Sunday Homily, May 12, 2019, 4th Easter & Mother’s Day

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles  2, 1-11,  Arrival of the Holy Spirit

Psalm 104,   Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth

1 Corinthians 12, 3-7, 12-13, different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

 John 20, 19-23,   Peace be with you; receive the Holy Spirit. 

Welcome back home from Arkansas, CC  I really miss you when you are not here.

Pentecost

This morning I want to talk about the feast of Pentecost.   I propose that a Pentecost event takes place often in our lives.  It is a light bulb happening.  I see more clearly.  I have more energy.   There are light bulb events and light bulb people.  For example.

I know a lady who graduated from high school some years ago.  She was 18 and decided she would go to college.  She signed up, went to her accounting class, and got a D.  “That decided me,” she told me, “college was not for me.”

So she met her husband, got married, and had three kids.  Much more fun.

Says Olivia, "Welcome, Everybody."  Olivia, do you realize what a megawatt smile you have?  It brightens my day.

Fast forward about 30 years.  Her kids have grown up and they have graduated from college.  One is continuing studies to become a doctor.

It is Christmas.  They are all sitting around the table.  Somebody asks, “Is there anything in your life that you regret not doing?”  Various answers come in. 

My friend says, “I regret not getting my college degree many years ago.”  “Well, why don’t you go and get it?,” everybody says. 

Emma, you make my day.  Welcome back after a bunch of weeks missing you.

So she decides to take the entrance exams at CCCC (Collin County Community College).  See how it goes.  She takes two exams, math and reading.  She barely flunks the math, which is her long term weakness.  Remember the D in accounting. 

The reading exam?  She flat out fails the reading exam, also.  The college admissions office tells her they cannot admit her. 

Yeah, Ben is back everybody.  What a treat to have you and Sophia back, Ben.
 

What a blow!  Is that the end of it?  In fact, no!  She decides to appeal to take the reading test again. 

End of story, end of college career?  Nope, she aces the reading exam and is allowed to enter the college. 

What a scene.  The Girls' play station with Harper, Tori, and Zoe, with Olivia watching over the whole scene.

She proceeds to pass two years at CCCC during which time she takes a, you guessed it, an accounting course.  Fortunately, she has a husband who understands these arcane concepts.  Like, he says, “ You see this dollar?  That is an asset.”  And so on.  With his help she gets even a good grade in the class. 

After the two years at CCCC, it is time for another big step.  By the way, all during this time she is working full time.

Offertory with Carol Ann & Doug, Caroline & David.
 

The next big step is Texas A & M at Commerce.  Do you realize how far it is to Commerce.  Also during this time she is not taking a light load, like 9 hours.  Oh, no, once she even takes 18 hours.  This is a monster load for a full time student. 

After two years of A & M she is finally ready to graduate.  She even wins an award, not a cum laude, not even a magna cum laude, but a summa cum laude.  With the Highest Honor.  Latin.

My little buddy Seth is helping me to celebrate the wedding of his mom & dad, Monique and Zack, last Friday evening at The Rectory.
 

Karen Anderlick, thanks for being my inspiration and our Pentecost Person.

Who is your Pentecost Person?

Karen Anderlick, Summa cum Laude.

Readings:

Acts 3,  13-15, 17-19,  God raised him from the dead.

Psalm 4,    Lord, let you face shine on us.

1 John 2, 1-5,   He is expiation for our sins.

 Luke  24, 35-48,  Peace be with you.

Some of the members of the class reunion who graduated from Spring Hill College, Mobile 1965 at the end of their 7th year of training.

The Readings:  Stack has introduced you to the author of Luke and Acts being the same person or compiler. They were probably written between 70 and 85 AD so a couple of generations after Jesus.  We don’t know the author of John’s Gospel and letters, but they were written at least another generation later. 

Homily 3^rd Sunday of Easter 04/19/15, John Cade

I’ve been looking for a chance to share with you an editorial in the Dallas Morning News from New Year’s Eve.  The topic is gratitude. So that’s where I’m at, and that’s what I want to share with you.

In Stack’s blog this Thursday he quotes from Winnie the Pooh. Pooh asks, “What day is it?”  “It’s today,” answers Piglet.  And Pooh responds, “My favorite day.”

Avenue of the Oaks, Spring Hill College.

The New Year’s Eve editorial refers to a multi-year research project at the University of California, titled “Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude.” This research turned up many benefits that grow out of gratitude, such as: a stronger immune system; fewer illnesses and aches and pains; better sleep; greater resilience; reduced anxiety and depression; and more joy, optimism and happiness.  The editorial also speaks to how we develop gratitude.  I made copies; there should be enough for each family unit to take one and there may be extras.

