Sunday Homily, February 9, 2019, 5th Ordinary Time
"Welcome in, Everybody, sez Ken.
Readings:
Isaiah 58, 7-10, Share your bread with the hungry. (A beautiful passage. Note: I lied. I thought we were done with Isaiah until next Advent, or so I read. I am happy to be wrong.)
Psalm 112, The just man (person?) is a light in the darkness to the upright.
1 Corinthians 2, 1-5, I came to you in weakness and in fear.
Matthew 5, 13-16, You are the light of the world.
It takes a team.
Isaiah reminders, again—(I lied again, Folks. I thought we were finished with Isaiah, my favorite, until next Advent. Nope. Not really sorry, though. We have him again Feb. 26, last Sunday before Lent.) Where did I get my research?
Author: This is Isaiah #3, the composer of chapters 56-66. Isaiah #3 lives after the Israelites have returned to the ruined city of Jerusalem. It is a very depressing experience after the exuberance of being allowed to depart from slavery in Babylon. Like returning to your shattered home after a tornado, hurricane, or forest fire.
"Nuts, Sandra, I think I lost that thumb drive."
Date: Ca. 555 before Christ, the composition. The Jewish people of Jerusalem are home again.
Subject: A great day will come for you Jews. You will be a bright light at dawn and your wound will be healed (of your defeat and slavery), if you take care of your neighbor, providing food, clothing, and shelter. The corporal works of mercy.
Good Morning, Bill & Cindy.
Your Light must shine before Others
This is the fourth or fifth Sunday we have dealt with delightful readings that involve light, either receiving light or giving light. Guess what. I want to talk again about 3 people who are lights for me.
I have talked before about that guy whom I greatly admire, Jim Mahar, a professor of something like economics at St. Bonaventure University near Buffalo, NY. This guy just continues to amaze and humble me.
The Candle Girls at work.
I first met Jim through Bill Hammond. He, I, and others, all went down to Galveston to help with the clean up and repair of the city after hurricane Ike in 2008. It seems to me like yesterday and, yet, it is incredibly long ago.
There were 20-25 of us, mostly students probably on spring break. We stayed in a very hospitable Protestant church. The pastor himself was most friendly and accommodating.
Buddy reading The Blessing of The Candles>
The kids had bunk beds on the left & right of the church. We old guys bedded down in a rectangular room with about 20 Baptist Men volunteers. I could talk about those guys all day, they are so good. The only problem that time: one guy in our dorm snored like a bear.
These guys had an 18 wheeler trailer that they had rigged up with a number of showers. The people in the church community fed us 3 meals a day.
The Offertory a family affair, Gil, Michelle, & Bernadette.
This was the first time I worked with Jim Maher. I also went to Moore, OK, a suburb of OK City to help with a tornado that passed through a little trailer town called Little Ax. And now I get a facebook note from Jim, working with a bunch of St. Bonaventure kids in maybe the Bahamas.
Jim is a bright light in my life. In fact, his light is blinding. I am exhausted just following him from one disaster to another. He and some kids even came to help in Rowlett once a few years ago. I did not get to help out, but Bill Hammond was there.
The Minor Elevation.
Secondly, Pope Francis. And not just because he is a Jesuit. Ever hear of Palazzo Migliori at St. Peter’s square in Rome? I just saw this in a news bulletin.
I am proud of Francis and his team because he is taking a rich 19th century palace on the edge of St. Peter's square and turning it into a home for homeless. The palace could have been sold or rented out for an enormous sum. "Beauty heals" was Francis' observation when he inaugurated the palazzo.
Communion Time.
About 50 men & women now sleep in the palazzo, which has 16 bedrooms. Volunteers provide hot meals. Among the volunteers are some Americans.
Bill give a pretty good health report.
The third group: our kids. They don’t have to do anything and I love them. I am so delighted with their presence, which brings light to our celebrations. Look at Betsy, our most recent arrival. Betsy, this does not include the monster who brings you, though I am exceedingly grateful to her, not only bringing you, Betsy, but also your big sister, Harper.
I have always welcomed little kids at the Masses I celebrate, and for sure, at St. Marks. I would normally invite them up around me during the Eucharistic prayer. One time in the big church a little boy knocked over the standing candles and another time a little baby barfed on my shoulder while I was welcoming her or him for maybe the first time.
Sez Betsy, "Wow! What is this??"
Guess what, everybody was so timid and cowed that Sunday they did not even stop me to let me know the baby had thrown up on my shoulder. Only after the Mass, when even I was beginning to wonder about where that smell was coming from, did someone speak up. These events both took place in the big church, not the 10:30 cafetorium. That 10:30 crowd would have spoken up, probably laughing at me.
Again the questions:
Who gives you light?
To whom do you give light?
Anybody know who these character are??