Sunday Homily for September 9, 2018, 23rd Ordinary Time, B cycle

Readings: 1 Kings 19, 9-13 (or 1-15); Psalm 85; Romans 9, 1-5; Matthew 14, 22-33.

1 Kings:  Even though 1 Kings focuses mostly on King Solomon & his accomplishments, the latter half of the work shows how at Solomon's death the kingdom split into two hostile & petty states, Israel in the north & Judah in the south around Jerusalem. 

As I have pointed out concerning prophets, Elijah condemns the behavior, especially of the rulers, and promises punishment.  I am going to have all of chapter 19 read, because it is an interesting story.

In chapter 18 Elijah has had a faith duel with 450 prophets of another god, Baal, a god whom the  king of Judah, Ahab honored.  Elijah not only triumphs over the 450, he also kills them all.  Ahab is impressed and spooked.  But not his wife, the famous Jezebel.  She wants to kill Elijah and tells him so. 

Elijah is so afraid he runs away and wants to die.  Along the way Yahweh meets up with him and invites hims to hike up the mountain of Sinai (Horeb).  Here is what happens on the mountain.

The Whispering Sound

Just like Elijah and just like Jesus in the Gospel,  7 of us have been to the mountain the past two weeks.  We have felt the wind, felt the earthquake, and felt the fire.

On our first day in we had to go about 6 miles from a place called Rowell Meadow to a camp area called Comanche Meadow.  There was a bear box at the campsite.  It was a long, hot uphill hike all day.  We were carrying food for 8 days in packs that ranged from fifty plus pounds to seventy.  The wind was what we did not have in our lungs. 

We spent two nights at Comanche, a third night at Roaring River, and the fourth night at Upper Ranger Meadow, one of the most beautiful campsites, beautiful because it was a lush moraine with groves of pine & fir surrounded by a cirque at the head, cliffs on two sides, and the valley we had climbed out of behind.  We camped as usual by a mountain stream.

Next morning we got up before dark at 5:00 and started a 2 thousand foot climb up 11 thousand foot Elizabeth Pass.  We left early to take advantage of the cool early hours and to get to our next campsite in the middle of the afternoon instead of night.  It was on the ascent of Elizabeth that we felt the fire, in our legs.  There were steps four feet high in the trail and always up, up, and up some more.   The legs & hips would scream, "Enough."  But up we went steadily to the top, arriving around 11:00. 

At this point one thinks, "I got it made now."  No way.  We had to descend 3 thousand feet in 3 miles.  This is the dangerous part because it is easier to slip on a loose rock or gravel and fall down.  Our packs were lighter, but here we felt the earthquake when we stepped off a step so high we had to turn sideways.  Boom, you land on one foot and the earth quakes right through the bones.

Finally, about 5:00 we all reached an unplanned campsite beside a mountain stream and decided to go no further.  We were all gassed and ready to set down for a two nighter in the same campsite.

This was how we felt in our bodies the wind, the fire, and the earthquake.  Unlike Elijah, for me, God was in all three.  Connected to all was beauty, exhilaration, and the awareness of the privilege it is to be able to hike through such remote high sierra spectacle. 

For me also there was the whispering sound, the small voice.  Almost every day we would hear the sound of a jet flying overhead, perhaps heading to or from Oakland-San Francisco.  Frequently, I would search the sky, following the sound trail to find the tiny silver tube hurtling through the heavens.  Almost never did I see them  When I did see one, it was so small, so insignificant.  Yet, I knew that inside that little dart people like me were snoozing, reading, looking at the mountains below them, and totally unaware of me.  I had been in those darts and would be in one again in a few days.  I had such a feeling of smallness in the universe.  A blessing.

The blessing was doubled Thursday when I got into one of the little darts, which at Fresno looked pretty big.  I ended up in row 19 and in row 17 was a young family with a little boy about 4 or 5 and a little girl just learning to walk.  The little boy busied himself with stuff in his seat next to his father.  But the girl needed to move around, which the parents allowed.  She walked up the aisle, she crawled down the aisle.  And the parents watched over her, as did we all.  The gentleness of the parents juxtaposed upon my reflection that I was in the little insignificant dart moved me.  I could see me from below searching for this little dart by following its sound and I could likewise view the treasure of the family. 

Once I told the husband and once I told them both that I admired they way they played with their kids. 

