Sunday Homily, December 8, 2013, 2nd Advent, Cycle A

Readings:

Isaiah 8, 23 – 9, 3,   The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

 Psalm 27,  The Lord is my light and my salvation.

 1 Corinthians 1, 01-13, 17,   I urge you that there be no divisions among you.

 Matthew 4, 12-23,    Come after me and I will make you fishers of others.

 

 

Welcome in, Everybody!

 

Isaiah reminders, again—

 Author: This is Isaiah #1, the composer of chapters 1-39.  Even though Isaiah #1 lives before the Babylonian Captivity, he still sees that a great, bright day will come to the Jewish people, despite Babylon. 

 Date:  Ca. 555 before Christ, the composition.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are about to be defeated and carried off into slavery.

 

 

Welcome in from me, too," sez Genevieve.

 

Subject:  A great day will come for you Jews.  A special leader will be born.  You will be a beacon to others, glorious, and a light to nations everywhere.  You might easily recognize parts of this reading.  From where?  The Nativity readings and Handel's Messiah, a favorite of mine.  

This is the last week we will have these Isaiah readings which I love.  I will miss them.  Until next Advent.

 

Welcome to you, Jean, and especially to you, Marge, all the way here from Vermont.

 

The people who have lived in darkness have seen a great light

I would like to talk again this morning on the same theme we touched upon last week, being a light.  I have a story, some of which you might have heard.  Here we go.

When I was in the 6^th grade at Christ the King, I joined the Boy Scouts in the Spring.  Because my birthday comes in late January, I suddenly became eligible.  So I start going to weekly meetings in the evening. 

 

There is a rumor around here that somebody is 77 and it looks like a party, for sure.

 

I was kind of interested in camping out, but nothing was scheduled that Spring.  Turns out that the first outing was to a Scout camp at Lake Texoma.  For a whole week.  Now I had never been away from home and Texoma seemed like another country.  Certainly the road there was not like today’s Central Expressway.  It was more like taking Tulip Lane to Texoma.

About 3-4 of my classmates had joined up because they became old enough.  So, off we went. 

 

 

Says Donna, "Happy Birthday to whomever that old geezer is."

 

It was not just my classmates on this trip, but also 7^th & 8^th grade guys.  We get there and, probably because I was bigger than my classmates, I was informed quietly that I was going to be initiated into the Scout troop in a special way. 

My self confidence in 6^th grade was pretty weak, so the threats of these 8^th grade boys scared the pooh out of me.  So, what did I do?  I faked being sick and was back home in Dallas Monday afternoon. 

 

 

Yippee, I love birthday parties!

 

Success, Yes?  Nope, I was ashamed, humiliated, and my self confidence totally vanished. 

At this point two lights came into my life.  First, my dad seemed to intuit that I needed extra care.  Secondly, a new coach, teacher, and Scout Master was hired by Christ the King.  This guy, Frank Hart, was especially non-judgmental and positive. 

 

 

"So when does the party start?, says Harper.

 

Slowly during the year and being coached and encouraged by Frank, I got enough self-confidence to go to the next summer’s Scout camp at Texoma, not for the whole week, but from about Tuesday night on.   

Why Tuesday night?  My dad had volunteered to be an adult extra for Frank at the camp and I went with my dad.  I can still remember walking into the camp that Tuesday evening.  It was dark, Coleman lanterns were on, and Frank and my classmates all seemed delighted to see me. 

 

 

Harper, Just this music alone is a party, and it is every week.

 

Frank is still alive.  He lives in a retirement house on the corner of Hillcrest and Northhaven.  He is mostly in bed all the time and  may not even recognize me when I visit him each Friday after Romeos.  

How did he help me?  He just seemed to appreciate me as I was.  He was a light of acceptance.  I felt accepted and that acceptance helped me build  self-confidence.

 

 

And the Offertory Team, Judy and Karen, John and Dick.

 

My dad helped me.  Frank was a special light in my life. 

Who is a light in your life?  

For whom are you a light?

Readings:

Genesis 12, 1-4,   I will make of you a great nation.

Psalm 62,  Lord, let you mercy be upon us as we place our trust in you.

2 Timothy  1,  8-10,  Bear your share of hardship.

Matthew  17, 1-9,  And he was transfigured before them.  (A good one)

 

Genesis observations:

Subject today: from last week’s selection on the creaton story about the woman and the snake, we have passed over Cain & Abel, Noah & the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and have arrived at Abraham.  He is considered the patriarch of the tribe. 

Today’s selection is scene setting.  God is telling Abraham that his family will become a great nation and that there is a choice piece of real-estate awaiting him.

