VERTICAL  AND  HORIZONTAL

                           

   

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Vertical & Horizontal.”

[BIG GESTURE WITH HANDS] I   the vertical, I  the vertical;

[BIG GESTURE WITH HANDS] -  the horizontal; -  the horizontal.

This is good stuff to think about – to ponder its simplicity - this reality of the up and down [GESTURE I] and the side to side,  sides of life [GESTURE -].

I don’t know if I can put this reality into words, but I’ll try.

And I urge you to think about this reality - of the vertical [GESTURE I] and the horizontal [GESTURE -] – for the way we are called to do life – our spirituality – our religion – our way of thinking and being – our awareness’s – with God and with each other.

Hey the sign of the cross is our sign – our plus – our message – our life.

It will be a plus when do - and a minus when  don’t.

And we all know the difference between a plus sign and a minus sign.

The plus sign has both the vertical – the up and down line – as well as the horizontal line – sideways to sideways. 

The minus sign – is a minus – because it lacks one line – the vertical.

I don’t know about you – the vertical and the horizontal – are terms that I sometimes mix up. Sometimes I have to pause and say to myself, “Okay the horizon is out there – over there – the sun is setting in the west – on the horizon - in the distance – so okay – horizontal means this way – east – west – so that means the vertical is the opposite – up and down – north to south – and south to north. Okay I got that for now.

I have to make a similar  pause to think about the words and concepts of “affect” and “effect” I often don’t get the difference between those two words and thought. At times I also find the idea of “latitude” and “longitude” – tricky in my mind as well.

Okay back to vertical [GESTURE I] and horizontal . [GESTURE - ] – the title and theme of this homily.

TODAY’S READINGS

You’ll find in today’s readings a stress on both the vertical – me and God – the up down line – as well as the horizontal line – me and we – my neighbor and I – the sideways line – those in the same bench and highway and street and planet together.

Today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus has Moses telling the folks not to molest or oppress the alien  - the widow or the orphan – the poor or the needy. Hey you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

That’s the horizontal line. Moses had also told them elsewhere about the key words of the everyday Jewish morning and evening prayer – the Shema, the vertical:  "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the LORD is one"

But there is also the other – the others with us on this planet – so Moses calls out not to neglect anyone – especially the aliens, the widows, the orphans and the poor.

I hear that loud and clear. My mother and father came from poverty in Ireland and my mother often said about where she came from, “Ireland has nothing.” And in 1994 I finally saw where she and my dad came from in a small rocky coastal area above Galway. And as I stood on the edge of the rocky grey shore I thought: “Thank you mom and dad.” They got married over here in the States – but their brother and sister married each other over there. 

I know where I come from so I get today’s first reading from Exodus. I became a priest to work as a missionary in Brazil and never got there – because I heard of the need for priests in a Catholic school classroom and from the pulpit in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Brooklyn N.Y.

Today Ireland and Brazil are doing better. But the poor – the immigrant – those without – are in our midst. As Jesus said, “The poor you always have with you.”

I know I can be blind to the poor and think at times, “Get a life. Pick up a shovel. Get a job – instead of a hand-out.” I know when I say that I’m thinking from my mind-set not theirs.

Isn’t that one of the reasons folks skip the vertical and don’t come to church – because they think we who go to church are a bunch of selfish hypocrites who are screaming and blocking illegals from entering our melting pot or land of opportunity.  They see bishops and priests concerned only about themselves and career and upward mobility – and in the meanwhile we didn’t see on the horizon all these kids who were abused.

Today’s second reading begins with the words: brothers and sisters – and then talks about how the folks in Thessalonica were so generous and so hospital to Paul and his companions. He adds how they had turned from idols to Jesus. There they are: the horizontal and the vertical.

Today’s gospel has the two commandments – the vertical command – “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.”   Then we have the horizontal commandment.  Jesus tells the scholar of the law in today’s gospel, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Then Jesus concludes with the comment: The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

It’s interesting that Luke in his Gospel has Jesus asking the scholar of the law this same question about the answer to the question: what’s the greatest commandment in the Law.  Here in Matthew Jesus is asked the question.