Jesus went up the mountain to pray.  Elijah went up to meet the lord.  We 7 went up the mountain.  Unlike Elijah I found him in all the elements, the wind, the fire, the earthquake, and the whispering sound.

Where do you find him?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-08-10.mp3

 Readings:

Jeremiah 1, 4-5, 17-19,  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.

Psalm 71,  I will sing of your salvation.

1 Corinthians 13, 4-13, Love is patient, love is kind.

Luke 4, 21-30, No prophet is accepted in his own native place.

For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use,

The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).  

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.  

Buying a bible?  The Jerusalem Bible.

The Reads, Taylor, Teresa, and Doug.

 Jeremiah observations:

Who:  One of the Big 3 and my second favorite behind Isaiah, whom we will hear from next Sunday.  Why a favorite: because he shares his feelings with gusto. 

Time:  you can guess it, before and during the Babylonian Captivity.  Notice how much prophetic energy is concentrated around this one event?  Shows how big it was in Jewish history.  Keep 500 before Christ as the beacon date.  

What: you can guess this, too.  Criticism of behavior, warning of punishment from God, and eventually a better day.

What today: Jeremiah’s call by God to be his man, really Everyperson’s call to be God’s special.  This call theme carries through our next 2 readings, especially the next one, The Big One.

Georgie arriving with free hugs.

 1 Corinthians, 13 

Here it is: Paul’s famous treatise on what love is.   

I used to get 1 Corinthians 13 fatigue, I heard it so often at weddings.  Lately, however, I appreciate it more because I never cease to need to be reminded of what love involves.   

Karina with her little doggy, Pelusa

 The Greatest of these is love.

When I returned from East Africa in May of ’86, I decided to study Spanish because I wanted to stay in Texas.  Plus, I discovered I had a gift for languages in East Africa learning Swahili.  So I went to Cuernavaca, Mexico where I spent 2 five week periods. 

The second 5 week period I stayed in the small house of a lady named Maria Luisa.  She had a crippled daughter named Karina.  Maria Luisa had two Mexican girls renting a little space in her house.  One of these girls was one of our teachers at the language institute.  I stayed in a little hut in the back and I stayed there because I wanted to live with people who spoke only Spanish.

Karina at the grave of her mom, Maria Luisa, who died last year in a car accident after surviving 3 cases of cancer. The little fenced area contains also the parents of Maria Luisa. An old cemetary in Cuernavaca.

When I returned to the States after running the Mexico City Marathon in September of ‘86, I continued to keep in contact with mother & daughter. A year or so later they lost their little house and had to move into the garage which had been an attached part of the house. 

Year by year I used to visit them, usually around Christmas when Rosemary & I would take a break in Mexico.  I think what started me helping the two women was when Karina fell down at some point, broke the apparatus she wears on her withered left leg, and did not have the money to buy a new one. 

CC and Emma.

Each Christmas we would visit with hopefully enough money to help them get through the year.  With the help of numerous people at St. Mark’s and then our community from 2004, I gave them as much as $2400 a year,$200 per month.    This was especially true when Maria Luisa started coming down with what turned out to be 3 cases of cancer. 

Six year ago, as Karina reminded me, we brought an extra thousand to help them establish a small shop.  They did and we were able to back off the support.  However, there were times when Maria Luisa was hospitalized and dependent upon Karina.  These times the shop did not get opened and I would help them with maybe a thousand. 

Sisters, CC and Kayla arriving.

This past fall, after having survived 3 cases of cancer, Maria Luisa was killed in a car accident.  Karina was panicked.  In fact, she feared she was going to be kicked out of the garage.  I sent her $600 and she seemed to level out.

Though I did not expect to get to visit Mexico again this year because of the rising cost of air fares, Rosemary & I decided I needed to check on the woman.  And so I went last Monday, coming home Friday.  Three points came up.

Zoe arrives.

1.  It was excellent that I went.  The visit calmed and encouraged Karina.  I gave her $700. 
2. She said she is afraid she cannot run the shop alone, is looking at selling out, closing, and taking up cleaning houses in her neighborhood.  There are some middle class homes in the area.
3. I asked her what can I help her with so that she can get her peace back.  Reluctantly, she said $2000 will help her clear all the bills from her mother and her own apparatus recently broke.  Then she won’t fear getting kicked out of her garage, which she says that she owns. 

