Sunday Homily, April 13, 2014, Palm Sunday, Cycle A

Wisdom 7, I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom was given to me.

Psalm 90, Fill us with your love, O Lord and we will sing for joy

Hebrew 6, The word of God is living and effective. 

Mark 10, We have given up everything and followed you.

 

 

Ben, the Magic Man, sharing life.

 

Thanks……

Music,    Ben 

Readers,    Patricia & Fred, & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Mike & Richard

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

 

Patricia reading from Wisdom.

 

Readings: 

 

Homily by John Stack,  

Download John Stack homily 10-10-2021

 

 

 

Fred reading from Hebrews.

 

Remember these special people:

For Becky & Tom's son, Austin, who took his life this past week;  For John & Karen Anderlick's grandson, Cooper John who lived only a few hours with his parents;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   For Esparza's new great grandson  & Frank;  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery, and for Hue & Linda's daughter, Doctor Rosemary Beavers;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody &  Leo & all of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy,

 

Rosemary's sister Clare, and her husband, Joe Mazzei.

 

Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg.; For Meredith, cancer free & John Schanot;    For John O'Donnell & Jean;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughters, Lisa & Lauren  ;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer; from Barbara, a little baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation & a nephew; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother;   for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

Welcome in, Jan & Sir Charlie

 

Birthdays:  Richard  

Anniversaries:  

 

 

Peace. Everybody!

 

Community Finances,   October 10, 2021

Expenses: $

Outreach: $

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

May you have a safe & peaceful relocation to Alabama, Patricia & Fred.

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing: 

Given to me by Lynda Fleming, Author Unknown

 

 

Welcome Back home, Paul & Carrie.

 

Notice, Everybody: The blog will not be published the next three Sundays.  The Editors will be on a Viking cruise on the Mediterranean.  Next edition will be published November 7.

 

Readings:

Exodus  20, 1-17,  God delivered all these commandments.   Special reading for Rita's memorial,    Song of Songs, 2, 8-14

Psalm 19,    Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

1 Corinthians  1, 22-25,   The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.

 John  2,  13-25,   He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out.

 

 

Song of Songs, observation :  Special reading in honor of Rita

What :  A dialogue between a man and a woman who love and long for each other.   No reference to God or the law. 

When:  probably after the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ. 

Our Subject: The girl is speaking to her lover.

 

 

 

Rita Dore

I would like to tell you a few stories about Rita, just to give you an idea of how neat and fun a person she was.

I don’t remember when or how I met Rita.  Toward the end of Msgr. Claude Smyth’s life she was just there as the house keeper.  More than anybody else, Rita took good care of Smyth, tending to him day and even night, helping him to move to the other side.

During this time, Matt Bagert was acting pastor and when Msgr. Smyth died Matt opened up the rectory a bit.  He even threw a birthday party once, to which I was invited, along with another young Jesuit, Gene Sessa.  Things went along smoothly this way for some months until…The Big Event happened.  Fr. Duffy Gardner arrived. 

 

 

 

Three little vignettes.

First, when Duffy settled into the rectory, the place went from being totally closed up to being wide open.  He was platinum level hospitality.  With Duffy welcoming everyone was the house keeper in the kitchen, Rita.  They made a marvelous one-two team. 

After doing the 9:00 Mass in the church and the 10:30 Mass in the cafetorium, I started going over to the rectory.  I was usually worn out.  I would go upstairs, take a 20 minute nap in an empty bedroom, then come down and join Duffy at the dining room table where he held forth.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Rita had been cooking.  In particular she made chocolate chip cookies the size of dinner plates and homemade vanilla ice cream.  Guess what I ate for lunch.  Wow, did I love Rita.

At the same time that she worked as housekeeper, Rita took on the training of the little kids for first communion.  Two or three times a year I joined Duffy and a handful of other priests to do her kids' first confessions.  My penance to each kid, 2 Hershey kisses.  Think my line was long?

 

 

 

Two years in a row at this time Duffy hosted the whole gang of kids for first communion on a Saturday.  Both years, Duffy at the homily would ask the kids questions and he would give out a dollar or two for correct answers.  The big final question both years worth $5 was, ‘Who is the holiest priest in St. Marks?’  Hands would go up.  Both years Duffy called on a timid little girl whom I happened to know.   Both years the little girls said, “Fr. Stack.” 