Luke – then adds perhaps the most important short story ever written: the story of the Good Samaritan.

Talk about vertical and horizontal: read that story. It’s written in the Bible in Luke 10:29-37. Just remember 10 as in 10 fingers. Better by now it’s written in your brain and memory if you’re a Christian. You know the story and its message.

A man is beaten up and left half dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The priest and the Levite go right past him – stepping to the other side of the road. They are keeping the law – the vertical me and God line and  Law -  maybe even rushing to the temple as they go by their neighbor – to get to God. Talk, think, ponder the vertical line.  The Samaritan, the stranger, the foreigner, the man outside the Law – stops and helps his neighbor – regardless of Law – on who should help whom? He sees his neighbor – on the ground – on the same line as he is – the horizontal line.  He stops, cares for him, brings him to an in, and pays for him and promises more if it costs more.

There they are – the vertical and the horizontal.

Both are called for in commandment and in practical reality.

THE MAN GETTING MARRIED

A few years back a man called and asked if I could do some paper work for his upcoming marriage – which was to take place out west.  The priest in California said he should see his local priest for proper paper work on this side of the country for him.

He came in on a Wednesday afternoon – when St. Mary’s corridor is filled with poor people asking for help with food and fuel bills. And our St. Vincent de Paul Society and the many volunteers from this parish are fabulous – plus all the money you put in the poor boxes here, etc. etc. etc.

During the course of our conversation the man says to me that he’s Catholic, but he doesn’t go to church – but his fiancée does.  He’s noticing people out in the corridor and asks who are they and what’s going on?

I tell him about the St. Vincent de Paul Society and how great this parish is for the poor and he says, “We’re going to live here – after we get married – could I volunteer to help the poor?”

To me there it was: the horizontal and the vertical.

The going to church didn’t grab him; but the helping the poor did.

That's one reason I love it that our high school has kids having to do mandatory service hours - and I love it when at graduation time I hear about some kid doing hundreds and hundreds extra hours of service.

If I was giving this homily at St. Mary’s I’d point to the corridor and the Blessed Sacrament chapel.

IN SPORTS AND IN LIFE

While watching a football game we often see a player make a great run or a great catch or a great TD throw and they raise their one finger up to God: Give God the Glory!

That’s the vertical – and sometimes they give a horizontal gesture to another player or players who helped make the run or what have you work.

Give God the Glory.

Give others the glory – give the other a word of thanks.

CONCLUSION

So we come to church to give God the Glory – but we’re told during the Mass – “Let us give one another a sign of peace” and we’re told at the end of Mass – to go in peace and bring the love of Christ to our world.

Vertical and Horizontal.

The word “Mass” comes from the Latin word “Missa” – to be sent.

So we come to Mass – we come to God – the Most High – and we are sent by God to the mass of humanity – to go out from this time and place to all the world and made a difference – to make this world a better place to be in today. Amen.

THE LEAP OF FAITH

Poem for Today - Sunday October. 26, 2014

MOVEMENT

Towards not being

anyone else’s center

of gravity.

          A wanting

to love: not

to lean over towards

an another, and fall,

but feel within one

a flexible steel

upright, parallel

to the spine but

longer, from which to stretch;

one’s own

grave springboard;

             the out-flying spirit’s

vertical trampoline.

© Denise Levertov

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

I recently found out that there are various people out there with the same name as I have. I checked them out.  How about you?  How many people have your name? What are they doing?  I also noticed that some folks with the same name as me are in trouble with the law. Uh oh!

So I guess if one does this, it's like looking into at one's family tree and finding skeletons hanging on the branches.

Best of luck. Just type your name into Google and see what hits you get.

Australian TV

 Baritone Singer

Piano Player U.S.

Boxer - Europe

ANOTHER'S  INNER  THOUGHTS 

Poem for Today - Saturday  - October 25, 2014

A LEAF

If I were a leaf
(but I wouldn't be)
I'd have to be tied
to a tree, tree, tree.
I couldn't walk off
(or skip or run)
and my nose would get burned
by the sun, sun, sun.
In summer I'd roast,
(in winter I'd freeze)
and all through October
I'd sneeze, sneeze, sneeze.

