Acts 10:  To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

Colossians 3:  If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,  where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

John 20:  On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

John Cade's Homily:  Download 04-20-25 Homily – Easter Sunday

Music,   Ben 

Expenses: $   1,265.00

Outreach: $    335.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Randolph and Michelle get a cookie for their anniversary

Rosemary's Blessing:

Joyous Time of Year 

May the glory
and the promise
of this joyous time of year
bring peace
and happiness to you
and those you hold most dear.

And may Christ,
Our Risen Saviour,
always be there by your side
to bless you
most abundantly
and be your loving guide.

Author Unknown    found on xavier.edu/jesuitresource webpage

Readings: Ezekiel 37, 1-14 (1-11 not in lectionary); Psalm 130, With the Lord there is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption; Romans 8, 8-11; John 11, 1-45, The raising of Lazarus
 

Ezekiel 37, observations:  (Author, When, Message)

           Author: Ezekiel, for real.  He is unique because he was not only one of the Big 3 Prophets (along with Isaiah & Jeremiah), but he was also a priest working in the temple. 

          When: before & during the Babylonian Captivity, therefore around 585 before Christ.  His audience was these people. 

          Message: Like the classic prophet, he condemns, warns, and consoles.  We pick up on the consolation end.  I want to read the first verses which lead up to our selection, because it is the fun dry bones story, about which we have the Spiritual.  It is a shame the richer story is not included.  This is metaphor.  The dry bones can stand for the people in captivity; they can stand for me.  Get out of that tomb!

 Sources: New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Good News Bible, St. Louis U. with Reginald Fuller, Daniel Westberg, Larry Gillick, Jesuits.

Get out of that tomb!

 One of the blessings of travel for me is the deepening of gratitude in me for how fortunate I am right here.  Another blessing comes with meeting special people along the way.

 I met one of these special people in Normandy on our trip to France.  When we arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, we immediately took the train to a little village called Bayeux in Normandy. 

 The next day we took a moving tour of the June 6, D Day landings on Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, three of the cemeteries, plus a handful of other memorials. 

 The following day we visited a place I was to discover was one of the four Middle Age pilgrimage sites.  First off, I did not know of four.  Know the other three?   Jerusalem, Rome, & Santiago de Campostella in the NW province of Galicia in Spain. 

 The  place we visited was called Mont San Michel and has been a Benedictine monastery for centuries, since around 900.  It is built on a large rock off of the coast of France, reached only by a causeway because high tide surrounds the rock with water. 

 Visiting the monastery, which was actually used as a prison for about a century after the French Revolution in 1789, was moving.  Equally moving for me was the woman who took us out there, the second point.

 One of those special persons.  She was simply driving a hotel van from Bayeux to Mont San Michel.  She could have said nothing.  Instead, she was full of personality and information about everything.  I came to really admirer her, especially when she shared her story.

 She said she had gone through a painful lay off and could not find work.  So she went to plan B, as she called it, driving the van for the little Churchill Hotel in Bayeux. 

 She did not just drive.  She described everything along the way and shared more about the history of Mont San Michel than I had even read.  She became a friend to such an extent that we went out with her the next afternoon, after she did her morning drive, to a little town she told us we would love, Honfleur.  We did.

 Why talk about her?  Because she exemplifies what is being talked about here, getting out of the tomb where we are half dead and coming to fuller life. She said getting laid off just about killed her, especially when she could not find any replacement.  She was in the tomb, she was not alive.

 The message is ‘get out of that tomb.’  Where am I stuck?  We know the places, the addictions & the obsessions, the laziness and the over indulgence.  The goal is simply to be a person more fully alive.

 Where is your tomb?

 Picture 1:   The Community    

 Picture 2:   Leo & his daddy, Ray  

 Picture 3:   Maggie & her daddy, Tom

 Picture 4:   Mont San Michel, Normandy, France

 Picture 5:   Wedding of Jill Carleton & Stephen Egal

Readings: 

Isaiah 11, 1-10, The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb.  A beautiful dream of peace by someone who lived centuries ago and dreamed.

