The Assumption, 8-15-2021

Readings:

Acts  14, 21-27,  It is  is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom.

Psalm 145,  I will praise you name forever, my king and my God, plus the great line (8), The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. 

Revelation  21, 1-5, I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.

John 13, 31-33, 34-35,  My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.   

Leo and his best buddy, John, say, "Hi, Everybody, Come in."

Acts, a couple of observations:

1. Remember the three rings of Acts, Jerusalem, Palestine, the World (Mediterranean & Rome)?   Since we are at Chapter 28 of 28, you can guess in what ring we are today, yes, the World.  Paul and Barnabas are in the region of Greece.
2. The author, the same as the Gospel of Luke.
3. The date again, before 70

Genevieve and her best Mommy also say, "Hi, Everybody."

Love one another

As you may remember, one of my most favorite lines in all the Bible is the first line in the first stanza of our Psalm 145 this morning, The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.   I read this and I add to it Jesus saying that, This is how they will know you, that you love one another. 

Is this real?   

Jan & Cindy have communion ready.  Choose wine or grape juice.

What is real is what I heard on the radio yesterday morning, really bad stuff.   Turns out that some professional bike riders were discovered to have developed motor enhanced bikes.  A small motor was inserted into the diagonal bar of the bike.  It was discovered in a race in Italy.

Now I know why these guys race past me at White Rock Lake.   Anybody know of anyone with a motor enhanced bike?  

More seriously, I look around and check out the news.  I read that towns all dear to me have been bombed by some really angry people, Paris, Brussels, Jerusalem.   People doing this think they are making the world a better place. 

Healing and Life for Angela.

Here at home we have what to me is a horrible political campaign going on.   

In our Catholic Church there is no shortage of hatred of fellow Catholics who disagree with policies or don’t conform to certain norms.   You all know that there are various Catholics who hate me for what I am doing.

Pope Francis is getting push back from Catholics who don’t approve of his ways and his message.  Francis took three refugee families into the Vatican and he got ridiculed.  His economic ideas are certainly meeting with hostility. 

Healing for Sandra.
 

So, they will know us by our love for one another?  The Lord is abounding in love?   

Is this just silly religious talk?  In my book, no, not completely. 

We have the examples of hate, which I would propose are often the result of hurt.  But we also have examples of love, respect, and care. 

Hue, our great sound man. 

Francis’ welcome of the 3 refugee families is for me an example.  The two picnics for The Love of Kids, another example.  We have been helping at those two picnics for years.  And there are hundreds of other people who contribute their time and even resources to help these under privileged and handicapped kids.

Look at Jim Maher who comes down here from St. Bonaventure with some students to help with the cleanup of the areas in Dallas that were his by the tornadoes.   They spend a week of their spring break here and they have been doing this for years.

Elevation.
 

Doug LeBlanc, Grace’s husband, together with other employees at Ericson, they all gathered on more than one occasion to help a fellow employee whose home had been wrecked by either a tornado or that hail. 

Did you read in the Dallas Morning News about the North Carolina judge who felt he had to sentence a vet with bad PTSD for repeatedly getting drunk.  He gave him 24 hours and then the judge spent the night in the cell with him.   Said he did not want to leave him alone with the PTSD. 

May I play that guitar, Daddy?  I think I can do it.

One final example of a person who inspired me by his grace in failure.  Jordon Spieth went from top of the leader board at the Masters to second.  He had a colossal melt down on the last day.  Nevertheless, he graciously congratulated the winner and helped present him with the winner’s sport coat.

This encourages me to know that there is lots of gracious caring in our world. 

Where do you see God showing his abundance of love?

Welcome in, Dearest Harper.  I wish I could have been with you this morning, but next week for sure.

Readings: 

1 Samuel 1, 20-22, 24-28, In those days Hannah bore a son

Psalm 84,  Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord.   

1 John 3, 1-2, 21-24, See what love the Father has bestowed upon us.  

Luke 2,  41-52,  When he was 12 years old they went up according to the festival custom.

Thanks for your beautiful welcome Cindy & Dee.

HOMILY     

Since the Church has always taught that Jesus was truly human, I like it when the Scripture gives an example of the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus as an actual, real human family.

