Sunday Homily, June 3, Trinity Sunday

Readings:

Luke 19, 28-40, The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem

Isaiah  50, 4-7,  I gave my back to those who beat me (a Suffering Servant)

Psalm 22,  My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?

Philippians 2, 6-11, He emptied himself

Luke 22-23,   The Passion

Buddy says, "Welcome in, Everybody."

Sorry, Everybody.  Because of the length of the Liturgy of the Word, we have no homily today….Easter is coming.

Genevieve, with her pal, John, says, "Hi, Everybody, I'm 11 months old this week.

Victoria, too, says, "Welcome in, Folks."

Readings:

Exodus  34, 4-9,   A merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.

Psalm from Daniel,  Glory and Praise forever.

2 Corinthians 13, 11-13,  Rejoice.

John  3, 16-18,  God so loved the world.

Welcome Home, Wendy.

Father’s Day History:

 Four steps:

     1.  The Civil War started thinking about a Mother’s Day.  Anna Jarvis pushed it ca. 1907 and it was made official in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson.

       2.  Monongah, WV mining disaster, 210 fathers killed, Dec. 6, 1907 (just before Christmas & after the Mother’s Day activity).  Fairmont, WV.   Grace Golden Clayton pushed the idea. 

        3.  Spokane, WA, Sonora Dodd & influence of Mother’s Day.  Dodd’s dad had fought in the Civil War and all by himself raised Sonora & her 5 siblings.   

        4.  Pres. LBJ made it special, 1966.  Pres. Nixon made it a national holiday, 1972.

Zoe says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Exodus Story: 

So the Israelite people have been wandering around in the Sinai desert for many years after escaping from old Pharaoh in Egypt.  Moses has been invited up Mt.Sinai to receive 10 Commandments.  

He comes down all loaded with two stone tablets written on both sides and discovers that the people have become  exasperated with him and the wandering in the desert.  They have created a gold bull to celebrate with and to worship.

Shonda catching her breath from chasing after an active Leo.

Old Moses, all angry, throws down the tablets and breaks them.  He calls Aaron, his lieutenant, tells him to gather the Levite tribe, the priestly tribe, and he tells them to slaughter all the rest.  They do.

Then, and here we take up the reading, Yahweh tells Moses to make two more tablets and to return to the top of Mt.Sinai, where he will get another set of commandments.  It is here where that marvelous line about the nature of God is mentioned again, "The Lord is gracious & merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love."

This is ancient folk tale literature at its best.    

Emma lighting The Candle.

Responsorial Psalm from the Book of Daniel: 

Another great folk story is behind this song.   Characters: three Jewish boys, a gold statue, and the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, what a name.   Get the names of these boys, Shadrack, Mechak, and Abednego.  Terrific.  I had a dog in East Africa I called Shadrack, a German Shepherd.

Seems like old Nebuchadnezzar decided to cast a gold statue.  He wanted everyone to bow down to it.  Three Jewish boys said no.  Even though they were favorites of the king, he had to throw them into a flaming furnace.   

Far from being burned up, the boys started dancing around in joy and they sang the song we have for today’s responsorial psalm.  Though this is totally a mythical story, you can picture them.

Leo, healthy again, ready to play.

A Father, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness

Letme talk this morning about fathers.  I would propose that, among all the qualities of a father, one that enables a father to reflect the image of God is my favorite line, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness.  These qualities are attributed to God  and I think men can image the same qualities.  An example.

Ever hear of a guy named Kenny Thompson?   He is an elementary school tutor at Valley Oaks Elementary in Houston and a father.  One day Kenny reads a news report about an elementary school in Salt Lake. 

Emma, "Did somebody mention Cupcake for Emma?"

Turns out a bunch of kids were not getting their normal lunch because they owed money to the cafeteria.  Not a lot f money.  After all, the lunches ran about 40 cents. 

