JESUS 

I’M TRYING TO GET 

WHAT YOU’RE SAYING HERE 

[With the Archbishop’s talk about the Annual Appeal on audio tape, I didn’t have to preach this 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.  However, I still wanted to ponder today’s readings - especially today’s gospel from Matthew 5:17-37. It’s part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. So here’s a quick - first draft - poetic type reflection - on today’s gospel. I suggest you read Jesus words in today's part of the Sermon on the Mount  as they appear in English in Matthew. Better provide a warning:  "If you read what follows,  you’ll see that I’m still not sure of what Jesus is getting at."]

Jesus, today you begin by saying, "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets." 

Okay, laws are important - even the tiny ones. Hey, I don’t want hair in my dessert or an eye lash in my soup. I get that.

But what I don’t get is your wanting me to be righteous - even more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees. I thought you went after those boys for not getting a better vision of the kingdom of heaven - in the here and now. They were straining to see too many gnats and missing the camels. They were seeing life with blurred vision - a polite way of saying: “Don’t you get it? You’re being blind boys! You're being blind guides.”

Jesus I noticed in the English translation we use that you talk about laws and you talk about commandments. Are you or Matthew trying to make a distinction here?  By laws do you mean the laws about washing the outside of cups and dishes,  kettles and pots - while not looking within the vessel? "Hello scribes and Pharisees! Check within.” [Cf. Matthew 23]  By commandments do you mean the big stuff - like not  killing - like honoring your father and your mother?  I’m not sure if you’re making  that distinction here?

I think I get your insight into anger and name calling - when it comes to how we deal with one another. I get that.  We might not be killing each other - but we are killing each other when we get fired up and we ignite within our hearts and our homes a hell of a situation - with these things we hold against each other. We come to church - we appear before the altar - but we come with a burning garbage dump within - like Gehenna - which was the name of the city dump in Jerusalem - where everyone dumped and burned their junk. I hear you  saying loud and clear: take care of first things first - otherwise you'll be living with a divided heart.

So I get that one. If we don’t reach for reconciliation out there with our sisters and brothers  - we’re not going to have it when we’re in worship in here before your altar - with our sisters and brothers. So we better settle differences with each other - because the differences now are pennies compared to the dollar cost to come.

I also think I get your adultery and lust stuff. It sounds to me like the same as your anger and yelling at each other message. Go within! 

Next, I get your metaphors about plucking out one’s eyes or cutting off one’s hands. However, Jesus, this doesn’t sound  like you're being meek and gentle of heart. I just hope people don’t take you literally - like one of your disciples whacking off the ear of the servant of the high priest when you got arrested. [Matthew 26:51] Ouch! Obviously, people with sexual addictions better make some drastic cuts - if they don’t want to be consumed with porn or multiple toxic relationships problems.

And marriages need a lot of work - a lot of self-dying - a lot of communication - a lot of give and take - if they are going to work. I get that you want couples to experience the marriage banquet that a good marriage can be.  

And obviously deadly divorces can be just that: deadly for two people as well as kids. And yes some marriages are mistakes - I still don’t know how to put your words “unless the marriage is unlawful” - as our English text puts it - into a scenario that fits so many complex scenarios - all those various ones married couples can get themselves knotted up in.

And lastly, I get a bit of what your words about swearing mean.  I hear that modern Americans don’t know how to swear like you heard people in your day swear. They pointed to the sky - or down to earth at the ground - or towards Jerusalem. They seemed to swear on anything and everything to prove they were telling the truth and nothing but the truth. 

Wait, come to think about it,  we’ve all heard people tell us they are swearing on their mother’s grave or a stack of Bibles. So I guess you are screaming for simplicity. Instead of a lot of swearing, simply give each other a clear “Yes!” when we mean “Yes” and a definitive, “No!” when we mean "No!"

That’s all for now Jesus. 

However, I’m still trying to get to what you’re saying here. Speak Lord, I’m trying to listen. Amen.

