Sunday Homily 9-19-10, 25th Ordinary Time

 Readings: 

 Amos 8, 4-7,   Never will I forget a thing they have done!

Psalm 113,  Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.

1 Timothy 2, 1-8, I ask that supplications be offered for everyone.

Luke 16, 1-13, A rich man had a steward who was reported for squandering his property.

Line forms at the rear for Free Hugs from Georgina and Zoe.

Amos observations :

What : 
One of the 12 minor prophets, only 9 chapters.

Who:  the book
presents the thoughts and observations of Amos, who was a sheep herder and a
fig farmer.  He was born in the southern
kingdom of Judah in a little town south of Jerusalem, but he is condemning the
people, especially the rich, of the northern kingdom, Israel.

Time:  Amos was
active around 755 before Christ, but his words and message were revised and
edited down through the years, especially during the Babylonian Captivity,
around 555 before Christ.  He lives just
before the Syrians destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, around 700 before Christ.

Message:  prayer and
sacrifice don’t make up for social injustice and oppression of the poor by the
rich. 

Today:  God will
punish you rich and prosperous for your abuse of the poor.  Amos may have seen the threat coming from the
Syrians. 

Sources:  Good News Bible, New Interpreter’s Study Bible,
Wikipedia

Cowboy Cole ready for business.

The Wiley
Steward

Anybody get any rain Thursday night?   We got 3 whole inches, an amazing gift.  We also got a surprise. 

It was just time for the sun to come up Friday morning.  I wanted to take my first cup of coffee on
the back porch where I could watch that special rain.  I go out and sit down with Aviana beside me. 

James arriving.

I look toward the street and I see a huge tree branch lying half way
across the street, Camellia, and half in our parkway.  I immediately look at the front yard of my
neighbor, hoping to see where it came from his red oak.  Nope. 
It did not come from there.  Oh,
Lord, it must be from one of our trees. 
And in fact it is a pecan branch. 
We have three large pecan trees on that side of our yard.  It is our branch. 

Kara, James' big sister.

What to do?  It is still raining seriously.  I decide that I will wait until the rain
stops, even though cars are having to negotiate around the branch. 

I must then have gone in for a minute. 
When I come out I see a boy from St. Mark’s School a block away out
in the rain, trying to lift the trunk of the branch out of the street and pull
it into our parkway.  I am embarrassed
that I am still on the porch while he is working in the rain.

Mabel with Debbie.

He can only barely move the trunk to the edge of the street, although
many branches are still lying in the street. 
At one point he looks over at me and I thank him, saying I am planning
to tackle the branch when the rain stops. 

The Girls, Marlene, Megan, and Cindy.

He finishes up what he can do, looks back, I thank him again, and I tell
him he did great work.  He says, “Sure,
it is really heavy, have a nice day,” and takes off for St. Mark’s.  I could not see whether he was on foot or got
back in a car.  He had no rain gear
on.  So I sent a note to St. Mark’s,
complimenting the boy and them for helping to train a kid like that.

Cupcakes of The Week to Judy and Bethany on birthdays.

Moral of the story: we got lots of good kids out there, and good people,
too.

I tell this story as a bit of a contrast to our parable today, the
parable of the wiley steward.  It is
quite coincidental, but this parable is also explained by Francis Vanderwall in
one of his books.   

Cupcake of The Week to Mary Jane for her birthday.

The steward was in charge of collecting promissory notes from the owner
of the farm.  Here is where the customs
and culture of the times open it all up. 

The steward made his living by adding a little sur-charge, a commission
on each transaction.   The charge went to
the steward.  Francis points out that all
the steward did was call the debtors in and cancel his commission.  Granted, he was also cheating a bit, and
cheating the farmer. 

And to Georgie on 12 years.

There are some other crazy statements at the end of the story, but I
will leave them to Francis to explain. 
Watch out for that either/or stuff at the end, either God or mammon,
hate one master/love the other.  Life is
not either/or, it is both.

The moral of the two stories?  Not
either/ or, but sometimes you got to use your wits like the wiley steward, and
other times you just pitch in and help some poor guy (like me!).

When did you last pitch in and help?

Source: The Liberating Stories of Jesus, Francis
Vanderwall

Leo and Cowboy Cole at work.

Readings: Leviticus 19, 1-2, 17-18; Psalm 103, The Lord is Kind and Merciful (the best); 1 Corinthians 3, 16-23; Matthew 5, 38-48.

Homily

 “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  But we are not, and so the Sacrament of Penance, the fourth in the list as we learned it! 

