Readings: Acts 5, 12-16; Psalm118; Revelation 1, 9-10; John 20, 19-31

Second Sunday After Easter – Reflection on the Readings

Acts of the Apostles continues Luke’s Gospel by focusing on the spread of Christianity after the Resurrection.  The focus is first on the work of the Apostles and especially on the position of Peter, and then in the second half of the book, the focus is on the work of Paul. 

Today’s reading from Chapter 5 comes immediately after the apostles have been brought before the Sanhedrin (the powers that be in the Jewish community) and told to stop their preaching about Jesus.  This is clearly a focus on the question “who will be in charge of the twelve tribes of Israel?  It also echoes back to Abraham and his being placed in charge of the tribes of Israel. 

Remember, we are dealing with a group who have only the Old Testament to turn to in their attempts to make sense of all that they remember or heard about Jesus.  The power of God, working thru Peter is now much stronger than even when Jesus cured.  All people need for healing is to have Peter’s shadow pass over them.  There is no need for any physical contact!  Luke is here building up the importance of the “new leaders” of the people, the apostles.

Our second reading is from the Book of Revelations; a much-misunderstood work, which I wish had never been included in the New Testament!  The work is primarily written in an apocalyptic style and its main focus is on the Roman Empire and the battle which the early Christians had with that entity.  There is nothing about the 21^st century in this writing, nor about how the world itself would end!  The writer had no idea of a place called the USA nor the Soviet Union!  

Second Sunday After Easter – Homily

Poor Thomas!  Actually thank God for Thomas!  It is comforting to know that someone else had doubts about the resurrection.  One week after our high point of Easter Sunday we are immediately given this wonderful little incident.  What I like about it is that it allows space for a very natural doubt to exist side be side with the faith in the Resurrection. 

Back in 1968 a book was published called Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger.  The book was a through examination of the Apostles Creed.  I remember being surprised when he talks fairly early on in the book about both the believer and unbeliever share, each in his own way, doubt and belief.  At the time it struck me as quite surprising.  Remember I was a naive seminarian in my early twenties and everything was rock solid!  Oh for those nice innocent days!!

I have since grown up to recognize the truth in Ratzinger’s book, and in my own life.  If we remember back to the church before Vatican II we seemed to live in a world of certainty.  We were told exactly how everything was, now it seems things are messy!  It is what happens when you look behind the curtain, as happened to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. 

Doubting seems to be an integral part of our lives.  We would very much like the comfort of absolute certainty, and we do have it in a few things, like death and taxes, but for all the other areas of our lives we move from one doubt to another, all the while trying to either buy insurance or insulate ourselves in some other way against the uncertainties of life.  And belief in God is one area where there is lots of room for doubt, since God is mystery. 

So what can we begin to compare or faith in God to in our experience?  It seems to me that it is like being in love.  You meet someone and fall in love.  But the other person is free to respond or not.  The minute you force their response it is no longer love.  And so our most intimate of relationships with other humans is based on a hope that the other will respond and continue to respond.  If I think of God along those lines there is one major difference, God is going to love me, in this relationship; God is the only one taking the risk. 

Picture 1:  Tony begins Mass

Picture 2:  The Offertory

Picture 3:  Jim, Bob, Jackie, & friend 

Says Our Dearest Emma, "Welcome in, Everybody."

Readings:

Isaiah 45, 1, 4-6,  I am the Lord, there is no other.

Psalm 96,  Give the Lord glory & honor.

Thessalonians 1, 1-5,  We give thanks to God for all of you

Alleluia,   Shine like lights in the world   (Great line)

uMatthew 22, 15-21,  Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?

Welcome in Denni, Charlotte, and Chloe, and Tom & Nora.  So good to see you all.

Isaiah observations :

Who : Can you guess which Isaiah this is in chapter 45?  1, 2, or 3?  A little more difficult than the last two Sundays.  This is Isaiah 2, going from chapter 40 to 55.

Today’s selection:  this is not Isaiah 2 at his best.  I like the line, I have called you by your name.  Otherwise, the passage is mildly comforting to the people who are living in Babylonian slavery, around 555 before Christ.

Welcome in to you, too, Dearest Zoe.  Just you wait.  We got something for you.  I have not forgotten.   Get ready,

Cyrus: So, who is Cyrus?          

 Cyrus the Great of Persia, modern Iran, built the first great empire, which extended as far as Athens in Greece.   He was a benevolent emperor of his people and the people he conquered, for instance, the Israelites.

Isaiah 2 is championing Cyrus because he hears of Cyrus coming and hopes Cyrus will defeat the Babylonians and set the Israelites free to return to Jerusalem.  This is exactly what Cyrus does.  Where is Babylon?  Try 50 miles south of Baghdad on the Euphrates River.  What is left?  Rubble. 

Note: Watch out for the alleluia verse.  A good one & I want to talk about it.

Hi, Diane, and welcome back.  Want to learn how to dance?   Diane is one of the best.

