Readings:  Ezekiel 34, 11-17; Psalm 23 (Good); 1 Corinthians 15, 20-28;  Matthew 25, 31-46 

Ezekiel:  I've mentioned how Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 Prophets, #3 after Isaiah & Jeremiah.  I also mentioned how he lived smack dab in the middle of one of the two or three biggest tragedies of the Jewish people, the Babylonian captivity, from say 600 to 550 BCE.  He was there.

In American history we can look back and identify special presidential leaders, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt.  They came forward in crisis times. 

Ezekiel was this type of leader in Jewish history.  He saw what had happened to other Jews of the the northern province of Israel (Jerusalem is in the southern province of Judah) after they had been carted off as slaves after a defeat by the Assyrians.  They intermarried and simply disappeared in the DNA of the middle east.

Ezekiel is in Babylon and is determined that his community would not lose its identity.  He did three things to help maintain the spirit of the community: he emphasized  1. observance of the Sabbath, 2. kosher diet, and 3. circumcision.

Eventually after ca. 50 years the community still was a cohesive unit and it returned to rebuild Jerusalem, at least most of them.  The Jews are one of the few peoples to be defeated and scattered, and still return to their original homeland.  They remained there until the Romans defeated them in 70 C.E., returning when?  1948, after the Holocaust.

Today's reading comes to us from an Ezekiel captive in Babylon, and has Ezekiel promising the people a return, a brighter day after the captivity.

Dillon's Dollar

Last Sunday something special happened in our community.  We had been talking about the family we are planning to adopt for Christmas, the mother with the three little girls and a baby on the way.  Beth Robinson had described how we would buy gifts and supplies for the whole family. 

The Mass ended and people were standing around talking and taking coffee & donuts.  At some point one of our special kids came up to Beth, said he would like to help the family with the little girls, said he had a dollar, took it out of his pocket, and gave it to her.  Guess who it was.  Dillon.

I asked if I could share this story of Dillon's dollar, because it speaks to two themes I would like to pick up this week, the theme of the Matthew's gospel about giving food to the hungry & drink to the thirsty, and the theme of Thanksgiving. 

First, with Thanksgiving coming this week it is appropriate and enriching to look back over the year to count our blessings.  What is your Blessing of the Year?  What are your three biggest blessings this year?  Write them down.  Ask the people you have Thanksgiving dinner with what is their biggest blessing of the year. 

I can give you my three: namely, 1. the exhilaration I felt in riding in the Hotter 'N Hell 100, something I had dreamed of doing for some years; 2. the consolation & joy I take from our weekly community gatherings with our Dillons, which is another dream each week; 3. and my biggest, the marvelous relationship I have (I think!) with Rosemary, something I never even dreamed would be part of my future. 

In connection with focusing on our blessings of the year, we want to present again this year our Blessing Tree.  We will arrange it a little different than last year.  We will have the tree.  We invite you to write your Blessing of the Year on a piece of paper and place it in a basket near the tree.  We will focus on this the next two Sundays, the Sunday just after Thanksgiving, when I expect a lot of folks will be away and the following Sunday, Dec. 7, when we will have the brunch, blood drive and food drive.   I will publish anonymously a couple  of blessings each week until Christmas Eve Mass.

The second idea I would like to touch is the big separation of the goats and sheep, one on the left, the other on the right.  Goats and lefties like myself get a bad deal in this story.  Three short observations.

a.  Beware of either or spirituality here.  I'm either a sheep or a goat.  We are all goats!  (Some more than others!) 

b.  Beware of letting fear enter your spirit and attempt to do it all, feed, give drink, clothe, visit the imprisoned. 

c.  Let this story be a gentle reminder to help out those less blessed, to chip in your Dillon's Dollar.

In summary, therefore, what is you blessing of the year and how are you chipping in your dollar?

Picture 1: Wendy, Shonda, Ray, Celeste

Picture 2: Dillon

Picture 3:  Birthdays–Megan, Diane, John, & Ron

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-11-23.mp3

Readings:  Proverbs 31, 10-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-6; Matthew 25, 14-30

Proverbs:

Date of Composition: ca. 300 B.C.

Content: a collection of moral & religious teachings which were mostly dealing with practical matters.

The Talented Person

Nineteen years ago today an event happened in the Jesuit order that still boggles my mind.  The year was 1989.  I had been back in the States about 3 years.  Reagan was coming to the end of his 8 years as president. 