OOOOOOOOOO

Painting on Top: Sermon on the Mount by Fra Angelico

FIRST CONFESSION 

AND COMMUNION 

Poem for Today - February 16, 2014

FIRST CONFESSION

Blood thudded in my ears. I scuffed,

          Steps stubborn, to the tell tale booth

Beyond whose curtained portal coughed

          The robed repositor of truth.

The slat shot back. The universe

          Bowed down his cratered dome to hear

Enumerated my each curse,

          The sip snitched from my old man’s beer,

My sloth pride envy lechery,

          The dime held hack from Peter’s Pence

With which I’d bribed my girl to pee

          That I might spy her instruments.

Hovering scale-pans when I’d done

          Settled their balance slow as silt

While in the restless dark I burned

          Bright as a brimstone in my guilt

Until as one feeds birds he doled

          Seven Our Fathers and a Hail

Which I to double-scrub my soul

          Intoned twice at the altar rail

Where Sunday in seraphic light

          I knelt, as full of grace as most,

And  stuck my tongue out at the priest:

          A fresh roost for the Holy Ghost.

- X. J. Kennedy

(Doubleday & Company, Inc. 

for “First Confession,” 

© 1951 by X. J. Kennedy -- 

found on page 159 

in New Coasts & Strange Harbors, 

discovering Poems, 

selected by Helen Hill 

and Agnes Perkins, 

Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, 1974)

Photograph by Georges Jansoon, 
September 16, 2006,
Confessional Boxes in 
Cathedral of Santiago
de Compastela, Spain

SO TELL ME, 

"WHAT IS IT 

 YOU PLAN TO DO 

WITH YOUR ONE 

WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?"

Poem For Today  - February 15,  2014

THE MULE

Row after row
Corn leaves broke their spines
On my shoulders.

I leaned by life
Against harness
I drew it through
Fields, down trails,
In timbered darkness.

The corn leaves
Then turned brown.
I dragged the logs away
On washed-out roads, 
And I became afraid.
I tried the ground for failure
With my feet.
I did not trust
The very earth
Which kept me from falling.

I found no treachery,
No pitfall; just sun, time,
Dust, and at last the night.

© Boynton Merrill, Jr.

Question: It behooves each of us to write our autobiography, "the story of a life" as Harry Chapin puts it in his song with that title - or as Mary Oliver puts it in her poem, The Summer Day, "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life." Sometimes we might have felt we were a mule or an ass - a swan or an eagle. So what is, what was, our plan for our one life?  Is John 10:10 our gospel text?

EPHPHATHA

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Ephphatha.”

It’s a word that appears in today’s gospel from Mark 7: 31-37.    

I’ve noticed in books and articles on preaching that it’s not a smart move to use Greek words when preaching.

I disagree with that rule - even though I know people might say, “It’s Greek to me.”

Many times when I’m looking at the readings for the Mass to help me come up with a homily, I look at the Greek when it comes to the New Testament readings - simply because the New Testament is written in Greek. We  had 4 years of Greek in the seminary - and when I read the Greek text and look at word studies - at times I get opened up to a new insight.

Anyone can do this - with the rich resources on line - looking at both the Hebrew text for the Jewish scriptures and the Greek for the New Testament.

ARAMAIC

Having said that about Greek and Hebrew, interestingly - as you know - Jesus spoke Aramaic - and so that’s going back two steps from the English version of the Gospel that we get here in church.

From time to time - like today - we get an Aramaic word - “Ephphatha.” It is translated in our text into Greek with the word, “Dianoigtheti’ - and one English translation is, “Be Opened.”

So the Aramaic word or phrase that we heard is: “Ephphatha.” I break it up this way: Eph pha  tha.

A SIGN IN EVERY MEETING HALL

For a homily thought - is there any meeting hall in any church in our whole world - that is called the “Ephphatha Hall”?

Wouldn’t today’s gospel reading from Mark  be a great reading for every meeting - for every Parish Council, School Boards, Staff Meetings, what have you - and then all pray that all be opened.

And notice in the gospel the man who is healed needs healing of his ability to listen and his ability to speak.

Ears and tongue …. don’t we all need healing of both?

We are very aware of people we have met through the years who have were born with a  hearing problem - and sometimes because of that - they pronounce words in a way that others find difficult to decipher or grasp.

