Readings: Proverbs 9, 1-6; Psalm 34, Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord; Ephesians 5, 15-20; John 6, 51-58

Proverbs:

What are they: a collection of moral & religious teachings in the form of pithy sayings.  For example: "Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than to have a banquet in a house full of trouble" (17, 1); "Being cheerful always keeps you healthy" (17, 22).

Some a bit tough: "Don't hesitate to discipline a child.  A good beating won't kill him" (23, 12).

Some amusing: "A nagging wife is like water going drip-drip-drip" (27, 15); "Better to live on the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife" (25, 24). 

 

 

Author: Maybe Solomon is behind chapters 1-29.  Most likely a compilation.  Judging by the examples can it be more obvious whether a male or female was the author and at whom the writers were talking.

Date: Ca. 300 BCE is considered a possibility with material coming from as far back as 900, during the time of Solomon.

Our Selection: Wisdom is personified and she is preparing a feast or banquet to which the simple people are invited.

Sources: Religious Information Service & Wikipedia

The Joy of a First Class Feast

Rather than take responsibility for my ideas today, I am going to blame my Jesuit training and my Jesuit buddies over the years. 

When I came back from my years in East Africa, I took up back packing and camping with a group of Jesuits who had been doing this for some years.  Every year six or eight guys from actually all over the country would choose a destination, gather, and set out for usually two one week back pack trips.  These guys were pretty good and I learned a lot just by tagging along.

However, in the beginning I had one reservation.  The custom was that every year we brought along enough of a certain brew, Jack Daniels, in fact, so that each person might enjoy a shot every evening before dinner.  I remember thinking to myself, 'In my limited experience in camping we never brought this extra weight.'  So why now? 

Well, I learned, I who can be somewhat obsessive about being hard on myself.  In the Jesuit life I had come to understand that while we all are expected to live simply and work hard, occasionally on, say, religious feasts, like the Assumption (which was just celebrated yesterday and which marks the anniversary of my entry into the Jesuits in 1958), I came to appreciate a custom called a first class feast. 

Normally we ate well.  In fact, I can claim that one factor in keeping me a Jesuit for the first years was the cuisine.  We lived in a house with over a hundred Jesuits.  We lived in southwest Louisiana, Grand Coteau, LA, in fact, and we had local guys who cooked cajun.  First time in my life I had 3 prepared hot meals per day.   Because of the rigorous life style I could eat with reckless abandon.  I remember no overweight classmates. 

So this was the norm.  But on special holidays we had first class feasts.  This meant at least that we could talk at meals and probably had ice cream, home made from milk from the large dairy herd on the campus.  We did not have alcohol, but we had tremendous meals. 

My camping trips with these guys carried on the first class feast tradition, even at the cost of lugging in a few extra ingredients.   The custom was that we had a Mass all together about 5:00, then a drink with a hunk of cheese, then soup, a main course, and a desert, like chocolate pudding.  It was terrific.  We had delightful evenings.

Guess what.  The trip we ten just took to Yosemite, my annual pilgrimage, followed the same recipe.  Instead of having Mass before the evening's first class feast, we had a Mass afterward around the campfire on the two occasions we laid over in one beautiful campsite for two nights. 

But at 5:00 the cantina opened and Rob graciously played the role of bartender.  Beth handled the cheese.  Then we had casseroles like chicken or salmon tetrazinni, plus deserts like blueberry cheese cake or apple cobbler.  All the meals had been prepared, dehydrated, and vacuum packed by Rose.  Ray was our main cook.  Mike handled the campfires.

I talk about these feasts because the gospel and the reading from Proverbs both talk about a feast.  Even Ephesians talks about drinking, but negatively, cautioning against drunkenness.  Three observations.

First, these feasts are joys to our lives.  Our ancestors since they came down out of the trees have sat around campfires like we did and they enjoyed their meals.  Harvest celebrations became custom.  These celebrations bring us joy & deeper relationships, happiness and greater inner peace.

Secondly, the best feasts often involve a lot of people.  Look at the covered dish brunches we have here.  Everyone contributes and we have a blast.  I will never forget the covered dish reception Rosemary & I had at our wedding.  In Yosemite everyone seemed to have something to do from Rose who put the food together, to Ray cooking, Mike making the campfire, and Rob & Beth handling the hors d'oeuvres.  Daniel cleaned the pots. 

