PROMISES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Promises.”

As I’ve listened to sermons by Evangelical Christian preachers, I’ve heard them preach about “Promises.” While listening, I remember thinking to myself, “That's interesting. Promises has not been part of my tradition.”

I've noticed that the key stress is on the promises in the Bible. The centrality of a promise is in the Word of God - as found in the Bible. Basically, I hear the preacher saying or singing, “How do I know? The Bible tells me so. “How do I know Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. That's the Promise I go by.

I know “Promises” is a theme in the scriptures. What I'm saying here is that I am not conscious that it’s part of my way of thinking. It might be, but I don’t sense it. Or maybe I use other words. And maybe I need to look at it.

How about you? Does the theme of “Promises” resonate with you?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

There it is in today’s first reading - and it is a linchpin type of message - holding key things together.

Second Peter 1: 4 says, “… he has bestowed on us precious and very great promises.”

And the promises are very great: sharing in the divine nature; and escaping from the corruption which is in the world.

Isn’t that why we’re here? We want those two promises: to share in God’s nature and not to be lead into temptation

Second Peter also says: we have to do our part. We have to make an effort to supplement our faith with virtue, knowledge, self control, endurance, devotion, mutual affection and love.

Compared to what Peter says here, I sense that Paul would stress the God side of promise more than our side of the promise. God keeps promising - even though we might not do enough on our part to be gifted with what God wants to give us.

PROMISES - TODAY'S GOSPEL

Let me get back to promises. I don’t know if I have ever preached on this theme of promises.

Looking at today’s gospel - Mark 12: 1-12, we have this parable of the Vineyard. Then we hear that Jesus can be the rock of our life - our security. We can hold onto that rock in time of trouble and struggle. Some don’t. Some people throw Jesus out of their life, out of their vineyard. I sense that most just ignore or forget or drop out of a relationship with Jesus.

Next, I took some time to think about this image of the rock or better the cornerstone of one’s life.  How strong is our life? What is the foundation of our life? Remember the promise Jesus makes at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. He stresses that if we build our house on rock - he, Christ, will be our foundation or bedrock?

The theme of Promises is right there.

When we drive across the Bay Bridge we trust that it’s legs will hold us up. Trust and promise are like two legs of a table and a bridge and a chair. The builder and the manufacturer give us a promise that they will work - that they will hold.

Thinking further about the word "promise" and images of what we trust in - what our bedrocks are, I thought about marriages and friendships and relationships. In marriage we publicly make promises to each other. In friendships and relationships we assume promises that we won’t betray each other or break secrets or talk behind the other’s back - that we'll be there for each other.


CONCLUSION

So there it is: promises.  They are the bedrocks of our life - our security.

God gives - makes - announces - his promises. 


Hopefully, we will make a mutual promise to God. This is what a covenant with another means - what a covenant with God.  Amen.

THE  PAST

June 4, 2012  Quote for Today

"There is one thing 

God cannot do: 

change the past."

Agathon [c.445-c.400 B.C.]  Most of what this Athenian playwright wrote has been lost. This quote can be found in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.  

The painting on top is by Anselm Feurebach [1869].  It's a scene from the Symposium by Plato. Agathon is welcoming the drunken Alcibiades into his house. 

I AM THE BEST PROOF 

FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “I Am The Best Proof For The Existence of God.”

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.  I assume that the preacher has to make an attempt to explain the Trinity or say something about the Trinity.  Explaining God is tough enough. Try explaining the Christian belief in God as a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We know from catechism classes - if we got our faith as a kid -  the old example of the triangle - 3 sides - 1 triangle. We know the about St. Patrick and the shamrock: 3 leaves - 1 shamrock. We know the example of St. Augustine walking the beach and seeing the little boy with the pail and the shovel and he’s putting the water from the sea into the pail. Augustine asks, “What are you doing?” The kid says, “Putting the ocean in my pail.” Augustine says, “You can’t do that.” The boy says, “I can do that sooner than you can explain the Trinity.”

And Augustine and Thomas and Bonaventure and Rahner  - all tried to put God in ink onto the pages of their books….

The title of my homily is, “I Am The Best Proof For The Existence of God.”

INTRICACY

Have you ever really looked under the hood of a car or inside a watch or a computer or watched a documentary that showed the workings of the inside of the human heart or brain or the universe? Very intricate. Very interesting.

