Sunday Homily 11-14-10, 33rd & Last of Ordinary Time

Readings: Malachi 3, 19-20; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3, 7-12; Luke 21, 5-19

Observations on Malachi:

 Interesting notes:

                   1.  This is the last book of the Old Testament.  Fitting for the last Sunday of the church calendar year.  Next week, Christ the King, then Advent and a new church calendar year begins.

                   2.  A little book, only 4 chapters.

                   3.  Last of the 12 minor prophets (because of their small content)

Beginning 11-14-10 
 

Author: Malachi means “my messenger” in Hebrew. The writer’s real name is unknown.

 Date: 400-500 years before Christ.  This is deduced from the emphasis on the temple and the priesthood, and the word “governor” used one time.  Governors ruled after the Bbylonian Exile, ca. 590-550, kings before.    

 The temple was rebuilt ca. 520 after the Israelites came back ca. 550 from the Babylonian Exile.  The Persian ruler Cyrus let them return & rebuild the old walls & temple. 

 Message:  Beware, you priests and people, because you are lax, corrupt, and cheating god of his rightful offerings

Today’s Message:

                   1.  a day is coming when the bad guys will get it.

                   2.  fear my name and find healing.

 Sources:  Good News Bible; New Interpreter’s Study Bible; The Minor Prophets by Al Maxey (on line); & Wikipedia

 Offertory 11-14-10

Fear

 Tuesday we celebrate the anniversary of an event that took place in 1989, 21 years ago. 

 It happened in the middle of the night on the campus of UCA, the University of Central America.  All was quiet.  6 Jesuit priests were either asleep or close to it in their residence.  Their housekeeper & her daughter were in the apartment in the rear.  The university is a Jesuit university, like the U. of San Francisco, Georgetown, Fordham, and others in the States. 

 About midnight witnesses heard a great commotion at the door of the residence, yelling and banging.  Outside were 40-50 soldiers dressed in camophlage.  They broke the door and stormed in.  Going room to room, they busted down doors, smashed windows, and dragged the 6 Jesuits and their housekeeper & daughter into the inner patio.

 The banging and breaking and yelling continued for about an hour.  Around 1:00 people outside began to hear shots.  One by one the 8 people were shot in the head from behind. 

 9 years before this, on March 24, 1980, a similar event had happened in the same country, El Salvador.  Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot by a single assassin in the middle of his Mass in a chapel at a hospital in San Salvador.

 I talk about this this morning because, first, it still moves me and, secondly, according to the readings, especially good old Luke, this is exactly what is going to happen to you, to us. 

 Emma 11-14-10

So what is our response?  Two observations.

 First, Malachi and the prophets of the O.T. declare that the bad things that happen in our lives are because we have been bad, lax, unfaithful, mean, greedy.  God will punish us.  And if we are good, God will reward us.  Today this thinking is called the gospel of wealth,  In fact, if you just send money to our church God will multiply your donation & you will be rich.

 It does not take much experience to know this just does not happen.  I just heard about a 3 year old girl with cancer.  God is not punishing her, or her parents.

 Secondly, I remind you of an idea I have talked about before, the three fundamental motives, fear, hope for reward, & love and gratitude. 

 We can walk through life fearful of everything and never savor the beauty.  My old time Catholic religious training used fear a lot.  You have a date, you mess around, you get killed on the way home, you go straight to hell.  Not quite.

 Better than fear is the motive of reward.  High school football playoffs are in full swing right now.  In August these kids were going through hell, working like crazy to win a championship or even a place on a team.

 And then there is doing it because of love.  We build houses with Habitat because we love to help the less fortunate and are so grateful for what we have.  Because I love people I visit them when they are sick, having a hard time, or struggling with life.

Sienna 11-14-10 

 So how do we respond when we read about all these bad things coming our way?   We don’t fear they will happen to us.  Fr. Jack Deeves lived all those 80 plus years without such bad things.  Like Jack & the other 6 Jesuits in San Salvador, we love life and people. 

 What is your response?

 Picture 1:   Begining Mass with Kevin

 Picture 2:   Offertory with Ray, Dawn, & Loretta

 Picture 3:   Emma

 Picture 4:   Sienna with Robyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Chloe_maggie

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    Servers

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    Beginning 11-13-11

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    Hloe 11-13-11

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    1Thessalonians

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     Cole 11-13-11

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    Ryan 11-13-11

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    Rob & Mike 11-13-11

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    Hammond 11-13-11

    Renovating Rita’s house was a Thanksgiving event where a lot of talents were put to good use.  How are you sensitizing yourself and preparing for Thanksgiving? 

    Sources: Fr. John Foley, S.J., St. Louis U. Liturgies.