 So far we have discussed the first three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, and come to the understanding that they are best identified as Sacraments of Initiation.  Moreover, in their original expression, they would all have been celebrated as one sacrament. 

As we received the sacraments as children, we almost received them in this order.  Except that Penance was dropped in before we made our First Communion, and so intruding in the sequence.

Today I want to try to cover, briefly, the history of the sacrament of Penance.  The very early Christian community didn’t have the sacrament.  The thinking was quite simple, if one repented and believed in Jesus and was baptized, one would not sin again! 

 This early community was a very close community, and was also being persecuted for its faith, and so they knew each other very well and we have several references in Paul’s letters to the need to throw someone out if they sinned. 

By the year 150 we do find that the communities recognize three sins, which required special handling; murder, adultery and heresy.  For this there began a practice of what we will call “Canonical Penance”.  It was not pleasant! 

 Since it seemed inconceivable that a baptized person would sin, then they were excluded from the community.  They had to perform all kinds of public penance, wear special clothes and fast; and maybe, after many years of this, they might be welcomed back into the community on Holy Thursday.  And by the way, you could only ask for forgiveness once in your lifetime!  And so began the practice of “death bed” forgiveness. 

Baptism was generally recognized as the sacrament for having sins forgiven, and so it became common to delay receiving baptism until one was an adult and past the youthful years of indiscretions.  This almost ended the life of the sacrament of Penance. 

But then along came the Irish Monks!!  Sitting around in their monasteries, they began to talk with one another and there developed the practice finding a “Soul Friend” or Anam Cara to tell ones sins to.  This was the beginning of Confession as we know it, but there was still one missing ingredient.  Absolution. 

 This action did not get officially added until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.  But back to the Irish Monks.  They ended up bringing Christianity back to Europe since it had been all but wiped out there by invading barbarians. 

To help with this type of confession, they began to develop penances appropriate to the sin and thus developed books with prescribed penance.  And these penances were extremely harsh, no three Hail Marys for the Irish! 

 Of course given man’s ingenuity, the next thing we find is that those with some money could hire others to do the penance for them! 

 It was Peter Lombard in the twelfth century who first listed Seven Sacraments, with penance being number four, and it was also in this century that we first meet the famous words “Ego te absolvo” which were quickly defended in the next century by St. Thomas Aquinas as the only way to have sins forgiven. 

 By the time the Reformation came some four centuries later, we find the Council of Trent only further declaring that this was the way penance always was and would always be celebrated!! 

 Now in our time, with the aid of better church history, the Second Vatican Council began to restore the communal aspect of the sacrament, and focused on Reconciliation rather than on penance and confession.  

That effort has tended to fall on barren ground as two things have happened.  One was that we all stopped going to confession altogether and, secondly, it seems that the current hierarchy are bound and determined to undo much of what Vatican II introduced.

 Why did we stop going to confession?  I believe there are a couple of reasons.  Traditionally people were not well educated and therefore took everything which the church said without question. 

In the last century, most of us have been educated at least to secondary level and a large number thru third level.  We are able to think for ourselves.  The push by Vatican II towards ‘personal responsibility’ in our relationship with God further aided this. 

 Right after Vatican II came the Encyclical Humane Vitae, on birth control, which most adult Catholics choose to ignore.  Follow that with the current pedophile crisis and who wants to confess to a priest!!

 But as I said at the very beginning, we do sin.  So now what can we do about it?  Well recall that penance is not the only sacrament in the business of forgiving sins.  Baptism does, so does the Sacrament of the Sick, (more about that sacrament on another Sunday) and so does the Eucharist. 

 Recall that there are numerous times in our celebration when we acknowledge our sinfulness and even hear the words “this is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”.  So the church is possibly heading towards greater recognition of the need for reconciliation rather than confession. 

 I am going to suggest that during one of the Sundays in Lent, we have a celebration of Reconciliation with our Eucharist.  There are even two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation in our missals, but more about this later.  There is no question, but that we sin.  There is also no question but that the whole message of Jesus was one of reconciliation: remember the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep.  God does love us, and definitely does not want us to stay away when we fail. 

 Just because Confession has vanished, sin has not.  And we can too easily become very casual about our relationship with God and our community.  There is a place for reflection and acknowledgement of our sins, we have it each time we celebrate mass at the beginning with the Penitential Rite, and maybe its time we found an Anam Cara, a Soul Friend.

Picture 1:   Mass beginning    

Picture 2:   The Nursery, Zoe, Michelle, Torri & Buddy, Randolph, Georgie, Leo & Bernadette

Picture 3:   Leo with Wendy

Picture 4:   Torri with her granddad, Gilberto

Readings:

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12,  Give your servant an understanding heart.  

