Readings: Acts 5, 12-16; Psalm 118; Revelations 1, 9-19; John 20, 19-31

Acts of the Apostles

This book is a continuation of Luke’s Gospel. It tells the story of the spread of Christianity after Christ’s death.

Revelations

This book consists of a series of revelations that were encouraging to the early Christians who were being persecuted at the time.

A Fishing Pole

There is a saying that while it is necessary occasionally to give a person a fish to keep them from starving, even better is it to give them a pole and teach them to fish. I think I have a fishing pole story.

Christmas two ago Rosemary & I visited Karina in Cuernavaca. It is to her and her mother that we have been giving money to help them get through the year, about $200 a month. Karina is about 35 and horribly crippled because of childhood polio.

On this occasion Karina mentioned to me that if I could help her, she could set up her own little pharmacy. When her mother, Maria Luisa, is not sick with cancer, Karina works in a small Mexican pharmacy about an hour’s journey from where they live. It is a difficult process for her to walk up & down the hills to catch the bus.

I have often encouraged Karina to look into further schooling, because I sense how intelligent she is. So far it has been impossible.

Consequently, when I heard Karina’ idea, you would think that I would have jumped at the opportunity to help her become more independent. However, ever since I have worked in East Africa, I have had an automatic reaction to people who hit me up for money. It used to happen in Tanzania so much that I become immediately resistant when I hear that tone of voice.

Until I mentioned it to Rosemary, who said, Why not check out the numbers at least. So this past Christmas, a year later, Karina told us that she could rent a small place near a bus station for $50 a month and that she needed $2500 to open up her own pharmacy.

This is not you local CVS type pharmacy. In Mexico the local pharmacies have just a few tubes of toothpaste, some aspirin, and various popular needs. No prescription medicines.

Folks, I have decided I would like to help this woman. We have been giving her the equivalent of fish every Christmas. Without it who knows where they would be. Now there is an opportunity to give her a fishing rod.

I have passed this by the board for approval. For the next month, until Mother’s Day, I will put out a special little basket for Karina. I want to give her $3000, the extra $500 for her first few months’ rent. This will be separate from our Expenses and Outreach baskets. I don’t want to interfere with them. This money will be a pass it on loan. Every month or whatever we agree upon, Karina can help another person in need whom she knows.

Because you talked me into going back to taking pictures, the next time we are there, I hope to take some digital pictures of Karina’s pharmacy.

Who is the Karina in your life?

Download the homily as an mp3.

Readings: Exodus 19, 2-6; Psalm 100; Romans 5, 6-11; Matthew 9, 36-10, 8.

Exodus: The second book of the Torah or Pentateuch, following the book of Genesis.  The book describes probably the greatest event in Israel's history, the departure of the people from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.  Today's selection is simply Yahweh's reminder to the people that if they are faithful and good to him, they will prosper.

A Fathers' Day Story

When I was a Jesuit and lived in Tanzania about 10 miles west of the mountain, Kilimanjaro there was a small Jesuit house.  I used it as a base, coming back to it after months traveling around the country giving seminars to nuns & priests. 

One Sunday afternoon I wanted to go up the mountain about 7000 feet to a Capuchin monastery & convent where my team & I gave a lot of the seminars.  I took my travel bag, walked to the town bus park, and boarded a rattle trap old bus just departing for a little village just below the monastery, a trip that would take me 90 minutes.

Half way down the road to the cut off to go up the mountain the old bus pooped out.  Everybody gets off and stands around.  Shortly, miracle of miracles, another old rust bucket of a bus headed up the mountain comes along.  Most did not want to pay two fares, so they stayed.  I, however, hopped on an already overloaded antique. We take the cut off and headed up the mountain.  The bus huffs & puffs, the gears scream & groan, steam starts seeping from under the hood.  You guessed it: the bus dies just as the road begins to seriously ascend.  

