Sunday Homily 11-1-09, All Saints

Readings:

Acts 4,  34, 32-35  The community of believers was of one heart and mind.

Psalm 118,    Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.

1 John 5, 1-6,   Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God.

 John  20, 19-31,  Thomas.

Brandon, our greeter, opens the door and says, "Welcome, Everybody."

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: we have a passage pretty universally admittedly idealistic.  All is perfect and harmonious.   We view a community which is a commune, a utopian vision of life and the foundation of communism.

Sienna, too, says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome."

Do Not be Unbelieving, But Believe 

This week Rosemary and I will head south to Mobile, Alabama, where two events are taking place.  First, we plan another reunion of my old ’58 class Jesuits will get together.  Secondly, 50 years ago we graduated from Spring Hill College and there is a homecoming event staged by the college.

Of course, all this has me reflecting fondly on our years together.  Three memories.

And, of course, Brooklyn and her rabbit say, "Hi, Folks."

First, there was a neat spirit among the 25 or so guys I entered with.  Most of these guys were amazingly normal, intellectually gifted, and some were amazing athletes. 

Secondly, as a group we lived a rigorous monastic life.  Silence, formal prayer times, work, study, and three recreation afternoons, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.  We wore a black cassock & cincture or we wore long sleeved shirts and long pants, even to play touch football & baseball in 100 degree heat & Gulf Coast humidity.  We took only three showers a week, a left over reflection of the old Catholic phobia about nakedness. 

Welcome, Cathy, back from Egypt.

There is a story funny today about the odor or sanctity.  This was how you could tell a fake Jew from a true Catholic during the time of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, say 1492.  Catholics did not bathe, Jews did bathe once a week.  Guess what the odor of sanctity was.

The third thing I remember is our life at Spring Hill College.  For me it was a marvelous release from a cloistered life to life on a campus with guys and girls, not that we were allowed to, as it was termed, fraternize with the college kids.

Harper, too, is delighted to have her grandmother back home.

I graduated 50 years ago with a degree in secondary ed, maybe grooming myself for administration in one of our 6 regional high schools.  I also spent the three years studying Catholic philosophy in Latin.  It was totally boring to me.  We had the adversaries and we had to learn how to out argue them.  We took our finals in Latin.

Just in case you were wondering who is handling our security, Leo, oops, no that's Batman.

It was during these three years that a lot of my classmates began to question the whole process.  It was Vatican II time, the murder of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  At this time I never questioned.  I just went along.  I admired the guys, but was content.  I survived because I played a lot of touch football and I took care of a fleet of boats & motors we used at a villa across Mobile Bay.  I could go there every weekend and for two marvelous weeks in the summer.  We also had three hot, excellent meals a day.

Robyn, the dear grandmother of Sienna and Brooklyn.

The overall training made me grow up quickly.  I look back now, however, am somewhat embarrassed, and ask myself how could I believe in some of those practices.  And I know.  It was believe, believe in the process, in the company, in those who have gone through this before me, and look at them, how successful they are.

Doubting Thomas, the subject of our Gospel today, is a hero of mine.  I think I would like to have been more like him in those early years.  Which would have been impossible at the time, I know. I believed.   Paradoxically, I think the training itself ultimately gave me the self-confidence and intellectual curiosity to enable me to have doubts & questions.  Want to know when I started questioning?  East Africa.

Our generous communion helpers.

The danger with the "do not be unbelieving, but believe" statement is that it is a "do not think" statement.  I become a sheep following the footsteps of whoever is in front of me with a feeling of security.  Doubts can be scary, questions confusing.  Without them I am less than fully human. 

Like with Thomas, what are your doubts & questions.  What do you do about them and how do you feel about them?

The music presented by Wendy, Shonda, Bethany, and Ray will take you to a different zone.

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 presentation with pictures

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

Offertory, Hugh and Sydney, Lily and Scott

                     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. 

Caliope receiving the sacrament of the sick blessing

                    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.

Emma

 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.

Leo

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.

Sandra receiving The Cupcake of The Week for her special birthday

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. 

Cole

 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.

Lorynn and Laycee

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. 

Rosemary reading her blessing

We are called to love ourselves. 

How?

note: this is the last time we publish the blog from our Tulip Lane home.

