Sunday Homily, June 11, 2017, Trinity

Readings: Ezekiel 37, 1-14 (1-11 not in lectionary); Psalm 130, With the Lord there is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption; Romans 8, 8-11; John 11, 1-45, The raising of Lazarus
 

Ezekiel 37, observations:  (Author, When, Message)

           Author: Ezekiel, for real.  He is unique because he was not only one of the Big 3 Prophets (along with Isaiah & Jeremiah), but he was also a priest working in the temple. 

          When: before & during the Babylonian Captivity, therefore around 585 before Christ.  His audience was these people. 

 

          Message: Like the classic prophet, he condemns, warns, and consoles.  We pick up on the consolation end.  I want to read the first verses which lead up to our selection, because it is the fun dry bones story, about which we have the Spiritual.  It is a shame the richer story is not included.  This is metaphor.  The dry bones can stand for the people in captivity; they can stand for me.  Get out of that tomb!

 Sources: New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Good News Bible, St. Louis U. with Reginald Fuller, Daniel Westberg, Larry Gillick, Jesuits.

  
 

Get out of that tomb!

 One of the blessings of travel for me is the deepening of gratitude in me for how fortunate I am right here.  Another blessing comes with meeting special people along the way.

 I met one of these special people in Normandy on our trip to France.  When we arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, we immediately took the train to a little village called Bayeux in Normandy. 

 

 The next day we took a moving tour of the June 6, D Day landings on Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, three of the cemeteries, plus a handful of other memorials. 

 The following day we visited a place I was to discover was one of the four Middle Age pilgrimage sites.  First off, I did not know of four.  Know the other three?   Jerusalem, Rome, & Santiago de Campostella in the NW province of Galicia in Spain. 

 The  place we visited was called Mont San Michel and has been a Benedictine monastery for centuries, since around 900.  It is built on a large rock off of the coast of France, reached only by a causeway because high tide surrounds the rock with water. 

 Visiting the monastery, which was actually used as a prison for about a century after the French Revolution in 1789, was moving.  Equally moving for me was the woman who took us out there, the second point.

 

 One of those special persons.  She was simply driving a hotel van from Bayeux to Mont San Michel.  She could have said nothing.  Instead, she was full of personality and information about everything.  I came to really admirer her, especially when she shared her story.

 She said she had gone through a painful lay off and could not find work.  So she went to plan B, as she called it, driving the van for the little Churchill Hotel in Bayeux. 

 She did not just drive.  She described everything along the way and shared more about the history of Mont San Michel than I had even read.  She became a friend to such an extent that we went out with her the next afternoon, after she did her morning drive, to a little town she told us we would love, Honfleur.  We did.

 Why talk about her?  Because she exemplifies what is being talked about here, getting out of the tomb where we are half dead and coming to fuller life. She said getting laid off just about killed her, especially when she could not find any replacement.  She was in the tomb, she was not alive.

 

 The message is ‘get out of that tomb.’  Where am I stuck?  We know the places, the addictions & the obsessions, the laziness and the over indulgence.  The goal is simply to be a person more fully alive.

 Where is your tomb?

 Picture 1:   The Community    

 Picture 2:   Leo & his daddy, Ray  

 Picture 3:   Maggie & her daddy, Tom

 Picture 4:   Mont San Michel, Normandy, France

 Picture 5:   Wedding of Jill Carleton & Stephen Egal

 

 

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles  6, 1-7, Select from among you 7 reputable men.

Psalm 33,  Lord, Let your mercy be upon us as we place our trust in you.

1 Peter 2, 4-9, You are a chosen race.

 John 14, 15-21,  If you love me you will keep my commandments.

 

 

"Hi, Everybody," says Zoe, "And Happy Mother's Day."
 

 

Mother's Day History:

1905-08: Anna Jarvis of West Virginia began this celebration for her mother, Ann, who cared for wounded Civil War soldiers of both sides.  She campaigned to make it a national day and in 

1914:  Woodrow Wilson made it national.

