Sunday Homily, September 23, 2012, 25th Ordinary Time B

 

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, Magi from the east arrived.

 

Emma says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

 

Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I have mentioned this before.  He is my favorite.  

Today we have Isaiah III talking to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 555 years before Christ.  It helps to picture the mood of these people. 

 

"Hi, Folks, Welcome in, they are going to win today," says Cole, our Cowboy fan.   Sorry, Cole.  It has been a tough year.

 

Are you a Cowboy Fan?  How do you feel at about this year?  Multiply this by 10 and you have how the Jewish people felt after 50 years of slavery and  their town destroyed like New Orleans or parts of NY & NJ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, he is talking to these beaten down people.  Later centuries church leaders began to make these words have two meanings, the city and us Christians.  Jerusalem, then, applies to us.

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

 

 

Does the Lord not shine on this little girl?

 

Upon you the Lord shines, because of 3 Magi

This morning I would like to propose that we have Magi in our lives and because of them the Lord shines on us, like it says in Isaiah.  

I want to limit the selection to 3, like the guys in Matthew’s story.  This was a bit difficult, because I see lots of Magi in my life.  Magi for me are the wise ones, the good ones, the compassionate ones.  I could start right here with you people in the community.  I could easily mention Rosemary. 

 

Ugh Oh, She has learned how to motor, like crawl.  Beware, Everybody.

 

However, I chose 3 guys who are not quite as present in my life, but are wise, good, and compassionate.  Here they are. 

The first guy is Harold.  I don’t even know his last name.  I do know that he is going to be 90 shortly.  I see him most mornings, Monday through Friday.  He is in the shower change room when I come into the J (Jewish Community Center) ca. 5:30 to do spin class. 

 

So, the questions is, 'Where is she going?  To help with the singing (see podiums) or to help with the Mass?"  Tune in next week for the answer.

 

He is quiet and understated.  Despite working out 5 days a week, he is pretty plump.  What he is, is friendly and congenial.  He knows Rosemary & I go dancing Monday nights.  He always asks if we are going and Tuesday he asks how dancing was. 

The second person is my old coach & Scout Master from Christ the King, Frank Hart.  Frank is 90.  Notice how these 90 year olds are getting my attention.  Rosemary & I visit Frank every Sunday after we leave Sigler.  He lives in a house with about 8 other elderly people, all of them women except Frank.   The house is on Northhaven near Hillcrest.

 

Emma and Zoe solving our world problems.

 

If I get to Frank before their lunch at 1:00, I usually find him in bed and asleep.  He has his clothes on.  He just sleeps a lot.  I wake him up and  despite his memory not being too good, he certainly remembers us and makes a big deal out of us coming by. 

Frank was one of the more significant persons in my life as a grade school kid.  He helped me get over being home sick when I went to Boy Scout camp, a story I've told here more than once. 

 

 Hi, Buddy, are you a frog today?

 

While Frank touched me when I was in grade school, the third guy touched me when he was in grade school and I was at Jesuit.  His mother came by one day with her son and basically said, “Help!”  This is Michael, about whom you have heard me talk before.

 

After doing a zillion Masses together at St. Marks in the cafetorium, an old friend, David has joined us in Sigler.  Welcome David!

 

Last Saturday he came by to visit Rosemary & me.  He has his gorgeous wife, Lydia, and now two neat kids, Barrett and Abby.  Michael is in the Air Force and I think the last time we met was in Aviano, Italy, when Beth & Rob were with us.  He flies these little F-16 jets.  

 

 

 

Genevieve, See these cool kids.  Someday you will grow up to be as marvelous as they.  The Gerwers.

 

Michael touches me because he overcame a number of blocks to, first, get into Jesuit, and then to have a great career at Tech after failing to get into A & M.  

 

Remember our old friendly venue, Vines?  With the Nativity drama and 300 folks, we will return to reminisce maybe twice a year.

 

What are the gifts they give me?  Wisdom, goodness, and compassion.  

Who are the 3 magi in your life & what gifts do they give you?

