Reflections By The Bay

Sunday, October 20, 2013

PERSISTENCE

INTRODUCTION

The title and theme of my homily for this 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - is, “Persistence!”

TODAY’S READINGS

It jumped right off the page in today’s second reading from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy: “Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient!”

It’s the obvious theme of today’s gospel from Luke as well as today’s first reading from Exodus.

In the first reading - we have this ancient story about Moses on a hill while Israel’s soldiers are fighting down in the fields and plains below. As long as Moses’ arms are raised Israel is winning the battle - when his arms start to fall they start to lose. Needless to say, notice the verb “mowed down” - as in “And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”

Wouldn’t we rather like it to be a game - a sport - instead of a battle where people are being killed? Haven’t we seen that beer commercial - when drinking buddies are rubbing heads - shaking bobble head figures - doing this or that - trying to effect their teams chances of winning from a distance? I was watching the Red Sox fans last night. They would all stand up and scream and cheer at key moments to encourage their team. Evidently it worked. I wish my Dodgers could have done that - as well as the football Giants - so right now I’m in the basketball season.

And today’s gospel has this gem of a story about the nagging widow who is driving a judge crazy with her persistence. He settles a case in her favor - just to shut her up and get her out of his hair.

The title of my homily is “Persistence.”

Persistence …. stick to it tiveness ….. never giving up ness …. staying the course …. The patron saint animal example - well actually it’s an insect - it’s the mosquito - who keeps coming, coming, buzzing, buzzing, till it gets our blood. Persistence!

The main area for persistence from today’s readings is prayer - obviously - but I want to look at 3 other areas where we see the power of persistence.

FIRST OF ALL: EDUCATION

When I began thinking of persistence, I began thinking about education for starters. Think about how much persistence plays its part when it comes to educating each of us.

How many times does a kid have to see, to write, to be encouraged to say a letter out loud - till she gets it. So too one’s numbers. So too one’s colors, one’s words.

I went to grammar school way before Sesame Street - which made learning these basics so colorful and game like. In fact most of the years I was in grammar school - we didn’t have television. It was before black and white TV.

I remember writing in those exercise books with a Dalmatian look alike cover an exercise called, “Over the loop, under the loop, over the loop, under the loop” as a way of learn good penmanship. I liked doing them because they looked like turtles or small hills - sometimes upside down.

I ended up doing the same thing in the seminary with Latin and Greek words - writing them over and over and over and over again - dozens and dozens and dozens of times till I got them.

Persistence is central to education.

I remember a guy in the seminary with us - Ralph Leone. I wonder what ever happened to Ralph Leone. He was very bright and very bored with studies - so he started memorizing the dictionary and he made it to N I think before he left us.

Persistence is central to education.

Thank a teacher today in person or in prayer for your education.

Yesterday I had a funeral for a lady from our parish named Paula Ginnetty. For 15 years she taught Exceptional Children. I was talking to her husband John last week to get some information for a homily for Paula.

She came up with a way blind kids could play baseball. She found a softball that had bells in it - and when thrown it sounded. Step one. She got bats. Next she came up with bases that made sounds - so when a kid hit the bell sounding ball, he or she knew which way to run. It taxed my imagination trying to picture all this - but her husband said that it worked.

She ran into a boy - whose mother was a drug addict - and went to jail - so they took the kid in as a temporary foster child for 3 or 4 years - and he didn’t kept saying, “I can’t” when it came to reading. Well Paula was persistent and kept saying, “You can. Yes you can!” And sure enough in 6 months he was up to his grade level - and other teachers were amazed at how good a teacher Paula was.

The title of my homily is, “Persistence.”

SECOND AREA: MEDICINE

Think medicine. In the year 2013 we benefit from the persistence of researchers, doctors, scientists, inventors, medical engineers - teachers - who have advanced medicine to where it is today.

We are standing on the undergirding of a great history of trial and error - success and failure - diagnosis and prognosis.

Thank a doctor and a nurse this week in person or in prayer.

I had my gall bladder out a few years ago - as an out patient. I had often heard that it meant a week at least in the hospital and big belly scars for life. I have a tiny little reminder scar just above my belly button. If you are persistent I’ll show it to you. Well, I went into the hospital around 7 AM - got bounced because of an emergency - and finally got knocked out around 9:30 AM - and I was walking downtown Annapolis at 3 PM. Thanks to modern procedures, it was a piece of cake out patient operation.

The title of my homily is, “Persistence.”

THIRD ARENA: PARENTING

Think of all the persistence needed in parenting.

As in education - which parenting is - think of all the persistence needed in raising a child. Step by step, the kid learns to climb the steps - and walk the walk and talk the talk.

Don’t we smile when we see a mom or a day teaching a kid at the baptismal or holy water font, how to bless oneself? Right hand, left hand, wrong side, right side, the kid eventually gets it.

