Sunday Homily, December 16, 2012, 3rd Advent C

Readings: 1 Kings 19, 16-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5, 13-18; Luke 9, 51-62.

1 Kings: This book continues the history of the Israelite kings begun in the two previous books of Samual. First was Samuel, a judge, then Saul, the first king, then the Great King David.  David’s activities make up a large part of this book.  When David dies the kingdom gets split into north and south.  Things go badly.  Along comes Elija the prophet.  This is a sign that times are bad.  We read in today’s section about the time Elija chooses Elisha as his successor. 

A Role Model

I would like to talk this morning about my Aunt Kitty with her glorious 100 years. She has always been a hero of mine and after our visit this past week she still is. We stayed in the retirement home where Kitty lives. Consequently, were able to make numerous small visits over the day & a half we were there. One attendant even asked me if I lived there now!

Since we had just been talking two weeks ago about the qualities of a peaceful & whole person, I was looking at Kitty with the 6 qualities in mind, e.g., curiosity & hope, gratitude & love, zest and, my own, humor. I spotted at least 3. 

Above all else, I was struck about how peaceful she was. At one point in our visits she said that while she had not wanted to live until she was 100, "It is not bad," she claimed. This said a lot to me, because over the past 10 years Kitty often told us that she did not want to live to 100. 

I asked her how she got to this peace & 100 years. "Golf", she replied.  She loved to play golf.  I think I see here that zest for living that I mentioned was one of the 6 characteristics of a whole & peaceful person. She, also of course, was famous for her yellow Buick convertible.  Which leads to the second quality I remember about her.

Her humor.  I can still remember her laughing at my uncle Frank and going into hysterics with my mom.  The two of them were close in age and spirit.  They laughed often over a time when the two of them as girls in Pittsburg were driving along behind a streetcar and went right out over a bridge. They had to get rescued. Kitty was notorious as an air head and my mom was right with her.   

One year when I was returning to East Africa from a home visit, I toured Kitty, my mom, and their older sister Pauline around Ireland in a little, two door, red economy sized car. Folks, it was lucky that Ireland is so small because we did not get started in the morning until about 9:30 or 10:00 and then we began looking for a place to stay around 4:00. Plus we stopped for lunch & morning & afternoon tea.  During all this time they laughed non stop.

During our visits Kitty often poked fun at her situation and age, when she remembered she really was 100. And when she did not remember, she laughed at herself. 

Besides humor and zest for life, Kitty loved her friends. While we were with her she said how much she missed her pals Jenny Gooch and Betty Lynch. Betty had three paintings on Kitty’s wall.  Especially she missed my mom. In fact, she was disappointed she had not heard from her recently.  Her long term memory is shaky. She did not remember that mom had died about 15 years ago.  She was even disappointed Pauline had not written her.  Pauline lived in NYC and died before my mom.

One moment after she forgot her age, however, she tuned directly into me and asked how I liked marriage, what was my relation with the Jesuits, and was I still working actively as a priest. Even though she became Presbyterian when she married my Uncle Frank, she has been totally interested in and supportive of my process.  And she remembed clearly. 

Of all the qualities my aunt shows, humor is her best. 

What is your best quality?

Click here to download to an mp3 file:

Readings:

Ecclesiastes   1 2; 2, 21-23, Vanity of vanities, all things are vanit.

Psalm 90,  If today you hear his voice, harden not  your hearts.

Colossians 3, 1-5, 9-11,   Put to death the parts of you that are earthly

Luke 11, 1-13,  The rich man who hoarded all his wealth in bigger barns, then died.

 

INTRODUCTION:  

After the Jews received the commandments and oral law, they received from God the Judges; the last of whom was Samuel. During this period of time the following wisdom was practiced: Jews were to follow the example of the Judges. They were to use their free will to determine what was right or wrong using the oral law and the Commandments as their guide.

When the people asked for a king, Samuel said, ‘No!’  Why?  A king would take the best of everything from you; your sons and daughters, your land, your vineyards. He will become rich and you will become poor.  Do not put your faith in a king instead of God. 

