Sunday Homily 9-28-08, 26th, Ordinary Time

Readings:

Sirach 3, 2-6, 12-14, My son, take care of your father when he is old.

Psalm 128,  Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Colossians 3, 12-21,  Wives, be subordinate to your husbands.

Matthew 2, 13-15, 19-23, Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you.

Leo, the Candle Lighter, at work with his dad, Ray.

Sirach observations:

What.  One of those 12 odd books, neither in the Old nor the New Testament.  A book with wise little sayings & vingettes.

Examples: Be humble in everything you do, 3, 17.   Stubborness will get you into trouble, 3, 26.  If you are polite and courteous, you will enjoy the friendship of many, 6, 5.  A father who loves his son will whip him often, 30, 1.  A woman has to take any man as a husband, but a man must choose his wife carefully, 36, 21.

Who.   Sirach is the father of a man names Joshua (or Jesus) who wrote & compiled these saying.

When.   Composed around 200 years before Christ, maybe.

Colossians observations:

Get ready, this is a good one.  Especially for wives.  

Where else but with this hospitable community can The Candle Man kneel on the altar to light the candles.

Paradigmes for Families

I remember way back when Rosemary and I had been married a while, I told her one day that I thought this special line from the Bible was my new favorite line.  “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands.”  Sounded good to me. 

You know what I got, the look, the dog kennel look, the look that said, ‘There is a vacancy in the dog kennel in the back yard, bubba.’  So much for my new favorite line. 

We have one of the classic lines in Scripture here this morning.  “Wives,be subordinate to your husbands.”  I would like to talk about this.

We begin.

I also remember one afternoon I was in line to ride the roller coaster or something at 6 Flags.  Ahead of me was a family, husband and wife with maybe two or three kids.  The couple were discussing two sides of some decision.  Then I heard the husband tell the wife that she should follow his opinion, because….   You know what he said.  I almost passed out.  I did not realize that contemporary, educated, middle class folks followed this just because it says it in the Bible.

Let me offer some perspective, a little history and the 3 models of family dynamics.

Historically, remember that the writer of the line lived not in the Middle Ages, but way before that.  Women were not considered equal to men in any way.  I saw this in East Africa when I lived there.  The man was the head and the wife, kids, and farm animals were all more or less on the same level.

Cupcake of The Week to Hugh on his birthday.

You may see the same phenomenon today.  Where?  Try Afghanistan or among many Arab or Muslim countries.  Women have no rights and are certainly not considered equal to men.  Because of this, women can be beaten like a child or abused with hardly any consequence.  The old dictum held, ‘A good beating never hurt anyone.’

The writer of this letter saw this and spoke to it.  Not only does he speak to the wife, he also speaks to the husband, “Husbands, love your wives.”  Pretty unique stuff for those days.  Wives, in other words, are human beings, not property to be told how to dress and behave.

Cupcake of the Week to Georgie for being such a big help.

Finally, let me remind you of the 3 models of family dynamics.

First, you have the patriarchy.  The father is the head, which today’s writer is aware of.  And accepts.

Secondly, you have the matriarchy, the wife is the head of the family.  This model has been used over the centuries in various places.

Thirdly, you have equality.  This model has more traction today because women and men are equally educated and often equally talented.  In this family the husband and wife share responsibility and consult with each other.

It is not so much that one model is better than the other.  Which model works?

The Cupcake Kids, Zoe & Leo.

There are days when I am convinced that Rosemary and I have a matriarchy.

What works for you?

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:

Exodus  3, 1-8, 13-15     Yahweh calls Moses from the burning bush.

Psalm 103,  The Lord is kind and merciful. (Excellent last stanza, The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.)

1 Corinthians 10, 1-6, 10-12,   Do not grumble as some of them did. 

Luke 13, 1-9,   The parable of the fig tree with no figs.

Says Harper, Welcome in, Everybody. 

Exodus observations:

What: this is the second book of the Bible and Torah, following Genesis, which we had last week with Abraham receiving the special land.    Exodus is a story about how the Jewish tribe of people escaped from slavery in Egypt.  A good read.

