"IS IT I, LORD?"*

Quote for Today -  November 17, 2012

"Only one woman in ten recognizes her husband as the same man he was before she married him.  Nine out of ten say he's changed. One in three says he's changed for the worse." 

Gallup Poll, "The Woman's Mind," in Ladies Home Journal, February 1962



*Matthew 26:25 - "Is it I, Lord is one of my favorite Bible texts.  I say that When someone says something like the above. I say it when people are complaining.  The gospel scene is this: Jesus says, "One of you is about to betray me." And the disciples says, "Is it I, Lord?"

ON NOT BEING 

A VULTURE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 32 Friday in Ordinary Time  is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

Today’s gospel ends with this comment by Jesus, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” [Cf. Luke 17:37]

Was Jesus quoting an everyday saying from his day - like “A stitch in time saves nine” - or did he see a dying animal with vultures circling overhead - or eating away - and incorporate that scene into his thinking?

I don’t know. And the message from Jesus in today’s gospel is not telling us not to be vultures. It is, however,  the short message I’d like to preach on today. I think it can be a specific way of putting today’s first reading into practice - a way of loving one another. That is perhaps the key message in the Letters of John. [Today's First Reading is 2 John 4-9]

So the title of my homily is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

THE MUSIC MAN

If you saw the movie, “The Music Man,” you might remember the song - “Pick-a-Little” and the scene where a group of women are  gossiping and the sounds out of their mouths are that of chickens. They are taking apart the people of their town - River City.

Did anyone seeing that movie - get moved to stop picking people apart? Did anyone see themselves on the gigantic mirror called a movie screen?

We were just up in New Jersey for a convocation for our province. I noticed on a table each morning a copy of The New York Daily News and The New York Post. I miss those two papers because both have a great sports section with various articles on two of my teams: the New York Knicks - who are now 6 and 0 - and the football Giants. What I noticed, however, on first glance, was the front cover of those two papers each day - and then the first 3 pages - all on General Petraeus. It’s news. It’s gossip. It sells papers.

The title of my homily is, “On Not Being A Vulture.”

I picture some of those reporters as vultures. You see them outside homes - whenever there is a big story - especially a tragedy. I realize they are making a living. I realize that some news has impact. Yet, I for one prefer to avoid that kind of news - on paper or TV.

I’m not preaching this as gospel here. However, I prefer to avoid “Bad News” and want “Good News” about people  - from which the word Gospel comes from - “Good Spiel”.

THE THEME OF SPREADING “GOOD NEWS”

We are called to be Gospel people - preaching and spreading good news. If someone comes to me in Confession and confess that they gossiped - I like to give as a penance - "Go out and say something 'good' about someone." It’s easy to say something good in prayer to God. It's more difficult to praise another. So I rather give the penance medicine of spreading good news - to another or about another.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve hoping for Holly Petraeus to be okay. After that I don’t know anything.

And I try - emphasis on try - to avoid being a vulture when bad news hits the fan in a family - in our parish - in our church - in our neighborhood - or what have you.

CONCLUSION

Enough said. It’s easy to knock the heck out of reporters, paparazzi. The better place to put this message of "Not Being a Vulture" is at the immediate and local scene. I need to look a me - how I speak about others.  I need to look in the mirror and see my face. I need to picture a vulture circling a dying body. We’ve seen that scene in many a Western movie. I then need to say to myself, “I have a choice of being my best self or my worst self: a vulture."

THE BEATLES

Quote for Today - November 16, 2012

"The Beatles are not merely awful .... They are so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of antimusic."

William Buckley Jr.[1925-2008]  News summaries, September 8, 1964

SAN  ALFONSO 

RETREAT HOUSE 

WEST END, 

LONG BRANCH, 

NEW JERSEY

Some people knowing we were going this week to our retreat house, San Alfonso, on the New Jersey Shore, asked how it did with hurricane Sandy.

The building did well. The Mary Statue - Stella Maris - got pushed across the parking lot from right near the ocean to a spot near an equipment building - on the edge of the parking lot. The Crucifix and two brick panels on each side are still standing - as you can see - along with the altar in front of it.

The statue of San Alfonso - patron of those in wheel chairs was not touched at all. The gazebo and boardwalk were totally destroyed.

It just struck me that I didn’t check to see if the Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon closer to the house was okay. Sorry.

Coming towards the retreat house we saw lots of trees that were down and broken - and various homes along Ocean Avenue boarded up - so our place was very lucky - to only have the water front ruined. 

AUTOBIOGRAPY

Quote for the Day - November 15,  2012

"There is not psychology; there is only biography and autobiography."

Thomas Szasz,  The Second Sin,  1973



Questions:

Have you ever thought of writing your autobiography?

Have you ever written out  25 "I am _________" statements?

Have you ever asked another to write out who they see you are?  

Has any one ever asked you do write out your take on who they are?

If you've ever written a journal or diary - at any point in your life - do such books still exist and can you put your hands on them right now?

THE TRUTH BE TOLD

Quote for the Day - November 15, 2012

"It has long been my belief that in times of great stress. such as a four-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears off almost at once, and we are revealed in our true personalities."

Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons, 1956


Comment: Thanksgiving is coming. Is this why some love it and some think, "Uh oh!"?

AVERAGE  FAMILY

Quote for the Day  - November 14, 2012

"The average family exists only on paper and its average budget is a fiction, invented by statisticians for the convenience of statisticians."

Sylvia Porter, Sylvia Porter's Money Book, 1975