Homily – August 15, 2021 / Assumption BVM
[__01__] Recently, I was at a wedding rehearsal dinner. You know, these dinners that occur the night before the bride and groom get married in the church and includes a subset of the actual full wedding guest list.
I was seated at the table of the
mother and father of the groom and enjoying the conversation.
This mother and father reminded me
that we had met before, several years ago, because their son was a student at a
college where I was the chaplain. They remembered meeting me. And, then,
several other pleasant memories started to come back to me (overcoming the
senior moment I was having). I was then
able to retrace the steps of where we had previously met.
[__02__] Then,
the music in the room got really loud. We were down the Jersey shore at a
restaurant. The music was neither Bon Jovi nor Bruce Springsteen, but loud. I
could hardly hear.
In acoustic sense or “audible” sense, what
had previously been “intelligible” or clear … well, it was obscure. It was O-B-S-C-U-R-E or unclear.
This was unfortunate, because I felt a bit
lost ..and by the way, it was a social situation where I really did not know anyone
else in the room.
You know, like you’re at a party, you meet 1
person who is nice that person talks to you..and then he or she gets called
away, you’re lost, you’re looking out the window. You’re on your own, amigo !
Anyway, we tried to continue talking..but I
could only pick up bits and pieces of conversation. I made some effort during this time of –
shall we say – DARKNESS …. To pretend that I knew what was being said, by this
very dignified couple from South Carolina.
Perhaps, if they had been from New Jersey,
they would have shouted over the music.
As they say, it was it is. So, I had to deal with it.
The “darkness ” or obscurity was compounded
by the fact that I was pretending to understand…
Sometimes, that’s what happens in a moment of
difficulty, we pretend to understand or we follow that old saying that applies
to the “first day of school ” or first day of a new job …or first time interval
of anything…
Fake it until you make it.
Should I fake it?
Should I pretend?
Should I remain in in obscurity? In darkness?
[__03__] When
we encounter our Blessed Mother Mary and/or St. Elizabeth – of the Gospel today
of Luke Chapter 1 - in the paintings and sculpture of our Catholic Tradition,
we are NOT encountering unknown
anonymous individuals.
St. Elizabeth, a very old woman who
perhaps did not live much longer after the birth of John the Baptist, we really
do not know … well, she is better remembered than many of Jesus’ own apostles.
Elizabeth, a woman of obscurity and
who emerges from the darkness – is blessed by God’s grace.
Elizabeth,
what do we read about Elizabeth earlier in the Gospel, about Elizabeth and her
husband Zechariah. (cf. Luke 1:6-7) Both Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous
in the eyes of God observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blamelessly. 100% Perfect record. Perfect report card.
But
Elizabeth and Zechariah had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both
were advanced in years
Elizabeth didn't have a child and she could
have lamented this as God's punishment to her God's reproach. It’s also clearly
stated in the Gospel that Elizabeth is not being punished …
And, Elizabeth remains steadfast in her
faith, and much more so than her husband, Zechariah, who was ready to give up
the ship. Zechariah doesn't even believe
when an angel appears to him. When the angel Gabriel appears to him
Elizabeth is now expecting, in effect Zechariah – says “No
way, José, this is not happening…how can this be…. ?” gets
made mute temporarily, for his lack of faith, even though the angel Gabriel had
told him
[__04__] The
lack of faith Zechariah is contrasted with that of Mary, contrasts with him
sharply. An angel tells Mary but Mary has the same questions as Zechariah – how
this can this be, etc…. but Mary does believe. Elizabeth and Mary are examples
of early disciples who receive and trust God's word even though they live with
difficult the difficulty of obscurity the difficulty of obstacles they trust.
[__05.01__] We also celebrate and remember Elizabeth and Mary because we can trace intelligibility of our faith in a personal God and personal savior to their personal Yes to JTB as prophet and Jesus as Incarnate Son of God.
At the same time, just because they
believed, it’s no guarantee that we are going to believe. It is a struggle for
mothers and fathers – of every age and era – to bring up their children in the
ways of God.
And, it is a struggle and calling for
each of us to develop a personal relationship with God that is based on our own
experiences and reasons for believing, whether as young adults or as grown-ups.
Yes, many of our parents raised us in
the ways of faith, but we are called to believe on our own, not just because our
parents did so.
I also hope and pray that Our Lady of
Lourdes – parish family – will also a place of sanctuary, silence, peace, and friendship
/ love of God and of neighbor for all of us, here for all of us.
The feast of the Assumption of BVM
reminds you and me that we all have a mother – the Mother of God – praying for
us in heaven.
The decree and teaching of Pope Pius
XII – on this subject - The entire decree (and the title itself) is also worded
to suggest that Mary's Assumption – at her death or before her death - was not
in any sense a logical necessity, just because Mary was the Mother of God, but
was a gif of God.
And, while Mary is the Immaculate Conception,
and Mary is the sinless mother of God, it reminds us that each day – by our own
virtue – we are not just trying for “self-improvement” or self-help, but also
to experience the mercy of God right now.
