Readings:    

1 Kings  17, 10-16,   When we have eaten it, we shall die.

Psalm 146,   Praise the Lord, my soul.

Hebrews 9, 24-28,   He will bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.

Mark 12, 38-44,  A poor widow came and put in two small coins.

Emma & Mom

 Kings:

     Author & date of composition: the work is a compilation of numerous sources put together near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 550.

    Subject Matter: 1 Kings is part of a 4 book work that includes 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings.  The 3 kings are Saul, David, and his son, Solomon.

 The work begins with Samuel, the last great judge, continues through the lives of the 3 kings, and finally shows how Solomon’s sons’ squabbles led to the division of the Jewish nation into two states, north & south, Israel & Judah.  Both states were defeated and the people of Judah taken into the Babylonian Captivity.  It ends on a high note when Cyrus of Persia defeats Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem.

Leo & truck

    The Theme: you be good, good things happen to you; you be bad, bad things happen to you.

    Our selection: 2 great prophets lived when the kingdom divided, Elijah & Elisha.  They criticized the bad ways of the sons.  In this selection, Elijah tells the king he is going to send a drought to the king's land.  Then Elijah goes away & meets a poor, starving widow with a son.  Watch what happens.  This is setting us up for a little widow in the gospel.

Celebrating Verans' Day

   Contribute all I have, my whole livelihood?

I want to talk about a marvelous event I saw take place on a Southwest airplane.  

Last week Rosemary & I went to Chicago to visit a friend of mine since all the way back to our days at Christ the King grade school.  My friend, Pete, he and I parted after high school and we saw each other maybe half a dozen times all these years up until recently.

Bernadette leading The Creed

When I entered the Jesuits in Louisiana, he entered the F.B.I. and worked his whole life in and out of Chicago.  He was always athletic and last year told me he ran the Chicago Marathon 10 times.

So we fly Southwest to Chicago on Tuesday and return Wednesday.  The visit goes fine and we prepare to return home.  When we boarded in Chicago we were a bit nervous because the plane homeward bound was booked solid and we were on standby.  We make it okay.

Torri and her Mom, Michelle

Before arriving at Love Field we make a quick stop in Kansas City.  Half the plane empties, and refills just short of full.  Rather quickly all the new passengers are seated.  The overhead bins are stuffed full and closed.

Rosemary and I are seated two thirds of the way back, together this time.  Everything is copasetic and ready for departure.

Connie

 At this point down the aisle comes a slightly heavy lady.  She is pulling a roll on, max size. 

When she gets to us she sees a flight attendant approaching from the back.   “Where can I place my bag?” she asks. 

Bill Hammond updating us on Bona Responds and accepting our $2,000 check for their relief work in NYC

“I think all the bins are full, Ma’am.  Would you like to check your bag?”

“No,” responds the woman somewhat bluntly. 

Meanwhile the flight attendant is patiently opening and trying to find space, but this lady’s roll on is not small.  And her posture says she is not backing down.  The flight attendant is pleasant but starting to get a bit frustrated.

Amanda being escorted by her mom, Linda

We are at crisis point, I think to myself. 

Then, the most amazing thing happens.  The woman in the aisle seat right across from me and Rosemary says to the flight attendant, “You may check my bag that is overhead and put her bag in my place.” 

I could not believe. 

The Wedding Saturday night

The woman then mentions that she has $20,000 worth of equipment in her bag and she cannot stow it.   It would have helped to know this from the start.  However, the bag in the bin went underneath and the late arriving bag went in the bin.

I talk about this because the woman who offered her bag resembled the two women in the stories.  Both women gave a lot of themselves.

Three observations.

Luciano and Amanda beginning a new life

First, I bet a lot of parishioners are hearing how they should be donating to their parish like this little lady in Mark.   It is a set up.  And it is a really narrow approach to the story.

Secondly, watch out for Mark’s use of infinite demand.  Am I supposed to likewise contribute all I have, my whole livelihood?  Not quite, which leads to my next point.