Readings:

Jeremiah, 20, 7-9, You duped me, Oh Lord

Psalm 63,  My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God

Romans  12, 1-2,  Do not confirm yourselves to this age.

Matthew 16, 21-27,   Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda

Readers, Beth & Rob (from Pagosa Springs), & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel:  Deacon Mike

Homily,  Stack 

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike (home from the mountains) & Richard (back from vacation), Tom, Ben & Hue 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Download Readings Week 22

The Homily

A Contemporary addition to the Liturgical Calendar

I would  like to propose this morning that we add a special feast day to our liturgical calendar.  Don’t know what is the liturgical calendar?  Are you people Catholics?

The Catholic liturgical calendar is a daily directive on special Catholic events and special deceased Catholics who are now considered officially saints.  For example, the feast of Christmas, Saints Francis and Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits.  In the sacristy of most Catholic churches there would be a little booklet with the name of the saint for the day and as a priest, I would offer the Mass in honor of and for the intercession of the saint. 

White Rock Creek Path, 7:00 Friday morning, looking north at the DART bridge branch to Plano.  Can this be Dallas?!!

Therefore, in honor of this special day I would propose that this day be officially established as a holy day of obligation, as they once were called.  The day?  Yesterday. 

You all must know that the last Saturday of August, usually the hottest day of the Summer, is especially celebrated each year on the campus of Midwestern University where Kevin goes to college in the town of Wichita Falls, northwest of Dallas a couple hours.

Celebration?  What kind of celebration?  To show that we are not intimidated by 100 degree temps, some thousands of bike riders aim to ride for 100 miles out of Wichita Falls on a clockwise ride around the region. 

South bound WRCT heading toward White Rock Lake at the bridge just before the Skillman bridge-tunnel.   At 7:00 it is gorgeous on the path!   Yes, I'm riding again, Monday-Friday this week.

There are rest stops every 10 miles and at ca. mile 75, every five miles or so.  I have my favorite stops and in particular the stop at the 30 mile marker, the edge of the little town of Electra.  The women of Electra bake dozens of homemade cookies and hand them out.  Everything is free at the rest stops, water, of course, but also fruit, bananas, energy bars, and even pickles.

Shonda and Ben bringing Life.

One year it was especially hot and hot from the beginning.  I rode up to the Electra rest stop about 9:30, eager to taste a few of my favorites, like chocolate chip.   Turns out the extreme heat had melted some of their cookies, especially the chocolate chips.   No problem.   Usually the cookies are just lying there on the tables under a huge tent.  Take all you want.  Not this time. 

I look up and see a lady standing on a step with clear plastic bags on her hands and in each hand she has a cookie ball.  “Come and have all the cookie balls you want,” she is saying.  “They are as good as ever.”  And they were. 

Hue & Richard cooking.

This is why The Hotter ‘N Hell bike ride should be introduced into the Catholic Liturgical Calendar for the last Saturday of the month of August.  It is feast day.  And I nominate Saint Bill Hammond as the Patron Saint. 

So what did you do when you did not bike a hundred miles yesterday?

Welcome home, Mike.  It is really good to have you back.

Please Remember these special people:

For Alan Stryker;  For Becky's dad discovered with cancer;  For Cindy recuperating at home;    For Esparzas, Frank & Mary,  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, Woodlands,  For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family;   for Michelle

On air!

For Jackie's mom;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;   For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer.

Birthdays:     Maureen Macchio, Teresa Quinn

Anniversaries: 

Ken & Cindy, 58th

Richard & Monica Froebe, 33rd

John Cade doing the Eucharistic Prayer from his living room.

Community Finances, August 30, 2020

Expenses: $1625.00

Outreach   $360.00   (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people,

A heart that forgives the worst,

A mind that forgets the bad,

And a soul that never loses faith in God.

Unknown

As of September 1, Rosemary & I will have a new address,   7017 Helsem Way, Dallas 75230.   This enclave has TREES, unlike our poor, dear, tornado battered Preston Hollow neighborhood.

Readings:

Isaiah 7, 10-14,  Ask for a sign from the Lord

 Psalm 24,  Let the Lord enter, he is king of glory

 Romans 1, 1-7,  Grace to you and peace

 Matthew 1, 18-24,   Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

Say Ray and Genevieve, "Welcome in, Everybody, to the 4th Sunday of Advent.  Next time, Christmas Eve, 4:00, in the gym."