Brother and Sister, James and Kara arrive.

For my part, I told her I would consult about the money.  I also suggested that now was the time in her life at 45 when she could put to use her considerable mental capabilities.  I suggested, too, that she broaden her contacts, especially with a couple of influential women I personally know in Cuernavaca who would empathize with her.

Why do this?  Why not work to alleviate the suffering of the thousands running from Syria or even poverty in Mexico?  Mostly I have never known how.  But I do know I can help a person here or there whom I care for.  I can show my love for one.  I don’t know how to do it for thousands.

“The greatest of these is love,” says Paul.  You people in this community are good at this.  But I will ask anyway, ‘To whom are you showing your love?’

Dembneys, Chris, Kate, and Susan arriving.

"Welcome in, Everybody," says our dear Michelle, The Great Mom.

Readings:

Isaiah 40, 1-5, 9-11,   Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God

Psalm 85,  Lord, let us see you kindness and grant us your salvation.

2 Peter 3, 8-14,  One day with the Lord is like a thousand years.

Mark, 1, 1-,  He will prepare your way.

Christmas Eve Mass, 12/24/17 at 4:00.

Our Dearest Candle Lighter, Emma, at work bringing us light.

Observations on Isaiah

Who: number 2 Isaiah, my favorite and a bringer of peace and consolation.  This is despite the fact that Isaiah 2 is composing during the time of the Babylonian Captivity.

If you are familiar with Handel’s Messiah, you will recognize lines he took directly from this passage.  

Watch out for a line in the letter of Peter, where God is compared to a thief who will come unexpectedly and send you to a bad place.

Thanks for the help with the Offertory, Teresa & Tom, and Leo in the back.

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief

In the spirit of Advent I want to tell you three stories about how the thief came to me in the past week.  This is my kind of thief, one who brings peace and consolation.

The Best Music with Shonda, Ben, & David.
 

There is a person who lives in a suburb not far from our community gathering place here at Sigler Elementary.  In this neighborhood the Dallas Morning News is delivered every morning at 6:10.  The paper is thrown into the lawn from a passing car or pick-up (not like in my days as a paper boy when I walked and took pride in placing the paper right at the front door).  In the neighborhood the first person to fetch the paper walks around and delivers everyone’s paper to their doorstep.  Pretty cool.

This past Friday morning this person was ready to do the paper delivery, stepped out, and behold, his paper had already been delivered by a neighbor.  This is getting merit by intention, an old Catholic grade school teaching of the Ursuline nuns.  The person?  Our Mike Carroll, a thief who regularly brings peace and consolation to all.

Communion ready, Claire & Sandra, Geri & Mike & Patricia.

The name of second thief is unknown.  Andy Sokolowski, one of our stalwart backpackers, told me this.  He & his wife were in their RV looking for a special park in Arizona.  They cannot find it, are sitting at the edge of the road looking at their map, and up comes a black guy who asks if they are lost. 

Yes!  The guy explains how to get to the park, which involves about half a dozen turns on little roads.  A couple of miles down their road, they are lost again. 

The real thieves at the Love for Kids picnic bringing peace and consolation.

But, behind them comes the thief bringing peace and consolation.  He offers to personally lead them to the park.  The thief of peace and consolation has struck again.

The third even took place yesterday, yes, the Great Love for Kids picnic at the large ranch west of Flower Mound.  The picnic invites kids from DISD and other school districts.  The schools are mostly from low income neighborhoods.

Those thieves were everywhere.   This young teacher is lacing up the shoe of one of her little charges.

Saturday 30 plus buses delivered a thousand pumped kids to a whole swarm of activities.  I watched those kids come into the big rectangular pavilion.  They were so excited.   Immediately they were welcomed with music and special middle school kids who sang and invited the kids to dance.  One the stage was even a Downs Syndrome girl who could really dance.

Waiting for them were bags of pop corn, kool-ade, face painting and tatoos, horse back rides, and  lunch.  Plus more music and dancing.  Every kid got a new winter coat and they were not all alike.  When the kids got back on their buses, guess what they found. A package of goodies had been put on every seat in every bus.

Welcome, All You Kids.

Who made this all possible and did all the work?  A whole big gang of volunteers , among them a big bunch from our community.  They struck again, those thieves of peace and consolation.

To whom are you a thief bringing peace and consolation?