 

 

This story is amusing.  Not only is it folk tale and myth, it is, also, put together ex-post facto.  Meaning, after the Israelites have annihilated the Caananites who lived on the land, the new landlords proclaimed that God had personally handed the land to them.

Sort of like me telling you, ‘God told me to take your Lexus.’

This is a brief note on Genesis to save time for Damon.  Check last week’s blog for more information.

 

 

 The following is a video of Damon's powerful story about his life up to and including recovery at Soul's Harbor, 20 minutes.

 

Sorry, Change of plan.  Due to the time it is taking to upload the 20 minute video onto YouTube, the video will be included in the Thursday blog.

Readings: Genesis 2, 7-9, 3, 1-7; Psalm 51, Be Merciful, O Lord, for We have sinned; Romans 5, 12-19; Matthew 4, 1-11.

 

First Sunday in Lent 2011– Intro to Readings

 Our first reading today comes from the Book of Genesis chapters two and three, and gives the second account of the creation of the world.  This is actually the older of the two versions. 

 The first chapter creation story was written around the 5^th century BCE and today’s one came from around the 8^th century BCE.  The story in today’s reading is primarily about the temptation by the serpent and the eviction from the garden.  There are just a few points I would like to draw your attention to about these creation stories. 

 This material must be understood for what it is and is not.  It is not accurate scientific information about the beginning of the world.  It is myth.  Now myth, properly understood, is not simply just make believe, but a style of writing which has a clear purpose. Myths are a society’s founding poetic narrative that provides the basic understanding of a society and its reason for being.  There are very similar stories found in other even earlier cultures.

 

 It is from St. Paul that we get the idea that this action by Adam and Eve of disobeying God was what we have come to know as Original Sin.  There is nowhere in the rest of the Old Testament that we have any suggestion that the people viewed the event as being “Original Sin”.  This idea was later taken up by St. Augustine and got its own legs from there.

 If we pay close attention to the story, there are several things worth noting.  The relationship between God and man, at the outset is perfect!  Everything has been made for man’s enjoyment.  Enter the serpent, and the temptation is “to be like God”.  The relationship was broken by the decision, and from that moment the relationship changed.  Remember that immediately after eating they hide from God.  The humans made the gap between the two.

 Our second reading takes up the same event, Paul to the Romans and this is where that idea of Original Sin is developed and then, as I mentioned above, greatly developed by Augustine and others.

 

First Sunday in Lent 2011 – Homily

 Welcome to Lent, a time traditionally to ask, so what are you giving up for Lent.  And my usual answer was something like, candy or homework!  Today I am not sure that I am giving up anything, I am going to try to take up something instead.  The original meaning of lent is Spring, and spring is a time of new beginnings. 

 Lent is also the time when those preparing for baptism and entry into the Church through the RCIA program begin their final steps, by signing the Book of the Elect.  I am pretty sure that just as an athlete will train for a competitive event, so too the Church sees lent as a time for us to prepare for Easter. 

 

Given that I have previously said just this past Easter that if you can understand the Resurrection you are probably committing some kind of heresy, then for me the easiest way to get my head around the whole death/resurrection event is to see it as some kind of sign of God’s unbelievable love for each one of us – and leave it at that.

 The gospel today gives us some ideas for lent.  It is the story of Jesus spending 40 days in the desert prior to beginning His public ministry.  Remember so much of Matthew’s gospel points back to the Old Testament, and we will then recall the 40 years of wandering in the desert. At the end of the 40 days we are told he is faced with three temptations.  The three temptations are best summarized as follows:

 

1. Change the rocks into bread.  It is a temptation to take the easy way out, there is no one else around, no one will see, no one will know.  We too can be tempted in this way.
2. Jump from the Temple, the place where surely God is most present.  He will save you.  How often do we tempt God?  In our heads how often do we see, if God doesn’t want this to happen, then it won’t.
3. Promise of power, if only Jesus will worship the devil.  The danger of abuse of power, it is such a tempting thing to have power over others.

 My plan for this lent is to focus on these three temptations, and reflect on my own life in terms of each of the temptations.  Perhaps Lent should be a time of reflection on this journey we call life, a time for a thorough examination of conscience.  Remember when NASA was sending rockets to the moon, there was a phrase used “a mid course correction”.  Maybe by taking time during lent, taking a closer look at our own lives, maybe we too could use a mid course correction.