Well, as you can imagine, this brought down the house.  Duffy would put on a display of incredulity.  I don’t know if the first little girl got the $5 or not, but the second year I was there and I jumped up from the stage, ran down, and gave the girl $5 of my own.

 

 

 

Rita loved all this, the penances, which some parents did not think was so good, and the questions from Duffy.

At the same time, Rita volunteered one day to help me with all the weddings, acting as wedding coordinator.  She had made wedding dresses in Birmingham or somewhere in her earlier, married life.  Consequently, we had great fun meeting with the kids, usually over dinner at Jason’s or El Fenix, and celebrating the weddings.

 

 

 

One wedding among all of them really stands out.  Two musicians, evening wedding, the big church, big crowd.  After exchanging vows, we had the couple light the unity candle, standing behind the candle and facing the people. 

Just before they lighted the candle, the mothers lit their candles, and then walked up the main aisle lighting a taper at each aisle before returning their candles to the unity candle.  Meanwhile the tapers in the hands of all the people were getting lighted.  Then we turned off the lights in the church. At the same time the couple had two singers, a guy and a girl, sing The Prayer that Bocelli and Celine Dion made famous.  It was stupendous.  Even remembering sends chills down my back. 

 

 

 

An amusing footnote to the wedding took place.  A woman, who wanted to hire out as a wedding coordinator, asked if she could sit in.  “Sure, of course,” we said.  After the wedding a staff member asked the lady what she thought of the wedding.   “I just saw a wedding from hell,” she responded. 

As a result of that, every time Rita and I would depart the rectory to perform a wedding in the church, Duffy would ask if we were doing another wedding from hell.  It became our handle and provided lots of laughs. 

Thanks, Rita, you have been a fun and tremendous friend.  Rest well.  

 

 

 Readings:

Joshua 5, 9-12, Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.

Psalm 34,  Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5, 17-21,  We are ambassadors for Christ.

Luke 15, 1-32,  A man had two sons, The Prodigal Son.

 

Introduction and homily by John  Cade 

Some words about today’s readings, especially Joshua: 

WHAT: The book of Joshua is the 6^th book of the Hebrew Scripture and of the Christian Old Testament. 

WHO: The name Joshua has the same root in Hebrew as the name Jesus has in Greek. Joshua was the young man Moses chose to be his military captain in their conflicts with other tribes in their wanderings for 40 years prior to entering the land God had promised them. In the Book of Deuteronomy (5^th book of Pentateuch), Moses had a lapse of confidence in the Lord’s plan, following his sending the 12 spies into Caanan and getting a negative intelligence report (all except Joshua and Caleb said ‘don’t go’—giants and outnumbered, etc.).

That’s when the Lord told Moses he would not enter the Promised Land and that Joshua would be the only adult not born in Egypt to enter the promised land. After Moses died, Joshua was called by God to lead the people into the promised land.

 

WHEN: Scripture scholars generally agree that the Book of Joshua has little historical value for early Israel, that it actually reflects a much later period, and that it was written by multiple authors and editors.  Guess when scholars think the book of Joshua was compiled in its present form? Yes, after the fall of Jerusalem (around 555) during or after the Babylonian captivity.

WHY: Bible scholars say the intent of Joshua was theological, a teaching about Israel’s call to keep the covenant given through Moses, and to show what happens when you keep the covenant and what happens when you don’t. There are horror stories in this book, like when the Israelites are instructed to destroy every breathing being of the tribes they replaced. Today we debate about the U.S. military’s drone program, about whether it is legal or ethical to kill an enemy if innocent non-combatants might also be hurt, or to kill a U.S. citizen who has now become an enemy. They seemed to have had no qualms in Joshua’s time about such fine points. 

Today’s Reading from Joshua: It’s a passage that celebrates the Israelites’ crossing over the River Jordan and their entrance into the promised land. For the first time they have food from the land to eat and are no longer in need of the manna that God provided during the 40 years they wandered in the desert.

