FORGIVENESS!  

BUT  WHY  THE  
MULBERRY TREE? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 32 Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Forgiveness! But Why the Mulberry Tree?”

I noticed in today’s gospel – Luke 17: 1-6 -  the issue of forgiveness – the issue of bad example  to little ones – as well as  the image of a mustard seed and a mulberry tree

RECENTLY

Recently – like in the past three months – I’ve run into – or heard about 7 stories where people were refusing to talk to each other – refusing to forgive one another – or what have you.

Husbands and wives, kids with parents, parents with kids, brothers with brothers or sisters or vice versa – or what have you.

Silence in these stories is not golden – it’s poison – it’s rust – it’s vinegar.

BAD EXAMPLE

For starters, it seems that folks don’t see the consequence of their silence – their non-forgiveness.

Today’s gospel talks about the impact of evil – sin – horror stories – on little ones. 

Does anyone ever stop to think – what little kids are picking up – when their parents won’t talk to each other – or to their parents – or their brothers and sisters?

Don’t their realize history repeats itself?

The sin of silence – the sin of non-forgiveness – is a boomerang. It will come back again and again.  Little kids pick up on the little scenes of family silence or screams – and like seeds they slowly grow into trees.

Those who use silence and distance as a weapon - expect the same thing to happen to you some day.

Jesus loved kids.  He said, “Let the little kids come to me. Don’t stop them. They will bring us into the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus also talked about evil examples in today’s gospel , “It would be better for someone if a millstone were put around their neck and they be thrown into the sea instead of causing one of these little ones to sin.”

So enough with these family feuds and silence wars.

Next time someone comes to me and tells me about silence in the family - I have a homily to hand them.

CAUTION

Before I came to Annapolis, I preached parish missions out of St. Gerard’s Parish, Lima Ohio.

Every Wednesday night on a parish mission we had a reconciliation service with the theme: reconciliation and forgiveness.

Many times someone would come to me and say, “I tried to talk to my brother – and every time I tried – things got worse."

So I would add the cautionary remark: “Okay, sometimes you have to let sleeping dogs lie.”

Sometimes we have to live that lie. Bummer. 

Prudence is also a virtue. Sometimes we have to settle for the lesser of two evils. Bummer.

UNDERNEATH

Whenever there is a frozen wall of ice between people who won't forgive the other, I know there is a lot more going on – than what hits the ear  - or the mind.

As I was taught in Pastoral Counseling courses: “The presenting problem is never the problem.”

When hearing the story, at first it sounds like something the size of a mustard seed – but when we start to listen – we find out it’s the size of a mulberry tree.

There’s all that underneath stuff – the roots beneath the mulberry tree – the stuff we can’t see that upholds the hurting tree.

FORGIVENESS

Today’s gospel has Jesus saying, “If your brother or sister sins, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. And if they wrong you seven times in one day and return to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry’, you should forgive them.”

Easy to say, Jesus. Difficult to do, Jesus.

Yet Jesus did just that – forgave and forgave – and preached and preached about that.

Jesus just didn’t notice the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, fig trees, mustard trees,  and mulberry trees, wheat and weeds. He must have seen a lot of family fights and frictions – synagogue sniping of one group against another group.

I say that because if there is one constant drum beat of a message from Jesus, it’s forgiveness.

Forgive 70 times 7 times.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Turn the other cheek.

Go the extra mile.

I’ve heard in sermons from time to time – as well as read in books – someone saying, “Forgiveness is the main message of Christianity.”

I preached just last week on a message someone once said and I’ve been wondering about it for some 40 years now: “The greatest sin is our inability to accept our otherness.”

Men and women, parents and children, worker with worker, neighbor with neighbor – get bent out of shape and can’t accept that the other is different – in noise, ways they sound, look, speak, do, smell, and live.

COMMUNION

I noticed in the Synod on the Family that recently took place in Rome that the question of going to communion came up again. Why can’t the divorced and remarried without annulments, and others not receive communion? Often the one who needs communion the most - is the person in a broken relationship.  Isn’t it the one who needs Jesus the most.

Why can’t they simply be forgiven and brought into communion?  I realize and know that many simply do just that – following their conscience and asking the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and mercy seven times and 70 times.

I want to say at times to those who refuse to talk to and be in communion with family members and others – how could you go to communion – which is union – communion – with the body of Christ – member with member – other with other – brother with brother – sister with sister – each other with each other.

Go first and be reconciled with your brother and sister and then come and offer your gifts at the table – and then come and receive communion – Christ at and from the table.

CONCLUSION

Forgiveness I get. Difficult. Obviously.

