Sunday Homily, June 4,2017, Pentecost.

Readings:                          

Acts  7,  55-60,  They threw Stephen out of the city, and began to stone him.

Psalm 97,  The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth

Revelation 22, 12-14, 16-17, 20,    I, John, heard a voice.

John 17, 20-26,  I pray that they all may be one.

Sorry no homily today.

Readings: Acts 6, 1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2, 4-9; John 14, 1-12.

Acts:  This is another example of stories from the early Christian Community.  On this occasion, the community is selecting from the community seven people, men, who will help free up the priests to do preaching.  The seven chosen are like deacons.

A Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood

Two things happened to me in Italy that came to mind when I saw this line in Peter’s letter about being a chosen race and a royal priesthood.

First, in Rome on our last evening before departing this past Friday.  It was about 6:30.  All four of us were planning to celebrate sunset at 7:45 and the end of our trip with a glass of wine on the rooftop of our 4-5 story, 500 year old palace & convent.  A great vista point for the city.

Rosemary & I had taken a stroll and were coming home crossing the little plaza next to our convent, when a young Italian boy about 17 came up to me and in Italian asked me where the Pantheon was.  This delighted me for two reasons.

First, he must have thought I was more of a local, not an American tourist.  Ever since my time in East Africa I have always tried to blend in, not stand out as from elsewhere.  That was hard in Tanzania. Secondly, because of the first, he spoke to me in Italian. I both knew what he asked, and I knew how to respond and guide him to the Pantheon, which I half walked him to because it was fairly near.  For a last nighter, this was a gift.

The other event took place on a high point in Florence a week earlier.  Again Rosemary & I had taken a stroll in the early evening while others rested & before going out together.  I was exploring and had climbed a hill to see if I could spot a good place to see the sunset over Florence.  I had heard about this place from one of the sisters at the Florence convent we were staying in.  There were a series of steps in a switch back pattern leading up to a secondary basilica, called St. Miniato.  The steps were quite a climb, with the basilica steps going straight up.

At one point Rosemary is wandering around & I am sitting at the very top, my legs hanging over the marble balustrade.  I am looking over Florence & watching a rain storm approach from the west when I see a little man stooped with osteoporosis start to climb the steps way below me.  He has a dark overcoat on and he uses an umbrella as a cane.  He leans on the balustrade on his left.  Slowly & steadily he climbs until he reaches the top, turns right, and starts to pass near me. 

As he approaches I say in Italian, "Congratulations on climbing the steps."  I reach over and shake his sweaty little hand.  Bent over, he looks up and says, "What?"  I repeat and he asks me who I am.  After I tell him he says, "Are you Italian?"  I am complimented, but say, "No, I’m not Italian.  I am American."  "Oh, bahh," he exclaims and goes on his way.  I am slightly deflated. 

As Peter says in his letter, we are all chosen, we are all a royal priesthood.  Royal does not grab me, but priesthood does.  Sometimes we feel more chosen, more priestly, sometimes we feel more rejected and certainly not royal. 

The 17 year old boy chose me out of all the people in that plaza and asked for help.  In the priest context, I was able to help & guide him.  This experience is common to all of us.  I chose to compliment the little man in a priest context, but he rejected me.  Another common experience to all of us.  Because we are all chosen by God, we are all called to priesthood.  The challenge is to continue to congratulate, help, & guide the next person.

How are you doing this?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-04-20.mp3 

Sez Harper, "Welcome in, Everybody, I still have some Girl Scout cookies"

Readings:

Isaiah 8, 23-9, 3,  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Psalm 27,  The Lord is my light and my salvation

! Corinthians, 1, 10-13,  That you be united…

Matthew 4, 12-23, Come after me and I will make you fishers of men (people).

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Hue & Linda.

Isaiah reminders, again—

 Author: This is Isaiah #1, the composer of chapters 1-39.  Even though Isaiah #1 lives before the Babylonian Captivity, he still sees that a great, bright day will come to the Jewish people, despite Babylon. 

Isaiah 2: Chapters 40-55;

Isaiah 3: Chapters 56-66

 Date:  Ca. 555 before Christ, the composition.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are about to be defeated and carried off into slavery.

The famous Sisters' Candle Team in action.

 Subject:  A great day will come for you Jews.  A special leader will be born.  You will be a beacon to others, glorious, and a light to nations everywhere.  You might easily recognize parts of this reading.  From where?  The Nativity readings and Handel's Messiah, a favorite of mine. 

This is the last week we will have these Isaiah readings which I love.  I will miss them.  Until next Advent.

Today's team in action.

