Sunday Homily, January 27, 2013, 3rd Ordinary Time C
Readings:
Nehemiah 8, 2-10, Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks.
Psalm 19, Your words, Lord, are spirit and life.
1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, Now, the body is not a single part, but many.
John 2, 1-11, He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor and liberty to captives.
For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use, The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).
The difference? The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha.
Both are good translations.
Nehemiah
The book of Nehemiah takes place at the end of the Babylonian captivity. Three main characters play roles, though the first two are not mentioned in today’s reading. Cyrus is the benevolent ruler who defeated the Babylonians. Then he gives the Jews permission to return to their homeland and Jerusalem.
Nehemiah is the Jew Cyrus puts in charge of restoring the city of Jerusalem and the temple. It was Cyrus who appointed Nehemiah the governor of the new Jerusalem. Nehemiah was not a prophet, but a governor.
Ezra, the central character of today’s reading, is a priest & law scholar.
We arrive on the scene after Nehemiah has established Jerusalem. The people have assembled in the town center and asked Ezra to read to them the law that orders their new lives. We hear part of the reading, a part that emphasizes rejoicing.
This the only time in the 3 year church cycle of readings that we have a selection from Nehemiah. Did he do something wrong?
1 Corinthinians 12
During the time of Paul, the Greek city of Corinth was almost as significant as Athens. Paul had established a community there and in his letter he is offering his advice to the people.
Chapter 13 is Paul’s famous letter about love being kind & patient. Chapter 12, our reading today, offers an almost amusing analogy of the community to a body. We are parts of the body and consequently we are important, making our unique contributions.
Sources: Good News Bible
Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain
Rose Banzhaf and the family put a note on Kate’s bulletin that says, “Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.” I would like to talk about this in relation to events I saw at Kate’s funeral. While the events were tragic and tearful, on at least five occasions I saw dancing in the rain. These are the occasions.
At the viewing on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thursday funeral, I was standing at the door of the funeral home, opening the door, and welcoming the people arriving.
At one point, I see Emil and his two oldest children, two boys about 6 and 4. He also has a little girl and another son on the way in March. Emil was leading his boys up the aisle to visit Kate. I followed them up, put my hand on Emil’s back, and heard something like the following.
“My sons, we have here the body of Kate. Her spirit is not here because it is with God in his house. Kate is happy in God’s house. Without doubt she misses the opportunity to play with you two. She is also delighted that someday your spirits and all those of the family will be with her. She says you may touch her, if you would like. Her body is cool, because her spirit is now at God’s house. Thanks for coming to visit me. I love you.” A jewel of an event.
All of us can fear death, even from our childhood. Emil was normalizing death for his sons and letting them know they don’t have to fear it.
Also at the viewing, I witnessed George not only sharing his own tears, but consoling his older son, Simon, who was grieving intensely for his aunt Kate. Instead of telling Simon to shut up and be a man, George encouraged Simon and embraced him. Another jewel of an event.
The next day at the funeral all four of the Banzhaf siblings spoke together. Pete shared beautifully at the start when Emil could not begin because of his tears.
When Emil began he invited all the 3rd grade kids in Kate’s class to come up and sit on the floor around Kate. Then he read the St. Francis Prayer that starts out, “Make me a channel of your peace.” Another jewel of an event. Will those kids not remember that moment forever!
Then George talked and picked up on a habit Kate had of dancing for her kids when a kid had a good answer or did something that delighted her. Even the kids were invited to dance occasionally. Guess what George did through his tears. Yep, you guessed it.
He invited all the teachers from Kate’s school to stand up. About 30 were there. The kids were still sitting around Kate. George says to them, if you smile at me, I’ll dance for you. They did and he did. Another jewel.
Then, to top it off, Kim. After a delightful sharing of her feelings and life with Kate, her twin sister, guess what. Yep, Kim says, “In honor of Kate, who was really not a great dancer but had great passion in her dancing, Everybody stand up and let’s dance for 30 seconds.” And they did.
How do you dance in the rain?