Sunday Homily, February 3, 2013, 4th Ordinary Time C
Readings:
Jeremiah 1, 4-5, 17-19, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Psalm 71, I will sing of your salvation.
1 Corinthians 13, 4-13, Love is patient, love is kind.
Luke 4, 21-30, No prophet is accepted in his own native place.
For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use,
The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).
The difference? The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha.
Both are good translations.
Buying a bible? The Jerusalem Bible.
Jeremiah observations:
Who: One of the Big 3 and my second favorite behind Isaiah, whom we will hear from next Sunday. Why a favorite: because he shares his feelings with gusto.
Time: you can guess it, before and during the Babylonian Captivity. Notice how much prophetic energy is concentrated around this one event? Shows how big it was in Jewish history. Keep 500 before Christ as the beacon date.
What: you can guess this, too. Criticism of behavior, warning of punishment from God, and eventually a better day.
What today: Jeremiah’s call by God to be his man, really Everyperson’s call to be God’s special. This call theme carries through our next 2 readings, especially the next one, The Big One.
1 Corinthians, 13
Here it is: Paul’s famous treatise on what love is.
I used to get 1 Corinthians 13 fatigue, I heard it so often at weddings. Lately, however, I appreciate it more because I never cease to need to be reminded of what love involves.
The Greatest of these is love.
When I returned from East Africa in May of ’86, I decided to study Spanish because I wanted to stay in Texas. Plus, I discovered I had a gift for languages in East Africa learning Swahili. So I went to Cuernavaca, Mexico where I spent 2 five week periods.
The second 5 week period I stayed in the small house of a lady named Maria Luisa. She had a crippled daughter named Karina. Maria Luisa had two Mexican girls renting a little space in her house. One of these girls was one of our teachers at the language institute. I stayed in a little hut in the back and I stayed there because I wanted to live with people who spoke only Spanish.
When I returned to the States after running the Mexico City Marathon in September of ‘86, I continued to keep in contact with mother & daughter. A year or so later they lost their little house and had to move into the garage which had been an attached part of the house.
Year by year I used to visit them, usually around Christmas when Rosemary & I would take a break in Mexico. I think what started me helping the two women was when Karina fell down at some point, broke the apparatus she wears on her withered left leg, and did not have the money to buy a new one.
Each Christmas we would visit with hopefully enough money to help them get through the year. With the help of numerous people at St. Mark’s and then our community from 2004, I gave them as much as $2400 a year,$200 per month. This was especially true when Maria Luisa started coming down with what turned out to be 3 cases of cancer.
Six year ago, as Karina reminded me, we brought an extra thousand to help them establish a small shop. They did and we were able to back off the support. However, there were times when Maria Luisa was hospitalized and dependent upon Karina. These times the shop did not get opened and I would help them with maybe a thousand.
This past fall, after having survived 3 cases of cancer, Maria Luisa was killed in a car accident. Karina was panicked. In fact, she feared she was going to be kicked out of the garage. I sent her $600 and she seemed to level out.
Though I did not expect to get to visit Mexico again this year because of the rising cost of air fares, Rosemary & I decided I needed to check on the woman. And so I went last Monday, coming home Friday. Three points came up.
- It was excellent that I went. The visit calmed and encouraged Karina. I gave her $700.
- She said she is afraid she cannot run the shop alone, is looking at selling out, closing, and taking up cleaning houses in her neighborhood. There are some middle class homes in the area.
- I asked her what can I help her with so that she can get her peace back. Reluctantly, she said $2000 will help her clear all the bills from her mother and her own apparatus recently broke. Then she won’t fear getting kicked out of her garage, which she says that she owns.
For my part, I told her I would consult about the money. I also suggested that now was the time in her life at 45 when she could put to use her considerable mental capabilities. I suggested, too, that she broaden her contacts, especially with a couple of influential women I personally know in Cuernavaca who would empathize with her.
Why do this? Why not work to alleviate the suffering of the thousands running from Syria or even poverty in Mexico? Mostly I have never known how. But I do know I can help a person here or there whom I care for. I can show my love for one. I don’t know how to do it for thousands.
“The greatest of these is love,” says Paul. You people in this community are good at this. But I will ask anyway, ‘To whom are you showing your love?’