Sunday Homily, January 17, 2016, 2nd Ordinary Time
Readings:
Isaiah 62, 1-5, The Lord delights in you. (another excellent reading, this time from Isaiah III)
Psalm 96, Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit, different forms of service, but the same Lord. (a good selection)
John 2, 1-11, There was a wedding at Cana. ( a good story)
Harper says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in. It is so nice to be back after a long absence."
Isaiah observations:
When you see that today's selection is from the 62nd chapter, you may pretty easily guess that this is Isaiah III. The last 10 chapters of the work are from Isaiah III, that is, chapters 56-66.
Remember that Isaiah III talks consolation and comfort for the people, most of whom have now returned from the Babylonian Captivity to a destroyed Jerusalem.
"Yep, Welcome Back, Cathy."
What is your gift?
Want to take a trip to East Africa this morning, to my beloved Tanzania? I want to talk a moment about our gifts and forms of service like are mentioned in 1 Corinthians. To exemplify my thinking, I want to tell you a Christmas story that took place ca. 1980. I was tempted to tell you about a wedding I did on the slope of Kilimanjaro, but this is just as good and we have only finished with Christmas a few weeks back.
So, buckle your seat belts and let’s take off.
"Hi, Victoria, Hi, Buddy."
There is a town smack in the middle of Tanzania called Tabora. It was on the east west railroad from Dar es Salaam, the capital, to Lake Tanganyika. The Jesuits staffed a church in Tabora, not large, but with lots of people. It also had about 20 spokes out from the main church, outstation churches built when more expatriate priests were around to man them.
I was at one of these outstations for Advent and Christmas around 1980 to work on my Swahili. Two Maltese Jesuits interns were with me (from the island of Malta, off the island of Sicily). They were what were called scholastics, i.e., learning to be Jesuit priests. Good guys, Joe Xerri and Joe Pulicino.
Want to hear The Best? Shonda, Bethany, Ray, & David.
Later I visited Xerri at his home, not on Malta itself, but the island of Gozo, just off of Malta. He eventually left the Jesuits. Pulicino, got ordained, returned to TZ, worked with refugees, got captured by some Sudanese, and eventually was released.
So we three Jesuits are at this outstation, which was a fairly large, cinder block, rectangular building with a bell, a bell tower, and a corrugated tin roof. I often thought about the priests who built the church and then had to leave it empty somewhere along the way. It must have hurt.
Zoe & Cole at work on our major life problems.
The little town where this church was situated was tiny, just a few houses with tin roofs, maybe even mud walls. The church itself had an outstation, another little village even smaller. I did a funeral in this tiny village and fell into the grave. That scared everybody really good.
The people around the main church had not had a Christmas Mass in ages. They wanted a midnight Mass and we offered to put together a Nativity pageant. They jumped at it and we had a cast of dozens.
And More Problems being solved.
So the night comes. You got to picture the scene. No electricity. We had a few of the old kerosene lanterns. I spent many an evening with those kerosene lanterns. There was no heat other than campfires. Christmas in TZ comes in the middle of the warm & dry season, just opposite to us in the northern regions.
We rang the bell. People were literally camped out all over the place because many had walked for miles. The church filled up. There was plenty of music, basically drumming and shakers, and, of course, great rhythm.
A Cupcake of The Week to Georgie for being a Great Helper.
The one thing I never expected was the wave of June bugs. The church walls were not totally closed, but had sections where cinder blocks with holes were used. With the light in the church in the totally dark night, bugs came from everywhere. Nobody seemed to be bothered in the least.
The Mass lasted probably 2 hours. The Nativity pageant was super. Nobody wanted it to end.
Happy Birthday, Becky.
Why talk about this? Gifts. We had a gift and we shared it with everybody. They had gifts of music and excitement and gratitude. The kids pitched in with the pageant.
You can say that Jesus had a gift and he shared it. Mary, too, had a gift and she shared it, her son.
What gift do you have and how do you share it?
Cupcake of The Week to Cole for being The Candle Lighter of The Week.