Readings: Acts 13, 14, 43-52; Psalm 100, We are His People, The Sheep of His Flock; Revelation 7, 9, 14-17; John 10, 27-30

Acts:  a brief resume of what Tony has already explained, using the structure of who, what, when, and today's reading.

Who wrote: Luke, who wrote the Gospel.  He was a Greek speaking Gentile convert to Judaism.  He writes for Gentile Christians.  Writes about Paul, but did not know him nor his letters.

When: Big question.  Before or after 2 momentous events–

70 C.E: the Jews rebel against Rome.  Rome smashes them and destroys the most precious temple.  End of priests, beginning of rabbis.

88 C.E.: the Jewish Christians who have been worshiping in the temple or synagogue for decades split off. 

What about: story of spread of Christianity after Christ's death.  History or not?  Big question.  Idealized history?

Today: Paul & Barnabas scolding the Jews and affirming the Gentiles.  Is Acts pro Gentile?  

Revelation: a strange book

Some of my old Jesuit confreres were convinced the author(s) of this book was on halucinagens, undergoing an LSD trip.  What do you think?

The Good Shepherd

 

Want to know what a good shepherd looks like?

 

  

There is a couple.  They are celebrating 25 years of marriage.  They met in college in Pennsylvania.  Good kids.  The girl, Donna had spent a summer overseas doing service work in Calcutta. 

 

   

Know who else started out in Calcutta?  Mother Teresa.

 

   

The guy, John had also been doing summer mission work with the Glenmary Home Missionaries. 

 

 

So they got married and planned to have a family.  They tried and waited.  The news: they could not have kids.  So, one thing led to another and they adopted.

 

 

They adopted Rosa, a baby from an orphanage in Mexico. 

Then they adopted Natalie, a baby from Guatemala.

Then David, a baby from a local foster care family.

Then they adopted a 12 year old.  Maria Elena came from the same Mexican orphanage as Rosa. 

 

  

They had been living in a house in Philadelphia.  They moved to a church basement.  Then to an empty convent. 

 

  

All the while they continued adopting kids.  Just could not say no.  Donna was home schooling the kids.  John was working as an independent contractor—until they reached 11 kids.  Then he quit his job.  He was needed too much at home.

 

 

With the number of adoptions rising they found a 7 acre farm in south east Pennsylvania.  Here they could attempt more self-sufficiency.  They also were granted status as a foundation and took the name of St. Joseph House.

 

 

Today on the farm they have somewhere between 17 and 20 kids under their roof. 

 

  

How have they managed over these 25 years and 20 kids?  With the help of Catholic communities like ours right here. 

 

 

What kind of good shepherd are you?  Are we?

 

I found the story of John & Donna Kurtz in the March edition of The Anthony Messenger.   There is a picture of the whole bunch on the cover. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Mar2010/Feature1.asp

 

 

Readings:

Wisdom  3, 1-9,  The souls of the just are in the hand of God.

Psalm 23,   The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

1 John 3, 1-3,  See what love the Father has bestowed on us.

John 6, 37-40,  I will not reject anyone.

 

 

All Souls Day observations–

Let me give you a bit of history and the thinking behind this All Souls' Day.  Five observations: the theology, purgatory-limbo, a legend, pre-Christian practices, and today.

1.  The Theology.  All Souls' Day is part of a package with All Saints.  The idea is: on All Saints' Day we honor all those who are enjoying the beatific vision, that is, heaven, the saints.  On All Souls' Day we honor those who have died but have not reached heaven because they had penance to do. 

We are talking mortal & venial sin here.  If the person died with mortal sin, they are you know where. Those with venial sins have to go through purification and purging, which brings us to All Souls' Day and purgatory.

 

 

2.  Purgatory & limbo.  People ended up in purgatory to purify themselves with suffering, before being allowed into heaven.  Limbo was for whom?  It was for people, especially children who died without being baptized.  They remained there how long?  Forever.  Can you imagine a baby there or even in the old purgatory?

At least the Catholic Church recently acknowledged that the limbo idea was bogus.  The pope said it does not exist and never did.  Though many consider purgatory to be in the same class, it still exists.  Want to know how we know?  A previous pope was offering indulgences.  The indulgence is for the soul in purgatory.  It speeds up the process.  There are partial & total indulgences.  We can win them for these souls and get them out or we can win them for ourselves. 

