Sunday Homily, April 20, 2014, Easter, Cycle A

"Welcome in, Everybody," says our dear Michelle, The Great Mom.

Readings:

Isaiah 40, 1-5, 9-11,   Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God

Psalm 85,  Lord, let us see you kindness and grant us your salvation.

2 Peter 3, 8-14,  One day with the Lord is like a thousand years.

Mark, 1, 1-,  He will prepare your way.

Christmas Eve Mass, 12/24/17 at 4:00.

Our Dearest Candle Lighter, Emma, at work bringing us light.

Observations on Isaiah

Who: number 2 Isaiah, my favorite and a bringer of peace and consolation.  This is despite the fact that Isaiah 2 is composing during the time of the Babylonian Captivity.

If you are familiar with Handel’s Messiah, you will recognize lines he took directly from this passage.  

Watch out for a line in the letter of Peter, where God is compared to a thief who will come unexpectedly and send you to a bad place.

Thanks for the help with the Offertory, Teresa & Tom, and Leo in the back.

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief

In the spirit of Advent I want to tell you three stories about how the thief came to me in the past week.  This is my kind of thief, one who brings peace and consolation.

The Best Music with Shonda, Ben, & David.
 

There is a person who lives in a suburb not far from our community gathering place here at Sigler Elementary.  In this neighborhood the Dallas Morning News is delivered every morning at 6:10.  The paper is thrown into the lawn from a passing car or pick-up (not like in my days as a paper boy when I walked and took pride in placing the paper right at the front door).  In the neighborhood the first person to fetch the paper walks around and delivers everyone’s paper to their doorstep.  Pretty cool.

This past Friday morning this person was ready to do the paper delivery, stepped out, and behold, his paper had already been delivered by a neighbor.  This is getting merit by intention, an old Catholic grade school teaching of the Ursuline nuns.  The person?  Our Mike Carroll, a thief who regularly brings peace and consolation to all.

Communion ready, Claire & Sandra, Geri & Mike & Patricia.

The name of second thief is unknown.  Andy Sokolowski, one of our stalwart backpackers, told me this.  He & his wife were in their RV looking for a special park in Arizona.  They cannot find it, are sitting at the edge of the road looking at their map, and up comes a black guy who asks if they are lost. 

Yes!  The guy explains how to get to the park, which involves about half a dozen turns on little roads.  A couple of miles down their road, they are lost again. 

The real thieves at the Love for Kids picnic bringing peace and consolation.

But, behind them comes the thief bringing peace and consolation.  He offers to personally lead them to the park.  The thief of peace and consolation has struck again.

The third even took place yesterday, yes, the Great Love for Kids picnic at the large ranch west of Flower Mound.  The picnic invites kids from DISD and other school districts.  The schools are mostly from low income neighborhoods.

Those thieves were everywhere.   This young teacher is lacing up the shoe of one of her little charges.

Saturday 30 plus buses delivered a thousand pumped kids to a whole swarm of activities.  I watched those kids come into the big rectangular pavilion.  They were so excited.   Immediately they were welcomed with music and special middle school kids who sang and invited the kids to dance.  One the stage was even a Downs Syndrome girl who could really dance.

Waiting for them were bags of pop corn, kool-ade, face painting and tatoos, horse back rides, and  lunch.  Plus more music and dancing.  Every kid got a new winter coat and they were not all alike.  When the kids got back on their buses, guess what they found. A package of goodies had been put on every seat in every bus.

Welcome, All You Kids.

Who made this all possible and did all the work?  A whole big gang of volunteers , among them a big bunch from our community.  They struck again, those thieves of peace and consolation.

To whom are you a thief bringing peace and consolation?

These kids looked like middle school level, but could they all sing and dance, and get everyone else dancing.

Numbers 11, Would that all the people for the Lord were prophets.

Psalm 19, The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. 

James 5,  Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder.

Mark 9,  If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.

Shonda & Ben bringing us together.

Thanks……

Music,    Ben & Shonda

Readers,  Beth & Rob & Buddy, our candle blesser 

Gospel,     John Cade

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B,  John Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,      Hue & Mike

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Beth reading the first reading from Numbers.

Readings: 

Download Readings 26th Ordinary time 09-26-21

Homily by John Stack,  

Download Homily 26th Sunday 9-26-2021

Rob reading from James.

Remember these special people:

For John & Karen Anderlick's unborn grandson;   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,

Jan & Charlie saying, "Hi, Everybody!"

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 12 month old 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.

Mary, Connie, & John singing the beautiful hymn "On Eagles' Wings."

Birthdays:   Ben's daughter, Sophia, 14 (yesterday), Judy Carol, Leo (11?), Jackie Johnson

Anniversaries:  

Fred & Patricia

Tom & Becky Good

Ron & Nancy Kovatis

Cathy, Fred, & Ron updating the news of the week.