Observations on Isaiah:

What: This is Isaiah 1.

When:  Isaiah 1 lived before the Babylonian Captivity and predicts the downfall of Jerusalem.

Our selection: Optimistic.  

Hi, Cody, Hi, Ben.

Finding The Presence

I would like to speak this morning on finding the presence.  What is this?  It is a feeling of consolation and peace of heart when something special happens.  Around the season of Christmas I tend to reach out for these events, many of which are repeats from former seasons of Christmas.  

Leo, our Candle Lighter of The Week.
 

I've had two of these moments this past week.

The first was our visit to the Meyerson to hear the Christmas presentation Friday night.  This event every year puts me in touch with the presence.

First, the concert hall itself is a visual feast, just beautifully decorated.  It takes my breath away almost every year when I walk in.  It was at its best this year.

Welcome home from college, Darbianne and Dana.

The concert itself is an auditory feast and presents so many of my favorite Christmas carols.  This year the conductor, Laurence Loh, was in rare form, teasing the audience, inviting participation, dancing on his podium, and just being congenial.

I was also surrounded by about 30 of my best friends.

So, I felt the presence in my friends, and the visual and auditory artistry.

"Yippee," says Victoria, "My mommy loves me."

Secondly, I had a wedding yesterday, Saturday, in Austin.  The presence was everywhere.  

First, the bride, Samantha, was the daughter of Charlie Fechtal, a student of mine at Jesuit when I was teaching there as an intern Jesuit priest in the latter half of the '60's.  Charlie and his wife, TJ, live in our neighborhood.  As I told him during the wedding, I love him as much now as I did then.  Even more tears of consolation during this wedding than usual.

Time to celebrate.

After the wedding I was talking with Charlie and a classmate, Mark Goedeke, another guy I have loved.  His wife Liz is with us and she reminds me that I had done their marriage also.  43 years ago!!   Talk about feeling the presence.  Very consoling and very humbling.

Dear old friend, Charlie Fechtel.

A footnote to this homily is that I took the special luxury bus from Dallas to Austin.  It has received rave notices from people like Beth & Rob.  It lived up to its reputation.  3 hour trip non stop, comfortable seat (19 only in a full sized bus), a stewardess who offer drinks and snacks on the house (or bus).  $99, heart of Dallas (Love Field) to heart of Austin (Congress & 2nd).

During this season of Advent, how are you finding the presence? 

Mark Goedeke and Charlie. 

Having a vision, Aggie?

Readings:

Isaiah 11, 1-10, The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb…(beautiful, poetic?)

Psalm 72,  Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.

Romans 15, 4-9  Let us throw off the works of darkness

Matthew 3, 1-12,  John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert  (Fear based spirituality?)

We have noticed that people discover that the Blog has not been coming.  Typepad tends to drop people for no reason.  So if this happens to you, just sign up again by going to www.johnstackministries.com

Welcome in, Chip & Cathy.

Curtis Jenkins, December 15

This morning I have my first Christmas homily of the season.  I want to introduce you to Curtis Jenkins, a  school bus driver for about 70 kids from Lake Highlands Elementary, Richardson West Junior High, and J.J. Peace Senior High.  Jenkins is a 46 year old black guy who married his 8^th grade girl friend.  They have 3 daughters all in their 20’s. 

Teamwork.

Jenkins has been driving the school bus for 7 years.  Initially he gave up his career as an electrician/ plumber so he could be more present to his mother, who is not well.

What is special about Curtis is taking place right now, this very week  All the 70 kids who ride his school bus may make a request for a Christmas present.  Last year apparently when Curtis had bought, wrapped, and loaded all the gifts into his bus, there was hardly room for the kids.  He does this every year.

Candle lighting with Tori.

Plus, during the year he gives birthday gifts (Sound familiar?  Maybe cupcakes?).   As the kids prepare to disembark, Curtis gives them a little pep talk, like a hope talk.  Maybe a quickie homily or final blessing?  He even develops community responsibility by creating clean up teams, safety teams (like bigger kids helping smaller kids, and helper kids (like for gift distribution).  Parents say their kids wake up eager and excited that they get to ride Curtis school bus.

He's got it memorized, Folks.