It is now about 6:00 or 6:15.  Because we are right on the equator and twilight always lasts just 20-30 minutes, I know I have only about half an hour to get to the monastery.  I have a decision: stay on the switch back road and take an hour or take shortcuts which may get me there in 30 minutes.  I chose the shortcuts. 

30 minutes did not get me to the monastery.  In fact, it got me into total blackness.  I could see almost nothing.  I know generally where I am but I cannot see even the trail.  Somewhere amid the darkness through the forest of banana trees that are cultivated at this level, I see a dim light from a kerosene lantern and head toward it. It is a family's hut.

I walk up speaking the Swahili word for 'hello,' 'hodi.'  A lady comes to the door and is very hospitable even though I must have scared her.  However, she is Catholic like almost all the members of her Chaga tribe which lives on the mountain.  She is used to white priests. 

I tell her, of course, that I am headed for the monastery & cannot find the way because of the dark. She calls to one of her children, a little boy of probably 6 years.  She tells him to take me to monastery and off we go up the trail.

I can hardly see this little kid and he just zooms silently along climbing all the time.  We pass other little family huts with faint lights, we walk in total darkness, and eventually he brings me to a point from which I can see the lights of the monastery above.

I thank this shy little boy, hug him probably, and he disappears back down the trail while I walk up to the monastery.  I  never saw him or his mother again, and I could hardly find their house in the daytime.  

For me this story has a metaphor quality.  It is like a parable.  College educated priest lost in the dark and guided to the light by a little boy.

Sometimes we are the guide, the nurturer.  Other times we are the priest in the dark who needs guidance and the guide may be a small creature, a child.

I see the child guiding us to three things: to simplicity, to interdependence, and to play.

• A child may like a lot of Stuff, but can self entertain with the simplest toy. I saw so many kids in Tanzania play soccer with a home made ball.
• A child cannot exist along, independent of others. As we get older we love our independence. We shun co-dependence. The child teaches us to interdepend.
• A child especially helps me to value & engage in play. The Type A does not play.

We celebrate Fathers' Day today, which is mostly a celebration of the nurturing side of dad.  For this moment, you dads, how do you come to greater light through kids?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-06-15.mp3

In honor of Fathers' Day we have some helpful communication hints.  Nobody ever gave me such valuable information before my marriage. 

Download 9_words_women_use.doc

 

Readings: Jeremiah 17, 5-8; Psalm 1, Blessed are They who hope in the Lord; 1 Corinthians 15, 12-20; Luke 6, 17-26.

Jeremiah:

Who: one of the Big 3 Prophets with Isaiah & Ezekiel, mostly because of the size of their works (52 chapters in Jeremiah).  Born 2-3 miles north of Jerusalem to a landed family where he had a happy childhood.  Despite this, Jeremiah is called the “Weeping Prophet,” because so much of his work is woeful & sad. 

   

Unlike Isaiah who embraced his call from God, Jeremiah resisted.  He did not want to say what he saw needed to be said.  Namely, the people’s behavior in Jerusalem was bad after ca. 400 years of not being invaded.  Because of his statements he was rejected by the people and the leaders, beaten, put in the stocks, thrown in a well to die, and ultimately put in prison by the Babylonians. 

  

They eventually released him and he went to Egypt and most likely died there.

 

  

Date: 600.  Easy to remember.  Jeremiah lived before & during the Babylonian captivity with Nebuchadnezzar, the leader.  The Captivity took place mostly 600-550 before Christ.

  

Message Today: classic line, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings.”  Instead you trust in God.

    

Sources: John Shelby Spong, Origins of the Bible, XIV; Wikipedia, Liturgy, St. Louis U.  

 

St. Valentine:

 

Time: ca. 250 C.E.  Actually 3 named Valentinius, 1 bishop, 1 priest, 1 who knows. All martyrs.  Note this is before Constantine officialized Christianity, 313.

 

2 Legends:

 

1.  Rome did not allow soldiers to marry because the authorities thought single soldiers fought better.  Valentinius criticized the policy.  He was put in jail & killed.