80 Years of Blessings

When Isaiah says that a people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, I hear him speaking to me.  There are dozens of ways I see this in my life, all blessings & gifts.  I’ll mention 5, at least 3 of which you have heard me mention previously.

Today's Offertory Team, Sandra, Susan, & Tom,

First, the fact that I joined the Jesuits when I was 18.  Granted I joined up because I thought I was such a bad kid that I was obviously headed to hell.  I got that idea from the monsieur who was pastor at Christ the King.  When he told the congregation that if your friends are going to hell, you will go too.    Obviously my best buddy, Pete was going to hell along with my other friends.  That fear fell away when I was a Jesuit and life turned out to be an adventure.

The minor elevation.

The second blessing was my decision to accept an invitation to work in East Africa.  There was loneliness, but it was an adventure.  How else could I have scaled Kilimanjaro 5-6 times?  How else would I have ridden my motorcycle back & forth across Tanzania.  I discovered that I had a gift for languages and became fluent in Swahili.

Today's Communion Team, Patricia & Denni, Geri & Mike & Grace.

The third blessing was and is my marriage with Rosemary.  Did you people know that she waited 15 years to get formally married?  When I asked her to get married I asked her to wait until I was 65 and would have Medicare.  As a Jesuit I had platinum coverage.  As soon as I would depart, nothing.  I knew guys who married, had an accident, and ended up with an enormous debt.  This cinco de mayo is our 15^th and it has been for me (at least.  I won’t speak for her!) an unimaginable & enchanted time.

Happy Birthday, Mike.

The fourth blessing is the tree hobby project.   That project started with maybe 5-6 trees planted on the Jesuit campus where I was living.   Then it got bigger & bigger.  A guy who owns a construction company gave me a 800 gallon water tank & a 4 wheel trailer.  The community of St. Marks gave me the money to buy a pickup.  Mike Doran gave me the truck for 15K.  The last big project we did was Plano Senior High.  We planted in an hour 400 trees one sunny October Sunday.  

Welcome home, My Dear Carrie, or should I say My Dear Doctor Carrie.   Proud of You.

The fifth but not the last of the blessings is our community here. Do you realize that along with our 15^th anniversary of marriage, I am celebrating 15 marvelous & humbling years participating in our community?

I am most grateful.

What are your five biggest blessings in life?

One cupcake to you, Monique, for being such a good mamma.

Readings:

Leviticus 19, 1-2,  17-18,  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.   

 Psalm 103,  The Lord is kind and merciful. (Stanza 2, one of the best)

 1 Corinthians 3, 16-23,   You are the temple of God.

 Matthew 5, 38-48,    Love your enemies.

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Olivia and her dad, Cory.

Observations on Leviticus

What :  the 3rd book of the Bible and one of the 5 books of the Torah.

Who:  a compilation of sayings accumulated over centuries, not Moses, as was thought for some years.

Date: sometime after the Exile in Babylon, ca. 555 before Christ.

"Don't forget me," says Tori, "Come in, Folks."
 

Subject:  rules about how to live, how to worship, and the penalties for transgressing.  This is based upon 2 beliefs:

1. The world has been created good, but is vulnerable to sin.
2. Enactment of proper ritual makes God present and ignoring proper ritual compromises the harmony between God & people. 

Some unique rules:

1. Cursing, death.   24.14
2. Unkempt hair, God will smite you.  10.1
3.  You will not tatoo yourself, 19.28
4. Trimming your beard.  19.27
5. Cutting the hair on the sides of your head.  19.27

Today’s Subject:  the best line in the whole work, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   19.18

Sources:  Good News Bible, Wikipedia

The Offertory Team, Bill, Ray, Bernadette, and Richard.

I want to help people.  That’s what I’m for.

Ever hear of a guy named Clarence Griffith?  I read about him in the Dallas Morning News recently.  Three things are unique about him.

1. He was born in 1913.  Know anybody that old?  104 years.
2. When he was 94 he received triple heart bypass at Baylor, Dallas.
3. Ever since his recuperation he regularly goes to console and help people in the Baylor cardiac waiting room.  He gets them coffee, food, and offers them support, praying with them or just letting them talk.  He says,  “That’s what I’m for.  I want to help people.”

Leo, our Candle Lighter of The Week.

For me, Clarence Griffith has accepted that, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.”  Moreover, he is making himself live that image.

Last week we looked at infinite demand that was followed up with promises of hell.  A fear based program.

This week we look at a different infinite demand equally challenging.  The demand is to get rid of fear in our relationship with God using that description, and to help others to do so.

The Team.

This is one of the biggest reasons I have been and am a priest, and even a psychotherapist, to help others get rid of fear in our relationship with God.

Which leads me to three demands presented by Matthew.  If you reflect upon it, these three are a result of knowing that our God is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.