Thirdly, the first class feast is the paradigm of our celebrations and Masses here on Sunday.   What is unique about it is we intentionally emphasize a spiritual component of the meal, inviting God to be part of our celebration.  Certainly all sorts of people pitch in the make the event special.  Hopefully we too walk out of here with joy & richer relationships, happinesss and greater inner peace.

This reminds me that we ought to have a back to school, beginning of fall Sunday brunch in September.

When was the last time you had this type of feast?  When the next?

Picture 1:  Mass with Stephen (birthday, 19), Kevin, & Sabrina

Picture 2:  Chloe & her granny, Denni

Picture 3:  Anniversary–Bernadette & Gil; Birthday–Marlene

 

Readings: 2 Kings 5, 14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2, 8-13; Luke 17, 11-19.

2 Kings:

• Time of the events: 900 B.C.
• Time when written: 550 B.C., during the Babylonian captivity
• Subject of 1 Kings: This book continues the history of the kings taking up with the death of King David and continuing through the story of David & Bathsheba’s son Solomon.  He builds the famous Temple of Solomon.  After his death the nation divides into the northern & southern states, Israel in the north, Judah in the south (including Jerusalem; remember by the "J’s").
• Subject of 2 Kings: This book continues the history of the decline of the two states until Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats the people. 
• Subject of our chapter 5 (read it all, it is delightful): one of the leaders of the Syrian-Babylonian army goes to visit the prophet of the day, Elisha.  Naaman, the general, has leprosy.  Note the twist of the story at the end.  Thanks is a theme of this selection and it sets the stage for Luke’s story about gratitude.

Gratitude

Last Sunday after our Mass, after Rosemary had counted the income, and had put it on spread sheets, we got in the car to go out for the evening.  I dropped her off at the Royal Lane & Preston Tom Thumb to buy something, she gave me some letters to mail at the corner, and she gave me the two envelopes to deposit in the bank on the same corner.  We always deposit that money right away.

I drove through the parking lot to the mail box and dumped in all the envelopes. All the envelopes.  Namely, her letters and the two bank deposit envelopes.

I knew almost immediately what I had done and, in fact, wanted to reach down into the mail box to retrieve the deposits.  However, I realized I could go to jail for that.  So we typed up a special note with our phone number and put it in the mailbox and figured we would make contact with the Royal Lane post office early the next day before pick up.  Guess what Monday was: Columbus Day, a postal holiday. 

Tuesday morning I got a call from the main post office that they had one of our deposit envelopes and I could pick it up.  When I met the guy I confessed that I was embarrassed to admit that I was the person who put the deposits in the mail box.  He says to me that as a matter of fact it happens a lot on that corner and that a woman had actually put in 10 thousand dollars in cash. 

So we have gotten back the running expenses deposit and still are waiting for the outreach envelope, which he seems optimistic will show up.  The thing that touched me, however, was how this postal supervisor treated my brain dead behavior with such a light touch.  I thanked him for both, for getting the envelope and for making light of it all.  I was really grateful.

The two stories we have in today’s readings are all about gratitude. A few observations.

First.  The temptation is to think I am one of the nine who did not return to thank Jesus. Yes & No.  I would suggest again: we are both.  Lots of times we forget to thank.  Lots of times we thank. 

Second.  There could be symbolism in the nine and one.  Perhaps I am nine tenths ungrateful and one tenth grateful.  This is a pretty normal proportion. A lot of times, however, I am not so much ungrateful as just insensitive, totally unaware.  Perhaps the lepers who did not return just figured they were lucky and went on their way.  The other guy realized he had been given a gift by that stranger and wanted to respond.

Jesus  tells him his faith has saved him.  I would suggest that his gratitude transformed him.

Third.  How is it possible to rearrange the percentages?  Rosemary & I have a favorite little practice that we do every night.  I’ve mentioned it before. We ask each other what were the blessings of the day.  I recommend this. I even recommend it for sitting alone, while savoring the first cup of coffee in the morning, driving or riding the DART to work & back, getting ready to go to school.  Simple question: what were my blessings yesterday or this week?

In that main post office I could have focused on how dumb I was or that I did not get the second deposit back.  Fortunately I could appreciate the supervisor’s light touch and that I had gotten back one envelope, the larger.

You may start now: what were your three biggest blessings this week?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-10-14.mp3

Readings: Numbers 11, 25-29; Psalm 19, The Precepts of the Lord give Joy to the Heart; James 5, 1-6; Mark 9, 38-43.