Psalm 72,  Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace forever.

Romans 15, 4-9,  Welcome one another.

Matthew  3, 1-12, I am baptizing you with water.

Apologies, Everyone. Because of the dangerously icy roads and sidewalks, we canceled our Sunday Celebration. 

Rita Dore's house on Brentwood in Plano.

Next Sunday, December 15:

1.    Bring items from this Sunday for Samaritan Inn, e.g., toilet paper and paper products. and many more listed on our Advent handout.

2.    Bring items for the Dallas Rape Crisis Center, e.g., womens' needs and office supplies, and more listed on the Advent handout.

3.    We will celebrate our Advent Penitential Rite after the Our Father.

4.    We will celebrate our 9th Anniversary & Christmas Brunch.

That is ice on the ground, not just snow.

Readings: Isaiah 60, 1-6; Psalm 72, Lord, Every Nation on Earth will adore You; Ephesians 3, 2-6; Matthew 2, 1-12.

Isaiah 60: author, date, subject

Author: 3 Isaiah (responsible for chapters 55-66)

Date: ca. 400, after the Babylonian Captivity, ended ca. 550

Subject: lines such as, Rise up in splendor, the glory of the Lord shines, people from the east will come with gold & frankincense.

source: John Shelby Spong

The Great Debate: Myth vs Fact

I have just had an epiphany event in my life.  I was visited by an old friend, a wise friend, maybe a wise guy friend.  He says, "Stack, you are a fraud."  You folks have known this all along.  He says that the homily I gave before Christmas on the Partridge in a Pear Tree was not true.  Sorry to have to tell you this.  The history was wako, did not happen.  As you can imagine, I was quite deflated, but figured he was right because he is more of a researcher than I. 

So, folks, the old geezer fraud fesses up this morning.  I confess that I did not do any research on the subject.  Somebody sent it to me a few years ago, and I did not even save the name of the sender. 

So, using my friend's research and my own, I discovered that maybe the symbols were connected to the old Christmas carol ca. 1990.  Apparently nobody knows.  It was pointed out that these symbols did not need to be secret because of persecution.  The Elizabethan protestants shared most of the same symbols.  No secret needed.  Plus the carol may have come from France.  So, everyone, erase that homily and the history I gave you.  I blew that one. 

It struck me in the midst of this, could we be witnessing the creation of a myth?  100 years from now how many people will believe the version that I presented?  Could this be an example of what took place in the bible?  You have certainly heard that biblical scholars have determined that the nativity stories are the result of literary liberties taken by Luke & Matthew, not factual history.  I can give you two simple examples.

First, Bethlehem.  It is thought that Jesus was really born in Nazareth.  But Luke & Matthew, the only writers dealing with the nativity, wanted to connect Jesus with King David.  David was born in Bethlehem.  It is pointed out that it is a long way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, it was winter, and Mary was pregnant.  A woman researcher commented, "Only a man would imagine such a journey possible for a pregnant woman."

Why were people going to Bethlehem?  To be counted in a census of all the descendents of David.  David lived a 1000 years earlier, had many wives and mistresses.  His offspring would have numbered in at least the thousands.  No wonder there was no room.  And imagine how skitzy Herod would be with these thousands of potentially hostile subjects just a few miles from Jerusalem.

Why did the writers use such literary liberties?  They want to show that Jesus was special, he was the figure 1 Isaiah predicted, the God-hero, the wonder worker, the Prince of Peace.  They had heard so much about the adult Jesus that they wanted to make his birth a God-hero event.  So, connect him with the Great King David.

Finally, secondly, there is one small but significant mistranslation.  In Isaiah 7, 14, it is said, "A young woman will have a child."  Matthew, most likely intentionally to craft his point, mistranslates the word young woman as virgin, and says 'a virgin will become pregnant' (1, 23).  And so it has come down. 

There are three ways to respond to these studies.  One is to say, "No problem, God can do all that stuff.  He's all powerful."   The trouble with this is that the evidence is becoming overwhelming.  Like still saying the earth is flat.

Or I can simply toss out the whole and stay home.