Have you ever seen those Russian dolls - Matryoshka [Ma-tra-yo-sh-ka dolls? You begin with a Russian peasant woman. You twist the mid-section like opening a jar of peanut butter. You separate the two halves and there is another woman doll. Younger. You open her up and you get another woman doll  and on and on. It’s usually at least  5 dolls. Sometimes the last one is a baby which is made from a single piece of wood. Very intricate. Very interesting. There’s a message there somewhere. Husbands elbow your wives!

Have you ever seen those ivory or marble carved elephants from India? You keep on opening them up and you keep on getting smaller and smaller elephants? Very intricate.  Very interesting. Wives elbow your husbands - especially if they are big boys!

Have you ever seen the man in the rowboat documentary?  From above -  the camera shows him in a rowboat on a pond. Then it zooms out and out and out and out and out and out and out into outer space looking back down on the man in the rowboat - whom you can no longer see. For some it creates a mouth opening experience of awe. Then they zoom back and back and back and back and back to the rowboat and then the camera keeps on going to the man’s arm and in and in and in and in - into the inner, inner space - of the man.

Have you ever gone into an art museum? It’s raining. You’re with your family on vacation for 5 days in Boston or New York. You’re looking for something different and you and the family go into an art museum. You’re walking - looking at paintings - sculptures - and all of a sudden you have an awe experience. It might be a painting of a tree or a flower or a child or a battle scene or a mountain. You feel like you’re there for a moment - in the picture - in the painting. Just then you see your spouse  or child and you’re looking at the real thing compared to the canvas and the paint - and you have an awe experience. This other person is a work of art - a creation of God. Did you ever really look at or into the human eye? Then you go outside. You see a tree. You go up to it. You start to stare at its bark - like you stared at the skin of the canvas paintings inside.  You reach for one of  its leaves - and you look at a green leaf up close and personal. It’s perfect. It’s free. It’s beautiful and you have a God experience.

The title of my homily is, “I Am The Best Proof For The Existence of God.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel there is a very interesting sentence - Matthew 28:17. Like that leaf on the tree - I never looked at this sentence up close before. Here’s the sentence: “When they all saw him, they worshipped, but they doubted.”

Let me repeat that. “When they all saw him, they worshipped, but they doubted.”

I immediately went to the Greek text of the New Testament. I did some research. After that I went to 7 other English translations. The New American Bible, the NAB, the one we use,  is the only one which says, “they worshiped, but they doubted.” All the other English translations have the variation, “some doubted”.

I began wondering if the translators were scared to say the 11 disciples had doubts.

If they had translated all of Matthew up to that point, they would know the 11 disciples had doubts.

If they put down their writing instruments and went inside themselves, they would know they too had doubts - but they still worshipped Jesus as the Lord of their lives.

DOUBT

That word “doubt” in that sentence triggered for me a lot of stuff.

I preached a sermon on doubt on Doubting Thomas Sunday - the Second Sunday after Easter. I said it’s normal to doubt. I said it’s human to doubt.

I was talking to someone the other day and he said that what makes us human - compared to animals -  is our power of reflection. It’s our power to reflect upon who and what’s around us - or what happened to us last month or last year or the last time we were at a funeral or a wedding or an art museum or Orioles game or what have you.

We can reflect. We can remember. Do animals think and reflect? Probably somewhat. We know animals have memory. Pavlov told us that. We have memories. Drive by your old high school and listen to your feelings.

But we are more than barking and running dogs - and rememberers.

We can think and figure and abstract and invent stints for the heart and come up with eye glasses for when our eyes go bad.

So we doubt - we worship - we think - we go figure - we invent.

I often think about Descartes famous thought: “Cogito. Ergo sum.”

“I think. Therefore I am.”

I like to add, “I pray, therefore I am.”

I get jokes, therefore I am.

I doubt, therefore I am.

NOW  WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE TRINITY?

Now I have two things to do. Connect this to the Trinity and end this sermon.

By now I’m hoping you’re thinking, “Okay, a bit of this makes sense. I get some of the  images,  but I have doubts about what you’re talking about. It’s too intricate. You’re making this too complicated.”

I gave the first version of this homily yesterday afternoon at the 4:30 at St. John Neumann and a guy after Mass on the way out said, “You’re right. Nobody can explain the Trinity.”*

I said, “You’re right, I’ll mention that tomorrow morning after I’ve tried to figure out this homily myself.”

RELATIONSHIPS: INTIMACY AND INTRICACY

When talking about God - when talking about the Trinity -  we can begin with the simple, move to the intricate, and then move to conversation - communication - communion - intimacy - with God as Person.