 

Fast forward through King Saul and King David, to our first reading from Ecclesiastes.  The one who labored in our first reading was King David.   His son Solomon, did not labor for, but was the beneficiary of all of his possessions.  Solomon was worldly wise and clever; but not spiritually wise. He certainly did not use the oral law or the commandment to guide his decisions, nor did he suggest to others to do so until the very end of Ecclesiastes.  Our second reading continues the teaching we are receiving from Colossians.  We are to humble ourselves to be the hands and eyes and heart of Christ in the world by showing compassion and generosity to others.  To put on Christ infers that we have died to the greed that is idolatry,

 

 

HOMILY:  Samuel’s reasons for not having a king where fulfilled by Solomon.  He abandoned his father David’s advice to him, and he lavished himself with expensive gifts.  He lusted after women, taking 700 wives and 300 concubines.  He had 4000 stalls filled with expensive horses.  In a dream Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people with justice.  Remember the parable I shared with you some time ago about Solomon and the two prostitutes?  He asked his servants for a sword, saying that he would cut the living child in two, giving half to one and half to the other.  He used fear not wisdom to identify the real mother.  He was clever; but not spiritually wise.

 

In the New Testament Letter of James, the rich are reminded of the wisdom that comes to us from above. It is the good news of Jesus Christ. Those who seek him receive the Holy Spirit so that their labor is pure and gentle, and filled with compassion.  The wisdom, of course, is that we are to put on Christ.

The inspired writer of the Luke gospel used the word rich to describe the man in today’s parable.  This Greek word suggests that the man had more than ample property to make willingly, with gratitude, a generous gift. But he didn’t; his wisdom was foolishness.  The parable is to be understood this way:  The Lord’s judgment, ‘you fool,’ is how he gave answer to the rich man’s greed that was idolatry.

 

Generosity is always a gift of gratitude toward God.  Giving of our time and talent is just as important as giving material wealth.  In everything give thanks for that is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus.  The wisdom that comes from above is meant to be contagious, those served with love are given the opportunity to do the same for others.

 

 

 

Sez Shonda, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Readings:

2 Samuel 5, 1-3, David anointed king of Israel 

Psalm 122,  Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord

Colossians 1, 12-20,  Let us give thanks to the Father.

Luke 23, 35-43,  This is the king of the Jews.  

 

 

Likewise say Connie & John, "Come on  in, Folks"

 

Homily by John Cade

Every Sunday we “do” the Mass. ‘Eucharist’ is the Greek word for “giving thanks”. Following the theme Stack and Mike and I set for these three weeks, I will share my gratitude for four of the many blessings I received this year.

 

 

Welcome Home, Gil.  It has been a long recuperation and it is delightful to see you.

 

On Jan. 1 Lambrini retired. We are grateful together for her having this good job for 21 years, achieving many career goals, and, in the process, earning the respect of her coworkers. Of course, even a good job includes work stress—like its duties and demands and sometimes its environment. And you know, if your partner is stressed, you are stressed. Retirement is when we both get to say goodbye to those stresses, and catch up on our bucket list.

 

 

Thanks, Sophia, for lighting our candles.

 

In terms of health, Lambrini had severe A-fib symptoms; they were debilitating. A blessing I shared with her was her ablation surgery that reduced the worst of her A-fib symptoms, Alleluia! On my personal health blessings: I had an echocardiogram and a stress test this summer, after which my cardiologist said, “See you next year!”—always what we want to hear. My Urologist said the same just this past week.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Brent.  This $1000 check is for the Souls Harbor enterprise.  I only wish it could be our $2000.

 

Another blessing was celebrating with Lambrini our 25^th wedding anniversary. It’s not just all these years together; it’s also deepening our devotion and gratitude for each other and working to better accept our differences.  Speaking of weddings, I was blessed getting to preside over the wedding of a young couple. Doing weddings is a gift; they are such happy occasions, intimate and full of promise and fun.

 

 

Bill, even with chemo treatment, you still challenge our community to do more, like the Love for Kids Picnic coming up this month.  Thanks.

 

Finally a big blessing, this year and every year, is being part of this community. An example of what a blessing this community is was how this community stood with Rich and Carol as they ‘walked their walk’ right in our midst. We got to see their steadfast loyalty and courage.

 

 

Says Marilyn, " Sign up for the Juliets Christmas luncheon coming up soon."

 

I give thanks for the loving support this community provides. We all experience losses. My gratitude is for the way this community helps me and all of us feel safe enough to share them, and courageous enough to accept them, and get on to the next step of our journey.

How will you remember and give thanks for the blessings of this year, individually and together?

