Readings:  

 Daniel  7, 13-14,   His dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Psalm 93,   The Lord is King, He is robed in majesty.

Revelations 1, 5-8,   Behold, his coming amid the clouds.

John 18, 33-37,  Are you the king of the Jews? 

                                                                                                               

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year with the Feast of Christ, King of the Universe. Pope Pius XI proclaimed this Feast Day in 1925 to counter the increasing nationalism and secularism of his time. The Christian religion and the church seemed to be losing ground to modern secular movements. As we’ve seen before and since, the Vatican tends to overreact, in this case by condemning so much of what was new in the world.

As if in counterpoint, Jesus, in today’s Gospel reading, redefines the title of ‘king’ as being witness to the truth.

 

A few words about today’s readings from Daniel and Revelations.

Daniel is considered by some to be the 4^th major prophet, after Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezechial. However, his book has only 14 chapters and most don’t place him with the big three.

Daniel describes events during the Babylonian captivity, about 600-550 BC. The book was probably compiled as late as the 2^nd century BC during the rebellion against Greek ruler Antiochus IV.

Authors were probably at least 3, since parts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and a little in Greek. The book is rich in symbolism similar to Book of Revelation. Its most famous stories are about Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, thrown with Daniel into the fiery furnace, and the story of Daniel thrown into the lion’s den.

 

The Book of Revelation is the final book in the New Testament, written in Greek. Modern scholars think the book was written by an unknown author who was given the name John of Patmos to increase the authority of the book.

As to when it was written: most say about 95 AD/CE during the persecution by the Roman Emperor Domitian, others say earlier during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Nero. In either case the book describes in dramatic allegory the battle between good and evil, with good winning out in the end.

 

Homily by John Cade

Jesus said: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”

Especially in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus gives umpteen descriptions of what the kingdom he proclaims as already present is all about.   And its not about lording it over others or about vengeance or greed or that place called ‘it’s all about me’.   It’s about the simple things children do naturally, like giving themselves fully to each moment,
knowing what they like, giving and sharing (like Leo freely shared a bus with Cole a couple Sundays ago), receiving and taking graciously/joyfully, asking for what they need or want, and knowing how to say No to what they don’t need or want.

 These simple things are a stumbling block for many since they don’t seem big enough or important enough or memorable enough to count for a lot.

 

In Mark, Matthew and Luke there is the parable of the people bringing little children up to Jesus and Jesus’ friends trying to stop them. And then Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”

Every time I am with my grandsons I learn more about what it means to be real and connected with others. They are real and connect with me instinctively. Like Freddie clamoring for me, his Papou, asking me to be a ‘monster’ and chase him, later, as he and we are enjoying his birthday cake, calling me by my name, John, later asking me to be the one who puts him down for a nap and tell him a story as he snuggles in my lap, later still playing with me with his new toy train.

 

The question I leave us with today is twofold: what do we learn from the children around us? And how does what we learn help us live in the kingdom Jesus says is here?

 

 

 

 

Palm Sunday Procession begins.

 

 

Readings: 

Entrance, Luke 19, 28-40.

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

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

Philippians 2, 6-11, God greatly exalted him.

Luke 22, 14-23, The  Passion.   

Holy Thursday & Good Friday, 7:00, Marlene's, 2017 Keystone, Plano.

 

Palm Sunday procession.

 

Palm Sunday continues.

 

 

Buddy reading The Blessing of the Lenten Candles, all 5 plus 1.

 

 

Readings: 2 Samuel 12, 7-13; Psalm 32, Lord, Forgive the Wrong I have done: Galatians 2, 16, 19-21; Luke 7, 36-8, 3.

 

Sunday Homily 6-13-10, 11^th Ordinary Time

 

Preliminary observations:

The First reading today is from the Second Book of Samuel and it is about King David.  The Jewish people had reached a time in their history when they wanted to be just like their neighbors, who all had kings!! 

 

 

 

The prophets viewed it as not a good thing but basically we find Yahweh saying “let them have their king”, and so Saul is the first king and he is followed by David.  David is one of those huge figures in the Old Testament, and even gets mentioned frequently in the New Testament since Jesus was from the house of David. 

 

 

King David was a very interesting character, very human and very much loved by Yahweh.  The time frame for this is about the year 1000 BCE.  Before we listen to today’s reading I need to set it up.  The Book of Samuel, if it were being reviewed today by those who do those things would get an “Adult Only” rating.  I don’t want you to let your kids read this book, it is full of sinning and murder and other bad stuff!!