The Book of Numbers

 

The fourth book of the Pentateuch.  It leaves us with the impression of a carefully structured and organized religious society moving through history under the sustaining and guiding hand of God.  It is a very complex collection of historical, legal and liturgical traditions spanning a period of about a thousand years!  

An outline would identify three broad divisions of the book: The sojourn at Sinai, chapter 1-10 covers the last 19 days the Israelites spent at Sinai. 

 

The second section deals with the journey from Sinai to Moab, chapter 10-22 and covers a span of about 38 years.  The third section, chapters 22-36, covers events in Moab over a period of 5 months.  Today's reading is from the beginning of the

second section, when the people are just starting out on their journey.  Moses is getting concerned with the responsibility of all of the people, so God shares the spirit, which is on Moses among 70 elders, even two who were not part of the group gathered around the Tent.

The Letter of Saint James

 

This is the final Sunday for the second reading to come from Letter of St. James, which we have listened to for the past five weeks.  In the reading today the mood is very stark!  “Your wealth has rotted away”.  The audience for this letter is the communities outside of Jerusalem.

Again remember the letter is a collection of moral observations and instructions, and in today’s reading James’ does not have much that is positive to say about the rich.  The bigger context is to encourage the Christians who are suffering at the hands of the powerful.  James reminds his audience that Jesus is coming again very soon!  Immediately following today’s reading he says “Be patient brothers until the Lord’s coming”.

Notes on the Gospel 

 

9:42 "it is better for him rather if the millstone of a donkey had been set around his neck and he had been thrown into the sea." The force of the two verbs indicate it would have been better that the person died before causing the scandal.

 

9:43 "It is better (that) you go into (eternal) life deformed . . . " Compare this statement with Leviticus 21:17-24, where only the undeformed could lead worship. Only the physically intact high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the place the populace believed Yahweh definitely dwelt. In addition, self-inflicted wounds were forbidden in the Torah.

 

Now Mark stated the self-deformed could enter the kingdom. Ignore, for a moment, the fact that Mark used this extreme language symbolically. The weight of the statement was simple. Not only the sinners (the "deformed") could enter the Kingdom, the righteous (those with "two hands") could suffer eternal punishment! In addition, sometimes needed to "deform themselves" (i.e., leave the community of the "righteous" for the community of "sinners") to be saved

               

"unquenchable" in Greek is "asbeston," the root word for "asbestos."

                    

9:43, 45, 47 "Gehenna" The valley of Hinnom, south and west of ancient Jerusalem. This valley became infamous as the "high place" for idol worship among Judah's monarchs (including an oven for human sacrifice). Because of it reputation, "Gehenna" became metaphor for eternal damnation in the time of Jesus.

                                  

9:44, 46 "where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" Both verses are the same. Most scholars do not believe these verses are part of the original text, so they are deleted from most modern translations.

               

9:48 "where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Unlike 9:44 and 9:46, this verse is original. This verse was an adaptation of Isaiah 66:24

                          

Homily for Sunday September 27^th 

 

If ever there was a gospel passage which begs for the topic of the Pedophile Disaster it is today’s, but I am not going there!!  Instead I thought about getting some hacksaws and pliers and making them available for use here today!!  If you eye causes sin – pluck it out.  Chop off your hand or your leg!!!! What is this all about? 

           

For me, this is a classic example of why it is not too smart to take the bible literally!  No, God does not want us to be inflicting severe bodily harm to ourselves.  So what is going on in this reading?

        

The three readings today are a brilliant example of why we have readings at mass.  The Word of God is speaking to us thru the readings each Sunday.  Here is what I am hearing from today’s readings.

            

In the OT reading from Numbers, we are at the beginning of the journey, the people have just been given the Covenant with God…. But already they are starting to have a really bad attitude about the whole thing, and poor Moses is feeling overwhelmed.  I guess life does get to be overwhelming at times.  Too many things too little time.  In the reading, God helps Moses first by sharing the spirit with others, can I share whatever it is that overwhelms me with others… a problem shared is a problem halved.  Then God in the very next sentence after our reading has quail blown in from the sea to feed the people.  When I am open to allowing God to help me, he invariably does. 

            

The Second reading from James reminds me to keep things in perspective.  Not to get too attached to material things.  The real riches are for me found within family, within community.

            

The Gospel passage from Mark for me says that what we here in this community are doing is the right thing!!  “Whoever is not against us, is for us”.  If ever there was an example of not seeing eye to eye with the established religion, it was Jesus.  It was ultimately what set him up for crucifixion.  The established religious were too threatened by what he was saying and doing.

