Readings: Nehemiah 3, 2-10; Psalm 19, Your Words, Lord are Spirit and Life; 1 Corinthians 12, 12-30; Luke 1, 1-4, 4, 14-21

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Reading Reflections

Our readings today focus primarily on Readings.  Our first Reading from Nehemiah gives us a complete change from the Old Testament reading we have been hearing from for many weeks, namely the time of Exile.  For Nehemiah is writing from a time after the Exile.  The “Remnant”, as the people who had been scattered were referred to, had come back to Jerusalem.  This writing is part of a greater collection of writing composed of 1 and 2 Chronicles and Ezra, whom we hear about in our selection today.  This is the only Sunday in the three-year cycle of readings when we hear from Nehemiah, makes you wonder what he did wrong!

The last four books of the Hebrew canon are Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles.  In our first reading today, we will hear about Ezra, so it is worth commenting about both Nehemiah and Ezra as they are both the two men most responsible for the reorganization of Jewish life after the Exile.  There are good reasons for believing that originally the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah formed the last part of a single literary work that began with 1 and 2 Chronicles. Some authors even regard Ezra himself as having been the anonymous Chronicler. c. 400 B.C. as the time of composition of this work.

Nehemiah was the man of action who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and introduced necessary administrative reforms. Ezra in turn was the great religious reformer who succeeded in establishing the Torah as the constitution of the returned community.

The second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians continues where we left off last week, addressing issues within the community in Corinth.  I have chosen to use the optional shorter version and avoid most of the anatomy lesson.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Homily

It would seem that the topic for today is “Reading the Scriptures”.  In our first reading we hear of Ezra reading to the people for hours and hours, think how lucky you all are today with these short reading we have!!  In the Gospel, Luke we have the very first verses from Luke’s gospel and then a jump to chapter 4 and a very detailed account of Jesus in his local synagogue in Nazareth.  What strikes me as interesting is the detail, almost like stage directions, which Luke gives us of Jesus getting up to read.

And here in Plano today, we too have listened as we do each week to the Scripture being read to us!  There are not too many human activities, which have remained in place for about 2300 years.  So we must ask the question – what is it about the Scriptures, which makes it survive for so long?

If we start to look at the Bible, we realize that it is the story of a peoples understanding of their relationship with their God, and how that relationship played out over several hundreds of years.  With a sense of their uniqueness, they try to answer the most fundamental questions about human life, how did it begin, what is our place in the world.  To answer these questions they told stories.  Unfortunately up until quite recently we tended to view the stories as historically accurate, and there are some folks who still view them as accurate!!

As Catholics we have a very long tradition of NOT reading the bible, it was viewed as too dangerous!  Remember, it was reading and interpreting the Bible was what caused the Reformation.  Today, I know of folk who use the Bible to determine their whole code of relationships. “Wives submit to your husbands” came from a society of about two thousand years ago, and yet, in spite of our more liberated view of humans, there are folk who happily live this way.

In 1943, Pope Pius XII published an encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu” on Bible Studies.  This was really the first time that the Church was officially encouraging Catholics to read the Scriptures again.

So what about us here today?  Each Sunday, we gather and get short readings and hopefully some background to those reading so that we may understand the context. But you are probably the most educated Catholics ever to sit and listen to the Scriptures.  Remember, when Pius XII was submitting his encyclical, less than 70 years ago, most people could barely read, and had not even completed high school.  So their thinking was done for them by the Church.  Today, we are invited to read and reflect on the Scriptures ourselves.  There is much available by way of help.  Even if we use the online edition of the New American Bible, http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.shtml there are helpful introductions and not too many footnotes. 

If we accept that the Scriptures are inspired by the Spirit, then careful reading and reflection can help us to deepen our relationship with God and allow us to better our relationships with one another. 

The Vatican II council issued a document on the Scriptures called “The Constitution on Divine Revelation” and urges us to “learn by frequent reading of the divine scriptures the “excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:8) and that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for “we speak to him when we pray; we hear him when we read the divine sayings”. #25.