Who:  the story is about the Jewish people and their reluctant leader, Moses.  It was put together, not by Moses, as was thought for centuries, but by a group of the priests even centuries later.

Hey, who is that new helper?  Why, that is Buddy, next to his big sister.

When:  it is put together at The Time in Jewish history, yes, during the Babylonian Captivity, say 555 years before Christ.  It is a mostly mythological story about how God helped his special people out of slavery eons before Babylon.  Do you see a parallel between the slavery of Egypt and Babylon?  Could this be a reason for developing the Egypt story, that is, to encourage the people enslaved in Babylon?

Our selection:  like the call stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah, here is another call story, this time Moses.    

Ugh, oh, Folks, watch out.  Guess who is walking!

The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.

This morning I would like to pick up two themes from the readings and tie them up with our lives.  The themes are from Exodus and Psalm 103, the Moses story of call and the description of God as being gracious and merciful, never getting angry and abounding in love, using a translation I love.

Two observations about the call.  First, it usually involves discomfort for me because I am getting called out of my comfort zone.  Secondly, in accepting the call I feel peace and joy, like I talked about last week.  In fact, I meet that God who is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.

Daddy, May I play with that guitar.    

I have told you over the years that I can identify 3 big calls in my life, entering the Jesuits, going to work in East Africa, and getting married to Rosemary.  I’m now adding a fourth, the invitation to be part of our marvelous community.

Besides these mega calls I would propose that we get medium level calls frequently in our lives.  These come to me because of events or circumstances.  Often they come to me because of a person, maybe in combination with events. 

Some of the Bona Responds volunteers in Dallas to donate a week of their spring break to clean up work in Garland.  They are students at St. Bonaventure U., near Buffalo, a Franciscan university.  

For example, there is a person like that here with us this morning, Jim Mahar, from the staff at St. Bonaventure U. near Buffalo, NY.   I would include with Jim one of our own, Bill Hammond. 

I first got one of these Mahar-Hammond calls after the hurricane in Galveston.  Guess where I went for a week.  Yes, Galveston, where we all worked like crazy cleaning trash out of roads, tearing destroyed houses apart, and spending nights in a church dormitory for about 20 Baptist Men (a great group), one of whom snored quite loudly.  We had a group of students, boys and girls, probably 10 to 15.  I spent a beautiful and moving week.

 Artist at work, Zoe.

Next I get the call to go to OK City after the last big tornado.  Our group of about 10 spent a week cleaning up a forgotten small town called Little Ax.   The majority of dwellings had been mobile homes.  They were gone, or, at least, torn and twisted apart.  It was beautiful spring weather while we were there and dreadful destruction.  The people were all gone. 

One special event for me took place in Little Ax.  We worked with and spent the nights with two unique groups of kids.  One was an international Jewish disaster group and the other was a Muslim international disaster group.  I talked with the kids in these groups and was quite touched.  The Jewish kids had literally flown in from Israel to help in Oklahoma.

Our newest altar server understudy, Buddy,  helping his big sister.

Talk about God being gracious and merciful, never getting angry and abounding in love.   Despite the destruction.

Guess what is the call this week from Mahar & Hammond. 

Guess who has their eyes intently focused on their brother, Buddy.  Victoria and Zoe.  

Readings: Jeremiah 20,10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5, 12-15; Matthew 10, 26-33

Jeremiah: one of the 3 great prophets along with Isaiah & Ezekiel.  He lives just before the defeat & destruction of Jerusalem 650 years before Christ.  He foretells the catastrophe, warning the Hebrews that their sinful ways will lead to destruction.  He lives to see the event, but also prophesies that the exile will be temporary and that one day the people will return to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah was unpopular with the people because of his warnings.  Today's reading shows him bitter and complaining about the people. 

As Good as Sparrows, as Good as Aviana?

In February, when we put our little dog Naomi to sleep after 15 years, Rosemary & I debated whether we would ever want to get another dog.  Putting her to sleep was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. 