 

2.  He or another was killed because of being a Christian.  He or another fell in love with the jailer's daughter & before he died left her a note, "from your Valentine."

 

Note:  Feb. 15 was a pagan feast of fertility and and a celebration of the beginning of spring, Lupercalia.  Pope Galasius in 496 established a St. Valentine day one day earlier, i.e., Feb. 14 (as a way of moving attention away from the pagan feast?).

 

Custom about wedding rings?  Wearing a wedding ring on the 4th finger, left hand, dates back to Ancient Egypt.  It was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart. 

 

Sources: Huffinton Post & KHTS News, Jerome McDaniel, Santa Clarita, LA, CA.

 

St. Valentine Day Massacre:  1929, Lincoln Park section of Chicago.  Al Capone’s Southside Italian Gang vs. Bugsie Moran’s Northside Irish Gang, bootlegging during Prohibition.  Capone’s Italian gang lured 7 of the Irish Gang to a garage on the morning of Valentine’s Day and shot them with 70 rounds from 2 Thompson machine guns.   Source: Wikipedia

 

 

70 Years & Valentine's Day

On this Valentine’s Day I would like to talk about what it is like to be 70.  I am told by my seniors that once you hit these stratospheric age levels you start reflecting upon the past, and especially on what life would have been like if only. 

 

If only I had accepted that invitation to work in Brazil for a couple of years.  If only I had gotten my graduate degree.  If only I had not worked so hard so I could have played with my kids & family.  If I had taken care of my health.  And so on. 

 

 

So I have been reflecting on my past.  You all know me and I am always looking back focusing on the gifts and blessings of my day, my week, my years.  I am basically grateful for lots of elements in my life.  It has been and is an adventure.

 

   

I see one thing I wish I had done differently, but I see a handful of things that I would have been disappointed had I not chosen to do them.  I got four of them and you have probably heard me mention them.

   

I would really be disappointed had I not chosen to join the Jesuits in ’58 and become a priest.  This took place even though my parents were put out with my decision.  I was all booked in to going to Notre Dame.  I also was motivated a lot by fear of going to hell if I rejected God's invitation to be a priest.

 

I would likewise be disappointed if I had not accepted the Jesuit invitation in the 70’s to go work in East Africa.  I was lonely there on occasion, but it was an adventure that I would grieve over if I had missed it. 

  

My marriage with Rosemary is an event I cannot imagine myself doing without.  The transition was rocky when I got suspended by the diocese and kicked out of the Jesuits, but it has given my so much new life.  Moreover, I might have no life if I had not married Rosemary.

   

 

Finally, I do not know what I would have done if I had not responded to the request from you people to continue celebrating our Sunday Masses.  I remember thinking to myself before we finally took the step.  This could get rather confrontational.  And it hasn’t. 

  

The once thing I regret is something I learned while I was recuperating from recycling my left hip.  I was humbled by the care and affirmation of so many people.  I have not cared for and affirmed more positively the people whom I love.  I have not shown it.  On this Valentine’s Day I pledge to you folks that I will show this from now on.

 

And you?  What might you regret when you reach 70?

   

Picture 1:  Mass begins

  

Picture 2:  Our Father

  

Picture 3:  Maggie

   

Picture 4:  Rosemary with Cole (guess who was Jesus in the Nativity Drama)

 

 

Here he is, Everybody, the baby we have been waiting eagerly to meet.  Welcome in, Atlas, we are all so happy to meet you.  You are marvelous, just like you mom & dad.

 

 

Readings:  

 Wisdom 1, 13-15, 2, 23-24, God did not make death; God formed man to be imperishable

 Psalm 30,   I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

 2 Corinthians 8, 7, 9, 13-15,  As you excel in every respect

Mark 5, 21-43, Daughter, your faith has saved you.  Go in peace. 

 

 

 

Welcome back, Wendy & Brandon, and congratulations on a marvelous little boy.