Community Finances,   September 26, 2021

Expenses: $600.00 

Outreach: $5.00 

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary sharing her beautiful Blessing of the Week.

Rosemary's Blessing:

“Rivers do not drink their own water;

trees do not eat their own fruit;

the sun does not shine on itself

and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves.

Living for others is a rule of nature.

We are born to help each other.

No matter how difficult it is.

Life is good when you are happy

but much better when others are happy because of you.

Let us remember that pain is a sign that we are alive,

problems are a sign that we are strong and

prayer is a sign that we are not alone.

If we can acknowledge these truths and

condition our hearts and minds, our lives will be more meaningful,

different and worthwhile.”

Pope Francis

Peace, Everyone!

 Readings:

2 Chronicles 36, 14-16, 19-23 , He has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem.

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

Ephesians  2, 4-10,   God brought us to life with Christ.

 John  3,  14-21,   Jesus & Nicodemus.

Buddy says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome."

INTRODUCTION to Gospel:

 When our gospel begins, Jesus is in dialog with Nicodemus, who is present three times in the John gospel. He is a Pharisee and teacher who wants to know what Jesus is teaching and doing. Today’s reading occurs at night for he is afraid that other Pharisees might think that he had become a disciple of Jesus.

 Later Nicodemus will remind the Pharisees who want to rid themselves of Jesus that the Law does not allow them to arrest Jesus without first knowing what he is saying and doing. 

After the crucifixion, Nicodemus, while it is still day, brings to Jesus’ disciples an unheard of amount of expensive spices so that Jesus’ body can be given a kingly burial.   Initial fear had turned into great love.

Victoria, too, says, "Come in Everybody, it's fun."

INTRODUCTION to 1^st and 2^nd Readings:

Salvation comes to us through Christ. Our witness of good works, our love, is how they will know we are Christians.

Zoe says, "It's fun here."

GOSPEL and HOMILY: 

A year or two ago I also gave a homily on this fourth Sunday of Lent; but then I chose the other gospel reading about the man who had been blind from birth.  I took you in that homily to the Feast of Tabernacles where Jesus had called out in the temple inviting anyone who was thirsty to come to him and drink from the fountain of living waters. 

It was in these waters that the man born blind had been baptized.  I also made you aware of the verse from the prophet Jeremiah, ‘Those who reject the Lord, the fountain of living waters, will in shame have their names written in the earth.’ 

Mike sharing his thoughts and preparing us for the reconciliation rite.

The Pharisees sought to circumvent Nicodemus’ words to them about the Law, by trying to trap Jesus using the Law, by bringing to him a woman caught in the act of adultery.  ‘Moses said that this woman should be stoned. What do you say?’ 

They knew that Jesus would not allow them to stone her; he would seek to bring forgiveness to the woman.  They had him trapped; but Jesus bent down and began writing the names of these Pharisees and scribes on the ground to inform them that they were the ones in need of forgiveness.

Connie and Cathy. What's all that green about?

When they kept after him to take a position he said, ‘The one of you, who is without sin, cast the first stone at her.’  One by one they left until there was no one left in front of him but the woman who recognizes his great love.

She made no excuse; she does not try to run away from what she has done, she submits herself to his words. He says to her, ‘woman, where are they, is there no one left to condemn you?’ 

Harper says, "My grandmother wears green because it is St. Patrick's color."

He has addressed and treated her with goodness and justice, tenderness and compassion.  She replies, ‘No one.’  Since Jesus has already said in today’s gospel that he came not to condemn but to bring forgiveness to the world, he truly has forgiven her.  He says, ‘neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.’ 

The Greek word, translated as ‘go,’ means in Greek, ‘to journey along the way she has been invited to pursue.’  She has been invited by Jesus to follow him.  Jesus’ command to the woman, ‘do not sin again,’ recognizes, again, that she is forgiven, and is an ongoing request to remain contrite.

Cupcakes of The Week, John, Ken, and Mary Ellen back from CT.

At the end of our Eucharistic Prayer we will join together in the Our Father before celebrating our Lenten Penitential service where we ask for forgiveness and grant forgiveness. It is appropriate for us at this time to take a moment to reflect on some habit we might have that is not life-giving or love-giving, and in a contrite way think about how we will replace it with something that is.

And also for Sophia a Cupcake of The Week.

Readings:

Genesis 2, 7-9; 3, 1-7,  Eating the apple.   

 Psalm 51,  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned

 Romans 5, 12-19   Then everyone will receive praise from God.

 Matthew 4, 1-11,    Temptation in the desert.

Say Ben & Cody, "Welcome in, everybody." 

Introduction: In the creation story from Genesis, the serpent deceives Eve; and Adam brings sin into the world. In our gospel reading, Satan is also a deceiver. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, ‘We are all made righteous through Jesus Christ.

Let the celebration begin.