So what is to be our take-away for today?  “Be careful how you read the scriptures” Take the time to understand who wrote it, why it was written, whom it was written for and what was the culture.  Remember, spin-doctors are nothing new.

Sources:  New American Bible, http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.shtml

Picture 1:  Mass begins with Tony

Picture 2:  Lilly with her Grand daddy, Buddy

Picture 3:  The Donut Shoppe, Ron & Chloe & C.C.

Picture 4:  Sacrament of the Sick, Curtis, Barb, & Tony

Readings:  

Wisdom 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24, God formed people to be imperishable

Psalm 30, I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

2 Corinthians 8, 7-9, 13-15, As you excel in every respect, may you also excel in the gracious act.

Mark 5, 21-43, Who has touched my clothes?  

Mass

Wisdom observations:

What:  There are 39 official books in the Old Testament.  In addition to them are 12 extra books.  Wisdom comes from these 12 extra books. 

Main message: God rewards those who are good.

Author: A Jewish man who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He wrote in Greek.

Date: 50-100 years before Christ.

Our passage: observations on life & death.  The devil & death are connected. 

Sources: Good News Bible; New interpreter’s Study Bible, Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

Amanda, Richard, & Sheila

Heal a Bleeding Woman?  Are You Crazy!

There was an article early this week in The Dallas Morning News that was titled, Dallas-area Designers of Stylish Hijabs Bridge Culture Gap, empower Muslim Women.   Along with the article were two or three pictures of women with beautiful faces.  They were dressed from head to foot in, not black, but beautiful pastel colored hijabs and robes.  Jewels and perhaps diamonds decorated the hems of the robes. 

I had to laugh.  This is the classic example of the camel’s nose under the tent.  Next thing these Muslim women will not be wearing the hijab.  We have to laugh, too, because that women look beautiful was certainly not the intention of the religious men who put these dress laws in place. 

CC

Sometimes you even see the real deal in Dallas, a woman all in black from head to toe with a black net covering her face.  Some women wore this attire in Tanzania when I lived there. 

Zoe

I thought of this article with the pictures when I was putting together ideas about healing the two women. 

Do you realize how radical this was, especially with the woman bleeding?  Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, has a lot to say about women who bleed.  For instance, a woman giving birth to a boy is ritually unclean for 7 days; a girl baby, 14 days (chapter12).

Emma

In Lev. 15 it says that during menstruation, women were ritually unclean, which meant they were considered socially dead, not allowed in the temple, not allowed in the community, could not touch anyone and no one was allowed to touch them or their clothes or they, too, were ritually unclean.  So what does the lady in Mark do?   What does Jesus do?

Do you realize today how historic and universal this bias was against women?  Plato in The Republic says that Socrates asked, do you know of anything done by humans which is not done better by the male.

Joan's Card: invitation to sign

Hindus teach that a woman must immolate herself after her husband's death.  Buddhists consider it bad karma to be reincarnated as a woman.  Orthodox Jewish men are taught to pray, Blessed be God who has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman.  The first book of our Bible,  Genesis, blames a woman for the origin of evil in our world.  Can you see the presence of men putting this story together?

More recently, in 1873 in Illinois a case was decided against a woman.  She had passed the bar exam to be a lawyer, and the court would not grant her appeal to receive a law license.  A judge said that the place of a woman was in the home and that women did not have the fortitude to deal with such issues as the law.

Card signing

The church fathers, as they are called, had their own bias.  St. Jerome says that when a woman wishes to serve God more than the world, then she will cease to be a woman and will be called a man.  You do not want to know what St. Augustine thinks about women.  What about the way the Vatican made nuns dress and would still like to?

So why this historic and universal bias against women by men (& women)?  One reason, from my research, blood.  Another is the male nervousness & weakness around women, beginning in adolescence.

