The title of my homily for this Mass for you in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades is, “Definition of Mercy: Give Me
a Break”
Can you all repeat after me the following: “Mercy: Give
Me a Break.”
When I raise my hand like this [Gesture] could you say, “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
A kid is clumsy and he keeps on tripping over his own
feet and everyone makes fun of him and he says,[Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
A teenage sister gets braces for her teeth and her
younger brother keeps kidding her on how funny she looks and she says, [Gesture]
“Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
A kid is too short, too tall, too fat or too skinny and
other kids make fun of their shape or size, so the kid says, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
A kid misses a tap in volleyball and all the way home in
the SUV the other kids are needling her for her miss that lost the game and she
says, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
A kid forgets her homework - it’s on her desk at home -
and the teacher is on her case and the kids says, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
A teacher is having a bad day. Her dog is sick. Her cat
is sick. Her husband just lost his job. And last night it rained and knocked a
tree over in their driveway and the kids in her class are noisy and bothersome,
so she says, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
So that’s my definition and description of what mercy means.
It means giving someone a break.
Pope Francis was working hard every day he was here in the
United States and Cuba and never once did he say, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
The gospel you picked for this Mass is from Matthew 25:
31: 46. It listed a whole lot of people who wanted a break. The hungry, the
thirsty, the stranger, the person without clothes, the sick, those in jail - all those people were saying to anyone who could help them, [Gesture]
“Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
Last week when the pope was here he went to see some
people who were in prison and people who were poor and people in a soup kitchen
- all kinds of people who were saying, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
And based on what I was seeing on television he kept
going, and going, and going like the Energizer Bunny. Along the streets when he was in his popemobile, he got out
and people were handing him babies and little children from the back of the
line so he could bless them and kiss them. I’m sure the guards were thinking
that the pope would love to say, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
But he didn’t.
And that’s the message this pope hopes all of us will put into practice for this year that's coming up - that all
of us give each other a break - that we show mercy to each other.
Did you know that Jesus was not fair? Did you know that
God is not fair? God likes to make mercy be much more important than justice.
Jesus told a story about two brothers. One was perfect.
He was the older brother. The younger brother wasn’t. He left home and went far
away and ended up a total disaster. He hit bottom. I noticed that Pope Francis
told this story of the Prodigal Son the other day and everybody clapped for the Father of those two
boys. Well the younger son decided to come home. When his dad saw him coming
home over the hill, the father ran and hugged him - even though he needed a
shower big time. Isn't that a great story about mercy? His father yelled, “Quick get my son some new clothes, new
sandals, clean him up and lets have a big dinner to celebrate his return. The
younger son didn’t ask for all this - but he got all this mercy. His father was
giving him a break. Now, when the older brother who was out working on their farm, heard music and dancing he was
wondering what was up. Someone told him that his brother is back. Well, the older brother became angry and furious. His dad tried to get him to show mercy to his brother. He
said to his dad, "You never did anything so nice for me." So he wouldn’t go into the house
and welcome his brother home. So his father kept saying to him, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
Jesus was off on mercy. That’s where Pope Francis gets
his messages.
Jesus once told a story about a man who had a big
vineyard. That’s where they grow grapes.
It was time to start picking - so he went down to the marketplace to get some
people who would be willing to pick grapes for him. He said he’d give them a
daily wage. They went and he needed more
pickers so he went back down at noon and again at three o’clock and again at
the last hour. When it got to six and it was time to pay the workers he gave
everyone the same amount - a whole day’s pay.
Well, when those who worked the whole day saw that those
who only worked an hour or two or three got what they got, they got really
angry and the man who owned the vineyard said, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a
Break.”
He added, “If I want to be generous, why are you so angry?
Jesus told that story because when we get to heaven we’re
going to hear people complain about so and so and so and so being there - and
they were so bad and God is going to say, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
And everyone is going to laugh.
And even though today’s gospel has these people who were
goats - for not feeding the hungry, or visiting the sick, or visiting those in
jail and for giving clothes to those who didn’t have any clothes - I’m willing
to bet if they said, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.” They would get a get out
of jail free deal - because our God is a God of Mercy.
So the title of my homily is be merciful - because God is
merciful - so use that on your teachers and your parents when you mess up. Say
to them, [Gesture] “Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
And if they call me up for being preaching and teaching
them this message this morning, guess what I’m going to tell them, [Gesture]
“Mercy: Give Me a Break.”
ANGELS
WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Angels We Have Heard On
High.”
Since today is the feast of three archangels, Michael,
Gabriel and Raphael, I thought it would be a good idea to say something about
angels.
Angels appear in
movies. We’re all well aware of Clarence in the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life. Hopefully
we’ve all seen that movie at least 5 times in full and 25 times in part. Then
there are at least 2 dozen other angel movies. Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Heaven Only Knows has stories about people
who weren’t supposed to die so angels help them on their return. Then there are the movies, Angels in the Outfield, Angels in the Infield and Angels in the Endzone.
