Readings:

Proverbs 31,  When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

Psalm 128, Blessed are those who fear the Lord

1 Thessalonians  5, 1-6, The Lord will come like a thief at night

Matthew 25, 14-21, A man goes on a journey & entrusts possessions with his servants.

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda, Ben sick & Shonda on Air Force duty.  Wow, do I miss you both.  

Readers,  Jackie & John Simari & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel,  John Cade 

Homily,   John Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers,  Richard & Hue & Mike

Final Blessing, Rosemary

For hosting us at Legacy, Becky

Note: This week in 1989 the six Jesuits in El Salvador were murdered in the patio of their residence at the university by army soldiers, along with their house keeper & daughter.

Download Readings Week 33

Download Reading Gospel Week 33

Intro to the readings:

On numerous occasions I’ve talked about my discomfort with fear based spirituality.  I say it again this morning because all the readings this morning, with the exception of the first reading from the Book of Proverbs, encourage a fear based spirituality.   You will see what I am talking about.

So, if not fear based spirituality, what?  Gratitude!

Our up coming celebration?  My favorite: Thanksgiving. gratitude.  

Homily by Stack

It is that time of year again, Folks, Thanksgiving, my favorite of the year.  In the spirit of gratitude, Rosemary & I like to scan our year and note the special blessings.  I got three I would like to share with you.

First, the time after the October 20 tornado.  You have heard enough of this.  I would just say that we are totally grateful for finding a new house and getting settled enough that we can feel that it is home.

The second blessing came about as a result of the corona virus. The Sunday Zoom broadcast.  I so look forward to coming in here a little after 9:00 and hearing people chatting and laughing via Zoom.  I so long for the day when we can come really together .  Meanwhile, I see & hear everybody.   This special blessing is a huge help until we can return in person, healthy and grateful.      

I am overwhelmed with gratitude to the people who put this Zoom gift together for the community, namely Richard & Hue, David Dinsmore, Tom & Becky, and especially Mike, who was like walking in the dark when he began this adventure.

Mike on watch

My third blessing comes right out of the first reading, the one from Proverbs, describing my partner, my wife, Rosemary, as more special than pearls. 

For most of the 15 years of our marriage I presumed that as we got to the senior citizen stage of our lives I would be ready and delighted to help us in our golden years.  I have spent 75 years of my life healthy as it gets.  

Whoa, as I hit 79 & 80, the place started falling apart.  Other personal tornados came, that is, lumbar stenosis, shoulder arthritis, loss of memory, and just to add a final treat, Parkinsons.  

Guess who takes care of me.  Guess who negotiated our new house, who packed most of our stuff (with our good friend Grace), unpacked everything (with our good friend Grace), and has made a home out our new house.

These are my special blessings of the year.  Yours?

Please Remember these special people:

For Paul & Carrie recuperating;  For Alan Stryker;  For Joe Sullivan;  For John Doherty recuperating from an operation for his back pain;   For Rosemary's great niece, Rylie ;  For Richard's grand daughter, Madeleine; For David Dinsmore's bad shoulder from a biking accident;  For Esparza's new great grand-son baby, son of Monique;  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, The Woodlands,   For Loretta's aunt Alicia;  For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;  

Tranquility.

For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn;  For both Jean & Cliff Wright;  For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    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,  For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.

Birthdays:  Diane McMahon, Frank Esparza, Cody Mashburn, John Anderlick

1989: 6 Jesuits killed by Salvadoran military in a midnight raid at their university

Community Finances, November 15, 2020

Expenses: $900.00

Outreach   $400.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

Rosemary's Blessing:

O God, when I have food,
    help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
    help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
    help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
    help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
    help me to destroy my complacency;
    bestir my compassion,
    and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
    those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.

 Samuel F. Pugh

Says Our Dear Harper, "Welcome in, Everybody."

Readings:

Matthew 21, 1-11, Jesus enters Jerusalem, (the entrance)

Isaiah 50, 4-7.   I gave my back to those who beat me.

 Psalm 22,  My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

Philippians 2, 6-11,   He emptied himself

 Matthew 26 & 27,    The Passion.

Palm Sunday procession beginning.

Sorry, we have no homily today.  Long readings. 

