DIRT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22 Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “Dirt.”

Last Sunday I preached on just one word, one image - “Doors” - and I found that helpful for meditation and reflection. I don’t know if anyone else did, but I did. And I noticed doors all week. Maybe this week I’ll be seeing dirt. I vacuum my room at least once a year.

When I read today’s readings,  the theme of humility jumped out at me and as we all know, the word “humility” comes from “humus” - earth, dirt.

Humility is being down to earth - basic - knowing where we come from. It means not being inflated - not being filled with oneself. That’s the image of the hot air balloon - not down to earth - but trying to fly higher and higher above everyone else.

So a homily on humility - earth - dirt - being grounded.

EARTH - DIRT

As you know there are two creation accounts in the first few pages of the Bible. The first creation account has God creating us - male and female - from a distance. “Let there be light….Let there be man and woman - male and female - made in our own image and likeness.” [Cf. Genesis 1:1 to 2:4.]

In the second creation account in Genesis [Genesis 2: 5ff.] - which follows the first - God - Yahweh - comes down to earth. God gets his hands dirty - in making us. In this second creation account - the one that is the older story - the more down to earth creation account - God is feeling all alone,  so God decides to make us and form us and sculpt us out of the ground, out of the earth, out of the clay, out of the mud, out of the dirt.

As we hear on Ash Wednesday - and it’s rubbed into our skulls, “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

That’s THE Ash Wednesday sermon - THE  Lent Sermon - every year - heading for Easter - the Resurrection of the Body! Eternity baby…. eternity .... the plan is to live forever.

That gives me hope - in the recent experience of two stillborn baby moments at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Death. Life. Questions. Faith…. Why? Why? Why? Cry? Cry? Cry?

Every funeral brings us down to earth - especially if the person is our age or younger. Most Catholic funerals - whether it’s the casket or the cremains - the ashes - has sort of a cover over the reality.

Yet the reality of death - time limits - the bottom line - hits home every time.

The last Jewish funeral I was at - for a close friend of our family - Gloria Goldberger - we all got to shovel some dirt and drop it down onto the casket which had been lowered into the deep dirt cut hole in the ground.  I’ve been at some Catholic funerals when we did that as well. And in being handed the shovel we get some of that dirt on our hands - as we shovel it down into the ground.

Yet death is not a dirty little secret. We know a good bit about it - the longer we live. And faith helps…. Come Lord, Jesus.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from Sirach says, “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are.”

Today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that when we approach God - it’s like coming to a high mountain or a great city - Mount Zion or to the heavenly Jerusalem. It’s enormous. It’s awesome - and we are speechless in comparison.

The big can make us feel small.

Today’s gospel from Luke tells us that everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled. So when you are at a wedding banquet - sit in the back or the room. Sit at table 23. Then someone might tell you to move up front - unless everything is numbered - and sometimes that causes uppityness.

Today’s gospel has Jesus telling us, “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”. When you do that, you’re not doing it for payback or to impress everyone - but to be nice to everyone.

I like to think at every mass - we are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind - yet the priest gets the cushy chair up front - in a higher place. Talk about higher hot air balloons. You have to laugh.

And in our own way, each of us is poor, crippled, lame and blind.

We are here as Jesus’ guests at the celebration of the Mass.

HUMBLE OF HEART -  HERE ARE 5 SECRETS OF HUMILITY

Jesus was off on being humble of heart - not humble of show.

That was the Pharisees. That was the scribes - the ones who could write.

So let me present 5 secrets - 5 steps of humility. There are more. Enough already.

First: we have to learn to laugh at ourselves - and not take ourselves too seriously. To be humble - we have to have a sense of humor. Look in the mirror at least once a day and laugh at your nose or your ears or your day.

I have never forgotten the story - a bishop told us - about this very pompous archbishop in Brazil - head of the bishop’s conference. Someone put a whoopee cushion under his seat cushion and all waited till he finally sat down. And all laughed - except himself.

Two: It’s not all me. I am part of the whole world. I am part of the whole universe. I am stardust.

It’s not by accident that the second creation account in the Book of Genesis has God taking dirt, clay, mud, mother earth and forming us. Then God breathed his SPIRIT - RUAH -  LIFE - into us. That’s moving from humiliation to exaltation.

We are the seed and egg of our mom and dad. We are our mom’s body and blood. We were in holy communion with her for months. We are what she ate. What she ate and drank came from the earth.  We are broccoli and beef.  The food from the earth we came from - each time we eat - are microbes, atoms, particles from tree leaves, a disintegrated king’s underwear from 1000 years ago - as well as a weasel that was grabbed by a hawk and on and on and on. That should keep us humble as well as amazed.

If you use Google, type into the search engine, “What are we made of?”

Surprise: we are stardust. We are part of the big planet explosions of billions and billions and millions of years ago. Have you ever read what’s on the side of the package of a loaf of bread or a box of Cheerios?  We are iron and a whole bunch of stuff. The microscopes they will have 100 years from now will tell how much of us is nickel, gold, uranium, and krypton. Eat your heart out Superman or Superwoman. Our cells are replacing themselves all the time.  Listen carefully.  We lose 30,000 cells every minute - and a lot more. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drop. Drop. Drop.

I read on Google that 93% of the mass in our body is stardust. We are talking about humility here. But how about that for being exalted?

Three: Be oneself and not try to be who we are not.  Comparisons can crush us. The advertising industry thrives on this issue. I love the saying: “Be who you is, because if you be who you ain’t, then you ain’t who you is.”

I have discovered that some people are unhappy about aspects of themselves. I have discovered some people are envious of those with better looks and shape - cars and cash. I have discovered people know people they don’t want to be or be like. I have yet to discover someone who really wants to be someone else.  I think we know down deep: this is me for better for worse, for richer for poorer, till death do I fall apart.

Fourth: Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. We need family, home, friends, who know us - who don’t let us get away with being a phony. I’m not married, but I’m assuming marriage, the dining room table, coffee cups left in the living room, nakedness - real nakedness - is when another knows who we are and they still accept us and love us and laugh with and at us - and at our love handles.

Fifth: The fifth key to humility is acceptance of all this.  Acceptance is a key concept in the serenity prayer. Acceptance is a key to happiness - as well as humility. There are things we can change and there are things we can’t change. And we need to have the wisdom to know the difference.

Wrinkles, a bad back, a slip on a banana skin, dandruff, aging, dripping, drooping, traffic jams, enjoying ice cream and spilling some on our shirt and laughing and licking it after trying to lift it off our shirt with our index finger - are all part of life - from 4 to 40, from 8 to 80 - and on and on and on.

Visit nursing homes. Talk to young people and old people and all those in between. Accept life’s realities. Listen and learn - and accept.

Pause while going by churches and cemeteries - and make the sign of the cross - and laugh.

CONCLUSION

John Seldon (1584-1654) - long dead - wrote, “Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.”