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Holy Spirt Catholic Community Toledo, Ohio - MAP weekly Mass schedule Beverly Bingle ordained to the Catholic priesthood February 2013 |
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Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), January 20, 2019
First Reading: Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm Response: Psalm 96
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Gospel: John 2: 1-12
Over the years we may have heard someone say
that today’s gospel is about marriage… but it’s not.
The wedding is the metaphor that the evangelist John uses
to show the first of Jesus’ seven “signs,”
the sign that reveals Christianity as replacing Judaism.
John’s message comes through in the details,
like the fact that these are not wine jars
but stone water jars,
the vessels that were used for Jewish purification rites.
According to the Law,
once wine had been poured into those water jars,
they could no longer be used for the Jewish ritual.
The six stone jars had been empty--
symbolizing a religion that had been empty--
and they were waiting to be filled with something new.
The metaphorical meaning is that, once Jesus’ teachings
were poured into the hearts and minds of his followers,
they would replace the old rules and the old teachings.
____________________________________
Biblical scholar Reginald Fuller connects this Gospel passage
to what was going on at the time John was writing.
It was a time when the followers of Jesus
were being kicked out of synagogues,
and some Jewish Christians
were hiding their new belief in Jesus
so they could keep from getting kicked out.
Fuller says that John’s purpose with the seven “signs”
was to show Jesus as a messianic prophet,
recalling Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.
John was trying to get Greek-speaking Jews
to convert openly to Christianity.
He wanted those catacomb Christians to say out loud,
with their actions and with their voices,
“My religion is better than your religion.”
____________________________________
That wedding metaphor wasn’t new in Judaism.
It’s used by Isaiah in our first reading where the Jewish people,
exiled in Babylon, are promised justice and freedom
in the metaphor of a marriage with Yahweh.
Yahweh promises
to take them away from desolation and oppression.
Yahweh invites them into intimate relationship.
____________________________________
Like both John and Isaiah, Paul’s writing for the people of Corinth
also reflects what was going on there at the time.
Today’s passage makes it clear
that the Spirit gives each of the gifts for the common good.
The next chapter gives us that well-known
“love is patient, love is kind, love never fails” reading.
Paul put together his list of gifts and varieties of service
to counter the problems being caused in Corinth
because the people who spoke in tongues
thought they were superior to the people with other gifts.
In short, the people were saying,
“God likes my gift better than your gift!”
We heard that before—remember Cain and Abel?
____________________________________
What’s going on in our times?
Our culture still suffers from the idea
that people who go to college
are better than people who don’t;
that people who have lots of money
are better than people who have less;
that people whose skin is light
are better than people whose skin is darker.
My gift is better than your gift!
And our church still suffers from the idea
that the call to the priesthood
is greater than the call to marriage or the single life.
My call is more important than your call.
____________________________________
In the face of those beliefs
of our culture and our church’s hierarchy,
we hold to the truth that we are all equal before God,
each of us a child of our loving God.
Our readings today tell us that God invites everyone,
no matter who, into relationship.
The Spirit of God is in us,
and we celebrate the presence of God’s Spirit
every time we eat the bread and drink the wine of communion.
We celebrate it when we show love
to our family and friends and neighbors.
And we celebrate it when we forgive one another,
when we reach out to strangers,
when we help people in need.
____________________________________
Those Greek-speakers that John was writing for,
and those Greeks that Paul was writing to in Corinth,
would have known Socrates’ famous statement that
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
When they heard these readings proclaimed,
they were inspired to grow spiritually,
to step up and step out and look at their life
and start making it worth living.
They left behind the practices of their culture
and turned to something that was new and better for them.
We do the same thing, don’t we?
We listen to the word of God,
and we are inspired to embrace our world
with all the love that God gives us.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm Response: Psalm 96
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Gospel: John 2: 1-12
Over the years we may have heard someone say
that today’s gospel is about marriage… but it’s not.
The wedding is the metaphor that the evangelist John uses
to show the first of Jesus’ seven “signs,”
the sign that reveals Christianity as replacing Judaism.
John’s message comes through in the details,
like the fact that these are not wine jars
but stone water jars,
the vessels that were used for Jewish purification rites.
According to the Law,
once wine had been poured into those water jars,
they could no longer be used for the Jewish ritual.
The six stone jars had been empty--
symbolizing a religion that had been empty--
and they were waiting to be filled with something new.
The metaphorical meaning is that, once Jesus’ teachings
were poured into the hearts and minds of his followers,
they would replace the old rules and the old teachings.
____________________________________
Biblical scholar Reginald Fuller connects this Gospel passage
to what was going on at the time John was writing.
It was a time when the followers of Jesus
were being kicked out of synagogues,
and some Jewish Christians
were hiding their new belief in Jesus
so they could keep from getting kicked out.
Fuller says that John’s purpose with the seven “signs”
was to show Jesus as a messianic prophet,
recalling Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.
John was trying to get Greek-speaking Jews
to convert openly to Christianity.
He wanted those catacomb Christians to say out loud,
with their actions and with their voices,
“My religion is better than your religion.”
____________________________________
That wedding metaphor wasn’t new in Judaism.
It’s used by Isaiah in our first reading where the Jewish people,
exiled in Babylon, are promised justice and freedom
in the metaphor of a marriage with Yahweh.
Yahweh promises
to take them away from desolation and oppression.
Yahweh invites them into intimate relationship.
____________________________________
Like both John and Isaiah, Paul’s writing for the people of Corinth
also reflects what was going on there at the time.
Today’s passage makes it clear
that the Spirit gives each of the gifts for the common good.
The next chapter gives us that well-known
“love is patient, love is kind, love never fails” reading.
Paul put together his list of gifts and varieties of service
to counter the problems being caused in Corinth
because the people who spoke in tongues
thought they were superior to the people with other gifts.
In short, the people were saying,
“God likes my gift better than your gift!”
We heard that before—remember Cain and Abel?
____________________________________
What’s going on in our times?
Our culture still suffers from the idea
that people who go to college
are better than people who don’t;
that people who have lots of money
are better than people who have less;
that people whose skin is light
are better than people whose skin is darker.
My gift is better than your gift!
And our church still suffers from the idea
that the call to the priesthood
is greater than the call to marriage or the single life.
My call is more important than your call.
____________________________________
In the face of those beliefs
of our culture and our church’s hierarchy,
we hold to the truth that we are all equal before God,
each of us a child of our loving God.
Our readings today tell us that God invites everyone,
no matter who, into relationship.
The Spirit of God is in us,
and we celebrate the presence of God’s Spirit
every time we eat the bread and drink the wine of communion.
We celebrate it when we show love
to our family and friends and neighbors.
And we celebrate it when we forgive one another,
when we reach out to strangers,
when we help people in need.
____________________________________
Those Greek-speakers that John was writing for,
and those Greeks that Paul was writing to in Corinth,
would have known Socrates’ famous statement that
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
When they heard these readings proclaimed,
they were inspired to grow spiritually,
to step up and step out and look at their life
and start making it worth living.
They left behind the practices of their culture
and turned to something that was new and better for them.
We do the same thing, don’t we?
We listen to the word of God,
and we are inspired to embrace our world
with all the love that God gives us.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord (C), January 13, 2019
First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Psalm Response: Psalm 29
Second Reading: Acts 10: 34-38
Luke 3: 15-16, 22-23
Seems like Christmas has shifted on us.
Back in the 50s when I was growing up,
we used to put the Christmas tree up on December 24
and not take it down until February 2,
the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple–
40 days, symbolically matching the 40 days of Lent.
That was the preferred Catholic tradition back then,
in spite of the trail of dead pine needles from the living room,
through the house, and out the back door.
At other times in our history
we took the tree down on the 12th day of Christmas,
January 6, the feast of the Epiphany.
At still other times we ended the Christmas season on January 1,
on the octave of Christmas, 8 days after the Nativity.
When I was a kid, that was the Circumcision of Jesus.
Then the name was changed to the Motherhood of Mary,
then changed again to the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God,
and in 1968 we tacked on to that
another celebration for the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
Today some people start Christmas before Thanksgiving
and end it on December 26.
________________________________________
These days the official liturgical end of the Christmas season
comes after our celebration of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan.
What we call “Ordinary Time” begins this coming Monday.
This Ordinary Time,
what some other Christian churches call “Kingdom Time,”
lasts until Lent,
then picks up again after Pentecost and goes to Advent.
________________________________________
Today’s final feast of the Christmas season
celebrates Jesus’ spiritual awakening,
his coming to understand his life purpose and direction.
He was about 30 years old.
I remember those years in my life.
Through my late teens and twenties
I had been questioning my faith and God’s existence
and had formed some opinions
critical of what I had been taught
and of what I saw happening in the church.
On October 5, 1965, in the chapel at the Newman Center at OSU,
as I knelt in thanksgiving after Communion,
I realized that I no longer believed in God.
After that, I stayed active in my parish because of my friends,
because of the community activities,
because of the political and business connections I had there.
When I was about 30, I finally began to face my doubts.
I embraced the Vatican II teachings
and gradually came to understand
that the God I had not been able to believe in
was not God at all.
At that point I had the first
of what might be called a “conversion experience”
at a weekend retreat that turned me
toward the path that eventually led me here…
after, of course, a lot of fits and starts and missteps.
________________________________________
Fr. Art LeBlanc, a Paulist priest I knew at Ohio State in the 60s,
used to talk about “choice points,”
times when a person decides something
that becomes life-changing or life-defining.
I have had several of those experiences throughout my life,
and I’m sure each of you has, too.
And we’re still having them!
We look back and see that our choices
formed the path to where we are now.
________________________________________
The baptism of Jesus that we celebrate today
was that kind of experience for him.
Jesus was about 30 years old,
a time in life when we are all thirsty for understanding.
Along with many others in Galilee,
he went to hear John the Baptist preach.
He listened, and he made the choice
to jump in the water.
It had a profound effect on him, and he went on retreat--
out to the desert to think about what it all meant.
________________________________________
We don’t question the idea of Jesus being baptized by John,
but scholars tell us that first- and second-generation Christians
were embarrassed by it.
Their thinking was that, if Jesus was baptized by John,
John must be superior to Jesus,
so some of the pieces of our scriptures
were shaped to show that,
in spite of John’s baptism,
Jesus was superior to him.
The importance of Jesus’ baptism, though,
was not that John baptized him
but that it marked a moment when Jesus committed his life,
as Paul put it in our second reading,
to go about doing good works, to teach the word of God.
________________________________________
The long journey through my desert
put me on a path of learning and listening
and being formed into the person I’m still becoming.
That retreat experience in my early 30s
put me on a life path of searching and finding God
and then searching even farther.
Jesus’ baptism seems to be that same kind of experience,
an examination of one’s life and purpose
and a decision to go in a new direction.
It’s like Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain,
published when he was 31 years old.
It’s like Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness,
published when she was 30.
________________________________________
Monday we’ll step out of Christmas into Ordinary Time.
We’ll celebrate Jesus’ way of understanding
and making choices
and acting on his choices,
the Way of a man of prayer, a prophet and a teacher,
a healing presence, a beloved child of God
And we will keep on walking the Way
with him.
Amen
First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Psalm Response: Psalm 29
Second Reading: Acts 10: 34-38
Luke 3: 15-16, 22-23
Seems like Christmas has shifted on us.
Back in the 50s when I was growing up,
we used to put the Christmas tree up on December 24
and not take it down until February 2,
the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple–
40 days, symbolically matching the 40 days of Lent.
That was the preferred Catholic tradition back then,
in spite of the trail of dead pine needles from the living room,
through the house, and out the back door.
At other times in our history
we took the tree down on the 12th day of Christmas,
January 6, the feast of the Epiphany.
At still other times we ended the Christmas season on January 1,
on the octave of Christmas, 8 days after the Nativity.
When I was a kid, that was the Circumcision of Jesus.
Then the name was changed to the Motherhood of Mary,
then changed again to the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God,
and in 1968 we tacked on to that
another celebration for the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
Today some people start Christmas before Thanksgiving
and end it on December 26.
________________________________________
These days the official liturgical end of the Christmas season
comes after our celebration of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan.
What we call “Ordinary Time” begins this coming Monday.
This Ordinary Time,
what some other Christian churches call “Kingdom Time,”
lasts until Lent,
then picks up again after Pentecost and goes to Advent.
________________________________________
Today’s final feast of the Christmas season
celebrates Jesus’ spiritual awakening,
his coming to understand his life purpose and direction.
He was about 30 years old.
I remember those years in my life.
Through my late teens and twenties
I had been questioning my faith and God’s existence
and had formed some opinions
critical of what I had been taught
and of what I saw happening in the church.
On October 5, 1965, in the chapel at the Newman Center at OSU,
as I knelt in thanksgiving after Communion,
I realized that I no longer believed in God.
After that, I stayed active in my parish because of my friends,
because of the community activities,
because of the political and business connections I had there.
When I was about 30, I finally began to face my doubts.
I embraced the Vatican II teachings
and gradually came to understand
that the God I had not been able to believe in
was not God at all.
At that point I had the first
of what might be called a “conversion experience”
at a weekend retreat that turned me
toward the path that eventually led me here…
after, of course, a lot of fits and starts and missteps.
________________________________________
Fr. Art LeBlanc, a Paulist priest I knew at Ohio State in the 60s,
used to talk about “choice points,”
times when a person decides something
that becomes life-changing or life-defining.
I have had several of those experiences throughout my life,
and I’m sure each of you has, too.
And we’re still having them!
We look back and see that our choices
formed the path to where we are now.
________________________________________
The baptism of Jesus that we celebrate today
was that kind of experience for him.
Jesus was about 30 years old,
a time in life when we are all thirsty for understanding.
Along with many others in Galilee,
he went to hear John the Baptist preach.
He listened, and he made the choice
to jump in the water.
It had a profound effect on him, and he went on retreat--
out to the desert to think about what it all meant.
________________________________________
We don’t question the idea of Jesus being baptized by John,
but scholars tell us that first- and second-generation Christians
were embarrassed by it.
Their thinking was that, if Jesus was baptized by John,
John must be superior to Jesus,
so some of the pieces of our scriptures
were shaped to show that,
in spite of John’s baptism,
Jesus was superior to him.
The importance of Jesus’ baptism, though,
was not that John baptized him
but that it marked a moment when Jesus committed his life,
as Paul put it in our second reading,
to go about doing good works, to teach the word of God.
________________________________________
The long journey through my desert
put me on a path of learning and listening
and being formed into the person I’m still becoming.
That retreat experience in my early 30s
put me on a life path of searching and finding God
and then searching even farther.
Jesus’ baptism seems to be that same kind of experience,
an examination of one’s life and purpose
and a decision to go in a new direction.
It’s like Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain,
published when he was 31 years old.
It’s like Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness,
published when she was 30.
________________________________________
Monday we’ll step out of Christmas into Ordinary Time.
We’ll celebrate Jesus’ way of understanding
and making choices
and acting on his choices,
the Way of a man of prayer, a prophet and a teacher,
a healing presence, a beloved child of God
And we will keep on walking the Way
with him.
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord (C), January 6, 2019
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm Response: Psalm 72
Second Reading: Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6
Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12
Biblical scholars and historians pretty much agree these days
that the story of the wise men
is long on pageantry but short on history,
pointing out that the only certain piece of reality in the reading
is that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod.
Like Matthew’s infancy narrative with its shepherds and angels,
Luke’s narrative with its Magi from the East
pulls together ideas from the world around him,
from prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, from secular stories,
and from legends about pagan heroes.
Part of Luke’s purpose in that
was to give the early Christians images
to help them see Jesus as the long-expected Messiah...
their king... their savior.
Another purpose was to counter the arguments
of people who said that Jesus was not the Messiah.
So Luke shapes his story with the census
so Jesus can be born in Bethlehem, the city of David,
because it meets people’s expectation
that the Messiah will be of the house of David,
with its center in Bethlehem.
And Luke has Mary and Joseph
take the baby from Bethlehem to Egypt
in order to reflect God’s promise through the prophet Hosea:
“out of Egypt I called my son.”
Luke’s story of the Magi is good drama,
convincing for his audience
because he uses images they were familiar with
to speak hope as they faced the problems of their time.
It can only make sense to us
if it speaks to the problems in our time.
And it does.
____________________________________
New Year’s Eve I watched the live-stream
of the Poor People’s Campaign “National Watch Night”
from Raleigh, North Carolina,
and I heard appalling statistics and dismal stories
about poverty and oppression
in our country and around the world.
The sad conditions in today’s world
mirror the picture Luke paints of Mary and Joseph.
They were ordered by an uncaring government
to register in their ancestral home.
They had to walk more than 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem,
which would have taken the good part of a week
given the terrain and Mary’s pregnancy,
and being so poor that they couldn’t find a room to stay in
once they got there.
So their baby was born in a barn.
Wise foreigners came to celebrate and honor the baby,
but their own King Herod wanted to kill him
and ended up ordering the slaughter of all the babies.
Mary and Joseph saved their baby by running away,
all the way to Egypt.
____________________________________
Today we have neighborhoods full of people stranded by floods
and cities full of people without homes because of fire.
We see refugees—parents and children--
walking over a thousand miles to find safety
from the violence in their home countries.
And when they get here, they live in tents
on the south side of the border if they can’t get in,
or they get “detained,” put in tents or jails on the north side,
if they do get in.
And while they’re detained, some of them die.
On December 6, Jakelin Caal, a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl,
died of dehydration and shock
after she was taken into detention.
Eight-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez
died of the flu on Christmas Eve
after he was held in U.S. border patrol custody
almost twice as long as legally permitted.
His death could have been prevented, doctors say,
had he received treatment.
When Mariee Juarez, 19 months old,
developed a fever over 104 degrees with vomiting and diarrhea
while in detention in Texas,
she and her family were released,
but she was already too sick for doctors to save her life.
A five-month-old baby from Honduras came down with pneumonia
after being held for days in a freezing cell.
This week we saw videos of little children being beaten
and dragged through a government detention facility.
____________________________________
We grew up hearing Luke’s gospel
about the injustice of the wicked king Herod
and the plight of Jesus’ family.
We grew up hearing Isaiah’s prophecy that God’s people
would survive exile and poverty and injustice.
We grew up hearing Paul insist
that those undeserving pagans, those Gentiles,
are God’s people just as much
as anybody and everybody else.
We grew up hearing the psalmist
rejoicing that justice would flourish
and God would rescue the anawim--
the poor, the afflicted, and the lowly.
We heard those scriptures again today.
____________________________________
The anawim of our time are no different
from Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.
The foreigners of our time--
no matter if they’re poor or different from us,
no matter what country they come from--
they are co-heirs of God’s promise of peace and justice.
Those desperate poor, those lowly foreigners,
walk toward us now.
Their cry for help
is our call
to keep on working for peace and justice.
Amen
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm Response: Psalm 72
Second Reading: Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6
Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12
Biblical scholars and historians pretty much agree these days
that the story of the wise men
is long on pageantry but short on history,
pointing out that the only certain piece of reality in the reading
is that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod.
Like Matthew’s infancy narrative with its shepherds and angels,
Luke’s narrative with its Magi from the East
pulls together ideas from the world around him,
from prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, from secular stories,
and from legends about pagan heroes.
Part of Luke’s purpose in that
was to give the early Christians images
to help them see Jesus as the long-expected Messiah...
their king... their savior.
Another purpose was to counter the arguments
of people who said that Jesus was not the Messiah.
So Luke shapes his story with the census
so Jesus can be born in Bethlehem, the city of David,
because it meets people’s expectation
that the Messiah will be of the house of David,
with its center in Bethlehem.
And Luke has Mary and Joseph
take the baby from Bethlehem to Egypt
in order to reflect God’s promise through the prophet Hosea:
“out of Egypt I called my son.”
Luke’s story of the Magi is good drama,
convincing for his audience
because he uses images they were familiar with
to speak hope as they faced the problems of their time.
It can only make sense to us
if it speaks to the problems in our time.
And it does.
____________________________________
New Year’s Eve I watched the live-stream
of the Poor People’s Campaign “National Watch Night”
from Raleigh, North Carolina,
and I heard appalling statistics and dismal stories
about poverty and oppression
in our country and around the world.
The sad conditions in today’s world
mirror the picture Luke paints of Mary and Joseph.
They were ordered by an uncaring government
to register in their ancestral home.
They had to walk more than 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem,
which would have taken the good part of a week
given the terrain and Mary’s pregnancy,
and being so poor that they couldn’t find a room to stay in
once they got there.
So their baby was born in a barn.
Wise foreigners came to celebrate and honor the baby,
but their own King Herod wanted to kill him
and ended up ordering the slaughter of all the babies.
Mary and Joseph saved their baby by running away,
all the way to Egypt.
____________________________________
Today we have neighborhoods full of people stranded by floods
and cities full of people without homes because of fire.
We see refugees—parents and children--
walking over a thousand miles to find safety
from the violence in their home countries.
And when they get here, they live in tents
on the south side of the border if they can’t get in,
or they get “detained,” put in tents or jails on the north side,
if they do get in.
And while they’re detained, some of them die.
On December 6, Jakelin Caal, a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl,
died of dehydration and shock
after she was taken into detention.
Eight-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez
died of the flu on Christmas Eve
after he was held in U.S. border patrol custody
almost twice as long as legally permitted.
His death could have been prevented, doctors say,
had he received treatment.
When Mariee Juarez, 19 months old,
developed a fever over 104 degrees with vomiting and diarrhea
while in detention in Texas,
she and her family were released,
but she was already too sick for doctors to save her life.
A five-month-old baby from Honduras came down with pneumonia
after being held for days in a freezing cell.
This week we saw videos of little children being beaten
and dragged through a government detention facility.
____________________________________
We grew up hearing Luke’s gospel
about the injustice of the wicked king Herod
and the plight of Jesus’ family.
We grew up hearing Isaiah’s prophecy that God’s people
would survive exile and poverty and injustice.
We grew up hearing Paul insist
that those undeserving pagans, those Gentiles,
are God’s people just as much
as anybody and everybody else.
We grew up hearing the psalmist
rejoicing that justice would flourish
and God would rescue the anawim--
the poor, the afflicted, and the lowly.
We heard those scriptures again today.
____________________________________
The anawim of our time are no different
from Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.
The foreigners of our time--
no matter if they’re poor or different from us,
no matter what country they come from--
they are co-heirs of God’s promise of peace and justice.
Those desperate poor, those lowly foreigners,
walk toward us now.
Their cry for help
is our call
to keep on working for peace and justice.
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Holy Family, December 30, 2018
First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Responsorial: Psalm 128
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12-21
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
“What’s past is prologue,” Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest,
meaning that we can look back at what happened in the past
to explain what has happened since then.
This idea that people’s childhood experiences and traits
could forecast their adult achievements
has a much longer history on a much wider scale
than the 15th century Renaissance in Europe.
Luke, for one, had used it
in both his gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles.
Scripture scholars and historians tell us
that he composed today’s Gospel passage
in keeping with the common practice of Greek biographers
to write a story about a hero’s early years
to foreshadow the hero’s adult accomplishments.
So Luke wrote the story of Jesus in the temple in that tradition,
to show early proof
that Jesus would become a great religious teacher,
exceeding even the wisdom of the temple authorities.
One of the apocryphal gospels, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,
tells a story even more astounding
by having Jesus—at the age of 12--
not just listen and ask questions
but also teach the temple teachers.
Other apocryphal writings have stories about Jesus as a child,
like his making birds out of clay
and then astonishing his playmates
when the birds come to life and fly away.
It was created to show that Jesus, even as a child,
worked miracles that foreshadowed new life.
_______________________________
Our families still tend to do that with us, don’t they?
Those of you who gathered at Christmas with family,
or spent time talking on the phone with far-flung relatives,
could very well have heard some of those stories,
maybe even stories about your own childhood.
Had my family been so inclined, given what I’ve been doing lately,
they might have reminded me of the stitches
that I needed when I was two
and rode my tricycle off Grandma’s front porch.
Still have the scars.
Or the concussion when I was 17
and my horse flipped over on me in a parade.
Still have the bump on my head.
And there are more,
but you already know about my most recent accomplishments
along these lines.
There are other traits from my childhood
that could be used the same way,
like my learning the priest parts of the Mass in Latin
so I could help my brother learn the server responses
and handing out Necco wafers when we practiced communion.
_______________________________
We do the same thing, all of us.
If you became an architect or an engineer,
your family may be telling you
that you were always building forts and tree houses
or drawing pictures of cars and houses.
If you became a nurse, your family may be telling you
that you always were the one with the bandaids
and the calm comfort when one of your siblings fell down.
If you became a teacher, your family may be telling you
that you were always under the blankets reading by flashlight,
way after bedtime.
_______________________________
We look back from where we are now
and think about how we got here.
Childhood memories, adult vocations.
It is true that what we do
can help form
what we become in the future.
Sometimes it’s good.
Sometimes it’s not so good.
Either way, sometimes it’s permanent.
And our families remember.
And exaggerate.
And the story gets told again and again,
whenever the clan gets together.
Most of us are lucky enough to have families that don’t tell
the not-so-good parts of our childhood very often,
or they tell them in a good way…
like saying that we learned our lesson and changed our ways.
Certainly they worried about us,
like Mary and Joseph did when they couldn’t find Jesus.
Maybe they wondered about us,
like Mary did about Jesus’ staying behind in the Temple.
Maybe they were afraid for us
and tried an intervention at some point,
like Jesus’ family tried to do
when thought his healings were gaining too much attention.
They wanted us to succeed, to be “normal,”
but the fact is
that nobody is really “normal.”
_______________________________
Each of us is unique, a one-of-a-kind creation, a child of God.
When we have the inclination and the courage
to let that unique God-within-us shine through,
we can easily step outside the bounds
of what our family and our culture considers “normal.”
We can do the unexpected…
and we can do the expected exceedingly well.
Maybe we start an organization to stop gun violence,
like Toby Hoover did.
Maybe we listen to our friends, one by one,
quietly supporting them in the trials of their lives.
Maybe we marry and have children
and shepherd each of them into full lives as loving people.
Maybe we open our family circle—and our hearts--
to embrace adopted children, like Mary Jean and Tom did.
Maybe we leave small-town Ohio for New York
to work with Dorothy Day, like Tom McDonald did.
Maybe we work day and night to call people together
to rescue our environment,
like Mike Ferner is doing with Lake Erie.
Each of you has a story like that to tell,
a piece of your life
that speaks of the extraordinary good you do
that grows and blossoms out of your ordinary life,
a story that tells how you grew
to become the blessing you are to the world.
The way of Jesus teaches
that the way of the divine
is in everyone.
God is incarnate—is made flesh—in every person on earth.
I look around and see you, each one of you,
part of God’s family.
And what a holy family you are!
I thank God for you!
First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Responsorial: Psalm 128
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12-21
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
“What’s past is prologue,” Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest,
meaning that we can look back at what happened in the past
to explain what has happened since then.
This idea that people’s childhood experiences and traits
could forecast their adult achievements
has a much longer history on a much wider scale
than the 15th century Renaissance in Europe.
Luke, for one, had used it
in both his gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles.
Scripture scholars and historians tell us
that he composed today’s Gospel passage
in keeping with the common practice of Greek biographers
to write a story about a hero’s early years
to foreshadow the hero’s adult accomplishments.
So Luke wrote the story of Jesus in the temple in that tradition,
to show early proof
that Jesus would become a great religious teacher,
exceeding even the wisdom of the temple authorities.
One of the apocryphal gospels, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,
tells a story even more astounding
by having Jesus—at the age of 12--
not just listen and ask questions
but also teach the temple teachers.
Other apocryphal writings have stories about Jesus as a child,
like his making birds out of clay
and then astonishing his playmates
when the birds come to life and fly away.
It was created to show that Jesus, even as a child,
worked miracles that foreshadowed new life.
_______________________________
Our families still tend to do that with us, don’t they?
Those of you who gathered at Christmas with family,
or spent time talking on the phone with far-flung relatives,
could very well have heard some of those stories,
maybe even stories about your own childhood.
Had my family been so inclined, given what I’ve been doing lately,
they might have reminded me of the stitches
that I needed when I was two
and rode my tricycle off Grandma’s front porch.
Still have the scars.
Or the concussion when I was 17
and my horse flipped over on me in a parade.
Still have the bump on my head.
And there are more,
but you already know about my most recent accomplishments
along these lines.
There are other traits from my childhood
that could be used the same way,
like my learning the priest parts of the Mass in Latin
so I could help my brother learn the server responses
and handing out Necco wafers when we practiced communion.
_______________________________
We do the same thing, all of us.
If you became an architect or an engineer,
your family may be telling you
that you were always building forts and tree houses
or drawing pictures of cars and houses.
If you became a nurse, your family may be telling you
that you always were the one with the bandaids
and the calm comfort when one of your siblings fell down.
If you became a teacher, your family may be telling you
that you were always under the blankets reading by flashlight,
way after bedtime.
_______________________________
We look back from where we are now
and think about how we got here.
Childhood memories, adult vocations.
It is true that what we do
can help form
what we become in the future.
Sometimes it’s good.
Sometimes it’s not so good.
Either way, sometimes it’s permanent.
And our families remember.
And exaggerate.
And the story gets told again and again,
whenever the clan gets together.
Most of us are lucky enough to have families that don’t tell
the not-so-good parts of our childhood very often,
or they tell them in a good way…
like saying that we learned our lesson and changed our ways.
Certainly they worried about us,
like Mary and Joseph did when they couldn’t find Jesus.
Maybe they wondered about us,
like Mary did about Jesus’ staying behind in the Temple.
Maybe they were afraid for us
and tried an intervention at some point,
like Jesus’ family tried to do
when thought his healings were gaining too much attention.
They wanted us to succeed, to be “normal,”
but the fact is
that nobody is really “normal.”
_______________________________
Each of us is unique, a one-of-a-kind creation, a child of God.
When we have the inclination and the courage
to let that unique God-within-us shine through,
we can easily step outside the bounds
of what our family and our culture considers “normal.”
We can do the unexpected…
and we can do the expected exceedingly well.
Maybe we start an organization to stop gun violence,
like Toby Hoover did.
Maybe we listen to our friends, one by one,
quietly supporting them in the trials of their lives.
Maybe we marry and have children
and shepherd each of them into full lives as loving people.
Maybe we open our family circle—and our hearts--
to embrace adopted children, like Mary Jean and Tom did.
Maybe we leave small-town Ohio for New York
to work with Dorothy Day, like Tom McDonald did.
Maybe we work day and night to call people together
to rescue our environment,
like Mike Ferner is doing with Lake Erie.
Each of you has a story like that to tell,
a piece of your life
that speaks of the extraordinary good you do
that grows and blossoms out of your ordinary life,
a story that tells how you grew
to become the blessing you are to the world.
The way of Jesus teaches
that the way of the divine
is in everyone.
God is incarnate—is made flesh—in every person on earth.
I look around and see you, each one of you,
part of God’s family.
And what a holy family you are!
I thank God for you!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Nativity of the Lord 2018
Very little in Luke’s infancy narrative is historically accurate...
but it’s all true.
And scholars tell us that the most important part
is historically accurate:
that Jesus was born to Mary.
Other details--
who was emperor, the census,
the trip to from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the manger--
were created by Luke
to show that Jesus was the expected savior.
Those details, like the angels and the shepherds,
were crafted to connect the story of Jesus’ birth
to prophetic texts that were familiar to Luke’s audience.
It’s useful to know that this infancy narrative, like Matthew’s,
was the last piece to be written,
after the rest of the story.
The other gospel writers chose
to start their stories at different times,
Mark at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan
and John way back at the beginning of everything--
from all eternity--
“in the beginning was the Word,” as John said.
_______________________________________
It’s also useful to know that those shepherds
were the riffraff, the dregs of society back then.
They were considered habitual liars
to the point that, in many places,
their testimony could not be accepted in a court.
Parents would lock their daughters inside to protect them
when the shepherds came to town.
They were seen as the scum of the earth.
_______________________________________
Luke’s portrayal of the shepherds
as witnesses celebrating the birth of the Messiah
changed the shepherds, changed their ways,
and it also changed the way Luke’s listeners
looked at shepherds.
Luke’s community
not only found their faith in the risen Jesus deepened,
but they also found themselves
looking differently at their world and the people around them.
_______________________________________
The same thing happens to us.
When we ponder the truth of the scriptures,
when we embrace belief in the new life of birth
and the new life of resurrection,
we are changed.
We begin to see our world and the people around us differently.
We are no longer able to look down on anyone as “scum”--
not the woman bearing a child out of wedlock,
not the immigrant family seeking safe shelter,
not the migrant farm worker,
not anyone.
We literally walk in a new world...
a world of peace.
_______________________________________
Our Christmas proclamation says
that the whole world was at peace when Jesus was born,
but that was only true in one sense,
that back then the Roman Empire was not at war.
We know that peace is more than the absence of war.
It’s the absence of hate.
Peace is a time when people resolve their conflicts without violence
and work together to improve their lives.
Peace is a time when everybody lives in safety,
without fear or threat of violence.
Peace is a time when everybody is equal before the law
and when fair laws protect people’s rights.
Peace is a time when everybody takes part in politics
and the government is accountable to the people
Peace is a time when everybody
has equal access to basic needs
like food, water, shelter, education, healthcare.
Peace is when everybody has a chance to work,
no matter their race, gender, ethnic background, class,
or any other aspect of their identity.
_______________________________________
With great joy
tonight we celebrate the birth of the one we call
the Prince of Peace,
and we pray in the hope that
all the world will really be at real peace.
And so, we pray once more
that peace will be born in us,
be born in our world.
Amen!
Very little in Luke’s infancy narrative is historically accurate...
but it’s all true.
And scholars tell us that the most important part
is historically accurate:
that Jesus was born to Mary.
Other details--
who was emperor, the census,
the trip to from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the manger--
were created by Luke
to show that Jesus was the expected savior.
Those details, like the angels and the shepherds,
were crafted to connect the story of Jesus’ birth
to prophetic texts that were familiar to Luke’s audience.
It’s useful to know that this infancy narrative, like Matthew’s,
was the last piece to be written,
after the rest of the story.
The other gospel writers chose
to start their stories at different times,
Mark at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan
and John way back at the beginning of everything--
from all eternity--
“in the beginning was the Word,” as John said.
_______________________________________
It’s also useful to know that those shepherds
were the riffraff, the dregs of society back then.
They were considered habitual liars
to the point that, in many places,
their testimony could not be accepted in a court.
Parents would lock their daughters inside to protect them
when the shepherds came to town.
They were seen as the scum of the earth.
_______________________________________
Luke’s portrayal of the shepherds
as witnesses celebrating the birth of the Messiah
changed the shepherds, changed their ways,
and it also changed the way Luke’s listeners
looked at shepherds.
Luke’s community
not only found their faith in the risen Jesus deepened,
but they also found themselves
looking differently at their world and the people around them.
_______________________________________
The same thing happens to us.
When we ponder the truth of the scriptures,
when we embrace belief in the new life of birth
and the new life of resurrection,
we are changed.
We begin to see our world and the people around us differently.
We are no longer able to look down on anyone as “scum”--
not the woman bearing a child out of wedlock,
not the immigrant family seeking safe shelter,
not the migrant farm worker,
not anyone.
We literally walk in a new world...
a world of peace.
_______________________________________
Our Christmas proclamation says
that the whole world was at peace when Jesus was born,
but that was only true in one sense,
that back then the Roman Empire was not at war.
We know that peace is more than the absence of war.
It’s the absence of hate.
Peace is a time when people resolve their conflicts without violence
and work together to improve their lives.
Peace is a time when everybody lives in safety,
without fear or threat of violence.
Peace is a time when everybody is equal before the law
and when fair laws protect people’s rights.
Peace is a time when everybody takes part in politics
and the government is accountable to the people
Peace is a time when everybody
has equal access to basic needs
like food, water, shelter, education, healthcare.
Peace is when everybody has a chance to work,
no matter their race, gender, ethnic background, class,
or any other aspect of their identity.
_______________________________________
With great joy
tonight we celebrate the birth of the one we call
the Prince of Peace,
and we pray in the hope that
all the world will really be at real peace.
And so, we pray once more
that peace will be born in us,
be born in our world.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fourth Sunday of Advent C, December 23, 2018
First Reading: Micah 5:1-4
Psalm Response: Psalm 80
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel: Luke 1: 39-45
When we look at the beginning of Luke’s gospel,
we see that he created an elaborate literary structure.
First, there’s the typical Greek address
to the recipient of the letter, in this case, Theophilus,
whose name means Friend of God.
What follows is a set of two diptychs,
those connected panels
that artists sometimes use to present related pictures.
The first two scenes are the birth announcements--
the annunciations by the angel Gabriel
—first of John the Baptist to Zechariah,
and then of Jesus to Mary.
The second set of scenes are the birth stories,
first John the Baptist, then Jesus.
They are connected by today’s gospel passage
which acts as the hinge of the diptych,
the story of the meeting of the two pregnant mothers,
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.
Luke’s purpose in writing is to show
that John is the prophet who will go before the Lord,
and Jesus is the Lord,
in short, to show Jesus’ sovereignty, his dominion, over John.
Luke also includes references
that his audience would recognize
as reflecting the history and scriptures of their tradition,
words that assure the people first of all
that God is still with them.
As he develops his “good news,”
Luke will make it clear,
using references to Jewish history and tradition,
that God is not only with them
but among them
and in them.
____________________________________
Luke’s listeners took these things symbolically, not literally.
They heard how their past history of experiences of God’s presence
had formed them
and brought them out of exile and oppression.
They heard once again
God’s promise to be with them.
And they heard that God would walk among them
in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
And when they heard the rest of the story--
the good news of God’s reign,
that each of them is sent to do what Jesus had done--
they knew that God would always be in them, too.
They had hope.
____________________________________
We have that same hope.
We look around our world
and see the need for peace in every troubled spot,
from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
We look around our country
and see the need for welcoming every stranger,
including refugees and asylum seekers and immigrants.
We look around our neighborhoods
and see the need for love of every neighbor,
regardless of race or class or gender.
____________________________________
It’s almost Christmas.
It’s our time to remember that we are called
to be the John-the-Baptists to our world,
called to speak out against injustice
and point the way to peace.
It’s time to remind ourselves that God is with us,
that God is among us,
and that God is in us,
waiting for us to reach out in love,
just like Jesus did.
And we know that our call doesn’t end on December 26.
We are called
for the rest of our lives.
Amen!
First Reading: Micah 5:1-4
Psalm Response: Psalm 80
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel: Luke 1: 39-45
When we look at the beginning of Luke’s gospel,
we see that he created an elaborate literary structure.
First, there’s the typical Greek address
to the recipient of the letter, in this case, Theophilus,
whose name means Friend of God.
What follows is a set of two diptychs,
those connected panels
that artists sometimes use to present related pictures.
The first two scenes are the birth announcements--
the annunciations by the angel Gabriel
—first of John the Baptist to Zechariah,
and then of Jesus to Mary.
The second set of scenes are the birth stories,
first John the Baptist, then Jesus.
They are connected by today’s gospel passage
which acts as the hinge of the diptych,
the story of the meeting of the two pregnant mothers,
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.
Luke’s purpose in writing is to show
that John is the prophet who will go before the Lord,
and Jesus is the Lord,
in short, to show Jesus’ sovereignty, his dominion, over John.
Luke also includes references
that his audience would recognize
as reflecting the history and scriptures of their tradition,
words that assure the people first of all
that God is still with them.
As he develops his “good news,”
Luke will make it clear,
using references to Jewish history and tradition,
that God is not only with them
but among them
and in them.
____________________________________
Luke’s listeners took these things symbolically, not literally.
They heard how their past history of experiences of God’s presence
had formed them
and brought them out of exile and oppression.
They heard once again
God’s promise to be with them.
And they heard that God would walk among them
in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
And when they heard the rest of the story--
the good news of God’s reign,
that each of them is sent to do what Jesus had done--
they knew that God would always be in them, too.
They had hope.
____________________________________
We have that same hope.
We look around our world
and see the need for peace in every troubled spot,
from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
We look around our country
and see the need for welcoming every stranger,
including refugees and asylum seekers and immigrants.
We look around our neighborhoods
and see the need for love of every neighbor,
regardless of race or class or gender.
____________________________________
It’s almost Christmas.
It’s our time to remember that we are called
to be the John-the-Baptists to our world,
called to speak out against injustice
and point the way to peace.
It’s time to remind ourselves that God is with us,
that God is among us,
and that God is in us,
waiting for us to reach out in love,
just like Jesus did.
And we know that our call doesn’t end on December 26.
We are called
for the rest of our lives.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Advent C (Gaudete), December 16, 2018
First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18
Psalm Response: Isaiah 12
Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
Details about the connection
between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth
are not totally clear.
Historians and scripture scholars tell us
that most of the followers of John the Baptist
continued to follow him after Jesus began preaching,
but some of them continued to follow John’s teachings
even after he was beheaded by Herod Antipas.
On the other hand, they also tell us
that some followers of John
became followers of Jesus.
They say that those followers
who turned to Jesus after John’s death
were probably responsible
for introducing the practices of fasting and baptism
into the Jesus movement.
In Mark’s gospel Jesus himself is shown
starting out as a follower of John, being baptized by him,
going off to fast and pray in the desert--
and when he came back, preaching like John.
___________________________________
Some of John’s followers
had thought him
to be the long-awaited Messiah.
On the other hand, in today’s passage
Luke puts the words in John’s mouth to say very clearly
that he himself is not the Messiah.
Going even further, the author of the fourth Gospel
includes a scene where John explicitly tells his followers
to go follow Jesus.
The historians tell us that, at first,
John had a larger presence than Jesus did--
more followers, a wider impact.
Over time, though, the number of Jesus’ followers kept on growing,
while John’s did not.
___________________________________
John and Jesus were contemporaries.
They both preached the good news.
Their followers heard very similar statements from them,
as we heard in today’s gospel.
When the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers
ask John what to do,
the response is very much like what we hear Jesus saying
to the rich young man
in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
And we still hear message framed that same way.
Liturgical scholar Rita Ferrone
casts Pope Francis in a dialogue
that parallels both John and Jesus when she writes,
“The crowds asked Pope Francis, ‘What then should we do?’
To the pastors he said ‘Get out of the sacristy!
Go and be with your people; smell like your sheep!’
To the wealthy nations he said,
‘Give up your trickle-down economic theories!
Address the injustices that hold the poor in bondage.’”
___________________________________
So we are still asking that same question: What should we do?
And we get the same answer.
It’s the answer that shines the bright light of hope
on this Gaudete Sunday,
the answer that leads us to rejoice.
We take the next step, wherever we are, to help someone in need.
Just look around town.
In November the U.S. Bishops sent a pastoral letter to all of us,
a letter against racism
entitled Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love.
The letter calls racism
a “particularly destructive and persistent form of evil”
that infects our nation,
and it surely is that.
We see it in racial profiling,
in inferior schools for inner-city kids,
in the failure of landlords to get the lead out of their rentals,
in food deserts, in homelessness, in human trafficking,
in the pipeline to prison.
It’s spread throughout the history of our land,
from the destruction of native peoples
to the present-day immigration fiasco.
And it’s in our churches,
not much better now than when Martin Luther King observed
that 11 o’clock on Sunday
is the most segregated hour of the week.
This racism—like classism and sexism--
comes out of people who think their own race
or ethnic group or class or gender
is superior to others.
And it is a sin.
Our culture too often shows the extent of this sin:
just this week, the President of the U.S.
threatened to shut down the government
unless Congress votes for a border wall
and enough military force to keep asylum seekers
from getting their families to safety.
___________________________________
But some individuals and some groups
are taking action against racism,
especially now that it’s in the headlines every day.
A lot of Toledoans are working to bring people together.
We have the MultiFaith Council bringing people of all faiths...
and no faith... together
for Universal Worship Services.
We have the Toledo Community Coalition
working on dialogues across racial divides.
Barbara, a member of Monroe Street United Methodist Church,
participated in a Dialogue-to-Change group a few years ago.
When it ended, she was inspired
to gather the diverse people she met for supper in her home,
and these dozen or so—now friends--
continue to gather every month.
Toledo has countless food pantries and soup kitchens
feeding the homeless and the hungry
without regard for anything but a sister or brother in need.
Efforts like this are getting a bit of news attention
now that Christmas is coming.
___________________________________
And what happens when Christmas is past and gone?
These folks will keep on giving, day after day,
spending their time and energy
to help others find the joy of this season all year long.
If they have extra clothes,
they give them to people who need them.
If they have extra cash,
they donate to help the homeless and the oppressed.
They volunteer.
At work, they’re honest and responsible.
They go out of their way to be kind and loving and considerate,
to model the Golden Rule.
To quote today’s reading from Philippians,
they show their kindness and gentleness to everyone.
Like Jesus taught,
they are inclusive and non-judgmental and generous.
As I get older, I’m getting better at seeing these good people…
and it’s because you have shown me what it’s like
to follow Jesus.
Thank you!
And thanks be to God!
First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18
Psalm Response: Isaiah 12
Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
Details about the connection
between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth
are not totally clear.
Historians and scripture scholars tell us
that most of the followers of John the Baptist
continued to follow him after Jesus began preaching,
but some of them continued to follow John’s teachings
even after he was beheaded by Herod Antipas.
On the other hand, they also tell us
that some followers of John
became followers of Jesus.
They say that those followers
who turned to Jesus after John’s death
were probably responsible
for introducing the practices of fasting and baptism
into the Jesus movement.
In Mark’s gospel Jesus himself is shown
starting out as a follower of John, being baptized by him,
going off to fast and pray in the desert--
and when he came back, preaching like John.
___________________________________
Some of John’s followers
had thought him
to be the long-awaited Messiah.
On the other hand, in today’s passage
Luke puts the words in John’s mouth to say very clearly
that he himself is not the Messiah.
Going even further, the author of the fourth Gospel
includes a scene where John explicitly tells his followers
to go follow Jesus.
The historians tell us that, at first,
John had a larger presence than Jesus did--
more followers, a wider impact.
Over time, though, the number of Jesus’ followers kept on growing,
while John’s did not.
___________________________________
John and Jesus were contemporaries.
They both preached the good news.
Their followers heard very similar statements from them,
as we heard in today’s gospel.
When the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers
ask John what to do,
the response is very much like what we hear Jesus saying
to the rich young man
in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
And we still hear message framed that same way.
Liturgical scholar Rita Ferrone
casts Pope Francis in a dialogue
that parallels both John and Jesus when she writes,
“The crowds asked Pope Francis, ‘What then should we do?’
To the pastors he said ‘Get out of the sacristy!
Go and be with your people; smell like your sheep!’
To the wealthy nations he said,
‘Give up your trickle-down economic theories!
Address the injustices that hold the poor in bondage.’”
___________________________________
So we are still asking that same question: What should we do?
And we get the same answer.
It’s the answer that shines the bright light of hope
on this Gaudete Sunday,
the answer that leads us to rejoice.
We take the next step, wherever we are, to help someone in need.
Just look around town.
In November the U.S. Bishops sent a pastoral letter to all of us,
a letter against racism
entitled Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love.
The letter calls racism
a “particularly destructive and persistent form of evil”
that infects our nation,
and it surely is that.
We see it in racial profiling,
in inferior schools for inner-city kids,
in the failure of landlords to get the lead out of their rentals,
in food deserts, in homelessness, in human trafficking,
in the pipeline to prison.
It’s spread throughout the history of our land,
from the destruction of native peoples
to the present-day immigration fiasco.
And it’s in our churches,
not much better now than when Martin Luther King observed
that 11 o’clock on Sunday
is the most segregated hour of the week.
This racism—like classism and sexism--
comes out of people who think their own race
or ethnic group or class or gender
is superior to others.
And it is a sin.
Our culture too often shows the extent of this sin:
just this week, the President of the U.S.
threatened to shut down the government
unless Congress votes for a border wall
and enough military force to keep asylum seekers
from getting their families to safety.
___________________________________
But some individuals and some groups
are taking action against racism,
especially now that it’s in the headlines every day.
A lot of Toledoans are working to bring people together.
We have the MultiFaith Council bringing people of all faiths...
and no faith... together
for Universal Worship Services.
We have the Toledo Community Coalition
working on dialogues across racial divides.
Barbara, a member of Monroe Street United Methodist Church,
participated in a Dialogue-to-Change group a few years ago.
When it ended, she was inspired
to gather the diverse people she met for supper in her home,
and these dozen or so—now friends--
continue to gather every month.
Toledo has countless food pantries and soup kitchens
feeding the homeless and the hungry
without regard for anything but a sister or brother in need.
Efforts like this are getting a bit of news attention
now that Christmas is coming.
___________________________________
And what happens when Christmas is past and gone?
These folks will keep on giving, day after day,
spending their time and energy
to help others find the joy of this season all year long.
If they have extra clothes,
they give them to people who need them.
If they have extra cash,
they donate to help the homeless and the oppressed.
They volunteer.
At work, they’re honest and responsible.
They go out of their way to be kind and loving and considerate,
to model the Golden Rule.
To quote today’s reading from Philippians,
they show their kindness and gentleness to everyone.
Like Jesus taught,
they are inclusive and non-judgmental and generous.
As I get older, I’m getting better at seeing these good people…
and it’s because you have shown me what it’s like
to follow Jesus.
Thank you!
And thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community Second Sunday of Advent (C), December 9, 2018
First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 126
Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
This week I came to a deeper understanding of today’s readings,
thanks in part to reading Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming.
It’s not a religious book.
It’s not even overtly spiritual.
It’s a description of her life path, her struggles, her hopes, her joys.
It stirred my memory of the good things
that happened in those eight years in the White House
in contrast to the chaos and turmoil we’re seeing today.
Along with the many projects she was involved with,
her devotion to her daughters--
which she extended to all young people--
gave me a current picture of the meaning
of today’s first reading where Baruch wrote,
“Put on the garment of justice that comes from God.”
