Sunday Homily, April 17, 2016, 4th Easter
Readings:
Acts 13, 14, 43-52, Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga.
Psalm 100, We are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Revelation 7, 9, 14-17, I, John, had a great vision.
John 21, 19-31, My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
Genevieve welcomes all you folks and says, "Welcome in!" Guess who is 1 year old.
Genevieve in May 2015.
Acts observations:
More of the same, Paul's travels.
Kevin, too, says, "Come in, Everybody. It is only rain out there. Not even any hail. Just a bit of flooding. No need for an ark yet."
We are a Team
Boston Marathon is tomorrow. Who is going from our community? Tom & Lynda. Paul & Carrie did it last year.
See the article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday? About Carol Ann Taylor running for her husband Sterling Proctor. Sterling is, or was, a CO hiker and a French horn player in the F.W. Symphony. He also biked The Lake, White Rock.
He now has a worsening degenerative muscle condition that has him relegated to an electric wheel chair.
The Great Candle Lighter at work. Do not disturb.
Carol Ann, Sterling’s wife, is running The Boston to earn money for more research into Sterling’s condition. It is her first. She runs “for my heart, for my Sterling,” she said.
The reporter noted how they listened to each other, how they were in sync with each other. When they said of themselves, “We are a team,” I thought they have The Karma. They are a team. Carol Ann runs tomorrow and Sterling will watch via satellite.
Rosemary & I know another couple who has had The Karma, Carl & Barbara Castille.
Offertory, John & Jim, Karen & John. Thanks.
Carl is one of my best Jesuit buddies. Carl is a Cajun (like you, John), growing up near Opelousas, LA. We entered the Jesuits together in 1958 (60 years this 2018), and we lived together in the same large houses for 7 years.
Carl was coming to our Spring Hill College reunion last weekend. He & Barbara live in a suburb of Pittsburg. He had come early to visit his family around Opelousas. I knew Carl had attempted and failed to book into the same Fairfield Inn as I and my companion, Francis Vanderwall, the guy who spoke to us some years ago. So I did not really notice Carl’s absence the first night.
The Best, Mary & Bethany & Ray.
Somewhere during Saturday we heard that Carl had returned to Pittsburg because Barbara had a stroke and was hospitalized. The guys and I, we were all stunned. I began to phone. In fact, the first time I phoned I got Barbara’s phone with her voice message.
Day by day I called, mostly talking to Robbie, their son who was handling the phone. And day by day Barbara got worse. She had more strokes and Robbie said each day that she was losing ground. At one point Robbie told me that Barbara was going into Hospice and that the family was telling her she did not have to fight to stay alive. She could let loose. Finally I was home and called again. This time Carl answered and said Barbara had died.
The A Team, including Buddy.
I was in tears, Carl was in tears, and we could hardly speak. Barbara and Carl had The Karma. Rosemary & I could sense it when we stayed with them last year in Pittsburg. They were a team like Carol Ann and Sterling.
Carl is a Good Karma guy. He has other teams he can rely on, like their 3 grown kids. I hope to help out, even from a distance.
Sisters, Victoria and Zoe.
I would suggest that we all need to be part of a team. Rosemary & I are a team. I would also suggest that we have a team in this community. I am humbled by this every time we come together and I am grateful.
And you. Who makes up your Team?
The Butterlies, caught in the act of having too much fun at Mass, Kara, Denise, and James.