Sunday Homily, May 3, 2015, 5th Easter, B

Readings: Genesis 14, 18-20; Psalm 110; 1 Corinthians 11, 23-26; Luke 9, 11-17.

The Miracle of Sharing

Years ago when I lived in Tanzania, East Africa, I suddenly one evening had to take the overnight train from the capital, Dar es Salaam (Harbor of Peace, on the Indian Ocean) to our Jesuit house near Kilimanjaro. Since I was late in getting a reservation, I had to simply pile into one of the 3rd class cars with lots of people, their kids, their luggage, and even chickens. I planned to sit up all night on my suitcase or on the floor. 

Suddenly about 1:00 in the morning the train stopped in the middle of a scrub nowhere and we were eventually told the train had broken down. We sat on that track until about 5:00 the next afternoon.  I even tried to sleep on the rocks of the train bed. Trouble was, thinking I would be home in the early morning, I had no food &, more importantly,  no water. This was just stupidity on my part. I had been around too long to neglect this. Breakdowns were common on train and buses. And there was nothing to buy anywhere.

The Tanzanians all seemed to have come prepared and I would have been given at least a drink by various people, because I could speak with them. They had little stores of food and drink tucked into the folds of their robes or in baskets. But, I did not want to drink their water. It was possibly not purified. Of course all the time I am thinking the train will start any moment.

Late in the morning I noticed an young white couple in the forward part of the train.  We got talking and they shared with me their water.They were Germans and later I was going to climb Kilimajaro with them on one of my 5 trips.

Later that afternoon I was really able to help them out because the guy, a real big guy in the German army, took a picture of a baby lying near us under a shade tree. Someone saw him, told the mother on the train, who told the husband, who told the whole train. They circled him and us and wanted to take him to the police, wherever that might have been. 

Instead I was able to get everyone to sit down and talk. Finally the family agreed to let the German cut off the piece of film. Naturally he just clipped the lead and gave it to them.

I talk about this because I often think about this event when I hear the story about Jesus passing around the bread & fish.  I propose an alternative miracle to the more obvious. I base it on my experience with people who would not likely go out for the day without taking provisions. There were no McDonald’s.  Moreover, normally the people would hide their food and hoard it. Who knows when they might need it? 

What Jesus does it take the 5 loaves & fishes and share them with the nearest people. Picture the scene.The first person gets the food, takes a little, feels guilty because he or she has more hidden away, then pulls out of a hiding place a bit of bread, and passes it on. The process continues all over the huge crowd and at the end there is food left over.

The miracle is sharing. 

I also read recently that strict observance Jews would have been among the crowd and they did not believe in eating with unclean people.  Morever, they would eat only ritually cleaned food.  According to the story, everyone ate.

When I was on that dead train I would have been helped by the Africans. They respect white folks, especially when they speak the language, and many were probably Catholics.  Fortunately, I did not need their generosity because the Germans had purified water (this was before the bottled water fad). They had no trouble sharing and I still remember how good their water tasted. 

How are you being challenged to share more?

Download homily as an mp3 file

The Marriage Cat awaits Jud & Erica, Saturday evening, Georgetown, TX.

Readings:  (for Palm Sunday)

Entrance procession: Mark 11, 1-10,  Entry with palms

 Isaiah 50, 4-7, I gave my back to those who beat me.

Psalm 22,  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me.

 Philippians 2, 6-11,  He emptied himself.

Mark  14 & 15, The Passion

Jud with his long time admirer.

We had no homily nor Creed today because of the length of the service.

Erica with her dad, Don.

Jud & Erica composed their own vows and shared them with each other, very nice.

Jud & Erica are originally from Dallas.  They met in Seattle, where they both worked, Erica in nursing.  They now live & work in Honolulu.

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 6, 1-7; Psalm 33, Lord, let your Mercy be upon Us, as we place our Trust in You; 1 Peter 2, 4-9; John 14, 1-12 

Fourth Sunday in Easter Time – Intro to Readings.

 
 In both our first two readings today Peter is mentioned.  In Acts we hear him preaching and urging people to repent and be baptized. We are told that about 3,000 responded and were baptized!  Our second reading is written by Peter, his first Letter to the early Christian communities, in modern day Turkey.  So I thought that I would spend a few moments talking about Peter.  Incidentally, Peter could well be the “poster boy” for a married clergy!  He was the first person called by Jesus, and was married.  And against any claim that Jesus may not have realized that Peter was married, we are told that Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt 8:14), and St. Paul even mentions that the wife traveled around with Peter (1 Cor. 9:5). 