So this man is healed of both by Jesus. May we all.

Next we are aware of husbands and wives, priests and parishioners, who have no trouble with the pronunciation of words - but they have problems listening - listening - listening.

So that’s why I think this gospel is a great gospel for meetings - and a great name for a meeting place - and a great chance for prayer.

CONCLUSION

The psalm for today - Psalm 81 - has God speaking - and pleading - that we hear his voice. It has God saying something we have all said about others, “If only my people would hear me.”

“If only my kids would listen to me…. If only my wife would hear me …. If only my husband would listen …. If only so and so would shut up and clean out his ears….”

But listening and speaking - communication problems - continue - and the result is division.

That’s the whole theme of today’s first reading. We are tribal. We are after our turf - our viewpoint - and as a result - we spilt apart over and over and over again.[Cf. 1 Kings 11: 29-32; 12:19]

Ephphatha! Be opened!

OOOOOOOOOO

Painting on top: Deaf and Dumb Man Cured, by Ian Pollock, EICH Gallefy

Painting near End: Christ Heals the Deaf Mute at the Decapolis, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1635.

OLD VOICES  

ARE  EVERYWHERE ....
JUST PAUSE
AND LISTEN!  

February 14, 2014 - Poem for Today

This Old Barn

Imagine if this old barn could speak

and tell us all it knows
of heat, and snow and great winds

 that did blow
The creatures that were boarded here,

they lived, they ate, they slept
The mares that birthed their foals,

the lambs that played and lept
The folks that bedded in the straw

as they were passing by this way
thankful for the gift of rest,

wool blankets on the straw they lay
The lovers that crept inside the shadows  

to share a stolen kiss,
a small indiscretion, 

what could be the harm
History in the making, 

generations come and gone
While farmers work from dawn to dark,

the days are very long
This old barn has seen it all

 through decades of seasons fare
It's secrets are safe inside, no one asks

 and no one cares
The roof sags, the doors hang,

the windows are all gone
If someone doesn't love it soon

this old barn will be gone.

© Victoria Feathers

Homework:

Look around your house. Stop at any chair or couch or room - table, bed, or door - and then apply the message of this poem to that chair or couch or room - table, bed or door. Memories. Stories. The people of our lives. What spot - what object - in your spaces - has the most energy? Joys or sorrows: the stuff of prayer - the stuff of voices from the past -the stories of a life.

WISDOM! 

MAY YOU DISCOVER IT 

IN TIME

February 13, 2014 - A Poem for Today

CON DOLORE

Small birds are frozen in the river:

Huddled in inadequate feathers 

              they are scattered upon the ice.

Unable to fly further against descending cold

They came down to rest upon the water.

Dark forces trapped both birds 

              and river in the night.

The frozen river is as helpless as they are.

You, who have wings, why should you perish?

Who seizes the pattern knows the reason.

© Mary Kennedy

THE INVISIBLE IS REAL

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “The Invisible Is Real!”

Really?

How many times have we had the thought: “Hey there’s something going on around here and I don’t know what it is”?

How many times have we sat on an empty porch overlooking the ocean - or the back yard - all by ourselves - and we knew there was a God - and no words are spoken.

THINKING IS INVISIBLE

There are about 500 of us here in this church right now.

No one knows what any one of us here is thinking right now - what anyone here is talking to themselves about right now - but all of us here are thinking and talking to ourselves right now.

Really?

We can guess. We do guess. Some of us are better than others in reading body language - but sometimes what looks like chicken salad is really tuna salad.

Okay, some of us might be sleeping - but as you know the brain is working even when we are sleeping

What those dreams and words and thoughts are - they are invisible - inaudible.

MOTIVES

Someone - after a Mass was over - once told me something they were thinking during a homily I was giving. Something I said triggered in them something Father Pat Lynch had said in a homily.  Pat took two of his fingers and walked them along the edge of the pulpit - saying, “Nobody ever saw a motive walking down the street.”

I don’t remember what I preached that day - but I’ve always remembered what that person said that day about motives from Father Pat Lynch. I thank that person for remember what Pat said. I’ve  used that idea or that example many times down through the years. It’s simple: just let your fingers do the walking.

