Sunday Homily, October 21, 2012, 29th Ordianry Time B

Readings:

Isaiah  43, 16-21,  See, I am doing something new

Psalm 126,  The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Philippians 3, 8-14, For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things.

John 8, 1-11,   The woman caught in adultery.

 

Says Genevieve, "Welcome, Everybody, where you been?"

 

 Isaiah Observations:

The scene: the Jewish people are captives in Babylon ca. 555 years before Christ.  Isaiah No.1  had warned the people that their bad ways were going to lead to this.   

In this chapter 43, which is Isaiah No. 2, Isaiah has Yahweh reminding them of how much he has done for them in the past and lets them know that they are still his people.  Their lives will get better.   

The first 5 verses of this chapter are some of my favorites in the whole Bible.  Isaiah No.2 is telling the people to not be afraid because he is with them. It goes— 

Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by your name.  You are mine.  When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you…  When you pass through fire, you will not suffer.   I regard you as precious, honored, and I love you.

 

Leo, The Candle Lighter of The Week, at work.

 

Philippians Observations:

Philippi was a town in Macedonia, now called Greece.  Philippi was the first church Paul set up on European soil.  He is in prison.  He is basically saying that for him nothing has any importance beyond his relationship with Jesus.

 

 

 

The Chair Person of our Welcoming Committee.

 

Punishment or Compassion

I would like to talk this morning about the woman in the gospel, the one about to be stoned to death for being caught in adultery.   An example of punishment vs compassion.   The Law vs Jesus.  The brutality and the injustice of it smacks me in the face.  It is, also, so contemporary.

It reminds me of a very uncomfortable situation I found myself in when I was learning Swahili in Tanzania.   This would have been about ’77 or ’78, when I was just getting into the language. 

 

 

Alison preparing the communion cups.  

 

 

I was at an outstation church from an outstation church maintained by our Jesuit parish in a town called Tabora, smack in the middle of Tanzania, on the east-west train track.   This is the place where I later fell into the grave of a little lady I was burying and the place where I spent Advent and Christmas one year with two young Jesuit interns from the Island of Malta just off the Mediterranean tip of Italy.

On this occasion I was being shown around by the 4-5 men of this tiny village with a small, mud walled church.  I could not have been saying much because the language was still quite difficult for me.

 

Sir Charlie saluting The Queen Mother.

 

It was afternoon of a pleasant day.  We are way out in the bush and I remember the land was fairly green.  It was probably the period of the small rains, meaning, say, February or March.   The long rains come in our summer.  This is south of the equator.

At one point the men and I are wandering up a slope on top of which was a fairly large corrugated metal building, probably built by the government to help the villagers store their produce.

 

Offertory, Tom & Aggie & Allen.

 

As we get closer I can hear voices from inside the building and a thud or two.  Maybe the guys escorting me had explained what was going on and I did not understand.

Whatever the case, we are maybe twenty yards from a door at the corner of the building when, all of a sudden, the door opens and a few guys come out and with them staggers a man who has been beater.  He is dressed in nothing more than something like a towel or a skirt.  He has bruises on his shoulders and legs.  Because he is black I can’t see discoloring, but I see wounds. 

 

The Best, Shonda, Bethany, and Ray.

 

He has been caught cattle rustling.  He took one cow that he found out in the countryside near the village and attempted to get away.  He is a skinny older guy and probably not too smart.  They caught him easily. 

After teaching him a lesson, they are planning to walk him to the police station about 40 miles away in Tabora, the larger town I came from.  Along the way they will pass a few small villages where the inhabitants will also beat him.  If he makes it, jail will look pretty good.  And he does make it, I heard later.

 

Can that be a little mouse I see.  Looks like a familiar little mouse.

 

 

When this old guy sees me, he sees a savior and comes toward me with a begging gesture. 

I am ready to throw up and I want to tell the people to stop beating the man.   But I don’t know the language and I feel very awkward because these people are hosting me.  I feel paralyzed.

What do I do?   I did nothing.  And I was haunted by my doing nothing for years.  I had to forgive myself somewhere along the years.

 

Long time best buddies, Leo and John

 

Two lessons for me here. 

1.  Which is better, justice according to the law or compassion?
2. What do I do if I chicken out? 

 

Anybody recognize this foot?  Looks like it belongs to That Mouse.

 

Readings:

Acts 2, 42-47,  Awe came upon everyone.

Psalm 118,  Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everylasting.

1 Peter  1, 3-9,  Although you have not seen him, you love him.

John  20, 19-31,  Unless I see the marks of the nails.