 We know that he was a fisherman when Jesus called him to discipleship, and Peter immediately left his nets and followed Jesus.  His story is interesting because Peter had a tough time of it.  Peter got into trouble lots of times.  When Jesus first prophesied about his death, Peter objected only to be strongly rebuked by Jesus (Matt 16:22, Mk 9:31) who said to him, “get behind me Satan”.  He tried his hand at walking on water, only to sink ignominiously (Matt 14: 28-31). And after witnessing the Transfiguration with James and John, his immediate reaction was to erect some tents, (Matt 17:1, Mk 9:2 and Lk 9:28) missing the whole point of the event!  At the agony in the garden, he couldn’t stay awake with Jesus, and had to be woken up three times (Matt 26:40, Mk 14:37).   And of course his biggest blunder was that even having been warned that he would do it (Matt 26: 33-35, Mk 14: 29-31, Lk 22:33ff and Jn 13:36-38) he denies Jesus three times (Matt 26:69ff, Mk 14:68ff, Lk 22:58ff and Jn 18:25ff). 

 All of this would seem to disqualify Peter from any possible position within this little community, and yet he emerges as its head.  You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.(Matt 16:18)  What seems to be the lesson from all of this, no matter how much of a mess we make of things, God does not seem to mind!

 Fourth Sunday in Easter Time – Homily

 One of the major themes in John’s Gospel is to show that all of the major Jewish Feasts are transformed by Jesus.  This gospel reading comes on the day after the Feast of Tabernacles.  If you look closely at John’s Gospel, it can very easily be divided up into a number of different major Jewish Feasts.  There are Passover Feasts, one at the beginning of the Gospel, a second in the middle and of course the third at the end.  But in between these we have the Feast of Tabernacles and immediately after that the Feast of Dedication.  The Feast of Tabernacles is interesting because it lasts 8 days, and is the third most important feast for the Jews. The feast was celebrated in the fall.  There were many processions with candles.  For us Jesus is the Light.  Tents were erected, and the feast celebrated the harvest, and also the original dedication of the temple.  Water was brought from the Pool where the blind man from our reading on the fourth Sunday in Lent was cured.  We recently had a reading which comes right before today’s gospel reading and it was about the young man born blind, and which the Jews refused to believe that Jesus had cured him.  Remember they even called in his parents and asked them if their son had been blind.  So we have just been reading about blind people.  Then comes today’s reading, and it expands the meaning of the blindness to that of the Pharisees.  Because they certainly should have been able to recognize who Jesus was, but instead they are the blind ones. 

 Jesus uses the example of a shepherd and sheep recognizing him.   Shepherds are obviously what we are supposed to talk about today!  But how many of you have ever seen a shepherd?  Or know anyone who is a shepherd?  Or, better yet, any one here ever been a shepherd?  Ok. How about sheep, has everyone seen sheep, at least eaten mutton!

 I am afraid that we better talk about something else!  The gospel today is discussing getting in through a gate and that the Pharisees are going to have a tough time of it.  The good news is that we are already in!!  Yes, by our baptism we are already through that gate, we are already in the kingdom of God.  We need to focus on what is expected of one in the kingdom!  Remember last week’s gospel, the two disciples had decided to leave Jerusalem and head home, the whole Jesus movement was a bit of a failure.  A stranger, who explains the scripture to them, kind of like what John and I try to do each week here, joins them on their journey.  Then when they stop for the night, they invite the stranger to join them, and they recognize him when they sit down to a meal and break bread.  Which is what we do here too!  We break bread together, and in that action we need to be able to recognize each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Christ is present in each one of us!!  Like the two on the road, they do not recognize Jesus, we too can easily find it hard to recognize Jesus, but he is there, present in each one of us.

 I think we can forget about the sheep, and even forget about shepherds, it was all from a very different time and place.  Our focus needs to be on the fact that we are already thru that gate, and are in the kingdom of God.  Our focus needs to be on seeing Jesus in each other.  But remember, we are not going to be perfect, we will probably be more like Peter, the good news is that God doesn’t seem to mind.  All that matters is that we are trying.  After the resurrection, remember Peter had to pass only one test, “Peter, do you love me, feed my lambs, feed my sheep” How did those sheep get in again!!