There was a group of 6 Jesuits who lived in a Jesuit community connected to a university.  Some of the men worked in the university, others worked in other activities in the area.  The school went by the initials UCA, University of Central America.  It was located in the city of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. 

Times had been tough in El Salvador over the past 6-8 years.  Some Maryknoll nuns & an Ursuline nun had been stopped one night on the road to the airport and killed. 

On this night nineteen years ago the Jesuits had all gone to bed.  Behind their community house was a house where the housekeeper & cook lived with her daughter.  At some time in the middle of the night a special brigade of the military arrived at the door.  They awoke everyone and herded them into an inner patio.  They made them all, the six Jesuits and the housekeeper & her daughter, lie face down on the ground.  Then they shot each one. 

We celebrate today the nineteenth anniversary of their martyrdom.

My thoughts go to these people when I read the parable about the man going on a journey and giving various talents to his servants.  I do not know how many times over the years I have read this and thought that I do not like this man.  Why is he so hard on the poor man with only one talent?  Why do the rich get richer?  Being a parable, what is the symbolism?  Is the man a metaphor or symbol of Yahweh?  Three observation that help me.

1.  First, we all have our talent.  A talent in the days of Matthew was 34 kilos of gold, i.e., 70 pounds of gold.  To grow into a complete person, physically, spiritually, and psychologically I got to use my talent.  What keeps me from using it, like the man in the parable, is often fear.  Despite the psalm's statement that "Blessed are those who fear the Lord," I would propose that more blessed and more spiritually healthy are those that love the Lord.  No fear. 

Even though on the surface of the parable this does not seem to be the message, I think it may.  The insight comes to me from the Carmelite website.

2.  This is the second point: the clue to the parable is that Jesus and especially Matthew is talking to and admonishing the Pharisees, not so much us.   Remember the pharisees obsessively observed every law & dictate so that they could attain justification and superiority.  Could it be that they had a fear based spirituality?  They get chastised for hiding their talent.  Yahweh from Matthew's perspective is irritated with them.

3.  Thirdly, another clue to understanding the parable: image and attitude.  The pharisees have the same image of Yahweh that the one talent man has.  Demanding.  Therefore, his attitude and the attitude of the pharisees is, 'don't risk, don't love, hide behind strict observance of the law.'  This results in a sterile spirituality, it kills joy and spontaneity, and impoverishes life.  This pathetic life is chastised in the parable.

 Yes, the man symbolizes Yahweh.  The three servants are the people, we the people.  I grant, the master really does come across pretty harshly.  Maybe this is more Matthew speaking his feelings. Who knows what contributed to the fear of the one talent man.  I see this fear in people who have received a lot of negativity in their life, especially as children, being maybe abused or mistreated.  My read is that a compassionate master & God would take this into consideration and be more accepting than Matthew's parable suggests. 

When I read this parable about talents, I am reminded of my former Jesuit confreres.  They used their talents, for others. They faced their fears.  In fact, they had frequently been harassed by the government which did not like the Jesuits' criticism.  They gave it all. 

What is your talent & how are you using It?

Picture 1:  Choir Wendy, Ray, & Celeste

Picture 2:  Birthdays–Mary Ellen Munzell, Penny Morrow, Blake & Blair Reyes (19)

Picture 3:  Beth Robinson presenting Christmas family project

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-11-16.mp3

Readings:  Ezekiel 47, 1-12; Psalm 46; 1 Corinthians 3, 9-17; John 2, 13-22

Why the Lateran Basilica?

If you are like me, when you heard that today we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, you want to say, "What??"  "What has that got to do with me, with my life?"  I even got a call from our man Federico asking if we were having our Mass at the Lateran Basilica today.  It would have been fun.

I do not remember doing any research on this celebration in the past.  This is due partly, I discovered, to the fact that the celebration always takes place on November 9, which does not show up on Sunday very often.  My research did give me an idea, however.  Namely, that we are exploring our roots today, like we search out our family trees.  Today we explore an ancient, prominent ancestor of our religious family tree.  Two observations: the meaning & the story.

1.  First, the meaning of 'basilica.'  In Roman times a basilica was a large rectangular hall where the Romans met for business or meetings.