A middle ground could be to recognize that literary liberties have been used.  And still celebrate the event.  The event, the Prince of Peace gives me peace and gives me a longing to share the peace. 

I goofed up by not researching the Partridge in a Pear Tree.  Sorry about that.  What we may be seeing here is a myth process similar to the biblical stories.  Myth or fact?  How can I be an educated, intelligent Christian?

What do you think about all this?  What do you feel about it?

Sources: John Shelby Spong; Harvey Cox, Future of Faith; Catholic Encyclopedia on line; Snopes

Picture 1:  Epiphany Celebration begins

Picture 2:  Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 3:  35th Anniversary, Carol & Richard 

Picture 4:  Chloe dances (see video)

Readings:

Acts 7, 55-60,  They threw Stephen out of the city, and began to stone him. 

Psalm 97,  The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

 Revelation 22, 12-14, 16-17,  I, John, heard a voice speaking to me.

 John 17, 20-26,   I pray that they all may be one. 

Mothers' Day Notes:

• The idea originated, ca. 1870, with 3 women who had worked in hospitals during the Civil War. 
• Julia Ward Howe (Battle Hymn), Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, & her daughter, Anna Jarvis wanted a Mothers' Day of Peace because of the horrors they had seen in the military hospitals.
• Woodrow Wilson, 1914, established the national holiday.

CC at the creation table.

A Mother’s Day Story

I want to share a Mother’s day story with you this morning.  It is not about a woman, but about a caring that was maternal and which we all share, even us guys.

As you probably know, last weekend Rosemary & I went to NYC for her big family reunion and to ride in the Sunday 5 Boro Bike Tour of the city.   To say nothing about celebrating again our 8th on Sunday, Cinco de Mayo.

Kara and James arriving.

So, it is 6:30 Sunday morning, a beautiful but chilly 48 degree day.  We have just arrived on Staten Island where we plan to park our vehicles, a sedan and two big diesel pickups loaded with bikes.  We are driving up and down the hilly streets.  Cars are already parked everywhere.

Celeste arriving.

At some point a guy passes us, turns left at a corner, stops his old station wagon, gets out, and yells to us, “You wanna place to pahk yo cah?”   Newyorkese.  Rosemary can translate.

Colleen arriving.

“Sure,” Brian says from the driver’s seat of the truck Rosemary & I are in.  Brian is Rosemary’s nephew and it is at his nice house in Essex Fells, NJ where we have the reunion.  He also rents the bikes for us.

The special Community blessing for Tom preparing for a shoulder operation Wednesday.

So we follow the guy,  probably a middle aged Italian construction worker.  But we are uneasy.  Even Brian, who has a construction company, says he has doubts about the guy. 

Suddenly we spot an empty space on a tree covered hill with little cottages.  We dive in.

When we had 3 extra Cupcakes of The Week, by unanamous acclaim the music team was awarded.

Joe, however, who is following us, continues following the guy and eventually parks where the man indicates.  It turns out the place is in front of the guy’s house and the truck is so long it covers they guy’s driveway.  He tells Joe that it is no problem.  He is not going out.

Niki arrives with her mom, Frances, and her grandmom, Mary.

The car parks somewhere else, and we all mount up and ride two, three, or four miles down the hill to the Staten Island Ferry.  This ferry is a national treasure.  It is run free by NYC, it heads straight into the southern tip of Manhattan, you pass the Statue of Liberty, and you can see the skyline as it comes closer, including the new World Trade Center.

Emma arrives.

As I’m riding the ferry in a state of marvel, I am thinking to myself, “We could return after this ride to find that pickup without wheels, the seats all gone, and even the engine extracted.  Just the shell”.  But, what to do?  Go ride.

Mary Ann arrives.

By noon we have all finished up with the marvelous ride and are again on Staten Island.  We head up the hill to retrieve the vehicles.  What do you think we found? 

The truck was sitting right where it had been left, whole and entire, completely safe.  The guy has been for real, no fraud, no car thief, just a guy in the spirit of the bike ride.  He cared and he wanted to help out.

Mike Carrell's beautiful mom.

