7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 20, 2022

1 Samuel 3: When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before. "Samuel, Samuel!" Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

1 Corinthians 6:  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.

John 1:  Then he brought him to Jesus.  Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas" –which is translated Peter.

Here is the homily for Sunday.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel was the third great prophet with Isaiah and Jeremiah, because this author’s book is big like theirs, divided into 48 chapters.  Ezekiel is called by God to warn the Israelite people of their coming punishment and banishment to Babylon because of their infidelity to God and his law.  Ezekiel starts out about 600 years before Jesus lived and before the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel’s prophecies continue through the captivity and the return of the Jewish people to Israel.

Homily

The book of Ezekiel is about warning people to get it together. The Gospel story has a similar directive to warn or confront a friend of their need for correction.  I want to say a word about that difficult directive.  The formula given in Matthew is 1) By yourself, speak your hurt to your friend and try to work it out; 2) take one or two others and confront your friend; and 3) take it to the community for mediation.  The smartest statement in Matthew may be admitting that these three steps might not achieve the desired end, and then you start over from scratch (or you drop it).  The point I want to make is that human relationship is probably the most difficult thing we do as humans and that healing hurt is what we’re all about.

An example is a personal case I have talked about before, between my sisters and me.   

1) Two of my sisters felt hurt and upset by each other’s actions in regards to our sister Carol’s care in a nursing home. Our older sister had been in charge of managing Carol’s care.  The sister who lives in the town where Carol’s nursing home was visited Carol and checked up on her every day. The older sister and the local sister didn’t seem able to speak respectfully to or listen well with each other. Often they would cancel out one another’s directives about Carol’s care. So Step 1 didn’t really happen.

2) Their inability to connect work together as co-caregivers led to step 2 and my involvement. Our older sister asked me to be present at a meeting with the local sister and our youngest sister, and an ombudsman representing Carol. This was an awkward meeting.  Since the home had complained about the local sister’s intrusive and disruptive behavior at the home, and threatened to ask us to remove Carol from the home, I and our youngest sister sided with our older sister in the matter. In theory this meeting had the potential of bringing us together for Carol’s sake.  In reality the process pitted two sisters and a brother against Carol’s local sister and set limits on that sister’s behavior as regards the nursing home and its staff.  No real listening to one another happened.

3) That takes us to Step 3: As Catholic Christians we no longer have a tradition of taking one’s hurts to the church community for mediation.  That venue in this time is the court.  Carol’s local sister took the matter to the court and she ultimately gained legal management over Carol’s care.  This result was probably beneficial to Carol as the push and pull about her welfare and treatment ended, and Carol’s local sister continued to visit and care for her till Carol died 1½ years ago. The family breach, however, hardened, and my sisters remain estranged from one another. 

Do I think I am alone in having family hurts that remain unresolved?  No, I don’t. In 44 years as a counselor, I have known many relationships that are stuck in their hurt.  Do I lose hope for them or for my own family relationships?  No I don’t.  Today’s second reading from Paul to the Romans, is a clue to our hope: everything is summed up by love, and there’s no accounting for how or when love will find expression. Period.

Finally, going back to Ezekiel, near the end of his book (in Chapter 37) Ezekiel talks about God’s promise, when times were the darkest, to raise up the people of Israel and help them get it together and walk back to their promised land.  His point was that, even if we are dead and gone and our bones are dried up, even then God is with us raising us up. Ezekiel’s poetic words were turned into a spiritual I remember singing as a child: “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones….I hear the Word of the Lord” …  your toe bone connected to your foot bone, your foot bone connected to your ankle bone….

My question for you is: Who has been Ezekiel in your life, confronting you and giving you hope in stuck times?

And when have you been the Ezekiel in someone else’s life?

The first Genesis creation story is included in this blog.  It is too long to read during the homily, so I invite you to read it prior to Sunday Mass when John Cade will talk with you about the story’s literary form.

Download 09-19-21 Genesis Creation Story 1

Healing Touch for Emma.

Welcome: Catholic Mass with coffee & juice, and pastries, some bought, some home-made. 

Time: 9:30; Celebrate with the Community & Stack & John Cade  

Place: Legacy Charter School,  601 Accent Drive, Plano, TX 75075

Healing Touch #2.

Readings: 

Acts of the Apostles, 13, 14, 43-52, The Gentiles were delighted.

Psalm 100,  We are his people, the sheep of his flock. (excellent stanzas)

Revelation 7, 9, 14-17,  I, John, had a vision of a great multitude.

John 10, 27-30, My sheep; hear my voice.

With this three some Everyone wants to Sing!

Community Activities:  

ROMEO MEET: Friday, May 10, Jason's Deli, Collin Creek Mall, west side of Central, 1:00.  Welcome all wakos, you will fit right in.   

Juliettes, June, TBA

A Summit Meeting.

TRUE?

Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.

John De Paola

Wake Up, Rick!

What's up in Ye Old Catholic Church?  Like…

1.    Bannon's anti-Francis movement threatens church unity,  https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/bannons-emerging-anti-francis-movement-threatens-church-unity

Hooray, the Coffee Shoppe is open.

See you Sunday,  

J.S., 214-783-0443

Guess what Beth & Bill are talking about…  Pagosa Springs.

JSM Mission-Faith Statement: 

 Help create a Catholic Community that welcomes all God’s People, provides for and challenges spiritual and total growth.

Reaches out to help people who are disadvantaged and make the world we live in a better place to live.

If it is Cinco de Mayo, it must be Anniversary Time, like 14.

Deuteronomy 4:  Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us?

James 1:  Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Mark 7:  Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you – take this to heart.   It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit – that's the real pollution."

Another Reminder for 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 1, 2024

Micah 5 :  … from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler in Israel;

Hebrews 10 :   … behold, I come to do your will, O God.

Luke 1:  Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Thanks……

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,    John & Tom, & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,  John Cade

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue, Richard & Mike 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Honfleur, France

Readings:  Download 12-19-21 – Readings – Advent4

Homily:  Download 12-19-21 – Homily – Advent4

Honfleur

Remember these special people:

For John Stack having a hard time right now with a bad back;  For Laura Chollick;  For Sandra who has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine;   For Esparza's new great grandson  & Frank;  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery, and for Hue & Linda's daughter, Doctor Rosemary Beavers;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody &  Leo & all of Shonda's dear family; For Ursuline Sr. Mary Troy,

The Market in Bayeau, France

Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg.; For Meredith, cancer free & John Schanot;    For John O'Donnell & Jean;   For Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Dee, and for her daughters, Lisa & Lauren  ;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer; from Barbara, a little baby boy named Ford recuperating from an operation & a nephew; for David McKeon's brother, Hugh; For Beth's friends & brother;   for the medical staffs, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Norway

Birthdays:   12/26 Meredith Burmaster, 12/27 Connie Bresson

Anniversaries:   12/30 Tom and Teresa Quinn

Norway

Community Finances,   

Expenses: $  705.00

Outreach: $  300.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:  

The Christmas Story will always be the story of Emmanuel, of God-with-us, always and everywhere, in the everyday, in the chaos, in the flight into exile, in the love between a man and a woman and in the birth of a child. It is the story of God who heals, empowers and loves us just as we are – in our greatness and our foolishness. As we anticipate the joy, the love and the peace that are God's Christmas gifts to us, let us receive them with gratitude and be sure to unfold them and share them especially where they need to be more visible.

Sister Jean Amore, CSJ, Principal, Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead, N.Y.