The Wedding, Patricia and John.

First, Matthew says, using his favorite little figure of speech, ‘You have heard it said, but I say to you…’, when someone hits the left side of your face, offer the right and don’t resist the person who is evil. 

Is this insanity or what?  Has it ever been tried?  Yes, you say, by dead people.   Impossible.  This is the message of the pacifist, a person mostly ridiculed by the rest of us.  Know any?  Sure, John Dear, once a Jesuit, Roy Bourgeois, once a Maryknoll. 

I wonder what would happen if we really did this.  I confess I have not been able to get there. 

Congratulations, John, I am so happy when I am not the only one with tears up here.  Must be because you come from Australia.  Double congratulations.  
 

Secondly, give to the person who asks from you.  Another tough one.  How do you feel passing the men & women begging at stop lights?  I, for one, feel horrible, even though I know they have a number of shelters, like The Bridge and Austin St. Shelter.   I can work in those places and know that we as a community help them, but I still feel horrible passing those people on the corner.

Thirdly, love my enemy.  I really don’t have any serious enemies that I know of.

"I, Patricia, take you, John in marriage.  I promise to be true to you in good times and bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love and cherish you all the days of my life."

Despite failure to live up to these demands, which are infinite, our God is still infinitely accepting, specifically gracious and merciful, never get angry and is abounding in love.   Moreover, relevant to our weakness, he says in the following line, “Not according to our sins does he deal with us.”

104 year old Clarence Griffith is showing people this image of God in the Baylor hospital waiting room.

Who shows this image to you?

To whom do you show the image?

 The Kiss.

In Memory of Our Beloved Bill, who moved to the other side this past Wednesday.  This Sunday & next Sunday we will formally dedicate our celebration to Bill, Patty, and their beautiful family. 

A number of people in our community have expressed interest in taking part in the ceremony for Bill at the military cemetery in Grand Prairie.  I just talked with Patty & she says we are only allowed 10 participants and 10 minutes for the ceremony.  There must be high volume.  I've never had these restrictions in all the ceremonies I have done there.

Lynda Fleming is putting together a slide show of Bill's life.

Rosemary's Blessing:

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa

Can music get any better, Ben & Shonda.

Readings:

1 Kings 3, 5, 7-12, God said to Solomon, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you

Psalm 119,  Lord, I love your commands.

Romans  8, 28-30,  All things work for good for those who love God

Matthew 13, 44-52,   The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda

Readers,     Brent & Mary, & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel & Homily,  Doctor-Deacon Mike Carroll

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Richard & Ben

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Mad scientists?   Yes!  Richard & Mike.

Please Remember these special people:

For our Bill & his family;  For Cindy recuperating from a procedure 3-4 weeks ago;    For Carrie Bieda's son;   For Esparzas, Frank & Mary, who lost their son Jim to sepsis;   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 Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family   for Michelle;

Another Mad Man?  Yes!

For Jackie's mom;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free.;    For Hue;  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;  for Virginia Mattingly.

Birthdays:  Dawson Dinsmore, 23, Cindy Ekes

Anniversary: David & Donna Dinsmore, 34th

A Crazy Gallery?  Yes!

Download Readings Week 7-26

A reading from the gospel of Matthew Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,which a person finds and hides again, 
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.  When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. 

The gospel of the Lord.

Homily by Mike Carroll

 A summary of the gospel readings these past three weeks has been this: The Lord came to redeem the world by sowing upon us his Word, the good seed.  Moreover, it was not his intention to leave us as orphans.  Instead he bestowed the Holy Spirit upon people like Bill Hammond, who welcomed and lived his buried treasure.

Today, we seek to remember with tears of love all the times that Bill brought forth, to not just this community, but to others too, his hands filled with the hidden treasure of goodness and kindness that he had buried in his human heart. 

When we heard today’s gospel reading about the hidden treasure, a much better translation of it is this:

“The kingdom of heaven is like adding to the store house within our hearts of what Jesus has revealed to us.”

I am going to give you five examples I put together that bind our hearts to one another. Each of them refers to the treasure of the Church. I will read each of them slowly; twice.

• Where our treasure is, our hearts will be there also.
• We are to carefully guard the treasure that lives within our hearts for from them we give life to others.
• The treasure of the Church is the Good News of Jesus Christ; moreover, it has been freely given to the whole world.
• The treasure given to us of the Holy Spirit empowers us to forgive others.
• The treasure we yearn for should be our daily bread, for the Word and the Eucharist are incapable of being separated.

The Good News of Jesus Christ.

Community Finances, July 26, 2020

Expenses: $900.00  

Outreach   $100.00     (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

Readings:

Nehemiah 8, 2-10,  Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks.

