18th Sunday, Ordinary time, 8-1-2021

Readings:  Deuteronomy 30, 10-14; Psalm 69, Turn to the Lord in Your Need, and You will Live; Colossians 1, 15-20; Luke 10, 25-37

Apologies for a late blog.  The Editors are in Lindsay, Ontario where wireless is fairly non-existent on Sundays.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Introduction to the Readings

Our first reading today comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book of the Pentateuch.  The section is from the closing chapters, which are best identified as “The Final Discourse of Moses”.  It may seem strange to us, that having lead the people from captivity in Egypt and spent some 40 years wandering thru the desert, received the famous “Ten Commandments” on Mount Sinai, which set up the covenant between the God and the Jews, we find that Moses is not going to enter into the Promised Land, because of some unnamed fault (Numbers 20: 12).  In the reading today, Moses emphasizes the nearness of God’s commandments to the people.  

Paul’s Letter to the Colossians gives us what is clearly an early liturgical hymn about Christ.  The reason for the letter to the Colossians was that there were some folks creating problems in the community with false teachings.  In using this hymn, which was probably part of a very early liturgy, he is working with a concept that faith is not only needed for liturgical worship, but that through liturgical worship faith is deepened.  The hymn can be broken into two themes, Christ’s role in creation and Christ’s role in reconciliation.

Our gospel continues the journey to Jerusalem.  On the way a lawyer tests Jesus and we have the great story of the “Good Samaritan”. 

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. – Homily

What is our image of God?  In our lives our image of God must go through many changes.  If we reflect on what happened to Moses after all he had done in helping the Jews escape from Egypt, lead them for 40 years thru the desert towards the Promised Land, only to be denied entry himself, it would seem that God is harsh. 

If we look at the image of Jesus presented to us in the Second Reading from the letter to the Colossians, we find a God who is more in fitting with what modern writers are calling the Cosmic Christ, who is present in the entire universe and holding all creation in existence.  This Cosmic Christ is a difficult image to have a relationship with for humans.

And finally in our Gospel, we are told clearly that the way to live our lives in relationship with God is to love one another, especially those whom we wouldn’t consider our friends.  Elsewhere in the gospels we are told “as often as we did it for one these, the least, we did it for Jesus”.  So to live our lives as God wants us to, we do need to pay special attention to what we read in the gospels.  If I look at the balance in Jesus’ life, he certainly took care of his neighbors, but he also went off to pray quietly.  Do we have that balance?

Picture 1:  Mass with Tony and Kevin

Picture 2:  The Choir, Wendy, Shonda, Ray & Celeste

Picture 3:  John Cade

Picture 4: Cora Elizabeth Shadrick, daughter of Megan and Dave, granddaughter of Rob and Beth.

"Welcome, Everybody, to Christmas Eve." sez Our Dearest Betsy.

Readings:

Isaiah 9, 1-6,  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light

Psalm 96,  Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord

Titus 2, 11-14,  The Grace of God has appeared

Luke 2, 1-14,  The Nativity: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus.

Welcome Back, Sir Charlie!  What a Christmas Gift!

A Christmas Story

I have a Christmas story for you this evening.   The event took place a week of two before this past Thanksgiving and about 3-4 weeks after October 20, the Sunday night when the tornado crashed through our neighborhood at 10 P.M.

The afternoon about which I want to talk was mild and sunny, a delightful afternoon.  I had left the front door of our house open.  I was in the back den working at my computer desk. 

They are back together, Folks.  Wendy returns to share singing with Shonda.  Welcome Home, Wendy.

There was a knock at the screen door, maybe even the door bell rang.  Whatever, I remember thinking, “Yuk, another guy wanting to replace our roof, replace the bay window that had been blown in, or help with the pile of tree limbs that once were my trophy trees.

Wendy with her husband, Brandon, and their son Atlas.

So, I go to the door and see a young, tall, nice looking, familiar boy from the neighborhood.  I think he is the younger brother of the boy who is a senior at St. Marks Boys School.  The older boy has red hair on top of about a 6/1 height.  I know the red headed boy’s name., Jack.  I’d heard it often from Rosemary.  

Welcome back home, Ryan.  So good to see you and how you have grown.   Last time I saw you you were half this size.

The family lives 3 doors down, both boys go to St. Marks, and they have a little girl named Lucy.  The boy does not appear stressed, so I assume everything is okay, though cynically I confess I thought he was probably selling tickets to a raffle.

So, I just start out the usual way,  “Hey, Man, how you doing? What’s up?  Everything okay?