These kids looked like middle school level, but could they all sing and dance, and get everyone else dancing.

Says Our Dear Emma, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Readings:

Isaiah 56, 6-9,  Seek the Lord while he may be found. (Isaiah 2)

Psalm 145,   The Lord is near to all who call upon him

Phlippians 1, 20-24 &27,  Conduct yourself in a way worthy of the gospel.

Matthew 20, 1-16,  The vineyard owner and how he compensated his laborers, The last shall be first; the first last. 

And likewise from our dear Sophia, "Come in, Folks, it is fun here."

Isaiah 55  observations—

Who:  My favorite prophet.  In fact , Isaiah 2 is my favorite of the 3 composers of the Book of Isaiah, and our selection today is the very last chapter of Isaiah 2.

When: remember these 3 writers wrote more or less before, during, and after the Great Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555 before Christ.  So, we can guess that today’s selection from Isaiah 2 comes from the time during the Captivity.

What:  Isaiah 2 has some of the best and most beautifully consoling passages. Check out The Messiah. Unfortunately, our little selection today talks about scoundrels and the wicked, in other words, about us.   Maybe these people are mentioned in connection with the people who grumble in the Gospel today.  See what you think.  

And not to be outdone by her daughter and Sophia, our dear Beth says, "Better hurry up and get a seat before these two girls take over."

That is not Fair!

This morning, Folks, I would like to talk about these workers hired by the vineyard owner.  We hear how the workers who worked all day got the same wages as those who worked one hour and we want to yell, “Hey!  That is not fair!” 

Want to know what this parable is basically saying?  Two things.  First, it is all Gift.  Everything is Gift.  Secondly, negative comparison is poison.  “How come he got this and I did not?”  “How come I got sick and he did not?”  Our lives are all Gift.  Comparing myself with others poisons my spirit.

The Best Music, plus with good news.

A story about one of my best long time friends to illustrate. 

I think I asked this last week.  Anybody remember Myron & Chris Hubble from St. Mark’s? 

I first met Myron around 1995.  In those days I had a men’s group.  We met probably every other Wednesday or Thursday evening for an hour or two.  The question: what has been your blessing or gift since our last meeting?  Or whatever a person wanted to talk about. 

Sez Buddy, "Okay, let's get to the fun part (cupcakes)."

We had maybe 20 guys plus or minus.  Everybody sat on the carpeted floor of my little office in the Jesuit residence at Jesuit.   Myron was one of the first members.

I remember Myron as a really nice looking guy, soft spoken, very emphatic and  tuned into everyone who spoke.  He had a beautiful wife in Chris and two beautiful kids, Jon and Emily.  I did Emily’s wedding some years back, to a marvelous boy, who is Jewish. 

The family had a nice home in Plano and Myron had worked at TI.  He was probably in his 40’s.  He was retired. 

Our Candle Lighter of The Week in action.

Want to know why he was retired?  He had hepatitis C.

Want to know where he got it?  Maybe connected with Viet Nam.  Myron had been a medic during Viet Nam.  He worked with the wounded coming back when they arrived in Tacoma.  Want to know what it was like in Viet Nam?  Check out Ken Burns’ epic now half way through the two week event.  Tonight features the Tet Offensive of 1969 more or less.  Burns’ project is mind numbing & shocking. 

Let me tell you, Myron’s hepatitis ruined his beautiful life.  Not only could he not work.  But every morning he would painfully roll out of bed and throw up.  This went on for years.

Welcome in, Jim Shropshire.  You got a lot of courage to come visit your old teacher from Jesuit.  And this guy used to be a great athlete, a football player.

Recently Myron fell down on the front stairs of his house and broke numerous bones.  He went to the hospital where the bones cannot be dealt with because of the hepatitis.  He asked for me.  Chris called me and I went right away.  Myron tells me his liver is gone and his kidneys are going fast.  He will follow. 

Why not me instead of Myron?  I could have ended up in Viet Nam, if not for being in the Jesuits.  I’ll say it again.  It is all gift.  Gratitude is the response.

What are you grateful for?

Hey, Mike, this cupcake is guaranteed to help you heal your knee, your foot, your elbow, and all the other places you are falling apart.  Enjoy!

Readings:

Leviticus 19, 1-2,  17-18,  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.   