Picture 1:   Beginning of Mass with Tony

Picture 2:   Offertory with Barb & Warren

Picture 3:   Leo with Jackie

Picture 4:   Emma

Picture 5:   Sienna with her daddy, Payton

Readings: Ezekiel 33, 7-9; Psalm 95, If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts; Romans 13, 8-10; Matthew 18, 15-20. 

23^rd  Sunday – Intro to Readings , Fr. Tony

 I would like to say a few words, not about the three readings today, but about the part of the Mass they occupy, the Liturgy of the Word.

 As I have mentioned previously, each of the sacraments has a pattern, Scripture Readings followed by an Action.  It is reminiscent of the creation story, God said and something happened.  Let there be light, and there was light!  And so in our Mass, we have a Liturgy of the Word, when we listen to God speaking to us through the Sacred Scriptures and then our response to that word is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when we offer our gifts of bread and wine in Thanksgiving.

Last Sunday we heard a bit about the celebration in Detroit of the 50^th anniversary of Vatican 2.  One of the major changes, which came out of the council, was a reemphasis on the Scriptures.  Recall that prior to this time, Catholics were pretty much discouraged from reading the Bible.  Its purpose in most catholic homes was as a place to record baptisms, first communions etc.  Remember that before Vatican 2 you could miss the entire liturgy of the Word and still be on time for mass!!  Of course they were read in Latin, so it didn’t really matter anyway, you had no idea what was being read unless you had your own missal and were diligently following in it. 

 The reason Vatican 2 was able to move so quickly with the refocus on the Scriptures was because of a new encouragement  on Catholic scripture scholarship, which was started by Leo XIII and continued, by Pope Pius X, XI and the XII when he issued his encyclical in 1943 on Biblical Studies. 

 It may be helpful for us to understand how a Jewish person would hear God’s word – not as a message to be analyzed but as listening to God speaking directly to them.  Here is what Isaiah had to say about it

 “Yet just as from the heavens, the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.  So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.”  (Is 55: 10-11)

So, when we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word, and hear God’s Word proclaimed, we need to remember that it is God speaking directly to us. 

 Homily

 Today’s gospel reading from St. Matthew would appear at first glance to be a simple lesson on conflict resolution.  But I think there is much more to this reading.  If we step back a little and take a broader view of the reading in its setting in the gospel we will see that it follows a very short but powerful account of the good shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to go and find the lost sheep.  Then following our reading, which you will hear next Sunday is the story about the importance of forgiveness, not just 7 times as Peter suggests but 70 times 7!!  So I think this little reading today isn’t as simple as it first appears.  Plus I believe that the Church wants us to consider all of our readings today, I see them all connected, for a change!

The first reading from Ezekiel puts forth an interesting concept.  If the prophet, or in this case us, have heard God’s Word, and do nothing about it, in other words if we don’t try to reach out with God’s Word, then we are responsible for those around us!!  In other words, we can’t keep it to ourselves!  Paul, in the second reading tells us what that message is: “love one another”.  I feel that the Responsorial Psalm repeats this message with its response “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts”.  It is so easy at times to simply say “forget it” I am done trying, I am done with whatever, they have gone too far.  And yet we must remember, 70 times 7.

 So, this stuff isn’t easy!  But back to today’s gospel, and the closing lines, “where two or three are gathered”.  That’s us!  Our liturgy of the Word has been us, listening to God speaking to us.  We are two or three gathered, listening to God and now we will respond with our gifts of bread and wine.  And I believe that we can also ask for God’s help in living lives of love and forgiveness.  Remember again Matthew’s comment “anything for which you pray shall be granted”!  

Picture 1:    Tony beginning

Picture 2:    Kevin with his parents, Connie & John

Picture 3:    Communion helpers, Nancy, Jan, Patricia, & Sandra

Picture 4:    Ryan

Picture 5:    Leo with Alison

Readings: Isaiah 11, 1-10 (a beauty); Psalm 72, Justice shall Flourish in His Time, and Fulness of Peace Forever; Romans 15, 4-9; Matthew 3, 1-12. 