Homily: 

Here is a Greek definition for the word ‘tempter.’  In Greek, it is dee-ah-bah-lahs. The tempter is diabolic, wicked.   In today’s gospel reading it is the world that is arrogant and wicked.  It wants from Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a miracle or two, or three.  The world receives Jesus’ answer.  ‘I am not of the world. I bring to you the Father’s love; for he has sent me to redeem the world.’ 

Cole, our Candle Lighter of The Week.

The Lord doesn’t have miracles on his agenda, for a faith based on miracles is no faith at all!  I propose to you that the Scribes and Pharisees are the devil in this reading. They are the ones who say to Jesus, ‘give us a miracle, so that we might believe in you.’

Mike, our Homilist of The Week.

Recall that it is the diabolic Pharisees and Scribes who want to trap Jesus by bringing to him, while he was teaching at the entrance of the temple, a woman caught in the act of adultery. ‘Moses said that we should stone her; what do you say.’

The Team.

 The spirit that flows forth from the legalistic way the Pharisees and Scribes teach and live the Law ignore love. Their spirit is unclean.  They are the hypocrites that put fear in the minds of others, instead of love.   They can be likened to a circus hustler, ‘Come see Jesus feed, with a loaf of bread and a few fish, the overflowing crowd in the Big Tent.’  

Leo and Genevieve, that little girl is crazy about her big brother.

Their ignorance misleads the crowd, for the bread and fish of the Gospel are the Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of Eucharist.  There is no miracle here, only love.

When Jesus spiritually heals the sick and unclean in the Gospel; these are not miracles. Those who come to him desire to be forgiven; they are seeking to change their lives by welcoming and living his life-giving words. 

Could it get any better than this?  Zoe & Harper.

God’s plan for us is not easy, therefore, ‘in everything we are to give thanks,’  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is alive to us, in good times and bad.  When we pray together each Sunday for our brothers and sisters who are physically sick or ill, we are praying for their care givers, their doctors, their nurses, their children, their parents, their friends. 

The Offertory Team, Ron, Ray, Bill, Bernadette, and Barbara.

We pray that they all become stronger in faith. The physical illnesses experienced by those dear to us are so much easier to accept knowing that the Lord journeys with us and in us and through us as the Body of Christ in the world.  We give thanks to Fr. John for keeping them in our hearts each week.’  

Play station with Victoria and Zoe.
 

Readings: Entrance procession, Luke 19, 28-40; Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?; Philippians 2, 6-11; Passion, Luke 22, 14-23, 1-49. 

 Some short reflections on the readings, short because of the length of the readings, i.e., the Passion.

It is very unfortunate that we only read little sections of the Luke’s Gospel each Sunday.  It is like seeing a few minutes of a movie; we keep getting interrupted and can too easily lose the whole plot.  Remember, Luke’s product is both the Gospel and the Book of Acts and together they form a complete message.

The very early church was Jewish.  After the Resurrection, the followers of Jesus continued to go to the synagogue or temple, this we see in Acts, and they also met in each other’s homes to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  As they reflected on the life of Jesus, they turned to what they were most familiar with, namely the Old Testament, in their efforts to try and understand Jesus’ place better.  And so after forty or fifty or even sixty years of this, as our Gospels emerge they are hugely influenced by the Old Testament.  It was the only way the gospel writers and the early communities knew how to understand Jesus and his message.

Today, we have one of those points, if we were watching a movie, when the music would be cranked up.  For Luke, from Chapter 9:51 up until today’s first Gospel reading Chapter 19:28 Jesus has been journeying towards Jerusalem.  Today he enters Jerusalem and begins what we know as the Jerusalem ministry, a mere two and a half chapters. You will remember way back at the beginning of this gospel, when Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem, he says to his parents, “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs.” Right after today’s reading, Luke has Jesus go to the temple and clean it out and then begin teaching in the Temple every day. 

We get the sense of more time than just the few days we experience between Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and what we will read about shortly as the Holy Week events. 

Finally, recall on the first Sunday of Lent, we read of the temptations of Jesus after his 40 days in the desert.  Luke ends that story with the words “the devil left him to return at the proper time.”   We will see that return in our reading of the Passion when Peter denies Jesus 22:31, when Satan enters Judas 22:3 and at the hour of darkness, 22:53.

We are almost done with Lent.  Now we turn to the events of Holy Week and Easter.  Our Gospels give us different interpretations of these events, influenced by the early church’s interpretation in the light of the Old Testament.  Each one of us also needs to reflect on what these events mean to us and how our lives are different.  Was this just a sad story, which happened over two thousand years ago, or are our lives today lived with a different meaning because of Jesus?

Picture 1:   Palm Sunday Mass begins with Tony

Picture 2:   Tony blesses the Palms

Picture 3:   Denni, Nancy, & Ron await the Procession

Picture 4:   The Procession with the Palms

Picture 5:  The Kless Family await the blessing, Christine, Cara, her friend, Sean, and Ed