Take it away, Ben.  We are ready!

 

 

Readings: 

Nehemiah 8, 2-4, 5-6, 8-10   The story of Ezra, the priest

Psalm 19,  Your words, Lord, are spirit and life.

1 Corinthians 12, 12-30,  As the body is one.

Luke 1, 1-4,  4, 14-21,  Today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

 

 

Emma doing her Candle Magic with John's help.

 

Homily from Mike

Think about the last vacation you were on.  Did it meet your expectations; good weather, good food, good company.  Sometimes our expectations are not met, unless we’ve taught ourselves to go with the flow and look toward the bright side by giving thanks no matter what we encounter.

 

 

Buddy reading the Blessing of the Candles with Mike's help.

 

In our gospel today, the Jews at the Sabbath synagogue service were in expectation to hear what Jesus had to say, for Jesus had chosen the reading.  Not only that, it was said that he spoke with authority, and this was Jesus’ home ground; it was where he grew up.

 

 

 

Mike homilizing.

 

What Jesus gave them was what the Messiah would do when he came to his people, Israel. When you heard it, did you recognize that it was filled with promises, beginning with the most important: where he promised to bring to the lowly, those in dire need, the Good News of Jesus Christ. After reading it, he sat down; and he held them in expectation.

 

 

 

What a team.

 

When he stood up he said, “This day, this Scripture, is fulfilled in your midst.” They didn’t realize it but they had just begun to receive the Good News. They were the ones to whom Jesus had come. All of promises, given by the prophets, were directed to them: they were the blind, the poor in spirit, the ones who were in captivity, they were the downtrodden,

 

 

 

The Great Offertory Team, Karen, Tom, & Denni.

 

This Scripture is being fulfilled in our midst too, for we are the ones called to make those promises come true.  We are the ones who daily are led by the Spirit to welcome and live the Good News in the world. With every act of kindness, each of us, using our unique spiritual gifts, bind ourselves together as one body; His body, which we are about to break and share with one another in our Liturgy of Eucharist.   

 

 

Can it get better than this, Luke with his mommy, Julie.

 

 

Readings:

Ezekiel  34, 11-12, 15-17, I will look after and tend my sheep.

Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.  (a beautiful Psalm)

1 Corinthians  15,  20-26. 28, Christ has been raised from the dead

Matthew 25, 31-46, He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

 

 

 

Have a Blessed & Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda, Welcome Home!

Readers,   Denni & Tom & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  John Cade 

Homily,   John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,   Hue & Mike

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

 

 

Download Readings Week 34

 

 

 

John Cade Homilizing on Thanksgiving

 

Download Cade 2 Homily – 11-22-20 Thanksgiving – Blessings

 

Please Remember these special people:

For Paul & Carrie recuperating;  For Alan Stryker;  For Joe Sullivan;  For John Doherty recuperating;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine; For David Dinsmore's bad shoulder from a biking accident;  For Esparza's new great grandson baby, son of Monique;  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;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Loretta's aunt Alicia;  For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;  

 

 

Tranquility.

 

For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  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,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

 

Thanksgiving  for Today's Brain Team, Mike & Hue

 

Birthdays:  Ron Ackerman, David Grattifiori, 61, Joanie Beavers, 40, John Cade, 86, Rose's son, Fred

Anniversaries:

Cliff & Jean Wright, 25th

Barb & Ron Senter, 49th

John & Michelle Simari, 41st

Frank & Mary Esparza, 57th

 

 

Community Finances, November 22, 2020

Expenses: $2980.00

Outreach   $225.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

And double thanks to all who jumped right in within 1 week to help the 50 families Becky adopted for special Thanksgiving help.  Our marvelous little community has been so generous that the same families already are covered for Christmas.  I feel humbled and privileged to be part of our most generous community.

 

 

Hooray, they are back, Shonda from Air Force duty, Ben from food poisoning, yuk.

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

Thanksgiving is here.

As we celebrate this special day,

May we be grateful for the roads we have taken in life,

The marvels, the beauty, and the people we have met along the way,

And the gift to be able to help others today and always.

 

Readings:

Exodus 17, 3-7,  Moses: “What shall I do with this people?”

 Psalm 95,  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 Romans 5,  1-2, 5- 8,   The love of God has been poured out into our hearts.

 John 4, 5-42,    The Samaritan Woman at the well.

 

 

Say Brandon and Mary, his mom, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Exodus observations :

What: After two weeks in the first book of the Bible, today we move to the second. The book basically tells the heroic struggle of Moses to get the Hebrew people out of Egypt, where they had gone because of the drought in their land some decades or centuries before. 

Author: The book is about Moses, but he is not the author, as was thought for centuries. Instead, it is a compilation. 

 

 

 

My Dearest Genevieve, are you playing for us this morning?