Her love of family, of her husband, of her children,
and the ways she tried to offer that love
to all the people she met
seemed to echo the words of today’s psalm:
“God has done great things for us,
filled us with laughter and music.”
And her gratitude for the people in her life--
from her family to her staff and her friends
and the people she met while campaigning
and while living in the White House--
her gratitude sounds
like the gratitude Paul expresses in the letter to the Philippians:
“I thank my God for you!”
It’s a gratitude born of affection and hope,
full of joy, full of confidence that people are good
and will do good works.
And the politics of it all
seemed to mirror the politics of Luke’s gospel,
where, governed by powerful oppressors,
John the Baptist quotes Isaiah:
“Prepare the way, make straight the paths.”
Like John, Michelle Obama tells the story of her change of heart
and her hope for all people
to find straight roads and smooth ways.
Having seen the scriptures reflected in Michelle Obama’s story,
I was reminded of Marcus Borg saying
that everything in the Bible is true...
and some of it actually happened.
___________________________________
What scholars think actually happened here
is that in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
John really went around baptizing people
and urging them to change their hearts and minds,
to turn their lives around.
Like Jesus after him, John urged repentance.
In ordinary daily life back then,
repentance meant “a change of mind.”
In a religious context
it took on the meaning of “reform of life.”
Today we talk about turning our life around,
tweaking our lifestyle.
___________________________________
No matter when it happens,
the core message is the same as Isaiah spoke in 700 BC,
the same message Baruch spoke in 550 BC,
the same message in the psalm in 536 BC,
the same message in Luke in 90 AD…
and the same message that came to me
as I read Michelle Obama’s book in 2018 AD.
Here’s that core message:
things have been bad in the past, and they’re bad now:
there’s oppression, and inequality, and injustice.
Yet... there’s also hope… hope against impossible odds.
The mountains and valleys of inequality are
what we have to level out.
The winding roads and rough ways
of racism and sexism and classism are
what we have to make straight and smooth.
Our voice is the one that must call out.
We are the ones who have to make the way ready
for God’s coming.
___________________________________
Particularly relevant for our times
is the comment of the Jesuit priest John Kavanaugh,
who said that “The truth, uttered in adversity,
holds more power than all the huzzahs bellowed in triumph.”
When Pope Francis met with our U.S. Bishops in 2015,
he talked about confronting the challenging issues of our time
and how our future freedom and dignity
depend on how we face these challenges.
We know the challenges:
children are dying of hunger or from bombings;
immigrants drowning in search of a better life
or attacked at our southern border;
people victimized
by terrorism, wars, violence, and drug trafficking;
the environment devastated
by our predatory relationship with nature.
Every prophet of the past,
with all the voices in scripture and the voices in our daily life,
call us to confront these issues of our time.
Those voices call us to work for justice.
Even if we’re in the deserts of our personal life,
we are called.
It’s our job to do,
on top of every other job that calls for our attention.
It’s not important
that we are imperfect, or weak, or without power.
It is important that we’re doing justice where we are,
in whatever way we can.
___________________________________
Advent literally means “coming.”
It’s a time of looking ahead to celebrating the coming
of God-among-us in Jesus of Nazareth.
At the same time, it’s a time of coming clean,
of getting straight with God and with one another,
so that we let the God-in-us
shine through.
Amen!
First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 126
Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
This week I came to a deeper understanding of today’s readings,
thanks in part to reading Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming.
It’s not a religious book.
It’s not even overtly spiritual.
It’s a description of her life path, her struggles, her hopes, her joys.
It stirred my memory of the good things
that happened in those eight years in the White House
in contrast to the chaos and turmoil we’re seeing today.
Along with the many projects she was involved with,
her devotion to her daughters--
which she extended to all young people--
gave me a current picture of the meaning
of today’s first reading where Baruch wrote,
“Put on the garment of justice that comes from God.”
Her love of family, of her husband, of her children,
and the ways she tried to offer that love
to all the people she met
seemed to echo the words of today’s psalm:
“God has done great things for us,
filled us with laughter and music.”
And her gratitude for the people in her life--
from her family to her staff and her friends
and the people she met while campaigning
and while living in the White House--
her gratitude sounds
like the gratitude Paul expresses in the letter to the Philippians:
“I thank my God for you!”
It’s a gratitude born of affection and hope,
full of joy, full of confidence that people are good
and will do good works.
And the politics of it all
seemed to mirror the politics of Luke’s gospel,
where, governed by powerful oppressors,
John the Baptist quotes Isaiah:
“Prepare the way, make straight the paths.”
Like John, Michelle Obama tells the story of her change of heart
and her hope for all people
to find straight roads and smooth ways.
Having seen the scriptures reflected in Michelle Obama’s story,
I was reminded of Marcus Borg saying
that everything in the Bible is true...
and some of it actually happened.
___________________________________
What scholars think actually happened here
is that in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
John really went around baptizing people
and urging them to change their hearts and minds,
to turn their lives around.
Like Jesus after him, John urged repentance.
In ordinary daily life back then,
repentance meant “a change of mind.”
In a religious context
it took on the meaning of “reform of life.”
Today we talk about turning our life around,
tweaking our lifestyle.
___________________________________
No matter when it happens,
the core message is the same as Isaiah spoke in 700 BC,
the same message Baruch spoke in 550 BC,
the same message in the psalm in 536 BC,
the same message in Luke in 90 AD…
and the same message that came to me
as I read Michelle Obama’s book in 2018 AD.
Here’s that core message:
things have been bad in the past, and they’re bad now:
there’s oppression, and inequality, and injustice.
Yet... there’s also hope… hope against impossible odds.
The mountains and valleys of inequality are
what we have to level out.
The winding roads and rough ways
of racism and sexism and classism are
what we have to make straight and smooth.
Our voice is the one that must call out.
We are the ones who have to make the way ready
for God’s coming.
___________________________________
Particularly relevant for our times
is the comment of the Jesuit priest John Kavanaugh,
who said that “The truth, uttered in adversity,
holds more power than all the huzzahs bellowed in triumph.”
When Pope Francis met with our U.S. Bishops in 2015,
he talked about confronting the challenging issues of our time
and how our future freedom and dignity
depend on how we face these challenges.
We know the challenges:
children are dying of hunger or from bombings;
immigrants drowning in search of a better life
or attacked at our southern border;
people victimized
by terrorism, wars, violence, and drug trafficking;
the environment devastated
by our predatory relationship with nature.
Every prophet of the past,
with all the voices in scripture and the voices in our daily life,
call us to confront these issues of our time.
Those voices call us to work for justice.
Even if we’re in the deserts of our personal life,
we are called.
It’s our job to do,
on top of every other job that calls for our attention.
It’s not important
that we are imperfect, or weak, or without power.
It is important that we’re doing justice where we are,
in whatever way we can.
___________________________________
Advent literally means “coming.”
It’s a time of looking ahead to celebrating the coming
of God-among-us in Jesus of Nazareth.
At the same time, it’s a time of coming clean,
of getting straight with God and with one another,
so that we let the God-in-us
shine through.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, First Sunday of Advent (C), December 2, 2018
First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm Response: Psalm 25
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
In today's Gospel we hear another apocalyptic message from Luke,
who takes a story created by Mark
and modifies it to speak a message of hope
to his own community.
Luke has Jesus talking about the signs of Luke’s own time.
It’s between 10 and 30 years
after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem,
sometime between 50 and 80 years after the Resurrection,
a time of chaos and disruption and diaspora.
As scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown put it,
Luke looks at the destruction that’s going on in his own time
and gives hope to his community
by having Jesus say
that God’s promise of deliverance from the upheaval
will be fulfilled.
_______________________________________
The first reading from Jeremiah follows that same pattern.
Jeremiah explains the current disaster
as God’s response to their worship of false gods,
then predicts a future that, because they stay true to Yahweh,
will see God restore Israel
and deliver them from bondage and oppression.
God, says Jeremiah, will bring justice,
the one thing they hope for:
they will have safety and security under an upright ruler.
And it will be a human ruler, just as in Luke’s “Son of Man,”
a leader who governs with wisdom and justice.
_______________________________________
Then, in the psalm response,
we hear a song of encouragement to the beleaguered people
to lift up their souls to God--
not to a boss, or the government rulers,
or to the hierarchy, or to anything or anyone else.
It’s a song of blessed assurance,
reminding the people that God is always with them.
_______________________________________
In today’s second reading
we hear Paul tell the people of Thessalonica
to increase in love for one another,
not in money or stuff or property
or fame or importance or power.
It’s not “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die,”
but live soberly, be wakeful and watchful, stay strong
in order to bear the trials and tribulations that will come.
That way, you’ll still be standing tall
when the good leader takes charge.
Like Jeremiah and Luke,
Paul reassures the Thessalonian community
that God is faithful,
so their job as followers of Christ
is to watch and pray and love and serve
so they will grow in holiness
while they wait out the bad times.
_______________________________________
The times we are living in don’t look so good, either,
which puts us in a space
that’s very much like what our ancestors in faith endured.
Our world suffers war and threats of war.
People are poor and marginalized and oppressed.
And Mother Earth, our common home,
is stressed by our misuse, overuse, and pollution.
The annual Climate Assessment,
a federal government report issued this past week,
tells us that weather disasters
are increasing in frequency and worsening in impact,
with devastation sure to follow.
Thousands of people will die from it,
hunger will worsen because of crop failure,
and the economy will shrink.
Higher temperatures will kill more people, the report says.
Here in the Midwest, where we’re expected to have
the biggest increase in extreme temperature,
164,000 people will die prematurely by the end of the century.
We’ll see twice as many cases of West Nile in the next 30 years.
Asthma and allergies will get worse.
Scorching heat, floods, wildfires.
Particularly vulnerable,
children, the elderly, the poor, and communities of color
will be at a much higher risk of illness and death.
_______________________________________
It’s been quite a week, a week where that climate report
took a back seat to Black Friday.
The media bombarded us with ads and news reports
encouraging us to buy more stuff because it’s on sale,
making it seem a public duty to spend more this year than last,
and not a word about the impact
of all that packaging that ends up in the landfill
and all that fossil fuel that’s burned up
to ship stuff we don’t need
from around the world to our doorstep.
It’s a bleak picture of what’s to come
if we don’t turn our lives around.
_______________________________________
We can see the signs of our times.
We can see the injustice running rampant in the world.
Unlike our President, we don’t deny that the problems are real.
We are aware of what is happening, why it’s happening…
and what needs to be done.
We know that reduce-reuse-recycle is good,
but it’s not enough any more.
We—our world, our country, and our own selves--
have to get rid of our habits
of greed, racism, pollution, and violence.
_______________________________________
Right now the earth is taking its winter nap,
but the promise of spring is there:
the marigolds are heavy with seeds
to collect for next year’s planting,
and new peony sprouts are already beginning
to poke their bright red noses up
where the old stems were trimmed off.
____________________________________
Like winter, Advent is a time of promise.
It’s a call to do what we can to set our world right again.
It’s a call to trust that God is with us, among us, and in us,
and that justice will prevail.
Let’s answer that call with all that’s in us.
Amen!
First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm Response: Psalm 25
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
In today's Gospel we hear another apocalyptic message from Luke,
who takes a story created by Mark
and modifies it to speak a message of hope
to his own community.
Luke has Jesus talking about the signs of Luke’s own time.
It’s between 10 and 30 years
after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem,
sometime between 50 and 80 years after the Resurrection,
a time of chaos and disruption and diaspora.
As scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown put it,
Luke looks at the destruction that’s going on in his own time
and gives hope to his community
by having Jesus say
that God’s promise of deliverance from the upheaval
will be fulfilled.
_______________________________________
The first reading from Jeremiah follows that same pattern.
Jeremiah explains the current disaster
as God’s response to their worship of false gods,
then predicts a future that, because they stay true to Yahweh,
will see God restore Israel
and deliver them from bondage and oppression.
God, says Jeremiah, will bring justice,
the one thing they hope for:
they will have safety and security under an upright ruler.
And it will be a human ruler, just as in Luke’s “Son of Man,”
a leader who governs with wisdom and justice.
_______________________________________
Then, in the psalm response,
we hear a song of encouragement to the beleaguered people
to lift up their souls to God--
not to a boss, or the government rulers,
or to the hierarchy, or to anything or anyone else.
It’s a song of blessed assurance,
reminding the people that God is always with them.
_______________________________________
In today’s second reading
we hear Paul tell the people of Thessalonica
to increase in love for one another,
not in money or stuff or property
or fame or importance or power.
It’s not “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die,”
but live soberly, be wakeful and watchful, stay strong
in order to bear the trials and tribulations that will come.
That way, you’ll still be standing tall
when the good leader takes charge.
Like Jeremiah and Luke,
Paul reassures the Thessalonian community
that God is faithful,
so their job as followers of Christ
is to watch and pray and love and serve
so they will grow in holiness
while they wait out the bad times.
_______________________________________
The times we are living in don’t look so good, either,
which puts us in a space
that’s very much like what our ancestors in faith endured.
Our world suffers war and threats of war.
People are poor and marginalized and oppressed.
And Mother Earth, our common home,
is stressed by our misuse, overuse, and pollution.
The annual Climate Assessment,
a federal government report issued this past week,
tells us that weather disasters
are increasing in frequency and worsening in impact,
with devastation sure to follow.
Thousands of people will die from it,
hunger will worsen because of crop failure,
and the economy will shrink.
Higher temperatures will kill more people, the report says.
Here in the Midwest, where we’re expected to have
the biggest increase in extreme temperature,
164,000 people will die prematurely by the end of the century.
We’ll see twice as many cases of West Nile in the next 30 years.
Asthma and allergies will get worse.
Scorching heat, floods, wildfires.
Particularly vulnerable,
children, the elderly, the poor, and communities of color
will be at a much higher risk of illness and death.
_______________________________________
It’s been quite a week, a week where that climate report
took a back seat to Black Friday.
The media bombarded us with ads and news reports
encouraging us to buy more stuff because it’s on sale,
making it seem a public duty to spend more this year than last,
and not a word about the impact
of all that packaging that ends up in the landfill
and all that fossil fuel that’s burned up
to ship stuff we don’t need
from around the world to our doorstep.
It’s a bleak picture of what’s to come
if we don’t turn our lives around.
_______________________________________
We can see the signs of our times.
We can see the injustice running rampant in the world.
Unlike our President, we don’t deny that the problems are real.
We are aware of what is happening, why it’s happening…
and what needs to be done.
We know that reduce-reuse-recycle is good,
but it’s not enough any more.
We—our world, our country, and our own selves--
have to get rid of our habits
of greed, racism, pollution, and violence.
_______________________________________
Right now the earth is taking its winter nap,
but the promise of spring is there:
the marigolds are heavy with seeds
to collect for next year’s planting,
and new peony sprouts are already beginning
to poke their bright red noses up
where the old stems were trimmed off.
____________________________________
Like winter, Advent is a time of promise.
It’s a call to do what we can to set our world right again.
It’s a call to trust that God is with us, among us, and in us,
and that justice will prevail.
Let’s answer that call with all that’s in us.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 25, 2018
First Reading: Daniel 7:13-14
Psalm Response: Psalm 93
Second Reading: Revelation 1:5-8
Gospel: John 18:33-37
We Americans have some good reasons for wondering
what this feast of Christ the King means for us.
One is the history behind this feast,
which was established less than 100 years ago.
History shows centuries
of Christianity’s entanglement with worldly power
when we should have been tending
to the things taught to us by Jesus of Nazareth.
The Popes had held both religious and secular power
over large pieces of Italy for many centuries.
That battle over secular power effectively ended in 1870,
but it wasn’t until the 1920s
that the “Roman Question” was settled,
limiting the Pope’s control to the 119 acres
that we know as Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. Toledo is more than 452 times its size.
Then Pope Pius XI established the feast of Christ the King in 1925,
ostensibly to celebrate the Jubilee Year
and the Council of Nicaea.
What was behind it,
in light of the loss of the Papal States and the rise of fascism,
was a claim of church sovereignty
over every form of government.
It was a time in world politics
when the feast of Christ the King
fit nicely with the opposition of Church officials
to separation of church and state.
_______________________________________________________
Another reason that we wonder about the meaning of this feast
is that we are 242 years away from living in a kingdom.
Other countries still have kings,
but the idea of a king is literally foreign to us.
___________________________________
A third reason for wondering
about celebrating Jesus as Christ the King
is the irony of it
because Jesus preached humility and love,
not secular power.
We heard the Gospel today,
where John the evangelist puts these words into Jesus’ mouth
to show how the early Christians remembered him:
“My kingdom does not belong to this world,” Jesus said.
“If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over….
my kingdom is not here.”
___________________________________
What Jesus was really about is recorded
in the first chapter of the first gospel, the gospel of Mark,
where Jesus—after his baptism,
after his time in the desert,
after John had been arrested—proclaimed:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Pope Francis puts it this way:
“The starting point of salvation
is not the confession of the sovereignty of Christ,
but rather the imitation of Jesus’ works of mercy.”
It’s not about power.
It’s about love.
As Augustinian priest Fr. John Shea puts it,
Christ is not king because he can bend human will
and trample human rights
with his power and his will and his might.
He is king because out of love
he foregoes force and continues to talk.
___________________________________
Three weeks ago we heard that story
of the scribe asking Jesus about the greatest commandment.
At the end of their dialogue, Jesus tells the scribe
that he’s not far from the kingdom of God
because he loves God and neighbor.
___________________________________
One question we need to ask
as we celebrate this solemn feast of Christ the King
is what, or who, we have given power over our life.
It’s too easy to compromise,
to give up a bit of power here and there.
Maybe we yield power so we look good to our boss at work.
Or so we can keep peace with our spouse or kids.
Or so we can make more money to buy more stuff.
The whole of the New Testament makes it clear
that the reign of God and the kingship of Jesus
have everything to do
with how we live out our earthly citizenship--
how we work, pay, buy, sell, and vote.
When we live the golden rule, when we put God in charge,
when we follow the way of Jesus by loving God and neighbor,
we will find ourselves in exactly the right place.
We won’t be serving a king or a president or a CEO.
We won’t be riding in the lead chariot
or taking off in Air Force One
or sitting in glory on a throne.
None of that.
We’ll be basking in the love of the heart of God.
Amen!
First Reading: Daniel 7:13-14
Psalm Response: Psalm 93
Second Reading: Revelation 1:5-8
Gospel: John 18:33-37
We Americans have some good reasons for wondering
what this feast of Christ the King means for us.
One is the history behind this feast,
which was established less than 100 years ago.
History shows centuries
of Christianity’s entanglement with worldly power
when we should have been tending
to the things taught to us by Jesus of Nazareth.
The Popes had held both religious and secular power
over large pieces of Italy for many centuries.
That battle over secular power effectively ended in 1870,
but it wasn’t until the 1920s
that the “Roman Question” was settled,
limiting the Pope’s control to the 119 acres
that we know as Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. Toledo is more than 452 times its size.
Then Pope Pius XI established the feast of Christ the King in 1925,
ostensibly to celebrate the Jubilee Year
and the Council of Nicaea.
What was behind it,
in light of the loss of the Papal States and the rise of fascism,
was a claim of church sovereignty
over every form of government.
It was a time in world politics
when the feast of Christ the King
fit nicely with the opposition of Church officials
to separation of church and state.
_______________________________________________________
Another reason that we wonder about the meaning of this feast
is that we are 242 years away from living in a kingdom.
Other countries still have kings,
but the idea of a king is literally foreign to us.
___________________________________
A third reason for wondering
about celebrating Jesus as Christ the King
is the irony of it
because Jesus preached humility and love,
not secular power.
We heard the Gospel today,
where John the evangelist puts these words into Jesus’ mouth
to show how the early Christians remembered him:
“My kingdom does not belong to this world,” Jesus said.
“If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over….
my kingdom is not here.”
___________________________________
What Jesus was really about is recorded
in the first chapter of the first gospel, the gospel of Mark,
where Jesus—after his baptism,
after his time in the desert,
after John had been arrested—proclaimed:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Pope Francis puts it this way:
“The starting point of salvation
is not the confession of the sovereignty of Christ,
but rather the imitation of Jesus’ works of mercy.”
It’s not about power.
It’s about love.
As Augustinian priest Fr. John Shea puts it,
Christ is not king because he can bend human will
and trample human rights
with his power and his will and his might.
He is king because out of love
he foregoes force and continues to talk.
___________________________________
Three weeks ago we heard that story
of the scribe asking Jesus about the greatest commandment.
At the end of their dialogue, Jesus tells the scribe
that he’s not far from the kingdom of God
because he loves God and neighbor.
___________________________________
One question we need to ask
as we celebrate this solemn feast of Christ the King
is what, or who, we have given power over our life.
It’s too easy to compromise,
to give up a bit of power here and there.
Maybe we yield power so we look good to our boss at work.
Or so we can keep peace with our spouse or kids.
Or so we can make more money to buy more stuff.
The whole of the New Testament makes it clear
that the reign of God and the kingship of Jesus
have everything to do
with how we live out our earthly citizenship--
how we work, pay, buy, sell, and vote.
When we live the golden rule, when we put God in charge,
when we follow the way of Jesus by loving God and neighbor,
we will find ourselves in exactly the right place.
We won’t be serving a king or a president or a CEO.
We won’t be riding in the lead chariot
or taking off in Air Force One
or sitting in glory on a throne.
None of that.
We’ll be basking in the love of the heart of God.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 18, 2018
First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm Response: Psalm 16
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14, 18
Gospel: Mark 13:24-32
Mark puts apocalyptic words in Jesus’ mouth.
Passages like this are sprinkled around the Bible.
The Book of Revelation, for example,
is also called the Book of the Apocalypse.
That same apocalyptic view is reflected in the Book of Daniel
and in pieces of that psalm we heard today.
These passages promise hope in the middle of disaster.
The literal meaning of apocalypse is “uncovering” or “unveiling.”
Hidden wrongs will be uncovered;
the light of truth will be unveiled.
_______________________________________
Our own current events
make us cry out against injustice and suffering.
In addition to the distress that swamps our politics and government,
distress is swamping people all over the world.
A fifth of the world’s population lives in absolute poverty.
Every three days, more people die from malnutrition and disease
than died from the bombing of Hiroshima.
Every year more people die from preventable hunger
than died in the Holocaust.
One out of every four human beings
has no access to safe drinking water.
Climate change and environmental degradation plague us,
threatening to kill all life on earth.
We know that things are terribly wrong.
We cry out, like Job, against evil and the suffering of the innocent.
It looks like the worst of times,
yet we have hope that they will give birth
to the best of times.
As Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount,
it’s the ones who hunger and thirst for justice
who will be satisfied.
_______________________________________
So we do what we can.
Here at Holy Spirit, we work on our Tree Toledo project,
handing out those baby trees
that promise oxygen to our grandchildren.
We help refugees with housing
and school kids at Padua Center with tutoring.
We help homeless families and hungry street people.
As followers of the way of Jesus,
we try to live each day with faith,
assured that God is with us
and that the Spirit of God is in our midst
guiding, protecting, and strengthening us
in the middle of whatever happens.
Sometimes we feel like those disciples in the Gospel,
seeing everything we have held on to
falling apart, nothing left to guide us.
Like the victims of this week’s fires in California,
sometimes we don’t have a clue
about where to go or what to do.
In the middle of all this,
we are asked to live every day of our lives
loving God and living in service to others.
_______________________________________
St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden one day
when a friend came along and asked him,
“What would you do
if you learned you would die before the sun sets?”
St. Francis reflected a bit and replied,
“I would finish hoeing my garden.
I would be faithful to what I am doing now.”
_______________________________________
That’s how we get through the bad times.
It’s not a matter of living at ease in prosperity
or being honored by the world around us.
It’s managing to resist cooperating with evil
whenever it tries to tell us that what is evil
is really good.
We do not believe, for example,
that it’s good to break international law
by stopping refugees at our borders
and threatening them with armed troops.
We do not believe it’s good
to make deals that give us profit
while hurting others.
We do not believe it’s good to divide people by their differences
so we can keep them from their fair share of God’s bounty.
We do not believe it’s good to tell lies
to get what we want.
We do believe that God is in charge,
and that, in the end, good will prevail over evil.
That’s the eschatological perspective.
It makes hope possible in hopeless situations.
It gives us courage to live wisely, justly, and nonviolently right now.
We don’t have hope because the odds are good
or because we hold a high position in society
or because we have a lot of stuff,
but because we are sure
that God can bring grace to any time and every circumstance.
_______________________________________
Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Dominican priest from Peru
and one of the founders of liberation theology,
said that hope is “the conviction that God is at work
in our lives and in our world.”
So we live our lives trusting that the way of Jesus of Nazareth
is the way of transformation--
to change ourselves and to change the world.
_______________________________________
Learn a lesson from the fig tree, Jesus says.
Its spring sprouts are the sign of new life
coming out of the death of winter.
We hope for these fearful times to end,
for the awakening of a new time, of new life
We believe, as Jesus told us,
that the reign of God is at hand,
that God is with us,
that we live in God
by the way we live our lives.
Amen!
First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm Response: Psalm 16
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14, 18
Gospel: Mark 13:24-32
Mark puts apocalyptic words in Jesus’ mouth.
Passages like this are sprinkled around the Bible.
The Book of Revelation, for example,
is also called the Book of the Apocalypse.
That same apocalyptic view is reflected in the Book of Daniel
and in pieces of that psalm we heard today.
These passages promise hope in the middle of disaster.
The literal meaning of apocalypse is “uncovering” or “unveiling.”
Hidden wrongs will be uncovered;
the light of truth will be unveiled.
_______________________________________
Our own current events
make us cry out against injustice and suffering.
In addition to the distress that swamps our politics and government,
distress is swamping people all over the world.
A fifth of the world’s population lives in absolute poverty.
Every three days, more people die from malnutrition and disease
than died from the bombing of Hiroshima.
Every year more people die from preventable hunger
than died in the Holocaust.
One out of every four human beings
has no access to safe drinking water.
Climate change and environmental degradation plague us,
threatening to kill all life on earth.
We know that things are terribly wrong.
We cry out, like Job, against evil and the suffering of the innocent.
It looks like the worst of times,
yet we have hope that they will give birth
to the best of times.
As Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount,
it’s the ones who hunger and thirst for justice
who will be satisfied.
_______________________________________
So we do what we can.
Here at Holy Spirit, we work on our Tree Toledo project,
handing out those baby trees
that promise oxygen to our grandchildren.
We help refugees with housing
and school kids at Padua Center with tutoring.
We help homeless families and hungry street people.
As followers of the way of Jesus,
we try to live each day with faith,
assured that God is with us
and that the Spirit of God is in our midst
guiding, protecting, and strengthening us
in the middle of whatever happens.
Sometimes we feel like those disciples in the Gospel,
seeing everything we have held on to
falling apart, nothing left to guide us.
Like the victims of this week’s fires in California,
sometimes we don’t have a clue
about where to go or what to do.
In the middle of all this,
we are asked to live every day of our lives
loving God and living in service to others.
_______________________________________
St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden one day
when a friend came along and asked him,
“What would you do
if you learned you would die before the sun sets?”
St. Francis reflected a bit and replied,
“I would finish hoeing my garden.
I would be faithful to what I am doing now.”
_______________________________________
That’s how we get through the bad times.
It’s not a matter of living at ease in prosperity
or being honored by the world around us.
It’s managing to resist cooperating with evil
whenever it tries to tell us that what is evil
is really good.
We do not believe, for example,
that it’s good to break international law
by stopping refugees at our borders
and threatening them with armed troops.
We do not believe it’s good
to make deals that give us profit
while hurting others.
We do not believe it’s good to divide people by their differences
so we can keep them from their fair share of God’s bounty.
We do not believe it’s good to tell lies
to get what we want.
We do believe that God is in charge,
and that, in the end, good will prevail over evil.
That’s the eschatological perspective.
It makes hope possible in hopeless situations.
It gives us courage to live wisely, justly, and nonviolently right now.
We don’t have hope because the odds are good
or because we hold a high position in society
or because we have a lot of stuff,
but because we are sure
that God can bring grace to any time and every circumstance.
_______________________________________
Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Dominican priest from Peru
and one of the founders of liberation theology,
said that hope is “the conviction that God is at work
in our lives and in our world.”
So we live our lives trusting that the way of Jesus of Nazareth
is the way of transformation--
to change ourselves and to change the world.
_______________________________________
Learn a lesson from the fig tree, Jesus says.
Its spring sprouts are the sign of new life
coming out of the death of winter.
We hope for these fearful times to end,
for the awakening of a new time, of new life
We believe, as Jesus told us,
that the reign of God is at hand,
that God is with us,
that we live in God
by the way we live our lives.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 11, 2018
First Reading: 1 Kings 17:10-16
Psalm Response: Psalm 146
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
In our country today a widow is a woman whose husband has died.
She’s keeps her own property and her rights and status,
and she’s able to inherit from her husband.
She’ll certainly be lonely... but not defenseless.
In Jesus’ day a widow wasn’t so lucky.
If she could pay back her dowry to her husband’s family--
the purchase price her husband paid for her--
she could go back to her family... if they would take her in.
She could be sold into slavery to repay debt.
She had no rights, no status.
Unlike some other cultures in the Near Eastern world,
Jewish widows weren’t legally provided for
except in the levirate marriage, which didn’t help a lot,
partly because it was specific to limited situations
and partly because it wasn’t always followed.
If she had no children by her marriage,
the levirate law required her husband’s brother to marry her,
and her first male child by her husband’s brother
would be entitled to claim the inheritance
of the deceased husband.
_____________________________________
Today’s scriptures show us two widows,
the first in Zarephath and the second in Jerusalem.
Zarephath was a Phoenician city north of Israel,
and the country was in severe famine.
The widow was about to fix a last meal for her son and herself
when the prophet Elijah came to town,
and she bowed to his every wish.
She stopped gathering sticks to build her fire
when he ordered her to get him water.
Then, when he asked her for bread,
she gave him the bread made from her last handful of flour.
She knew her place.
She gave everything she had.
Likewise the widow in Jerusalem:
all that she had was a couple of small coins,
and she dropped them in the temple treasury.
_____________________________________
If you think I’m going to tell you that today’s gospel means
you have to give the church everything,
down to your last two cents, I’m not...
but you’ve probably heard that explanation before.
This passage has very often been used
to shame people into giving more—to give until it hurts.
But that kind of interpretation is fake news, not good news,
because it’s not what the gospel means.
That interpretation doesn’t look at the context.
_____________________________________
First, there’s the cultural context
that forced many widows to scrape by, day to day,
in a world that expected them to maintain their status,
to do nothing to make it worse.
When the widow gave the temple everything she had,
she deliberately made her situation worse,
violating the cultural norm.
Jesus does not praise her for that.
Then there’s the context of Jesus’ teaching.
Before he points to the widow,
Jesus points to the gap
between what people say and what they do.
The clerics spend the temple income on themselves,
which didn’t hurt the rich but ate up the widow’s livelihood.
The rich show off with their large donations
while the widow quietly gives everything she has.
_____________________________________
Too many people are still in that widow’s position today,
victims of a system
that makes the poor support the prosperous.
In religious institutions, it’s the same as it was in Jesus’ time.
In our church it’s especially visible
in the mansions that some of our bishops live in.
In our country, it’s visible in regressive taxes, racist policies,
and high prices for necessities
like food, housing, and health care.
_____________________________________
Because we live in a culture
that equates having more of the latest stuff with happiness
and values money over people,
it’s easy to forget the bedrock of our morality:
Love God, love neighbor,
treat others as you would like to be treated.
_____________________________________
I turned on the TV news the other night
to check the weather forecast
and stumbled on a report
about bargains for Christmas shoppers.
The message was clear:
I could make myself happy for Christmas by buying things…
not things I need or someone else in my family needs,
but things that are a different style, a makeover,
an update, a newer variety of something I already have.
That consumerist culture can enter into our thinking
without our being aware of it,
and we begin to want more and more,
and before we notice it,
we've accumulated more material goods than we need.
The gospel tells us that having more than we need
takes what other people need away from them.
We don’t have a right to more than we need
when others lack the barest necessities.
_____________________________________
This Christmas I’ll keep on with alternative giving,
the practice of donating the cost of gifts to my family
to an organization that helps the poor
without overpaying its administrators,
like 1Matters or Bethany House or Padua Center.
But that’s not all.
It’ll take a while, but I’m going to clean out
the stuff in my house and garage that I don’t need.
I have things that I haven’t used in 40 or 50 years,
other things I inherited from my parents and grandparents
that I don’t use and don’t need,
things that someone else could use.
There’s that fishing pole and tackle box
that I haven’t used since 1988 and don’t ever plan to.
I have cookware and dishes that I can donate to UStogether,
extra sheets and pillows and pillowcases and blankets
that I can take to Claver House,
books that I can donate to Lourdes College
or the Kurth Library at St. Martin de Porres,
tools that I can drop off at Habitat for Humanity…
the list goes on.
Thanks to this passage from Mark’s gospel,
I finally understand that it’s not right
to hang on to more than I need.
_____________________________________
Jesus is not asking us to live in poverty
like the two widows in today’s scriptures.
We, each and every one of us,
have the right to use the goods of God’s creation,
to have the chance to grow and develop and thrive,
to become the person we were created to be.
Yet, as long as there are poor people in the world,
none of us is entitled to more than we need.
Amen!
First Reading: 1 Kings 17:10-16
Psalm Response: Psalm 146
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
In our country today a widow is a woman whose husband has died.
She’s keeps her own property and her rights and status,
and she’s able to inherit from her husband.
She’ll certainly be lonely... but not defenseless.
In Jesus’ day a widow wasn’t so lucky.
If she could pay back her dowry to her husband’s family--
the purchase price her husband paid for her--
she could go back to her family... if they would take her in.
She could be sold into slavery to repay debt.
She had no rights, no status.
Unlike some other cultures in the Near Eastern world,
Jewish widows weren’t legally provided for
except in the levirate marriage, which didn’t help a lot,
partly because it was specific to limited situations
and partly because it wasn’t always followed.
If she had no children by her marriage,
the levirate law required her husband’s brother to marry her,
and her first male child by her husband’s brother
would be entitled to claim the inheritance
of the deceased husband.
_____________________________________
Today’s scriptures show us two widows,
the first in Zarephath and the second in Jerusalem.
Zarephath was a Phoenician city north of Israel,
and the country was in severe famine.
The widow was about to fix a last meal for her son and herself
when the prophet Elijah came to town,
and she bowed to his every wish.
She stopped gathering sticks to build her fire
when he ordered her to get him water.
Then, when he asked her for bread,
she gave him the bread made from her last handful of flour.
She knew her place.
She gave everything she had.
Likewise the widow in Jerusalem:
all that she had was a couple of small coins,
and she dropped them in the temple treasury.
_____________________________________
If you think I’m going to tell you that today’s gospel means
you have to give the church everything,
down to your last two cents, I’m not...
but you’ve probably heard that explanation before.
This passage has very often been used
to shame people into giving more—to give until it hurts.
But that kind of interpretation is fake news, not good news,
because it’s not what the gospel means.
That interpretation doesn’t look at the context.
_____________________________________
First, there’s the cultural context
that forced many widows to scrape by, day to day,
in a world that expected them to maintain their status,
to do nothing to make it worse.
When the widow gave the temple everything she had,
she deliberately made her situation worse,
violating the cultural norm.
Jesus does not praise her for that.
Then there’s the context of Jesus’ teaching.
Before he points to the widow,
Jesus points to the gap
between what people say and what they do.
The clerics spend the temple income on themselves,
which didn’t hurt the rich but ate up the widow’s livelihood.
The rich show off with their large donations
while the widow quietly gives everything she has.
_____________________________________
Too many people are still in that widow’s position today,
victims of a system
that makes the poor support the prosperous.
In religious institutions, it’s the same as it was in Jesus’ time.
In our church it’s especially visible
in the mansions that some of our bishops live in.
In our country, it’s visible in regressive taxes, racist policies,
and high prices for necessities
like food, housing, and health care.
_____________________________________
Because we live in a culture
that equates having more of the latest stuff with happiness
and values money over people,
it’s easy to forget the bedrock of our morality:
Love God, love neighbor,
treat others as you would like to be treated.
_____________________________________
I turned on the TV news the other night
to check the weather forecast
and stumbled on a report
about bargains for Christmas shoppers.
The message was clear:
I could make myself happy for Christmas by buying things…
not things I need or someone else in my family needs,
but things that are a different style, a makeover,
an update, a newer variety of something I already have.
That consumerist culture can enter into our thinking
without our being aware of it,
and we begin to want more and more,
and before we notice it,
we've accumulated more material goods than we need.
The gospel tells us that having more than we need
takes what other people need away from them.
We don’t have a right to more than we need
when others lack the barest necessities.
_____________________________________
This Christmas I’ll keep on with alternative giving,
the practice of donating the cost of gifts to my family
to an organization that helps the poor
without overpaying its administrators,
like 1Matters or Bethany House or Padua Center.
But that’s not all.
It’ll take a while, but I’m going to clean out
the stuff in my house and garage that I don’t need.
I have things that I haven’t used in 40 or 50 years,
other things I inherited from my parents and grandparents
that I don’t use and don’t need,
things that someone else could use.
There’s that fishing pole and tackle box
that I haven’t used since 1988 and don’t ever plan to.
I have cookware and dishes that I can donate to UStogether,
extra sheets and pillows and pillowcases and blankets
that I can take to Claver House,
books that I can donate to Lourdes College
or the Kurth Library at St. Martin de Porres,
tools that I can drop off at Habitat for Humanity…
the list goes on.
Thanks to this passage from Mark’s gospel,
I finally understand that it’s not right
to hang on to more than I need.
_____________________________________
Jesus is not asking us to live in poverty
like the two widows in today’s scriptures.
We, each and every one of us,
have the right to use the goods of God’s creation,
to have the chance to grow and develop and thrive,
to become the person we were created to be.
Yet, as long as there are poor people in the world,
none of us is entitled to more than we need.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 4, 2018
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:26
Psalm Response: Psalm 18
Second Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
Commentary on this passage from Mark
ranges from one extreme to the other.
Over the years I’ve heard various folks say
that Jesus was the first
to put the Shema of Deuteronomy 6 together with Leviticus 19.
___________________________________
But other folks have said
that the idea of summarizing the Torah
under a single basic commandment
was not unknown to rabbinic Judaism,
which occasionally used the Deuteronomy commandment
to love one's neighbor,
but that the rabbis never combined this commandment
with the commandment to love God.
___________________________________
Then again, some of the scholars of the Jesus Seminar
think Jesus might have affirmed Hillel,
a contemporary of Jesus,
because of the tradition that a convert
approached Hillel with the request
that he teach him the whole of the Torah
while the student stood on one foot.
Hillel responded with what we know as the “golden rule:”
“What you find hateful, do not do to another.
This is the whole of the Law.
Everything else is commentary.
Now go learn that!”
___________________________________
Still others have said that the combination of those two Jewish laws
was typical of the Jewish wisdom tradition, as reflected in
the apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,
and that it was common in Jesus’ time
for rabbis to be debating the question the Scribe put to Jesus.
But scholars are still divided
about whether The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
is a Jewish text from a couple of centuries before Christ
that has been changed by Christians...
or a Greek Christian text from a couple of centuries after Christ
based on earlier Semitic texts.
___________________________________
Still other scholars say that Jesus is different from the others
because he takes the connection
between the two commandments
in a radical sense.
One commentator describes it as two sides of a coin:
Love of God is an illusion if it doesn’t show in love of neighbor,
and love of neighbor is a kind of love of self
if it doesn’t come out of love of God
___________________________________
So scholars have been and remain
all over the place on this passage,
probably because love of God and neighbor
is at the core of Christianity...
and also because it’s hard to do.
Love God with your whole heart and soul and strength.
How hard to love God when we, even now,
find our understanding of God
expanding, changing, and growing.
At the same time, we recognize love of God when we see it.
It shows up in the joy and peace
of a life focused on right relationship,
even in the midst of suffering and sorrow.
The people of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue
showed it to us this past week.
In their grief they weep,
yet they hold fast to their confidence in God.
And we can see all around us the opposite of the love of God:
it’s the idolatry that permeates our culture.
It’s worship of the almighty dollar.
It’s bowing to the altar of capitalism.
It’s praising militarism.
It’s wasting and polluting
even though we know we’re destroying God’s creation.
___________________________________
We also recognize the second commandment--
that love of neighbor—when we see it.
A woman I know—not rich and powerful--
quietly leaves giant tips to the servers at restaurants.
One day I overheard someone tell her
that the tip was too big for the meal and service she got,
and she said that somebody making $4.15 an hour needs it.
A grandmother takes care of the kids after school
so her daughter, a single parent, can keep her job.
Lily, across the alley, mows the lawn for the folks next door.
And we heard this week of the friendship and cooperation
in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood--
Jews and Muslims and Christians
living side by side in harmony and support--
loving their neighbors.
It’s not always big things.
Nolan, one of my neighbors down the street,
walks the block almost every morning,
picking up the litter that got thrown out the night before.
___________________________________
Sadly, the violation of that second commandment
to love our neighbor as ourselves
is all around us these days, too.
We see it in discrimination, oppression, hate, and violence.
With the election coming up Tuesday,
we’re hearing the law of love violated in those campaign ads
every time we turn on the TV.
___________________________________
What would our world look like if we gave real love to everyone,
and received it from everyone?
On Facebook last Sunday morning
Mary Jean McCarty posted
that all our moral behavior
is simply the imitation of God.
First observe what God is doing all the time and everywhere,
she wrote, and then do the same thing.
And what, she asked, does God do?
God does what God is: Love.
God does not love you if and when you change.
God loves you so that you can change!
___________________________________
I can bear witness that each of you gathered here
loves God and loves your neighbors.
I have seen you doing it.
It’s like Karl Rahner described it:
you fulfill your human reality
by emptying yourself out for others,
by giving yourselves away..
and that makes you
the holy people of God.
Amen!
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:26
Psalm Response: Psalm 18
Second Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
Commentary on this passage from Mark
ranges from one extreme to the other.
Over the years I’ve heard various folks say
that Jesus was the first
to put the Shema of Deuteronomy 6 together with Leviticus 19.
___________________________________
But other folks have said
that the idea of summarizing the Torah
under a single basic commandment
was not unknown to rabbinic Judaism,
which occasionally used the Deuteronomy commandment
to love one's neighbor,
but that the rabbis never combined this commandment
with the commandment to love God.
___________________________________
Then again, some of the scholars of the Jesus Seminar
think Jesus might have affirmed Hillel,
a contemporary of Jesus,
because of the tradition that a convert
approached Hillel with the request
that he teach him the whole of the Torah
while the student stood on one foot.
Hillel responded with what we know as the “golden rule:”
“What you find hateful, do not do to another.
This is the whole of the Law.
Everything else is commentary.
Now go learn that!”
___________________________________
Still others have said that the combination of those two Jewish laws
was typical of the Jewish wisdom tradition, as reflected in
the apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,
and that it was common in Jesus’ time
for rabbis to be debating the question the Scribe put to Jesus.
But scholars are still divided
about whether The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
is a Jewish text from a couple of centuries before Christ
that has been changed by Christians...
or a Greek Christian text from a couple of centuries after Christ
based on earlier Semitic texts.
___________________________________
Still other scholars say that Jesus is different from the others
because he takes the connection
between the two commandments
in a radical sense.
One commentator describes it as two sides of a coin:
Love of God is an illusion if it doesn’t show in love of neighbor,
and love of neighbor is a kind of love of self
if it doesn’t come out of love of God
___________________________________
So scholars have been and remain
all over the place on this passage,
probably because love of God and neighbor
is at the core of Christianity...
and also because it’s hard to do.
Love God with your whole heart and soul and strength.
How hard to love God when we, even now,
find our understanding of God
expanding, changing, and growing.
At the same time, we recognize love of God when we see it.
It shows up in the joy and peace
of a life focused on right relationship,
even in the midst of suffering and sorrow.
The people of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue
showed it to us this past week.
In their grief they weep,
yet they hold fast to their confidence in God.
And we can see all around us the opposite of the love of God:
it’s the idolatry that permeates our culture.
It’s worship of the almighty dollar.
It’s bowing to the altar of capitalism.
It’s praising militarism.
It’s wasting and polluting
even though we know we’re destroying God’s creation.
___________________________________
We also recognize the second commandment--
that love of neighbor—when we see it.
A woman I know—not rich and powerful--
quietly leaves giant tips to the servers at restaurants.
One day I overheard someone tell her
that the tip was too big for the meal and service she got,
and she said that somebody making $4.15 an hour needs it.
A grandmother takes care of the kids after school
so her daughter, a single parent, can keep her job.
Lily, across the alley, mows the lawn for the folks next door.
And we heard this week of the friendship and cooperation
in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood--
Jews and Muslims and Christians
living side by side in harmony and support--
loving their neighbors.
It’s not always big things.
Nolan, one of my neighbors down the street,
walks the block almost every morning,
picking up the litter that got thrown out the night before.
___________________________________
Sadly, the violation of that second commandment
to love our neighbor as ourselves
is all around us these days, too.
We see it in discrimination, oppression, hate, and violence.
With the election coming up Tuesday,
we’re hearing the law of love violated in those campaign ads
every time we turn on the TV.
___________________________________
What would our world look like if we gave real love to everyone,
and received it from everyone?
On Facebook last Sunday morning
Mary Jean McCarty posted
that all our moral behavior
is simply the imitation of God.
First observe what God is doing all the time and everywhere,
she wrote, and then do the same thing.
And what, she asked, does God do?
God does what God is: Love.
God does not love you if and when you change.
God loves you so that you can change!
___________________________________
I can bear witness that each of you gathered here
loves God and loves your neighbors.
I have seen you doing it.
It’s like Karl Rahner described it:
you fulfill your human reality
by emptying yourself out for others,
by giving yourselves away..
and that makes you
the holy people of God.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), October 28, 2018
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 126:1-6
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:1-6
Gospel: Mark 10:46-52
One of the Gospel lessons for us this week is that
if we’re going to call ourselves Christian,
if we’re going to follow the way of Jesus,
we have to understand what that means.
Last week we heard Jesus ask his disciples,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
They wanted greatness, and Jesus told them that what it takes:
whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
Today Mark again shows what greatness means,
this time through the story of Bartimaeus.
This blind beggar, whose name literally means “son of fear,
stands along the road calling out to Jesus.
The disciples try to shut him up, but he hears Jesus call him.
Yes, he’s blind,
so he has to overcome his fear and find his way to Jesus.
So do we!
Once Jesus tells the crowd to call him over,
they tell this to the fearful blind man:
you have nothing to fear from him.
He’s calling you.
Just like he calls us!
And when Bartimaeus gets there,
Jesus asks him the same question
that he had asked his disciples:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Bartimaeus says he wants to see.
_____________________________________
Physical sight is a common metaphor for understanding,
and not just in America and not just in English.
There’s more at issue than physical healing.
Seeing is understanding.
Seeing is believing.
So Jesus heals people.
He heals the lame to walk in freedom and in service of God.
He heals the deaf to hear the Good News.
He heals the mute to call out for justice.
Mark has been picturing the disciples
as flinching at the idea of going to Jerusalem to suffer and die,
but Bartimaeus, as soon as he sees--
as soon as he understands--
follows Jesus along the way.
_____________________________________
It’s like the Israelites of the tribe of Ephraim in that first reading.
The people had been spiritually blind,
but the experience of the Babylonian exile and its oppression
taught them to value the good and turn to God.
The psalm sings out their joy over ending their divisions
and returning to the homeland they cherish.
They cry out, “God has done great things for us!”
_____________________________________
We know that God has done great things for us.
We live in a society where we have a voice.
We have laws that allow us to be free and equal,
fed, healthy, and safe.
Still, when we listen to what’s happening now,
when we look around us
at the climate catastrophe and the political maelstrom,
when we call out for clarity, for understanding, for justice,
some people tell us to be quiet.
When we struggle to be healed
of our own blindness and the blindness in our culture,
we have to step up and speak out.
Like Bartimaeus, we don’t give up in the face of opposition
or out of fear of what might happen to us.
Like Bartimaeus, we have been called to follow Jesus,
and we understand what that means.
_____________________________________
When Bartimaeus hears that it’s Jesus, he asks for help;
when he sees, he follows Jesus on the way.
We listen, and we see what’s right and just…
and we see what’s not right and not just.
As Suzanna Arundhati Roy says,
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it.
And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,
becomes as political an act as speaking out.
There's no innocence; either way you are accountable."
Yes, once we have heard and seen,
we have to follow the way and follow it wholeheartedly.
That’s what causes us to use up a peaceful day off
to babysit grandchildren,
makes us squeeze extra out of the budget
to give to ABLE,
moves us to live more simply
so that others may simply live.
That’s what motivates us to get people to fight climate change
with those little Tree Toledo seedlings.
That’s what spurs us to donate
to 1Matters and Beach House and Bethany House
and Padua Center and S.A.V.E. and hurricane relief
and all those other efforts
to serve the hungry and homeless and hurting among us.
That’s what gets us out on the streets--
protesters are labeled as a “mob” these days--
out on the streets with ACLE for a clean Lake Erie,
and Indivisible Toledo for getting refugee children out of cages,
and FLOC for fair wages for farm workers,
and 31 other organizations for peace.
That’s what will send us out to vote on November 6,
to add our voices in support of candidates and issues
that will stand on the side of peace, justice,
and the common good.
Our efforts may not bear as much fruit as quickly as we’d like,
but we have faith
that God will continue to do great things for us!
Amen
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 126:1-6
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:1-6
Gospel: Mark 10:46-52
One of the Gospel lessons for us this week is that
if we’re going to call ourselves Christian,
if we’re going to follow the way of Jesus,
we have to understand what that means.
Last week we heard Jesus ask his disciples,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
They wanted greatness, and Jesus told them that what it takes:
whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
Today Mark again shows what greatness means,
this time through the story of Bartimaeus.