Shine like Lights in the World

This morning I would like to talk about the Alleluia verse, Shine like lights in the world.  The final questions are obvious, Who is a light for me, and For whom am I a light in the world.

I have lots of people who answer the first question.  You people, for instance.  What I would like to talk about, however, is two ladies, two black ladies, one of whom has died some years ago.

Our Candle Lighter of the Week in action.

First, ever hear of Juanita Craft?  In the ‘60’s & 70’s Juanita was the Dallas leader of the NAACP and a prominent activist.  She lived in South Dallas west of Fair Park. 

I was a Jesuit intern from ’65 to’68 at the high school.  The summer of probably ’67 I was looking at doing something different.  I talked with Juanita.  The next thing I know I am the only white guy on a Greyhound bus full of NAACP young people and their chaperons.  We were going to D.C. and then to the NAACP national convention in Atlantic City.  Remember this was another tense interracial time.  Sound familiar.  Martin Luther King was assassinated in May, 1968.   This was ’67.

The Best, Shonda, Ben, & David.

I learned two things from Juanita.   First, she was tireless in advocating for her people.  She used the media to help and she eventually was elected to the Dallas City Council.  Believe it or not, she was one of the inspirations for me gathering crowds for those years of planting trees.   Juanita was long dead by then and I had spent 10 years in East Africa.  It was like I would ask myself, ‘What would Juanita do with this dream?’

Secondly, a small thing.  Every time we got off that bus, Juanita would tell everybody to clean up every scrap of trash.  I was a bus driver for Jesuit, mostly sports teams.  I never thought of telling the kids to clean it up.  After the example of that old lady, I did.

To round out that summer I even spent the rest of it living in her little house in South Dallas and being active in the NAACP.

The Balloon Girls at work, Zoe & Tori.

The second black lady is named Sondra.  I see her once or twice a week when I go to our corner supermarket to buy bananas & milk & occasionally flowers.  She is the early morning cashier, is probably mid-‘60’s and should be retired,  She is very friendly and knows my name, Mr. John, and, get this, gets up ca. 2 A.M. to catch two or three buses from South Dallas to open up the store at 6:00. 

These two women shine like lights in my world.

Who are the lights in your world?

For whom are you a light?

Offertory ready with Carrie & Paul, Aggie & Allen.

 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?

Readings:  2 Samuel 7, 1-16; Psalm 89; Romans 16, 25-27; Luke 1, 26-38. 

2 Samuel:

Date compiled:  650-600 BCE, probably in Jerusalem.  David lived ca. 1000 BCE

2 Samuel is part of a 4 book assembly: 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. 

Subject matter:      a)  Samuel as Judge

                              b)  Saul as King

                              c)  David as King

Sources:          a)  The court history of David written by Gad

                       b)  Samuel wrote chapters 1-24 of 1 Samuel

                       c)   Anti-monarchy source

                       d)  Pro-monarchy source 

                       e)  Redaction & editing by Nathan   

King David, Jesus' Ancestor   

 In the spirit of anticipating Christmas, I would like to tell you an Old Testament story this morning, a story about one of my most favorite O.T. characters, King David.  We Catholics do not have a tradition like Protestants do of hearing over & over the stories of the great ancestors of our religion and culture.  Today we can rectify this a bit.    

To get the scene you have to go back 1,000 years BCE.  David and two other great leaders are all living at the same time.  Samuel is the first of the three and he is the last ruler of Israel who is a judge.  Saul is the second person.  He follows Samuel as leader and is the first king of Israel.  

What is happening is that Saul is doing a bad job of being king.  If you know any psychology you will detect that he is bipolar or manic depressive.  He has big mood swings.  Yawheh has tired of him and has whispered to Samuel that Samuel needs to go find a new king.  Yehweh deconsecrates Saul as king.  He directs Samuel to go visit a man named Jesse with 8 sons in a special little town.  Name that town.  Bethlehem.  This is significant to N.T. writers like Luke and you will hear it mentioned in the Christmas readings. 

As each son is brought before Samuel Yahweh whispers in his ear, "No, not this one," even though Samuel thinks each one would make a good choice.  After the seventh son is rejected, Samuel prepares to leave, but asks Jesse if he has any other sons.  Jesse says that, as a matter of fact, he does have another son, his youngest, who is out in the fields tending the livestock.  When David comes before Samuel, Yahweh whispers, "This is The Man."  Samuel consecrates David then and there the future king of Israel.

With that David moves into King Saul's palace as a page and becomes a favorite to Saul.  David can interpret dreams and he can play a soothing guitar that calms Saul when he has some of his dark moods.  David pleases Saul so much that eventually David marries his daughter Micah.

Life goes on peacefully this way until one day the Philistines come to attack.  The Hebrews are terrified, in fact doubly terrified because of one giant guy who is killing everyone and challenging any & all Jews to come out and fight him.  Guess who this guy is.  The Famous Goliath.  Guess who volunteers to come out and fight.  David.

