3rd Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022

Acts of the Apostles 10:  While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.

1 John 4:  Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

John 15:  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.

 

Jeremiah 31: I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Hebrews 5:  Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

John 12:  Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

 

Welcome, Everyone.  This is part of the group of volunteers who took part in the Single Parents' Advocacy Christmas Party, Saturday at Lewisville H.S. 

 

 

 

Preparing lunch with Bill, Connie, & Cheryl, Single Parent Advocacy, Christmas picnic, Lewisville H.S.  12 of our community volunteered.

 

 

Readings:  (happy ones…)

Zephaniah 3, 14-18, Be glad and rejoice with all your heart

(Psalm) Isaiah,  Cry out with joy and gladness, for among you is the great and holy one of Israel. 

Philippians 4, 4-7,  Rejoice in the Lord always. 

Luke 3,  10-18,  I am baptizing you with water… 

 

 

 

An old pro lighting our candles today.  Welcome home, Cole, so good to see you

 

Homily by Mike

During this past week, I spent some time remembering a story about the Fulghum family: Dad, Mom, and their three children, two of which were in Middle School.  Each morning, Dad and the three children left home carrying their lunches in brown paper bags. Molly who was now in first grade enjoyed helping her mom make the sandwiches.  Daddy always got the biggest one.  

 

 

 

As always, Buddy, good reading of our Blessing of the Candles.  Thanks.

 

On this particular day, Dad had two brown paper bags waiting for him.  One wasn’t at all that big or brown, and there was a lot of tape holding it together, but he took it with him all the same, when  Molly told her Daddy that she had added it for his enjoyment. Daddy smiled, but was in a hurry that day, as he placed both in his brief case. 

 

 

The Best Music with Shonda & David.  Sorry you could not make it, Ben, & that you get better soon.

 

When he had finally made time for lunch, he hurriedly opened-up his usual brown bag.  As he was eating, however, he took time to open the other bag that Molly had given him.  He smiled at the stuff that slid out of it when he had taken off its close-pin.   Three small shells, nineteen pennies, one green and blue marble, two animal crackers, two chocolate kisses, a small red, rubber ball and a few jacks, an empty lip stick, a really small plastic dinosaur, and a couple of colored rubber bands, probably for her hair. 

 

 

 

Thanks for a nice Christmas Story, Mike.

 

And, he was thinking, “What am I going to do with all of this stuff, as he was already late for a meeting. So, all got discarded in haste, with the paper napkin that he brushed across his desk top.

 

Thanks, Connie, for telling us about the party sponsored by the Single Parents Advocacy.

 

 

That night after supper, Molly, smiling, asked her dad, who was reading the paper, “Where is my bag, Daddy.  Behind the paper he sat stunned, his eyes got big, and he didn’t know what to say.  Molly said, “You didn’t bring it home? You didn’t loose it did you? Those are my favorite things, Daddy.” 

 

 

But Daddy is already thinking about calling the janitor at work. Finally he said, “I’ll bring it home tomorrow, I promise.  And he could see the sadness in his little girl’s eyes. After her bed time he heads back to the office.  The Janitor says, “you loose something?”  After a short explanation, together, they located the desired trash bag, and thankfully it contained Molly’s items. 

 

 

And more lunch with three of our Bona Responds brown T shirts at work.

 

After gathering them and returning them to her beat-up sack, he sat there for a while looking again at what had now become treasures to him. He remembered the shells that she had gathered at the beach last summer.  He remembered the chocolate kisses that he had left under her pillow one night. He remembered teaching her how to play “Jacks.” He remembered when she had found the green and blue marble in a parking lot.  In the morning during breakfast he gave her a long sweet hug and kissed her on her forehead, informing her, this time with gusto, that he would bring her sack home with him that evening, for he had purposely left it on his desk at work.  

 

 

Shonda doing what she does best, getting the kids and everybody to sing and even dance.

 

 

Think about it.  Everyone else in the family could have given him

a gift from their abundance; but she had given him everything that was dear to her; they all were given from her heart.  My suggestion to us is this.

 

 

Shonda in her element.

 

We should take time this coming week to enjoy our grand children’s gifts of Christmas pictures, and ornaments, and clay sheep and shepherds, and especially the one of the little child in the manger.  Let them bring to us the realization that Christmas, God’s gift to us, should be and can be celebrated every day in the little gifts of love, precious jewels, that often, and sadly, sometimes overlooked.

 

 

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?

 

 

 

Isaiah 9: For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests.

Titus 2:  Beloved: The grace  of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age . . .

Luke 2:  a savior has bee born for you who is Christ the Lord.

 

 

Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated December 24th at 4:00 PM.  There will not be a 9:30 Mass on Sunday morning.

 

 

Jeremiah 20:  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

Romans 5:  …how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.

Matthew 10:  Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

           

                                             

It is with sadness that I let you know that Jan Keszler  passed last Sunday, June 18, 2023. 

July 14th: Jan's ashes will be in placed in a columbarium.

July 15th: A Celebration of Life. 

We will let you know the time and place when the information becomes available.

 

 

 

John Stack Ministries now meets at:  The ArtCentre of Plano, 902 E. 16th St, Plano