© Aileen Fisher 

ANGER

Poem for Today - October 24, 2014

A NOTE TO SELF

Anger serves no purpose 
It doesn’t satisfy the wounded 
It does not resolve the delinquent
It boils up like a festered infection
Running oozing pus, it runs despondent
In a stink causing an antisocial infestation
Initiating all to tread on broken egg shell
It curves a wedge in a work of soul partnering
It is the death of many, a lonely incarcerated state
Soon festers to include no one but an egotistical
Singular resentful state of unlikelihood to the lifeless 

© Cathy Hodgson

PLAYING  AND  PRAYING 

WITH FIRE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my thoughts for this 29^th Thursday in Ordinary Time is, “Playing And Praying With Fire.”

There’s a fascination with fire.

Watch little kids when they are watching a candle – a lit candle -  in church or burning candles on a birthday cake.

Watch the faces of people on a cold evening – sitting there – no TV on – looking into a fireplace – or a barn fire with burning logs - crackling fire snapping sounds.

Watch people running to where a building or a car is on fire.

There’s a fascination with fire.

According to the ancient Greeks, It’s one of the four basic elements: earth, fire, air, and water. [Empedocles 490-435 BC]

Fire is as basic and as primitive as the planet we live on. Forest fires, volcanos, the flow of red hot lava are part of life here on earth.

Or look up and out into space and see  the burning bursting fire flame leaping sun rising every morning and setting every evening – and riding across the sky like a chariot as the Ancient Jews pictured it.

There’s a fascination with fire!

Red is its color.

Just look at something bright red – and then something bright blue.

Different things happen in our psyche – based on colors – especially red and blue.

It isn’t by accident that the Communist flag in China was red – the color of revolution. It isn’t by accident that the United States flag is red – white and blue. We too are a country that started with a revolution.

In this homily I’m mainly looking at red – leaving blue for another day.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus talks about two hot topics:

1)   Being on fire

2)   And the Division that fiery messages and actions can cause.

Jesus came to fire people up. He came that we might have life and that we live it to the full. He calls us to be alive – to be passionate – to be concerned – to be creative – energetic – for the good – to make this earth not a cold place – where people are cold and indifferent to each other – but a better place each day – because we’re here.

He came to cause a revolution – that our lives revolve around God and others – not around ourselves. That’s self-centeredness.

He called people to die to self and rise – get off their fannies – to serve one another.

Speak that message – and you’ll get results.

You’ll get followers – as well as those who want to kill us – because if you speak that message – and you’ll get division.

Jesus challenged the Pharisees or anyone who was lazy or cold or self-centered to catch the fire – the power of fire – in the belly – and become the best person we can be. Amen.

Listen to Jesus’ words once more from today’s gospel: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Division show up when folks are challenged to die to self.

Then they act to protect their turf.

Anger is a fire – a reaction – and the color of anger is red – like fire – like blood – like in our faces and fists – which become red – flushed.

Anger can cause division – sometimes long division.

The title of my homily is, “Playing and Praying With Fire.”

Anger is the stuff and substance of prayer – and sometimes people turn to God in prayer when they have been burnt and hurt.

LOOKING AROUND AT THE OTHER PEOPLE AROUND US

Look around at families. Listen to people tell you about family struggles. You’ll hear about good times and bad - being united and being divided.

War and Peace.

Those are two common denominators – and dominators – peace vs. the angers of war.

War and Peace!

It’s the title of a great novel – and it’s the theme of the evening news.

We live in the United States – but sometimes we’re the Divided States.

We’ve hear about the red and blue states every November.

We have the United Nations – trying to get people to work on being united not divided.

Looking at our world – we have the haves and the have nots.

Look around the rooms we’re in and the roads we travel, we see other kids and other people who are smarter than us, quicker than us, better than us – and as a result – sometimes that can cause division.

Highly energetic types – highly creative types – highly passionate types – high achievers – can make us feel just the opposite – can make us jealous – can depress us.

