry for himself at times.  

He saw life as a hunger for inner peace – not war within.

He saw life as a search in a field for buried treasure – and that field is in oneself.

At times Church authorities in both England and Scotland tried to silence him. They put him on hold. He would come back – re-instated – and then be squelched again.

He wrote spiritual reading books – while at the same time warning people about spiritual reading books that didn’t challenge people to think – and be introspective.

In his obituary I read that he told someone who was interviewing him in 2014 “that too many spiritual books were ‘destructive’ and ‘an easy way to make money’. ‘There are lots of beautiful words. God is here and Our Lady is there, so all will be well. “Just trust,” they [readers] are told. Trust in what? “Just trust in what I am telling you” is the message. There is very little attempt to encourage people to listen to their own experience, to discover things for themselves.’”

He warned people with Martin Buber’s warning about religion: “Nothing so masks the face of God as religion.”

His mother warned him, after deciding to become a Jesuit, “Don’t become odd like so many of them.”

As I read several obituaries about Gerry Hughes – I couldn’t help but see why Pope Francis – liked the story and the comments and messages of a fellow Jesuit: Gerry Hughes.

CONCLUSION

Let me end with this comment.

Gerard Hughes taught and worked in both England and Scotland.

At the same time there was another Jesuit – with the same name.

Both were the exact opposite of the other.

One was for war and the other was for peace.

Fellow Jesuits distinguished them by the letter of the middle name. But those who really knew them called one: “Bomber Hughes”; and the other “Peace Hughes.”

I would think that Gerry Hughes is challenging us to go into our homes, work places, circles, bringing peace and not dropping bombs. Amen.

OUTER AND INNER 
WAR AND PEACE 

Poem for Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

WAR AND PEACE

Man invents war.

Man discovers peace.

He invents war from without.
He discovers peace from within.

War man throws.

Peace man sows.

The smile of war is the flood of human blood.
The smile of peace is the love, below, above.  

Peace is the whole truth that wishes to enrapture humanity.
War is the whole falsehood that wants to capture humanity.

Peace begins in the soul and ends in the heart.
War begins in the mind and ends in the body.  

War forgets peace.

Peace forgives war.

War is the death of the life human.

 Peace is the birth of the Life Divine.

Our vital passions want war.
Our psychic emotions desire peace.

War is clear futility in dire spear-stupidity.
Peace is flowing infinity in glowing eternity.  

Man seeks war when he thinks that the world is not his.
Man invites war when he feels that he can conquer the world.

Man proclaims war when he dreams
That the world has already surrendered to him.  

Man seeks peace because his earthly existence desperately needs it.
Man welcomes peace because he feels 
     that in peace alone is his life of achievement and fulfilment.
Man spreads peace because he wants to transcend death.  

The animal in man wars against peace in the outer world,
       in the world of conflicting ideas.
The divine in man wars against ignorance in the inner world,
       in the world of mounting ideals.  

The animal in man wants war for the sake of war,
       war to devour the snoring world.
The divine in man wants peace for the sake of peace,
       peace to feed the hungry world.

© Sri Chinmoy,

an excerpt from

Songs of the Soul