This blind beggar, whose name literally means “son of fear,
stands along the road calling out to Jesus.
The disciples try to shut him up, but he hears Jesus call him.
Yes, he’s blind,
so he has to overcome his fear and find his way to Jesus.
So do we!
Once Jesus tells the crowd to call him over,
they tell this to the fearful blind man:
you have nothing to fear from him.
He’s calling you.
Just like he calls us!
And when Bartimaeus gets there,
Jesus asks him the same question
that he had asked his disciples:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Bartimaeus says he wants to see.
_____________________________________
Physical sight is a common metaphor for understanding,
and not just in America and not just in English.
There’s more at issue than physical healing.
Seeing is understanding.
Seeing is believing.
So Jesus heals people.
He heals the lame to walk in freedom and in service of God.
He heals the deaf to hear the Good News.
He heals the mute to call out for justice.
Mark has been picturing the disciples
as flinching at the idea of going to Jerusalem to suffer and die,
but Bartimaeus, as soon as he sees--
as soon as he understands--
follows Jesus along the way.
_____________________________________
It’s like the Israelites of the tribe of Ephraim in that first reading.
The people had been spiritually blind,
but the experience of the Babylonian exile and its oppression
taught them to value the good and turn to God.
The psalm sings out their joy over ending their divisions
and returning to the homeland they cherish.
They cry out, “God has done great things for us!”
_____________________________________
We know that God has done great things for us.
We live in a society where we have a voice.
We have laws that allow us to be free and equal,
fed, healthy, and safe.
Still, when we listen to what’s happening now,
when we look around us
at the climate catastrophe and the political maelstrom,
when we call out for clarity, for understanding, for justice,
some people tell us to be quiet.
When we struggle to be healed
of our own blindness and the blindness in our culture,
we have to step up and speak out.
Like Bartimaeus, we don’t give up in the face of opposition
or out of fear of what might happen to us.
Like Bartimaeus, we have been called to follow Jesus,
and we understand what that means.
_____________________________________
When Bartimaeus hears that it’s Jesus, he asks for help;
when he sees, he follows Jesus on the way.
We listen, and we see what’s right and just…
and we see what’s not right and not just.
As Suzanna Arundhati Roy says,
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it.
And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,
becomes as political an act as speaking out.
There's no innocence; either way you are accountable."
Yes, once we have heard and seen,
we have to follow the way and follow it wholeheartedly.
That’s what causes us to use up a peaceful day off
to babysit grandchildren,
makes us squeeze extra out of the budget
to give to ABLE,
moves us to live more simply
so that others may simply live.
That’s what motivates us to get people to fight climate change
with those little Tree Toledo seedlings.
That’s what spurs us to donate
to 1Matters and Beach House and Bethany House
and Padua Center and S.A.V.E. and hurricane relief
and all those other efforts
to serve the hungry and homeless and hurting among us.
That’s what gets us out on the streets--
protesters are labeled as a “mob” these days--
out on the streets with ACLE for a clean Lake Erie,
and Indivisible Toledo for getting refugee children out of cages,
and FLOC for fair wages for farm workers,
and 31 other organizations for peace.
That’s what will send us out to vote on November 6,
to add our voices in support of candidates and issues
that will stand on the side of peace, justice,
and the common good.
Our efforts may not bear as much fruit as quickly as we’d like,
but we have faith
that God will continue to do great things for us!
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), October 21, 2018
First Reading: Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm Response: Psalm 33:4-5, 18-22
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16
Gospel: Mark 10:35-45
We all know that sex abuse happens.
And we know that some priests are perpetrators.
And we know that it has happened here in the Toledo Diocese.
And this past week we’ve read about it again in the paper
and heard about it again on TV and radio.
The facts we have at this point are sparse.
We know that Bishop Daniel Thomas
put Fr. Nelson Beaver on administrative leave
because of an accusation that Fr. Beaver
sexually abused a minor 25 years ago,
and that Bishop Thomas also notified the police,
who are investigating.
That’s about it.
We don’t know much else at this point.
On the other hand, we’ve also heard lots of comments,
defensive ones, and angry ones, and doubting ones.
Whatever the facts turn out to be,
we would do well to remember what happened
back in November of 1993
when Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was accused
of having abused Stephen Cook.
And we would also do well to remember
the immediate negative judgments that came out.
Vatican Radio said the accusation was
“filthy, worthy only of disdain”
and they said they suspected
that the accuser was looking for compensation money.
The Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis, John Roach,
said there was something demonic about the accusation.
The Archbishop of Baltimore, William Keeler,
president of the U.S. bishops’ conference at the time,
blamed the media, saying that
“being first with a story is, for some,
a value that outweighs
providing the best and most accurate reporting."
___________________________
Cardinal Bernardin, on the other hand,
showed us the kind of authority
that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel,
when he said that the investigation
“must be done in such a way that is effective, obviously,
but in such a way
that will not frighten or scare off true victims."
In effect, Cardinal Bernardin used his authority to serve,
not to be served.
By not letting their cause be forgotten,
he did a compassionate service to all victims of clergy abuse
just when it wasn’t expected,
in the middle of his own suffering.
His supporters were angry and defensive, but,
even as he stated that he was not guilty as charged,
he set an example of reaching out to all the victims of abuse.
Barbara Blaine, the leader of SNAP,
the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
called Cardinal Bernardin’s response
“a perfect example of how to respond to allegations.”
He defended himself, she said, without attacking victims.
___________________________
The opposite of that shows up in people
who measure their greatness by who they can dominate.
When I was growing up, I noticed what often happened
when somebody was accused of doing something wrong.
They would shout out a denial: “I did not!”
Then they would point to the accuser and yell,
“Takes one to call one!”
Blaming the victim.
Adults do it, too, and we see it every day in the news:
loud denials and bellowing
at victims and reporters and political opponents,
using the authority of office
to blame and shame,
rant and rave,
bully and bluster.
___________________________
That’s not the way Cardinal Bernardin
used his power, or his position, or his authority.
He followed Jesus’ way,
and that gave him spiritual confidence.
He acted out of the truth that greatness
comes from self-giving service to others.
He was not acting out of the understanding
of authority that dominates and controls,
but out of the understanding
of authority that accompanies, listens, liberates, empowers,
gives people confidence in themselves,
and calls them to be aware of their responsibilities.
He was acting out of his understanding of today’s gospel message:
we all suffer,
and suffering can move us to compassion and forgiveness
or it can lead us to anger and hate.
Choosing compassion and forgiveness will bring,
as Jesus says, real glory.
Cardinal Bernardin went through four months of suffering
before he was exonerated in March of 1994,
and in that suffering he showed us
how a follower of Jesus exercises authority.
___________________________
Jesus calls us to be great,
individually and as a community,
and the way to be great is to serve.
“Whoever wishes to be great among you,” Jesus says,
“will be your servant [dia-konos];
whoever wishes to be first among you
will be the slave [doulos] of all.”
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm Response: Psalm 33:4-5, 18-22
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16
Gospel: Mark 10:35-45
We all know that sex abuse happens.
And we know that some priests are perpetrators.
And we know that it has happened here in the Toledo Diocese.
And this past week we’ve read about it again in the paper
and heard about it again on TV and radio.
The facts we have at this point are sparse.
We know that Bishop Daniel Thomas
put Fr. Nelson Beaver on administrative leave
because of an accusation that Fr. Beaver
sexually abused a minor 25 years ago,
and that Bishop Thomas also notified the police,
who are investigating.
That’s about it.
We don’t know much else at this point.
On the other hand, we’ve also heard lots of comments,
defensive ones, and angry ones, and doubting ones.
Whatever the facts turn out to be,
we would do well to remember what happened
back in November of 1993
when Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was accused
of having abused Stephen Cook.
And we would also do well to remember
the immediate negative judgments that came out.
Vatican Radio said the accusation was
“filthy, worthy only of disdain”
and they said they suspected
that the accuser was looking for compensation money.
The Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis, John Roach,
said there was something demonic about the accusation.
The Archbishop of Baltimore, William Keeler,
president of the U.S. bishops’ conference at the time,
blamed the media, saying that
“being first with a story is, for some,
a value that outweighs
providing the best and most accurate reporting."
___________________________
Cardinal Bernardin, on the other hand,
showed us the kind of authority
that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel,
when he said that the investigation
“must be done in such a way that is effective, obviously,
but in such a way
that will not frighten or scare off true victims."
In effect, Cardinal Bernardin used his authority to serve,
not to be served.
By not letting their cause be forgotten,
he did a compassionate service to all victims of clergy abuse
just when it wasn’t expected,
in the middle of his own suffering.
His supporters were angry and defensive, but,
even as he stated that he was not guilty as charged,
he set an example of reaching out to all the victims of abuse.
Barbara Blaine, the leader of SNAP,
the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
called Cardinal Bernardin’s response
“a perfect example of how to respond to allegations.”
He defended himself, she said, without attacking victims.
___________________________
The opposite of that shows up in people
who measure their greatness by who they can dominate.
When I was growing up, I noticed what often happened
when somebody was accused of doing something wrong.
They would shout out a denial: “I did not!”
Then they would point to the accuser and yell,
“Takes one to call one!”
Blaming the victim.
Adults do it, too, and we see it every day in the news:
loud denials and bellowing
at victims and reporters and political opponents,
using the authority of office
to blame and shame,
rant and rave,
bully and bluster.
___________________________
That’s not the way Cardinal Bernardin
used his power, or his position, or his authority.
He followed Jesus’ way,
and that gave him spiritual confidence.
He acted out of the truth that greatness
comes from self-giving service to others.
He was not acting out of the understanding
of authority that dominates and controls,
but out of the understanding
of authority that accompanies, listens, liberates, empowers,
gives people confidence in themselves,
and calls them to be aware of their responsibilities.
He was acting out of his understanding of today’s gospel message:
we all suffer,
and suffering can move us to compassion and forgiveness
or it can lead us to anger and hate.
Choosing compassion and forgiveness will bring,
as Jesus says, real glory.
Cardinal Bernardin went through four months of suffering
before he was exonerated in March of 1994,
and in that suffering he showed us
how a follower of Jesus exercises authority.
___________________________
Jesus calls us to be great,
individually and as a community,
and the way to be great is to serve.
“Whoever wishes to be great among you,” Jesus says,
“will be your servant [dia-konos];
whoever wishes to be first among you
will be the slave [doulos] of all.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), October 14, 2018
First Reading: Wisdom 7:7-11
Psalm Response: Psalm 90:12-17
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:12-13
Gospel: Mark 10:17-30
The book of Wisdom gives us lessons on how to live
so that we can use the things of this world
to help us become what God intends us to be,
as St. Irenaeus said,
to glorify God by being a human person fully alive.
Many folks in Jesus’ time believed
that prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing,
but Mark’s gospel tells us
that Jesus himself saw wealth as a problem.
Later, Paul writes to Timothy
saying that the LOVE of money is the root of many evils,
which is often misquoted as MONEY is the root of many evils.
_________________________________________
Some religious people today still believe that their wealth
is a sign that God favors what they’re doing.
Even more people, especially in our country,
believe that money is power.
That message undergirds the emails we’re getting
as the early voting for the midterms began this past Tuesday.
My emailbox has been flooded worse than Florida
with all sorts of groups and candidates asking for money
so they can get power.
At the same time I heard a radio ad for a Toledo restaurant
where I could get a full meal for $85.
I wondered about that,
so I googled around and easily found a place here
where the entree is $84,
with an additional $12 for a side dish—like asparagus,
and another $12 for a glass of wine,
adding up to over $100 for one person, before the tip.
_________________________________________
Even more curious,
I sent my google over to the Cherry Street Mission,
where meals are prepared for $2.28 a person
and cost the diner nothing.
That $100 meal would feed 42 people at Cherry Street.
And no tip.
My curiosity was running on high,
so I emailed John Yates, the Claver House team facilitator,
and asked what it costs for a meal there.
His reply: “I guess you could say our cost per meal
is $0.00 per meal...”
and he added, “thanks to the compassion and love and support
of people like YOU.”
_________________________________________
Then there was that scary environment report this week
telling us that it’s not just money that shows power,
not just money that keeps us from following Jesus
and living in the reign of God right now.
It’s our habits that put “me first“
no matter what damage it does to other people.
_________________________________________
Today’s gospel reminded me that I’m a very wealthy woman--
a state I define as having more than I need to live on.
Compared to most of the people in the world, I have power.
I have a house and clothes.
I can walk out in my yard and find something to eat.
I can hop in my car and go wherever I want.
I figured out that gas is costing me less than 12 cents a mile,
and if I drive an extra 20 miles that I didn’t need to drive--
20 miles I could have avoided
if I’d planned my daily trips better--
then I will waste the cost of a meal
that a homeless person could have eaten
to stay alive and healthy.
_________________________________________
Scholars tell us that the actions in today’s gospel are not historical.
They are a scene created by Mark
that may possibly reflect an incident in Jesus’ life,
but the words of two sentences in that reading
very likely came from Jesus:
“How difficult it is for those who have money
to enter God's kin-dom!”
and
“It's easier for a camel to squeeze through a needle's eye
than for a wealthy person to get into God's kin-dom!”
_________________________________________
Today’s gospel bears a different message for each of us.
If we value our possessions,
we get the same message
that Jesus gave the man with many possessions.
If we value our looks, or our status, or our intelligence—whatever--
more than we value serving God,
then the message for us is to leave that behind
and follow Jesus.
Love of our material possessions
or our physical comforts
or our expertise
is an obstacle to discipleship.
That kind of love is not love of God
but trust in ourselves
and in whatever it is that we value more than God.
_________________________________________
The gospel doesn’t mean we have to give everything away
to the point of being homeless and penniless.
It doesn’t mean that, if we have intelligence,
we should act dumb.
It doesn’t mean that, if we are good-looking,
we should wear rags and never take a bath so we look awful.
The man with many possessions went away sad
because he could not give to the poor and follow Jesus.
He had more than enough
but couldn’t give any of it away
to help people who didn’t have enough.
_________________________________________
I have enough.
I really have plenty of everything I really need.
I look at my habits--
what I use, what I buy, how I drive, how I spend my time…
and ask if I can change my ways
to give, to use, to dedicate what I have
so someone else can also have enough.
I see you helping your kids,
spending time with the grandkids,
tending your parents as they grow older,
visiting friends in the hospital and assisted living,
volunteering at the pantry and the soup kitchen,
planting those trees for the health of the next generation,
protesting racism and sexism and oppression of all kinds,
giving generously to Holy Spirit
and just as generously voting to pass it along
to help the poor among us.
You follow Jesus’ direction:
Love one another as I have loved you.
Following his way isn’t always easy,
but it’s still the only thing worth spending life on.
Amen!
First Reading: Wisdom 7:7-11
Psalm Response: Psalm 90:12-17
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:12-13
Gospel: Mark 10:17-30
The book of Wisdom gives us lessons on how to live
so that we can use the things of this world
to help us become what God intends us to be,
as St. Irenaeus said,
to glorify God by being a human person fully alive.
Many folks in Jesus’ time believed
that prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing,
but Mark’s gospel tells us
that Jesus himself saw wealth as a problem.
Later, Paul writes to Timothy
saying that the LOVE of money is the root of many evils,
which is often misquoted as MONEY is the root of many evils.
_________________________________________
Some religious people today still believe that their wealth
is a sign that God favors what they’re doing.
Even more people, especially in our country,
believe that money is power.
That message undergirds the emails we’re getting
as the early voting for the midterms began this past Tuesday.
My emailbox has been flooded worse than Florida
with all sorts of groups and candidates asking for money
so they can get power.
At the same time I heard a radio ad for a Toledo restaurant
where I could get a full meal for $85.
I wondered about that,
so I googled around and easily found a place here
where the entree is $84,
with an additional $12 for a side dish—like asparagus,
and another $12 for a glass of wine,
adding up to over $100 for one person, before the tip.
_________________________________________
Even more curious,
I sent my google over to the Cherry Street Mission,
where meals are prepared for $2.28 a person
and cost the diner nothing.
That $100 meal would feed 42 people at Cherry Street.
And no tip.
My curiosity was running on high,
so I emailed John Yates, the Claver House team facilitator,
and asked what it costs for a meal there.
His reply: “I guess you could say our cost per meal
is $0.00 per meal...”
and he added, “thanks to the compassion and love and support
of people like YOU.”
_________________________________________
Then there was that scary environment report this week
telling us that it’s not just money that shows power,
not just money that keeps us from following Jesus
and living in the reign of God right now.
It’s our habits that put “me first“
no matter what damage it does to other people.
_________________________________________
Today’s gospel reminded me that I’m a very wealthy woman--
a state I define as having more than I need to live on.
Compared to most of the people in the world, I have power.
I have a house and clothes.
I can walk out in my yard and find something to eat.
I can hop in my car and go wherever I want.
I figured out that gas is costing me less than 12 cents a mile,
and if I drive an extra 20 miles that I didn’t need to drive--
20 miles I could have avoided
if I’d planned my daily trips better--
then I will waste the cost of a meal
that a homeless person could have eaten
to stay alive and healthy.
_________________________________________
Scholars tell us that the actions in today’s gospel are not historical.
They are a scene created by Mark
that may possibly reflect an incident in Jesus’ life,
but the words of two sentences in that reading
very likely came from Jesus:
“How difficult it is for those who have money
to enter God's kin-dom!”
and
“It's easier for a camel to squeeze through a needle's eye
than for a wealthy person to get into God's kin-dom!”
_________________________________________
Today’s gospel bears a different message for each of us.
If we value our possessions,
we get the same message
that Jesus gave the man with many possessions.
If we value our looks, or our status, or our intelligence—whatever--
more than we value serving God,
then the message for us is to leave that behind
and follow Jesus.
Love of our material possessions
or our physical comforts
or our expertise
is an obstacle to discipleship.
That kind of love is not love of God
but trust in ourselves
and in whatever it is that we value more than God.
_________________________________________
The gospel doesn’t mean we have to give everything away
to the point of being homeless and penniless.
It doesn’t mean that, if we have intelligence,
we should act dumb.
It doesn’t mean that, if we are good-looking,
we should wear rags and never take a bath so we look awful.
The man with many possessions went away sad
because he could not give to the poor and follow Jesus.
He had more than enough
but couldn’t give any of it away
to help people who didn’t have enough.
_________________________________________
I have enough.
I really have plenty of everything I really need.
I look at my habits--
what I use, what I buy, how I drive, how I spend my time…
and ask if I can change my ways
to give, to use, to dedicate what I have
so someone else can also have enough.
I see you helping your kids,
spending time with the grandkids,
tending your parents as they grow older,
visiting friends in the hospital and assisted living,
volunteering at the pantry and the soup kitchen,
planting those trees for the health of the next generation,
protesting racism and sexism and oppression of all kinds,
giving generously to Holy Spirit
and just as generously voting to pass it along
to help the poor among us.
You follow Jesus’ direction:
Love one another as I have loved you.
Following his way isn’t always easy,
but it’s still the only thing worth spending life on.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), October 7, 2018
First Reading: Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm Response: Psalm 128:1-6
Second Reading: Hebrews 2:9-11
Gospel: Mark 10:2-16
Today’s scriptures are hard for us
because we no longer share
the world-view of our ancestors in faith--
not the ones who wrote the book of Genesis, or the psalms,
or the letter to the Hebrews, or even the gospel of Mark.
One glaring difference is women’s rights.
Every day we get our consciousness raised a little more,
and, although we don’t yet have equal rights in this country,
we’re getting a more and more vivid picture
of the inequality women suffer.
Misogyny is particularly notable in the news these days,
where the testimony of a woman is dismissed
while a man’s loud voice and angry attacks
are deemed acceptable and judged credible.
So when we hear these scriptures proclaimed,
the misogyny jumps right out at us.
____________________________________
We know the statistics.
According to the American Psychological Association’s
Encyclopedia of Psychology,
marriage and divorce are both common experiences.
In Western cultures, more than 90 percent of people
marry by age 50.
Healthy marriages are good
for couples’ mental and physical health.
They are also good for children;
growing up in a happy home protects children
from mental, physical, educational, and social problems.
However, somewhere between
40 and 50 percent of married couples
in the United States divorce.
When you break it down, 41 percent of first marriages,
60 percent of second marriages,
and 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.
If we take today’s gospel literally,
that means there’s a whole lot of people
living in adultery these days.
____________________________________
But we can’t take it literally.
It was a different world.
Scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown points out
that the Pharisees of Jesus’ time would allow the husband
to write out a note divorcing his wife…
but the wife could not divorce her husband.
Marriage was not an equal partnership.
Marriages were arranged by the families,
and the groom’s family paid the bride price to the bride’s family
to compensate them for the work
that she would have been doing for them
and will now be doing for him and his family.
Treatment of women had a lot in common with treatment of slaves.
____________________________________
The book of Genesis has two different creation myths,
written with the backdrop of blood feuds between families,
written to allow peace-keeping in the community.
So the usual practice was to melt the stories together
and read them in a way
that would support their culture’s beliefs and practices.
Professor Reginald Fuller points out that
the earlier of the two Genesis creation stories, Chapter 2, focuses on the complementarity of man and woman,
so it was used to reinforce the culture’s view
of the subordination of women to men
even though the thrust of Genesis
is that man and woman share common humanity…
they are cooperators.
The ancient culture praised the good wife in the home,
tending the children,
just as today’s psalm pictures for us.
____________________________________
Early Christianity, on the other hand,
remembered the women who followed Jesus,
the female supporters of his ministry.
They remembered Mary of Magdala as sent by Jesus
to the other apostles,
and they remembered
the women priests and deacons of the early church.
They struggled against the patriarchal culture to hold the belief that,
as our second reading says, we all have one origin,
all of us sisters and brothers to one another.
Scholars tell us that Jesus said something about divorce,
but they’re not sure exactly what.
Looking at the scriptures and his ministry,
many conclude that he was trying to lead his culture
closer to equality in marriage than it had been.
____________________________________
That was 2,000 years ago, and women still suffer
from the legacy of those 1st century cultural mores.
In our lifetimes we have seen a lot of change in this country.
We’ve seen the difference in civil society.
Women no longer need a man to co-sign for a home loan,
like I did in 1967 when I bought my first home.
Two years ago it became possible
for women to serve in any position in the U.S. military.
There’s still a ways to go.
In business, out of the Fortune 500,
only 25 have women as CEOs.
Our country has not passed
the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
Women still have to file lawsuits
to get equal pay for equal work.
In our church we’ve seen a difference in biblical scholarship,
with many women theologians.
We’ve seen a difference
in the number of women serving as parish ministers.
Today 80% of the 30,000 paid lay ministers
in the Catholic Church in the United States
are women.
But they are paid less than the 20% who are men,
and not one woman priest is recognized as such
by the hierarchy--
or paid for her service.
And our church still insists on talking about the “feminine genius,”
meaning that God intends a woman to bear and raise children
and keep house for her husband.
____________________________________
So here we are.
Our task as followers of Jesus
is not to follow the rules of the 1st century
but to discern the right thing to do in the 21st century.
Our institutional church has a long way to go
in terms of seeing the way of love and justice
when it comes to marriage and divorce,
when it comes to same-sex relationships,
when it comes to the equal role of women
in the world
and in the church.
We can be grateful that heretics aren’t put on the rack
or burned at the stake any more,
and that women are not killed
for trying to get out of an abusive marriage.
____________________________________
For a number of reasons,
these days the divorce rate is going down.
We are seeing more and more marriages that are partnerships,
two people living as cooperators,
equal, free, loving, together for ever.
But as a church we have a long way to go
before we are truly following Jesus,
who stood for justice and peace and love
against all the unjust rules...
truly following Jesus, who said,
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Amen
First Reading: Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm Response: Psalm 128:1-6
Second Reading: Hebrews 2:9-11
Gospel: Mark 10:2-16
Today’s scriptures are hard for us
because we no longer share
the world-view of our ancestors in faith--
not the ones who wrote the book of Genesis, or the psalms,
or the letter to the Hebrews, or even the gospel of Mark.
One glaring difference is women’s rights.
Every day we get our consciousness raised a little more,
and, although we don’t yet have equal rights in this country,
we’re getting a more and more vivid picture
of the inequality women suffer.
Misogyny is particularly notable in the news these days,
where the testimony of a woman is dismissed
while a man’s loud voice and angry attacks
are deemed acceptable and judged credible.
So when we hear these scriptures proclaimed,
the misogyny jumps right out at us.
____________________________________
We know the statistics.
According to the American Psychological Association’s
Encyclopedia of Psychology,
marriage and divorce are both common experiences.
In Western cultures, more than 90 percent of people
marry by age 50.
Healthy marriages are good
for couples’ mental and physical health.
They are also good for children;
growing up in a happy home protects children
from mental, physical, educational, and social problems.
However, somewhere between
40 and 50 percent of married couples
in the United States divorce.
When you break it down, 41 percent of first marriages,
60 percent of second marriages,
and 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.
If we take today’s gospel literally,
that means there’s a whole lot of people
living in adultery these days.
____________________________________
But we can’t take it literally.
It was a different world.
Scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown points out
that the Pharisees of Jesus’ time would allow the husband
to write out a note divorcing his wife…
but the wife could not divorce her husband.
Marriage was not an equal partnership.
Marriages were arranged by the families,
and the groom’s family paid the bride price to the bride’s family
to compensate them for the work
that she would have been doing for them
and will now be doing for him and his family.
Treatment of women had a lot in common with treatment of slaves.
____________________________________
The book of Genesis has two different creation myths,
written with the backdrop of blood feuds between families,
written to allow peace-keeping in the community.
So the usual practice was to melt the stories together
and read them in a way
that would support their culture’s beliefs and practices.
Professor Reginald Fuller points out that
the earlier of the two Genesis creation stories, Chapter 2, focuses on the complementarity of man and woman,
so it was used to reinforce the culture’s view
of the subordination of women to men
even though the thrust of Genesis
is that man and woman share common humanity…
they are cooperators.
The ancient culture praised the good wife in the home,
tending the children,
just as today’s psalm pictures for us.
____________________________________
Early Christianity, on the other hand,
remembered the women who followed Jesus,
the female supporters of his ministry.
They remembered Mary of Magdala as sent by Jesus
to the other apostles,
and they remembered
the women priests and deacons of the early church.
They struggled against the patriarchal culture to hold the belief that,
as our second reading says, we all have one origin,
all of us sisters and brothers to one another.
Scholars tell us that Jesus said something about divorce,
but they’re not sure exactly what.
Looking at the scriptures and his ministry,
many conclude that he was trying to lead his culture
closer to equality in marriage than it had been.
____________________________________
That was 2,000 years ago, and women still suffer
from the legacy of those 1st century cultural mores.
In our lifetimes we have seen a lot of change in this country.
We’ve seen the difference in civil society.
Women no longer need a man to co-sign for a home loan,
like I did in 1967 when I bought my first home.
Two years ago it became possible
for women to serve in any position in the U.S. military.
There’s still a ways to go.
In business, out of the Fortune 500,
only 25 have women as CEOs.
Our country has not passed
the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
Women still have to file lawsuits
to get equal pay for equal work.
In our church we’ve seen a difference in biblical scholarship,
with many women theologians.
We’ve seen a difference
in the number of women serving as parish ministers.
Today 80% of the 30,000 paid lay ministers
in the Catholic Church in the United States
are women.
But they are paid less than the 20% who are men,
and not one woman priest is recognized as such
by the hierarchy--
or paid for her service.
And our church still insists on talking about the “feminine genius,”
meaning that God intends a woman to bear and raise children
and keep house for her husband.
____________________________________
So here we are.
Our task as followers of Jesus
is not to follow the rules of the 1st century
but to discern the right thing to do in the 21st century.
Our institutional church has a long way to go
in terms of seeing the way of love and justice
when it comes to marriage and divorce,
when it comes to same-sex relationships,
when it comes to the equal role of women
in the world
and in the church.
We can be grateful that heretics aren’t put on the rack
or burned at the stake any more,
and that women are not killed
for trying to get out of an abusive marriage.
____________________________________
For a number of reasons,
these days the divorce rate is going down.
We are seeing more and more marriages that are partnerships,
two people living as cooperators,
equal, free, loving, together for ever.
But as a church we have a long way to go
before we are truly following Jesus,
who stood for justice and peace and love
against all the unjust rules...
truly following Jesus, who said,
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), September 30, 2018
First Reading: Nehemiah 11:25-29
Psalm Response: Psalm 19:8-14
Second Reading: James 5:9-16
Gospel: Mark 9:38-48
I love that first reading from Numbers,
and the events that come before and after it.
The Israelites were in the desert,
heading from slavery in Egypt to the promised land,
grumbling about not having food.
God sent them manna—the bread from heaven--
but they still grumbled because they wanted meat, too.
Moses despaired.
It was too much for him.
He was so distraught that he asked God to kill him
so he wouldn’t have to carry the burden
of those grumbling people all by himself.
God’s answer was today’s reading,
telling Moses to gather 70 of the elders in the tent,
where God would speak with Moses
and put the spirit into the people
so they would share Moses’ burden.
God also tells Moses that they will get their meat,
not for a day or so, but for a whole month,
“until it comes out of your very nostrils
and becomes loathsome to you.”
Even Moses can’t believe God on this one.
He tells God he has 600,000 soldiers,
and doubts that even God can provide enough meat for them.
So God tells him: well, you’ll see!
And after the events in the tent and the camp
that we heard in today’s reading, God does send the meat:
quail 3 feet deep fall dead in a 20-mile circle around the camp,
so much that even the one who got the least
had 60 bushels of quail.
________________________________
That’s what comes before and after today’s story,
the manna before and the quail after.
Today we hear that Moses gathers the elders at the tent,
and God comes down in the cloud, just as promised.
God sends the spirit to rest on them, and they prophesy,
that is, they praise God with great enthusiasm.
________________________________
Then comes one of my favorite pieces of the Bible.
Eldad and Medad, two of the elders,
stayed out in the camp
instead of gathering in the tent with the others,
but the spirit comes to rest on them, too,
and they prophesy out in the camp.
When it was reported that they were prophesying,
Moses’ aide, Joshua, wanted him to stop them.
No, don’t stop them, Moses says,
“If only all God’s people were prophets!”
________________________________
These days, we hear lots of grumbling.
We hear people say they don’t believe what we know to be true.
On the other hand, we also hear prophesying,
inside and outside the tent--
people speaking with great enthusiasm
for truth and the common good and peace.
We hear famous people,
like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
speaking for equal justice;
like Pope Francis, insisting on the common good
and calling us to care for the least among us.
________________________________
We hear not-so-famous people, too.
We hear Bob Clark-Phelps down at St. John XXIII,
and our Tree Toledo folks,
and Colleen Grogan with the Lenten Simplicity group,
and Sr. Rosine Sobczak with the Science Alliance
for Valuing the Environment at Lourdes,
all speaking out for planet earth
and the poorest people who are dying from climate change.
We hear Judy Trautman and the MultiFaith Council,
and Sue Rosa and Dr. Fadia Abaza at Saad Mosque
in the Jesus Fatwah discussions.
We hear Baldemar Velasquez
calling for justice for migrants and farm workers.
We see our local peaceniks: Sr. Sharon Havelak
and Tom McDonald with the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition,
and scores of people and organizations
standing up for peace a week ago Friday.
There’s more.
We hear locals working for racial equality,
like the Toledo Community Coalition
and Sr. Ginny Welsh and the Toledo Chapter
of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.
And there are people raising prophetic voices,
like Toby Hoover on ending gun violence
and Students for Justice in Palestine at UT.
We hear the ABLE lawyers
working for rights for refugees and immigrants,
and we see Laurie Snyder
working with UStogether and the Syrian refugees.
________________________________
We could name a lot more than 70 in our community
engaged in the prophetic work of peace and justice and love,
right here.
Just look around this room.
Each of you is an Eldad, a Medad,
outside the tent, prophesying in word and action,
praising God by who you are and what you do.
________________________________
In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the lesson clear for us.
When John tells him that the disciples
tried to stop someone from driving out demons
because he wasn’t a follower,
Jesus tells them to let the person go on doing it.
“Whoever is not against us is for us,” he says.
Don’t stop them.
They’re with us.
Jesus’ words are an affirmation to each one of you
who speaks out against falsehood and injustice,
who acts out of love to help others.
Those words are like the words of the psalmist,
said straight to you:
your words and your actions
are worth more than the finest gold,
sweeter than honey from the comb.
As Moses put it, you are prophets!
Would that all the people of God were prophets!
________________________________
There is nobody who is not called by God.
Everyone is gifted with the spirit.
Jesus issues a universal call to holiness,
and you are answering his call.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Nehemiah 11:25-29
Psalm Response: Psalm 19:8-14
Second Reading: James 5:9-16
Gospel: Mark 9:38-48
I love that first reading from Numbers,
and the events that come before and after it.
The Israelites were in the desert,
heading from slavery in Egypt to the promised land,
grumbling about not having food.
God sent them manna—the bread from heaven--
but they still grumbled because they wanted meat, too.
Moses despaired.
It was too much for him.
He was so distraught that he asked God to kill him
so he wouldn’t have to carry the burden
of those grumbling people all by himself.
God’s answer was today’s reading,
telling Moses to gather 70 of the elders in the tent,
where God would speak with Moses
and put the spirit into the people
so they would share Moses’ burden.
God also tells Moses that they will get their meat,
not for a day or so, but for a whole month,
“until it comes out of your very nostrils
and becomes loathsome to you.”
Even Moses can’t believe God on this one.
He tells God he has 600,000 soldiers,
and doubts that even God can provide enough meat for them.
So God tells him: well, you’ll see!
And after the events in the tent and the camp
that we heard in today’s reading, God does send the meat:
quail 3 feet deep fall dead in a 20-mile circle around the camp,
so much that even the one who got the least
had 60 bushels of quail.
________________________________
That’s what comes before and after today’s story,
the manna before and the quail after.
Today we hear that Moses gathers the elders at the tent,
and God comes down in the cloud, just as promised.
God sends the spirit to rest on them, and they prophesy,
that is, they praise God with great enthusiasm.
________________________________
Then comes one of my favorite pieces of the Bible.
Eldad and Medad, two of the elders,
stayed out in the camp
instead of gathering in the tent with the others,
but the spirit comes to rest on them, too,
and they prophesy out in the camp.
When it was reported that they were prophesying,
Moses’ aide, Joshua, wanted him to stop them.
No, don’t stop them, Moses says,
“If only all God’s people were prophets!”
________________________________
These days, we hear lots of grumbling.
We hear people say they don’t believe what we know to be true.
On the other hand, we also hear prophesying,
inside and outside the tent--
people speaking with great enthusiasm
for truth and the common good and peace.
We hear famous people,
like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
speaking for equal justice;
like Pope Francis, insisting on the common good
and calling us to care for the least among us.
________________________________
We hear not-so-famous people, too.
We hear Bob Clark-Phelps down at St. John XXIII,
and our Tree Toledo folks,
and Colleen Grogan with the Lenten Simplicity group,
and Sr. Rosine Sobczak with the Science Alliance
for Valuing the Environment at Lourdes,
all speaking out for planet earth
and the poorest people who are dying from climate change.
We hear Judy Trautman and the MultiFaith Council,
and Sue Rosa and Dr. Fadia Abaza at Saad Mosque
in the Jesus Fatwah discussions.
We hear Baldemar Velasquez
calling for justice for migrants and farm workers.
We see our local peaceniks: Sr. Sharon Havelak
and Tom McDonald with the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition,
and scores of people and organizations
standing up for peace a week ago Friday.
There’s more.
We hear locals working for racial equality,
like the Toledo Community Coalition
and Sr. Ginny Welsh and the Toledo Chapter
of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.
And there are people raising prophetic voices,
like Toby Hoover on ending gun violence
and Students for Justice in Palestine at UT.
We hear the ABLE lawyers
working for rights for refugees and immigrants,
and we see Laurie Snyder
working with UStogether and the Syrian refugees.
________________________________
We could name a lot more than 70 in our community
engaged in the prophetic work of peace and justice and love,
right here.
Just look around this room.
Each of you is an Eldad, a Medad,
outside the tent, prophesying in word and action,
praising God by who you are and what you do.
________________________________
In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the lesson clear for us.
When John tells him that the disciples
tried to stop someone from driving out demons
because he wasn’t a follower,
Jesus tells them to let the person go on doing it.
“Whoever is not against us is for us,” he says.
Don’t stop them.
They’re with us.
Jesus’ words are an affirmation to each one of you
who speaks out against falsehood and injustice,
who acts out of love to help others.
Those words are like the words of the psalmist,
said straight to you:
your words and your actions
are worth more than the finest gold,
sweeter than honey from the comb.
As Moses put it, you are prophets!
Would that all the people of God were prophets!
________________________________
There is nobody who is not called by God.
Everyone is gifted with the spirit.
Jesus issues a universal call to holiness,
and you are answering his call.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), September 23, 2018
First Reading: Wisdom 2:12,17-20
Psalm Response: Psalm 54: 3-6, 8
Second Reading: James 3:16-4:3
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
We can look around our world and our country
and our church and our workplace,
and maybe even our homes,
and we can see what happens
when power and wealth and greatness
are put before everything else.
All three of today’s readings talk about it.
In the Book of Wisdom, we hear the voice of the wicked
plotting to humiliate and torture
people who are humble and patient.
In the second reading we hear that,
“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.”
That letter was written for Jewish Christians
shortly after the dawn of the 2nd century…
but it sounds like it could have been written
about the USA today.
And then there’s the Gospel, the second time
that Mark shows the disciples misunderstanding Jesus--
they’re quibbling over who’s the greatest
and just don’t understand
what it means to love their neighbors,
what it means to follow him.
So Jesus gives them a startling answer:
when you receive—welcome—extend hospitality--
to one little child, you do it to him.
The one who’s first is the one who’s last,
and the one who’s last is first.
_________________________________________
A strict pecking order was the rule for Jesus’ culture.
As Thomas Aquinas described it,
in a fire a husband was obliged to save his father first,
then his mother, next his wife,
and last of all his young child.
In time of famine, children were fed last.
A child is powerless, can’t give you anything,
like a homeless beggar on the street corner
or a lifer in prison.
Disposable.
But Jesus calls for a world where everybody is equal,
each person just as important as anybody else.
Be the servant of all, he says,
starting with those who are the least.
It may be the most revolutionary teaching
of all the sayings of Jesus.
It’s against the domination system that,
for at least 5,000 years,
put people over people, nation over nation, rich over poor,
adults over children, and men over women.
And our Church that says it follows Jesus--
our church that calls itself Christian,
our church puts clerics over the people in the pews—
instead of following Jesus’ teaching to be the servant of all.
_________________________________________
All of your life you make choices about what’s important,
about what you’re going to believe,
about who you trust and who you will follow,
about who you will stand in relationship with
and what that relationship will be like.
So Jesus tells you to love your neighbor.
Then you see the neighbor next door,
the one you’re supposed to love.
Maybe she’s working two waitress jobs for low pay with no benefits,
and she doesn’t have much time to spend with her children.
So you do something about it, because you love her.
You help with the kids.
Or you tell her about an opening for a better-paying job.
Or you write Congress about raising the minimum wage.
You love your neighbor, so you work for justice.
And because you work for justice, your neighbor has hope.
She gets a better job and has time to spend with the kids.
The kids grow up healthier and happier,
and Mom guides them to finishing their homework
and graduating and learning to make good choices.
_________________________________________
Then there’s the family--
on the other side of the street,
or on the other side of the world--
more people that Jesus tells you to love.
That toddler wandering down the street alone.
Those children pulled from their parents at the border and jailed.
Those babies dying because poor mothers don’t get pre-natal care.
Those street people who can’t get a job,
who didn’t get an education,
who can’t afford an apartment.
_________________________________________
The message is clear:
love your neighbor as yourself.
Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.
What does that look like for us as followers of Jesus?
Jesus tells us that we fulfill the commandments
by embracing the vulnerable in our midst:
those defenseless children,
the despairing poor, the terrified, the mentally ill,
the marginalized, the disabled, the refugees of war.
It’s that song that we sing a lot here:
“We are called to act with justice;
we are called to love tenderly;
we are called to serve one another,
to walk humbly with God.”
It’s living a life of humility and selfless service
that will make us number one where it really matters.
When you love your neighbor as yourself,
you make a beeline
from love
through justice
to peace.
So you work at it.
You reach out when you see people in need.
You try to serve the least.
You’re not perfect at it...
yet you are a holy work in progress.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Wisdom 2:12,17-20
Psalm Response: Psalm 54: 3-6, 8
Second Reading: James 3:16-4:3
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37
We can look around our world and our country
and our church and our workplace,
and maybe even our homes,
and we can see what happens
when power and wealth and greatness
are put before everything else.
All three of today’s readings talk about it.
In the Book of Wisdom, we hear the voice of the wicked
plotting to humiliate and torture
people who are humble and patient.
In the second reading we hear that,
“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.”
That letter was written for Jewish Christians
shortly after the dawn of the 2nd century…
but it sounds like it could have been written
about the USA today.
And then there’s the Gospel, the second time
that Mark shows the disciples misunderstanding Jesus--
they’re quibbling over who’s the greatest
and just don’t understand
what it means to love their neighbors,
what it means to follow him.
So Jesus gives them a startling answer:
when you receive—welcome—extend hospitality--
to one little child, you do it to him.
The one who’s first is the one who’s last,
and the one who’s last is first.
_________________________________________
A strict pecking order was the rule for Jesus’ culture.
As Thomas Aquinas described it,
in a fire a husband was obliged to save his father first,
then his mother, next his wife,
and last of all his young child.
In time of famine, children were fed last.
A child is powerless, can’t give you anything,
like a homeless beggar on the street corner
or a lifer in prison.
Disposable.
But Jesus calls for a world where everybody is equal,
each person just as important as anybody else.
Be the servant of all, he says,
starting with those who are the least.
It may be the most revolutionary teaching
of all the sayings of Jesus.
It’s against the domination system that,
for at least 5,000 years,
put people over people, nation over nation, rich over poor,
adults over children, and men over women.
And our Church that says it follows Jesus--
our church that calls itself Christian,
our church puts clerics over the people in the pews—
instead of following Jesus’ teaching to be the servant of all.
_________________________________________
All of your life you make choices about what’s important,
about what you’re going to believe,
about who you trust and who you will follow,
about who you will stand in relationship with
and what that relationship will be like.
So Jesus tells you to love your neighbor.
Then you see the neighbor next door,
the one you’re supposed to love.
Maybe she’s working two waitress jobs for low pay with no benefits,
and she doesn’t have much time to spend with her children.
So you do something about it, because you love her.
You help with the kids.
Or you tell her about an opening for a better-paying job.
Or you write Congress about raising the minimum wage.
You love your neighbor, so you work for justice.
And because you work for justice, your neighbor has hope.
She gets a better job and has time to spend with the kids.
The kids grow up healthier and happier,
and Mom guides them to finishing their homework
and graduating and learning to make good choices.
_________________________________________
Then there’s the family--
on the other side of the street,
or on the other side of the world--
more people that Jesus tells you to love.
That toddler wandering down the street alone.
Those children pulled from their parents at the border and jailed.
Those babies dying because poor mothers don’t get pre-natal care.
Those street people who can’t get a job,
who didn’t get an education,
who can’t afford an apartment.
_________________________________________
The message is clear:
love your neighbor as yourself.
Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.
What does that look like for us as followers of Jesus?
Jesus tells us that we fulfill the commandments
by embracing the vulnerable in our midst:
those defenseless children,
the despairing poor, the terrified, the mentally ill,
the marginalized, the disabled, the refugees of war.
It’s that song that we sing a lot here:
“We are called to act with justice;
we are called to love tenderly;
we are called to serve one another,
to walk humbly with God.”
It’s living a life of humility and selfless service
that will make us number one where it really matters.
When you love your neighbor as yourself,
you make a beeline
from love
through justice
to peace.
So you work at it.
You reach out when you see people in need.
You try to serve the least.
You’re not perfect at it...
yet you are a holy work in progress.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), September 16, 2018
First Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 116:1-9
Second Reading: James 2:14-18
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
The Good News, so we hear today,
brings us buffets and spitting, snares of the netherworld,
suffering, loss of life!
On top of that, Mark gives us that paradox:
if we try to save our life, we’ll lose it.
Sure doesn’t sound like good news… but it is.
______________________________
Last Monday it was cold and rainy, and I wanted to stay home
with a pot of herb tea and a good book,
but I had four meetings on my calendar.
Tuesday, I wanted to sleep in, but I got up
and hauled a carload of your generous donations
down to Claver House.
Wednesday I wanted to shop for some new clothes--
it was senior discount day at the Salvation Army--
but I had a homily to put together.
Thursday I wanted to putter around in the garden,
but a friend called looking for some advice about her grandson.
Friday night I wanted to go to a football game,
but there was that wedding rehearsal.
So my life was, as T.S. Eliot would put it,
measured out in coffee spoons.
I lost it, a bit here, a bit there… and another week went by.
______________________________
When we look around our world,
we can see people choosing to do what they want,
choosing to put themselves first,
to spend their time—their life—just having a good time,
doing what they want to do.
You go to Grandparents’ Day at the local school,
and you see a child there alone,
nobody to share the day with.
Her grandparents chose to go to the casino instead.
You head for your class reunion with the cake you promised to bake
and find that the classmate
who promised to bring the plates and forks
didn’t even bother to show up.
Or you watch the evening news report
that a couple was arrested for leaving two toddlers
in the care of their six-year-old sister,
no food in the house,
because they wanted to go out dancing.
When people make those kinds of choices,
they think they’re really living, but they aren’t.
They’re losing their life.
______________________________
Each of us has to make those same kinds of choices.
You change your plans to help someone.
Maybe your spouse is down in the dumps,
so you change your personal plans
to go walk together in the park for a while.
You give up a vacation to tend a grandchild
so your kids can get away for a bit.
You know your neighbor is in rehab and her lawn needs mowing,
so you add it to your own chore list.
And there are bigger choices
Your brother has a stroke; you go there to help out.
Your daughter needs help with college tuition;
you downsize everything.
Your mother is bedridden; you sit with her.
You make a commitment, and you keep it.
And so you give it away--
your time, and your talent, and your treasure.
You lose your life.
And in the process of losing it,
paradoxically you gain everything.
You gain love, and family ties, and neighborly friendship,
and the highest respect
from people who see you being who you are.
______________________________
Today’s Gospel is the first of three passages in Mark
where he shows how we are supposed to die with Jesus.
The second one is in chapter 9,
where the disciples are arguing about
who is the greatest among them,
and Jesus tells them
that however they treat the least among them
is how they treat him.
And the third passage is in Chapter 10,
when Jesus’ disciples ask if they can sit at his right and left
when he enters his glory,
and Jesus tells them that, if they want to be great,
they have to be slaves to everybody else.
That’s how they are to give up their life.
______________________________
That’s the truth that today’s scriptures tell us:
when you give up your time and your energy
to love and care for someone else...
when you choose to make the world a better place...
by your choice you save your own life.
Because you choose to follow the Way of Jesus,
you end up becoming a loving, caring person,
living in the reign of God.
Amen
First Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9
Psalm Response: Psalm 116:1-9
Second Reading: James 2:14-18
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
The Good News, so we hear today,
brings us buffets and spitting, snares of the netherworld,
suffering, loss of life!
On top of that, Mark gives us that paradox:
if we try to save our life, we’ll lose it.
Sure doesn’t sound like good news… but it is.
______________________________
Last Monday it was cold and rainy, and I wanted to stay home
with a pot of herb tea and a good book,
but I had four meetings on my calendar.
Tuesday, I wanted to sleep in, but I got up
and hauled a carload of your generous donations
down to Claver House.
Wednesday I wanted to shop for some new clothes--
it was senior discount day at the Salvation Army--
but I had a homily to put together.
Thursday I wanted to putter around in the garden,
but a friend called looking for some advice about her grandson.
Friday night I wanted to go to a football game,
but there was that wedding rehearsal.
So my life was, as T.S. Eliot would put it,
measured out in coffee spoons.
I lost it, a bit here, a bit there… and another week went by.
______________________________
When we look around our world,
we can see people choosing to do what they want,
choosing to put themselves first,
to spend their time—their life—just having a good time,
doing what they want to do.
You go to Grandparents’ Day at the local school,
and you see a child there alone,
nobody to share the day with.
Her grandparents chose to go to the casino instead.
You head for your class reunion with the cake you promised to bake
and find that the classmate
who promised to bring the plates and forks
didn’t even bother to show up.
Or you watch the evening news report
that a couple was arrested for leaving two toddlers
in the care of their six-year-old sister,
no food in the house,
because they wanted to go out dancing.
When people make those kinds of choices,
they think they’re really living, but they aren’t.
They’re losing their life.
______________________________
Each of us has to make those same kinds of choices.
You change your plans to help someone.
Maybe your spouse is down in the dumps,
so you change your personal plans
to go walk together in the park for a while.
You give up a vacation to tend a grandchild
so your kids can get away for a bit.
You know your neighbor is in rehab and her lawn needs mowing,
so you add it to your own chore list.
And there are bigger choices
Your brother has a stroke; you go there to help out.
Your daughter needs help with college tuition;
you downsize everything.
Your mother is bedridden; you sit with her.
You make a commitment, and you keep it.
And so you give it away--
your time, and your talent, and your treasure.
You lose your life.
And in the process of losing it,
paradoxically you gain everything.
You gain love, and family ties, and neighborly friendship,
and the highest respect
from people who see you being who you are.
______________________________
Today’s Gospel is the first of three passages in Mark
where he shows how we are supposed to die with Jesus.
The second one is in chapter 9,
where the disciples are arguing about
who is the greatest among them,
and Jesus tells them
that however they treat the least among them
is how they treat him.
And the third passage is in Chapter 10,
when Jesus’ disciples ask if they can sit at his right and left
when he enters his glory,
and Jesus tells them that, if they want to be great,
they have to be slaves to everybody else.
