The title of my homily for this 11th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul.”
I wondered who said that, so I looked it up on
line. I found out that different commentators are not sure just who said that
first - but it’s a proverb in various languages.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Some even think it’s from Jesus’ words in today’s gospel [Matthew
6: 19 -23] when here in the Sermon on the Mount he talks about “The lamp of the body is the eye.”
Then Jesus talks about that metaphor: lights on or lights
off.
At night while walking the dog or driving up the street
or road where we live, we can see
windows with lights on within and where lights are out.
If we look into our own eyes we can ask whether we are filled with light or if we’re filled with darkness. Looking at people's eyes, sometimes we spot sparkle; sometimes we see
sadness.
We’ve all been to see an eye doctor now and then.
We enter a quiet room. The eye doctor looks deep into our
eyes and sees so much in the light. She or he sees veins, cataracts developing,
the pupil, and so much more.
Researchers like to point out that looking into an eye we can move deeper and deeper into our center - or another’s - just by studying the human
eye.
The other day in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked
about going into our inner room to pray - to become quiet - silent - and see about our health: spiritual, mental, and physical.
It’s good to close our eyes in prayer - and go within.
It’s good to take an honest and humble look at our within.
OTHERS
Without admitting it, we often look at the body - the eyes, the skin, the face of the other person - to try to get a read on how
they are doing today - what they are off on today.
We long for communion - holy communion - communication -
connection with God - with Christ - with each other.
The eyes are the windows to the soul.
Every married couple should regularly stop and stare in
the window of the other’s eyes and ask. “How’s it going on in there?
TODAY’S FIRST
READING
A great way to read the scriptures is to meet a character
on its pages. Then look them in the eye. Have a conversation with that person. Thomas,
Peter, James, John, who are you? What was it like to be with Jesus?
Take this woman named Athaliah in today’s first reading.
Walk up to her and ask, "Who are you? What was it like in 840 BC?" [2 Kings 11:
1-4, 9-18, 20]
Ask her: "Were you the daughter of Ahab? Was Jezebel your
mother? Or were you the sister of Ahab." I noticed the commentators on the Bible
don’t know for sure.
Ask, "Did you actually kill or give the command to kill 6 of your sons or grandsons? What were the nights and the sounds outside your
doors like after that?"
What would it be like to get into the mind of someone who
slaughtered someone - like the Orlando killer?
If we met Athaliah could or would we look her in the eye
or would her face be down. Would we say, “I’ve never walked in your shoes. Who
are you and what was it like? Did you kick yourself and say, ‘No wonder nobody
ever named their daughter after me?’”
The eyes are the windows of the soul.
Writers and musicians like Jean Racine, Boccaccio, Mandelson,
and Handle all came up with writings - or musical pieces - with Athaliah in
mind.
We just heard the First Reading. It would certainly make
a powerful movie. When they killed Athaliah it must have been a bloody mess. It is certainly a powerful scene in today's reading from 2nd Kings.
The title of this homily was, "The eyes are the windows of the soul." In the Jesuit Exercises or the Cursillo, there is the so
called "3 glances of Jesus" exercise -
where Jesus looks in the eyes of the Rich Young Man, Judas and Peter.
Check it out.
If Jesus looked in our eyes, what would he see?
Would he say that we are slowly gathering the treasures
of heaven in our inner room or are we filled with decay?
The title of my homily for this 11 Wednesday in Ordinary
Time is, “Who Am I When Nobody’s Looking?”
Who am I, when I am alone?
I think Jesus did a lot of thinking about this question.
Was it because he didn’t start his public life, till he was
around 30?
Was it because he saw too much public posturing by the Pharisees and the
Scribes, etc, etc. etc.
The scribes could write. They had the degrees on their
walls.
The Pharisees were the religious purists.
When it comes to worship and religion, Jesus saw some
tricky possible places where we can trip up. We heard about them in today’s
gospel - and we hear about them at the beginning of every Lent.
FOR EXAMPLE
For example, he must have seen a lot of people praying to
be seen praying. He said, “They are already getting their reward.”
For example, he must have seen lots of people putting
money in the poor box - with loud coins or much fanfare. Those who emptied out the poor box must have
known human nature and how to get more coins and cash.
For example, he must have heard lots of folks bragging
about their fasting - just as everyone on a diet - seems to let us know they
are on a diet.
In other words, don’t toot your own horn.
Folks who toot their own horn must know the old saying,
“If you don’t toot your own horn, your own horn goes untooted.”
INNER ROOM
Jesus discovered somewhere along the line the importance
of one’s inner room, one’s inner temple, one’s inner sanctuary.
The title of my homily is, “Who Am I When Nobody’s
Looking?”
When we are all alone, that’s the real me.
Who am I when I am alone?
We spend all our waking hours talking to ourselves. Sometimes we don’t listen to what we are
talking to ourselves about.
Sometimes we blot out those sounds with babble, with
words, with prayers, and never stop to listen to ourselves as well as to our
God.
Sometimes we keep talking so we don’t have to listen to
God who surrounds us.
I was stationed in another diocese once and I often heard
that when the bishop comes to a rectory, he does all the talking. I was there
when he finally visited our place. Sure enough, he sat at the head of the table
and controlled the whole conversation.
I wondered if he ever heard that everyone said behind his
back he didn’t know how to listen.
In silence, in our inner room, that’s where we can meet
the real God - as well as the real me.
THE SINGER IN
THE CHAPEL
Let me tell you about a favorite moment in my life. It
was the early 1990’s and I was with our novices on a 3 day workshop. It was
midnight and I was sitting in the corner in the back bench of a chapel in a
retreat house.
It was dark and I was simply sitting in the dark in
prayer.
The door opened.
“Uh oh!” I thought.
But whoever it was, the person didn’t turn the lights
on. So I didn’t know if the person was
male or female, young or old.
The person walked carefully to the front of the chapel.
I kept quiet - so as not to scare the person.
The person sat down on the other side of the altar. I
could tell that by the red tabernacle candle.
I heard the person open something. Click. Click. And I
could then tell it was a guitar coming out of a guitar case. The person then
began to sing a love song in prayer to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
It was obviously a young woman - a novice - in one of the
religious orders of nuns - on the novice program we were attending.
She finished. She put the guitar back in the case and click,
click, closed it.
I remained absolutely quiet and still.
After about 10 minutes of prayer I presume, she got up
and walked out.
I was just privy to a sacred moment in another person’s
life.
Did she do this every night?
What ever happened to that young lady? Did she become a
nun?
CONCLUSION
One of my favorite quotes is from William Sloan Coffin - - who was Senior Minister at the Riverside
Church in New York City. When asked if
he enjoyed being a minister, he said, “Of course. It’s an honor being invited into
the secret garden of another person.”
Obviously being a priest all these years and having had
that experience all these years, I would like that comment.
It’s good to go into the secret garden of one’s soul. It’s
good to go into the dark chapel - the dark inner room - of oneself and to sing
and pray and be with oneself and with the Lord.
The more we do that, the more we get to know who we are
as well as who God is. Amen.
June 15, 2016
"I THIRST"
Study for a Figure at the Base of a Crucifixion by Francis Bacon
The word “karma” - whatever karma is - hit me when I read
today’s readings - as well as something from Sunday’s first reading that I
didn’t preach about.
Let me first mention a few comments about the Sunday
comment. It’s relevant to today’s readings. Nathan the prophet shows up at
David’s house and says to him, “The sword shall never depart from your house….”
It’s like saying a deadly virus is in your computer and
you’re not going to be able to get rid of it.
Here’s the context for Nathan’s comment to David, “You
have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own,
and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword
shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken
the wife of Uriah to be your wife.”
Eastern religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism - along
with their different branches and groups would say to David: “Expect bad karma
to continue because you have done some bad things here.”
We’re very familiar with Jesus’ words from Matthew 26:52, “Those who live by
the sword die by the sword.”
We’ve also heard, “What goes around comes around.”
We’ve also heard Paul’s words from Galatians 6: 7, “We
reap what we sow.”
Way before Paul, the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad from way back in the 7th Century BC, has someone
saying what Paul said,
Now as someone is
like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a person of good acts will become good, a person of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;
And here they say
that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.
In other words, if you plant watermelon seeds, you get watermelons.
Plant good deeds, you’ll get good
results.
We become what we plant.
We become where we stay.
We become what we think.
We become what we desire.
We become what we do.
We become what we eat.
We become what TV channel we watch for news.
If you doubt that last one, you have listened to others
lately.
KARMA
We are who we are - because of the atmosphere and
attitudes in the air where we are staying and breathing in.
For me, this is the basic meaning of karma - for
starters.
But I’m more than me, so I spent about 2 hours of time
last night reading up on what karma means, so as to have a basic thought for the day in
this homily.
Let me also say it’s quite simple and quite complicated
as well.
As I thought about it, when people who are not Buddhists
or Hindu or Jainists, use the word “karma”, I think they are simply saying,
“When we feel everything is going right, that’s good karma. When you feel everything is going wrong, that’s
bad karma.”
Eastern religions - like all religions - have thought forever about why people are
doing well and why some people are all messed up.
Why do good things happen to good people and why do bad
things happen to bad people?
But also: why do bad things happen to good people and why
do good things happened to bad people?
Sound familiar?
Didn’t Jesus say in today’s gospel, “… your heavenly
Father makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on
the just and the unjust”?
Jesus saw homes where violence bred violence - but the
sun and the rain fall on their roofs like every house on the street.
So how does this good stuff and bad stuff happen anyhow?
Answer: some Eastern teachers say it could be from
someone else’s life and we inherited it - in our reincarnation.
But if that’s true, what about free will and free choice
- and how do we know if that’s coming from us or from some life we inherited?
We know we can’t tell the judge, “The Devil made me do
it.”
Nor can we tell the judge, “It wasn’t me, it was something the last person I
was, did and I am simply stuck in their bad karma.”
As I said, “This can get complicated.”
Christianity won’t accept this reincarnation idea that we
were someone else in an earlier life. Christianity won’t accept that we die and
then become someone else in our next life.
Yet - apart from the reincarnation teaching - I sense that there is something about family sins - as well
as goodness hanging around in people - into the next generation.
Bad example - good example - goodness - evil - continues
- echoes in us.
Did you notice the subtle comment in today’s first
reading? Jezebel and her husband Ahab the King lived by the sword - but only Jezebel dies a violent death. Dogs
bit into her dying body and licked her blood as it spread on the stone street
where her body landed after being pushed out the window.[Cf. 2 Kings 9:33.] But Ahab - like David -
humbled himself and admitted his crime.
However, the next generation had to pay for their father’s sins. [Cf. 1 Kings 21: 27-29.]
Tragedy leaped a generation for Ahab - but is this simply
historians rewriting history - or making commentaries on history after the
fact?
CONCLUSION
I need to conclude somehow. This is just a weekday homily
- and it’s gotten too long already.
Jesus thought and taught a lot about this issue of karma.
Different religions and different cultures might not use the word “karma” - but
we can spot the questions that are imbedded in it.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talks about breaking
evil cycles. He talks about forgiveness, turning the other cheek, going the
extra mile. In today’s gospel he
explicitly says, “You have been told to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…..”