So Kenny enquires about the cafeteria at Valley Oaks where he is a tutor.  He discovers about 60 kids not getting their normal lunch, just a cheese sandwich.  Moreover, many of the kids are so embarrassed they skip going to the cafeteria for the cheese sandwich.

Cupcakes of The Week for Mary & Connie, Emma & Wendy, Mary & Alison.

Kenny Thompson pays up all the kids’ cafeteria bills, totally almost $500.  He says these kids don’t need to be worried about their lunches, for many the only whole meal they will have all day.  They are in the school to learn and they cannot learn on an empty stomach or embarrassment.  

Kenny’s story got picked up by a local TV station and now he has gone national, creating  a fund under the title Feeding the Future Forward. 

Father's Day Blessing.

Kenny Thompson is godlike, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. 

Know anybody like this?  

How about you?

Who are these Characters?

Readings:

Exodus  22, 20-26,  You shall not molest or oppress an alien.

Psalm 18,   I love you Lord, My Strength

1 Thessalonians 1, 5-10,  You know what sort of people we were among you.

Matthew 22, 34-40,  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Zoe & Michelle say, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Exodus observations–

What: One of the great books of the Bible, the second book of the O.T.  A good read.  The name  means 'departure' and refers to one of the most important events in Israel's history, the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt where they had become slaves after going there to escape drought in their own land.

Author: not Moses, but a bunch of people putting together the story most likely after the Babylonian Captivity, therefore around 555 before Christ.

Our selection:   comes from the "Book of the Covenant," that is, the law or commandments.

The materials in the book are akin to many legal codes of the ancient Near East, the most famous of which is the Code of Hammurabi, 20th Century before Christ.

Today's reading comes from a section of the code dealing with the laws of social conduct.  They inculcate a social ethic based upon compassion.  Abstract justice is not enough, especially for the underprivileged.  The lesson was obviously chosen to go with the summary of the Law that forms the gospel reading. 

Watch how Yahweh (that is, the person writing in Yahweh's name) says he is compassionate just after declaring he will kill certain types of people if they are not compassionate.

Cupcake of The Week to Zoe on her 6th birthday today.

Matthew observations–

What:  another example of the cultural game of "gotcha," a set up.  How this works you got to know the background…

Background:  The Pharasees identified 613 commandments in the Torah (first 5 books of the O.T.)  248 were positive ("thou shalt"), and 365 were negative ("thou shalt not").  How could anyone remember all of them?  Were some more important than others?  If you choose one, what about another??

See where we are going?   Our Gospel, "the Greatest Commandment?"  Matthew has the the Pharasees ask this question to put Jesus into a bind.  But again, Jesus slips their trap.  

Cupcake of The Week to Zaile & Billy on their anniversary.

Some teachers distinguished between "heavy" and "light" commandments.  The "Ten" are examples of the heavies.  An example of a light commandment is in Deut. 22, 6-7, which stipulates that a person who finds a bird's nest with a mother sitting on eggs or with young may take the young but must let the mother go.  The reason for observing all these commandments: "That it may go well with you, and that you may live long."  (Deut. 5, 16; 22, 7)

Resources: The New Interpreters Study Bible; St. Louis U. Liturgical @ Liturgical.slu.edu

Cupcake of The Week to Shirley for putting up with Jerry and Poncic.

Love Myself ?   I’m okay, you’re okay?

I hate it when I get these ideas.  I composed a homily yesterday evening and was all ready to go this morning when I woke up.  At 8:00 A.M., 30 minutes before Rosemary & I depart for Vines, I change my mind.  I want to talk about an event that took place Saturday evening. 

I want also to tie it with the great commandment.  I have said it maybe a hundred times, there are 3 commandments here, love God, love my neighbor as myself, and love myself.  Loving myself, from my own experience and my experience in psychology, is the most difficult and the foundation of the first two.  I don’t love myself, I don’t love anybody else.

A  little dictum that sums it up for me is, “I’m okay and you are okay.”  It does not have to get dramatic, just simple.

