“The tragedy of life
is not death but in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of
genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the death of the awareness that makes it possible to feel that pain or the glory of other men in oneself.”
Norman Cousins, in Saturday Review, October 2, 1954
Monday, April 2, 2018
DAVID’S TOMB:
KEEP
SEARCHING
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Monday in the Octave of
Easter is, “David’s Tomb: Keep Searching.”
This homily is about David’s tomb - from today’s first reading: [Acts of the
Apostles 14, 22-33]
If you have nothing to do and you like to look things up
on your computer, look up “David’s Tomb.”
I remember standing there in a small room in Jerusalem.
Our tour guide pointed to a dark blue cloth covered a sarcophagus or casket or
burial box, and said, “This is said to be the burial place of David.”
I immediately said to myself, “No way. You’re kidding.”
David’s dates are disputed - but it’s helpful to simply
say “David was from around 1000 years before Christ.”
This morning I read in today’s first reading, “My
brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died
and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day.”
That brought back the memory of being at that blue cloth
covered box in Jerusalem that I saw in January
of the year 2000.
So I looked up this morning in Google and a few other
spots on line, “David’s Tomb.”
Various places for his burial are mentioned- as well as doubts about the place I saw in
Jerusalem.
Keep digging.
DID YOU KNOW
Did you know that Grant’s tomb is empty?
But we know where our loved ones are buried. But not all.
Keep digging.
I’ve gone searching for one ofmy father’s sisters in a graveyard in
Portland, Maine. I had found the other two sisters.
I had been there once, but I couldn’t find it when I went
looking for it about 4 years ago.
Keep digging.
BURIED WITHIN
US
I like another idea about burials better: the ones inside
us.
Those we love are buried within us - in various ways.
Keep digging.
My sister Mary loves the book, It Didn’t Start with You.
Why we walk and talk the way wewalk andtalk - keep digging.
Our grandparent’s values and faith - are buried within
us.
This should make us hesitant - so keep digging and
talking to each other about what our moms and dads were like - and grandparents
as well.
I am trying and working on this with my sister the last
few years.We’re trying to resurrect why
we are the way we are - not just getting our DNA - but hopefully we have small
museums of old letters from way back, etc. etc. etc.
In the meanwhile, save your letters and write your
memoirs.
CONCLUSION
Christ has died. Christ has risen - Christ will come
again.
David has died - please God he’s risen with God.
Praise God and please God, we’ll find David in the
scriptures and glimpses about what he was like.
Praise Godand
please God, we’ll keep finding Christ buried within us and not just in the scriptures.
And hopefully when we visit the sick, turn the other
cheek, forgive 70 times 7 times and do another thousand things, we’ll dig and
realize we are discovering how Christ is buried and where he is buried and has
risen in us. Amen.
The title of my homily is, “It Finally Dawned on
Me.”
It dawned on me yesterday: Easter is like Christmas. It’s
a moment of light.
At Christmas Jesus comes out of the womb into the light
of the world - and slowly becomes the light of the world. At Easter Jesus comes out of the tomb as the
light of the world. The darkness of death did not put out the Light of the
world.
NOTICE THE
GOSPEL FOR THIS MORNING
Notice the gospel for this morning from John. It begins, “On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark,
and she saw the stone removed from the tomb.
Remember the 3 word sentence from Holy Thursday
evening. Judas leaves the Eucharist -
the Last Supper. He goes to get his
money - the 30 pieces of silver - for betraying Jesus. Then he wants to bring
to the garden those who want to have Jesus arrested and killed. The 3 words: “It was night.”
We all fall asleep.
We are all in the dark at times.
Not everyone wakes up at
the same time. Not everyone wakes
up the same way. We’re on vacation - at the beach. Some people get up early -
like 5:46 AM - to head for the beach so they can stand at the water’s edge and
see the sun rise. Some get up at 10:30 AM.
Bacon - bacon - bacon - the scent of bacon sneaks and
slides into their nostrils around 10:29 A.M.
For others - the scent of God sneaks into and slides into
our brain at 5:15 A.M. God dawns on us early on some mornings.
It’s Easter Sunday Morning.
GOD IS A
TRINITY
Not everyone knows this, but God is a Trinity, the
Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - are
3 Persons, 1 God.
Not everyone knows this…. Not every religion teaches
this. Not every Christian community proclaims
this the same way - as we Catholics do.
God is a Trinity - three persons.
It’s an amazing awareness - to know this. It’s a gift of
faith. It’s a teaching that some people pass onto other people - without
knowing that’s what they are doing. Did
your mom or dad bring you into a church - take your hand and put it in the Holy
Water - and then make the sign of the cross on you and say, “In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Amen.
God knows persons.
God knows people. God knows that
faith - light - dawns on people at different times. It all depends where we are and who we are.
God knows about people. God created us and gave us
freedom. God knows fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives,
free spirits and not so free spirits.
And God made us so free - as free as God is - well to a
degree - meaning that God doesn’t crush us if we don’t get this - or don’t accept
this - or grow with this - that is - till this finally dawns on us.
Hey, love and acceptance, awareness and connecting with
each other - would be nothing, would be horrible, would not have its joy and
it’s “pinchability” - if the other had to love us.
Think of a moment in our life when we felt and found out
that another likes us - another loves us.
They want to find time to be with us. Pinch me. I’m
recognized. I’m loved. I’m wanted to be with another. Woo… Woo…. Wow…. Wow.
So God is other and we are other and God wants us and
sometimes this dawns on us - that God knows us and wants to be in a
relationship with us.
Do we?
Hopefully, it dawns on us - that life is about mutual
love - love that is freely given - one to the other - not out of obligation -
but out of choice.
This is why I don’t like the term: “Sunday obligation” or
“Holy Day of Obligation”. I prefer,
“Holy Day of Opportunity” or “Sunday opportunity.”
This means we want to be on the dance floor with God.
We’re not dragged from our chair - but we get up. We take God’s hand saying, “Yeah - wow” to God. God wants this dance -
this moment with me.”
Life: Father and Son dancing - and the Spirit of love
between them dancing and hopefully, we want to join in this dance.
Amazing - amazing grace - amazing that God the creator of
this whole spinning - moving universe - is on the dance floor and wants to
dance with me - and all the people on this planet.
God is on the dance floor - dancing.
When does that dawn on us - that God is not alone - God
is there on the dance floor - spinning, and spinning, dancing and dancing, and is calling me and
all the people before and now, onto the dance floor called existence.
And so many people are just sitting there saying, “I
don’t dance!”
And the Lord of the dance - keeps dancing and laughing -
and switching hands with billions of people - hoping all of us will enter into
the dance.
God is Three - God is with billions - God is alive.
Oh, people might say they believe in God. People
might know with words that God is a
Trinity. People might even make the sign of the cross - especially when in
trouble, asking help or praising God “In
the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
But God is more than words - talk, talk, talk.
God is a relationship. God is forever calling us into this relationship in and
with God.
CHRISTIANITY
Christianity teaches that people were not getting this.
So God - in the fullness of time - went different.
God became one of us - so we can become one with God -
actually enter into the Trinity.
Has this dawned on us yet?
Jesus became one of us.
What happened next - is what many who have tried Marriage
dot.com - have discovered.
Sometimes the one we meet - is not the one we want.
People meet Jesus - but sometimes it’s a no go.
The gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the
Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God.”
Then the Gospel of
John says, “And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.” [That’s
Christmas.]
Then the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus did life as
an us. That’s the life of Jesus - as part of the Trinity.
Then the Gospel of John tells us that people rejected him
- but to those who accepted him - he gave them the power to become children of
God.
The others killed him.
The gospel of John and the other gospels tell us that
Jesus rose from the dead. [That’s Easter]
And for the past 2000 years Jesus has dawned on people -
and they became his followers.
CLOSING MESSAGE
Last night all kinds of people all around the world came
into the dance, the community, called God, called Christian.
They just spent months and months - perhaps years and
years - preparing for that moment.
Christ dawns on people at different times as we heard in
today’s gospel.
I love the line in the gospel for today that the beloved
is the faster in the run to the tomb - and he’s the first to believe - but he
lets Peter go in first. Most think this is John - he saw and believed.
I like to add: the power of the pen.
When you write your life - write down the moments - when
Christ - the Risen Lord - dawned on you. Amen.
April 1, 2018 -- Easter
SHAKING HANDS
Nervous when you came into my upper room and said, "Peace!"
I was still scared. I was hesitant.
My hands twitched for a moment. Then I itched my left wrist with
the nails of my right hand. Then you reached out your hand to mine. At that I knew all was okay with us.
“What reason have
atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? Which is more difficult, to be born, or to rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that
what has been, should be again? Is it
more difficult to come into being than to return to it?”
