HERE’S THE DEAL:
“OUCH!” AND “WOW!”

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Here’s The Deal: ‘Ouch!’ and 'Wow!’”

Subtitle: There are lots of blessings in this life, but suffering is part of the package – sometimes more; sometimes less. Life is a package deal.

I think that’s one way to sum up today’s readings.

Some people don’t like the suffering message – but God says, “It’s part of the deal.”

WOW & OUCH

Life is lots of “Wow!” as well as, “Ouch!”

Take veal parmesan and spaghetti. To come on a plate to our place at a table in a restaurant, the spaghetti had to be in hot water. Ouch! The calf had to be killed. Ouch! And the veal cut. Ouch! And cooked. Ouch! It’s part of the deal, if you order veal parmesan and spaghetti at an Italian restaurant. Then before you start eating, you look down and go, “Wow!” – that is, if you like veal parmesan.

It isn’t for decoration that Stations of the Cross are on the walls of our churches. The Stations of the Cross are part of life. Life is the falls and the cuts – people yelling accusations and people coping out – washing their hands of responsibility of protecting others – and we’re hurt. Ouch! Then there’s the dying – preceded for many with the stripping of their dignity – in a hospital gown with all kinds of tubes or in a nursing home wearing Depends – that hopefully are dependable – and a backless dress. Ugh! Then death. More ugh and plenty of ouch. Each of us has to walk our way of the cross.

But life is not just the ugh and the ouch – dementia or Alzheimer’s or what have you. It’s the long stretch of days – from birth till the end of the story. So we don’t just look at death. Death can be a dramatic final scene and hopefully we have family present as the audience. There are the days and months and sometimes years before it. There are also the wow moments. We see the pictures of days in bathing suits and tuxes - prom dresses and football uniforms – all those pictures on photo boards at the funeral parlor when someone dies – as well as in our memories.

Ah the memories. Ah the moments. Ah the beauty of it all. There is the wow of life – as well as the ouch of life.

Crosses aren’t just in churches or on walls. They are part of life.

That’s what today’s readings are talking about.

The little baby is so cute – so beautiful – but as Jesus said, the mom has to go through a lot of pain and inconvenience to bring that little gal or guy into our world. “Ouch!” and then “Wow!” Thank you mom. (Cf. John 16:21)

Then there are the teenage years – the angst and the worry – along with the sweetness of awards, first date, graduations, marriage. Wow! There is also divorce and wrong choices. Ouch!

FIRST READING FROM JEREMIAH

Would any of us say what Jeremiah says to God in today’s first reading, “You duped me! You tricked me. You gave me the gift of life, but you didn’t tell me about the crosses and the pain”?

M. Scott Peck begins the first section of his classic book, The Road Less Traveled with three words, “Life is difficult.”

Then he writes this profound statement. “This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

There is a footnote on the bottom of the page to that statement: “The first of the ‘Four Noble Truths’ which Buddha taught was ‘Life is suffering.’”

Jeremiah, in today’s first reading, first fights God about the deal he was getting in life by being a prophet – God’s spokesperson. People laughed at him. People from his own home town of Anathoth wanted to kill him (Jeremiah 11:21) People were not happy with him as a preacher and a prophet – because of his words and warnings.

Prayer is sometimes ranting and complaining to God. There are inner mumblings. Today’s first reading has Jeremiah's thought process: “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more.” Then comes a reverse scream, “But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary of holding it in, I cannot endure it.’” He has to proclaim God and God’s message.

PETER IN TODAY’S GOSPEL

Peter in today’s gospel tries to stop Jesus and his message of the cross.

If Buddha said, “Life is suffering”; if M. Scott Peck said, “Life is difficult”; Jesus said, “Life is carrying one’s cross.”

Ouch.

But that’s the deal.

ONE MEANING OF THE WORD “DEAL” - "COVENANT"

One of life’s key words is, “covenant” or “deal”.

We make a deal with another. It’s called “marriage” or “friendship” or "neighbor".

Or we make a deal with a car dealer. We give him or her our money and they give us a car. They give warrantees and guarantees – for this and that. But they can’t guarantee a lot of things about the life of our car. They can’t guarantee we won’t crash. It’s not part of the deal.

