STORM

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 13 Tuesday in Ordinary Time - July 4^th, is, “Storm.”

Storm! What a great name for a dog.

I grabbed that theme and that title from today’s gospel [Cf. Matthew 8: 23-27]

Jesus and his disciples got into a boat so as to  cross the Sea of Galilee.

Suddenly a storm comes up and almost swamps them. They panic, They wake up Jesus and say, “Lord, save us, we are perishing.”

Jesus says, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith.”

And Jesus calms down everything.

And they say, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”

CROSSING THE LAKE: STORM

In January of 2000 we were in Israel.  I was with about 25 priests - for a retreat. Our bus dropped us off at the edge of the lake or sea - of Galilee - with the idea we would go across the lake and then our bus would meet us at the other side. 

We got onto one of these small boats - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Paul. I don’t remember which one we were on. Each could hold 40 or so people. We set sail. Our retreat leader and guide, Father Stephen Doyle - a Franciscan from Philadelphia - read today’s gospel.  About 5 minutes later - up came a small storm. We have understood this gospel that much better for the rest of our lives.  Stephen Doyle pointed out two small hills or mountains - through which the wind would whip up - and come through  - with these sudden and quick storms on the lake.

We couldn’t cross the whole lake. We stayed near the top of the Sea of Galilee till we got to another dock where our bus met us.  The bus could see us as we moved along.

STORMS: NAME YOUR STORMS

Name your storms - troubles, problems, that suddenly popped up in your life.

It could be a death, an accident, a surprise - someone did something dumb in our lives - and we had to scramble and re-scramble our lives.

Everyone knows that people watch TV news to find out what’s new and what’s happening in our world.

Everyday there is a story of violence - from somewhere in the world.

Today’s first reading from Genesis sounds like the latest news coming out of Mosul in Iraq.  The TV scenes of that city look like what Sodom and Gomorrah must have looked like in its day. [Cf. Genesis 19: 15-29]

Everyone knows weather reports from watching TV.

Everyone knows we can’t always predict the weather.

Everyone knows John Lennon’s words - John Lennon of Beatle fame - shot and killed coming out of a hotel in New York City.

“Life is what happens when we are making other plans.”

Today- July 4^th - we commemorate the Declaration of Independence - although now historians and newspaper writers like to say it might have been July 2^nd.

Whatever…. A revolution was happening in the colonies.

King George III wrote in his diary for today, “Nothing of importance happened today.”

Little did he know what was happening in Philadelphia that day - or days around that date - before and after. There are different stories about all the events. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence kept quiet about their putting their name on the paper till at least January of 1777.

This weekend - we’re also looking at the storm called the Civil War and what happened July 1,2,3 in Gettysburg.

It takes a while to figure out what happens in storms - where they are named the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Katrina, Sandy or September 11^th.

So too our family and personal storms.

So too what’s happening in our world and our country these days.

Each of us stands there on a boat that is crossing our current sea - and we see what we see.

CONCLUSION

In the last few months - if I have heard it once - I’ve heard it a dozen times, someone saying,  “I’m scared and I hope another war is not going to happen. “

Each of us has to do our own praying and putting into words what’s hitting our hearts and minds and thoughts - and not cause more storms than necessary because of our mouths and our words. Amen.