AUGUST 27, 2017
4:30 PM (SATURDAY), 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
The word “sockdollager” is an Americanism – an American slang word – that initially rose to popularity in first third of the 19th century. It seems to have fallen out of use since the middle of the last century.
In case you don’t know, a sockdollager is either something or someone that is remarkable; or else it is a decisive blow – a knock-out punch, if you will.
It very well may have been the last word heard by President Abraham Lincoln, as it occurs in a punch line in the dialog of the play Our American Cousin, by Tom Taylor; and supposedly when the audience laughed, John Wilkes Booth fired that fatal shot at President Lincoln back in 1865.
The etymology of the word “sockdollager” is somewhat obscure. In 1893, an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune speculated that it was a metathesis (meh - TAHTH - us - sis) – that is, a confusion or transposition of syllables – of the word “doxology.” A doxology being the “grand finale” of many hymns and religious prayers – being, therefore, the decisive end to the singing of a hymn or the end of a religious service.
Doxology is a word that comes to us from the Greek, and means “glory words,” coming from two Greek words: doxa (glory) and logos (word).
We are most likely very familiar with doxologies, even if we just learned the word, because doxologies are often prayers and are found throughout our liturgical worship.
For example:
Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, is a doxology from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit . . . is familiar to us as the prayer “The Glory Be,” and is also used as a liturgical doxology [in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Old Mass.]
For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever, is the doxology following the Lord’s Prayer and its embolism.
Through him, and with him, and in him; O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours for ever and ever, is the doxology at the end of every one of the Eucharistic Prayers, and terminates with what is called the Great Amen: that is, the “grand finale” or “knock-out blow” as we descend from the highest-point of the Mass – the Consecration of simple bread and wine – into the Most Blessed Sacrament.Today is the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time.
In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we hear of Shebna’s demotion. Shebna has spent all of his effort within his office giving _himself_ glory, and God is taking him down a notch. Instead God raises up Eliakim – whose name literally means: “God will raise up,” – to a place of honor … because Eliakim has shown God honor, and given glory to God.
And in the Gospel, Jesus asks His disciples two questions:
Who do people say that the Son of Man is?and
[W]ho do you say that I am?Peter gives the right answer, and in Jesus’s response to Peter, we hear Our Lord bless Peter for his insight, but then goes on to give the glory to God for having inspired Peter’s response.
Last week, we also heard from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. He outlined God’s plan for the Gentiles, carefully explaining that while Israel was called by God to be His chosen people, the Gospel message and salvation in Christ is universal – that is, catholic from the Greek word katholikos.
In today’s reading from Romans, St. Paul closes with a prayer and a doxology – praising God for His generosity to those who were once lost. Paul praises the “depth of the riches and [the] wisdom and [the] knowledge of God,” declaring God’s judgements and ways to be “inscrutable” and “unsearchable.” Recognizing that no one knows God’s mind … no one gives God advice … and that God is the giver of all things … and that God owes no one anything.
Paul’s humble prayer places us all at the feet of the Most High. In this prayer, he calls us to recognize that God is indeed God, and we most certainly are not.
In effect, St. Paul is “blown away” by God … he has had his proverbial socks “knocked off” by God … and as a “grand finale” proclaims a doxology:
For from him and through him and for him are all things.As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … and as we continue our prayers in this Holy Mass … let us open our hearts, and our minds, and our souls to receive the fullness of God’s grace in our very lives. As we pray the prayers and hear the words of glory in the doxologies … may we recognize God’s remarkable and holy Presence among us. May His Holy Spirit penetrate into the depths of who we are … transforming us from who we are … into who He has called us to be.
To [God] be glory forever. Amen.
