Readings:

Ezekiel   33, 7-9,  You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.

Psalm 95,   If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Romans, 13, 8-10,  Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.

Matthew 18, 15-20,   Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I.

Sorry, no homily today.

Mass begins.

Kathy and Harper

The Offertory

Mike and Dee celebrating 57 years

Kevin

The Dinsmores

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.

Readings:

Isaiah  22, 19-23,  I will pull you down from your station.

 Psalm 138,   Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands. 

Romans, 11, 33-36,  For from him and through him and for him are all things.

Matthew 16, 13-20,  You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.

Victoria says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome."

Matthew observations–

First biblical scholars agree that Jesus did not say what is in this little story.  Rather, the Matthean community shaped a highly stylized scene that attempted to establish Peter's position as leader of the new community.  The writer, because he wants to authenticate Peter, creates a scenario where Jesus makes Peter The Man.

The girl with the pink blouse and pink ribbon,  Zoe,  also says, "Hi, Everybody, Come in."

Isaiah observations—

1.  Notice the chapter, number, 22.  Students of Isaiah, my favorite, will immediately know this is Isaiah 1.  Chapter 1-39 make up Isaiah 1.  Isaiah 2 and 3 follow.
2.  Since it is Isaiah 1, students will know that the composer lived before the Babylonian Captivity, which took place around 555 before Christ.  Isaiah 2 is composed during the Captivity.  Isaiah 3, whom we had last week, works after the Captivity.
3.  Knowing that things were not good before the Captivity, you can guess that Isaiah 1 is critical of Israeli life.  You would be correct.
4.  Our selection today is both critical, “I will pull you down.”  But it is also talking about a better day.  

Mary Ellen, too, says, "Come in and save me; he's going to talk about me."

Mary Ellen Day at San Vino

I want to talk about you today, Mary Ellen.  I hope you don’t mind.  I did not ask your permission, because I figured a “No” would be what I would got.   

I am doubly bummed because before I took off for the HHH, I had put together a few ideas tying you together with the line from today’s psalm; Do not forsake the work of your hands.  I wanted to show how you have fully lived out the work of his hands, that is, life, and how you have lived!

Kevin, The Best, ready to go.

Then, at about 5:00 this morning I read this article by Scott Burns, in The Dallas Morning News, Happy Money. It is about spending money healthily and happily.  I think, ‘That is Mary Ellen."  Burns’ ideas are

1. Make it a treat.
2. Buy experiences.
3. Buy time.
4. Invest in others
5. Pay now, consume later.

Mary Ellen has done this all the decades I have known her.  And this is the same as living the work of his hands.

For example, make it a treat.  I know Mary Ellen has two favorites, ice cream and wine.  What can you expect?  She is, after all, Italian.  Scott Burns’ treat was Starbucks.

Is that Mary making off with the wine cups?

Regarding investing in others, I know that for some time Mary Ellen tutored kids at Hillcrest High School in English.  She also volunteers as an usher at various venues, like the Winspear.

I do not know how she has paid now and consumed later, but I do know how she has bought experiences and time.  Two examples that involve her traveling to other countries with Rosemary and me.

I think it was 2007 when Rosemary & I planned a trip back to the scene of my work as a Jesuit, Tanzania.  This was going to be a tenting trip and we were going to be traveling in an open topped Land Rover over very rough roads.  I had a guy who ran safaris into the national parks, like Serengeti.

And Judy, too!

We invited Mary Ellen and she was ready, as always.  Everything went super except one time when we were traveling through some wild terrain that had bushes, scrub trees, and tsetse flies.  These flies can travel fast for short distances.  They could catch us standing in the back of the Land Rover looking around.  And they bite.  Fortunately, we got away fairly quickly and there was no damage. 

Another of the many times Mary Ellen bought into an experience with Rosemary and me was a trip to Italy.  We had a crowd, about 8 people.  We had to rent a van.

Mary Ellen with friends?

Mary Ellen not only went with us, she went over a few days early and went to Trieste, Italy.  Why Trieste?  To scatter some of her husband, Chris’s, ashes at the site where he was born.

Chris was a career Marine and Mary Ellen and he had met in Argentina, where Mary Ellen had gone to work for the State Department for a few years.  This is another one of her experiences.  

Chris had been born into a career military family, which was why he had been born in Trieste.  His family was posted there. 

Scott Burns could use you, Mary Ellen, as a beautiful example of just what he is writing about.  I thank you for all the times you have included me and Rosemary in your experiences and time.  I wish you a bon voyage and a continued rich life in Connecticut.

Cupcakes of The Week, Zara & Craig, Kara, and 1/2 of Marsha.