For instance, on the last feast of Peter & Paul Rome offered an indulgence if you visited a church named after one or both of these two, and you recited a prescribed menu of prayers. 

 

 

3.  The legend.   It happened around 1000 A.D. that a monk, St. Idolo, from the French monastery of Cluny was shipwrecked on a desolate island as he returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, i.e., Israel.  On the island he met a poor hermit.  The hermit told him that among the rocks was a crevice from which came the anguished voices of the many suffering in purgatory.  Likewise, listening carefully you could hear the devils cursing that living people were speeding up the sufferings of these souls by praying and doing penance for them. 

Some time after this, i.e., 1000 A.D., the Cluny Monastery established an All Souls' Day.  Ca. 1300 Rome followed suit.  

 

 

4.  Pre-Christian times.  There is evidence that at least in Mexico numerous tribes had a day or period when the departed ancestors were honored.  The purpose was to honor them, remember their example, and to communicate with them.  Today in Mexico & in Hispanic families the Day of the Dead is still celebrated.  This custom has been celebrated for 3,000 years.

5.  Today.  Limbo has been discarded by Rome and many scholars consider purgatory a dinosaur idea from antiquity.  Consequently, All Souls' Day celebrates Samantha, my mom & dad, Rosemary's mom & dad, and all our loved ones pictured on the stage.  All Saints' Day handles the canonized.   Hell is also considered today a mental concept, not real.

So we say, What special blessing did you receive from one of these people pictured or whom you remember in your heart?

 

 

Today's Saint

I would like to talk today about a saint for the day.  Every day has its saint. I want to talk about one.

Ever hear of a 67 year old black guy named Johnny Lindsay?  I read about him in the Dallas Morning News this summer.   Another of the army of exonerees. 

Johnny spent 26 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. He got out in 2008.  Can you believe that, 26 years!  Oh, but how he had grown.  

 

 

He came out of prison without anger, bitterness, or desire for revenge.  In fact, he came out with a desire to do one thing positive for someone.  He had reached that acceptance state where peace lives.  

Ever since Johnny was 12 years old music had touched his spirit.  What kept his spirit alive those 26 years was music.  He sang in a choir the prisoners formed.  He said music was his saving grace and he dreamed all those years of finally being exonerated one day and doing one thing good for others.

 

 

At his release he was given $2 million.  So his wife, Sherita, and he decided to actually take piano lessons.   He met Debbie Beach and she became an inspiration for him.  She taught them and shared her dream to have her own music school.  Johnny & Sherita bought her all the keyboards she needed to open her school. 

Has Johnny come out of prison eager for revenge?  Does he hate?  Is he angry?   I think I would be.  However, he, like so many, many of these  exonerated men is at peace. 

 

Even this past Wedneswday, two men were exonerated and released after 14 years in prison.  They are not angry and not looking for revenge.   Johnny loves and accepts others.  He is at peace, with others and with himself. 

With whom are you not at peace?  What do you need to do to attain the peace Johnny has?

Reference:  Dallas Morning News, June 23, 2014. 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 35, 1-6, 10 (again beautiful); Psalm 146; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11

Isaiah: Again today’s selection from this marvelous book put together some 8 hundred years before Christ presents a dream and a vision of a day of peace and happiness.  To emphasize the beauty we will split the reading again, the first part read by Margarita; the second by her daughter Ashley.

How to Give Sight, Give Life

In Utah there is a ranch which specializes in equine therapy for young people.  Equine therapy uses horses to help people & kids find themselves and level out. 

A family who are really good friends of mine visited the ranch some years ago to check out if it might be a good place for one of their children to get settled in life.  One afternoon some staff people took them down to the barn to look at the horses.  Now the wife in her childhood had done some riding and was pretty confident around horses, which the staff apparently picked up.

Consequently, one of the women staff members offered her a bridle and asked her if she thought she could bridle a wild mustang they had just brought in.  "Sure," she said, and off she went to bridle the mustang.  Three staff members climbed up and sat on the fence to watch her.  Inside she was saying to herself that she would be firm and brave, remembering that she had once broken her arm with a horse. 