Around Memorial Day, however, Rosemary began to look on line just a bit.  Shih-tzus were our favorite, but we entertained other types of small dogs.   In fact, our vet had recommended a woman in East Texas who occasionally raised a litter of maltipoos, a mixture of maltese & poodle. 

Last Wednesday we took a trip to East Texas.  We had two ladies to visit, the one recommended by the vet and another who raised shih-tzus.  On the way we debated: yes or no.  We decided to just look.  

Well, so much for looking.  In fact, the hardest thing was coming home without one of each. 

Behold Aviana, a maltese-poodle mix whose name comes from the air base north east of  Venice, where we visited Michael & Lydia on our spring trip.  The base is Aviano; we made it feminine.

Do I have any doubts or reservations now that she is part of our family?  No, not one.  In fact, I am reminded every day why she is a special gift.  A couple of observations.

Do you realize that she is not afraid?  I think she is like all of us when we are born.  When do we begin to be afraid?  I know how Aviana could become afraid.  If I treated her mean & rough, and abused her.  Matthew recommends that we be afraid not of the person who kills the body, but of the person who kills the soul.  I would suggest the word spirit instead of soul.  Abuse kills the spirit.  At the least it wounds the spirit.

Yesterday I was working on line and Aviana was lying under my feet sound asleep.  Not on her tummy or on her side.  She was lying on her back with her legs and ears splayed out.  Talk about trust.  Lack of fear.

Matthew says that we need not fear because we are worth more than many sparrows.  Am I worth as much as one Aviana? 

Second observation is that I see the acceptance of God in the behavior of Aviana.  I saw it in Naomi.  I walk in the house and receive not just unconditional acceptance.  I encounter excited & joyous celebration.  I am amazed and touched.  We hear a lot about how we will be judged a sheep or a goat at the great roundup.  If I am lax, God will come like a thief in the night and hurl me into hell for being caught off guard. 

My preference is to see the acceptance of Aviana as reflective of the acceptance of God.  She is another of those little creatures we talked about last week.  She is another metaphor or parable about God's acceptance of us as we are. 

Aviana is not afraid of us.  She amazingly trusts us.  Moreover, she accepts and celebrates us just as we are.  

How does she symbolize or not symbolize your relationship with God? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-06-22.mp3

Readings:

Acts  13, 14, 43-52,  Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga.

Psalm 100,  We are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Revelation  7, 9, 14-17, I, John, had a great vision.

John 21, 19-31,  My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.   

Genevieve welcomes all you folks and says, "Welcome in!"   Guess who is 1 year old.

Genevieve in May 2015.

Acts observations:

More of the same, Paul's travels.

Kevin, too, says, "Come in, Everybody.  It is only rain out there.   Not even any hail.  Just a bit of flooding.  No need for an ark yet."

We are a Team

Boston Marathon is tomorrow.  Who is going from our community?  Tom & Lynda.  Paul & Carrie did it last year. 

See the article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday?  About Carol Ann Taylor running for her husband Sterling Proctor.  Sterling is, or was, a CO hiker and a French horn player in the F.W. Symphony.  He also biked The Lake, White Rock. 

He now has a worsening degenerative muscle condition that  has him relegated to an electric wheel chair.

The Great Candle Lighter at work.  Do not disturb.  

Carol Ann, Sterling’s wife, is running The Boston to earn money for more research into Sterling’s condition.  It is her first.  She runs “for my heart, for my Sterling,” she said. 

The reporter noted how they listened to each other, how they were in sync with each other.  When they said of themselves, “We are a team,” I thought they have The Karma.  They are a team.  Carol Ann runs tomorrow and Sterling will watch via satellite. 

Rosemary & I know another couple who has had The Karma, Carl & Barbara Castille. 

Offertory, John & Jim, Karen & John.  Thanks.
 

Carl is one of my best Jesuit buddies.  Carl is a Cajun (like you, John), growing up near Opelousas, LA.  We entered the Jesuits together in 1958 (60 years this 2018), and we lived together in the same large houses for 7 years. 