That’s how they are to give up their life.
______________________________
That’s the truth that today’s scriptures tell us:
when you give up your time and your energy
to love and care for someone else...
when you choose to make the world a better place...
by your choice you save your own life.
Because you choose to follow the Way of Jesus,
you end up becoming a loving, caring person,
living in the reign of God.
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), September 2, 2018
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm Response: Psalm 15
Second Reading: James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-16, 21-23
Jesus broke the law.
We don’t know very much about the historical Jesus,
but scholars tell us that something he most surely did
was break religious laws.
Today’s gospel gives us a picture of some of those laws,
the ones that have to do with purity.
At first that law about ritual washing only applied to priests.
Gradually, ordinary Jews began to adopt the practice
because Exodus 19 describes them
as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”
As time went on, the ritual cleansings expanded
to include washing food and cookware and hands.
The idea was to remind the people of their call
to be “a holy nation, a people set apart."
_______________________________________
But by Jesus’ time the ritual washings were no longer
a sign of their integrity as a holy, priestly people.
They were a law to be followed,
and Jesus and his disciples broke that law.
_______________________________________
How that works can be seen by a story from our own time.
Just after Vatican II, in the late 60s,
a survey of Catholics in our country asked,
“Is it more important to give up meat on Friday
or to love your neighbor?”
A majority answered, “Give up meat on Friday.”
At that time in our church’s history,
more than half of us saw very little difference
between God’s law and church rules.
A changeable human regulation, a tradition,
had trumped God’s most basic command.
_______________________________________
Now tradition is not a bad thing.
As Professor Eleanore Stump observes,
“Our whole religious understanding and practice,
even our creeds, are shaped by tradition….
A tradition hands on something precious
from one generation to another.”
The Pharisees, though, are not handing down something precious.
They’re making a human tradition into a divine imperative.
They’re teaching that God decides to accept or reject people
depending on whether or not
they wash their hands before dinner.
The Pharisees are not teaching
about the righteous, merciful, loving God of Moses.
Not only don’t they walk the walk,
they don’t even talk the talk.
_______________________________________
These days, a lot of us are questioning our religious leaders.
People are asking themselves why they should stay Catholic.
What is religion for?
What is it about?
According to the letter of James, real religion is
“looking after orphans and widows in their distress.”
It’s loving God and loving neighbor.
It is not blindly clinging to human traditions.
_______________________________________
We could quickly make a long list
of those human traditions in our church,
and it wouldn’t be hard to narrow the list down
to the ones that, these days,
seem to blind some people
to the fact that they are breaking God’s law.
People sing that “All Are Welcome,”
but, as Martin Luther King observed,
Sunday morning at 11 o’clock
is still the most segregated hour of the week.
People say they want to help the poor,
that we’re all equal before God,
but they don’t want those people living next door.
People say they want peace and justice,
but they look the other way when our government
sends weapons to kill children in Yemen
or separates families seeking safe haven at our borders.
People say they believe in the right to life,
but they won’t vote for laws to control guns
or laws to end the death penalty.
We look at our leaders, and we look at ourselves,
and we have to ask if we are following God’s commandment
or human rules.
If we are not living with the love of God and neighbor in our heart,
we are today’s Pharisees.
_______________________________________
All across the country
bishops are staging Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
and calling us to prayer and penance
over the clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.
The human tradition of adoration of the sacrament,
as meaningful as it can be,
is no substitute for following God’s law of love
and living a moral life.
The people in the pews have been praying for the victims
and asking God to stop the abuse of children
for as long as it’s been going on,
and it has not made any perceivable difference
in the hearts of those who perpetrate the crime
or the hearts of those who cover it up.
They cling to the false idea
that the ordained are better than the laity.
They cling to the false idea that it’s more important
to protect the priesthood and the church from scandal
than to protect the vulnerable and practice justice.
Too many, like the Pharisees, choose hypocrisy over integrity.
_______________________________________
What are we to do?
Like always, we are to do what Jesus did.
He went about preaching love and teaching justice
and showing people by his actions what that meant.
Sometimes, as we heard in Mark’s gospel today,
it meant being angry
with the actions of religious leaders
and speaking out against what they were doing.
Jesus’ anger is righteous anger,
anger at immorality,
at the lack of integrity,
at hypocrisy.
_______________________________________
These days, we are outraged once again
about the rape of little boys and girls
and vulnerable men and women
and the evil protection given to the priests who raped them.
We question our church’s leadership.
We are angry, and it’s righteous anger.
We speak out, like Jesus, naming the sin.
And we do what he did:
we commit ourselves to acting with justice,
loving tenderly,
and walking humbly with our God.
Jesus never stopped being Jewish because of hypocritical leaders.
And we won’t stop being Catholics.
Amen!
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm Response: Psalm 15
Second Reading: James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-16, 21-23
Jesus broke the law.
We don’t know very much about the historical Jesus,
but scholars tell us that something he most surely did
was break religious laws.
Today’s gospel gives us a picture of some of those laws,
the ones that have to do with purity.
At first that law about ritual washing only applied to priests.
Gradually, ordinary Jews began to adopt the practice
because Exodus 19 describes them
as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”
As time went on, the ritual cleansings expanded
to include washing food and cookware and hands.
The idea was to remind the people of their call
to be “a holy nation, a people set apart."
_______________________________________
But by Jesus’ time the ritual washings were no longer
a sign of their integrity as a holy, priestly people.
They were a law to be followed,
and Jesus and his disciples broke that law.
_______________________________________
How that works can be seen by a story from our own time.
Just after Vatican II, in the late 60s,
a survey of Catholics in our country asked,
“Is it more important to give up meat on Friday
or to love your neighbor?”
A majority answered, “Give up meat on Friday.”
At that time in our church’s history,
more than half of us saw very little difference
between God’s law and church rules.
A changeable human regulation, a tradition,
had trumped God’s most basic command.
_______________________________________
Now tradition is not a bad thing.
As Professor Eleanore Stump observes,
“Our whole religious understanding and practice,
even our creeds, are shaped by tradition….
A tradition hands on something precious
from one generation to another.”
The Pharisees, though, are not handing down something precious.
They’re making a human tradition into a divine imperative.
They’re teaching that God decides to accept or reject people
depending on whether or not
they wash their hands before dinner.
The Pharisees are not teaching
about the righteous, merciful, loving God of Moses.
Not only don’t they walk the walk,
they don’t even talk the talk.
_______________________________________
These days, a lot of us are questioning our religious leaders.
People are asking themselves why they should stay Catholic.
What is religion for?
What is it about?
According to the letter of James, real religion is
“looking after orphans and widows in their distress.”
It’s loving God and loving neighbor.
It is not blindly clinging to human traditions.
_______________________________________
We could quickly make a long list
of those human traditions in our church,
and it wouldn’t be hard to narrow the list down
to the ones that, these days,
seem to blind some people
to the fact that they are breaking God’s law.
People sing that “All Are Welcome,”
but, as Martin Luther King observed,
Sunday morning at 11 o’clock
is still the most segregated hour of the week.
People say they want to help the poor,
that we’re all equal before God,
but they don’t want those people living next door.
People say they want peace and justice,
but they look the other way when our government
sends weapons to kill children in Yemen
or separates families seeking safe haven at our borders.
People say they believe in the right to life,
but they won’t vote for laws to control guns
or laws to end the death penalty.
We look at our leaders, and we look at ourselves,
and we have to ask if we are following God’s commandment
or human rules.
If we are not living with the love of God and neighbor in our heart,
we are today’s Pharisees.
_______________________________________
All across the country
bishops are staging Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
and calling us to prayer and penance
over the clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.
The human tradition of adoration of the sacrament,
as meaningful as it can be,
is no substitute for following God’s law of love
and living a moral life.
The people in the pews have been praying for the victims
and asking God to stop the abuse of children
for as long as it’s been going on,
and it has not made any perceivable difference
in the hearts of those who perpetrate the crime
or the hearts of those who cover it up.
They cling to the false idea
that the ordained are better than the laity.
They cling to the false idea that it’s more important
to protect the priesthood and the church from scandal
than to protect the vulnerable and practice justice.
Too many, like the Pharisees, choose hypocrisy over integrity.
_______________________________________
What are we to do?
Like always, we are to do what Jesus did.
He went about preaching love and teaching justice
and showing people by his actions what that meant.
Sometimes, as we heard in Mark’s gospel today,
it meant being angry
with the actions of religious leaders
and speaking out against what they were doing.
Jesus’ anger is righteous anger,
anger at immorality,
at the lack of integrity,
at hypocrisy.
_______________________________________
These days, we are outraged once again
about the rape of little boys and girls
and vulnerable men and women
and the evil protection given to the priests who raped them.
We question our church’s leadership.
We are angry, and it’s righteous anger.
We speak out, like Jesus, naming the sin.
And we do what he did:
we commit ourselves to acting with justice,
loving tenderly,
and walking humbly with our God.
Jesus never stopped being Jewish because of hypocritical leaders.
And we won’t stop being Catholics.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), August 26, 2018
First Reading: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18
Psalm Response: Psalm 34
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:21-32
Gospel: John 6:60-69
In today’s first reading
we hear Joshua make the choice to serve God,
and then we hear all the people
make the choice to serve God.
In the gospel we hear some disciples
make the choice to turn away from Jesus,
and other disciples make the choice to follow his Way.
_____________________________________
Then there’s that second reading.
You may have noticed that we skipped seven verses...
those are the ones that say that wives have no choice,
that wives have to be subordinate to their husbands
in everything
because the husband is head of his wife.
That’s a worldview that still hangs on in some places,
but it is losing ground, slowly but surely.
What Paul is doing
is comparing the household codes of his culture
to people’s relationship with God.
Just as those codes required women to be subordinate to men,
so Paul says the church has to be subordinate to Christ.
Well, in a way, that’s true.
The church—the people of God—that’s us--
we are defined by our choice to follow the way of Christ.
And we make that choice freely.
We choose to subordinate ourselves to the way of Christ.
But combining those first-century household codes
with theology
doesn’t work for us any more.
So the reading we heard today was redacted—edited,
cutting out those verses
that try to force our belief
into the framework of patriarchal rule.
_____________________________________
The biblical commentaries that I usually read
when I’m putting my homilies together
all seem to struggle to make Paul’s message work,
but it just doesn’t, not for us.
It can’t work, because our world is different.
Our church is different,
even though a lot of ink has been spilled
claiming that church teaching can’t change.
But it can.
And it has.
And it will change again.
_____________________________________
We’ve seen our church rules change
on slavery... usury... religious freedom... divorce.
It’s said these days that those kinds of changes in the church
are not changes in doctrine
but changes in discipline.
That’s not particularly consoling
to the victims of those church rules over the centuries--
the slaves, the poor folks bilked by predatory lenders,
the theologians excommunicated
and even executed for their ideas,
the women told to stay in abusive marriages.
_____________________________________
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment,
he wouldn’t let the question fence him in.
He said that the law is to love God
with your whole heart, your whole soul,
your whole mind, and your whole strength,
and—importantly—he said
that the second commandment is like it:
love your neighbor as yourself.
Augustine put it well when he said
that if you think you understand the scriptures,
or a part of them,
but you don’t see love of both God and neighbor,
then you don’t understand the scriptures.
_____________________________________
The fact is that our church teachings
come from real actions of love and inclusiveness,
compassion and forgiveness,
and those actions, when all is said and done,
are the actions of Jesus of Nazareth.
Of course, he used words.
But people wouldn’t have paid any attention to his words--
wouldn’t have followed his way--
if he hadn’t lived those words himself.
_____________________________________
We know firsthand today how that works.
The news is full once more of revelations about Catholic priests
violating people in horrific ways,
especially in sexual abuse of children;
and about bishops covering up the crimes
and protecting the perpetrators.
The institutional church is finally starting to admit openly
what we knew all along—it’s wrong.
We know firsthand about other wrongs in our institutional church.
Some of them come
from the hierarchical structure and clerical privilege.
Some come
from delayed psychosexual development in priestly formation.
Some come from the “my way or the highway” approach
to issues like marriage, contraception…
well, all those pelvic issues.
Others wrongs come from misused and abused power or wealth,
or lack of transparency, or autocratic decision-making.
_____________________________________
But we also know firsthand about the goodness in our church.
We know holy priests and holy sisters and holy laity,
with their preaching and teaching and healing
and tending to the poor and oppressed.
We know about the good work of Catholic Relief Services,
and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and Pax Christi.
But most of all we know about the ordinary people
in our everyday life:
our family, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers.
We know about the generosity and loving kindness
of folks we do yoga with or golf with,
the folks we garden with,
the folks we go to the lake with,
or go out to supper with.
We know firsthand that those folks follow the way of Jesus,
even if they’re not Catholics any more,
or even Christians.
They act the way Jesus acted,
and their actions speak louder than words.
They are good people.
They are God’s people.
They are the kind of people Jesus spent his time with.
He embraced their friendship
and accepted them
just the way they were.
First Reading: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18
Psalm Response: Psalm 34
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:21-32
Gospel: John 6:60-69
In today’s first reading
we hear Joshua make the choice to serve God,
and then we hear all the people
make the choice to serve God.
In the gospel we hear some disciples
make the choice to turn away from Jesus,
and other disciples make the choice to follow his Way.
_____________________________________
Then there’s that second reading.
You may have noticed that we skipped seven verses...
those are the ones that say that wives have no choice,
that wives have to be subordinate to their husbands
in everything
because the husband is head of his wife.
That’s a worldview that still hangs on in some places,
but it is losing ground, slowly but surely.
What Paul is doing
is comparing the household codes of his culture
to people’s relationship with God.
Just as those codes required women to be subordinate to men,
so Paul says the church has to be subordinate to Christ.
Well, in a way, that’s true.
The church—the people of God—that’s us--
we are defined by our choice to follow the way of Christ.
And we make that choice freely.
We choose to subordinate ourselves to the way of Christ.
But combining those first-century household codes
with theology
doesn’t work for us any more.
So the reading we heard today was redacted—edited,
cutting out those verses
that try to force our belief
into the framework of patriarchal rule.
_____________________________________
The biblical commentaries that I usually read
when I’m putting my homilies together
all seem to struggle to make Paul’s message work,
but it just doesn’t, not for us.
It can’t work, because our world is different.
Our church is different,
even though a lot of ink has been spilled
claiming that church teaching can’t change.
But it can.
And it has.
And it will change again.
_____________________________________
We’ve seen our church rules change
on slavery... usury... religious freedom... divorce.
It’s said these days that those kinds of changes in the church
are not changes in doctrine
but changes in discipline.
That’s not particularly consoling
to the victims of those church rules over the centuries--
the slaves, the poor folks bilked by predatory lenders,
the theologians excommunicated
and even executed for their ideas,
the women told to stay in abusive marriages.
_____________________________________
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment,
he wouldn’t let the question fence him in.
He said that the law is to love God
with your whole heart, your whole soul,
your whole mind, and your whole strength,
and—importantly—he said
that the second commandment is like it:
love your neighbor as yourself.
Augustine put it well when he said
that if you think you understand the scriptures,
or a part of them,
but you don’t see love of both God and neighbor,
then you don’t understand the scriptures.
_____________________________________
The fact is that our church teachings
come from real actions of love and inclusiveness,
compassion and forgiveness,
and those actions, when all is said and done,
are the actions of Jesus of Nazareth.
Of course, he used words.
But people wouldn’t have paid any attention to his words--
wouldn’t have followed his way--
if he hadn’t lived those words himself.
_____________________________________
We know firsthand today how that works.
The news is full once more of revelations about Catholic priests
violating people in horrific ways,
especially in sexual abuse of children;
and about bishops covering up the crimes
and protecting the perpetrators.
The institutional church is finally starting to admit openly
what we knew all along—it’s wrong.
We know firsthand about other wrongs in our institutional church.
Some of them come
from the hierarchical structure and clerical privilege.
Some come
from delayed psychosexual development in priestly formation.
Some come from the “my way or the highway” approach
to issues like marriage, contraception…
well, all those pelvic issues.
Others wrongs come from misused and abused power or wealth,
or lack of transparency, or autocratic decision-making.
_____________________________________
But we also know firsthand about the goodness in our church.
We know holy priests and holy sisters and holy laity,
with their preaching and teaching and healing
and tending to the poor and oppressed.
We know about the good work of Catholic Relief Services,
and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and Pax Christi.
But most of all we know about the ordinary people
in our everyday life:
our family, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers.
We know about the generosity and loving kindness
of folks we do yoga with or golf with,
the folks we garden with,
the folks we go to the lake with,
or go out to supper with.
We know firsthand that those folks follow the way of Jesus,
even if they’re not Catholics any more,
or even Christians.
They act the way Jesus acted,
and their actions speak louder than words.
They are good people.
They are God’s people.
They are the kind of people Jesus spent his time with.
He embraced their friendship
and accepted them
just the way they were.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), August 19, 2018
First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm Response: Psalm 34:2-7
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel: John 6:51-58
Drinking blood was not allowed in Judaism,
so people most certainly would have objected
to hearing Jesus say
you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have life.
But by the time John wrote today’s Gospel,
somewhere between 90 and 110 AD,
eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood
had become a common way
for Christians to describe the shared meal of thanksgiving--
the Eucharist—that they celebrated.
“Flesh and blood” had become an idiom for the “whole person.”
______________________________________
We still hear folks today talking about family members
as “my own flesh and blood.”
Dr. Charles Talbert—a Baptist scholar
who served as President of the Catholic Biblical Association--
says that the body-and-blood language in John’s Gospel
is used “to describe intimacy,
the close relationship of Jesus to those who believe in him,
or who place their commitment and loyalty in him.”
It’s a family relationship,
people with important things in common.
And that makes sense.
We call Jesus our brother.
We say that we are all part of the family of God.
So everyone we meet is our very flesh and blood,
and we celebrate Eucharist as a sign of our unity
with all the peoples of our world.
______________________________________
Once we walk out the door, though,
we’re sure to see that oneness is not a universal practice.
Contrary to the fact of our unity,
the whole fiction of racism divides our own country:
black vs. white vs. brown vs. yellow.
Not only that, we divide ourselves by religious bigotry:
Christian vs. Mormon vs. Jew
vs. Muslim vs. Hindu, and on and on.
We separate ourselves by gender:
male vs. female vs. straight vs. lesbian vs. gay
vs. transgender, and on and on.
And politically, we string ourselves out:
alt-right, right, center-right,
center,
center-left, left, far left.
______________________________________
We come here tonight to take in the body and blood of Christ.
That’s the easy part.
The hard part is living it when we walk out the door,
to be the body and blood of Christ to the world,
to experience the people around us
as flesh-and-blood parts of the one family of God.
We call this a Mass, from the Latin word missa, which means sent.
We are sent to be the body and blood of Christ in the world.
More than a remembering of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
more than a meal celebrating our tradition,
this Mass extends the incarnation of God in Jesus
to an incarnation of God in us.
______________________________________
Back in the day, before Vatican II,
when we celebrated the Tridentine Mass in Latin (before 1969),
we used to hear the first paragraph of John’s Gospel
at the end of Mass:
“and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
That’s incarnation, the enfleshment of God in humanity.
God takes on flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
And God takes on flesh in you
when you commit yourself to following the way of Jesus.
______________________________________
As Jesus poured out his life in loving service,
so you commit yourself
to giving your own flesh-and-blood life
in service that gives life to others!
You give your life to others
when you phone a friend to say hi;
when you share your tomatoes and zucchinis with a neighbor;
when you gather those donations
for Rahab’s Heart or the soup kitchen or UStogether;
when you pray for folks in need, here and around the world;
when you decide to send a donation
to refugee and immigrant families
or the battered women’s shelter…
well, the list is, thanks to you, endless!
You go out from this meal with a heart ready to love,
ready to share, ready to be present
in whatever situation you find yourself in.
We call this gathering a Eucharist—Thanksgiving…
for God with us and God within us.
And we do give thanks!
Thanks be to our brother Jesus,
thanks be to each of you,
thanks be to God!
First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm Response: Psalm 34:2-7
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel: John 6:51-58
Drinking blood was not allowed in Judaism,
so people most certainly would have objected
to hearing Jesus say
you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have life.
But by the time John wrote today’s Gospel,
somewhere between 90 and 110 AD,
eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood
had become a common way
for Christians to describe the shared meal of thanksgiving--
the Eucharist—that they celebrated.
“Flesh and blood” had become an idiom for the “whole person.”
______________________________________
We still hear folks today talking about family members
as “my own flesh and blood.”
Dr. Charles Talbert—a Baptist scholar
who served as President of the Catholic Biblical Association--
says that the body-and-blood language in John’s Gospel
is used “to describe intimacy,
the close relationship of Jesus to those who believe in him,
or who place their commitment and loyalty in him.”
It’s a family relationship,
people with important things in common.
And that makes sense.
We call Jesus our brother.
We say that we are all part of the family of God.
So everyone we meet is our very flesh and blood,
and we celebrate Eucharist as a sign of our unity
with all the peoples of our world.
______________________________________
Once we walk out the door, though,
we’re sure to see that oneness is not a universal practice.
Contrary to the fact of our unity,
the whole fiction of racism divides our own country:
black vs. white vs. brown vs. yellow.
Not only that, we divide ourselves by religious bigotry:
Christian vs. Mormon vs. Jew
vs. Muslim vs. Hindu, and on and on.
We separate ourselves by gender:
male vs. female vs. straight vs. lesbian vs. gay
vs. transgender, and on and on.
And politically, we string ourselves out:
alt-right, right, center-right,
center,
center-left, left, far left.
______________________________________
We come here tonight to take in the body and blood of Christ.
That’s the easy part.
The hard part is living it when we walk out the door,
to be the body and blood of Christ to the world,
to experience the people around us
as flesh-and-blood parts of the one family of God.
We call this a Mass, from the Latin word missa, which means sent.
We are sent to be the body and blood of Christ in the world.
More than a remembering of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
more than a meal celebrating our tradition,
this Mass extends the incarnation of God in Jesus
to an incarnation of God in us.
______________________________________
Back in the day, before Vatican II,
when we celebrated the Tridentine Mass in Latin (before 1969),
we used to hear the first paragraph of John’s Gospel
at the end of Mass:
“and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
That’s incarnation, the enfleshment of God in humanity.
God takes on flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
And God takes on flesh in you
when you commit yourself to following the way of Jesus.
______________________________________
As Jesus poured out his life in loving service,
so you commit yourself
to giving your own flesh-and-blood life
in service that gives life to others!
You give your life to others
when you phone a friend to say hi;
when you share your tomatoes and zucchinis with a neighbor;
when you gather those donations
for Rahab’s Heart or the soup kitchen or UStogether;
when you pray for folks in need, here and around the world;
when you decide to send a donation
to refugee and immigrant families
or the battered women’s shelter…
well, the list is, thanks to you, endless!
You go out from this meal with a heart ready to love,
ready to share, ready to be present
in whatever situation you find yourself in.
We call this gathering a Eucharist—Thanksgiving…
for God with us and God within us.
And we do give thanks!
Thanks be to our brother Jesus,
thanks be to each of you,
thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), August 12, 2018
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm Response: Psalm 34:1-10
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51
The first part of today’s Gospel according to John
shows something very real about Jesus’ life.
People are grumbling about him.
Instead of looking at how
his speaking and doing and being show God’s ways,
they say he’s too ordinary a person to speak or do or be that.
The other three gospels tell that same kind of story.
Luke’s gospel, for example, tells how,
when Jesus leaves the desert
and starts preaching in his home town,
the people want to throw him headlong over the hill.
“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they ask.
And Mark and Matthew tell pretty much the same story,
with the people asking
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Isn’t he the carpenter’s son?
Isn’t his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
They were offended by what he said.
_____________________________________
Jesus must have felt pretty bad when people acted like that.
They gossip about him.
Who does he think he is?
How can he say he’s the bread come down from heaven?
We know his parents.
We know where he comes from.
All four gospels show that negative response to Jesus
from the people he grew up with.
_____________________________________
But the gospels don’t agree on the second part of today’s gospel.
In Mark, Matthew, and Luke,
Jesus teaches that we can go straight to God.
We don’t need intermediaries like priests or bishops or popes.
Elijah talks directly to God, and God answers.
The Letter to the Ephesians encourages us to walk in love.
We can do that.
We can follow Jesus’ way, imitate his forgiveness and love.
But John says that we have to go through Jesus to get to God.
He is the bread from heaven.
He is the way.
He is the only way we can get to God.
Ironically, Jesus himself criticized that kind of thinking
when he found it in the religious leaders of his time.
It took people less than a hundred years
to go from “follow my way” to “I am the way.”
_____________________________________
That’s not to say that the “I am” sayings in John
can’t give us good food for meditation.
They can.
But sometimes “I am the way” can lead to thinking
that all we have to do is say we believe
that Jesus is our Lord and Savior
and we’re home free.
“Follow me” is different.
Following Jesus means we have to change our lives,
turn ourselves around.
That’s what he did.
He had lived 30 years in Nazareth
with his family and his neighbors.
Those townspeople who knew him
found him changed after he came out of the wilderness.
He had been baptized by John in the Jordan,
that cleansing ritual that spoke to him deep in his soul.
He went off into the desert and prayed for a long time,
and he came out a different person.
He went about preaching the good news
that he had learned in those days and nights of prayer:
turn your life around; God’s reign is here!
And he lived the rest of his life saying and doing and being
what he had learned from the Spirit in the desert.
The people he met were oppressed, sick, poor,
leading lives of desperation.
When he spoke, when they saw who he was,
when they saw what he did and how he did it,
they felt like he was feeding them.
They were hungry for what he had,
for the message of God’s love for them
and love for one another,
for the message of peace and justice,
of mercy and forgiveness.
He fed them,
and he became like the bread that gave them life.
_____________________________________
Poor people in Toledo live in a desert wilderness.
Like Elijah, running for his life from Queen Jezebel,
who wants him dead,
poor people here suffer life-threatening, debilitating burdens
every day.
Too often, like Elijah, they fall into despair,
thinking it would be better to die
than to keep on struggling.
Lead paint poisons their kids in the houses they rent,
they can’t afford health insurance,
they don’t have money to pay for an education
to qualify for a decent job,
and if they do manage to get a job,
they don’t have a car to get them to the suburbs
where the jobs are.
They feel like crawling under a tree and giving up.
_____________________________________
Thank God we have people like you
who follow the way of Jesus today.
When you take action for justice and peace,
you imitate Jesus.
When you work for equality and inclusion,
when you pour out your lives
for your families and friends and neighbors,
for the poor and the sick and the oppressed,
when you follow the way of Jesus,
you become like bread for the life of the world.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm Response: Psalm 34:1-10
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51
The first part of today’s Gospel according to John
shows something very real about Jesus’ life.
People are grumbling about him.
Instead of looking at how
his speaking and doing and being show God’s ways,
they say he’s too ordinary a person to speak or do or be that.
The other three gospels tell that same kind of story.
Luke’s gospel, for example, tells how,
when Jesus leaves the desert
and starts preaching in his home town,
the people want to throw him headlong over the hill.
“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they ask.
And Mark and Matthew tell pretty much the same story,
with the people asking
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Isn’t he the carpenter’s son?
Isn’t his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
They were offended by what he said.
_____________________________________
Jesus must have felt pretty bad when people acted like that.
They gossip about him.
Who does he think he is?
How can he say he’s the bread come down from heaven?
We know his parents.
We know where he comes from.
All four gospels show that negative response to Jesus
from the people he grew up with.
_____________________________________
But the gospels don’t agree on the second part of today’s gospel.
In Mark, Matthew, and Luke,
Jesus teaches that we can go straight to God.
We don’t need intermediaries like priests or bishops or popes.
Elijah talks directly to God, and God answers.
The Letter to the Ephesians encourages us to walk in love.
We can do that.
We can follow Jesus’ way, imitate his forgiveness and love.
But John says that we have to go through Jesus to get to God.
He is the bread from heaven.
He is the way.
He is the only way we can get to God.
Ironically, Jesus himself criticized that kind of thinking
when he found it in the religious leaders of his time.
It took people less than a hundred years
to go from “follow my way” to “I am the way.”
_____________________________________
That’s not to say that the “I am” sayings in John
can’t give us good food for meditation.
They can.
But sometimes “I am the way” can lead to thinking
that all we have to do is say we believe
that Jesus is our Lord and Savior
and we’re home free.
“Follow me” is different.
Following Jesus means we have to change our lives,
turn ourselves around.
That’s what he did.
He had lived 30 years in Nazareth
with his family and his neighbors.
Those townspeople who knew him
found him changed after he came out of the wilderness.
He had been baptized by John in the Jordan,
that cleansing ritual that spoke to him deep in his soul.
He went off into the desert and prayed for a long time,
and he came out a different person.
He went about preaching the good news
that he had learned in those days and nights of prayer:
turn your life around; God’s reign is here!
And he lived the rest of his life saying and doing and being
what he had learned from the Spirit in the desert.
The people he met were oppressed, sick, poor,
leading lives of desperation.
When he spoke, when they saw who he was,
when they saw what he did and how he did it,
they felt like he was feeding them.
They were hungry for what he had,
for the message of God’s love for them
and love for one another,
for the message of peace and justice,
of mercy and forgiveness.
He fed them,
and he became like the bread that gave them life.
_____________________________________
Poor people in Toledo live in a desert wilderness.
Like Elijah, running for his life from Queen Jezebel,
who wants him dead,
poor people here suffer life-threatening, debilitating burdens
every day.
Too often, like Elijah, they fall into despair,
thinking it would be better to die
than to keep on struggling.
Lead paint poisons their kids in the houses they rent,
they can’t afford health insurance,
they don’t have money to pay for an education
to qualify for a decent job,
and if they do manage to get a job,
they don’t have a car to get them to the suburbs
where the jobs are.
They feel like crawling under a tree and giving up.
_____________________________________
Thank God we have people like you
who follow the way of Jesus today.
When you take action for justice and peace,
you imitate Jesus.
When you work for equality and inclusion,
when you pour out your lives
for your families and friends and neighbors,
for the poor and the sick and the oppressed,
when you follow the way of Jesus,
you become like bread for the life of the world.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), August 5, 2018
First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Psalm Response: Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
This is one of the seven “I am” sayings
that John’s gospel has Jesus say.
Each of them sheds a light on how John
and his late first-century/early second-century community
remembered and understood Jesus.
In addition to today’s bread of life,
they see Jesus as the light of the world;
the gate; the good shepherd;
the resurrection and the life;
the way, the truth, and the life;
and the true vine.
Scholars tell us that these “I am” statements
are not Jesus' words
but the creation of the evangelist.
In effect, the “I am” statements tell us
not what Jesus said
but how his contemporaries understood
what they saw Jesus doing
and who he was for them.
_________________________________________
When I stopped in at Claver House Tuesday,
I poked my head in the kitchen,
where I found John washing dishes
and Dick scrambling eggs,
volunteering just like they do every Tuesday.
Dick told me that he and Sue
had spent the weekend with their family--
30 of them for a reunion one day
and 32 of them for a graduation party the next.
His description was of a family eating together
and being nourished not just by the food they shared
but even more by being together.
Being the bread of life for one another.
_________________________________________
About 10 years ago,
while I was working at Blessed Sacrament,
I happened to go to Sunday Mass at St. Martin de Porres,
where I had worked before.
A major restoration project
was underway in that historic church building,
so Mass was outside in the courtyard that day.
As the Prayer of the Faithful began,
Bob the Usher came over to tell me
that the communion bread had blown away in a gust of wind.
We need bread, he said.
Go get some.
It echoed last week’s gospel:
YOU give them something to eat.
Well, I grumbled to myself.
Things haven’t changed since I worked here a dozen years ago.
I ran—as unobtrusively as I could—into the church building,
found the key to the sacristy cabinet,
and raced back out in time for the carrying up of the gifts.
I was stunned by the experience.
Why ask me, 12 years after I’d left for another job?
Why not someone else?
Why was I the one who had to run and get the bread?
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Just like the Israelites in the desert.
Just like the 5,000 that Jesus fed.
_________________________________________
Bob the Usher knew something I didn’t know.
Eventually I learned to have a better understanding
of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
The point of my life wasn’t working for the parish institution.
My goal had to become being the way Jesus would be.
Not an easy task, but not complicated, either.
We are all, whoever and wherever we are,
the ones who are to bring the bread of life
to the people around us, to give life to their world.
_________________________________________
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians
has some clues about how to do that.
We are to put on a new self, a new nature.
We are to walk through the pathways of our lives
in love and peace, in service and dedication,
in outreach and inclusion, in sharing and tending.
It’s not just saying what Jesus would say.
And it’s not only WWJD—doing what would Jesus do.
It’s also HWJB—how would Jesus be?
_________________________________________
One of the best things that’s happened to me since my ordination
has been knowing you,
learning from you how to be a Christian,
how to be more like Jesus.
I see you being kind and forgiving
and generous and loving
to one another and to your family and friends;
reaching out to strangers who walk in the door,
to people you never met before
and most likely will never see again,
and to people on the other side of the world
that you won’t ever meet or even know the names of.
You are the bread of life, the bread of God, in our world today.
I thank God for you.
Amen!
First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Psalm Response: Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
This is one of the seven “I am” sayings
that John’s gospel has Jesus say.
Each of them sheds a light on how John
and his late first-century/early second-century community
remembered and understood Jesus.
In addition to today’s bread of life,
they see Jesus as the light of the world;
the gate; the good shepherd;
the resurrection and the life;
the way, the truth, and the life;
and the true vine.
Scholars tell us that these “I am” statements
are not Jesus' words
but the creation of the evangelist.
In effect, the “I am” statements tell us
not what Jesus said
but how his contemporaries understood
what they saw Jesus doing
and who he was for them.
_________________________________________
When I stopped in at Claver House Tuesday,
I poked my head in the kitchen,
where I found John washing dishes
and Dick scrambling eggs,
volunteering just like they do every Tuesday.
Dick told me that he and Sue
had spent the weekend with their family--
30 of them for a reunion one day
and 32 of them for a graduation party the next.
His description was of a family eating together
and being nourished not just by the food they shared
but even more by being together.
Being the bread of life for one another.
_________________________________________
About 10 years ago,
while I was working at Blessed Sacrament,
I happened to go to Sunday Mass at St. Martin de Porres,
where I had worked before.
A major restoration project
was underway in that historic church building,
so Mass was outside in the courtyard that day.
As the Prayer of the Faithful began,
Bob the Usher came over to tell me
that the communion bread had blown away in a gust of wind.
We need bread, he said.
Go get some.
It echoed last week’s gospel:
YOU give them something to eat.
Well, I grumbled to myself.
Things haven’t changed since I worked here a dozen years ago.
I ran—as unobtrusively as I could—into the church building,
found the key to the sacristy cabinet,
and raced back out in time for the carrying up of the gifts.
I was stunned by the experience.
Why ask me, 12 years after I’d left for another job?
Why not someone else?
Why was I the one who had to run and get the bread?
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Just like the Israelites in the desert.
Just like the 5,000 that Jesus fed.
_________________________________________
Bob the Usher knew something I didn’t know.
Eventually I learned to have a better understanding
of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
The point of my life wasn’t working for the parish institution.
My goal had to become being the way Jesus would be.
Not an easy task, but not complicated, either.
We are all, whoever and wherever we are,
the ones who are to bring the bread of life
to the people around us, to give life to their world.
_________________________________________
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians
has some clues about how to do that.
We are to put on a new self, a new nature.
We are to walk through the pathways of our lives
in love and peace, in service and dedication,
in outreach and inclusion, in sharing and tending.
It’s not just saying what Jesus would say.
And it’s not only WWJD—doing what would Jesus do.
It’s also HWJB—how would Jesus be?
_________________________________________
One of the best things that’s happened to me since my ordination
has been knowing you,
learning from you how to be a Christian,
how to be more like Jesus.
I see you being kind and forgiving
and generous and loving
to one another and to your family and friends;
reaching out to strangers who walk in the door,
to people you never met before
and most likely will never see again,
and to people on the other side of the world
that you won’t ever meet or even know the names of.
You are the bread of life, the bread of God, in our world today.
I thank God for you.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), July 29, 2018
First Reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:10-11, 15-18
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel: John 6:1-15
If you build it, they will come.”
That line from the movie Field of Dreams
is the picture we get in today’s gospel.
Jesus goes around Galilee preaching the good news
and building relationships everywhere he goes.
If he builds it, they will come.
And they do.
________________________________
What he builds is the family of God.
Jesus builds relationships not only in this gospel
but also in the Last Supper stories
and in all those stories of table fellowship,
those meals he shared with the poor and the rich,
the outcast and the favored…
with everyone.
Today’s story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish
is a giant step in building relationships,
in making connections
not only between God and people
but also, and just as importantly,
between people and people.
________________________________
That multiplication story is told six times in the gospels--
twice in Matthew, twice in Mark,
once in Luke and once in John.
They’re all different in context and details and action,
but scholars think that they all come
from one event,
and the memory of that event
was told and retold in each community
for purposes that are both alike and different.
For one thing, the multiplication stories
served to remind the early Jewish Christians
of Moses, Elijah, and Elisha,
each of whom had fed people
who had no resources to meet their needs
except their trust in God--
and that’s the definition of a miracle.
The stories also show that people are connected to God...
and to each other.
They were, each and every one, the people of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ.
Welcome at the family table.
________________________________
Our celebration of Eucharist these days
includes a variety of meanings from our tradition
even though we practice it in our own way.
Not bread and fish, not washing of feet.
No manna and quail, no barley loaves.
Not a Seder meal
with matzoh ball soup and roasted chicken.
Not a Passover meal
with boiled egg and parsley dipped in vinegar.
We remember and celebrate our connection
with bread and wine.
________________________________
Sr. Joan Chittister says that
“the problem with our current eucharistic theology
is not that we don’t understand
the meaning of Eucharist;
the problem is that we do.”
We know in our heads
that the Eucharist is the sign of Christian community,
the heart of our relationship,
our connection to one another as God’s people.
We believe that the Eucharist is the bond
that links us to the Christ, the gospel, the tradition,
to Jesus himself, and to the world around us.
What we doubt is that it does what it says it does:
that it makes us one.
________________________________
Too often the Eucharist is a sign of division
because our institutional church closes the table.
The table is too often closed
to people who belong to a different race,
social status, or even just a different political party.
It’s closed to people from other Christian denominations.
It’s closed to people who remarry without an annulment,
people who have a different gender orientation,
people who don’t worship the way we think they should,
people with different ideas about the nature of God
or the meaning of the scriptures.
We say that we are one body in Christ—we even sing it...
but too many times we don’t act like it.
We don’t practice what we preach.
Like the disciples in Mark and Matthew,
like the apostles in Luke,
like Philip in today’s gospel,
sometimes we hear our institutional church
telling Jesus to send the crowd away.
But Jesus tells the disciples and the apostles
that it’s their job:
“You give them something to eat,” he says.
________________________________
And that’s what I see you doing.
You make miracles.
You feed and clothe and shelter people
who have no idea where or how
they can get
what they need in order to survive.
A thank-you letter came this week from St. Paul’s in Norwalk
for the $500 you sent to help the families victimized by ICE. YOU are feeding them, clothing them,
treating them like brothers and sisters.
Virtually every week I go out to my car after Mass
and find it filled with your donations
of food and clothes
and the containers and bags that help Claver House
package food up for the guests.
And the diapers and baby clothes and household items
for the refugees.
And the snacks and socks and deodorant
for the Rahab’s Heart street ministry.
YOU are giving them something to eat:
you give them food;
or you volunteer at a soup kitchen or a pantry;
or you work to change the structures
that are responsible for people being hungry or homeless;
or you fast and donate the money to a charity;
and you pray.
You don’t do just one thing,
but you do whatever is needed,
whatever is the thing that’s in front of you
at any given time.
________________________________
At communion time, when we pass the plate of bread
and say “Body of Christ,”
it certainly means that “this is the Body of Christ.”
More than that,
it means “you are the Body of Christ.”
Amen!
First Reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:10-11, 15-18
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel: John 6:1-15
If you build it, they will come.”
That line from the movie Field of Dreams
is the picture we get in today’s gospel.
Jesus goes around Galilee preaching the good news
and building relationships everywhere he goes.
If he builds it, they will come.
And they do.
________________________________
What he builds is the family of God.
Jesus builds relationships not only in this gospel
but also in the Last Supper stories
and in all those stories of table fellowship,
those meals he shared with the poor and the rich,
the outcast and the favored…
with everyone.
Today’s story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish
is a giant step in building relationships,
in making connections
not only between God and people
but also, and just as importantly,
between people and people.
________________________________
That multiplication story is told six times in the gospels--
twice in Matthew, twice in Mark,
once in Luke and once in John.
They’re all different in context and details and action,
but scholars think that they all come
from one event,
and the memory of that event
was told and retold in each community
for purposes that are both alike and different.
For one thing, the multiplication stories
served to remind the early Jewish Christians
of Moses, Elijah, and Elisha,
each of whom had fed people
who had no resources to meet their needs
except their trust in God--
and that’s the definition of a miracle.
The stories also show that people are connected to God...
and to each other.
They were, each and every one, the people of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ.
Welcome at the family table.
________________________________
Our celebration of Eucharist these days
includes a variety of meanings from our tradition
even though we practice it in our own way.
Not bread and fish, not washing of feet.
No manna and quail, no barley loaves.
Not a Seder meal
with matzoh ball soup and roasted chicken.
Not a Passover meal
with boiled egg and parsley dipped in vinegar.
We remember and celebrate our connection
with bread and wine.
________________________________
Sr. Joan Chittister says that
“the problem with our current eucharistic theology
is not that we don’t understand
the meaning of Eucharist;
the problem is that we do.”
We know in our heads
that the Eucharist is the sign of Christian community,
the heart of our relationship,
our connection to one another as God’s people.
We believe that the Eucharist is the bond
that links us to the Christ, the gospel, the tradition,
to Jesus himself, and to the world around us.
What we doubt is that it does what it says it does:
that it makes us one.
________________________________
Too often the Eucharist is a sign of division
because our institutional church closes the table.
The table is too often closed
to people who belong to a different race,
social status, or even just a different political party.
It’s closed to people from other Christian denominations.
It’s closed to people who remarry without an annulment,
people who have a different gender orientation,
people who don’t worship the way we think they should,
people with different ideas about the nature of God
or the meaning of the scriptures.
We say that we are one body in Christ—we even sing it...
but too many times we don’t act like it.
We don’t practice what we preach.
Like the disciples in Mark and Matthew,
like the apostles in Luke,
like Philip in today’s gospel,
sometimes we hear our institutional church
telling Jesus to send the crowd away.
But Jesus tells the disciples and the apostles
that it’s their job:
“You give them something to eat,” he says.
________________________________
And that’s what I see you doing.
You make miracles.
You feed and clothe and shelter people
who have no idea where or how
they can get
what they need in order to survive.
A thank-you letter came this week from St. Paul’s in Norwalk
for the $500 you sent to help the families victimized by ICE. YOU are feeding them, clothing them,
treating them like brothers and sisters.
Virtually every week I go out to my car after Mass
and find it filled with your donations
of food and clothes
and the containers and bags that help Claver House
package food up for the guests.
And the diapers and baby clothes and household items
for the refugees.
And the snacks and socks and deodorant
for the Rahab’s Heart street ministry.
YOU are giving them something to eat:
you give them food;
or you volunteer at a soup kitchen or a pantry;
or you work to change the structures
that are responsible for people being hungry or homeless;
or you fast and donate the money to a charity;
and you pray.
You don’t do just one thing,
but you do whatever is needed,
whatever is the thing that’s in front of you
at any given time.
________________________________
At communion time, when we pass the plate of bread
and say “Body of Christ,”
it certainly means that “this is the Body of Christ.”
More than that,
it means “you are the Body of Christ.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), July 22, 2018
The idea that the Word fits the day
rings true in today’s readings.
Mark’s gospel, Jeremiah’s prophecy, Paul’s letter--
all three of them seem to be speaking straight to us.
______________________________
No matter whether it came directly from Jesus
or from the evangelist writing about Jesus,
Mark’s gospel passage speaks its truth to us.
We recognize it because we’ve been experiencing it
in our institutional church and in our government.
______________________________
“Sheep without a shepherd”--
don’t we feel like that sometimes?
As Fr. John Kavanaugh puts it,
“Our own days have been marked
by reports of shepherds who have abused our young.
“The headlines sadden and outrage.
“But lesser sins of the shepherds are known as well.
“Some Catholics have felt lost
after leaving the confessionals of the past....
“Mature and gifted laity have reported the strange experience
of being treated like children or—in the case of women--
like nonentities.
“Others have found their faith tried by perfunctory Eucharists,
meandering homilies, and gripes about money.”
______________________________
Jeremiah, in our first reading,
is not only speaking to the religious leaders of his time
but also to the kings and rulers,
all of whom had become self-indulgent and self-absorbed.
Their lack of compassion and care
for those they should have been serving
spread, as bad behavior often does,
among other leaders and among the people themselves
so that inequity, prejudice, oppression, and injustice
began to distort the hearts of God’s people.
______________________________
So Jeremiah speaks truth to us, too,
given that our Church is not the only place
where we see “sheep without a shepherd.”
We recognize the truth in Jeremiah
because we see the parallels
both in our culture and in our government.
And we hear the voices of many prophets today,
here in our country and around the world,
who echo Jeremiah in calling for justice and peace.
We also hear voices who,
like the false prophet Hananiah
who told the lies that led to Judah’s destruction.
Those voices give us “fake news,”
trying to turn our allies against us
and our people against each other.
We see the leaders of our government
setting up policies to refuse safety
to people who are running from oppression;
to tax the poor to help the wealthy;
to deplete our air, water, and land to benefit the powerful;
to take babies away from their parents and put them in cages.
These leaders, who put money and power ahead of justice,
try to divide us by nationality and color
and religion and gender and wealth
and pit us against one another.
As Jeremiah would put it,
“Woe to those shepherds”
who mislead and scatter the flock.
______________________________
Seeing ourselves like sheep without a shepherd,
living in the middle of this rancor and turmoil,
is more than disturbing to us.
It’s draining.
Exhausting.
Yet we work for justice.
We insist, as Paul puts it to the Ephesians,
that we are not strangers and aliens,
but all one,
all members of the family of God.
We try to break down the dividing walls of hostility.
We try to reconcile all peoples to God and one another.
______________________________
We want to go away and rest a while,
like Jesus and the disciples,
to get away from the conflict
and the dire need
and the depressing news.
We’re able to do a bit of that,
but because we are followers of the way of Jesus,
we have to speak the truth for our time.
Our hearts are moved,
and so we keep going.
We are not alone!
Together, we are the prophets of our time.
We are called to be the good shepherds!
Amen!
The idea that the Word fits the day
rings true in today’s readings.
Mark’s gospel, Jeremiah’s prophecy, Paul’s letter--
all three of them seem to be speaking straight to us.
______________________________
No matter whether it came directly from Jesus
or from the evangelist writing about Jesus,
Mark’s gospel passage speaks its truth to us.
We recognize it because we’ve been experiencing it
in our institutional church and in our government.
______________________________
“Sheep without a shepherd”--
don’t we feel like that sometimes?
As Fr. John Kavanaugh puts it,
“Our own days have been marked
by reports of shepherds who have abused our young.
“The headlines sadden and outrage.
“But lesser sins of the shepherds are known as well.
“Some Catholics have felt lost
after leaving the confessionals of the past....
“Mature and gifted laity have reported the strange experience
of being treated like children or—in the case of women--
like nonentities.
“Others have found their faith tried by perfunctory Eucharists,
meandering homilies, and gripes about money.”
______________________________
Jeremiah, in our first reading,
is not only speaking to the religious leaders of his time
but also to the kings and rulers,
all of whom had become self-indulgent and self-absorbed.
Their lack of compassion and care
for those they should have been serving
spread, as bad behavior often does,
among other leaders and among the people themselves
so that inequity, prejudice, oppression, and injustice
began to distort the hearts of God’s people.
______________________________
So Jeremiah speaks truth to us, too,
given that our Church is not the only place
where we see “sheep without a shepherd.”
We recognize the truth in Jeremiah
because we see the parallels
both in our culture and in our government.
And we hear the voices of many prophets today,
here in our country and around the world,
who echo Jeremiah in calling for justice and peace.
We also hear voices who,
like the false prophet Hananiah
who told the lies that led to Judah’s destruction.
Those voices give us “fake news,”
trying to turn our allies against us
and our people against each other.
We see the leaders of our government
setting up policies to refuse safety
to people who are running from oppression;
to tax the poor to help the wealthy;
to deplete our air, water, and land to benefit the powerful;
to take babies away from their parents and put them in cages.
These leaders, who put money and power ahead of justice,
try to divide us by nationality and color
and religion and gender and wealth
and pit us against one another.
As Jeremiah would put it,
“Woe to those shepherds”
who mislead and scatter the flock.
______________________________
Seeing ourselves like sheep without a shepherd,
living in the middle of this rancor and turmoil,
is more than disturbing to us.
It’s draining.
Exhausting.
Yet we work for justice.
We insist, as Paul puts it to the Ephesians,
that we are not strangers and aliens,
but all one,
all members of the family of God.
We try to break down the dividing walls of hostility.
We try to reconcile all peoples to God and one another.
______________________________
We want to go away and rest a while,
like Jesus and the disciples,
to get away from the conflict
and the dire need
and the depressing news.
We’re able to do a bit of that,
but because we are followers of the way of Jesus,
we have to speak the truth for our time.
Our hearts are moved,
and so we keep going.
We are not alone!
Together, we are the prophets of our time.
We are called to be the good shepherds!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), July 15, 2018
God gave Amos a new job--
a promotion from pruning trees to preaching,
with the assignment to speak truth to power.
Amos kept at it,
even after the priest Amaziah threw him out of the city.
