Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Decades ago, astronomers viewing galaxies noticed something odd. The galaxies were not spinning at the rate according to the calculations. The stars on the outside were going around the center too fast. They could not figure out why. Through the decades others examined this phenomena, and with other calculations made, determined that there is a other type of matter that is present in our universe. It does not interact with our type of matter, nor light; but it has mass and exerts a gravitational pull; which is why galaxies spin faster than they ought to. This is dark matter. And this dark matter actually is more present than our own time of matter. It has changed the understanding of our universe. Fascinating. There is a philosophy that says consciousness exists at the deepest levels of reality. Consciousness forms or causes the form of matter. It does not necessarily mean a rock is conscious, but that there is something there. Our Universe may be more alive than we realize.

An annual ritual, a rite of passage, will start to take place soon. The annual ritual of kids leaving home. High School Graduations will take place and then these newly minted “Adults” will move on to college or to jobs, out of the house and into the world (a lot of them anyway). Parents have spent some 18 years preparing their kids, or trying to, for this next phase of life. Trying to teach them adulting skills; like taking responsibility for banking and money, cleaning and ironing clothes (always separate whites from colors), how to boil water so that at least the instant ramen will be cooked enough. The hope is that somehow this has all sunk in, in some way, shape or form. So that as they go out the front door and begin to leave, parents, you can quickly shut the door and lock it so that they can’t get back in. And our young adults will not starve nor freeze, and sleep on clean sheets. As Parents, Teachers, extended family, we hope that lessons we have instilled are in there so

Recently I was at a party in which a couple of kids were celebrating their first communions. Among their gifts were Bibles. One bible had a lot of pictures which they liked. I flashed back to a bible I received as a young boy; it told the stories with pictures, which was cool. It helped me to visualize what was going on. Nothing like an image of David holding up Goliath’s severed head to excite a boy about being Christian.  Kids think very literally. Visuals help them as well. They can make connections if they can see it, or feel it, or experience it. A sign of maturity is when kids start to think abstractly. When they can begin to make connections and grasp a larger understanding; to begin to intuit and not be so literal. I read a recent article about how young persons leave the church, in part, because we as church fail to engage their imaginations. We as a church have a long history of using our aesthetics to spark the imaginations of people, so that they can begin to thin