Uriah Heep. Uriah Heep, an ugly name for an ugly person. One of the meanest villains ever created by Charles Dickens. He is David Copperfield’s nemesis in the story of “David Copperfield.” He presents himself to the public, all the time, as a very humble man. “I’m just a very ‘umble man.” And he is very humble man, and very proud of his humility. And, underneath that humble façade is roiling anger, and jealousy, and envy, and hatred. It all eventually spills over and threatens the characters in the story.
I tell you that because today’s gospel is about humility, and humility is not a very popular attitude or virtue in today’s society. Think of the way people behave on Facebook and other platforms; counting the number of likes they get, always having to have the last word. Watch the TV news when people are being interviewed at the site of some problem, or disaster, or tragedy. No one seems to have an inside voice anymore. Everything is at the top of people’s lungs. We are an angry and self-first population. When we are like that, it’s hard for us to hear anything about humility because we see it the same way Charles Dickens created this caricature of humility, something really not to be admired, but rather despised.
The Righteous Brothers had a huge number one hit in 1965 called “You Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” So big was the song itself, that it was recorded again only four years later by Dionne Warwick, and she brought it to number 14, and Elvis used it quite frequently in his touring. So I’m going to recite the very last verse and leave out the last line. I want to see if you can fill in the last line.
“Bring back that lovin’ feelin’, whoa, that loving feelin’. Bring back that lovin’ feeling, cause it’s gone, gone, gone.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
“Nope.” Nice try. Only the last time in the song.
“…cause it’s gone, gone, gone. And I can’t go on … whoa, whoa, whoa.“ There’s the “whoa, whoa, whoa.”
“And I can’t go on.”
We may say that that’s a little melodramatic for the breakup of a teenage love affair, but nevertheless, it’s true to life. And it gives us a window through which to observe our first reading.
The 1950s was the era of the big sprawling western. The biggest thing about them was they were almost all in Technicolor, and they were shot in the great outdoors. They were great to look at, but sometimes the plots left something to be desired. There was a movie called “Pony Soldiers” (and it was called “Pony Soldiers” because the Canadian Mounted Police, just like much of the United States cavalry, rode on ponies rather than horses because they were lighter). But this particular story takes place in Canada. Sitting Bull, trying to escape from the US cavalry, after the battle of the Little Big Horn - and this is a fact of history - crossed the border into Canada because the United States and Canada did not have reciprocal treaties. So United States troops could not pursue him into Canada. And he tried to make a home for his people among the Western Cree Indians in Canada. And everything was hunky-dory until the Canadian government decided they didn’t want Sitting Bull there, and then things went south rather quickly.
That’s the basic historical fact behind the story, but the story is ridiculous. Somehow or other, some Canadian mounted officer makes friends with the Indians, and they’re going to go to war over this whole thing, and he convinces them that they should wait. And then a wonderful sign appears in the sky - it’s a paddle wheeler. And the plot wants us to believe that Indians are so stupid that they’ve never seen a mirage; only white people know what a mirage is. And this mirage, supposedly, is a steamship that’s on a river hundreds of miles away. It’s impossible that this phenomenon should’ve taken place in the sky, but the white man says to the Indian, “See this is the sign from the great mother in England that you shouldn’t go to war.” And the Indians all lay down their weapons and say, “Okay, we won’t go to war because…” It’s kind of silly.
Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be with you this morning here at St. Joseph’s. When our Holy Father, Pope Francis, declared this year a special year in devotion in honor of St. Joseph, I made a promise to myself that in all of the parishes that are under his patronage in my area of responsibility, I would try very hard to get to them and offer Mass in each and every one of the St. Joseph churches. So, I am so very grateful to your pastor, Father Madori, for allowing me to be with you today to fulfill my promise to St. Joseph, who is very dear to my heart and in my prayer life, and I try to model myself after his faithfulness each and every day.
But today is also, declared by our Holy Father, the World Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving for Grandparents. Isn’t that wonderful? It sure is. You deserve every day in honor of grandparents. But today, especially, the church throughout the world honors those very special people. And we’ll conclude our Prayer of the Faithful this morning with a prayer that was composed for this day. A special prayer in thanksgiving. A special prayer asking God’s blessings upon those who continue to form our lives, whether in person, or in the great treasure of our memory.
For those of you who were not here when Mass began, I asked the congregation to look around the church and see what things were different. Because every now and then you get one of those puzzles where the same picture is printed twice, side by side, and there are changes in the second picture, and you have to figure out what they are. Usually there are about twenty of them, and I always get about three. So here’s the changes I made in the church. I moved the credence stand off the platform to the floor. By the way, credence stand is the English for credenza. And many of you still have a credenza in your dining room set. I separated the two candle stands, which were together. And I moved the kneeler from here to here. Did anybody get that, or any part of it? I didn’t think so. The reason why I did that is because of today’s gospel.
Before I discuss today’s gospel you have to understand something about ancient writing. We have so much print in our society. When we finish with the daily paper, if we still get one, we put it out with the garbage. We have magazines, all sorts of things. We’re inundated with print media. Writing was extremely rare in the ancient world. Few people could read. And even fewer could write. That seems odd to us. How could you be able to read and not write? But they weren’t taught to write, only to read what they had to read to get by. Not only that but there weren’t many words. If you took all the words that existed in Ancient Greek and put them in a dictionary it would take up only about a quarter of any standard American dictionary in size. That’s how small the language was.