It’s just like that man who came over to me last night. We had a slight conversation. That moved me and him to become a two - and his wife was sort of next to him - that makes three. Hint. Hint. Moving towards a trinity….  Were the two of them talking about that comment that he made before he made his two second comment to me? Maybe it was her comment to him in the first place and he stole her great one-liner.

There is a difference in going to an art museum or gallery and seeing paintings - and going to an art gallery or museum and knowing one of the artists whose work is being exhibited.  She or he could be a friend or a family member or a next door neighbor. If that’s the story, we’ll see the paintings different. Conversations we’ve had with them - experiences we’ve had with them will be triggered and remembered as we’re experiencing their work of art. “Wow that’s my back fence.”

It gets even more interesting if we talk to that person about one of their paintings and what it triggered in us - and then they tell us what they were seeing.

We’ve had this experience. We’ve read a novel or a story by someone we know - and we’re wondering as we’re reading it, “Is she talking about me right here on page 96?”

That interaction can lead to a conversation with the author or artist.

When it comes to God - I find it very helpful to see God as a maker, a creator, an artist, an author, a story teller - and I like to like to see God as one who wants to engage us - wants us to walk and be talked to and questioned - etc.

Start talking to God about all God’s creations. Wow! Where did you come up with the idea of hippos, mosquitoes and bees and honey?

Read the scriptures and start talking with God. Is this me on page 2?

The scriptures begin with God.

God creates the whole universe - as well as the garden with all its animals - birds and bees and honey - and then God creates the first one of us. Then God realizes there has to be two: male and female God made them. It’s not good to be alone.

The scriptures begin beautifully saying everything is good - that we are different from the animals - and then we have the great text, “We are made in the image and likeness of God.”

Keeping all this in mind - we’re able to think - that’s what makes us human.

But that’s not enough. If  I’m just me, myself, and I - and if I’m  made in the image and likeness of God, maybe it takes two to discover God and maybe God is two.

Alone I am a  monologue.

With another I can dialogue.

With God we can Trialogue.

It’s called prayer. It’s called worship.

If I go through life all alone - being self centered - and I’m just me, myself and I, I have to do some thinking about that.

And if we think, we better talk  to someone, and if we talk to someone, we might start to become a we, a community, a family and if we do that enough, we can experience bliss, awe, and experience God.

See the ending of the movie My Cousin Vinny. I can’t use in church the language Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito uses. They have just won the big trial - with a little help from a friend.  She and Vinny are driving into the future down the highway in the big convertible - but she says something like this, “Oh my God. You are going to have to go through the rest of your life and you’re going to need others. O my God. You’re going to have to ask for help and then to say, Thank you. O my God.”

There is an image of God. There is an image of the Trinity. There is an image we all have to experience. And if we get it, get that, then we can be the best proof for the existence of God - starting with ourselves.

Self - Others - God.

We need all three. It’s in the great commandment to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Trinity.

Self is not enough.

Another is not enough. Marriage is good. Family is better.

Know this and you know God - first hand - and if you know this first hand - you can share this with another and others - and become trinities - communities - becoming more and more aware we are made in the image and likeness of God - getting glimpses of the Trinity.

In other words, the title of my homily is, “I Am The Best Proof For The Existence of God.”

* After Mass this morning a guy came to me and said, "I don't even try to figure out my wife, so I'm not going to try to figure out the Trinity." I spotted his wife down the corridor and before I had a chance to mention his comment, she says, "He told me! Cute! Isn't he?"

Painting on top by Masaccio. The video is self explanatory.

TRINITY

June  3, 2012  Feast of the Holy Trinity - Quote for Today


"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning 
                our song shall rise to Thee:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity."

Reginald Heber [1783-1826], Missionary Hymn, Holy Holy, Holy, [1827].

Icon on top: Trinity by Andrei Rublev [ 1360-c. 1427-30].  This famous icon can be seen in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia. The icon is based on an earlier icon know as "Hospitality of Abraham."  He removed Abraham and Sarah for this painting.

HEY  JUDE!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Hey Jude!”

Today’s first reading is from The Letter of Jude. Today - the 8^th Saturday in Ordinary Time -  is the only time - but only every other year -  that this reading might be read at Mass. It’s a quiet, unknown, rarely heard "book" in the Bible.

It’s called, “The Letter of Jude”, but scholars vary on whether it was actually a letter. It’s a document from the early church - perhaps from around 80 or 90 A.D.  It doesn’t even have chapters - just verses - 25 of them. It  can be read calmly in 2 minutes.

