WRITE YOUR CONFESSIONS
The title of my homily for is, “Write Your Confessions.”
Today - August 28th, is the feast of St. Augustine. When his name is mentioned the
word “confessions” pops up by association - that being the name of his famous
book.
Confession meaning statements of religious belief - how one
sees God in the details of one’s life - how one sees God walking with us in the
unfolding or unraveling or the weaving or quilting party of one’s life.
Confessions could be announcing where I see God in the pages
and stages of my life.
We’ve all heard the cliché that the devil is in the details
- meaning making plans and making general statements - they are easy - compared
to the struggle and the work to get the details and the specifics done.
Well confessions fit the opposite cliché: “God is in the
details” and spelling them out is one of the meanings of making a confession of
faith - or writing it out.
SURPRISE - A DISCOVERY IN A DESK OR A BOTTOM DRAWER
Wouldn’t it be interesting if your kids in rummaging through
your stuff after you die, someone finds in a desk or a bottom drawer, our Memoirs
or Diary or Confessions?
Wouldn’t that be interesting? What would be their reaction
to it - reading our take on life - our take on family - our take on religion -
God - the ups and downs, the ins and outs of our experiences - doubts -
difficulties - and expressions of great joy and wonder and celebration.
Augustine left us a lot of sermons and three books: The City of God, On the
Trinity and the Confessions. His
book, his Confessions, is his
book - his comments about life and how God finally overwhelmed him
after a lot of meandering in sin and various religions and philosophies -
and he finally discovers how God has
been leading him forward.
Every time I’ve read Augustine’s Confessions, I’ve been moved
by it - so too - so many people.
LISTEN AND READ AND WRITE
Read any good confessions lately, any good autobiographies,
any good stories. Have you listened to anyone tell you their life stories
lately? How about that of your parents if they are still around?
I always like to push from the pulpit for folks to write their autobiography,
their memoirs, the value of jotting down the details of one’s life. Genealogy
could be the first step - which can lead to confessions of faith.
I was able to sit down with my dad before he died - and
write down about 40 pages of notes - on a yellow legal pad. I was able to tape
my mom before she died. And way back in 1996 - while in Ireland - I sat down with my father’s brother, Coleman. They told me if I went over to see
him - just the two of us - he would speak in English. He was in his late 80’s
and I was able to get a few hours notes on my father’s life. The questions I
asked back then were detail questions. The questions I have now - well it’s too
late - except I like to talk to my sister Mary about what was going on in my
mom and dad’s minds - Mary having been with them much of their lives.
In a way my feelings of “too late” are sort of the very
words of Augustine in his Confessions about loving God, “Too late I loved you,
O Beauty ever ancient, ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were
within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”
So there are questions I have of my parents - and it’s too
late. If yours are alive and you can talk with them, talk with them.
CONCLUSION: PUSH, PUSH!
Back to the main point of this homily, Write Your
Confessions.
I have made this suggestion
to various people down through the years. This is one more push. My dream
is that someone took me up on it and after they die, their kids find in their
stuff, their memoirs or confessions or autobiography.
And when someone has said to me, “I wouldn’t know where to
start” or “I wouldn’t know how to do it,” I say, “Take someone else’s
autobiography and see how they lay out their life.”
Take Augustine’s Confessions
or The Seven Storey Mountain of
Merton or Surprised by Joy by C.S.
Lewis or any of the many autobiographies in any library or bookstore.
Augustine heard the words in the garden, “Take up, read.
Take up, read.” And he read the great
text of St. Paul
in Romans 13:11 - it was time to wake up - to put off the works of darkness -
and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I’m saying: take up a
ballpoint pen and get a good pad. Jot down the details of your life. Or do it
on a computer. Then reflect deeper on the details and see God behind your
story. Write them out and you’ll have your Confessions - like that of St. Augustine.
And surprise, after you die, maybe someone will discover
them deep in a bottom drawer or deep inside a computer.