 

When:  Take a guess.  Yes, during and after the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ.  Why now?  To help the Jewish tribe stay together.  Biblical commentators will say this is the most important book in the Bible.  Why?  Cultural history gives identity, especially one that goes from tragedy to triumph.  Plus, the writers, the priests-Levites, emphasized that God considered this tribe to be The Tribe.

Today’ selection: an amusing story about how the Jewish people are bummed out with Moses for taking them out of the so called cushy slave life of Egypt into a desert with no water and no food.  

Recommendation for Lent: Read Genesis and Exodus.  Interesting stories.

 

 

The best Music, Shonda & Ray.  Anybody know why Bethany is not with us this morning?  Yep, she finally had her baby!
 

 

Life Giving Water

This morning I would like to mention 3 comments about John’s gospel that contemporary Bible scholars make.  Then, proceeding from the general observations, I would like to look at today’s gospel and especially the play on water.  Is it symbolic maybe?  Of what?

 

 

Hi, Kevin, thanks for all your help.

 

Observation 1: 3 writers can be identified as contributing to the gospel of John.  The 3 authors worked over a period of 25 to 30 years, up to around 90.

 Secondly, the figures in the stories are literary creations, perhaps built around certain people.                                                                                                         

Thirdly, the words that Jesus uses are not just recordings, but words composed by the writers to convey a message or a symbol, like water. 

 

 

Hi, Georgie, thanks, also, to you for all your help.

 

Which leads to our selection from John this morning, the Samaritan woman at the well. 

She is talking about ordinary well water.  Jesus is talking about symbolic water, living water that gives life to the spirit.  

I would propose this life giving water takes all sorts of forms.  For example.

 

 

And thanks to you, Buddy.  It is so nice to have you with us.

 

Remember the first time we had our penitential rite?  When Mike proposed the idea at a team luncheon I confess I was a bit skeptical.  I was thinking, ‘Nobody is going to want to do this.  More focus on sin.’  This is why I don’t like Lent, the endless focus on sin.  What does the ordinary Mass always begin with?  Focus on me a sinner. 

 Was I pleasantly surprised!  In fact, that penitential rite was pure water to my spirit.  I was humbled and touched. 

 

 

Let us begin.

 

So, events can be life giving water, people can be life giving water.  Put them together and my spirit is moved. 

Last week in Hilton Head we had Rosemary’s two sisters and husbands.  We celebrated a little Sunday Mass in the living room.  I was moved to tears.  I could hardly talk. 

 

 

Brandon, our Candle Lighter of The Week.

 

Another event: our own Mass right here at Sigler.  You people are living water for me.

What event brings living water to you?

Who brings living water to you?

And You?

Sources:  Raymond Brown and John Shelby Spong

 

 Our Candle Lighter at work, three whites and one purple.

Readings: Acts 2, 42-47; Psalm 118; 1 Peter 1, 3-9; John 20, 19-31.

Acts: This book basically tells the story of the early Christian community.  Biblical scholarship considers the book idealistic in great part.  It was what they hoped the community would look like rather than what it was.

Do Not be Unbelieving, But Believe 

It dawned upon me a day or so ago that 2008 is a 50 year anniversary for me.  August 15, 1958, I entered the Jesuits at Grand Coteau, LA.  This, coupled with meeting up with David Cardenas last week, another guy who entered the Jesuits, though a few years after me, all has had me reflecting on our lives as young Jesuits before Vatican II.  Three thoughts.

First, there was a neat spirit among the 25 or so guys I entered with, as well as in the whole Jesuit identity.  There were a couple of odd clerical guys, but I was impressed with how typical my classmates were. 

Secondly, we lived a rigorous monastic life.  Silence, formal prayer times, work, study, and three recreation afternoons, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.  We wore a black cassock & cincture or we wore long sleeved shirts and long pants, even to play touch football & baseball in 100 degree heat & Gulf Coast humidity.

The two hardest physical labors I ever experienced: riding a tractor on a cold day and harvesting corn silage in August heat.  There were three silage jobs, picking up the cut corn stalks, shoving it into the grinder, or walking around inside the silo while the silage rained down on you from the hole in the roof. 

The third thing I remember which amuses and embarrasses me is the penitential practices we were expected to use, especially in Lent & Advent.  There were a variety of practices, but two stand out.  One was the scourge.  We had these little light rope whips which we used on ourselves before going to bed like on Friday nights.  Since we lived in large dorms in cubicles it was amusing, of course, to hear just before lights out at 10:00 the scourges being used. 

Secondly, we were given little wire chains with the wire ends poking out on one side.  You put that around your thigh with the ends poking in.  You put it on when you woke up and wore it until after breakfast.  I’ll tell you, it was amusing to see your buddies discomfort, all in silence. 

