by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n While It may seem counterintuitive That is not only because While the 31st Sunday in Ordinary time is not such a beloved feast, As one of the most cited texts from the gospels I am reminded of the event Steiner then observes that In that vein, should the preacher avoid blemishing While that might be one solution to preaching this beloved text, Now I am no billiards player, While the object of pool or pocket billiards This task is even more complex in 3-cushion billiards. The reason for my excursion into billiards Ordinarily in playing billiards with God\u2019s Word Today, however, I\u2019d like to take a shot at the Word We\u2019ve been reading this epistle as the second reading for a month. However, juxtaposing Hebrews with the great commandments Barbara Brown Taylor is a favorite author of mine. She writes:<\/p>\n I learned reverence from my father. For him it had nothing to do with religion and very little to do with God. I think it had something to do with him having been a soldier, since the exercise of reverence means knowing your rank in the overall scheme of things.<\/p>\n Unexpectedly, she reflects how the ritual of cleaning a gun introduced her to the practices that nourish reverence in a human life: paying attention, taking care, respecting things that can kill you, making the passage from fear to awe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She concludes this reflection by noting that practicing reverence is not an invitation to debate, it is about standing in silent awe:<\/p>\n Some of the most reverent people I know, she writes, decline to call themselves religious. For them, religion connotes \u2026. [the ability] to hold your own in a debate with someone who believes otherwise \u2026 They do not want to debate anyone. The longer they stand before the holy of holies, the less adequate their formulations of faith seems to them. She concludes: Angels reach down and shut their mouths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is little doubt that we live in a most contentious age To inject new meaning, even vitality into this crucial commandment, What if we practice the royal priesthood Recently I viewed the Oscar Nominated film \u201cFeeling Through,\u201d A central character is Tereek, a homeless teen. An older beggar approaches, but Tereek waves him off Artie communicates by writing on a pad Though texted by his girlfriend that he can spend the night, When Artie gets thirsty, they go to the store and Because of this shopping excursion they miss the bus The two eventually fall asleep at the bus stop, When the bus does arrive, As the bus drives away, Tareek carefully slips the stolen $10 into the cup Writing over 100 years ago, the Theologian Charles Allen wrote that the innermost secret of Christianity is a distinctive type of reverence. He elaborates that it is \u201ca reverence for the Eternal goodness who is ever seeking to save that which is lost \u2026 [It is] a self-reverence which aspires to the noblest ideals because each of us is a temple of a Holy Spirit who goodness we must ever more and more apprehend and emulate\u2026 [And it is] a reverence for the divine image in even the most degraded and for the possibilities of goodness there.\u201d He concludes by characterizing such reverence as \u201centhusiastic philanthropy.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n Philanthropy is literally the love of humankind. May this festal gospel,
\nI always find the beloved feasts of the Church year
\n– Easter, Christmas, Pentecost and the like –
\nsome of the most challenging to preach.<\/p>\n
\nI have preached those feasts with such regularity
\nthat I am not sure I have anything fresh to say,
\nbut also because such feasts
\nare planted so deeply in our religious imaginations
\nand carry so many memories and messages
\nbeyond the multitude of preachers
\nwe have heard or endured in the liturgy,
\nthat being homiletically inventive –
\nattempting to splay open the underlying mysteries
\nin original or unexplored ways –
\nhas the potential to engender resistance
\nin folk wishing to safeguard treasured beliefs
\ndeeply rooted in these festivals.<\/p>\n
\ntoday’s gospel from Mark
\nwith its deep echoes in the 1st reading from Deuteronomy
\nis the textual equivalent of a high holyday:
\nthe very core of Jesus\u2019 teaching,
\nthe spiritual center of the Lord\u2019s earthly ministry,
\nand a succinct but powerful summary of the gospels.<\/p>\n
\nit has been preached,
\ntaught,
\nexegeted,
\ninterpreted,
\nand embraced by laity and leadership for two millennia.
\nSo is there anything new to say?<\/p>\n
\nGeorge Steiner relates in his book Real Presences<\/em>
\nabout the celebrated 19th century composer and pianist
\nRobert Schumann
\nwho, after playing a difficult \u00e9tude,
\nwas asked by one of his hearers to explain the piece;
\nSchumann sat down and played it a second time.<\/p>\n
\nthe most responsible act of musical interpretation
\nis that of performance. [1]<\/p>\n
\nthis crucial revelation
\nby abandoning the homiletic enterprise altogether,
\nsimply reading the passage a second time,
\nand then sitting down?<\/p>\n
\nits lectionary appearance requires engagement.
\nMy admittedly unconventional tactic for this engagement
\ncomes from the game of billiards.<\/p>\n
\nonly having played pool many decades ago.<\/p>\n
\nis to sink various configurations of solid and striped balls
\nin the six pockets around the table\u2019s circumference,
\nCarom or French billiards is played on a table with no pockets
\nand only three balls.
