Sunday Homily 9-20-09, 26th Ordinary Time
Readings: Wisdom 2, 12-20; Psalm 54, The Lord upholds My Life; James 5, 1-6; Mark 9, 38-48.
Wisdom: One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible. Not OT nor NT, but in between and the subject of controversy over the centuries. Were they really part of the bible or not? How do you know? Catholic church accepts the books.
Subject matter: the book collects traditional Jewish material, as well as ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy, in order to teach that God rewards those who are faithful to him.
Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt who spoke and wrote excellent Greek.
Date: ca. 100-200 BCE. How do we know these facts? Because of text analysis. For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor. Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale.
Our Selection: what a wicked person thinks should be done with a good person–beat & kill. This links up with the suffering servant poem from 2 Isaiah last week. Jews think the good person getting beaten is the Jewish race/nation. Christians think the person is Christ.
James: presents a pretty negative image of people. What would be a compassionate image?
Every Person is a Child
Ever hear of a guy named Bear Bryant? Like in Coach Bear Bryant? Bear Bryant was football coach of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa for 25 years, up to 1982, when he retired. He won 6 national championships and I was living in Mobile when he won his second in ’64. At his retirement he was asked by a reporter what he was going to do next. He quipped, “I’ll probably croak in a week.” 8 days later he died of a heart attack. After having just received a positive report on a physical check up.
The story goes that in his first year as coach at Alabama he was driving around the rural south of the state looking for a player he had heard about and whom he wanted to invite to the university. He could not find the kid’s house and he was getting hungry because it was after his lunch hour. He sees a little ramshackle joint with a tattered sign, ‘restaurant,’ and decides to give it a try. He walks in, the place goes dead silent, and the head of every person turns to look at this white guy. A big black guy behind a home made bar asks, “What can I do for you, sir?”
Bryant says he is the new coach at Tuscaloosa, can’t find a boy he is looking for, and has an appetite. The black guy says he is welcome to eat what they got, but he may not like it because they are serving that day corn bread, beans, and chitlin.
Bryant says, “I’m from Moro Bottom, AK, I’ve eaten probably a mile of chitlin (pig intestines), and the menu sounds great.” Everybody smiles and he eats his lunch at the bar. A while later, leaving the restaurant with the information he wanted on the boy’s house, he pays and gives the man a tip, not flashy, but generous. The black man asks him if he has a photo of himself. Bryant says he has not been coach long enough to have a photo, but he writes down the guy’s name & address, and promises to send him one. Back at Tuscaloosa, although disappointed in the recruit he went to find, he remembers to send the picture, signed with, “Thanks for one of the best lunches ever.”
Time passes. Years later another boy has developed a reputation in that region and Bryant wants him for Tuscaloosa. A black athlete. The university has integrated. He calls the boy and invites him to the university. The boy is polite but says his two best friends are going to Auburn and he hopes to team with them. Auburn is to Alabama as the Giants are to the Cowboys. So Bryant figures he has lost the kid. Not so. About a week later the kid calls the coach and asks if he still would like him at Alabama. Bryant says sure and asks him what made him change his mind. The kid says his grandfather knew him and has great respect for him. Not that he would remember his grandfather. Bryant had once eaten in his little restaurant and promised him a picture.
His grandfather respected him because he not only ate chitlins at the restaurant, but he honored his promise and sent him a picture, which has place of honor to that day in the restaurant.
Moral of the story?
Picture 1: The Mass with Kevin & Sabrina
Picture 2: Brunch Time
Picture 3: The Girls–Jackie Ritter, Jackie McGrath, & Beth