RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9^th Monday in Ordinary Time is,  “Random Acts of Violence.”

We’ve heard of the Random Acts of Kindness movement - where people pay for tolls of the next three or four cars that come through the cash toll booth. Or people just stop a stranger and compliment them for a neat dress or tie or shoes - or what have you.

An offshoot of this - I believe - has been the Flash Mob movement - when people are in a Mall or a train station - and all of a sudden 100 people start singing and dancing a choreographed song or two. Surprise!

I also wonder if the Make a Wish - or Kids Wish - or Twilight Wish - Foundations - are also offshoots of this attitude of Random Acts of Kindness.

TODAY’S READINGS

As I read today’s two readings I was hit by the violence in the first reading from Tobit. Tobit is about to eat a great meal and he sends out his son, Tobiah,  to find a random poor person and invite that person to share the meal with them. While out searching,  Tobiah discovers that one of their kinsfolk has been murdered, strangled, in the marketplace. Then Tobit goes and gets the body - this was before CSI - and then buries the dead person.  Today’s gospel talks about a man with a vineyard - who rents out his land to tenant farmers - who beat up and / or kill  the owner’s servants when they come for rent. Then they kill his son.

Violence. 

As one pages through the stories in our Bible - one can turn random pages and hear of random acts of violence - especially if one reads the crucifixion accounts. But way before that, the Bible has many stories of violence from Cain killing his brother Abel to the unnamed man who was beaten up and robbed on the road to Jericho. 

Today’s Mass - June 3rd - commemorates Charles Lwanga and the Uganda martyrs - 22 of whom were Catholic - and various others who were Anglican. If you read their story, it’s filled with sexual abuse of minors and then violent murders in Uganda - back in the late 1880’s.

We can have the same experience reading the daily newspaper.

I was visiting my sister and brother-in-law once and they watch the news from 5 to 6 coming out of Philadelphia - and then 6 to 6:30 - basically the same news - and then the network news at 6:30 to 7 - then Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and then the local evening news from 10 to 10:30 or so. Well this time their son, Gerard, says, “Why in the world do you watch the news? The first 3 stories are always 3 murders in Philadelphia and the next 3 stories are 3 fires in Camden, New Jersey. Sure enough the news came on and he was close.

OKAY, NOW WHAT?

Okay, that’s true. I don’t remember what my sister said next, but they still do that - not randomly - but regularly.

Okay, is there a message in this for us?

One obvious message would be to shut the TV off and talk to each other or play cards or monopoly or do a jigsaw puzzle while talking to each other - or by oneself while reflecting on life and one’s day and one’s circumstances.

Another obvious message would be to join the Random Acts of Kindness movement.

Another message - I don’t know how obvious this would be - but what would it be like to picture ourselves as a News Program - and we’re giving the news 24 -7 - 365? 

It seems to me that violence sells - the negative brings the ratings - and the advertising dollars - and in saying this I’m being negative - but on our broadcasting network to make a deliberate decision - not to be random - but to broadcast good news each day. In general the ABC, NBC, CBS evening news has a feel good story as the last story in their show. Could I on my daily news program change that pattern - and broadcast good news most of the time.

But some would respond: “Well, most of the news out there is bad news!”  I would respond with a question: “Is it?”

I wonder if it is a question of being an optimist or being a pessimist. Which of the two am in the famous quote: “Two people looked out prison bars. One saw mud; the other saw stars.”  Which am I?

Last week, Father Kevin Milton and I saw the movie 42 - the story of Jackie Robinson -  and one of the scenes in the movie that hit me was that of a man scream nasty comments in Cincinnati - where the Dodgers were playing the Reds. Next to the man was his small son - watching his dad screaming horrible things at Jackie Robinson. Then the boy started repeating the nasty comments in imitation of his dad. Then both see Pee Wee Reese from Kentucky - right below Cincinnati - going over and talking to Jackie Robinson - shaking his hand - and putting his arm on his shoulder. Pee Wee Reese had received death threats about playing baseball with a black man.

The camera then focuses on the face of the boy seeing Pee Reese and then looking up to his father’s face. What next?

I don’t know about you - I hear too many people sounding like the TV news stations they listen to - from the Right and from the Left.

CONCLUSION

My suggestion is twofold: Read Bernard Goldberg’s book called Bias and become a thinker - when it comes to our mind and our mouth. By the way Bernard Goldberg is often on Fox News.

