Sunday Homily, January 19, 2014, 2nd Ordinary Time A

Readings:

Isaiah  49, 3, 5-6,  I will make you a light to the nations.

Psalm 40,  Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.

1 Corinthians 1,  1-3,  Grace to you and peace.

John  1, 29-34, I saw the spirit come down. Like a dove.

 

Cole & Mom

Cowboy Cole and his mom, Erin, say, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

 

Isaiah reminders, again—

 Author: This is still Isaiah #2, the composer of chapters 40-55.  Isaiah is my favorite book and Isaiah 2 I love the most.  As John Cade pointed out a while back, Isaiah 2 is used by Handel in his work, The Messiah, another of my favorites.

 Date:  Ca. 555 before Christ.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are in the Babylonian Captivity.

Subject:  A great day will come for you Jews in this slavery.  You will be a beacon to others, glorious, and a light to nations everywhere.

 

Charlotte

Charlotte says, "When do I get my Cupcake?"

 

A Light to the Nations?  Get Serious.

Here it is again, folks, that line that has motivated me for decades, “I will make you a light to the nations.”  Last week Isaiah 2 mentioned giving sight to the blind.  It is the same idea and motivator for me.

So, this week, while I am reflecting on the readings and my favorite line, Tuesday comes with the news that 75 people have been killed by bombs in Bagdad, Iraq.  Me, a light to the nations?  Get serious.

 

Sienna

Sienna says, "You got my Cupcake?"

 

Next I hear & read news about 20 plus killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, including 2 Americans.  Both of these places ware special to us Americans.  A light to the nations?

On top of this, I am reflecting on an anniversary, a sad one.  This week is the one year anniversary of Kate Banzhaf who died in a car wreck near Colorado Springs.  The person driving Kate was drunk, and she survived.  This was only months after I had celebrated Kate’s wedding.  A light to the nations? 

 

Brooklyn

And Brooklyn says, "Even though it's not my birthday, aren't I a good girl?"

 

If I let myself, I can get truly discouraged by focusing on all this and so much more.   Two things help me.

First, ever hear of the Christopher movement?  This was big probably in the 40’s when I was a little kid.  The slogan is, “Better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”  I have a vivid memory of being in the Cotton Bowl as a little boy with my dad.  It was a Christopher rally.  At one point all the lights were turned out and everyone lighted the candle they had been given.  I was very impressed by this metaphor.

Cardenas

Jean, Lily, and Bob Cardenas.

 

Secondly, I look around me at some of the many good things going on.

For instance, I read about Brian DiCarlo, a 23 year old Oregon State student who is walking through a parking lot when he finds an envelope.  He opens it and finds thousands of dollars, like 40 thousand. 

He does not even think twice.  He goes right to the police.  In fact, a 71 year old lady, Sharon Davis, had been on her way to pay on a new house and dropped the money accidentally.  He wanted no reward, but she gave him $300.  He may get much more from readers.  Someone will set up one of those contribution sites.

 

Emma

Emma says, "I'm here, Everybody."

Likewise, Bernadette & some others sent me news of Cardinal O’Malley of Boston, a Franciscan.  He is at an ecumenical service at a Methodist church.  On his way out a minister steps up and asks the Cardinal’s blessing. 

Picture & article on Cardinal O'Malley:   Download Cardinal O'Malley 1-23-14

Behind this man is another minister, a woman.  She asks for O’Malley’s blessing and when he does it, he looks right at her and asks for her blessing.  She gives it.  Incredible. 

 

Cupcake

Cupcakes of The Week to Sienna, Kevin, and Chloe.  

 

Finally, I don’t have to go farther than this community.  You people have and do bring light to the nations, nations like Soul’s Harbor, Habitat, a crippled lady almost homeless in Cuernavaca, Mexico,  families in our own community stressed out by emergencies, Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center, our local food bank, and numerous other nations. 

I am consoled to be part of you people.