Thirdly, we are called to help and to contribute, not just money, but so much else, my roll on, my time, my positive strokes of others, my efforts to help people recover from a hurricane, like the St. Bonaventure kids and staff are doing. 

Of course, when leaving that plane I complimented the lady on her offering her roll on to be stowed and I asked the flight attendant her name so I could send in a compliment to corporate, which I did.  That was my small offering to the event.

Owen Gordon's Memorial at Sunset Point on White Rock Lake, Sunday afternoon

Whom are you helping today?

Readings:

Isaiah  55, 10-11,   My word shall not return to me void.

Psalm 65,   The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Romans 8, 18-23,  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains.

Matthew  13, 1-23,  A sower went out to sow.

Kevin says, "Welcome, Everybody, It is good to be back home.

Isaiah, The Great One, observations—

Who:  One of the Big 3 prophets, the greatest in my estimation.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the other two.  Actually, the book includes the work of 3 prophets.   Our selection is the last chapter written by Isaiah 2.

Time:  Isaiah 2 was living during the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.  Isaiah 1 writes before the Captivity, maybe 150 years.  Isaiah 3 writes after the return to Jerusalem.

Georgie also says, "Hi, Everybody, It is fun to be home again."

Subject today: better times will come.  I am expanding today’s passage, because it is so good.

Isaiah 2 has some of the most beautiful passages, many of which are seen as foretelling the coming of the Savior.  His readings are used all through the Advent & Christmas readings, as well as in Lent.  Handel uses Isaiah 2 in his marvelous work, The Messiah.

Both the Isaiah reading and Psalm 65 are beautiful.  

And Zoe, Tori, and Buddy all say, "Hi, Folks, it is so fun to be back again."

And My Seed Landed Where?

This morning I would like to talk about how Jesus is said to describe how the farmer’s seed is scattered on four different types of ground, the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the fertile.  Where did your seed fall?  Where did my seed fall?  I’m sure a lot of volunteers would be happy to let me know where my seed fell.

If you are a sinful gambler poker player you would look at this explanation and notice the bad odds, one out of four.  I would propose, however, that we all landed on fertile soil.  Let me offer some examples. 

I’ve shared this example once before, so you might remember it, but probably not. 

Cupcake of The Week to John on his birthday.

When I was a little kid about 5 years old, I was playing in the driveway of our house in University Park.  There were no fences and the drive went from the street, through the space between our house and the neighbor’s, and to the back up against the alley. 

The neighbor was Sam Berger, who owned a hat store in downtown Dallas.  He was Jewish and lived next to us all during the Holocaust.  I was oblivious to it all.  He & his wife had a big black lady who not only worked in the house, but lived in the back in an apartment attached to the garage, the servant quarters.  This black lady was not nice to me.

And a Cupcake of The Week to Beth on her birthday.

So this day as I am playing in the driveway, the lady steps out of the kitchen door & stands on the steps.  Without thinking, I say, “You are a big fat elephant.”

To the lady’s credit, she marches right across the drive and tells my mom.  My mom comes out of the house, drags me in, and spanks me.  Thinking back, I am impressed that my mom respected the lady.  The spanking, however, and her treatment of me confirmed my suspicions that my seed had fallen at least on the path or rocks, if not right on the thorns.   I definitely grew up with the belief that I was a bad kid. 

And a Cupcake of The Week to Harper for her 3rd birthday about 3 weeks late.

Despite the fact that you folks might agree with that assessment, I would propose that I was just a normal little boy doing silly things. 

This habit of doing silly, not bad things, can continue into adult years.  I know a guy who gets on his bike and rides off for an hour leaving the driver’s door of his car wide upon. 

I know a lady who last week let her Lincoln run out of gas in rush hour traffic.  Her husband, a bit nettled, brought gas, but then could not start the car.  It had to be towed.

Zoe seriously at work.

I know a dear friend who drove into her garage with a canoe strapped to the top of her car. 

You do this stuff and you begin to believe the bad news, ‘I am a loser, I am bad, my seed obviously landed in the ditch.” 

