Sunday Homily 2-5-12, 5th Ordinary Time

Welcome in, Everybody, as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent.

Readings:  

Baruch 5, 1-9, Jerusalem, put on the splendor of glory from God forever. 

Psalm 126,  The  Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Philippians 1, 4-6, 8-11,  I pray always with joy for all of you.

Luke 3,  1-6,  The word of God came to John.

Excellent reading, Dear Buddy, thanks.

Reflection on Luke

Author: The gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke-Acts.  According to an early Church tradition, the author was the Luke named as a companion of Paul in three of Paul’s letters, but Scripture scholars say there is a problem with this.

And thanks to you, Dearest Tori, for lighting our candles for the 2nd week of Advent while your brother reads The Blessing of the Candles.

Though the author of Luke-Acts admired Paul, his theology was significantly different from Paul’s; there are countless contradictions between Acts and Paul’s letters. Bottom line: we don’t know who author of Luke-Acts is.

3 Members of our Girls' Board, Emma, Zoe, and Tori.

When written: The most probable date is around 80-100 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century.  The author takes as sources the Gospel of Mark, written around 70 AD, the sayings collection called the Q source, and a collection of material called the L source (L for Luke).

Mike sharing his graces from the Love for Kids' Picnic.

Audience: Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus’ followers gathered in a house to share the Lord's supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but attends mainly to specifically Christian concerns rather than to the Greco-Roman world at large.

What is this sitting down on the job?  It is called lumbar stenosis, which was improved by one stretch suggested by the physical therapist last Thursday.  And that was only the first appointment.  Lots of hope for future appointments twice a week for a while.

Today's Homily

I was disappointed that I could not volunteer at Love Kids picnic Saturday.  I always am struck by the presence of grace in all these kids and volunteers.  Since I could not share the graces with our community, I asked Bill Hammond to keep his eyes open and to share what graces he experienced. 

The second elevation.

Bill, in turn, invited Mike and David to share their experiences of the presence of grace.

So we really had a triple header homily, and it was most touching.  

Next Sunday Mike will have the homily, a really good one.  Welcome.

For sale: Donna Dinsmore's hand made jewelry.

Readings:  Isaiah 60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem, your light has come!; Psalm 72, Lord, every nation on earth will adore you; Ephesians, 3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs; Matthew 2, 1-12, The Magi arrived from the east asking, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?"  

Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I said this on the 3^rd Sunday of Advent, when we read Isaiah 61.   

Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, you may consider it a metaphor referring particularly to us, to you and to me.

Ephesians

Paul is directly talking Epiphany, that is God to Gentiles, to us.  

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Bible

Epiphany Every Day?

    Almost every evening Rosemary & I take Aviana for a walk along our street.  Usually we meet a variety of neighbors and neighbor dogs.  It is a fun connection. 

    This past week we were walking when we met a lady who lives across and down the street.  She had tragedy hit her family.  A daughter with 3 young kids died 18 months ago with cancer.  It had been a lengthy fight and numerous neighbors had helped out. 

    We asked her how she was doing.  She waited a moment and then with a gulp she said, “Ollie has cancer.” 

    Ollie is a 3 year old son of the mother who died.  A week or so before Christmas the family noticed that Ollie had a lump on his forehead.  They took him to get checked and discovered that he has a very rare and aggressive form of child cancer.  Only about 350 cases occur a year in the States, hitting children between ages 1 and 5.  Ollie is 3. 

    The lump has been removed but a port has been put on Ollie’s chest for chemotherapy.  He is expected to receive chemo from 6 to 11 months.  Meanwhile, another small tumor I think in his lymph nodes grew about a centimeter in just about 10 days.  

    Folks, this was an epiphany moment for me.  I wanted to cry with our neighbor.  My heart went out to Ollie, his dad, his brother & sister, and to my neighbor & her husband, to the whole family. 

I would suggest that an epiphany is

    1.  a God light breaking through, especially through & into those corners of myself where I don’t go,

    2. a deeper awareness of the fragility of the Gift, the Gift of life & health & control

    3.  a deeper awareness of my normal insensitivity & ingratitude.   

The Accident was an Epiphany.  Check Rosemary.  