The spelling: always singular, according to Anna. 

Hallmark Cards: Anna hated them because she felt you know what.  

 

 

"From me, too," says Tori, "Happy Mother's Day."

 

It’s Mother’s Day !

In honor of it being Mother’s Day I want to tell two stories about my mom.  One story is about a compliment she gave me and the second is about a trip we made together.

The first story took place around ’89 or ’90.  I had already returned from East Africa and had already put in a year in a Hispanic church the Jesuits ran in downtown Houston.   I was now living at the high school community. 

 

 

Welcome home, Dawson, from first year at Ole Miss.

 

It was early afternoon.  We were on westbound LBJ heading toward what used to be called the Deadman Hospital at Webb Chapel.  The name has been changed.  Mom was going to the hospital to have some minor surgery, and would stay overnight.

As we drove along she reached out her left hand, patted me on the leg, and said, “I’m proud of you.” 

 

The bells are ringing, time to start.

I may be wrong, but I don’t remember my mom ever doing that before.  You got to remember that she had always been bummed about me joining the Jesuits and she had never spoken to a Jesuit for about 7 years after I had gone to East Africa. 

She thought I had been sent despite my insistence that I had simply accepted an invitation. 

 

Our Candle Lighter of The Week, Leo.

 

 

 

 

Offertory time with Warren, Barb, and Bill.

 

I was already probably 50 years old at the time mom complimented me.  I had been around a bit.  That compliment really touched me.

The second story took place on one of my home visits from East Africa.  Mom got her two sisters to join her and invited me to drive them around Ireland one Fall on my return to East Africa. 

 

Communion helpers, Mike, Geri, Claire, Beth, and Rob.

 

We met in London, which is a story for another homily.  We went to Dublin and leased a little red, two door car.  We drove counter clockwise through County Cavin, where they looked in graveyards for our ancestors, through Northern Ireland, and through the northwest until we arrived at Shannon Airport.

They were like three teen aged girls, laughing, and telling stories about their early day.  Thanks to the smallness of Ireland, we were able to make good progress even though we would usually not be ready to depart in the morning until 10:00 or 10:30.  By 11:30 they wanted to stop for tea.

 

Buddies, Zoe & Harper.

 

12:30 or 1:00 lunch.  3:30 for tea and pastries.  Finally, by 5:30 I had to start looking for a place to stay & eat.  And this was a process.  I had to check it out.  Then my mom checked it.  If she gave the okay, in everyone went to eat dinner and laugh themselves silly until 11:00 or 12:00 midnight.

It was one of the fun trips of my life and I was most touched that mom had invited me to be their driver.

 

Buddies, Mike & Rosemary.

 

The power of a mother to give life through a simple compliment. 

How has your mother given you life?

Readings:

Exodus 22, 20-26, You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves  

Psalm 18, I love you, Lord, my strength

Thessalonians  1, 5-10, You know what sort of people we were among you.

Matthew 22, 34-40, Which commandment is the greatest.

 

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda's  

Readers, Mary Jane & John  & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  Deacon Mike 

Homily,  John Cade 

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,  Richard & Hue 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

 

 

Download Reading Week 30

 

 

Homily by John Cade

10/25/20:  Most often the first reading each Sunday is chosen for its connection to the Gospel reading and its teaching.  Today is no exception.  I have 3 points based primarily on the Gospel and first reading: First, on Jesus and the first and greatest Commandment of the Law; Second, on the new Great commandment of Jesus; and Third, the story of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the King who equates being a neighbor with loving God?

First, the Greatest Commandment.  The Jewish people gave credibility to the Book of Deuteronomy by framing it as the addresses of Moses, their most revered leader and prophet.  In his second address of Deuteronomy, right after he lists the Ten Commandments, Moses repeats the Greatest Commandment:  “Hear, O Israel!  God, our God! Is the one and only God!  Therefore, you shall love God with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.  This passage became known as the ‘Shema,’ or ‘Shema yisra’el,’ the first words of the passage in Hebrew. 

