Sunday Homily, November 4, 2012, 31st Ordinary Time B, & All Saints/All Souls
Readings:
Deuteronomy 6, 2-6, You shall love the Lord
Psalm 18, I love you, Lord, my strength.
1 John 3, 1-3, See what love the Father has bestowed on us. (this is from the All Saints readings, p. 75)
Mark 12, 28-34, Which is the first of all the commandments.
All Saints: intro & a brief history
Intro: 3 feasts—
All Saints: (or All Hallowes) those who have achieved the beatific vision according to Catholic Church, based on miracles.
All Souls: those who have not achieved the beatific vision and are considered paying for their sins in purgatory.
Hallowe’en: the vigil of All Hallowes, a Celtic-Irish harvest, end of summer celebration.
History in 2 parts: the Western Catholic Church & the Eastern Catholic Church
The West: 4 significant dates, 300, 600, 700, & 800
Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated the feast of All Martyrs. This is really the foundation of the feast. Year 600: a Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to Mary & All Martyrs. May 13 was the celebration because it was also an ancient pagan day of celebration.
Year 700: a Pope Gregory set up in St. Peter’s Basilica a side chapel dedicated to All Saints.
Year 800: Dec. 25, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by Pope on the red stone in St. Peter’s. Charlemagne, an advocate of All Saints, established it on Nov. 1, coupling it with a Harvest Feast.
The East:
Year 900, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Wise had a beloved, devout wife, Theophano. She died & Leo built a church which he intended to dedicate to her. The religious authorities said no, so he dedicated it to All Saints, assuming his wife to be among the saints.
Note: later, three big events happen:
a. Crusade #4, on its way to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, captures and wrecks Constantinople, ca. 1200. J.P. II apologizes for this in 2004.
b. Ottoman Turks or Muslims capture Constantinople, 1450 and rename it Istanbul. It is Muslim to today.
c. Post 1540, Rome condemns Eastern Catholic church as schismatic over theological disputes, i.e., the nature of Jesus.
Sources: Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, Catholic Encyclopedia on line, Wikipedia.
The Most Difficult Commandment
Today we have the greatest commandment or the first commandment. I want to talk about the hardest commandment.
Rosemary has a passion for these British dramas on PBS. One of her favorites comes on tonight at 7:00, Call the Midwife. The story takes place ca. 1950 in London on the East Side, a rough ghetto of good people trying to make a penny. In particular it is about midwives who serve the women. The group has been set up by some nuns, Anglican, in fact, and they invite help from other trained women.
There is the kind nun, the tough on the outside nun, the young pretty girl shocked by so much drama she is seeing for the first time, and there is Chummy.
Chummy is a warm and tender midwife with no self confidence. She acts clumsy and insecure. She is not from anything like the East Side, rather from a wealthy, cold family where she received little love. In fact, she spent most of her life in boarding schools. How she came to work as a midwife in the East Side nobody has said.
Turns out Chummy has attracted the interest of the nice local police man and they have developed a special relationship. She meets his parents and all goes well. He wants to meet her mother. Ugh, oh.
And that’s where we are tonight. Rosemary tells me that she read or saw in one of her sneak previews on line that Chummy was turning herself in for some infraction and that she was talking about being a nun. Which leads me to think her relationship with the police man ran aground. Because her cold, class conscious mother did not approve?
Sorry, I don’t know what happens. I can tell you in the blog or you can tune in tonight. Channel 13, 7:00.
Rosemary says, “So why the story??” Because this exemplifies the way I have approached the Great Commandment forever.
There are really 3 commands here, love God, love my neighbor, and love my neighbor as I love myself. What is the hardest? For me the third, loving myself.
We get messed up & even ruined as kids in two ways: abuse & neglect. A kid messed up this way can be messed up for life. We see it all the time, like in the news. Angry, violent adults and angry, violent kids.
And Chummys. People without self confidence and courage to risk. People afraid. People neglected as children, Chummy.
I don’t know the outcome, but I can conjecture that Chummy will be afraid to confront her mother and marry the policeman. Yes, I’ve been sucked into watching this program. The moral, ethical, and psychological dilemmas are riveting.
We are called to love ourselves.
How?