Readings: Entry Reading, Matthew 21, 1-11; Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have You abandoned me?; Philippians 2, 6-11; Passion, Matthew 26. 

 

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday 2011    

Intro to the Readings

 Today we will be celebrating both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday – two extremes – the one an occasion of great joy and celebration with the palms, when Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem being hailed as King, the other is our reading of the Passion of Jesus from Matthew’s Gospel.  Each of the evangelists gives us an account of Jesus’ last days.  It might help to put it into perspective by considering, particularly for those of you who were alive and can remember the assassination of President John Kennedy, the time lapse between the event and the writing of the gospel narratives.  Our views of president Kennedy have been affected by time.  So too the account of Jesus’ death is influenced by the events taking place when these accounts were written.

 

 In brief, Matthew and Mark are very similar and present a Jesus who has been abandoned by all!  The disciples do not come off too well, they fall asleep on him three times, Peter denies him three times, and Jesus’ last words from the cross are “My God, why have you abandoned me. 

For Luke, Jesus is not abandoned, the disciples appear in a much more sympathetic light.   The people are not against Jesus, three times Pilate declares Jesus innocent, and in Luke, Jesus heals the soldier whose ear is cut off.  He prays for the women of Jerusalem, he forgives those who persecute him, promising the good thief heaven and finally prays, ”Into your hands I commend my spirit”. 

 John has a Jesus who is able to declare “I lay down my life and I take it up again, no one takes it from me”.  On the cross his royalty is proclaimed in three languages, Pilate declares him King of the Jews, his Mother and beloved disciple are with him at the foot of the cross, and his final words are “it is finished”. 

 How are we to understand these different presentations?  Not as contradictions but as different sides of a diamond, because we will need Jesus differently in our different circumstances, at different times in our lives.  Sometimes we will feel abandoned, sometimes in need of comfort and other times assured of God’s infinite power.

 

 Homily

I want to use this time for the homily, very briefly.  A question I would have you consider as we listen to the gospel reading today – who are you in those readings? 

Are you one of the crowd on Palm Sunday cheering wildly as Jesus rides into Jerusalem?  Are you one of the disciples who abandoned Jesus when things got tough, or Peter who denied him three times, or Judas who betrayed him?  Are you Pilate, who declares his own innocence by washing his hands of the whole thing? 

 
This may seem a bit of an extreme question, but remember, the way the gospel story is presented by each of the evangelists is colored by the circumstances in which their account has been written.

Picture 1:   The Passion with Claire Occhipinti helping

Picture 2:   The Kiddos, Georgie, Natalie, J.E., and Kendall

Picture 3:   Offertory, Tom & Teresa Quinn

Picture 4:   Communion helpers, Rob & Beth Robinson and Mike Carrell

Picture 5:   Communion helpers, Joanne, Tom & Lynda Fleming 

 

 

Readings: Joshua 5, 9-12; Psalm 34, Taste and see the goodness of the Lord; 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21; Luke 15, 1-32

 

 

The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Reflection on the Readings

The first reading today is from the Book of Joshua.  Just to put this book in the context of the Old Testament, it comes immediately after the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.  It is the account of how the Israelites took possession of the “Promised Land”.  It would be similar I suppose to the landings of the early pilgrims and how we celebrate that event with Thanksgiving.

 

 

  

The book has been edited by the same folks who worked on the Pentateuch, namely those folks whom we know as J, E, P and D.  Our reading today comes just before the famous battle to take Jericho.  The Israelites are making their transition from being feed with Manna to harvesting food from the land.  One continuing concern, which comes up time and again, is the influence of the Canaanites on the relationship of the Israelites with their God. 

 

 

The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Homily

The gospel is a very familiar one.  I know that we have traditionally looked at it from the point of view of forgiveness, but today I want to continue with the topic of selfishness and see how much of that is in this familiar story. 

 

I have said this before, but it bears repeating.  The entire might of Madison Avenue is focused on telling us that if we buy some product we will be happy, in other words the focus is on me doing something for me, when my experience is that when I shift that focus from me to you, only then am I truly happy!  I want to repeat this, when I shift the focus of my attention from me to you, then I am truly happy. 