    I suggest that there are large, small, and medium epiphanies.  However, they occur daily.  At home, at work, at Tom Thumb, on the roads, at the Bridge & Austin Street Shelter, at Vines.   In fact, we can be epiphanies for others. 

Your last epiphany?  

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Our Father   

 Picture 3:    Taylor & Zack

Picture 4:    Torri walks

Picture 5:    Sienna

Picture 6:    Cole

Readings: 

2 Maccabees 7, 1-2, 9-14, 7 brothers with their mother were arrested.

Psalm 17,  Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full

2 Thessalonians 2, 16-3, 5,  The Lord is faithful.

Luke  20, 27-38, There were 7 brothers.

Leo welcomes you.

2 Maccabees Observatons :

What :  another reading  from one of those unique dozen extra books.  A history of the Maccabee family.   This is the only time in the 3 year cycle
this book is used.  Perhaps it is only
used to support in some way Luke’s gospel about the wife of the 7
brothers. 

Date :  around 200 before Christ.

Subject: In order to
emphasize how God appreciates faithfulness, the author describes in vivid
detail the torture and murder of 7 brothers who refused to eat pork.  I wanted to read the whole story, but it is
too brutal for public reading.  Check it
out for yourselves.  

Buddy also welcomes you.

 What to Die for

I want to talk this
morning about an event that took place 24 years ago, November 16, 1989.  This Friday is the date.  I was back in the States about 2 years at
this time. 

The event I’m talking
about happened in the early morning of November 16, on a Jesuit university
campus, called Universidad Centroamericana, UCA for short.  This is a Jesuit university just like many others
you know of, U. of San Francisco, St. Louis U. Fordham, Georgetown, Marquette,
and the Loyolas.  This university is in
San Salvador, El Salvador. 

Emma with her momma, Beth.

There were 6 Jesuits
home that night, plus a housekeeper and her daughter in a rear apartment.  All was quiet.

Suddenly about 12:00
there was a great commotion at the door of the residence, lots of yelling and
banging.  The, Jesuits, thinking the door
was going to be bashed in,   opened the door and in burst about 40 soldiers
in camouflage and heavily armed. 

Zoe and her friend also welcomes you.

Continuing to yell,
the soldiers went room to room, busting down doors, smashing windows, storming
around, and ultimately dragging the 6 Jesuits out into their interior
patio.  Even the housekeep and her daughter
were dragged into the patio.   Can you
imagine the fear?

For an hour the
storming around and the noise continued. 
Then, a bit after 1:00, witnesses outside said shots began.  Each of the 6 Jesuits and the two women had
to lie on the ground on their stomachs. 
One by one they were shot in the back of the head and left.

William hanging out with his granddad, Jerry.

9
years before this, on March 24, 1980, a similar event had happened in the same
country, El Salvador.  Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot by a single
assassin in the middle of his Mass in a chapel at a hospital in San Salvador.

The
same year three American nuns and a lay woman volunteer were all killed on
their way to the airport one evening.

Kara looking beautiful.

I talk about this this
morning because, first, it still moves me and the anniversary is coming this
Friday.   Secondly, I talk about it
in reference to the 7 brothers who died rather than eat pork. 

Question:
what would you die for? 

James keeping cool.

Two
observations.

First,
what these Jesuits died for is something really worth dying for.  I can imagine all of us doing this, dying for
people dear to us.  The people dear to the
Jesuits were the poor of El Salvador, especially those abused by the military
dictatorship. 

Secondly,
while the 7 brothers showed heroic courage along with their mother, that they
were going through this because they thought God told them they should not eat
pork is just sad.  The don’t eat pork law
did not come from God, but from Jewish elders and priests. 

At
the time it may have been a health instruction. 
But religious people set this instruction up, not God.   Watch
out.  Religious leaders lay lots of loads
on people and say that God demands this. 
 Remember the prohibition to eat
meat on Friday?  You could go to hell for
this.

"Harper, where did you find that cupcake??"

I
would propose that we all die, that is, give our life for something or
someone.   Teachers give their lives for
their students.  That is what the Jesuits
did.  Parents give their lives for their
kids.  Coaches, like my friend Frank,
give their lives for their kids. 

For
whom or what do you give your life?