I remember visiting a family once. I was watching the mom feeding her little baby son in a high chair with a spoon and a heated jar of mushy - ugly looking baby food. She made it a game - but it was taking forever. The little jar was ¾ empty when her husband came into the room. He had just got home from outside work. She said, “Here I have to start supper for us!” She handed him the spoon and the jar of baby food. The father didn’t do indirect. Spoons - food - go directly to the mouth. The little guy wanted the game and kept his mouth shut. Well the father got angry with the little guy for not obeying daddy’s command: “Eat!”

So the little boy started crying and looking past his daddy to his mummy - till she finally took over again. I’ve often wondered if that was the daddy’s plan in the first place.

Persistence.

I think of my dad. Part of our parent’s love story is my father’s love letters. Both my parents, Mike and Mary, knew each other in Ireland - living within a stone’s throw of each other. Both came to America. My father ended up in New York City. My mom was in Boston.

My mother’s job was to make money to bring her brothers to America. My father’s hope was to marry my mom - so he wrote love letters to her from New York to Boston for 10 years. The last letter said, “If you won’t marry me, I’ll become an Irish Christian Brother.”

Well, obviously, that worked. Persistence paid off. Thank God.

I slowly realized - but honestly more looking back as an adult - that my dad headed out the door for work at Nabisco - over on the West Side of Manhattan - every morning at 6 AM. That meant the subway from our stop - 59^th Street in Brooklyn - to 14^th Street in Manhattan. Then Nabisco decided to move their cooking making plant to Fair Lawn, New Jersey. This now meant he had to leave every morning at 4:30 or so - take the subway to 42^nd Street in Manhattan and then take a bus to Fair Lawn. I never found out how far from the bus stop the Nabisco plant was. Then back home every evening.

Work - the work our parents do for us - is ongoing, never ending, persistence.

I think of my dad taking all 4 of us kids to the park every Sunday after Mass all through our childhood to give my mom a break. At times - it was “Ugh!” and a “Oh no not again!” But he did it.

I noticed my brother then did the same thing with his 7 daughters - bringing them to Washington D.C. on Sundays to give my sister-in-law a break. Persistence - in spite of the “Oh no, not again!” comments.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Persistence!”

Jesus stressed persistence in prayer.

I would stress it as a theme of prayer for the gift of persistence.

I don’t see prayer as prayer for stuff - but prayer for gifts like persistence and patience - whether one is an educator, a doctor, a nurse, a researcher, a parent or what have you.

I mentioned earlier on that I learned Latin by writing down words over and over and over again.

We once had a teacher who had us memorize Latin sayings. It helped that some of them were dactylic hexameters like this one - that has the theme of this homily: “Guta cavat lapidem, no vi, sed saepe cadendo.”

Translated freely: “Drop by drop water hollows a hole in a stone - not by force - but by persistent falling.”

KIDS HELP JESUS

[The following is a story for our Kids' Mass - this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C]

Jesus was talking to some kids just after he was telling his disciples his story about the widow and the judge.

One kid said, “Good story Jesus, but I wouldn’t make it a widow and a judge - because that might not grab or interest kids like us.”

“Okay,” said Jesus, “How would you tell the story about nagging someone to get your way and that's the way to pray to God! You got to nag him.”

[Silence….]

Well, that got those kids thinking. The kids were wrinkling their foreheads above their eyes as they were trying to figure out just how to tell Jesus’ story better than Jesus told it.

[Pause….]

“Okay, said Jacob, “I have this fat dog - named Fig - and my mom and dad told me to stop feeding Fig so much food - because he’s getting too, too fat. But my mom and dad are always working. They don’t hang around with Fig like I hang around with Fig - like all the time. All the time he somehow mysteriously shows up and just stands there whenever I’m near food. He’s always begging, begging, begging - begging for more food. Now that’s the way to pray. Be like my dog Fig - who whenever he smells food, he wants food and he never, ever, like never stops begging, begging, begging for food. Now that’s the way to pray.”

“Not bad,” said Jesus. “Not bad. Anybody else?”

Judith said, “There’s this girl in my class named Deborah. She’s a real pest to every teacher that she ever, ever had. But one thing about her. Whenever our teacher asks a question, Deborah somehow is the first one - every time - to raise her hand. She keeps saying, ‘Teacher, teacher, teacher,’ till our teacher calls on her - just to get her to put her hand down and stop saying, ‘Teacher, teacher, teacher!’ Now that’s the way to pray. Keep raising your hand till God - and keep saying, ‘God! God! God!’ till God finally hears you yelling at him and keeps on seeing you have your hand up and God finally answers your prayers - just to shut you up Now that’s the way to pray.”

And Jesus said, “Wonderful! You got my message - and you said it so much better than I said it. Thank you.”

And Judith bowed and said, “You’re welcome!”

And Rebecca said, “Jesus I got a story.”

Jesus said, “Okay, Rebecca. I’m listening. How would you tell my story?”