It looks like the Los Angeles Angels are going to make
the Playoffs while the guardian Angels of the Oriole players must have been
asleep.
Angeles can be found not only in Judaism and
Christianity, but also in various other mid-Eastern religions - Islam etc. etc.
etc. Gabriel for example was considered Muhammad’s protector and the one who
revealed to him the Koran.
Then there is so much stuff about angels in popular myth today
and down through history and religion - that we are not that sure what we can
know and believe about angels.
Catholic theologians and Church statements from on high have
told us what is essential when it comes to beliefs about angels.
It’s Catholic doctrine that they are not God or gods.
They are not to be adored - and that has happened. Only 3 have names officially:
the 3 of today’s feast - Michael, Raphael and Gabriel. We have 2 of them on the Our Lady of Perpetual
Help picture: Michael and Gabriel.
When you come up to pray at the O L P H - the Our Lady of
Perpetual Help shrine pray for peace in and with Islam.
Angels were around before creation. They are creations of God. They don’t have bodies. They
are spirits.
They are good by nature - but they also have the ability
to choose - so there is the possibility of bad angels - Satan and those who followed him.
So key to angels - maybe even more to our awareness - is
the possibility of demons who give us messages of temptation. At least, at
times they are blamed.
Angels are called to worship God - and they help human
beings. There are guardian angels. We’re called to do the same: guard others,
help others, and worship and give God the glory and thanks.
They appear before the Old Testament, during it, as well
as into the New Testament. They bring messages and protect human beings.
Then there is development in thought and imagination
about angels down through the history of our religion about angels. They don’t
have bodies, yet we picture them and make sculptures of them. For example, it
wasn’t till the fourth century that wings appeared. For example, it wasn’t till
the Italian Renaissance that little cupid baby faced angels appeared in images.
They are masculine, young and move fast.
However, you can’t tell about whether they are male or female - much of the
time.
ANGELS IN THIS
CHURCH
The title of my homily is, “Angels We Have Heard On
High.”
Yesterday afternoon I took an hour and a half to walk
around this church and count how many angels are pictured or sculptured in this
church.
In the middle ages there was the question about could a
million angels sit on the pin point of a pin.
Up here in the sanctuary there are the 4 obvious statues
of angels around the old altar and the tabernacle.
There are 3 angels on the sanctuary lamp. There are 2
angels on the OLPH picture Gabriel and Raphael.
Then there are the same two angels on the plaque over there that
describes the OLPH picture. There are 2 angels at the end of each section of
the communion rail. There are 6 angels on the candles up front up here. Then there are 8 chubby faced little cutie
angels up there on that painting above the altar.
On the stained glass windows there are 24.
On tops of pillars there are 10 - 5 on each side.
In the back there are 2 angels at the holy water fonts.
There are 24 angels in the stained glass windows.
That’s 63 angels.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Angels We Have Heard On
High.”
Find yourself
singing that hymn with others if you can sing or alone if you can’t sing and
then bring Christ and his Many Messages
to others and maybe someone will give you the message, “Hey, you’re an angel.”
September 29, 2015
RAIN ON METAL
Rain on metal - like on the top of an
air conditioner - I like that sound - the
ping - ping - ping - of rain - letting me
know throughout the night that the soft
fall of rain is sinking silently into the soil,
into the earth - into my soul. And the alleys and the cars will be washed and life will go on and on and on - green, green, on and on - and on - even though it's the end of September and grass will soon brown and leaves will become rust orange, red and brown and fall to the ground - so too me - so too slow crumble - so too winter - so too the slow knowing about resurrection and Christ and hope and the Eternal Spring.
The title of my homily for this 26 Monday in Ordinary
Time is, “Who’s The Greatest?”
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Wow! Wasn't the pope the greatest on his trip to us. Wow did he make Catholics proud of being Catholics. Before Pope Francis headed home to Rome, he handed out 6 copies
of the gospel of Luke - which he signed - to 6 families at the Celebration of
Families in Philadelphia. They also are sending thousands of copies of the
Gospel of Luke to the countries where the 6 families are from - or was it just
Syria?
Just one gospel. Luke.
I like the idea. We used to do that for weekend retreats.
We could get small inexpensive pocket size paperback copies of the different
gospels from the American Bible Society. We’d cover different stories or
parables and ask the retreatants to use that gospel for meditation till they
came back for their weekend retreat the following year. It worked and it was
well received.
The Pope is connecting the Gospel of Luke - which is also
called the Gospel of Mercy - to this upcoming year of mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
It will also be Year C in our Lectionary - the year of Luke.
