2020-12-27 Holy Family Year B – Luke 2nd chapter, Gospel with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna
● ● ● ● ● Title: A Thousand.
[_01_] In the life of the American author and activist, Helen Keller, we see someone who lived in 1800’s and 1900’s.
Helen Keller is the girl and woman who ultimately triumphed
over the double learning disabilities, in that she was both blind and deaf due
to a childhood illness, Helen loses her ability both to see and hear.
What is troubling, then, for her and her parents is that
Helen Keller has no language. She is an infant to whom no one has ever read or
spoken. She is in the dark in terms of
her eyes and she is on mute in terms of her ears.
[_02_] You can’t flip a switch to turn on the screen or sound back on
for her.
But, as you may know, Helen Keller does learn to
communicate even to converse.
You and I take words, sentences, vocabulary for granted.
We send the words, deliver, text, delete. To us, you might
say, “talk” is really cheap.
And, our “inexpensive” words/talk often come with an
unlimited plan that we can cancel at any time with T-Mobile or Verizon.
[_03_] This is not true for
Helen who as a young person and a student really learns to treasure really
learns to value and treasure words and language.
In the famous play – “The Miracle Worker” – about her life,
a teacher comes on the scene to instruct her, to build a vocabulary and there
is one particularly famous scene.
The teacher – trying to get through to Helen without sound
or sight – uses her sense of touch. She takes Helen to a water pump outside and
lets the clear cold H2O flow over her hand while simultaneously
drawing the letters into the palm of her hand: W-A-T-E-R. “water.”
[_04_] It is a moment of great
revelation that Helen now has a structure and intellect to connect a real
experience.
Or as one person wrote, revising the old saying: “For
Helen, a word is worth a thousand pictures”.
We have the original saying that images and photos and
videos are very powerful, thus our phones and cameras and Instagram accounts
are very active, and this means – in the original “a picture is worth a
thousand words.”
But, for Helen, the opposite is true: a word is worth a
thousand pictures.
[_05_] We read in the Gospel of
John that “In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and the Word was
God.” (John 1:1)
Jesus is the Word made flesh, the incarnation of God’s
word.
[_05.01_] What does it mean
to give someone your word? It means that you are entrusting yourself, your
heart to the other and that the other person is entrusting his or heart to you.
One day, I read a text from a friend I was to meet that
day, though we were both delayed. I received and the following message: “I’ll
be there in 19 minutes”
I was so impressed by the exact precision of the note. We
laughed about this later because my friend simply meant to write “10” but accidentally
typed “19”.
I was focused on the “19” and its precision and this
revealed something about my own desire for things to be just a particular way.
The word was worth a thousand pictures … of me.
[*** Pause ***]
[_06_] There is a particular
word in this Holy Family Sunday Gospel which stands out in importance for both
this Gospel and the entire Gospel:
CONTRADICTION.
CONTRADICTION.
That’s a big, grown-up word, but it is being applied to this small
infant child Jesus of whom we are told that he will be a “contradiction” or
“sign of contradiction” to those around him.
[_07_] The biblical
scholar, Dr. Kenneth Bailey wrote this about this Holy Family Gospel. This
Gospel – read at “Christmas” time is prediction for “Good Friday” and “Easter”.
In this Gospel, Simeon refers to the sword which will
pierce Mary’s heart and that this contradiction will reveal the hearts of many.
And, at Calvary on Good Friday, everything is in disarray:
__ Pontius Pilate, thinks Jesus is innocent, but condemns him
to die.
__ Peter, who has assertively identified Jesus as Messiah and
personal friend, denies him 3x
__ Priests/ Pharisees – though impressed with his miracles and
teaching, bolster these charges against Jesus.
[_08_] The life and
ministry of JC exposes contradictions.
It is our consolation and our call to believe in God, but
that does not mean it is always easy or simple to believe, to trust.
This is true also in human relationships, as well, and in
promises we make.
[_09_] On the day of
Baptism or the day of birth, parents and godparents say the word and say “I Do”
to raise their children in the faith.
Such vows also may be made at home or at the hospital.
But is that word not worth a thousand pictures, a thousand
decisions, a thousand actions to come.
Saying the word -- “I Do” at the altar in
marriage/matrimony is worth a thousand pictures.
[_10_] As Catholics and Christians and followers of
his way, we also testify to the beauty of family life, not only in the
commitments but also in the contradictions.
Of course, friendships are important in our life. And,
spouses can consider each other to be friends.
I value my friendships with my siblings, my brothers and sister.
But, there is something deeper and more significant than
friendship between us. There is family which is even more important.
And, family unites us even more because it pre-dates. To
use a popular term today…”family” is our pre-existing condition, and
pre-existing creation.
The family existed even before we existed.
And, even in the family relationship that we consider
broken or incomplete, there is a reminder that we have bonds and connection and
beauty that we were given, were given to us.
We did not not create it. We did not create ourselves. In a
similar way, we do not redeem or forgive only ourselves.
We can apologize to each other, we can patch things up, but
we really rely ultimately on God for forgiveness.
We need a gift – the gift of Jesus loving us to the end –
giving up his life for us to know that every stage of life, we are loved, we
matter. Sometimes, life is a contradiction.
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