SONG BY THE BEATLES

Reading its title, triggered for me the song by the Beatles, “Hey Jude” - which came out in August 1968.

Do you remember the comment made by John Lennon that the Beatles are better known than Jesus Christ? That comment caused uproar and reaction. From what I remember - and from what I looked up - he didn’t actually say what they said he said - the stuff that caused the uproar. He simply said kids were into rock and roll and the Beatles more than they were into religion. For Christians that would mean they were listening to the Beatles more than Jesus Christ.  If he had said  that their song, “Hey Jude” was more popular than say, The Letter of Jude in the New Testament, I don't believe he would have caused an uproar.

Last night I listened to the song, Hey Jude, twice and then I read The Letter of Jude twice.  No doubt about it, the song Hey Jude would have more grab and influence than The Letter of Jude.

The song lyrics of Hey Jude tell Jude to take a sad song and make it better. The song says, “Don’t be afraid.” The song says, “Don’t carry the world upon your shoulder.”

Paul McCartny said he wrote the song while driving  to see John Lennon’s son - Jules. The kids parent’s marriage had broken up - due to John Lennon’s affair  with Yoko Ono. Paul wanted to show some support to Jules. After mulling over the words, he changed "Jules" to "Jude" - because he thought it sounded better that way.

The song had the longest run of any of the Beatles’ singles on the American Music Charts.

It has a nice beat - if you like the Beatles - and it’s a rather long song - 7 minutes. Check it out and check out The Letter of Jude.

LETTER OF JUDE: 4 OBSERVATIONS

I found it difficult to come up with something helpful for a homily in today's two readings. So besides my off beat comments about the song, "Hey Jude," I'm going to simply present 4 observations that I picked up about the Letter of Jude. If I sound a bit off this morning, it's simply because this homily feels a bit odd or out of sync to be honest. 

1) The Letter of Jude is only 2 minutes. Some say the best words are in it its ending - which we heard today. There we find mention of the Trinity:  the Father - referred to as this only God of Our Savior, then Jesus Christ our Lord, as well as Holy Spirit.  That is very important - and perhaps that's why this letter made it into the  Bible.

2) That brings up the question of the canon - the so called “List of the Books that make up the Bible.”  This book made it. Compared to books like the Early Church book, The Didache (1) , if you read both, you’d say, “What?”  Folks in the Early Church said just that about The Letter of Jude. “Why is this book in the Bible?”

3) Last night I went looking for what others said about The Letter of Jude. I was amazed to notice that that William Barclay came up with a 50 page commentary on Jude. (2)

4) Lastly, I found out last night in my checking out commentaries on Jude, that Jude is a polemic. It's an attack. The author is yelling. He is complaining. He’s warning everyone about certain people who are getting into the Church and they will be ruin of it.

Other than my bringing up the Hey Jude song by the Beatles, this last point might be of the most interest - this description of The Letter of Jude as being a polemic.

Without being polemic myself, let me quote from a Lutheran Biblical Scholar named Gerhard Krodel. He wrote the following in his comments on The Letter of Jude.

“As a teenager in Germany I heard one particular sermon, a pure denunciation of the idolatry of the Nazi religion of “blood and land,” of Moloch worship and the hatred of Cain. It was not  based on Jude, but it made a lasting impression. The enemy then, as in Jude’s situation, was the compromiser and synthesizer within the church.”

Then Gerhard Krodel concludes his comments on The Letter of Jude this way. “However, most situations don’t present us with clear cut alternatives, but with various shades of gray. Polemics itself becomes demonic the moment the preacher loves it, venting his spleen, riding his hobby horse, putting people down for the sheer fun of it, and imagining that he speaks of God.  Since time and again teachers and preachers have engaged in polemics for the wrong reason (e.g. the earth is flat and the Bible is inerrant in every historical detail) and at the wrong occasion (e.g., when God's grace and Christ’s Lordship were not really at stake but rather the preacher’s myopic view of them) it may be just as well that Jude has not become a household word.” (3) 

NOTES

(1) The Didache, Faith, Hope and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities,  50-70 C.E., Aaron Milavec, The Newman Press, New York, Mahwah, N.J. 2003


(2) William Barclay, The Letters of John and Jude, Revised Edition, The Daily Study Bible Series, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, pages 155 to 207.