The mulberry tree. I don’t know why Jesus singled out a mulberry tree. I know they are big – and have a great root system – but after that I don’t know why the mulberry tree.

Was it the tree Judas hung himself on – and Jesus could sense him on another hill on another tree hanging himself – because he couldn’t forgive himself? I don’t know. It would have been great if he came to the tree of the cross and heard Jesus’ words, “Father forgive him – for he didn’t know what he was doing.”

I wince when I hear someone say, “Judas is in hell.”

Hey, Jesus turned the other cheek – went the extra mile – and told everyone he ever saw, “Forgive one another as I have forgiven you. Love one another as I have loved you. Amen.”

SHAKESPEARE  

SONNETIZING  LIFE

Poem for Monday - November 10, 2014

SONNET 73

That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-and-by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
        This thou perceivest, which makes thy love               more strong,
        To love that well which thou must leave ere               long.

William Shakespeare

CONSEQUENCES:  

NOVEMBER  9^TH 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Consequences: November 9^th.”

I am planning on talking about 3 things that happened on November 9^th.:

·       November 9th, 324;

·       November 9^th, 1732;

·       November 9^th, 1989.

I will be giving some history. Relax it’s only 5 pages – 14 pica – Arial font – and you can watch me as I turn my pages.

CONSEQUENCES

Notice the first word in my title, “consequences” – the word just before the words November 9^th.

There are consequences! That’s one of life’s biggest lessons.

This day – November 9^th, 2014 – things are going to happen that will change lives. People will be conceived, born, say something, do something, die, and lives will be changed.

Working with our high school kids from time to time – I notice in articles about teenagers – that the frontal part of their brains – isn’t completely formed yet – and as a result – they often don’t get the reality of consequences.

NOVEMBER 9, 324

This day – November 9, 324 – the church of Christ our Savior was dedicated in Rome by Pope Saint Silvester [314-335].  It was the pope’s church – his residence – his headquarters in Rome – and to this day on paper it’s considered more important than St. Peter’s which didn’t come till 1626. In reality when people think Rome and the pope, they think St. Peter’s not this church of Christ our Savior or St. John Lateran’s.

This Church we’re celebrating today has a long history. In 313 Constantine had given a palace – the Laterini Palace to his predecessor – Pope Melchiades [3111-314]. It was Constantine’s wife’s palace – I hope she didn’t mind. This was to be the place called St. John Lateran.

Just before this time Constantine and his co-emperor in Constantinople had given the church the freedom to come up out from the underground and to exist freely and publically.

Consequences…. One reality ends and another reality begins. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another thing. The Church had to deal with problems from without – now they had to deal with problems from within.

In Northern Africa there were a group of Christians that ended up being called the Donatists – after a guy name Donatus. They were the rigorists. The Church had to struggle openly about the issue of priests, bishops and Christians who renounced their faith in the Diocletian persecution of the church right before Constantine. One had to give up one’s prayer books and make an oath to pagan gods – otherwise you’re a dead man – as Judge Chamberlain Haller says to Vinny in the movie, My Cousin Vinny.

Then when the church come up from the underground – what about those priests, bishops and regular Christians who wanted to come back?

Constantine “called a special council  of some 130 bishops in Arles in August 314 to hear another appeal from the Donatists, who were contesting the consecration of Caecilian as bishop of Carthage” on this very issue. [Cf. page 57 in Lives of the Popes, by Richard P. McBrien.

Regular meetings were held at the pope’s house – the former Laterini palace on these kinds of issues.  The Donatists said that Masses said by these priests and bishops where not true masses. Rome said, “Forgiveness is called for.”  The forgiveness was a long term forgiveness process – but many came back to the church. Priests and bishops functioned once again – without having to be re-ordained.

The Donatists lasted in those parts of North Africa to the arrival of Islam.

So what else is new? I assume that the Church – and most religions will have the purists and those who allow flaws – those who are strict and severe and those who are more relaxed and “liberal”.

The church just met in Rome – in a Synod on the Family. Using broad strokes, the same basic issues are going on in our Church. 

As I see it – and for the sake of transparency – this is my opinion – I assume that there are many on the other side of the spectrum. I assume that this issue will always be around in religious and life circles.

It seems to me that Pope Francis and others want to reach out with mercy and not rigorism – to all those folks who have left our church – and went underground because of broken marriages, birth control, this and that. I don’t know this for a fact, but I had read several articles about the last pope which said that he wanted a stricter – more lean – I won’t add mean - Catholic church – where everyone is much more serious about our faith.

There are consequences for both positions. Some folks are like the forgiving father in the Prodigal Son story; some folks are like the older brother in the Prodigal Son story – who won’t go in and have communion at the banquet of the Prodigal Son who went underground – to the pigs for a while.

Either way there are consequences.

NOVEMBER 9, 1732

Let me move on now to a second November 9^th happening.

A lawyer named Alphonsus de Ligouri in Naples Italy met in a place called Scala, Italy, up in the hills just above Amalfi this day – November 9, 1732.

He had been a lawyer in Naples. Then he quit being a lawyer – perhaps because he lost a case involving a land deal. He either made a mistake – or more likely, there was a bribe in favor of the other side. He quit – hit the pits – and then decided to become a priest. He did. Then as priest he worked his butt off – got sick – was told to go down the Amalfi Coast for rest and recovery. If you’ve ever been there – you’d say: “Good move.”

While there - someone told him there were a lot of goat herders and migrants up in the hills that no priests  cared about. There were lots and lots of priests enjoying a comfortable life for themselves in the big city of Naples. Alphonsus goes up into the hills and finds them – along with lots of people in small places in the hills that nobody cared about.

When he gets home – after his recovery he gets together with some priest friends and decides to form a new congregation of priests and brothers to serve the neglected.

They met at Scala, Italy, November 9, 1732. Since it was the feast we’re celebrating today – the dedication of the church of Our Savior in Rome – they decided on calling this new group: The Congregation of Christ our Savior.

We Redemptorists started that day. Today is our birthday.

It took years and lots of effort to get approved as a new congregation in the Church.  In 1749, when were finally approved, they had found out there already was a congregation by that name – so they switched our name to Christ the Redeemer.

We Redemptorists celebrate our foundation day today – November 9^th.

NOVEMBER 9, 1989

My third and last November 9^th is November 9^th, 1989.

This day in 1989 – the Berlin wall opened up and then came down.

All kinds of decisions brought about the wall going up in the first place in the 1960’s and then the opening up and tearing down in 1989.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Moscow made some openings – in atmosphere and outlook from Soviet Union.

When this so called, “Glastnost” blew into East German,  the hardliners there didn’t know what to do. The people did. They got  a breath of fresh air and started marching and protesting. A series of mistakes and statements were made by the East German dictators and more fresh air seemed to appear. Someone announced that travel restrictions to the west would be lessened.

There was an article in The New York Times on Thursday by a historian, Mary Elise Sarotte, entitled “How The Fall of the Berlin Wall Really Happened.” It talks about what happened that evening – November 9^th, 1989. Listen to this one short excerpt:

“When one of the regime’s most loyal subordinates, a Stasi officer named Harald Jäger who was working the Nov. 9 night shift at a crucial checkpoint in the Berlin Wall, repeatedly phoned his superiors with accurate reports of swelling crowds, they did not trust or believe him. They called him a delusional coward. Insulted, furious and frightened, he decided to let the crowds out, starting a chain reaction that swept across all of the checkpoints that night.”

That was key. The gate was opened. The wall came down.

Check Google for all this – as well as the papers today. There should be a lot about this 25^th Anniversary of the coming down of the Berlin Wall.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, Consequences, November 9^th.”

Today – November 9th, things will happen that we don’t know about now till next year or 25 years from now.

My prayer is twofold – that we keep on putting walls up – walls that form homes and churches, hospitals and shelters – and walls come down – in families – in churches – in religions – and all discover we’re all one family, one body – created in the image and likeness of God.

BERLIN  WALL

:Poem for Today - Sunday - November 9, 2015

BERLIN  WALL  PEDDLERS

History on sale
One chunk for only twenty dollars

Look at this one
it's full of bullet holes
this one is stained with deserters' blood

and see these two dark holes
they were burned by an anxious gaze
the remains of cold war on this one
still make you tremble
and what we have here
are the dancing footprints of the youth
and the shouting and clapping
when a heavy chain tore it down

Our supply is abundant
after the Berlin Wall
we'll tear down the walls
between
the rich and the poor
the fortunate and the unfortunate
the oppressors and the oppressed

and of course we always have
the inexhaustible walls
between the hearts
of indifference

© William Marr 

William Marr was an engineer by profession, working nearly thirty years at the Argonne National Laboratory.  He now devotes himself to creating poetry and art.

WAITING, WAITING, WAITING,

HURRY,  HURRY,  HURRY,

WHEN, WHEN, WHEN?

Poem - Saturday -  November 8, 2014

TRAIN   [1915]

Will the train never start?
God, make the train start.

She cannot bear it, keeping up so long;
and he, he no more tries to laugh at her.
He is going.

She holds his two hands now.
Now, she has touch of him and sight of him.
And then he will be gone.
He will be gone.

They are so young.
She stands under the window of his carriage,
and he stands in the window.
They hold each other’s hands
across the window ledge.
And look and look,
and know that they may never look again.

The great clock of the station, -
how strange it is.
Terrible that the minutes go,
terrible that the minutes never go.

They had walked the platform for so long,
up and down, and up and down-
the platform, in the rainy morning,
up and down, and up and down.

The guard came by, calling,
“Take your places, take your places.”

She stands under the window of his carriage,
and he stands in the window.

God, make the train start!
Before they cannot bear it,
make the train start!

God, make the train start!

The three children, there,
in black, with the old nurse,
standing together, and looking, and looking,
up at their father in the carriage window,
they are so forlorn and silent.

The little girl will not cry,
but her chin trembles.
She throws back her head,
with its stiff little braid,
and will not cry.

Her father leans down,
out over the ledge of the window,
and kisses her, and kisses her.

She must be like her mother,
and it must be the mother who is dead.

The nurse lifts up the smallest boy,
and his father kisses him,
leaning through the carriage window.

The big boy stands very straight,
and looks at his father,
and looks, and never takes his eyes from him.
And knows that he may never look again.

Will the train never start?
God, make the train start!

The father reaches his hand 
      down from the window,

and grips the boy’s hand,
and does not speak at all.

Will the train never start?

He lets the boy’s hand go.

Will the train never start?

He takes the boy’s chin in his hand,
leaning out through the window,
and lifts the face that is so young, to his.
They look and look,
and know that they may never look again.

Will the train never start?
God, make the train start!

© Helen Mackay

Blog post submitted by Marilyn Turkovich on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 4:13pm. 

Helen Mackay (1891-1965), was an unusual woman for her times.  A pioneering pediatrician, she was the first woman to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, for distinguished work as both a clinician and researcher, having made important contributions to the identification and treatment of anemia in children during the 1920s.  But before that, as a medical student and young physician, she had already established herself as an author and poet of some ability, with several volumes of essays and verse to her credit by the end of World War I.

While in London on November 1, 1915, Mackay, then on the staff of a local hospital, witnessed an almost iconic scene characteristic of war in the twentieth century, troops preparing to leave for the front bidding farewell to their families at a railroad station, an image repeated tens of thousands of times during the world wars and recreated in numerous war films.

++++++++++++++++

ABOUT HELEN MACKAY

Helen Mackay was educated in New York but, after marrying, moved with her husband to France where she lived for most of her life. She worked in a hospital in Paris during World War One and was awarded the medal of French gratitude for her service. Her immersion in the life and language of France meant that she was able to publish poetry and a novel in French whilst her writing in English tended to concentrate on brief, narrative sketches. These prose pieces capture her observations of mainly French life and offer poignant insights to human behaviour.

ONE  SMART COOKIE

[The following is the Gospel for today - the 31st  Friday in Ordinary Time. It's followed by a first draft story that I wrote this morning. It is an attempt to put some modern flesh on Jesus' story about a man who was one smart cookie.]

Luke 16: 1-8

Jesus said to his disciples,

 “A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him

 for squandering his property.

He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’

The steward said to himself,

‘What shall I do,
now that my master

is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig

and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’

He called in his master’s debtors one by one.

To the first he said, 

‘How much do you owe my master?’

He replied,  ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’

He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’

Then to another he said,

‘And you, how much do you owe?’

He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’

He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’

And the master commended

that dishonest steward for acting prudently.
For the children of this world
are more prudent in dealing 

with their own generation
than the children of light.”

Jesus said to his disciples,

 “A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him

 for squandering his property.

He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’

The steward said to himself,

‘What shall I do,
now that my master

is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig

and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’

He called in his master’s debtors one by one.

To the first he said,

‘How much do you owe my master?’

He replied,  ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’

He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’

Then to another he said,

‘And you, how much do you owe?’

He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’

He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’

And the master commended

that dishonest steward for acting prudently.
For the children of this world
are more prudent in dealing 
with their own generation
than the children of light.”

ONE SMART COOKIE

Bill was one smart cookie.

He worked for the governor of a small state out west for 4 years.

He moved up the organizational ladder – till he became the key guy in the governor’s office. He was the guy to call. He was the guy to see. He was the guy who made things work.

He hired and fired. He handled money and he handled lobbyists.

When the governor’s first term was heading into his 4^th year – everyone said the governor was a shoe-in for re-election.

Bill was one smart cookie.

He thought secretly – he didn’t dare say what he thought publicly – but he had suspicions – tides were turning.

So he made friends in ways he hadn’t made friends in the past – just in case the governor was not re-elected. Uh oh, he took bribes – pocketed lots of money – just in case – just in case the governor lost in his bid for a second term.

Lobbyists loved him this past year. Lobbyists distanced themselves from him – when the governor lost by 9 % - even though the papers had him winning by 14% of the vote.

Then came the shocker. Accusations appeared in the papers and on the evening news  - all about Bill. His family closed their blinds – stayed mostly in the house – went out the side door or back door – the few times they went out.

Bill’s kids hid as well – no longer bragging that their dad had this big job for the governor. His two daughters were married and they were thankful they had new last names – even though one was a long Polish and the other a long Italian last names – both ending in i – and their maiden names were a simple one syllable Irish last name.

The grand jury called for a trial.

Bill talked to the best lawyers in town. He knew who they were.

They advised, “Plead guilty! You’ll get a lesser sentence.”

They added, “It will be quicker that way. Your name will be out of the news sooner – and it will be easier for your family. It’s tough dealing with a long drawn out public trial.”

Bill was one smart cookie.

He pleaded guilty.

He got 5 years in prison – an easy prison at that – with the possibility of parole after 2 years. He could have gotten a lesser sentence if he offered names – and other under the table deals – that the prosecutors knew were happened – but Bill decided: “Nope. I might need some of these folks some day.”

Bill had a goodly amount of money in the bank and good investments – and he knew how to protect it – just in case…. Just in case.

Bill was one smart cookie.

In prison Bill got religion. He was Catholic – but really mainly in name only.

He knew he was a CEWF Catholic: A Christmas, Easter, Weddings, Funerals Catholic. He made his deals and promises to God when he got a cancer scare there a few years ago – and a heart scare last year – and when both his mom and dad got sick.

He prayed for Good Weather for Golf Tournaments – Big Games – and the wedding of his two daughters.  He got what he wished for each time.

He knew how to make deals – even with God.

Bill was one smart cookie.

Prison – even though he was in one of those so called, “Posh Prisons” – it was much tougher than expected.

His wife visited him every Saturday.

His daughters and their husbands came every other month – with their small kids.

Those moments made it  easier.

He read.

He cleaned toilets.

He worked on the lawns.

He worked in the kitchen.

He had to deal with a tight prison cell – locked doors – and lots of depression.

He got God at the end of that first year.

In fact, he discovered that God was not a God of deals – but a God who loved everyone and everything – even the worst of thieves – or the best of thieves. Bill was know in the papers for a while  as, “The Prince of Thieves.”

He got that God doesn’t bargain.

God just loves.

God just waits.

God just challenges – in sneaky – very patient ways.

Near the end of his second year in prison – he started talking to his wife about God and all this.

He didn’t nag her about her faith life.

He didn’t try to convert her.

He simply started telling her his own inner thoughts.

His tears – at times – slid down his face – and into her way of thinking and she slowly changed as well.

She started talking to the kids on the phone what their dad had said and what she was thinking.

This got them thinking – and a Catholic Faith in that family that had basically disappeared for two generations came back – this time with a depth of honesty and  joy.

That First Friday after Bill got out of prison - he and his wife were at their local church – for a Mass of Thanksgiving. The gospel read was all about the dishonest steward. He   was also a very smart steward – who had set himself and his family – for the future -just in case  he lost his job or got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Bill looked up at Jesus in the front of the church on the altar during the Mass. He felt his presence in the images in the stained glass windows – as well as in the big crucifix in the front of the church – as well as in the tabernacle.

As he sat there he realized Jesus loved Good Thieves – and Bad Thieves - and all thieves.

Bill winked at Jesus saying, “You’re one smart cookie!”

And Bill smiled when he heard Jesus say in return, “Bill you’re one smart cookie!” 

At that Bill elbowed his wife – and she wondered for the rest of the Mass – what that was all about.

WORLD  WAR  I  AGAIN 

Poem for November 7, 2014

THE WAR FILMS

O living pictures of the dead,

O songs without a sound,

O fellowship whose phantom tread

Hallows a phantom ground—

How in a gleam have these revealed

The faith we had not found.

We have sought God in a cloudy Heaven,

We have passed by God on earth:

His seven sins and his sorrows seven,

His wayworn mood and mirth,

Like a ragged cloak have hid from us

The secret of his birth.

Brother of men, when now I see

The lads go forth in line,

Thou knowest my heart is hungry in me

As for thy bread and wine;

Thou knowest my heart is bowed in me

To take their death for mine.

© Henry Newbolt

St. George’s Day, 1918