When Jesus was asked by the Pharisee Rabbi what was the most important commandment, Jesus gave the well-known ‘Shema’ straight from the Law in Deuteronomy—to love God with your whole being (heart, soul and mind), calling it the “most important” and the “first on any list.”    

My second point—Jesus upgraded and completed the greatest commandment.  I learned from Wikipedia that the number of commands in the Law of Moses is 613.  (And we thought 10 were plenty!)  Why so many?  Because they covered every aspect of Jewish life—how to worship God, what and how to cook, what and how to eat, what to wear, rules about all the many things considered ‘unclean’, everything  to do with family relations, with business dealings, and so on. 

 

Morning Tranquility.

 

In today’s Gospel Jesus picks one of those 613 commands in the Law of Moses (Leviticus, Ch. 19), and says, “If you add this other command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then, you have the “whole Law and the Prophets.”  And, by the time the Gospel of Luke was written, 20 or so years later, these two commandments were considered as one—the greatest commandment. 

Luke, in Ch. 10, has a scholar of the Law, test Jesus by asking, “‘Teacher, what do I need to do to have eternal life?’  He answered: ‘What’s written in God’s Law?’   The scholar said, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” So, by then the most important commandment has two inseparable parts, the love of God and the love of neighbor.

My Third Point:  Guess what Luke follows-up with and writes immediately after that passage?—the Good Samaritan story about who is a neighbor.  The ‘Good Samaritan’ is the one who treats the robbed and beat up person with first aid, and the one who makes sure the person will be taken care of.  In the story, being a neighbor is not defined by who the other person is; it is defined by how one responds to the other.  When you respond to another with mercy and kindness, you are being the neighbor. 

 

John Cade sharing the Good News.

 

        Matthew’s gospel also gives us the sure way to know if we are keeping the great command.  In Matt. (Ch. 25), this teaching tells how the twofold great command is totally interrelated.  When you are a neighbor to another, you are loving God.  This is the story of the King who said, ‘Enter the kingdom. I was hungry and you fed me, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me, and so on.’ 

And then how the saints entering the kingdom asked, ‘When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or see you sick or in prison and visit you?, and so on.’  And the King said, ‘Whenever you did one of these things to another, especially to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’  

When I look at this community, I see good neighbors.  You remember others in prayer, privately and in our prayer of the faithful; you visit the sick—in the pandemic you email, telephone or text them—giving the encouragement and hope of someone to lean on; you reach out and care for others in countless other ways, e.g., many of you have given of yourselves to kids who are poor or disadvantaged or disabled at the ‘Love for Kids’ events (of course, with Bill Hammond’s leadership), some of you traveled with Bill and Bona Responds to help people in other areas of Texas and Oklahoma suffering from devastating storms, and right here helping John and Rosemary restore some order to their tornado-damaged home and destroyed trees. 

A few years ago, a number of you helped with the counting of homeless people in Plano to provide data on their actual existence; I have seen you and heard about you, keeping up with and giving care for others in our community who suffer any kind of adversity.  You generously contribute, as you can, to keep this community in existence, over fifteen years now, and to help with our ability to do outreach.  These don’t even take into account how you welcome community members and visitors, (even virtually) with total acceptance.  For me, you are for our time Good Samaritans, living out the great commandment to love God and showing your love of God by being a true neighbor.   Amen.

 

Please Remember these special people:

For Alan Stryker;  For John Doherty with an operation this week for his back pain;   For David Dismore's bad shoulder from a biking accident;  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;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands,   For Loretta's aunt Alicia;  For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;  

For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  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,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

 

White Rock Lake at sunrise.

 

Birthdays:  Zoe (& Samantha), Patricia AA 22nd, Rob 68,

Anniversary:  Bill & Zaile, 11th

 

A rose is  a rose is a rose . . . .

