Readings: Malachi 3, 19-20; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3, 7-12; Luke 21, 5-19

Observations on Malachi:

 Interesting notes:

                   1.  This is the last book of the Old Testament.  Fitting for the last Sunday of the church calendar year.  Next week, Christ the King, then Advent and a new church calendar year begins.

                   2.  A little book, only 4 chapters.

                   3.  Last of the 12 minor prophets (because of their small content)

 
 

Author: Malachi means “my messenger” in Hebrew. The writer’s real name is unknown.

 Date: 400-500 years before Christ.  This is deduced from the emphasis on the temple and the priesthood, and the word “governor” used one time.  Governors ruled after the Bbylonian Exile, ca. 590-550, kings before.    

 The temple was rebuilt ca. 520 after the Israelites came back ca. 550 from the Babylonian Exile.  The Persian ruler Cyrus let them return & rebuild the old walls & temple. 

 Message:  Beware, you priests and people, because you are lax, corrupt, and cheating god of his rightful offerings

Today’s Message:

                   1.  a day is coming when the bad guys will get it.

                   2.  fear my name and find healing.

 Sources:  Good News Bible; New Interpreter’s Study Bible; The Minor Prophets by Al Maxey (on line); & Wikipedia

 

Fear

 Tuesday we celebrate the anniversary of an event that took place in 1989, 21 years ago. 

 It happened in the middle of the night on the campus of UCA, the University of Central America.  All was quiet.  6 Jesuit priests were either asleep or close to it in their residence.  Their housekeeper & her daughter were in the apartment in the rear.  The university is a Jesuit university, like the U. of San Francisco, Georgetown, Fordham, and others in the States. 

 About midnight witnesses heard a great commotion at the door of the residence, yelling and banging.  Outside were 40-50 soldiers dressed in camophlage.  They broke the door and stormed in.  Going room to room, they busted down doors, smashed windows, and dragged the 6 Jesuits and their housekeeper & daughter into the inner patio.

 The banging and breaking and yelling continued for about an hour.  Around 1:00 people outside began to hear shots.  One by one the 8 people were shot in the head from behind. 

 9 years before this, on March 24, 1980, a similar event had happened in the same country, El Salvador.  Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot by a single assassin in the middle of his Mass in a chapel at a hospital in San Salvador.

 I talk about this this morning because, first, it still moves me and, secondly, according to the readings, especially good old Luke, this is exactly what is going to happen to you, to us. 

 

So what is our response?  Two observations.

 First, Malachi and the prophets of the O.T. declare that the bad things that happen in our lives are because we have been bad, lax, unfaithful, mean, greedy.  God will punish us.  And if we are good, God will reward us.  Today this thinking is called the gospel of wealth,  In fact, if you just send money to our church God will multiply your donation & you will be rich.

 It does not take much experience to know this just does not happen.  I just heard about a 3 year old girl with cancer.  God is not punishing her, or her parents.

 Secondly, I remind you of an idea I have talked about before, the three fundamental motives, fear, hope for reward, & love and gratitude. 

 We can walk through life fearful of everything and never savor the beauty.  My old time Catholic religious training used fear a lot.  You have a date, you mess around, you get killed on the way home, you go straight to hell.  Not quite.

 Better than fear is the motive of reward.  High school football playoffs are in full swing right now.  In August these kids were going through hell, working like crazy to win a championship or even a place on a team.

 And then there is doing it because of love.  We build houses with Habitat because we love to help the less fortunate and are so grateful for what we have.  Because I love people I visit them when they are sick, having a hard time, or struggling with life.

 

 So how do we respond when we read about all these bad things coming our way?   We don’t fear they will happen to us.  Fr. Jack Deeves lived all those 80 plus years without such bad things.  Like Jack & the other 6 Jesuits in San Salvador, we love life and people. 

 What is your response?

 Picture 1:   Begining Mass with Kevin

 Picture 2:   Offertory with Ray, Dawn, & Loretta

 Picture 3:   Emma

 Picture 4:   Sienna with Robyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings: 2 Maccabees 7, 1-14; Psalm 17, Lord, when Your Glory appears, My Joy will be full; 2 Thessalonians 2, 16-3, 5; Luke 20, 27-38.

Intro to Readings

 Our first reading somehow got past the censors.  It is from the Second Book of Maccabees.  This is the only Sunday in the entire three-year cycle of readings that we have anything from this book.  It is about the martyrdom of a family of seven brothers and their mother.  I suggest the only reason this reading was selected is because the number seven also appears in the gospel story.  If you want to learn more about this period in Jewish history, Wikipedia has more than enough information to satisfy most. 

 

Paul is writing to the Thessalonians in our second reading. 

 The Gospel reading from Luke has Jesus finally in Jerusalem.  Remember that a major part of Luke’s gospel has Jesus on the great “Journey to Jerusalem”.  Today Jesus is in the temple trying to answer one of those imponderable questions.  “Who gets the bride in heaven?”  The folk who ask the question, the Sadducees are only heard from in Luke in this passage.  They were a group of ultra conservative Jews who only accepted what was written in the Torah and refused all of the oral tradition.  They actually disappear following the destruction of the temple. 

I am keeping these comments brief because I want instead to talk about the sacraments in the homily.

 

Homily

 I would like to begin by reading from Chapter 3 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican council.

“The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God; because they are signs they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called 'sacraments of faith.'

They do indeed impart grace, but, in addition, the very act of celebrating them most effectively disposes the faithful to receive this grace in a fruitful manner, to worship God duly, and to practice charity.

It is, therefore, of the highest importance that the faithful should easily understand the sacramental signs, and should frequent with great eagerness those sacraments which were instituted to nourish the Christian life.”

