WHO  DO  YOU 

THINK  YOU  ARE? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Who Do You Think You Are?”

That’s a question that is often asked of others - especially when they seem to be uppity.

It’s a good question.

It can also be a nasty question - when it’s a dig against someone else.

It’s  a great question when we ask it of ourselves - especially when we bring it to prayer - and in communion with God.

How would you answer that question: “Who do you think you are?”

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from 1 Kings begins with the words, “The queen of Sheba....”

When I read that, it triggered the comment I’ve heard of others: “Who does she think she is: the queen of Sheba?”

Here in the 1^st Book of Kings, the queen of Sheba is a queen who comes to see the famous king of Israel, Solomon.

She comes with a lot of servants  - probably also with guards and soldiers - as well as a whole herd or caravan  or flock or train of camels - carrying gold, jewels and spices. 

This is what people do when visiting heads of state. A friend of mine, Anthony Dragonetti, worked on the two Boehm birds - porcelain swans - the Birds of Peace, which President Richard Nixon in 1972, brought to China - for  Mao Tse-tung. Instead they were presented to Premier Zhou Enlai.

He told me it was valued at $150,000 when a similar pair were sold in London 5 years later.

We can picture that scene - as well as the Queen of Sheba scene - arriving at Solomon’s house. We’ve seen that in lots of movies - with similar scenes.

This queen Sheba is important. The reference books say she might have come 1200 miles. She might have been from Yemen or then again from Ethiopia. Her real agenda might have been trade - and not the quest for wisdom.

For my purposes, all this doesn’t make much difference. I just want to put her on a pedestal. Then I would like to contrast her and Solomon with a picture of Jesus as the total opposite. Jesus was a servant - kneeling on the floor washing feet  - a criminal who dies on the cross - pictured wearing only a loin cloth.

Come to think about all this, in a way, my using the Queen of Sheba as uppity is not fair. I have no clue in the world, what her personality was like.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus says what’s important is not what the externals are like - but what our heart is like.

We’ve all heard wisdom teachers poke fun of folks who think their you know what is different and smells differently  than everyone else’s. I heard an old Italian lady talking about a stuffy priest - describing him as thinking out of him came ice cream and Pepsi Cola.

Don’t be surprised with that commment. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel.  Notice the word “latrine”.

HUMILITY

Jesus modeled humility - a word that comes from humus - earth - from which we were sculpted by God - right there at the beginning of the Book of Genesis.

If there is one issue that hit Jesus’ button, it was show offs - especially when it comes to putting others down.

As kids, if we were being uppity, my mother used to say, “Who do you think you are, Lord Killanin?” Translated: don’t think you’re the Queen of Sheba or King Solomon. Be real. Be humble.

Lord Killanin was an Irishman who was made head of the OCI - Olympic Committee International. I never found out how my mother knew of him.  He wasn’t rich. In his Olympic job he had to ask for money. Those who had that job before him - were quite rich. He wasn't.

We never knew who Lord Killanin was, but in checking this out for this homily, I found out that my mom was wrong about Lord Killanin.

Lord Killanin was wanted by some of those in the Olympic committees because some of those in the Olympic movement  wanted Apartheid to be broken. They wanted Taiwan included in the Olympics and not just China. There was a story that Lord Killanin was sitting on a bench in South Africa with a dark skinned person and the police came over and said, “You’re not allowed to sit together.”

I don’t know what happened next, but I assume Lord Killanin said, “Watch me.”

To be fair to my mom, she was only referring to him as a big shot and that we kids should not act like big shots with our noses up in the air.

OPTICS

The word that is uppity lately is “Optics.”

When people see you - whom do they see? How do they see you?

A test would be how we treat the waiter or waitress.

A test would be for us to ask ourselves how we see ourselves?

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily was, “Who Do You Think You Are?

My message was: don’t be uppity.

My message was change some of those LOVE commands in the New Testament to SERVE commands.