“The greatest thing
in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended - and not to take a
hint when a hint is not intended.”
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Painting on top: Norman Rockwell, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Sunday, March 11, 2018
NOW
THAT WAS DUMB!
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Fourth Sunday in Lent [B]
is, “Now That Was Dumb.”
How many times in our lifetime have we said to ourselves,
“Now that was dumb.”
We said the wrong thing. We did the wrong thing. We thought
the wrong thing. And when that’s our
pattern, we continue doing the wrong thing over and over again.
That’s dumb - but we still do dumb things.
We could have got gas at that last exit - but we didn’t -
and we run out of gas on this next ramp
on the New Jersey Turnpike. I’ve done that two times. I thought I learned from
the first time I did that.
I did learn from the second time - so I could only say, “Dumb….
Dumber…”but not “Dumbest.”
But in other things, I can be a repeat performer of dumb
things.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel triggers these thoughts.Jesus said to a guy named Nicodemus that when
Moses was in the desert people were being bitten by poisonous snakes, so he
grabbed a poisonous snake - nailed it to a pole - gathered the people - pointed
to the snake and said, “This is what is killing you. Avoid these
creatures.They bite. They’re poisonous”
That’s my basic message for this mass: “Don’t do dumb!”
Yet we do dumb many times.
Name your poison.
Anger - procrastination - laziness - booze - not
practicing - not thinking - jealousy - comparisons - not getting enough sleep -
eating too much junk food or sugary,sugary drinks - etc. etc. etc.
Name your poison.
Know the 7 Capital Sins.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans talks about the same
thing.I say to myself, “I’ll never do
that again.”Or “I am going to do this” and
then I go out and do just the opposite.
Now that is dumb.
St. Augustine read St. Paul and said the same thing in
his classic book, The Confessions.
Before you die you better read that book every 10 years -
and each time you’ll hear something new.
St. Augustine said, “I tell my right hand I’m going to do
this and then I do the opposite with my left hand.”
In today’s gospel Jesus says that we do this. We prefer
darkness to the light.
Listen to Jesus again: “And this is the verdict, that the
light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because
their works were evil.”
It’s dumb when we overeat dessert. There on the table is
endless ice cream and cake and we take too much. Then we can’t sleepbecause we’re having a sugar high.
It’s difficult to turn off the TV - get enough sleep -
especially when it’s late and we have a busy day in the morning.
And funny - sometimes we remember the dumb - for the rest
of our lives.
For example, I’m around 32 years of age. I’m in Connecticut.
It’s early Sunday afternoon. Some guys asked me to join in a pickup basketball
game - 3 against 3 - and I say, “I gotta get back to New Jersey - and finish a
paper for school Monday morning.” I was going part time to Princeton
Theological at the time working on another Master’s Degree.
“Okay,” I said - and one game ran into a second game -
into a third game.
Dumb me. I don’t know if we won or lost.I’m sure we had a good time. But Sunday
traffic and a long trip from Suffield Connecticut - above Hartford - to Long
Branch, New Jersey - had me home around 11 P.M.
The result was a C-Paper - staying up late - half asleep
- and being very tired the whole next day.
Now that was dumb.
But I’ve been doing that my whole life: Dumb, dumber,
dumbest.
I say it every time, “Now that was dumb.”
How about you?
EGGSAND A GUITAR
We can also do smart.
It’s work.
It’s difficult.
But we can do smart.
It takes practice, practice, practice.
I remember a baseball player, Howard Johnson, who played
for the Detroit Tigers.They moved him
from the outfield to third base in Spring Training.
The manager, I think it was Jim Leyland, who had him
catch fresh eggs.
The first few dozens broke - but once he learned now to
go with the flow and the throw - he was soon a very smooth catcher of hits to
third base.
Practice, practice, practice.
The result was a good third baseman.
Eggs - practicing with eggs…. Someone might have said, “That’s
dumb. That’s stupid, stupid, stupid” and never become a regular third baseman.
That’s sports. Let me switch over to music.I remember a guy I met in my first parish on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan.He
practiced his guitar 6 or 7 hours a day - and eventually he got a good job in a
record recording company in New York City. The practice paid off - and this became
his life - getting better and better and better. Practice. Practice. Practice.
LIGHT OR DARKNESS,
SMART OR DUMB
So we have a
choice.
We can walk in the light or crawl in the dark.
There are 2 kinds of people: smart or dumb.
The dumb person when things go wrong,they start blaming others, blaming parents, blaming
teachers, blaming coaches, blaming the wind or the grass for an errors or
amistake.
It’s called scapegoating. It’s called killing the
messenger.
CONCLUSION
We’re moving through Lent now.the major sign and symbol for Lent and for
Christians is the cross.
Jesus got blamed by others - for challenging others.
He was scapegoated.
He was killed for s0peaking up and out on how to do life
lovingly..
He spoke up on what is right and wrong.
He was crucified on a cross.
On one side was the Good Thief and the Bad Thief on the
other side
The bad thief starting making bad comments to Jesus instead
of taking responsibility for his crimes.Now that was dumb.
The other guy, the so called Good Thief, said, “Hey knock
it off. We’re here because we know what we did wrong. but this man did nothing
wrong. He is innocent.”
So Jesus then said to the Good Thief. Today, you’ll be
with me in paradise.”
Translation:honesty, admitting we made a mistake is the key to paradise. Now that’s
being smart.
“The frontiers are
not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
[1849] Thursday.
Saturday, March 10, 2018
2’S
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 3 Saturday in Lent is,
“2’s”
Here’s another one in today’s gospel.
“Two peoplewent
up to the temple area to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax
collector.”
That’s a 2.
COMPARISON AND
CONTRAST
Two teaching tricks for 2’s are comparison and contrast.
The teacher presents two different characters - contrasts
both of them - making them very different - and then asks the student to
compare both of them and then learn from the differences.Hopefully, we see ourselves in the story.
JESUS GAVE US
SEVERAL 2’S
Jesus gave us various 2’s, He also gave us 3’s and 4’s as well - but
this morning I’m just going with 2’s.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells us about a man who had 2 sons.
One son messed up big time. The other was a goody goody.When the bad son - who is the youngest - came
home - out of selfishness and stupidity - he gets welcomed home by his dad -
who throws him a party and celebrates his return. However, the older brother won’t forgive the younger
brother or go into the house to welcome his brother home.
They are complete opposites. Jesus contrasts them big
time and asks us to compare ourselves with both. Who am I like?
In Matthew 25 we hear about God the Great Shepherd
separating the sheep from the goats. He is asking us to see the contrast
between both and compare ourselves - to see if I’m a sheep or a goat. If I feed the
hungry, get someone who is a thirsty
something to drink, if I visit the sick or those imprisoned, then I’m a sheep. Or am I someone who doesn’t do anything for
others, then obviously I am a goat.
In Luke 10 am I
like Martha or Mary?
In Matthew 7 - am I taking the narrow road or the busy
road? One leads to life; one leads to
death the other leads to death.
On the cross am I like the good thief or the bad
thief.
In Luke 21- the rich put tons of money into the poor box
- and the poor widow put two small coins in - and she put in more than all the
others.
BACK TO TODAY’S
GOSPEL
Back to today’s gospel, compare the contrast Jesus made
of these 2 people in the story.
The Pharisee went up front to be seen. The tax collector,
the sinner, stayed in the back and wouldn’t even look up with his eyes.
The Pharisee was making his prayer a selfie. He was
talking about how great he was and how bad the guy the guy in the back was.The Pharisee said he fasted 2 times a week
and paid tithes or taxes on his stuff.The tax collector talked to God - prayed to God, “O Godbe merciful to me a sinner.”
The Pharisee was examining the other guy’s conscience -
saying that guy is greedy, dishonest and adulterous. The poor guy then makes
his confession.“Oh God,be merciful to me a sinner.”
CONCLUSION
John Fortescue - a writer from the 1400's - is the author of the well known comment, “Comparisons are odious.” I would say,
“Sometimes they are; and sometimes they can teach us a lot.”
March 10, 2018
Thought for today:
“Mirrors should reflect a little
before throwing back images.”
