Bonus cut: the homily I didn't give today

In my previous post, I posted the homily I gave today, focusing on the first two parables in today's Gospel reading.  But up until late last night, that was not the homily I had planned to give today.  This one I'm posting below the break is the one I had worked on (more to the point, struggled with and fought) for quite a few hours this week.  It's based, not on the parables of Jesus in the Gospel reading, but on the prayer of King Solomon from today's first reading (readings are here).

Before I went to bed last night, I put the finishing touches on this one, practiced giving it, and printed it so it would be all ready to bring with me to the early mass this morning.  But I never loved it.  And I woke up at about 5:30 this morning with the conviction that, if I had enough time, I would redo it.  I had to drop one of my children off at work at 6 am.  That gave me about 50 minutes to draft a new homily.  That is not the recommended way to create a homily!  But I had been ruminating on the readings for days - more than a week - so I wasn't really starting ice-cold. So the new homily just came pouring out through my fingers on the keyboard onto the laptop screen.  I was able to type it out, edit it and print it within a 45 minute window.  I'm quite sure I had divine help getting that done. Then I put on some church clothes and headed to church, arriving in time for 7:30 am mass.  I didn't have time to practice it beforehand, which is not optimal.  But I think it worked out okay.  I gave it again at the 9:30 am mass and I think it was a little stronger that time. 

Here is the one I didn't give.  I'd welcome any comments. My own take is: it is more like a post here at NewGathering than a homily.  I'm glad I changed my mind.

I want to talk today about King Solomon’s prayer in our first reading.  God loved Solomon’s prayer.  Why?  Because this new king began his monarchy, not by demanding mighty armies or piles of wealth or platoons of concubines, but by humbly turning to God and asking for wisdom.  In his biggest moment, he turned to God for help.  Do you think there could be a lesson there for us?

Do you ever think of the church as a repository of wisdom?  It is.  One of the things about our church that I really love is that the church has been accumulating wisdom for 2,000 years now, starting with the Hebrew scriptures and the words and deeds of Jesus, who is Wisdom Personified.  And the church offers us the memory and the writings of particularly wise and holy saints, whom we call Doctors of the Church – or perhaps Teachers of the Church would be an even better title for them.  These Teachers or Doctors of the Church have graced us with spiritual wisdom, unpacking what it means to follow Jesus and have him in our life. The church has preserved a vast patrimony of wisdom and offers it to us.  

Yet I think that, at times, we tend to neglect it.  We don’t always partake of the church’s wisdom as we should. And that’s a shame.  Because God is the source of wisdom.  When we neglect wisdom, there is a real sense that we’re neglecting God.

You may have the perception that the church's wisdom is locked away somewhere, such that you have to be a serious scholar to access it and understand it.  While it's true that the church's wisdom is a fitting topic for serious scholarship, much of it is accessible to folks like us.  Wisdom seasons our common prayers and liturgical texts.

To offer a brief illustration, consider the second half of the Hail Mary prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Do you see the wisdom in asking God's Mother to pray for us at that moment?  

I’m going to offer an example of the church's wisdom which may be a bit neglected.  It may even be disrespected by the wider culture – including some Catholics.  What am I referring to?  The celebration of the sacrament of holy matrimony.  That is to say, Catholic weddings.  

The church has been experiencing, observing, discussing, writing about, making laws concerning and debating weddings and marriages for many hundreds of years.  The church can teach the world a lot of wise and wonderful things about marriage, if only the world would be willing to listen with an open mind.

But perhaps you’d agree with me that the world doesn’t seem to have a very open mind about the Catholic church’s views of matrimony these days.  We know this is true, because Catholic weddings become fewer and fewer each year.   Since 1970, the number of weddings in the Catholic church has declined by about 75%.  During that same time period, the number of American Catholics has increased by about a third.  Something seems out of whack with those opposing trends.

Now, you may be thinking that maybe it’s not the people who want to get married that need to listen to the wisdom of the church; maybe the church needs to listen more to the wisdom of the people.  I would reply that nobody is more open-minded than I am about the church taking a fresh look at its pastoral practices.  Maybe there are some things we can do better to meet people where they are.  

But I’m also going to insist, speaking as one who has been through his own Catholic wedding and has worked with a number of engaged couples over the years, that the church offers a lot of wisdom to couples who wish to be married, if they are open to a Catholic wedding.

Why don’t more couples get married in the Catholic church?  Among the reasons I've heard is this one: we don’t want to get married in a church.  We want to get married somewhere else – where we want our wedding to be, not where the church insists it be.  

You may have heard that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married recently in Madison Square Garden in New York, with Adam Sandler, of all people, officiating.  It was a huge news story earlier this month.

I’ve seen reports that their wedding vows were written by the couple themselves and were extremely lengthy – it took each of them about 20 minutes to recite their vow to the other.  To the best I'm able to discover, the texts of those vows hasn't been released to the public; the couple took elaborate steps to keep their wedding celebration private, including embargoing the cell phones of their 1,000 guests.  But it seems guests have characterized the vows as being filled with personal anecdotes, emotions and a fair amount of silliness.  According to various reports, everyone in attendance was highly entertained by them.  Swift reportedly sang some of her vow.  

But.  Do you see how different that wedding is from the prayer of Solomon?  Solomon, in the biggest moment of his life, turned to God, and asked God to help him.  According to reports from attendees of the Swift-Kelce wedding, the affair was completely secular.

And none of us denies that is their right.  But.  Had Swift and Kelce been able to get married by the Catholic church, the wedding wouldn’t have taken place in Madison Square Garden.  It would have been in a church like this one, or perhaps even St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  You may think, Well, that’s not very nice of the church, forbidding couples from getting married wherever they wish.  In reply, I would ask you to consider the wisdom of the church in this matter.  The church wants us to get married in a church building for some very wise reasons, including that this is God’s house.  Think once more of Solomon, turning to God in his big moment.  We want wedding couples to do the same on their big day.  God so wants to be involved in the couple’s life that he invites them to his house to profess their bonds of love and fidelity to one another.  

Okay.  I’m taking the curmudgeon hat off, and tipping it in Swift's and Kelce's direction.  Best wishes to Travis and Taylor.   I have nothing but respect for them.  Both come across as serious, mature, disciplined and level-headed, not to mention surpremely talented in their chosen professions.  I wish them nothing but the best in their married life together.  Truly.

But for ourselves and our families, please consider the practice of getting married an actual Catholic church, complete with the church’s vows.  It’s a little old-fashioned, but that’s because the church figured out, a very long time ago, how wise it is to turn to God during the biggest moments of our lives.  

Our church is a storehouse of wisdom.  It’s for us to partake of it.  The Prayer of Solomon suggests that wisdom starts with turning to God in the biggest moments of our lives.