The title of my homily for this 2nd Monday in Ordinary Time is: Religion is
tricky stuff.
Religion is tricky stuff.
EXAMPLE: DISTRACTIONS
DURING PRAYER
Take the idea of distractions in prayer.
Everyone has
distractions during prayer.
Then everyone has distractions from their
distractions and then that triggers something else and on and on.
Record a
lunch conversation and see if anyone stays on track.
So I’m saying that
distractions are normal. They are to be expected. Someone says A. A triggers B
and B triggers C. And on and on and on. It’s the way the mind work. Hey the
mind takes in so much every day – and our memory stores everything. Someone
says E and it triggers M. So distractions per se are not sins. People confess
them – but they are just admitting they are human – and their mind can’t stay
on the same track through the journey of life.
Now of course, we need to focus at times – like in public
speaking – like in praying. It’s difficult, but it’s also a skill we can
achieve. It's called single-mindedness.
And this is why dreams can be so interesting. Something
happens on a Monday morning. Something happens on a Monday afternoon. Something
happens on Monday evening. And in our dreams on Monday night we combine all
three.
So distractions in prayer are not a sin. A sin - something that messes us up - could be in the
choices we make in our distractions – the judgments – the inner comments about
others. The put downs of others. The harboring of mistakes others make. That’s
the stuff of sin – not the fact that we have distractions.
So worry about the content of your distractions.Worry about the choices we make with our
distractions -when we find ourselves
off course.
FOR EXAMPLE: FASTING
In today’s gospel the Pharisees are on Jesus’ case because
his disciples aren’t fasting. We Pharisees fast. John’s disciples fast. How
come your guys aren’t fasting?
Fasting, dieting, abstaining are normal things people do.
They also can be religious practices. There is evidence that the Pharisees and
others would fast two times a week. I think it was Monday and Thursday.
Fasting can be good.
Food is also good.
Fasting could be a good.
Wine could also be a good.
OTHER EXAMPLES
Someone goes on a diet. It starts to get tough. They are off
desserts or seconds or what have you. And they start to get testy. They start
talking to themselves. “Look at her ... eating, and eating and eating. She
ought to go on a diet.” “My sister is 15 pounds more than I am and she keeps on
eating. Ugh. What a pig.”
Or someone goes off cigarettes and they are on everyone else’s case.
Religion can be tricky stuff. We can spend a lot of time whining
and complaining about other people’s business and style and life.
Take nun’s veils and outfits. How come she’s not wearing a nun’s outfit?
Take daily mass. We can sit here and say, “How come she
doesn’t go to daily mass? She’s retired and she just lives a short distance
from church and here I am morning after morning, making this sacrifice.
Take the rosary after mass. We can sit there and watch
people going out and say, “How come they don't stay and pray?”
And Jesus gives them a strange response, “Nobody goes to a
wedding and fasts. So relax. The time will come when the bridegroom will be
taken away, and they will fast."
JESUS WOULD SAY
Where you ought to be fasting is right there in your gut.
Fast from those thoughts - those things down there in the bottom of your
belly - in your gut - in the deep recesses of the heart.
He got his message from Isaiah, who tells us this is the
kind of fasting that God wants - these deep attitudinal issues - thought
issues.
CONCLUSION
Jesus wants us to change our hearts and not our garments - to change the whole fabric of our being - not just a little new patch on an
old way of thinking - but a whole new way of being - no new thoughts in old
wine skins - but new wine in new wine skins.
And then the wedding, the celebration takes place, down
there in the deep recesses - the inner room of our being - the wedding hall
of our soul - where there ought to be music and dancing. Amen.
If you read the folk tales and fairy tales of the nations, from
Finland to Italy, from Russia to Spain, there is a story plot that pops up over
and over again. It's this: the person you would least expect, the poor girl or the Ugly
Frog, ends up marrying the prince or the princess.
