We Really Need to Talk About Bruno

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time  

Cycle C
Feb 6, 2022
Bellarmine University – Our Lady of the Woods Chapel
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020622.cfm 

Good evening Bellarmine and Happy Sunday.  I’m Ned Berghausen, a permanent deacon at St. Agnes across the street as well as graduate of this university.  Thanks to the friars for inviting me to serve and to preach this evening.  The first time I preached with Fr. John it was very unexpected.  I travelled with him to India on one of the Christmas Break trips he organizes. This was six or seven years ago before I was ordained.  I was at an early morning mass in a friary filled with Franciscan priests and seminarians.  Fr. John read the Gospel and when he was done, he turned to me and said, “we don’t usually give homilies at morning mass, so I would like to invite Ned to come up in preach.”  Luckily, he gave me a little more warning for this one.  And I’ve had a little more training and practice.

I’m the father of four young children: EJ who is five and Miriam, Petra and Max who are two—they are triplets.  You may know their mother and my wife, Dr. Kate Bulinski who is a professor of environmental studies here.  With that many little kids in our house, we constantly have Disney soundtracks playing on our smart speaker.  Have you watched the latest one, Encanto?  It’s pretty good.  If you haven’t watched, I am sure you have heard the song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”  If you haven’t yet, you soon will.  It’s become even bigger that Frozen’s “Let it Go.”  Once you hear it, it will lodge permanently in your brain. 

I am going to talk a little bit about that song and I promise there’s a connection to Scripture.  You see the character of Bruno has surprising commonalities with the prophet Isaiah and his calling which we heard about in our first reading.  First, we really need to talk about Bruno.

Bruno is a part of a Columbian family named the Madrigals.  3 generations of this family all live in the same fantastical and magical house together.  Each family member has a particular gift of some kind: one is super strong, one makes flowers grow, one can change another can heal injuries through her cooking.  Bruno has the power to see the future.  In the song, we hear how he tells some family members fantastic news that they have been longing to hear.  To others, he tells terrible predictions.  Eventually, the whole town blames Bruno for any and every possible bit of bad luck or misfortune that happens and he has to go into hiding.  That’s why we don’t talk about Bruno.  He’s a bad omen. A bad luck charm.  And he becomes persona non grata.   As his sisters sings, “It’s a heavy lift with a gift so humbling.”

In today’s first reading, we hear the origin story of one of scripture’s ‘Brunos,’ the prophet Isaiah.  In it, we are shown one of the coolest visuals in all of Scripture.  Isaiah is in the Temple of Jerusalem in the most sacred space called the Holy of Holies.  He sees a vision of God sitting on the throne before an altar.  He is surrounded by six winged angels singing the Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, the same that we sing before the Eucharist. 

When we hear the word “prophet,” we usually think of someone who can see the future, like Bruno.  This is true of Isaiah, he has been show that the kingdom of Judah will fall to the Assyrians, the temple will be destroyed, and the people driven into exile.  Being a prophet though, has a much broader meaning than future tellers.  A prophet is a person who speaks for God—one who is God’s spokesperson.  Kind of like Jen Psaki, who is President Biden’s press secretary.    

If you thought Bruno’s gift was a heavy lift, imagine being the person who speaks for God.  We hear Peter tell Jesus, “depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” and Isaiah says something very similar, “Woe is me, I am doomed for I am a man of unclear lips.”  I am not worthy to speak the word of God, much less to see the Lord.  In order to make him clean and ready to be the voice of God, an angel takes a pair of tongs and get a burning coal of the altar place. He takes it and places in on Isaiah’s lips.  Ouch!  This is symbolic of placing God’s words into his mouth.  From now on, he will literally speak with words of fire. 

I had intended to tell you at this last point of the homily about how you could become a prophet. But as I studied and prayed this week, I recognized that no person can choose to become a prophet.  Scripture says, “no prophecy ever came through human will,” that is from us wanting to speak it, “but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit to [speak] under the influence of God.”

Rather than wanting to be the speakers of God’s truth, I think it is wiser to be attentive to the moments when God is speaking in our midst.  To train our ears to listen for the voice of prophesy. 

On the fountain (Fontana di Verita) in the piazza out front, we see carved Bellarmine’s motto, “In love of truth.  St. Robert Bellarine and Monsignor Horrigan believed that University students should be motivated by a passion to know the truth in all its many forms and all the disciplines of human knowledge.  You shall know the know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Sometimes (like Bruno experienced), the truth wins praise and grateful friends.  The truth of the gospel is good news for the poor and afflicted of the world.  But it begins as bad news for the comfortable and contented.  It cuts deeply.  It burns like a flaming coal. 

Bellarmine and Horrigan both recognized that the truth was not just an idea, but a person, Jesus Christ. 

The prophets are lovers of truth.
They are students of truth.
And they are speakers of truth.

Let us go and do likewise.