Curtis was featured in the April 20, 2019 edition of the Dallas Morning News. 

You know what this makes me want to do?  Pick up on Cathy’s idea last Sunday where we would give a Christmas gift to every kid in this school.  Are these not our kids?  A possibility?  How many kids are here?

Juliets' Christmas luncheon.   Table 1 of many.

All these ladies do is have parties!

Readings:

 1 Kings  19, 16-21,  You shall anoint Elisha as prophet to succeed you.

Psalm 16,  You are my inheritance, O Lord

Galatians 5, 1, 13-18,  You are all called for freedom.

Luke 9, 51-62,  I will follow you, Lord, but first…

People come in every way during the summer, Doug and Grace arriving via their bikes.

1 Kings observations

What

A continuation of a larger work, 1 & 2 Samuel, plus 2 Kings. 
This is presented as history, but it is a joining together of legends, fables, folktales, and miracle stories.  I see this called theological history.

Date

After the Babylonian captivity, therefore around 555 before Christ.

Subject

The book covers 3 events:

        – The end of the life of the Great King David,

        – The story of his glorious son, Solomon, and his building of
the temple in Jerusalem,

        – The famous division of the state into north and south,
Israel and Judah, after Solomon’s death and his weak successors.

Emma and her buddy.

Our passage

Coming in chapter 17 you can guess it talks about the third event, the division of the state. 
One prophet Elijah is anointing his successor.  The presence of prophets signals what?  Times are bad and Yahweh is not pleased with the people and leadership for allowing the division.

Sources: Good News Bible, Wikipedia.

Beginning with Kevin and Georgie.

The Samaritans

This morning I would like to talk about 2 subjects.  

First, the Samaritans.  Who were they and why hostility between Jews and them?

Secondly, I have to tell you about an amazing event that happened to me this week.

The Samaritans.  These people were and are Jews.  They claim to be descendents of some of those 10 lost tribes.  Remember the lost tribes?

Zoe, The Queen.

Take the date 700 years before Christ.  There are the two states, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, going back to the time after Solomon when weak kings lost the unity.

700 is the date that the Assyrians (the famous Syria, still in the news because of continued fighting) defeated the state of Israel and scattered the Jewish people, intermarrying with many of them.   Some of these Jews survived mostly in Judah. 

Leo the Knight defending us from the bad guys.

During the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ, descendents of some of these people did not go to Babylon.  They were there when the descendents of those Jews taken from Jerusalem returned. 

Hostility developed between the two groups.   Each group had developed unique religious customs and each group considered the other to be heretical or bad.   

A victorious Leo putting away his sword and shield for the moment.

The group supposedly descended from one or more of the 10 lost tribes was called Samaritan.  It is also suspected that some of these Jews intermarried with the conquering Assyrians.  See why Jesus’ followers often act as if the Samaritans are bad.  Remember the story of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well?  

We have a similar situation today.  Look at all the Christian sects, Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, and others.  Each of these probably considers the others bad.   As Catholic kids we were certainly not allowed into a non-Catholic church. 

Torri arriving in her Sunday Best.

Now for the story.  I am a member of Dallas North Rotary, as many of you know.  I don’t eat and I miss a lot of meetings, but I love the other members and have known some of them for 20 years.

Tuesday I walked into our meeting and was going around greeting everyone already there.  I greeted a lady named Cheryl, who is one of our most active members.  After moving around the room, I was passing her again.   She says to me, “John, wait.” I stop and she sticks a piece of paper in my hand. 

Brent receiving our $2000 for Soul's Harbor.

I look and it is a check.  I open it and made out to John Stack Ministries is $1000.  I am stunned and say something like, “What is this?”  She says, “It is for whatever you & your community want.”  She says she has had a good month.  She is a vivacious real estate agent. 

She is not a Catholic and in the old days she probably would have considered us to be Samaritans, bad. 

I am humbled by this gift and I will say it again, I am proud to be a member of you people, this community.  It is you who are catching the attention of good people. 

Carol's friend, Zoey

We will have to put this thousand to work in a special way.  I’ve been thinking about Habitat in Granbury, where they are rebuilding 61 Habitat homes destroyed by the May tornado.  I would even like to spend a few days working there.  Anyone want to go? 

So this is the background on Samaritans, the bad folks.  Who are the Samaritans in your life?