 

 

One day David is out walking around on the roof of his palace and he sees Bathseba bathing.  He takes a fancy to her, but she is already married.  No problem if you are the king.  He simply has her husband Uriah sent to the front lines of a battle where he is killed.  Getting a woman to be your wife this way is not good, even if you are the king, and God gets a little upset!!  Now just before our passage today we have the following piece in the Book of Samuel and I want to read it to you.

 

 

“The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: "Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor.  The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers.  But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. 

 

 

Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor."

 

 

 

David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death!  He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity." 

 

 

Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul.  I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.  Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.  Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.'”

 

 

Our Second Reading is Paul to the Galatians, and Paul is very upset.  Remember first that Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Initially in the early community the thinking had been that when someone who was a Gentile became a Christian all they had to do was be baptized, then the requirement to become a Jew was added, namely circumcision. 

 

 

Paul had come to the opinion, based on his revelation of the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, that baptism was all that was needed.  There was a whole lot of friction between Paul and the Church in Jerusalem who felt that Sabbath Observance, Dietary Laws and Circumcision were required.  In today’s reading we hear a phrase from Paul, “justified by works of the Law” that meant obeying the Torah law.  For Paul, having Christ in him was all that was needed, namely having a relationship with Christ.

 

 

Eleventh Sunday – Homily

 

 

The message today is primarily about forgiveness, but I want to begin before forgiveness with a session on sin, which I am an expert on!!  Because the practice of frequent confession seems to have disappeared there is a danger that we could lull ourselves into thinking that sin too has gone away, and I’m afraid that this would be a big mistake on our part.  Lets start with what sin is. 

 

 

Any action, which damages our relationship, either with God or another person, is sinful.  Now that kind of statement is pretty sterile on its own, so lets try to put some flesh on it.  Imagine you have someone in your life who loves you very very much.  Now you have done something, which hurts them, accidentally or not, it doesn’t ever matter.  Imagine how you would feel. 

 

 

The problem with our sins is that I’m afraid we don’t realize how much we are loved by God, for some reason it just doesn’t really sink in enough, because if it did, then sin would devastate us.  It seems to me that woman in our Gospel was very aware of what her sins were doing.  For some unexplained reason, maybe listening to Jesus speak somewhere, and it hit her.  We clearly see her response. 

 

 

David has a clear vision of his sin.  Paul is taking the position that if Christ is living in us, than we are alright, we are forgiven, and we don’t need to be doing extra things.  The hard piece for us to understand is that God’s love for us is so great that we are forgiven, even before we ask for forgiveness.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for sin.  We know there are.  David’s son died because of his father’s sin, the woman in the gospel story was an outcast in her society. 

 

 

The lesson for me in today’s liturgy of the word is how closely am I aware of my sins, and the need to change sinful behavior?  Just because I am forgiven thru God’s love doesn’t mean I can just continue to sin.  If I truly love someone, would I want to continue hurting them just because they readily forgave me?

 

 

Picture 1:  Mass Begins, welcome!

 

Picture 2:  Communion, Tony, Richard Baack & Richard Froebe

 

Picture 3:  Communion, Tom Fleming & Teresa Read

 

Picture 4:  Fred & Maureen

 

Sunday, 12-26-10, Holy Family: Sirach 3, 2-14; Psalm 128, Blessed are Those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways; Colossians 3, 12-21; Matthew 2, 13-23.

 

Intro to readings

 We could easily believe that political correctness is a recent development, but I want to show you how it existed in the first century of the Church. 

 Our second reading today from the letter to the Colossians is a great example of “spin”.  Lets take a moment to consider the setting. 

 There are 13 letters which have Paul’s name associated with them.  Modern scripture scholarship has determined that seven are indeed written by Paul, there are three, which he definitely did not write, and there are three where there is doubt about his authorship. 

 

 Understand that when Paul wrote for instance to the Romans, he was writing to a small Christian community within Rome, something not unlike our little community here.  Society in the Roman Empire at that time was strongly patriarchal, namely it all centered on the man! Women, children and slaves were considered similar to possessions, namely they had no rights! 

 Now the extraordinary thing about Paul’s preaching was that he saw all people, by virtue of their baptism being equal, all belonging to the body of Christ.  Recall one of his familiar lines: “in Christ all are equal, there is no male or female, no slave or free”.  