Cupcake to Greg to console him for getting stung on his right eyelid at the house project yesterday.

Here is what happened last evening and exemplifies some of this.

At about 6:30 I told Rosemary I was going to walk across the street to the Chase bank on the corner of Preston & Royal.  It was a gorgeous Saturday night and I thought, ‘I’ll just walk over to the bank and make a deposit of a check.’  We live maybe 300 yards from this corner.

So I walk to the bank, I make the deposit, and am ready to return, crossing back across Preston at the light.  But what do I see?  A man is lying on the cement on his right side, his right hand under his head, and he is asleep.  He is in the corner parking slot in the small Chase parking lot. 

Mary and Frank with a cupcake for Nikki & Cameron on their birthday.

I think, ‘Is he alive, does he need help?  He is in a bizarre spot, tons of Saturday evening traffic, out of sight tucked into the parking nook, and looking like a homeless person, old, gray pants and t-shirt.’  He also has a sunburn high water mark on his left arm, a sign he is outside a lot.

‘Should I go check on him?  What if he pulls a gun or knife and kills me?’  I feel like the Pharisee in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  So I call 911.  At least something.  The lady says the police will swing by right away.

I walk away a bit, not toward the corner, but toward the drug store so I can see him.   I’m curious.  I stop and wait.  I wait maybe 15-20 minutes, hoping to see the cops check on the guy.

Offertory, Sandra, Jerry, and Grace.

Finally I say to myself, ‘Stop being such a wimp.  Go check on him.  The cops are taking too much time.  I’ve worked with lots of guys like this.   He won’t hurt me.  I’m bigger and in better shape anyway.’

So I walk over to him, look down, and say, “How you doing, man?”  It wakes him and he looks at me with light blue eyes which are like out of focus.  He wonders where he is.  This young man is on something.  That is obvious. 

The first thing he says is, “Thanks for checking on me.”  Does that ever touch me.  We talk a bit and finally he asks me if I have a cigarette.  I said I don’t smoke, but I wished I had a cigarette, if that was all he wanted for a little pleasure. 

The Team.

I admit that if he wanted money for food, I would have walked him right over to McDonnell’s on the opposite corner.  I also admit that I did not want spend the evening carrying him down to The Bridge, if he asked me for a place to stay.  And I certainly knew Rosemary would toss me out if I brought him home.  He did neither.

So I asked him if he was okay and he said yes.  I walked away again toward Dougherty’s drug store.  I looked back one time and he was still just sitting there on the cement looking around and looking at the people driving up to use the ATM machine, which probably made them nervous.

Bethany and Ray.

The guy is in my spirit right now.  I wonder.  How did he get to where he is?  Where is he?  When did he get addicted?  Does he love himself, enough to love his neighbors?  Can he say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay.’

What do you need to do to say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay,’ if you can’t say it this morning?

Readings:

Acts  13, 14, 43-52,  Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga.

Psalm 100,  We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Revelation  7, 9, 14-17, I, John, had a great vision.

John 21, 19-31,  My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.   

Genevieve welcomes all you folks and says, "Welcome in!"   Guess who is 1 year old.

Genevieve in May 2015.

Acts observations:

More of the same, Paul's travels.

Kevin, too, says, "Come in, Everybody.  It is only rain out there.   Not even any hail.  Just a bit of flooding.  No need for an ark yet."

We are a Team

Boston Marathon is tomorrow.  Who is going from our community?  Tom & Lynda.  Paul & Carrie did it last year. 

See the article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday?  About Carol Ann Taylor running for her husband Sterling Proctor.  Sterling is, or was, a CO hiker and a French horn player in the F.W. Symphony.  He also biked The Lake, White Rock. 

He now has a worsening degenerative muscle condition that  has him relegated to an electric wheel chair.

The Great Candle Lighter at work.  Do not disturb.  