Someone at work – who works very hard – putting in a full day of work can anger those who don’t want to work that hard. They feel and think that the hard worker shows them up – or might get the boss to compare them to the harder worker.

Greatness should call us to greatness – but sometimes greatness grates on us.

At the time of today’s gospel – Luke experienced some Christian community  - where folks became Christian and their families disowned them.

Christ’s words and ideas can be fire starters – for better or for worse.

How do you take people who are different than you?

Fear or joy?

Ugly or wonderful?

Do we down deep put down those who never get acne – or pimples or problems?

Do we down deep put down those who have money or a great car or great looks or have lots of friends?

Jesus saw goodness shining through those who were living in darkness.

Jesus tries to burn away the dirt – the dross – in us -  from the gold that is  in us – that is us.

Purity is a possibility.

Impurity of intentions can take over and pervade our thinking patterns.

They killed Jesus because he called us to be our best – and down deep – we have inclinations to be our best – but those calls – the best calls of the human heart – are a fire that often has gone out – and we rather stay in the dark and out in the cold.

So today’s gospel  begins: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”

FOR EXAMPLE

How do we deal with someone right in front of us – whom we see as better than us?

It’s often family members – as Jesus gets at in today’s gospel – but it can be someone we’re working with – or playing with.

I was playing basketball once – 3 on 3. I had the ball. I’m standing out there on the court – beyond the arc -  dribbling the basketball. The other two guys on my team were trying to get open for a pass or to open up a lane for me to dribble through to the basket for a layup.

The guy covering me is not standing in front of me – but to my right.

I say, “What are you doing?”

He says with a smile, “You can’t go to your left.”

At the age of 30 – I found out I only could move to my left on the basketball court.”

I said – still dribbling – “How do you know that?”

He said, “I was taught that’s the first thing you look at when you’re covering someone.”

He was right.

I got angry at that at first.

After that I practiced, practiced, practiced, dribbling and being able to move to my left – along with my right.

I could have stayed stuck in an inability. I could have stayed angry at myself for being so slow. I could attack the other person.

It’s a small thing – but I’ve often thought it’s a real cool example about life.

I accepted my lack – my inability – my weakness – my poverty and then worked on being better.

I did just that – and as a result – I was a better basketball player.

CONCLUSION: PRAYER

The title of my homily is, “Playing And Praying With Fire.”

Instead of red hot anger at self, God, or others, we can pray to the Spirit of God for passion and light – for fire.

Fire has always been an image of God the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit – light a fire under all of us – to change this world for the better. Amen.

FIRE

Poem for Today

FIRE

Fire is the fundamental of all elements
Fire is a classical element
Fire is an element quick to flare up
Fire from heaven denotes lightening
Fire releases heat and light
Fire has a visible portion -the flame
Fire is self-sustaining
Fire is a chemical reaction
Fire involves bonding of oxygen with carbon

Fire does not exist in its natural form
Fire exists by consuming another form
Fire forms from a burning mass of material
Fire is made in a hearth for warmth
Fire is used in a furnace for smelting
Fire is used in cooking
Fire is used in signaling
Fire is used for propulsion process
Fire is used in the process of welding

Fire has been an important part of all cultures
Fire was vital to the development of civilization
Fire is commonly associated with energy
Fire, in Greek myth, was stolen by Prometheus from the Gods
to protect humans but was punished for his charity
Fire in Hindu tradition is termed Agni—the Vedic deity
Fire as the God Agni is the acceptor of sacrifices
Fire in Hindu tradition is linked to Sun or Surya

Fire is a rapid oxidation of material
Fire can result in conflagration
Fire affects ecological systems across the globe
Fire causes physical damage through burning
Fire is all consuming and destructive
Fire causes water contamination
Fire causes soil erosion
Fire causes atmospheric pollution
Fire is a hazard to human and animal life
Fire was invented in a myriad ways
Fire is now got from safety matches, lighters, electricity

Fire represents creativity
Fire represents passion of intellectuals
Fire represents the deep emotions which humans have. 

© Chandra Thiagarajan