Motives are invisible.

Motive …. motives …. sometimes we know our motives - sometimes we don’t.  I hold that most of the time we don’t.

Moreover, our motives change as we change.

For example: Why our parents had us - that reason is invisible. At first they might have wanted to have a family. Then at some point - our mom became pregnant. Things change - big time - at pregnancy time. Some of us were surprises - some of us were planned - some of us were really wanted.

Then the  reason why they had us changed a bit when they saw us for the first time. Specifics…. Particulars …. Seeing…. All make a difference.

The visible affects and effects the invisible.

Yet the reasons are invisible. 

Ok, reasons and motives  can be stated. They can be attempts to make audible and visible by words what's going on inside. Then when they heard us say our first word or saw us take our first steps - new reasons why they had us appear on their screen.

Still ….  Much of life is unconscious. Invisible.... The reason they had us keeps changing. Reasons remain invisible.

Then when they saw us dancing or singing or running up and down steps in a batman suit with a cape - or saw us go to Pre-K - then they discovered new reasons why they brought us into the world - and then these reasons change - develop -  again - and again - and again - and again.

The reasons are real  - but they are invisible.

The reasons change again when we graduate or get great marks or make a great shot in basketball or we are on stage.

I'm trying to remain positive here. Of course, the negative - impacts motives and reasons as well. 

But let me stick with the positive....

I’ve seen parents and grandparents in these benches here at St. Mary’s for baptisms and weddings. As they sit here watching a couple get married they cry and say, “It was all worth it.”  Then see grandkids baptized and more reasons appear why they had us and why they worked to make life the best for us.

The title of my homily is: “The Invisible Is Real!”

What I’m saying in various ways is: The invisible keeps changing.

Which is more important: the visible or the invisible? 

No contest!

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from 1 Kings  10: 1-10 - tells the story of the Queen of Sheba.  This one story of this woman has kept her memory alive for some 2900 years now.

Her name appears in Ethiopian legends.... And many a parent in my time said to a daughter, “Who do you think you are: the Queen of Sheba?”

She hears about Solomon - so as the story goes, she travels a long distance to see Solomon.

Notice  - when she gets there - she sees signs of his wisdom and she sees all kinds of signs of his visible wealth.

Which overwhelms her the most: wisdom or wealth?

She seems to be impressed with spices and camels, gold and where people are seated.

She seems to be impressed with Solomon's vast palace, the great meals, the classy servants.

She hears his wisdom.

We’ve all been in small houses and big houses. Then there are the homes that can overwhelm us.

I’m sure if we walked into Lebron James' house and saw the rooms and the pool and the pool table and the stuff - I would go wow.

I know I've said that when I saw him play basketball.

I think there are house tours here in Annapolis.  I know there are lectures here at Annapolis.

Which would impress us more: wealth or wisdom?

In today’s gospel - Mark 7: 14-23 -  Jesus continues to challenge the Scribes and the Pharisees. They are off on visible rules and regulations. You can eat this food and you can’t eat that food. You have to wash your hands. You have to follow the traditions.

Jesus moves right into the issue of the invisible. There are things we eat and there are things that eat us.

He says it’s not the stuff from the outside. That stuff goes down the drain. The stuff that drain us are: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”

They are all invisible.

They are the possible poisons of the heart. Ugh.

That’s the stuff Jesus wants us to make visible - in our heart and in our mind - so as to work against them dominating our lives and our desires.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “The Invisible Is Real!”

God is invisible. 

Of course we picture God - and deepest law is to avoid idolatry - in all its forms.

As Christians we believe this invisible God became visible in a baby - Christ.

Now that's a difficult act of faith to make! No wonder some crucified this Word Made Flesh Who Dwelt Amongst Us.

Nobody knows the stuff of the human heart  - but ourselves sometimes and - with faith - we believe that Jesus wanders and probes around in the human heart - with a two edged sword as we hear in Hebrews 4:12-13 - and we and our motives can be uncovered and challenged as we are called to make an account of of ourselves.

Call out to Christ. Check things out with him. Grow and Know with Him. Amen.