 

Georgie

Georgie suited up.

 

It is a challenge to stay away from the discouragement that comes from reading & hearing about the tragic stuff.  Instead of cursing that darkness, each of us can still light one candle.  A whole dark stadium can be illuminated.

Whose candle illuminates your life and with whom do you share your candle light?

 

Claire

Does it get better than this? Claire with Chloe and Charlotte.

 

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  • Sunday Homily, August 24, 2014, 21st Ordinary Time, A

     

    Readings:

    Isaiah  22, 19-23,  I will pull you down from your station.

     Psalm 138,   Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands. 

    Romans, 11, 33-36,  For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    Matthew 16, 13-20,  You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.

     

    Victoria

    Victoria says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome."

     

    Matthew observations–

    First biblical scholars agree that Jesus did not say what is in this little story.  Rather, the Matthean community shaped a highly stylized scene that attempted to establish Peter's position as leader of the new community.  The writer, because he wants to authenticate Peter, creates a scenario where Jesus makes Peter The Man.

     

    Zoe

    The girl with the pink blouse and pink ribbon,  Zoe,  also says, "Hi, Everybody, Come in."

     

    Isaiah observations—

    1.  Notice the chapter, number, 22.  Students of Isaiah, my favorite, will immediately know this is Isaiah 1.  Chapter 1-39 make up Isaiah 1.  Isaiah 2 and 3 follow.
    2.  Since it is Isaiah 1, students will know that the composer lived before the Babylonian Captivity, which took place around 555 before Christ.  Isaiah 2 is composed during the Captivity.  Isaiah 3, whom we had last week, works after the Captivity.
    3.  Knowing that things were not good before the Captivity, you can guess that Isaiah 1 is critical of Israeli life.  You would be correct.
    4.  Our selection today is both critical, “I will pull you down.”  But it is also talking about a better day.  

     

     

    Mary Ellen 2

    Mary Ellen, too, says, "Come in and save me; he's going to talk about me."

     

    Mary Ellen Day at San Vino

    I want to talk about you today, Mary Ellen.  I hope you don’t mind.  I did not ask your permission, because I figured a “No” would be what I would got.   

    I am doubly bummed because before I took off for the HHH, I had put together a few ideas tying you together with the line from today’s psalm; Do not forsake the work of your hands.  I wanted to show how you have fully lived out the work of his hands, that is, life, and how you have lived!

     

     

    Kevin

    Kevin, The Best, ready to go.

     

    Then, at about 5:00 this morning I read this article by Scott Burns, in The Dallas Morning News, Happy Money. It is about spending money healthily and happily.  I think, ‘That is Mary Ellen."  Burns’ ideas are

    1. Make it a treat.
    2. Buy experiences.
    3. Buy time.
    4. Invest in others
    5. Pay now, consume later.

    Mary Ellen has done this all the decades I have known her.  And this is the same as living the work of his hands.

    For example, make it a treat.  I know Mary Ellen has two favorites, ice cream and wine.  What can you expect?  She is, after all, Italian.  Scott Burns’ treat was Starbucks.

     

     

    Mary

    Is that Mary making off with the wine cups?

     

    Regarding investing in others, I know that for some time Mary Ellen tutored kids at Hillcrest High School in English.  She also volunteers as an usher at various venues, like the Winspear.

    I do not know how she has paid now and consumed later, but I do know how she has bought experiences and time.  Two examples that involve her traveling to other countries with Rosemary and me.

    I think it was 2007 when Rosemary & I planned a trip back to the scene of my work as a Jesuit, Tanzania.  This was going to be a tenting trip and we were going to be traveling in an open topped Land Rover over very rough roads.  I had a guy who ran safaris into the national parks, like Serengeti.

     

     

    Judy

    And Judy, too!