 

 

Observations on Acts:

What : The second half of Luke’s work, the first part being his gospel.  Acts starts after the Resurrection.  We will read Acts all through May and read the last selection June 1, then June 7, Pentecost.  The work focuses on the spread of the early church with special attention given to Peter and Paul and their conflicts over who was to be a Christian, and Jewish laws, like circumcision.  The conversion of Paul is described.

Who: Luke, an educated and civilized Jew who wrote in Greek.

Date:  around the year 65, or about 30 years after Jesus’ death.

 

 

Our Selection: Luke describes and idyllic community, not a real community.  This was utopia, a vision Plato had of the perfect community.  It reminds me of advertisements Rosemary & I get for idyllic retirement communities, beautiful elderly people, smiling, hiking, enjoying excellent meals in charming dining rooms, all in perfect harmony.   Look at the struggles Peter & Paul had with each other’s view of Christianity and you get a view of today’s Christianity.

1 Peter observations:

Peter is writing to the first Christians in what is today Turkey and, get this, Syria.  He is encouraging them in their struggles.

Sources: Jerusalem Bible, Wikipedia

 

 

 The Doubting Thomas Syndrome

This morning I would like to talk about the Doubting Thomas Syndrome.  The syndrome is usually dealt with like a sickness.  The medication and remedy, ‘Don’t doubt, just believe.’  I have heard this since I was a kid in Christ the King school.

The problem with this, of course, is that the remedy is really an invitation to hat check my God given, marvelous intelligence at the door.  A don’t think dictum.  Let me offer an example of how this can put you in an unpleasant mind set. 

 

 

You all know that I have been studying French since I was recuperating from my two new hips in 2010.  You also know that Rosemary & I just returned a week ago from 11 days in France.   I am sure you have also heard and believe probably the common opinion that French are all snobby and rude.  Here is what I saw on one occasion.

Rosemary and I are in a small market, like a small supermarket about the size of one of our convenience stores, but bigger and more like our supermarkets.   I get about 6 bananas and Rosemary gets some things for her evening snack.  It is about 5 P.M., so a number shoppers are wandering around.

 

 

Once we have everything we want and have wandered the store enough, we get into the checkout line.  A young girl is there checking out, very polite and cordial.  I chat her up in French.  The items are scanned just like here until she gets to my six bananas. 

She holds them up, looks them over, and indicates something on the bananas.   Turns out it is not something on the bananas, but something missing, the cost, which should have been calculated back in the little produce department.

 

 

This is all going on in French, of which I suddenly can’t remember squat.  There is a line now of about 3-4 others behind us.  I get the idea finally, but I don’t know where the scale is to calculate the price. I can see us holding up the line for ten minutes while I wander the produce department.

Suddenly, the professional looking French man behind us says in English he knows what to do and would be happy to solve the problem in a minute.  Which he does and we check out.  We depart with wishes to have a nice visit from people around us.   Nobody was impatient.

 

I was most touched and thought, ‘So much for the word around that all French are snobby and rude.’   Certainly these folks were just the contrary.

This exemplifies in a small way how beliefs can be one hundred and eighty degrees off.  We will never know the truth if we simply have faith. 

My Jesuit training pushed us to question, investigate, and to doubt.  The alternative is to hat check my God given, marvelous intelligence at the door.   

 

 

Got no doubts?  Robots & drones have no doubts.  They just do what they are told by someone else.

Got some good, healthy doubts?  How do you handle them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John sharing his research on Matthew & the Jewish environment.

 

Readings:

Genesis  2, 7-9; 3. 1-7,  The Lord God planted a garden in Eden.

Psalm 51,  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Romans 5, 12-19,   Through one man sin entered the world.

Matthew 4,  1-11.

 

     

Hi, Betsy.

 

The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk One

This is the first part in a short series on the relationship between the Jewish synagogue and the Gospel of Matthew.  My primary source is John Shelby Spong’s book titled, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, published 2016.

 

 

Ash Wednesday at Marlene's house.

 

Spong is a retired Episcopal Bishop and a Biblical scholar. Other references include The Catholic Study Bible, published 2011, edited by Donald Senior, C.P.; and the Constitution Dei verbum in 1965 by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI at the 2^nd Vatican Council.

 

 

Ash Wednesday, Lynda & Tom.

 

Pius XII’s encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu (tr. “Inspired by the divine spirit”) in 1943, encouraged all Catholics to read the Bible, and that Biblical study should be in the original languages. And he allowed for the use of the historical-critical method for understanding Biblical texts.  

