Gospel, Homily and Coffee

I have seen people come back to life! It’s amazing! One young man who I knew as a boy got caught up in drugs and abusive relationships. When I saw him as an adult, he did not look good; but he was ready for life. He has made changes, and today he looks so healthy. He has a job. He is connected back to family. This is LIFE! Once, a newly wed couple were so in love. They traveled and explored. Did new things together Yet, within a few years, she developed cancer. They went through treatments together. He nursed her the whole way. She got free of it. They returned to living life together. Then it came back. He again, put his life on hold to make sure she was cared for. She eventually passed. But the love they had for each other persisted. He revealed his true self. This is life. Depression, unemployment, financial strain, egos, fear...so many “Things” out there to keep us from being engaged in living; that keep us from being engaged from letting others love ...

If we go online we can find those optical illusions: is it a rabbit or a duck? Is it a vase of two faces There is the one we have here in the church: is it a bunch of splotches, or can the face of Jesus be seen?  These are kind of fun because they tell us that the mind controls what we see. A favorite poet of mine is Billy Collins. He writes, at least in his collection called “The Art of Drowning”, of simple things but in a much deeper way. His poem on 'Osso Bucco" is one of my favorites.  Poets and artists see life in a different way, and their art translates their visio n so that we can see differently too. Remember the Catholic definition of a Sacrament...a visible sign of an invisible reality.  Catholic by our very nature are to see very differently. Our faith tells us that what we see represents, or signifies something even greater. This is the mystic!  A mystic doesn’t necessarily have supernatural visión, or is a seer; but is one...

In the major cities of the United States, and especially back in the east, Catholic Parishes were in a lot of places, even within blocks of one another.  Why?  God forbid the Irish worship with the Italians with the Polish with the Germans. Cincinnati, where I lived for a couple of years, had a large German immigrant population early on in its history. In the Clifton area where I lived within a mile of each other there were at least 3 huge church buildings, St. Georges, St.Monica’s and I forget the other. When I asked why there were so many so close, I was told that each was built by immigrants from their own towns back in Germany, because they would not worship with the others.   And I also suspect they wanted to retain the sense of community they had back in the “old country”. So the sense was one belonged to the parish because of DNA and geography! Faith in Christ...maybe  Of course, these parishes have now had to rethink this as our cultures have change...