 

 

Let’s take a look at the story.  The younger son wants out of the place, wants his share of the inheritance and heads off to greener pastures!  The money goes and before we know it he is feeding pigs.  Remember the Jewish view of pigs, unclean.  He could not have ended up in a worse state and he sure is feeling sorry for himself, so he makes up a plan.  Focus is on himself and how to get out of the fix he is in.  He rehearses his story and heads off home.

The older brother goes nuts when he finds out what happens.  No joy that the brother is home, in fact he uses the phrase “your son” not “my brother” and throws in some additional details on how he believes his brother has been sinning.  Then he gives the whole game away when he says “I have slaved all these years”, this is how he has viewed his life at home with dad.  He is the “good boy”  “I never once disobeyed your orders”  Can you imagine how nice it must have been to have him around the house.  His whole attitude was focused on how tough it was for him, and also thinking about the younger brother and what he must have been up to.

   

Certainly the focus has always been on the generosity of the father, but can you imagine how he must have felt.  His youngest son leaves home and goes off to a foreign land, and they never hear from him again.  The older son just sulks around the place and from the sound of him, was not fun to have around.  No wonder the father spent his days looking for the younger son to return.  No wonder he was happy to see him!

 

The story is told along with two other stories about things lost and found; the lost sheep and the lost coin.  There is much rejoicing when each is found, as there is when the lost son returns home. 

 

 

The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen wrote a wonderful little book on a painting of the prodigal son by Rembrandt in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in Russia.  In the book he buts himself in each of the characters places and reflects on what they saw and how they felt, including the servant.  As a parent, it is easy for me to understand how the father reacted.  But for the Pharisees and scribes, they were too bound by the rules.  How would you react?

  

On the second reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians we have that amazing phrase which Paul uses to say we are “ambassadors for Christ”.  Remember that an ambassador represents the one who has sent them.  Christ’s focus was always on the underprivileged, the poor and the outcasts of society. 

 

Picture 1:  The Mass begins at Wilson Middle School

 

Picture 2:  Bob & John, Marilyn and her guest from Germany, Richard

 

Picture 3:  The patio at Wilson with Loretta & Gayle

 

Picture 4:  The Donut Shoppe, Rosemary & Ray

 

 

 

 

 

Bona Responds at work.

 

 

Readings:

 2 Chronicles 36, 14-16, 19-23, Cyrus, king of Persia, builds a temple in Jerusalem.

Psalm 137, Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you.

Ephesians 2, 4-10,  God raised us up.

John  3,  14-21, Jesus and Nicodemus converse

 

 

 

Some of The Team.

 

 

Today's Homily, Shared

 

On February 23 a group of 10-15 of our community went to Dickinson, TX to help people cleaning up from Hurricane & flood Harvey.  Our group met up with about 50 students, faculty, and alumni from St. Bonaventure U., near Buffalo.   Professor Jim Mahar regularly leads these groups to crisis areas mostly in our country.  He titles the group Bona Responds.

 

Today the community has invited the members of our group to share with us what touched their hearts during their stay in Dickinson.  Our group includes John & Connie Bresson, David Dinsmore, Bill Hammond who coordinates us with Bona Responds, and Mike Moran.

 

 

 

 Bona does ceilings.

 

 

John started by saying how emotional and humbling it was to work along these college kids who were giving up their Spring Break to clean up trash, to tear down dry wall, to wade through filthy flood water left in houses, to crawl back out of holes when the rotten flooring in a house or trailer home collapsed.  

 

Connie described working in the black mold trailer home of an elderly lady who could hardly do anything.  They cleared out moldy dry wall, insulation, and even flooring.  

 

 

 

 

Clean up.

 

There was one house that had 10 family members and relatives during the flood which brought in 4 feet of water inside the house/trailer.  A tree fell on the house.  Everyone, including a 94 year old grandmother and a dog had to climb to the attic for 10 hours to escape the flood water.  

 

They were finally rescued when they hailed a passing boat, everybody, including the dog.  Except one beloved family treasure, a Cockatiel bird.   They were broken hearted.  They finally were able to return a week later.  And what did they find, the pet Cockatiel, his cage half way filled with water, but alive and still loving everyone.

 

 

 

Some of our Community who made the trip to Dickinson. 