So too marriage. People make their marriage covenant with another with lots of assumptions and lots of spoken and unspoken promises. “Let’s make a deal. Let’s make this a great marriage?”

But who can guarantee chapter 2 – the rest of the story after the marriage, after the honeymoon?

Life is a package deal and it takes a lifetime to open and discover what's in the package.

TODAY’S SECOND READING FROM ROMANS

Today’s second reading from Romans tells us what we can do with the deal called "life", called "marriage", to make it work. We can try to live a life pleasing to God and to one another. We can try to avoid being transformed by false values. We can become renewed by an attitudinal change – living each day for God and family – for each other. That will mean “Ouch” and “Wow” – the cross and resurrection – good days and bad days – in sickness and in health. Sound familiar? It’s the marriage covenant. It’s life’s covenant. We are married to our bodies. We are married to much of our reality.

We give ourselves to the other and others – and hopefully they give their lives to us – and that makes life sweet. Wow.

And we help each other when the crosses come. Ouch.

DEALING THE CARDS

Here’s the deal. A deck of cards can teach us that there are at least 52 ways our life can go and then some more. In the deal a rare few get three aces and two kings. Some get a 2 of spades, a 6 of diamonds, an 8 of clubs, a 9 of hearts and a jack of spades. Not fair. Give me at least two 10s.

That’s the deal. We all know the old song called, “The Gambler!”

“You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.

Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.
Gotta know when to hold them and when to fold them."

The parents we got, we got. So too the neighborhood, house and the classes we’re were in. Sometimes mom and dad are the king and queen of hearts. Sometimes dad is a jack of all trades. Hey you never know. Sometimes the other is a Joker – and in the situation we’re in, we don’t need a Joker – or a wild card.

Here’s the deal. Make the most of it.

We got the DNA, genes, skin color, heart texture, future hair line, freckles, new clothes or hand-me-downs, this and that – in the deal.

Here’s the deal. Make the most of it.

CONCLUSION: THE MASS

We come to Mass to think about these things.

The Mass is a wonderful moment each time we come here.

It is filled with “Wow” and “Ouch”

Here’s the deal. Have you got the Mass yet? Do you understand the Mass yet?

Have you understood Jesus yet?

What have been your “Eureka” moments – “Insight” moments – “Lights went on” moments – defining moments – life changing moments?

I remember reading a story when I was young. It was a “Lights went on” moment for me. I don't remember where I read it, but it went something like this.

The story teller told of a young man – not old enough to be in the army – and a war is going on. He wants to go to war. He sees it as all excitement – a wow! He’s walking down the street one day and a group of soldiers with a band are marching up the street heading for the local train station – heading off for war. He stands there envious. Then he marches with them on the sidewalk all the way to the train.

The troop gets on the train and there are the thrown kisses – after the hugs and the tears – and the band plays on.

The train pulls out - with all the troops going off to war leaning out the windows and waving – on the platform side of the train.

The young man didn’t hear or notice that another train had come in on the other side while this train was getting read to leave. He sensed something wrong – something big – about the other train. So he walked to the end of the platform and went to the other side. It was a train that had just come back from the war. There were the coffins and the crutches – the bandaged and the bloodied – the hurt and the wounded being wheeled towards ambulances. There was no band – only doctors and nurses and stretcher bearers and wheel chair pushers.

It was a moment of Epiphany and Insight – Eureka and “Oh my God!”

It was an ouch moment.

It was a life changing moment for him.

Has this ever happened to us as we came here to Mass? Was there a moment when we recognized Christ in the breaking of the bread? Did it finally hit us why Christ chose bread – bread that was cut down and crushed – why Christ chose wine from grapes that were crushed? Did we finally realize that God knows life – and so he sent his son to us to live this life to the full with us – with the wow and the ouch? Do we see why Jesus entered into this life – to be in communion with us in the crush and hurt as well as celebration of life – with its ordinary days – as well as its Holy Thursday and Good Friday – and Easter days..

Have we ever sensed life’s reality at Mass – that it’s an “Ouch” and a “Wow” – that that’s the deal?

Amen.