Sunday Homily, December 10, 2017, 1st Advent B

Readings: Acts 14, 21-27; Psalm 145; Revelations 21, 1-5; John 13, 31-35.

“Love One Another as I Have Loved You?”

Occasionally in our lives extraordinary moments come along. We experience a special consolation and come away profoundly touched. Last night’s get together was one of those moments.

We had people celebrating publicly 1, 2, 15, 25, 35, 50,& 60 years of marriage. I felt privileged to be part of the group. I felt doubly privileged to be on the stage with my old coach, teacher, & friend Frank Hart & his wife, Mickey, who knock me over with their 60 years of marriage.

Two things strike me about what I was watching. First, the people who are celebrating 25, 35, 50, & 60 years of marriage have a peace and happiness about them.

How am I different after two years of marriage? I am certainly more peaceful than ever. I’ve always felt a lot of inner peace; I feel even more now.

Secondly, I’ve also discovered that my old insights into marriage still have meaning, namely acceptance and having fun. I hear it said that marriage is work, it is hard. So far I have not seen it. On the contrary, every day Rosemary & I spend together we have fun. We work at planning the fun.

In the gospel, Jesus tells his followers to love each other as he has loved them. Maybe we are hearing “infinite demand”.

Psalm 145, our psalm for today gives a picture of how he loves. The line says he is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.

That is our challenge.

Whom are you loving this way?

Sorry no audio today.

Readings: Zephaniah 2, 3-3, 12-13; Psalm 146, Blessed are the Poor in Spirit; the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs; 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31; Matthew 5, 1-12 

Zephaniah observations:

 The 3 chapters of the little book of Zephaniah were compose about 600 years before Christ.  Therefore, he is writing shortly before the Babylonian defeat of Jerusalem and the Captivity.  Because of the book’s shortness Zephaniah is considered one of the 12 minor prophets. 

His theme is the prophetic line:

            1. You people are bad.

            2.  You people will be punished by Yahweh.

            3.  You people, after being punished, will return to a happy place.

Today’s selection focuses more on how the humble of spirit will pasture their flocks with no one to disturb them. 

 The psalm & Matthew today both focus on how the poor in spirit will be happy, receiving the kingdom of heaven.

 I am struck that in the readings there is a quality of wishful thinking.  For example, in the psalm,  the lord sets captives free, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, and raises up the bowed down. 

 I can see someone skeptically asking me, “Stack, are you crazy.  You believe this really happens?  Look at history.”  I would like to talk about this in the homily.

Poor in Spirit?  Get Real!

 You remember last Thanksgiving when about 35 of us went to help feed the homeless for LifeNet?  Well, while I was helping out, I liked to go around and chat up the people at different tables.

 At one table during the second or third seating over by the windows opposite the side door I ran into 3 elderly white, nicely dressed little ladies.  Folks, they absolutely reminded me of my mother, who would have been mortified to have been eating there. 

The ladies were quite friendly, obviously educated, and lived in Richardson.  Were they homeless?  Were they without money, social security, family?  I only knew that they would not have been there had not LifeNet vetted them as being authentically in need. 

 My heart went out to these ladies and I mention them this morning as a lead into the notion that blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  This statement strikes me as really precarious.

 I would propose that there is a healthy and an unhealthy poverty of spirit.  The poverty of these 3 ladies is unhealthy, spirit killing, depressing.  Unemployment, homelessness, all kill the spirit.

 The same is true of Larry Sims, the 60 year old black man exonerated Friday of a crime for which he has spent 25 years in jail.  DNA proof.  Can you imagine being put in jail for 25 years of your life for something you did not do?  I think I would be mad, bitter.  The amazing reality is that these men are all accepting, forgiving, and grateful.  They humble & amaze me. 

 The same was true of the 3 little ladies.

 Mr. Sims is number 35 exonerated in Dallas according to my buddy & old classmate Tony Levatino who helps these men adjust to their new life through Holy Trinity Parish down on Oak Lawn.