Then in the reading from Luke we hear how Jesus describes in a parable that God is like a merciful parent, accepting with love rather than vengeful or punishing. The Good News proclaimed by Jesus—the new Joshua—turned the old covenant on its head—now the covenant is about the preeminence of love and the fullness of life for all people everywhere, including strangers and enemies and sinners.

 

Homily:   

This reading speaks for itself and doesn’t need much else. My words today will be brief. 

There is a strong link between the covenant between God and the Israelites of Joshua’s time and the covenant announced by Jesus for all people and exemplified in the story of the ‘prodigal son’ or ‘the merciful father’

The original covenant was made between God and Abraham, and followed with Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Moses and Joshua. Three times there is mention of a Passover meal to mark this covenant between God and the Jewish people.

The first Passover meal was when the people prepared to flee Egypt with Moses; the second mention is when Moses received the 10 Command-ments at Mt. Sinai; and the third is when the Israelites entered with Joshua into the promised land. In Joshua and in Luke there is the story of gathering for a meal or feast (like our pot luck feasts), to celebrate acceptance by the merciful father. Jesus himself, before he died, shared a Passover Meal with his friends. We celebrate that way today and every Sunday by gathering for a ritual meal we call the Mass. This gathering and sharing is the sign of our connection with God and God’s acceptance, mercy and love, extended to all.

Friday I heard that the Cardinals in Rome will open their conclave on Tuesday and they too will gather for a meal, a special Mass, as they select a successor to Benedict XVI to lead our world-wide community as an accepting, merciful and loving parent. 

My question for you is: When is the last time you received acceptance and mercy from someone? & How do you show acceptance and mercy with your family, your community and all people? 

“You must rejoice, for your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.” 

 

 

 Readings: Zecharia 9, 9-10;

Psalm 145, I will praise Your Name forever, My King and My God (Plus the great line, 8-9, The Lord is Gracious & Merciful, slow to Anger & abounding in Love);

Romans 8, 9-13;

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, in other words around 535-520 B.C.  In Jerusalem he encouraged the people to rebuild the temple.

He is called a minor prophet only because his little work has simply 14 chapters, unlike the Big 3, Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel, who have many chapters.

He was a favorite of the N.T. writers because he is rich in messiah predictions.  Today we have one of those visions.   You might picture how this message is coming across.  The people have been crushed, they have been slaves in Babylon, and the Jerusalem they have returned to is nothing but a mess. 

Psalm 145, 8-9: here it is again, The Terrific line: "The Lord is gracious & merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness."

 

July 4, Independence Day

 July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence signed.

 50^th anniversary, July 4, 1826: two signers of the Declaration died, the only 2 to serve as presidents, mutual friends, Thomas Jefferson & John Adams (excellent source, David McCullough’s John Adams).

 

You Call This Burden Light?

 It was a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, a beautiful day.  Rosemary & I left the house about 8:30 to come to Vines.  We drove down Royal Lane to Central.  As always at that corner, we caught the red light.  A guy drives up behind us in a silver or gray Mercedes.

 The light turned green and we drove left up the on ramp to the northbound lane of Central.  The Mercedes is behind me, right behind me, like I can see the color of his eyes in my rear view mirror. 

 I get up on the freeway and move to the left to get into the first lane.  The Mercedes guy whips to the right as I move left, he floors it, and with a roar and a friendly hand sign he races by us and up Central. 

 

 How did I react?  Actually, I feel fortunate because I didn’t.  I even felt a bit sorry for the guy.  A beautiful Sunday morning, no traffic and he has already lost it.  Who knows?  Maybe it was somebody from the community in a hurry to get here. 

 This poor guy exemplifies what is not being talked about in today’s readings.  Unfortunately, he exemplifies the obsessive behavior of a lot of people, especially on weekdays and probably especially on Central. 

 These folks are not rejoicing or shouting for joy, they are not peaceful or restful, and certainly they don’t seem to have a light burden even if they are driving a Mercedes. 

 I grant, maybe he is unemployed now for six months or a year, like people we know.  Maybe he’s like the 30 year old divorced mother of a 10 year old boy, a mother in Medical City right now taking heavy doses of chemo because of the bad kind of leukemia.  Maybe he is the father of the 15 year old boy who hung himself this past week. 