Psalm 19,  Your words, Lord, are spirit and life.

1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, Now, the body is not a single part, but many.

John 2, 1-11, He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor and liberty to captives.

Ready to begin.

 For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use, The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).  

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.  

Cupcakes of The Week, Mike, John, Sir Charlie, Rick, and Michelle and Torri standing in for Randolph.

Nehemiah

 The book of Nehemiah takes place at the end of the Babylonian captivity.  Three main characters play roles, though the first two are not mentioned in today’s reading.  Cyrus is the benevolent ruler who defeated the Babylonians.  Then he gives the Jews permission to return to their homeland and Jerusalem.

 Nehemiah is the Jew Cyrus puts in charge of restoring the city of Jerusalem and the temple.  It was Cyrus who appointed Nehemiah the governor of the new Jerusalem.  Nehemiah was not a prophet, but a governor. 

 Ezra, the central character of today’s reading, is a priest & law scholar. 

We arrive on the scene after Nehemiah has established Jerusalem.  The people have assembled in the town center and asked Ezra to read to them the law that orders their new lives.  We hear part of the reading, a part that emphasizes rejoicing.

 This the only time in the 3 year church cycle of readings that we have a selection from Nehemiah.  Did he do something wrong? 

Meredith

1 Corinthinians 12

 During the time of Paul, the Greek city of Corinth was almost as significant as Athens.  Paul had established a community there and in his letter he is offering his advice to the people. 

 Chapter 13 is Paul’s famous letter about love being kind & patient.  Chapter 12, our reading today, offers an almost amusing analogy of the community to a body.  We are parts of the body and consequently we are important, making our unique contributions.  

 Sources: Good News Bible

Kate Banzhaf, age 26

Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain

Rose Banzhaf and the family put a note on Kate’s bulletin that says, “Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.”  I would like to talk about this in relation to events I saw at Kate’s funeral.   While the events were tragic and tearful, on at least five occasions I saw dancing in the rain.  These are the occasions.

Emil talking about Kate.

At the viewing on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thursday funeral, I was standing at the door of the funeral home, opening the door, and welcoming the people arriving.

At one point, I see Emil and his two oldest children, two boys about 6 and 4.  He also has a little girl and another son on the way in March.  Emil was leading his boys up the aisle to visit Kate.  I followed them up, put my hand on Emil’s back, and heard something like the following.

Emil invites Kate's 3rd grade class to sit around Kate.

“My sons, we have here the body of Kate.  Her spirit is not here because it is with God in his house.  Kate is happy in God’s house.  Without doubt she misses the opportunity to play with you two.  She is also delighted that someday your spirits and all those of the family will be with her.  She says you may touch her, if you would like.  Her body is cool, because her spirit is now at God’s house.  Thanks for coming to visit me.  I love you.”  A jewel of an event.

The kids were beautiful.

All of us can fear death, even from our childhood.  Emil was normalizing death for his sons and letting them know they don’t have to fear it.

Also at the viewing, I witnessed George not only sharing his own tears, but consoling his older son, Simon, who was grieving intensely for his aunt Kate.  Instead of telling Simon to shut up and be a man, George encouraged Simon and embraced him.  Another jewel of an event.

George saying he will dance if they will smile at him. They did and he did. Emil holds Charlotte, his youngest of 3 for the moment.

The next day at the funeral all four of the Banzhaf siblings spoke together.  Pete shared beautifully at the start when Emil could not begin because of his tears.

When Emil began he invited all the 3^rd grade kids in Kate’s class to come up and sit on the floor around Kate.  Then he read the St. Francis Prayer that starts out, “Make me a channel of your peace.”  Another jewel of an event.  Will those kids not remember that moment forever!

George holds Simon.

Then George talked and picked up on a habit Kate had of dancing for her kids when a kid had a good answer or did something that delighted her.  Even the kids were invited to dance occasionally.  Guess what George did through his tears.  Yep, you guessed it.

In honor of Kate's memory of dancing for her kids, Kim invites the whole crowd to stand and dance for 30 seconds. Emil is caught in the act.

He invited all the teachers from Kate’s school to stand up.  About 30 were there.  The kids were still sitting around Kate.  George says to them, if you smile at me, I’ll dance for you.  They did and he did.  Another jewel.

Pete with Emil, the oldest and youngest sons.

Then, to top it off, Kim.  After a delightful sharing of her feelings and life with Kate, her twin sister, guess what.   Yep, Kim says, “In honor of Kate, who was really not a great dancer but had great passion in her dancing, Everybody stand up and let’s dance for 30 seconds.”  And they did. 

How do you dance in the rain?

Rose and Wally with Charlotte.