November 27, 2022 (1st Sunday of Advent)

by Fr. Bob Glynn, S.J.

[This text is an automatically generated transcript. Some edits have been made.]

When I was teaching at the university in Zambia, and I had my first idea that maybe we could do service and work at the orphanage, I instead of just kind of plunging in, I thought, okay, let’s do this by a small step. So, I took one of the students well, had been the student at least I think he finished, but he was one I think what might have been a suspension. So I said, Why don’t you come with me? And we’ll see what it’s like playing with the children at the orphanage and what things that we might be helpful, and his name was Yebo. And Yebo was very clever and slightly deranged. So he was perfect for this operation. We got there the first time completely unprepared. And Yebo spent most of his time trying to keep the children from shoving dirt into each other’s mouths and the fun things that you could do when you’re dealing with only two to six year olds, you know, so I said, Well, maybe we need some game that we can play the next time so that we don’t have to sort things out. ... Yebo was the master of games. Little did I realize how clever some of these games would be.

So I didn’t have much money. So I said we have to do this on a shoestring and know what we have available. So we had taken some things down I think for snacks in the big ShopRite bag. Now ShopRite is kind of the equivalent of Safeway, but it was a very big bag, kind of you know, recyclable. And so the next thing I knew Yebo said we’re going to play a game. It’s called “kidnap”, and the next thing I knew he had turned a bag over and stuffed it over the head of one of the little munchkins and then turned it back over and started running around having “kidnapped” the small child. This was a great delight to everyone. This game, I said, Yebo, I’m not sure you know that this is a great idea. He said they love it, father. I said, I know, but somehow and he said, and no one would ever pay a ransom for most of these kids. Oh, they were terrorists.

Alright, so I said we’ll let Can you come up with a different game maybe for next time? Oh, he was full of games. So there was the second game was called “kahtchkulu”. Now of course not knowing the language whatever language Yebo was speaking. Alright, but not knowing the language. I didn’t know what “kahtchkulu” was nor did I really when we started this game, but didn’t involve Yebo being “kahtchkulu”. Now apparently “kahtchkulu” is an old grandfather. And the old grandfather is sitting out in the sun sleeping when the small children come and make all this noise and wake him up. Well, we had no problem getting people to make noise. They were very good at it. And so Yebo would then would wake up and scream, “kahtchkulu”. Well, this and then I didn’t realize this involved his grabbing a big stick and chasing them with the stick and then whacking them on the behind if he caught them. Yebo, it’s another clever game. There’s no doubt about it. That I’m not sure this violence is something that we want to be, you know, coming across. They love it, Father, I know. They love it. I know but…

So, I thought okay, let’s get at least some materials we can work with here. So I bought colored paper at the store, and I said, Okay, Yebo, just do something that doesn’t involve violence. Oh, okay, Father. So the next thing I knew we’d been having riots and the capital in Lusaka. It was six hours away, but everybody knew about them. And so Yebo had wrapped all the things into megaphones. So each of the little children had the megaphone, and he was teaching them that their English was was usually not good. That was quite good for this. Hell no, we won’t go. Now, I thought this amusing. The sisters who ran the orphanage did not. So that ended that game.

So then I went to ShopRite and I thought we’ve got to have something that’s cheap, that Yebo cannot make into a tool of destruction, and that they’ll like, so I bought the little bubbles. Okay, I found those. And Yebo was not allowed to blow the bubbles because somehow I thought this could be destructive. So I blew the bubbles. You know, and the Zambians can’t pronounce L. So they would Oh, it’s time for “bubbers”. So I didn’t know what “bubbers” were but I figured after a while, I was going to blow “bubbers” for everybody. So I would blow the bubbles and I’m not too good at it. Let me tell you, plus this was extra cheap soap they used. I was blowing the bubble and of course, every one was lunatic at attacking the double crash. I’ve got it wham bang, bang and two out of the 32 children sat there and they would go and they would catch a bubble. And they would just stand there and look really ... at this bubble. And then of course some one of the others come along and whack “Ahhhhh!” the bubble has been destroyed. But eventually you would get where the others would be so busy chasing these bubbles. I would blow something that way that the two who liked the bubbles would always just sit there and they would look at this bubble. And if we had to play outside because it was too dangerous to have them inside God knows what we could have done in there. But you know how when the sun shines through this bubble, and it was always sunny in Zambia, and there would be just this iridescence and it would be so beautiful and they would just be sitting there with this kind of look. Not peace exactly not enjoy exactly but just me be wonder and and they would just hold on to this bubble and look and this is small children. You know and then eventually, they will just go let the bubble float away. And I picture this this is a wonderful image in my mind.

In the first reading today. We have this city of Jerusalem that everybody’s going up to. Jerusalem was a mess. We know through the whole of the Old Testament Jerusalem was it feeling city full of selfish, self centered, powerful people who did what they wanted until the Lord zap them but we have everybody going up not to the mountain of violence. That is the destructive and the terrible but that this mountain is very different. It’s now been transformed into a place where everything that is about violence and destruction is changed and transformed into something that makes things grow and flourish in that game in the in with the ad the orphanage. We have this whole sense of these children who are really have learned already about violence, destruction and terror and it’s fun. And it’s the way that you play and that is somehow wonderful. And to take someone else’s bubble and just slap it right out to destroy that is to find pleasure in yourself, to find control and power, to dominate and to feel good because you can. And the first reading is exactly the opposite of that. It says the one who holds on to life with its treasure and fragility sees something remarkable. Something that God is at work doing.

In the Gospel, the part about the the two are there and the one that takes one is taken that’s from we don’t have much of a teaching about that in Catholicism, but in Protestantism that’s called the rapture. They were one is seized up that one is not one who’s being punished. That one is being seized up into heaven before the end of the world and it’s in those people, the one who is seized up from the field, the one who was seized up from the ground, the granary, that in them we see that light that shining through because that thing that we hold fragilely is our lives before God. It is this beautiful, transparent, fragile thing. And it is what God promises to shine his light through but so often, we, rather than hold this life in front of us, with the sense of its tenderness and fragility, we want to believe this just seize the day, grab it, grab it and hold it because it’s yours for all it’s worth as long as you would tack it because it’s all about you. And that is not the message of the gospel. The message is this wonder of what it is that God has given us for each of us to see in front of me, within me and in others. The light that shines through it is God’s love. And that when we see that we cannot be separated from God. We are in fact promised that kingdom. We are the ones to be seized up. But the temptation of the world is always to believe otherwise. That I must seize it. I must have it. It must be mine. And if anyone else might have it, let me crush it. Because I’m afraid that they’ll have it and I won’t. But it’s given to each of us, to be held, to be treasured, to be cherished and to see in it God’s love shining through, a love that promises me that it will take me to the Father. Always and forever.