 

 

 

Communion for All.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is this Mystery Presenter?  A Pilgrim, a religious, a stranger?  Maybe all?  No!   Cathy in period dress, nothing less than the Best, tells the story of the Mayflower on which she had some ancestors, both a 'stranger' & a 'religious.'    Thanks, Cathy, for an excellent & fun presentation.

 

 

Readings:  

 1 Kings 17, 10-16,  The jar of flour shall not go empty

Psalm 146,  Praise the Lord, my soul.

 Hebrews 7, 23-28,  Once for all he has now appeared

 Mark 12, 38-44,  This poor widow put in more than all the others.

 

 

 

While Buddy reads The Blessing of The Candles, Harper lights the candles.  Good work, both of you, Harper & Buddy.  And thanks, Georgie, for helping Buddy to read.

 

 

Kings:

     Author & date of composition: the work is a compilation of numerous sources put together near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.

    Subject Matter: 1 Kings is part of a 4 book work that includes 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings.  The 3 kings are Saul, David, and his son, Solomon.

 The work begins with Samuel, the last great judge, continues through the lives of the 3 kings, and finally shows how Solomon’s sons’ squabbles led to the division of the Jewish nation into two states, north & south, Israel & Judah.  Both states were defeated and the people of both were taken into captivity as slaves. 

The people of Israel never returned from Syria.  The people of Judah taken into the Babylonian Captivity maintained their tribal identify and came back to Jerusalem, which had been wrecked.   The Babylonian Captivity ended on a high note when Cyrus of Persia defeats Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem.

    

 

 

 

John reading from 1 Kings.

 

 

The Theme: you be good, good things happen to you; you be bad, bad things happen to you.

    Our selection: 2 great prophets lived when the kingdom divided, Elijah & Elisha.  They criticized the bad ways of the sons of King Solomon.  In this selection, Elijah tells the king he is going to send a drought to the king's land.  Then Elijah goes away & meets a poor, starving widow with a son.  Watch what happens.  This is setting us up for the Widow's Mite story in the gospel.

 

 

 

 

 

Readings:

Isaiah 43 1-5,  Do not be afraid for I am with you.  I have called you by your name, you are mine.  When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you.  Your troubles will not overwhelm you.  When you pass through fire, you will not be burned.  The hard trials that come will not hurt you.  For I am the lord your God, the holy God of Israel, who saves you. 

 Psalm 145,  Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

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

 John 14, 27, 15, 9 & 11,  (27)Peace is what I leave you; it is my own peace that I give you.   (9)I love you just as the father loves me, remain in my love.  (11)I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

Special readings in honor of All Saints.

 

Welcome to our celebration of our dear ones.  Happy All Saints & All Souls.

 

Isaiah observations:

Who.  This is second Isaiah, the best.  Handel's Messiah uses a number of lines from Isaiah 2.

Subject.  It is a time when many of the people of Judah are in exile in Babylon, crushed and without hope.  The prophet is proclaiming that God would eventually set his people free and take them home to Jerusalem.  (Note the Exodus theme, escape from bondage to find a new life, thus giving hope to those in Babylon.)

Our Subject.  Do not be afraid.  You will not be hurt.

 

 

Welcome in Everybody, say Georgie and Buddy.

 

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.

 

 

Wake up Buddy, you are missing all the good stuff.
 

 

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. 

 

 

Offertory with Mike & Judy & Mary.

 

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.  

 

Pretty good, Hugh and Sydney; Rosemary does to me the same thing.

 

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.

 

 

Guess who wears boots now.

 

       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?

 

Do we have little mice crawling around around the floor of our community?  Little mice with boots?

 

Do not be Afraid

In honor of All Saints and All Souls I chose two of my favorite scripture passages.  Let me explain why.  

I will always remember the summer of 1970.  This was the summer just before I was ordained in 1971.  I came down from Toronto to work as an apprentice chaplain at Boston City Hospital.  

One afternoon I walked into the room of a guy who was dying.  He was elderly and a typical Boston Irish Catholic.  I asked him about his life, the positives and the negatives.  I asked him how he felt about dying. 

He said he was resigned to it even though he knew he was going to hell. 

 

Cole, our semi-pro candle lighter, at his craft.

 

I was stunned.  It seems he had married young and gotten divorced.  Then he married again and lived happily with his second wife for decades before the lady died.  He had never gotten an annulment. 

What was the Catholic teaching of these days, even though Vatican II had already taken place?  Yes, this was mortal sin and it would take him straight to hell forever.  He was stoic about paying the price.

