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2022-09-11 –24th Sunday &
Title: Squander.
Wander.Ponder (9/11)
● ● Exodus
32:7-11, 13-14 ● ● Psalm 51 ●● 1 Timothy 1:12-17 ●● + Luke 15:1-32 ●
●
[__00__] This is the Gospel of the Prodigal Son
which I’d like to touch on in terms of the one who …
- Squanders (or is extravagant or
wasteful with the family fortune)
- Wanders (the son who drifts away
…then drifts back; even when he comes home, he is not that expecting all
that much …it’s not until he’s there that the relationship is restored
and…then)
- Ponders (both sons are called to
ponder God’s mercy and love)
[__01__] Here
is an example of “squandering and wandering”
I can recall vividly certain details from the
day of my sister’s birthday party years ago,
a celebration at home in the mid-1990’s when she turned 16. Sweet
16. It was a Sunday, a crowded party,
many family and friends. I was introduced for the 1st time to my
brother’s girlfriend whom he married the following year. I met my future
sister-in-law in the living room by the couch.
What causes me to recall specific
details was not the party itself but an unexpected phone call that evening. My
parents rang to tell me a dear friend of our family had died suddenly, out of
the blue. And, he was the godfather of
my sister.
Hearing the news, I was shaken up
and sad, but I recall that I resisted much mourning or sorrow or grief over
this. While I attended his wake and funeral mass in church, I participated at a
minimum. I squandered the opportunity to
be with my family and friends that day ..though I was also in sorrow and
mourning.
I wandered. I left church
immediately after the funeral-mass, going NEITHER to cemetery/burial NOR to
repast/lunch afterwards where so many of many family and friends were going.
I went from “mass” to “mass
transit”. In my resistance to reality of
mortality, I headed out to the station to catch a train to Hoboken and then
PATH to NYC, to return to work, to resume my regular routine ASAP, to go back what
I knew, to stay where I had been.
While I felt out of place when I arrived back
to work I was “somewhere else” emotionally, at the time, I did not really know
what else to do. I was wandering !
[__02__] Perhaps, I would have benefited from the
STRUCTURE of the the U.K. / England government – the 10 day plan – for what do
after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plan has been in place for years and
now everyone has to follow it. By the
way, Queen of England died, in case you didn’t know.
[__03__] Do you want to stay where you are, or to
move? If you insist on staying where you are, then you may be similar to me and
my attachment to riding the train back to work ASAP.
The elder son of the parable of the
Prodigal Son also wanted to stay where he was. He also wanted his father to be
stationary, to be sedentary, to stay where he was and not run out to meet his
brother – the Prodigal Son -- by whom they were clearly all “betrayed”
personally, financially, historically. The younger son had squandered and
wandered.
The Prodigal Son is the sinner and
outcast par excellence. But the Prodigal Son has mobility. That’s
good news.
It may be surprising, since the
Prodigal Son had squandered a great deal of money– “lead in the standings”,
more of a lead than the baseball New York Yankees had in July (there is still hope for the Yankees) … and so the Prodigal Son was now actually in
“last place” in the “minor leagues” far
from home, without decent meals. The Prodigal Son could would have been eating
the scraps that fell on the floor of Yankee Stadium !
[__04__] Yes, we all fall into “squandering” and
“wandering”, but we are also called to ponder God’s goodness …to ponder the
commandments not just to avoid
punishment but because it is good, it is nourishing, it is peaceful when we come
out of the darkness. I.e., don’t stay where you are. Here is an example of
“wandering and pondering”.
EXAMPLE ---
A few years ago, I went to visit my parents
at their home and I arrived and was feeling kind of restless so I stayed up to
watch TV until around 1:30 am. At 12:30 am – shortly after midnight -- there was some major news or political story.
Because I had squandered a good night’s sleep, I heard the news overnight.
At around 8 in the morning, my
father asked me the next morning – did you hear about what happened in D.C.
last night and I pretended not to know… this was a lie, in order to conceal how
late I had been up …. Because I was tired, etc.
Then, feeling guilty about the lie…
I wandered back and … oh yeah, I did hear about that last night. To which he
then said… how late were you up?