So here comes Jesus along.  The woman touches him.  He could have had her killed by the crowd.  What was she doing in the crowd anyway?   And what does he do?  He calls her "Daughter," and heals her.  This is shocking to the people.  This is scandalous in the eyes of the Jewish authorities.  He will die for it.  However, despite the danger, Jesus  moves from bias to inclusion & acceptance.

Kids signing Joan's Card

In Galatians (Chapter 3) it says there is no male or female.  Just folks.  We are being called to get rid of the bias.  Women do not deserve to have men tell them how they must live, or be stoned.

How is your bias barometer?  Any bias against women, men, a particular race, political party, a part of town, a school? 

Sources: The Sins of Scripture, Bishop (Anglican) John Shelby Spong; Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

Readings:

Deuteronomy 4,  32-34, 39-40  Moses said to the people.

Psalm 33,    Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Romans 8, 14-17,   Those who are led by the Spirit of God are people of God.

 Matthew  28, 16-20, The disciples went to the mountain.

Says Harper, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

Deuteronomy observations:

What:  This work is the 5th and last book of the Pentateuch/Torah.  The first 4 books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, & Numbers.  Deuteronomy has basically 3 speeches delivered by Moses before the people enter the promised land.  He reviews all they have endured the past 40 years and how Yahweh has shown his care and power to save them.

Author: Moses may have spoken some of the ideas in the speeches, but others have put the work together.  In fact, in chapter 34 the death of Moses is described.  Someone other than Moses probably covered this episode.

Date: 700 years before Christ.

Our Selection: the end of the first speech.  Moses is reminding the people of how Yahweh cared for them and why they must honor him for this as their one and only god.

And says Harper's grandmother, Cathy, and Jackie and Rick,        "Welcome Folks."
 

A God of Relationships

Want to know what makes for happiness?  Old Stack will tell you this morning.  I have talked about some of this in the past, but it is so good it is worth reviewing.  I do this especially on the feast of our three person god.  Our god is a relationship god and that is what I want to talk about.

The ideas this morning come from a study of 268 male Harvard students starting in 1937, a 7 decade longitudinal study that is almost unique in its breadth.  The identities of the students are secret unless the student identifies himself.  Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post did so, and it was deduced after he died that President Kennedy was one of the students.    This write up comes from a June Atlantic magazine.

                   Emma the Candle Lighter with Georgie's help.

The question was not how much trouble or how little they encountered in life, but how and to what effect they responded.  How they adapted and became happy -healthy or sad-sick people.  Psychiatrist George Vaillant has spent the last 40 years organizing the data coming from the study.

He has come up with the following suggestions taken from the lives of these 268 men.  Here are 7 factors that contribute to happy-healthy people:

                           Cupcake of The Week to Mabel at 83.

    1.  Education.  For you kids who just finished a long school year, it may feel so good to be out.  However, your education is a big factor in you being a happy-healthy person, in the future and even now.  I would include ongoing education.  We never cease to learn new things, even how to dance, yoga, languages, history, geography, and so on.  In Plano, look up S.A.I.L., Senior Active in Learning, an excellent program

    2.  Healthy & mature adaptability.  Vailant identifies 4 ways of adapting, from psychotic, immature, and neurotic, to healthy, like humor, altruism, forgiveness.  See the link to get his complete explanation. Try 3 things, laugh, forgive, and accept.  And try it on yourself to start with.

                    Cupcakes of The Week to Ray and Brent

    3.  No smoking.  Never too late to stop if you already have started.  You kids, you will end up looking uglier than me if you start the habit.  Beware of copping out on the electric cigarette.

    4.  Moderate use of alcohol & no abuse.  College kids and even high school kids get caught up here so easily.  The culture of drinking excessively.  However, a new phenomenon is emerging as our population ages, geriatric alcoholism.  A bench mark?  2 glasses of wine or two beers a day.  More than that and look for two results: alcoholism and denial.

Cupcake of The Week to Renee for coming home with her degree after 5 years at Kansas State.

    5.  Exercise.  Want some exercise next week?   Come with me to the J tomorrow morning, 6:30 spin class.  Make it fun, make it daily.  At least a few times a week, like take a walk.  