           

 

But back to what I said at the beginning, what are we to make of the chopping of limbs etc.?  It is a classical example of why it is important to fully understand the context of the scriptures.  Today’s readings ask me to take stock of my priorities.                      

          

Let's take a few moments of quiet to begin that process.

                 

You may be the only Bible someone reads, will they be able to find God?

 

Picture 1:  Tony celebrating with Kevin helping

 

Picture 2:  Altar helpers

 

Picture 3:  Mike Miller presents CCAC with $2000, Cathy, Ray, & Claire accepting

 

Picture 4:  The Froebes, Richard, Morgan, Alexandra (O.U. junior), & Monica

Readings:

Acts 10, 34, 37-43, He went about doing good.

Psalm 118,  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, 1-9,  Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning.

 

The Team, Mike and John, Georgie and Kevin.

Welcome, artwork by Rosemary.

Acts observations:

Date:  sometime before the year 70.  Why?  No mention of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place the year 70, a Big Date in Jewish history.

Who:  The same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke.  How do we know?  Similarities of style, language (Greek), and theological themes.

Subject:  The story of the expansion of the Jesus story in 3 areas, first, Jerusalem, then, Palestine or the Holy Land, and finally, into the Mediterranean and ultimately, Rome.

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Wikipedia

 

Patty and Bill.

Our Ms. Roberts.

Resurrection Life

I would like to talk about two things this Easter Sunday.

First, Resurrection is what for me and for us?   I would suggest that it is at least one thing, new life. 

Secondly, I would like to exemplify what I mean with a little story from France.

As many of you know, Rosemary & I spent about ten days in France the first two weeks of March.  We spent some of the time in the eastern province of Alsace.  The province is a vertical, north-south valley bordering the Rhine River, which marks its border with Germany. 

The last few days we spent in Paris, a favorite city of ours.  We have a small hotel in the region of the Eiffel Tower.   Near the hotel is a coffee shop.  It is on the corner of Rue Grenelle and Rue de l’Exposition, and it is one of our most favorite places in Paris with all its other wonders.  Two reasons.

First, it is warm and cordial.  This warmth we especially appreciated our last visit because the days in Paris were not only cold.  But all of the Tuesday before we flew home on Wednesday it snowed and snowed.  So it was magic to walk the city.  It was equally charming to walk in from the cold and snow and have a hot café au lait, or latte in Starbuck’s terms. 

 

Even more delightful was the reception we two Americans received when we walked in.  It was ‘Bonjour’ and ‘Bonjour’ yelled to us as we got in the door.  The place reminded me a little of the bar in the TV series Cheers.  So friendly.

 Secondly, after two days, they remembered not only us, but what we wanted.  We did not even have to order.   They knew we wanted the first of two cafes and would simply begin preparing when we got to the bar.  And then we would converse, me with my learner’s French.  I am sure that in two more days we would all be on first name basis.

Two women in their late 20’s or early 30’s ran the place or should I say ‘hosted’ the place, and they greeted everyone with same friendliness.  Many of the people who came in, naturally they knew.

This small café in Paris gave off life, folks.  Occasionally I hear people say that Parisians are unfriendly and rude.  I have never found that.  They even cheer my efforts at speaking French.  The café, however, the name of which I don’t even know, was an exceptional fountain of positive vibes.  I looked forward every morning to absorbing that life and left feeling more alive. 

This for me is one example of resurrection life.

Where do you find this life? 

How & where do you create it?

Readings: Acts 6, 1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2, 4-9; John 14, 1-12.

Acts:  This is another example of stories from the early Christian Community.  On this occasion, the community is selecting from the community seven people, men, who will help free up the priests to do preaching.  The seven chosen are like deacons.

A Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood

Two things happened to me in Italy that came to mind when I saw this line in Peter’s letter about being a chosen race and a royal priesthood.

First, in Rome on our last evening before departing this past Friday.  It was about 6:30.  All four of us were planning to celebrate sunset at 7:45 and the end of our trip with a glass of wine on the rooftop of our 4-5 story, 500 year old palace & convent.  A great vista point for the city.

Rosemary & I had taken a stroll and were coming home crossing the little plaza next to our convent, when a young Italian boy about 17 came up to me and in Italian asked me where the Pantheon was.  This delighted me for two reasons.

First, he must have thought I was more of a local, not an American tourist.  Ever since my time in East Africa I have always tried to blend in, not stand out as from elsewhere.  That was hard in Tanzania. Secondly, because of the first, he spoke to me in Italian. I both knew what he asked, and I knew how to respond and guide him to the Pantheon, which I half walked him to because it was fairly near.  For a last nighter, this was a gift.

