RIVERS

Poem for Today - February 17, 2014
Continuing Black History Month

THE NEGRO SPEAKS  OF RIVERS 

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the worId

and oIder than the flow of

       human bIood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi 

              when Abe Lincoln went

down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom 

              turn all golden in the sunset.

                                      - Langston Hughes  ©

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by by Langston Hughes: Copyright 1926 by Alred A. Knopf. Inc., and renewed 1954 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted from Selected Poems by Langston Hughes, by permission of the publisher.

Archbishop Lori's Homily Text 

Commitment Weekend 

February 15-16, 2014 

Dear Friends,

I’m happy to have this opportunity, as your Archbishop, to visit with you today.  One of my great joys in my service here in Baltimore is personally visiting the wonderful and vibrant parishes that make up our Archdiocese. I’m in the process of making my way around to all of our parishes.  So if I’ve been to your parish, of if I’m still on my way, I’m coming soon - to a parish near you.

You know, these days are especially inspiring days to be Catholic. It seems that every day, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is opening minds and hearts to the Gospel, opening the world's eyes to the compassion which is lived out by our Church. This has moved Catholics around the world to become more in touch with their relationship with Christ and the Church, reinvigorating our faithful and bringing back many who had been away.

When he was installed as Pope on Saint Joseph's Day, last March, in Vatican City, the Holy Father called on all of us to 'Be Protectors of God's Gifts.' He said that the vocation of being a "protector" ... means respecting each of God's creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, and those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents." The Holy Father continued, "It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors, "he said, "of God's Gifts!"

Certainly, this is a call to stewardship - examples of which are found countless times in the Gospels - stewardship of our community, our family and our faith. For this reason, we have chosen "Be Protectors of God's Gifts" as the theme for the Archbishop's Annual Appeal this year.

This is most fitting, as the focus of the Appeal is stewardship - a very responsible and loving way of caring for God's Gifts that have been entrusted to us: defending them from harm ... helping them to grow ... and making them better so they can be handed on to the next generation.

The Archbishop's Annual Appeal helps us protect, foster, and sustain the essential services and ministries of the Archdiocese of Baltimore so that we can proclaim the Gospel, celebrate the Sacraments, and extend the love, mercy, and charity of Jesus Christ in the world.

I'm happy to have this opportunity, as your Archbishop, to visit with you today. One of my great joys in my service here in Baltimore is personally visiting the wonderful and vibrant parishes that make up our Archdiocese. I'm in the process of making my way around to all of our parishes. So if I've been to your parish, or if I'm still on my way, I'm coming soon - to a parish near you!

The Appeal allows us to share our good works and spread the Good News of God's love throughout our Archdiocese, from its westernmost reaches Garrett and Allegheny County, to Tyndall, to Harford County, to Annapolis, to Clarksville, to Frederick, and to Baltimore City itself.

The Appeal helps us sustain the essential mission of the Church - to evangelize, to teach the faith, to ensure that there's a strong sacramental life in the Archdiocese ... to keep our schools strong ... to carry on a vibrant program of nurturing and forming priestly vocations ... to supporting our retired priests, and to extending a helping hand through our charitable outreach to the less fortunate members of our community.

         

In other words, the Appeal touches all the cylinders of the engine that is the Archdiocese of Baltimore, helping them to fire properly and keep everything running smoothly. The generosity of those who give to the Appeal in many ways transforms lives, bringing hope to those who have none, bringing comfort to those for whom day-to-day life is a struggle, and, most importantly, bringing God into the lives of those who have lost their spiritual way, guiding them to the path that leads to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, I'd also like everyone to regard the Appeal as a call for each one of us, in our own lives and vocations, to "Be Protectors of God's Gifts." Parents protect God's Gifts by providing an example to their children of living lives of faith and virtue.

Parishioners are called to active involvement in the life of their parishes, and doing all they can to help see that every member of your spiritual community becomes more in touch with God's love. And for all of us, protecting God's Gifts is a matter of prayer, as we ask God's blessing, and the intercession of Our Lady and the Saints, as we go about the work of the Lord.

A moment ago, I mentioned that the inaugural homily of Pope Francis was delivered on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph. The Holy Father describes how St. Joseph was, in many ways, the ultimate-protector of God's Gifts, safeguarding Mary, Jesus and the Church. Saint Joseph, the Pope said, was "constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God's presence and receptive to God's plans, and not simply to his own ... Joseph is a "protector" because he is able to hear God's voice and be guided by His will ... " The pope continued, "in him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to "God's call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!"

I ask that you reflect with me on these words from our Holy Father, Pope Francis. I am confident they will inspire you, as they inspire me, and encourage us together to take on this role of "Protector." Ours is the privilege, and the responsibility, of preserving our Catholic faith and assuring that our children, and their children, will encounter Christ and His love through it, just as we have. I confidently ask your generosity, and your participation in this year's Archbishop's Annual Appeal. Let us all join together in being "Protector of God's Gifts."

Thank you, dear friends, and may God bless us, and keep us always in His love!

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.