I was most touched and I felt guilty for judging again the book by the cover. 

Only later did Rosemary tell me that another caring act had taken place.  Joe, who was driving that truck, left $20 bucks under the windshield wiper of the guy’s old station wagon.

The station wagon man showed he cared.  Joe showed he cared.  How do you show you care this Mother’s Day?

Kayla and Zoe await the Special Mother's Day Blessing.

 Readings: Exodus 17, 8-13; Psalm 121, Our help is from the Lord, who made Heaven & Earth; 2 Timothy 3, 14-4, 2; Luke 18, 1-8 

Exodus

 Author: Not Moses.  3 sources identified by literary style, points of view, use of Yahweh or Elohim.

Date: the sources have different possible dates, but 700 & 800 BCE seem to have some foundation.  The Egyptian period itself is thought to be ca. 1250 BCE, during the time of Rameses II.

 Subject: Moses leads the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt.  Remember how they got there?  The story of Isaac & his 12 sons, his youngest sold to camel drivers by the brothers, etc.

 Our Selection: scene, the desert; the event, the Amalekites attack the Jews.  Yahweh orders Joshua to mow them down with Moses’ supporting him with arms outstretched in blessing.   Not much connection with the Gospel.

 Sources: New Interpreter’s Bibl;, Good News Bibl;, Wikipedia; St. Louis U. Liturgy & Reginald Fuller.

Why do You Pray?

 There is a subdivision in North Dallas called Northwood Hills.  You go north from LBJ up Hillcrest to Belt Line and the subdivision is on both sides of Hillcrest.

 A few years before I departed the Jesuits some residents of Northwood Hills approached me about planting trees in their neighborhood.  I really did not want to go north of LBJ with my 800 gallon trailer.  They persisted and bit by bit, after a trip or two hosted by 2 or 3 couples, I finally agreed. 

We eventually planted ca. 400 trees along Hillcrest & Belt Line, in Fretz Park, and at a couple of elementary schools.  I watered those trees as often as twice a week for 2-3 years.  Ride by there now and the results are beautiful.  I am delighted I did it.

 Does this experience of mine and the parable of the gruff judge and the widow exemplify our relationship with God?   Who knows?  Each of us has our relationship and our expectations of the relationship.  For me, I have my doubts.  Three observations, one like and two dislikes.

 First, I like the lesson in asking for what we want, even from a judge at city hall.  The father of my best buddy when I was a kid used to tell me, “John, you can’t fight city hall.”  Maybe not, maybe so.  But you can certainly ask for what you want—in this life.

 Secondly, what I don’t like: the comparison of God with this grumpy judge who accedes to the widow’s request just so he won’t be bothered.  I have a different, more benevolent image.

Thirdly, what I don’t like: a false expectation contained in the parable that I can wear down God by my persistence.  I remember my mom’s 9 day novenas.  Probably to save me from hell.  Then I joined the Jesuits and left home and she probably told God that was not quite what she intended. 

 I find it helpful to make that infamous God distinction of mine, the macro-managing God and the micro-managing God.  I don’t see God doing the latter. 

 If God is a micro-manager, I don’t get it at all.  For every person apparently saved, how many thousands, millions have been lost, often with painful, agonizing deaths.  Take for example the Holocaust.  Did those people not beg Yahweh to be saved?  The slaves beaten to death.  Even here is Texas these days, the black men falsely accused and spending decades in prison until DNA proves their innocence.  My friend Tony works with maybe a dozen of these guys at Holy Trinity.

 So, why pray for people like we do?  Our people.  You know them. 

My observation: I hope some cosmic kinetic energy flows out to make more gentle the life of the person I pray for.  2-3 praying together emanate hopefully more energy. 

The Northwood Hills folks pestered me until I granted their request, a lesson for all of us in our daily lives.  This may not be a model for our relationship with God. 

Why do you pray?  With what results? 

 Picture 1:  Leo welcoming the Community

 Picture 2:  Leo's Mom & Dad, Shonda & Ray

 Picture 3:  Anthony & his dad, John

 Picture 4:  The Coffee Shoppe, Bob & Judy