 

Wisdom observations:

One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not part of the orginal Jewish bible, not part of the OT nor the NT, but in between and the subject of controvercy over the cenuries.  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books.

Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, who spoke and wrote excellent Greek.

 

 

The Best Music with Wendy & Katie.

 

Date: ca. 100-200 before Christ.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale. 

Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia on line

 

 

 

With Patricia reading the Blessing, Emma does her candle magic.

 

 

You can do it too

In the gospel today Jesus gives life to a little girl.  I would like to propose that you can give life, too. 

I have a story for you from my Dallas Morning News columnist friend, Steve Blow.  I saw his touching story some years ago.  In fact, Steve is retired & I miss his thoughts..

 

 

 

Offertory with Mary & Sydney & Hugh.

 

Ever hear of Fausta Twizerimana or Dolena Westergard?  Well, 10-11 years ago Fausta flew into Dallas and arrived exhausted one evening at the East Dallas Grace United Methodist Church.  She, her five siblings, and her parents were from a refugee camp in Tanzania, where I lived for about 10 years.  Fausta was 4. 

The Church welcomes refugees and this particular evening Dolena Westergard was there.  Dolena met the family and picked up Fausta. She fell in love. '

 

 

They are moving in, Folks, Beth & Rob, Sir Charlie & John

 

 

The family continued to attend the church and fitted into the fabric of the community.  Dolena watched Fausta and noticed that the girl had a gift for dancing.  She was always doing it. 

After four years of watching the girl dance, Dolena, who was now really a god mother to the kids, enrolled Fausta in the Dallas Black Dance Theatre.  Fausta, now 8, fell in love, too.  Never did she miss a session for the next four years. 

 

 

 

Wendy & Katie, you have been missed around here.

 

Then, along comes 2015 and a notice goes up that the Dance Theatre of Harlem was coming to Dallas to audition for positions in their summer workshop. 

Fausta has been dancing now for 4 years, is 12, and Dolena thinks it would help the girl just to learn how to audition.  No expectations.

You guessed it, Fausta gets selected. 

 

 

 

It is cupcake of the week time, 3 cupackes and 1 Bellvita.

 

 

Fine, but who is going to buy plane tickets for Fausta and a chaperon, plus about $3,000 in expenses?  This is New York, after all.   

You guessed it again, Grace United Methodist.  That night Fausta sat in a Broadway theatre to watch an African story, The Lion King.

Grace United Methodist gave life to Fausta, and, in particular, Dolena gave life to Fausta.   I even read that Prestonwood Baptist is giving life to the kids in the detention centers.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations again, Brandon, on such a marvelous kid.

 

 

This week families & people all over the country are trying to give life to the kids separated from their mothers and fathers.

Just like Jesus gave life to that little girl and to the woman who touched him.

To whom do you give life?

 

 

 

 

Wake up, Brandon, it is homily time, yeah. 

 

Source: Dallas Morning News, Steve Blow, Metro section, circa July 1, 2015

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 8, 23-9, 3; Psalm 27, The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; 1 Corinthians 1, 10-13; Matthew 4, 12-23

 Intro to Readings

 The gospel reading today should sound familiar when you hear it, as it is mostly a repeat of our first reading from Isaiah.  In today’s reading Jesus has just heard that John the Baptist has been jailed by Herod and so he decides to head over to Capernaum. 

 

The reading describes Capernaum as being in the region of Zebulum and Naphtali.  These places were named after two of the sons of Jacob, he of the ‘twelve tribes’ fame.  Galilee is a very familiar name to us as Jesus spent a whole lot of time there.  This area was the area invaded by the Assyrians in the eight century BC and all of the wealthy and educated people where carried away as slaves.  What was left were the peasants, and so we have this reference to the land left in darkness!

 

Nazareth was to the southern end of Galilee.  Galilee itself was a rather small and insignificant place compared with Jerusalem in Judea.  Capernaum was a fishing village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  It was also close to the Via Maris, which you will hear referred to in the first reading as the seaward road.

