BROKEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Broken.”

We all know about broken: broken dishes, bones, a rosary, a heart, a family, a  marriage, an egg, window, cookie, life, etc. etc. etc.

Broken….

TODAY’S FIRST READING: EARTHEN VESSELS

We all know the theme in today’s first reading for this feast of St. James.

Our bodies are earthen vessels.  We are made from the clay of the earth and our bodies break at times like a fragile earthen vessel.

The dream seems to be Unbroken - as in the movie, the book, or an expensive vase - but the reality is that we go through life - and we are broken at times.

The middle east is filled with broken vessels - lots of pieces of clay pots are everywhere.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in earthen vessels in caves and the museum that holds the Dead Sea Scrolls is formed in the shape of those same earthen vessels.

A clay pot is a great prop for preaching.  It’s a very clear image in the song that the St. Louis Jesuits came up with: Earthen Vessels. Why don’t we sing that more?  It’s in our Breaking Bread Missalette, #408.

Speaking of broken, how about out missalettes in our church benches. Every year - if they are used -  they break - a page or two comes out by November, the plastic breaks, pages get ripped and folded.

So too people, if we work, if we serve, if we are useful, if we help others, we break. Life.

THE TREASURE WITHIN

The key to the message is what’s inside the earthen vessel.

In the middle east people kept property deeds - in earthen vessels.

So too coins, jewelry, and  what have you.

We’re all made of clay.  It’s what’s inside that counts.

And Paul tells us all the things in life that can be inside us. They are realities of life that can make us valuable. We heard them again this morning: afflictions, persecutions, sickness, death - yes death. Get cancer or any sickness inside this clay pot, and  the struggle that results - the faith struggle that comes,  the questioning God that happens - can cause us growth. Suffering can bring us the treasure of wisdom and understanding. 

And it’s not just cancer - lots of other sufferings can be our teachers.  Loss of spouse, loss of children, family misunderstandings, loss of jobs, addictions, all that can make and/or break us.

I know a priest whose alcoholism - and his recovery in AA - helped make him a treasure house of kindness, understanding and wisdom.

I would guess the embarrassment that the Sons of Zebedee experienced because of their mom in today’s gospel - and the anger against them of the other 10 when they saw this happening - her wanting her sons to be #1 and # 2 - brought some changes into their life and her life. [Cf. Matthew 20:20-28.]

The glue of humility and learning from our mistakes is a crazy glue that works and repairs broken vessels.

Brokenness can do that….

AN EXAMPLE: THE CRACKED POT

Last night - in reading up on this first reading - I found a neat example called, “The Cracked Pot.”  It was in a sermon by a Missy Butler entitled, “Wonderfully Flawed.”

“Many years ago, in a very poor Middle East village, stood an ancient stone well. Alongside of that well sat two large watering pots [which people would use to bring water from the well to their homes]. One of them was like new, beautifully formed, even had graceful etchings along its curved handle.

“The other, not as new yet still useful, had become cracked over the years. Time after time, the pot was passed over by the people with the exception of a little village girl. She had grown fond of the neglected pitcher. Every day she would chose it instead of the beautiful pot.

“One morning, the old pot asked the little girl, ‘Why do you continue to use me, when you know I am flawed and cannot hold the water you and your family so desperately need?" The little girl spoke not a word, but carried the broken pot to a familiar pathway that she traveled daily.

“With her tiny voice she said, ‘This is why I pick you.’ There before the pot was a row of delicate wild flowers that had bloomed along the trail because of the water that had trickled and leaked from the pot. The buried seeds of the flowers had been watered as she made her way home each day. The cracked pot for the first time had seen its worth through the eyes of a grateful little girl.”

CONCLUSION

My conclusion is the last sentence in today’s first reading. Notice the word “overflow” in it. The sentence: “Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.”