The last two weeks Stack talked about Easter events in our lives, events that give new life, fuller life, and joy of spirit.  Gratitude naturally flows from Easter events and from all the blessings we can count every day.  I do not believe there is anyone on this planet who has not experienced an Easter event.   We know that noticing an Easter event, and accepting its offer of new life and joy, can be difficult. I’ve caught myself not noticing such events or not being fully grateful for these blessings and gifts.  

Recently my daughter Joey came by with my grandson, Leo (age 6).  A couple of years ago Joey took a part time job and had been experiencing a desire to go beyond what it offered her in income, and especially in satisfaction.  Without making a formal job search, she was contacted by a company in Austin wanting her to head up a planned expansion to Dallas.

  They eventually offered her a percentage of the company if she took the job.  Another company in Richardson also found her and offered her a position.  When she approached her current employer and told him she had offers and was planning to take one of them, he begged her to stay and go full time. 

Avenue of the Oaks facing Stewart Field.

Joey’s Easter event, her experience of new life, was the realization that her fears about job security were unfounded and she could choose from among the three positions.  This meant more security as a mom and more confidence and satisfaction as an employee. 

Leo, while still in the developmental stage that includes magical thinking, is developing his sense of competence.  He loves playing all kinds of games and he makes them competitive.  In the short time they were at our house, Leo initiated several games with me: first, racing cars on the floor, then Black Jack which helps him learn to count, then Shoots and Ladders, then Parcheesi. 

It was a delight to see his face light up over his competence at these games.  He clearly was experiencing new life and joy in experiencing his competence, and his gratitude and joy showed all over his face. 

One of my Easter events was in 2008 when I was in hospital for heart surgery.  Lambrini and I had hired a construction team to convert an area of our home into an office for my therapy practice.  At one point the guys were not doing the work properly.

An architect friend, hearing about this problem and knowing I was in hospital, simply went over to our home and took charge of the project, telling them what to do over.  When Lambrini told me what he had done, I was so moved by this I was crying with her. 

A nurse must have seen me crying, since they started an anti-depressant and I had the most horrible nightmares I had ever had.  I asked them to please stop this treatment, that I was not depressed, I was emotional and crying because of my immense gratitude. 

Something we now know is that we can train our brains in the habit of noticing and accepting Easter events and in having gratitude.

Pooh said “today …is… my favorite day.” 

My question is how are you practicing the habit of noticing Easter events and the joy of gratitude?

Readings:

Samuel 16, 1-13,   Samuel anointed David.

Psalm 23,  The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

Ephesians  5, 8-14,  You were once darkness, but now you are light.

John  9, 1-41,  As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.

Harper is back, yippee! You have been missed, Dear One.

Mike's Homily:

Jesus perceived that a man who was begging had been blind from birth.  So, he replies to his disciples that they must do the work of the one who has sent him. The work that the Father has given his Son is to proclaim the good news, the Father’s plan of salvation. 

Jesus perceived by what the beggar has said or did not say, by what he was doing or was not doing, that the beggar was spiritually blind; he had never heard the good news of Jesus Christ that gives spiritual light to the world.

Toy Time with Cowboy Cole, Emma, and Tori.

Jesus makes some clay and anoints the beggar’s eyes to make us aware that the beggar is about to become a new creation.  Recall from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah that God is the potter and that man is formed by Him.  Jesus says to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam which means sent.  

To understand this command, the reader must return two chapters, to the Feast of Tabernacles at the pool of Siloam where gushing, spring fed living waters flowed into and were sent out from of this pool.

Sir Charlie and Jan pretending to not be kids.

These living waters are a metaphor for the good news of Jesus Christ, for He had called out on the greatest, and last day of the feast, the only day when waters were not drawn from the pool, ‘Come to me if you are thirsty, for from my heart flows living waters.’  Jesus had sent the man to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so that he could send him forth living and proclaiming the good news. 

So, the beggar returned to the temple no longer unclean; he had been enlightened and the Spirit dwelled within him.   Of course, the Pharisees who said that they could spiritually see, but reject the good news, remain blind. 

Buddy, You getting your hats from that Hat Lady?

Today’s reading purposely sends us back to the earlier reading of what happened at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles to another very similar parable.  The scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, saying to him, ‘Moses commanded that such a woman should be stoned.  What do you say?’    The scribes and the Pharisees were the teachers of the Law.

They knew the oral and written tradition that required them to bring both the man and the woman accused of committing adultery, and at least two witnesses to Jesus, if they were seeking a judgment from him; but their intention was to discredit Jesus. 