Rick, you make an excellent candle lighter.  Thanks for your help.

Today’s Gospel gives such an example. Luke’s story hints at a family conflict caused by Jesus’ behavior. Luke gives us just a glimpse of the conflict, but I can imagine it going something like his mom, Mary saying, “How could you do this to us? Not telling us where you were all this time. This was hurtful to your father and me. We’ve been looking for you since last night; and were worried to death all this time! Don’t you know how disrespected we feel? We taught you better than this”…(and perhaps, both concerned parents, either Joseph or Mary said)…“Do not do this to us again!”

Thanks so much for your company yesterday, Mike.  You sure helped me to wait patiently while my surgeon got delayed for almost 4 hours.  We actually had fun in that OR waiting room.  Like with the lady who was wanting nothing but a coffee while she waited.

As for Jesus, I can imagine his side too. Some claim Jesus had brothers and/or sisters. Whether he had siblings or not, he was twelve, equal to a teenager today, a time kids are practicing behaviors that are rebellious or just plain independent. Working with your Dad learning carpentry isn’t bad, but Jesus may have begun to experience it’s limitations. And being in the big city for the first time as a 12-year old probably exposed Jesus to opportunities he hadn’t considered before—like a chance to talk about the Scriptures with temple scholars.

Hi, Jan, Where is that crazy guy you hang out with, like you know, that Sir Charlie?

Luke had his own goal in mind, building up Jesus’ credentials as a kid wise beyond his years and already showing an advanced knowledge of the Scriptures. So we don’t get the whole story here, of Joseph and Mary and Jesus, being a working class Jewish family living all those years in a small town.

The Best Music with Shonda, Ben (where is your hat), and David.

Though just a glimpse, in this story Luke gives us a hint of the holy family being like a regular family I can identify with. How about you? Can you imagine from Luke’s story how the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus acted and lived—and had conflicts—much like your own family?

John sharing another of his insightful homilies to end the year of 2018.

Readings: Acts 2, 1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-13, John 20,19-23, Pentecost.

Mothers’ Day Notes:

• The idea originated, ca. 1870, with 3 women who had worked in hospitals during the Civil War. 
• Julia Ward Howe (Battle Hymn), Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, & her daughter, Anna Jarvis wanted a Mothers’ Day of Peace because of the horrors they had seen in the military hospitals.
• Woodrow Wilson, 1914, established the national holiday.

Pentecost Notes:

• The word signifies 50, in this case, 50 days (or 7 weeks).
• O.T.: the Hebrews celebrated the 50th day after the Passover (Egypt, first born sons killed by angel, Jewish sons spared, to threaten Pharaoh into letting the Hebrews depart Egypt).  The celebration eventually focused on agriculture & thanksgiving for the first fruits of the spring, and finally Thanksgiving for the Torah.
• N.T.: Christians tied this occasion to the spiritual fruits of redemption, the Spirit, 50 days (or 7 Sundays/weeks) after the Resurrection.
• Question: a 1 time only event or repeatable (e.g., Pentecostals)?

Mothers’ Day

In Thursday’s USA Today there is an article by Paul Aronsohn about two women, his mother & his sister, Margot & Patti.

When Patti was ca. 25 years old she was diagnosed with a rare disease that eventually would take her life, a disease that resembles M.S., but which does not seem to have a name or be very common.  This happened in ’89, almost 20 years ago.

As the years have passed Patti slowly went down.  Originally active athletically & intellectually, she first had to walk with a cane.  Then she took up a walker, then moved into a wheel chair.  Finally, a few years ago, she became bed ridden.  To eat she has to use a feeding tube, into which something like Ensure is poured, yuk.

During the years her three sibling and friends have helped her.  But the person who has helped her the most was her mother who was herself about 50 when the diagnosis was given. 

Today Patti is about 45, totally bed bound, fed through a tube, can talk a bit, is conscious, and is awaiting the end.  Her mother, Margot, is mid-70’s, takes care of Patti full time in Florida where they moved because of the milder weather than New Jersey.  During the day Margot has help, but at night she sleeps beside Patti’s bed in case Patti needs anything.

What kind of love is this!!  Remember Jackie Ritter’s story about landing in Holland instead of Italy?