Well, you can guess what I did.  I got another Jesuit, a priest, to visit him and send him home in peace. 

 

Recognize anybody in this picture?

 

This, folks, exemplifies the spirituality of fear that many of us Catholics lived with all our lives.  My dad had it.  Not so much my mom.  I had it, for sure.  Like I’ve mentioned here frequently, it was fear that I was going to hell with my buddies that convinced me to join the Jesuits. 

It was in Tanzania where I slowly and unconsciously learned the spirituality of unconditional acceptance and love.  It was definitely reinforced in my work with psychology.  

I would propose again that we have a God of unconditional love, not a God of punishment, especially eternal punishment.

 

 

Recognize anybody in this picture?  

 

We used to have limbo for babies who die without being baptized.  Even the Catholic Church admitted that this idea was made up by people.  Purgatory?  Protestants say this does not exist and is not in the Bible.  Made up by our ancestors.   So, what about hell?   Could it, likewise, be an idea and not a reality?  I, at least, think so.  

The readings I’ve chosen for this celebration of All Saints and All Souls focus on Do not be afraid.  They are some of my most favorite Bible verses.  Maybe the people who wrote in the gospels about eternal fire were simply trying to get people to obey. 

Lots of people have their favorite Bible verses.  Some verses focus on eternal fire.  Others talk of living without fear, certainly without fear of eternal punishment. 

 

 

What a team!

 

What is your belief?  A God of unconditional love or a God of eternal punishment? 

Readings:

Genesis  18, 20-32,  What if there are ten there?  For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.

Psalm 138,  Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

Colossians 2, 12-14,  You were buried with him in baptism.

Luke 11, 1-13, Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find.

 

Observations on the readings:

The first reading from Genesis is a familiar story about God’s mercy and forgiveness, how it is all encompassing and present to all. More in my homily about this.

The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians is his letter to the Christian community at Colossae (in present day Turkey), telling them to remember that, as followers of Jesus, they are made new and are called to forgive one another, called to peace and thankfulness. Remember, I said last week I was choosing a more inspirational part of this letter for us to hear (Chapter 3, 12-15)

In the Gospel reading from Luke we will hear about prayer. The prayer Jesus
taught that we are familiar with, and say in Mass, is in Matthew, Chapter 6.
Today’s version in Luke is shortened. Jesus’ parable of knocking on a friend’s
door is about God’s constant mercy.    

 

Homily

From the reading in Genesis, I want to talk today about mercy and forgiveness. In particular I want to talk about what I think makes it possible for us to forgive one another. Forgiveness requires first that I put away self-justification where I put myself above another, where I collect points that make me ‘look better’ than another, especially one whom I judge has offended me, hurt me (‘I am right; I am justified in my hurt’). In order to forgive, I give up the quest ‘to be right’. [This is
where that saying fits, ‘you can be right’ or ‘you can have love in your life.’]
If I need to ‘look better’ or ‘be right’ (self-justified, self-righteous),
forgiveness becomes difficult, even unlikely.

The second requirement for sharing forgiveness is accepting what I take as an offense, a hurt, as possible in the universe of my life. This means in the whole universe of possible happenings, I accept that this hurt, this offense, is possible, this can happen to me. If I treat an offense or hurt as unthinkable or unacceptable to me in my universe, I disallow it as possible and keep it at a distance, away
from me, therefore not forgivable.

The third requirement to forgive another is mercy. Mercy is the quality attributed to God in today’s reading from Genesis about God and the people of Sodom. The quality or spirit of mercy makes forgiveness possible, even predictable. As we listened to the story about God and the people of Sodom, didn’t we predict as each question was asked by Abraham, that God’s response would be mercy?

We are called to have mercy and to forgive, even giving up the safety of waiting to first be forgiven by another (when there is mutual hurt). We are called to forgive. On the other hand we are totally accepted wherever we are in the process of learning mercy and forgiveness in our relationships.  Sometimes it may seem easier to forgive another than to ask for forgiveness from the other. Maybe that’s because giving forgiveness seems to put us in the ‘good guy’ role. Asking for forgiveness can put us in a more vulnerable position, not knowing if we will receive mercy and forgiveness from the other.

 So, my questions today are:   

Am I ready to forgive hurts by another,
especially from those close to me?

Am I ready to accept myself, even if I am not
yet fully capable of forgiving?

Am I able to ask for
forgiveness from another?