The Wedding of Scott and Giana at The Windsor at Hebron Park.

Frank Costanza ring bearer.  Of all the weddings I have had the privilege of performing, Frank at 93 is the prettiest ring bearer I have ever seen.

Mr. & Mrs. Giana and Scott Booth.

The beginning of a new life.

Readings:  Exodus 32, 7-14; Psalm 51, I will rise and go to My Father; 1 Timothy 1, 12-17; Luke 15, 1-32

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Intro to Readings

Our first reading from the Book ofExodus is a wonderful piece of writing!  There are two sections to the reading; the first is God expressing his anger to Moses because the people have made an idol. 

One very interesting human touch in the reading should be familiar to anyone who has had kids, when the kids have not been at their best.  The kids suddenly do not belong to one of the parents!  In our reading, the people are no longer “God’s people” but suddenly are Moses’ people!  The second section of the reading Moses turns the situation around convincing God not to destroy the people.

The second reading comes from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. 

I suppose the first question that comes to mind is “who is Timothy”?  He has two letters from Paul!  Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16 tells us that Paul was in Lystra when he met with Timothy.  We are told who Timothy’s parents are and Paul took him with him on his missionary work, finally sending him to the community in Ephesus, and that is where Timothy was when our letter today was written to him, probably around the year 65 CE.  By this time Paul is in prison in Rome.  The reading ends with what we call a doxology, which is a short type of hymn, we have one when we pray the Eucharistic Prayer and the ending “Through him, with him etc.”  That is a doxology.  Paul simply tried to get the message that if he could be forgiven his sins, then anyone could!

Homily

The theme in each one of our readings today is the same “being lost and in need of God’s forgiveness, or being found”.  In our first reading from the Book of Exodus, recall that the people have been lead by Moses from slavery in Egypt and have wandered through the desert for many years.  Moses has gone up the mountain, Mount Sinai, to receive the 10 Commandments from God.  Meanwhile the people are tired of God and have built a golden calf to worship.  Needless to say, God is pretty upset.  They are about to get really lost, but Moses manages to talk God out of it!

Psalm 51 is our responsorial psalm and is a great favorite of mine.  Like St Paul, you have to be a great sinner to really appreciate this psalm.  There is a great awareness on the part of the writer, sometimes ascribed to King David, of how sinful he is.  “Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul is telling him his own story as a way of encouraging Timothy and to all who feel lost.

Our gospel reading from Luke gives us three stories about losses.  If you look closely at all three stories, there is another theme running through them, that of “rejoicing”  When a sheep gets lost, he simply lies down and will not get up even when the shepherd finds him, which is why the shepherd picks him up and carries him. 

I think at times we too can fall into a similar pattern.  When we get lost we have a tendency to lie down and do nothing.  The readings today are a very loud reminder to us of God’s forgiveness.  Two thoughts to take away.  First, are we willing to accept God’s forgiveness and secondly are we able to bring that forgiveness to those around us who need to be picked up?

Picture 1:   Mass begins

Picture 2:   Anthony

Picture 3:   Michelle is ready

Picture 4:   Zoe, Michelle's second daughter, & Rich 

Readings:

Genesis  18, 20-32,  What if there are ten there?  For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.

Psalm 138,  Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

Colossians 2, 12-14,  You were buried with him in baptism.

Luke 11, 1-13, Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find.

John celebrating.

Observations on the readings:

The first reading from Genesis is a familiar story about God’s mercy and forgiveness, how it is all encompassing and present to all. More in my homily about this.

The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians is his letter to the Christian community at Colossae (in present day Turkey), telling them to remember that, as followers of Jesus, they are made new and are called to forgive one another, called to peace and thankfulness. Remember, I said last week I was choosing a more inspirational part of this letter for us to hear (Chapter 3, 12-15)

In the Gospel reading from Luke we will hear about prayer. The prayer Jesus
taught that we are familiar with, and say in Mass, is in Matthew, Chapter 6.
Today’s version in Luke is shortened. Jesus’ parable of knocking on a friend’s
door is about God’s constant mercy.    

Offertory with Cecily and Chris, Sandra, Emelia and Olivia.