For example, take the Brothers' Grimm story of Cinderella. Literally,
"Cinderella" means, "the little cinder girl". She was the
one who was left at home to do all the "dirty" work, while her
step-sisters went out partying. Fairy tales do happen. Surprise! Cinderella is
the one whom the prince falls in love with and wants to marry.
However, before happy endings happen in these stories, there is
always some kind of conflict or trickery. The story teller introduces a series
of problems that have to be overcome in order for the happy ending to happen.
The king or queen or someone screams when they hear the news: "The prince
certainly doesn't want to marry a dirty little nobody named `Cinderella'".
Then one by one the obstacles are overcome. There is a riddle to
figure out or a treasure to be found. Or there is poison to avoid, arrows that
just miss, or knives that sometimes wound, but don't kill.
In the end, the golden slipper fits Cinderella's foot and the
marriage takes place. Or the princess discovers thatthe Ugly Frog that she can't stand is
actually a prince. And they live happily ever after.
HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS
In today's first reading, Israel, the least of all the nations, a
place called, "Desolate" and "Forsaken" by so many, is
chosen by God for his bride. It is then given a new name, "My
Delight." It is no longer a God-forsaken place. It is now"Espoused" to the Lord. Isaiah 62
develops here the theme of Hosea. The Lord forgives Israel her adultery. He is
willing to forgive and forget andstart
once again. Happy endings can happen. "For the Lord delights in you, and
makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall
marry you; And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice
in you."
In today's gospel, a newly married couple run out of wine at their
wedding feast. Surprise! The Creator of the World, the Lord of the Harvest,
changes water into wine. And the celebration accelerates. The Lord, who in the
desert refused to change rocks into bread, in the community changes water into
wine. The kingdom has begun to come.
And this couple, we don't know their names, end up having the
wedding of all weddings, the wedding of the centuries.Hasn't their story book wedding been told and
retold as a story of hope at so many other weddings ever since?
Fairy tales do happen. Water can change into wine. Disasters don't
always have to happen. Happy endings can happen.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Now to be practical, using today's three readings, let me make
three points.
1) No One Needs To Feel Forsaken
The message of today's first reading is quite blunt. If God
doesn't give up on people, why should we ever give up on another person?
Don't count Cinderella out. Her step-sisters tried to, but she
didn't count herself out. Somehow she got herself to the party and the prince
on seeing her, would dance with nobody else but her. Meanwhile, in their
blindness, her sisters had no idea who the beautiful girl in the arms of the
prince was.
Too many kids end up as disappointments, because parents or a
parent or teachers or coaches give up on them.
Too many marriages die after the honeymoon is over, when someone
finds out that the other person isn't "prince charming" or a
princess. Too often we stop there and don't communicate. As a result, we don't
discover the rich gift that the other person is. Maybe this ugly frog really is
a prince.
Fairy tales do happen. Don't count out the person we consider the
"poor slob". Don't count out any person or for that matter any
country or company or family or community or city.
Unfortunately, we do. We write people off all the time - especially the people we
make no effort to get to know or understand. We don't believe that fairy tales
can happen.
The message of today's first reading is: Don't ever call a person
or a place or a city, "Forsaken" or "Desolate."
Conversions happen. Marriages turn around and blossom. Kids
surprise us. Addicts recover. Abuse can stop. Budgets can be straightened out.
Haven't persons and places been known to make great turnarounds?
Bill W., the person who started AA was written off by many people. He changed
and millions of people in 12 step programs have also changed as a result of his
change. Or take Lake Erie. Lots of fish and lots of people gave up on it.
However, if you look at it today, you'll see lots of people swimming and fishing
in it once again. Or takedowntown
Cleveland and a host of other cities that are recovering. We saw the Berlin
Wall come down, didn't we?
People of hope can hope that South Africa, Palestine, Appalachia and a lot of
other places, as well as many United States cities can recover and get their
act together.
2) Cooperation and Teamwork are the secret.
Today's second reading gives us the secret of how dreams become
reality, how miracles can happen, how water can change to wine. It's through
cooperation and teamwork. It's when individuals pull together and each person
does their part.