     

    We invited Mary Ellen and she was ready, as always.  Everything went super except one time when we were traveling through some wild terrain that had bushes, scrub trees, and tsetse flies.  These flies can travel fast for short distances.  They could catch us standing in the back of the Land Rover looking around.  And they bite.  Fortunately, we got away fairly quickly and there was no damage. 

    Another of the many times Mary Ellen bought into an experience with Rosemary and me was a trip to Italy.  We had a crowd, about 8 people.  We had to rent a van.

     

     

    Mary Ellen & Friends

    Mary Ellen with friends?

     

    Mary Ellen not only went with us, she went over a few days early and went to Trieste, Italy.  Why Trieste?  To scatter some of her husband, Chris’s, ashes at the site where he was born.

    Chris was a career Marine and Mary Ellen and he had met in Argentina, where Mary Ellen had gone to work for the State Department for a few years.  This is another one of her experiences.  

    Chris had been born into a career military family, which was why he had been born in Trieste.  His family was posted there. 

    Scott Burns could use you, Mary Ellen, as a beautiful example of just what he is writing about.  I thank you for all the times you have included me and Rosemary in your experiences and time.  I wish you a bon voyage and a continued rich life in Connecticut.

     

     

    Cupcakes

    Cupcakes of The Week, Zara & Craig, Kara, and 1/2 of Marsha.

     

     

  • Sunday Homily 6-7-09, Trinity Sunday

    Readings: Deuteronomy 4, 32-40; Psalm 33, Blessed the People the Lord has chosen to be His Own; Romans 8, 14-17; Matthew 28, 16-20.

    Mass 6-7-09

    Deuteronomy: This work is the 5th and last book of the Pentateuch/Torah.  The first 4 books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, & Numbers.  Deuteronomy has basically 3 speeches delivered by Moses before the people enter the promised land.  He reviews all they have endured the past 40 years and how Yahweh has shown his care and power to save them.

    Author: Moses may have spoken some of the ideas in the speeches, but others have put the work together.  In fact, in chapter 34 the death of Moses is described.  Someone other than Moses probably covered this episode.

    Date: 700 years BCE.

    Our Selection: the end of the first speech.  Moses is reminding the people of how Yahweh cared for them and why they must honor him for this as their one and only god.

    !cid_8DC7AKeith 6-7-09

    Happiness & Peace: Loving Relationships

    Want to know what makes for happiness?  Old Stack will tell you this morning.  I have talked about some of this in the past, but it is so good it is worth reviewing.  I do this especially on the feast of our three person god.  Our god is a relationship god and that is what I want to talk about.

    The ideas this morning come from a study of 268 male Harvard students starting in 1937, a 7 decade longitudinal study that is almost unique in its breadth.  The identities of the students are secret unless the student identifies himself.  Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post did so, and it was deduced after he died that President Kennedy was one of the students.  Most of the participants still alive are now in their 80's and are treasure chests of information about life.  Every 2nd or 3rd year most of their lives they were questioned and studied.  The latest write up comes from the June Atlantic magazine.

    The question was not how much trouble or how little they encountered in life, but how and to what effect they responded.  How they adapted and became happy-healthy or sad-sick people.  Psychiatrist George Vaillant has spent the last 40 years organizing the data coming from the study.

    Reed Baptized 6-7-09

    He has come up with the following suggestions taken from the lives of these 268 men.  Here are 7 factors that contribute to happy-healthy people:

        1.  Education.  For you kids who just finished a long school year, it may feel so good to be out.  However, your education is a big factor in you being a happy-healthy person, in the future and even now.  I would include ongoing education.  We never cease to learn new things, even how to dance, yoga, languages, history, geography, and so on.

        2.  Healthy & mature adaptability.  Vailant identifies 4 ways of adapting, from psychotic, immature, and neurotic, to healthy, like humor, altruism, forgiveness.  See the link to get his complete explanation. The analogy for this is the grain of sand in the shell that develops into a pearl.

        3.  No smoking.  Never too late to stop if you already have started.  You kids, you will end up looking uglier than me if you start the habit.

        4.  Moderate use of alcohol & no abuse.  College kids and even high school kids get caught up here so easily.  The culture of drinking excessively.  However, a new phenomenon is emerging as our population ages, geriatric alcoholism.

        5.  Exercise.  Want some exercise next Saturday?  Come with me and Hammond for the Collin County Classic, the bike run with 55 miles as the max and various shorter routes.  Make it fun, make it daily.  At least a few times a week, like take a walk.

        6.  Weight control.  My visit to McDonald's.  Kids loading up on layers of fat, salt, and sugar.  A very seductive place.

        7.   Relationships: loving and long term.  Vaillant suggests that this is the factor.  Loving is life-filling, it is motivational.  Because I love another, I exercise, I study, I approach life with moderation and spirit.  After all the data he has evaluated, Vaillant states that a relationship of love is the only thing that really matters in life. 

    Who is the person you love most in the whole world?  Who is number 2, 3, 4, 5?

    Keith Baptized 6-7-09

    AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-06-07.mp3

    Sources: Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/

    Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & Noah

    Picture 2:  Reed in his mommy's lap, Nikki, with daddy Keith

    Picture 3:  Reed being baptized

    Picture 4:  Keith (dad) being baptized

     

     

         

     

  • Sunday Homily 12-12-10, 3rd Advent

    Readings: Isaiah 35, 1-10; Psalm 146, Lord, Come and Save Us; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11. 

    Intro to Readings

     Remember what I had said on the First Sunday of Advent, it is a time when the Church turns towards not just the coming of Jesus at Christmas but gives greater focus on the Second coming of Jesus at the end time.  We can see this very clearly in our readings today.  It is a common theme; “when is the world going to end?”  “what will be the signs?”  For the Jews there was an expectation that it was when all wrongs would be made right.  

    Beginning 12-12-10 

    The second reading is interesting.  It is a letter from James.  There has been much speculation on who this James is.  The apostle James or the James mentioned as the ‘brother of the Lord’.  We just don’t know and there are different supporters for each position.  The letter is more like a sermon than a typical letter from the time.  The main purpose of the letter seems to be to warn the hearers of the danger of having just an abstract faith.  Faith must be implemented in every action of our lives.  It can become too easy to make it theory and nothing more.

     The responsorial psalm is worth thinking about carefully.  It too picks up the same theme of the results of God’s activity in human lives!

    Tony 12-12-10 
     

    Homily

     This past week the Church celebrated two big feasts, on Wednesday it was the Immaculate Conception and then today Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Certainly a big week for Mary.  The Immaculate Conception is a statement about Mary’s birth, namely that she was conceived to be free from sin.  I am not too sure what to make of that statement, but it is the Church’s way of honoring her as the mother of Jesus.  As we get closer to Christmas I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting with you on what Christmas might mean for us today.

     I remember many years ago reading a book on Quantum Mechanics and it was examining the question whether light traveled as a wave or a particle!!  A great book!  The feast of the Incarnation, namely God becoming human, is one of those events beyond our ability to understand.  I am sorry to have to keep saying it but God is way outside our ability to comprehend. 

    Dillon 12-12-10 
     

    The Jews were smart when they basically adopted the use of the name Yahweh without the vowels, in other words a name you could not say.  It sounds like something JK Rowling dreamed up for the Harry Potter world!  And yet our faith has gone to the trouble of coming out with proclamations about God in great detail.  One of the great blessings of both Luke and Matthew’s infancy stories about the birth of Jesus is that they are very easy to understand, which is what makes Christmas a wonderful event!  We can all relate to a baby’s birth, in fact we have all gone thru one!!

     The insight I have had this past few weeks was that since God is outside of time, then that event, God becoming human, even though it was an event in our experience that happened over two thousand years ago, since God is outside of time, it is an event which is always happening for God!  Look around you.  God is present in each one of us.  We have been given clues by Jesus of this:  remember “where two or three are gathered” or “as often as you did it for one of these”. 