 

Picture 1:   We begin

Picture 2:   Leo

Picture 3:   Emma

Picture 4:   The Pastry Shoppe

Picture 5:   Curtis & Mabel with Cindy 

  

Readings: Jeremiah 33, 14-16; Psalm 25, To you, O Lord, I lift My Soul; 1 Thessalonians 3, 12-4, 2; Luke 21, 25-36

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Lighting the First Candle 

Tony:  The Gospel of John speaks of Christ as the true light coming into the world. In commemoration of that coming, we light candles for the four weeks leading to Christmas and reflect on the coming of Christ.  It is significant that the church has always used that language—the coming of Christ—because it speaks to a deep truth. Christ is coming. Christ is always coming, always entering a troubled world, a wounded heart. And so we light the first candle, the candle of hope, and dare to express our longing for peace, for healing, and the well-being of all creation.

(First candle is lit )

All Sing

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

All: Loving God, as we enter this Advent season,
We open all the dark places in our lives and memories to the healing light of Christ.
Show us the creative power of hope.
Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you,
That we may walk in the light of Christ.

Tony:  Take time, in the busyness of this season, for quiet reflection—
For the light of God’s love is discernible everywhere. 

All:  We will let ourselves be surprised by wonder,
And set aside time to offer quiet thanks.

Tony:  The good news of Advent is this:
Christ is coming. Christ is always coming.

All:  We will welcome Christ into our hearts.
We will let ourselves be guided by his ministry.
We will go forth from this place in hope.

Reflections on Readings for First Sunday in Advent, 2009

 

As I mentioned at the beginning, the Gospel readings for this year will mostly come from Luke’s Gospel.  This Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles were both written by the same author.  It is worth noting that together they make up about 25% of the New Testament!

 

So, who wrote them and whom were they written for?  The Gospel was most probably written around the year 80, so almost 50 years after the death/resurrection of Jesus, and 10 years after the destruction of Jerusalem.  The author was most likely a companion of Paul and a fairly well educated Greek speaker who was very familiar with the Greek version of the Old Testament.  The intended audience was primarily non Jewish early Christians.  And the books seem to show a nice continuity with the Old Testament.  The Gospel being about Jesus and then the Acts about the early Church. 

   

In the opening of both the Gospel and Acts they are addressed to Theopholis, which in Greek means Lover of God!  Luke used both Mark’s Gospel and a source called Q, plus some independent material.  What he took from Mark he cleaned up and expanded upon.  This Gospel has a couple of very significant different focuses, namely the poor.  For instance in Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes we hear Jesus say “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit” whereas Luke has Jesus say “Blessed are you Poor”. 

 

 

 

Since we are approaching Christmas, it is interesting to compare the two versions of the Birth of Jesus which we have, namely Luke’s and Matthew's.  They are each quite different and when you look at today’s Nativity Scenes we have a combination of both!  Luke has Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem, no room in the inn, and Jesus’ first visitors are the Shepherds.  Also the angel appears only to Mary!  Matthew on the other hand has Joseph and Mary living in Bethlehem, the Angel only appears to Joseph, and several times at that.  The Magi and the massacre of the innocent children and the flight into Egypt all happen only in Matthew and it is only on their return from Egypt that they relocate to Nazareth!

 

Today’s reading comes from far into the Gospel.  Jesus has just gotten to Jerusalem and he is preaching each day in the Temple.  He has cleaned out all the stalls and moneychangers and he is foretelling the destruction of not just the Temple but all of Jerusalem.  It is very easy for Luke to put these words into Jesus’ mouth because he is writing about ten years after the temple and city have been leveled by the Romans.

 

 

Picture 1:  Tony celebrating with Kevin's help

 

Picture 2:  Candle lighting

 

Picture 3:  The Donut Shoppe with Tony, Rob, Ron, & Bob

 

Picture 4:  Charlie with Jan & his mom

 

 

Readings: 1 Samuel 16, 1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5, 8-14; John 9, 1-41.

Samuel: Another huge jump from last week when we were in the desert with Moses after the exodus from Egypt, which itself was a big jump from the story of Abraham’s call in Genesis.  This book of Samuel is the first big book after the Pentatuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  The book chronicles the shift among the Hebrews from a judge leader to a king.  The big characters: Samuel, the last great judge, Saul, the first king, and the fabulous King David.

Today’s selection tells how Samuel found and choose David to someday be The Man.

Marriage # 5: The Art of Giving

At the prospect of marriage, I was told by you can imagine whom, "Stack, you’ve had it easy all your life in the Jesuits.  You don’t know how hard marriage is and how much you will have to give up."   It was enough to scare me into bailing out.  It seemed like it was going to be all give and no get.  Now I’ve been married 3 years, that’s what it has been.

Actually, as you all know so well, it has been all gift.  Never the less, the event of giving is essential to the art of marriage.  I’m learning more about this every day.  I see at least three ways the giving takes place.  There may be more, but let me talk about words, listening, and touch.