We have the prettiest candles and the prettiest candle lighters.

His response.  “I was passing by, saw your door open, and decided I wanted to tell you and your wife that I have noticed and appreciate what good neighbors you are.”

His name is George.

Never miss an opportunity to extend kindness or a positive stroke.

It can change a person’s life.

Welcome to communion, Everybody

Jack, this is amazing.  Last time I saw you you were half this size and running all over the place.  You have grown so much I did not recognize you and now you are playing the bass for our celebration

Readings:

Acts 1, 12-14,   All these devoted themselves to prayer, together with some women.

Psalm 27,  I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.  (good verse for homily)

1 Peter  4, 13-16,  If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you.

John  17, 1-11,  I pray for them.

Cole says, "Welcome in Everybody."

Reminders on Acts:

What : The second half of Luke’s work, the first part being his gospel.  Acts starts after the Resurrection.  We will read Acts all through May and read the last selection June 1, then June 7, Pentecost.  The work focuses on the spread of the early church with special attention given to Peter and Paul and their conflicts over who was to be a Christian, and Jewish laws, like circumcision.  The conversion of Paul is described.  

Who: Luke, an educated and civilized Jew who wrote in Greek.

Date:  around the year 65, or about 30 years after Jesus’ death.

Our Selection: Activities in the community after the Ascension.

Watch for two words in Psalm 27, gaze and contemplate, see the response above.

Sienna and one-eye Brooklyn say," Come in, Everybody, it's fun here."

 Gaze and Contemplate

I want to talk about two words that come from Psalm 27, gaze and contemplate.

This past week a great black lady died at 86, Maya Angelou  I wish I had known her better.  I memorized one of her poems once, but did not look her up. 

One aspect of her life stuns me.  She went silent for 5 years, from the age 7 to 12, more or less.  Why?  She had been abused by her mother’s boy friend, she told her brother, and a day or so later the boy friend was discovered beaten to death.  Maya was sure her words had caused his death and she was mortified into silence.

Celeste also says, "Hi, Folks, come in."

 It was her mother telling her that she was a special person that eventually convinced Maya to begin talking again.  Yes, I wish I had known her.

I was fortunate, however, to know my own Maya, a black lady named Juanita Craft, who lived in south Dallas, near Fair Park, and was a leader in the NAACP in the ‘50’s & ‘60s.  I got to know her really well because of three events.

Harper says, "Any extra cupcakes today?"

One, the summer of ’66 or ’67 I was looking for something special to do.  I was in the middle of a three year delightful internship teaching at Jesuit as part of my 13 year formation program to be a priest, a Jesuit priest. 

Somehow, I got to meet Juanita and next thing I know I am the only whitey on a Greyhound bus to the National NAACP annual convention in Atlantic City with stopovers in D.C. 

Cowboy Cole, the Candle Man, at work.

I was probably too dumb to know I was in some danger on the trip.  We had a large number of teenaged kids.  If the bus was headed toward Birmingham or Selma in those days, I may have taken a pass. 

One of the highlights of the trip was how the Jesuit community of Georgetown went all out in their hospitality to our group, even having us all into the community dining room for dinner and providing a bunch of cars and drivers to tour everyone around the city.

Sienna and Zoe solving World Problems.

Secondly, when I returned from the trip, I moved into Juanita’s little two bedroom, white frame house in South Dallas, and stayed for the rest of the summer.  I worked with her at her NAACP meetings, understudied her ways, and helped with kids in the neighborhood.  She called me her “white boy.”  I was ca. 26.

My poor mom was mortified by all this.  One evening when they had invited a number of their friends in for dinner, and I was asked to help out, she asked me if I would not tell people what I was doing and where I was living.  A few days later she asked me to forgive her.   I had to laugh.  My dad did not seem to be bothered.

Emma waiting to check out any extra cupcakes.

Thirdly, I learned how a simple person can make a difference.  As head of the Dallas NAACP, she helped integrate UNT, UT Law School, the State Fair, as well as other places like restaurants, theaters, and public buses.  I saw how she got the city to focus on the roads in her neighborhood and how she loved the kids.  She had none of her own and, in fact, I don’t think she ever married.  Juanita was elected to two terms on the Dallas City Council in the ‘80’s.   There is a Dallas park and a rec center named for her. She came to my ordination in '71 at St. Rita's in a squad car.  Impressed all the neighborhood kids.

How she affected me? 

She got me to gaze around and contemplate the neighborhood, see what needed to be done, and do it.  This eventually led me to the tree project.  The interest in tree planting came from Boy Scouts; the mental foundation came from Juanita.