    Our Father 12-12-10 

     In Jesus’s response to John’s disciples he tells them to go back to John and tell him what they see, and there is almost a direct quote from our first reading from Isaiah about the blind seeing etc.  Remember last Sunday John sharing about his Jesuit friend Fr. Larry Gillick.  His blindness was taken away by his Jesuit colleagues who read to him and helped  him so that he could pass the exams!  Maybe that is how the blind see!!

     This Christmas, as we go about our busy days, trying to get too much done in too little time, pause!  Not only are the people you meet bringing God into your life, but you are also bringing God into theirs.  It may be that you will have an opportunity to help the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news preached to them.

    Ben & Amanda 12-12-10 

    Picture 1:    Mass begins

    Picture 2:   Eleanor with her grand dad

    Picture 3:   Dillon lighting the candles

    Picture 4:   Our Father

    Picture 5:   Ben & Amanda

      

     

  • Sunday Homily 4-15-12, 2nd Easter

    Readings:   Acts 4, 32-35, They had everything in common; Psalm 118, Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, his love is everlasting; 1 John 5, 1-6, Everyone who loves the Father loves the one begotten by him; John 20, 19-31, Jesus came and stood in their midst.

     

    Mike 4-15-12

    Mike reading John

     

    Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, Mike Carrell

    In the Smithsonian Magazine that I was reading in my doctor’s office recently, there was a photograph entitled Tricycle and Memphis, 1970.  It was a color photograph presented in the first showing of color photography as an art medium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1972.  It was a colorful picture of an old but sturdy tricycle with a blue seat with red rubber grips on a curved handlebar. It had some white spots of paint that had somehow been splattered on the seat, frame and wheels. 

    I could tell that the camera had been held at a very low angle to indeed give the tricycle the look of elegance, like a chariot it encompassed almost the whole picture.  In the diminished background you could see a couple of one story flat roofed houses, one with a carport.  One art critic found it perfect, another perfectly awful. 

     

    Candle Lighting 4-15-12

    Brooklyn lights our Easter candle with help from her mom, Erin

    The critic who found it perfect understood the context within which it had been placed—the diminished background, the fading away of the old Memphis was the result of a blossoming Southern culture that had begun in the Memphis of 1970, with bold new music, art, and literature.  The paint splatter an indication that the blossoming was a work in progress.

    Today we are told of the importance of signs within the gospels.  However, if we want to understand the signs, we too must understand them in the context of the gospel teachings in which we find them!

    Brooklyn 4-15-12

    Success, light & warmth

    Some of you will remember being taught by question and answer.  First we were given the question, ‘What is a sacrament?’  Then we were given the answer to memorize: ‘A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.’    If one were to translate that word sign into Greek, the Greek word chosen would be the word used for sign in our reading today. 

    Remember a couple of months ago when the leper came and knelt before Jesus saying, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean,’ There is a sign being given when Jesus says, ‘I do choose. Be made clean.’  We can come to understand the sign because of the context of the teaching in which it was placed.  At the end of that teaching Jesus was proclaiming the good news to those who crowded around him. 

    Offertory 4-15-12

    Offertory, Judy, Jerry, & Joan

    This good news, ‘In the Father’s plan of salvation the Messiah had come to us as the Lamb of God,’ fulfills what came before it in the teaching that stated that the Mosaic Law required the offering of an unblemished lamb for the leper’s sins.  So we know that these words of Christ has brought forgiveness to the man—the meaning of the sign.

    I presented you a sign from the Luke gospel during a Christmas season homily. I told you that of the Christ child in a manger dressed in swaddling clothes was a sign of the Church.  The manger was a feeding trough; the child wrapped in the shroud of the linen strips was the Lamb of God from which were come to be fed the Word and the Bread of Life.    We come to understand this from the context of the teaching because the shepherds watching over the flock by night are the twelve watching over their lambs, that’s us, who desire for us to be fed with Christ’s words and the Loaves blessed and broken to become the bread blessed and broken for others. 

