Follow the Poop

Seeing how our trash can become a treasure

12/03/2023

MK 13:33-37 Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Last week a friend shared something about shepherds and sheep that I never knew. She said that when a sheep wanders off and gets lost a wise shepherd does not follow its tracks to find it. Do you know what he looks for? The sheep’s poop! Sorry to talk about that in church, but apparently sheep have very distinctive poop, and so if you want to find a specific sheep, look for his specific poop! As you know I have a dog named Apollo. And every time we go for a walk and he poops, I call that “true confessions.” Why? Well because sometimes he is sneaky and tries to hide things he should not eat, but the poop does not lie!

Now, all living organisms create waste, even whole communities do, called garbage. Garbage is the poop of a whole city. Back in high school a teacher posed this problem to my class. Imagine the world 2,000 years from now, there has been a great war, and this country is in ruins and rubble. If some aliens came to earth and wanted to study our civilization, where would be the best place to start?

One students said, “Go to the mall!” Another chimed in with, “Go to the grocery stores!” And Fr. Greg Luyet, who was a classmate of mine, said, “Go to the churches!” All those were good answers. But the best place to study a community would be in its trash dump. Why? Because all our trash and waste is what we truly bought, ate, and consumed. You see, our trash is the poop of our whole community, and it shows who we realy are: trash is our true confessions.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and we enter the holy season of waiting, and watching. So Jesus urges his disciples in the gospel today: “What I say to you, I say to all, ‘Watch!’” But what should we be watching for? Well, clearly we watch for the coming of the Lord. And where do we find him? Notice he is not born in a dignified inn or a clean hospital, but in a stable, surrounded by dirty animals. It was outside the civilized area, close to where people threw their trash.

And do you remember where Jesus would be crucified and die? Again, outside the city, on Golgotha, an area that was the garbage dump of Jerusalem. In other words, the best way to watch during Advent means looking in the most unlikely and unpleasant places – like a trash dump – where the Shepherd draws close to his sheep, where he was born and died. It’s like that old saying: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” In the trash of Jerusalem, we would find the treasure of Jesus.

My friends, let me suggest three ways we can watch how Jesus draws near to us, and it happens during the tragic and trash-like places of our lives. In other words, the garbage, the poop, is not only where the sheep find the Shepherd, but also where the Shepherd finds his sheep. First, no one likes to go to the hospital, especially if you’re the patient! But often when I go to anoint someone at the hospital, they are so happy to see a priest and receive the Anointing of the Sick. Why? Because illness and death pry open our eyes to the coming of the Lord. We long for the Lord when we are sick or suffering like in Advent.

A second moment of watching for Christ’s coming is through our tears and troubles, especially in confession. Now no one likes to cry, right, because we don’t look very pretty: snot and makeup running everywhere. We are showing someone else our naked heart. But whenever someone sheds tears in my office while talking to me, I always thank them. Why? Because tears mean they trust me enough to share the trash of their sin that they hide from the rest of the world. I am amazed how the trash of sin can become a treasure of mercy.

And a third suggestion of watching for Jesus is in the poor and the homeless. And I have to tell you, we gets lots of chances to do that being a downtown church. We have people who spend the night on the church steps and Apollo and I wake them up when we open the church. We see people who come in to Mass, who clearly are not Catholic, but just want to get out of the cold and warm up. One time a guy spent the night in the confessional. Heck, the homeless come to Mass and confession more than some Catholics do.

Recently I have started to stop and talk to these folks. That is, instead of money, I give them my time, and listen to their stories. They welcome someone to talk to. Loneliness can be colder than sub-freezing temperatures. I have to admit I used to be kind of scared of the homeless – some people might call them the trash, the riff-raff, of our society – but if we watch them closely this Advent, we may see Jesus in them, like Mother Teresa always did. In the trash of our society, we will find the treasure of our Savior, like when he first came.

Folks, I know we would all rather watch for Jesus’ coming in a beautiful, Gothic church, filled with garland, glittering lights and poinsettias, and singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Or we would like to watch for Jesus seeing all the homes lit up with glimmering lights and decorated with snowmen, Santa, and reindeer. And all those are good places to watch for Jesus.

But the best way to watch for the Shepherd drawing near is in our illness and crosses, our tears and troubles, and in the homeless and outcast. It was in the garbage dump that the sheep first found the Shepherd 2000 years ago. And it is in the trash-like moments in our lives that the Shepherd finds his sheep today. Because a good Shepherd find the lost sheep by following its poop.

Praised be Jesus Christ!