Sunday Homily, May 25, 2014, 6th Easter, Cycle A
Readings:
Acts 1, 12-14, All these devoted themselves to prayer, together with some women.
Psalm 27, I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. (good verse for homily)
1 Peter 4, 13-16, If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you.
John 17, 1-11, I pray for them.
Reminders on Acts:
What : The second half of Luke’s work, the first part being his gospel. Acts starts after the Resurrection. We will read Acts all through May and read the last selection June 1, then June 7, Pentecost. The work focuses on the spread of the early church with special attention given to Peter and Paul and their conflicts over who was to be a Christian, and Jewish laws, like circumcision. The conversion of Paul is described.
Who: Luke, an educated and civilized Jew who wrote in Greek.
Date: around the year 65, or about 30 years after Jesus’ death.
Our Selection: Activities in the community after the Ascension.
Watch for two words in Psalm 27, gaze and contemplate, see the response above.
Gaze and Contemplate
I want to talk about two words that come from Psalm 27, gaze and contemplate.
This past week a great black lady died at 86, Maya Angelou I wish I had known her better. I memorized one of her poems once, but did not look her up.
One aspect of her life stuns me. She went silent for 5 years, from the age 7 to 12, more or less. Why? She had been abused by her mother’s boy friend, she told her brother, and a day or so later the boy friend was discovered beaten to death. Maya was sure her words had caused his death and she was mortified into silence.
It was her mother telling her that she was a special person that eventually convinced Maya to begin talking again. Yes, I wish I had known her.
I was fortunate, however, to know my own Maya, a black lady named Juanita Craft, who lived in south Dallas, near Fair Park, and was a leader in the NAACP in the ‘50’s & ‘60s. I got to know her really well because of three events.
One, the summer of ’66 or ’67 I was looking for something special to do. I was in the middle of a three year delightful internship teaching at Jesuit as part of my 13 year formation program to be a priest, a Jesuit priest.
Somehow, I got to meet Juanita and next thing I know I am the only whitey on a Greyhound bus to the National NAACP annual convention in Atlantic City with stopovers in D.C.
I was probably too dumb to know I was in some danger on the trip. We had a large number of teenaged kids. If the bus was headed toward Birmingham or Selma in those days, I may have taken a pass.
One of the highlights of the trip was how the Jesuit community of Georgetown went all out in their hospitality to our group, even having us all into the community dining room for dinner and providing a bunch of cars and drivers to tour everyone around the city.
Secondly, when I returned from the trip, I moved into Juanita’s little two bedroom, white frame house in South Dallas, and stayed for the rest of the summer. I worked with her at her NAACP meetings, understudied her ways, and helped with kids in the neighborhood. She called me her “white boy.” I was ca. 26.
My poor mom was mortified by all this. One evening when they had invited a number of their friends in for dinner, and I was asked to help out, she asked me if I would not tell people what I was doing and where I was living. A few days later she asked me to forgive her. I had to laugh. My dad did not seem to be bothered.
Thirdly, I learned how a simple person can make a difference. As head of the Dallas NAACP, she helped integrate UNT, UT Law School, the State Fair, as well as other places like restaurants, theaters, and public buses. I saw how she got the city to focus on the roads in her neighborhood and how she loved the kids. She had none of her own and, in fact, I don’t think she ever married. Juanita was elected to two terms on the Dallas City Council in the ‘80’s. There is a Dallas park and a rec center named for her. She came to my ordination in '71 at St. Rita's in a squad car. Impressed all the neighborhood kids.
How she affected me?
She got me to gaze around and contemplate the neighborhood, see what needed to be done, and do it. This eventually led me to the tree project. The interest in tree planting came from Boy Scouts; the mental foundation came from Juanita.
Secondly, Juanita’s jovial personality got me to gaze at and contemplate the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord in people and nature, as Psalm 27 says it.
I learned how to pray in public from Juanita and those people. I was usually in clerics and they called on me often for a prayer, something I was not used to. I think I wore clerics then and on that bus to avoid being killed. Likewise in East Africa, especially when crossing the borders, like between Tanzania and Uganda. Otherwise, no clerics.
Today we are called to gaze and contemplate the beauty around us, White Rock Lake, Tom Woodward Park (which I have yet to see), our kids here, our community, Romeos (Maybe not!), and our families. Jesuit spirituality got me started on this. Juanita Craft helped me put it into action.
Who is the Juanita Craft in your life who helps you to gaze and contemplate?
For whom are you the Juanita Craft?