Jesus gave his followers a new job--
a promotion from fishers and tax collectors to preachers,
with the assignment to go on the road and cast out demons.
Like every prophet, they were sent to preach and to heal--
to bring metanoia to people
trampled down by the rich and powerful,
to turn lives of ordinary people around
in peace and love and justice.
And we are called and sent in exactly the same way.
______________________________________
Jesus told his disciples to travel light,
not to take anything with them for the journey,
to count on the hospitality of the people they met
to feed and shelter them.
He told them to reach out in peace and love.
They were to preach what Jesus had taught:
the reign of God is at hand;
love one another.
______________________________________
And how are we to do that today,
we who have embraced our baptism into Christ
as priest, prophet, and servant leader?
Like Amos, we’re called to denounce injustice,
even when it’s unpopular.
Like the apostles, we’re called to offer healing to others,
even if we may be rejected.
Through our words and deeds
we are sent to call people
to turn their lives around
and live in right relationship.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that
we must do more
than just point out the right road to others.
We ourselves have to be on that road,
with even the tiny details of our lives and morals
giving power and witness to our words.
______________________________________
We hear the call personally.
Maybe we are suddenly faced with a situation
where our gifts or talents are needed,
and we step forward.
Or we feel drawn to a particular cause,
and we march or protest or demonstrate.
Or we hear a cry for help, a person under stress
who needs us to be there,
and we walk a ways with them
and lift them in prayer.
______________________________________
One of the great blessings of my retirement
is that people contact me to ask
about where they can find help for someone else.
Just this past week,
there were calls about helping a stranded family,
and beds for refugees,
and food for a family struggling
because the husband got a job
and the family lost their food benefits.
I don’t always have the right answer,
but I can usually point folks
to someone who does have it and can help.
You get those calls, too,
because people see you working for justice and peace.
So I was surprised this week when an email came
asking why more money
hasn’t been donated from our treasury,
which prompted me to take a closer look at our finances.
I found that in the last six weeks
you gave away $2,800,
more than twice our collection for that same time.
On top of that, many of you individually donated goods or cash
to help the victims of the ICE raids in northwest Ohio.
Your generosity packed
Tom and Mary Jean’s living room to the rafters!
They needed a truck to haul it over to the distribution center…
and they found a volunteer to do that, too!
______________________________________
At the time of Amos,
God was fed up with the people and their rulers
for their inhumanity to one another,
and Amos was called to speak up about it,
to call people back to right relationship.
Through Amos, God told the people
to let “justice surge like waters,
and righteousness like an unfailing stream.”
They ignored him.
Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King
spoke those words of Amos
when he confronted racism and violence
in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Today you are speaking it once again,
in the face of inhumanity and oppression
from our current leaders.
You speak it with your words,
and your actions,
and your prayers,
and your reaching out to help people in need.
You are the ones who let “justice surge like waters,
and righteousness like an unfailing stream.”
I thank God for each of you, prophets for our time!
Amen!
God gave Amos a new job--
a promotion from pruning trees to preaching,
with the assignment to speak truth to power.
Amos kept at it,
even after the priest Amaziah threw him out of the city.
Jesus gave his followers a new job--
a promotion from fishers and tax collectors to preachers,
with the assignment to go on the road and cast out demons.
Like every prophet, they were sent to preach and to heal--
to bring metanoia to people
trampled down by the rich and powerful,
to turn lives of ordinary people around
in peace and love and justice.
And we are called and sent in exactly the same way.
______________________________________
Jesus told his disciples to travel light,
not to take anything with them for the journey,
to count on the hospitality of the people they met
to feed and shelter them.
He told them to reach out in peace and love.
They were to preach what Jesus had taught:
the reign of God is at hand;
love one another.
______________________________________
And how are we to do that today,
we who have embraced our baptism into Christ
as priest, prophet, and servant leader?
Like Amos, we’re called to denounce injustice,
even when it’s unpopular.
Like the apostles, we’re called to offer healing to others,
even if we may be rejected.
Through our words and deeds
we are sent to call people
to turn their lives around
and live in right relationship.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that
we must do more
than just point out the right road to others.
We ourselves have to be on that road,
with even the tiny details of our lives and morals
giving power and witness to our words.
______________________________________
We hear the call personally.
Maybe we are suddenly faced with a situation
where our gifts or talents are needed,
and we step forward.
Or we feel drawn to a particular cause,
and we march or protest or demonstrate.
Or we hear a cry for help, a person under stress
who needs us to be there,
and we walk a ways with them
and lift them in prayer.
______________________________________
One of the great blessings of my retirement
is that people contact me to ask
about where they can find help for someone else.
Just this past week,
there were calls about helping a stranded family,
and beds for refugees,
and food for a family struggling
because the husband got a job
and the family lost their food benefits.
I don’t always have the right answer,
but I can usually point folks
to someone who does have it and can help.
You get those calls, too,
because people see you working for justice and peace.
So I was surprised this week when an email came
asking why more money
hasn’t been donated from our treasury,
which prompted me to take a closer look at our finances.
I found that in the last six weeks
you gave away $2,800,
more than twice our collection for that same time.
On top of that, many of you individually donated goods or cash
to help the victims of the ICE raids in northwest Ohio.
Your generosity packed
Tom and Mary Jean’s living room to the rafters!
They needed a truck to haul it over to the distribution center…
and they found a volunteer to do that, too!
______________________________________
At the time of Amos,
God was fed up with the people and their rulers
for their inhumanity to one another,
and Amos was called to speak up about it,
to call people back to right relationship.
Through Amos, God told the people
to let “justice surge like waters,
and righteousness like an unfailing stream.”
They ignored him.
Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King
spoke those words of Amos
when he confronted racism and violence
in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Today you are speaking it once again,
in the face of inhumanity and oppression
from our current leaders.
You speak it with your words,
and your actions,
and your prayers,
and your reaching out to help people in need.
You are the ones who let “justice surge like waters,
and righteousness like an unfailing stream.”
I thank God for each of you, prophets for our time!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), July 8, 2018
First reading: Ezekiel 2:2-5
Psalm response: Psalm 123:1-4
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
God’s outrage in today’s first reading
could be aimed at our world today.
God’s fury with our nation has to be just as furious right now--
maybe even more furious--
as it was with the Israelites 2600 years ago.
The people were impudent and stubborn,
so God sent Ezekiel
to tell them the truth about what they were doing.
They may listen, or they may not,
but they will know that there has been a prophet among them.
_____________________________________
We know there is a prophet among us!
We are, thanks be to God, surrounded by prophets these days.
One of them is the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich.
You read his clarion call for justice in our bulletin last week,
where he said, “There is nothing
remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible
about a policy that takes children away from their parents
and warehouses them in cages.”
“Every so often,” Cardinal Cupich concluded,
“history presents circumstances that test the soul of a nation.
We are living in one of those moments.
Whatever this nation of immigrants does
for the least of these brothers and sisters of ours
will define us for decades to come,
in the world’s eyes, and in God’s.”
The U.S. Bishops called our treatment of immigrants and refugees
“contrary to our Catholic values” and “immoral.”
Pope Francis agreed.
_____________________________________
But the prophets aren’t limited to famous clerics.
In Toledo hundreds of ordinary citizens of all faiths and every faith—and of no faith—rallied last weekend,
while hundreds of thousands rallied around America
and around the world.
I saw a lot of you there in that sweltering heat,
every one of you who was in town
and could make it there to the Love Wall,
and the rest of you supporting us in Spirit,
as we called on our government
to welcome refugees and immigrants,
to stop separating children from their families at the border,
to release the children... and the toddlers… and the babies…
and reunite them with their parents.
_____________________________________
One by one, all around the world,
people are standing up
against the harm our government is doing,
harm not only to immigrants and refugees
but to the poor and the sick and even to our planet…
the air and water and land that sustain all life.
Each of them… each of you… is a prophet,
like Ezekiel, like Moses, speaking the word of God
to the politicians and officeholders who are doing harm,
calling out “Let my people go!”
_____________________________________
It’s all about relationship.
We hear it from theologians
expounding on the doctrine of the Trinity.
We hear it from Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu
expanding our understanding of relationship
to include all people and all creation,
from the tiniest particle and wave
even to the expanse of the cosmos.
And we hear it over and over from Jesus,
calling for right relationship among all peoples of every nation.
_____________________________________
Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus’ family and Jesus’ neighbors
were not in a good relationship with him.
They resented him.
They took offense at his words and his actions,
those prophetic words calling for justice,
those prophetic actions of love and peace and healing.
_____________________________________
Sister Cele Breen looks at Jesus’ words and actions
and the resentment of his family and neighbors and says,
“Oh, that we could say once a week
or even once a month
that someone took offense at us like they did of Jesus.”
And should it happen to us
that we should earn the resentment of those who do evil,
we can remember what Paul heard Jesus say to him:
“My grace is sufficient for you.”
That’s what keeps us going when,
as followers of the way of Jesus, as Christians,
we find ourselves criticized for what we do.
That’s when the grace of God—the presence of God--
is enough for us.
The Spirit enters into us and sets us on our feet,
and we find the strength
to keep on doing what’s right.
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Ezekiel 2:2-5
Psalm response: Psalm 123:1-4
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
God’s outrage in today’s first reading
could be aimed at our world today.
God’s fury with our nation has to be just as furious right now--
maybe even more furious--
as it was with the Israelites 2600 years ago.
The people were impudent and stubborn,
so God sent Ezekiel
to tell them the truth about what they were doing.
They may listen, or they may not,
but they will know that there has been a prophet among them.
_____________________________________
We know there is a prophet among us!
We are, thanks be to God, surrounded by prophets these days.
One of them is the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich.
You read his clarion call for justice in our bulletin last week,
where he said, “There is nothing
remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible
about a policy that takes children away from their parents
and warehouses them in cages.”
“Every so often,” Cardinal Cupich concluded,
“history presents circumstances that test the soul of a nation.
We are living in one of those moments.
Whatever this nation of immigrants does
for the least of these brothers and sisters of ours
will define us for decades to come,
in the world’s eyes, and in God’s.”
The U.S. Bishops called our treatment of immigrants and refugees
“contrary to our Catholic values” and “immoral.”
Pope Francis agreed.
_____________________________________
But the prophets aren’t limited to famous clerics.
In Toledo hundreds of ordinary citizens of all faiths and every faith—and of no faith—rallied last weekend,
while hundreds of thousands rallied around America
and around the world.
I saw a lot of you there in that sweltering heat,
every one of you who was in town
and could make it there to the Love Wall,
and the rest of you supporting us in Spirit,
as we called on our government
to welcome refugees and immigrants,
to stop separating children from their families at the border,
to release the children... and the toddlers… and the babies…
and reunite them with their parents.
_____________________________________
One by one, all around the world,
people are standing up
against the harm our government is doing,
harm not only to immigrants and refugees
but to the poor and the sick and even to our planet…
the air and water and land that sustain all life.
Each of them… each of you… is a prophet,
like Ezekiel, like Moses, speaking the word of God
to the politicians and officeholders who are doing harm,
calling out “Let my people go!”
_____________________________________
It’s all about relationship.
We hear it from theologians
expounding on the doctrine of the Trinity.
We hear it from Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu
expanding our understanding of relationship
to include all people and all creation,
from the tiniest particle and wave
even to the expanse of the cosmos.
And we hear it over and over from Jesus,
calling for right relationship among all peoples of every nation.
_____________________________________
Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus’ family and Jesus’ neighbors
were not in a good relationship with him.
They resented him.
They took offense at his words and his actions,
those prophetic words calling for justice,
those prophetic actions of love and peace and healing.
_____________________________________
Sister Cele Breen looks at Jesus’ words and actions
and the resentment of his family and neighbors and says,
“Oh, that we could say once a week
or even once a month
that someone took offense at us like they did of Jesus.”
And should it happen to us
that we should earn the resentment of those who do evil,
we can remember what Paul heard Jesus say to him:
“My grace is sufficient for you.”
That’s what keeps us going when,
as followers of the way of Jesus, as Christians,
we find ourselves criticized for what we do.
That’s when the grace of God—the presence of God--
is enough for us.
The Spirit enters into us and sets us on our feet,
and we find the strength
to keep on doing what’s right.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), July 1, 2018
Mark’s story of the healing of these two unnamed women
describes the typical impact that Jesus had
on the people he met on his way around the villages.
He was an itinerant teacher,
known to be both a prophet and a healer.
Biblical scholar John Pilch says that, in the time of Jesus,
people saw curing and healing as two different things.
We can’t know whether Jesus cured anyone
because curing is directed toward disease,
and we don’t know what the people he healed
were suffering from.
On top of that, there’s no clue
that the people of his time expected cures to be permanent.
On the other hand, what healing is
is giving meaning back into people’s lives,
and it happens in spite of their physical health or condition.
“Curing is very rare,” Dr. Pilch says,
“but healing takes place infallibly, 100 percent of the time.”
When people are healed,
their lives become meaningful again.
They get back their rights and dignity as human beings.
Jesus healed everyone who wanted to be healed.
He restored meaning to life
and returned people to communal solidarity.
___________________________________________
It’s characteristic of Mark’s gospel
to interrupt one story to tell another,
ending up with a comparison-and-contrast
that carries an important message.
Today’s stories contrast a young teenager
loved and cherished
by a family of power and privilege
with an older woman
held in contempt because of the condition
that makes her unclean and outcast.
The two women were healed—not cured.
They rose up out of moral and spiritual sickness,
no longer suffering from their illness,
no longer cut off from family, friends, and society.
They were not cured.
They were healed: made whole, morally and spiritually.
___________________________________________
Mark’s gospel tell us
that Jesus felt the power go out of him
when the woman was healed--
when she touched the hem of his garment.
Each of you has known that kind of feeling,
though you may not have thought of it
as the result of your healing someone.
A friend of mine has been spending time
with a person suffering from the beginnings of dementia.
They meet and talk regularly,
and he does a whole lot of repeating and explaining…
and a whole lot of listening.
When he gets home, he’s exhausted, drained of energy.
He has healed his friend,
and he literally felt the power go out of him.
___________________________________________
I see the volunteers down at Claver House
treating the guests with respect and dignity,
pulling them back into society.
I see how exhausted they get,
how they need sometimes to take a break,
to go sit down in the corner of the kitchen
away from the stress of the serving line.
The power goes out of them
because they are healing people.
We all know what this feels like,
whether we’re listening
to the pain of a teenager who’s being bullied
or a 20-something grandchild in despair over joblessness;
or we’re standing
with victims of white supremacy or homophobia;
or we’re reaching out
to asylum seekers and immigrants and refugees.
We listen, we stand with them, we reach out to them
because we love them,
these precious sisters and brothers of ours,
these unique children of our loving God.
We hurt with them.
And in our listening,
in our standing beside them,
in our reaching out,
we pull them back into right relationship.
Sure, we get tired.
It drains us.
Like Jesus, we have to take a break sometimes,
go off alone to pray.
Through that we come to live the ancient prayer that St. Irenaeus,
wrote not long after Mark wrote this gospel,
that nothing so glorifies God
as the human person fully alive.
Fully alive—to know pain, suffering, grief, tragedy, oppression,
and to be healed and, through all that,
to become the kind of person
who prays, who listens, who reaches out to heal others.
Amen!
Mark’s story of the healing of these two unnamed women
describes the typical impact that Jesus had
on the people he met on his way around the villages.
He was an itinerant teacher,
known to be both a prophet and a healer.
Biblical scholar John Pilch says that, in the time of Jesus,
people saw curing and healing as two different things.
We can’t know whether Jesus cured anyone
because curing is directed toward disease,
and we don’t know what the people he healed
were suffering from.
On top of that, there’s no clue
that the people of his time expected cures to be permanent.
On the other hand, what healing is
is giving meaning back into people’s lives,
and it happens in spite of their physical health or condition.
“Curing is very rare,” Dr. Pilch says,
“but healing takes place infallibly, 100 percent of the time.”
When people are healed,
their lives become meaningful again.
They get back their rights and dignity as human beings.
Jesus healed everyone who wanted to be healed.
He restored meaning to life
and returned people to communal solidarity.
___________________________________________
It’s characteristic of Mark’s gospel
to interrupt one story to tell another,
ending up with a comparison-and-contrast
that carries an important message.
Today’s stories contrast a young teenager
loved and cherished
by a family of power and privilege
with an older woman
held in contempt because of the condition
that makes her unclean and outcast.
The two women were healed—not cured.
They rose up out of moral and spiritual sickness,
no longer suffering from their illness,
no longer cut off from family, friends, and society.
They were not cured.
They were healed: made whole, morally and spiritually.
___________________________________________
Mark’s gospel tell us
that Jesus felt the power go out of him
when the woman was healed--
when she touched the hem of his garment.
Each of you has known that kind of feeling,
though you may not have thought of it
as the result of your healing someone.
A friend of mine has been spending time
with a person suffering from the beginnings of dementia.
They meet and talk regularly,
and he does a whole lot of repeating and explaining…
and a whole lot of listening.
When he gets home, he’s exhausted, drained of energy.
He has healed his friend,
and he literally felt the power go out of him.
___________________________________________
I see the volunteers down at Claver House
treating the guests with respect and dignity,
pulling them back into society.
I see how exhausted they get,
how they need sometimes to take a break,
to go sit down in the corner of the kitchen
away from the stress of the serving line.
The power goes out of them
because they are healing people.
We all know what this feels like,
whether we’re listening
to the pain of a teenager who’s being bullied
or a 20-something grandchild in despair over joblessness;
or we’re standing
with victims of white supremacy or homophobia;
or we’re reaching out
to asylum seekers and immigrants and refugees.
We listen, we stand with them, we reach out to them
because we love them,
these precious sisters and brothers of ours,
these unique children of our loving God.
We hurt with them.
And in our listening,
in our standing beside them,
in our reaching out,
we pull them back into right relationship.
Sure, we get tired.
It drains us.
Like Jesus, we have to take a break sometimes,
go off alone to pray.
Through that we come to live the ancient prayer that St. Irenaeus,
wrote not long after Mark wrote this gospel,
that nothing so glorifies God
as the human person fully alive.
Fully alive—to know pain, suffering, grief, tragedy, oppression,
and to be healed and, through all that,
to become the kind of person
who prays, who listens, who reaches out to heal others.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community: Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist (B), June 24, 2018
First reading: Isaiah 49:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 139:1-3, 13-15
Second reading: Acts 13:22-26
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80
Today’s first reading comes from
the second of Isaiah’s four “Servant Songs,”
poems that detail the feeling of the Israelites
about their long history of occupation and exile.
The people of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are depressed.
God called them from the beginning—from the womb--
to show God’s glory to the nations,
and they think they failed.
They think they toiled in vain,
uselessly spent their strength.
Even so, they still trust
that God will restore them to a life of peace and justice.
God will send a savior.
Throughout Judaism and Christianity
the words of Isaiah have been used
to describe the call—the vocation--
of the Israelites as a people
and call of individuals like John the Baptist, like Jesus...
like all believers.
We are all called from birth,
formed to be light to the nations
so that God’s love and justice
can reach the ends of the earth.
___________________________________
In our second reading from Acts
Luke has Paul preach that same lesson
in God’s call to David,
to John the Baptizer,
to Jesus,
and to all of us.
___________________________________
The parallel continues in Luke’s gospel,
where he presents John’s birth story
in a way that is both familiar and timeless.
The neighbors are astounded.
They ask, “What will this child be?”
Luke uses a lot of symbolism in crafting the story.
Elizabeth’s name is Greek,
Elisheba in the language of the Hebrews,
meaning “the promise of God.”
In Elizabeth, God is faithful to the promise.
The name of Zechariah, John’s father,
means “God has remembered.”
In Zechariah, God has remembered the promise of salvation.
The name of John
means “Yahweh has been gracious.”
God’s presence—the grace of God--
will be shown through this child.
___________________________________
Each of us can hear some sort of family story
echoing in this gospel:
...how we were given our name.
...the difference we made to the family because we were born.
...what will this child be?
On the morning I was born,
my father phoned his sister in Toledo, my Aunt Lillie,
to let her know I’d arrived.
“I just knew when I woke up this morning,” she said,
“that something wonderful was happening in the world.”
I grew up hearing Aunt Lillie’s comment
at every family gathering of my childhood,
and I was never able to think of what wonderful thing
she might have been talking about.
Still can’t.
___________________________________
Whatever our name or our personal family story,
we are all called to fulfill
the prophecy of the Canticle of Zechariah,
those 13 verses that are skipped in today’s reading.
We are, each of us, called to be prophets of God,
going out to prepare the way,
to tell people about God’s mercy shining in darkness,
to walk in the path of peace.
___________________________________
Many of us in this country, right now,
have that thought that it’s all for nothing.
As Fr. Roger Karban point out,
rarely do we succeed in the work God has laid out for us.
Usually we’re not even certain what that work is.
We plod along day by day,
trying to figure out
what God expects of us.
It’s only in looking back
that we begin to discover the part we have played--
find out the answer to “what will this child be?”
___________________________________
When we see children taken from their parents
and herded into cages,
their parents led off in handcuffs,
we ache for them and wonder “what will this child be?”
We know that our government’s actions
are violating both international law and moral law.
We’re depressed, walking on the edge of despair.
We start to feel useless,
like there’s nothing we can do to help.
But there is!
___________________________________
Some of you were able to get downtown Tuesday
to take part in the protest.
The Holy Spirit was there in force!
All of you are praying
for a peaceful, loving, and just solution.
All of you voted last week
to send $500 to help the families left behind
by the ICE raid in Norwalk and Sandusky.
So we keep on the path,
praying and working for justice,
staying dedicated to loving God and serving neighbor,
no matter how tough it gets.
That’s the way we become a light to the nations.
Amen!
First reading: Isaiah 49:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 139:1-3, 13-15
Second reading: Acts 13:22-26
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80
Today’s first reading comes from
the second of Isaiah’s four “Servant Songs,”
poems that detail the feeling of the Israelites
about their long history of occupation and exile.
The people of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are depressed.
God called them from the beginning—from the womb--
to show God’s glory to the nations,
and they think they failed.
They think they toiled in vain,
uselessly spent their strength.
Even so, they still trust
that God will restore them to a life of peace and justice.
God will send a savior.
Throughout Judaism and Christianity
the words of Isaiah have been used
to describe the call—the vocation--
of the Israelites as a people
and call of individuals like John the Baptist, like Jesus...
like all believers.
We are all called from birth,
formed to be light to the nations
so that God’s love and justice
can reach the ends of the earth.
___________________________________
In our second reading from Acts
Luke has Paul preach that same lesson
in God’s call to David,
to John the Baptizer,
to Jesus,
and to all of us.
___________________________________
The parallel continues in Luke’s gospel,
where he presents John’s birth story
in a way that is both familiar and timeless.
The neighbors are astounded.
They ask, “What will this child be?”
Luke uses a lot of symbolism in crafting the story.
Elizabeth’s name is Greek,
Elisheba in the language of the Hebrews,
meaning “the promise of God.”
In Elizabeth, God is faithful to the promise.
The name of Zechariah, John’s father,
means “God has remembered.”
In Zechariah, God has remembered the promise of salvation.
The name of John
means “Yahweh has been gracious.”
God’s presence—the grace of God--
will be shown through this child.
___________________________________
Each of us can hear some sort of family story
echoing in this gospel:
...how we were given our name.
...the difference we made to the family because we were born.
...what will this child be?
On the morning I was born,
my father phoned his sister in Toledo, my Aunt Lillie,
to let her know I’d arrived.
“I just knew when I woke up this morning,” she said,
“that something wonderful was happening in the world.”
I grew up hearing Aunt Lillie’s comment
at every family gathering of my childhood,
and I was never able to think of what wonderful thing
she might have been talking about.
Still can’t.
___________________________________
Whatever our name or our personal family story,
we are all called to fulfill
the prophecy of the Canticle of Zechariah,
those 13 verses that are skipped in today’s reading.
We are, each of us, called to be prophets of God,
going out to prepare the way,
to tell people about God’s mercy shining in darkness,
to walk in the path of peace.
___________________________________
Many of us in this country, right now,
have that thought that it’s all for nothing.
As Fr. Roger Karban point out,
rarely do we succeed in the work God has laid out for us.
Usually we’re not even certain what that work is.
We plod along day by day,
trying to figure out
what God expects of us.
It’s only in looking back
that we begin to discover the part we have played--
find out the answer to “what will this child be?”
___________________________________
When we see children taken from their parents
and herded into cages,
their parents led off in handcuffs,
we ache for them and wonder “what will this child be?”
We know that our government’s actions
are violating both international law and moral law.
We’re depressed, walking on the edge of despair.
We start to feel useless,
like there’s nothing we can do to help.
But there is!
___________________________________
Some of you were able to get downtown Tuesday
to take part in the protest.
The Holy Spirit was there in force!
All of you are praying
for a peaceful, loving, and just solution.
All of you voted last week
to send $500 to help the families left behind
by the ICE raid in Norwalk and Sandusky.
So we keep on the path,
praying and working for justice,
staying dedicated to loving God and serving neighbor,
no matter how tough it gets.
That’s the way we become a light to the nations.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community,11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), June 17, 2018
First reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Gospel: Mark 4:26-34
Today Mark writes about Jesus teaching
to a large crowd
from a boat near the sea shore.
Biblical scholars say
that was something Jesus actually did.
Mark says Jesus was teaching in parables,
and the scholars say that also actually happened.
The part of today’s gospel that did not happen
is that Jesus did not hide his meaning
and later tell his followers in private what he meant.
That part was created by Mark
to shape the story for his community.
And Jesus really did tell the two stories in today’s gospel,
the first about the seed that grows
and produces fruit on its own
without the farmer knowing how,
and the second about the little mustard seed
that grows into a big shrub.
Mark presents both of them
as if Jesus compared them to “the reign of God,”
but that part was created by Mark to shape his story.
Jesus only used the second one, the mustard seed parable,
as a simile for the reign of God.
And the mustard seed isn’t the tiniest one,
and it doesn’t grow into the biggest
of all the plants in the garden.
Jesus is using hyperbole to make his point.
_______________________________________
These days scholars choose to translate
that phrase in Jesus’ parables
not as the “kingdom of God”
but as the “reign of God,”
It’s not a place.
According to Dr. John Pilch,
the reign of God is what happens
when we put God in charge of our life.
We see it happen every day.
We go out of our way to do something good, or kind, or just.
We plant a tiny seed--
a smile at a stranger, a prayer for a friend--
and we don’t see it sprout and grow,
but it springs up, and it yields a harvest of good.
Just like that tiny mustard seed.
_______________________________________
We gave $1,000 to help feed Toledo’s hungry kids this summer.
We already see it sprouting around town,
noondays at the libraries,
those tables full of food set up
and the little ones munching away.
The fruit of our gift will show up
over the lifetimes of those kids,
in memories of their childhood,
in better grades when they go back to school,
in the things they choose to put their energies in.
We don’t know what the harvest will be,
but we know it will come.
_______________________________________
Our Tree Toledo ministry plants those seedlings,
at this point one for every two Toledo residents,
and it will be years—decades for some of them--
before our effort bears fruit.
And we know it will come--
in buckeyes and pears and berries
and elms and oaks and pines and spruces,
in the oxygen those plantings create
and the carbon they sequester.
It already bears fruit in the inspiration it gives
to people who plant a tree
knowing that it will help the next generation breathe.
_______________________________________
We can get really depressed these days,
what with the injustice that we see done to people
who are different in religion or skin color or social class
or age or gender or nationality—or whatever—
from the ones in charge;
when we see inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants;
when we see the harm being done to our environment.
It’s just too much.
We might be tempted
to look at that first parable in today’s gospel
and just sit back and do nothing,
waiting for God to plant the seed
and for the harvest to come.
Sure, Jesus was telling his disciples
that the object of their hope
and the results of their work
were beyond their control.
But he was also saying
what Pope Francis said last week:
“When we have the seed in hand,
it isn't meant to be stored in a closet,
it is meant to be sown.
All life must be sown so that it bears fruit and multiplies.”
Or, as Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw put it,
“We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development…
For we are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs;
prophets of a future not our own.”
And so, we live in the reign of God right now,
planting tiny seeds of hope and love
and peace and justice.
Amen!
First reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Gospel: Mark 4:26-34
Today Mark writes about Jesus teaching
to a large crowd
from a boat near the sea shore.
Biblical scholars say
that was something Jesus actually did.
Mark says Jesus was teaching in parables,
and the scholars say that also actually happened.
The part of today’s gospel that did not happen
is that Jesus did not hide his meaning
and later tell his followers in private what he meant.
That part was created by Mark
to shape the story for his community.
And Jesus really did tell the two stories in today’s gospel,
the first about the seed that grows
and produces fruit on its own
without the farmer knowing how,
and the second about the little mustard seed
that grows into a big shrub.
Mark presents both of them
as if Jesus compared them to “the reign of God,”
but that part was created by Mark to shape his story.
Jesus only used the second one, the mustard seed parable,
as a simile for the reign of God.
And the mustard seed isn’t the tiniest one,
and it doesn’t grow into the biggest
of all the plants in the garden.
Jesus is using hyperbole to make his point.
_______________________________________
These days scholars choose to translate
that phrase in Jesus’ parables
not as the “kingdom of God”
but as the “reign of God,”
It’s not a place.
According to Dr. John Pilch,
the reign of God is what happens
when we put God in charge of our life.
We see it happen every day.
We go out of our way to do something good, or kind, or just.
We plant a tiny seed--
a smile at a stranger, a prayer for a friend--
and we don’t see it sprout and grow,
but it springs up, and it yields a harvest of good.
Just like that tiny mustard seed.
_______________________________________
We gave $1,000 to help feed Toledo’s hungry kids this summer.
We already see it sprouting around town,
noondays at the libraries,
those tables full of food set up
and the little ones munching away.
The fruit of our gift will show up
over the lifetimes of those kids,
in memories of their childhood,
in better grades when they go back to school,
in the things they choose to put their energies in.
We don’t know what the harvest will be,
but we know it will come.
_______________________________________
Our Tree Toledo ministry plants those seedlings,
at this point one for every two Toledo residents,
and it will be years—decades for some of them--
before our effort bears fruit.
And we know it will come--
in buckeyes and pears and berries
and elms and oaks and pines and spruces,
in the oxygen those plantings create
and the carbon they sequester.
It already bears fruit in the inspiration it gives
to people who plant a tree
knowing that it will help the next generation breathe.
_______________________________________
We can get really depressed these days,
what with the injustice that we see done to people
who are different in religion or skin color or social class
or age or gender or nationality—or whatever—
from the ones in charge;
when we see inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants;
when we see the harm being done to our environment.
It’s just too much.
We might be tempted
to look at that first parable in today’s gospel
and just sit back and do nothing,
waiting for God to plant the seed
and for the harvest to come.
Sure, Jesus was telling his disciples
that the object of their hope
and the results of their work
were beyond their control.
But he was also saying
what Pope Francis said last week:
“When we have the seed in hand,
it isn't meant to be stored in a closet,
it is meant to be sown.
All life must be sown so that it bears fruit and multiplies.”
Or, as Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw put it,
“We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development…
For we are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs;
prophets of a future not our own.”
And so, we live in the reign of God right now,
planting tiny seeds of hope and love
and peace and justice.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), June 10, 2018
First reading: Genesis 3:9-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130:1-8
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
That was the advice I got from my spiritual director back in the 80s.
At that point I’d been struggling with our tradition for 20 years,
trying to stay Catholic
in spite of all the contradictions I was seeing
in the way I’d been taught.
It was good advice,
and I’m reminded of it
when I hear those passages today
from Genesis and Corinthians.
Archaeology and anthropology tell us
that the Genesis reading takes place
in a world that never existed.
Its worldview is problematic:
not only is it scientifically wrong,
it’s patriarchal and hierarchical.
And it shows us a vengeful God,
condemning us forever for the actions of our distant ancestors.
For a patriarchal church interested in control and domination,
there’s no problem with that myth.
But we have some big problems with it.
Where’s the baby in all that bathwater?
Given today’s scientific discoveries,
we can still see the story as true
because we believe that our God is a creating God,
the one who made all that has been
and is continuing the creative process even yet.
________________________________________
That Corinthians reading has a lot of bathwater, too.
Most obvious is the dualistic mindset,
the separation of our being into an outer self and an inner self,
the split of body and soul
that led to judging the body as evil and the soul as good,
that brought us to discount earthly things
and count only the things of a heavenly hereafter.
That’s the mindset that, among other evils, allowed the Crusaders
to excuse their massacre of Middle Eastern Christians
because they looked like their Muslim enemies,
saying that God would sort them out.
It’s the mindset that encourages suffering for its own sake
and allows Christians to ignore the need
to work for justice now.
It’s hard to find the tiny baby in that bathwater!
The best I can do is rest in the knowledge
that my earthly tent will change, stardust to stardust,
and that I, like everything that is, live in God,
whose reign is at hand,
not in some heaven high above and far off.
________________________________________
Then there’s the gospel, with its bathwater full of demons.
Scholars tell us that it’s probably true
that some authorities thought Jesus was possessed.
It’s also true that his mother and siblings thought he was crazy
and wanted to take him home
(or, as other translations put it, seize him,
take custody of him, restrain him).
It’s obvious that Jesus did not enjoy his family’s support.
They were embarrassed by what he was doing.
That his biological family thought him mad
was not a detail that the Christian community
would have wanted known,
except that his response to them
is the baby that they—and we--
can’t throw out with the bathwater.
Jesus does not listen to the scribes from Jerusalem
or to his family gathered outside the house.
He continues to preach the good news.
He looks at the people around him
and tells them they are his family:
“Whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”
That’s definitely good news for us.
Because we love God,
we are living as members of the family.
Because we love our neighbor,
we are acting as members of the family.
Because we work for justice and peace,
we are giving witness that we are members of the family.
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Genesis 3:9-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130:1-8
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
That was the advice I got from my spiritual director back in the 80s.
At that point I’d been struggling with our tradition for 20 years,
trying to stay Catholic
in spite of all the contradictions I was seeing
in the way I’d been taught.
It was good advice,
and I’m reminded of it
when I hear those passages today
from Genesis and Corinthians.
Archaeology and anthropology tell us
that the Genesis reading takes place
in a world that never existed.
Its worldview is problematic:
not only is it scientifically wrong,
it’s patriarchal and hierarchical.
And it shows us a vengeful God,
condemning us forever for the actions of our distant ancestors.
For a patriarchal church interested in control and domination,
there’s no problem with that myth.
But we have some big problems with it.
Where’s the baby in all that bathwater?
Given today’s scientific discoveries,
we can still see the story as true
because we believe that our God is a creating God,
the one who made all that has been
and is continuing the creative process even yet.
________________________________________
That Corinthians reading has a lot of bathwater, too.
Most obvious is the dualistic mindset,
the separation of our being into an outer self and an inner self,
the split of body and soul
that led to judging the body as evil and the soul as good,
that brought us to discount earthly things
and count only the things of a heavenly hereafter.
That’s the mindset that, among other evils, allowed the Crusaders
to excuse their massacre of Middle Eastern Christians
because they looked like their Muslim enemies,
saying that God would sort them out.
It’s the mindset that encourages suffering for its own sake
and allows Christians to ignore the need
to work for justice now.
It’s hard to find the tiny baby in that bathwater!
The best I can do is rest in the knowledge
that my earthly tent will change, stardust to stardust,
and that I, like everything that is, live in God,
whose reign is at hand,
not in some heaven high above and far off.
________________________________________
Then there’s the gospel, with its bathwater full of demons.
Scholars tell us that it’s probably true
that some authorities thought Jesus was possessed.
It’s also true that his mother and siblings thought he was crazy
and wanted to take him home
(or, as other translations put it, seize him,
take custody of him, restrain him).
It’s obvious that Jesus did not enjoy his family’s support.
They were embarrassed by what he was doing.
That his biological family thought him mad
was not a detail that the Christian community
would have wanted known,
except that his response to them
is the baby that they—and we--
can’t throw out with the bathwater.
Jesus does not listen to the scribes from Jerusalem
or to his family gathered outside the house.
He continues to preach the good news.
He looks at the people around him
and tells them they are his family:
“Whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”
That’s definitely good news for us.
Because we love God,
we are living as members of the family.
Because we love our neighbor,
we are acting as members of the family.
Because we work for justice and peace,
we are giving witness that we are members of the family.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Body and Blood of Christ (B), June 3, 2018
First reading: Exodus 24:3-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:12-18
Second reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel: Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Scripture scholars judge as historical fact
that Jesus shared a meal with his disciples
on the night he was betrayed,
a meal that included
breaking bread and sharing wine.
Paul was the first to write about that Last Supper,
in a letter to the Corinthians in the 50s.
It’s the only story in the whole passion narrative
that shows up in writings
before the gospels were written,
at least 20 years before it shows up in a gospel.
By the time Mark writes about it in the 70s,
the supper tradition had been so Christianized
that it’s not possible to know
what really happened
that last time Jesus ate with his followers,
let alone what he said to them.
After Mark wrote,
then Matthew, Luke, and John
each put together a different story of the Last Supper…
different details, different actions,
and different quotes from Jesus.
The Last Supper as it is depicted in the Bible is true--
but it was not a historical event.
What is historical
is that Jesus taught at meals with his followers.
He used symbolic actions
which included bread and wine and maybe fish.
He ate with everyone—the poor and the wealthy,
the sick and the healthy,
the powerful and the weak,
the clean and the unclean.
His actions were inclusive.
_____________________________________
What was Jesus trying to teach through his table fellowship?
What was he saying
through those actions and symbols
that we remember as the Last Supper?
The strong message that comes out of the scriptures
is that Jesus spent his life and his energy
telling people that the reign of God is at hand
and that what’s required to live in the reign of God
is to love God and to love your neighbor.
And he taught that truth with word and action.
He pointed to the hypocrisy, the greed,
and the oppression that people were experiencing
from the government and from the religion.
When he chased the money-changers out of the temple,
he attracted the attention
of the oppressors in his own religion.
When he taught his followers
to pray “hallowed be your name” to God,
he drew the attention of the Roman oppressors
for whom the only holy name was Caesar’s.
His insights into how to live and how to pray,
his insistence that God is in charge,
led to his crucifixion.
He poured out his life preaching and teaching
love of God
and justice and peace for all people,
and he kept doing it
in spite of opposition
from the powerful in church and state.
In what he said and what he did,
his life was literally consumed
by his love of God and neighbor.
_____________________________________
His followers continued to gather after he died,
and they talked about his life and his teachings.
They remembered and gave thanks,
and they celebrated him at meals
where they told and re-told the stories.
They followed his way,
and they came to understand him
as the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, their savior,
his spirit always with them.
_____________________________________
Over the centuries, sometimes we lost the way.
We spent way too much time
arguing about how bread and wine
are turned into the body and blood of Jesus
and who controls the power
to make that “transubstantiation” happen.
As Richard Rohr puts it,
we made it into magic to be believed
instead of the way to transform our selves.
_____________________________________
Over 50 years ago the Second Vatican Council
tried to make clear to us
what we celebrate when we gather each week.
They told us that Christ is present
in the bread and wine
of our Eucharistic celebration.
Not only that,
they said that Christ is also present
in the Word proclaimed today.
And on top of that,
Christ is present
in each one of us
and all of us gathered here,
present in the people of God
and even in the presider.
And they told us that we are called to holiness,
called to bring justice and peace to the world.
As a church, we needed to be reminded of that.
_____________________________________
Lots of books have been written since then.
Our world is changing, and our church is changing.
We grapple with the idea
that God is present in all of creation.
_____________________________________
But we face the same challenges that Vatican II faced,
the same challenges that Jesus of Nazareth faced.
We are now the ones who must speak truth to power,
embrace the outcasts,
shelter the oppressed.
We are the ones who must name the holy.
We take this bread and wine,
and we are transformed,
We see that we are the body of Christ.
We become the living Jesus,
still present and active in the world,
and we gather strength from our communion
to bring justice to the world.
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Exodus 24:3-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:12-18
Second reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel: Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Scripture scholars judge as historical fact
that Jesus shared a meal with his disciples
on the night he was betrayed,
a meal that included
breaking bread and sharing wine.
Paul was the first to write about that Last Supper,
in a letter to the Corinthians in the 50s.
It’s the only story in the whole passion narrative
that shows up in writings
before the gospels were written,
at least 20 years before it shows up in a gospel.
By the time Mark writes about it in the 70s,
the supper tradition had been so Christianized
that it’s not possible to know
what really happened
that last time Jesus ate with his followers,
let alone what he said to them.
After Mark wrote,
then Matthew, Luke, and John
each put together a different story of the Last Supper…
different details, different actions,
and different quotes from Jesus.
The Last Supper as it is depicted in the Bible is true--
but it was not a historical event.
What is historical
is that Jesus taught at meals with his followers.
He used symbolic actions
which included bread and wine and maybe fish.
He ate with everyone—the poor and the wealthy,
the sick and the healthy,
the powerful and the weak,
the clean and the unclean.
His actions were inclusive.
_____________________________________
What was Jesus trying to teach through his table fellowship?
What was he saying
through those actions and symbols
that we remember as the Last Supper?
The strong message that comes out of the scriptures
is that Jesus spent his life and his energy
telling people that the reign of God is at hand
and that what’s required to live in the reign of God
is to love God and to love your neighbor.
And he taught that truth with word and action.
He pointed to the hypocrisy, the greed,
and the oppression that people were experiencing
from the government and from the religion.
When he chased the money-changers out of the temple,
he attracted the attention
of the oppressors in his own religion.
When he taught his followers
to pray “hallowed be your name” to God,
he drew the attention of the Roman oppressors
for whom the only holy name was Caesar’s.
His insights into how to live and how to pray,
his insistence that God is in charge,
led to his crucifixion.
He poured out his life preaching and teaching
love of God
and justice and peace for all people,
and he kept doing it
in spite of opposition
from the powerful in church and state.
In what he said and what he did,
his life was literally consumed
by his love of God and neighbor.
_____________________________________
His followers continued to gather after he died,
and they talked about his life and his teachings.
They remembered and gave thanks,
and they celebrated him at meals
where they told and re-told the stories.
They followed his way,
and they came to understand him
as the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, their savior,
his spirit always with them.
_____________________________________
Over the centuries, sometimes we lost the way.
We spent way too much time
arguing about how bread and wine
are turned into the body and blood of Jesus
and who controls the power
to make that “transubstantiation” happen.
As Richard Rohr puts it,
we made it into magic to be believed
instead of the way to transform our selves.
_____________________________________
Over 50 years ago the Second Vatican Council
tried to make clear to us
what we celebrate when we gather each week.
They told us that Christ is present
in the bread and wine
of our Eucharistic celebration.
Not only that,
they said that Christ is also present
in the Word proclaimed today.
And on top of that,
Christ is present
in each one of us
and all of us gathered here,
present in the people of God
and even in the presider.
And they told us that we are called to holiness,
called to bring justice and peace to the world.
As a church, we needed to be reminded of that.
_____________________________________
Lots of books have been written since then.
Our world is changing, and our church is changing.
We grapple with the idea
that God is present in all of creation.
_____________________________________
But we face the same challenges that Vatican II faced,
the same challenges that Jesus of Nazareth faced.
We are now the ones who must speak truth to power,
embrace the outcasts,
shelter the oppressed.
We are the ones who must name the holy.
We take this bread and wine,
and we are transformed,
We see that we are the body of Christ.
We become the living Jesus,
still present and active in the world,
and we gather strength from our communion
to bring justice to the world.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community Trinity (B), May 27, 2018
First reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33: 4-6, 9, 18-20,22
Second reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
Today’s readings present some problems
for us 21st century people.
In that reading from Deuteronomy
Moses tells the people
that Yahweh is a God of war and great terrors.
He says that God gives the Israelites that land forever,
sowing seeds of the current conflict in the Middle East.
__________________________________________
In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans,
we hear that being a child of God is conditional.
We’re not born a child of God;
we’re born of sin, so we have to be adopted.
And we have to endure suffering to be glorified.
__________________________________________
Matthew’s gospel sows those seeds of separation
that eventually pit Christian against non-Christian,
the baptized against the unbaptized,
seeds that grow into the terrors
of the Crusades, the Holocaust,
and today’s persecutions in the name of God
all over the world.
__________________________________________
Historians and anthropologists tell us
that this “us vs. them” mentality did not always exist.
We humans did not always oppress those among us
who happened to be different in some way.
And we humans did not always think God was out there,
up in the sky.
There were whole societies
whose people believed they encountered God
in holy people, in animals,
in the land, in water, in air, and fire.
Other societies didn’t think we started with original sin.
We started with, as Matthew Fox puts it, “original blessing.”
These days we hear that all of us are children of God,
created out of stardust
with all the multiverses
and our planet, and everything on it, and in it,
all of it breathed into existence by the Spirit of God,
all of it blessed.
__________________________________________
Our celebration of the Most Holy Trinity today
centers on a dogma of the Catholic Church.
That means it’s a doctrine—a teaching of faith and morals--
that the Church has formally defined
as being revealed by God.
I don’t have any problem with saying
that I believe the dogma
that God reveals Godself to us
as Father, as Son, as Spirit...
but I also believe that we can’t stop there.
We are wrong to think we can limit God.
Father, Son, and Spirit are not the only ways
that God is present to us.
Stopping with the Trinity limits God way too much.
__________________________________________
Today we’re asking the same questions
that homo sapiens has always asked…
and answered, in the framework—the worldview--
of their times.
Remember the Baltimore Catechism?
Who is God? God is the Creator of all things.
Where is God? God is everywhere.
The answers in that Catechism, with its dualistic framework--
the belief that body and soul are separate things,
that God is out there in heaven, separate from earth--
have been re-worked and will be continually re-worked
as our understanding of ourselves
and our planet
and all of creation
grows.
__________________________________________
When we talk about the dogma of the Trinity--
when we teach it as doctrine--
we have to talk about it in terms of our current interpretations,
just as the 1885 Baltimore Catechism talked about it
in terms of the worldview of the Bellarmine Catechism of 1614.
Especially in light of the scientific and theological understandings
that we have today,
we have to talk about the Trinity in a more inclusive way.
Many theologians are talking about the Trinity--
about the nature of God—as relationship,
as the one God revealing Godself to us in personal ways.
Others are putting it in more concrete terms--
as God enfleshed—incarnated—embodied--
in all of creation:
the breath of the Spirit, the love of a parent,
the wisdom of an older brother…
and the brightness of the sunrise,
the refreshment of cool water,
the oxygen that trees make for us,
the stardust that everything comes from.
All of it, and us, are an incarnation of God.
So we can think about God as Father, Son, and Spirit…
and as mother, child, brother, sister, spouse,
nature, breath, heart, love, neutrinos,
springtime, eagle’s wings….
And that leads some theologians to call attention
to the moral imperative to live in right relationship
with all peoples and all of creation.
No matter how we think about God,
it will never be all that God is.
__________________________________________
One thing that comes from today’s understanding of God,
recently very obvious in young people
responding to school shootings,
is that we cannot be silent about injustice.
Kids are telling us that we have to speak up
when we see someone being bullied, and they’re right.
They speak up with protests against gun violence.
In that same way, each of us finds a way
that fits our personalities and abilities and our situation in life.
We may go out of our way
to make friends with someone who’s different from us.
We may write letters when we see oppression,
like the one Anne sent to the Blade last week.
We may protest, like Tom,
regularly showing up on street corners
with the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition.
We may find ways to help kids,
like Liz getting us to sponsor five kids to summer camp.
Or help refugees and immigrants,
like Laurie with UStogether.
We may host a discussion,
like Colleen’s Lenten gathering
to talk about how we can live in simplicity
as a way to respect God’s gift of our planet.
We may lobby for clean water,
like Sallie does with the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie.
In short, we show up—we pray, we protest, we help out.
And so we show that we are indeed children of God,
brothers and sisters of Jesus,
filled with the Spirit.
Like all the rest of creation,
we reveal a part of God to the world.
Amen!
First reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33: 4-6, 9, 18-20,22
Second reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
Today’s readings present some problems
for us 21st century people.
In that reading from Deuteronomy
Moses tells the people
that Yahweh is a God of war and great terrors.
He says that God gives the Israelites that land forever,
sowing seeds of the current conflict in the Middle East.
__________________________________________
In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans,
we hear that being a child of God is conditional.
We’re not born a child of God;
we’re born of sin, so we have to be adopted.
And we have to endure suffering to be glorified.
__________________________________________
Matthew’s gospel sows those seeds of separation
that eventually pit Christian against non-Christian,
the baptized against the unbaptized,
seeds that grow into the terrors
of the Crusades, the Holocaust,
and today’s persecutions in the name of God
all over the world.
__________________________________________
Historians and anthropologists tell us
that this “us vs. them” mentality did not always exist.
We humans did not always oppress those among us
who happened to be different in some way.
And we humans did not always think God was out there,
up in the sky.
There were whole societies
whose people believed they encountered God
in holy people, in animals,
in the land, in water, in air, and fire.
Other societies didn’t think we started with original sin.
We started with, as Matthew Fox puts it, “original blessing.”
These days we hear that all of us are children of God,
created out of stardust
with all the multiverses
and our planet, and everything on it, and in it,
all of it breathed into existence by the Spirit of God,
all of it blessed.
__________________________________________
Our celebration of the Most Holy Trinity today
centers on a dogma of the Catholic Church.
That means it’s a doctrine—a teaching of faith and morals--
that the Church has formally defined
as being revealed by God.
I don’t have any problem with saying
that I believe the dogma
that God reveals Godself to us
as Father, as Son, as Spirit...
but I also believe that we can’t stop there.
We are wrong to think we can limit God.
Father, Son, and Spirit are not the only ways
that God is present to us.
Stopping with the Trinity limits God way too much.
__________________________________________
Today we’re asking the same questions
that homo sapiens has always asked…
and answered, in the framework—the worldview--
of their times.
