"Long Train Coming": Christmas 2005

CHRISTMAS HOMILY: "A Long Train Coming" – 2005

(Revised)

I don’t know much about railroads,
but I do know that here in Cincinnati
“Christmas” and “trains” seem to go together.
I’m not a native of Cincinnati,
but it’s my understanding that, for generations,
children have gone downtown
--to the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Building--
just to see the model trains
chugging their way through the winter landscape
displayed in the windows.

Christmas Trains aren’t just a Cincinnati tradition, however.
For a lot of folks, trains are right up there
with sleigh bells, eggnog and snowmen.

But, unfortunately, times change.

Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company
is now called Cinergy.
And the kids who peer into the windows
of the downtown office building
are more enthralled with computer games like Final Fantasy…
than they are with the power of locomotives
or the mechanics of a round house.

But, you know what?
Trains still run… kids still take note.
Even kids with ipods clamped to their ears.

Why?

Well, there’s just something about trains
that captures our imaginations.
And when something takes hold of our imagination,
there’s no letting go.

Let me give you an example.

A couple weeks ago
a retired gentleman from our parish
asked if I would to accompany him
to the Railroad Museum of Cincinnati.

I said yes.
And what I encountered was truly amazing.

This museum, you see, isn’t housed indoors.
It’s located across the river in Latonia, in the corner of a rail yard.
And every Wednesday and Saturday a hefty corps
of retirees get together in that train yard
and work to restore locomotives, cabooses,
freight cars, club cars, sleeping cars…you name it!

Even in winter, these guys show up to work.
They converted some cars into machine shops
and inside, the air rings with the sound of hammers and blowtorches.
The stripped-out cars are cluttered with tools and tables
and warmed with the pungent smell of kerosene stoves.

Stepping into those cars that day
was a bit like stumbling upon Santa’s workshop.
But it wasn’t toys that those fellows were building,
it was history that they were working.

A history you can touch with your very hand.

In the company of those railroad buffs, that day,
I sat in the seat of an observation car
that once carried people across the Plains into the Rockies
and on to California.

I stood on platforms
from which politicians addressed the citizens of this land.

I saw a state car with brass fittings and leaded glass
and touched the rusted controls of a once-powerful locomotive.

I squeezed my way down narrow hallways
and gazed inside cars that carried troops off to war.

* * *

No doubt about it,
there’s something about trains that fascinate us!

But what connects trains to Christmas?

I’m not exactly sure.
But I know it’s not just The Polar Express.
Some people might brush it off as nothing more than nostalgia.

But I disagree.

I think it involves something called reflection,
maybe even meditation.

After all, travel by train…you get some time to think.
Travel by train and you’re no longer in control.
Travel by train…and life gets slow.

Trains take people to new places
but they take their time doing do.

It’s a reflective experience.

Trains allow travelers time to view the land and the cities
through which they travel.
Trains afford people the opportunity
to introduce themselves to fellow travelers along the way.

It’s a shame that more people don’t travel by train these days.
But, fortunately, there’s another place we can go
to have a similar experience.

Why, if you ask me, stepping inside a church
--especially on the Feast of Christmas--
is a lot like stepping onto a train.

Think about it:

Sometimes the pews are worn
and the accommodations less than comfortable.

But, just look around, there are a lot of people to meet!
Fellow travelers making their way through life---
just like you!

Old folks, young folks, babies…young couples in love.

Like travelers on a train, we get on board…
we bring our lives…we bring our baggage.
Most of all, we bring our hopes and dreams
and everyone of us here is going someplace…
someplace special.

We settle into our seats,
glance at our watches.
and wonder how long it’s going to take…

None of us is sure when we’ll arrive at our destination.
But one thing’s certain: we traveling along
…and we’re traveling together.

The Church is more like a train than we realize.

You see, these days, most folks who ride trains
don’t fret about where they're going
or when they’re going to get there.
For them it's the journey itself
and the people they meet along the way that’s important.
They're looking for some friendship, a warm body to talk to.
People don't rush on a train, because that's not what trains are for.

People who love trains
love what they represent.

So, what does this have to do with Christmas?
How does this involve my family today?
My life this year?

Well, let’s go back downtown for a minute.

Think back to what transpires
when you and your kids gaze at a winter landscape
of hillside villages and pine-wood forests.

Put yourself there. What do you see?
Small houses aglow with yellow light?
A miniature train chugging across a tressel?

Maybe person next to you nudges your arm.
“Do I know you?” she asks.

You don’t recognize her,
but you tell her you’re from Bridgetown.

“Do you go to St. Jude’s?” she asks.

“No,” you say. “I go to St. Al’s.”

She nods.
Then the two of you go back to looking at the train
and the villages and the winter scene.

You are, after all, strangers to each other
yet there is something that connects you.

1) You’re both from Bridgetown.
2) Evidently, you’re both Catholic.

But there’s more than that.

It’s not nostalgia that connects you.
It’s not just geography that connects you.

It’s that winter scene of a village and a train…

a wonderful scene…
a vision of a perfect world
where trains run on time
and villages are quaint
and children are safe
and every grownup has a decent job.

And we’d like to go that place
but a thick glass stands between us and that fantasy.

And, besides--you glance at your watch--
you got to get moving,
there’s more shopping to be done
and there’s basketball practice to catch.

But you can’t leave.
Not yet.
(As I said, when something grabs our imagination,
it’s hard to let go).

And that’s why we can’t quite stop staring at that scene
of a time and place
where life was slow
and communities were strong.

And it sounds so quaint…and so past-tensed.

But, as you walk back to your car
and head back to Bridgetown
it dawns on you that the place you come from
got its name from the railroad.

Good ol’ Bridgetown.

The bridge is long gone
and the trains that once crossed that bridge are long gone…
but the memory remains.

And, with it, a vision of a good place
with good neighbors
and lots of relatives close by.

It’s the memory of your home
and how you were raised
and the love you were given
and the faith in which you believed…
the faith that gave you the vision of a good world
where the hungry were fed
and kids were safe
and everyone was afforded respect.

That place seems to have slipped away…
like a train into a tunnel.

But you’d like to get back to that place,
wouldn’t you?

Where is that place?

Well, it’s not in the downtown windows of the Cinergy building.
It’s here inside this church!

It’s here at St. Al’s where,
Sunday after Sunday, families of young and old alike
gather to hear chapters from a story that is very ancient and very new…

a story that assures them that we human beings
are indeed on a journey…and we’re traveling together.

I’m talking about communities of faith.
I’m talking about parishes like St. Al’s and St. Jude and St. Martin.
I’m talking about churches…
churches full of people chugging their way to heaven.

Places where children are prized
and babies are baptized!

Your good ol’ neighborhood parish
where you can light a candle and hang your heart…

Parishes where young people look to the Cross of Christ
for inspiration. Then, with energy and courage
they take their Holy-Spirit-filled dreams
and turn them loose on the world!

Places where senior citizens play cards and pray the rosary.
And attend daily Mass, doing their part to keep this world
from slipping from God’s hands.

I’m talking about this parish…
and what it’s like to belong to a parish.

I’m talking about communities
that challenge you to be
the person God made you to be!
Communities of compassion and conversion.

Here, in these churches of ours,
where angels are real and miracles happen!

Here, where the lost are found, the sick find healing
the hungry get fed!

That’s what you get when you join up with Christ.

That’s what you get when you come to a place like St. Al’s.