 This unhealthy poverty of spirit has been so common down through our history as humans.  Suffering has characterized so many lives.  Slavery, holocausts, genocides, wars.

 I have spent my life attempting to raise up people in this poverty.  We are doing it in this community. 

 What then is healthy poverty of spirit?  From my perspective it is two things: acceptance and gratitude.  This brings about peace of spirit.

 I am astounded, but Mr. Sims and the 3 ladies seemed to have acceptance and gratitude.  I do know others who were dying of depression or discouragement.

 Can a person work through the unhealthy poverty of spirit to the peace of acceptance & gratitude?  Apparently so. 

 On a scale of 1-10, where is your poverty of spirit, your acceptance and gratitude?

Picture 1:   Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 2:   Emma walking

Picture 3:   Georgie & her sister Zoe

Picture 4:   Zoe with her dad, Randolph & grandmom, Bernadette

Picture 5:   Michelle, the mother of Georgie & Zoe, with Torri & Buddy, the twins, and Gilberto, Michelle's dad

Readings:

Jeremiah  20, 7-9,  You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.

 Psalm 63,   My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.

Romans, 12, 1-2,  Do not conform youself to this age.

Matthew 16, 21-27,  Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Mr. Payton sez, "Hi, Everybody," along with his dad, Derrick.

Jeremiah observations–

What:  I think Jeremiah is my second favorite O.T. prophet, behind Isaiah, mostly because he makes whining and complaining into an art form.  I need to take lessons from him.  Not that he did not have enough to complain about.   Jeremiah is one of the Big 3 with Isaiah and Ezekiel.  He is called the ‘broken hearted prophet.’  Here is why.

Time:  Jeremiah lived and prophesied in Jerusalem around 600 before Christ.  Why is this important?  It is some 50 years before the Babylonian Captivity.  Jeremiah had a heart rending life predicting punishment of death and destruction for the Hebrews for their sinful, selfish ways.  Jeremiah predicted disaster, and disaster came in the person of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon-Bagdad.

Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke as a visual aid to his message.  He may have been ultimately killed by the Hebrews.

Today:  Jeremiah is in top form.

            Sienna says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome in."

Deny Yourself, Take up Your Cross, and Follow Me

I want to talk this morning, folks, about the line in Matthew, Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.  I confess right off, I hate this line.  Can you imagine a loving God creating people to deny themselves and take up a life of suffering? 

Matthew’s line can be very tricky.  It can be approached healthily or in a rather sick way.  I can witness to the latter in my own life.  I have already described how as a young Jesuit I was expected to do penance and deny myself in various ways, like the practice of using little whips to scourge our backs and little chains with points to wear around our thighs.  This was supposed to bring me closer to God.

Brooklyn, too, says, "Come on in Everybody, it's fun."

I can laugh at this now, but I am humbled at how easily I can be snookered.  When I read this line and others like it in the Bible and remember my experiences, I now see the presence of an ancient philosophy that still influences a lot of religious activity today.  The philosophy: dualism. 

The idea is simple.  Reality comes in pairs, hot & cold, dark & light, order & chaos, and, in particular for this discussion, body & soul or flesh & spirit.  So far so good. 

Tristan says it checks out okay here.

The trouble enters with a judgment about the flesh & spirit.  Specifically, flesh is bad, spirit is good, superior.  Consequently, so that my spirit may reach an elevated plane of purity & perfection, and ultimately closer union with God, I attempt to subdue my flesh by disregarding the body's needs, ultimately aiming to live without it.  Do not give in to pleasure.  How about that!

A couple of facts.  Dualism is identified as far back as 1000 years B.C. and came out of Zoroastrianism, a religion that worshiped one god and believed in an afterlife.  Did it come from Egypt as so much did at that time?  No, from Persia, the area we call Iran today.  Zoroastrianism was widespread until Muhammad arrived on the scene around 650 and established Islam.  Through the ages lots of people picked up on dualism, for example, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, and the early Christians, like Matthew.

However, there is a healthy approach to the line.  A story to exemplify the healthy.

Buddy in red today.

Way back when I was living at Jesuit and working as a psychotherapist, a single, divorced mother came with her son, Michael, one day and basically said, “help!”  She had a really active boy about 3^rd grade.  He and his neighbor buddy, a black kid, used to race around our neighborhood and the high school on their bikes.  Great kids.

The years passed and I got to know the Michael really well.  One afternoon when Michael was in 7^th grade at St. Monica, we were watering trees with the white truck and old red water trailer.  I don’t remember who was driving us along the medians, but at one point I can remember to this day, he said to me that if he did not make the entrance exam at Jesuit, his life was no good.  

Is red the color today? Who knows. Ask Victoria and Zoe.

I did not say anything at the moment.  But later I told him that thinking was baloney.  I said Jesuit did not want kids who said their lives were no good.  If he made it, Jesuit would be a better place.  If he did not, another school would be a better place because they had a tremendous gift in their school. 

He did not get in. 

So Michael went to Bishop Dunne.  He played sports, worked hard to make good grades, and kept in contact with a neat guy who was the admissions director at Jesuit.

He got in as a sophomore.  He did excellently.

Our Great Leo checking out the scene.

Next Michael wanted to go to A&M and join the corps.  He did not get in.  He does not test well.  So he went to Tech and joined the Air Force ROTC.  After 4 years there he invited me to the ceremony where he was to get his lieutenant bars.  

The ceremony was in a big auditorium.  Michael was the last.  On the stage with him were his mom and his girl friend, Lydia.  At one point in his personal ceremony Michael turns to the whole auditorium, asks their patience for a moment, turns back to Lydia, drops on a knee, and asks her to marry him. 

Talk about blowing the roof off of the auditorium.  Everybody went crazy.  She said yes. 

Emma working her magic spells.

Now, Michael has long finished his flight training, part of which took place right up at the scene of the Hotter N’ Hell, Wichita Falls.  He has been stationed all over the world, like Aviano, Italy, where we got the name of our dog, Aviana, after a visit there.   He has a little boy, a beautiful wife in Lydia, and a platinum career as a jet pilot.  

Michael has denied himself a lot of quite legitimate pleasures to achieve some healthy goals.  Even now he continues to keep himself in good physical and intellectual shape.  

So, how do you deny yourself and take up a cross?   

Offertory, John & Connie, Denni & Tom.

Acts 1:  “. . . for John baptized with water,  but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Ephesians 1: May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, . . . 

Luke 24:  “. . . And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Mary Jane reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Outreach: $   230.00   

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

Shonda gets a cookie for her birthday

Rosemary's Blessing:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

     no hands but yours,

     no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s

     compassion is to look out to the world,

Yours are the feet with which Christ is to

     go about doing good,

Yours are the hands, with which Christ is to 

     bless all people now.

From a prayer by Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

 Readings:  

 Ezekiel, 2, 2-5, Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.

Psalm 123, Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.

2 Corinthians 12, 7-10 A thorn in the flesh was given to me to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.

Mark 5, 21-43, A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.

Brooke & Ben

More Observations on Ezekiel (June 17 we also had Ezekiel)

Who:  Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 prophets.  Why?  48 chapters.  The other 2: Isaiah & Jeremiah.  These 3 have lots of chapters & material.

Ezekiel was born into the priest class.  He later was considered a prophet.  He got The Call from God.  When he was about 25 he was swept up in the Babylonian captivity, around 590. 

When: It covers the period of the Captivity, 600-550 before Christ, which Ezekiel lived personally.  But the work is composed toward the end of the Captivity, around 550.  This is Ezekiel’s material, but it has been saved and edited by his fellow priests.

New Cross thanks to Brent & Meredith

Message:

1. Ezekiel criticizes the people and warns them that their bad ways will be punished, for example, by being defeated and led into slavery and the Captivity.
2. He promises comfort and a brighter future for the captive people, especially envisioning a restored temple (which then lasted until when?  The year 70, when the Romans finally destroyed the temple & the priestly cast ceased to function, to this day).
3. An amusing vision: The Dry Bones, chapter 37.