Secondly, Juanita’s jovial personality got me to gaze at and contemplate the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord in people and nature, as Psalm 27 says it. 

Here they come, Emma, Tori, Buddy, and Zoe.

I learned how to pray in public from Juanita and those people.  I was usually in clerics and they called on me often for a prayer, something I was not used to.  I think I wore clerics then and on that bus to avoid being killed.  Likewise in East Africa, especially when crossing the borders, like between Tanzania and Uganda.  Otherwise, no clerics.

Today we are called to gaze and contemplate the beauty around us, White Rock Lake, Tom Woodward Park (which I have yet to see), our kids here, our community, Romeos (Maybe not!), and our families.  Jesuit spirituality got me started on this.  Juanita Craft helped me put it into action.

Who is the Juanita Craft in your life who helps you to gaze and contemplate? 

For whom are you the Juanita Craft?

Communion helpers.

Readings: Deuteronomy 8, 2-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10, 16-17; John 6, 51-58.

Deuteronomy: The fifth & last book of the Torah.  The scene: Moses & the Hebrews are in the desert just outside the promised land, the land of the Canaanites, whom they are going to kick out and kill.  Moses is reviewing their journey from Egypt.

The belief that Yahweh punishes and corrects us is not so common today as Moses suggests to the people.  We will read the whole section to get the sense more clearly.

The Banquet

A while back somebody asked me what was the best meal we had in Italy.  It took me a nano second to remember.  It took place the afternoon we arrived in Venice. 

We had just gotten off the train from spending two days with Chebino & Lydia in Pordenone & Aviano.  In fact, if I had eaten the two evenings with Michael I might have considered these meals some of the best, because when Michael walks into these 2 favorite places, the owner comes out and everyone greets him.  He gets all this affection because he is so friendly & outgoing. 

Consequently, everything was cordial & delightful & we received the best of everything.  My only problem was that I don't eat after about 4:00, to eliminate acid reflux without having to take pills.  So I just enjoyed the event and a glass of red wine.

In Venice, however, it was early afternoon when we walked out of the train station and onto the famous Grand Canal, leaving one world and entering one of my most favorite dream worlds.  We descended the broad stairs, turned left at the canal, and walked up one of the main pedestrian walkways of the Cannaregio suburb.  At a small fork in the walkway we went left, crossed a couple of small canals on up & down bridges, took a right across the last canal, and arrived at our convent. 

After we had been received with all sorts of hospitality and settled, I asked the portress Magda to recommend a good, reasonable cafe.  "Turn right out the door," she says, "cross the bridge to the left, and at the next canal go right and look for the tables on the edge of the canal.  The place is called Ristorante Diana on Fontamenta della Misericordia.  Ask for Omer."

When we get there, the guy is all friendly and we take a window seat inside because the sun is on the fondamenta tables.  I tell him we come with Magda's recommendation.  "What is good today?"  He recommends this and that, and we begin with a seafood salad, pasta, have two varieties of fish he said were caught that day, some dessert, and finish off with Samabuca, my first ever, and some small glasses of lemon liquor. 

Folks, we must have been there three hours, a bit beyond my usual finishing hour even though we had begun about 3:00.  It was the best.  Until I asked for the check.  I had never asked Omer just how much each course was costing, trusting in Magda and in Omer.  We paid over $75 per person for that meal, probably the most expensive I've ever had in my whole life.

I talk about this today for three reasons:

• It is Memorial Day & time for picnics, special meals, & banquets.
• We are celebrating the Eucharist today.
• The Eucharist is basically a banquet and cannot be appreciated for what it really is unless we throw a banquet occasionally.

I think a banquet involves three elements for it to come off, place, intention, & time.

• The place can be almost anywhere as long as it has some special quality, grandmother's dining room, a campfire in Yosemite, a Fondamenta della Misericordia in Venice, a Saturday afternoon on a patio, or a Sunday evening around a swimming pool. Even an El Fenix or a Chili's
• When I say intention, I mean somebody has to set it up, say, "Welcome, let's do it." Set a date, a place, and a time. Chebino sees his fly buddy and family in a restaurant and invites them all for dinner the next night.
• Time is probably the most important. It cannot take place in less than an hour, I would suggest. Two or three would be better & best. Trouble with some restaurants like Chili's is you get a bill dumped on your table just as you take the last few bites of the main course. In Italy you may sit there the whole afternoon and they still won't bring a bill until you ask for it. Taking time at the banquet is the exact opposite of fast food or eating while driving.

