WHAT’S SHE LIKE?
WHAT’S HE LIKE?
The title of my homily for this 14th Sunday in
Ordinary Time is, “What’s She Like? What’s He Like?”
QUESTIONS –
QUESTIONS - QUESTIONS
One of these years I’m going to sit down and write down Life’s Ten Most Frequent or should it
be Life’s Ten Top or Significant Questions?
I think that would be an interesting exercise. I’m
assuming some of those questions would be: What’s for supper? Where’s the
bathroom? Are you listening? How much does it cost? What’s the weather going to be like? Is it
worth it? What now? What’s next? When do you want this? How long is this going
to take? How much time do I have l left? What would happen if this is cancer?
Are you sure? Is it any good? What would you recommend? Who are you?
I would assume that there is a significant difference between Significant Questions and Most Frequent Asked Questions.
My question for today, “What’s She Like?” or “What’s He
Like?” would fit in the category of Most Significant Questions.
We ask it when getting a new boss or supervisor or
teacher or priest or neighbor. We ask it
when our kid starts dating someone. Then another series of questions can follow: Who asks the the dating whom question more: a dad or a mom? Do dads ask that more about whom a daughter is dating? Do our kids ask that question
enough: What’s this person I'm dating really like – like down deep other person – who are
you and what are you really like?
WHAT’S GOD
LIKE?
I was wondering if we ever ask that question of or about
God.
What’s God like?
I was wondering if we sculpt with words and images and
experiences our image and likeness of God.
We do this of others. And sometimes – in time – we
discover the other is not the person we thought the other person to be.
We’ve all heard about the 6 people in every marriage: the
she I thought she was; the she, she thought she was; the she, she really is; the
he I thought he was; the he, he thought he was; the he, he really is.
In the meanwhile to further complicate all this people change. How much? How significant? For better or for worse? Or are we
basically the same personality – all our lives?
I love to quote something I heard a Dallas, PA, Sister Maureen McCann say in a talk she
was giving. “Life is illusion, disillusionment, and then decision.”
We’ve all had that experience when it comes to things we
buy: computers, cars, weight loss pills, diets, dreams, the meal that turned
out nothing like we thought the menu described it or pictured it.
Back to our image and likeness of God.
Do we have a different perception of God than how we
understood, pictured, imagined God to be 10, 20 or how many years ago?
MICKEY MANTLE
I remember someone telling me about one of their
childhood heroes: Mickey Mantle. Someone said if you wait outside Yankee
Stadium after a game – and you hand Mickey Mantle a post card with your name
and address and a stamp on it, he’ll sign it and drop it in the mail for you.
The guy - who was telling me this experience said –
standing there after the game - he got the card into Mickey Mantle’s hand and
he took it – got into a car – and they headed down the street driving away from
Yankee Stadium. Then he said, “I saw this hand go out the back window – and I
saw that hand drop a crumbled something into the street. I ran up to where the paper or card was – and
sure enough there was my discarded postcard.
Sometimes our idols fall off their platforms.
What’s God like?
What are these people all around me like?
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s readings triggered these thoughts and these
questions.
In today’s first reading - Zechariah the Prophet pictures
God as a King – but a king who is meek – and who comes riding into town on
donkey.
The history of world has had kings and leaders and
generals and popes riding into town – in limos or tanks or chariots o– but only
1 moment – when a king rode into town on a donkey as promised.
We hear that story every Palm Sunday – commemorating the
day Jesus did just that.
And just as Zechariah promised – Jesus proclaimed peace.
In today’s second reading from Romans – God is presented
as Spirit – who wants to dwell within us
- in our flesh – indicating to us and our world – we are flesh – but we
are more than flesh.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells us about God as a Father –
the Lord of Heaven and earth. Then he tells us that he is the Son – and if you
know the Son – you know the Father.
Then he uses the image of a yoke – something a rural
people would know about – seeing animals yoked
together as beasts of burden – to work the earth, the farm fields of
life.
How many times have we seen people pushing a shopping
cart – or pulling two suitcases – struggling with 3 kids – and some packages –
and they are trying to get through a door – and another stops to help – that
person get to where they want to get.
Yes at times we are like a beast of burden – in a yoke –
and life seems so, so difficult – and life is easier when we realize Jesus is
with us – helping us – yoked with us - all our days even to the end of the
world.
KEY POINT – THE
POINT OF THIS SERMON
The title of my homily is, “What’s She Like? What’s He
Like?”
Maybe the other person is not the person I think he or
she is?
Maybe the person I think Jesus is – isn’t really the
person Jesus us. In fact, a good question to ask: which of the 4 Gospels and
Paul presents best whom I see Jesus to be?
Maybe the God I think God is – isn’t really God?
Maybe the person I think I am or I’m supposed to be – is
not the person I ought to be.
Maybe I have made life too tough for me – or too easy for
me to be.
It’s good to talk to each other and to God about these
things.
It’s good to hear Jesus’ words from today’s gospel, “Come
to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
It’s my experience that some people make life too tight,
too tough, too rough, too rigid – on themselves?
It’s my question then: do they see God that way – because
that’s the way they are to themselves?
Then the question: is God the way I see God or is God the
way God is?
Maybe I’m wrong – but there can be a lot of self-centeredness
in all of us – along with judgment and projections on to others from our bias
and our way of seeing life.
The sin of idolatry is to make an image of God and
worship that image.
Nobody today – at least in the Christian tradition – has
a secret statue of God – that they secretly worship – when nobody is looking.
But maybe we have an image and likeness of God within our
minds – that we run our lives on – and that image is false.
We do this to each other. Why can’t we realize we do this
to God?
I suspect the first experience of heaven is going to be,
“Oh my God, was I wrong about you – who you really are.”
I think of Lou Holz, the former football coach, who said,
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it."
And
I suspect that 90 % of the time we respond to life with an image of God and
ourselves that is not the God Jesus is revealing to us.
CONCLUSION
I was fortunate to live and work with an old priest
once — who used to say —when folks
were ranting and raving about different things happening in our church and world, 1 don't think Jesus meant life
to be as tough as this person makes it out to be."
Thanks
for saying that Father Alfred Rush — and when I die — I hope to see you at the edge of the crowd when I meet God and I
see your smile and your wink. Amen.
