32nd Sunday A
Sacred Heart Church, Ballymore
12th November 2023
“A holy and wholesome thought”
My friends,
There is a very humorous sketch involving John Cleese of Fawlty Towers fame is which he has bought a parrot in a pet shop to find out in time that the parrot is dead, having died.
On discovering his dead parrot, he returns to the pet shop owner and presented him with the deceased parrot. Upon which the pet shop owner protested the parrot was not dead rather was in some comatose state from which he would awaken. John Cleese, in role, as the purchaser proceeded to use every available word he could think of to persuade the pet shop owner that the parrot was indeed dead, expired, perished, given up the ghost, snuffed it, pegged out, kicked the bucket, carked it!
The scene ironically reminds me of our new reference for those who have died – that they have passed – why the change of language I don’t know only that it leaves me a little uncomfortable and wondering what are we avoiding as we sidestep the word death and dying. Has it to do with a shift of cultural ways of softening the harsh reality of living with death over which we have no choice, such is its inevitability?
The words from Paul to the Thessalonians (2nd Reading) are so familiar to us and capture so well our sense of hope for those who have died. It is this breadth of understanding in faith that we bring to the month of the Holy Souls. This is the Creed in action – the communion of Saints – the ongoing bond between the living and the dead is real and active. Our respect for and inspiration of those who have gone before us is a grace in guiding our life’s journey. Remembrance of the dead is for us a holy and wholesome thought.
Each generation seeks to live wisely – to use well life’s gifts and opportunities. That quest for wisdom didn’t begin to-day or yesterday. The Old Testament reading from the Book of Wisdom is really an ode to such a gift in life – Wisdom is personified in the feminine – as a guide and companion – very much like we speak of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. There’s a line in the middle of to-day’s piece which reads “Even to think about her is understanding fully grown. Be on the alert for her and anxiety will quickly leave you”
It seems like really good advice, for free! from ages past. Ours is an anxious generation. We are suffering greatly from overload – especially sensory overload. People are going to great lengths to de-stress – these ‘solutions’ becoming addictive in turn. These are real distractions on the roads we travel.
Professing faith in the communion of Saints is to trust in the wisdom and faith of the fathers and mothers who reared us. They did not have our education, were not familiar with our technology and comforts, but they lived with a wisdom and faith in turn hewn from the generations who went before them.
Whether we speak of death as passed or passing we cannot ignore its reality “So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour” Matt 25:13.