Homily

From the reading in Genesis, I want to talk today about mercy and forgiveness. In particular I want to talk about what I think makes it possible for us to forgive one another. Forgiveness requires first that I put away self-justification where I put myself above another, where I collect points that make me ‘look better’ than another, especially one whom I judge has offended me, hurt me (‘I am right; I am justified in my hurt’). In order to forgive, I give up the quest ‘to be right’. [This is
where that saying fits, ‘you can be right’ or ‘you can have love in your life.’]
If I need to ‘look better’ or ‘be right’ (self-justified, self-righteous),
forgiveness becomes difficult, even unlikely.

Some of the communion helpers, Patricia, Claire, Sandra, and Mary Ellen.

The second requirement for sharing forgiveness is accepting what I take as an offense, a hurt, as possible in the universe of my life. This means in the whole universe of possible happenings, I accept that this hurt, this offense, is possible, this can happen to me. If I treat an offense or hurt as unthinkable or unacceptable to me in my universe, I disallow it as possible and keep it at a distance, away
from me, therefore not forgivable.

Bethany, Shondra, and Ray with new choir members.

The third requirement to forgive another is mercy. Mercy is the quality attributed to God in today’s reading from Genesis about God and the people of Sodom. The quality or spirit of mercy makes forgiveness possible, even predictable. As we listened to the story about God and the people of Sodom, didn’t we predict as each question was asked by Abraham, that God’s response would be mercy?

We are called to have mercy and to forgive, even giving up the safety of waiting to first be forgiven by another (when there is mutual hurt). We are called to forgive. On the other hand we are totally accepted wherever we are in the process of learning mercy and forgiveness in our relationships.  Sometimes it may seem easier to forgive another than to ask for forgiveness from the other. Maybe that’s because giving forgiveness seems to put us in the ‘good guy’ role. Asking for forgiveness can put us in a more vulnerable position, not knowing if we will receive mercy and forgiveness from the other.

 So, my questions today are:   

Am I ready to forgive hurts by another,
especially from those close to me?

Am I ready to accept myself, even if I am not
yet fully capable of forgiving?

Am I able to ask for
forgiveness from another?

Readings: Acts 1, 15-26; Psalm 103, the Lord has set his Throne in Heaven; 1 John 4, 11-16; John 17, 11-19.

Acts: a review–

Author:  Luke, the author of The Acts & The Gospel

Date: ca. 50 years after the death of Jesus

Our Selection: Believe it or not, we are now back to chapter 1 after getting as far as chapters 9 & 10.  What is going on is this.  The chapter opens with an introduction and then a description of the Ascension, Jesus going up in the sky.  Apparently the event took place about a half mile outside Jerusalem on the Mt. of Olives. 

Afterward, all the community come together in the room they had been hiding in. About 120 are present and Peter gets up to speak.  We read Peter's words. 

John's letter: There is a great line in this selection.  See if you can spot it when you hear it.  I'll tell you after the reading, but a hint, it is the last line.

The World

Last Sunday evening I took Rosemary to the emergency room at Presbyterian on Walnut Hill.  Many of you may not know that for years she has endured a condition where her heart would spike up to ca. 180 and lock in there.  Normally when she felt a spike coming she would lie down and it would subside.  Occasionally it would take a longer, like an hour or two. 

Sunday, after the spike continued for 4-5 hours and she was feeling nauseous and lousy, I called our doctor who assured me the event was not life threatening, not a stroke or a heart attack, and that I should take her to the emergency room so they could arrest the spike. 

So I rush over to Presbyterian reassured that she was not in danger from the spike, but anxious about going to the hospital.  Flashing through my mind are stories about hospital mishaps, overworked nurses, scissors left inside incisions, mixed medications, and people going in with a hang nail and coming out with a staff infection that kills them. 

However, I was humbled and impressed with the efficiency, the care, and the cleanliness of what I encountered.  We arrived about 8:00 and I did not leave until shortly before midnight.  It actually took most of that time to bring the spike down and keep it down.  It would come down, then immediately spike.  The phenomenon is called SVT, supra ventricular tachycardia. 

When we walked into that emergency room, I only had to put Rosemary's name & date of birth on a piece of paper, and they whisked her into the care of numerous teams of nurses, a doctor, and eventually one of her heart specialist team.