I am surprised how easy it is to get out of the habit I was trained in as a kid and as a Jesuit to mention two simple phrases.  "Please," for one.  I can so easily simply say, "Would you do this," or "Would you get this for me?"  It seems polite to me, but it does not quite cut it.  It may be polite, but the "please" makes the difference.  It is courtesy.

Secondly, "thanks."  I am impressed in my dealing with couples how often "thanks" has fallen out of usage.  In my mind I assume Rosemary knows I am grateful.  Often it may be some small thing, like moving so I can pass by.  Temptation: walk by saying nothing.  A trap, a lack of courtesy. 

There is a third set of words that needs to be heard, therefore spoken a number of times a day.  How often do we hear of someone who has lost a loved one and regrets this was not said before parting, "I love you."  If it is not said, I don’t know it for sure.  My confidence & my security in my relationship is enriched by hearing "I love you."

Besides words playing a role in the art of marriage, the flip is true: listening.  This may be hard.  I’m reading the sports page, I’m listening to Garrison Keilor and Rosemary says something.  Curses.  I better listen up or I’ve had it.  Listening itself has verbal & non verbal parts. 

Verbal means more than hearing.  It means listeningto what is being said.  Very difficult sometimes.  Non verbal involves listening to the body language.  Some body language is obvious: a slammed door, a book thrown, silence.  Other body language is more subtle, a sadness, a distance, a reluctance to talk.  What’s up?  I notice–fill in the blank—.  If it is obvious, maybe some real listening is in order.  If it is subtle, ask an open ended question, like, "How are you doing."  Not, "You feel bad/good?"  Closed ended questions get off with an answer of yes or no.  Open ended questions involve explanation.

Finally, the art of marriage involves touch.  Hugs to start with.  I have a great hunger for hugs, as you all know.  Balm for the spirit.  Besides hugs, however, the gift of touch involves all sorts of little contacts, with hands, a finger, a foot, an elbow.  A hand on the arm.  Granted, some people don’t like this much touch.  Beware of the buddy, buddy arm around my shoulder.

Oh, there is a fourth.  Rosemary says to remind the guys, "Remember, diamonds are a girl’s best friend."  Can someone help me with this?  Who doubted I would be better off married?

How does word, listening, touch play a role in the art of your marriage (friendship)?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-02.mp3

 

Readings: Isaiah 66, 10-14; Psalm 66; Galatians 6, 14-18; Luke 10, 1-20.

Isaiah: The scene is this. The Israelites are enslaved in Babylon, which was in today’s Iraq, about 60 miles south of Bagdad, now called Al Hilah. Isaiah is telling the people that the day is coming when they will live again in Jerusalem. 

What a Gift Community

When I used to say Masses before we gathered here I was really spoiled. I would walk into St. Mark’s, for instance, put on my robes, celebrate the Mass, and depart, or go over and goof around with Duffy & Rita in the rectory. I had everything prepared before I walked out on the alter and everything was cleaned up after I left. 

The first time we celebrated here, I remember thinking how many little things have to be taken care of. I got to get my own robes, set up an altar, provide bread & wine, and so on. 

Now I am knocked over at how many people pitch in to make this celebration special. Margie does the alter, Jackie brings donuts, Lisa makes muffins, many of you take turns making altar bread and providing coffee. Margarita comes with juice, Roy with the books, Rob & Beth with the cross & wine cups. And this highlights only a few of you. 

The past two weeks I have been especially touched and moved by the community extending itself.

Last Sunday you may remember that we had the summer blood drive. I thought the numbers might be down. It is summer, after all. Yet, on the contrary, after Mass as I was preparing to depart with Rosemary & Naomi, I passed by the blood mobile. I had hoped we might reach 20 donors, though I was prepared for less. The nurses told me they had already received over 21 and I saw about 3 to 4 people waiting. I was stunned.  And grateful.

The second amazing event took place yesterday when a group of about 15 showed up to put a roof on a home. I had spotted the need for this some time ago. I contacted Lynda & Tom to see if they could induce Habitat to help us. They only build new housing, however, and recommended we contact Lake Point Baptist, because they do renovations. 

Through that contact we met this marvelous guy named Alex Moore, quiet, serene, skilled, and hard working. Alex, who is retired and from MN, actually came over by himself Wednesday & Thursday to augur, set, and cement about 15 4 by 4’s to hold up the roof. He did this so we could all work together Saturday. And did we work. Laying roofing tiles over black tar paper in the afternoon sun was like sitting on a hot frying pan. 

I had to depart the project at 3:00 to get ready for a 6:00 wedding, and the last thing Alex asked me was, "We working next Saturday?" He was ready & wants to finish the job.

This is a gift community. And this is saying nothing about your weekly generosity.

Thanks. 

Click here for the audio