Sunday Homily 10-17-10, 29th Ordinary Time

Readings: Ezekiel 33, 7-9; Psalm 95, If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts; Romans 13, 8-10; Matthew 18, 15-20. 

23^rd  Sunday – Intro to Readings , Fr. Tony

 I would like to say a few words, not about the three readings today, but about the part of the Mass they occupy, the Liturgy of the Word.

 As I have mentioned previously, each of the sacraments has a pattern, Scripture Readings followed by an Action.  It is reminiscent of the creation story, God said and something happened.  Let there be light, and there was light!  And so in our Mass, we have a Liturgy of the Word, when we listen to God speaking to us through the Sacred Scriptures and then our response to that word is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when we offer our gifts of bread and wine in Thanksgiving.

Last Sunday we heard a bit about the celebration in Detroit of the 50^th anniversary of Vatican 2.  One of the major changes, which came out of the council, was a reemphasis on the Scriptures.  Recall that prior to this time, Catholics were pretty much discouraged from reading the Bible.  Its purpose in most catholic homes was as a place to record baptisms, first communions etc.  Remember that before Vatican 2 you could miss the entire liturgy of the Word and still be on time for mass!!  Of course they were read in Latin, so it didn’t really matter anyway, you had no idea what was being read unless you had your own missal and were diligently following in it. 

 The reason Vatican 2 was able to move so quickly with the refocus on the Scriptures was because of a new encouragement  on Catholic scripture scholarship, which was started by Leo XIII and continued, by Pope Pius X, XI and the XII when he issued his encyclical in 1943 on Biblical Studies. 

 It may be helpful for us to understand how a Jewish person would hear God’s word – not as a message to be analyzed but as listening to God speaking directly to them.  Here is what Isaiah had to say about it

 “Yet just as from the heavens, the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.  So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.”  (Is 55: 10-11)

So, when we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word, and hear God’s Word proclaimed, we need to remember that it is God speaking directly to us. 

 Homily

 Today’s gospel reading from St. Matthew would appear at first glance to be a simple lesson on conflict resolution.  But I think there is much more to this reading.  If we step back a little and take a broader view of the reading in its setting in the gospel we will see that it follows a very short but powerful account of the good shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to go and find the lost sheep.  Then following our reading, which you will hear next Sunday is the story about the importance of forgiveness, not just 7 times as Peter suggests but 70 times 7!!  So I think this little reading today isn’t as simple as it first appears.  Plus I believe that the Church wants us to consider all of our readings today, I see them all connected, for a change!

The first reading from Ezekiel puts forth an interesting concept.  If the prophet, or in this case us, have heard God’s Word, and do nothing about it, in other words if we don’t try to reach out with God’s Word, then we are responsible for those around us!!  In other words, we can’t keep it to ourselves!  Paul, in the second reading tells us what that message is: “love one another”.  I feel that the Responsorial Psalm repeats this message with its response “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts”.  It is so easy at times to simply say “forget it” I am done trying, I am done with whatever, they have gone too far.  And yet we must remember, 70 times 7.

 So, this stuff isn’t easy!  But back to today’s gospel, and the closing lines, “where two or three are gathered”.  That’s us!  Our liturgy of the Word has been us, listening to God speaking to us.  We are two or three gathered, listening to God and now we will respond with our gifts of bread and wine.  And I believe that we can also ask for God’s help in living lives of love and forgiveness.  Remember again Matthew’s comment “anything for which you pray shall be granted”!  

Picture 1:    Tony beginning

Picture 2:    Kevin with his parents, Connie & John

Picture 3:    Communion helpers, Nancy, Jan, Patricia, & Sandra

Picture 4:    Ryan

Picture 5:    Leo with Alison

Leviticus 13, 1-2, 44-46, If the man is leprous and unclean…

Psalm 32, I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble.

1 Corinthians 10, 31-11, 1, Do everything for the glory of God.

Mark  1, 40-45,  A leper came to Jesus.

Spring Dreaming….

Readings: 

James 5, 7-10,  Be patient until the coming of the Lord.

Matthew  11, 2-11, What did you go out to the desert to see?

Chuck with us.

Isaiah 35 observations: 

As you may remember, the book of Isaiah has three distinct writers.  Isaiah I covers the first 39 chapters, out of 66 chapters.  Isaiah I has a certain amount of condemnation typical of prophets. However, as you can see from this beautiful reading, Isaiah I can share a vision of a beautiful future.