So here we are on weekdays - going through the Gospel of
Luke as well.
And in today’s gospel, Luke 9: 46-50 - Jesus is asking us to look at the issue of
wanting to be great - even the desire to
be the greatest. We all have that desire - that instinct. All of us - more or
less want to look better - feel better - than other persons.
It’s in us.
When that feeling hits us, sometimes we feel dirty - “oh-no-ish.”
Paradoxically in that very feeling of not wanting to be proud - up front -
holier than thou - we are being just what we want to avoid.
Jesus in the gospel of Luke talks about these feelings -
Pharisaical - at their worst. Jesus rubs the parable of two people who are
praying in the temple in our face. The one up front says, “Thank God I’m not
like these sinners here - especially that guy in the back”. Then he brags about
all he does to show he’s better than others. And the guy in the back of the
temple says, “Be merciful to me because I’m a sinner.”
I always think that the first step in humility is humor.
And this stuff often shows up in religious feelings.
So Church goers need to know and laugh at themselves.
So here in today’s gospel Jesus is telling his disciples about greatness.
It’s serving. Then he takes a child and puts him right next to him and says,
“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me and whoever receives me
receives the one who sent me.”
Kids don’t have titles - labels - degrees - medals -
stripes - robes - top hats - uniforms to prove they are on top.
SO WE SAW THE
POPE
So we saw the pope in his little Fiat sandwiched on both
sides - and back and front - by big SUV’s with flashing lights.
So we saw the pope embracing little children and little
old ladies.
So we saw the pope embracing prisoners and down syndrome
folks.
So we saw all these bishops with fancy prestige vestments
and pointed hats.
You gotta have a sense of humor. I’ve seen articles with
pictures of bishops hats - one taller than the other. I was looking at the
bishops in the processions last night and Pope Francis’ hat - miter - was
smaller than some of these other guys with their miters. The pope talked to
bishops about all this in private meetings. It’s the stuff of humor and
jealousy amongst us priests.
Unfortunately we saw that picture in Catholic magazines
last year of a Cardinal in Rome with a big red cape trailing behind him for 10
yards - bigger than any bridal gown - with her long white veil.
This stuff - called jealousy - wanting to be bigger and
better than others - prestige - pride -
shows up in church - politics - picnics - groups - clubs - volunteer groups -
work - what have you.
People want better seats, different seats, higher seats -
whatever is bigger and better than our seat to show that they are better than us. We use age, cars, home, cars, brands, clothes, jewelry, toes, toe nail polish,
skin color, shape, weight, height, size, the look, to look better than the
other.
You have to laugh.
PEOPLE GET MAD
AT ME
People get mad at me when I hit this “greatness” button.
I make comments that are digs - and the hidden agenda is that I’m better than
those I’m making fun of. I do that. Jesus didn’t.
For example, when I saw all those bishops - all males -
up front at the pope thing - the comedian in me - likes to say, “I’d like to
see God be a woman for the next 2000 years - along with the bishops and priests
- and see how the men react to that. I would then watch the same thing happen
with women that happens with male priests.
I heard of a woman who wants to be a priest - and her
reason, “I want to be served as priests
are served - have someone pick up after me.”
Smile.
We all are included in Jesus’ watching us and trying to
get us to laugh at ourselves.
We are all included in Jesus watching us and wanting us
to serve the little children and the older folks - especially those in their
second childhood as the pope pointed out by example more than words.
CONCLUSION
I love that picture of Francis - Jorge - on a subway in Buenos Aires in Argentina by himself - carrying his bag - wearing his black suit - travelling with ordinary folks..
Some of us priests - I know I do - make fun in our minds and sometimes with our
tongues of priests and all these seminarians who are into French cuffs and
clerical garb.
I know that’s the deeper sin - inner mocking - inner
judgment - inner criticism - and all that stuff - that I’m better - we’re better than them.
So Jesus laughs at me too.
Thank God there is always mercy - and thank God the call
is always there to forget the nonsense and serve one another. Amen.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
WHAT ARE YOU OBSERVING?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “What Are You Observing?”
Yogi Berra died last Tuesday, September 22, 2015, at the
age of 90.
He’s famous for many comments - called Yogi-isms.
One is, “You can observe a lot by watching.”
As a baseball catcher - while behind the plate - he had
to observe a lot - he had to watch a lot. He had to do the same while at bat - as
well as later on while coaching and managing.
So he observed a lot by watching - even though what he
observed came out of his mouth not that clear at times - but many times with a
twist of wisdom and smart insight.
THE POPE
I’m sure all of you are watching a lot of TV when it
comes to the pope.
I’m sure some of you went to see him - and you’ll be telling people that story
for the rest of your life. I know I’d be doing that.
Whether on TV or in person, what did you observe about this pope? What did you learn? What are your wonderings?
What are your questions? What are you hearing? What are you hoping for?
I observed that he looks a lot like Yogi Berra - and that
both have a lot of wisdom - even though Yogi only went to the 8th
Grade. Both have big ears. Both are first generation Italian-Americans. Both
have immigrant roots - one in North America - the other South America. Both
have great smiles. Both are wise - and beyond wise.
I observed that both became shepherds. Francis of the
Church. Yogi of the Yankees and Mets as manager and coach and Houston as coach.
I am not a Yankee fan. In fact I was brought up in
Brooklyn and we were taught to hate the Yankees.
Hate is a no no for this pope. But the Yankees?
Yogi played for 18 seasons - 1946-63 and with him the
hated Yankees reached the World Series 14 times and won 10 titles. He was MVP
three times. He struck out rarely and threw out people trying to steal bases regularly.
Francis our pope is out there playing the position as
pope for going on 3 years now. He looks
like a MVP and Hall of Famer to me.
We’re observing him up close and personal now - here on
the east coast and quite close to us here in Annapolis. We are observing him on TV big time.
What are we seeing?
What are we observing?
Keep talking to each other.
Keep observing to each other.
I’ve been asked 25 times in the past few days, did I see him in Washington? I’m
sure various people have asked you the same question.
I said, “Nope” but on TV “Yep” - big time.
Father Charlie of our community went to DC and got within
60 yards of him at the Mass at the National Shrine. I got a chance to ask him
all my questions. He’s going again today to Philly.
I think I am observe a lot more on TV and in the papers
and on the computer - than I would being there in a crowd. But that’s another
experience.
While in Rome in 1984 I went to see the Pope at the
Wednesday audience in the Vatican circle or Piazza. A priest at our place in
Rome where I was staying told me to get there 1 hour ahead of time - and he drew
on a napkin where to exactly stand. I was to be at a wooden saw horse fence -
on a corner - on the route the pope mobile would pass after his talk and
prayers.
So there I was standing - at the right spot. Surprise!
I look at the person right next to me. It was Bill Walton the basketball
player - believe it or not.
Just as the pope mobile turned to come down our way - the
crowd knocked over the wooden fence or portable saw horse fence and made a dash
for the pope.
I found myself in the back of the crowd. Jesus was right.
The first shall be last.
I observed and learned that day you see a lot more on TV.
Kathy at our doctor’s office said she went to see the pope in Washington D.C.
years ago - along with a million other people. She couldn’t see the pope in
person. There she was watching the whole thing on one of those jumbothons TV’s.
So I prefer a soft seat in front of the TV.
WHAT DID I
OBSERVE ABOUT THE POPE THIS PAST WEEK?
I observed a lot.
I noticed that I have a lot of questions.
I want to know whom he consulted - whom he talked with -
fellow Jesuits. Americans? Who?
I want to know how long had he worked on his English. My
Spanish is horrible - and I had it for 4 years while in the seminary - along
with Portuguese, Greek, and lots and lots and lots of Latin.
I want to know if he had any impact and what kind of an
impact - on congress, the president, the United Nations, Cuba and our Church in
the United States.
I want to know what Catholics who have dropped out are
thinking?
I want to know what people are talking to each other
about on the one zillion cell phones -
besides all those pictures.
I’m wondering about how many people got a hint from the
Holy Spirit or their parents or grandparents that they would be welcome back at
Church.
Welcome….That’s a major, major, major, major message of Pope Francis.
I loved it that our high school kids were in our
auditorium watching the pope’s address to congress. I’ll find out in the coming
year - if and what kind of an impact the pope had. I’ll try to find out what kind of an impact?
This is this pope’s first visit to the United States. We
are not the world. We are part of the world? We are just the East Coast - what
about Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles?
What about Toronto and Paris and Moscow and Beijing? What about Vietnam and Lagos, Nigeria?
Pope John Paul 2 made 7 visits to the United States in
his 27 years as pope.
The title of my homily is, “What Are You Observing?”
What a great way to read the scriptures?
Millions of people along the routes that Francis took in
his pope mobile studied his smile - waved back to him - took their pictures -
especially selfies with him in the background. Many more millions observed him
on TV and with Yogi Berra or Jorge Bergoglio - Francis ears - heard his
messages.
What a great way to read the scriptures?
Picture yourself in the crowd for today’s readings.
Picture yourself hearing his words on TV. Hear his messages.
Jesus in today’s gospel - Moses in today’s first
reading - and reiterated by Pope Francis - celebrate the good done by
anyone of good will.
Please do the same. Engage those you live and work with -
church goers or not - and celebrate people of Good Will - and be sneaky and
subtle, smart and as wise as Yogi Berra and this pope - invite Catholics and
Christians and all back to centers of worship to make this a better world.
Amen.