(3)  Gerhard Krodel, "The Letter of Jude", page 98, in Proclamation Commentaries, Hebrews-James-1 and 2 Peter-Jude-Revelation, Gerhard Krodel, Editor, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1977

FAMILY

June  2,  2012  Quote for Today

"No son is as good as his father 
in his sister's eyes. 
No father is as good as his son 
in his mother's eyes."

Irish Saying

LOVE AND LIKE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Eight Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Love and Like.”

I put a “Quote for the Day” on my blog. I have a bunch of quote books and grab one and look for a quote that grabs me.

The one I found and put on my blog for today is: “We like someone BECAUSE. We love someone ALTHOUGH.”

Once more: “We like someone BECAUSE. We love someone ALTHOUGH.”

Then sometimes I ask some questions. For today's quote I asked: Is that your experience? Then I asked 2 further questions that I would be interested in hearing answers for: “Name 5 people you love and then list 3 things they do that bug you about them? Name 5 people you like and then list 3 things they do that bug you?”

It hit me: Would it be harder to name faults and annoyances in those we like compared to those we love?

Looking around the room, it looks like all of us have had a lot of experience. Some people are easy to like; some people are difficult to take.

My niece Monica once told me. She’s over 50 now. “There’s one in every office.”  I asked her, “What do you mean by one?” “You know,” she said, “someone who is a royal pain you know where.”

Is that true? Does every office, every parish, every neighborhood, every group, have one person whom we just don’t like?

I’m a member of a religious community in the Catholic Church: the Redemptorists. I’ve been stationed in New York City, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, upstate New York, Ohio, and now Annapolis. Looking back I’ve said to several people, I’ve always been blessed to have at least one guy in each place where I have been stationed who was a great guy - in other words, someone I liked. Thinking about my quote for today: is the reverse true? To be honest, I’ve never sat down and thought about answers to that question.

There have been difficult people - some strange rangers - that I have lived with. There have been more than one in a few places. One of my books is entitled, How To Deal With Difficult People.I've jokingly told guys I lived with, “Thanks for the help in writing that book!”

SOME OBSERVATIONS

For starters there are two types of people: those who are easy to like and those who are difficult to like.

I like the saying, “There are two kinds of people: those who cause happiness when they enter a room and those who cause happiness whenever they leave a room.”

As priest I’ve been to more different nursing homes than most priests in the United States. Having lived on the road for 8 ½ years and given lots of parish missions -  part of our parish mission was to visit nursing homes in the afternoons. From that experience I realized there are two kinds of people in nursing homes - or anywhere - those who are an easy visit - and those who are a difficult visit. By difficult I don’t mean dementia or aging. I mean they have a difficult personality, attitude, or overall ambiance.

I saw that as a little boy on our street in Brooklyn. There were two kinds of older people: those who when your spaldeen (pink rubber ball) went into their front yard, they were happy to get it for you and say something like, “Hope you’re having a great game!” and those who are grouches and make it difficult in retrieving your spaldeen.

Then and there without knowing it,  I made my first conscious life decision. It was not to be a grouch when I get old.

Today’s first reading has this sentence. We’ve heard it a hundred times. It’s why I am preaching on this theme of Love and Like. The sentence is this: “Above all, let your love for one another be intense,
because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8.)

It doesn’t say: "Above all, let your liking of another be  intense, because liking covers a multitude of sins."

Liking is easy. Love can be difficult. Forgiveness can be difficult.

That’s what our faith teaches and preaches.

So getting back to my earlier question and wondering: I would think it would be easier to find things that bug us and things we don’t like in those we love - more than in those we like.

Next, I would think - but I’m not sure - but I would think - it would be more difficult to pick 3 things we don’t like - 3 things that bug us - about those we like - compared to those we love.

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel - Mark 11: 11-26 - talks about a fig tree. We see variations of this story in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Israel was compared to a fig tree - and the preachers and the prophets would use the image in sermons - challenging the folks to produce good fruit in their lives.

I found in The Parables of Jesus, a book by Joachim Jeremias, a piece on gardening that I never noticed before. [Cf. pages 119-120.] He says that in Israel the fig tree is unique compared to other trees and bushes and plants. At times in the year, a fig tree really looks dead. Then comes a time you can look into its very thin branches - which are translucent - and see the sap rising. What looks dead - is about to come back to life.

We’re getting older - maybe we look dead to some folks who are young - but don’t count us out. We can always start producing fruit. Grouches can change and surprise everyone. I’ve see that happen to at least 3 priests. Maybe they changed because they started to love more than to just like or dislike others - and love covers a multitude of sins.


Amen.