THE  POWER  OF A PARABLE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - is, “The Power of a Parable.”

Subtitle or Alternative Title: “The Power of a Story.”

I want to talk and think out loud about the power of a story - a parable - an example - that moves us so powerfully - that it challenges us to change our thinking - change our behavior - change our lives - to make us different than we were.

Has that ever happened to you?

Better: this has happened to you. It has happened to all of us. It’s called life, growth, mimicking. Why do babies smile?  They look into the mirror of our face.

But we might not have done our homework, heart work, brain work, memory work - reflecting about and considering the stories of our lives - the stories that have sculpted us.

ONE OF MY NIECES

At Thanksgiving a few years ago we were at Virginia Beach as a family.  I was driving back to Annapolis the next day - Friday - and one of my nieces asked if I could drive her and her daughter to BWI - so she could fly back to Miami - where they live.

Great experience - because we had a chance for a 5 hour plus talk. She said she went to Spain with her mother while in high school to visit an older sister who was spending a year of college in Madrid. Experiencing that she said to herself, “This is great. When I go to college. [She went to JMU] I’m going to do this year in Spain thing. She did and that’s how she met her husband to be and the whole direction of her life changed - living in Hamburg, Germany, Bogota, Colombia, and Miami, Florida - bringing 3 children into the world.

GATHERING THE STORIES

That’s was one of her stories - from that car ride.

What are your significant stories?

By that I mean the stories that formed and informed you - negatively and positively. I want to do this. I don’t want to do that.

I have never drank because I saw an uncle drunk a lot of times when I was a little kid and I must have said, “I’m never going to do that!” and I haven’t.

So it might be our childhood stories, our parent’s stories - brother’s and sister’s stories - our family stories.

The first step is to gather the stories.

The second step is to name  how our thinking has changed - because of an experience.

It can be  also be a non-family story - a book or a movie or a play.

I saw a movie, The Black Hand, around 1950. It was a cheap Saturday afternoon matinee. I was a kid with my older  brother.  I don’t remember anything in the movie other than a scene on a deck of a ship and a group of young men were talking about why they were coming from Italy to America. Gene Kelly, playing the part of Giovani - Johnny - Colombo pulls out a knife - opens it up - and throws it down into the wooden deck of the ship - and says, “I’m going to America to avenge the death of my father.”

Was that the first time I got in touch with one of life’s most important questions: motive?

In 1968, I remember seeing on Broadway the play, The Price, by Arthur Miller. A father dies. Two brothers show up to deal with the selling of the furniture - and they are waiting for a buyer. One brother says to the other brother something like this, “You want the God-almighty handshake and you’re not going to get it.” One brother had left home and went to college and became a doctor while the other brother stayed home to take care of their dad - and became a policeman.

 

Is that when I realized for the first time that some people won’t forgive some people - especially family members?

That play by Arthur Miller got me to think deeply about that question.

As Shakespeare puts  it in Hamlet, in the play he devises within the play, “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

I’ve seen the movie, Shawshank Redemption at least 7 times and every time something different hits me. Being a Redemptorist - I hope I’d notice redemption stories - salvation stories - people being stuck stories - imprisoned stories - becoming free - and longing for freedom stories.

I often think of Andy Dufresne’s line in that movie, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.” 

So the title of my homily is, “The Power of a Parable.”

DAVID’S STORY

Today’s first reading from the Second Book of Samuel - refers to the life of David the King of Israel.  He rose from the life of the youngest brother in a big family of brothers - and a shepherd - to becoming a fighter - then the king of Israel.  Then his life got soft.

If you’ve seen the comedy movie, History of the World Part I, Mel Brooks says over and over again, as he breaks all the rules - and does anything he wants to do, “It’s good to be the king.”

So David spots Bathsheba taking a bath and the king wants what he wants when he wants it and steals another’s man’s wife: Uriah the Hittite.

Then when she tells David she is pregnant, David brings Uriah home - but he won’t go to his house because he knows what’s happening. So David has Uriah killed.  We hear that in today’s first reading.  It’s Soap Opera stuff in the 11^th and 12^th chapter of book Second  Book of Samuel.