I said… around 11.
Then, he countered..but that news
was reported after midnight !
In other words, I could no longer
stay where I had been. The 24-hour news feed
and social media caught me in my wandering.
My father and I laughed about it…but
I just use it as an example that “frequent confession” of our faults is
beneficial and how easy it is fall into
dishonesty and sometimes how hard it is to come out of it !
Jesuit Father John Hardon
wrote: “The principal source of conflict
in the human spirit is the sense of guilt. Psychologists tell us it is the mysterious feeling of guilt
which lies at the root of most people’s disquiet of mind and disturbance of will.
On both levels [the mental or rational level of our mind] and the [behavorial
or decision making part], the Sacrament of Penance is a great gift. (Source: John
A. Hardon, S.J., The Spiritual and
Psychological Value of Frequent Confession, 1998)
Admitting we are wrong helps us to
make decisions, not to stay where we are.
It is also something to ponder.
Recall that our blessed mother – Mary – when she is visited by the shepherds in
Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus – did not really understand everything, but
kept these things and “pondered them in her heart” (Luke ch. 2:19)
[__05__] 9/11
EXAMPLE OF PONDERING In the
years leading up to 9/11/2001, a worker at a NY-based company -- called Morgan
Stanley was constantly “pondering” the need for safety and a safe exit from the
World Trade Center tower. As a result of other terrorist attacks – especially
the 1993 bombing of WTC – he felt that they should not SQUANDER the chance to
be ready he next time.
Richard (“Rick”) Rescorla was his name. And, he did not SQUANDER. He was in charge of security and fire drills
in the at the World Trade Center, for nearly 4,000 co-workers and was adamant
that they should practice – frequently / regularly – moving in and out of the
building.
Throughout the 1990‘s Richard was frequently criticized by his 4,000
co-workers and superiors because these fire drills interrupted the business
day. Yet, they needed practice, according to Richard.
[][][]
At 8:46 A.M. on the morning of September 11,
2001, AA # 11 struck the North Tower of WTC.
Richard heard the explosion and saw the tower burning from his office
window in the 44th floor of the South T (WTC 2). When a Port Authority
announcement came over the P.A. system urging people to ___ stay at their desks ___,
and before UA # 175 would strike the South T at 9:03 A.M., Richard ignored the
announcement, grabbed his bullhorn, walkie-talkie and cell phone, and began
systematically to order roughly all employees of his company in the South Tower
and in WTC 5 to evacuate (___i.e., do not stay where you
are… escape ___).
While watching the news coverage, Richard called a friend and said,
"[They] told me not to evacuate," and, "They said it's just [WTC
1] I told them I'm getting my people [ ] out
of here." He directed people down a stairwell starting at the 44th floor,
keeping people away from elevators while telling them to remain calm.
He used everything in his life, military
combat trining, his years of practice …nothing was wasted or squandered.
They even sang battlefield military songs in
the stairwell.
Between songs, Richard called his wife
(Susan), telling her, "Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely.
If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier.
You made my life," and Susan replied, "You made my life, too"
before the phone went dead
After successfully evacuating nearly all of his
4,000 co-workers, Richard went back into the building. When one of his colleagues told him he too
had to evacuate the WTC, Richard replied, "As soon as I make sure everyone
else is out." He was last seen on
the 10th floor of the South Tower, heading upstairs, shortly before its
collapse 9:59 A.M.,
Within Richard’s company of 4,000 employees, 13
employees died on 9/11, including Richard himself, the members of his team
including a security guard, who had stayed behind to help others.
They died along with 343 firefighters of the
FDNY and 73 police officers and responders of Port Authority, NYPD, State
Police, FBI and EMS died. All of these first responders went into harm’s way
willingly They did not stay where they were.
It was the worst terrorist attack in world
history. Nearly 3,000 people died. We are called to pray for the dead. Surely
there were some prodigal sons and daughters among them who did not know they
would died that day.
Christ also died for them. They need our
prayers even today for their eternal salvation. We all need God’s grace for we
are not called just to stay where we are but to come home to Him each day. Do
not squander. Do not wander. Ponder ! Keep all of these things in your heart. [__end_]
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