Sunday Homily 11-22-09, Christ the King
Readings: Daniel 7, 13-14; Psalm 93, The Lord is King, He is robed in Majesty; Revelation 1, 5-8; John 18, 33-27
History of the Christ the King Feast: date, author, reason it was declared
Date: Not during the early church, not during the time when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Empire, not during the time of Luther & the Reformation, not during the time of Pius IX with the Italian Resorgiamento & his Infallibility statement (1870), but in 1925. Fairly Recently.
Author: Pius XI, pope 1922-39
Reason(s): at least 2 factors–The Times and Modernism/Secularism
1. The Times:
a) End of WW I and build up to WW II
b) Mussolini & Hitler: the same year Pius XI became pope, Mussolini became prime minister. By 1925 he had become a dictator. The feast was to counter the dictatorship.
2. Modernism & Secularism:
a) Modernism. Despite being scholarly and pro-scientific methods, Pius XI was suspicious of biblical scholarship which questioned, for example, biblical inerrancy, the nature of bible miracles, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the atonement theory that God demanded his son suffer & die for a single sin by a human.
b) Secularism coming out of the Enlightenment said that all people were equal, people should have a say in government as in democracy, and backed the separation of church/state, like proposed by Jefferson.
Sources: Living with Christ, Nov., 2009; Wikipedia
Requiem for a Chevy Pickup
When I first returned to Dallas after my time in East Africa, I determined that I would like to stay here and I would help to make Dallas a prettier place to live in by planting a few trees. I started the fall of 1987 by planting on the Jesuit campus 88 trees plus. The next year, with no more room on the campus, we went down Inwood Road and Willow. I watered the trees out of buckets in the back of a Chevy Celebrity sedan.
A year or so later I was using the school pick up. I remember it conking out on us the Sunday we planted Royal Lane. The red trailer was tearing up the transmission.
So I said to my Jesuit community brothers, "Hey, I am needing a new truck." And they said, "Sure. But you got to get the money yourself." "Thanks, guys." This was early in 94.
I'm thinking to myself, 'where can I get all this money?' I called Claude Smyth. The former pastor of St. Mark's, Monsignor Claude Smyth.
I ask him, since this is my community, may I contact some of the parish people whom I know? He says yes, but then gives me a long list of things I cannot do under any circumstances, like no appeal at Mass, no public announcements on Sundays, and so forth. "No problem," I say. Then I proceed to contact maybe a dozen families I think can help me personally or who can spread the word quietly that I need help.
The following Sunday, after saying the Mass in the main church at 9:00, I am walking the breezeway over to the cafetorium for the 10:30. I run into Marcia Kolar and some other women passing out pages saying John Stack needs help to buy a new truck. I walk into the cafetorium and there are plastic containers saying the same thing. A few minutes later, Jim Herman, the lector is announcing the message from the podium.
At that instance, guess who walked in. 'Walked in' is an understatement. 'Stormed in' is more like it. He was taking the pages out of people's hands, running back & forth. Anyway, after screaming at me for a while, I walk up the aisle and start the Mass.
The couple responsible for that event is here today. Fred & Maureen. I will always be grateful to you two. In fact, just before Christmas, that year, 1994, I went over to the old Doran Chev. and paid $15,000 for that white truck I've used all these years to drag the red trailer around watering hundreds of trees.
Today I hand over to Janette Monear and the TX Trees Foundation the keys to the truck & trailer, so the rig can continue to maintain baby trees around Dallas. The truck was given to me for that project and now that I am semi-retiring, I hand over the truck to Janette.
Picture 1: Tree people: Rosemary, The old Geezer, Gayle, Janette, Hugh, Sandra & Chuck
Picture 2: The transfer of the keys to the truck
Picture 3: Janette Monear of the TX Trees Foundation receiving the keys to the pickup and giving everyone a baby live oak tree
Picture 4: Julie reading (Emily's mom)