PICKING  YOUR  PART

INTRODUCTION

The  title  of my homily is, “Picking  Your   Part.”

50 years ago - today - as you know - the  first people on the moon landed at 4:17 in the afternoon - July 20, 1969 - but they didn’t step out of the landing module till 7 hours later.

Relax - it’s a hot day - and we’ll be out of here before that.

TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Picking Your Part.”

On May 20^{th -}  I was in Washington Hospital Center for triple bypass heart surgery. My niece Patty drove to Annapolis from Reisterstown and picked me up here at St. Mary’s - that Monday morning at 3:45 AM. She got me to Washington Hospital Center at 5:30 and they prepped me for surgery at 6:30 AM. I woke up that night about 9:30 or so. There was Patty. It's great to have such a neat  niece.

That night and in the days to come I thought I was going to die. That night and in the days to come I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the parts I’ve  played in my life - especially as a priest and the scenes I’ve been in.

It’s now 2 months later - it’s July 21^th - and I have a lot of thoughts.

I just played the part of someone recovering from heart surgery.

Thank you God for a wonderful life and the chance to play the part of a priest.

Thank you God for all the wonderful people in my life - whom I have met on the stage of life. Priests meet a lot of people. Thank you for being some of those people.  Lucky me.

I think of Shakespeare’s line: “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”

I don’t know what stage in life I’m in right now.  I know I just played the part of priest for 17 years here at St. Mary’s Annapolis. Thank you God.

Thank you all for being on stage with me - for supporting me - for being so nice to me. Thank you for all the prayers and cards and hopes I’ve heard from you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

BEING AN ACTOR

I was blessed with a good education.  I was blessed with a good life choice.

Was it my choice or what to become a priest?  I’m still wondering about that.

First you act out that part - then hopefully one becomes that part.

Before I came here to Annapolis, August 2002, I worked with a guy named Tom and I heard him once say in a talk - a sermon - that when he was a small kid in OLPH Brooklyn - he saw a priest being a priest - at an OLPH novena service. And he said to himself, “I’d like to do that.” Then he added, “I’d like to try that.” Then he said, “I’d like to become a priest and I did.”

I’ve often wondered if I thought the same way.  I’m not sure. I heard a priest come into our Catholic grammar school classroom and tell us about his work as a missionary in Brazil. Then he asked us to raise our hand if we’re interested in being a priest some day.

I raised my hand - and it’s still up.

At times I’ve wondered, “What did I do?”  It’s been tough these past few years with the priest scandal - priests on the stage of life - playing the bad guy. Ugh.”

In the seminary I was blessed with being in lots of plays.

In college, in a play, Dracula,  I played the part of Renfield. He was a  weird character - who worked for Dracula  - the one who ate flies.  Fun part. Yum .... Yum .... Yum.

In another play, this one was in high school,  I played the part of Reggie. In Act 1, I played the part of someone  in their 40’s. Then as the play progressed, I slowly got younger. My lines in the 3^rd act were the easiest:  “Goo Goo! Ga. Ga!” “Boo Goo Goo Ga!”  That’s all I remember.

I once had the lead in another  play. We were in the first act and someone forgot their line. As you can imagine a second of silence on stage - with a forgotten line - feels like 10 minutes. I quickly grabbed a line and got the play going again. "The show must go on."

Well - when I did that -  I saw the director in the wings - waving his arms - “Oh no!” “No No No!”  Finally Act 1 ended. The curtain closed. I headed right towards the director and said, “What happened?”

“What happened? What happened!  You cut 4 people out of the play. Their names are on the program. Their parents are in the audience. Ugh!”

I don’t know if anyone else remembered that moment. But I did.  I’ve often worried about cutting people out of the play of life. I do it regularly in conversations.

I thought of this again last week  when I heard that John Means - the only Oriole on the American League All Star Team - didn’t get into the game.

Bummer. But that was the part he was asked to play: to be there as a long reliever - just in case the game got tied.

HOW TO READ THE SCRIPTURES.

Without knowing it,  by being in plays, I was learning a great way to read the scriptures - to hear the Bible stories. Take the script. Read the parts.