The rationale for the penance was based on the old philosophy of dualism: flesh bad, spirit good.  In order the keep the flesh from bringing down the spirit, discipline it, make it hurt.  Then the spirit will grow and strengthen.  What got me through was the light spirit of amusement of my classmates, the fantastic 3 hot  meals every day, and because I believed.

The overall training made me grow up quickly.  I look back now, however, am somewhat embarrassed, and ask myself how could I believe in some of those practices.  And I know.  It was believe, believe in the process, in the company, in those who have gone through this before me, and look at them, how successful they are.

Doubting Thomas, the subject of our Gospel today, is a hero of mine.  I think I would like to have been more like Thomas in those early years.  Which would have been impossible at the time, I know.  In fact, I think the training itself ultimately gave me the self-confidence and intellectual curiosity to enable me to have doubts & questions.  For example, I have doubts about the emphasis on penance, to say nothing about the philosophy behind the penance.

The danger with the "do not be unbelieving, but believe" statement is that it may be a "do not think" statement.  I become a sheep following the footsteps of whoever is in front of me with a feeling of security.  Doubts can be scary, questions confusing.  However, they are normal and healthy.  Without them I am less than healthy.  Thomas can be a model for us.  "Show me the evidence."

Like Thomas what are your doubts & questions?  And how do you feel about them?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-30.mp3

Readings:

Isaiah  43, 16-21,  See, I am doing something new

Psalm 126,  The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Philippians 3, 8-14, For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things.

John 8, 1-11,   The woman caught in adultery.

 

Says Genevieve, "Welcome, Everybody, where you been?"

 

 Isaiah Observations:

The scene: the Jewish people are captives in Babylon ca. 555 years before Christ.  Isaiah No.1  had warned the people that their bad ways were going to lead to this.   

In this chapter 43, which is Isaiah No. 2, Isaiah has Yahweh reminding them of how much he has done for them in the past and lets them know that they are still his people.  Their lives will get better.   

The first 5 verses of this chapter are some of my favorites in the whole Bible.  Isaiah No.2 is telling the people to not be afraid because he is with them. It goes— 

Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by your name.  You are mine.  When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you…  When you pass through fire, you will not suffer.   I regard you as precious, honored, and I love you.

 

Leo, The Candle Lighter of The Week, at work.

 

Philippians Observations:

Philippi was a town in Macedonia, now called Greece.  Philippi was the first church Paul set up on European soil.  He is in prison.  He is basically saying that for him nothing has any importance beyond his relationship with Jesus.

 

 

 

The Chair Person of our Welcoming Committee.

 

Punishment or Compassion

I would like to talk this morning about the woman in the gospel, the one about to be stoned to death for being caught in adultery.   An example of punishment vs compassion.   The Law vs Jesus.  The brutality and the injustice of it smacks me in the face.  It is, also, so contemporary.

It reminds me of a very uncomfortable situation I found myself in when I was learning Swahili in Tanzania.   This would have been about ’77 or ’78, when I was just getting into the language. 

 

 

Alison preparing the communion cups.  

 

 

I was at an outstation church from an outstation church maintained by our Jesuit parish in a town called Tabora, smack in the middle of Tanzania, on the east-west train track.   This is the place where I later fell into the grave of a little lady I was burying and the place where I spent Advent and Christmas one year with two young Jesuit interns from the Island of Malta just off the Mediterranean tip of Italy.

On this occasion I was being shown around by the 4-5 men of this tiny village with a small, mud walled church.  I could not have been saying much because the language was still quite difficult for me.

 

Sir Charlie saluting The Queen Mother.

 

It was afternoon of a pleasant day.  We are way out in the bush and I remember the land was fairly green.  It was probably the period of the small rains, meaning, say, February or March.   The long rains come in our summer.  This is south of the equator.

At one point the men and I are wandering up a slope on top of which was a fairly large corrugated metal building, probably built by the government to help the villagers store their produce.

 

Offertory, Tom & Aggie & Allen.

 

As we get closer I can hear voices from inside the building and a thud or two.  Maybe the guys escorting me had explained what was going on and I did not understand.

Whatever the case, we are maybe twenty yards from a door at the corner of the building when, all of a sudden, the door opens and a few guys come out and with them staggers a man who has been beater.  He is dressed in nothing more than something like a towel or a skirt.  He has bruises on his shoulders and legs.  Because he is black I can’t see discoloring, but I see wounds. 

 

The Best, Shonda, Bethany, and Ray.

 

He has been caught cattle rustling.  He took one cow that he found out in the countryside near the village and attempted to get away.  He is a skinny older guy and probably not too smart.  They caught him easily. 

After teaching him a lesson, they are planning to walk him to the police station about 40 miles away in Tabora, the larger town I came from.  Along the way they will pass a few small villages where the inhabitants will also beat him.  If he makes it, jail will look pretty good.  And he does make it, I heard later.

 

Can that be a little mouse I see.  Looks like a familiar little mouse.