    The Catholic catechism teaches that, ‘The Church draws its life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so she becomes Christ’s body.’ 

     

    The Kless Family 4-15-12

    The Kless family, Cara, Christine, Sean, & Ed

    Today’s gospel reading just happens to be an entire teaching from the initial ending of the John gospel.  To paraphrase, we are told the signs of the gospels were written so that we might believe that the Messiah has come to us as the Christ, the Lamb of God, to bring forgiveness to our sins and union with the Father through him. 

    This is why, like Thomas, we are to place our hand into the pierced side of the body of Christ, because Christ’s body symbolizes the Church, the body of Christ alive in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This wisdom must give specific meaning to the story within the context of this last teaching: ‘For as the Father has sent me, so I send you, in the peace that comes from being forgiven and with the power and authority of the Spirit breathed upon us to be the bread blessed and broken to the ends of the earth.

    Over time, I will help you come to understand that all of the resurrection teachings of the Gospels are about the Church! 

    Cole 4-15-12

    Cole

    Now, let me give you a brief insight as to why the inspired writers added another ending to the John gospel that consists of two additional teachings.  Both the Mark gospel and the Matthew gospel have a second teaching about the loaves and fishes.  The loaves, fishes and leftovers are signs, when understood correctly, that describe the mission Christ gives to his disciples, and us, to take the good news to the ends of the earth. The 5 loaves and the 7 loaves are the twelve disciples who have been called to become the Bread they eat.  We are the leftovers! From us are to come other leftovers!  

    The gospel of Luke was not written with this second teaching because its writers wrote a whole book, called the Acts of the Apostles, to describe the mission to the ends of the earth; one of its teachings is about the 7.  Since the inspired writers of the John gospel placed an obvious ending to their gospel, they must have envisioned another book to complement Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.  Later, after a decision was made not to do this, two inspired teachings were added to the original John gospel—one a teaching about the 7. 

    The first would present how all the stories of the four gospels were used in the mission to the ends of the earth.  Since Luke’s Acts continuously describe the persecution of the Apostle Paul, not one of the twelve, the last teaching in the John gospel was written to incorporate the persecution of the Apostle Peter.   Recall that I suggested to you to read the Sermon of the Mount from the Matthew gospel during Lent.  The beatitudes end with, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for the sake of the Christ, ‘Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

    The context of each of our personal stories is not complete.  How will others remember us as leftovers blessed and broken for others? 

     

     

     

    Leo 4-15-12

    Leo with John
  • Sunday Homily, November 3, 2013, All Saints

    Readings: Note that these readings are for Sunday rather than All Saints.  Much better readings.

    Wisdom 11, 22-12, 2, You love all things that are.

    Psalm 145,  I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.  Also, check out the marvelous second stanza, my favorite.  What a portrait of our God.

    2 Thessalonians 1, 11-22  We always pray for you.  Good old Paul, two long sentences.

    Luke 19, 1-10, The beloved Zacchaeus in his tree.

     

    All Sts. 11-3-13

    Celebrating All Our Saints.

     

    Wisdom (of Solomon) observations:

    Author: Not Solomon, but a compilation by numerous
    people.

    Date:  around 200 years before Christ.

    Subject: Wise statements like

              "Righteous people are
    protected by God and will never suffer torment." 3, 1

              "Is it good to have riches
    in this life?  Nothing can make you
    richer than wisdom."  8, 5

    Today:  Nice reading, especially for All Saints.  Note the beautiful line, “You love all things
    that are.” Line 24

     

    Beginning 11-3-13

    The Celebration begins.

     

    Psalm 145 observation:

    Can you spot my favorite line?  Someone
    has composed a beautiful portrait of God.