And Nathan the prophet hears about the story. He goes to the palace and tells David, “David I want to tell you a story, a parable.” It’s in the 11^th Chapter of the Book of Samuel. He tells David about a rich man who has a huge herd of sheep and he has a guest coming for dinner. Instead of having one of his sheep slaughtered for the feast, he steals the sheep of his neighbor down the road - who is dirt poor and has only one sheep.

David upon hearing the story yells, “Who is that man who did this? He deserves to die. If he’s part of my kingdom I’ll have him pay back fourfold.”

And Nathan the prophet says, “That man is you!”

And Nathan points out that David has a harem - many wives. He doesn’t mention how he got some of them - only Bathsheba.

And here in our reading in Chapter 12 of Second Samuel, David takes the parable, the story, and points it at himself and repents.

I’m sure some of you heard in sermons and talks that Louis Evely, a Belgian priest and writer wrote a whole book on that phrase, “That Man Is You.”

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE

That story from Nathan the prophet - that book by Louis Evely - was an eye opener for me.

That 1964 book  taught me how to read the scriptures.

I open up the Bible. I start reading. I start saying: “That man is me.”” That woman is me.” “That person is me.” “That character is me.”

I read the story. I read the saying. I read the parable and I ask, “How is this story, this parable, this comment, me?”

I am the prodigal son - who needs forgiveness. I am the older brother - who won’t forgive a family member. I am the forgiving father. I am the lost sheep, the lost coin. I am the man wounded, hurt, on the roads of life and I need someone to help me. Or I am called to be the Good Samaritan. Or I am like the two characters in the parable of the Good Samaritan who walk by people who are hurting. I am wheat or I am weeds. I am a tree producing good fruit or bad fruit or no fruit. I am Adam. I am Eve. I am Judas or I am Peter. I am David or Uriah or Bathsheba.

Wu Yuen-kwei, Her Sins Are Forgiven

In today’s gospel, we heard about the Pharisee who invites Jesus to eat with him. Don’t we all want to eat with Jesus? Isn’t that why we are here today? Next a woman comes into the house because she heard Jesus was there. She starts crying. The tears fall on Jesus’ feet - washing them. She dries his feet with her hair. She kisses his feet. She then anoints his feet with the precious perfumed oil she had with her.

The Pharisee thinks - and Luke tells us what he is thinking - and that Jesus knows what the Pharisee is thinking. “If this Jesus is a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

Then Jesus says to Simon, “I want to tell you a story.”

Simon says  the same thing David said to the prophet Nathan in the Second Book of Samuel, “Tell me the story!”

Jesus says, “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred day’s wages and the other owed fifth. Since both were unable to repay the debt, he forgave them both. Which of them would love him more?”

Simon answers, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”

Then Jesus says, “You have judged rightly.”

Then Jesus turns to the woman and says to Simon. “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you didn’t give me water for my feet, but this woman   bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since the time I entered. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.”

We know how David took the story from Nathan. We don’t know how the Pharisee too this story from Jesus.

We do know that Jesus says about the woman, “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Then he says to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The others at the dinner table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus doesn’t respond to them, but says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We all heard the story?

Am I the Pharisee? Am I the woman? Am I Jesus? Am I the others at the table?

That man…. that woman …. is me.

CONCLUSION

These stories in the Bible are for folks long after they happened.  These stories are for you and me.

I worked in a retreat house in Pennsylvania for 7 years and a well know Mafia guy used to come on retreat and the men complained and finally the priest in charge said, “Aren’t you glad he’s here?”

I’ve been in churches where folks complained about women’s cleavage, elected officials, so and so being at Mass - and I wasn’t Nathan enough or Jesus enough or a priest I worked with enough to say, “Aren’t you glad she’s here? Aren’t you glad he’s here?”

Better I should have said, “I’m tempted to say, I’m glad you’re here, but I better say, I’m glad we’re here.”