\nOne scores points in this game not by pocketing any balls,
\nbut by driving one of the white balls
\ninto both of the others in a single stroke.<\/p>\n
\nIn this variation, the cue ball strikes one other ball
\nand then 3 or more cushions before striking the 2nd ball.
\nOne wonders whether you need an advanced degree
\nin geometry to be successful in this sport.<\/p>\n
\nis because of the design of our lectionary
\nwhose tripartite readings are analogous to 3 cushion billiards
\nin which the three pericopes ricochet off each other,
\nin hopes that the Holy Spirit scores
\nand some life-giving message, even encounter ensues.<\/p>\n
\nI tend to employ the gospel as the metaphorical cue ball
\nand use it to move the other two readings
\naround the homiletic arena.<\/p>\n
\nfrom the perspectives of the Letter to the Hebrews.<\/p>\n
\nin my experience preachers seldom venture into that text,
\na sometimes daunting theological treatise
\nabout the priesthood of Christ.
\nHis Jesus\u2019 exaltation through abasement,
\neclipsing Temple priesthood,
\nand a long section on the eternal and salvific self-sacrifice
\nJesus the high priest offered
\nfor the salvation of the world.
\nMany of those themes are touched on in today\u2019s 2nd reading.<\/p>\n
\ntriggers a different image of Jesus\u2019 enacted priesthood.
\nWhile it is not an explicit gospel description of him,
\nJesus can be rightly understood as embodying
\nthis second great commandment
\nin the great reverence he practices towards others:
\nWhether fisherman or pharisee,
\nSamaritan or sightless,
\npauper or possessed,
\nBaptist cousin or random child,
\nJesus treated them with holy reverence –
\na powerful image of sacred deference
\nfrom the very incarnation of God
\nto its ongoing incarnation in every human being.<\/p>\n
\nThe second chapter of her book An Altar in the World\u00a0<\/em>[2]
\nis subtitled: Reverence.
\nHer detour into military references and guns
\nwas not what I expected: both disruptive and revelatory.<\/p>\n
\nin which people loudly profess love of God,
\nbut love of neighbor is increasingly less apparent.<\/p>\n
\nwhat if we replace the over-used language of \u201clove\u201d
\nwith a vocabulary of reverence?
\nReimagining this second great commandment
\nthrough a lexicon of awe and admiration
\npracticed through devotion to the dignity of all.<\/p>\n
\nthat 1 Peter [2:9] reminds us is our ecclesial birthright
\nby honoring the very sacramentality of the other
\nparticipating deeply in the liturgy of the neighbor
\nas was Jesus\u2019 constant practice,
\nsometimes requiring that we simply welcome those angels
\nwho gently shut our mouths.<\/p>\n
\na short but powerful tale of conversion
\nfrom selfishness to reverence.<\/p>\n
\nThough apparently enjoying a late night with friends,
\nhe is also trying to find a place to sleep
\nrather than spending one more night more on the street.<\/p>\n
\nbecause as he says \u201cI got nothing.\u201d
\nBut then Tereek spots Artie, a deaf-dumb-blind man
\nwho needs help crossing a street and getting a bus.<\/p>\n
\nand Tereek responds
\nby the quite intimate act of writing in Artie\u2019s palm.<\/p>\n
\nTereek realizes that Artie is too vulnerable to leave alone
\nand so he becomes his temporary guardian angel.<\/p>\n
\nTereek buys him something to drink,
\nbut when paying for the drink
\nalso takes $10 from Artie\u2019s wallet for himself.<\/p>\n
\nso Tereek is stuck even longer
\nultimately missing his chance to stay with the girlfriend.<\/p>\n
\nArtie\u2019s head on Tereek\u2019s shoulder.
\nA cinematic moment of silent communion.<\/p>\n
\nTereek is thoroughly invested in this mission
\nnot only gets Artie on the bus
\nbut commissions the driver
\nto get Artie off the bus at the right stop.
\nIn a penultimate moment
\nArtie gives Tareek a hug
\nand writes into his palm
\n\u201cyou\u2019ll be ok.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTareek actually waves goodbye
\na gesture of course not seen by Artie
\nnut impelled by his newfound care
\nfor a man he will probably never see again.
\nAs he turns to go, Tareek sees the older beggar
\nwho had asked for money earlier in the night,
\nnow asleep on the street
\nwith that same empty paper cup in his grip.<\/p>\n
\nAnd walks away into the night.<\/p>\n
\nIn our baptism we were Chrismated
\ninto the philanthropy of Christ\u2019s own priesthood:
\nthe reverence that freed him to touch lepers and the dead,
\nto confer discipleship on fisherman and Samaritan divorcees,
\nand to welcome multitudes
\nwhether at a communal meal on a Galilean hillside
\nor on golgatha, where he was nailed in a stance
\nof eternal welcoming
\nwrms incapable of closing, even in death.<\/p>\n
\nthis irrevocable commandment,
\nthis most difficult mission of loving others
\nmove us again: to care, to devotion, to unrelenting reverence
\nfor friend and stranger through Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n