Many of us last studied the sacraments in CCD class and perhaps a review will be helpful.  There are seven sacraments.  As the council reminds us, the sacraments are a source of grace.  The easiest way for me to understand what that really means is to say that the sacraments help deepen my relationship with God thru a community action. 

 

If we go back to the very beginning of the Old Testament and the Book of Genesis, in the story of the creation of the world we have this concept of God speaking and then something happening.  God said, Let there be light, and there was light.   I find a similar pattern in each of the sacraments.  We have a liturgy of the Word, followed by an action of some sort, whether it is pouring of water, or anointing with oil or an exchange of promises.  The sacrament of Penance when celebrated as a communal service also fits into this. 

So we can say that each of the sacraments has Word and action.  I also like to divide the sacraments into two main groups.  One group is about joining, namely Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, and the other group is about special circumstances or situations, namely, Marriage, Ordination, Penance and Holy Orders. 

One of the challenges we have today is to be able to understand the symbols used.  Symbols are a funny thing, because in themselves they can have one meaning, but when an object is used as a symbol it points to something else, and unless you are part of the group using that object symbolically you can too easily fail to understand what is intended in the symbol. 

 

But the most important aspect of sacrament is that it is a community action.  We seem to have drifted from the original concept of God’s People, to that of individual relationship with God.  But the whole history of the Old Testament was that of a people, a community in relationship with God.  And the New Testament continued that notion.  The early church was a community of believers.  I think we need to begin with that reality when discussing the sacraments too.  They are community actions, not individual actions.  In fact none of the sacraments can be celebrated, and notice I use the word “celebrated” in isolation or on ones own. 

In future homilies I would like to delve into each one of the sacraments in detail, but let's not forget, while we talk of the seven sacraments, we acknowledge that almost any action/activity which brings us closer to God deserves the title sacrament.

Picture 1:     Mass beginning

Picture 2:    Offertory with Grace & Marsha

Picture 3:    Carol & Marilyn

Picture 4:    Jan (The photo taker) & Curtis & Charlie

 

 

 

Readings: We are celebrating All Saints, but using the readings for Sunday, Sirach 35, 12-18; Psalm 145, I will praise Your Name forever, My King and My God (my favorite line in the psalm; can you spot it?); 2 Thessalonians 1, 11-2, 2; Luke 10, 9-14 (Good Ole Zacheus ).

We actually had two poems read this morning for All Saints.  Watch for them in the Friday blog. 

 

Psalm 145:

 See if you can pick it out.  My favorite line in perhaps all of scripture. 

 

Fr. Jack Deeves, S.J. at 82

 A week ago Thursday I attended a celebration of the life of Fr. Jack Deeves at St. Rita’s.  Jack was a Jesuit companion all my 50 plus years as a Jesuit.  He was 82.  He had received a heart transplant in ‘89, and lived with it for 21 years, close to if not a record.  He was one of the good old Jesuits. 

 I want to tell you about him this morning and use as a template the story of Zacheus and my favorite line from scripture.  Could you spot it?  My version: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.”  Psalm 145, verse 8.  Could this not be the answer to our big question?

 

Unlike our friend Zacheus, Jack was not short in stature.  Probably 6’2” or more, you could see him above the crowd smiling and greeting all the people gathering around him. 

 Like Zacheus, who was agile enough to climb trees, Jack was a good athlete.  In my early Jesuit days I did not like to face him when he was pitching for the other side. 

 Like Zacheus he was what the psalm calls ‘gracious.’  I would say he was a gracious hospitable extrovert.  For many of the years I spent at Jesuit with him he was the father minister, the priest in charge of the kitchen, supplies, and the well being of the men in the house.  I cannot count the number of years he played the role of Santa Clause at our annual Christmas party. 

 I took Jack out to lunch about a year ago at Kel’s Kitchen down at Forest & the Tollway, a Jesuit staff hangout.  As we go in, half a dozen or ten people all know Jack and stop him to chat.  Jack graciously spent time with all of them, smiling and asking them about their families & lives.  I thought he was never going to make it to our table.

 

 Like Zacheus and certainly like God who the psalm writer says never gets angry, Jack never lost his amiable disposition and enthusiasm for people and life.  Only if one of us Jesuits to be buggers would slightly intimate that Ursuline, the institution he loved last & most, we would intimate that Ursuline was slightly less than Jesuit.  To the rescue Jack would come. 

 I can remember when I was in my 5^th, 6^th and 7^th years of study in Mobile we used to go to a 2 week summer camp on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, a place I loved, because I loved the outdoors, the water, the sun, water skiing, and outdoor sports like 2 person volley ball.  Jack was the father superior for us maybe 50 guys living in a two storey, screened in pavilion.  Big open dormitory on the second floor.  Jack made life heavenly for us, even though some guys were not into the outdoor life.  We had no a/c.  He even had time to play with the neighbor kids from houses along the shore.  I developed some close friends among those neighbors. 

 Finally, as the psalm writer says about God, Jack was dear.  He was loving.  He loved people and he poured out his spirit loving them, at Kel’s Kitchen, at Jesuit, at Ursuline, as cheer leader moderator for years, and at so many football games and school events. 

 I know Jack was hurting because of my departure, but he was one of the guys I could always call up or go by Ursuline to find him.  I would ask how he was and how the other guys were.  He would even go out to eat with me.

 
 
 

Jack was not short of stature physically or spirit-wise.  He was, moreover,gracious and merciful, never got angry and was dear, abounding in love.

 Who is the Jack Deeves in your life?

 Picture 1:   Beginning of Mass for All Saints

 Picture 2:   Memorial for Our Beloved

 Picture 3:    More of the Memorial

 Picture 4:    Our Father

 Picture & Obituary from the Dallas Morning News, October 17: