Homily #1

Here is a homily I wrote for one of my classes this year based on the Gospel in which Jesus heals the 10 lepers, and only 1 (the Samaritan) comes back to thank Him:


             Anyone who has ever read or seen a production of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables cannot easily forget the scene where Jean val Jean, the callous and recently released convict comes to the house of the local bishop after having been rejected at every other place he had gone seeking lodging.

The bishop, a deeply pious and holy man graciously welcomes Jean into his home and receives him with lavish hospitality. Then, during the night, while the Bishop and his attendants are asleep, Jean val Jean proceeds to steal the silverware. In the morning the bishop’s housekeepers discover that the silver had been stolen – And that Jean Val Jean is nowhere to be found. The bishop, for his part, has the audacity to respond to the situation by saying: “Well, in the first place, was the silver ever really ours?”

When the scoundrel Jean Val Jean is dragged back to the bishop’s house by the local law enforcement officers, the bishop, rather than demanding the return of the stolen goods looks kindly at Jean Val Jean and says to him: “Ah! Here you are! I’m glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certainly get two hundred franks. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?”

The bishop covers for Jean’s thievery by an act of sheer magnanimity:  He gives Jean not only the silverware, but the candlesticks as well, and sends him out in peace with the charge to use the money to become a better man.

Reading this story, we are struck by the large-heartedness of the Bishop. His actions shine forth with a radiance whose brightness melts away our own hard- heartedness and makes us too, want to be a better person.

            Is not the large-hearted kindness which the bishop displays in this scene an image of the largeheartedness of Jesus which we see in our Gospel today? Here’s Jesus, walking along the road that leads to Jerusalem, to Calvary, on his way to his suffering and death for the sake of the kingdom and the redemption of the people of God.  Along the way Jesus meets this band of lepers, all disfigured by their disease.

            When they call out to him, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”Jesus sees them is moved with compassion for them. He immediately tells them: “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And walking along the way, the lepers they realize they had been healed. Yet only one returns to thank him.

If I had been Jesus, would have done what Jesus did?

Would I have healed the ten, knowing that only one would return to give thanks?

While our hearts are tempted to withhold love

When we know it will not be appreciated, will not be acknowledged,

God gives.

God loves.

Without conditions,

Without strings attached.

             God is faithful to us, despite our unfaithfulness. St. Paul tells us that “Even if we are

unfaithful, God remains faithful.

             Though the Gospel never tells us what happened to the other nine we can imagine they went on their way and found the priests and showed them that their flesh had become again like the flesh of a little child healed of all their leprosy. We can imagine they were happy to return to their old lives, their communities, and their families.

Although Jesus asks, “Were not ten lepers healed?

Where are the other nine?”

He does not ask this to say to us, “you owe me,”

Even though he could,

Since we are indebted to God at every moment

For all the good we have in our lives.

No, Jesus says this in order to demonstrate

That God is good not only to those who are grateful

But to those who are or will be ungrateful as well.

All ten were cleansed, regardless of whether or not

They would come back to give him thanks.

Today we celebrate the good news that the God we worship

Does not extend goodness only to those who will be grateful

Or who ‘deserve it.’ God’s love is a reckless love which goes beyond self-preservation

Or self-interest, giving itself to all with equal magnanimity.

The Iranian mystic and poet Hafiz of Shirahz once wrote:

“Even after all this time the Sun never says to the earth,

“You owe me.’

Look what happens with a love like that.

It lights the whole sky.”

Today we rejoice and give thanks that the Son of God, Jesus Christ,

loves us with just such a love, and because of that love,

 the world is filled with his marvelous and wonderful light.

Gerabic 101 =)

+

 

=

Gerabic!

(‘jǝr - ə-bik)

I love studying Arabic. It's been a lot of work, but fun too. It's pretty amazing to me that I can now read the whole alphabet. I've even figured out how to type in Arabic on my computer. Check it out!

!صباح الخير (Good Morning!)


رايتشل كارن (that's my name in Arabic) :)


Anyway, the funny part about studying this new language, is that whenever I don't know a word for something in Arabic, I spontaneously think of the German word that I am trying to come up with! It's soooo annoying and unhelpful, but it's also making me realize how much German I still remember from back in the day.

Like for example, we (were supposed to have) learned the question words, WHO, WHERE, WHAT last week. Instead of  من , اين, ماذا I kept thinking: Wer? Woher? Was? - so not helpful.

O الله, hilf mir! (God help me!)

Forgiveness & Gratuitous Love

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing.

There are perhaps no words more freeing than these:

"God the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Here at Notre Dame confession is offered at least 2x daily, every day of the week except Sunday.
While I don't go as often as I should, I try to go when I can.

The other day I had to preach a homily (for a practice run of the "Sunday Celebration in the Absence of a Priest" for my Liturgical Celebration class) about the Gospel where Jesus cleanses the ten lepers, and only one comes back to say thank you. In my homily, I took the approach that Jesus is good to all - even the ungrateful. I argued that although Jesus asked, "were not ten cleansed? where are the other nine?" He was not saying this because he was 'hurt' that they didn't come back to thank him. God needs neither our thanks nor our praise; God is entirely content and happy in Himself. He said it to demonstrate His gratuitous, unconditional love for us. God's willingness to heal us - is  not dependent upon our receiving his gifts with gratitude. The wisdom literature says that God causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust.

I ended the homily with a poem by Hafiz:

"Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky."


I recently got into a tiff with someone in my life, and was feeling quite vindictive. This was the second or third time that this sort of thing has happened, and I was losing my patience and feeling more than a little bit annoyed. Then this person called me and apologized profusely, in a way that showed understanding of how serious the offense had been. All day long I had been praying about how to handle this conversation, and had toyed with different options in my head - one from being forgiving, and the other- well, letting this person have a piece of my mind. 


In the moment I went with being forgiving, but I wondered whether I was letting this person off the hook a bit too easily. I had a good conversation with them, and felt like we had a bit of a new beginning. Forgiveness felt good, but part of me still questioned whether it was the wise choice. 


I went to hall mass last night, and right before communion, suddenly a scripture passage came to me-- you know, the Gospel in which the bad steward begs forgiveness from his master for a huge debt he owes, and the master graciously forgives the debt. Then, not very long afterwards, a man who owed that same steward a small amount came to steward begging forgiveness, and the steward demands repayment and refuses to forgive the debt. ... 


Needless to say, it's often easier to receive forgiveness than to give it. 


"But look what happens with a love like that. it lights the whole sky."


This week, I want to recommit myself to living and giving - forgiveness. 

Family History

So for my Arabic class this week, we have to bring in family photos and give a presentation about our family to the class. I wanted to find some pictures of family members, so I went looking through my Aunt's facebook profile and realized she had recently posted pictures of my grandmother who died in February of 2008. These are photographs I have never seen before, and show her a young, beautiful woman! It's been awesome looking through these and seeing her in her youth; I only knew her in her old age. Here's a sampling:

Isn't she beautiful? Looking through these made me smile and think of a lot of great memories (lucky charms at Grandmas (bc my mom would never buy them!), sledding, watching her work in the garden, playing cards, driving around in her car, taking the French Nuns grocery shopping and being mortified when they would go up to everyone and ask "are you baptized?" in the grocery store - these nuns were nuts!). Anyway, what a great find!