SAME WORDS -
DIFFERENT MEANINGS
Quote for Today - September 10.
2012
“It’s all in the
ear of the beholder.”
Tom Hayden [1939- ], Boston
Monday, September 10, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
EPHPHATHA!
BE OPENED!
The title of my homily for this 23 Sunday in Ordinary Time
B, comes from today’s Gospel, “Ephphatha! Be opened.”
As you know Mark tells us what the Aramaic word, “Ephphatha”
means: “Be opened.”
Some people are deaf. Some people can’t speak. Some people
are blocked. Some people are stuck. Some people are not free.
And Jesus says to all people, “Ephphatha! Be Opened!”
It’s the same message we hear from the Book of Isaiah the prophet - whom we know Jesus read
- clearly when he opened up the scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth in his inaugural
address.
THE OTHER GUY
The obvious thing everybody does is to want the other person
to change - the other guy or gal to be open - and they don’t see the plank or
log jam in their own eye - in their own person - in their own self - as Jesus
pointed out.
We have our list of
people we want to see change. I am on some people’s list. You’re on some
people’s list. We’re all on someone’s list.
And remember the line in the song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, “I’ve got a little list…. I’ve got a little list - of society offenders - who never will be missed.”
And on our list -
under the name each of the persons we want to see change - we have a list of
the things about them that we would like them to change. How they speak. How
they don’t seem to hear. How they act or don’t act. How they behave. To us, the other person is deaf or mute or
dumb. They don’t listen. They don’t see. And when they speak, they are dumb -
just plain stupid.
To get a lot out of the Gospel for today, we have to see
that I am the deaf man with the speech impediment. It’s me. It’s not the other
person. It’s me. And the prayer for today is to beg Jesus to heal me.
It’s the old message we have heard a dozen times, “Be aware
when you point a finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at
yourself.
And in the Gospel for today, Jesus takes the man off by himself - away from the crowd - and puts a finger into the man’s ear and then Jesus spits, touches the man’s tongue, looks up to heaven, groans, and says, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
And the man’s ears are opened and his speech impediment is removed and he speaks plainly.
Here I am Jesus. Stop! Do this for me! This is my prayer for
today.
THE KID IN THE RETREAT HOUSE
Once upon a time there was a kid - named Jack - who did
dishes in a retreat house where I worked. He
was deaf as a wall. And when he spoke, he yelled difficult to understand
garbled language. As a result, he was difficult to be with. He was avoided.
I have a life observation: strange rangers are avoided. The
more they are avoided - the stranger they become. The stranger they become, the
more they are avoided. And on and on and on. It’s a vicious circle.
In warm weather, when the basement windows to the retreat
house kitchen were open, you could hear
Jack banging dish trays on the stainless steel table runway that led to the dish washer - as well as hear him yelling
- and yelling very loudly. He couldn’t hear himself, but we could.
People avoided him. People found him difficult.
In that same kitchen doing dishes, was his brother Danny who
did not have those handicaps his brother had.
Whenever I read today’s gospel I think of Jack - the brother
with the handicap. Did the man in the gospel have the same problems as Jack?
During my time there - two moments stand out with regards
this kid.
The first moment was a high school retreat for girls. After
lunch when they were having a break some of the girls looked in the open window
down into the kitchen and spotted the two brothers doing the dishes. They had
eyes only for Danny - no eyes for Jack.
Unfortunately, Jack thought they were looking through the
window at him and he told a few of us that he loved it - that the girls found
him good looking and they were staring at him. His brother Danny said nothing.
After the two brothers finished the dishes - and the kitchen staff put things away -
sometimes they would gather outside if the weather was nice and sit on some
benches and just chew the fat.
I noticed that Jack was always by himself - at least 15 to
20 yards away from the kitchen staff. His social skills were minus 10 to say
the least.
I wasn’t listening to today’s readings that day. To be
honest, it was much easier being with normal people - so that’s who I was
standing with as a group of girls came up the macadam road towards us. They spotted Danny - the hunk - the good
looking brother. They went over to him to see him up close and personal. Hey it
was a retreat without boys.
It was a crushing moment for Jack. He realized the girls were not interested in him at all.
I saw him slam his hand into a tree and he ran inside - down into the kitchen.
We had this old 91 year old priest. He loved to work on the
lawns. Want to make it to 91, rake lawns. Keep moving. His nick name was Teddy.
I spotted him about 100 yards away. So I went to Teddy and told him what
happened to Jack - he had to turn up his hearing aid at first. He put his rake
up against the tree and went down the steps to the kitchen basement to find
Jack and talk to him. And that he did.
To me it was like Jesus going to the man in today’s gospel
and healing him. Teddy and Jack could talk. I had noticed that - and it was
good for both of them. Teddy brought a smile back to Jack’s face.
The second thing that happened to Jack was the operation. He
went to a specialist in a hospital in New
York City and they put some wires into his head and he had to wear an electronic pack on his
side. Slowly he learned to hear and translate basic sounds - and his face was
amazing when he could hear sounds now - and he slowly learned to hear and to
speak better.
Imagine being a doctor, imagine being a technician and you
are able to get a person to hear and to speak for the first time. Imagine being
a doctor and you help a person see for the first time because of a new invention that has some kind of new
breakthrough? Imagine being a speech therapist?
That’s the story of someone else - who was able to learn how
to speak better and to hear a bit. What about me?
TODAY’S SECOND READING
Today’s second reading brings this looking at self stuff
into sharper focus. It’s from the Letter
of James.
James writes about what he sees in his local community.
What do we see in our community, our parish, our Mass - this
7 AM Sunday Mass - with it’s regulars - and with some strangers - where do we
hear this second reading hitting home with an ouch.
James writes, “My brothers and sisters, show no
partiality….”
I don’t know about you, but I’m guilty about partiality over
and over and over again.
James tells us about his community - a man comes in with
gold rings and fine clothes and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
don’t we all pay more attention to the rich man?
James says that we make distinctions about people. He says
we judge.
He’s writing all this so that we can see that we can be
closed to some people - because of their age, weight, color, clothes, accent,
affiliations, mannerisms, you name it - James is challenging us to be open.
He’s saying to his community what Jesus said, “Ephphatha -
Be opened.”
CONCLUSION: SOME
HOMEWORK
This week be open to one person you would ignore. Do it because you heard today’s readings and you
know Jesus is talking to you: Ephphatha: Be opened.”
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
COMPARISONS:
THE OLD AND THE NEW
The title of my homily for this 22 Friday in Ordinary Time
is, “Comparisons: The Old and the New.”
Today I’d like to briefly reflect upon three things:
comparisons, the old and the new.
We think and deal with all three every day.
All three have their pluses and their minuses.
All three have an, “It all depends.”
TODAY’S GOSPEL
I thought about all three as I read today’s gospel [Luke 5: 33-39].
The Scribes, those who could write, the educated, and the
Pharisees were always finding fault with Jesus didn’t like his “new!”
They compared what he was saying with their “old”.
They weren’t happy campers.
So Jesus gives a great comparison. Look at people faces at a wedding and look at people’s faces when it’s a religious season of fasting. Compare faces. My disciples are celebrating life. I’m the bridegroom and this is a time of celebration.
Then he talks about new cloaks and old cloaks.
You don’t cut a piece off a new cloak to patch an old cloak.
You don’t cut a piece off a new cloak to patch an old cloak.
Nope! Old goes with old and new with new. You find that out when you wash either.
It’s the same with wine: there’s new wine and there’s old wine. There’s new wineskins and there’s old wineskins. Don't mix them up - otherwise you'll have leakage. Old people in old skin must have laughed when Jesus said this!
I don’t know wine, but I’ll accept what Jesus is saying.
THE NEW AND THE OLD
How are you with the new and with the old? For starters the
answer has to be, “It all depends.”
For the sake of transparency, I’m old. I’m 72. Do us old folks tend to favor the good old days and keep saying, “It ain’t like it used to be”?
I prefer a new car to an old one. I’m not into collecting
antiques.
I like the new High Definition TV monitors. I don’t like the
new translation of the prayers into English.
When I go out to eat, I like what I like. I remember going on vacation in the late 60’s with my mom, dad, and my sister Peggy. We went out to a restaurant every evening - 6 nights straight. 6 nights straight I got veal parmesan. I like veal parmesan - and I was comparing how it came out in 6 different restaurants.
Somewhere along the line I also discovered Cobb Salad - so if I see that on the menu, that’s what I’ll get. Cobb Salad has a plan: bacon bites, bacon bites, bacon bites, hard boiled egg slices - ummm!
Some people when they eat out get the same thing every time; some people
listen to the waitress or waiter giving the house specials - and often risk
taking something they have never had before.