Remember the Baltimore Catechism?
Who is God? God is the Creator of all things.
Where is God? God is everywhere.
The answers in that Catechism, with its dualistic framework--
the belief that body and soul are separate things,
that God is out there in heaven, separate from earth--
have been re-worked and will be continually re-worked
as our understanding of ourselves
and our planet
and all of creation
grows.
__________________________________________
When we talk about the dogma of the Trinity--
when we teach it as doctrine--
we have to talk about it in terms of our current interpretations,
just as the 1885 Baltimore Catechism talked about it
in terms of the worldview of the Bellarmine Catechism of 1614.
Especially in light of the scientific and theological understandings
that we have today,
we have to talk about the Trinity in a more inclusive way.
Many theologians are talking about the Trinity--
about the nature of God—as relationship,
as the one God revealing Godself to us in personal ways.
Others are putting it in more concrete terms--
as God enfleshed—incarnated—embodied--
in all of creation:
the breath of the Spirit, the love of a parent,
the wisdom of an older brother…
and the brightness of the sunrise,
the refreshment of cool water,
the oxygen that trees make for us,
the stardust that everything comes from.
All of it, and us, are an incarnation of God.
So we can think about God as Father, Son, and Spirit…
and as mother, child, brother, sister, spouse,
nature, breath, heart, love, neutrinos,
springtime, eagle’s wings….
And that leads some theologians to call attention
to the moral imperative to live in right relationship
with all peoples and all of creation.
No matter how we think about God,
it will never be all that God is.
__________________________________________
One thing that comes from today’s understanding of God,
recently very obvious in young people
responding to school shootings,
is that we cannot be silent about injustice.
Kids are telling us that we have to speak up
when we see someone being bullied, and they’re right.
They speak up with protests against gun violence.
In that same way, each of us finds a way
that fits our personalities and abilities and our situation in life.
We may go out of our way
to make friends with someone who’s different from us.
We may write letters when we see oppression,
like the one Anne sent to the Blade last week.
We may protest, like Tom,
regularly showing up on street corners
with the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition.
We may find ways to help kids,
like Liz getting us to sponsor five kids to summer camp.
Or help refugees and immigrants,
like Laurie with UStogether.
We may host a discussion,
like Colleen’s Lenten gathering
to talk about how we can live in simplicity
as a way to respect God’s gift of our planet.
We may lobby for clean water,
like Sallie does with the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie.
In short, we show up—we pray, we protest, we help out.
And so we show that we are indeed children of God,
brothers and sisters of Jesus,
filled with the Spirit.
Like all the rest of creation,
we reveal a part of God to the world.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Pentecost (B), May 20, 2018
First reading: Genesis 11:1-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34
Second reading: Acts 2:1-11
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Peace, Jesus says.
Shalom.
Peace be with you.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, in the letter to the Corinthians,
that we are all one body,
all given to drink of one Spirit.
Luke tells us, in the Acts of the Apostles,
that people from every nation on earth
hear the good news.
_____________________________________
But even now, after 2,000 years,
we still don’t seem to have that peace…
or that unity in Spirit.
There’s no peace in Syria,
with 39,000 killed last year,
12,000 so far this year.
No peace in Afghanistan,
where 14,000 were killed last year,
9,000 so far this year.
No peace in Iraq,
where 13,000 were killed last year,
2,000 so far this year.
No peace for the Palestinians in Gaza,
where 60 died this past week,
adding to the 25,000
who have been killed since the conflict started.
And here in our country: black babies are dying.
In Lucas County, in 2015,
the mortality rate for black babies
was 16.8 per 1,000,
compared to 1.6 for white babies.
Put another way, Black babies who are born alive
are 9½ times more likely
to die before their first birthday
than white babies are.
Research points out the reason:
it’s our culture’s attitudes
of implicit bias and white supremacy.
The problem goes on: once those babies
make it through their first year in Lucas County,
whether they’re black or white or brown,
30,000 of them live in hunger.
And over 35,000 kids under the age of 6--
most of them poor and many of them black--
live in places that put them
at high risk for lead poisoning…
which causes a host of neuropsychological problems,
like hyperactivity, ADD,
learning disabilities, and behavioral problems.
_____________________________________
Ecclesial history looks at today’s feast
as the “birthday of the Church,”
but it has to be more than that for us.
Above all, it has to be a reminder
that the Spirit of God
dwells with us, in us, and among us…
and with, in, and among all the peoples of the world
and with, in, and among all of creation.
In that framework, Pentecost has to be a reminder that,
like the earliest followers of Jesus,
we are called and sent
to be the incarnation of God’s Spirit in our world.
We are called to be bold and life-giving,
united in love for God and neighbor.
_____________________________________
And you are!
Last week you put your heads together
and sent the Spirit to those 30,000 hungry kids
who live in our northwest Ohio neighborhoods.
You sent $1,000 to Connecting Meals to Kids
to help give breakfast and lunch to those kids
all summer long.
Every month for well over a year
you’ve sent $100 to the Padua Center
for its programs to help kids
who get suspended from their grade school classroom
for behaviors that sound just like
the neuropsychological problems
that come from lead poisoning.
And then there’s Tree Toledo--
your time and energy and cash
are putting trees all over our land—over 180,000 so far--
trees that will become breathing machines
for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
For the Junction neighborhood, you planted an orchard.
You are filling Blum Street’s back yards with canopy trees
to cool the earth as the climate continues to heat up.
Some of the trees you’ve planted will bear fruit and nuts,
keep the soil from washing away,
and give shelter to the animals who share earth with us.
_____________________________________
You do lots of other things to bring peace to the world--
like loving God and loving neighbor
in the everyday ways that make a difference….
Tending your kids and grandkids
and taking care of your parents as they grow older….
Looking out for your family and friends and neighbors….
Staying informed about government and politics,
making your voice heard,
voting your conscience.
Indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you,
and it shows in the choices you make every day.
In all of the things you do,
you say to the world: Shalom! Peace!
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Genesis 11:1-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34
Second reading: Acts 2:1-11
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Peace, Jesus says.
Shalom.
Peace be with you.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, in the letter to the Corinthians,
that we are all one body,
all given to drink of one Spirit.
Luke tells us, in the Acts of the Apostles,
that people from every nation on earth
hear the good news.
_____________________________________
But even now, after 2,000 years,
we still don’t seem to have that peace…
or that unity in Spirit.
There’s no peace in Syria,
with 39,000 killed last year,
12,000 so far this year.
No peace in Afghanistan,
where 14,000 were killed last year,
9,000 so far this year.
No peace in Iraq,
where 13,000 were killed last year,
2,000 so far this year.
No peace for the Palestinians in Gaza,
where 60 died this past week,
adding to the 25,000
who have been killed since the conflict started.
And here in our country: black babies are dying.
In Lucas County, in 2015,
the mortality rate for black babies
was 16.8 per 1,000,
compared to 1.6 for white babies.
Put another way, Black babies who are born alive
are 9½ times more likely
to die before their first birthday
than white babies are.
Research points out the reason:
it’s our culture’s attitudes
of implicit bias and white supremacy.
The problem goes on: once those babies
make it through their first year in Lucas County,
whether they’re black or white or brown,
30,000 of them live in hunger.
And over 35,000 kids under the age of 6--
most of them poor and many of them black--
live in places that put them
at high risk for lead poisoning…
which causes a host of neuropsychological problems,
like hyperactivity, ADD,
learning disabilities, and behavioral problems.
_____________________________________
Ecclesial history looks at today’s feast
as the “birthday of the Church,”
but it has to be more than that for us.
Above all, it has to be a reminder
that the Spirit of God
dwells with us, in us, and among us…
and with, in, and among all the peoples of the world
and with, in, and among all of creation.
In that framework, Pentecost has to be a reminder that,
like the earliest followers of Jesus,
we are called and sent
to be the incarnation of God’s Spirit in our world.
We are called to be bold and life-giving,
united in love for God and neighbor.
_____________________________________
And you are!
Last week you put your heads together
and sent the Spirit to those 30,000 hungry kids
who live in our northwest Ohio neighborhoods.
You sent $1,000 to Connecting Meals to Kids
to help give breakfast and lunch to those kids
all summer long.
Every month for well over a year
you’ve sent $100 to the Padua Center
for its programs to help kids
who get suspended from their grade school classroom
for behaviors that sound just like
the neuropsychological problems
that come from lead poisoning.
And then there’s Tree Toledo--
your time and energy and cash
are putting trees all over our land—over 180,000 so far--
trees that will become breathing machines
for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
For the Junction neighborhood, you planted an orchard.
You are filling Blum Street’s back yards with canopy trees
to cool the earth as the climate continues to heat up.
Some of the trees you’ve planted will bear fruit and nuts,
keep the soil from washing away,
and give shelter to the animals who share earth with us.
_____________________________________
You do lots of other things to bring peace to the world--
like loving God and loving neighbor
in the everyday ways that make a difference….
Tending your kids and grandkids
and taking care of your parents as they grow older….
Looking out for your family and friends and neighbors….
Staying informed about government and politics,
making your voice heard,
voting your conscience.
Indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you,
and it shows in the choices you make every day.
In all of the things you do,
you say to the world: Shalom! Peace!
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Ascension (B), May 13, 2018
First reading: Acts 1:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 47:2-3,6-9
Second reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel: Mark 16:15-20
Ascension stories were fairly common in the time of Jesus.
People used them to say that God approved of a person.
Knowing that makes it easier to understand
what seems to be a lot of contradiction
in the Bible passages about it.
As Fr. Roger Karban points out,
there’s no ascension event at all
in the gospels of Mark, or Matthew, or John.
Matthew’s gospel simply has Jesus meet his followers in Galilee
and send them out to make disciples of all nations.
No ascension is mentioned there at all.
John’s gospel has Jesus mention ascending in three places,
but there’s no ascension actually happening.
The story ends with a commissioning story--
the breakfast on the beach--
where Jesus tells his followers to “feed my sheep.”
What we heard today from Mark does tell an ascension story,
but several different versions of those final verses
were tacked on
a long time after Mark finished writing,
maybe because copyists didn’t want the story to end
with the women leaving the tomb in fear
and telling no one about the resurrection.
Mark may have stopped his story
with the women running away in fear
in order to urge his community to proclaim the Gospel
or admit that they would run away in fear
for the rest of their lives.
The additional verses put the ascension in Galilee,
indoors, at a table.
Then there’s Luke.
In his gospel the ascension is in Bethany,
just outside Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday night.
It’s just a sentence and a half,
saying that Jesus “raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them,
he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.”
But the same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke
wrote the Acts of the Apostles,
with lots of details.
There Jesus tells the disciples
to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit,
and a cloud takes him up and out of sight,
and two men in white tell the disciples
that he’ll return the same way they saw him go into heaven.
Fr. Dennis Hamm calls those details apocalyptic stage props--
the movement upward into the heavens,
the cloud as a vehicle,
the interpreting angels.
He says those details serve a purpose for Luke’s audience,
prompting them to look back and look ahead—
back to the transfiguration, ahead to Pentecost;
back to Elijah, ahead to the Second Coming.
_______________________________________
So the ascension was in Jerusalem... or in Galilee.
It happened on Easter night... or 40 days later.
It was inside at a meal.. or outside on a mountain.
This is only one of the many places
where the Bible seems to contradict itself
if we try to read it as history.
It only makes sense
if we remember that our ancestors in faith
were not reporting history as we understand it
but were trying to tell of their belief
about what they had experienced.
As the stories got passed down for a generation or two,
they were re-told in ways
that fit the needs of the community at the new time.
On top of that, the writers who recorded their thoughts
each tried to shape what they heard into coherent stories
and relate them to their Jewish tradition.
Some of those stories survived,
and in the year 1546 some of them were named
as what we know as the Bible—our canonical scriptures.
At that Council of Trent, by the way, only 24 of the 55
voted in favor of the books of our Bible;
15 were against it, and 16 abstained.
In light of all that, the ascension stories can be seen
as one of the ways
that we can get a handle on what Jesus means to us:
his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection.
_______________________________________
Very often today we want to look at our institutional Church
and ask the same question
that those angels asked of the first disciples:
Why are you—why are we--
standing here just looking up at the sky?
There’s no point in that.
Why are we not doing what Jesus told us to do?
Why aren’t we listening
to the message of the letter to the Ephesians--
those two long sentences that tell us to live right
because we are all connected,
each of us uniquely gifted?
Why don’t we tell the good news to the whole world?
Why do we not acknowledge
the cosmic importance of God’s Spirit?
_______________________________________
That Spirit is foundational, deeply embedded in our tradition.
It’s the Spirit of God,
one of the ways that God becomes known to us.
It’s the Spirit
that breathed over the waters in the book of Genesis;
the Spirit that came upon Jesus at his baptism
and sent him to the desert to fast and pray;
the Spirit that guides us, according to Luke’s gospel;
the Spirit that Jesus said would be with us always;
the Spirit we will celebrate next week at Pentecost.
It’s clear from these ascension stories
and from scores of pieces of other parts of our tradition
that we, as disciples of Jesus, are commissioned—sent--
to go out and proclaim the good news to all the world,
to every creature.
That good news is the same for us
as it was 2,000 years ago:
the reign of God is at hand!.
The Spirit of God is in us... and in all of creation!
We are holy.
The world is holy.
All creation is holy.
The cosmos is holy.
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Acts 1:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 47:2-3,6-9
Second reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel: Mark 16:15-20
Ascension stories were fairly common in the time of Jesus.
People used them to say that God approved of a person.
Knowing that makes it easier to understand
what seems to be a lot of contradiction
in the Bible passages about it.
As Fr. Roger Karban points out,
there’s no ascension event at all
in the gospels of Mark, or Matthew, or John.
Matthew’s gospel simply has Jesus meet his followers in Galilee
and send them out to make disciples of all nations.
No ascension is mentioned there at all.
John’s gospel has Jesus mention ascending in three places,
but there’s no ascension actually happening.
The story ends with a commissioning story--
the breakfast on the beach--
where Jesus tells his followers to “feed my sheep.”
What we heard today from Mark does tell an ascension story,
but several different versions of those final verses
were tacked on
a long time after Mark finished writing,
maybe because copyists didn’t want the story to end
with the women leaving the tomb in fear
and telling no one about the resurrection.
Mark may have stopped his story
with the women running away in fear
in order to urge his community to proclaim the Gospel
or admit that they would run away in fear
for the rest of their lives.
The additional verses put the ascension in Galilee,
indoors, at a table.
Then there’s Luke.
In his gospel the ascension is in Bethany,
just outside Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday night.
It’s just a sentence and a half,
saying that Jesus “raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them,
he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.”
But the same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke
wrote the Acts of the Apostles,
with lots of details.
There Jesus tells the disciples
to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit,
and a cloud takes him up and out of sight,
and two men in white tell the disciples
that he’ll return the same way they saw him go into heaven.
Fr. Dennis Hamm calls those details apocalyptic stage props--
the movement upward into the heavens,
the cloud as a vehicle,
the interpreting angels.
He says those details serve a purpose for Luke’s audience,
prompting them to look back and look ahead—
back to the transfiguration, ahead to Pentecost;
back to Elijah, ahead to the Second Coming.
_______________________________________
So the ascension was in Jerusalem... or in Galilee.
It happened on Easter night... or 40 days later.
It was inside at a meal.. or outside on a mountain.
This is only one of the many places
where the Bible seems to contradict itself
if we try to read it as history.
It only makes sense
if we remember that our ancestors in faith
were not reporting history as we understand it
but were trying to tell of their belief
about what they had experienced.
As the stories got passed down for a generation or two,
they were re-told in ways
that fit the needs of the community at the new time.
On top of that, the writers who recorded their thoughts
each tried to shape what they heard into coherent stories
and relate them to their Jewish tradition.
Some of those stories survived,
and in the year 1546 some of them were named
as what we know as the Bible—our canonical scriptures.
At that Council of Trent, by the way, only 24 of the 55
voted in favor of the books of our Bible;
15 were against it, and 16 abstained.
In light of all that, the ascension stories can be seen
as one of the ways
that we can get a handle on what Jesus means to us:
his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection.
_______________________________________
Very often today we want to look at our institutional Church
and ask the same question
that those angels asked of the first disciples:
Why are you—why are we--
standing here just looking up at the sky?
There’s no point in that.
Why are we not doing what Jesus told us to do?
Why aren’t we listening
to the message of the letter to the Ephesians--
those two long sentences that tell us to live right
because we are all connected,
each of us uniquely gifted?
Why don’t we tell the good news to the whole world?
Why do we not acknowledge
the cosmic importance of God’s Spirit?
_______________________________________
That Spirit is foundational, deeply embedded in our tradition.
It’s the Spirit of God,
one of the ways that God becomes known to us.
It’s the Spirit
that breathed over the waters in the book of Genesis;
the Spirit that came upon Jesus at his baptism
and sent him to the desert to fast and pray;
the Spirit that guides us, according to Luke’s gospel;
the Spirit that Jesus said would be with us always;
the Spirit we will celebrate next week at Pentecost.
It’s clear from these ascension stories
and from scores of pieces of other parts of our tradition
that we, as disciples of Jesus, are commissioned—sent--
to go out and proclaim the good news to all the world,
to every creature.
That good news is the same for us
as it was 2,000 years ago:
the reign of God is at hand!.
The Spirit of God is in us... and in all of creation!
We are holy.
The world is holy.
All creation is holy.
The cosmos is holy.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Sixth Sunday of Easter (B), May 6, 2018
First reading: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1-4
Second reading: 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel: John 15:9-17
Quite a picture,
that reading from Acts that we started with today:
Cornelius falling down at Peter’s feet
and Peter telling him not to worship him but to stand up.
I am only mortal! Peter says.
We are equals.
God shows no partiality.
Every person of every nation is acceptable!
Even the Gentiles!
Then there’s the psalm:
Salvation and justice for all!
Then the reading from John’s letter:
God is love!
And, finally, the words that the evangelist John
puts into Jesus’ mouth,
not direct quotes
but the kind of message that Jesus did preach:
love one another;
you are commissioned,
you are consecrated,
you are sent to go out and bear fruit.
________________________________________
Remain in love, abide in love, live in love--
whatever the translation,
that’s the core of Jesus’ message.
John frames it
as Jesus’ farewell address at the Last Supper.
But how do we do that?
How do we abide in God?
How do we remain in God’s love?
________________________________________
Over the years we’ve heard that baptism is the way to do that:
we become God’s people,
and we get God’s Spirit in us.
But that’s not what we see in today’s readings.
Those Gentiles hadn’t been baptized.
They were not considered members of the community,
not part of the people of God.
But God’s Spirit comes on them,
and Peter has to change his mind
about how God works.
Historical theologian Sister Mary McGlone
describes this passage
as a “rude comeuppance” for Peter.
The Holy Spirit interrupted Peter’s preaching
to descend on everybody there,
the whole group.
Peter thought he was bringing God to pagans
only to find that God was already there,
active among them.
God was teaching Peter a valuable lesson:
anyone who loves
is already participating in the life of God.
________________________________________
Loving is not always easy.
Some people who are hard to love,
and it’s not because they’re part of some group we don’t like, like, maybe, people who hunt elephants for trophies.
No, it’s individuals,
real people we have worked with
or gone to school with
or been at meetings with...
sometimes even members of our own family.
How do we learn that they abide in God’s love,
that God has loved them into being,
that God loves them the same as God love us?
________________________________________
Dr. John Pilch points out
that “being” comes first
in the value system for Middle Eastern males.
They are expected to respond
spontaneously and immediately to the moment,
and, if they don’t, they’re seen as uncooperative.
Middle Eastern females, on the other hand,
are expected to “do” first, then “be.”
Jesus, like other prophets before him,
upsets those values.
He says it’s not enough to “be” part of the Chosen People.
It’s not enough to “be” one of his followers.
They have to “do” the commandments:
they have to love God;
they have to love their neighbor.
They have to act with justice, love tenderly, walk humbly.
________________________________________
Over our lifetime we can pick up some good habits on how to be:
silent time, reading, praying, thinking, pondering.
Maybe we learn yoga or centering prayer,
or we practice the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
There are many ways to abide in God,
to be in God,
and all of them are good.
We also, over the span of our life,
can pick up some good habits on how to do.
We learn to share, to help, to give other people what they need,
whether it’s reaching out in friendship,
or spending time talking and listening,
or providing food or clothing or shelter or education.
There are many ways to do the commandments
to love God and to love one another,
and all of them are good.
________________________________________
When those good kinds of being and doing
are not the main way to “be” and “do”
in whatever culture we happen to live in,
then we have to step outside of the culture.
Because our American society today
tends to be me-first, my-way-or-the-highway,
we have to think and act outside the box.
That’s when we find the Spirit within us,
keeping us connected to the God of love,
giving us courage follow Jesus’ way.
Amen!
First reading: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1-4
Second reading: 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel: John 15:9-17
Quite a picture,
that reading from Acts that we started with today:
Cornelius falling down at Peter’s feet
and Peter telling him not to worship him but to stand up.
I am only mortal! Peter says.
We are equals.
God shows no partiality.
Every person of every nation is acceptable!
Even the Gentiles!
Then there’s the psalm:
Salvation and justice for all!
Then the reading from John’s letter:
God is love!
And, finally, the words that the evangelist John
puts into Jesus’ mouth,
not direct quotes
but the kind of message that Jesus did preach:
love one another;
you are commissioned,
you are consecrated,
you are sent to go out and bear fruit.
________________________________________
Remain in love, abide in love, live in love--
whatever the translation,
that’s the core of Jesus’ message.
John frames it
as Jesus’ farewell address at the Last Supper.
But how do we do that?
How do we abide in God?
How do we remain in God’s love?
________________________________________
Over the years we’ve heard that baptism is the way to do that:
we become God’s people,
and we get God’s Spirit in us.
But that’s not what we see in today’s readings.
Those Gentiles hadn’t been baptized.
They were not considered members of the community,
not part of the people of God.
But God’s Spirit comes on them,
and Peter has to change his mind
about how God works.
Historical theologian Sister Mary McGlone
describes this passage
as a “rude comeuppance” for Peter.
The Holy Spirit interrupted Peter’s preaching
to descend on everybody there,
the whole group.
Peter thought he was bringing God to pagans
only to find that God was already there,
active among them.
God was teaching Peter a valuable lesson:
anyone who loves
is already participating in the life of God.
________________________________________
Loving is not always easy.
Some people who are hard to love,
and it’s not because they’re part of some group we don’t like, like, maybe, people who hunt elephants for trophies.
No, it’s individuals,
real people we have worked with
or gone to school with
or been at meetings with...
sometimes even members of our own family.
How do we learn that they abide in God’s love,
that God has loved them into being,
that God loves them the same as God love us?
________________________________________
Dr. John Pilch points out
that “being” comes first
in the value system for Middle Eastern males.
They are expected to respond
spontaneously and immediately to the moment,
and, if they don’t, they’re seen as uncooperative.
Middle Eastern females, on the other hand,
are expected to “do” first, then “be.”
Jesus, like other prophets before him,
upsets those values.
He says it’s not enough to “be” part of the Chosen People.
It’s not enough to “be” one of his followers.
They have to “do” the commandments:
they have to love God;
they have to love their neighbor.
They have to act with justice, love tenderly, walk humbly.
________________________________________
Over our lifetime we can pick up some good habits on how to be:
silent time, reading, praying, thinking, pondering.
Maybe we learn yoga or centering prayer,
or we practice the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
There are many ways to abide in God,
to be in God,
and all of them are good.
We also, over the span of our life,
can pick up some good habits on how to do.
We learn to share, to help, to give other people what they need,
whether it’s reaching out in friendship,
or spending time talking and listening,
or providing food or clothing or shelter or education.
There are many ways to do the commandments
to love God and to love one another,
and all of them are good.
________________________________________
When those good kinds of being and doing
are not the main way to “be” and “do”
in whatever culture we happen to live in,
then we have to step outside of the culture.
Because our American society today
tends to be me-first, my-way-or-the-highway,
we have to think and act outside the box.
That’s when we find the Spirit within us,
keeping us connected to the God of love,
giving us courage follow Jesus’ way.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fifth Sunday of Easter (B), April 29, 2018
First reading: Acts 9:26-31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:25-27, 29-31
Second reading: 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel: John 15:1-8
The early Christian community
was very different from today’s church.
Those believers were more interested
in being like their teacher and friend Jesus
than in being a member of a church;
more dedicated to being part of a movement
than members of an institution;
more wanting to live as part of a community of followers
than as adherents to rules, regulations, and dogmas.
___________________________________________
John’s gospel, written 60 to 80 years after Jesus,
teaches that the most important things
for followers of Jesus’ way
were to stay connected with one another
and to follow Jesus’ teaching
about loving God and neighbor.
John was talking to a people
who understood how to grow grapes.
They understood the need for pruning
to produce more fruit.
So when John’s Jesus says,
“I am the vine. You are the branches,”
they know it means they have to stay connected
and prune away whatever keeps them from being fruitful.
Luke, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
written 50 to 60 years after Jesus,
pictures the Jerusalem community
as suspicious of Saul’s conversion story.
They find him overbearing and confrontational.
They distrust him so much
that they send him out of town,
back home to Tarsus.
They, in a way, cut him out of the community.
They don’t just prune him;
they lop him off and toss him away.
In today’s reading from the first letter of John
the author’s main purpose in writing is clear:
the key to being Christian is love,
and the way to keep Jesus’ commandments
is shown in action.
Words alone aren’t enough,
so they got rid of members
whose actions don’t show their love for God and one another.
___________________________________________
The historical background of each of today’s readings
shows that those first-century followers of Jesus
cut people out of the community
if they were judged as not living up to the standards.
Today we see the fruit of that seed.
Our institutional church has rules and regulations that,
when not followed,
lead to excommunication.
People are excluded by the rules,
barred from the church
even when they stay connected to Jesus
by their love for God and neighbor.
___________________________________________
Jesus’ response to people who broke rules
was very different from our institutional church.
The sick, the sinner, the poor,
the dirty, the outcast, the foreigner,
the alienated, and the alien…
Jesus reached out to them in love.
What Jesus taught was the infinite possibility of redemption…
that every person can turn around,
no matter what.
The sick become well.
Sinners become saints.
The outcasts become inner circle.
Foreigners become family.
Everyone can be “saved,”
re-connected to God and the community.
They didn’t have to believe a certain way
or practice a specified ritual.
They had to leave behind
anything and everything
that got in the way of loving God and neighbor.
They had to love one another.
And they had to act on their love.
They didn’t have to jump in with both feet, all at once, either.
They could misunderstand,
like the apostles in the storm at sea
when they chide Jesus for sleeping,
or when they don’t understand
that Jesus knew that someone touched his garments
because he felt the power go out of him;
or when they argue with him about feeding the 5,000.
They could argue with Jesus,
like the woman at the well does.
They could fail to stay with him,
like Peter and the other apostles do
when they run away and deny him.
And he still stays with them.
He still loves them and trusts them.
___________________________________________
So here we are.
Though we may stumble and doubt, wonder and question,
we remain followers of the way of Jesus.
We are still connected to the vine,
pruned day by day
so we can keep on
bearing the fruit of peace and justice in our world.
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Acts 9:26-31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:25-27, 29-31
Second reading: 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel: John 15:1-8
The early Christian community
was very different from today’s church.
Those believers were more interested
in being like their teacher and friend Jesus
than in being a member of a church;
more dedicated to being part of a movement
than members of an institution;
more wanting to live as part of a community of followers
than as adherents to rules, regulations, and dogmas.
___________________________________________
John’s gospel, written 60 to 80 years after Jesus,
teaches that the most important things
for followers of Jesus’ way
were to stay connected with one another
and to follow Jesus’ teaching
about loving God and neighbor.
John was talking to a people
who understood how to grow grapes.
They understood the need for pruning
to produce more fruit.
So when John’s Jesus says,
“I am the vine. You are the branches,”
they know it means they have to stay connected
and prune away whatever keeps them from being fruitful.
Luke, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
written 50 to 60 years after Jesus,
pictures the Jerusalem community
as suspicious of Saul’s conversion story.
They find him overbearing and confrontational.
They distrust him so much
that they send him out of town,
back home to Tarsus.
They, in a way, cut him out of the community.
They don’t just prune him;
they lop him off and toss him away.
In today’s reading from the first letter of John
the author’s main purpose in writing is clear:
the key to being Christian is love,
and the way to keep Jesus’ commandments
is shown in action.
Words alone aren’t enough,
so they got rid of members
whose actions don’t show their love for God and one another.
___________________________________________
The historical background of each of today’s readings
shows that those first-century followers of Jesus
cut people out of the community
if they were judged as not living up to the standards.
Today we see the fruit of that seed.
Our institutional church has rules and regulations that,
when not followed,
lead to excommunication.
People are excluded by the rules,
barred from the church
even when they stay connected to Jesus
by their love for God and neighbor.
___________________________________________
Jesus’ response to people who broke rules
was very different from our institutional church.
The sick, the sinner, the poor,
the dirty, the outcast, the foreigner,
the alienated, and the alien…
Jesus reached out to them in love.
What Jesus taught was the infinite possibility of redemption…
that every person can turn around,
no matter what.
The sick become well.
Sinners become saints.
The outcasts become inner circle.
Foreigners become family.
Everyone can be “saved,”
re-connected to God and the community.
They didn’t have to believe a certain way
or practice a specified ritual.
They had to leave behind
anything and everything
that got in the way of loving God and neighbor.
They had to love one another.
And they had to act on their love.
They didn’t have to jump in with both feet, all at once, either.
They could misunderstand,
like the apostles in the storm at sea
when they chide Jesus for sleeping,
or when they don’t understand
that Jesus knew that someone touched his garments
because he felt the power go out of him;
or when they argue with him about feeding the 5,000.
They could argue with Jesus,
like the woman at the well does.
They could fail to stay with him,
like Peter and the other apostles do
when they run away and deny him.
And he still stays with them.
He still loves them and trusts them.
___________________________________________
So here we are.
Though we may stumble and doubt, wonder and question,
we remain followers of the way of Jesus.
We are still connected to the vine,
pruned day by day
so we can keep on
bearing the fruit of peace and justice in our world.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fourth Sunday of Easter (B), April 22, 2018
First reading: Acts 4:8-12
Responsorial: Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
Second reading: 1 John 3:1-2
Gospel: John 10:11-18
Sheep and shepherds are a common image in the scriptures.
Even if we’ve never been around a sheep,
we understand the image
because we’ve been around other animals.
My neighbor Phyllis has a beautiful calico cat.
When I visit, the cat checks me out
but doesn’t stick around.
When she hears Phyllis’ voice, though,
she goes right up to her and stays there, purring.
My friend Marty has two Cocker Spaniels,
who come running to him when they hear him whistle.
When I whistle the exact same way, they ignore me.
They know who takes care of them.
My chickies are the same way.
They look up when they hear the back door open
and come running when they see me there.
If they’re out in the back 40 (that’s the back 40 feet, not acres),
they come running when I call out, “Chick, chick!”
They know who gives them apple cores
and bread crumbs and corn.
Horses and cows and pigs--
all those animals, and human animals, too--
know who cares for them.
____________________________________________
In today’s Gospel John has Jesus describe himself
as the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep.
It’s unlikely that Jesus would have described himself that way.
On the other hand,
it is John’s way of telling his audience
what Jesus was like in terms that they understood.
You who are parents and grandparents know how that works:
you give your life for your children and grandchildren.
You who have worked as teachers and nurses and cooks
and doctors and technicians and truck drivers--
whatever job you worked at--
you put your very life in it,
and on those days when the task you were charged with
didn’t seem like it was worth your life,
you kept on doing it
because you are a good shepherd,
not a hired hand.
You are a good steward of all that is entrusted to you--
spouse, children, family, job, house, friends, neighbors--
everything and everyone.
You are responsible.
____________________________________________
You may have read last week
about the Goldman-Sachs report
for biotech companies pioneering in gene therapy treatment.
They put their advice in a report titled “The Genome Revolution.”
Analyst Salveen Richter wrote that,
while a cure carries tremendous value for patients and society,
it could represent a challenge
for medicine developers
who want sustained cash flow.
Cures are a real problem.
Richter gives an example:
the success of Gilead Science’s new treatments for hepatitis C, with
cure rates of more than 90 percent,
means less profit for the company,
dropping from $12.5 billion in 2015
to less than $4 billion this year.
Curing hepatitis C, he wrote,
“has gradually exhausted
the available pool of treatable patients."
Curing the patients means
that there are fewer people around
to give the virus to new patients,
so there’s less and less profit to be made.
Bottom line: cures are bad for business.
It’s good for business if people stay sick
because the real money
is in long-term treatment of chronic illness.
It’s just not profitable to find cures;
there’s no money to be made if people get healthy.
____________________________________________
That report is just one example of the lack of morality
that comes from being a hired hand--
interested in grabbing and keeping--
instead of a good shepherd--
committed to sharing and helping.
We can see it wherever we look:
in the way workers are underpaid and overworked
to make more profit,
the way land and water and forests and animals
are mistreated and degraded for profit
regardless of who suffers as a result.
____________________________________________
At the end of his gospel
John uses the shepherd image again.
“Do you love me?” Jesus asks Peter.
And when Peter says yes,
Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”
Today, when we say we are followers of Jesus,
we are the ones who have to feed the sheep.
We’re the ones who have to share and help.
It’s a moral imperative.
____________________________________________
I know that you tend your family and friends
and neighbors and co-workers.
You stand for inclusivity and equality and justice and peace.
You stand against racism and classism and sexism.
You send $100 to Padua Center every month
for programs to support at-risk elementary school kids.
Last week you sent $500 to Clean Water for the World
for a solar water filtration system
for a small village in El Salvador.
Today [Yesterday] you delivered an orchard of fruit trees
to the Blum Street project in the Junction neighborhood,
along with a street full of canopy trees.
Today may be Earth Day,
but I see you spending your lives,
every day, all the time,
tending all of God’s creatures and all of God’s creation--
plants and animals and water and air and plant life
and the people God has gifted you with.
You are good shepherds!
Thanks be to God!
First reading: Acts 4:8-12
Responsorial: Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
Second reading: 1 John 3:1-2
Gospel: John 10:11-18
Sheep and shepherds are a common image in the scriptures.
Even if we’ve never been around a sheep,
we understand the image
because we’ve been around other animals.
My neighbor Phyllis has a beautiful calico cat.
When I visit, the cat checks me out
but doesn’t stick around.
When she hears Phyllis’ voice, though,
she goes right up to her and stays there, purring.
My friend Marty has two Cocker Spaniels,
who come running to him when they hear him whistle.
When I whistle the exact same way, they ignore me.
They know who takes care of them.
My chickies are the same way.
They look up when they hear the back door open
and come running when they see me there.
If they’re out in the back 40 (that’s the back 40 feet, not acres),
they come running when I call out, “Chick, chick!”
They know who gives them apple cores
and bread crumbs and corn.
Horses and cows and pigs--
all those animals, and human animals, too--
know who cares for them.
____________________________________________
In today’s Gospel John has Jesus describe himself
as the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep.
It’s unlikely that Jesus would have described himself that way.
On the other hand,
it is John’s way of telling his audience
what Jesus was like in terms that they understood.
You who are parents and grandparents know how that works:
you give your life for your children and grandchildren.
You who have worked as teachers and nurses and cooks
and doctors and technicians and truck drivers--
whatever job you worked at--
you put your very life in it,
and on those days when the task you were charged with
didn’t seem like it was worth your life,
you kept on doing it
because you are a good shepherd,
not a hired hand.
You are a good steward of all that is entrusted to you--
spouse, children, family, job, house, friends, neighbors--
everything and everyone.
You are responsible.
____________________________________________
You may have read last week
about the Goldman-Sachs report
for biotech companies pioneering in gene therapy treatment.
They put their advice in a report titled “The Genome Revolution.”
Analyst Salveen Richter wrote that,
while a cure carries tremendous value for patients and society,
it could represent a challenge
for medicine developers
who want sustained cash flow.
Cures are a real problem.
Richter gives an example:
the success of Gilead Science’s new treatments for hepatitis C, with
cure rates of more than 90 percent,
means less profit for the company,
dropping from $12.5 billion in 2015
to less than $4 billion this year.
Curing hepatitis C, he wrote,
“has gradually exhausted
the available pool of treatable patients."
Curing the patients means
that there are fewer people around
to give the virus to new patients,
so there’s less and less profit to be made.
Bottom line: cures are bad for business.
It’s good for business if people stay sick
because the real money
is in long-term treatment of chronic illness.
It’s just not profitable to find cures;
there’s no money to be made if people get healthy.
____________________________________________
That report is just one example of the lack of morality
that comes from being a hired hand--
interested in grabbing and keeping--
instead of a good shepherd--
committed to sharing and helping.
We can see it wherever we look:
in the way workers are underpaid and overworked
to make more profit,
the way land and water and forests and animals
are mistreated and degraded for profit
regardless of who suffers as a result.
____________________________________________
At the end of his gospel
John uses the shepherd image again.
“Do you love me?” Jesus asks Peter.
And when Peter says yes,
Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”
Today, when we say we are followers of Jesus,
we are the ones who have to feed the sheep.
We’re the ones who have to share and help.
It’s a moral imperative.
____________________________________________
I know that you tend your family and friends
and neighbors and co-workers.
You stand for inclusivity and equality and justice and peace.
You stand against racism and classism and sexism.
You send $100 to Padua Center every month
for programs to support at-risk elementary school kids.
Last week you sent $500 to Clean Water for the World
for a solar water filtration system
for a small village in El Salvador.
Today [Yesterday] you delivered an orchard of fruit trees
to the Blum Street project in the Junction neighborhood,
along with a street full of canopy trees.
Today may be Earth Day,
but I see you spending your lives,
every day, all the time,
tending all of God’s creatures and all of God’s creation--
plants and animals and water and air and plant life
and the people God has gifted you with.
You are good shepherds!
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Easter (B), April 15, 2018
First reading: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 4: 2, 4, 7-9
Second reading: 1 John 2:1-5
Gospel: Luke 24:35-481
Again this week our gospel gives us
a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus,
this time from Luke.
As with last week’s story from the gospel of John,
scholars say that this appearance is not literal, historical fact
but a scene crafted by Luke
to try to talk about an experience of Jesus
in a way that his first-century community would understand.
_______________________________________
We don’t know exactly what happened 2,000 years ago,
but we can be confident
that the disciples had life-changing experiences
that they tried to communicate to others.
Some of the details in Luke’s story of this appearance
come from literature, philosophy, and ideas
that his Greek audience would have known.
They would have known that Plato said to Socrates:
“If anyone has been a sturdy rogue,
and bore traces of his stripes in scars on his body...
then after death too his body has these marks visible on it.”
So Luke’s story of Jesus showing the marks of crucifixion
was not an unfamiliar idea to them.
The details about Jesus eating a piece of fish
also had a meaning for Luke’s audience,
who believed that ghosts could not eat food.
The idea of Jesus appearing and disappearing
also would have been familiar to them
through the Greek legend
about Orpheus and his wife Euridyce.
She has died and gone to the underworld,
and the gods respond
to Orpheus’ begging them to let her come back to earth,
with one restriction:
he can bring her back but can’t look at her
until they reach the surface.
As they travel towards earth,
Euridyce lags behind because of the snake bite on her ankle.
When Orpheus turns around to make sure she is still following,
she vaporizes and drifts back into the underworld.
_______________________________________
Those first-century folks also accepted as normal
those altered states of consciousness that we still have.
We don’t think about them like those first-century Greeks did,
but we have words for them,
like paranormal, psychic, metaphysical, otherworldly.
We call them dreams.
Or daydreams.
Mystical experiences.
Déjà vu.
We try to talk about them, to put them in a story.
We’re thinking about someone, and the phone rings,
and they’re on the line.
We’re filled with a sense of foreboding
and find out that someone we love
was in trouble at that very time.
We feel like a loved one who has died
is here with us.
_______________________________________
We might think that alternate reality is totally foreign and passé,
but it’s alive and well.
I was privileged last weekend to attend
the premier of Douglas Tappin’s opera I Dream.
Tappin tells the story
of Dr. Martin Luther King’s work for peace and justice
in the framework of a recurring dream.
In that dream MLK sees a balcony
that fills him with a sense of both foreboding and destiny.
The image of that balcony shows a moment
that he knows he is not yet ready to face
but that he cannot explain or see beyond.
A disclaimer in the program said that
parts of the opera are not necessarily historic.
That dream framework for the opera
shows an altered state of consciousness.
_______________________________________
Another example comes from the famous story
where Thomas Merton describes a revelation he had one day
while standing on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville.
Among complete strangers
in the middle of a shopping district on a very ordinary day,
Merton felt his senses suddenly attached to a bigger soul.
He writes:
“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization
that I loved all of those people, that they were mine,
and I, theirs, that we could not be alien to one another
even though we were total strangers.
It was like waking from a dream of separateness.…
Then it was as if I suddenly saw
the secret beauty of their hearts,
the depths of their hearts,
where neither sin, nor desire, nor self-knowledge,
can reach the core of their reality,
the person that each one is in God’s eyes.
If only we could all see each other that way all the time!
There would be no more war, no more hatred,
no more cruelty, no more greed.”
And then Merton adds a bit of humor:
“I suppose that the big problem would be
that we would all fall down and worship each other.”
_______________________________________
Jesus’ disciples experienced his presence with them
after he died.
Through those experiences they learned
to understand even more deeply
what he had been trying to teach them
and how they were called
to keep on following the way he had taught them.
They were to love God and love one another...
and everyone else, including their enemies.
They were to spread the good news
of his message that the reign of God is at hand.
_______________________________________
Patrick Carolan, director of the Franciscan Action Network,
asks how the reign of God could possibly be at hand
if we are not welcoming the stranger,
if racism is alive and flourishing,
if we are destroying God’s wondrous creation?
We know that the reign of God is indeed at hand
because we are welcoming the stranger,
working to end racism,
and planting trees.
We are marching for our lives, writing letters to the editor,
speaking out for immigrants and refugees.
We are loving one another!
Glory be to God!
First reading: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 4: 2, 4, 7-9
Second reading: 1 John 2:1-5
Gospel: Luke 24:35-481
Again this week our gospel gives us
a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus,
this time from Luke.
As with last week’s story from the gospel of John,
scholars say that this appearance is not literal, historical fact
but a scene crafted by Luke
to try to talk about an experience of Jesus
in a way that his first-century community would understand.
_______________________________________
We don’t know exactly what happened 2,000 years ago,
but we can be confident
that the disciples had life-changing experiences
that they tried to communicate to others.
Some of the details in Luke’s story of this appearance
come from literature, philosophy, and ideas
that his Greek audience would have known.
They would have known that Plato said to Socrates:
“If anyone has been a sturdy rogue,
and bore traces of his stripes in scars on his body...
then after death too his body has these marks visible on it.”
So Luke’s story of Jesus showing the marks of crucifixion
was not an unfamiliar idea to them.
The details about Jesus eating a piece of fish
also had a meaning for Luke’s audience,
who believed that ghosts could not eat food.
The idea of Jesus appearing and disappearing
also would have been familiar to them
through the Greek legend
about Orpheus and his wife Euridyce.
She has died and gone to the underworld,
and the gods respond
to Orpheus’ begging them to let her come back to earth,
with one restriction:
he can bring her back but can’t look at her
until they reach the surface.
As they travel towards earth,
Euridyce lags behind because of the snake bite on her ankle.
When Orpheus turns around to make sure she is still following,
she vaporizes and drifts back into the underworld.
_______________________________________
Those first-century folks also accepted as normal
those altered states of consciousness that we still have.
We don’t think about them like those first-century Greeks did,
but we have words for them,
like paranormal, psychic, metaphysical, otherworldly.
We call them dreams.
Or daydreams.
Mystical experiences.
Déjà vu.
We try to talk about them, to put them in a story.
We’re thinking about someone, and the phone rings,
and they’re on the line.
We’re filled with a sense of foreboding
and find out that someone we love
was in trouble at that very time.
We feel like a loved one who has died
is here with us.
_______________________________________
We might think that alternate reality is totally foreign and passé,
but it’s alive and well.
I was privileged last weekend to attend
the premier of Douglas Tappin’s opera I Dream.
Tappin tells the story
of Dr. Martin Luther King’s work for peace and justice
in the framework of a recurring dream.
In that dream MLK sees a balcony
that fills him with a sense of both foreboding and destiny.
The image of that balcony shows a moment
that he knows he is not yet ready to face
but that he cannot explain or see beyond.
A disclaimer in the program said that
parts of the opera are not necessarily historic.
That dream framework for the opera
shows an altered state of consciousness.
_______________________________________
Another example comes from the famous story
where Thomas Merton describes a revelation he had one day
while standing on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville.
Among complete strangers
in the middle of a shopping district on a very ordinary day,
Merton felt his senses suddenly attached to a bigger soul.
He writes:
“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization
that I loved all of those people, that they were mine,
and I, theirs, that we could not be alien to one another
even though we were total strangers.
It was like waking from a dream of separateness.…
Then it was as if I suddenly saw
the secret beauty of their hearts,
the depths of their hearts,
where neither sin, nor desire, nor self-knowledge,
can reach the core of their reality,
the person that each one is in God’s eyes.
If only we could all see each other that way all the time!
There would be no more war, no more hatred,
no more cruelty, no more greed.”
And then Merton adds a bit of humor:
“I suppose that the big problem would be
that we would all fall down and worship each other.”
_______________________________________
Jesus’ disciples experienced his presence with them
after he died.
Through those experiences they learned
to understand even more deeply
what he had been trying to teach them
and how they were called
to keep on following the way he had taught them.
They were to love God and love one another...
and everyone else, including their enemies.
They were to spread the good news
of his message that the reign of God is at hand.
_______________________________________
Patrick Carolan, director of the Franciscan Action Network,
asks how the reign of God could possibly be at hand
if we are not welcoming the stranger,
if racism is alive and flourishing,
if we are destroying God’s wondrous creation?
We know that the reign of God is indeed at hand
because we are welcoming the stranger,
working to end racism,
and planting trees.
We are marching for our lives, writing letters to the editor,
speaking out for immigrants and refugees.
We are loving one another!
Glory be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Second Sunday of Easter (B), April 8, 2018
First reading: Acts 4:32-35
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2-4,13-15, 22-24
Second reading: 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel: John 20:19-31
In today’s gospel John tells us
about two well-known appearances
of the risen Christ to the disciples,
both behind locked doors,
the first without Thomas
and the second with him.
To understand what this passage,
written 75 or 80 years after the fact, means,
our church tells us to look at
the stages of development in our tradition.
On the first layer, rock bottom,
are the events in the life of Jesus
and the disciples
and all the people who knew them.
The second layer comes
in what the apostles preached
about the things they remembered about Jesus.
On the third layer
are the evangelists, writing 40 to 80 years after Jesus died.
All of those layers happened in a culture
where altered states of consciousness
were normal as a way of experiencing reality.
When they didn’t know what to do,
they found enlightenment in that alternate reality.
It helped them process events,
get through tough times.
According to Biblical scholar Dr. John Pilch,
the people of the Middle East in the first century
knew how to go in and out of this alternate reality
as easily as we today know how to drive a car.
At both the second and third levels
the preachers and evangelists
sometimes reported what they had heard
and at other times created a story
to reflect their common Mediterranean cultural experience.
_____________________________________
Today’s passage carries a meaning that we might miss
if we only look at the seemingly magical appearance
of the risen Jesus behind locked doors.
That meaning centers on Thomas,
who refuses to believe what he’s been told,
yet is not thrown out of the community.
He speaks his mind,
and he's still with them.
_____________________________________
In today’s institutional church,
we find a different response.
We’ve known wars and persecutions
in the name of dogma.
We’ve known excommunications and interdicts
in the name of right practice.
We find automatic exclusion of people
who reject any part of our doctrine and practice.
_____________________________________
The example of the early Christian community
speaks the opposite.
Thomas was not excluded.
He wasn’t kicked out.
He wasn’t forced to an either/or choice about the resurrection.
He was still welcome among the disciples.
He was not bound to believe what the others had experienced.
_____________________________________
And Thomas didn’t close himself off
just because he didn’t go along with the others.
He thinks differently from the way the others think,
but he stays with them,
and he is open to listening.
He is honest about what he believes.
The disciples still don’t kick him out.
_____________________________________
And then Thomas experiences
what the others had experienced the week before.
He believes,
and he doesn’t hold back,
doesn’t try to protect his ego.
He jumps right in.
_____________________________________
And Jesus keeps on including everybody.
Keeps on loving them all and wishing them peace.
That’s his way.
That’s the way we try to follow.
Amen!
First reading: Acts 4:32-35
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2-4,13-15, 22-24
Second reading: 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel: John 20:19-31
In today’s gospel John tells us
about two well-known appearances
of the risen Christ to the disciples,
both behind locked doors,
the first without Thomas
and the second with him.
To understand what this passage,
written 75 or 80 years after the fact, means,
our church tells us to look at
the stages of development in our tradition.
On the first layer, rock bottom,
are the events in the life of Jesus
and the disciples
and all the people who knew them.
The second layer comes
in what the apostles preached
about the things they remembered about Jesus.
On the third layer
are the evangelists, writing 40 to 80 years after Jesus died.
All of those layers happened in a culture
where altered states of consciousness
were normal as a way of experiencing reality.
When they didn’t know what to do,
they found enlightenment in that alternate reality.
It helped them process events,
get through tough times.
According to Biblical scholar Dr. John Pilch,
the people of the Middle East in the first century
knew how to go in and out of this alternate reality
as easily as we today know how to drive a car.
At both the second and third levels
the preachers and evangelists
sometimes reported what they had heard
and at other times created a story
to reflect their common Mediterranean cultural experience.
_____________________________________
Today’s passage carries a meaning that we might miss
if we only look at the seemingly magical appearance
of the risen Jesus behind locked doors.