Never enjoy a long meal and you are missing one of the joys of life, and the Eucharist certainly can't be appreciated.

If we did not have a Eucharist ritual, I think I would invent one.  The Eucharist attempts to take a banquet or special meal and put it into a context where we place ourselves into contact with the God of the Universe.  It is based on knowing how to banquet.

When was your last special meal?  Your next?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-25.mp3

Readings:

Ezekiel  47, 1-2, 8-9, 12, I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple.

Psalm 46,   The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High.

1 Corinthians 3, 9-11, 16-17,  You are God’s building

John 2, 13-22,  He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple.

Viki says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

Introduction and homily by Mike

Introduction:  The first reading is a prophesy from Ezekiel to the Jews in exile that they would return to Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, and when it was finished living water would pour forth from it.  Jesus Christ fulfills the yearning for his coming given by Ezekiel.  His living waters, his life giving words, pour forth the Holy Spirit to abide in living temples, the hearts of those who welcome and live the good news.

Emma, also, says, "Come in, Folks, and meet my friends."

Homily: The inspired writers of the Scriptures were quite clear in telling us that God has no favorites.   In the Church, Greek and Jew, male and female, free or slave, all have been called to be together as one royal priesthood, the people of God, the Body of Christ in the world. 

The Vatican II documents of the Roman Catholic Church began the process of tearing down barriers between Catholics, other Christian denominations and other religions as well, teaching that all who seek God have been called to oneness in Christ.  As Vatican II began to wind down, Pope Paul VI asked for the formation of an advisory council to assist him; it would be called the Synod of Bishops. 

Mike says, "Hi, Folks, got some ideas for you to ponder. What do you think?"

It became a permanent council that currently numbers 191 bishops; and they all met last month for two weeks at Francis’ request to address, as honestly as possible, the positions that each of them held on questions relating to marriage and divorce, ordination of women and married men, birth control and homosexuality.  

According to the news reports these bishops could not come to a consensus in their reply to Francis, for they failed to meet in a spirit of collegiality and collaboration.  The irony of course is that the synod addresses the family, and none of them are married or are women.  Needless to say, Francis was not impressed with the initial results.  

Harper, "Any extra cupcakes lying around?"

He has asked these bishops, again, to enter into a welcoming and listening position, a dialog, with one another and with the people they have been appointed to serve, together they comprise the Royal Priesthood.  Francis has asked his bishops to listen with hearts filled with goodness and justice, tenderness and compassion.  He has asked them to follow the commandment that Christ taught, ‘love one another as I have loved you.’   

Francis has given them 12 months to provide for him a group consensus to each of his questions.  Here’ are some of the consensus replies that I hope will be coming from Francis at the end of the Synod:

Cupcakes of The Week, John & Connie, Rob, Karen and John. Sorry, Harper.

1) Since women in the Church have discerned that the Holy Spirit is leading them to seek ordination, they will be allowed to enter the formal discernment process for the diaconate.

2) Men and women who are divorced and have remarried have been seeking permission from the Church to receive the Eucharist.  The Church will invite the divorced and remarried to marriage enrichment; the completion of the workshop will include a celebration of forgiveness with the reception of the Eucharist.

The Girl with the pretty hair band, Our Zoe.

3) Married men who have a calling to the ordained priesthood can begin the formal process of discernment to the priesthood.

4) If the personal conscience of a married couple is to use birth control during the marriage act, it must be for a serious reason associated with the well being of either party.  Both parties must first be well informed on the teachings of the Church on the sacredness of life; new life that they have conceived must never be aborted; their mutual love must always trump a desire for material wealth.

Who is this lady in red? Why, that is our Cathy.

5) Homosexuals should have an opportunity to seek the sacraments and welcomed to share their gifts and talents within the Christian community.

6) Francis could eliminate the misnomer, ‘the laity,’ for all who welcome and live the good news are together the Royal Priesthood!  The Mass is the Prayer of the People of God.  Francis should invite us to pray the Eucharistic Prayer together, led by those we have ordained.  Together, in oneness, we ask that the Holy Spirit come upon the Bread blessed and broken for us to be the Body of Christ in the world.

Leo says, "See you next week, Folks."

Acts 14:  And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Revelation 21:  I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.  He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.

John 13:  I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.   This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Connie reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Outreach: $      

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

…and life is still a constant surprise to me. 

We never know what will happen next, what we will see, and what important person will come into our life, or what important person we will lose. 

Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always drama, if not tragedy. 

But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed. 

And we must have faith in God, and in the Universe, and in a better tomorrow even if that faith is not always deserved.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan