KEEP  MOVING

Poem for Today - December 13, 2014

STOPPING BY WOODS

ON A SNOWY EVENING

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

© Robert Frost

WATER IS WATER IS WATER 

Poem for Today - Friday - December 12, 2014

POEM  8

The river and its waves are one
surf: where is the difference 

between the river and its waves?

When the wave rises, 

it is the water; and when it falls,

 it is the same water again.

Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction?
Because it has been named as wave, 

shall it no longer be considered as water?

Within the Supreme Brahma, 

the worlds are being told like beads:
Look upon that rosary with the eyes of wisdom.

©  Poem by Kabir

Translated by Rabindranath Tagor

THE  SEEING 

UNDERNEATH THE SEEING,

THE KNOWING 

UNDERNEATH THE KNOWING

Poem for Today - Thursday - December 11, 2014

ILLUSION AND REALITY

What is seen is not the Truth
What is cannot be said
Trust comes not without seeing
Nor understanding without words
The wise comprehends with knowledge
To the ignorant it is but a wonder
Some worship the formless God
Some worship His various forms
In what way He is beyond these attributes
Only the Knower knows
That music cannot be written
How can then be the notes
Says Kabir, awareness alone 

will overcome illusion

© Kabir

THE  MORNING  DEW 

SHOWS UP IN DARKNESS 

BEFORE THE DAWN 

Poem for Today -  Wednesday -  December 10, 2014

MORNING DEW

Does no one the depth of this darkness

Of it's presence within our mist

So heavy it rains on the Glory of life

We choose to let it be

Not to see

Words of choice

To hide it from display

It will grow

From seed

To plant

To tree

It's roots of hate have already captured some

I thought these souls were safe from harm

But now they have joined and seem bound to the roots that have entangled them

No where

To run

To hide

The daylight grows darker daily as it struggles to survive

How can mankind repeat these atrocities over an over

Justifying their hate in any form

We have learned nothing

For our young we create the gift

Of hope

Of love

So wondrous in the  morning dew

Why have we chosen again and again to embrace the darkness

© Nina Carey
Picture on top:
"Deep purple morning dew
clinging to grass,"
by Lisa Fiedler

GET  FOUND  KID

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Get Found Kid!”

FAVORITE STORY

One of my favorite stories  - that today’s gospel triggers for me – is found in Robert Fulghum’s Book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.

If you haven’t read that book – or any of Robert Fulghum’s books – hint, hint, great Christmas gifts for those you love.

I have five of his books – one of which is autographed for me. I have read his books over and over again. I had told my niece Margie’s husband about Robert Fulghman. Next he spotted that Fulghum was giving a talk and book signing in Phoenix, Arizona – so Jerry went to hear him.

After the talk, Jerry went up to him  with two books with the same title to be signed.

Robert Fulghum - with pen in hand said, “Who’s this second copy for?” 

My nephew-in-law, Jerry,  said, “For my Uncle Andy. He’s a priest and he loves your stuff.”

Fulghum looks up and says, “A priest? He likes my stuff? You know I’m a Unitarian Minister.”

Jerry says, “Yep and my Uncle Andy loves your stuff.”

GET FOUND KID

The story I want to report on goes something like this.

Fulghum is in his house. He can hear kids outside playing one of their favorite games: “Hide and Seek”.

He asks his readers, “When you were a kid, did you ever have a kid in your neighborhood who always hid so well, nobody could find him?”

He answers his own question by saying, “We’d all get mad and give up – because we couldn’t find this kid.

After a while this kid would show up – all mad – because we gave up trying to find him.

We’d say he wasn’t playing the game the way you’re supposed to play it. “There’s hiding and there’s finding.”

He’d yell back, “It’s hide-and-seek - not hide-and-give up.”

And we’d yell back about who made the rules and who cared about who anyway.

Well, in this story, there’s a kid in his yard – well hidden under some leaves. He’s been there a long time. He hears the other kids yelling after him. They can’t find him and everyone else is found.

Fulghum says he thought about going to the base and telling the kids where the lost kid was.

Finally he yells out the window, “GET FOUND, KID!”

Fulghum adds that I scared him so bad that he probably wet his pants and ran home to tell his mother.

Fulghum then adds a message about a man in his neighborhood – a doctor. He had terminal cancer and didn’t tell his family or friends – because he didn’t want them to suffer.

“So he kept his secret.”

When he died everyone said how brave he was to bear his suffering in silence…. “But privately his family and friends were angry because he didn’t tell them. He didn’t say he needed them and their strength. And it hurt that he didn’t say good-bye.”

CONCLUSION

Take what you need to take out of that story.

That last message might be the best take out.

In the light of today’s gospel, hear Jesus the Good Shepherd searching for you. Hear God screaming out, “Get Found Kid.”

Maybe our best prayer is simply, “Baa, Baa, Bal,” as the old Whittenpoof song goes. But make it loud.

“We're poor little lambs who have lost our way. Baa, baa, baa. Doomed from here to eternity. Lord have mercy on such as we. Baa, Baa, Baa.”

WAITING  FOR  GOD

Poem for Today - December 9, 2014

GOD OF THE WAITING

God of the waiting,
give us courage to wait with those

in the most broken
places of the world,

and with all those who struggle

to be bearers of hope there.

We pray with those

who wait for wars to stop,

for violence to cease.

God of the waiting,

turn conflict into peace.

And we pray for those

who have given up

on the coming of hope,
because they feel they wait in vain
at checkpoints, at borders, for jobs, for food,
and for all those whose lives are crushed

under the structures and systems of injustice.

God of the waiting, wait with your world.
Turn anger into reconciliation,
and our lack of hope into courage,
so that our waiting may be over 
and all the things of darkness shall be no more.

© Nina Carey

IMMACULATE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Immaculate.”

“Immaculate” is a word – a concept – that we usually only use when we talk about this feast of the Immaculate Conception.

This title – this teaching – this statement – this concept - brings us to some very mysterious and intricate God stuff.

Mary is the Mother of Jesus.  People don’t scratch their head with that statement – but once you hear the scriptures stressing her virginity – becoming pregnant by the power of the Spirit – then inner intellectual “uh oh’s!” start sounding.

Mary is also called “Mother of God”  – because we believe Jesus is God – and therefore – we also call Mary, the Mother of God.

Then when we move backwards in time – and we hear the statement that Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without sin – we wonder what that means. This statement that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin – an immaculate conception – moves us further into some complicated concepts and theology.

I would think this is why this dogma of describing Mary being conceived in her mother’s womb – free from Original Sin - as an “Immaculate Conception” wasn’t announced and pronounced as a Church teaching till 1854.

It’s important to note that there have been theologians and Christian writers on both sides of the question when it comes to Mary’s maculate or immaculate conception in her mother’s womb.

Theologians and Christian writers from way back said this she was without stain. Others – like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas did not hold this.

MACULATE AND IMMACULATE

I was wondering if the word “immaculate”  would be around without this feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Okay we use the word “immaculate” to describe a kitchen – after all the dishes are out of the sink  - put into the dish washer – or back in the cabinets. Everything is put away. There is a clean empty bag in the plastic garbage can. The kitchen is, “Immaculate.”

EARLIER TITLE: DESCRIBING MARY AS MOTHER OF GOD

In trying to come up with some words about all of this in a homily for this feast day – I realized we need to hear 2 things for starters.  We need to hear that Mary was described from near the beginning as Mother of God. We also need to hear that various other folks had some doubts about what can be said about Mary.

It needs to be stated that Origen – who died in 253 or 254 called Mary “Theotokas” – translated into English, “Mother of God”.

So too Athanasius – who died in 373 – saw Mary as “Theotokas” as well.

So too Cyril of Alexandria – who  died in 444 – spoke of Mary as “Theotokas”.

The Counsel of Ephesus 431 declared Nestorius wrong – when he said we can call Mary – “Christokos” – but not  “Theotokos”.

Many Christians – think that title “Mother of God” is wrong. They add that Mary is not God. Correct. They then say Catholics are worshipping Mary as God. Wrong. We Catholics don’t say that, don’t teach that. We teach that we honor Mary. We praise Mary. We ask her for help. We name churches and schools after her – but she is not God. Yet, she is called – not just Mother of Jesus – but “Mother of God” because Jesus is one person – with 2 natures.

SOME KEY COMMENTS

Let me make a few key comments.

Before formulating questions about Mary, we ought to line up various comments and wonderings about Jesus’ makeup.

First of all – like Mary – we accept the reality that Jesus was human. There was a historic Jesus Christ.  So there was a Julius Caesar and an Alexander the Great.  So too there was a historic person named “Mary”.

Secondly we believe with most Christians that Jesus is God.

So we accept and  believe those two realities about Jesus. He is both human and divine and also human.

It took centuries for the Church to come up with language and theology – that is, “God Words” to state what we believe what was Jesus like to the best of our ability.

During those centuries of our Church there were arguments and discussions and disagreements – different and differing articulations – of how God is and how Christ is – how the Trinity is – how the Holy Spirit is – how Jesus could have a divine as well as having a human nature..

In 325 – at the Council of Nicea – it was stated that Jesus is one person – the second person in God – the Trinity – who is 3 persons – one God. All 3 persons – are equal – all at the same time – forever and ever - before and before God is  – forever – without beginning, without end.

This is inconceivable – meaning we can’t conceive how this is – 3 persons in one God. 

We can conceive of one God. We can figure out there is a God behind all there is – God the Maker, God the Creator. God the Engineer, God the Artist.

When we see a painting on a wall – we can logically, rationally, conceive – and then put into words and thoughts – that there is an artist who made – painted – conceived – came up with this painting. 

What that creator is like – personality like – we don’t know. We can guess some things about him or her or even they – but usually one person – from the painting on the wall. She likes blue or nature scenes. He likes shapes. She likes small pictures. He likes big paintings. So we can conceive things about the universe maker – by looking at creation.

God is Amazing. The universe as we see it – is 15 billion years old or sense.  There are billions of stars. There are billions of mosquitoes. There are billions of people on this planet.

That’s God the Creator.

Next comes the great mystery of Jesus. God could have come anyway he wanted to come.

We who have faith – we who have heard the story of Jesus  - accept the story that in time Jesus is born.

We believe that God picked Mary. Why? Mystery?

In time our church said God made the Mother of Jesus immaculate – without original sin – way before Jesus’ birth and bursting onto the planet.

Why? Why did God go the way he went – born as a baby somewhere near the year 0000? Why? Mystery.

Spiritual writers, theologians tried to give reasons.

For Jesus I like the poetic and enigmatic explanation about Jesus in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John.

We read it at Christmas time.

When you have time, read John 1: 1-18.

CONCLUSION: MY BEST EXPLANATION FOR DESCRIBING THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Let me close by giving my best explanation for the Immaculate Conception.

Parents make that room for their first child – perfect. I don’t know about the 4^th child. 

This feast is saying, God made Mary the very best – for Christ who was to come in his time.

So when Mary was conceived by her parents – God made her the best – the best woman he could see.

I believe that’s the best way to explain the Immaculate Conception.