That meaning centers on Thomas,
who refuses to believe what he’s been told,
yet is not thrown out of the community.
He speaks his mind,
and he's still with them.
_____________________________________
In today’s institutional church,
we find a different response.
We’ve known wars and persecutions
in the name of dogma.
We’ve known excommunications and interdicts
in the name of right practice.
We find automatic exclusion of people
who reject any part of our doctrine and practice.
_____________________________________
The example of the early Christian community
speaks the opposite.
Thomas was not excluded.
He wasn’t kicked out.
He wasn’t forced to an either/or choice about the resurrection.
He was still welcome among the disciples.
He was not bound to believe what the others had experienced.
_____________________________________
And Thomas didn’t close himself off
just because he didn’t go along with the others.
He thinks differently from the way the others think,
but he stays with them,
and he is open to listening.
He is honest about what he believes.
The disciples still don’t kick him out.
_____________________________________
And then Thomas experiences
what the others had experienced the week before.
He believes,
and he doesn’t hold back,
doesn’t try to protect his ego.
He jumps right in.
_____________________________________
And Jesus keeps on including everybody.
Keeps on loving them all and wishing them peace.
That’s his way.
That’s the way we try to follow.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Resurrection of the Lord (B), April 1, 2018
Tonight we celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
As Paul said to the Corinthians,
if Christ has not been raised,
then our faith is in vain.
Belief in the resurrection
is one of the basic doctrines
that our Catholic Church says
we have to hold as true.
And we do.
We state it each time we profess our faith at Mass.
Not all of us, though, mean the same thing
when we say we believe it...
and that’s okay.
Over the centuries many different meanings
have been attached to this doctrine,
not only by ordinary believers
but also by popes and bishops and theologians.
Some folks take parts of the written canonical gospels literally.
Others take seriously
their own personal experience of the risen Christ.
Still others look to the background and the history
and the culture and the language and the symbolism.
And all of them are right.
____________________________________________
Our understanding of the resurrection
is like that old story of the blind men
who heard that a new animal—an elephant--
was in town and went out to touch it
to see what it was like.
The first one grabbed its trunk and said,
“The elephant is like a snake... a thick snake.”
The next one reached up to its ear
and decided that the elephant is like a fan.
“No, no,” the third one said, touching the elephant’s leg.
“It’s like a tree trunk.”
Then one put his hand on the elephant’s side and said,
“The elephant is like a wall.”
The next one grabbed the tail
and stated that it was like a rope.
And the last one touched its tusk and said,
“You’re all wrong.
The elephant is hard and smooth and like a spear.”
We are all blind like that
when it comes to God and Jesus and church doctrines.
But we are also all right about it.
None of us sees the whole thing.
____________________________________________
Biblical scholars these days
have come up with some statements
about what the resurrection is not
that can help us to understand.
They say that the resurrection of Jesus
was not the resuscitation of a corpse.
They say that, to the apostles and the first followers of Jesus,
belief in his resurrection did not depend
on what happened to his body,
and that the body of Jesus
decayed as other corpses do.
They say that resurrection was not an event
that happened on the first Easter Sunday.
You couldn’t have recorded it on your cell phone.
____________________________________________
The earliest records do not have any stories
about Jesus appearing after the crucifixion.
The passage we just heard is the ending of Mark’s gospel.
They were bewildered and afraid.
That’s it.
It just stops there.
Writing about 40 years after Jesus died,
Mark did not include any stories of appearances by Jesus.
Later copyists added different endings,
with various appearances and commentaries
that they crafted to fit their communities’ needs.
One conclusion, held by a great many scholars,
is that none of the later narratives
about Jesus’ appearances
are literally true.
____________________________________________
The question remains:
what do WE mean when we say
that we believe Jesus rose from the dead?
Sister Sandra Schneiders gives us an insight
when she talks about the resurrection as ongoing,
an encounter that happens
whenever we experience Jesus
living and acting in our midst.
Those first followers of Jesus experienced
the bread they tasted in Eucharist;
the Gospel they heard in scripture;
the friend, or spouse or suffering neighbor
they saw and touched in community and ministry;
the baby born and growing and surrounded with loving care--
all the sacramental experiences of their life--
experienced them as real contact with the living Jesus.
We experience the risen Christ in those same ways.
____________________________________________
This past weekend we saw the risen Christ
in all those marchers,
here and all around the world.
We see the risen Christ
in undocumented immigrants and their families;
in victims, survivors, and heroes
of hurricanes and fires and tornadoes and floods;
in the volunteers and in the guests at Claver House.
____________________________________________
Tonight we gather to remember and give thanks and celebrate
all the ways the risen Christ appears to us.
When we receive communion,
we say to one another, “Body of Christ”--
you are, each one of us is,
the body of Christ alive in the world,
commissioned, as Luke wrote
in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
commissioned to preach the good news
that the reign of God is at hand.
____________________________________________
When we doubt, we’re in good company,
from “Doubting Thomas” to Mother Teresa.
That “dark night of the soul”
is part of the path to real faith.
When it comes to us,
we just keep looking, keep reading,
keep praying, keep hoping.
Through it all, we begin to see.
So, let us rejoice and be glad!
Happy Easter!
Tonight we celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
As Paul said to the Corinthians,
if Christ has not been raised,
then our faith is in vain.
Belief in the resurrection
is one of the basic doctrines
that our Catholic Church says
we have to hold as true.
And we do.
We state it each time we profess our faith at Mass.
Not all of us, though, mean the same thing
when we say we believe it...
and that’s okay.
Over the centuries many different meanings
have been attached to this doctrine,
not only by ordinary believers
but also by popes and bishops and theologians.
Some folks take parts of the written canonical gospels literally.
Others take seriously
their own personal experience of the risen Christ.
Still others look to the background and the history
and the culture and the language and the symbolism.
And all of them are right.
____________________________________________
Our understanding of the resurrection
is like that old story of the blind men
who heard that a new animal—an elephant--
was in town and went out to touch it
to see what it was like.
The first one grabbed its trunk and said,
“The elephant is like a snake... a thick snake.”
The next one reached up to its ear
and decided that the elephant is like a fan.
“No, no,” the third one said, touching the elephant’s leg.
“It’s like a tree trunk.”
Then one put his hand on the elephant’s side and said,
“The elephant is like a wall.”
The next one grabbed the tail
and stated that it was like a rope.
And the last one touched its tusk and said,
“You’re all wrong.
The elephant is hard and smooth and like a spear.”
We are all blind like that
when it comes to God and Jesus and church doctrines.
But we are also all right about it.
None of us sees the whole thing.
____________________________________________
Biblical scholars these days
have come up with some statements
about what the resurrection is not
that can help us to understand.
They say that the resurrection of Jesus
was not the resuscitation of a corpse.
They say that, to the apostles and the first followers of Jesus,
belief in his resurrection did not depend
on what happened to his body,
and that the body of Jesus
decayed as other corpses do.
They say that resurrection was not an event
that happened on the first Easter Sunday.
You couldn’t have recorded it on your cell phone.
____________________________________________
The earliest records do not have any stories
about Jesus appearing after the crucifixion.
The passage we just heard is the ending of Mark’s gospel.
They were bewildered and afraid.
That’s it.
It just stops there.
Writing about 40 years after Jesus died,
Mark did not include any stories of appearances by Jesus.
Later copyists added different endings,
with various appearances and commentaries
that they crafted to fit their communities’ needs.
One conclusion, held by a great many scholars,
is that none of the later narratives
about Jesus’ appearances
are literally true.
____________________________________________
The question remains:
what do WE mean when we say
that we believe Jesus rose from the dead?
Sister Sandra Schneiders gives us an insight
when she talks about the resurrection as ongoing,
an encounter that happens
whenever we experience Jesus
living and acting in our midst.
Those first followers of Jesus experienced
the bread they tasted in Eucharist;
the Gospel they heard in scripture;
the friend, or spouse or suffering neighbor
they saw and touched in community and ministry;
the baby born and growing and surrounded with loving care--
all the sacramental experiences of their life--
experienced them as real contact with the living Jesus.
We experience the risen Christ in those same ways.
____________________________________________
This past weekend we saw the risen Christ
in all those marchers,
here and all around the world.
We see the risen Christ
in undocumented immigrants and their families;
in victims, survivors, and heroes
of hurricanes and fires and tornadoes and floods;
in the volunteers and in the guests at Claver House.
____________________________________________
Tonight we gather to remember and give thanks and celebrate
all the ways the risen Christ appears to us.
When we receive communion,
we say to one another, “Body of Christ”--
you are, each one of us is,
the body of Christ alive in the world,
commissioned, as Luke wrote
in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
commissioned to preach the good news
that the reign of God is at hand.
____________________________________________
When we doubt, we’re in good company,
from “Doubting Thomas” to Mother Teresa.
That “dark night of the soul”
is part of the path to real faith.
When it comes to us,
we just keep looking, keep reading,
keep praying, keep hoping.
Through it all, we begin to see.
So, let us rejoice and be glad!
Happy Easter!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper (B), March 29, 2018
In the tradition of our Jewish forebears,
wine symbolizes freedom.
It’s a long tradition:
they began celebrating the exodus
about 3,500 years ago, with the Seder meal.
In that meal, each person drank four cups of wine
in celebration of various events
having to do with their freedom.
That Seder meal included—and still includes--
a shank bone, an egg, bitter herbs, a vegetable,
a sweet paste called haroset, and, of course, matzah.
As a pious Jew, there’s no doubt
that Jesus would have grown up
with the Passover Seder
as a regular part of his religious practice.
He would have, even as a child,
gone to Jerusalem for the celebration.
________________________________________
Jesus’ Jewish traditions
would also have included Shabbat, the Sabbath rest,
starting just before sundown on Friday,
continuing with a visit to the synagogue
and two meals on Saturday,
and ending with the appearance of three stars
in the Saturday night sky.
The Sabbath celebration began
with candle lighting and blessings,
first a blessing and drinking of wine,
then a blessing and eating of bread.
Jesus would have practiced that tradition
every week of his life.
After his death, his disciples—all Jews at that point--
continued to practice their Jewish faith.
And they also began to gather each week after the Sabbath,
on Sunday evenings.
________________________________________
They kept their memories of Jesus alive
in that primarily oral culture
by sharing their remembrance
and tying it into their scriptures and traditions.
Among other things,
they remembered the meals Jesus had shared with them.
They prayed, they shared bread and wine,
and they talked about their memories of Jesus.
As their stories were passed on,
they began to take shape and be held together
by details that carried meaning for them,
just like our family stories do
(or did before the days of internet and Facebook).
We remember gathering for Grandma’s birthday before she died,
or for the last Christmas we spent with great-uncle Clem.
I remember clearly my father’s last Christmas,
and I’m reminded of it often.
Each time I tell the story, the details are a bit different,
a piece of it emphasized or omitted
depending on its relevance
to whatever circumstance prompted me
to remember something about him.
________________________________________
In fact, there was a Last Supper,
one last time that Jesus shared a meal with his followers.
It’s unlikely, though,
that it happened the way it’s written down in the gospels.
For one thing, a good bit of the gospel writing
frames Jesus in terms of Jewish history,
with the evangelists writing in words chosen
to make Jesus’ story reflect the great stories of their tradition.
It was important to them, for example, to show him
as a prophet like Elijah,
or as the one chosen and anointed by God,
or as the successor to King David.
Depending on how they saw him
and how their memory of him
spoke to their situation in their community,
they chose details that their audience would recognize
as having that character,
and they expressed them in terms and images
that their community would find helpful.
Another clue that it didn’t happen the way it’s presented
is that our four gospels differ on many of the details,
like whether that last meal was a Seder--
the night before Passover—or not.
And the scriptures differ on what went on at that last meal.
________________________________________
When we look at how we celebrate Eucharist 2,000 years later,
we see pieces of those early Christian practices.
We light candles and pray together.
We read and ponder the scriptures.
We bless and share bread and wine.
________________________________________
Out of that same tradition,
we could be washing hands each week.
Instead of the bread of affliction and the bread of freedom,
we could be sharing haroset,
that salad of apples,nuts, wine, cinnamon and brown sugar
that symbolizes the mortar used by the Jews
when they were slaves in Egypt.
We could be sharing bread and fish,
like in the feeding of the multitudes.
We could be sharing hard-boiled eggs dipped in salt water,
remembering the tears and sweat of enslavement
and, paradoxically, symbolizing purity, springtime,
and the sea, the mother of all life.
Or we could be sharing bitter herbs, like horseradish,
to symbolize the bitterness and harshness of slavery.
Our Christian rituals,
with their basis in Jewish tradition and Christian experience,
developed into what we do tonight.
We share unleavened bread and wine,
reminding us of our oneness as followers of Jesus,
that we are the body of Christ,
that Christ becomes present with us
through this bread and wine.
We wash each other’s hands.
In our culture it reminds us
that Jesus called us to love and serve one another,
to help each other stay “clean” before God.
We call it Eucharist—thanksgiving.
John’s gospel says
that Jesus washed his disciples feet
to show how perfect his love was.
May this Eucharist—and our lives--
show that same perfect love.
Amen!
In the tradition of our Jewish forebears,
wine symbolizes freedom.
It’s a long tradition:
they began celebrating the exodus
about 3,500 years ago, with the Seder meal.
In that meal, each person drank four cups of wine
in celebration of various events
having to do with their freedom.
That Seder meal included—and still includes--
a shank bone, an egg, bitter herbs, a vegetable,
a sweet paste called haroset, and, of course, matzah.
As a pious Jew, there’s no doubt
that Jesus would have grown up
with the Passover Seder
as a regular part of his religious practice.
He would have, even as a child,
gone to Jerusalem for the celebration.
________________________________________
Jesus’ Jewish traditions
would also have included Shabbat, the Sabbath rest,
starting just before sundown on Friday,
continuing with a visit to the synagogue
and two meals on Saturday,
and ending with the appearance of three stars
in the Saturday night sky.
The Sabbath celebration began
with candle lighting and blessings,
first a blessing and drinking of wine,
then a blessing and eating of bread.
Jesus would have practiced that tradition
every week of his life.
After his death, his disciples—all Jews at that point--
continued to practice their Jewish faith.
And they also began to gather each week after the Sabbath,
on Sunday evenings.
________________________________________
They kept their memories of Jesus alive
in that primarily oral culture
by sharing their remembrance
and tying it into their scriptures and traditions.
Among other things,
they remembered the meals Jesus had shared with them.
They prayed, they shared bread and wine,
and they talked about their memories of Jesus.
As their stories were passed on,
they began to take shape and be held together
by details that carried meaning for them,
just like our family stories do
(or did before the days of internet and Facebook).
We remember gathering for Grandma’s birthday before she died,
or for the last Christmas we spent with great-uncle Clem.
I remember clearly my father’s last Christmas,
and I’m reminded of it often.
Each time I tell the story, the details are a bit different,
a piece of it emphasized or omitted
depending on its relevance
to whatever circumstance prompted me
to remember something about him.
________________________________________
In fact, there was a Last Supper,
one last time that Jesus shared a meal with his followers.
It’s unlikely, though,
that it happened the way it’s written down in the gospels.
For one thing, a good bit of the gospel writing
frames Jesus in terms of Jewish history,
with the evangelists writing in words chosen
to make Jesus’ story reflect the great stories of their tradition.
It was important to them, for example, to show him
as a prophet like Elijah,
or as the one chosen and anointed by God,
or as the successor to King David.
Depending on how they saw him
and how their memory of him
spoke to their situation in their community,
they chose details that their audience would recognize
as having that character,
and they expressed them in terms and images
that their community would find helpful.
Another clue that it didn’t happen the way it’s presented
is that our four gospels differ on many of the details,
like whether that last meal was a Seder--
the night before Passover—or not.
And the scriptures differ on what went on at that last meal.
________________________________________
When we look at how we celebrate Eucharist 2,000 years later,
we see pieces of those early Christian practices.
We light candles and pray together.
We read and ponder the scriptures.
We bless and share bread and wine.
________________________________________
Out of that same tradition,
we could be washing hands each week.
Instead of the bread of affliction and the bread of freedom,
we could be sharing haroset,
that salad of apples,nuts, wine, cinnamon and brown sugar
that symbolizes the mortar used by the Jews
when they were slaves in Egypt.
We could be sharing bread and fish,
like in the feeding of the multitudes.
We could be sharing hard-boiled eggs dipped in salt water,
remembering the tears and sweat of enslavement
and, paradoxically, symbolizing purity, springtime,
and the sea, the mother of all life.
Or we could be sharing bitter herbs, like horseradish,
to symbolize the bitterness and harshness of slavery.
Our Christian rituals,
with their basis in Jewish tradition and Christian experience,
developed into what we do tonight.
We share unleavened bread and wine,
reminding us of our oneness as followers of Jesus,
that we are the body of Christ,
that Christ becomes present with us
through this bread and wine.
We wash each other’s hands.
In our culture it reminds us
that Jesus called us to love and serve one another,
to help each other stay “clean” before God.
We call it Eucharist—thanksgiving.
John’s gospel says
that Jesus washed his disciples feet
to show how perfect his love was.
May this Eucharist—and our lives--
show that same perfect love.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (B), March 25, 2018
Gospel at the Procession of Palms: Mark 11:1-10
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Second Reding: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47
Homily after the Blessing of Palms
About a hundred years
after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon
and rebuilt the Temple, it became clear
that it would be a long time
before Judah once more had a Davidic king.
But the prophet Zechariah, hoping for the future, prophesied:
Look, your king comes to you,
triumphant and victorious,
humble, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
Today we remember and celebrate Jesus of Nazareth
daring to enact Zechariah’s prophecy,
making himself out to be king!
______________________________________
Mark creates this dramatic scene, first of all,
to show Jesus with the divine authority
that comes from fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy,
and second, to show the actions
that the Roman occupiers would judge to be treason
and so lead to Jesus’ crucifixion.
______________________________________
Mark’s Gospel also shows the power of the nobodies:
a Galilean peasant and a mob of poor people;
not on a horse, like the rich and powerful,
but on a borrowed donkey;
not a royal carpet laid out for him
but tree branches and tattered coats.
______________________________________
Our tradition tells us that Christ is in everybody,
that God’s Divine Presence is in everybody,
but it’s not always easy to act like we believe it.
God’s Presence abides
in those nobodies on the road to Jerusalem.
Humbly, with the very shirts off their backs,
they rejoice at Jesus’ call
to live the way of dignity and freedom.
______________________________________
They see Jesus for the liberator that he is.
They recognize God’s abiding Presence in him
because he treats them with love
and calls them to do the same to one another.
He really is their king.
______________________________________
So let us continue on our way,
humbly, opening our eyes wide
to see God’s Divine Presence
in everyone we meet.
______________________________________
______________________________________
Homily after the Passion
In these days of chaos,
as we watch our politics, our government,
and our media disintegrate,
we who follow the way of Jesus
can find some guidance in today’s scriptures.
____________________________________
Jesus was a Jew.
Ironically, Mark frames the story of his death
in a way that blames it on Jews.
As one example, Biblical scholars tell us
that the idea that there even was a trial
lacks historical foundation.
The whole scene of that trial
is the product of Mark’s imagination.
____________________________________
If this happened today, we’d call it “fake news.”
There’s no doubt that Jesus was crucified.
There’s no doubt that he was crucified by the Romans.
But Mark tells the story about two generations later.
By then, his framework includes the facts
that Jesus’ followers had split away from their Jewish roots
and that the occupying Romans continued to be a threat.
So he makes the Jews, egged on by their chief priests,
into the bad guys.
And that fake news from the last part of the first century
became the seed that sprouted
unspeakable horrors of torment and genocide
inflicted by Christians on Jews.
____________________________________
Jesus was a Jew.
His beliefs and actions as a faithful Jew
brought him to the cross.
He was tortured and killed
because he spoke the truth,
and free speech was not protected under Roman law.
____________________________________
These days we’re challenged
to listen carefully to the news we hear,
to look for any framework that may be distorting the facts.
We see things like travel bans against Muslims,
immigration edicts against Latinos,
policing against blacks,
budget laws against the poor,
de-regulation that profits the rich and destroys the planet.
Our beliefs and actions as faithful Christians
will bring us to the cross.
This Holy Week gives us time to reflect on our cross,
on how we might follow Jesus’s example more closely.
It gives us time to step back and look at power and authority,
at the corrupt kind and the authentic kind,
and to re-dedicate ourselves
to walk the Way that Jesus showed us.
We take a risk in speaking the truth about what we see.
Like Jesus, we have to speak it anyway.
Amen!
Gospel at the Procession of Palms: Mark 11:1-10
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Second Reding: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47
Homily after the Blessing of Palms
About a hundred years
after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon
and rebuilt the Temple, it became clear
that it would be a long time
before Judah once more had a Davidic king.
But the prophet Zechariah, hoping for the future, prophesied:
Look, your king comes to you,
triumphant and victorious,
humble, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
Today we remember and celebrate Jesus of Nazareth
daring to enact Zechariah’s prophecy,
making himself out to be king!
______________________________________
Mark creates this dramatic scene, first of all,
to show Jesus with the divine authority
that comes from fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy,
and second, to show the actions
that the Roman occupiers would judge to be treason
and so lead to Jesus’ crucifixion.
______________________________________
Mark’s Gospel also shows the power of the nobodies:
a Galilean peasant and a mob of poor people;
not on a horse, like the rich and powerful,
but on a borrowed donkey;
not a royal carpet laid out for him
but tree branches and tattered coats.
______________________________________
Our tradition tells us that Christ is in everybody,
that God’s Divine Presence is in everybody,
but it’s not always easy to act like we believe it.
God’s Presence abides
in those nobodies on the road to Jerusalem.
Humbly, with the very shirts off their backs,
they rejoice at Jesus’ call
to live the way of dignity and freedom.
______________________________________
They see Jesus for the liberator that he is.
They recognize God’s abiding Presence in him
because he treats them with love
and calls them to do the same to one another.
He really is their king.
______________________________________
So let us continue on our way,
humbly, opening our eyes wide
to see God’s Divine Presence
in everyone we meet.
______________________________________
______________________________________
Homily after the Passion
In these days of chaos,
as we watch our politics, our government,
and our media disintegrate,
we who follow the way of Jesus
can find some guidance in today’s scriptures.
____________________________________
Jesus was a Jew.
Ironically, Mark frames the story of his death
in a way that blames it on Jews.
As one example, Biblical scholars tell us
that the idea that there even was a trial
lacks historical foundation.
The whole scene of that trial
is the product of Mark’s imagination.
____________________________________
If this happened today, we’d call it “fake news.”
There’s no doubt that Jesus was crucified.
There’s no doubt that he was crucified by the Romans.
But Mark tells the story about two generations later.
By then, his framework includes the facts
that Jesus’ followers had split away from their Jewish roots
and that the occupying Romans continued to be a threat.
So he makes the Jews, egged on by their chief priests,
into the bad guys.
And that fake news from the last part of the first century
became the seed that sprouted
unspeakable horrors of torment and genocide
inflicted by Christians on Jews.
____________________________________
Jesus was a Jew.
His beliefs and actions as a faithful Jew
brought him to the cross.
He was tortured and killed
because he spoke the truth,
and free speech was not protected under Roman law.
____________________________________
These days we’re challenged
to listen carefully to the news we hear,
to look for any framework that may be distorting the facts.
We see things like travel bans against Muslims,
immigration edicts against Latinos,
policing against blacks,
budget laws against the poor,
de-regulation that profits the rich and destroys the planet.
Our beliefs and actions as faithful Christians
will bring us to the cross.
This Holy Week gives us time to reflect on our cross,
on how we might follow Jesus’s example more closely.
It gives us time to step back and look at power and authority,
at the corrupt kind and the authentic kind,
and to re-dedicate ourselves
to walk the Way that Jesus showed us.
We take a risk in speaking the truth about what we see.
Like Jesus, we have to speak it anyway.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fifth Sunday of Lent (B), March 18, 2018
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-15
Second Reding: Hebrews 5:7-9
Gospel: John 12:20-33
The Old Testament writers assumed
that those who read or heard the scriptures
were committed to following Yahweh.
The New Testament writers assumed
those who would read or hear it
would be committed to following Jesus.
But nowhere in the scriptures,
according to Fr. Roger Karban,
not in the Old Testament
and not in the New Testament,
is there a direct command,
either from Yahweh or from Jesus,
that we should belong to an organized religion.
It’s just not required.
____________________________________
In today’s first reading, Jeremiah tells us
that God makes a new covenant,
not written in stone
but written on our hearts.
Fr. Edward Hays said
that we could do everything
that the risen Jesus expects of us
without a church...
but most of us can’t pull it off by ourselves.
We want to do what Jesus expects of us:
we want to love God and neighbor.
As one of our favorite hymns puts it,
we want to act with justice,
love tenderly, serve one another,
and walk humbly with our God.
Being a member of a church--
belonging to an organized religious institution--
is supposed to help us do that.
It’s supposed to help us see God, to help us,
as those Greeks said to Philip in today’s Gospel,
to see Jesus.
We hope that getting together
with people who share similar beliefs
and make a similar commitment to God
will help us to experience God in our lives
and support us in acting boldly on our beliefs.
That’s what we are looking for when we come to church.
That’s why we practice a religion.
____________________________________
Some parishes do a good job at that.
Sometimes, though, we find the exact opposite
in our institutional church.
Maybe it’s a rule, like the one
that says you’re a mortal sinner
if you divorce and don’t get an annulment
before you get married again.
Or the one that says you’re intrinsically disordered
if you’re anything but heterosexual.
Or maybe it’s the way you’re ignored
when you walk in the door,
or that you are judged wanting
because you’re different in some way.
____________________________________
John writes today’s gospel passage,
like so much of our scriptures, after the fact.
He tells the story to help his community see Jesus,
and part of it is seeing Jesus doubt,
seeing him troubled, afraid.
Jesus is perfectly human, just like us.
Too often we’re encouraged to think of his divine nature
as if it doesn’t have any connection to our life.
This “fake” Jesus never stubs his toe;
always knows exactly what to do;
even foretells the future.
____________________________________
But John shows us the real Jesus here.
He is perfect—he’s the perfect Jesus of Nazareth,
being and doing in his time
all that God created him to be and do,
even at the cost of his life.
That perfection—the perfection of real people,
the perfection of heroes—is our goal, too.
So sometimes we’re weak, we doubt,
we hesitate, we’re afraid…
and, in spite of our fear,
we decide to live and act the way Jesus did…
the way heroes act…
the way God created us to be.
We hear about heroes like Martin Luther King,
Dorothy Day, Bishop Oscar Romero.
Even more, we see heroes every day, right here among us:
grandparents, parents, and children;
teachers and students;
doctors, nurses, and patients;
architects and engineers and factory workers;
librarians and book readers;
administrators, police officers, firefighters.
They’re everywhere.
____________________________________
None of them know at the time—none of us know--
the impact of our doubt and fear
and our choices and actions.
At the end of the day,
that grain of wheat will fall to the ground and die--
and sprout and bear fruit.
It’s only when we look back
that we can see where we’ve been
and who we have become along the way.
____________________________________
It’s not a mindless, sterile adherence to rules that bears fruit.
It’s the ongoing struggle.
It’s not whether or not we practice religion.
It’s the choices we make to grow,
to keep on keeping on,
to act with justice, love tenderly,
serve one another, and walk humbly.
So we give up our lives
by loving and serving God and neighbor.
Amen!
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-15
Second Reding: Hebrews 5:7-9
Gospel: John 12:20-33
The Old Testament writers assumed
that those who read or heard the scriptures
were committed to following Yahweh.
The New Testament writers assumed
those who would read or hear it
would be committed to following Jesus.
But nowhere in the scriptures,
according to Fr. Roger Karban,
not in the Old Testament
and not in the New Testament,
is there a direct command,
either from Yahweh or from Jesus,
that we should belong to an organized religion.
It’s just not required.
____________________________________
In today’s first reading, Jeremiah tells us
that God makes a new covenant,
not written in stone
but written on our hearts.
Fr. Edward Hays said
that we could do everything
that the risen Jesus expects of us
without a church...
but most of us can’t pull it off by ourselves.
We want to do what Jesus expects of us:
we want to love God and neighbor.
As one of our favorite hymns puts it,
we want to act with justice,
love tenderly, serve one another,
and walk humbly with our God.
Being a member of a church--
belonging to an organized religious institution--
is supposed to help us do that.
It’s supposed to help us see God, to help us,
as those Greeks said to Philip in today’s Gospel,
to see Jesus.
We hope that getting together
with people who share similar beliefs
and make a similar commitment to God
will help us to experience God in our lives
and support us in acting boldly on our beliefs.
That’s what we are looking for when we come to church.
That’s why we practice a religion.
____________________________________
Some parishes do a good job at that.
Sometimes, though, we find the exact opposite
in our institutional church.
Maybe it’s a rule, like the one
that says you’re a mortal sinner
if you divorce and don’t get an annulment
before you get married again.
Or the one that says you’re intrinsically disordered
if you’re anything but heterosexual.
Or maybe it’s the way you’re ignored
when you walk in the door,
or that you are judged wanting
because you’re different in some way.
____________________________________
John writes today’s gospel passage,
like so much of our scriptures, after the fact.
He tells the story to help his community see Jesus,
and part of it is seeing Jesus doubt,
seeing him troubled, afraid.
Jesus is perfectly human, just like us.
Too often we’re encouraged to think of his divine nature
as if it doesn’t have any connection to our life.
This “fake” Jesus never stubs his toe;
always knows exactly what to do;
even foretells the future.
____________________________________
But John shows us the real Jesus here.
He is perfect—he’s the perfect Jesus of Nazareth,
being and doing in his time
all that God created him to be and do,
even at the cost of his life.
That perfection—the perfection of real people,
the perfection of heroes—is our goal, too.
So sometimes we’re weak, we doubt,
we hesitate, we’re afraid…
and, in spite of our fear,
we decide to live and act the way Jesus did…
the way heroes act…
the way God created us to be.
We hear about heroes like Martin Luther King,
Dorothy Day, Bishop Oscar Romero.
Even more, we see heroes every day, right here among us:
grandparents, parents, and children;
teachers and students;
doctors, nurses, and patients;
architects and engineers and factory workers;
librarians and book readers;
administrators, police officers, firefighters.
They’re everywhere.
____________________________________
None of them know at the time—none of us know--
the impact of our doubt and fear
and our choices and actions.
At the end of the day,
that grain of wheat will fall to the ground and die--
and sprout and bear fruit.
It’s only when we look back
that we can see where we’ve been
and who we have become along the way.
____________________________________
It’s not a mindless, sterile adherence to rules that bears fruit.
It’s the ongoing struggle.
It’s not whether or not we practice religion.
It’s the choices we make to grow,
to keep on keeping on,
to act with justice, love tenderly,
serve one another, and walk humbly.
So we give up our lives
by loving and serving God and neighbor.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fourth Sunday of Lent (B), March 11, 2018
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1-6
Second Reding: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
Zedekiah, in that first reading, was Israel’s last king.
Not a good one, as we heard.
The leading priests and the people weren’t good, either.
The prophet Jeremiah warned them,
but they didn’t pay attention.
They lost their temple and their homeland.
Everything was destroyed.
They were exiled to Babylon,
enslaved and oppressed.
It took 70 years of hardship and captivity--
two or three generations--
before they were able to go back home.
The psalm tells of their despair:
they sat and wept.
They knew no joy.
_________________________________________
The ordinary people of Jesus’ time
faced the same kind of thing.
They were oppressed in their own land,
ruled by foreigners from Rome.
Their religious leaders collaborated with the occupiers,
unfaithful to the word of justice and right relationship
that God gave them.
The prophets spoke up,
calling them to change their ways.
_________________________________________
In too many ways, we’re in that same boat.
Our homeland—our Mother Earth--
is being destroyed before our very eyes.
Every day, scientists tell us,
150 to 200 species go extinct.
The sixth mass extinction has already started,
and this time it’s caused by humans—by us.
If we don’t cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050,
the warming of our planet will be dangerous to all life,
including ours.
Prophets are warning us, but we’re not listening.
Some of the prophetic voices are in our church--
Sister Miriam MacGillis and her “Genesis Farm;”
the eco-theologian Fr. Thomas Berry;
Sallie McFague with her ecological liberation theology;
Pope Francis.
We’ve heard some local prophets speaking out, too:
Bob Clark-Phelps, down at John XXIII;
the Sylvania Franciscan Sisters with S.A.V.E.--
Science Alliance for Valuing the Environment;
Mike Ferner and the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie;
Sue Rosa with her Lent group on Christian Simplicity…
and, of course, all of you Tree Toledo folks!
Then there are the millennials--
28% of our adult population--
who are, according to a report this week
by the Pew Research Center,
overwhelmingly convinced
that climate change is real
and that it is caused by us.
_________________________________________
They give us hope!
All of those folks give us hope,
calling for metanoia,
to repent our carelessness and greed,
to turn away from our wasteful habits.
So, on this Laetare Sunday we can rejoice
because we see some light
in the increasing effort to protect this planet
that God gives us.
Rejoice… even though we know
that our own government
is taking us in the wrong direction.
We can rejoice in what some other governments are doing,
both around the world
and here in some of our states, counties, and cities.
_________________________________________
We are created for good works,
as St. Paul said to the Ephesians,
but we have done evil,
choosing our own comfort and convenience
over respect for God’s creation.
Selfishness and greed are not a new problem.
Atrocities like war, slavery, genocide, and trafficking
come from greed, the desire to have everything
no matter who gets hurt.
Structural racism, sexism, and classism
poison our country.
Throughout history the hungry, the sick,
the homeless, refugees, and the poor
stand witness to the sins of the powerful.
_________________________________________
We who follow in the footsteps of Jesus
are committed to live in a way
that restores and maintains the health of our planet
and all who live on it.
It’s one planet, and the resources on it will run out
if we keep on using them the way we are now.
We can’t imagine we’ll make everything okay
if we make sure everyone has what we have.
We’d need four or five planets to give us enough for that.
If we’re guilty of overuse or waste--
and most of us are--
then we have to admit
that our choices are killing people
who don’t have a fair share
of the goods of the earth that they need to survive.
The answer is changing our habits
so everyone has enough to live.
_________________________________________
God keeps sending light into our world.
Our tradition remembers the light of creation,
the big bang—the cosmic hatch--
that started all the universes we know.
We know about the billions of years
of order rising out of chaos,
the increasing growth of complexity and cooperation
in atoms and cells
to create life as we know it.
It’s all gift, to be treasured and protected.
And we have faith in God’s word,
Jesus of Nazareth, the light of the world,
who calls us to do good.
Whether it takes 70 years
to reverse the climate damage we have caused,
or a thousand,
the light prevails.
And so we rejoice!
We set out,
in solidarity with all those others
who have come to the light,
to live in right relationship with one another
and with all of God’s creation.
Amen!
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1-6
Second Reding: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
Zedekiah, in that first reading, was Israel’s last king.
Not a good one, as we heard.
The leading priests and the people weren’t good, either.
The prophet Jeremiah warned them,
but they didn’t pay attention.
They lost their temple and their homeland.
Everything was destroyed.
They were exiled to Babylon,
enslaved and oppressed.
It took 70 years of hardship and captivity--
two or three generations--
before they were able to go back home.
The psalm tells of their despair:
they sat and wept.
They knew no joy.
_________________________________________
The ordinary people of Jesus’ time
faced the same kind of thing.
They were oppressed in their own land,
ruled by foreigners from Rome.
Their religious leaders collaborated with the occupiers,
unfaithful to the word of justice and right relationship
that God gave them.
The prophets spoke up,
calling them to change their ways.
_________________________________________
In too many ways, we’re in that same boat.
Our homeland—our Mother Earth--
is being destroyed before our very eyes.
Every day, scientists tell us,
150 to 200 species go extinct.
The sixth mass extinction has already started,
and this time it’s caused by humans—by us.
If we don’t cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050,
the warming of our planet will be dangerous to all life,
including ours.
Prophets are warning us, but we’re not listening.
Some of the prophetic voices are in our church--
Sister Miriam MacGillis and her “Genesis Farm;”
the eco-theologian Fr. Thomas Berry;
Sallie McFague with her ecological liberation theology;
Pope Francis.
We’ve heard some local prophets speaking out, too:
Bob Clark-Phelps, down at John XXIII;
the Sylvania Franciscan Sisters with S.A.V.E.--
Science Alliance for Valuing the Environment;
Mike Ferner and the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie;
Sue Rosa with her Lent group on Christian Simplicity…
and, of course, all of you Tree Toledo folks!
Then there are the millennials--
28% of our adult population--
who are, according to a report this week
by the Pew Research Center,
overwhelmingly convinced
that climate change is real
and that it is caused by us.
_________________________________________
They give us hope!
All of those folks give us hope,
calling for metanoia,
to repent our carelessness and greed,
to turn away from our wasteful habits.
So, on this Laetare Sunday we can rejoice
because we see some light
in the increasing effort to protect this planet
that God gives us.
Rejoice… even though we know
that our own government
is taking us in the wrong direction.
We can rejoice in what some other governments are doing,
both around the world
and here in some of our states, counties, and cities.
_________________________________________
We are created for good works,
as St. Paul said to the Ephesians,
but we have done evil,
choosing our own comfort and convenience
over respect for God’s creation.
Selfishness and greed are not a new problem.
Atrocities like war, slavery, genocide, and trafficking
come from greed, the desire to have everything
no matter who gets hurt.
Structural racism, sexism, and classism
poison our country.
Throughout history the hungry, the sick,
the homeless, refugees, and the poor
stand witness to the sins of the powerful.
_________________________________________
We who follow in the footsteps of Jesus
are committed to live in a way
that restores and maintains the health of our planet
and all who live on it.
It’s one planet, and the resources on it will run out
if we keep on using them the way we are now.
We can’t imagine we’ll make everything okay
if we make sure everyone has what we have.
We’d need four or five planets to give us enough for that.
If we’re guilty of overuse or waste--
and most of us are--
then we have to admit
that our choices are killing people
who don’t have a fair share
of the goods of the earth that they need to survive.
The answer is changing our habits
so everyone has enough to live.
_________________________________________
God keeps sending light into our world.
Our tradition remembers the light of creation,
the big bang—the cosmic hatch--
that started all the universes we know.
We know about the billions of years
of order rising out of chaos,
the increasing growth of complexity and cooperation
in atoms and cells
to create life as we know it.
It’s all gift, to be treasured and protected.
And we have faith in God’s word,
Jesus of Nazareth, the light of the world,
who calls us to do good.
Whether it takes 70 years
to reverse the climate damage we have caused,
or a thousand,
the light prevails.
And so we rejoice!
We set out,
in solidarity with all those others
who have come to the light,
to live in right relationship with one another
and with all of God’s creation.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Lent (B), March 4, 2018
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8-11
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John 2:13-25
Here at Holy Spirit we do some things just a tad different
from the way many other Catholic Churches do,
things that were acceptable at some time in the past,
like general absolution and gluten-free communion bread.
Those are changeable practices, not doctrine.
Among the truly orthodox Catholic things
that we do here at Holy Spirit these days
is our stand for justice.
In that, we are indeed faithful
to the teachings of Jesus and of our Church.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church put it:
“The citizen is obliged in conscience
not to follow the directives of civil authorities
when they are contrary
to the demands of the moral order,
to fundamental rights or the teachings of the Gospels.”
___________________________________________
Today’s gospel shows us where that teaching comes from.
Secular and pagan coins,
with images of the emperor or false gods,
could not be used to pay the annual temple tax.
And Jews had to buy animals
to make their offering in the temple.
Those transactions were supposed to take place
outside the temple itself.
But when Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover
and heads for the temple
to do his duty as a faithful Jew,
he finds the tables for coin exchange
and the animals for sacrifice
inside the temple area,
not outside where they should have been.
Things are not as they should be.
The animal sellers and the money changers
had taken over the temple,
turning it into a marketplace.
___________________________________________
Theology professor Fr. Murray Watson,
of Huron University College in London, Ontario,
gives some details of the situation as Jesus found it.
Temple authorities got a commission from the coin exchanges,
over 16%, an exorbitant amount,
especially for the poor.
The temple’s inspectors were bribed
to say that healthy animals brought by the poor
were sick and unacceptable.
So the people had to buy animals,
and they were charged 18 to 20 times the fair price.
___________________________________________
Price-gouging and corruption,
fleecing the poor to benefit the powerful:
Jesus sees the injustice and condemns it.
Mark’s and Luke’s gospels report Jesus saying
that the temple authorities
had turned God’s house into a den of thieves.
By chasing those money-changers
and merchants from the temple,
Jesus attacks the whole unjust system
for its failure to be in right relationship to God.
___________________________________________
So our brother Jesus,
our mild-mannered, peace-loving, forgiving teacher,
is angry.
He’s furious.
He turns the tables on those crooks
and chases them out of the temple.
Like the prophets before him, and the prophets since,
Jesus obeys that first commandment God gave in Exodus:
I am God. Nobody and nothing else is God.
Not the temple priests, not money, not greed, not human power…
not any of those strange gods.
God alone is God.
___________________________________________
We profess to follow the same commandments today.
And, sadly, we still have grafters and crooks
and price-gougers and thieves in high places…
in our churches, in our government,
in our corporations and businesses.
And we are called, like Jesus, to speak truth to power,
to expose them, to call them to righteousness,
to chase them out.
___________________________________________
Like Jesus, our usual action is nonviolent, passive resistance.
We pray.
We stay informed,
and we send letters and postcards and emails
asking for change.
We make phone calls and sign petitions.
We engage in public protests and demonstrations.
And sometimes, like Jesus, we get angry.
We’ve all seen it:
good friends, good Christians, peaceful people,
getting angry, shouting, breaking the rules,
crying out for correction of the injustice in our world.
Like Barbara Blaine and Claudia Vercellotti and the SNAP folks,
speaking out
and trying to clean the pedophilia excusers out of our church.
Like Sister Simone Campbell and the NETWORK nuns on the bus,
speaking out and trying to get elected officials
to put the common good ahead of money in politics.
Like the Black Lives Matter movement,
calling attention to the racism that infects our culture
and excuses police shooting of unarmed blacks.
Like the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
breaking the rules and risking arrest
when they hold up protest signs in Toledo City Council.
Like the high school students
in Parkland, Florida, and across the country,
walking out of class
to protest the lack of action on gun control.
___________________________________________
It’s a challenge.
We live in a culture
that worships violence and money and movie stars.
We see church officials who seek their own advancement
instead of the common good.
We suffer from corporations bent on profit over honesty.
We’re led by a president who worships himself… a false god.
___________________________________________
Like Jesus, we are called to speak truth to power.
We are called to shape our anger into protest,
to object, to point to the injustice,
and to call the perpetrators to task.
Yes, we here are faithful.
We are answering the call.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8-11
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John 2:13-25
Here at Holy Spirit we do some things just a tad different
from the way many other Catholic Churches do,
things that were acceptable at some time in the past,
like general absolution and gluten-free communion bread.
Those are changeable practices, not doctrine.
Among the truly orthodox Catholic things
that we do here at Holy Spirit these days
is our stand for justice.
In that, we are indeed faithful
to the teachings of Jesus and of our Church.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church put it:
“The citizen is obliged in conscience
not to follow the directives of civil authorities
when they are contrary
to the demands of the moral order,
to fundamental rights or the teachings of the Gospels.”
___________________________________________
Today’s gospel shows us where that teaching comes from.
Secular and pagan coins,
with images of the emperor or false gods,
could not be used to pay the annual temple tax.
And Jews had to buy animals
to make their offering in the temple.
Those transactions were supposed to take place
outside the temple itself.
But when Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover
and heads for the temple
to do his duty as a faithful Jew,
he finds the tables for coin exchange
and the animals for sacrifice
inside the temple area,
not outside where they should have been.
Things are not as they should be.
The animal sellers and the money changers
had taken over the temple,
turning it into a marketplace.
___________________________________________
Theology professor Fr. Murray Watson,
of Huron University College in London, Ontario,
gives some details of the situation as Jesus found it.
Temple authorities got a commission from the coin exchanges,
over 16%, an exorbitant amount,
especially for the poor.
The temple’s inspectors were bribed
to say that healthy animals brought by the poor
were sick and unacceptable.
So the people had to buy animals,
and they were charged 18 to 20 times the fair price.
___________________________________________
Price-gouging and corruption,
fleecing the poor to benefit the powerful:
Jesus sees the injustice and condemns it.
Mark’s and Luke’s gospels report Jesus saying
that the temple authorities
had turned God’s house into a den of thieves.
By chasing those money-changers
and merchants from the temple,
Jesus attacks the whole unjust system
for its failure to be in right relationship to God.
___________________________________________
So our brother Jesus,
our mild-mannered, peace-loving, forgiving teacher,
is angry.
He’s furious.
He turns the tables on those crooks
and chases them out of the temple.
Like the prophets before him, and the prophets since,
Jesus obeys that first commandment God gave in Exodus:
I am God. Nobody and nothing else is God.
Not the temple priests, not money, not greed, not human power…
not any of those strange gods.
God alone is God.
___________________________________________
We profess to follow the same commandments today.
And, sadly, we still have grafters and crooks
and price-gougers and thieves in high places…
in our churches, in our government,
in our corporations and businesses.
And we are called, like Jesus, to speak truth to power,
to expose them, to call them to righteousness,
to chase them out.
___________________________________________
Like Jesus, our usual action is nonviolent, passive resistance.
We pray.
We stay informed,
and we send letters and postcards and emails
asking for change.
We make phone calls and sign petitions.
We engage in public protests and demonstrations.
And sometimes, like Jesus, we get angry.
We’ve all seen it:
good friends, good Christians, peaceful people,
getting angry, shouting, breaking the rules,
crying out for correction of the injustice in our world.
Like Barbara Blaine and Claudia Vercellotti and the SNAP folks,
speaking out
and trying to clean the pedophilia excusers out of our church.
Like Sister Simone Campbell and the NETWORK nuns on the bus,
speaking out and trying to get elected officials
to put the common good ahead of money in politics.
Like the Black Lives Matter movement,
calling attention to the racism that infects our culture
and excuses police shooting of unarmed blacks.
Like the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
breaking the rules and risking arrest
when they hold up protest signs in Toledo City Council.
Like the high school students
in Parkland, Florida, and across the country,
walking out of class
to protest the lack of action on gun control.
___________________________________________
It’s a challenge.
We live in a culture
that worships violence and money and movie stars.
We see church officials who seek their own advancement
instead of the common good.
We suffer from corporations bent on profit over honesty.
We’re led by a president who worships himself… a false god.
___________________________________________
Like Jesus, we are called to speak truth to power.
We are called to shape our anger into protest,
to object, to point to the injustice,
and to call the perpetrators to task.
Yes, we here are faithful.
We are answering the call.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Second Sunday of Lent (B), February 25, 2018
First Reading: Genesis 22:1-2, 9-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:10, 15-19
Second Reding: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10
When we hear Mark’s description
of the transfiguration of Jesus,
it’s hard to fit it into our own world.
It doesn’t seem real to us.
But anthropologists have studied
488 societies all over the world,
and they found that 90% of them
commonly experience events like this--
experiences of an alternate reality,
an altered state of consciousness.
_____________________________________________
You have probably had some of those experiences.
I have:
when I was a teenager
and saw a kaleidoscope of butterflies;
when I came off a Cursillo weekend;
when I was praying alone at sunset in church.
Something happens,
and we step into an aha! moment,
an insight that stays with us the rest of our lives.
In our culture, though,
we don’t talk much about them
because we don’t want people to think we’re crazy.
Or at least not any crazier than they already think we are!
_____________________________________________
In today’s gospel Mark creates a scene
about Peter, James, and John’s experiencing
an alternate reality that gives them insight
into who Jesus really is.
The transfiguration tells them
that Jesus is the Messiah,
the long-awaited one, the new Moses.
The transfiguration is the turning point in Mark’s story.
Mark looks back and ahead.
He reports those words from the cloud,
that Jesus is God’s beloved son,
words that look back to his baptism in the Jordan.
Then Mark creates the “messianic secret”--
Jesus telling them to keep quiet
about their new insight--
to look forward to, to foreshadow,
the resurrection.
The passage is crafted
with layers of references to the scriptural tradition,
like the high mountain,
the dazzling white clothes,
the voice in the cloud.
_____________________________________________
James and John couldn’t understand the transfiguration.
They weren’t sure what it meant.
We know how that feels.
Something happens,
and we question what’s going on in our lives,
ask ourselves what the experience means.
Who are we?
What is life about?
What is right and what is not right?
How do we make sense of what’s happening around us...
and to us?
_____________________________________________
That’s where our faith comes in.
We are gifted with a long tradition
that shows us how people over millennia
have thought about those questions.
We are blessed with the bible,
like a big how-to book.
And we have new scientific insights
into the nature of the universe
and into our own human nature.
And technology is giving us
connections to cultures around the globe,
peoples who have their own millenniums worth
of pondering the realities we live in.
_____________________________________________
We try to bring all that wisdom and knowledge and experience
to bear on our own lives, to shape the answers for us today.
And we sure have lots of questions
about the nature of God
and the nature of humankind.
These days, even more pressing for us
than those questions of theology and anthropology,
we have questions about the evil we see in our world,
about racism and sexism,
about the human actions
that are destroying the planet that supports all life.
Is there anything WE can do about it?
_____________________________________________
The answer is yes.
There is something we can do.
And Lent lets us take time to gain the insights
that will bring us the courage to go ahead,
no matter how hard it gets.
It lets us take time to focus on our call,
as followers of the way of Jesus,
to work for justice and peace.
In the end, we are the ones who are transfigured,
the light of Christ shining through us
everywhere we go.
Amen!
First Reading: Genesis 22:1-2, 9-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116:10, 15-19
Second Reding: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10
When we hear Mark’s description
of the transfiguration of Jesus,
it’s hard to fit it into our own world.