The other event took place on a high point in Florence a week earlier.  Again Rosemary & I had taken a stroll in the early evening while others rested & before going out together.  I was exploring and had climbed a hill to see if I could spot a good place to see the sunset over Florence.  I had heard about this place from one of the sisters at the Florence convent we were staying in.  There were a series of steps in a switch back pattern leading up to a secondary basilica, called St. Miniato.  The steps were quite a climb, with the basilica steps going straight up.

At one point Rosemary is wandering around & I am sitting at the very top, my legs hanging over the marble balustrade.  I am looking over Florence & watching a rain storm approach from the west when I see a little man stooped with osteoporosis start to climb the steps way below me.  He has a dark overcoat on and he uses an umbrella as a cane.  He leans on the balustrade on his left.  Slowly & steadily he climbs until he reaches the top, turns right, and starts to pass near me. 

As he approaches I say in Italian, "Congratulations on climbing the steps."  I reach over and shake his sweaty little hand.  Bent over, he looks up and says, "What?"  I repeat and he asks me who I am.  After I tell him he says, "Are you Italian?"  I am complimented, but say, "No, I’m not Italian.  I am American."  "Oh, bahh," he exclaims and goes on his way.  I am slightly deflated. 

As Peter says in his letter, we are all chosen, we are all a royal priesthood.  Royal does not grab me, but priesthood does.  Sometimes we feel more chosen, more priestly, sometimes we feel more rejected and certainly not royal. 

The 17 year old boy chose me out of all the people in that plaza and asked for help.  In the priest context, I was able to help & guide him.  This experience is common to all of us.  I chose to compliment the little man in a priest context, but he rejected me.  Another common experience to all of us.  Because we are all chosen by God, we are all called to priesthood.  The challenge is to continue to congratulate, help, & guide the next person.

How are you doing this?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-04-20.mp3 

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1,2; 2, 21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians, 3, 1-11; Luke 12, 13-21

Eccllesiastes: this book contains the thoughts of the "philosopher," a man who reflected on how short and contradictory human life it.  He could not understand the ways of God.  Nevertheless, he advised people to work hard and to enjoy the gift of life as much and as long as they could.  In our selection you will see how he is pessimistic & depressing. 

I’ve chosen to expand the reading to give you a better view of his style.

The Gift: Celebrate it and Share it

Last Saturday evening our group of seven set up a campsite above the shore of the second of a group of three High Sierra lakes ten thousand feet high. The lakes are called the Rae Lakes.The next morning we planned to climb 12,000′ Glen Pass, which was standing straight up in front of us. The Rae Lakes are exactly at the line where trees cease to grow very well, so we were camping on somewhat open granite & shallow soil. 

Our menu that night was beef stroganoff and because we always had more than we needed, we invited three women at the neighboring campsite, a mother & daughter and another young woman.  The two younger women turned out to be teachers in the San Francisco area, teaching mostly underprivileged & handicapped children.  The girl traveling by herself had once even brought a group of 7th graders out to the wilderness. The three were eventually planning to climb Mt. Whitley and then exit. 

The next day Rose spent a lot of time climbing & talking with the girl who was hiking alone.  As a result, the two became good friends and discovered that they shared a number of the same dreams, to teach kids and to teach about nature.  The girl even recommended a neat little Italian restaraunt in Fresno, our town of arrival & departure. 

Our readings today all seem to indicate that life is futile and useless.  Why do anything?  Just eat dirt. 

Two observations on this.

First, life does not have to be looked at as useless.  It can be seen as a gift.

Secondly, the gift can be celebrated and shared with others. 

Let me work backwards.  I was impressed with those women because they were into sharing the gift.  The two young girls were teaching.  The mother came into the wilderness to share the gift with her daughter, even though the mother did not look like the backpacking type. 

We also saw numerous scout troops during our nine days.  Once we ran into a group of fourteen, about four adults and ten boys & girls about 15 or 16.  When we asked them who they were they said they were a camp.  We think they were taking a group of troubled teens on a wilderness trek.  This is sharing the gift. 

Before I share it, however, I think I got to celebrate the gift.  Which is exactly what we were doing in the High Sierras, and do every year.  Which is what we do here on Sundays.  We celebrate the gift of life. 

How do you celebrate the gift and share it?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-08-05.mp3