Carol Ann, Sterling’s wife, is running The Boston to earn money for more research into Sterling’s condition.  It is her first.  She runs “for my heart, for my Sterling,” she said. 

The reporter noted how they listened to each other, how they were in sync with each other.  When they said of themselves, “We are a team,” I thought they have The Karma.  They are a team.  Carol Ann runs tomorrow and Sterling will watch via satellite. 

Rosemary & I know another couple who has had The Karma, Carl & Barbara Castille. 

Offertory, John & Jim, Karen & John.  Thanks.
 

Carl is one of my best Jesuit buddies.  Carl is a Cajun (like you, John), growing up near Opelousas, LA.  We entered the Jesuits together in 1958 (60 years this 2018), and we lived together in the same large houses for 7 years. 

Carl was coming to our Spring Hill College reunion last weekend.  He & Barbara live in a suburb of Pittsburg.  He had come early to visit his family around Opelousas.  I knew Carl had attempted and failed to book into the same Fairfield Inn as I and my companion, Francis Vanderwall, the guy who spoke to us some years ago.  So I did not really notice Carl’s absence the first night. 

The Best, Mary & Bethany & Ray.

Somewhere during Saturday we heard that Carl had returned to Pittsburg because Barbara had a stroke and was hospitalized.  The guys and I, we were all stunned.  I began to phone.  In fact, the first time I phoned I got Barbara’s phone with her voice message. 

Day by day I called, mostly talking to Robbie, their son who was handling the phone.  And day by day Barbara got worse.  She had more strokes and Robbie said each day that she was losing ground.  At one point Robbie told me that Barbara was going into Hospice and that the family was telling her she did not have to fight to stay alive.  She could let loose.  Finally I was home and called again.  This time Carl answered and said Barbara had died. 

 The A Team, including Buddy.

I was in tears, Carl was in tears, and we could hardly speak.  Barbara and Carl had The Karma.  Rosemary & I could sense it when we stayed with them last year in Pittsburg.  They were a team like Carol Ann and Sterling.

Carl is a Good Karma guy.  He has other teams he can rely on, like their 3 grown kids.  I hope to help out, even from a distance. 

 Sisters, Victoria and Zoe.

I would suggest that we all need to be part of a team.  Rosemary & I are a team.  I would also suggest that we have a team in this community.  I am humbled by this every time we come together and I am grateful. 

And you.  Who makes up your Team?

 The Butterlies, caught in the act of having too much fun at Mass,  Kara, Denise, and James.

Readings: Jeremiah 20,10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5, 12-15; Matthew 10, 26-33

Jeremiah: one of the 3 great prophets along with Isaiah & Ezekiel.  He lives just before the defeat & destruction of Jerusalem 650 years before Christ.  He foretells the catastrophe, warning the Hebrews that their sinful ways will lead to destruction.  He lives to see the event, but also prophesies that the exile will be temporary and that one day the people will return to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah was unpopular with the people because of his warnings.  Today's reading shows him bitter and complaining about the people. 

As Good as Sparrows, as Good as Aviana?

In February, when we put our little dog Naomi to sleep after 15 years, Rosemary & I debated whether we would ever want to get another dog.  Putting her to sleep was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. 

Around Memorial Day, however, Rosemary began to look on line just a bit.  Shih-tzus were our favorite, but we entertained other types of small dogs.   In fact, our vet had recommended a woman in East Texas who occasionally raised a litter of maltipoos, a mixture of maltese & poodle. 

Last Wednesday we took a trip to East Texas.  We had two ladies to visit, the one recommended by the vet and another who raised shih-tzus.  On the way we debated: yes or no.  We decided to just look.  

Well, so much for looking.  In fact, the hardest thing was coming home without one of each. 

Behold Aviana, a maltese-poodle mix whose name comes from the air base north east of  Venice, where we visited Michael & Lydia on our spring trip.  The base is Aviano; we made it feminine.