 

 

When this old guy sees me, he sees a savior and comes toward me with a begging gesture. 

I am ready to throw up and I want to tell the people to stop beating the man.   But I don’t know the language and I feel very awkward because these people are hosting me.  I feel paralyzed.

What do I do?   I did nothing.  And I was haunted by my doing nothing for years.  I had to forgive myself somewhere along the years.

 

Long time best buddies, Leo and John

 

Two lessons for me here. 

1.  Which is better, justice according to the law or compassion?
2. What do I do if I chicken out? 

 

Anybody recognize this foot?  Looks like it belongs to That Mouse.

 

Readings: 2 Samuel 12, 7-13; Psalm 32, Lord, Forgive the Wrong I have done: Galatians 2, 16, 19-21; Luke 7, 36-8, 3.

 

Sunday Homily 6-13-10, 11^th Ordinary Time

 

Preliminary observations:

The First reading today is from the Second Book of Samuel and it is about King David.  The Jewish people had reached a time in their history when they wanted to be just like their neighbors, who all had kings!! 

 

 

 

The prophets viewed it as not a good thing but basically we find Yahweh saying “let them have their king”, and so Saul is the first king and he is followed by David.  David is one of those huge figures in the Old Testament, and even gets mentioned frequently in the New Testament since Jesus was from the house of David. 

 

 

King David was a very interesting character, very human and very much loved by Yahweh.  The time frame for this is about the year 1000 BCE.  Before we listen to today’s reading I need to set it up.  The Book of Samuel, if it were being reviewed today by those who do those things would get an “Adult Only” rating.  I don’t want you to let your kids read this book, it is full of sinning and murder and other bad stuff!!

 

 

One day David is out walking around on the roof of his palace and he sees Bathseba bathing.  He takes a fancy to her, but she is already married.  No problem if you are the king.  He simply has her husband Uriah sent to the front lines of a battle where he is killed.  Getting a woman to be your wife this way is not good, even if you are the king, and God gets a little upset!!  Now just before our passage today we have the following piece in the Book of Samuel and I want to read it to you.

 

 

“The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: "Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor.  The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers.  But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. 

 

 

Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor."

 

 

 

David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death!  He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity." 

 

 

Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul.  I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.  Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.  Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.'”

 

 

Our Second Reading is Paul to the Galatians, and Paul is very upset.  Remember first that Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Initially in the early community the thinking had been that when someone who was a Gentile became a Christian all they had to do was be baptized, then the requirement to become a Jew was added, namely circumcision. 

 

 

Paul had come to the opinion, based on his revelation of the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, that baptism was all that was needed.  There was a whole lot of friction between Paul and the Church in Jerusalem who felt that Sabbath Observance, Dietary Laws and Circumcision were required.  In today’s reading we hear a phrase from Paul, “justified by works of the Law” that meant obeying the Torah law.  For Paul, having Christ in him was all that was needed, namely having a relationship with Christ.

 

 

Eleventh Sunday – Homily

 

 

The message today is primarily about forgiveness, but I want to begin before forgiveness with a session on sin, which I am an expert on!!  Because the practice of frequent confession seems to have disappeared there is a danger that we could lull ourselves into thinking that sin too has gone away, and I’m afraid that this would be a big mistake on our part.  Lets start with what sin is. 

 

 

Any action, which damages our relationship, either with God or another person, is sinful.  Now that kind of statement is pretty sterile on its own, so lets try to put some flesh on it.  Imagine you have someone in your life who loves you very very much.  Now you have done something, which hurts them, accidentally or not, it doesn’t ever matter.  Imagine how you would feel. 

 

 

The problem with our sins is that I’m afraid we don’t realize how much we are loved by God, for some reason it just doesn’t really sink in enough, because if it did, then sin would devastate us.  It seems to me that woman in our Gospel was very aware of what her sins were doing.  For some unexplained reason, maybe listening to Jesus speak somewhere, and it hit her.  We clearly see her response. 

 

 

David has a clear vision of his sin.  Paul is taking the position that if Christ is living in us, than we are alright, we are forgiven, and we don’t need to be doing extra things.  The hard piece for us to understand is that God’s love for us is so great that we are forgiven, even before we ask for forgiveness.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for sin.  We know there are.  David’s son died because of his father’s sin, the woman in the gospel story was an outcast in her society. 

 

 

The lesson for me in today’s liturgy of the word is how closely am I aware of my sins, and the need to change sinful behavior?  Just because I am forgiven thru God’s love doesn’t mean I can just continue to sin.  If I truly love someone, would I want to continue hurting them just because they readily forgave me?

 

 

Picture 1:  Mass Begins, welcome!

 

Picture 2:  Communion, Tony, Richard Baack & Richard Froebe

 

Picture 3:  Communion, Tom Fleming & Teresa Read

 

Picture 4:  Fred & Maureen