Then a great thing happened on Tuesday morning when they did a procedure on her called an ablation, where by they run a little wire up from the groin, through a vein into the heart cavity, and zap the malfunction.  Rosemary came home and donated her heart medications to the CCAC.  She does not need them anymore.

The people in Presbyterian were terrific, amazingly professional, caring, and warm.

This has been on my mind a lot and I thought about the experience when I noticed the John reading about the world.  Did you notice that he uses the word world 9 times in a small paragraph, always in a negative context?  Like, the world is a bad place.

We have talked about this before and I would like to propose again that, while the world around us has a lot of pain & suffering, the world also has tremendous beauty.  And, moreover, you and I can increase that beauty, helping to minimize the suffering. 

As I've mentioned before, I pick up here the scent of the old philosophical principle of dualism.  That is, the whole world is divided into two opposites, hot & cold, dark & light, spirit & matter, and especially, good & bad.  Moreover, bad & good covers other doubles, for example, light is good, darkness bad.  And especially, matter is bad, spirit is good.  Consequently, the world full of material & stuff is seen as the enemy.

This extends to my person.  My material body vs my spirit, my thinking and feeling.  To free the latter I must discipline and control the body.  Taken to an extreme people get into hurting themselves, so as to free the inner spirit.  I did not have enough common sense as a young Jesuit to realize that some of the penitential practices we were encourage to do we just self abuse.

Where are we today?  Today we are encouraged to treasure our world and to improve it.  We see this all over the place.  I was at the CCAC, the Collin Co. Adult Clinic, Thursday and here are all these people providing medical care to the poorest people pro bono, no salary or stipend. Ken Cramer sent me a note, "When can we have another food drive?"  Great reminder.  We'll do it next week.

I saw recently where Groundwork Dallas had another Trinity clean up.  Hundreds showed up to remove trash and in particular a hill of dead tires illegally dumped in the forest.  I wished I could have been there, like the time Ron Kovatis got many of us down there.

I propose that our challenge is not to hate the world, but the treasure it and to make it even more beautiful. 

How are you beautifying our world?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-05-24.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & Sabrina

Picture 2:  Sabrina, who graduated Friday from 8th grade at St. Monica with a Presidential Award for excellence, reading her poem Download Bread_by_sab[1]

Picture 3:  John Doherty preparing to receive a blessing on his employment away from home

Picture 4:  Donut Shoppe with customers Kevin, Chloe, & Denni

Readings:   Exodus 20, 1-17, God delivered all these commandments; Psalm 19, Lord, You have the words of everlasting life; 1 Corinthians 1, 22-25, The weakness of God is stronger than human strength; John 2, 13-25, He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple.

Exodus: 2nd book of the Bible & of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.

Date of Composition: put together ca 450-400 BCE, though elements come from 1000 BCE at least.

Author(s):  Moses, no.  At least 3 sources, maybe 4, e.g., the Yahweh (J) source, the Elohim (E) source, the Priestly (P) source, and even the Deuteronomy Source.

 Subject:  The 10 Commandments–observations:

Rosemary's Blessing

 Our Subject today: 10 Commandments–Observations

1. Academics see 3 maybe 4 versions of the 10 commandments, Exodus 34 (the oldest), Exodus 20 (our selection), Deuteronomy 5 (the last)
2. The versions come from the sources composing at different times, for example these 4

• The Yahweh Source, 10th Century BCE, therefore, Exodus 34    
• The Elohim Source, 9th Century BCE, therefore Exodus 20
•  The Deuteronomy Source, 7th Century BCE, therefore Deuteronomy 5    
• The Priestly Source, edited all the sources in 6th Century BCE (450-400 BCE, at the end of the Babylonian Captivity).  The 7 Day Creation Story comes from this source at this time.

Source:  Bishop (Episcopal) John Shelby Spong (Excellent Biblical Scholar)

Cole with his mom, Erin, lighting the three candles for the 3rd week of Lent

How to keep the Inner Peace

Some months ago Rosemary & I were flying back to Dallas from Toronto on the first Friday morning in October.  Canadians that morning were beginning the long weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving.  Everyone was taking off. 