 Because of this earlier exile, there was a much greater mix of gentiles in this area.  There was a certain amount of tension between the Jews who lived in Galilee and those in Jerusalem.  They were not considered quite as ‘pure’ due to their constant contact with the gentiles.

  

The really important part of the gospel reading is the last line, where we are given Jesus’ message “repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.

 Our second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians shows what can so easily happen to any small community of believers.  The community is breaking into factions and forgetting its purpose.  

 

The Homily: instead of a formal homily today we have a baptism.  Catch the video:

  

 Picture 1:    Mass Begins  

Picture 2:    Special Welcome to Sienna, Brian, Payton, & Erin 

Picture 3:    The Baptism Party, Brian, Susanne, Payton, Erin, & Sienna

Picture 4:    The Baptism

   

 

Readings: 1 Kings 19, 16-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5, 13-18; Luke 9, 51-62.

1 Kings: This book continues the history of the Israelite kings begun in the two previous books of Samual. First was Samuel, a judge, then Saul, the first king, then the Great King David.  David’s activities make up a large part of this book.  When David dies the kingdom gets split into north and south.  Things go badly.  Along comes Elija the prophet.  This is a sign that times are bad.  We read in today’s section about the time Elija chooses Elisha as his successor. 

A Role Model

I would like to talk this morning about my Aunt Kitty with her glorious 100 years. She has always been a hero of mine and after our visit this past week she still is. We stayed in the retirement home where Kitty lives. Consequently, were able to make numerous small visits over the day & a half we were there. One attendant even asked me if I lived there now!

Since we had just been talking two weeks ago about the qualities of a peaceful & whole person, I was looking at Kitty with the 6 qualities in mind, e.g., curiosity & hope, gratitude & love, zest and, my own, humor. I spotted at least 3. 

Above all else, I was struck about how peaceful she was. At one point in our visits she said that while she had not wanted to live until she was 100, "It is not bad," she claimed. This said a lot to me, because over the past 10 years Kitty often told us that she did not want to live to 100. 

I asked her how she got to this peace & 100 years. "Golf", she replied.  She loved to play golf.  I think I see here that zest for living that I mentioned was one of the 6 characteristics of a whole & peaceful person. She, also of course, was famous for her yellow Buick convertible.  Which leads to the second quality I remember about her.

Her humor.  I can still remember her laughing at my uncle Frank and going into hysterics with my mom.  The two of them were close in age and spirit.  They laughed often over a time when the two of them as girls in Pittsburg were driving along behind a streetcar and went right out over a bridge. They had to get rescued. Kitty was notorious as an air head and my mom was right with her.   

One year when I was returning to East Africa from a home visit, I toured Kitty, my mom, and their older sister Pauline around Ireland in a little, two door, red economy sized car. Folks, it was lucky that Ireland is so small because we did not get started in the morning until about 9:30 or 10:00 and then we began looking for a place to stay around 4:00. Plus we stopped for lunch & morning & afternoon tea.  During all this time they laughed non stop.

During our visits Kitty often poked fun at her situation and age, when she remembered she really was 100. And when she did not remember, she laughed at herself. 

Besides humor and zest for life, Kitty loved her friends. While we were with her she said how much she missed her pals Jenny Gooch and Betty Lynch. Betty had three paintings on Kitty’s wall.  Especially she missed my mom. In fact, she was disappointed she had not heard from her recently.  Her long term memory is shaky. She did not remember that mom had died about 15 years ago.  She was even disappointed Pauline had not written her.  Pauline lived in NYC and died before my mom.

One moment after she forgot her age, however, she tuned directly into me and asked how I liked marriage, what was my relation with the Jesuits, and was I still working actively as a priest. Even though she became Presbyterian when she married my Uncle Frank, she has been totally interested in and supportive of my process.  And she remembed clearly. 

Of all the qualities my aunt shows, humor is her best. 

What is your best quality?

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