“Well,” said Rebecca, “My father has a little spot in the market place where he sells wheat flour. Now he gives everyone exactly the exact amount of flour that they want. He never cheats with his measurements - like some wheat and barley flour merchants do in the marketplace. Well, I once said to him, ‘Daddy why don’t you look at the clothes of the people who come for flour. If they are poor, give them more.’ My dad said, ‘I can’t do that. We’ll go broke.’ I said to him, ‘Dad do it and watch the smile on the face of the person buying the flour.’ He kept on saying, ‘No, no, no. I can’t do that.’ Well, I kept saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes. You can do that!’ Well just to prove me wrong - or maybe just to shut me up, he did it. And guess what happened? Everybody talked about how generous my dad was - and then everyone came to him for flour - and his flour booth in the market was the most popular place in the whole market. People would ask for 2 scoops of flour. He would say, ‘Open up your cloak!’ And he would pour in two scoops - then he would shake it and add some more and then he would pack it down and add some more. You should see the smile on the smile on his face every time this happens. So see nagging works every time. That’s the way to get your way to our Father.’”

“Wow!” said Jesus. “Great example. Can I use that the next time I preach?”

And Rebecca smiled as big a smile as her dad has at his little spot in the marketplace.

“Any more?” asked Jesus.

Zach said, “Whenever I ask my father for an egg or a piece of fish, he gives it to me - but I have to ask him 100 times - so I have learned to wear him down. Once I was driving him so crazy, that when I asked for a piece of bread he gave me a rock - but then he realized you don’t do that to a kid - so he gave me a whole goat for me to feast on with my friends. I learned you got to ask if you want to get. So I guess it’s just like praying to Our Father for our daily bread. Ask and you’ll receive. Knock and your father will open up the door for you - every time.”

Jesus was amazed at how much kids knew. The next day when he was talking to his disciples, he saw them trying to tell kids to be seen but not heard. In other words, “Get lost!” But Jesus got angry at them and said, “Unless you’re like little children - you won’t enter into the kingdom of God. Unless you’re like little children, you won’t understand the Kingdom of God.”

TOP DOWN

Quote for Today - October 20, 2013

"A sensible house-keeper begins to sweep her stairs from the top."

German Proverb

Question: Is this what the pope is doing?

Saturday, October 19, 2013

FAITH AND LAW

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 28 Saturday in Ordinary Time is, “Faith and Law.”

ROMANS

As we know we’re going through the Book of Romans in these weekday Masses as our First Reading. As we know questions of the Law are central to St. Paul. It’s going to culminate especially in Chapter 7 - but the reality of “the Law” pops up over and over again in Romans and much of Paul - as well as in the gospels - with Jesus and his struggles with the Pharisees.

Today’s First Reading begins: “Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendents that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.”

When Paul was Saul he was furious with Christians because they were not keeping the Law. His goal was to arrest and eradicate them. Paul could be righteous to the zenith - because he thought he was right. Aren’t we all? Then he fell on his face and discovered Jesus in his blindness.

TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Faith and Law.”

I was going to entitle it, “Faith or Law.”

I used “and” instead if “or: because I would assume that we begin with the law and then move to stronger motives: like that of faith and hope and charity.

I would assume that we teach kids rules - without giving reasons - before they reach the age of reason.

We use the word “no” - to kids - as to not touching knives or hot things - or going too near the street - where cars can come flying by.

I assume we need laws - traffic laws - clean air and food laws - and rules and regulations to make life work smoothly.

But then I assume that somewhere along the line - when it comes to religion and God - we move from Law to Faith.

Recently someone said to me that they never liked the phrase, “Holy Day of Obligation” - but wished it was “Holy Day of Celebration.”

With so many people dropping out of Sunday Mass - I’ve heard statistics like 32 to 38% now go to Sunday Mass. Are there any statistics of people coming back - not because of the Sunday Mass obligation - but rather the Sunday Mass Celebration?

Question: Do I do what I do out of law or duty - or out of love and joy?

Haven’t we winced at the comment: “Of course I love you. I’m married to you.” Wouldn’t we celebrate each time a spouse said: “I love you!”

I became a Redemptorist to become a missionary in Brazil - but never got that assignment. I’ve heard of a Redemptorist who spent his whole life being bitter - because he wanted to become a professor in the seminary - and instead he was sent to Brazil - and complained his way out of there - till he got reassigned to the States.

So the question: “Life: what is my central motivation? Duty, Law, Have to, or Love, Celebration, Want to?”

I’ve read about baseball players who were doing well - then get traded - and they do horrible - on their next team - then they get traded again - to a new team and they flourish. A reporter digs into the player’s life and we find out, he was angry and depressed - because he just couldn’t play for that second team - in the second city - not even out of duty or contract.

ISAAC JOGUES - AND THE NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Isaac Jogues and the North American Martyrs - who came to North America - and served the Native Americans with great passion and dedication.

We all remember hearing as kids how St. Isaac Jogues was tortured, freed by the Dutch, went back to France and then couldn’t wait to come back and continue his ministry or preaching about the love of Christ to the people here. He wasn’t here out of Law and Duty - but out of love.

So too all of us here at a Daily Mass of Celebration - not obligation. Amen.