This part of the story we all know.  David dings Goliath with a stone from his sling shot, then whacks off his head with Goliath's own sword.  David becomes very popular with the people.  David becomes unpopular with Saul who begins to feel the poison seed of jealousy.  The jealousy expands so much that eventually Saul dedicates all his efforts to killing David.  David hides in the desert and ultimately Saul dies.

At this point David becomes the king and is successful in all he does.  At one point, in fact, after a successful military campaign against their enemies, David comes dancing joyfully into the city of Jerusalem leading the military parade.  From a nearby window his wife Micah is watching and as the Bible says, she is disgusted.  When David returns home and is greeted with the derision of Micah, he defends himself and declares that he will continue to dance his joy before the Lord.  Yahweh is not impressed with Micah' criticism and she never has any children.

Not all the time does David join his armies in the field.  On one occasion he is strolling on the roof of his house in the afternoon.  He looks over to a neighboring roof and discovers a woman bathing.  David is bitten.  He sends his servants to invite her to dinner at the king's palace.  A month or so later, guess what.  The lady sends word that she is pregnant.  Guess who this lady is.  The famous Bathsheba.

David decides that he can't let it be known that he is the father.  He sends for Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, who is one of his best soldiers.  He invites him for dinner, gets him drunk, then tells him to go home and sleep well.  Uriah, however, is a man loyal to his comrades and decides that he will not go into his house to sleep when his fellows are sleeping in the fields.

So the next morning David sends him back to the field with a note to the commander.  The note instructs the commander to put Uriah in the front of the fight and when they are all engaged to pull everybody back but Uriah.  Uriah gets killed. 

Shortly after this David is visited by a local prophet who has received a message from Yahweh.  Nathan tells David a story about a rich man who took a poor man's sole beloved sheep and slaughters it.  Nathan asks David what should happen to that rich man and David says he should be severely punished.  Nathan says, "You are that rich man."  So David acknowledges his failure and does penance. 

Meanwhile Bathsheba has a son.  The Great Solomon.  He who built the Jerusalem temple which the Jewish people are still lamenting since its destruction by the Romans.

You will see Luke make a big deal out of the lineage of Jesus, that he is of the house & family of David.  Solomon, the son of David & Bathsheba is his great, great grandfather.

There are so many lessons in this story.  I have just two observations.

1.  Jesus comes out of a lineage with a unique event.

2.  God forgives even some big sinners.  We can take consolation from this & know that we are accepted.

What about David do you like the best? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-12-21.mp3

Picture 1:  Our Father

Picture 2:  Maggie McGrath & Tom (dad)

Picture 3:  Cliff Wright

Readings: Acts 7, 55-60; Psalm 97; Revelation 22, 12-20; John 17, 20-26.

"That They May All be One

Last Wednesday I took the Dart train downtown.  I got on the 12:44 at Forest Lane and exited 22 minutes later at Akard & Pacific.  I love to ride this train.  I sit in the first seat of the first car so I can watch the road ahead through the conductor’s cubicle.  On this Wednesday I was going to have lunch at Miguel’s Cantina and spend an hour talking Spanish with a good friend of mine.

After lunch and a great hour of Spanish conversation I caught 2:14 north bound, Parker Road train for Forest Lane & home.  We passed through the underground station of City Place and then arrived at Lover’s Lane.  At this station I watch the conductor come out of his cubicle and lock the door.  I am thinking, Is he taking a coffee break?

What he does, however, is go to the exit door, flip down a metal ramp, and extend part of it out of the train onto the raised platform.  Immediately in comes a young girl in a well used electric wheel chair.  She wheels over to the space right in front of me, spins diagonally, and parks. The conductor picks up the metal plank, unlocks the cubicle, settles himself inside, and off we fly.

The ambience in that train car does a 180 degree turn from casual indiference to awe struck reverence.  The girl was about 15, cute with an auburn pony tail, nice features with light freckles, and a trim upper body with a purple T shirt.  She was talking on the phone.  I never determined what the trouble was with her legs, or if she had any.  All I know is that she had the confidence in manuvering that wheel chair that came only from a lot of practice.

At Walnut Hill the conductor emerged from his cubicle again, did the arrangement with the door, and the girl wheeled out, saying a sweet, "Thank you," as she passed the conductor.  When the conductor came back in, the man across the aisle from me said to him, "Makes you grateful for what you got."  The conductor agreed. 

That young girl did two things in that Dart car just by getting on in her grateful and courageous way.  We were all more grateful for what we have.  Secondly, for a while we were one.  There was a felt difference in each of us, black, white, brown, young, and old. 

Jesus says he wants "That they may all be one."  Wow, do we blow this one!

Nevertheless, despite the past, today we are again called to help others: 1. appreciate, and 2. unite.  Granted, to enable others, I got to be in myself appreciative and united.  A subject for future homilies. 

This young, pony tailed girl touched us all just by her simple presence. 

How do you touch others into appreciation and unity?

Download the homily as an mp3 file.