    Sources, Good News Bible, The New Interpreter's Study Bible, Wikipedia.


    Music 11-3-13

    Three of Ours, Bethany, Shonda, and Ray.

     

     

    Saints?  Ever met One? 
    Never met One?

    I would like to talk today about saints. 
    Ever met one?  Never, you
    say.  I would say, on the contrary, I
    have known many, and I know many.  Let me
    spell out a bit what this saint person is or does from my perspective.

    First I would suggest the saint is fully alive or trying to be fully
    alive.

    Secondly, I think this person shows me that Our God is what the Psalm writer
    says.  Namely, using my translation, Our
    God is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.


    Bernadette 11-3-13

    Bernadette leading the Creed.

    Zacchaeus exemplifies these two qualities.  He shows me this portrait of God and he is so
    alive that he climbs a tree to compensate for his shortness.  A terrific model.

     

    I have another.  This person came
    into my life around fifth grade at Christ the King.  He was a young guy in his twenties, out of
    the navy where he had been wounded. 
    He was our all sports coach, scout master, teacher, and mentor.  


    Cupcakes 11-3-13

    Cupcakes of The Week for Alison's John, Beth's Rob, and Patricia's 15th. Did John and Rob ever see those cupcakes?

    His name was Frank and at least twice in his life he showed me God. 

     

    The first time it happened started after I had entered the Boy Scouts
    and we went off to camp Texoma. I don’t think Frank was there this year.  I immediately did not like this, was homesick,
    and scared that some of the big guys, the eighth grade boys, who were going to
    initiate me, it being my first time out.

    So I pretended to be sick, cried a bit, and eventually got taken
    home.  I remember coming home.  It was mid-summer and hot.  We had no a/c, of course.  I think my parents were embarrassed.  That event was one of the most humiliating
    times in my life.


    Harper 11-3-13

    Harper with Cathy.

    My dad & some of the other dads had gotten involved with the Scouts
    at this time and, therefore, I stuck around. 
    Summer came again, camp came, and I did not want to go.  But my dad had volunteered to do an
    overnight.  Each night a dad stayed with
    the troop. 

     

    I did not want to go, but figured I had better go along with my
    dad. 

    I’ll never forget arriving in that campsite at twilight.  They used the old canvas, walled tents on
    platforms.  Each tent had 4 cots.  When we arrived, we went straight to Frank’s
    tent and he was seated on his cot.

    When I  entered the tent rather queasy, Frank was so warm in his
    greeting and so accepting that I immediately felt at ease and at home.  I think Frank’s support of me that night
    helped me turn a big corner in my life.


    Torri 11-3-13

    Torri at The Play World.

     

    Could this have significantly helped me to enter the Jesuits in ’58?  Despite the fact that I knew I would be
    coming home for nothing, and despite the times I felt homesick, like especially
    around Thanksgiving and Christmas, I never returned home.

    The second time Frank showed me Our God was when we planted trees on Marsh
    Lane from LBJ to Love Field, probably around 1993-4.  We had so many trees that we used two Sundays
    in October-November. 

    Frank owned a restaurant just north of LBJ west off of Marsh.  When he heard about what we had done the
    first Sunday, he invited all the planters to eat dinner at his restaurant after
    the second planting. 

    We did and those trees are still there. 
    Moreover, for some years Frank’s oldest son, likewise, Frank, whom I
    taught at Jesuit in the 60’s, and who owns Back Country Bar-b-que on Greenville
    Ave., Frank Jr. catered a lunch for all the tree planters.

    Frank Sr. is retired and living at Tremont, and he is one of my saints.  He is fully alive and he has shown me that Our
    God is merciful and gracious, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.

    Who are your saints?   For whom
    are you a saint?  

     

    Jess 11-3-13

    Jessica in from The Home of the Red Sox.

