“On My Birthday”
September 9, 2018
On my birthday the Gospel tells us that Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon, a distance of about 35 miles from Capernaum, on foot, on rocky, dusty foot! There in a foreign land, a Gentile woman, a Syrophoenician woman to be exact, begged Jesus to cure her little girl of mental illness. Jesus said to her; “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” It is as if Jesus were referring to the woman as a dog.
That doesn’t sound like Jesus, does it? Mind you, at that time Gentiles were considered “outsiders”. A Syrophoenician woman; is such a one as this even to be considered worthy of human dignity?
The disciples considered themselves “insiders”. To this day, in the Middle East, it is not unusual for one group to refer to another as “dogs”. There is in human nature a tendency to use pajoratives and epithets when referring to “the other”. Jesus plays into the prejudice. But then woman addresses Jesus as her “Lord” and dares to speak up; “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
All eyes on Jesus now; how will he handle the affrontery? Jesus called her “daughter” and declared her daughter’s demon gone. She is healed. And the disciples are left astonished and astounded.
To drive home the point about “insiders and outsiders” Jesus leads them back from Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean shore, across the Sea of Galilee into modern day Jordan to the Decapolis, another arduous 45-50 miles journey. Then he heals another foreigner; he makes the deaf to hear, and tells the folks; “For God sakes, don’t go telling anybody about what I’m up to.” Obviously, they’ll arrest and execute someone who does such things!
I’ve always been fascinated by Jesus. He’s always doing something that flies in the face of preconceived notion. He surprises us by the way he reaches out fearlessly to all kinds of people.
This, I think is why I love Jesus, becuase I too am one he would give his life for.
And so forgive me as I pause this day to thank God for my birthday; It is my 73rd “year to heaven” as the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas once put it. Today!
Thank You!
Friday at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, I had breakfast with the the “ancient and honorable bunch of old buzzards”, (which is how I refer to my buddies). Last night my son and his friend took Cindy and me to Tavolo’s in Dorchester. And today we’re heading off to a gathering of family and friends in New Hampshire. A Trinity of Gratitude, these three days.
Life: I thank God for the gift of life, knowing as I do how precious and precarious that gift is. There is so much to be grateful for.
Family: Cindy and the boys, my brothers and their wives and families; my mom and dad, God rest their souls, and all our ancestors. Above all I must offer a prayer of gratitude for my grandmother, “Ma” who gave me the gift of faith and imbued within me a love of God’s Story, as it is told time and again year after year, in the Sacred Scripture.
Education: I was the first in the family to go on to college and then to seminary. I have been given the privilege and love of learning, which I treasure not only in parchment; a BA and an MDiv, I treasure learning for learning sake all my life long.
Vocation: A career of service and caregiving within the church, a life given to advocacy for the poor and the outcast. This is what the scripture requires and which I find inescapable as I ply my trade as a priest. I find it of interest that on my birthday the readings for this Sunday focus with vivid clarity on God’s bias for the poor.
Country and politics: Having grown up in Massachusetts how could I but love politics! Mind you I have deep convictions as most of you do. Unfortunately, perhaps even tragically, so much of what we hold dear by way of conviction is conflicted in the body politic. How we navigate these dangerous days, will require of us all some kind of mutual accommodation. Our civic life will test the full measure of devotion to the Republic; will we tolerate with forbearance those who are diametrically opposed to us?
I love the arts. Music, drama, poetry, literature, architecture, painting, photography and culture of all sorts. I’m so glad to be back home in Boston, where culture is so much a part of our civic life.
Sports: Especially baseball and hockey. I saw Ted Williams hit his last home run. I was there the night Bobby Orr scored that famous goal. Red Aurbach, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Larry Bird: all household names. And then in recent years, by the measure of my riper age, the New England Patriots have become yet another cause of cardiac palpitation!
Driving: I learned in Toronto, and sharpened my skills as a New York City cab driver, and perfected them here in the land of creative driving. The American Automobile Association has identified Massachusetts as the state with the worst drivers in the country. Nuts to them! Driving around here is admittedly an acquired skill, but there is nothing like it in all America. You’ll have to go to Italy or India to outdo us.
Life! Life my friends is such a wonderful gift. Such a dazzling multi-faceted rainbow of gifts. A zest for living which God has sewn into our lives, is a wonder beyond any one human being’s telling.
But wait a minute: some years back, I attended a retreat led by a Nun of the Episcopal Church. She was, as nuns often are, wise to the ways of the world and to the ways of God.
She asked us first to list the 10 most important things in life. She gave us an hour to think about it. I made my list:
- Cindy
- David
- Joshua and now Lizzie too
- Michael
- Family and Friends
- My vocation
- My education
- Funny, I didn’t list politics, but I did list the arts, especially music.
- Life of course, the gift of life itself
- And finally, it occurred to me, almost by way of afterthought, I’d better get God in there someplace, and to round it out, let’s call God “The Holy Trinity.”
Then Sister said; “Suppose it is the last ten days of your life and you have to give up one gift each day until you have the one last gift to give back.
You can imagine how excruciatingly instructive such an exercise was; selecting from the list as I prepared it. She counted off the days. I made my choices. As the days dwindled down, tears welled up within me.
Until at last, I gave up God, my creator, my savior, my sanctifier. Then a remarkable thing happened. As I gave up God I discovered that God would not and could not give up on me.
Instead given the choices, I made at that retreat, and given the choices you and I make throughout our lives, whatever we have to “give up” as our days increase, God will never “give up” on us but instead will more and more receive us unto the nearer presence of God the Creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
I learned that day, that the Good News of Jesus Christ is far more precious than any other gift we have in life. Thanks be to God!
And that, dear friends is my gift to you “On my Birthday”
In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.
Fr Paul
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