Using all her skill, determination, and bravery she tried and tried to bridle that mustang, for probably over an hour.  It was even beginning to get dark.  But she was determined she would prove she could do it all by herself.  Finally, with darkness setting in she took the bridle, handed it back to the staff, and feeling defeated said she could think of no other way to bridle that mustang.

The staff asked, "Are you sure you have tried every possibility?"  "Yes," she replied, "Everything. "I think there may be still another possibility," the staff said.  "What?" my friend asked.  "You could have asked for help."

Isaiah says this morning that some day the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf be cleared.  That evening in that coral in Utah, my friend saw and heard in a new way.

There are two pieces to this dynamic.  One, am I aware that I am blind and deaf, and need the help of community?  We are all blind and deaf.  Secondly, am I aware that I have to help others see and hear better?  Or I am less a person? 

One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help.  It is partly pride, but also good Jesuit training.  I’ve been trained to think and act independently.  I can almost learn Spanish or Italian without asking for help.  However, ever try to learn to work a computer without asking for help?  I have had to ask Rosemary a million times how to do things.  Humbling.  And eye opening.

The staff members sitting on that fence were helping my friend to see and hear.  It is even their profession, a privilege and a call really.  Teachers are helping others to see, parents do it.   Like I mentioned the first Sunday of Advent, flight attendants do it with their hospitality, like happened to Rosemary & me coming out of Hilton Head. 

A paradox in all this is that when I help another to see or hear better, I receive the same gift.

My friends never did work with the ranch in Utah, and their child grew up and leveled out.

How are you helping the person next to you to see & hear better?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-12-16.mp3

Readings: Zechariah 9, 9-10; Psalm 145 (second stanza, a favorite); Romans 8, 9-11; Matthew 11, 25-30

Zechariah:  Zechariah is the 11th of the 12 Minor Prophets and lived just when the Hebrews were released from the 70 year long Babylonian Captivity, ca 535-520 B.C.  In Jerusalem he encouraged the people to rebuild the temple.

He was a favorite of the N.T. writers because he is rich in messiah predictions.  Today we have one of those visions. 

Psalm 145, 8-9: Terrific line: “The Lord is gracious & merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.”

Independence

Last Sunday, June 29th, there was a column in the Points section of the Dallas Morning News.  The writer, Peter Lovenheim of Brighton, NY, described how he became aware that he did not know any of his neighbors.  With all the tools at his disposal to keep in touch instantly with people, even around the world, he was detached & out of touch with his own little neighborhood.

Peter decided to do something about it.  He actually began to invite himself to spend the night at his neighbors and write about their lives and his experiences with them.  Naturally, he was turned down often, but he did find some people willing to take him in and even discovered one woman with cancer needing help she could not get other than through her neighbors. 

It was his first experience of spending the night with an elderly guy, Lou, that turned out to be the article in the paper.  He called it, Why I Woke up in my Neighbor’s Spare Bedroom.  He even describes how he & his neighbors discovered, then helped the elderly lady dealing with cancer. 

I remember when my mom lived in the house in which Rosemary & I now live, how once a year or so there would be a block party and everyone came to have a picnic under the oak trees in someone’s yard or drive.  I also remember that in the neighborhood in which I grew up in University Park we did not have block parties.  However, we did know all the neighbors, or let’s say they all knew Johnny Stack & were wary of him.

I talk about this today for two reasons. 

• First, we have just celebrated Independence Day. We revisited our national roots Friday and have come away proud of what our ancestors did to establish an independent country. As a child I wanted to grow up to be equally independent. Independence equals maturity. Dependence equals immaturity and is something I dread and hate.
• Secondly, as good and noble as independence is, taken to an extreme, independence involves not necessarily maturity, but rather isolation and loneliness. Lovenheim called his original neighborhood situation detachment. I would also call it independence, the opposite of that old dreaded dependence.