 

 

The family was blessed in that they had friends and family out of state who came to the rescue, cleaning, gutting, repairing, and even repainting.  Our group helped with some of the final steps, removing old insulation and installing new.

 

There was a trailer park, a complete disaster.  The first lady our people went to work for was named Theresa, very feeble with MS.  Her shower was broken so our people fixed it.  Theresa took her first shower in 6 months.Theresa was so grateful to the group that she gave the only gift she had other than love.  Theresa handed to each person a hand made artificial flower, gifts more touching than any kind of monetary gift.

 

 

 

Mike shares some of his memories and blessings.

 

 

Another elderly lady was living with her 5 dogs in a trailer home that was in like a bowl, a bowl with 3 feet of water.  Our people were able to pump out the water, which housed various water creatures like crawdads.  In the middle of the process three volunteers crashed through the lady's mobile home floor, uninjured fortunately.  Our team gutted the ceiling, walls, and floor.  Finally plywood was put back on the lady's floor.

 

Mike described how he was touched and impressed with Jim Mahar's practice of delegation and inclusion.  Some of the students had never held a hammer or done any of this kind of work.   They were still valuable.  Every morning and every evening all would gather.  In the evening the stories came pouring out in response to Jim's question, What touched you today?

 

What has touched you today?

 

 

 

Dona reporting on the Community's continued generosity in raising over $200 to help furnish the volunteer barrack with a large coffee maker and a 4 slice toaster (something important missing on the last visit).

• Intro to Readings:

   

  Psalm 103 – In Psalm 103 we hear the psalmist’s description

  of God. This same verse is also in psalm 86 and 145, and in Exodus

   

  Ch 34 and Jonah Ch 4. It’s no wonder that, hearing these words,

  thanksgiving became one of the hallmarks of Christian communities.

   

  First Corinthians: Ch 1 Paul opens his letter to the

  Christian community in Corinth by giving thanks for the

  abundance of spiritual blessings they have received.

   

  Luke, in his Gospel, Ch 17, highlights how thanksgiving is

  the way to acknowledge blessings in our daily lives.

   

   

   

  Homily:

   

  Marv Knox is field coordinator for Fellowship Southwest, a

  ministry that provides services for people in the Rio Grande

  Valley, including refugees at the border, kids in public schools,

  disaster relief, and helping people avoid the unjust system of

  payday loans. His article in the Morning News on Friday inspired

  me. He wrote of the similarity between giving thanks and counting

  blessings. He proposes counting our blessings, as we do here

  every Sunday. People pretty much agree we’ve been living

  through hard times.

   

   It’s clear we are a nation divided. Some are still waiting to

  know the outcome of political races; when people are

  divided almost 50-50, counting and re-counting votes takes

  a lot of time.

   We’re still hearing of the forest-fire body counts, with

  hundreds still missing and unaccounted for.

   Refugees the world over, and at our own border, are hoping

  and asking for safety from danger.

   The chaos in Europe and confusion in our western alliance.
   Experiencing the results of global warming, with increased

  intensity and frequency of storms, floods and fires.

   The dropping and shaky stock market.

   The threat again of nuclear aggression from North Korea.

   These hard times, of course, are societal, shared by all;

  there are also the personal hard times we each live with,

  e.g., living with my sisters’ hurt and inability to speak with

  one another. You know your hard time—the anxiety, hurt,

  sadness or trauma you live with.

   

  Counting blessings moves our focus from the dark to the light.

  It helps us see what’s going right, even while we know much is

  going wrong.

   

  Counting blessings turns our attention away from ourselves to

  acknowledge the helpful actions of others.

   

  Counting blessings gives us hope. As we count blessings—

  and give thanks—we see that God is unchanging—ever faithful,

  loving, and abounding in kindness.

   

  Today, like every Sunday, we counted blessings in our lives.

  Imagine, rather than writing his letter to the Christian community

  in Corinth (Greece), Paul wrote to this Christian community,

  saying: I give thanks for your openness to God. There’s no end to

  what has happened in you; it’s beyond speech. The truth of Jesus

  has been clearly verified in your lives…. God will never give up on

  you. Never forget that.”

   

  So: How have you opened your eyes and minds to see and count

  blessings in your life?

