May 15, 2022 (Fifth Sunday of Easter)

by Fr. Bob Glynn, S.J.

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

My apologies if there are any medical students here who were at the Medical mass two weeks ago, because I’m using part of the story that I told to you then now this is not my senility shining through. This is that I intended for this to happen again but it will be different than what you heard because it’s a different Gospel. I was taking one of my little walks down memory lane they happen more and more frequently. These days. And I was back recently, the first day where I was going to go to kindergarten. Now at that point, I was five years old. My next brother was three, and the baby was one. This was Catholic family planning at its best. And so my mother was delighted to get rid of one of us at least. So I had to go to Edison school in Alameda, California 94501. And my, an all kids neighborhood. I lived on Thompson avenue—that, ah... that’s Christmas Tree Lane in Alameda for those who are you are familiar with East Bay. They all told me how horrible school was. I was terrified by the time I was ready to go. So my mother, my brother and the baby all had to walk me down to Edison School. It was a fair walk. And I was left in the afternoon kindergarten class. It was only half an hour later that my mother had been returned to the school. Because I had sat in the corner I had made no noise because I was always a good child. But I wept uncontrollably for the entire half hour. So till I was brought home. I consider this a massive success. Until the next day when my mother said you’re going to the morning session of kindergarten now. So this was a failure. So I was ready, but I thought even at that age, I knew if I had that mother had that look on her face, like you better not pull anything. So I got in there and I was ready to be terrified, ready for terror. And I walked into the kindergarten classroom and this very pretty little girl on the other side of the room, looked at me and I looked at her. Now this is this is the sort of thing I think I talked about this a year ago where there was this kind of knowing moment. I don’t think either one of us knew what we knew, but we knew it. And we both knew it at the same time. And so I said, Oh, I like this class. Right. And this became my girlfriend, Lisa Hempy.

Right, now Lisa and I were inseparable, except that even though this was not a Catholic school, they had some funny little Catholic ideas in mind, which was that you boys and girls did not play together. So that part of kindergarten was not fun. But whenever we came in to do anything else, you know, arts and crafts or anything like that, then Lisa and I would hold hands and do whatever it was and I was happy. I was a very anxious child and very, very shy, but lesen would always just look at me. And I would look at her, you know, and we were very happy when they thought kindergarten is great. Alright, so then I was going to first grade at St. Philip Neri primary school, Alameda, California. And my mother said, I have something that I need to tell you. I thought, oh boy. And she said, Lisa, is a Protestant. Of course, this had no effect on me at all because I didn’t know what a Protestant was. And so he said, Oh, and she said, so. She’s not going to St. Philip Neri because there are 50 children in that class, all Catholic and they’re not jamming anybody else into the room. So I was ready for terror. Absolutely. And I was terrified, because those were the days. I was sure my mother was that I was not allowed to say this, but the nuns were dressed like witches. And the I was clear that this school was run by witches. So I had the witches and they did not have Lisa Hempy. So I’m taken down to the school the first day ready, ready for the terror. And I go in, they sit down.

Now, I don’t know if you know this, but I am a great observer of life, old people and very young people, to them, most other people look alike. So I looked across the room and I thought it’s Lisa Hempy! And I had given the look, I was not given the look back. But I thought what she maybe hasn’t seen me. And so I went home and I said mom, Lisa’s in the class. And she said no, Bobby, she’s not. And I said, I am sure Well, three days later we discovered it was Debbie Goff. Alright, who was not Lisa Hempy but by that point, I had settled in with the sense of calm that Lisa was somehow with me there in that classroom.

Now Lisa went to the public schools and so we did not meet up again until Alameda High School. I was forced to go to Alameda high school because I wanted to be a priest and my parents were going to knock that one out of me. All right. So I was Alameda High School. And I was terrified. Because here were all these Protestants, even though half of them were Catholic. I didn’t know that. Right, but you’re all the distance and we didn’t know them and they all knew each other and then the kids in my classroom, St. Philip Neri. We’re all trying to kiss up to the to the public school kids. It was awful. Until that day, when I saw Lisa Hempy and she had turned out beautiful. Oh, and I thought then I looked at myself and I thought and you haven’t. And then I thought she’s not even going to talk to me. And then I kind of looked up and she looked at me and she said, Bobby, my kindergarten sweetheart. I thought oh yes in front of everyone. She has said this and it was sensational. And I thought now I have somebody that is very popular. Who has announced that I was her kindergarten sweetheart. I my name was was Bob at that point had been Robert and St. Mary because the nuns would only call you by the name on your baptismal certificate. But I had gotten to and then to Bob but she alone was allowed to call me Bobby. So I’m periodic. We were not in the same classes because they were streamed and we were in different streams. But like at our senior ball, I mean, I saw her occasionally in the hallways, but rarely, but at our Senior Ball, she came over and she said, Do I get to dance? With my kindergarten sweetheart? You bet. All right. This was wonderful. And it was always just this kind of thing where she looked. I look. I think all everything is okay. And I didn’t see her. I saw her at our 20th reunion and then we had like kindergarten boyfriend than that than I Yes. And they always I saw her three times maybe over the years to talk and be together.

It had been about 10 times then you know, until my father’s funeral at St. Philip Neri, Alameda, California just a few years ago. And I was surprised I didn’t realize that Lisa Hempy would show up looking still beautiful. And so when I came out into the sanctuary, there was Lisa, a Protestant in the Catholic Church, just giving me that look, and I thought this will be okay. And it was it was and then after the Mass I had that little problem with my brother. And then I went to over and I went to the reception hall and I thought I think I’m either going to pass out or throw up I’m not sure which one it’s going to be. And just at that moment Lisa caught my eye and brought over a glass of water to me and she said Take a big breath. A glass of water. Sweetheart, you’ve done a great job. And it was all wonderful.

Now why are we hearing about my not loved life? We are because the commandment today is a commandment about love. And we get that one more mixed up than just about anything. First of all, we start with the idea that Jesus is telling me that I’ve got to love everybody and save the world. Okay. Very few of us are probably capable of that. Jesus was the only one so far. Okay. The second is that will I love the people that I like and that’s fine, and I do nice things for them. We must take nice out of the Catholic vocabulary, please. Hey, no, this has nothing to do with salvation, but it has to do with politeness. I think what what we do is we look around and we see we catch the eye of someone and we begin to pay attention that that other person is in the our greatest needs are loneliness and the sense that we are not loved. They are the greatest that we possess. And everyone this is the surprise everyone else has that feeling. And when you see the possibility open for me to address that in someone else. This is the opportunity to love because this is how I want to be loved. I don’t need to be loved when it’s all going great. And I’m earning every plot dent in the world and every I say Oh yeah, well they all like me because I’ve done something wonderful. I need it when I am most vulnerable. When someone can see into me. Because isn’t that what Jesus did throughout the gospel? He looked into human hearts again and again. And when he saw that, this that loneliness that broken this is simply love. He just turned to them and said Your faith has made you Oh and this is the command. We want to do something else. We’ve got some other rules that like to follow and some of their ideology that makes better sense to us. But this is the commandments. And it’s clear, but it’s impossible to fulfill if I spent the entire time looking at myself and saying how am I doing and what do I need. When I look at others, and I catch their eye and I see into their hearts. I begin the Christian journey that Jesus leads us on.