say God says. This is me now who's speaking. I hear God
frustrated - cringe - feel crushed
at all the things we think
God would want to say.
Maybe the solution is to slip
into what someone said of God,
“We are made in the image
and likeness of God.”
When I hear that, I hear God
saying, “Oh my God, are
you serious? Do they really
believe that? They got to be
kidding." Silence!
And, I hear God laughing at all this and saying, "Ooops I am God and I don't have a mouth, so I couldn't have said that, but if you want to be my image and likeness, be silent because I am silence. Listen."
that water to my right - on my way out - and that same water to my left - on my way home - it glistens, it gleams, it screams with liquid light - shaking and shaking - watery fabric - and that scene becomes my morning prayer: “Lord, let this day be a day of glisten - that I may see you in the eyes of those with whom I'll meet and work! And I know Lord, on the way home after a long day - a day I didn’t glisten like I’d love to. Work sometimes is too tough - too rough, too much. But - but, but, Lord, I still have 5 minutes to glisten again, before I drive up our driveway and open up our door and announce to my glistening one, "Honey, I’m home! Hello! Hi! Missed you."
The title of my homily for this 9 Tuesday in Ordinary
Time is, “Family Fights.”
When we drive down the street - any street - in any town
- we can assume that family fights go on from time to time - behind those closed
doors.
More or less….
We pray for the less….
We pray people get over their fights, spats, irritations
and disagreements …
We pray that forgiveness is on the menu.
We pray that a couple knows whether they have a short
fuse or a long fuse - and how to difuse a lit fuse.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT
FIGHTS
When I was a kid there were more boxing matches on TV
than today.
If I remember correctly, there used to be Monday Night
Fights, Wednesday Night Fights, and Friday Night Fights.
When I was a kid - and my parents were kids - and their
parents were kids - way before TV - generation
after generation, families had fights now and then - not scheduled for Monday,
Wednesday and Friday - but I’m guessing they are over the same thing - over and
over and over again. Déjà vu fights…. About strictness, about lateness, about
chores, about not carrying one’s load - about drinking, friends the kids hang
out with, etc. etc. etc.
I remember visiting a couple once and in the opening
conversation just inside the door, the husband said when the wife went into the
kitchen, “By the way, you walked into the middle of a fight. We didn’t plan it,
when we invited you over.” I thought to
myself, “Now what do I do?” Then when he
went to the bathroom, she said, “In case you didn’t notice, we’re in the middle
of a fight right now.”
Surprise.
I wondered as I was driving home from being in that house,
if I would have noticed a fight was going on - if they didn’t tell me.
FLORA DAVIS
Flora Davis once wrote, “Almost all married people fight,
although many are ashamed to admit it.
Actually a marriage in which no quarreling at all takes place may well
be one that is dead or dying from emotional undernourishment. If you care, you
probably fight.”
I’ve also read that all couples fight. It’s the making up
that makes the marriage work - that is, if folks learn how to make up well.
Now I don’t know if this is true of fights of parents
with their kids.
And I don’t know if this is true of fights of parents
with adult kids who have married or are graduated and live elsewhere - or have
come back to the nest. It’s cheaper.
The Marriage Problem List that made sense to me down
through the years was one I noticed in the New
York Daily News when I first got out of the seminary. “The three biggest
problems in every Marriage are: money, sex and in-laws.”
But not always….
The fight between Tobit and his wife Anna in today’s
first reading is about a goat. He gets her goat - by accusing her of stealing
the goat. She shoots back with the “holier than thou” label. I wondered as I read that - how many times
that fight and that labeling took place in that marriage.
When I read that, I thought to myself also: “That’s a
good idea for a sermon.”
CONCLUSION
Fighting, nitpicking, setting up for a fight goes on in
life. We heard it in the gospel. I wonder if these fights against Jesus - were
things these Pharisees and Herodians we heard about in the gospel - showed up
their families and in their homes as well. I’ve always noticed much of life is
déjà vu - over and over again - same basic fight - different situations -
different actors. Amen.
June 2, 2015
AIRPORT ROSES
I was sitting there in an airport waiting
for my plane. A guy with a great smile
and a dozen red roses just walked by.
He stopped to look at the arrival and departure scoreboard. He checked his watch for the exact time - and then sat down - some 10 yards across from me.
I was sitting there far enough away
to read his novel. A page turner?
A love story? A mystery? Whom was
this woman he came
to catch? Where was
she coming from? Is this their home?
I prefer reading these stories to books
in the airport magazines, books, last
minute gift stores. I am a people reader.
He looked 30. The white tissue paper that
wrapped the red roses was the cover of his novel. Will I be sitting here long enough to read the end of this chapter, this scene?
He stood up to walk over to double check
ARRIVALS once again. Just then the door
on the other side opened and out came
a crowd of arrivals. Which one was she?
I watched - loving the feeling of the moment on my face. And then he rushed towards the redhead in the wheel chair. He presented her the dozen red roses.
He got down on both knees to hug
and kiss her. She couldn’t get up. Wow. What’s that all about? What happened?
Is this her for life - in a wheelchair?