Carl was coming to our Spring Hill College reunion last weekend.  He & Barbara live in a suburb of Pittsburg.  He had come early to visit his family around Opelousas.  I knew Carl had attempted and failed to book into the same Fairfield Inn as I and my companion, Francis Vanderwall, the guy who spoke to us some years ago.  So I did not really notice Carl’s absence the first night. 

The Best, Mary & Bethany & Ray.

Somewhere during Saturday we heard that Carl had returned to Pittsburg because Barbara had a stroke and was hospitalized.  The guys and I, we were all stunned.  I began to phone.  In fact, the first time I phoned I got Barbara’s phone with her voice message. 

Day by day I called, mostly talking to Robbie, their son who was handling the phone.  And day by day Barbara got worse.  She had more strokes and Robbie said each day that she was losing ground.  At one point Robbie told me that Barbara was going into Hospice and that the family was telling her she did not have to fight to stay alive.  She could let loose.  Finally I was home and called again.  This time Carl answered and said Barbara had died. 

 The A Team, including Buddy.

I was in tears, Carl was in tears, and we could hardly speak.  Barbara and Carl had The Karma.  Rosemary & I could sense it when we stayed with them last year in Pittsburg.  They were a team like Carol Ann and Sterling.

Carl is a Good Karma guy.  He has other teams he can rely on, like their 3 grown kids.  I hope to help out, even from a distance. 

 Sisters, Victoria and Zoe.

I would suggest that we all need to be part of a team.  Rosemary & I are a team.  I would also suggest that we have a team in this community.  I am humbled by this every time we come together and I am grateful. 

And you.  Who makes up your Team?

 The Butterlies, caught in the act of having too much fun at Mass,  Kara, Denise, and James.

Thanks so much John & Mike & Buddy for helping me out when I could not come in this morning.  It's been a long time since I came down with a chest cold like this one I picked up.

Readings:

Genesis 22, 1-2, 9, 10-18,  Yahweh tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Psalm 116,  I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Romans 8, 31-34-22,  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Mark 9, 2-10, The Transfiguration.

Good Morning, My Dearest Tori.

Our First Reading is about Abraham from the Book of Genesis. I will share something about it later.

Our Second Reading contains my favorite verse from Romans

Thanks, Emma, for always being ready to light our candles.

Homily:

In our Liturgical Calendar, the gospel on the second Sunday of Lent is always that of the Transfiguration.  In our three year calendar today’s gospel is according to Mark.  Last year it was from Matthew, and next year it will be from Luke.  The Church also chose, at some time in the past, to have similiar texts about Abraham as the First Reading on the Second Sunday of Lent

Today we listened to the messenger from heaven telling Abraham,  ‘Since you did not withhold from God your beloved son, He will bless you with descendants as countless as the stars of the sky.’

Mike homilizing.

With regard to this myth about Abraham’s relationship with God in the Book of Genesis, it touches not only upon Jews, but today’s Muslims and Christians as well.  One of our favorite VBS hymns is ‘Father Abraham.’

In today’s gospel reading, Elijah and Moses represent the expectation of the Prophets and the Law for the coming of the Messiah; His words fulfill theirs.

Thanks, Mike.

Today’s visually brilliant presentation of the Father’s beloved Son, reminds us of the many times in the Gospel where not only Jesus is called the Light of the World, we too have been given that name when the Spirit transforms us to be the Body of Christ in the world.  We are God’s sons and daughters.

Think about the story of Elijah where the bowl of flour and the jar of oil never run dry, it is fulfilled by the Bread blessed and broken who has come down from heaven, celebrated in our liturgy of the Eucharist for all time.

No wonder you are such a neat kid, Buddy.  You are a Longhorn.

The prophecy of Moses, is that God will send to us the New Prophet, who will speak the words of God.  It is fulfilled by his beloved Son, with this command to us, ‘Listen to him.’

This week when and where will we find a secret place to listen to him to transform us?

Sorry, Ben, I could not help you this morning.  I was totally in bed, a strange place for me in the daytime.