Rings and things …. Scars and screams …. Hawthorn tree furniture …. Some marriages …. Some mistakes …. Getting into college …. Those who have gone before us …. That sermon in 1979 …. Jesus – Alpha and Omega….
“When
one tugs at a single thing in nature, he
finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
John Muir
Monday, December 13, 2021
December 13, 2021
SOME SONGS
Some songs are the seeds beneath the snow that burst open in the springtime – songs that resurrect the soul – especially when it has died to death in a winter of hurt – especially when love has forgotten how to dance, how to chance a new bud of love – an ache once more in the heart. Spring! Always hope for the return of the Rose!
The title of my homily for this Third Sunday in Advent is, “Do.”
It’s a basic word we learn very early on.
It’s only 2 letters in English.
As in, "Do the dishes."
Or, "Do your homework."
Add a letter to the word "do" and you have a dog.
Add two letters and you have a door.
Kids start off learning - by learning the alphabet.
Then they learn sight words and phonics.
Sight words are just basic words you just have to learn.
You can’t picture them or break them in half or into parts like you can do in
phonics.
Sight words are words like AND or DO or YOU or PLAY or
ONE.
Kindergarten kids get a list of 100 or so of them or they have
them on flash cands and you just have to memorize them. You take a word like AND and you ask a kid to
look at a page and find the word AND. Spot it. Sight it. "Ooooooooh!"
So – DO - the
title of my homily is a sight word. It
appears 6 times in today’s gospel: Luke 3: 10-18. Another sight word in today’s gospel is “THE”
which appears 9 times and “AND” appears
only 6 times.
That’s how we learn. That’s how kids learn. Slow and
steady.
To be Christians -
to follow Christ – we just do basic things each day: share you coat – share
your food – don’t overtax others – don’t extort - don’t falsely accuse others – be satisfied
with your salary – give good news.
Do – "poieo" in Greek – as in, "Do this in memory of me." Now, that’s
life.
December 12, 2021
AWAKENED
If Coca Cola and chocolate keep me awake – why not guilt and the insensitivity I ought to be feeling from
the comments I make about those who aren’t
at the party or the meeting? Magazines, newspaper columns, art, movies, TV documentaries, sermons, speeches should be out there challenging us to wake up and see the things we need to change.