Paul tells us that each person has their particular gift, their
unique manifestation of the Spirit. Yet, there is one Spirit, one Lord.
So far so good. So where do our problems in parishes and
organizations come from? Don't our nightmares happen when everyone is out for
oneself, when jealousy is sitting in too many seats, when the group is pulling
in 100 different directions? Pull too many ways at once and the body ruptures.
Cinderella's step-mother and her two step-sisters had a fit when
the prince chose Cinderella. Her sisters, instead of being happy, were blinded
by jealously. And in one version of the story, they actually went blind.
Because of their jealousy, their was no happy ending for them.
Paul discovered in the Church at Corinth, what all of us have seen
in so many parishes, choirs, and organizations. Problems arise, happy endings
don't happen, when we use our different gifts, our different ministries, our
different manifestations of the Spirit, in attempts to try totop one another in so many unannounced talent
contests. Our gifts are not for competition, but for the common good.
3) We Run Out of Energy.
Because of self-interest or too many outside interests, we can
lose interest in the relationships and groups that we belong to. They can
become uninteresting. Or as we go through life, we often lose interest in the
familiar. We love the new model and grow weary with the old.
Marriages, communities, families, cities, all can run out of
energy, life, joy and excitement. The marriage that was a bubbling, vintage
wine can turn into sour vinegar. It can become water - stagnant water. There is
no inebriation, no celebration left. So too our buildings and our
organizations. The infrastructure of a marriage, a home, a parish, a city, a
country can begin to crumble.
At that point, we need to stop, look and listen. We need to
observe, judge and act. We need to make some heavy duty decision making. Isn't
that also a good time to invite Jesus to the funeral that once was a wedding?
Jesus, is the Lord of Resurrection and Life. He is the Lord of the Kingdom. He
cries over cities, as well as individuals. He attends both weddings and
funerals. "This is my beloved son. Listen to him." His hour has come.
Mary tells us in today's gospel to do whatever he tells you to do.
Jesus told the waiters to fill the jars with water. Don't just stand there, do
something.
It might seem simplistic, but I would assume that the solution to
so many of our problems would be to follow that simple dynamic of doing
whatever Jesus tells us to do.
If we pick up the Gospels, we would hear Jesus tell us to do all
sorts of things that would make persons, places and situations that much
better: love one another, forgive one another, listen to one another, wash
feet, use your talents, build your house on rock, feed the hungry, clothe the
naked, give the thirsty a glass of cold water, visit the sick and those in
prison, stop on the road to help the person who has been hurt, officials give
an accounting of your stewardship, don't throw rocks, don't give bad example to
kids, love one another as I have loved you, greater love than this has no one
that they lay down their life for their friends.
CONCLUSION
We all different gifts and different ministries, but don't we all
have the gift of the Spirit to do all those things that Jesus tells us to do?
And if we do them, miracles will happen. Water will change into wine and we'll
be surprised to discover that God wants to marry us - the Ugly Frogs or the
Cinderellas of the world.
“If a man has no time or only a short time for seeing people, you can be fairly surethat he
is neither very important nor very busy.”
John S. Churchill
January 19, 2019
EXPOSED
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this first Saturday in Ordinary time is “Exposed!” I’d like to get at the issue exposing the real me to me—exposing rather than posing—as we see in today’s gospel, not being a Pharisee, but being Levi— but sitting down as the real me with Jesus.
So to get at, to expose self honesty, self evaluation, self love, the real truth of who I am, and allowing Jesus, in fact, in one way, even more importantly, allowing myself to be loved as I am by myself and by Jesus and then going from there in my life.
FIRST READING
Today’s first reading gives a good image, in fact I think a powerful image—that of the Word of God as a sword—that exposes the truth. It’s an that can challenge us to make some painful but healing decisions to lead a better way of living life to the full.
Picture a sword. Picture a knife. Picture a surgeon’s scalpel or whatever a coroner uses for an autopsy—to cut open—to get in there and find out what’s on the other side of a person’s skin.