 

Readings:

 

2 Samuel  12, 1-14,  The verses of this reading are expanded because of the excellence of the story, King David and Bathsheba.

Psalm 32,  Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Galatians 2, 16-21,  If justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Luke 7, 36-8, 3,  She stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears.  Another beautiful reading.

 

 

Relief Work
in OK City

This morning I would like to talk with you about the trip I made to OK
City a week ago.  Three aspects, the time
and the geography of the tornadoes, gratitude, and the three teams.

You might not know it, but three tornadoes hit the area.  The third and second were E5’s, the kind with
winds over 250 miles per hour.  The third
was also the tornado with the diameter of about 2 & a half miles.  20 people were killed, including the 3
professional tornado watchers, but it mostly roamed the countryside, not living
areas. 

 

The middle tornado was the Moore tornado, Moore being a suburb of OK
City.  You drive north on I-35.  On the right you see devastation—of houses
like in Plano or Richardson.  On the left
you see devastation–of a large strip shopping complex like Collin Creek
Mall. 

 

The first tornado, a day or two before Moore, hit Little Axe, a small
village of maybe 50 houses.  35 were
destroyed.  I would conjecture the
majority of the residences were portables, trailer homes.  This tornado spent 14 seconds on the ground
and you will see the result. 

 

We were sent to Little Axe because it had been neglected and forgotten
after Moore.  Moore was urban and middle
class.  Little Axe was rural and
relatively poor.  The roads were not paved,
just gravel and dirt.  Moore sucked up
all the press coverage and attention.  We
were sent to redress this neglect.

 

Secondly, the gratitude.  The
first thing I noticed, after the shock of seeing Moore from I-35 as I drove
north, was the gratitude of people.  We
wore our Bona Responds brown T shirts as we visited stores like Home
Depot.  Customers and staff all thanked
us for coming to help out.  At the Stihl
outlet where we went to buy chain saw parts, the staff comes out with Stihl T
shirts for all of us.  Jim gave them Bona
Responds T shirts.   It was humbling.   See the two types of T shirts.

Thirdly, the teams.  Obviously, we
were the team from St. Bonaventure, the Catholic university.  Besides Jim, who is a finance professor,
there was Jerry, a chemistry professor. 

 

The second team was Israeli.  The
first morning I’m standing outside our barracks style quarters at this generic
church.  I hear these kids talking a language
I don’t recognize.  I look more closely
at them and see the obvious Israeli blue & white flag on their white T
shirts.  I ask them who they are and what
are they doing.  They say they have come
from Israel to help.  I am stunned.

 

A footnote on these kids.  When I
am driving to our site in Little Axe later that morning, the two girls in my
Prius see the Israeli kids and are all excited because they had worked together
at another site.  Guess where: New York
after Sandy.  They were like old friends
meeting.

The third group was a group of, get this, Muslim kids.  Marvelous young people.  Acting and looking just like us except they
were dark, the guys I talked with said they were from St. Louis.

 

Both the Muslim and the Israeli groups obviously have organizations behind them on the ground in the U.S. 
They both had more equipment than we. 
Like, the Muslims had a generator with which they ran a saw that cut I
beams. 

In fact, during the afternoon I worked a lot with the Muslims.  They were cutting up I beams and I and some
others were carrying 6-9 foot sections up out of a valley to the edge of the
road where we had 3 piles, metal, wood, and trash.

 

At one point I trip over some debris on the ground and fall.  Fortunately for sports in my early years I
learned how to fall.  Not hurt at all,
just rolling into ground.  Guess who the
first person to reach out to me was: not one of those Catholic kids, not even
an Israeli, a Muslim.   The others were not near anyway.  They did not even know I fell. Check the pictures of
the teams and equipment.

I told you all how proud I am to be part of you, of this little community
which is so generous and makes such a positive difference.   You
people not only helped the people of Little Axe, but you helped these kids from
St. Bonaventure have a marvelous ecumenical and international experience.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Readings:

1 Kings 17, 10-16,  Please bring me a small cup of water to drink.

Psalm 146,    Praise the Lord, my soul.

Hebrews  9, 24-28, Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands.

Mark 12, 38-44,  The poor widow with the 2 small coins, The Widow's Mite.

 

            Genevieve & Mary say, "Good Morning, Everybody,                     Welcome in."                     