Wait a minute. How did he get in here?
He's not a passenger. Are they headed
for another flight? I sat there watching him wheeling her away - straight down
the center of the concourse.
Well, that’s another chapter. And I won’t be able to finish the book. Ugh. Bummer.
The title of my homily for this 9th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”
Today’s readings trigger this reality.
The history of the world can be summed up by the title of
Tolstoy’s epic novel, War and Peace.
It’s everyone’s story. It’s everyone’s novel - but war
and peace is not novel. Adam and Eve enjoyed paradise - and walked with God in
the cool of the evening - but a while later after the fall, Cain killed his own
brother, Abel.
“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”
I don’t know about you, but I wince when someone picks
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 for one of the readings for a wedding or a funeral. I like some of the lines, but I don’t like
hearing, “There’s a time for war and a time of peace.”
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s first reading from Tobit has this wonderful story
of Tobit not wanting to eat alone - so he sends his son Tobiah to go out and
invite some poor kinsman - an exile - to come and share a big meal with him.
The son goes out and accidentally finds one of their people
murdered in the marketplace - strangled.
He runs home and tells his dad. Tobit sprang to his feet
- went and found the murdered man - brought the body back to his house and put
him in one of his rooms - so he could
bury the man after sunset. Then he washed up - and ate his food in sorrow.
After sunset he dug a grave and buried the murdered man.
Today’s first reading ends by Tobit saying, “The
neighbors mocked me, saying to one another: ‘He is still not afraid! Once
before he was hunted down for execution because of this very thing; yet now
that he has scarcely escaped, here he is burying the dead!’”
“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”
Today’s psalm talks about a good person, “His generosity
shall endure forever, Light shines through the darkness for the upright; he is
gracious and merciful and just.” Notice the contrast in that comment: darkness
vs. generosity.
“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”
Today’s gospel talks about tenants beating the servants
of the vineyard they are renting two times and then killing the owner’s son the
third time - then we hear about violence begetting more violence and killing.
And today’s gospel ends with the message that they wanted
to kill Jesus because of his messages.
And basically he’s saying, “Violence Begets Violence,
Peace Begets Peace.”
Jesus went against the basic human instinct to get back,
to push for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Violence makes us blind - and we react back at those whom
we think wrongs us.
WE KNOW THIS
We know this. If
while driving someone rides up our backside - or beeps at us - or gives us the
finger on the road from another car - our blood can start to boil. And then an “uh
oh! can follow.
So too with comments and selfishness and disrespect. We
do something for another and expect “quid pro quo” but others sometimes don’t
do what we cant from them. They don’t do our will on how we want things to go -
and sometimes anger knocks on our door or is like a crashing wave hitting our
shore.
Down deep we know Jesus’ comments and commands about all
this for our own good. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek - go the extra
mile - because that turns the tide against retaliation. When he died on the
cross, he said, “Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they are
doing.” That works. It can stop the
cycle of violence.
It might take time, a long time, for Jesus’ example to
work - but it works according to Jesus.
ST JUSTIN
Speaking of violence, today is the feast of St. Justin
the Martyr. He was beheaded, because he followed Christ.
Eventually Christianity conquers. Eventually peace arrives - if we go the way
of the Peacemaker, Our Christ.
Notice that the church is beatifying Oscar Romero - who was
a martyr - like St. Justin in our time. He called the leaders and the powerful
- the military and the land owners - in El Salvador to stop the killing and the
violence and and controlling and crushing the poor.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily was, “Violence Begets Violence,
Peace Begets Peace.”
If you get a chance read Archbishop Romero’s life - or
see the movie about him - that is on TV from time to time. Romero had a
conversion of heart - moving towards the poor and those pushed to the margins.
That brought about his death - being shot while saying
Mass.
El Salvador is in a better place now - I’m sure with some
help - from the example of Oscar Romero and Oscar Romero’s death.
We Catholics of this area - celebrate this change in our
church - especially with the number of Salvadoran’s in our area - many of whom
moved north because of violence begotten in their midst - and the forces that
held them in poverty.
May peace take over! May war disappear.
June 1st, 2015
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
I discovered God in bread and wine,
ice cream bought for me and bacon
and eggs brought to me for breakfast.
Light and darkness - especially if there
are stars stuck in the middle of that dark.
I discovered God in mistakes and failures,
especially sin - better when I heard God
say I understand - but “Don’t be dumb!”,
“Don’t hurt others!”, “Don’t hurt yourself!”
And please, try, try -- try again and again.
I discovered God in mornings - after a
good sleep - seeing parents with kids while
going by swings at the park or teaching
their kids how to ride a bike or hit a
ball or catch a football or shoot a basket.
I’ve discovered God at weddings, boring
Church services, funerals filled with hurt
and tears, seeing silent - but powerful
sunsets - and the sky is filled with red,
orange and spray painted clouds in the West.
I’ve discovered God when I wasn’t looking
for God - at work, in songs, on back roads,
traffic jams, in conversations with strangers,
sitting next to them on planes - and at times when I pray, but not always. Then there's the experience of love in relationships, family, friendships and God in the mix of it all.