Now, during the feast of Tabernacles, the oral tradition required the high priest, as he cleansed himself in the waters of the pool of Siloam, to say from the prophet Jeremiah, ‘those who reject the Lord, the fountain of living waters, will in shame have their names written in the earth. 

Best Buddies, Leo and John.

So when Jesus knelt down in front of them, he began writing the names, the most prominent first, of these scribes and Pharisees who had rejected the fountain of living waters, his life-giving good news.  Shamed, for they understood what Jesus was doing, they left the people, the woman and Jesus, the oldest to the youngest, when Jesus said to them, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin, cast the first stone.’  

After the woman acknowledges to Jesus that there is no one left to condemn her, he says to her, ‘go away,’ [better, go along the way believing the good news] and sin no more.  She too had been sent forth. 

In like manner each of us has been sent forth with and from the living waters. 

From whom did you receive or give a drink of that living water this past week?

Readings:  (special for Fred)

Isaiah 43, 1-5,  Do not be afraid, you are mine

Psalm 32,    I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.

1 Corinthians 13, 1-3,   If I have no love, I am nothing.

 John 15, 10-11,   As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Live in my love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and you joy may be complete.

Maureen and Fred Macchio.

Today's readings, observation:

I have chosen all of these readings with the spirit of Fred Macchio  and the family in mind.

The Macchio Clan.

Fred Macchio

I would like to talk about our dear old friend, Fred.  I have two small vignettes and, then, I would like to tell my most favorite Fred story, the pickup story.

First, we have a group of guys who meet every Friday at 1:00 at Jason’s Deli at Collin Creek.  The group was christened “Romeo’s” by Mike Moran, though I have gathered this is not an original.  Like, try T.I. and Poor Richard’s.  Nevertheless, Fred was always with us every week.

When we got together there were two things.  First, every time I had to be absent, Fred would tell me that the numbers jumped to a dozen or more.

Thanks to all from Maureen and the Macchios.

Secondly, Fred would always find in the Thursday blog I sent out a mistake or two or more.  Like, “Hey, you forgot to change the date.”  Or “Hey, you misspelled this or that word.”  It really became a game for me and I enlisted Rosemary to get rid of mistakes.  However, even with her help Fred always caught something.  I got better, though, and was ready to wager him.   No mistakes, he buys my lunch.  A mistake, I buy his lunch.   So, you know how he handled that, he checked out on me.

Second, a little fact you all may not know about Fred.  He donated his body to Southwestern Medical.  I was so impressed that I have started the screening process for myself.

And now the pickup story.

The scene with pictures and hats.

In 1990 I was driving an old Chevy pickup that was a castoff from Jesuit.  Trouble was, it was dying.  I needed a new ¾ ton to continue my tree planting hobby.  I was pulling an 800 gallon water tank to water all summer the new trees.

So I approached my Jesuit community, the other priests, and asked for a new truck.   “Sure,” they said, but I had to find the money myself. 

Like, where am I going to find some thousands of bucks to buy a new truck?  I was, at that time, celebrating a 9:00 and a 10:30 Sunday Mass every week at St. Marks.  I had a bunch of friends there.

Cupcake of the Week to Maureen for just being Maureen and for inviting us all to share in this special memorial.

So, I called the pastor one day and asked if I may contact some of the parishioners who are my special friends.  “Yes,” he said somewhat reluctantly if I remember correctly.  “But, never, never, never mention this at the Mass or anywhere at any church function where I am the celebrant.”  Okay by me.  I felt grateful that I got what I got.

So I contact some of these dear friends of mine.  And guess who one of these people was.  Yes, my buddy Fred. 

A week passed.  Then another week.  On, perhaps the third Sunday after making my calls, I am walking from the main church to the cafetorium, where we had the 10:30 Mass.  Suddenly, a woman comes up and gives me a page.  I think it might have been Marcia Kolar.  I look at it and it says, “Help Stack get his pickup.” 

Cupcake of the Week for being Danny's wife.

I go in the cafetorium and I find these empty gallon jars that had contained mustard or ketchup.  Pasted on the jars, “Help Stack get his pickup.”  Jim Herman, who died a few years ago, was the reader that Sunday and he is up at the podium saying the same thing.  Wow, I was really getting nervous.  We could be in deep doo doo.

I see Fred and ask what does he know about all this.  He says cryptically, I will always remember, “It is easier sometimes to apologize after it is done, than to request permission ahead of time.”  

More of those marvelous Macchios.