 Psalm 103,  The Lord is kind and merciful. (Stanza 2, one of the best)

 1 Corinthians 3, 16-23,   You are the temple of God.

 Matthew 5, 38-48,    Love your enemies.

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Olivia and her dad, Cory.

Observations on Leviticus

What :  the 3rd book of the Bible and one of the 5 books of the Torah.

Who:  a compilation of sayings accumulated over centuries, not Moses, as was thought for some years.

Date: sometime after the Exile in Babylon, ca. 555 before Christ.

"Don't forget me," says Tori, "Come in, Folks."
 

Subject:  rules about how to live, how to worship, and the penalties for transgressing.  This is based upon 2 beliefs:

1. The world has been created good, but is vulnerable to sin.
2. Enactment of proper ritual makes God present and ignoring proper ritual compromises the harmony between God & people. 

Some unique rules:

1. Cursing, death.   24.14
2. Unkempt hair, God will smite you.  10.1
3.  You will not tatoo yourself, 19.28
4. Trimming your beard.  19.27
5. Cutting the hair on the sides of your head.  19.27

Today’s Subject:  the best line in the whole work, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   19.18

Sources:  Good News Bible, Wikipedia

The Offertory Team, Bill, Ray, Bernadette, and Richard.

I want to help people.  That’s what I’m for.

Ever hear of a guy named Clarence Griffith?  I read about him in the Dallas Morning News recently.  Three things are unique about him.

1. He was born in 1913.  Know anybody that old?  104 years.
2. When he was 94 he received triple heart bypass at Baylor, Dallas.
3. Ever since his recuperation he regularly goes to console and help people in the Baylor cardiac waiting room.  He gets them coffee, food, and offers them support, praying with them or just letting them talk.  He says,  “That’s what I’m for.  I want to help people.”

Leo, our Candle Lighter of The Week.

For me, Clarence Griffith has accepted that, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.”  Moreover, he is making himself live that image.

Last week we looked at infinite demand that was followed up with promises of hell.  A fear based program.

This week we look at a different infinite demand equally challenging.  The demand is to get rid of fear in our relationship with God using that description, and to help others to do so.

The Team.

This is one of the biggest reasons I have been and am a priest, and even a psychotherapist, to help others get rid of fear in our relationship with God.

Which leads me to three demands presented by Matthew.  If you reflect upon it, these three are a result of knowing that our God is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.

The Wedding, Patricia and John.

First, Matthew says, using his favorite little figure of speech, ‘You have heard it said, but I say to you…’, when someone hits the left side of your face, offer the right and don’t resist the person who is evil. 

Is this insanity or what?  Has it ever been tried?  Yes, you say, by dead people.   Impossible.  This is the message of the pacifist, a person mostly ridiculed by the rest of us.  Know any?  Sure, John Dear, once a Jesuit, Roy Bourgeois, once a Maryknoll. 

I wonder what would happen if we really did this.  I confess I have not been able to get there. 

Congratulations, John, I am so happy when I am not the only one with tears up here.  Must be because you come from Australia.  Double congratulations.  
 

Secondly, give to the person who asks from you.  Another tough one.  How do you feel passing the men & women begging at stop lights?  I, for one, feel horrible, even though I know they have a number of shelters, like The Bridge and Austin St. Shelter.   I can work in those places and know that we as a community help them, but I still feel horrible passing those people on the corner.

Thirdly, love my enemy.  I really don’t have any serious enemies that I know of.

"I, Patricia, take you, John in marriage.  I promise to be true to you in good times and bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love and cherish you all the days of my life."

Despite failure to live up to these demands, which are infinite, our God is still infinitely accepting, specifically gracious and merciful, never get angry and is abounding in love.   Moreover, relevant to our weakness, he says in the following line, “Not according to our sins does he deal with us.”

104 year old Clarence Griffith is showing people this image of God in the Baylor hospital waiting room.

Who shows this image to you?

To whom do you show the image?

 The Kiss.

Readings:  Isaiah 56, 1-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11, 13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15, 21-28.

Romans: For months we have been using as our second reading Paul's letter to the Romans.  I have not mentioned it or even included in the homilies for two reasons:

1. It is not related to the other two readings. The Gospel & the first reading attempt to follow a theme. The second reading continues the same book week after week and if it relates it is accidental.
2. It is dense. 7 letters are considered written by Paul who wrote this one probably around 55 A.D., while he was in Corinth, Greece, and in anticipation of a visit to Rome. It is the most complete statement of his understanding of the Christian faith. Some scholars consider it his masterpiece, but it is often difficult to understand.