Isaiah 11 observations:

Author: Isaiah 1.  Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters.  Isaiah 1 covers chapters 1-39.  This book is one of the Big 3 O.T. prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  This is because the works are the longest.  There are 12 minor prophets.

Time: ca. 700, before the Assyrians annihilate the northern Jewish kingdom, called Israel, vs the southern kingdom called Judah, where Jerusalem is.  10 tribes were lost in this destruction, the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. 

Remember there were 12 tribes.  Why?  Because of the 12 sons of Jacob, who was one of the 3 great patriarchs or founders of the tribe, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, who was also called Israel. 

Message of Isaiah 1: condemnation of the corruption of the ruling class & oppression of the poor.  Because of this, destruction is coming.  He foresaw the coming of the Assyrians, not a difficult thing to do.  The profile of the prophet was usually 1. criticism, 2. prediction of dire payment, 3. consolation.

Today’s message: consolation.  Two parts.  In part one, a special person will come. And because of him, part two, watch what will happen.  A dream most touching.

Advent Wreaths: This little liturgical practice came to the Catholic liturgy, believe it or not, from the German Lutherans in the 1500's, the time of Martin Luther.  It was more than just decoration.  The circle symbolized eternity.  The greens Christian life in a dead time of the year.  The candles represent each of the 4 weeks of Advent, each candle symbolizing the greater light brought by Christ.  Their color purple symbolized penance and purification for the Coming.  The Rose candle says, 'We are almost there!'

Beautiful Dreams Can Happen

 The Isaiah reading this morning has special meaning for me in two ways. 

 First of all, the beauty of the writer’s dream touches me.  He dreams that the world will have such peace and harmony that even the animals will live without fear of each other.  Wow. 

Secondly, I have a story connected with the dream.  It happened in Toronto the Advent at the end of the year I was ordained, 1971.

 The Jesuits have a theology college in Toronto and I spent four years there, ’68-’72.  The fall of my second year a class of about 35 guys entered from all over.  Among them was a Jesuit brother. 

 Brothers were Jesuits, members of the fraternity, but they focused on living religious life in a community with its 3 vows of poverty, chastity, & obedience.  They did not feel a call to be priests.  They worked in all sorts of occupations, treasurer, house administrator, grounds keepers, you name it.

 The Jesuit brother who entered that fall had been a brother for a half a dozen years & now wanted to become a priest.  Trouble was he was blind.  His name was Larry. 

 Larry had not come to this idea solely on his own.  Many people had encouraged him.  For some years he had worked & taught at a Wisconsin Jesuit boarding high school called Prairie du Chien, now closed unfortunately. Here the idea really grew.

 He went to the Wisconsin Jesuit provincial and he agreed to see what could be done.  The provincial went to Rome to get permission for a blind person to be ordained.  Rome said, “No, and don’t bother to ask again.” 

 So the provincial sent Larry to Toronto to do the normal theology studies leading up to priesthood.  Just to see how he would make out. 

 He made out splendidly.  In fact, we all pitched in to help him.  We recorded classes, we read to him, we recorded assigned readings, and we studied with him.  I, in fact, lived next door to him on the third floor. 

 The end of the first year came and the provincial returned to Rome to ask again.  Rome said, “No, and don’t ask again.”

 The end of Larry’s third year the provincial asked again.  This time Rome said, “He may be ordained a deacon.”  Folks, the excitement and gratitude in our house was tactile.  You could feel it, touch it.  We knew that once a deacon, he could easily move to priesthood.

Larry was now in his 3^rd year and it was in Advent of the 3^rd year when the men were ordained deacons, the priesthood coming in the following spring. 

 It was the second Sunday of Advent, cycle A like this year, in the college chapel full, about 35 guys getting ordained deacons preliminary to being ordained priests 6 month later.  The reading was Isaiah 11.  In Braille Larry read Isaiah’s dream.  There was not a dry eye, not a sound but Larry’s voice. 

 Today Larry Gillick is ordained and works as part of a team working out of St. Louis U. 

 Beautiful dreams can happen.  We can influence their happening.  How? 

Picture 1:   Hunter lighting the candles

Picture 2:   Mass begins

Picture 3:   Mary & Frank with the offertory

Picture 4:   C C at the donut shoppe