IS ANYTHING
SACRED
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 21 Wednesday in Ordinary
time is, “Is Anything Sacred?”
We were watching NCIS last evening. It was a rerun.
Gibbs disappeared - and they looked everywhere - till
they discovered he had gone undercover for an old, old case. He had spotted
someone from way back while looking out the window of the diner he often goes
to.
Quinn and Bishop [?] are checking his house - to see if
he was there - but they had no luck.
However, Quinn broke a plate. Bishop said
he can always get another one.
She could only see the underside of the plate - so Quinn
said to her, “Not this plate.” It was a
plate that Gibbs’ little girl made when
she was in the 3rd grade and made it for her parents. It had a kids drawing and writing on it.
The plate was sacred. The plate was special. The plate
was unique.
HOUSTON
FLOODING
We were also watching the evening news - earlier - and
there were all kinds of scenes showing people with plastic bags getting into
boats - heading for higher ground.
Imagine all the sacred photos, knickknacks, afghans from
grandmothers, that people grabbed as the water was rising?
They were grabbing what they cherished as sacred.
ANY HOUSE
If you went into any house, any room of any person, and
you would find out that everyone has their sacred treasures - that connect us
to each other - often to people long gone.
What are your sacred items?
They are unique to every person. They are special to
every person.
The title of my homily is, “Is Anything Sacred?”
If I can get a person to state that some object that they
own is precious, sacred, unique, then I can point out an important teaching.
The message is this: we are the ones who consecrate the
object.
We are the ones who make an object sacred.
Then I can jump to places. We all have sacred places -
like where we proposed marriage to someone.
Then I can jump to people. We are the ones who name
another person as sacred. That’s why we cry at a loved one’s loss.
That naming is stamping another person, place or thing -
with sacredness and the naming is invisible.
YESTERDAY - A
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Yesterday - after the Mass here for the juniors - I was
standing in the back of this church - waiting to say goodbye to as many kids as
possible - to wish them a good day and a good new year here at St. Mary’s.
A man walked in before the kids started down the aisle.
He held up his cellphone to take a picture. I said, “If you can wait for 5
minutes, all the kids will be out and you can take a picture of the sanctuary
up close.
The man said to me, “Today is our wedding anniversary. My
wife and I were married here at St. Mary’s 19 years ago today.
Not all days are the same. Some days are more sacred than
others.
The man told me that his wife and their 2 teenagers are
over in Ireland for a 2 week vacation. He said he couldn’t go - but he would
stay home with Mollie their little kid. Their little girl would cut down on the
mobility of the 3 to so some neat traveling. He convinced his wife and Mollie
that he would take Mollie to see Great Adventure - and be in Switzerland,
Germany, France and Britain.
So I walked up front with the man and had his phone ready
for the picture when Ginny said, “Let me take the picture. It’s not your
talent.”
The guy stood there where couples stand every Saturday at
a wedding. He took off his wedding ring and pointed it to the camera - and he
said, “I’ll send this picture right to my wife in Ireland.”
It was a sacred moment.
It was in a sacred place. The guy wanted to share that moment - their
day - with each other - in a unique way.
CEMETERIES
What triggered this thought for today was the first part
of today’s gospel - Matthew 23: 27-28. Listen to it again.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the
outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even
so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with
hypocrisy and evildoing.
The Gospel of the Lord
Jesus must have been standing there and he spotted some
Pharisees strutting - to make themselves
look better than others. Then he looked over his shoulders and spotted a
cemetery - with it’s beautiful whitewashed tombs - but underneath there was the
smell of death.
SACRED OBJECTS
I looked around my room and with this box I gathered a
few sacred objects from my room.
Here is a porcelain cross that a little girl named Harper
game me 3 weeks ago. She and her family life in London, but she wanted to make
her first holy communion here in this parish. By this request - by this
behavior - she’s telling me that she senses the sacredness of this place.
Here is a lapel pen - that has the fleur-de-ly on it. It
looks just like the fleur-de-ly lapel pins from our parish. I put it on my suit
jacket. Some little tiny kid came up to me after Sunday Mass and handed it to
me. His parents said the family was in New Orleans and they saw this New Orleans Saint lapel pin
is the same as they have in St. Mary’s. Then he added, “And I want to buy this
for Father Andy.”
That was at least 3 years ago. That’s how things and
moments become sacred.
Next - about a month ago someone handed me a plastic bag
of photographs and stuff from my sister who had died two and a half years ago.
Inside I found this envelope and on the outside it said,
“Ring.” Well I opened up the envelope
and there it was, the Claddagh ring my sister Peggy, a nun, wore most of her
life.
There is a world of difference between a Claddagh ring in
a jewelry store than one that was on a person’s finger for most of her life as
a nun.
Next - here is a small plastic bottle of prescription pills.
It has an expiration date of September 1988. [SHAKE BOTTLE]. Now when I die
someone will toss this out along with my prescriptions.
But this little bottle of cancer pills was my brothers and when he died I took this
out of the medical cabinet in his bathroom. [SHAKE IT]. It is sacred to me when
he died of cancer at 51 years of age.
Notice this watch I’m wearing. It’s a Rolex. I met a man
with a gold Rolex watch the other night. It was worth 25,000. Mine is $37
dollars. It’s fake - but it has more meaning to me than the $25,000 Rolex - which
I had asked him to wear for 10 seconds.
Mine was lighter.
Which one is more valuable?
What would make a watch invaluable?
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily was, “Is Anything Sacred?”
My thought is: “Check everyone - and we will find out - ‘Everyone
has some things they find sacred.’”
Then build on that and realize: Besides sacred things we
all have our sacred places and persons.”
Building on that: pause before anyone thrashing or
hurting another - or someone’s sacred places
- but especially another.
1 comment:
Sacred places, sacred faces , sacred things .
I had never thought about it , but
Sacred places -grave of my husband and daughter .Sacred faces - my children and grandchildren's faces . Sacred things - my wedding ring , my husband's and the Celtic cross he brought back from Ireland .
Always my garden brings me the peace of God . Guess thats sacred .
Thank you for helping me be aware . Blessings .
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