Georgie, one of our special loves.

Readings:

Isaiah  60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem,  Your light has come.

Psalm 72,  Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Ephesians  3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs.

Matthew 2, 1-12, Magi from the east arrived.

Georgie flying solo for the first time

 Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I have mentioned this before.  He is my favorite.  

Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ.  It helps to picture the mood of these people.  Are you a Sooner Fan?  How did you feel at about midnight Friday night?  Multiply this by 10 and you have how the Jewish people felt after 50 years of slavery and  their town destroyed like New Orleans or parts of NY & NJ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, he is talking to these beaten down people.  Later centuries church leaders began to make these words have two meanings.  Jerusalem, then, applies to us.

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Bible

Cupcake of The Week to Jan on her birthday

 An Epiphany

I would like to talk this morning about the Epiphany in our every day lives or on special events.  I define an epiphany as a new awareness, a new understanding, greater appreciation.

I did something Friday morning that I had never done before in my life and about which I have been curious.  I did a route for Meals on Wheels. 

Cupcake of The Week to Bobby for his birthday

This came about because next door to us lives an 18 year old girl who is a senior at Greenhill and getting ready to attend Colgate next fall.  The girl, Sydney, texted me the other day inviting me to join her on her community service program.  It is helpful for her to have an adult or companion on her runs, her parents were busy, and we have done these things before.

A great granddad playing with Leo and Zoe

We picked up our food at the V.N.A., the Visiting Nurses Assoc. head office on Mockingbird near the entrance to Love Field.  This was eye opening enough for another homily.  We had 17 people listed on a page and they all resided in a high rise apartment building just east of Central going toward Fair Park.  The building has 13 floors with about 15 apartments per floor.

The Play Table with Beth and Emma, Torri, Buddy, and Michelle

Three observations:

1.  These people are not wealthy and they were mostly black.  What they are is so grateful and so friendly.  In the lobby, the corridors, and in the elevators, greetings, chats, cordiality, and grateful comments like, “What you are doing is really good.”  And this even from folks who were not getting meals, but just observing.  I felt such consolation being around these people.
2. My neighbor and friend Sydney.  I tell her, “Sydney, you are ruining my life again,” as she drives me over to pick up the meals at the Visiting Nurses’ Office. 

Harper after visiting the pastry shoppe

First, she showed me long distance bike riding.  She & some other girls rode down the west coast from like Seattle to San Francisco a few years ago.  The idea was planted and when Dembney last winter mentioned Ragbrai and Iowa, even though I told him he was crazy at the time, look what happened to me last July.

Sydney next got me to serve meals at the Bridge.  That led Rosemary and me to the Austin St. Shelter, and then to Soul’s Harbor with Brent, where we are really plugged in, even as a community.

Zoe at the pastry shoppe

And now what: Meals on Wheels, a marvelous phenomenon.  This girl has been an epiphany for me.

     3.    Third observation: this extraordinary service program for high school kids.   When I taught English & Latin & history at Jesuit in the mid-60’s, there was no service program.  I come back to the States in 1990, and most private secondary schools all have the program.

Offertory, Geri and two Mikes

  Sydney told me the Greenhill program sets 24 hours a year.  I noticed Jesuit has 100 hours for seniors. 

The programs are terrific, not just for the high school kids, but also for old geezers like me who get invited along as adult companions and have such marvelous experiences.

Preparing for communion

Friday was an epiphany experience for me.  It led to something unexpected and beautiful.

What is your recent epiphany?

For whom are you an epiphany?

Readings:

Isaiah  55, 10-11,   My word shall not return to me void.

Psalm 65,   The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Romans 8, 18-23,  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains.

Matthew  13, 1-23,  A sower went out to sow.

Kevin says, "Welcome, Everybody, It is good to be back home.

Isaiah, The Great One, observations—

Who:  One of the Big 3 prophets, the greatest in my estimation.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the other two.  Actually, the book includes the work of 3 prophets.   Our selection is the last chapter written by Isaiah 2.

Time:  Isaiah 2 was living during the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.  Isaiah 1 writes before the Captivity, maybe 150 years.  Isaiah 3 writes after the return to Jerusalem.

Georgie also says, "Hi, Everybody, It is fun to be home again."