Suddenly at that moment, like a clap of thunder in comes the pastor, yelling, “Who did this?”  He goes for me and yells that he had told me never.  He is yelling and running around trying to take back from people those little pages with “Help Stack get his truck.”  It was quite a scene.

He kept yelling and finally I gave a nod to Teresa, she started the music, and I just simply walked away and up the aisle.

The Girls.

After the Mass he was back, saying, “I know who did this,” and yelling at Fred and even Maureen, saying that Fred was going to pay for this. 

Sometime later, Fred says to me, “In all my years here, I’ve never seen him go nuclear like that.”  Before Christmas that year I was handed enough to pay $15,000 in cash for that truck. 

Fred, I never thanked you enough.

The Guys.

Readings:    

Deuteronomy  6, 2-6,   You shall love the Lord

Psalm 18,   I love you, Lord, my strength.

1 John 3, 1-3,   See what love the Father has bestowed on us. (this is from the All Saints readings, p. 75)

Mark 12, 28-34,  Which is the first of all the commandments.

All Saints presentation with pictures

All Saints: intro & a brief history

   Intro: 3 feasts—

                      All Saints: (or All Hallowes) those who have achieved the beatific vision according to Catholic Church, based on miracles.

                    All Souls: those who have not achieved the beatific vision and are considered paying for their sins in purgatory.

                    Hallowe’en: the vigil of All Hallowes, a Celtic-Irish harvest, end of summer celebration. 

   History in 2 parts: the Western Catholic Church & the Eastern Catholic Church

Offertory, Hugh and Sydney, Lily and Scott

                     The West: 4 significant dates, 300, 600, 700, & 800

    Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated the feast of All Martyrs.  This is really the foundation of the feast. Year 600: a Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to Mary & All Martyrs.  May 13 was the celebration because it was also an ancient pagan day of celebration.

  Year 700:  a Pope Gregory set up in St. Peter’s Basilica a side chapel dedicated to All Saints.

   Year 800: Dec. 25, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by Pope on the red stone in St. Peter’s.  Charlemagne, an advocate of All Saints, established it on Nov. 1, coupling it with a Harvest Feast. 

Caliope receiving the sacrament of the sick blessing

                    The East:

   Year 900, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Wise had a beloved, devout wife, Theophano.  She died & Leo built a church which he intended to dedicate to her.  The religious authorities said no, so he dedicated it to All Saints, assuming his wife to be among the saints.

  Note:  later, three big events happen:

          a.  Crusade #4, on its way to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, captures and wrecks Constantinople, ca. 1200.  J.P. II apologizes for this in 2004. 

          b.  Ottoman Turks or Muslims capture Constantinople, 1450 and rename it Istanbul.  It is Muslim to today.

          c.  Post 1540, Rome condemns Eastern Catholic church as schismatic over theological disputes, i.e., the nature of Jesus.

 Sources: Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, Catholic Encyclopedia on line, Wikipedia.

Emma

 The Most Difficult Commandment

Today we have the greatest commandment or the first commandment.  I want to talk about the hardest commandment.

Rosemary has a passion for these British dramas on PBS.  One of her favorites comes on tonight at 7:00, Call the Midwife.  The story takes place ca. 1950 in London on the East Side, a rough ghetto of good people trying to make a penny.  In particular it is about midwives who serve the women.  The group has been set up by some nuns, Anglican, in fact, and they invite help from other trained women.

Leo

There is the kind nun, the tough on the outside nun, the young pretty girl shocked by so much drama she is seeing for the first time, and there is Chummy. 

Chummy is a warm and tender midwife with no self confidence.  She acts clumsy and insecure.  She is not from anything like the East Side, rather from a wealthy, cold family where she received little love.  In fact, she spent most of her life in boarding schools.  How she came to work as a midwife in the East Side nobody has said.

Sandra receiving The Cupcake of The Week for her special birthday

Turns out Chummy has attracted the interest of the nice local police man and they have developed a special relationship.  She meets his parents and all goes well.  He wants to meet her mother.  Ugh, oh.

And that’s where we are tonight.  Rosemary tells me that she read or saw in one of her sneak previews on line that Chummy was turning herself in for some infraction and that she was talking about being a nun.  Which leads me to think her relationship with the police man ran aground.  Because her cold, class conscious mother did not approve?

Sorry, I don’t know what happens.  I can tell you in the blog or you can tune in tonight.   Channel 13, 7:00.

Rosemary says, “So why the story??”  Because this exemplifies the way I have approached the Great Commandment forever. 

Cole

 There are really 3 commands here, love God, love my neighbor, and love my neighbor as I love myself.  What is the hardest?  For me the third, loving myself.