 

 

The Choir on the stairs.

 

The 2^nd Vatican Council’s Constitution Dei verbum (tr. “Word of God”), in 1965, was set up by Pope John XXIII when (before he died) he nixed the first draft by a Vatican-only group, and asked for another draft from a group balanced with conservative and progressive biblical experts.

 

 

Jackie reading.

 

The second draft, accepted by Vatican II and approved by Paul VI, is progressive, acknowledging that Biblical interpretation requires the insights of historical analysis and literary analysis, and an understanding of the purposes of the text as written for its original audience.    

 

 

Frank reading the Gospel.

 

Bishop Spong begins his study with the necessity of being knowledgeable about Jewish culture, Jewish symbols and Jewish storytelling; otherwise we are unable to understand the Gospels. Most Christians are unaware of the Jewish context of the Gospels. We need to know how the gospel stories would have been understood by the Jewish gospel authors and by the Jewish audiences they originally were written for.

 

 

Remember, you came from dust & you will return to dust.

 

Being Jewish, Jesus and his disciples attended the Jewish synagogue during Jesus’ lifetime and for 2 generations following Jesus’ death, about 55 years.  It follows naturally that the memories of Jesus were deeply associated with the synagogue.  

 

 

Ashes for you, Dearest Mabel.

 

People often overlook that the original disciples and the followers of Jesus were—like him—Jewish.  As Jews they would participate in the life of the synagogue and the weekly Sabbath liturgy. As a result, the synagogue became the setting where the teachings of Jesus and the stories about him were recalled and passed on.

 

 

 

Sandra reading from Genesis.

 

It’s commonly accepted that the split between the synagogue and the followers of Jesus didn’t happen until the year 88 of the CE. This means that Paul died as a Jew, his missionary goal being to open up Judaism to the Gentiles. So, when Paul’s converts gathered on the Sabbath to ‘break bread’ it wasn’t as a step toward founding a new religious movement (a church), but to add a whole new dimension to life in the synagogue. 

 

 

Carrie reading from Romans.

 

The timing of all this also means that the earliest gospels, Mark and Matthew, written before 70 CE, existed while the Christian movement was part of the life and practice of the synagogue. To end this first talk, let me repeat these three amazing facts: 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Michelle

 

1) Jesus’ followers were members of the Jewish synagogue for about 50 years following Jesus’ death; the split between the Jewish synagogue and the followers of Jesus happened in the year 88 CE; 

2) Paul died as a member of the Jewish synagogue in about 63 CE, over 20 years before the split happened; 

3) the gospels of Matthew and Mark, even perhaps Luke and Acts, were written while the Christian movement was still part of the life and practice of the Jewish synagogue.      

   

 

          Rosemary reading her Blessing of the Week.

 

No mid-week blog this week.  Gone to Mexico.

                  

Readings: 2 Samuel 7, 1-5, 8-16, The Lord said to King David, 'Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever;' Psalm 89, Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord; Romans 16, 25-27, To him who can strengthen you be glory; Luke 1, 26-38, The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin.   

 4th Sunday of Advent

Mary is told in our gospel reading that she is to give birth to the Messiah, the Christ. She asks the messenger from God how this could possibly happen. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ With astonishing faith she replies, ‘May it be done to me according to your word.’

As John the Baptist (the messenger of the past two Sunday liturgies) baptized the people in water, they acknowledged their sins. Then he tells them, ‘Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ So that the Holy Spirit will come upon us.

How will this happen?  When we welcome and put into practice Christ’s words we are bathing in the Holy Spirit.  The inspired writers of the John gospel tell us that Christ’s words are living waters that satisfy our spiritual thirst by filling our hearts with the Holy Spirit. 

It is through the power of the Spirit, Christ is alive in the hearts of those who live his words!  Then, all Christians together, Jew or gentile, man or woman, free man or slave, in union with Christ become what the Apostle Paul calls the body of Christ.  As one body we all share in the mission of Christ in the world.

In the Mark gospel we are told that together with Christ we are the one loaf that is blessed and broken, for we have become the word and bread we have consumed.  The acceptance of being broken is the tough part; but there is no other way to feed the other unless we give of ourselves in and with Christ.

A few weeks ago Judy and I watched a DVD she had ordered from Netflix. It was a French film in black and white with captions in English.  The film came out in 1987 and was directed by Louis Malle [Louie Mall].  The title of the movie in English was ‘Goodbye Children,’ however after watching the film I realized the title really was to be understood as ‘Goodbye Childhood.’  

