That's What It's All About

A few years ago the philosopher/deadpan-comic, Steven Wright, posed a question.

What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about?

The audience loved it—he got a big laugh.

And I thought it was a great one-liner.

So I decided to share it with you.

I thought of doing a little demonstration too.

But I’m not sure St Joseph’s is ready for liturgical dance.

And you all know it anyway.

You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around ...

And that’s what it’s all about.

It’s a silly song.

But when you think about it for a while, you realize ...

It just happens to contain an important nugget of truth.

Steven Wright was accidentally onto something.

The Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about.

Putting your whole self in.

Shaking things up.

Turning yourself around.

Today’s reading from Isaiah tells us that the Lord opens our ears to hear new things.

Things we hadn’t heard before, or hadn’t paid attention to before.

And when we do hear, we’re supposed to respond.

Take some action.

Shake things up.

Maybe change something we’ve been doing.

Or do something we’ve been neglecting to do.

Turn ourselves around.

Our second reading from James says that too.

Take action.

Faith alone is not enough.

If we’ve been complacent and inactive,

It’s time to shake things up, turn around and do some good works.

Feed the hungry, clothe the needy.

In our Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is.

Peter says You are the Christ.

And Jesus confirmed that Peter was right.

What a fantastic, exciting thing for the disciples to know.

They were all companions of the Christ—the Messiah.

They could just see the glorious path ahead of them.

Marching on with the power of the Christ.

Heading off to an easy victory over all their oppressors.

But then Jesus shook things up.

He told them which path they really had to take.

They had to join him on a path through his messy passion and death.

That’s not the path they wanted.

Peter took him aside and told him not to say such things.

Surely, he said, Jesus should never have to experience such suffering.

And maybe that struck Jesus as a pretty attractive idea.

He really didn’t have to go through with all this.

Maybe Jesus himself was tempted for a moment to try to work out a different path.

Something less tortuous.

But our Gospel says, Jesus almost immediately turned around.

And he rebuked Peter, saying Get behind me, Satan.  You tempter.

He was telling Peter to turn himself around too.

To stop thinking like humans; to think like God.

Another name for this turning around is conversion.

Conversion isn’t just one dramatic event, like St Paul being struck on the road to Damascus.

It’s a series of big and little turns.

And we’re constantly and repeatedly called to conversion throughout our lives.

Certainly, when we know we’re going seriously astray, we hear that call to turn around.

But even when we think we’re doing pretty well.

There’s always something to fix, something to do better at.

No matter how good we are.

No matter how well we’re doing.

We’re never fully, directly on course.

And God is constantly calling us to make those adjustments, great or small.

And turn directly back to Him.

Even if there’s a cross on that path.

That might be particularly true when we think we’re doing well.

When we’re complacent.

That may be the time we most need to shake things up.

To renew and reinvigorate our commitment.

To put our whole self in.

To see that true path to that glory that awaits us.

And turn ourselves around.

It’s an iterative, lifelong process.

And indeed, That’s what it’s all about.

24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 50:5-9a;  Jas 2:14-18;  Mk 8:27-35                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org