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: 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: Isaiah 49, 3-6; Psalm 40, Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will; 1 Corinthians 1, 1-3; John 1, 29-34 (apologies for the wrong reading the past 2 blogs)

Isaiah reminders—

 Author: This is Isaiah #2, the composer of chapters 40-55.

 Date:  Ca. 575 before Christ.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are in the Babylonian Captivity.

 Today’s Message: Hope and promise of a better time with emphasis on 1. being a Servant of the Lord, and 2. being a Light to the Nations.

 
 

A Servant of the Lord, a Light to the Nations.  Me?

 One day about a week ago Rosemary & I took a taxi to the bus station in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Taxis cost about $2.00 normally, so many folks use the little white Nissan sedans roaming the city streets.

 As I always do with anyone I can question about anything in Spanish, I ask the driver how the new year is going for him.  He says it is going sadly, triste.  So, naturally, I ask him what is causing his new year to go so sadly. 

 

He tells me that 3 months ago his son who lived in Cuernavaca was shot for his pickup truck.  The son, who was in his 20’s, left behind his wife and two young kids, one only 9 months old. 

 I’m reminded of the same situation that happened with an acquaintance of Beth.  Also, some years ago I did a funeral for a recent graduate of A&M who had stopped by a convenience store on his way home from a Mavericks’ game.  He, too, was killed for his Mustang.  I did the boy’s funeral.

 Then, Rosemary & I read the news about Tuscon.

 I’m thinking, “What is going on?”

 

At the same time, Rosemary & I had been reading the selection from Isaiah II about being a light to people.  I am wondering how?  How can I make for a more peaceful environment?  How can I be like, say, Martin Luther King, whose holiday we celebrate tomorrow?  I am feeling overwhelmed. 

 We’ve come up with the following idea.  Any who has better ideas, please let us know.  I cannot expect to make a difference for greater peace in Tuscon or Cuernavaca.  I can expect to shine some light on my environment, Dallas, Plano, even our neighborhood. 

 And then I was struck by the insight that we as a community are a light to the nations.  The community supports CCAC which helps people who can’t get medical help anywhere.  You people help LifeNet, which provides housing for homeless.  The community supports our own members who cannot make it right now.  The community even supports a mother & daughter who had polio in Cuernavaca. 

 

This is only a short list.  Habitat, serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless.  There are others.  You people are bringing peace & light to a lot of people

 In a sad way the taxi driver in Cuernavaca was a light to me just by his sharing.  He certainly has me thinking. 

Who has been a light to you?

For whom are you a light? 

 

Picture 1:   Rosemary's Blessing 

Picture 2:   Christine & her mom, Diane  

Picture 3:   Zoe in her dad's arms and mom, Michelle  

Picture 4:   Georgie & Kate selling Girl Scout cookies

Picture 5:   Buddy & Torri

 

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 49, 3-6; Psalm 40, Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will; 1 Corinthians 1, 1- 3; John 1, 29-34

 

The Baptism of the Lord – Introduction to the Readings

 Our second reading from Acts of the Apostles deals with what I will call a tipping point of major proportions, namely the account of how St. Peter understood that the Good News was not just for the Jews but also for all peoples.  We have just a short section of the whole story; it is about the baptism of Cornelius and his family.   It is also the last sermon which we have from St. Peter. 

 Prior to the section we read today there were two visions, Peter had a vision of all kinds of animals being lowered from the heavens and heard a voice telling him to eat, but he protested that the animals were unclean, only to hear God say that what He has made clean you have no right to call unclean. 

 
 

 Cornelius also had a vision, which told him to send some men to get Peter in a neighboring town.  This double vision is what it took to convince Peter that it was okay to baptize gentiles without having them circumcised first!!  This was a major change for the early community.

 The other great tipping point is in the gospel, which gives us the account of the start of Jesus’ public ministry.  This is one of those rare accounts, which all four of the gospel writers agree on, and marks the transition from Jesus’ private life to his public life.

 

By the way, our first reading is from a book we have been reading from for several weeks now, namely Isaiah.  As John has pointed out, there are different writers of this work.  Last week we heard from Isaiah 3 and earlier we had Isaiah 1.  Today our reading is from Isaiah 2, who introduces us to the Suffering Servant. 

Why didn’t the later two writers use their own names?  For the same reason that you will see books with James Patterson’s name boldly on the cover, but if you look closely you will see that there is also another name below his.  The well-known name adds authority to the unknown author; true today and true over 2,500 years ago!

 

 

The Baptism of the Lord – Homily

 If we look for signs of confirmation in the New Testament they are all over the place, in fact they are clearly mentioned in two of today’s readings.  We are told that we receive the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and that is what happens in Acts to Cornelius and his family as they are baptized and in Matthew’s Gospel to Jesus as He is baptized.  The Holy Spirit is very much part of baptism; while pouring the water the words said are “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.

 So how is it that we now have two separate sacraments?  I was baptized when I was four days old and confirmed when I was ten years old.  In the early church there was only the sacrament of baptism. 

 
 

But as the community grew and as the numbers who were joining grew – particularly after Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Empire, the bishops could not attend to all baptisms, both because of the large numbers joining and because their diocese were quite large. 

 In the Eastern Church, centered in Constantinople, the problem was solved by having the priest both baptize the candidate and confirm that action with the laying on of hands. 

In the Western Church, centered in Rome, the bishops decided to keep the conferring to themselves, and so the practice grew that way of separating the sacrament of joining or initiation into two events.  What also helped speed up this process was St. Augustine’s position that baptism was needed to overcome the effects of Original Sin, if one wanted to enter into heaven.  Let’s not wait for the bishop to make his rounds for baptism!

 

 It is clear just from our readings today that the Holy Spirit is received at baptism.  What I would like us to focus on is this.  We are told that we receive the Holy Spirit at Confirmation- we become soldiers for Christ.  What does this mean to you and me here today?  I find some clues in today’s readings.  It was only after he was baptized and received the Holy Spirit that Jesus comes out from obscurity and begins his Father’s work. 

 It was only when the Spirit came upon both Peter and Cornelius, in our second reading, that there was a major change in the requirement for the membership of the early community.  One no longer needed to be circumcised, or no longer needed to be Jewish.  Membership was now open to the gentile world.  The Spirit was responsible; it gave these people the courage to step beyond themselves.

 At the beginning of mass today I quoted from Pope Benedict about the importance of quietness and reflection in our lives.  It is only if we have this quietness that we can begin to hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit which can call us to new actions.  I really believe that it was the Spirit that led me to this community and the courage to reactivate my priesthood after 33 years of silence.  What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

  

Picture 1:    Tony celebrating

Picture 2:    The Music Machine, Wendy & Shonda & Ray

Picture 3:    Sacrament of the sick

Picture 4:    Offertory with Mary Ellen & Loretta & Ray

Picture 5:    The Kites, Bernadette, Rich, & Fred