Psalm 119,   Lord, I love your commands.

Romans 8,  28-30,  We know that all things work for good for those who love God…

Matthew 13, 44-52,  Kingdom Parables

Kevin and John ready to start Mass.

Homily:

We heard of Solomon’s call to be king of people of God

We heard in Paul’s Letter our call to be “conformed to the image of Jesus” 

And we heard in Matthew the parables about putting the treasure buried in a field and the pearl of great price ahead of everything else we could have.

The Offertory helpers, Bill, Paul and Carrie.

Our word for today is asking how we hear our call and how do we answer our call?

I remember the answer I was given growing up (long long ago), hearing it in sermons and in weekend retreats at Grand Coteau, Louisiana. We were told that we are called to be holy and holiness was presented as perfection— You know the quote from Matthew: “Be you perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”. According to Matthew Fox, in his book Original Blessing, the quote from Matthew’s Gospel, “Be you perfect…”, does not refer to moral perfection and does not have here the later Greek meaning of being totally free of imperfection. The word ‘teleioi’, translated as “be you perfect”, actually meant “to be full-grown, to be complete or whole”.

Our musicians, Celeste, Shonda and Ben.

Remember also how we were given the lives of the saints, in which they were portrayed as achieving perfection and we were taught to imitate those perfect people. The lives of the saints inspired me, but there was no way I could live up to the idealized stories of their lives of perfection. Going to seminary at age 18 and to a monastery at age 22 was how I chased after the ideal of holiness as perfection.

Remember also how we were taught to make an examination of conscience, detailing everything we thought or did wrong–not about what we thought or did that was good or generous or loving or courageous or compassionate, not how we were becoming more full-grown or complete. The implication was that we were lacking and in sin almost all the time; that was scary folks. We were told we were imperfect, not holy, and I took that to mean I didn’t measure up, I wasn’t good enough. We were taught that there was a time, in the beginning when our original parents were in a paradise and were good/perfect, and connected to God. But that in Adam we sinned and were separated from God.  

Georgie and Mom, Michelle.

What if we came to learn in the last 400 years, like Matthew Fox did, that there was never a state of perfection in our world, that creation in our universe has been going on for 20 billion years and that our universe has been expanding all that time, and is this moment expanding at unimaginable speed. It’s not really about being perfect.

In all creation beauty and imperfection go together. Every tree is beautiful, but if you get up close you will see that every tree is imperfect. The same is true of the human body. Every human body is beautiful, but every human body is imperfect. In creation, in nature, imperfection is not a sign of the absence of God. It’s a sign that the ongoing creation we are part of is no easy thing. We bear scars from the living process, and we can and must celebrate those scars, those imperfections.

Georgie's sister, Zoe.

My take on updating the idea of holiness includes thinking about how we accept imperfection, including our own, and about how we are growing, not to be perfect, but to be more complete, more whole, more caring for ourselves and others and more caring for mother nature and our place in the universe.

Yesterday I was visiting a friend who, when I said I was doing the Mass today, asked what my homily would be about and I said holiness. My friend said, I just finished watching a Ted Talk by Ann Lamont, a favorite author of mine. She said “Laughter is carbonated holiness.”

Question: How do you think of ‘holiness’ in our time?

Georgie's sister, Tori.

And Georgie's brother, Buddy. 

Readings:  Numbers 6, 22-27, The Lord Bless You and Keep You; Psalm 67, May God bless us in his new mercy; Galatians 4, 4-7, So you are no longer a slave; Luke, 2, 16-21, The Shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem.

The book of Numbers:

        1.  What: the 4^th book of the first 5 books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or Torah.

        2.  Date of composition: around 5 centuries before Christ, but was a compilation of years.

        3.  Theme: The people are "numbered" or counted at Mt. Sinai and preparations are made for resuming their march through the desert.  The Israelites begin the journey, but immediately they "murmur" & complain at the hardships along the way. They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land, but on hearing the spies' report the Israelites refuse to take possession of Canaan and God condemns them to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the plain of Moab ready for the crossing of the Jordan River.

        4.  Our selection: God tells Moses to have Aaron & his sons bless the people using this special blessing.

References: Good News Bible, Wikipedia

What Kind of a Shepherd am I? 

    Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to help serve the evening meal at The Bridge in downtown Dallas.  The Bridge is a marvelous facility.  Basically it is the homeless shelter for the greater Dallas area.  