I suggest there is a healthy middle ground: interdependence.  The old cliche’ No Man is an Island is only partly true these days.  There are numerous often elderly people living on islands of abandonment in our neighborhoods.  To avoid the either/or trap and focus on interdependence, I suggest two things:

• Pro-activity. I  take the initiative. I  look around. I  pick out my neighbor or neighbors whom I don’t know at all or don’t know well.  I make a move. I  take steps to build a small community.
• Spend time. It takes time to build. It takes time to visit someone or call them or talk with them when I see them. Granted, time is often one of our most precious commodities.  The relationships are worth it.

This is what I see us doing here at San Vino, building community, taking time.  I think one reason why a number of mega-churches have so many people is that the administration sets up multiple small communities, teen-agers, young adults, golden agers, unmarrieds, divorced, etc.  People feel like they belong.  This is why I love to have our seasonal brunches. 

My hope is that no one in our community feels alone on an island.  We know one another and care for each other.

Who is the unknown neighbor in your life?

AUDIO:   http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-07-06.mp3

 

 

Readings: Acts 2, 42-47; Psalm 118; 1 Peter 1, 3-9; John 20, 19-31.

Acts: This book basically tells the story of the early Christian community.  Biblical scholarship considers the book idealistic in great part.  It was what they hoped the community would look like rather than what it was.

Do Not be Unbelieving, But Believe 

It dawned upon me a day or so ago that 2008 is a 50 year anniversary for me.  August 15, 1958, I entered the Jesuits at Grand Coteau, LA.  This, coupled with meeting up with David Cardenas last week, another guy who entered the Jesuits, though a few years after me, all has had me reflecting on our lives as young Jesuits before Vatican II.  Three thoughts.

First, there was a neat spirit among the 25 or so guys I entered with, as well as in the whole Jesuit identity.  There were a couple of odd clerical guys, but I was impressed with how typical my classmates were. 

Secondly, we lived a rigorous monastic life.  Silence, formal prayer times, work, study, and three recreation afternoons, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.  We wore a black cassock & cincture or we wore long sleeved shirts and long pants, even to play touch football & baseball in 100 degree heat & Gulf Coast humidity.

The two hardest physical labors I ever experienced: riding a tractor on a cold day and harvesting corn silage in August heat.  There were three silage jobs, picking up the cut corn stalks, shoving it into the grinder, or walking around inside the silo while the silage rained down on you from the hole in the roof. 

The third thing I remember which amuses and embarrasses me is the penitential practices we were expected to use, especially in Lent & Advent.  There were a variety of practices, but two stand out.  One was the scourge.  We had these little light rope whips which we used on ourselves before going to bed like on Friday nights.  Since we lived in large dorms in cubicles it was amusing, of course, to hear just before lights out at 10:00 the scourges being used. 

Secondly, we were given little wire chains with the wire ends poking out on one side.  You put that around your thigh with the ends poking in.  You put it on when you woke up and wore it until after breakfast.  I’ll tell you, it was amusing to see your buddies discomfort, all in silence. 

The rationale for the penance was based on the old philosophy of dualism: flesh bad, spirit good.  In order the keep the flesh from bringing down the spirit, discipline it, make it hurt.  Then the spirit will grow and strengthen.  What got me through was the light spirit of amusement of my classmates, the fantastic 3 hot  meals every day, and because I believed.

The overall training made me grow up quickly.  I look back now, however, am somewhat embarrassed, and ask myself how could I believe in some of those practices.  And I know.  It was believe, believe in the process, in the company, in those who have gone through this before me, and look at them, how successful they are.

Doubting Thomas, the subject of our Gospel today, is a hero of mine.  I think I would like to have been more like Thomas in those early years.  Which would have been impossible at the time, I know.  In fact, I think the training itself ultimately gave me the self-confidence and intellectual curiosity to enable me to have doubts & questions.  For example, I have doubts about the emphasis on penance, to say nothing about the philosophy behind the penance.

The danger with the "do not be unbelieving, but believe" statement is that it may be a "do not think" statement.  I become a sheep following the footsteps of whoever is in front of me with a feeling of security.  Doubts can be scary, questions confusing.  However, they are normal and healthy.  Without them I am less than healthy.  Thomas can be a model for us.  "Show me the evidence."

Like Thomas what are your doubts & questions?  And how do you feel about them?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-30.mp3