  Today’s selection:   Ezekiel gets The Call or invitation from God to go tell the Israelite people that God sees what is going on.  Which means, tell them they are behaving horribly and they will pay dearly for their misbehavior. 

Our Father

2 Corinthians observations -(2)

1.  This second letter to Corinth is often called the severe or tearful letter.  Paul was upset with the Corinth, Greece community because of what he thought were false prophets undermining his authority.  These people could have simply been people who disagreed with him.  At points you can almost hear Paul playing his violin & singing 'Poor Paul.'

2.  He talks here about a thorn in his flesh.  So, what is that?  People have speculated for centuries.  Could it have been he was OCD (obsessive compulsive), bi-polar (mood swings from manic & dramatic to depressed), a sexual addiction, epilepsy, or something else?  Is there evidence in his writing for any of this?  Maybe. No way to really diagnose.  The patient has been dead for a few years.

Sources: Good News Bible, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, St. Louis U. Liturgy Studies, Wikipedia

Jack & Sophia

Ever seen a Prophet?

Friday I received a call from an old friend in Baton Rouge.  Since my class reunion with my S.J. buddies, I have been longing to reconnect with other old friends especially in the New Orleans area where I lived and worked in the early 70’s. 

My friend’s name is Lucy and she is a St. Joseph sister.  I knew her and her community really well when I was director of a spiritual center at Grand Coteau, near Opelousas, a couple of hours up the river from New Orleans. 

Nikki in her graduation dress with her grandparents, Mary & Frank

In those days Lucy and the St. Joseph sisters were spiritually and psychologically healthy nuns working to make the Catholic community even better along the lines set up by Vatican II. 

I lost track of them when I went to Tanzania & Kenya, only finally making contact again with Lucy on Friday.  I had to search all around for her phone number, and then when I called she was out of town. 

I found out that their headquarters on Mirabeau Ave. in N.O., where I gave some retreats & said Masses was wiped out by Katrina and they have relocated in Baton Rouge.  I was stunned.



Communion Helpers

I thought about Lucy & her sisters when I was looking at these readings about Ezekiel & Jesus’ roles as prophets.  I would like to talk about 3 nuns who were & are prophet like people for me. 

I have become aware in the past couple of weeks how rich has been my experience with so many women of this caliber.

Remember, first, prophets do 3 things.  They criticize the evils of their times, they promise God will punish, and they offer consolation for reform.  A side effect of their criticism is the hatred of the people they are criticizing. 



Rob & Beth arriving

I consider this pretty Old Testament.  New Testament prophets don’t promise God will punish.  Most of us don’t believe that any more.  Katrina was not a punishment from God.

First, there is a sister Marian.  A doctor, from around Denver, a Medical Missionary of Mary.  We are about the age.   She had been working in Tanzania since before I first came in contact with her around 1980.   She is there this morning.

Marian & her community not only work in Tanzania, a poor country, but she normally works in the most remote places you can reach.  No tourists visit.  One of her specialties since I departed Tanzania is AIDS & HIV patients. 

Another sister about my age working in Tanzania is Anita, a Maryknoll.  She & her sisters work to empower the females of the villages.  Do not imagine the men of the village always like this.  These sisters, too, live in remote places and in utter simplicity, like the Medical Missionaries of Mary.  The simplicity of their living often shamed me as a Jesuit.



Sienna & Brooklyn arriving with mom & dad, Erin & Payton

Then, there was one special nun who worked on my spiritual renewal team, a Sister of Africa.  Hanny was her name.  She was not American, but Dutch & lived in Holland during the Nazi occupation.

She was about 10-11 years old during the occupation. Her family lived on a small farm & they successfully hid a Jewish family during the war.  Hanny used to courier messages on her bike, holding them in her mouth. 

One time she rode up to a German check point with her German shepherd dog.  The guard came out and shot her dog dead.  When I knew Hanny she had accepted this and was marvelously peaceful. 

I talk about these nuns today for two reasons.  First, they have been models of courage, service, and prophetic vision for me.  I am blessed by their presence in my life.