    6.  Weight control.  My visit to McDonald's.  Kids loading up on layers of fat, salt, and sugar.  A very seductive place.  

               Cupcake of The Week also to Zaile, a week late. 

    7.   Relationships: loving and long term.  Vaillant suggests that this is the factor.  Loving is life-filling, it is motivational.  Because I love another, I exercise, I study, I approach life with moderation and spirit.  After all the data he has evaluated, Vaillant states that a relationship of love is the only thing that really matters in life. 

How are you doing with these 7?

Who is the person you love most in the whole world?  

 Source, Atlantic,   http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/

Not a cupcake to Kevin, but, from The Community, a $550 gift and a standing ovation for not only his high school graduation, but even more for his years of faithful, reliable help each week.             The Best to you, Kevin, because you are The Best.

Readings:

Isaiah 25, 6-8,   On Mt. Zion the Lord will prepare a banquet. (special)

Psalm 63,  My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Thessalonians 4, 13-18 ,  The Lord will come down from heaven.

Matthew 25, 1-13,  The kingdom of heaven will be like the 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Along with Claire, Rose, the whole community and I say, "Welcome home.  It is so nice to have you here."

Introduction

What we call Chapter 25 of the Matthew gospel is composed of three parables,

the first of which is about a Wedding Banquet, the Father’s gift of salvation.  The Bridegroom of this parable is the Lord, Jesus who is coming for his Bride, the Church, those who have welcomed and are living the Good News. 

Good Morning, Dearest Tori, Welcome.  It is so nice to see you.

The First Reading, [a substitution, Isaiah 25:6-8] is from the Prophet Isaiah. It describes the Wedding Banquet for those who seek to do the will of the Lord; what unites us together is good food, aged wine, and forgiveness.

Our Responsorial Psalm, ‘My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God,’ addresses our yearning for a spiritual banquet with the Lord. 

Emma, our Dearest Candle Lighter of The Week, in action.

Our Second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians addresses the mystical body of Christ rising together as one Body, for the Wedding Banquet at the end of time.

Our spiritual gift, of course, is that the Lord comes to us here and now in our banquet of the Liturgy of the Word and Eucharist, the fish and the bread.

Mike, conjuring up his neat little homily touch, namely Emma leading the community in singing, This Little Light of Mine.

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew: the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.

I say to you that something is terribly wrong in the way we understand this parable:  We sense it in the failure of the wise bridesmaids to share some of their oil with the foolish bridesmaids whose lamps were going out.  Obviously, there must be an answer to this dilemma, and you will be surprised to find where I found it?

Want to go to Communion?  Jan & Bern will help you. 

Most of you can remember singing along with the children, as they held up their little paper or cardboard lamps, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine….” You probably don’t recall that its meaning is purposely given in Matthew’s ‘Sermon on the mount.

Here they are, Folks, better than ever (as they say on Mike & Mike, A.M. sports radio).

You are the light of the world….let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” The oil that was brought by the wise bridesmaids for their lamps in this parable, is a metaphor.  It represents the good works they have done by loving others as Christ has loved them. When the wise bridesmaids, who are the Light of the World, trim their lamps with oil to go out to meet the Bridegroom, they are of course lighting the way for others as Christ escorts them to the Wedding Banquet.

This Little Light of Mine, will always be special because of you singing it for us, Emma.

The foolish, however, have no oil. Without good works it is impossible for them to trim their lamps, so the wise tell them to go to the marketplace for that’s where they can to do good works by becoming the Light of the World for others, the oil that gives glory to God.  It is where they can choose to use their God given talents for the good of all, to be the Light of the World in their encounters with the poor, the lonely, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick. 

Sez Harper, "Welcome in, Everybody, I still have some Girl Scout cookies"

Readings:

Isaiah 8, 23-9, 3,  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Psalm 27,  The Lord is my light and my salvation

! Corinthians, 1, 10-13,  That you be united…

Matthew 4, 12-23, Come after me and I will make you fishers of men (people).