Second: think about the news’ broadcasts that come out of my mouth and choose life - not death - as the great quote in the Deuteronomy puts it:  I place before you life and death …. and then Moses says, “Therefore choose life.”

Choose random acts of kindness - not random acts of violence.

2

Quote for Today - June 3, 2013

"A genius is a man who has two great ideas."

Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

Questions:

Do you have two great ideas - and can you name them?

It says "a man." If that is mankind - ooops - humanity - oops humankind -  better people - okay - but if it  means males - then do women have more than two great ideas - because of their ability - to multi-task and multi-idea any given situation?

"PLEASE,  SIR, 

I WANT SOME MORE."

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Please, Sir, I Want Some More.”

Most of us know the famous scene in Oliver Twist - the book by Charles Dickens - or we know the movie or musical version - the scene when Oliver walks up to the man in the workhouse who is serving food, and says, “Please, Sir, I Want Some More.”

Oliver is chosen by lot - to be the one - the one who would step up and stand out and go up and ask for more food - "food glorious food" - as the song in Oliver,  the musical,  puts it. The kids in the workhouse - orphanage - are starving.

They get just one ladle of thin gruel - food -  3 times a day - 2 onions per week - and a half a roll of bread on Sunday. That certainly doesn't sound so glorious - but to a hungry stomach - it might just be "Food glorious food!"

Because Oliver stands up and speaks out,  he’s hit. He’s also put in detention. Then a sign is posted outside the house of detention. “Does anyone want to buy a servant?”

And as a result, Oliver is sold into slavery as a servant.

It also ends up being Oliver’s way to freedom - eventually.

The gist of the story - is that Oliver Twist - is everyone of us.

All of us stand there with bowl in hand - and we are starving for more.

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Today as you know from the readings is the feast of Corpus Christi.

Today on this Feast of Corpus Christi, all of us with hands in the shape of a bowl - stand here on this planet  begging for more.

We beg for food, for love, for acknowledgement, recognition, a place in the line - a place at the table - a place in the sun - a ticket to freedom - a “Ticket to Ride” as the Beatles sang it.

We are starving for family, for fun, for faith, for hope, for charity, for meaning - and some would say: “Down, down deep we’re hungry for a down deep connection with God.”

That fits in with a statement I once heard on an Alcoholics Anonymous Retreat that I was part of in Michigan, “The alcoholic is looking for God at the bottom of a bottle.”

Someone said, “God himself dare not appear to a hungry man except in the form of bread.”

So, it’s no accident that God comes to us as food - for God too is starving for more - for more Love. God is waiting on line for us to be in communion with Him.

After all, God is Love.

As priest I have heard any number of people who came back to Church saying they came back for one reason: "I missed going to communion."

And I could tell when they said that, they realized, they discovered,  that going to communion is not a me-me moment - but an “I-Thou” moment with God.

Me-me doesn’t work in religion or marriage or life. Communion, connection, we’re in this together does work.

God - as Christians know and are told - is Three Persons - so in love They are One. 

And we know that feeling from time to time in the great moments of life - in marriage and family and team - when two, three, four, many are one.

And when we are in communion with God - morning moments on beaches - or night moments looking into a starry night as we see it or as Vincent Van Gogh pictured it in his painting "The Starry Night" - can move us deeply.

Sometimes beauty brings us to God. 

Sometimes it's the beast that does it as well: suffering, not being heard or appreciated as we hear in Don McLean's song, "Vincent", a song about Van Gogh.

However, it takes time - effort - deliberation - reflection - awareness - pausing when we are experiencing the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and light bearing mysteries of life - for us to realize God is in this experience or happening.

We know those moments. We have experienced them. They are marriage moments with the one, one loves - or graduations - or weddings of kids - or anniversaries - or funerals - or cancer moments - or being there at the finish line for someone in the family who runs a marathon and finishes in 4 hours and 15 minutes or what have you - or the whole extended family is there for a kid who has moved on in a Spelling Bee - and a little sister has flowers for her sister in the contest whether she wins of loses and grandma has her box of tissues.

I love it when parents come up the aisle in church at communion time with kid in hand and the kid seeing mom or dad getting the Bread - receiving Jesus - and the kid wants the bread as well.  I’m sure we’ve all seen a kid reach out and then complain or cry - or whine - because she or he didn’t get the bread.