COMPARISONS
A beautiful woman walked into a room and I said to her husband, “Who’s better looking: this gal or your wife?” He paused, smiled and said, “No comparison.”
A beautiful woman walked into a room and I said to her husband, “Who’s better looking: this gal or your wife?” He paused, smiled and said, “No comparison.”
Perfect answer.
Let me go deeper than skin.
Comparisons can crush. Comparisons can challenge us to move
it and be more creative.
We can miss out on a decent veal parmesan meal or Cobb
salad, because we’ve tasted better.
We can sit there in traffic or at a dull sermon, because
we’re comparing what we’re experiencing with the best or a traffic free trip.
Do people with long faces - non-looking like they are at a wedding faces - crush themselves because they are comparing being in the present moment with a non existent other moment?
A wedding is not a funeral.
Be where you is, because if you be where you ain't, then you ain't where you is.
Do people with long faces - non-looking like they are at a wedding faces - crush themselves because they are comparing being in the present moment with a non existent other moment?
A wedding is not a funeral.
Be where you is, because if you be where you ain't, then you ain't where you is.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Comparisons: The Old and The
New.”
Take a few moments when you have a few moments to reflect
upon these 3 realities: comparisons, the old and the new.
Compare your life to the life Jesus calls us to. Compare
both. Feel the call to the New and go for it. And in time, the New will become
old hat. Amen.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
THE WORLD WAS
MY CLASSROOM*
If Jesus lived to 90, what would he have been like? If Jesus
lived to 90, how would the story unfold?
If Jesus lived to 90 what would have been his observations? How
different would his comments, his teachings be from what he told us at 33?
We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we can
know what he knew at 33 by reading the gospels.
One thing I think Jesus would say would be, “The World Was
My Classroom,” so that’s the reason - for this theme for this homily.
I love to read the gospels and then ask what happened, what
did Jesus see, to trigger what he just said.
I think he walked his world, worked in the family carpenter
shop, did village and home repairs, went to the synagogue, stepped back in the
market place and observed what he observed, learned what he learned.
He must have seen a pearl merchant searching for fine pearls
- found one - sold all he had and bought that pearl at any price.
So too the man he saw who found a treasure in a field -
pooled all his money - and bought that field.
He must have studied grapes and saw that one farmer pruned
his vines - and had greater grapes and greater wine - and another vine grower
didn’t prune and his yield was nothing like the first vineyard owner.
He must have heard about a vineyard owner who hired workers
all day long and paid each one the same amount - because everyone needed a
days’ wage like every worker does.
He must have had a sense of humor when he called Matthew a
tax collector to give up everything to follow him - and Matthew did. In fact,
he threw a party for Jesus to meet his friends - and this really taxed people
and their take on Jesus.
He must have sat down near the sea shore and watched how
hard working fishermen were - and said, “These are the types I’m going to need.
These are the types I’m going to call. They know where the fish are and they
are the ones who try, try and try again - even when their nets come up empty.
He must have heard about a woman who lost a coin - searched
everywhere for the lost coin, finally found it and threw a party in celebration
- without worry about the cost in coins.
He seems to have liked parties and celebrations, bread and
wine - lots of bread - lots of wine.
He must have seen some people praying to be seen and heard -
and some people who loved hiding in the back or behind pillars - so as to be
near Our Father.
He must have heard about lost sheep and lost children and
lost lives.
He must have walked by a cemetery and then walked by the Pharisees and said to himself, There is no difference. Both are dead, It’s just that these ones - who look like white washed tombstones - haven’t been buried yet.
He must have seen mothers and fathers giving their
lives - giving their body and blood in
sacrifice - for their children.
He must have seen a rich man dressed up big, big time - a
man who didn’t see the poor man at his gate - and then Jesus laughed when he saw the birds
of the air or the flowers of the field - and laughed - because birds of the air
and the flowers of the field as far more beautiful - than all those best
dressed folks strutting down Fashion Street.
He must have realized when he watched folks in the market
place, “I’m sure there are people who are like merchants. One is stingy, exact,
a penny pincher, and the other is totally generous - and there’s a message in
here somewhere. Amen. He must have said
many, “Amens” as he realized, "The World is My Classroom. Amen! Amen! Amen!"
OOOOOOO
* Homily at St. Mary's - for Thursday 22 Thursday in Ordinary Time © Andy Costello, Reflections 2012
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