And then there are the malicious acts.  You know where I come in on this.  Kids hurt and abused grow up to hurt and abuse.  They are not bad.  They are damaged. 

So, who landed on fertile soil?  All of us.  God don’t make bad seed.

So, what do you think about all this?

Emma and her pal say, "It is so nice to be here."

Readings:

Ezekiel  18, 25-28,  Is it my way that is not fair?

 Psalm 25,   Remember your mercies, Oh Lord.

Philippians 2, 1-11,  God greatly exalted him.

Matthew 20, 1-16,  The man who had two sons. 

Homily by John Cade

Homily:  I want to focus today on Jesus’ teaching that God is now and was always with us, and how we can see God. There’s that Bible verse in today’s Responsorial Psalm 86 vs.5 that says “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.” Stack has said it’s his favorite line in the Bible.  I decided to google this verse and found the same words in multiple places in the Bible.  Psalm 145: vs. 8-9 has exactly the same lines. And Psalm 103 vs. 8 has the same.  And it’s not just in the Psalms.  The Book of Exodus Ch. 34, verse 6 reads, “The Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” The Book of Joel Ch. 2, verse 13 has exactly the same line. And the Book of Jonah Ch. 4, verse 2 has the same.

The take-away from those verses that describe God as “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness,” could be that whenever we see those traits and those behaviors, we are seeing God.  Jesus’ said the kingdom of God is here, and is experienced when we share mercy and kindness with one another.

On July 4^th I joined a group of family and friends for the Fair Park fireworks display. At the end of the evening Leo & Freddie, seeing fireworks for the first time, said, “This was the coolest ever.”

Later I remembered some of what I saw and experienced about being gracious and showing kindness.

1. I got to Fair Park early and walked around, then sat on a bench eating a corn dog slathered with mustard. I saw a woman walking with 2 children and an infant in a stroller. The little one dropped a stuffed toy to the ground. Another woman saw it and, noticing the mother hadn’t seen it happen, called out to her and pointed to it.  They made eye contact and I saw them connect with a smile as the mother picked up the toy. This was a brief but gracious human contact.
2. At one point after our group got together at the lagoon, my nephew Merik, offered to take Leo and Freddie on a walk around the lagoon. He entertained them for 30 or 40 minutes, and his act of kindness allowed the other adults time to visit.
3. Gina, a close friend of my daughters Joey and Sam, came with her husband and 2 daughters, who are a little older than my grandsons. Gina thought about the 4 kids who would be there and brought snacks for all of them and also light sticks to make necklaces or bracelets or, like Freddie, just to wave around. The kids loved it and I took note of her thoughtful kindness.
4. Most of the group had gotten snow cones while walking around. So I decided to get in line for a snow cone for myself (I was told that there were sugar free ones) and for Gina’s daughter who had missed out on one. It was a really long line of more than 30 people. After a while I struck up a conversation with a woman in line. Later another woman, also in line, joined in the conversation. At one point the latter woman, who was sort of ahead of me and the first women (line not straight but uneven), offered that we both go ahead of her. Of course by this point we had all been in line a long time and had tired feet. That was another act of kindness and mercy.

My question: when have you seen God lately?  And when do others see God in you?

Readings: Isaiah 35, 1-10; Psalm 146, Lord, Come and Save Us; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11. 

Intro to Readings

 Remember what I had said on the First Sunday of Advent, it is a time when the Church turns towards not just the coming of Jesus at Christmas but gives greater focus on the Second coming of Jesus at the end time.  We can see this very clearly in our readings today.  It is a common theme; “when is the world going to end?”  “what will be the signs?”  For the Jews there was an expectation that it was when all wrongs would be made right.  

The second reading is interesting.  It is a letter from James.  There has been much speculation on who this James is.  The apostle James or the James mentioned as the ‘brother of the Lord’.  We just don’t know and there are different supporters for each position.  The letter is more like a sermon than a typical letter from the time.  The main purpose of the letter seems to be to warn the hearers of the danger of having just an abstract faith.  Faith must be implemented in every action of our lives.  It can become too easy to make it theory and nothing more.