I love it at First Communion time every spring in every church when kids make their First Communion.

"Body of Christ!" "Amen!"

Food glorious food.

I like it at Thanksgiving when there is no kids’ table - when all are at the same table if possible for food - for Thanksgiving Food - for love.

I was the youngest of four and the last to be in the high chair away from the family table - away from eating with the rest - and I also hated the dish rag - that had every smell in the world in it - and it was used to wash loose food off my face. Uggggg.

It’s tough being a child.

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi - the Body of Christ.

JUNIOR RETREAT

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I  was with 3 bus loads of our St. Mary’s high school junior class on retreat in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

We got there just in time for lunch. It was hamburgers - and chips - cheeseburgers - and the kids must have eaten junk food etc. on the way up on the bus or they weren’t hungry or they were used to Five Guys hamburgers or what have you - and a lot of plates of hamburgers were not eaten.

They didn’t seem to be hungry for hamburgers - or for food - at the moment.

That always gives me a sense of the starving people of China, India, Africa - or wherever our parents thought there were starving kids and we weren’t eating what was in front of us.

I’ve been on lots and lots of high school retreats and the challenge has always been to have kids find out what they are hungry for: notice, not looking stupid, friendships, not feeling alone,  meaning, sense, song, fun, throwing a Frisbee on great green lawns and fields, sunshine on one’s shoulders, laughter, connection - a good time.

I’m always hoping on retreats that glimpses of God come shining through - the desire, a fire, a spark for God - that it’s enkindled.

I am aware that teenagers are in all kinds of places.

I never forget the book, “We Were Never Their Age” - because it stressed listening and not assuming this generation is the same as my generation.

I am also aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: that the needs of the world - the needs of every person - are basically the same.

If any of us were in Oliver’s shoes - being a starving kid - or adult - anywhere in the world - we would want to stand up and say, “Please, Sir, I want some more.”

I am always hoping on a teen's retreat - when they are at Mass - or at a talk - or at a serious moment - they will get serious - they will unconsciously remember - if they are Catholics - not all are - what it was like that moment years ago when they reached out their hand and mouth for the Body of Christ - Holy Communion - for the first time.

I’m always hoping at every wedding or funeral that I have - when I know there are lots of people in church - who might not have been in here for the longest time - that a  hunger for God appears -  and is felt.

I hope they whisper at least a whimpering little childlike, “Please, God, I want you more than I have in the last bunch of years.”

CONCLUSION

At the age of 73 - after being a priest all these years - after thousands and thousands of Masses - the Mass makes more and more sense to me.

I also realize we come to many Masses, but we’re not always here. I know I'm not.

We eat thousands and thousands of meals in a life time - but we’re not always hungry.

We talk thousands and thousands of conversations with each other - but we’re not always listening or in communion with each other.

But when we are - when we’re holding each other - after a long time apart - when we’re having a great meal together - when we are at a Mass and it all makes sense - it’s at that moment - that we know the more of life and we want that more.

It’s then we’re like Oliver and we say to God, “Please, Sir, I want some more.”

It’s then we might find ourselves out of slavery and on our way to freedom.

“Please, God, I want some more.” 

BREAD

Quote for Today - June 2,  2013

“The well-fed person and the hungry one do not see the same thing when they look upon a loaf of bread.” 

Rumi

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

Quote for Today  June 1, 2013

"In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses."

Russell  Baker, The New York Times, Oct. 3, 1967

Questions and Comments:

Agree or disagree?

Around 1797 there was a comment that was floating around: "Religion acts merely as an opiate." It appeared in the L'Historie de Juliette by the Marquis de Sade and in Novalis.

Karl Marx said in 1843, "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." It appeared in his Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843)

Charles Kingsley wrote around 1848, "We have used the Bible as if it were a mere special constable's hand book, an opium dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded, a mere book to keep the poor in order." He was a Canon in the Church of England. 

Madalyn Murray O'Hair said, "Marx was wrong - religion is not the opiate of the masses, baseball is."

Do you consider any thing in your life to be like a drug - something you are addicted to: television, the computer, solitaire?

QUOTATIONS

Quote for Today - May 31, 2013

"I hate quotations, tell me what you know."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, December 20, 1822

BIOGRAPHY 

AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Quote for Today - May 30, 2013

"There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography."

Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin, 1973