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Hue & Linda.

Isaiah reminders, again—

 Author: This is Isaiah #1, the composer of chapters 1-39.  Even though Isaiah #1 lives before the Babylonian Captivity, he still sees that a great, bright day will come to the Jewish people, despite Babylon. 

Isaiah 2: Chapters 40-55;

Isaiah 3: Chapters 56-66

 Date:  Ca. 555 before Christ, the composition.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are about to be defeated and carried off into slavery.

The famous Sisters' Candle Team in action.

 Subject:  A great day will come for you Jews.  A special leader will be born.  You will be a beacon to others, glorious, and a light to nations everywhere.  You might easily recognize parts of this reading.  From where?  The Nativity readings and Handel's Messiah, a favorite of mine. 

This is the last week we will have these Isaiah readings which I love.  I will miss them.  Until next Advent.

Today's team in action.

80 Years of Blessings

When Isaiah says that a people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, I hear him speaking to me.  There are dozens of ways I see this in my life, all blessings & gifts.  I’ll mention 5, at least 3 of which you have heard me mention previously.

Today's Offertory Team, Sandra, Susan, & Tom,

First, the fact that I joined the Jesuits when I was 18.  Granted I joined up because I thought I was such a bad kid that I was obviously headed to hell.  I got that idea from the monsieur who was pastor at Christ the King.  When he told the congregation that if your friends are going to hell, you will go too.    Obviously my best buddy, Pete was going to hell along with my other friends.  That fear fell away when I was a Jesuit and life turned out to be an adventure.

The minor elevation.

The second blessing was my decision to accept an invitation to work in East Africa.  There was loneliness, but it was an adventure.  How else could I have scaled Kilimanjaro 5-6 times?  How else would I have ridden my motorcycle back & forth across Tanzania.  I discovered that I had a gift for languages and became fluent in Swahili.

Today's Communion Team, Patricia & Denni, Geri & Mike & Grace.

The third blessing was and is my marriage with Rosemary.  Did you people know that she waited 15 years to get formally married?  When I asked her to get married I asked her to wait until I was 65 and would have Medicare.  As a Jesuit I had platinum coverage.  As soon as I would depart, nothing.  I knew guys who married, had an accident, and ended up with an enormous debt.  This cinco de mayo is our 15^th and it has been for me (at least.  I won’t speak for her!) an unimaginable & enchanted time.

Happy Birthday, Mike.

The fourth blessing is the tree hobby project.   That project started with maybe 5-6 trees planted on the Jesuit campus where I was living.   Then it got bigger & bigger.  A guy who owns a construction company gave me a 800 gallon water tank & a 4 wheel trailer.  The community of St. Marks gave me the money to buy a pickup.  Mike Doran gave me the truck for 15K.  The last big project we did was Plano Senior High.  We planted in an hour 400 trees one sunny October Sunday.  

Welcome home, My Dear Carrie, or should I say My Dear Doctor Carrie.   Proud of You.

The fifth but not the last of the blessings is our community here. Do you realize that along with our 15^th anniversary of marriage, I am celebrating 15 marvelous & humbling years participating in our community?

I am most grateful.

What are your five biggest blessings in life?

One cupcake to you, Monique, for being such a good mamma.

Readings:  

Deuteronomy 4, 32-34, 39-40, Ask from one end of the sky to the other, did anything so great ever happen?

Psalm 33, Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Romans 8, 14-17, The Spirit bears witness to our spirit. 

Matthew 28, 16-20, Behold, I am with all days until the end of the ages.

Observations on the Readings:

1^st reading from Book of Deuteronomy (Chapter 4)

Deuteronomy is the 5^th  book of Bible and of Jewish Torah or Pentateuch. Though traditionally attributed entirely to Moses, modern scholars agree that it is a collection of Jewish traditions, later adapted to nationalistic reform and its final form coming after the Babylonian captivity in late 6^th century BC.