 Are these burdens light?  I must respectfully disagree with you, Jesus, not all your burdens are light!  Some pain and some stress can be unbearable.

 

 So how do I handle this in the light of the observation?  Do I pray and it all goes away?  Not according to my experience.  So what would I do?  I can offer only two ideas to people with great pain or suffering, and at the time the ideas can seem pretty lame. 

 First, the biggie, acceptance.  This is not the acceptance of give up.  If I am unemployed, for instance, I continue to muster up the courage each day to make contacts and search.  This acceptance is surrender to the state of things in my life, ultimately the surrender to death, my own death and the other deaths that take place in my life.

 Secondly, contemplation.  Contemplation of the beauty, the physical beauty, the people beauty, the Spirit-God beauty.  The psalm line that says so much to me might touch you, gracious, merciful, never angry, abounding in love.

 I don’t know what pain or stress was pushing the man in the Mercedes.  Obviously he was not peaceful.  What might help him?

 How do you handle pain & stress?

 Picture 1:   Leo with Wendy & Shonda & Ray

 Picture 2:   Offertory with Sir Charlie & Cliff

 Picture 3:   Alesia with some of her grand kids

  

 

 

 

 

Welcome, Everybody. 

 

 

Readings:  

 1 Kings 19:4-8,  Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert.  

 Psalm 34,   Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

 Ephesians 4:30-5,2, Be kind to  one another

John 6: 41-51,  I am the bread of life

 

 

 

 

Emma doing her Candle Magic.

 

 

Kings:  a review–

Subject: The kings of Israel.  The Big 3 kings were Saul, David, & his son Solomon.  The 2 Books of kings follows the 2 Books of Samuel, which describe the lives of the the kings up to the death of the Great King David, my favorite.  1 & 2 Kings takes up the life of Solomon, David's son, his building of the temple, his death, and the fate of the kingdom following his death, that is, it divides and is conquered. 

Time Period:  from ca. 900 – 555 before Christ, or from Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar & Cyrus.

 

 

 

 

Hue reading our Blessing of the Summer Candles.

 

 

Authors: a compilation of many sources that was put together at the end of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555 before Christ. 

Our Selection: focus is on one man, the prophet Elijah.  The kingdom has already been split.  Our story takes place in the northern state, Israel.  Time of severe drought.  The king is Ahab; his queen, the famous Jezebel.  The prophet Elijah has scolded them for turning to false gods to end the drought. 

 

 

 

Welcome, Dear Sandra.

 

There has been a contest in chapter 18: Elijah vs the 450 prophets of Baal, ultimately to see which side would be more effective in bringing rain.  2 bulls were slaughtered.  Naturally, Elijah wins when Yahweh answers his prayer, sends down fire, and consumes the bull Elijah has slaughtered.  When he wins, he slaughters the 450 prophets of Baal.   

We enter at a point where Jezebel is furious with Elijah for killing her favorite prophets and aims to kill Elijah.  He is going to run away all depressed. 

 

 

 

 

What a Team!  It don't get no better.

 

 

Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord

I want to talk this morning about one of my favorite themes, namely that we can see, hear, and be touched by the presence of the Lord every day.  As the Psalm says & I believe, we can taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Two examples.

 

 

 

 

Our Special Ekes' Offertory Team, Cindy, Bill, & Marlene.

 

 

As you all know Rosemary with her buddy, Barbara, delivers Meals on Wheels every Thursday.  They visit 15 to 20 clients every week in the general area of Spring Valley east of Coit. Among their clients, whom they love, is a elderly Vietnamese.

While the apartment complex in which he lives is somewhat worn down, he is scrupulously neat and clean.  He has planted flowers and grass outside his door.  In fact, he trims the grass with scissors.

 

 

 

Elevation time.

 

The man heard about rental bikes and thought it would make his trips to the grocery store much easier.  A good idea until he discovered that a credit card was needed. 

There must be a Vietnamese radio station in town.  So he calls up to voice his disappointment.

Thursday when Rosemary & Barbara bring him his food for the day, what do they find in the living room?  A new bike, complete with a lock, an air pump, and bike stuff all from some family that was listening to the radio station.

Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

Play Station #1.

 

One final story from this year’s Ragbrai.  This story comes from David.

On Monday, the second day of riding, we rode from the overnight town of Dennison to Jefferson, a ride of 70 miles or so.  Along the route there are always vendors, both in the lovely little towns we pass through and just on the shoulder of the road or in a big field.  My favorite, of course, is the Amish site with ice cream & pie.

Another favorite, as you may imagine, is the craft beer garden.  There will be 3-4 scattered along the road and the crowds are enormous.  You have to be really careful riding by because of all the off going and in coming bikers.

 

 

 

 

 

Play Station #1 revisited.

 

 

Somewhere along the road to Jefferson David stops.  He gets a beer and is talking to a couple of guys from Grinnell College, just east of Des Moines (French for monks).  One of the guys is looking for a potty seat for his kid.

Why a potty seat on a bike ride of 70 miles.  From David: " Both guys had their families riding.  One of the families had a 2-3 year old girl who rode in a compartment on her mom's handle bar.  The little girl was potty training and the parents did not want to confuse her and loose ground.   They had a potty seat but it had gotten lost in their sag wagon pick up truck."   (Homily by committee.)

 

 

Our Special Welcoming Committee: Jan can do it all.

 

 

So they go on down the road and end up at the Catholic Church in Jefferson, our overnight town.   Guess why.  Lasagna!  I stopped, too, but later. 

One of the Church volunteers, a guy, hears that the Grinnell guy is looking for a potty seat.  He has one & it is not being used.  He can go get it.  “Be back in an hour & a half,” he says.  He lives 35 miles away.

When did you last Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord?

 

 

 

Our Beloved Music Team, Shonda, Ben, & David.

 

Readings: Isaiah 66, 18-21; Psalm 117; Hebrews 12, 5-13; Luke 13, 22-30

Isaiah: this book is written by probably three authors ca. 800 years before Christ and later.  The book covers the time before, during, and after the Babylonian captivity.  Our selection today comes from the part of the book written before the captivity.

The Good News Dream

I just returned last night from doing a wedding Friday afternoon for a couple who had a special dream. The boy is from Dallas and I have known him since he was little. The girl is from Scotland.Their dream was to marry at St. Columba’s monastery on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. 

  St. Columba came over from Ireland about 560 and established the monastery which was a center of learning and religious enthusiasm all during the Dark Ages, when the learning and culture established by Rome came crashing down. In 810 Vikings raided the monastery and killed about 70 monks.The monastery finally came to an end during the Protestant Reformation and the time of Oliver Cromwell ca. 1650. Since the 1940’s it has been revived and is an ecumenical community today. It has been and is today a sort of mini-shrine. 

To realize their dream the couple knew it would cause difficulty to their families & friends. It is not easy to get there. I was blessed to have Katie Gray carry me all around. She is Bob & Jackie McGrath’s daughter and is living in Edinburg with her Scottish husband, Derrick. Even with Katie’s help, it took us a day to drive from Edinburg in the east all the way across the country to the west coast, where we put the car on a ferry to the island of Mull. On Mull we traveled another 40 miles on a, I kid you not, one lane road to another people only ferry to the little 3 mile by 1 & 1/2 mile island of Iona. Iona, folks, is not the Ritz Carlton. It is very simple with two small hotels & a number of bed & breakfast farm houses.The island is small and the little community is tiny. But hosptable.   

We celebrated the wedding out of doors in the middle of what used to be the Nunnery, an old Augustinian convent from the 13th century that has not been revived. After Thursday & Friday morning having drizzle and clouds down to the ocean, we had a window of 40 minutes when it brightened up.

In the center of the monastery is an elevated square piece of land that is grass covered with flowering bushes on all four sides. We used the corner of the square for the wedding. John, the groom, and all the men wore kilts.They looked terrific. I wore the white alb & a stole. A ferry load of tourists arrived during the ceremony and they went ape over the event. We should have charged a pound a person for pictures. They took tons.

The psalm today talks about taking the Good News to all the world. On that little island of Iona John & Zarah realized a dream and shared the Good News of their love with the whole world.

What is your Good News Dream?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-08-26.mp3