The Assumption

This past Friday the Catholic Church celebrated one of its big feast days, the Assumption of Mary into heaven.  The meaning: Mary, after she finished her time on earth, was taken bodily into heaven.  Let me talk about this feast.  4 observations.

1.  The history of the belief.  The idea that Mary was taken up bodily into heaven got going by at least the 5th century.  People thought that she was rewarded for her role in redemption by this action on God's part. 

2.  The history of the declaration.  In November, 1950, Pius XII declared this event to be a dogma of the Catholic Church, that is, you have to believe it if you are a Catholic.   It was the first and only doctrine declared under papal infallibility, a doctrine proclaimed by Pius IX in 1870.

The story behind both of these dates is quite interesting.  1870 is the date of Italian unification.  Up to this time there was no united peninsula, no Italy like today.  There were at least three big parts: north, south, and right in the middle the Papal States. 

The people wanted those states to be part of the whole.  Pius IX was adamantly against ceding an inch of his property.  When the people won the property deal , Pius withdrew into the Vatican, declared himself a prisoner of the Vatican, appealed to France who did not help him, and finally declared that what he said as pope on faith & morals was infallible, despite the advice of the majority of his consul tors.

In 1950 the Second World War was finished and the world was stunned into shock by the revelation of the Holocaust.  Pius XII himself was downcast by the Holocaust.  Moreover, he was getting some heat because he did not stand up more strenuously to Hitler.  He had been Vatican ambassador to Germany during the build up of the Third Reich, so he knew the atmosphere well.  On top of that, there was evidence that at least one senior vatican official was complicit in sending Jews to the death camps. 

Pius XII might have experienced some shame.  In the face of the brutality of the Holocaust, Pius decided to make a dramatic statement to show the sacredness of the human person, body included, by declaring the assumption of Mary's body into heaven a dogma. 

3.  The basis in Scripture for the doctrine.  There is none.  What is taking place here, is that Pius is articulating what has been considered a belief for centuries.  It has been believed for, say, 10-15 centuries.  Therefore, it took place.  There is a weakness here, of course.  What can be asserted a fact without evidence, can be discarded without evidence. 

4.  The Assumption in my life.  50 years ago Friday I walked into the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau, LA.  30 of us entered more or less together.  Two of my classmates celebrated Friday in New Orleans or Mobile when the Jesuit Province gathered to celebrate anniversaries. 

On that day 50 years ago my life took a 180 degree turn from being a typical  bratty teen ager to a monk.  From days spent with friends, girls, music, cars, and radios, I entered a world of silence, meditation, physical work, and study.  Feast days were eagerly anticipated and the Assumption was one of the big ones.  I took vows twice on August 15 and the date is still big with Jesuits.  It comes at a convenient time at the end of the summer and before the school year. 

I still celebrate August 15, and in 2004 I did it in a special way.  You may have heard.  This is the story.  It was earlier that week that I returned from the annual Yosemite trip and was told unexpectedly that I had been suspended by the bishop because of an anonymous letter saying Stack wanted to get married.  Why then?  Who knows?  I had been saying this for years, ever since returning from East Africa.

August 15 that year was a Sunday.  Where was I always on Sunday mornings?  St. Marks.  10:30 that morning, when I would have been starting the cafetorium Mass, Rosemary & I were watering trees at Fretz Park, Belt Line & Hillcrest.  I had gotten out of the truck to repair a tree, got up, and went into a disassociation state that lasted until about 5:00 that evening.  I woke up looking out the bay window of the living room on Tulip Lane.  Rosemary & Libby had taken me to the emergency room, thinking I had a stroke.  I had been released when they found nothing.  It was stress induced.  I have run into this defense mechanism in people over the years as a priest & psychotherapist.  I never thought that I might try it, but you never know totally what your inner spirit is feeling.

The stress, of course, was over getting suspended, being turned away by St. Marks, and facing another 180 degree turn around in my life. 

Guess what: it was all worth it and I could not be happier.  Actually, both 180 degree turns in my life were special blessings. 

The Assumption was the feast Friday.  What do you think about it?  What do you believe?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-08-17.mp3