It is written as if from the mouth of Moses, who was considered the greatest of the prophets, for the authority his name gave the book. See last verses of final chapter 34. The most famous verses are Ch 6:4-5: “Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, our God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

3^rd  reading from the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 28)

This book is the second  gospel chronologically, and was written with the Jewish people in mind, to show  a direct connection between the Jewish Law and the Prophets and the teachings
of Jesus.

Homily

This  year we are celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the
Second Vatican Council in 1962. I recommend the article in the blog by Giovanni Franzone, a former Italian Benedictine Abbot. As an Abbot, he attended the Second Vatican Council as one of the ‘Fathers’ of the council. He is now 86, and his article gives a fresh “I was there” perspective. I want to talk a little today about Vatican II, which has been called the most significant event in the life of the Catholic Church in modern times.

 Pope  John XXIII became Pope following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Less than a year later, John 23^rd announced that he would call an ecumenical council. You may remember his story of how he had a dream one night in which the church was coming together in a council to renew itself. He awoke thinking what a great idea that was and thinking “I must tell the pope about it.” And then he realized, “Wait a minute, I am the Pope.”

Some of The Jesuit Class of '58, reunion, New Orleans. 2 still active as S.J. priests, one in NY, one in Peru.

So he called the council to  bring together representatives of the church all over the world, including many great minds of the time, and including representatives of other Christian faiths and non-Christian faiths. The two main purposes were “aggiornamento”, a bringing-up-to-date of the Church, and a striving for Christian unity. In answer to someone’s question about the purpose of the council, Pope John once said:
‘to let some fresh air into the Church”. 

I didn’t just honor and give respect to Pope John 23^rd; I loved him—for who he was as a man, and what he did for the church’s world
community. And we also shared the same birth day of November 25^th.

Vatican II continued for a couple more years and eventually

Trinity Sunday Mass at Bob Baxter's house in New Orleans. Cathy Lichliter reading with her husband, Bill, on the left.

documents were approved by the council. Perhaps the five most significant were: The Constitution on the Church, The Decree on Ecumenism, The Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops, The Declaration on Religious Liberty, and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Contemporary World. I will say just a little about the first three, and I hope we can look at more of them, and in more detail, during this 50^th anniversary year.

In the Constitution on the Church, the significant updating was, as
Mike said last week, a new (yet old) vision of the church primarily as the
‘People of God’, equal through Baptism, rather than primarily as a hierarchical and clerical structure. 

Gab Session after Mass. A uniquely moving class reunion of 20 plus men who spent many of their early years as Jesuit classmates. Now meeting with their wives.

The Decree on Ecumenism reached out to people of all
faiths and erased the old belief that you had to be Catholic to ‘be saved’—to be with God. Remember we read a lot from some Acts of some Apostles during the Easter Season.

In Chap.10 of Acts Peter said: ‘I can see now that God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation anyone who reverences him and
does what is right, is acceptable to him.’ In other words, every human being who reaches moral adulthood chooses between what his conscience judges to be right and what his conscience judges to be wrong. If a person makes the basic choice for right as he knows it, he is in fact choosing God.

The Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops included the notion of ‘collegiality’ among bishops with the Pope, that bishops are not just advisors to the Pope, but co-deciders with him and the People of God. The Decree encouraged the formation of regional councils and, all the way down to the parish community level, councils were to be formed to allow participation in decision making by the community from the ground level up. How many of you ever served on a parish community council?

Sunday brunch after Mass

We have good reason to remember the aggiornamento begun by Pope John 23^rd. I remember following the sessions of the council closely with enthusiasm and optimism. My 50^th was last year, so I was ordained the year before the council opened. Stack was just a few years from ordination and no doubt also following it equally closely. Pope John died in 1963 less than a year after he opened the council, and was followed by Pope Paul VI. The article by Abbot Franzone in the blog provides a lot more information about Vatican II and about the role of Paul VI during and after the Council. 

Vatican II is the most significant event in the life of the Catholic Church in modern times. My question today is: how much do we know about it? and how are we living out its updated teachings and its spirit?