 

 In the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7 we meet the “radicalism of Christianity”, – just as Jesus shocked the authorities by dining with sinners, Paul sees all as God’s children and equal.  So in his letter to the Corinthians he says husbands and wives are equal.  He is very careful to make sure that both have the same rights – they are equal! 

 Now take a look at the extended section of today’s second reading and we will see the spin put there by someone after Paul’s death.  In an attempt to make Christianity “fit” better into Roman society we have the phrase ‘wives be submissive to your husbands’.  Paul would have never said such a thing!  Yet he gets the blame for it today!! 

 

Feast of the Holy Family – Homily

 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, that of Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus, whose birth we celebrated yesterday.  I would like to reflect a little on the images we have of the Holy Family and how we are part of that family by our Baptism. 

 In the gospel we read today, this family experienced what many families today have to go through, namely living in a strange land.  Matthew doesn’t tell us how things were for them in Egypt, but at least they stayed there a few years, they were not killed.  When they returned, it was to settle in a different region, to Nazareth.

 

 Thanks to a global economy, unlawful governments, wars, or the plague of drugs, many people today are forced to move, either within their own country or to foreign lands.  They come as strangers into our midst.  But we don’t have to be from somewhere else to feel like a stranger.  Sometimes due to misunderstandings, or fear or hurts we can just as easily feel like a stranger in our own family.

 The Feast of the Holy Family gives us time to reflect on our actions.  By our baptism we are part of that Holy Family.  Jesus is our brother. 

 The challenge, which the gospel puts before us today as Christians, is how well do we welcome our brothers and sisters.  Remember the words of Jesus, when I was hungry, or lonely or sick, you did it to me.  Out of fear we too quickly can build walls to keep others out, either out of our country, or out of our lives.

 

 At St Vines, we do reach out.  Over the past year we certainly have helped the sick, through our participation both by volunteering and financial aid to the CCAC.  We have served meals at Thanksgiving; we have helped build the houses with Habitat for Humanity, given toys to kids who might otherwise not have them, and food to the Food Pantry.  These are great things and we need to continue to do them.  But we can too easily miss opportunities to tear down walls within our own family.

 As we begin a New Year, a time when we make all kinds of resolutions to do better, lets not forget to see how we may become more conscious of the Family of God and those who are lonely, from another place, struggling. 

Picture 1:    Jack

Picture 2:    Ryan with cookie

Picture 3:    The Reads, Teresa, Taylor, Doug, & Zack

Picture 4:    Emma, one of the 5 Bambini

 Picture 5:    Santa arrives

Picture 6:    All the Good Kids awaiting Santa 

 

 

Readings: Acts 10, 34-43; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 3, 1-4; Luke 24, 13-35

A Resurrection Day

A few weeks ago when Cameron & Reid, Brady & Trey, our quads were still in Presbyterian, Rosemary & I went to visit them and Casey one Thursday morning.  We parked, entered the hospital, and got on the elevator with a medical aide pushing a stretcher on wheels.

As the elevator climbed to the sixth floor, Rosemary asked the guy how he was doing.  "Great," he responded, "I always try to have a great day."  We chatted a bit more and he explained that his old grandfather had told him years ago that he could choose to have a happy or a sad day and that he decided that he would choose happy.  "And it works," he added

We arrived at floor five and he exited, leaving Rosemary and me somewhat touched by two things.  First, he was comfortable enough to share his outlook and history with us on an elevator ride from floor one to five.  Secondly, he certainly presented a buoyant presence and it seemed to come from an inner choice. 

Because of my psychological training and experience I immediately find two disharmonies surfacing.  First, not everyone can just decide to be happy and get there.  Chronic or situational depression effects the ability to choose.  When we put Naomi to sleep, I could not just choose to be happy.

Secondly, we might find the "just choose happiness" phenomenon a bit Polly Anna.  In other words, superficial.  No matter what, I maintain a superficial happiness, skimming over tragedies as if they are just steps on the road to heaven.  These are the people who tell you when you have suffered a painful or tragic death that you will get over it with time or it is all God’s plan or will.  In other words, just be happy.

Despite these side thoughts, all of us here today have reasons for happiness.  We have life, at least.  The man we met on the elevator was for Rosemary and me a genuinely happy man and what he did touched us like a resurrection to new life.  What sunshine is to flowers, a smile & encouraging word are to the human spirit.

On this feast of the resurrection to new life, what about your life are you most happy?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-23.mp3

CHILDREN’S CHOIR: JESUS LOVES ME: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-23%20Jesus%20Loves%20Me.mp3