From what I can discover, when a church or chapel is designated by Rome a basilica, it is an honorary title, like a priest being named a monsignor.  There are five or six levels of basilicas & churches.  On the most elemental level is the church or chapel, like St. Mark's or All Saints.  Then comes a minor basilica.  This could be like the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  The first basilica in the U.S. is St. Mary's in Minneapolis and it is, I think, a minor basilica.  Above a minor basilica is the bishop's cathedral.  For instance, while Mexico City has the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Bishop's cathedral is in the Zocalo, the center of the city.  The cathedral may simultaneously be a minor basilica and it is where the bishop has his throne and special altar.

Next comes the papal basilica, which has a throne & altar that only the pope uses and which is used by others with the pope's permission.  Then a major basilica of which there are only 4 in the world, all in Rome, Mary Major, Paul outside the Walls, St. Peter's, and our subject today, the Lateran. 

Finally we have at the top, an arch-basilica.  One only in the whole world.  The Lateran.  Why?  Age & historical significance. 

2. The story.  In the time of the Caesars & Jesus the place where the Lateran is had two buildings.  One was a fort & residence for the special calvary that defended the emperor.  These guys chose to defend the emperor against Constantine around 300.  He, of course, won and destroyed their fort.

Next to the fort was a palace owned by the Lateran family, the members of which worked as administrators in the government.  Constantine married a woman named Fausta and with her came the palace.  Constantine did not need it, so he gave it to the Christians to whom he granted freedom to worship in 313, a big date in Christian history.

Legend had it that Peter had said Masses around the area and he had used a table that still existed 300 years later.  The Christians built a church where the fort was, placing in it the table Peter had used.  They used the Lateran palace as a residence. This church, therefore, became the first Christian church in the whole world.  It was not built over a tomb like St. Peter's or St. Paul's, but it had the table. 

Around this same time along comes Constantine's pious mother, whom I mentioned recently, because she had discovered where Jesus' cross stood and built a church there, the Church of the Sepulcher. She also found what she thought were the steps in Pilate's house which Jesus had climbed for his trial.  She moved the marble steps to Rome and set them up in the Lateran, where they are today. This is around 313 A.D., the famous year. 

Consequently, for the next 1000 years the popes lived in the Lateran Palace and used the church as their cathedral.  Want to know what happened at the end of 1000 years?  The Avignon Papacy: for about a century, 1300 to 1400, the popes lived in Avignon, France.  With two, sometimes three rival popes, this is a story worth telling, but another Sunday. 

When the popes returned to Rome around 1400 they continued to use the Lateran Basilica as their primary church, the bishop of Rome's cathedral, but they lived at St. Peter's because the Lateran Palace had deteriorated badly in their 100 year absence.  The popes still reside at the Vatican Palace and still use the Lateran Basilica as their #1 Cathedral.

The Lateran Basilica was sacked by the barbarians in the 5th century, destroyed by an earthquake in 900, burned twice in the 15th century, and last remodeled in 1730.  In the 10th century it was dedicated to John the Baptist, in the 13th century dedicated to John the Evangelist, and since it had also been dedicated to Christ, its official title as the mother of all churches in the world is the Lateran Basilica of Christ our Redeemer, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist.

So what?  What is this?  Churches or temples or sacred places go back to the dawn of our evolution as humans.  Outside Mexico City are the temples of Teotijuacan,'  whose builders not even the Aztecs of 1521 seemed to know (the year the Spaniards & Cortes arrived).  In Egypt up the Nile River are the temples of Luxor, near which was found the tomb of Tutankhamen.  These temples go back 2000 years B.C. 

Churches used to be sanctuaries.  You could run there if the law was after you.  Today the sanctuary is more spiritual and psychological. We go into such a sanctuary to calm our spirit, to converse with God, to regain perspective on life.  Granted these temples can equally be found outside, like in Yosemite.  I find there the same peace and perspective.

I also think it is fun and fascinating to look back at our religious family tree, to get in touch with our Christian roots. 

Today we celebrate an ancient ancestor in the Lateran Basilica.  It has been a sanctuary of peace for many of our ancestors. 

Where do you find your sanctuary of peace and perspective?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-11-09.mp3

Picture 1: Mass with T.J. serving

Picture 2: Bob & Jackie McGrath (54th Anniversary) and Maggie McGrath & Chloe Zurchin

Picture 3: Tom Quinn and his granddaughter