 

Community Finances, October 18, 2020

Expenses: $775.00

Outreach   $    (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

Readings:  Ezekiel 2, 2-5; Psalm 123, Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his Mercy; 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10; Mark 6, 1-6. 

   

Introduction & Homily by Tony O'Donovan:

 

Ezekiel 2:2-5; the prophet wrote at a very traumatic time for the Jews.  In 595BCE the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple!  The people were carried off into exile.  Their whole understanding of this event was punishment for their behavior.  The style of the book is what is described as Apocalyptic. Other books in this style are Daniel and Revelations in the New Testament.  Characteristic of this style is strange visions and prophesies about the future.  Ezekiel himself has been described as a strange one!

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul’s Second Letter to the community in Corinth.  In fact scholarship today is pretty much in agreement that what we have in first and second Corinthians are parts from four letters.  In the section today we have Paul what I would call ‘ranting’ about himself.

Mark 6:1-6:  Today’s gospel reading is early in Mark.  You will recall that last Sunday we had several miracles attributed to Jesus.  This Sunday we find Jesus showing up at home in Nazareth, and the people are unable to see him as anything but a carpenter.

How is your Eyesight!!

Today’s gospel strongly suggests that we take a moment to examine our eyesight!  In the gospel we find a whole town with poor eyesight.  They can only see Jesus as one of their own, a carpenter, and not as Mark has been presenting him, the Son of God. 

It becomes too easy for us to fall into traps about how we see people in our daily lives, and of course depending on how we see them affects how we treat them.

My mother used to have a saying about people, and I think she sometimes applied it to me.  “I was a house devil and a street angel”.  It can happen too easily.  We treat those closest to us perhaps not as well as we should, we take them for granted.  We go deaf to the things they say to us, and eventually the relationship becomes stale or worse, dead.  I guess another way of saying it is that “familiarity breeds contempt”.

 

 

 

Audio: Sorry, on vacation this week.

 

Picture 1  Mass with Tony concelebrating and T.J. helping

 

Picture 2:  Altar Servers

 

Picture 3: Tony celebrating after 33 years

 

Picture 4:  Tony receiving the community's blessing read by Rosemary with support from Reilly, Richard, Maureen, Ryan (hidden), and Ginny

   

Wisdom 7, I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom was given to me.

Psalm 90, Fill us with your love, O Lord and we will sing for joy

Hebrew 6, The word of God is living and effective. 

Mark 10, We have given up everything and followed you.

 

 

Ben, the Magic Man, sharing life.

 

Thanks……

Music,    Ben 

Readers,    Patricia & Fred, & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Mike & Richard

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

 

Patricia reading from Wisdom.

 

Readings: 

 

Homily by John Stack,  

Download John Stack homily 10-10-2021

 

 

 

Fred reading from Hebrews.

 

Remember these special people:

For Becky & Tom's son, Austin, who took his life this past week;  For John & Karen Anderlick's grandson, Cooper John who lived only a few hours with his parents;   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,

 

Rosemary's sister Clare, and her husband, Joe Mazzei.

 

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.

 

 

Welcome in, Jan & Sir Charlie

 

Birthdays:  Richard  

Anniversaries:  

 

 

Peace. Everybody!

 

Community Finances,   October 10, 2021

Expenses: $

Outreach: $

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

May you have a safe & peaceful relocation to Alabama, Patricia & Fred.

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing: 

Given to me by Lynda Fleming, Author Unknown

 

 

Welcome Back home, Paul & Carrie.

 

Notice, Everybody: The blog will not be published the next three Sundays.  The Editors will be on a Viking cruise on the Mediterranean.  Next edition will be published November 7.

 

 Readings:   Acts 3, 13-19, I know that you acted out of ignorance; Psalm 4, Lord, let your face shine on us; 1 John 2, 1-5, Whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him; Luke 24, 35-48, Peace be with you.