    Picture 1:    Mass Begins

    Picture 2:    Chloe

    Picture 3:    Cole

    Picture 4:    Ryan helping scrape Rita's house with his dad, Jim

    Picture 5:    Rob & Mike on Rita's house

    Picture 6:    Bill Hammond replacing the dead hollies with Texas Sage, which are more drought resistant   

     

     

     

     

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

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    Thanks to the Team

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    Gospel,  Deacon Mike 

    Homily,  John Cade 

    Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

    The Magic Zoom makers,  Richard & Hue 

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    For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

     

     

    Download Reading Week 30

     

     

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    10/25/20:  Most often the first reading each Sunday is chosen for its connection to the Gospel reading and its teaching.  Today is no exception.  I have 3 points based primarily on the Gospel and first reading: First, on Jesus and the first and greatest Commandment of the Law; Second, on the new Great commandment of Jesus; and Third, the story of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the King who equates being a neighbor with loving God?

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    When Jesus was asked by the Pharisee Rabbi what was the most important commandment, Jesus gave the well-known ‘Shema’ straight from the Law in Deuteronomy—to love God with your whole being (heart, soul and mind), calling it the “most important” and the “first on any list.”    

    My second point—Jesus upgraded and completed the greatest commandment.  I learned from Wikipedia that the number of commands in the Law of Moses is 613.  (And we thought 10 were plenty!)  Why so many?  Because they covered every aspect of Jewish life—how to worship God, what and how to cook, what and how to eat, what to wear, rules about all the many things considered ‘unclean’, everything  to do with family relations, with business dealings, and so on. 

     

    Tranquil path 1

    Morning Tranquility.

     

    In today’s Gospel Jesus picks one of those 613 commands in the Law of Moses (Leviticus, Ch. 19), and says, “If you add this other command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then, you have the “whole Law and the Prophets.”  And, by the time the Gospel of Luke was written, 20 or so years later, these two commandments were considered as one—the greatest commandment. 

    Luke, in Ch. 10, has a scholar of the Law, test Jesus by asking, “‘Teacher, what do I need to do to have eternal life?’  He answered: ‘What’s written in God’s Law?’   The scholar said, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” So, by then the most important commandment has two inseparable parts, the love of God and the love of neighbor.

    My Third Point:  Guess what Luke follows-up with and writes immediately after that passage?—the Good Samaritan story about who is a neighbor.  The ‘Good Samaritan’ is the one who treats the robbed and beat up person with first aid, and the one who makes sure the person will be taken care of.  In the story, being a neighbor is not defined by who the other person is; it is defined by how one responds to the other.  When you respond to another with mercy and kindness, you are being the neighbor. 

     

    John

    John Cade sharing the Good News.

     

            Matthew’s gospel also gives us the sure way to know if we are keeping the great command.  In Matt. (Ch. 25), this teaching tells how the twofold great command is totally interrelated.  When you are a neighbor to another, you are loving God.  This is the story of the King who said, ‘Enter the kingdom. I was hungry and you fed me, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me, and so on.’ 

    And then how the saints entering the kingdom asked, ‘When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or see you sick or in prison and visit you?, and so on.’  And the King said, ‘Whenever you did one of these things to another, especially to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’  

    When I look at this community, I see good neighbors.  You remember others in prayer, privately and in our prayer of the faithful; you visit the sick—in the pandemic you email, telephone or text them—giving the encouragement and hope of someone to lean on; you reach out and care for others in countless other ways, e.g., many of you have given of yourselves to kids who are poor or disadvantaged or disabled at the ‘Love for Kids’ events (of course, with Bill Hammond’s leadership), some of you traveled with Bill and Bona Responds to help people in other areas of Texas and Oklahoma suffering from devastating storms, and right here helping John and Rosemary restore some order to their tornado-damaged home and destroyed trees. 

    A few years ago, a number of you helped with the counting of homeless people in Plano to provide data on their actual existence; I have seen you and heard about you, keeping up with and giving care for others in our community who suffer any kind of adversity.  You generously contribute, as you can, to keep this community in existence, over fifteen years now, and to help with our ability to do outreach.  These don’t even take into account how you welcome community members and visitors, (even virtually) with total acceptance.  For me, you are for our time Good Samaritans, living out the great commandment to love God and showing your love of God by being a true neighbor.   Amen.

     

    Please Remember these special people:

    For Alan Stryker;  For John Doherty with an operation this week for his back pain;   For David Dismore's bad shoulder from a biking accident;  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Loretta's aunt Alicia;  For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;  

    For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

     

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    White Rock Lake at sunrise.

     

    Birthdays:  Zoe (& Samantha), Patricia AA 22nd, Rob 68,

    Anniversary:  Bill & Zaile, 11th

     

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    A rose is  a rose is a rose . . . .

     

    Community Finances, October 18, 2020

    Expenses: $775.00

    Outreach   $    (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

    Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

     

    Rosemary's Blessing:

    Pumpkin