 The responsorial psalm is worth thinking about carefully.  It too picks up the same theme of the results of God’s activity in human lives!

Homily

 This past week the Church celebrated two big feasts, on Wednesday it was the Immaculate Conception and then today Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Certainly a big week for Mary.  The Immaculate Conception is a statement about Mary’s birth, namely that she was conceived to be free from sin.  I am not too sure what to make of that statement, but it is the Church’s way of honoring her as the mother of Jesus.  As we get closer to Christmas I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting with you on what Christmas might mean for us today.

 I remember many years ago reading a book on Quantum Mechanics and it was examining the question whether light traveled as a wave or a particle!!  A great book!  The feast of the Incarnation, namely God becoming human, is one of those events beyond our ability to understand.  I am sorry to have to keep saying it but God is way outside our ability to comprehend. 

The Jews were smart when they basically adopted the use of the name Yahweh without the vowels, in other words a name you could not say.  It sounds like something JK Rowling dreamed up for the Harry Potter world!  And yet our faith has gone to the trouble of coming out with proclamations about God in great detail.  One of the great blessings of both Luke and Matthew’s infancy stories about the birth of Jesus is that they are very easy to understand, which is what makes Christmas a wonderful event!  We can all relate to a baby’s birth, in fact we have all gone thru one!!

 The insight I have had this past few weeks was that since God is outside of time, then that event, God becoming human, even though it was an event in our experience that happened over two thousand years ago, since God is outside of time, it is an event which is always happening for God!  Look around you.  God is present in each one of us.  We have been given clues by Jesus of this:  remember “where two or three are gathered” or “as often as you did it for one of these”. 

 In Jesus’s response to John’s disciples he tells them to go back to John and tell him what they see, and there is almost a direct quote from our first reading from Isaiah about the blind seeing etc.  Remember last Sunday John sharing about his Jesuit friend Fr. Larry Gillick.  His blindness was taken away by his Jesuit colleagues who read to him and helped  him so that he could pass the exams!  Maybe that is how the blind see!!

 This Christmas, as we go about our busy days, trying to get too much done in too little time, pause!  Not only are the people you meet bringing God into your life, but you are also bringing God into theirs.  It may be that you will have an opportunity to help the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news preached to them.

Picture 1:    Mass begins

Picture 2:   Eleanor with her grand dad

Picture 3:   Dillon lighting the candles

Picture 4:   Our Father

Picture 5:   Ben & Amanda

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.

Joshua 24, 1-18; Psalm 34, Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord; Ephesians 5, 21-32 ; John 6, 60-69.

Joshua:

Who is Joshua and what is this booklet about:  Joshua was Moses' assistant, his lieutenant when the the Israelites wandered in the desert.  The booklet is the story of the Israelite invasion of Canaan under Joshua's leadership. 

Author: somewhat amusingly, the fundamentalists say that Joshua wrote most of the booklet.  More scientific scholars say the work is a compilation of a number of sources.

Date of composition: again fundamentalists state that the booklet was composed 1400-1370, i.e., while Joshua lived.  Scholars of a broader vision suggest that even if a Joshua existed the work was put together 800-700 BCE. 

The work combines a number of traditions about battles & destruction of cities to create a nationalistic narrative that justifies the Israelites' taking another peoples' land for their own.  Like kids say, 'He made me do it.'  Here the Israelites are saying, 'Yahweh made me do it.'

Ethical Question: genocide.  This is a bloody book.  Yahweh commands that the Israelites exterminate every breathing thing, including women & children & livestock. 

The battle of Jericho is characteristic.  For 6 days the Israelites marched around the city, blowing horns and menacing the people.  On day 7 they marched around 7 times and the walls came tumbling down, as in the spiritual.  Then every person except one woman & her family were slaughtered.  Lots of debate and rationalization over these events.

Our Selection: The last chapter of the booklet.  Joshua, who is dying, calls the people together at a place called Sechem and puts it to them.  Stick with Yahweh who has done all these things for you (which are mentioned in the text but are long & tedious) or choose another path of your own.