Secondly, the American nuns, as you probably know, are enduring a lot of criticism from the Vatican.  Their leadership team here in the States is getting what prophetic voices get, rejection.  Rome ought to be ashamed of themselves. 

Finally, if you want to see something touching, Google Nuns on the Bus.  This was a June bus tour by nuns appealing Congress for more rather than less support for the poorest of the poor.

Our Emma

These are just a few of the heroic religious women I have known in my life.  I am in touch with Marian, out of touch with Anita, and Rosemary & I visited Hanny a few years ago in Holland, where she now lives in retirement.  Lucy has opened a door for me to reconnect with a number of the sisters I knew and have lost contact with in Louisiana.   I even suggested that we might have a reunion and she was all for it. 

Wonder where the prophetic people are today?  Check out the religious sisters as a starter.

Who is the prophet person in your life?

Our Father

Readings:  Numbers 6, 22-27, The Lord Bless You and Keep You; Psalm 67, May God bless us in his new mercy; Galatians 4, 4-7, So you are no longer a slave; Luke, 2, 16-21, The Shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem.

The book of Numbers:

        1.  What: the 4^th book of the first 5 books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or Torah.

        2.  Date of composition: around 5 centuries before Christ, but was a compilation of years.

        3.  Theme: The people are "numbered" or counted at Mt. Sinai and preparations are made for resuming their march through the desert.  The Israelites begin the journey, but immediately they "murmur" & complain at the hardships along the way. They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land, but on hearing the spies' report the Israelites refuse to take possession of Canaan and God condemns them to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the plain of Moab ready for the crossing of the Jordan River.

        4.  Our selection: God tells Moses to have Aaron & his sons bless the people using this special blessing.

References: Good News Bible, Wikipedia

What Kind of a Shepherd am I? 

    Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to help serve the evening meal at The Bridge in downtown Dallas.  The Bridge is a marvelous facility.  Basically it is the homeless shelter for the greater Dallas area.  

    It has space for approximately 250 overnighters.  That was the number of people whom we served dinner for the Friday night I was there.  For breakfast & lunch up to 800 people are served.  

    Three things struck me. 

    First, the spirit of the people I was serving.  There are about twenty round tables with, say, 8 places.  I was serving water along with about 6 other guys.  These people were bundled up because it was cold outside.  Everyone I served was super grateful.  I joked and played with lots of the people, men & women.  They had an amazingly up-beat spirit.

    Secondly, I was struck by three folks, two women & one guy.  They presented themselves as more middle class.  They had a more refined way of speaking, they seemed peaceful.  Except the guy.  He was nice looking with black hair & slender.  But he was more to himself.  He was younger than the two women, probably in his 30’s while the women were maybe in their late 50’s or early 60’s.  They were not together, but at different tables.  The women were talking with people at their tables, but the guy was not.  

    What is their story?  What events brought them to The Bridge? 

    The three are still vivid in my memory.

    The third thing that struck me was how I got to The Bridge that Friday night.  I got there because the 16 year old girl who lives next door to Rosemary & me invited me. 

    I knew Sydney volunteered at The Bridge and I told her I would go as her adult whenever her dad or mom could not accompany her.  She invited me.  

    This was the last day of school before the Christmas break and I am sure lots of kids were out having fun.  Sydney might have done so later, but from 6:00 to 7:00 that night she spent time helping the homeless.  She was like one of those shepherds in Luke story. 

    What kind of a shepherd are you? 

     I am going to help you answer that at the end of our Mass.  Just you wait!

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Celeste & Nina

Picture 3:    Bethany, Shonda, & Ray   

Picture 4:    Ray & Jon

Picture 5:    Jan, John, Patricia, & Rich   

Picture 6:    John, Mary Jane, & Jan, all communion helpers.

 Enclosed is the link to City House.  Help an old geezer celebrate his 72nd birthday, January 26.  Volunteer to help take a census of the Plano homeless.  We aim at a couple of teams: Download Volunteers needed, City House 1-1-12