Date: written before the Syrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, around 700 years before Christ.  

Amelia and Ophelia light our Advent Candles while Chuck, their grandfather, looks on.

Advent Wreaths, a reminder: This little liturgical practice came to the Catholic liturgy, believe it or not, from the German Lutherans in the 1500's, the time of Martin Luther.  It was more than just decoration.  The circle symbolized eternity.  The greens Christian life in a dead time of the year.  The candles represent each of the 4 weeks of Advent, each candle symbolizing the greater light brought by Christ.  Their color purple symbolized penance and purification for the Coming.  The Rose candle says, 'We are almost there!'  

All together the wreath represented and shed light in a dark world, a world with no electricity.

Leighton Elizabeth Warren and her grandmother, Barb.

The Celebration

This past week has been momentous and touching for me and for many.  Twice we celebrated the life and vitality of Chuck Pratt, one of our most special friends in this community.  Wednesday evening was a memorial, and Thursday morning at All Saints, Pam’s husband’s brother, Joe, beautifully celebrated a Mass. 

I would like to talk about Chuck in January.  Today I would like to talk about the celebration.

Offertory, Chuck's family (Pam & family back in Nebraska), Chip and Kathy, Chris and Cecily with the kids, Ophelia and Amelia, and in the center, Sandra.

At the memorial celebration Wednesday, Pam, Chuck & Sandra’s oldest child, told a story that comes from John Ruskin, a British academic and critic who lived until 1900.  The story has gone around, but is beautiful to hear it again. 

Picture this man.  He is sitting in his house one night with a friend, looking out a window.  He is an old man.  There is no electricity.  Many of you have been there.  Remember what it is like, no heat, no light.  He & his friend are looking across a valley. 

Emma making a visit to the altar.

As they watch a light is going up the other side.  As the light goes, it lights other lights along the way.  The lamplighter.  They cannot see anybody, just the light moving and leaving light behind.

Ruskin says to his friend, “That is a good illustration of a Christian. People may never have known him.  They may never have met him.  They may never even have seen him.  But they know he passed through their world by the trail of lights he left behind him.”

At the celebrations there were an abundance of lights.  I want to tell you about two little lights who touched me. 

Want a Cupcake of the Week? This includes the past two weeks.

During the Mass I was seated in the second pew with the family on the right end.  At one point Amelia, Chris & Cecily’s 3 year old daughter crawled into the lap of the lady next to me.  For the rest of the Mass she played with the books and chatted. 

I’m sitting there with tears in my eyes half the time, but enchanted by Amelia’s happy spirit beside me.  She and her sister Olivia had also shared their light with us by bringing up the offertory.  I was most touched.

Can we trust them with T.C.'s Cupcake of the Week, Tom and Lynda?

Which naturally made me reflect on the lights we have in our community, lights who chatter and clatter, walk around in the back, and occasionally walk shyly up here and put a toy on the altar. 

Chuck was a lamplighter.  He left lights behind him and they have become lamplighters in turn, two little ones and a bunch more.

Who are the lamplighters in your life?  For whom are you a lamplighter?

Contributions to Samaritan Inn and Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center.

Readings:  Isaiah 61, 1-2, 10-11, He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted; Psalm, The Magnificat, My soul rejoices in my God; 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-24, Rejoice always; John 1, 6-8, 19-28, John the Baptist, I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the lord. (John the Baptist was using the words from Isaiah 40, 3, last week's Isaiah reading put to music by Handel in his Messiah, which we heard)  Beautiful readings. 

Isaiah, a reminder.

This is Isaiah III speaking to the Jewish people after their return from the Babylonian Captivity, around 550 before Christ.  A beautiful reading full of consolation.

To catch today's homily, please click on the video (17 min.).  Jamie Rose describes her work with CASA:

Picture 1:    Candle Lighting with Sienna & Brian & Erin

Picture 2:    Jamie talking about CASA

Picture 3:    Noah

Picture 4:    Offertory with Kathy & Bill

Picture 5:    Leo walking up the ramp

Picture 6:    He makes it, first time ever

Readings:

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

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

Ephesians 3, 2-3, 5-6,  The Gentiles are coheirs & members of the same body.

Luke 1, 26-28,   When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east arrived.

Georgie says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome into the New Year."