     

     

  • Sunday Homily 11-16-08, 33rd & Last Sunday, Ordinary Time

    Readings:  Proverbs 31, 10-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-6; Matthew 25, 14-30

    Proverbs:

    Date of Composition: ca. 300 B.C.

    Content: a collection of moral & religious teachings which were mostly dealing with practical matters.

      Choir 11-16

    The Talented Person

    Nineteen years ago today an event happened in the Jesuit order that still boggles my mind.  The year was 1989.  I had been back in the States about 3 years.  Reagan was coming to the end of his 8 years as president. 

    There was a group of 6 Jesuits who lived in a Jesuit community connected to a university.  Some of the men worked in the university, others worked in other activities in the area.  The school went by the initials UCA, University of Central America.  It was located in the city of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. 

    Times had been tough in El Salvador over the past 6-8 years.  Some Maryknoll nuns & an Ursuline nun had been stopped one night on the road to the airport and killed. 

    On this night nineteen years ago the Jesuits had all gone to bed.  Behind their community house was a house where the housekeeper & cook lived with her daughter.  At some time in the middle of the night a special brigade of the military arrived at the door.  They awoke everyone and herded them into an inner patio.  They made them all, the six Jesuits and the housekeeper & her daughter, lie face down on the ground.  Then they shot each one. 

    Birthdays 11-16

    We celebrate today the nineteenth anniversary of their martyrdom.

    My thoughts go to these people when I read the parable about the man going on a journey and giving various talents to his servants.  I do not know how many times over the years I have read this and thought that I do not like this man.  Why is he so hard on the poor man with only one talent?  Why do the rich get richer?  Being a parable, what is the symbolism?  Is the man a metaphor or symbol of Yahweh?  Three observation that help me.

    1.  First, we all have our talent.  A talent in the days of Matthew was 34 kilos of gold, i.e., 70 pounds of gold.  To grow into a complete person, physically, spiritually, and psychologically I got to use my talent.  What keeps me from using it, like the man in the parable, is often fear.  Despite the psalm's statement that "Blessed are those who fear the Lord," I would propose that more blessed and more spiritually healthy are those that love the Lord.  No fear. 

    Even though on the surface of the parable this does not seem to be the message, I think it may.  The insight comes to me from the Carmelite website.

    2.  This is the second point: the clue to the parable is that Jesus and especially Matthew is talking to and admonishing the Pharisees, not so much us.   Remember the pharisees obsessively observed every law & dictate so that they could attain justification and superiority.  Could it be that they had a fear based spirituality?  They get chastised for hiding their talent.  Yahweh from Matthew's perspective is irritated with them.

    3.  Thirdly, another clue to understanding the parable: image and attitude.  The pharisees have the same image of Yahweh that the one talent man has.  Demanding.  Therefore, his attitude and the attitude of the pharisees is, 'don't risk, don't love, hide behind strict observance of the law.'  This results in a sterile spirituality, it kills joy and spontaneity, and impoverishes life.  This pathetic life is chastised in the parable.

     Yes, the man symbolizes Yahweh.  The three servants are the people, we the people.  I grant, the master really does come across pretty harshly.  Maybe this is more Matthew speaking his feelings. Who knows what contributed to the fear of the one talent man.  I see this fear in people who have received a lot of negativity in their life, especially as children, being maybe abused or mistreated.  My read is that a compassionate master & God would take this into consideration and be more accepting than Matthew's parable suggests. 

    Beth 11-16

    When I read this parable about talents, I am reminded of my former Jesuit confreres.  They used their talents, for others. They faced their fears.  In fact, they had frequently been harassed by the government which did not like the Jesuits' criticism.  They gave it all. 

    What is your talent & how are you using It?

    Picture 1:  Choir Wendy, Ray, & Celeste

    Picture 2:  Birthdays–Mary Ellen Munzell, Penny Morrow, Blake & Blair Reyes (19)

    Picture 3:  Beth Robinson presenting Christmas family project

    AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-11-16.mp3