Whom do you love this much?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-11.mp3

Readings: Jonah 3, 1-5 & 10; Psalm 25; 1 Corinthians 7, 29-31; Mark 1, 14-20  

Jonah: This little book of 4 chapters is a gem and tells a delightful short story. 

Background: Jonah has been asked by Yahweh to go to Nineveh in Assyria to tell the people & leaders that they are evil and will be punished shortly by Yahweh.  Trouble is, Nineveh is the enemy, like me going to Houston or Philadelphia.  So he runs away, catches a boat headed for Spain, is blamed by the sailors for causing a big storm on the sea, and is dumped overboard.  The whale swallows him and for three days Jonah is constrained to reflect on what he is doing.  When, after 3 days, the whale dumps him on shore, Jonah is more willing to listen.  We arrive at this point and I will have all of chapter 3 read.

Author: For centuries, while people took this story as factual, Jonah was considered author of his own story.  Once seen as a fable or allegory, the story obviously has some unknown ancient as the author.

Date of composition: no one really knows, but educated guesses put it ca. 800 BCE.

The Call, again

 You hear the story about the young boy returning home one afternoon?  He lived in a rural area and was taking a short cut through a field he knew of.  Suddenly a coyote started following him.  He ran.  The coyote ran faster.  The boy knew the coyote was going to catch him before he got home and was going to eat him.

So he stopped.  He turned to face the coyote, and said, "I know you will catch me and eat me.  But before you do so, please sing me a song in your beautiful voice."  The coyote agreed and began to howl his song to the boy.

At home the boy's beloved dog heard the coyote's howl, knew his master was in danger, raced to the sound, and scared away the coyote.  Moral of the story: in times of danger, use your head. 

Ever hear this story?  It is one of Aesop's fables. 

I tell this story about the boy and the coyote to exemplify what the story of Jonah & the whale is.  A fable.  It has a moral.  What is it?

Before answering, let me highlight something.  Jonah & the whale has humor all through it.  Even after the episode we read today, Jonah's behavior continues to be amusing.  Jonah goes to Nineveh to tell them to repent or the Lord would punish them.  Lo and behold, they repent, and quickly.  Is Jonah delighted and congratulating them?   On the contrary, he throws a snit and in a huff goes outside of the town and sits under a small tree.  He and Yahweh converse.  Yahweh asks Jonah what right has Jonah to be mad at Yahweh for showing mercy to the people of Nineveh.

The moral of the story: listen to God's call in your heart if you want to be happy, despite the amusing ending. 

For contemporary example, here's a story that relates to Tuesday's marvelous event.  I have a friend who went to U.T. in the early 60's.  He came up from Plainview.  This was in the middle of the civil rights activity and he and his buddy decided to join the campus NAACP, an organization I, too, worked with from '65-'68, even living one summer with a hero black lady friend of mine in south Dallas.  Dead now unfortunately, her name was Wanita Kraft.

The goal of the university chapter of the NAACP that year was the integration of the Texas and the University theaters on "The Drag," Guadalupe Street across from the University.  The university chapter was fairly large and they had volunteers who would parade in circles in front of each theater every evening.  My friend and his buddy would get assigned about once a week.  Before they went they changed into old clothes that they would not miss if they got torn up or bloody. 

Torn up and bloody they did.  People would come by not just to yell and curse them.  They would not just throw trash, tomatoes, eggs, and beer bottles.  They would come out of their cars and trucks, come up to them, and flail away.  The policy of the group was non-violence, following the example of Martin Luther King who followed Ghandi among others.  So what do you think they did?  Punch them out?  Knock them down?  They would drop to the ground and cover their heads.  My friend says that was the hardest thing.  To accept getting kicked, punched, spit on, and trashed while not responding.

Eventually the punchers would tire and drive away.  Then a rescue team of some girls would emerge to help them up, clean their wounds, and take to the hospital those hurt more seriously. 

Wonder what happened?  One year of nightly demonstrations and the theaters integrated.  My friend remembers the night they lined up to buy tickets, one white, one black.  Like I did, my friend had a lot of tears watching the inauguration Tuesday morning.

Jonah had the call, the four had the call, my friend had the call.