This image of the sword or the knife appears in today’s first reading. The author of Hebrews uses that image of a sword or a knife cutting open the human body and exposing:
•soul and spirit
•joints and marrow,
•the reflections and thoughts of the human heart.
As a result all is there to be seen before us. All is exposed. Reality. Truth and lies.
The author of Hebrews is saying that the Word of God is like a sword—that cuts to the truth.
Words can do that. You read scripture and you say, “Shit, I’m not doing this!” Or “I guess I gotta stop doing that!” Or, “Wow, I got a long way to go. I’m not feeding the hungry or visiting the sick.”
God’s word is like a press conference. You stand up there and reporters can pick you clean. They can ask questions that can expose you for what you are. Help! Then there are the newspaper articles and columns that follow. Words can be powerful things. Words can expose. That’s what the author of Hebrews seems to be getting at.
DENTIST OR DOCTOR
It’s like going to the dentist.That would be a good modern analogy what the Hebrews is getting at.
You sit there in the chair ready for an examination. If you have not been taking care of them: flossing or brushing correctly, now is the time for the reckoning.
The dental hygienist looks right into your mouth. There are your teeth, gums, all. Then comes the X-rays and more is exposed.
It’s the same with going to a doctor. He checks and probes and sees what’s what. Then he asks you to step on the scale.Then comes the trip to the lab—where blood and urine and all kinds of other stuff can be done.It’s like the gospel text, “Make an account of your stewardship.” What have you been doing with your body.
It’s at examination time, people who eat too much or eat poorly, or drink or smoke, etc. All comes out in the wash as they say.
Make an accounting of your stewardship.
We could add that provincial visitations or looking at the books or doing evaluations or taking exams is all exposure time.
SELF-TESTS
I thought the Myers-Briggs Jungian Type test or the Enneagram or lots of other self tests can be a great examination of consciousness moment. They can expose our realities. They can expose our sins - our weaknesses and what have you.
Well, Hebrews is saying that the word of God is like a sword. It lifts up the rock and underneath are all kinds of creeping things.
Exposed!
ENTER JESUS
Now when we are exposed, caught, put in the light, we tend to want to run and hide once again. We don’t like what’s showing. Our butt is showing. Our sins are before us.
That’s why today’s readings are also very helpful. Hebrews tells us that we have a great High Priest. He can sympathize with our weakness.So go to him with confidence.
Yet, we find it difficult, because he’s God. Hebrews tells us, that he was tempted, but never sinned. And we have sinned, so where do we turn. We still want to hide.
Today’s gospel is perfect. Jesus eats with sinners and dines with them. Jesus came to call the sinner and not the righteous. Mark tells us that Jesus said, “People who are healthy don’t need a doctor; sick people do.”
We need Jesus the doctor.
Today’s gospel talks about scribes and Pharisees who said of the kind of people Jesus was hanging with, “Tch, tch. Why does he eat with people like this?”t
It’s my experience and my feeling that today’s scribes and Pharisees are not out there. They are not the other guy. They are me. I don’t like me as a sinner. So I hide that side of myself from myself and become self-righteous.
The truth is that I am a sinner. The truth is that I have some good stuff in me as well. I am marbled. I have a crack in me as Emerson said. “Everything has a crack in it.”
That truth can set me free.
The truth is that Jesus wants to sit with me and eat with me and I want to be perfect before I allow him to eat with me. I keep saying, “One of these days I have it all together. Then I can get together with Jesus.
Notice it’s Jesus in the 3rd person. Notice it’s Jesus at a distance.
Today’s gospel—or the Gospel today means that Jesus walks up to my booth, my face as a 2nd person facing me a 1st person and says, “Hello. My name is Jesus. Come follow me!”
CONCLUSION
That’s the truth that today’s gospel and today’s first reading from Hebrews is exposing to us.
If we read these readings in truth, we will be exposed for who we are and what we are—hiding stuff under our rock that we don’t want anyone to see—even ourselves.
Jesus goes under rocks—into our graves—and rises from the dead—in us.