We get messed up & even ruined as kids in two ways: abuse & neglect.  A kid messed up this way can be messed up for life. We see it all the time, like in the news.  Angry, violent adults and angry, violent kids.

Lorynn and Laycee

And Chummys.   People without self confidence and courage to risk.  People afraid.  People neglected as children, Chummy. 

I don’t know the outcome, but I can conjecture that Chummy will be afraid to confront her mother and marry the policeman.  Yes, I’ve been sucked into watching this program.  The moral, ethical, and psychological dilemmas are riveting. 

Rosemary reading her blessing

We are called to love ourselves. 

How?

Readings: Exodus 32, 7-14; Psalm 51; 1 Timothy 1, 12-17; Luke 15, 1-32 (Great Gospel: Prodigal Son).

Exodus: this second book of the Old Testament is a fun read and describes the escape or exit of the Jews from Egypt led by Moses. 

How did they get there in the first place.  It goes back to the 3 big patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  Jacob had 12 sons, the youngest and favorite being Joseph.  His brothers, who hated him, sold him to some travelers who took him to Egypt where he became a favorite of the Pharaoh because he interpreted dreams. 

When he had grown up a famine hit Israel and Jacob sent his 11 sons to Pharaoh to beg help.  Guess who is Pharaoh’s chief of staff: Joseph. 

As time passes many Jewish people settle in Egypt and prosper. The Egyptians get jealous and enslave the Jews.  At one point Pharaoh kills all the first born male Jewish babies. Except one: Moses. 

Our selection takes place after the colorful account of Moses’ call and his leading the people out of Egypt and into the desert.  The people have been rebellious and Yahweh not too compassionate.  Yahweh & Moses are having a little dialog.

The Prodigal Son

Because this story is a work of art I would like to explain the story before we read it.  Someone very creative put this masterpiece together and has given us a marvelous insight into the nature of God, especially a God whose love is not conditional, a view that is almost totally different than the view we get in the rest of the bible, both Old & New Testament. 

The story has three main segments and a footnote: the son leaves his home and his father, the son lives in a distant land, the son returns home, and the response of the son who stayed home.  I will make three observations about each phase of the story.  So twelve observations.

First, when the younger son asks for his share of his father’s estate, the people would right away be stunned, because he was due no share.  The second son receives nothing normally.

Secondly, for asking for this share, the father could have had him killed for his insolence and absurd presumption of entitlement.

Thirdly, the people listening would have been doubly astounded when the father divided his property with the son. This was turning the father into a nut, a fool. 

With the property the son sets off for a distant place, the second part of the story. He squanders all the money, and ends up feeding pigs for a stranger.  First, significant is the fact that he goes to a distant country, that is, a foreign place.  But more importantly, and this is the first comment, he squanders the property. This is the patrimony.  By squandering the money, he is symbolically disrespecting his father.

Secondly, he shows disrespect to the Jewish religion by going to a stranger to get a job. In those days, a person in need would go to the temple, which was set up to help their own. Instead, he goes to a local, meaning a Gentile or non-Jew. 

Thirdly, he debases himself by feeding pigs, the animal rejected by Jews. He even longs to eat the pods the pigs were eating. He has become a total outcast.

At this point the son realizes that on his father’s farm even the hired help lived better.  So he puts together a little speech that includes three parts: confessing that he has sinned, that he deserves nothing, and could he be treated as one of the father’s workers.  Off he goes. And now the story gets even more bizarre.

Obviously the father is watching for him, because he sees him a long way off, runs (the father runs!) to the son, embraces him, and kisses him.  The boy begins his speech, but note, the father cuts it off after the first two parts.

Then the father bestows on the horrible son three significant and symbolic gifts, a robe, a ring, and sandals before calling for the fatted calf to be slaughtered.  First, the robe. This is a sign of dignity, totally the opposite of what the boy deserved. Secondly, the ring. A sign of wealth.  Thirdly, the sandals. Only members of the family wore sandals, not the slaves or hired workers.  It signified mobility. The family member could walk away.

To the listeners of this story the father would look like an idiot, crazy, out of his mind. The son was so, so bad he only deserved death. 

Then to complicate life for the father, the older son proceeds to pout and complain. First, this boy, too, now deserves to be killed because of his disobedience and anger. But, and this is the second observation, the father pleads. Fathers don’t plead. Thirdly, the father lets him know how much he loves him by saying all he has is equally the son’s.

The point of all this: God is like the father.

How do you resemble the father?

AUDIO http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-09-16.mp3