Sources: Good News Bible, Got Questions.org, Wikipedia

Ephesians:  Got to say a word about this selection because it involves some pretty amusing observations from Paul.  For instance, the famous statements, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord."  "The husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church."

Some years ago while I was waiting in a line to ride the roller coaster at 6 Flags I overheard a husband telling his wife to obey him because of this passage.  I almost dropped my teeth.

Some perspective: Traditionally there are three types of relationships.

    1.  Matriarchal: the woman/wife is the head of the family.  Culturally this has been established.

    2.  Patriarchal: the husband is the head. 

    3.  Equality: both are partners, husband and wife. 

Paul's place: guess which paradigm Paul comes from?  Paul lives in a culture which considered women & children little more than domestic animals.  In Tanzania I found the same paradigm among the ordinary people.  Even though today Paul can sound wako & chauvanistic, what he says about husbands loving their wives as they love their own bodies, this was pretty radical.

Today: all three of the paradigms are valid.  Among most educated people, however, equality between husband & wife, men & women is the most healthy for all involved.

Peter McGinn, 1948-2009

It was mid February when Rosemary first got word that Peter her brother was infected with amiloidosis, a rare and virulent infection that strikes mostly men 60-65.  Peter was 60. 

It was mid March, after enduring a menu of chemo for a month, that Peter & his wife Marilyn decided to go recuperate at their house in Hilton Head, in a plantation near to Joe & Clare, Rosemary's sister & brother in law.  We decided at the last minute to fly over there to see Peter, it being easier than to visit him in Binghamton, NY.  This was the last time we would see him. 

He died this past Monday morning after finding out that the amiloidosis had begun to attack his lungs, that he could not endure a heart transplant, and that he was simply being kept alive by meds & machines.  After visiting with his two adult daughters & Marilyn Saturday evening and Sunday morning, Peter chose to cease all meds and machine aids that Sunday afternoon.  About 15 hours later he died peacefully. 

I wanted to speak about him because of at least three reasons I admired him and felt quite a kinship, not just of family, but of spirit. 

First, his love of psychology & intelligent spirituality.  He got his doctorate in psych at Johns Hopkins and used it in creative ways.  He was the CEO of United Health Services.  He was the kind of CEO who would eat in the hospital cafeteria, asking random groups, like the nursing staff or the maintenance staff if he might join them for lunch.

As a psychologist he was a teacher & a systems man.  In fact, I used to laugh.  He would send me articles each month.  And he asked me to review his latest book.  I would read a title like 'Ways to facilitate communication with your board.'  I open the article and he had 23 points.  I would send him a note saying, "Too much."  As you know, I lean toward systems myself, but after 3 or 4 I am exhausted. 

Secondly, I loved Peter because he was a biker.  A bicycle rider.  In fact, we had planned a bike ride in Hilton Head which he could not manage because he was too weak.  This was only symptomatic of his dedication to being a well rounded man, a renaissance man like we used to try to model ourselves in the Jesuits.  He was intellectually & physically, psychologically & spiritual balanced.  I see it as the basis for his peace and acceptance of his ultimate path.

Thirdly, he taught a platinum rule.  Not just the golden rule, which says, 'treat others as you would have them treat you.'  The platinum rule is, 'Treat others as they would like to be treated."  He had 23 reason why this was more effective. 

Significantly, according to what I'm told, he practiced the platinum rule even in the hours after he had ceased life support.  As doctors & staff stopped by his room, he thanked each one, mentioning how they had touched him. 

Tomorrow morning, Monday, Rosemary & I will attend a family only memorial in Binghamton.  A month from now a large open to all his friends memorial will be scheduled and we will attend. 

Who is the Peter McGinn in your life?

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & T.J.

Picture 2:  Choir, Wendy, Ray, & Celeste

Picture 3:  Peter McGinn

Picture 4:  Peter McGinn–

The two charities that Dad favored in lieu of flowers are Seva and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier.  They are both online, Seva.org, and foodbankst.org.  Rosemary T. McGinn

Check out a review of Peter: