Red Flag Mass Homily

(These are my notes which I typed in, because I kind of messed up this evening and I wanted to people to hear that what I actually was meaning to say was a lot better than what I actually said and that I was really just lost my place and so if you were paying ATTENTION - I MEAN YOU KEITH! You probably could have figured it out.)

Hey Everybody! Its awesome to be here at the red flag mass and to see a lot of new people and stuff. I want everybody to know that if you didn't pick up a red flag on the way into the gathering space that there are probably some lying around on the floor because some people left them from our practice earlier. I also want to say thanks to Father Tim for letting me to do the homily thing again today and I wish he was here but he and Maryann were going out for coffee.

So HEY! What's all this Red Flag Mass stuff about? Well first of all let me remind you that tomorrow is Labor Day. A lot of people think labor day is about womyn having babies. But that's not what its about. Some other people think that labor day is a day when your supposed to work around the house and stuff. But that's not it either. And some people get confused and think labor day is actually that memorial day thing when we think about people who died from AIDS but they're wrong to.

Labor day is about one thing: SOCIAL JUSTICE! And so labor day is the day that I get to do my Red Flag Mass. Except that usually labor day falls on a Monday and so I have to do the Red Flag Mass the day before. But still its pretty cool because the readings today really tie in with what the Red Flag Mass is all about.

(This is the part I messed up because in my notes it says to breathe deep only I didn't and then I got confused.)

Okay. Today Jesus was eating with all these important people and they were all reclining and stuff which means that they were lying back down. You know because sometimes people call those chairs that are really comfortable recliners. But they didn't have chairs back then because there tables were really short and so you couldn't put a chair under them. H. Robert said that tables probably looked like coffee tables only they didn't have coffee either.

Coffee comes from Columbia which is in South America. A lot of people think Columbia is a state where Washingto D.C. is. But its not.

But back to the point. The fat rich people who probably ate a lot of animals were all crowding around the person that was having the party so he TOLD THEM OFF and said GET OUT OF THE ROOM YOU RICH PEOPLE WHO DON'T WORK FOR A LIVING BUT EXPLOIT PEOPLE. Because that's what capitalists are. They don't work they just steal and exploit and abuse people. A lot of people think that Capital means like the place where the President is. But they're wrong because you spell it differently. Like C-A-P-I-T-L-E is a place but C-A-P-I-T-A-L means property and stuff like money. Property means a place where you live.

How can you own property? That doesn't make any sense because people need a place to live. Right?! So if you say that's my property you are stealing and acting like a baby person because that's what baby people do all the time. They always say Mine Mine Mine! So what capitalists are is people who steal from people and don't want people to have places to live. All republicans are capitalists. They also chop down trees a lot and go to really expensive colleges.

So anyway the red flag reminds us of all the people that republicans killed because they exploited them so much. How many of you saw the Grapes of Wrath? Well H. Robert told me that's what its talking about. Only since it was black and white because it was really old you couldn't have a red flag in that movie because it would just look gray and stuff. So Steinback had to use grapes. What happens when you crush grapes? Well you get wine. And wine is red and like water. So guess what! It's kind of like the blood of all the people who were crushed under the foot of opression. Unless its clear or kind of yellowish. That's because there's usually a lot more about movies than you think.

(I thought that last part up without H. Robert's help.)

So when you look at the red flags I want you to think about who your going to vote for next election. Are you going to vote for someone like Al Gore who is AWESOME and not a republican? or are you going to vote for someone like Rudy Giuillianni who crushes grapes and is a republican? And by crushes grapes I mean that symbolically and stuff.

Happy Labor Day!