Acts: A review–

Author:  Luke, the author of both The Gospel and Acts.  Today we get Luke twice, in the first reading with Acts and in the last reading, today's Gospel. 

While we are on the subject, Luke's gospel story today is a compliment to last week's gospel story by John.  Both John & Luke find the apostles in a locked room, Jesus appears, and he says, "Peace."  Both focus on the physical, last week on Thomas demanding to see the wounds, this week Jesus eating.  What does he eat?   Why so much focus on the physical? 

Date:  written about 40-60 years after Jesus death, i.e., ca. 70-100 A.D.

Subject: Two parts.  Part one covers chapters 1-8, which focus on the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, plus their effect on the community.  The rest of the book, i.e., chapters 9-28, the focus is on Paul, his conversion & travels.  

Today's Selection:  

The scene is this, just like last week.   Peter & John have just healed a lame man at the door of the temple.  The people come rushing to see.  Peter & John say, "Hey, we did not do it."  In fact, Jesus did it and he has been raised from the dead.  This caught the attention of the priests and authorities who had the two arrested and put before the council.  They are released the next day after a warning not to talk about this Jesus.  Then they return to the local community of believers. 

 Today we go back to the time just after the healing of the lame man.  The people have rushed to see the phenomenon and ask Peter & John to explain.  Today's reading is their explanation.

 

Where is The Lord Here?

This morning I want to talk about something that has been tearing up my spirit.  Anybody heard of a little dog named Justice? 

He was a street dog, a puppy.  He died mercifully a week ago Friday.  Justice was apparently a peaceful, affectionate little puppy running around the streets of Pleasant Grove. 

One day he had the misfortune to be noticed by some teen boys who were loafing around looking for some amusement.  They decided to amuse themselves with little Justice.  So, as happens occasionally in a group of boys, they began to pester him. 

Things got bad.  One kid put a rope around Justice’s neck and tried to hang him from a fence.  When that did not satisfy them, another boy doused the puppy with charcoal lighter fluid and set him on fire.  He ran around frantically.

At this point some woman in a nearby apartment ran out with water & an old T shirt to aid Justice.  Someone else called the police and they found Justice shivering & hiding behind an air conditioning compressor. 

They called an animal shelter who called DFW Rescue Me, because Justice needed intensive care.  A big rig truck driver from Denton got involved and actually shuttled Justice around from his daytime treatment to his nighttime treatment.   To the very end, even when his blood pressure was so low, Justice continued to wag in appreciation his little white tipped tail.

What would you like to do to those boys?  There is a $5000 reward.

Luke’s message today describes how the Lord appeared among them two times and said, “Peace be with you.”  Is he present in this event?  I   would like to propose that yes, God is in this event, even as ugly as it is.  I see three possibilities. 

First, I see God in the woman who had the courage to come out of her apartment and rescue Justice.  She did not know what would happen.  Those boys could have turned on her.  It happens.

Secondly, I see God in the truck driver who shepherded Justice between his day & night treatment centers.  His name was Wenger.  He is from Denton.  This happened in Pleasant Grove, opposites in the Metroplex.  Wenger showed great kindness to the little street puppy. 

Finally, the boys. Yes, God is in the boys.  They acted out of their shadow sides, but they are still works of God.  I have worked with kids and adults like this.  Two speculations coming from my experiences.

First, I bet you when these boys were puppies they, too, were treated badly.  Maybe not set on fire, but hurt & hurt repeatedly to a point where they are responding to the world with anger.  Hurt breeds anger, anger breeds violence.  I want to hurt others because I hurt.

Secondly, I bet that because of feedback that they are bad, they think they are bad.  And act it out.  The kid has nothing to lose.  He is already a loser.  I thought I was bad when I was a kid and I wasn’t. 

So, where do you see The Lord in all this?

Reference: Dallas Morning, News, Jacquielynn Floyd, Metro section, April 18, 2012

 Video:  Candle Lighting (2 Min.)