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LIFE TIME QUESTIONS

"Does everyone have lifetime questions?"

That’s one of my lifetime questions.

Somewhere along the line kids start asking questions.

Listen to kids and you’ll be listening to questions: “How come?” or “Why?” or “When?”

Look at the faces of babies. They hear a noise, They turn towards where the sound comes from.  At what point, long before words, does the baby’s face say, “What is that?” or “What was that?” or “Who are you?” Babies squint. Babies make faces - sometimes in the shape of a question mark. Babies seem to be asking questions long before they can talk. “When are we going to eat?” “When are you going to notice me?”  “When are you going to hold me?”

Listen to little kids as they start to grow. You’ll here more specific questions like: “How come she gets to stay up later than me and I got to go to bed?” “How come he gets a bigger piece of the pie than the piece I got?”

Is the most basic question: “How come life is unfair at times?”

Sometimes we get answers to our questions.

Sometimes we continue with the same basic questions all our life?

Sometimes we come up with new questions?

“How come she gets all the attention?”

“How come the rich get richer?”

"How come there is suffering?"

“How come he or she doesn’t see the way I see?”

“How could so and so be a Democrat and so and so be a Republican?”

“After all I did for you, how could you do that to me?”

“Why do people stop listening to what I have to say?

“Why do people walk away from me?

“Is everyone down deep lonely?”

“When am I going to die?”

“Will I ever accomplish anything?”

“Will I ever finish something?”

“What difference does it make?”

“What difference will I make?”

“How much does it cost?”

"Does everyone have lifetime questions?"

"If they do, are they aware of them?"

"Does anyone else ask this question or questions along this line?"

One of my lifetime questions is: “Motive?” 

I’ve been asking that question ever since I was a little kid.

“Motive?”

Then I go through my basic list of possible motives on why so and so did so and so or say what they said? Why? Why? Why?

What are the basic motives?

Is this a good list of basic motives: Fear? Shame? Ashamed?  “That’s why I lied. I was ashamed.” Insecurity? Security?  Hunger?  Love?  Attachment? Addiction? Guilt? Selfishness? Me. Myself. And I. I put myself first every time. Greed? Lust? Pride? Laziness?

When I’m watching NCIS or a detective show on TV or the movies, I’m asking what the investigators or the detectives are asking, “Motive?” Once we establish a motive or possible motives, we start looking for people who could have that motive.

"What does it profit a person, if they gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of their soul?” 

Great question by Jesus.

So motive has always been one of my lifetime questions.

So maybe that’s why I loved the moment in a college philosophy class  that I was taking and the professor was talking about Existentialism and he said, “I’m writing on the board the world’s shortest poem. It’s two words and they rhyme: 

                      'I 

                      Why?' 

I’ve never forgotten that. It’s a life time question. And I used it many times in sermons like this.

And I wrote the world’s second shortest poem. It also rhymes: 

                    “You 

                     Who?”

“I / Why” “You / Who” are two lifetime questions - that everyone asks all their life. We want to know who we are. Why do I exist. What am I to do with my life? We also want to know who the other people are in our life: friends, dates, teammates, family?

What are your life time questions?

This question was triggered by another one of my regular lifetime questions.

When you go into a Catholic Church like this one,  you always find at least one statue or picture of Mary the Mother of Jesus. Why? We have the statue of Mary up there above the tabernacle - above the center of the old altar. If you were a Buddhist or Taoist or Confucian and you were never in a Catholic Church before, would you want to know what that statue represents?

Every Catholic Church usually has one image of Mary. We have 2 - the one above the old altar and the one off to the side there - over there - Our Mother of Perpetual Help. What is that all about?

If you went into a Protestant Christian Church - other than Anglican - you most likely wouldn’t find such images of Mary. Why? Why not?

And this church and this parish is called, “St. Mary’s.”  And all the stained glass windows up there show images of this woman. “Why?” “What is that all about?”  “Motive?”  “You / Who?”

I’ve been asking that question for some 65 years now. It started when I was an altar boy as a kid. I’d see people praying at shrines and statues and images of Mary. Why? When I was a kid I used to also be a candle boy at our church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in Brooklyn, N.Y. People would come into church, light a candle drop a coin into the box and move on. Why? Motive?

I’ve heard lots of answers. Lighting a candle is a prayer that stays here burning for me after I’m gone. It’s a tiny sacrifice. I put my money in. The candle burns - disappears to itself - giving some light - as it dies.

I particularly thought of this question of Lifetime Questions this morning - because today the Catholic Church - especially in Mexico and the United States, and other countries of the Americas celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Why the following? What’s that all about?  Why are there other churches and shrines all around the world dedicated to Mary: Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa, Chartres, Medjujorje, and Guadalupe?

What is that behavior, that energy about?

I’ve been asking that question all my life.

One answer is that God is concerned with women and children - two people who are often treated up till the last century as nothing. Mary and her baby Jesus are often sculpted together - and we come and pray with and for all mothers and all their children.

Another answer is that mothers are central to life. All through our lives they represent security and home - and so we come to church for a feeling of security and home. 

I love the definition of home: “the place where they have to take you in.”

Does Mary represent God - who takes us in?

Do mothers represent God - who takes us in?

Do we all need all our lives - the comforting presence of our Mothers - living and dead - as well as the womb of a church?

Does Mary represent that God welcomes all people - especially the little person - like Juan Diego - as well as all native people? Amen.

OOOOOOOOOO

[This was a question type homily I preached this morning to St. Mary's High School - December 12, 2012]