Subject today: better times will come.  I am expanding today’s passage, because it is so good.

Isaiah 2 has some of the most beautiful passages, many of which are seen as foretelling the coming of the Savior.  His readings are used all through the Advent & Christmas readings, as well as in Lent.  Handel uses Isaiah 2 in his marvelous work, The Messiah.

Both the Isaiah reading and Psalm 65 are beautiful.  

And Zoe, Tori, and Buddy all say, "Hi, Folks, it is so fun to be back again."

And My Seed Landed Where?

This morning I would like to talk about how Jesus is said to describe how the farmer’s seed is scattered on four different types of ground, the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the fertile.  Where did your seed fall?  Where did my seed fall?  I’m sure a lot of volunteers would be happy to let me know where my seed fell.

If you are a sinful gambler poker player you would look at this explanation and notice the bad odds, one out of four.  I would propose, however, that we all landed on fertile soil.  Let me offer some examples. 

I’ve shared this example once before, so you might remember it, but probably not. 

Cupcake of The Week to John on his birthday.

When I was a little kid about 5 years old, I was playing in the driveway of our house in University Park.  There were no fences and the drive went from the street, through the space between our house and the neighbor’s, and to the back up against the alley. 

The neighbor was Sam Berger, who owned a hat store in downtown Dallas.  He was Jewish and lived next to us all during the Holocaust.  I was oblivious to it all.  He & his wife had a big black lady who not only worked in the house, but lived in the back in an apartment attached to the garage, the servant quarters.  This black lady was not nice to me.

And a Cupcake of The Week to Beth on her birthday.

So this day as I am playing in the driveway, the lady steps out of the kitchen door & stands on the steps.  Without thinking, I say, “You are a big fat elephant.”

To the lady’s credit, she marches right across the drive and tells my mom.  My mom comes out of the house, drags me in, and spanks me.  Thinking back, I am impressed that my mom respected the lady.  The spanking, however, and her treatment of me confirmed my suspicions that my seed had fallen at least on the path or rocks, if not right on the thorns.   I definitely grew up with the belief that I was a bad kid. 

And a Cupcake of The Week to Harper for her 3rd birthday about 3 weeks late.

Despite the fact that you folks might agree with that assessment, I would propose that I was just a normal little boy doing silly things. 

This habit of doing silly, not bad things, can continue into adult years.  I know a guy who gets on his bike and rides off for an hour leaving the driver’s door of his car wide upon. 

I know a lady who last week let her Lincoln run out of gas in rush hour traffic.  Her husband, a bit nettled, brought gas, but then could not start the car.  It had to be towed.

Zoe seriously at work.

I know a dear friend who drove into her garage with a canoe strapped to the top of her car. 

You do this stuff and you begin to believe the bad news, ‘I am a loser, I am bad, my seed obviously landed in the ditch.” 

And then there are the malicious acts.  You know where I come in on this.  Kids hurt and abused grow up to hurt and abuse.  They are not bad.  They are damaged. 

So, who landed on fertile soil?  All of us.  God don’t make bad seed.

So, what do you think about all this?

Emma and her pal say, "It is so nice to be here."

Readings:  Ezekiel 47, 1-12; Psalm 46; 1 Corinthians 3, 9-17; John 2, 13-22

Why the Lateran Basilica?

If you are like me, when you heard that today we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, you want to say, "What??"  "What has that got to do with me, with my life?"  I even got a call from our man Federico asking if we were having our Mass at the Lateran Basilica today.  It would have been fun.

I do not remember doing any research on this celebration in the past.  This is due partly, I discovered, to the fact that the celebration always takes place on November 9, which does not show up on Sunday very often.  My research did give me an idea, however.  Namely, that we are exploring our roots today, like we search out our family trees.  Today we explore an ancient, prominent ancestor of our religious family tree.  Two observations: the meaning & the story.

1.  First, the meaning of 'basilica.'  In Roman times a basilica was a large rectangular hall where the Romans met for business or meetings.