       

Kings:

     Author & date of composition: the work is a compilation of numerous sources put together near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.

    Subject Matter: 1 Kings is part of a 4 book work that includes 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings.  The 3 kings are Saul, David, and his son, Solomon.

 The work begins with Samuel, the last great judge, continues through the lives of the 3 kings, and finally shows how Solomon’s sons’ squabbles led to the division of the Jewish nation into two states, north & south, Israel & Judah.  Both states were defeated and the people of both were taken into captivity as slaves. 

The people of Israel never returned from Syria.  The people of Judah taken into the Babylonian Captivity maintained their tribal identify and came back to Jerusalem, which had been wrecked.   The Babylonian Captivity ended on a high note when Cyrus of Persia defeats Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem.

 

                    Cole, a Master Candle Lighter, at work.   

 

    The Theme: you be good, good things happen to you; you be bad, bad things happen to you.

    Our selection: 2 great prophets lived when the kingdom divided, Elijah & Elisha.  They criticized the bad ways of the sons of King Solomon.  In this selection, Elijah tells the king he is going to send a drought to the king's land.  Then Elijah goes away & meets a poor, starving widow with a son.  Watch what happens.  This is setting us up for the Widow's Mite story in the gospel.

 

            

               Another team of Master Helpers, Kevin & Georgina 

 

Today’s Widow’s Mite

This morning I would like to talk about the two ladies in our readings, the lady with her son getting ready to eat their last meal before dying and the famous Widow’s Mite.  Let's make it contemporary.

A story to exemplify. 

Ever hear about Nathan Bradley?

Narthan Bradley is a policeman.  In fact, he is a GA State Trooper.  He is young, 25 years old, and has been working as a trooper for a year and a half. 

 

           Is that an angel that I see?  Why, Yes, it is Victoria.

 

This past Halloween Saturday afternoon Nathan was on duty when he was called to cover a traffic accident.  He discovers when he arrives that a young couple have been killed.  Somehow he checks out where they live, which was not far away.  He decides to go to their house to report the deaths to whomever lives there.

He goes to the house and rings the bell.  The inside door is opened cautiously and Nathan discovers 4 children aged 13 to 6, all dressed in their Halloween costumes.  The kids tell him their parents have gone to buy some face paint at the corner.

 

             Is that another angel that I see?  Yep, it is Zoe

 

On the spot Nathan makes 2 decisions.  He cannot tell them about their parents’ deaths.  In fact, he decides he has got to make this Halloween special for them . 

So he bundles them into his squad car and takes them first to McDonald’s, hamburgers, milk shakes, the whole deal.  Then he takes them on a tour of the state trooper complex.  They play trick or treat.  Finally they have a sleep-over at the station. 

 

 

    Remember that nice little kid we talked about last Sunday…..

 

During this time a call has been made to a grandmother in Jacksonville.  She is driving up to take care of the kids. 

With the kids bedded down, Nathan is not finished.  To help pay for expenses, like the funerals, Nathan goes on line and sets up a fund on Go Fund Me, hoping to collect $7,000.   As of yesterday, Saturday, one week from Halloween and the accident, the fund had reached $400,000. 

Are there not sensitive and generous people everywhere around us? 

 

                Here he is, like a few years ago, Noah before.

 

3 quick observations on The Widow’s Mite.

Three observations.

First, this is a marvelous call to help and to contribute, not just money, but so much else, my time, my positive strokes of others, my efforts to help kids recover from deaths, like Nathan Bradley. 

 

                 
                  Cupcake of The Week to Mike & Dee.

 

Secondly, watch out.  A trap here.  See Mark’s use of infinite demand?  Am I supposed to likewise contribute all I have, my whole livelihood?  Not quite, which leads to my next point.

Thirdly, want to know why I did not want to take up a formal collection at our liturgies?  Because the churches I was part of as a young boy always pushed money.  These little stories guilted me.   I bet a lot of parishioners are hearing this morning how they should be donating to their parish.  Tithing is the norm, 10%.  It is a really literal approach to the story.

How are you helping others?

Source: I found this story on line, Outlook Express, Friday, 11/6/15.

   
       

Cupcake of The Week to Rosemary on her birthday, the 14th