What is your call?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-01-25.mp3

Some of my references:

• Aesop's Fables: The Boy & the Wolf

• The Carmelite web site

• The Dominican web site (Spanish only)

• St. Raymond Catholic Parish, Dublin, CA web site

• Bishop John Shelby Spong, various works and articles in Mirabile Dictu, edited by David          Gawlik

Picture 1:  Mass with Sabrina & Anthony

Picture 2:  Communion distributors–Gerri, Ron, Jan, Patricia, John, Beth & Rob

Picture 3:  Communion–Ron & Marilyn Ackerman, Nina Waldron, Jerry Weiss

Picture 4:  Carl reading Jonah

Readings: 

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

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

Chuck with us.

Isaiah 35 observations: 

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

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

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

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

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

Leighton Elizabeth Warren and her grandmother, Barb.

The Celebration

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

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

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

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

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

Emma making a visit to the altar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contributions to Samaritan Inn and Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center.

Genesis Chap 1 “God spoke: Let us make human beings in our image.”

Genesis Chap 2 “And Man came alive—a living soul!”

Responsorial Psalm – May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.

Alleluia – If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is in us.

Mark 7:31-37 – “Children are at the very center of life in the kingdom.”

Introduction to the readings:

Genesis and the first 5 books of Bible, according to modern Scripture experts, were not written 10 or 20 thousand years ago after humans began to populate the earth and form tribes.  Rather, they were probably written in 5^th or 6^th century before Jesus (probably during or right after Babylonian captivity 555). 

They were written to give the Israelites a beginning and a common history.  That made them a special people with noteworthy ancestors and their own extensive rules to live by.  This set the Israelites apart and helped hold them together.  (Remember the ten tribes of Judah weren’t able to stick together, and disappeared, absorbed into the DNA of their captors.)

And so we have the stories of Genesis and of the books that followed; such as the stories as story of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel and Seth (who replaced Abel), and later of Noah, and later still of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and later still of Moses and so on and on. 

The first creation story in Ch 1 of Genesis has a more cosmic style, placing human beings at the pinnacle of creation to give everything a name, and to rule over and take care of the earth and of all living creatures.

The second creation story in Ch 2 of Genesis is used in today’s Mass as the back-story for the Gospel reading from Mark about Jesus expanding the ideal of marriage and his recognizing the beginnings of the equality of men and women in marriage.

In Jesus’ time men could, on a whim, just fill out a certificate of dismissal to divorce his wife.  A woman had no such right.  Unbelievable at that time, Jesus mentioned that women could also divorce their husbands.  He also raised the ideal, explaining that a husband and wife have like responsibilities to each other. 

Jesus gave marriage the higher ideal of ‘lasting fidelity and lasting connection.’  The Church, though allowing ‘catholic divorce’ or annulment, has traditionally interpreted the words in the Gospel literally—and has not acknowledged divorce or remarriage, if the Church doesn’t have a hand in it through the annulment process. 

Bishops and others are being called to Rome this very month by Pope Francis to make pastoral decisions concerning family issues.  Many say this update may acknowledge Christian Marriage as a Christian ideal, while acknowledging that we imperfect humans are often unable to achieve the ideal.  From a pastoral perspective this could allow for Catholic communities to accept and welcome people who are divorced or remarried (as we do in this community without reservation). 

Readings 1, 2, and Gospel

HOMILY:

I want to say just a few words about simplicity in children.  First, I am thankful that Stack and this community stand strong for welcoming and accepting children. 

This gives us a unique opportunity to observe what Jesus meant by accepting the kingdom, “in the simplicity of a child”, and we can continue to watch and learn how to live that in that simplicity.   What I associate with the simplicity of a child, if they are allowed their natural, instinctive inclinations, are:  they tend to be more into connecting than making distance, more accepting than rejecting, more curious than judgmental, more naturally free than fearful, more open than defensive, and more giving than withholding. 

Examples of Pope Francis in visit to our country:  Seeks/welcomes children to hold/touch; simplicity of dress; little Fiat; words & gestures…Our children: say what think/feel; open; natural freedom; share; give… 

Ask yourself:  How do I live in the simplicity of a child in my life and relationships?