Isaiah 60:  observations–

1.   Who:  Can you guess which Isaiah this is, 1, 2, or 3?  Yes, this is Isaiah III who seems to have lived after the Babylonian Captivity, that is, 555 Before Christ

2.  Today’s passage: chapter 60 is addressed to Jerusalem as a symbol, which is in total destruction.    Isaiah  is trying to lift the spirits of the people who are depressed at seeing the mess that is Jerusalem.   He is saying that your day is coming, Jerusalem, when you will return to being the most splendid city of all, and by extension, the tribe.

Isaiah 3 should get a commission from the Jerusalem chamber of commerce.  

Hannah, Zoe, and Emma, also, say, "Happy New Year."

The Epiphany, a Cornucopia of Symbols:

2 observations & 2 postscripts–

Where to begin, folks.  There is so much symbolism in this liturgy, in Matthew, for sure, and in the combination of Matthew with Isaiah and Psalm 72.  I'll touch 2 points, each with 3 subdivisions.. 

The Picture of Delight, Leo with a Cupcake of The Week.

1.  The Wise Men have a double & triple significance because they are

a. Gentiles

b. They come from the east, considered the source of wisdom in the world of that time.  Where does the sun rise?  Where do stars rise?  A new son has been born and like the sun in the east or a star he will bring new light. 

c. They are searchers & symbolize every person’s search for meaning in life.    Remember Matthew speaks to two audiences, his fellow Israelites, whom he is chastising for not searching, and the Gentiles. 

Jan with another Cupcake of The Week.

2.  The 3 gifts. 

 a.  Gold is given because it signifies royalty. 

 b.  Frankincense, or incense, signifies divinity. 

 c.  Myrra signifies medicine.  Myrra is for human health.  It comes from a bush like tree that has a yellow, sticky sap on its bark.  The sap was good for skin infections and acne, asthma, colds, and flu, and even herpes.  It is found in Saudi Arabia & Somalia.

 A post script.  People in Europe used to write an inscription over their doors, e.g. 20+C+M+B+10.  The numbers are our year.  The letters are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.   Christians made it say, “Christ Bless our house or Maison the year listed.

Richard and Carol, celebrating their 40th, receive two Power Bars of The Week, because they got more sense than to eat cupcakes and keep themselves in great shape.

Another post script.  In New Orleans Epiphany starts Carnival season, which leads up to Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  The parades are starting, folks.

 Sources: Reginal Fuller, St. Louis U. Liturgy; Biblical & Theological Resources, the Voice Institute, on line; Wikipedia; and other sources.

And Tom, too, who receives a Power Bar of The Week for his birthday and because he is our official Marathon Maniac.

The Epiphanies around Us

A while back Rosemary & I went to the exposition of some paintings of about six or eight artists. Among the artists and the reason we were there was a childhood buddy, who after a career as a lawyer now does oil paintings.  And he sells them for mucho. 

 As we were wandering around we ran into another couple who are old friends.  We asked what brought them to this exposition.  They pointed across the room to a middle aged, middle class, blondish woman who was standing by some of her works.

Offertory with John & Karen, Judy and Dick.

 Here is the story the wife told me.

 The couple we know are both academics on the university level.  Some years ago the wife had been teaching and came to know one of her students.  The student was a mother with a son about 8 years old.  At some point in time the father had abandoned them and left them with nothing.  They were living in the mother’s car. 

 My friend says to me that this shocked her and she thought this cannot continue.  She described the situation to her husband and two sons who were about 10 & 12.  Guess what they did.

Communion (bread, wine in small cups, and grape juice) helpers.

 Yes.  They invited the mother & son to live with them until they got on their feet.  The two sons moved into one bedroom and the mother & her son took the other.  Here they lived for almost a year until the husband found the woman a job. 

 The woman now is successful and is developing as an artist, selling her works for significant sums.  The son graduated from Jesuit, graduated from college, and now is married with a couple of his own kids. 

The Delgado Corner missing most of the gang.

 Obvious from the fact that they were at the art exposition, my friends are still quite close with the mother & her son. 

 I would propose that this is what epiphany is, a pointing to a presence among us and in us.  The presence is acceptance and care for others.  It points to something beautiful, a wow experience.  I received a wow experience just from meeting that woman and hearing her story.

 Who is an epiphany for you?

 For whom are you an epiphany?

Elevation.

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 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.

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, 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, 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.

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.

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