Rosemary & I had gone to celebrate the event with Kay Reddick & her family the week just before Canadian Thanksgiving. 

Our plane was scheduled for sometime around 9:00, so we arrived very early, like 6:30.  We walked into the huge single room terminal and noticed a long line.  No problem, we had everything prepared.  We checked in and asked where we entered security, a one stop area like in Atlanta, everyone going through the same big security post.  The girl said the line was for security. 



Offertory, the Ekes, Marlene, Bobby, & Debbie

 Wow!  Gulp!  This line must have been more than 100 yards long, running from one end of the terminal to the other with numerous double backs.

Initially I thought the line was just volume.  Nope. Turns out security is staging a labor slow down.  We are in that line over 5 hours, folks.  Naturally, we missed our plane.  Everyone missed their plane.  In fact, I thought we might not even get out that day.  Clearing security was only half the problem.  Once inside everyone was mobbing the service desks to change their ticketing. 

One thing about the day that really struck me positively was that I never saw anyone lose it or have a hissy fit.  On the contrary, people were friendly, joking, lying on the floor while waiting.  There were Canadians in that line near us who were missing their flights to Hawaii.  We talked to them in the waiting line and we talked to them inside where they had booked a flight to San Francisco that afternoon. 

 If I had been in Lagos, Nigeria, I would expect that I would have witnessed a riot.  Not in Toronto that morning.  I’ve seen check-in riots for a lot less. 

Buddies, Bernadette & Loretta

 I mention this event because it comes to mind when I see the story of Jesus getting all steamed up at the vendors in the temple.   I have to laugh.  Lucky he never flew.  Our experience and his probably had some common elements, like chaos and crowds.  

What is he so hyped up about?  Was he having a bad mood day?  Can he have bad moods?   If you look at these scenes with detachment, you might want to laugh.

On the other hand, Jesus might have had some significant reasons, like:

    1.  he was angry because the vendors were supposed to remain in the outer courtyard and they were inching into the inner sanctum, the holy place.  The law.

    2.  he was angry because he was watching the vendors cheat.  Injustice.  Maybe his mom had been cheated by one of these guys some years ago and he still was angry about that.

    3.  he was angry because he saw the obsession of some of these people with money.  He was seeing the Bernie Madoffs, the Stanfords, and the Ken Lays of his day.

 But, note that

Leo in the choir

1. it was customary for animals to be sold at the temple.  These animals were destined to be bought by people, taken to the priestly cast inside the temple, and given as a sacrifice.  These people were heavy into sacrifice.  The idea: I sacrifice something to God, I get something from God.  Maybe it was gratitude for already getting something. 

  2.  it was customary that the temple was a center for all sorts of trade.  People went there for sacrifice, giving thanks, and socializing.  The market naturally set up near, in, and around the temple.  The markets I saw in Tanzania when I lived there were probably similar and were fascinating events. 

So why was Jesus so angry?  Maybe he was caught off guard.  He expected better.  That was what amazed me about the Toronto airport.  Everyone was caught off guard.  Everyone expected better.  Yet, no one got so mad they lost it. 

There is a little trick that helps with this craziness.  I would call it expectation adjustment.  The idea comes not from my head, but from a man named Albert Ellis (American Psychologist, developed RET, Rational-Emotive Therapy, d. 2007, 93). 

Bethany & Shonda

 The idea is that I have an expectation about how a person should behave & how things should be.  If the expectation is frustrated, then I can go off.  What do you think is the dynamic behind road rage? 

Want to fix it?  Adjust my expectation, change it.  Or look at it positively.  It is another way of accepting.  A trucker is in left lane.  So what.  Someone is in such a rush they are right on my rear bumper.  I have to wait so long in security that I miss my plane.  Expectations?  Yes.  Hey, it could be worse.  Rosemary & I made it out, after all.  Jesus seems to have done some expectation adjustment, because in his condemnation by the Pharisees at the end of his life he does not fight back.  The result: my inner peace.



Shonda & Ray

How do I react when I see someone going through the express check out with 18 items?   Or leaving the shopping cart in a parking place?  How do I react to road craziness? 

How do you respond to frustrated expectations?

 Sources:  Center for Liturgy, St. Louis U.; Alfred Ellis