Sunday Homily, November 23, 2014, Christ the King
Readings:
Ezekiel, 34, 11-12, 15-17, As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep.
Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. (good one)
1 Corinthians 15, 20-26, 28, Christ has been raised.
Matthew 25, 31-46, He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Ezekiel observations and reminders:
I've mentioned how Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 Prophets, #3 after Isaiah & Jeremiah, 48 chapters vs 66 in Isaiah. I also mentioned how he lived smack dab in the middle of one of the two or three biggest tragedies of the Jewish people, the Babylonian captivity, say 555 before Christ. He was there.
In American history we can look back and identify special presidential leaders, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt. They came forward in crisis times.
Ezekiel was this type of leader in Jewish history. He saw what had happened to other Jews of the northern province of Israel (Jerusalem is in the southern province of Judah) after they had been carted off as slaves after a defeat by the Assyrians (Syria still). They intermarried and simply disappeared in the DNA of the middle east.
Ezekiel is in Babylon and is determined that his community would not lose its identity. He did three things to help maintain the spirit of the community: he emphasized 1. observance of the Sabbath, 2. kosher diet, and 3. male circumcision.
Eventually after ca. 50 years the community still was a cohesive unit and it returned to rebuild Jerusalem, at least the second or third generation. The Jews are one of the few peoples to be defeated and scattered, and still return to their original homeland. They remained there until the Romans defeated them in 70 C.E., returning when? 1948, after the Holocaust.
Today's reading comes to us from an Ezekiel captive in Babylon, and has Ezekiel promising the people a return, a brighter day after the captivity. He uses the figure of speech, I will. But I is Yahweh.
Note on both Ezekiel, Psalm 23, and Matthew: There are two consoling readings this morning, Ezekiel and Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.
At the very end of Ezekiel’s consoling passage and in Matthew there is talk of the sheep and goats. Beware of taking this literally. This is either/or spirituality. Guess what: we are all goats. I see heaven full of both sheep and goats. And I can’t find any evidence of hell.
Thanksgiving History: Everyone knows about the first Thanksgiving in 1602 with the Pilgrims and the Indians eating together, the Mayflower, and Plymouth Rock.
When did our Thanksgiving begin? Our ancestors have celebrated end of harvest feasts of gratitude for centuries. Lincoln first focused on a national feast; FDR established the national holiday in 1941.
Thanksgiving
This morning I would like to talk about Thanksgiving and in particular I would like to tell you about my top three blessings of the year.
Rosemary & I have a habit at the end of the year of writing down all our blessings and gifts of the year. We usually begin tagging them at Thanksgiving. And since she is in Princeton, NJ, for her niece’s wedding, I get to say things about her I would not admit if she were here.
Looking back over the year I have a ton of blessings, but in particular I have three I would like to mention.
Guess what number One is. Yep, Rosemary. I know, and Rosemary reminds me frequently, yes, I married up. But this marriage with Rosemary is one of the 3 biggest blessings of my whole life. 10 years in East Africa and my Jesuit career are the other 2.
You people should have told me how good it can be. I know, for sure, all of you gave Rosemary about a year before she had enough of the old geezer bachelor. However, because of living in community my 40 odd years as a Jesuit I really never was a bachelor. I loved living in a community with other guys, like in a fraternity. But it does not come close to life with Rosemary. And this May we celebrate 10 years.
My third blessing of the year is my splendid summer filled with fun events. It started, as usual, with our 5 Boro bike tour of NY with the McGinn family reunion. The next big one was the bike ride across Iowa with Bill Hammond and about 15 thousand others. This event is like 8 days of 4th of July, all the little towns overflowing with spirit and hospitality. I just try to slow the clock down and absorb it all.
Then comes the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred bike ride the last Saturday of August, out of Wichita Falls. This takes preparation and planning on how to survive. Finishing that event produces such a spirit high in me.
Then in September came our 8 night back pack trip in Yosemite, my favorite National Park among all the ones I have seen. This was as fun as ever, the campfires, the meals, the views, the quickie bath in the cold river or stream after a sweaty hike, and the exhilaration of climbing into my tent and and into my down sleeping bag on a near freezing night at about 10 thousand feet.
Finally there was the Viking River cruise on the Danube with Rosemary. I love riding trains. But, listening to the water swish by our cabin window beat the train by a mile. And more beauty.
Can summer get better than this?
And the final blessing, number two, this marvelous community, you people. When I departed to get married, I never expected to be doing this, especially 10 years later. I thought it was over. You people are a treasure in my life and I will continue to celebrate with you like this until I get called to the heavenly homestead. You are so much fun and make my life so rich. Thank you.
And your Blessings of The Year?