Thus, we are all capable of attaining
our own way, receiving our own path to heaven by listening to God’s word, and
we can be raised up into heaven as well.
[__05.02__] Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI finds that we might feel “stopped in our Catholic traditional tracks” by this question of the scientists –“hey, Catholics, what do you mean by ‘heaven’ ? Where is that ?”
B16 admits / wrote: “We
instinctively ask whether it is really nonsensical, foolish, and a provocation
to claim that human being be taken bodily into heaven. We are inclined to say
that such a statement might have made good sense two thousand years ago or even
two hundred years ago, but the situation is entirely different now. We know
with incontestable clarity that the heavens we see are really part of the world
and are subject to the same conditions as our world here on earth” (Benedict XVI, “The Assumption of Mary,
Part 3, Ch. 37” Dogma and Preaching,
pp. 358-359, San Francisco: Ignatius Press: 2011)
Heaven, however, is not based on a
place but rather a person – and the person of Jesus Christ, living in his love,
both before death and after death.
We also because our loved ones can and
live on because of God’s love.
We
talk about them because we believe they are alive.
[__06__] Mary and Elizabeth are saints how show us the light. They are not faking it. They are making it.
[__07__] Can I trust as they do? Can you trust as they do? It's difficult. having faith and being a faithful person doesn't mean that I resist change, or that I'm stubborn. Sometimes we have faith, we equate faithfulness with religious art religion, and then with rigidity. But Mary is not rigid in her faith. She is mobile and moving and alive.
Thomas
Aquinas says this about what it means to be a believer what it means to have
faith. That to have faith doesn't mean that we simply have a set of
propositions that we live by. But we live but we also take those propositions
into reality. The Boston College Professor Peter Kreeft writes this that
Creed's to stand for the creed and a little while we're going to stand for the
profession of faith of the creed. This “creed” is also known in Latin as the “Credo”.
We stand for profession of faith -- don’t stand up yet -- But the creed is given so that we have an
accurate road map
A road map is necessary. Now you might say road map isn't necessary Padre. Because we use GPS these days. Well, whether you're using GPS or a map, both are necessary. But GPS or a map isn't sufficient. Because if you just have GPS, if you just have the roadmap, you might still be sitting in a chair. Looking at a roadmap is no sufficient, not substitute for taking the trip.(cf. Catholic Christianity, p. 17, Peter Kreeft)
And Mary makes the trip, she makes the move
to go and see Elizabeth and we are called to make the trip and move in our own
faith. in obscurity, when we feel we're in obscurity, it's often just easy to
give up and not persevere. Mary and Elizabeth give us examples of perseverance
and fidelity, even when all seems lost, and we remember them as the first
disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ suit through whom we found our own way.
[__08__] And
through their prayers in heaven, we are still blessed. It's worth it to go back
and retrace our steps in the Gospel to reread this gospel to realize that Mary
and Elizabeth were obscure, and we are also at times feeling obscure, but God's
word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet to keep us going.
[__09__] I'd
like to close with a real life example, not a religious example per se, but nevertheless, about
obscurity, about intercession about overcoming an obstacle and retracing our
steps. On _____date____, during the Tokyo Olympics, which just finished this
happened about two weeks ago, there was a Jamaican track star runner, who
boarded a bus from the Olympic Village in Tokyo, to the stadium for his
competition. If it were not for some helpful somebody very helpful to him in
obscurity, he might not have his gold medal today. So we got on the bus, this
track star, his name was Hansle Parchment. Hansle got on the bus and he was
listening to music listening to music on his headphones. And sometimes I'm not
listening to what goes on. I get distracted. I know the feeling. I'm in
obscurity. And Hansle, this Olympic runner, representing Jamaica, realized on
the way that he was on the bus going the wrong direction, and he was panicked.
And he felt he couldn't just get on another bus. Somebody told me to get
another bus. It'll take you to the stadium, but he thought the bus couldn't get
him there in time. So this hurdler this Japanese Jamaican hurdler met a
stranger on the street in Tokyo, a stranger who paid his taxi fare. And because
of her he made it to compete in the 110 meter Olympics. Hurdles. He won the
gold medal.
And then he retraced his steps. He
goes back on the bus the wrong bus he took originally to the wrong place. It
was back to this place obscure of obscurity and he found the young woman who
helped him he repaid the money and he gave her an Olympic Jamaican polo shirt
and told her in his Instagram video post you were instrumental in getting me to
the final day and he had and he shows her the gold medal. She was astounded.
The accolades for this good samaritan young woman in Tokyo continued; the
Jamaican government got involved and the government extended to this young
woman and invitation to travel 15,000 miles to come to come to the capital of Kingston
to come to the nation of Jamaica.
The woman rejoices she can rejoice in the victory of somebody she helped with whom she interceded for us. Now the nation the world salutes are, we rejoice in our faith because both Mary and Elizabeth in their obscurity gave us by their faith. The Prophet john the baptist and our Savior Jesus Christ, the nation the world. Also honor them with our praise. Knowing by God's love, we are not in obscurity. We are loved. We are helped on the way to our own eternal reward. [__fin__]
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