The basis of the film was what Louis Malle experienced when he was eleven years old while he was attending a Provincial Catholic Boarding school on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery during the German occupation of France. It was 1944.  When France was liberated in December of that year the children had been pushed out of their childhood into adulthood.

The film begins with the children returning from their wealthy French families after Christmas vacation to the boarding school.  Soon after, Fr. Jacob the Carmelite priest at the school introduces three new pupils to the boys.  The boys are unaware that the three new students are Jews, that Fr. Jacob is the leader within the faculty who are joined to an underground network of Christians across France to save the Jews.

Fr. Jacob has given the three boys gentile names hoping that he can keep them hidden and alive until the Germans are pushed out of France.  A few months now pass with the three new boys fitting in rather well.  A classmate from the school, Julien, befriends one of the Jewish boys.  A few things unexpectedly happen, including Julien hearing his friend praying in Hebrew one evening.  (The Jewish boys do everything the Catholic boys are doing, including going to Mass.)  

The school has a parent day in the fall at which Fr. Jacob gives a homily on social justice directed toward the rich parents attending Mass with their boys.  The three Jewish boys are in attendance by themselves.  The friend of Julien is moved by the Priest’s words (from the spoken Word) and enters the line with the Catholics to receive communion.  Julien is next to him as the Jewish boy sticks out his tongue waiting for the priest to place a host on it.

I am as intent on seeing what happens as is Fr. Jacob, Julien and the young Jewish boy.  (The Jewish boy has a different understanding now of why Fr. Jacob and other Christians are risking their lives for the Jews…at any time Fr. Jacob could literally become ‘bread broken’ for him…taken and killed by the Germans by hiding him.  

Fr. Jacob does not place the host on his tongue, but his mere presence to the Jewish boy is bread blessed and broken. The boy seems a bit surprised not have received the host but peaceful in his presence among these Christians. There is a moment of quiet as the priest moves on to Julien who will only later become aware of what has really happened.  Julian, however, is now aware that not only is the boy is a Jew, but that Fr. Jacob is well aware of it.

Another icon of the Church in the world that you are probably not aware of might now become apparent to you as the season of Advent is about to end: the Christ child in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.  For the strips of linen are burial attire—As Church we are the Suffering Servant and Lamb of God to which we show our gratitude believing through the sacraments of Christ’s words and actions that our sins have been forgiven…and our responsibility to also forgive the contrite of heart. The manger is a feeding trough.  Blessed, we gather together in thanksgiving each week to consume the essence in the Liturgy of the word and Eucharist with conviction to become the bread we eat.

A kitchen worker is fired by Fr. Jacob, after the priest becomes aware that the worker was selling some of their food in the black-market. (Those watching the film can sense a coming betrayal.) The Germans have somehow become aware of the three additional students in the school.  Julien had seen his friend’s name partially erased from the inside cover of one of the books that he had brought with him. When one of the German’s asked for that person to stand, Julien glanced at his friend.  The German had noticed what he had done.

Later, the courtyard was filled with the boys standing in lines facing the Germans, who take with them their Science teacher and his family, Fr. Jacob and the three boys who are Jews.  The boarding school boys tearfully called after Fr. Jacob, ‘Goodbye Fr. Jacob.’  Fr. Jacob calls back to them, ‘Goodbye Children.’ 

The children had been pulled from childhood into adulthood in the tragic awakening of man’s inhumanity toward one of their teachers and his family, their priest and three of their classmates.  Later they would come to know what it means to become the Bread we eat…It is in dying to self by showing goodness and justice to others that one is born to eternal life.

The Science teacher and his family and the three boys were gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz.   Fr. Jacob was sent to a concentration camp in Austria where a few months later he died after the Americans forces had taken control of the camp.

When we see some of the children of this community wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger on Christmas Eve, recall the significance of what that represents: We have been baptized in the Holy Spirit to be Word and Bread, blessed and broken.

Picture 1:    The Team, John, Mike, & Kevin

Picture 2:    Ryan lights the candles with Jim & Michelle, his dad & mom 

Picture 3:    Penitential Rite, people, "Please forgive me."  Jan & Charlie

Picture 4:    Penitential Rite, minister, "I forgive you.  I accept you. Peace." Mabel & Mike

Picture 5:    Cole with his mom & dad, Erin & Chuck

Picture 6:    Sean 

Picture 7:    Emma

Picture 8:    The Gang, Judy, Marilyn, Chuck, Sandra, & Geri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings:

Acts 10,  34, 37-43  You know what has happened all over Judea.

Psalm 18,    This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.

1 Corinthians 5, 6-8,   A little yeast leavens all the dough.

 John  20, 11-18,  Mary Magdalene

 

 

Acts observations:

This book with 28 chapters basically tells the story of what happened to and in the Christian community after Jesus died.  

 

 

 

 

Resurrection

Want to know what Resurrection looks like?  Let me give you a couple of pictures. 

As you heard me mention at the beginning of our celebration this morning, I went to the Circle R Ranch in Flower Mound Saturday morning for a picnic titled, For the Love of the Kids.  There are two of these picnics a year.  One takes place around Thanksgiving when busloads of kids come for a picnic with horse rides, hay rides, bounce houses, face painting, dancing on a stage, and visits from Superman, Batman, Santa, and others.  It is enormous, a couple of thousand kids.

 

 

In April the picnic is for handicapped kids.  They come with their families, maybe a hundred or more yesterday.  It is wheelchair friendly.  I have my favorite job.  I stand at the entrance, usually with Beth, and welcome everybody.  I am always touched by something special, some resurrection moment.

So here I am yesterday registering an hour before the kids arrive.  I walk into the big pavilion and unexpectedly the first resurrection moment hits me.  You will never guess what it is.  It is The Community.  I’ve already seen Kevin, Kerry, and Joe at the registration desk.  But when I enter the pavilion I see brown shirts of Bona Responds everywhere.  The first Resurrection moment.  I was so proud to be part of this community.

 

 

Later, Beth, I, and another lady named Lindi are at the welcome lane into the pavilion.  Families are starting to come in, many pushing wheel chairs, but all with kids handicapped in some way.  Along comes a family with a little blond girl about 5 or 6.  I am saying hello and welcome to everyone.  The little girl comes right over to me and holds up her arms.  I gulp, pick her up, and hold her.  I did not want to ever let her go.  Another Resurrection moment.

A little later a Hispanic mother comes up pushing her son in a wheel chair.  We chat and I look closely at the boy, who is about 12 years old and very nice. What I see is that he has a white sweat shirt that says “Jesuit.” 

 

 

 

 Well, of course, that starts a conversation, while I hold the boy’s left hand in my left hand.  I’m on his left.  He is tuned in but not speaking, just watching me sort of fondly.  Finally, I reach over with my right hand and caress his soft cheek.  He gives me the most beatific, gentle smile that I was almost in tears as we parted.  A third Resurrection moment. 

I left Circle R in a zone of greater peace, gratitude, humility, and awe. 

Your most recent Resurrection moment?

 

Readings: Special All Saints Mass of Remembrance using Sunday’s first reading & Luke’s Gospel with 2 poems as the middle readings.  Therefore: Wisdom 11, 22-12, 2; poems see links below; Luke 19, 1-10 (Zacheus).

 

The Mass begins with a poem read by Jackie Ritter: Download poem_1.doc

How was I blessed by These People?

I have known a Zacheus.  Zacheus is Everyone, a limited person.  We are all limited people.  This Zacheus gifted me in a variety of special ways. 

First, like Zacheus, she shared her friendship with me.  I did not really get to know her until she had her last bout with cancer some years ago.  But every Thursday evening for the past few years we have talked and shared about so many things.  I looked forward to our Thursdays.  Through her friendship I came to know and love her, her husband and kids and even grandkids.  Two of her grandkids were in our Christmas drama last Christmas eve, the twin girls in the angel dresses.

Also like Zacheus, she was not very tall but full of energy and simple hospitality.  Zacheus’ height is symbolic of the shortness we all have.  My friend, too, was petite, but so full of vitality and cheer.  She was a joy to talk with for an hour. 

Especially, however, I was touched by her because she was a brat.  One night when I went to see her with Rosemary, I told her I had been learning how to do the salsa.  I showed her my classy steps.  Her response was, "Man, you dance like a gringo.  You don’t move your hips."

Another evening when it looked like she was getting ready to cross the threshold perhaps a year ago, I told her that when she met The Man she should tell him hello for me.  In fact, I told her if she ran into any trouble, just to say that Stack sent her.  Her response was, "Maybe I might be better off if I don’t tell him I know you."   She knew how to play.

My good friend Ofelia Lopez crossed the threshold this morning about 3:00 A.M..

She and all these people pictured on the stage have touched and gifted us into new life.

How?  What is The Gift you received?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-11-04.mp3

After Communion a poem is read by Joanne Languell: Download poem_2.doc

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