From what I can discover, when a church or chapel is designated by Rome a basilica, it is an honorary title, like a priest being named a monsignor.  There are five or six levels of basilicas & churches.  On the most elemental level is the church or chapel, like St. Mark's or All Saints.  Then comes a minor basilica.  This could be like the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  The first basilica in the U.S. is St. Mary's in Minneapolis and it is, I think, a minor basilica.  Above a minor basilica is the bishop's cathedral.  For instance, while Mexico City has the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Bishop's cathedral is in the Zocalo, the center of the city.  The cathedral may simultaneously be a minor basilica and it is where the bishop has his throne and special altar.

Next comes the papal basilica, which has a throne & altar that only the pope uses and which is used by others with the pope's permission.  Then a major basilica of which there are only 4 in the world, all in Rome, Mary Major, Paul outside the Walls, St. Peter's, and our subject today, the Lateran. 

Finally we have at the top, an arch-basilica.  One only in the whole world.  The Lateran.  Why?  Age & historical significance. 

2. The story.  In the time of the Caesars & Jesus the place where the Lateran is had two buildings.  One was a fort & residence for the special calvary that defended the emperor.  These guys chose to defend the emperor against Constantine around 300.  He, of course, won and destroyed their fort.

Next to the fort was a palace owned by the Lateran family, the members of which worked as administrators in the government.  Constantine married a woman named Fausta and with her came the palace.  Constantine did not need it, so he gave it to the Christians to whom he granted freedom to worship in 313, a big date in Christian history.

Legend had it that Peter had said Masses around the area and he had used a table that still existed 300 years later.  The Christians built a church where the fort was, placing in it the table Peter had used.  They used the Lateran palace as a residence. This church, therefore, became the first Christian church in the whole world.  It was not built over a tomb like St. Peter's or St. Paul's, but it had the table. 

Around this same time along comes Constantine's pious mother, whom I mentioned recently, because she had discovered where Jesus' cross stood and built a church there, the Church of the Sepulcher. She also found what she thought were the steps in Pilate's house which Jesus had climbed for his trial.  She moved the marble steps to Rome and set them up in the Lateran, where they are today. This is around 313 A.D., the famous year. 

Consequently, for the next 1000 years the popes lived in the Lateran Palace and used the church as their cathedral.  Want to know what happened at the end of 1000 years?  The Avignon Papacy: for about a century, 1300 to 1400, the popes lived in Avignon, France.  With two, sometimes three rival popes, this is a story worth telling, but another Sunday. 

When the popes returned to Rome around 1400 they continued to use the Lateran Basilica as their primary church, the bishop of Rome's cathedral, but they lived at St. Peter's because the Lateran Palace had deteriorated badly in their 100 year absence.  The popes still reside at the Vatican Palace and still use the Lateran Basilica as their #1 Cathedral.

The Lateran Basilica was sacked by the barbarians in the 5th century, destroyed by an earthquake in 900, burned twice in the 15th century, and last remodeled in 1730.  In the 10th century it was dedicated to John the Baptist, in the 13th century dedicated to John the Evangelist, and since it had also been dedicated to Christ, its official title as the mother of all churches in the world is the Lateran Basilica of Christ our Redeemer, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist.

So what?  What is this?  Churches or temples or sacred places go back to the dawn of our evolution as humans.  Outside Mexico City are the temples of Teotijuacan,'  whose builders not even the Aztecs of 1521 seemed to know (the year the Spaniards & Cortes arrived).  In Egypt up the Nile River are the temples of Luxor, near which was found the tomb of Tutankhamen.  These temples go back 2000 years B.C. 

Churches used to be sanctuaries.  You could run there if the law was after you.  Today the sanctuary is more spiritual and psychological. We go into such a sanctuary to calm our spirit, to converse with God, to regain perspective on life.  Granted these temples can equally be found outside, like in Yosemite.  I find there the same peace and perspective.

I also think it is fun and fascinating to look back at our religious family tree, to get in touch with our Christian roots. 

Today we celebrate an ancient ancestor in the Lateran Basilica.  It has been a sanctuary of peace for many of our ancestors. 

Where do you find your sanctuary of peace and perspective?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-11-09.mp3

Picture 1: Mass with T.J. serving

Picture 2: Bob & Jackie McGrath (54th Anniversary) and Maggie McGrath & Chloe Zurchin

Picture 3: Tom Quinn and his granddaughter