Listen to the story - especially if it has characters - and ask, “What part am I playing?”  “What part would I like to play?”  “What part don’t I want to play?”

Many of the Bible stories were acted out - before they were written out. They were shown -  so people can see themselves on the stage called, “Life.”

I also learned all this from a book called, That Man is You by Louis Evely.

Evely pointed out what the prophet Nathan did to David the king. He told David a story about a rich man stealing a sheep from a poor man. David  upon hearing the unfairness in the story,  asked, “Who is the man who did this? If he’s a member of my kingdom, I’ll punish him big time.”

At that  Nathan told David, “That man is you! You stole another man’s wife.”

Today we heard the story of Martha and Mary.  Did you hear Jesus' words to Martha, "Martha, Martha,  you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

I was wondering, is that where I got the thought and the title of this homily: "Picking Your Part"?

So who is more me in the Martha-Mary story? 

What part am I playing?  Serving? Working my butt off - but spending my life complaining?  Worried about everything - but missing out on the essential?

Last Sunday in the gospel  we heard the story about the Good Samaritan.  Which of the characters is me? Do I feel hurt, beaten up in life?  Do I walk by the hurting - like the priest or the Levite? Do I hurt others?  Or do I stop and help my brother or sister in need?

So a great way to read and hear the Bible is to pick a story. Pick it apart. Pick a part. Or ask, “Which part am I playing right now?”

Then ask, “What’s the message here for me?”

GRATEFUL

I’m glad my parents chose the part to love each other and chose to have 4 kids - especially that last one: me.

I am grateful for all the folks I have met on the stage of life in New York City - New Jersey - in Wisconsin - - on the road - in Ohio - in Pennsylvania - in upstate New York - Annapolis and in so many other places.

AFTERWARDS

I don’t know about you, but I learn from afterwards - after the play is over.

As I said, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and thanking for the past two months.”

Next, I was totally surprised when I got a phone call telling me that I was being transferred to a retreat house in New Jersey.  

Bummer?

Blessing?

I'll find out.

But now I'll  have a chance to figure out what I’ll learned  from 17 years here in Annapolis - well over 300 weddings - hundreds of funerals - 1,000 baptism - and having met so many different people - some I’ll figure out afterwards.

This got me thinking of a story I heard from a guy named Marty which he told at a family get together.

He told us about a cousin of his who went to Brooklyn for a family gathering one Thanksgiving.  He was  asked to run over to the local deli to get rye bread and some cheese and stuff - and he meets an old friend named Carol.

“Carol it’s great to see you?”

“What’s happened in your life since when we were kids here in Brooklyn?”

She says, “Well, what happened to you?”

He says, “Well, I got married and moved to New Jersey and I work in New York and I have 3 kids.”

“Nice,” she says.

And he says, “And Carol, what’s happened to you?”

She says, “You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Yeah, you’re Carol Klein. What’s happened to you?”

And she says, “I changed my name when I became a singer”

“Wow he says, “What’s your singing name?"

And she says, “Carol King.” Then she said, “You don’t know me.”

He started singing and yelling, “Carol King. Carol King. Oh my God You’re my favorite singer and I went on a date with my favorite singer and didn’t know it.”

I’m like that. I figure out things afterwards. I’ll look back at many of you whom I met here at Annapolis after I’m gone and say, “Wow!”

CONCLUSION

From her 1971 Tapestry  Album, I'm dating myself -  Carol King sang in one song these words that sum up for me much of my life - but afterwards, “My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue / An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view / ….  A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold / A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold.”

In another song - “So Far Away”….  It’s in that same album, Carol King also sang, “Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore? / It would be so fine to see your face at my door / It doesn't help to know you're just time away.”

I’m about to play that part this August - the  part of a human being on this stage called “Life.” who is moving.  It’s called. “The moving part.”  We all play it and let’s hope we all play it well on this stage called “Life.” 

Sometimes we pick it;  sometimes it’s picked for us.

Let’s hope we all learn from it - afterwards - and the learning is gratitude - especially for the people whom we were on stage with. Amen? Amen!