    It has space for approximately 250 overnighters.  That was the number of people whom we served dinner for the Friday night I was there.  For breakfast & lunch up to 800 people are served.  

    Three things struck me. 

    First, the spirit of the people I was serving.  There are about twenty round tables with, say, 8 places.  I was serving water along with about 6 other guys.  These people were bundled up because it was cold outside.  Everyone I served was super grateful.  I joked and played with lots of the people, men & women.  They had an amazingly up-beat spirit.

    Secondly, I was struck by three folks, two women & one guy.  They presented themselves as more middle class.  They had a more refined way of speaking, they seemed peaceful.  Except the guy.  He was nice looking with black hair & slender.  But he was more to himself.  He was younger than the two women, probably in his 30’s while the women were maybe in their late 50’s or early 60’s.  They were not together, but at different tables.  The women were talking with people at their tables, but the guy was not.  

    What is their story?  What events brought them to The Bridge? 

    The three are still vivid in my memory.

    The third thing that struck me was how I got to The Bridge that Friday night.  I got there because the 16 year old girl who lives next door to Rosemary & me invited me. 

    I knew Sydney volunteered at The Bridge and I told her I would go as her adult whenever her dad or mom could not accompany her.  She invited me.  

    This was the last day of school before the Christmas break and I am sure lots of kids were out having fun.  Sydney might have done so later, but from 6:00 to 7:00 that night she spent time helping the homeless.  She was like one of those shepherds in Luke story. 

    What kind of a shepherd are you? 

     I am going to help you answer that at the end of our Mass.  Just you wait!

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Celeste & Nina

Picture 3:    Bethany, Shonda, & Ray   

Picture 4:    Ray & Jon

Picture 5:    Jan, John, Patricia, & Rich   

Picture 6:    John, Mary Jane, & Jan, all communion helpers.

 Enclosed is the link to City House.  Help an old geezer celebrate his 72nd birthday, January 26.  Volunteer to help take a census of the Plano homeless.  We aim at a couple of teams: Download Volunteers needed, City House 1-1-12

Readings:

Acts 4,  8-12,  In his name this man stands before you healed.

Psalm 118,    The stone rejected by the builders has become the corner stone.

1 John 3, 1-2,   See what love the Father has bestowed on us.

 John  10, 11-18,  I am the good shepherd.

Genevieve says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome. Nice to see you for the first time."

Acts reminders:

Author: Luke, the same who wrote the gospel.  He was an educated, urbane Jew.

Date: the years 75-80 

Subject: This is a travel log, detailing the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome and the Mediterranean in between.

Today: Peter is talking to the elders and leaders of the people, aiming to convince them about Jesus.

Genevieve welcomes the Whole Community, and, in turn, the Whole Community welcomes Genevieve.

The Good Shepherd

I would like to talk this morning about the good shepherd.  Two proposals.  

First, we have shepherds all around us.

Secondly, the good shepherd has three characteristics.

1. The shepherd gathers people.
2. The people the shepherd gathers are richer and happier because of being called.
3. The shepherd, likewise, is richer and happier because of inviting all these people. 

Vivian says, "In two more weeks I will get to say hi to everybody, too."  Hey,  is there something in the water around here?

Four examples.

I mentioned that this past weekend Rosemary & I attended both a Jesuit class reunion and an alumni reunion of 50 years at Spring Hill College in Mobile.  The shepherd who called us together and made all the arrangements was my classmate and good friend, Bill Dowie.  To me this was extraordinary because the last time we all met two years ago, over twenty of us, Bill was still mourning the love of his life, whom he had cared for the last years of her life.

Not only did he gather those who could make it somewhat at the last moment, but he shared with us that he was introduced to someone with whom he sees a special relationship developing.  Rosemary & I were most touched, doubly so by the charming woman he brought.

I left that reunion richer and happier.

The Spring Hill Jesuit reunion group on the Fairhope pier, eastern shore, Mobile Bay.   Bill is third from left, Keqi is first on the left. Others, (l-r), Jim Raymond, Rosemary, an Old Geezer, Carl Castille, and Jack Podsiadlo. Joe Reardon taking the picture.

The second shepherd is in our very midst.  This guy invites with open arms and open heart guys who have hit bottom.  We, too, have accepted his invitation to nurture these men by our help with Souls Harbor, of which he is the director, a 24/7 job. 

Brent, Thanks for being a good shepherd for over 60 men and a shepherd for me and the community.

Our class in '65 in front of Assumption Hall.

The third shepherd, every Thursday at least, loads up 16 meals.  With her friend, Barbara, they deliver Meals on Wheels to homebound men and women, whites and a rainbow of races.

Rosemary and Barbara gather their people by bringing meals to their door.  The people are richer and happier because of their visit, as I am by their example.

Over 100 of us Jesuits lived in Assumption Hall, Spring Hill College, Mobile in the 60's. After expecting that the building would be finally designated as a historical monument, how deflating to find the building demolished and in its hallowed place two student residences. No appreciation for old age!

Finally, there is a lady in our neighborhood named Patty Cody.  She is our neighborhood shepherd.  She organized the neighborhood association.  She has set up a security patrol for us, and a neighborhood communication network.  You can find your lost dog or cat and you can put on line a picture of a lost dog you find in your yard.  All this, plus other conveniences.  But her biggest bringing together takes place on July 4, when everyone is invited to a neighborhood parade, a picnic at the playground of a grade school, and a time when we see each other, maybe the first time since last July 4.

Rosemary & I are the refreshment Czars and each year I come home richer and happier with what Patty has helped us celebrate.

Guess what, Victoria. You were once little, too, just like Genevieve.

Let me add an extra and a special Good Shepherd, Genevieve.  Does she not call us all together?  Do we not feel richer and happier just be in her marvelous presence.  And from my vantage point, I think she, too, is richer and happier because we are all responding to her.

Harper is pretending to be sleeping through another masterpiece homily.

Good shepherds are all around us.  

Who is a good shepherd in your life and for whom are you a good shepherd?

Cupcake of The Week to Paul and Carrie for acing the Boston Marathon last week.

Readings:

Samuel 16, 1-13,   Samuel anointed David.

Psalm 23,  The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

Ephesians  5, 8-14,  You were once darkness, but now you are light.

John  9, 1-41,  As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.

Harper is back, yippee! You have been missed, Dear One.

Mike's Homily:

Jesus perceived that a man who was begging had been blind from birth.  So, he replies to his disciples that they must do the work of the one who has sent him. The work that the Father has given his Son is to proclaim the good news, the Father’s plan of salvation. 

Jesus perceived by what the beggar has said or did not say, by what he was doing or was not doing, that the beggar was spiritually blind; he had never heard the good news of Jesus Christ that gives spiritual light to the world.

Toy Time with Cowboy Cole, Emma, and Tori.

Jesus makes some clay and anoints the beggar’s eyes to make us aware that the beggar is about to become a new creation.  Recall from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah that God is the potter and that man is formed by Him.  Jesus says to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam which means sent.  

To understand this command, the reader must return two chapters, to the Feast of Tabernacles at the pool of Siloam where gushing, spring fed living waters flowed into and were sent out from of this pool.

Sir Charlie and Jan pretending to not be kids.

These living waters are a metaphor for the good news of Jesus Christ, for He had called out on the greatest, and last day of the feast, the only day when waters were not drawn from the pool, ‘Come to me if you are thirsty, for from my heart flows living waters.’  Jesus had sent the man to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so that he could send him forth living and proclaiming the good news. 

So, the beggar returned to the temple no longer unclean; he had been enlightened and the Spirit dwelled within him.   Of course, the Pharisees who said that they could spiritually see, but reject the good news, remain blind. 

Buddy, You getting your hats from that Hat Lady?

Today’s reading purposely sends us back to the earlier reading of what happened at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles to another very similar parable.  The scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, saying to him, ‘Moses commanded that such a woman should be stoned.  What do you say?’    The scribes and the Pharisees were the teachers of the Law.

They knew the oral and written tradition that required them to bring both the man and the woman accused of committing adultery, and at least two witnesses to Jesus, if they were seeking a judgment from him; but their intention was to discredit Jesus. 

Now, during the feast of Tabernacles, the oral tradition required the high priest, as he cleansed himself in the waters of the pool of Siloam, to say from the prophet Jeremiah, ‘those who reject the Lord, the fountain of living waters, will in shame have their names written in the earth. 

Best Buddies, Leo and John.

So when Jesus knelt down in front of them, he began writing the names, the most prominent first, of these scribes and Pharisees who had rejected the fountain of living waters, his life-giving good news.  Shamed, for they understood what Jesus was doing, they left the people, the woman and Jesus, the oldest to the youngest, when Jesus said to them, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin, cast the first stone.’  

After the woman acknowledges to Jesus that there is no one left to condemn her, he says to her, ‘go away,’ [better, go along the way believing the good news] and sin no more.  She too had been sent forth. 

In like manner each of us has been sent forth with and from the living waters. 

From whom did you receive or give a drink of that living water this past week?