Do I have any doubts or reservations now that she is part of our family?  No, not one.  In fact, I am reminded every day why she is a special gift.  A couple of observations.

Do you realize that she is not afraid?  I think she is like all of us when we are born.  When do we begin to be afraid?  I know how Aviana could become afraid.  If I treated her mean & rough, and abused her.  Matthew recommends that we be afraid not of the person who kills the body, but of the person who kills the soul.  I would suggest the word spirit instead of soul.  Abuse kills the spirit.  At the least it wounds the spirit.

Yesterday I was working on line and Aviana was lying under my feet sound asleep.  Not on her tummy or on her side.  She was lying on her back with her legs and ears splayed out.  Talk about trust.  Lack of fear.

Matthew says that we need not fear because we are worth more than many sparrows.  Am I worth as much as one Aviana? 

Second observation is that I see the acceptance of God in the behavior of Aviana.  I saw it in Naomi.  I walk in the house and receive not just unconditional acceptance.  I encounter excited & joyous celebration.  I am amazed and touched.  We hear a lot about how we will be judged a sheep or a goat at the great roundup.  If I am lax, God will come like a thief in the night and hurl me into hell for being caught off guard. 

My preference is to see the acceptance of Aviana as reflective of the acceptance of God.  She is another of those little creatures we talked about last week.  She is another metaphor or parable about God's acceptance of us as we are. 

Aviana is not afraid of us.  She amazingly trusts us.  Moreover, she accepts and celebrates us just as we are.  

How does she symbolize or not symbolize your relationship with God? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-06-22.mp3

Readings:  Isaiah 60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem, your light has come!; Psalm 72, Lord, every nation on earth will adore you; Ephesians, 3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs; Matthew 2, 1-12, The Magi arrived from the east asking, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?"  

Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I said this on the 3^rd Sunday of Advent, when we read Isaiah 61.   

Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, you may consider it a metaphor referring particularly to us, to you and to me.

Ephesians

Paul is directly talking Epiphany, that is God to Gentiles, to us.  

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Bible

Epiphany Every Day?

    Almost every evening Rosemary & I take Aviana for a walk along our street.  Usually we meet a variety of neighbors and neighbor dogs.  It is a fun connection. 

    This past week we were walking when we met a lady who lives across and down the street.  She had tragedy hit her family.  A daughter with 3 young kids died 18 months ago with cancer.  It had been a lengthy fight and numerous neighbors had helped out. 

    We asked her how she was doing.  She waited a moment and then with a gulp she said, “Ollie has cancer.” 

    Ollie is a 3 year old son of the mother who died.  A week or so before Christmas the family noticed that Ollie had a lump on his forehead.  They took him to get checked and discovered that he has a very rare and aggressive form of child cancer.  Only about 350 cases occur a year in the States, hitting children between ages 1 and 5.  Ollie is 3. 

    The lump has been removed but a port has been put on Ollie’s chest for chemotherapy.  He is expected to receive chemo from 6 to 11 months.  Meanwhile, another small tumor I think in his lymph nodes grew about a centimeter in just about 10 days.  

    Folks, this was an epiphany moment for me.  I wanted to cry with our neighbor.  My heart went out to Ollie, his dad, his brother & sister, and to my neighbor & her husband, to the whole family. 

I would suggest that an epiphany is

    1.  a God light breaking through, especially through & into those corners of myself where I don’t go,

    2. a deeper awareness of the fragility of the Gift, the Gift of life & health & control

    3.  a deeper awareness of my normal insensitivity & ingratitude.   

The Accident was an Epiphany.  Check Rosemary.  

    I suggest that there are large, small, and medium epiphanies.  However, they occur daily.  At home, at work, at Tom Thumb, on the roads, at the Bridge & Austin Street Shelter, at Vines.   In fact, we can be epiphanies for others. 

Your last epiphany?  

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Our Father   

 Picture 3:    Taylor & Zack

Picture 4:    Torri walks

Picture 5:    Sienna

Picture 6:    Cole