Sunday Homily 11-13-11, 33rd Ordinary Time & Last of the Year
Readings: Proverbs 31, 10-31, When one finds a worthy wife…; Psalm 128, Blessed are those who fear the Lord; 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-6, You are not in darkness; Matthew 25, 14-30, The parable of the talents.
Proverbs:
Author: Not Solomon, the wise king, but, as usual, a compilation of sources.
Date of Composition: ca. 300 B.C. It is recognized from the text that it is post exile, that is, after the Babylonian Exile, around 600 to 550 before Christ.
Content: a collection of moral & religious teachings which mostly deal with practical matters. We have some of this folk wisdom, like the saying, 'early to bed, early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise. Let me give you six examples:
1. (Chapter 1, verse 7), 'Pay attention to what your father & mother tell you, my son.'
2. (13, 24), 'If you don't punish your son, you don't love him.'
3. (22, 15), 'Children naturally do silly things, but a good beating will teach them.'
4. (17, 22), 'Being cheerful keeps you healthy.'
5. (18, 6), 'When some fool starts an argument, he is asking for a beating.'
6. (25, 24), guys' favorite, 'Better to live on the roof than share the house with a nagging wife.'
Today's Selection: This chapter 31 is the last and most beautiful chapter. A tribute to wives. The editors of the lectionary have broken the piece up, but I have printed off the whole section. Very nice.
Notice anything especially obvious about the proverbs, even from the few I chose? What do you think? Written by men for men?
1Thessalonians
We have read this work for a bunch of Sundays. You might remember one thing about it. It is the first written document in the New Testament.
Sources: The New Interpreter's Study Bible, The Good News Bible.
The Parable of the Talents
I have to talk about something this morning. I would call it a Thanksgiving event, an event that makes a difference. Was yesterday not beautiful? Even more beautiful was what about 20 members of our little community did at the house of Rita Dore.
I am sorry the rest of you did not make it, but you can be proud of your community members, as I am.
We started about 8:00. We had to scrape & paint three large walls and touch up the front wall, which Frank Reyes, a buddy of his, and I had painted in the summer. There must have been twelve people scraping for two hours. This is the painful part of a painting project. By 10:30 we were rolling and painting vertical cracks. By 12:30 we were 99% finished, and Jenny, Melissa, and Diane brought the pizza.
Beth took off the handle & lock of the front door and painted it gloss white. Jim McCabe & Ryan rigged up a block & tackle arrangement from a tree to each of the dead holly bushes and pulled them out one by one. We even were able to buy and plant 8 Texas Sage bushes along the front of the house where the holly had been. More drought tolerant.
Folks, later after everyone had left & I had finished cleaning up, Rita said she was overwhelmed with joy.
I talk about this event because we are less than two weeks from Thanksgiving and because the event leads into the Parable of the Talents. This is a crazy parable and commentaries by academics are not too helpful. One Jesuit at St. Louis U. mentioned, “Okay, what is the moral?” I would like to touch upon 3 morals to the parable.
The first moral. Fr. John Foley, S.J. says the moral of the parable is obvious, ‘Make the most of what you got. On the positive side, the moral can be a positive influence in my life. On the negative side, it might influence me to take too many risks, like with drugs, like with motorcycles, like with money. The first two servants are lucky they did not invest their talents with Bernie Madoff.
The second moral. You fear, you lose. Observation: it is okay to be afraid. It is a normal feeling. It may lead to prudence, which is what the third servant may be praised for. Or it may lead to paralysis if I let it run loose.
The third moral. Watch out for that mean God. The property owner is obviously a symbol for God or Christ. What about Matthew? Could he have been criticizing the religious authorities, who were afraid of anything new, in this case, Jesus & his message?
Ultimately, I would propose that the symbol for God is over drawn. It goes contrary to where we are today with our image of God, namely, my favorite line,”He is gracious and merciful; he never gets angry and is abounding in love.”
Renovating Rita’s house was a Thanksgiving event where a lot of talents were put to good use. How are you sensitizing yourself and preparing for Thanksgiving?
Sources: Fr. John Foley, S.J., St. Louis U. Liturgies.
Picture 1: Mass Begins
Picture 2: Chloe
Picture 3: Cole
Picture 4: Ryan helping scrape Rita's house with his dad, Jim
Picture 5: Rob & Mike on Rita's house
Picture 6: Bill Hammond replacing the dead hollies with Texas Sage, which are more drought resistant