The Powerful Play

Finding our verse, our voice and our vocation

04/30/2017

Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33 

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: "You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and listen to my words. You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him. But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.

         In 1989 – long before you graduating seniors were even born! – an extraordinary movie was released called, “Dead Poets Society.” Robins Williams starred as John Keating, an unorthodox teacher at an all-boys high school. He taught literature standing on his desk, ordering his students to tear out the introduction to their book, and always pushing them outside their comfort zone, so they could “suck the marrow out of life” - live life to the fullest.

         One day in class he explained the purpose and power of poetry. He said: “I have a little secret for you, huddle up. We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” Keating went on: “To quote from Whitman, ‘Oh, me, oh life, of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities filled with the foolish…What good amid these, O me, O life. Answer. That you are here, that life exists, and identity. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’” Then Keating asks his students: “What will your verse be?” I’d like to pose that question to all our graduating seniors this evening: the powerful play of human history goes on, and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

         Now notice that finding “your verse” is not the same as choosing a career or getting a job – medicine, law, engineering, or business – it’s a deeper question than that. It’s the reason God put you here on earth at this time in history, with your special set of skills and shortcomings, among your particular family and friends, and in Fort Smith, Arkansas, of all places! Please believe me when I tell you that you are not an accident, or a mistake; you are not an “oops baby” as some parents say. Walt Whitman was speaking to you graduates when he wrote: “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”

          In the first reading today we see that finding “your verse” is equivalent to finding your voice. At least that was the case for St. Peter. Acts of the Apostles says: “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: ‘You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.” When Peter touched the tap-root of his verse, he found his voice, and he began to live his vocation. Find your verse, raise your voice, and live your vocation.

          Now, it takes time and prayer and trial and error to find our verse, and voice and vocation. When I was in high school, I thought I had found my verse: I wanted to teach philosophy at a university and marry a nice Catholic girl, and have twenty kids. Apparently, there is a shortage of nice, Catholic girls who want to have 20 kids! It took me a while but I slowly realized that was not God’s will for me – that was not my verse – until I pursued the priesthood. It’s like that old adage, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.” Tell him what you think your verse is.

          But I’m not the only one who has some interesting ideas about what our life verse may be. Some of our graduating seniors do as well. For example, Seth Becker is an old school political guy. He says he will run for president someday. Would you all raise your hands if you would vote for Seth for president of the United States? Abby Dahlem loves the restaurant called “Purple Cow.” She intends to go to college to learn interior design. Maybe the Purple Cow inspired her to come up with a better color for the cow! Or, take young Hannah Maestri, who has a very unique and rare talent: she can wiggle her nostrils without moving the rest of her nose or face. I’m not sure how much someone will pay you for doing that, Hannah, but people have paid to see a lot less, and be sure to give 10% to the church. You probably know that Ben Keating has off-the-charts musical talents with the trumpet. But did you know he has also created his own dance? Every night I keep expecting to see him on Dancing with the Stars (nothing yet)! Nathan Barker never drinks carbonated soft drinks or sodas, and he loves to wear bow-ties. Everyone who wears bow-ties becomes rich and famous. Lydia Weidman has mean soccer skills, and even meaner dance moves. We need a dance-off between Ben and Lydia at the reception after Mass. I think Emma Kate Fitzgerald will become an OBGYN. When she was little, her mom was pregnant with Avery and she asked where the baby came from. Her mom said, “God put the baby in there.” During Sunday Mass, she saw Monsignor O’Donnell walking down the aisle and thought he was God (people often think priests are God), and said, “Mom, there’s God! He put the baby in your tummy!” Sidney Bieker goes on mission trips to Nicaragua as part of Project Hope, and intends to pursue pre-med at UAFS.  

          But you still haven’t answered Walt Whitman’s question: “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” And the answer doesn’t lie in getting a job in medicine or law or engineering or business, but only when we answer the deeper query: why did God make me? And how will you know when you have found your verse? It’s when you find your voice. My verse is to be a priest and to preach – sometimes I can’t shut up! – because I have found my verse, and my voice, and my vocation. When people meet the man or woman they’ll marry, or when they have a baby, they tell the whole world on Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram! When you find your verse, you find your voice, and tell the world why God made you; they won’t be able to shut you up. And that, my dear graduates, is called “your vocation” – how you will proclaim, in your own unrepeatable way, the good news of Jesus Christ. 

           By the way, do you know how Robin Williams died? It was very tragic: he committed suicide. I say this with all due respect to his family and friends, but maybe for a moment he lost his verse, or took his eyes off it. Like he said in the movie, “Poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” Find your verse and never lose it.

          Let me leave you with a few lines from a prayer John Henry Newman. The 19th century cardinal wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service he has committed some work to me which he has not given to another. I have my mission…He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He make take away my friends; he may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, he knows what he is about.” Dear graduates, when you find your verse, you will know what you are about, too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!