It doesn’t seem real to us.
But anthropologists have studied
488 societies all over the world,
and they found that 90% of them
commonly experience events like this--
experiences of an alternate reality,
an altered state of consciousness.
_____________________________________________
You have probably had some of those experiences.
I have:
when I was a teenager
and saw a kaleidoscope of butterflies;
when I came off a Cursillo weekend;
when I was praying alone at sunset in church.
Something happens,
and we step into an aha! moment,
an insight that stays with us the rest of our lives.
In our culture, though,
we don’t talk much about them
because we don’t want people to think we’re crazy.
Or at least not any crazier than they already think we are!
_____________________________________________
In today’s gospel Mark creates a scene
about Peter, James, and John’s experiencing
an alternate reality that gives them insight
into who Jesus really is.
The transfiguration tells them
that Jesus is the Messiah,
the long-awaited one, the new Moses.
The transfiguration is the turning point in Mark’s story.
Mark looks back and ahead.
He reports those words from the cloud,
that Jesus is God’s beloved son,
words that look back to his baptism in the Jordan.
Then Mark creates the “messianic secret”--
Jesus telling them to keep quiet
about their new insight--
to look forward to, to foreshadow,
the resurrection.
The passage is crafted
with layers of references to the scriptural tradition,
like the high mountain,
the dazzling white clothes,
the voice in the cloud.
_____________________________________________
James and John couldn’t understand the transfiguration.
They weren’t sure what it meant.
We know how that feels.
Something happens,
and we question what’s going on in our lives,
ask ourselves what the experience means.
Who are we?
What is life about?
What is right and what is not right?
How do we make sense of what’s happening around us...
and to us?
_____________________________________________
That’s where our faith comes in.
We are gifted with a long tradition
that shows us how people over millennia
have thought about those questions.
We are blessed with the bible,
like a big how-to book.
And we have new scientific insights
into the nature of the universe
and into our own human nature.
And technology is giving us
connections to cultures around the globe,
peoples who have their own millenniums worth
of pondering the realities we live in.
_____________________________________________
We try to bring all that wisdom and knowledge and experience
to bear on our own lives, to shape the answers for us today.
And we sure have lots of questions
about the nature of God
and the nature of humankind.
These days, even more pressing for us
than those questions of theology and anthropology,
we have questions about the evil we see in our world,
about racism and sexism,
about the human actions
that are destroying the planet that supports all life.
Is there anything WE can do about it?
_____________________________________________
The answer is yes.
There is something we can do.
And Lent lets us take time to gain the insights
that will bring us the courage to go ahead,
no matter how hard it gets.
It lets us take time to focus on our call,
as followers of the way of Jesus,
to work for justice and peace.
In the end, we are the ones who are transfigured,
the light of Christ shining through us
everywhere we go.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, First Sunday of Lent (B), February 18, 2018
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4-9
Second Reding: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15
Forty years, forty hours, forty days--
the number 40 is symbolic.
Our ancestors in faith used it to mean
a relatively long but indefinite period of time.
The story of the flood in Genesis
weaves together two stories
with different statements about how long it lasted.
Was it a year?
Or 150 days?
In Chapter 7, verse 17, it’s 40 days.
_________________________________________
Mark’s gospel tells us
that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days.
He had been baptized by John in the Jordan River,
coming out of the water with the understanding
that he is a beloved child of God.
He goes on a 40-day retreat
and comes out of that experience
proclaiming the good news:
the reign of God is here and now!
_________________________________________
It took over 300 years
for Christianity to develop Lent as a retreat practice,
and even longer to start it with Ash Wednesday.
And it’s really 44 days, not 40,
because we started on Ash Wednesday
and will stop when Mass begins at 4:30 on Holy Thursday.
To count Lent as 40 days,
you have to start today [tomorrow],
on the First Sunday of Lent,
which leads some folks to see those first four days
as standing on the “porch” of Lent,
getting ready to start.
So we have 40 days of retreat ahead of us,
a definite period of time, but relatively long:
a little over 10% of our year.
_________________________________________
We have lots of ways that we can retreat,
all of them good.
Like Jesus,
we can carve out some extra time and space
to focus on being with God.
Because each of us
is a unique expression of God in the world,
each of us will find a unique way to practice Lent.
Pope Francis talked about it in a homily three years ago.
He said that Lent wakes us up and invites us to change:
“[S]omething is not right in us,
not right in society,
[not right] in the Church,
and we need to change,
to give it a new direction.”
_________________________________________
Lent is a time to face the wild beasts in our world,
and there are plenty of them.
Those beasts can be on the job,
a boss who threatens us
or a co-worker who competes instead of cooperates.
Or in the family,
a relative prone to violence or belittling
or taking advantage of others.
Or in our culture,
bullying and discrimination, racism and sexism,
violence and injustice,
government for the rich and against the people.
Jesus came out of the desert with the answer to those beasts:
the good news
that the reign of God is at hand,
_________________________________________
Scholars are convinced that the “reign of God”
that Jesus wants us to experience
revolves around God’s being present
and working effectively in our everyday lives.
Our Lenten retreat
has to be more than making ourselves more moral.
Over 50 years ago Vatican II,
in the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
said that the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled
only if each one of us contributes to the common good,
according to our own abilities and the needs of others.
As Sister Mary McGlone puts it,
God’s reign is “a spiritual reality that exists in time and space.
It is the truly human way of living,
being willingly loved
and loving inspirited creatures.”
_________________________________________
Some of us will spend time alone, praying and thinking.
Some will tweak our habits
to spend more time with family
or more time volunteering.
Some will start watching the evening news…
and some will stop watching it.
_________________________________________
Thank God for Lent!
It gives us time to take stock and re-set our goals.
We can ask ourselves, to paraphrase poet Mary Oliver,
what is it I plan to do with my one wild and precious life?
Each of us will hear a different answer,
but all of us will hear that we are beloved children of God,
and we will find new ways
to proclaim that God’s reign is indeed at hand.
That’s what Lent is all about.
Amen!
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4-9
Second Reding: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15
Forty years, forty hours, forty days--
the number 40 is symbolic.
Our ancestors in faith used it to mean
a relatively long but indefinite period of time.
The story of the flood in Genesis
weaves together two stories
with different statements about how long it lasted.
Was it a year?
Or 150 days?
In Chapter 7, verse 17, it’s 40 days.
_________________________________________
Mark’s gospel tells us
that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days.
He had been baptized by John in the Jordan River,
coming out of the water with the understanding
that he is a beloved child of God.
He goes on a 40-day retreat
and comes out of that experience
proclaiming the good news:
the reign of God is here and now!
_________________________________________
It took over 300 years
for Christianity to develop Lent as a retreat practice,
and even longer to start it with Ash Wednesday.
And it’s really 44 days, not 40,
because we started on Ash Wednesday
and will stop when Mass begins at 4:30 on Holy Thursday.
To count Lent as 40 days,
you have to start today [tomorrow],
on the First Sunday of Lent,
which leads some folks to see those first four days
as standing on the “porch” of Lent,
getting ready to start.
So we have 40 days of retreat ahead of us,
a definite period of time, but relatively long:
a little over 10% of our year.
_________________________________________
We have lots of ways that we can retreat,
all of them good.
Like Jesus,
we can carve out some extra time and space
to focus on being with God.
Because each of us
is a unique expression of God in the world,
each of us will find a unique way to practice Lent.
Pope Francis talked about it in a homily three years ago.
He said that Lent wakes us up and invites us to change:
“[S]omething is not right in us,
not right in society,
[not right] in the Church,
and we need to change,
to give it a new direction.”
_________________________________________
Lent is a time to face the wild beasts in our world,
and there are plenty of them.
Those beasts can be on the job,
a boss who threatens us
or a co-worker who competes instead of cooperates.
Or in the family,
a relative prone to violence or belittling
or taking advantage of others.
Or in our culture,
bullying and discrimination, racism and sexism,
violence and injustice,
government for the rich and against the people.
Jesus came out of the desert with the answer to those beasts:
the good news
that the reign of God is at hand,
_________________________________________
Scholars are convinced that the “reign of God”
that Jesus wants us to experience
revolves around God’s being present
and working effectively in our everyday lives.
Our Lenten retreat
has to be more than making ourselves more moral.
Over 50 years ago Vatican II,
in the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
said that the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled
only if each one of us contributes to the common good,
according to our own abilities and the needs of others.
As Sister Mary McGlone puts it,
God’s reign is “a spiritual reality that exists in time and space.
It is the truly human way of living,
being willingly loved
and loving inspirited creatures.”
_________________________________________
Some of us will spend time alone, praying and thinking.
Some will tweak our habits
to spend more time with family
or more time volunteering.
Some will start watching the evening news…
and some will stop watching it.
_________________________________________
Thank God for Lent!
It gives us time to take stock and re-set our goals.
We can ask ourselves, to paraphrase poet Mary Oliver,
what is it I plan to do with my one wild and precious life?
Each of us will hear a different answer,
but all of us will hear that we are beloved children of God,
and we will find new ways
to proclaim that God’s reign is indeed at hand.
That’s what Lent is all about.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), February 11, 2018
First Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
Among other things
that Biblical scholars have found in today’s gospel
is a change in wording that makes a big difference.
We heard that Jesus was “moved with pity”
when the leper came to him
and asked to be made clean.
The earliest texts of Mark’s gospel
don’t say he was moved with pity.
They say he was moved with anger!
And his anger was not aimed at the leper.
Jesus’ anger was aimed at the kind of culture
that closed the leper out.
The scriptures report other times when Jesus was angry,
or moved with pity,
and all of them involve the injustice
of some people in society
who shut other people out.
________________________________________
Last week we heard
how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law
and restored her to the family circle.
Today it’s the leper.
In other places it’s the corruption of the temple officials.
Or it’s the hypocrisy of the leaders
wiping the outside of the cup
while ignoring the pollution inside.
Again, Jesus’ message is
that the reign of God is here,
and everyone belongs.
It’s a matter of justice for him…
putting things in right relationship.
That’s his way.
________________________________________
It’s supposed to be our way, too.
Jesus reaches out and touches the leper,
restores him to wholeness in the community,
cleansed and able to be in the circle again.
We’re followers of Jesus.
Is that what we are supposed to be doing?
Curing lepers?
Well, we don’t have to cure lepers.
There’s an antibiotic that cures them.
We call leprosy Hansen’s disease now.
Leprosy, it turns out, is not very contagious,
and not very common,
but 2,000 years ago people thought
that anything flaky or peeling was leprous.
So it wasn’t only human beings who were unclean--
things like walls or tools or fabrics
with scales or flakes were leprous, too.
By that definition, my basement is leprous,
but I can cure it with a good scraping
and a fresh coat of Thoroseal.
[Maybe next summer.]
________________________________________
There is a cure for leprosy,
but injustice is still rampant among us.
It’s viral.
And it’s that injustice that we’re expected to cure.
We’re called to put people in right relationship,
to make them whole again.
The early Christians did it.
They shared their extras.
They welcomed strangers.
And people noticed.
“See how they love one another,” they said.
You follow Jesus, and you do the same thing he did.
You welcome new people when they walk in here for Mass.
You give to people in need—your time, your energy, your cash.
I’ve personally benefited from your good-hearted generosity:
two weeks ago I mentioned
that my coffeemaker had fizzled out,
and last week, among all the other good things
that you brought for Claver House
and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether,
a coffeemaker appeared in my car...
with a sticky note that had my name on it!
________________________________________
I see reflections of your welcoming inclusion
when I drop in to Claver House
or one of the other soup kitchens in town.
It’s uplifting to see people reach out,
no matter what story comes in the door with a person.
He might have been in prison.
Or maybe he’s recovering from an addiction.
Maybe she’s been trafficked.
Maybe that one lost a job... or a house… or a spouse.
Or all of those at once.
Or this one’s just getting old and lonely
with no family around.
________________________________________
Lots of people get treated like lepers in our society:
Blacks, Browns, immigrants, refugees,
people with AIDS, people with disabilities,
LGBT folks, the sick, the poor.
It’s a long list.
God has called us to reach out and touch
every one of the exiles, the throwaways,
the banished, the ignored,
so they can return to the circle of life,
so they can belong.
No one person can do it all,
but I see each of you
with your unique gifts and unique personalities,
lifting people to life in the reign of God,
here and now.
It’s obvious that you love one another.
And that you are reaching out
and touching the untouchables,
healing them and setting them free.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
Among other things
that Biblical scholars have found in today’s gospel
is a change in wording that makes a big difference.
We heard that Jesus was “moved with pity”
when the leper came to him
and asked to be made clean.
The earliest texts of Mark’s gospel
don’t say he was moved with pity.
They say he was moved with anger!
And his anger was not aimed at the leper.
Jesus’ anger was aimed at the kind of culture
that closed the leper out.
The scriptures report other times when Jesus was angry,
or moved with pity,
and all of them involve the injustice
of some people in society
who shut other people out.
________________________________________
Last week we heard
how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law
and restored her to the family circle.
Today it’s the leper.
In other places it’s the corruption of the temple officials.
Or it’s the hypocrisy of the leaders
wiping the outside of the cup
while ignoring the pollution inside.
Again, Jesus’ message is
that the reign of God is here,
and everyone belongs.
It’s a matter of justice for him…
putting things in right relationship.
That’s his way.
________________________________________
It’s supposed to be our way, too.
Jesus reaches out and touches the leper,
restores him to wholeness in the community,
cleansed and able to be in the circle again.
We’re followers of Jesus.
Is that what we are supposed to be doing?
Curing lepers?
Well, we don’t have to cure lepers.
There’s an antibiotic that cures them.
We call leprosy Hansen’s disease now.
Leprosy, it turns out, is not very contagious,
and not very common,
but 2,000 years ago people thought
that anything flaky or peeling was leprous.
So it wasn’t only human beings who were unclean--
things like walls or tools or fabrics
with scales or flakes were leprous, too.
By that definition, my basement is leprous,
but I can cure it with a good scraping
and a fresh coat of Thoroseal.
[Maybe next summer.]
________________________________________
There is a cure for leprosy,
but injustice is still rampant among us.
It’s viral.
And it’s that injustice that we’re expected to cure.
We’re called to put people in right relationship,
to make them whole again.
The early Christians did it.
They shared their extras.
They welcomed strangers.
And people noticed.
“See how they love one another,” they said.
You follow Jesus, and you do the same thing he did.
You welcome new people when they walk in here for Mass.
You give to people in need—your time, your energy, your cash.
I’ve personally benefited from your good-hearted generosity:
two weeks ago I mentioned
that my coffeemaker had fizzled out,
and last week, among all the other good things
that you brought for Claver House
and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether,
a coffeemaker appeared in my car...
with a sticky note that had my name on it!
________________________________________
I see reflections of your welcoming inclusion
when I drop in to Claver House
or one of the other soup kitchens in town.
It’s uplifting to see people reach out,
no matter what story comes in the door with a person.
He might have been in prison.
Or maybe he’s recovering from an addiction.
Maybe she’s been trafficked.
Maybe that one lost a job... or a house… or a spouse.
Or all of those at once.
Or this one’s just getting old and lonely
with no family around.
________________________________________
Lots of people get treated like lepers in our society:
Blacks, Browns, immigrants, refugees,
people with AIDS, people with disabilities,
LGBT folks, the sick, the poor.
It’s a long list.
God has called us to reach out and touch
every one of the exiles, the throwaways,
the banished, the ignored,
so they can return to the circle of life,
so they can belong.
No one person can do it all,
but I see each of you
with your unique gifts and unique personalities,
lifting people to life in the reign of God,
here and now.
It’s obvious that you love one another.
And that you are reaching out
and touching the untouchables,
healing them and setting them free.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), February 4, 2018
First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147:1-6
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
We’ve all heard jokes about mothers-in-law,
and the reason, according to
Cambridge University psychologist Dr. Terri Apter,
is the ongoing family battles
that come from those relationships.
Dr. Apter says that 2/3 of daughters-in-law complain
that their husband’s mother
is jealous, demanding, critical, or intrusive.
And the same proportion of mothers-in-law
complain that their son’s wife
excludes or isolates her,
belittles her relationship with her son,
or sulks over the time she spends with him.
That domestic conflict
causes long-term unhappiness and stress.
____________________________________________
That’s what’s happening these days, in our time.
Imagine what it would have been like in the first century,
when the cultural customs were different.
According to Biblical historian Dr. John Pilch,
Simon Peter and his wife lived with his parents.
According to the customs of the time,
Peter’s mother-in-law should have been
living in her husband’s house.
But she wasn’t, and that means she’s a widow.
But widows went to live with their sons.
So she either didn’t have any sons or they had died.
Then she should have returned to live with her family,
but she’s didn’t.
She’s living with her son-in-law’s family.
That means she must have had no family members alive,
and in her world that’s a fate worse than death.
Peter’s mother-in-law might well echo Job’s lament:
My days come to an end without hope.
My life is like the wind.
I shall not see happiness again.
She’s ill, in bed with a fever.
Listless.
No energy to get up and be part of the household.
Maybe depressed.
In despair.
____________________________________________
First-century Middle East folks believed
that there’s a difference
between disease and illness.
Disease was something you caught,
like leprosy, and it required a cure.
On the other hand, illness was,
according to Dr. Pilch,
“a disvalued human condition
in which social networks are ruptured
and life’s meaning is lost.”
Illness required healing,
not a cure like a disease did.
Jesus, as a healer,
goes over to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law,
takes her by the hand, and helps her up.
She is restored to her standing in the family,
returned to the relationship
where she finds value and meaning.
She is healed,
and she rejoins the family circle.
To put it in theological language,
she experiences salvation.
The Latin root for the word “salvation”
means healing.
Jesus has given her a healing balm,
salve for her soul.
____________________________________________
Jesus healed people from illness, cured them from disease,
but in today’s gospel he says that was not his purpose.
His mission was to go throughout the region
and preach the good news
that God’s reign is at hand, here and now.
And he did that by speaking out,
by praying,
by reaching out to the poor and marginalized,
by healing the sick souls of people he met.
____________________________________________
We see lots of this kind of illness in our world,
people in broken relationships,
people who have lost hope,
people who feel their life has no meaning.
As followers of Jesus,
we are the ones who are called to heal them.
You might not think you’re able to do that,
but you are.
As St. Francis of Assisi is supposed to have put it,
our task as followers of Jesus
is to preach the good news...
in how we live, in our actions…
and use words if you have to.
So you go about, like Jesus did,
preaching the good news
in the way you take care of your families.
I see your healing in the prayers you lift up
for people who struggle
against discrimination and poverty
and famine and war,
in your prayers for family and friends and neighbors
who are in distress or struck by a disease.
Your healing hand reaches out
when you plant a seedling to heal the earth,
or show up at Council meetings
to advocate for a healthy lake,
or write letters supporting health care for all
or citizenship for the DREAMers.
And when you get worn down by it all,
you go off to pray
and come back refreshed to keep on keeping on.
As Jesus’ followers, that’s what you’re called to do…
and you do it very well.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147:1-6
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
We’ve all heard jokes about mothers-in-law,
and the reason, according to
Cambridge University psychologist Dr. Terri Apter,
is the ongoing family battles
that come from those relationships.
Dr. Apter says that 2/3 of daughters-in-law complain
that their husband’s mother
is jealous, demanding, critical, or intrusive.
And the same proportion of mothers-in-law
complain that their son’s wife
excludes or isolates her,
belittles her relationship with her son,
or sulks over the time she spends with him.
That domestic conflict
causes long-term unhappiness and stress.
____________________________________________
That’s what’s happening these days, in our time.
Imagine what it would have been like in the first century,
when the cultural customs were different.
According to Biblical historian Dr. John Pilch,
Simon Peter and his wife lived with his parents.
According to the customs of the time,
Peter’s mother-in-law should have been
living in her husband’s house.
But she wasn’t, and that means she’s a widow.
But widows went to live with their sons.
So she either didn’t have any sons or they had died.
Then she should have returned to live with her family,
but she’s didn’t.
She’s living with her son-in-law’s family.
That means she must have had no family members alive,
and in her world that’s a fate worse than death.
Peter’s mother-in-law might well echo Job’s lament:
My days come to an end without hope.
My life is like the wind.
I shall not see happiness again.
She’s ill, in bed with a fever.
Listless.
No energy to get up and be part of the household.
Maybe depressed.
In despair.
____________________________________________
First-century Middle East folks believed
that there’s a difference
between disease and illness.
Disease was something you caught,
like leprosy, and it required a cure.
On the other hand, illness was,
according to Dr. Pilch,
“a disvalued human condition
in which social networks are ruptured
and life’s meaning is lost.”
Illness required healing,
not a cure like a disease did.
Jesus, as a healer,
goes over to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law,
takes her by the hand, and helps her up.
She is restored to her standing in the family,
returned to the relationship
where she finds value and meaning.
She is healed,
and she rejoins the family circle.
To put it in theological language,
she experiences salvation.
The Latin root for the word “salvation”
means healing.
Jesus has given her a healing balm,
salve for her soul.
____________________________________________
Jesus healed people from illness, cured them from disease,
but in today’s gospel he says that was not his purpose.
His mission was to go throughout the region
and preach the good news
that God’s reign is at hand, here and now.
And he did that by speaking out,
by praying,
by reaching out to the poor and marginalized,
by healing the sick souls of people he met.
____________________________________________
We see lots of this kind of illness in our world,
people in broken relationships,
people who have lost hope,
people who feel their life has no meaning.
As followers of Jesus,
we are the ones who are called to heal them.
You might not think you’re able to do that,
but you are.
As St. Francis of Assisi is supposed to have put it,
our task as followers of Jesus
is to preach the good news...
in how we live, in our actions…
and use words if you have to.
So you go about, like Jesus did,
preaching the good news
in the way you take care of your families.
I see your healing in the prayers you lift up
for people who struggle
against discrimination and poverty
and famine and war,
in your prayers for family and friends and neighbors
who are in distress or struck by a disease.
Your healing hand reaches out
when you plant a seedling to heal the earth,
or show up at Council meetings
to advocate for a healthy lake,
or write letters supporting health care for all
or citizenship for the DREAMers.
And when you get worn down by it all,
you go off to pray
and come back refreshed to keep on keeping on.
As Jesus’ followers, that’s what you’re called to do…
and you do it very well.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), January 28, 2018
First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:15-20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 7:32-35
Gospel: Mark 1:21-28
Scholars tell us that today’s gospel
reflects the four elements of a typical exorcism
as they’re usually described in ancient writings.
First, the demon recognizes the exorcist and struggles;
then the exorcist orders the demon to leave;
then the demon leaves but makes a scene as it goes;
and finally the bystanders react to the feat.
So this evil spirit sent the man in Capernaum into convulsions--
like people who get louder and louder
as they argue their view is right and yours is not.
We know a lot of colloquial phrases to describe them:
they get a burr under their saddle,
they’re frothing at the mouth.
__________________________________________
We hear those voices in our world today,
and some of them are really demonic.
We wonder what possesses a person to twist the truth,
then start ranting and raving
when facts are brought up.
Some of the voices in our world are false prophets.
Forty years ago 918 people were murdered or committed suicide
because of the madness
of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple.
We see televangelists
interested only in putting more money in their own pockets
while claiming to work for worthy causes.
We hear street corner preachers
screaming of the end times
and the fiery wrath of an angry God.
We’ve seen demons in many different forms:
the holocaust, ISIS, Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
ethnic cleansing, Larry Nassar.
__________________________________________
Some things have changed since Jesus’ time.
Unlike many first-century folks
and Jim Jones in our time,
most of us don’t live in anxious fear
that the end of the world is imminent.
Well, maybe the Hawaiians do, after last week.
But Paul’s lesson still applies:
when we focus on the things of God,
everything else falls into the right place.
For the most part, we don’t call it a demonic possession
when we see someone ranting and raving.
Depending on what the person is ranting and raving about,
we may see it as mental illness.
Or sometimes these days, we call it politics.
__________________________________________
It’s not quite the same as when Jesus walked the earth--
the people of his time had a different frame of reference.
They didn’t have the kind of power over their lives that we do.
For one thing, they didn’t hold the healing power that we do.
In spite of our power, sometimes we act
like the people in today’s Deuteronomy reading,
afraid we will get hurt or killed if we speak up and reach out,
so we call on the Moses types to tell us what to do.
We call the fire department when we see a burning building.
We call the police if we see people waving guns at each other.
__________________________________________
Sometimes you can do more than call the police or the ambulance.
You have healing power over demons every day of your life.
You know the Heimlich Maneuver.
You know CPR.
And you know how to use prophetic power
the same way as the major prophets of our lifetime,
like Martin Luther King, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
Gustavo Gutierrez, Pope John XXIII.
You reach out with a healing touch, like Mother Teresa.
You protest war through nonviolence, like Mahatma Gandhi.
You speak out to protect the environment, like Rachel Carson.
You help the poor and marginalized, like Dorothy Day.
__________________________________________
Sometimes it’s as simple as just being there.
As Fr. Tony Gallagher is wont to say,
the 8th sacrament is showing up.
Going to the funeral.
Showing up at the birthday party.
Holding a sign at a street corner demonstration.
Sending a postcard from your vacation spot.
Volunteering at a soup kitchen.
Visiting your aunt in the nursing home.
Planting a tree.
Phoning a friend to see how they’re doing with the flu.
__________________________________________
You do it automatically.
It’s part of your life, part of who you are.
Reaching out with a helping hand,
thinking of others,
saying things to comfort,
speaking truth to power.
You heal people every day.
You give prophetic witness.
__________________________________________
And you teach.
You don’t hesitate to show a grandchild how to tie shoes,
or to offer advice to a friend out of your own experience.
You share your knowledge and insights.
You read books and go to lectures.
You talk about politics and religion,
about the common good,
about climate disruption.
You look at the impact of today's actions on tomorrow's children.
You share your hopes and your moral values.
__________________________________________
You should be the breaking news on CNN.
You are a prophet, the healer, the teacher in our world today.
Where do you get the authority to do that?
Where does your confidence come from?
Our tradition names the source:
it’s the Spirit of God in you.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:15-20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reding: 1 Corinthians 7:32-35
Gospel: Mark 1:21-28
Scholars tell us that today’s gospel
reflects the four elements of a typical exorcism
as they’re usually described in ancient writings.
First, the demon recognizes the exorcist and struggles;
then the exorcist orders the demon to leave;
then the demon leaves but makes a scene as it goes;
and finally the bystanders react to the feat.
So this evil spirit sent the man in Capernaum into convulsions--
like people who get louder and louder
as they argue their view is right and yours is not.
We know a lot of colloquial phrases to describe them:
they get a burr under their saddle,
they’re frothing at the mouth.
__________________________________________
We hear those voices in our world today,
and some of them are really demonic.
We wonder what possesses a person to twist the truth,
then start ranting and raving
when facts are brought up.
Some of the voices in our world are false prophets.
Forty years ago 918 people were murdered or committed suicide
because of the madness
of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple.
We see televangelists
interested only in putting more money in their own pockets
while claiming to work for worthy causes.
We hear street corner preachers
screaming of the end times
and the fiery wrath of an angry God.
We’ve seen demons in many different forms:
the holocaust, ISIS, Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
ethnic cleansing, Larry Nassar.
__________________________________________
Some things have changed since Jesus’ time.
Unlike many first-century folks
and Jim Jones in our time,
most of us don’t live in anxious fear
that the end of the world is imminent.
Well, maybe the Hawaiians do, after last week.
But Paul’s lesson still applies:
when we focus on the things of God,
everything else falls into the right place.
For the most part, we don’t call it a demonic possession
when we see someone ranting and raving.
Depending on what the person is ranting and raving about,
we may see it as mental illness.
Or sometimes these days, we call it politics.
__________________________________________
It’s not quite the same as when Jesus walked the earth--
the people of his time had a different frame of reference.
They didn’t have the kind of power over their lives that we do.
For one thing, they didn’t hold the healing power that we do.
In spite of our power, sometimes we act
like the people in today’s Deuteronomy reading,
afraid we will get hurt or killed if we speak up and reach out,
so we call on the Moses types to tell us what to do.
We call the fire department when we see a burning building.
We call the police if we see people waving guns at each other.
__________________________________________
Sometimes you can do more than call the police or the ambulance.
You have healing power over demons every day of your life.
You know the Heimlich Maneuver.
You know CPR.
And you know how to use prophetic power
the same way as the major prophets of our lifetime,
like Martin Luther King, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
Gustavo Gutierrez, Pope John XXIII.
You reach out with a healing touch, like Mother Teresa.
You protest war through nonviolence, like Mahatma Gandhi.
You speak out to protect the environment, like Rachel Carson.
You help the poor and marginalized, like Dorothy Day.
__________________________________________
Sometimes it’s as simple as just being there.
As Fr. Tony Gallagher is wont to say,
the 8th sacrament is showing up.
Going to the funeral.
Showing up at the birthday party.
Holding a sign at a street corner demonstration.
Sending a postcard from your vacation spot.
Volunteering at a soup kitchen.
Visiting your aunt in the nursing home.
Planting a tree.
Phoning a friend to see how they’re doing with the flu.
__________________________________________
You do it automatically.
It’s part of your life, part of who you are.
Reaching out with a helping hand,
thinking of others,
saying things to comfort,
speaking truth to power.
You heal people every day.
You give prophetic witness.
__________________________________________
And you teach.
You don’t hesitate to show a grandchild how to tie shoes,
or to offer advice to a friend out of your own experience.
You share your knowledge and insights.
You read books and go to lectures.
You talk about politics and religion,
about the common good,
about climate disruption.
You look at the impact of today's actions on tomorrow's children.
You share your hopes and your moral values.
__________________________________________
You should be the breaking news on CNN.
You are a prophet, the healer, the teacher in our world today.
Where do you get the authority to do that?
Where does your confidence come from?
Our tradition names the source:
it’s the Spirit of God in you.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), January 21, 2018
God called Jonah to warn the Ninevites.
Jonah was free to choose to answer the call.
Or not.
He was so bound up in his hate and prejudice
that he ran the other way.
Zebedee and the hired men
were bound to their work responsibilities,
not free to follow when Jesus called.
But those Galilean youngsters--
Simon, Andrew, James, and John--
were free to choose to answer the call.
_________________________________________
While I was studying English at Ohio State in the early 60s,
I spent a lot of time at the Newman Center.
It was there that I had the blessing
to listen to homilies by a Paulist priest, Fr. Art LeBlanc,
who was studying for his doctorate in psychology.
Fr. Art was wont to preach existentialist ideas,
basically the notion that we have
both the freedom to choose
as well as the need to choose.
He often talked about what he called “choice points,”
those times in our lives when we have to choose a way--
this way, or that way, or another way, or no way at all.
One of his favorite aphorisms was “Not to decide is to decide,”
and I put it on the wall beside my desk.
That was over 50 years ago,
and the memory comes back to me fresh and clear
in today’s readings.
It was right around the time
that Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
calling people to end racism.
Last week President Obama reflected
about all of us who answered that call,
each in our own way.
He talked about the young people who responded to Dr. King,
people like us.
He said, “They had their flaws.
“They had their problems.
“They had their doubts.
“But despite all those imperfections,
they pressed forward anyway--
often far from the limelight--
with determination and with faith in the future,
because they believed that their efforts would matter….”
_________________________________________
Doesn’t that sound like those fishermen in the Gospel today?
They hear the call.
They get a glimpse of what it might be
to live life for something greater than themselves.
It’s a “choice point” for them,
and they choose to make a 180-degree turn
to follow Jesus.
Jesus’ message is that the reign of God is here and now…
You can experience it, he tells them.
You can live it.
You can be the ones who spread the good news to others.
Those young men walked away
from their controlled, ordinary lives
and answered Jesus’ call.
_________________________________________
It’s not only young people who are called.
Last Sunday I saw a group of people,
some as old as 50 and some as young as 80,
answer the call to stand in that frigid weather
at the windy corner of Sylvania and Talmadge
holding signs
calling for the closing of the Guantanamo prison.
Over at Claver House Thursday
one of the guests answered the call
when she reached out to comfort another guest
whose daughter had died.
Today (yesterday) I was privileged
to join a large group of Toledoans
from every kind of faith
to pray for our city and its elected officials--
an interfaith prayer service,
a holy gathering of folks who choose
to answer the call to peace and justice.
_________________________________________
The reign of God is at hand,
but not everyone is living in it.
Richard Rohr says that the litmus test
for living with our center in God
is that we are always free to obey
but we might have to disobey
the expectations of church and state
in order to obey God.
He gives examples: St. Paul, Joan of Arc, Thomas Merton,
and Dorothy Day, who once said,
“The greatest challenge of the day
is how to bring about a revolution of the heart,
a revolution which has to start with each one of us.”
_________________________________________
Sometimes we turn away from the call, like Jonah did,
instead of turning our lives around and answering it.
When we hesitate or stumble,
it’s good to remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians:
time is running out.
The world as we know it is passing away.
We see the chaos in our government.
We watch our environment disintegrating.
We hear people asking for help.
God is calling us to do something about it.
We can pray.
We can sing.
We can reach out to others.
We can take action.
Or we can do nothing.
We are free to make a choice.
Amen!
God called Jonah to warn the Ninevites.
Jonah was free to choose to answer the call.
Or not.
He was so bound up in his hate and prejudice
that he ran the other way.
Zebedee and the hired men
were bound to their work responsibilities,
not free to follow when Jesus called.
But those Galilean youngsters--
Simon, Andrew, James, and John--
were free to choose to answer the call.
_________________________________________
While I was studying English at Ohio State in the early 60s,
I spent a lot of time at the Newman Center.
It was there that I had the blessing
to listen to homilies by a Paulist priest, Fr. Art LeBlanc,
who was studying for his doctorate in psychology.
Fr. Art was wont to preach existentialist ideas,
basically the notion that we have
both the freedom to choose
as well as the need to choose.
He often talked about what he called “choice points,”
those times in our lives when we have to choose a way--
this way, or that way, or another way, or no way at all.
One of his favorite aphorisms was “Not to decide is to decide,”
and I put it on the wall beside my desk.
That was over 50 years ago,
and the memory comes back to me fresh and clear
in today’s readings.
It was right around the time
that Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
calling people to end racism.
Last week President Obama reflected
about all of us who answered that call,
each in our own way.
He talked about the young people who responded to Dr. King,
people like us.
He said, “They had their flaws.
“They had their problems.
“They had their doubts.
“But despite all those imperfections,
they pressed forward anyway--
often far from the limelight--
with determination and with faith in the future,
because they believed that their efforts would matter….”
_________________________________________
Doesn’t that sound like those fishermen in the Gospel today?
They hear the call.
They get a glimpse of what it might be
to live life for something greater than themselves.
It’s a “choice point” for them,
and they choose to make a 180-degree turn
to follow Jesus.
Jesus’ message is that the reign of God is here and now…
You can experience it, he tells them.
You can live it.
You can be the ones who spread the good news to others.
Those young men walked away
from their controlled, ordinary lives
and answered Jesus’ call.
_________________________________________
It’s not only young people who are called.
Last Sunday I saw a group of people,
some as old as 50 and some as young as 80,
answer the call to stand in that frigid weather
at the windy corner of Sylvania and Talmadge
holding signs
calling for the closing of the Guantanamo prison.
Over at Claver House Thursday
one of the guests answered the call
when she reached out to comfort another guest
whose daughter had died.
Today (yesterday) I was privileged
to join a large group of Toledoans
from every kind of faith
to pray for our city and its elected officials--
an interfaith prayer service,
a holy gathering of folks who choose
to answer the call to peace and justice.
_________________________________________
The reign of God is at hand,
but not everyone is living in it.
Richard Rohr says that the litmus test
for living with our center in God
is that we are always free to obey
but we might have to disobey
the expectations of church and state
in order to obey God.
He gives examples: St. Paul, Joan of Arc, Thomas Merton,
and Dorothy Day, who once said,
“The greatest challenge of the day
is how to bring about a revolution of the heart,
a revolution which has to start with each one of us.”
_________________________________________
Sometimes we turn away from the call, like Jonah did,
instead of turning our lives around and answering it.
When we hesitate or stumble,
it’s good to remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians:
time is running out.
The world as we know it is passing away.
We see the chaos in our government.
We watch our environment disintegrating.
We hear people asking for help.
God is calling us to do something about it.
We can pray.
We can sing.
We can reach out to others.
We can take action.
Or we can do nothing.
We are free to make a choice.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), January 14, 2018
First Reading: 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20
Gospel: John 1:35-42
They were listening to the Baptizer
and heard him talking about Jesus as he walked by.
Jesus noticed them walking behind him.
He asked them “What are you looking for?”
They called him Rabbi—teacher--
and asked him, “Where are you staying?”
They wanted to get to know him,
what he was all about.
Jesus invited them:
“Come and see,” he said.
Andrew went to get his brother Peter,
and together they talked with Jesus
for the rest of the day.
They ended up following him.
_____________________________________
What did they see, what did they hear,
that made them follow Jesus along the way?
It’s the same thing that makes us decide to follow him.
They were living in a land of violence and corruption and injustice.
They listened to Jesus and understood his way as godly,
a promise of hope and new life.
It was a promise that led them to drop everything
and live the way he taught.
_____________________________________
In the midst of poverty and hunger, Jesus taught justice.
In a land of violence, Jesus preached nonviolence.
In the face of greed, Jesus called for sharing,
for simple lifestyles to allow everyone to have enough.
In the midst of power-hungry rulers,
Jesus modeled servant leadership.
That’s the same way we hear his teaching today.
We celebrate Martin Luther King this weekend.
Do we hear our U.S. bishops calling us to end racism?
Sojourners’ editor Jim Wallis calls it “America’s original sin,”
and it really is.
We’re surrounded by racism... and sexism.
Jesus preaches treating all others as equals.
We live in a world of people of different religions
from different countries and different cultures.
Jesus would have us practice welcoming acceptance…
open doors, open borders, open minds.
Too many businesses exploit their workers.
Jesus wants fair treatment and a living wage.
We see families in bankruptcy and homelessness
because they can’t afford treatment for their illness.
Jesus calls for healing,
for health care for everyone.
People who worship money and power
are destroying our planet.
Jesus teaches reverence for all of creation.
And so we follow his way of love.
_____________________________________
But the path is not always easy.
Like Samuel in that first reading,
we may hear God’s call but not recognize it.
We may need someone like Eli or John the Baptist
to cause us to stop and listen.
Or we may need an experience
to open our eyes and ears to what’s going on,
like seeing a picture of a children in a refugee camp
or hearing a neighbor’s conversation
about not being able to pay for her child’s operation.
_____________________________________
Our tradition tells us
that we are all made in the image and likeness of God.
It tells us that we are all temples of the Holy Spirit,
as Paul reminds the Corinthians.
God lives in us.
Our bodies, and the bodies of every other person,
are God’s dwelling place.
God can speak to us anywhere, in any form.
It doesn’t have to be a lightning bolt or a ghostly apparition.
It’s our own willingness to listen
and think
and follow the right path.
Seeing evening news coverage
of people suffering around the world
can bring us new life.
When that moment speaks to us,
whatever form it may take,
we begin to see the moral imperative
to respect the rights and dignity of all human persons.
That’s when we know
that the only choice
is to live a different way, a new life.
_____________________________________
Jesus still speaks to us today,
asking us to “come and see.”
When we listen,
we find life-giving powerful love
in the actions of ordinary people
doing good for each other.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20
Gospel: John 1:35-42
They were listening to the Baptizer
and heard him talking about Jesus as he walked by.
Jesus noticed them walking behind him.
He asked them “What are you looking for?”
They called him Rabbi—teacher--
and asked him, “Where are you staying?”
They wanted to get to know him,
what he was all about.
Jesus invited them:
“Come and see,” he said.
Andrew went to get his brother Peter,
and together they talked with Jesus
for the rest of the day.
They ended up following him.
_____________________________________
What did they see, what did they hear,
that made them follow Jesus along the way?
It’s the same thing that makes us decide to follow him.
They were living in a land of violence and corruption and injustice.
They listened to Jesus and understood his way as godly,
a promise of hope and new life.
It was a promise that led them to drop everything
and live the way he taught.
_____________________________________
In the midst of poverty and hunger, Jesus taught justice.
In a land of violence, Jesus preached nonviolence.
In the face of greed, Jesus called for sharing,
for simple lifestyles to allow everyone to have enough.
In the midst of power-hungry rulers,
Jesus modeled servant leadership.
That’s the same way we hear his teaching today.
We celebrate Martin Luther King this weekend.
Do we hear our U.S. bishops calling us to end racism?
Sojourners’ editor Jim Wallis calls it “America’s original sin,”
and it really is.
We’re surrounded by racism... and sexism.
Jesus preaches treating all others as equals.
We live in a world of people of different religions
from different countries and different cultures.
Jesus would have us practice welcoming acceptance…
open doors, open borders, open minds.
Too many businesses exploit their workers.
Jesus wants fair treatment and a living wage.
We see families in bankruptcy and homelessness
because they can’t afford treatment for their illness.
Jesus calls for healing,
for health care for everyone.
People who worship money and power
are destroying our planet.
Jesus teaches reverence for all of creation.
And so we follow his way of love.
_____________________________________
But the path is not always easy.
Like Samuel in that first reading,
we may hear God’s call but not recognize it.
We may need someone like Eli or John the Baptist
to cause us to stop and listen.
Or we may need an experience
to open our eyes and ears to what’s going on,
like seeing a picture of a children in a refugee camp
or hearing a neighbor’s conversation
about not being able to pay for her child’s operation.
_____________________________________
Our tradition tells us
that we are all made in the image and likeness of God.
It tells us that we are all temples of the Holy Spirit,
as Paul reminds the Corinthians.
God lives in us.
Our bodies, and the bodies of every other person,
are God’s dwelling place.
God can speak to us anywhere, in any form.
It doesn’t have to be a lightning bolt or a ghostly apparition.
It’s our own willingness to listen
and think
and follow the right path.
Seeing evening news coverage
of people suffering around the world
can bring us new life.
When that moment speaks to us,
whatever form it may take,
we begin to see the moral imperative
to respect the rights and dignity of all human persons.
That’s when we know
that the only choice
is to live a different way, a new life.
_____________________________________
Jesus still speaks to us today,
asking us to “come and see.”
When we listen,
we find life-giving powerful love
in the actions of ordinary people
doing good for each other.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Epiphany of the Lord, January 7, 2018
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-13
Second Reading: Ephesians 3:2-6
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-1
That’s the story.
It’s one of those parts of the Bible that,
as scripture scholar Marcus Borg put it,
didn’t actually happen... but it is true.
It’s symbolic, revealing some basic truths
about the meaning of this brother of ours, Jesus,
whose way we follow.
Those truths speak straight to us in today’s chaotic world.
______________________________________
One comes in those visitors to the Bethlehem stable.
In the original Greek, they’re magoi,
a word that means sorcerers or magicians.
They are not kings.
The translation of the original Greek
into the Latin magi, meaning kings,
is an error that covers up
an important meaning to this story.
Exodus 22:17 says that sorcerers are to be killed on sight.
Among their other serious sins,
magoi look to stars to find God’s will in their lives.
They are outcasts, the dregs of Hebrew society,
untouchables, disposables.
But Matthew’s sorcerers followed a star
and recognized Jesus for who he is,
just like Luke’s stinking, marginalized shepherds
had recognized Jesus.
Folks who have nothing,
who are despised by people with something,
are the ones who recognize the action of God in the world.
I see those faith-filled folks at Claver House,
jobless people, homeless people, people with disabilities,
people who stop to thank God
for every little bit of good that comes their way.
______________________________________
A second truth in today’s Gospel comes
in the picture of Herod as a ruler
who used power in any way that suited his purpose.
He lied and cheated and abused and murdered at will.
In contrast, this tiny baby will grow up to be a king,
a good shepherd,
one who stands up for victims of tyrants
and speaks out against false-hearted religious leaders--
against those bad shepherds
who take advantage of the poor for their own gain.
The picture of Herod echoes for us today
in elected officials who use their position
to take more than their share,
business owners who cheat their customers,
officeholders who lie to serve their own ends
rather than the common good.
______________________________________
Another truth shows up in the actions of the magoi.
When they saw the star, they were filled with joy,
but Herod and his court were troubled by it.
They’re worried about the competition.
The magoi had asked them,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”
Herod wouldn’t allow any competition.
So he lies to the magoi
hoping to get information from them
that will let him find the baby and kill him.
If being sorcerers hadn’t gotten them killed,
the magoi then took an action
that guaranteed their execution if they were caught:
they disobeyed a direct order from the king.
What they do is to simply go home
without reporting back to him,
an act of civil disobedience, of non-violent resistance.
The courage of these magoi
is obvious today all over the world.
The poor, the disenfranchised, and the outcasts
are walking away from the murderous plans and practices
of the powerful.
We see it in individuals imprisoned or exiled
for speaking out.
We see it in families murdered
for protesting against oppressive leaders.
We see it here in ordinary people
marching for the common good
against the greed of the powerful--
people willing to give up whatever it takes--
their time, their homes, their country, even their lives--
rather than submit to immoral and abusive leaders.
______________________________________
There are still more truths in this gospel
that sound like today’s news.
There’s the migration experience,
with Mary and Joseph taking their baby
and running for their lives to escape Herod,
living as refugees in Egypt.
There’s the murder of the infants
whose parents did not run from Herod.
We hear their cries in the Rohingya murdered in Myanmar.
We see them in the 650,000 fleeing to Bangladesh
to try to survive in the midst of famine and disease.
______________________________________
In his novel Finnigan’s Wake,
James Joyce described Catholics
as “Here comes everybody!”
But Catholics are not everybody.
Everybody includes people who are not Catholic,
people who are not like us.
Pope Francis understands that.
At daily Mass the other day
he was talking about who gets into heaven.
He said, "Even atheists are in heaven
because God loves all.
Jesus came to bring all the people
of all times and all nations
into the one human family
into which Jesus himself has come."
Yep! Even the shepherds, the sorcerers, the atheists…
even the immigrants, the refugees,
the homeless, the jobless…
even us!
______________________________________
This week is National Migration Week,
the yearly time when our church reminds us
that we have a moral obligation
to stand up for the fundamental dignity
of every human being
by welcoming refugees and immigrants and migrants
into our midst
and protecting them from oppression.
There’s a lot to work on in this new year.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-13
Second Reading: Ephesians 3:2-6
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-1
That’s the story.
It’s one of those parts of the Bible that,
as scripture scholar Marcus Borg put it,
didn’t actually happen... but it is true.
It’s symbolic, revealing some basic truths
about the meaning of this brother of ours, Jesus,
whose way we follow.
Those truths speak straight to us in today’s chaotic world.
______________________________________
One comes in those visitors to the Bethlehem stable.
In the original Greek, they’re magoi,
a word that means sorcerers or magicians.
They are not kings.
The translation of the original Greek
into the Latin magi, meaning kings,
is an error that covers up
an important meaning to this story.
Exodus 22:17 says that sorcerers are to be killed on sight.
Among their other serious sins,
magoi look to stars to find God’s will in their lives.
They are outcasts, the dregs of Hebrew society,
untouchables, disposables.
But Matthew’s sorcerers followed a star
and recognized Jesus for who he is,
just like Luke’s stinking, marginalized shepherds
had recognized Jesus.
Folks who have nothing,
who are despised by people with something,
are the ones who recognize the action of God in the world.
I see those faith-filled folks at Claver House,
jobless people, homeless people, people with disabilities,
people who stop to thank God
for every little bit of good that comes their way.
______________________________________
A second truth in today’s Gospel comes
in the picture of Herod as a ruler
who used power in any way that suited his purpose.
He lied and cheated and abused and murdered at will.
In contrast, this tiny baby will grow up to be a king,
a good shepherd,
one who stands up for victims of tyrants
and speaks out against false-hearted religious leaders--
against those bad shepherds
who take advantage of the poor for their own gain.
The picture of Herod echoes for us today
in elected officials who use their position
to take more than their share,
business owners who cheat their customers,
officeholders who lie to serve their own ends
rather than the common good.
______________________________________
Another truth shows up in the actions of the magoi.
When they saw the star, they were filled with joy,
but Herod and his court were troubled by it.
They’re worried about the competition.
The magoi had asked them,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”
Herod wouldn’t allow any competition.
So he lies to the magoi
hoping to get information from them
that will let him find the baby and kill him.
If being sorcerers hadn’t gotten them killed,
the magoi then took an action
that guaranteed their execution if they were caught:
they disobeyed a direct order from the king.
What they do is to simply go home
without reporting back to him,
an act of civil disobedience, of non-violent resistance.
The courage of these magoi
is obvious today all over the world.
The poor, the disenfranchised, and the outcasts
are walking away from the murderous plans and practices
of the powerful.
We see it in individuals imprisoned or exiled
for speaking out.
We see it in families murdered
for protesting against oppressive leaders.
We see it here in ordinary people
marching for the common good
against the greed of the powerful--
people willing to give up whatever it takes--
their time, their homes, their country, even their lives--
rather than submit to immoral and abusive leaders.
______________________________________
There are still more truths in this gospel
that sound like today’s news.
There’s the migration experience,
with Mary and Joseph taking their baby
and running for their lives to escape Herod,
living as refugees in Egypt.
There’s the murder of the infants
whose parents did not run from Herod.
We hear their cries in the Rohingya murdered in Myanmar.
We see them in the 650,000 fleeing to Bangladesh
to try to survive in the midst of famine and disease.
______________________________________
In his novel Finnigan’s Wake,
James Joyce described Catholics
as “Here comes everybody!”
But Catholics are not everybody.
Everybody includes people who are not Catholic,
people who are not like us.
Pope Francis understands that.
At daily Mass the other day
he was talking about who gets into heaven.
He said, "Even atheists are in heaven
because God loves all.
Jesus came to bring all the people
of all times and all nations
into the one human family
into which Jesus himself has come."
Yep! Even the shepherds, the sorcerers, the atheists…
even the immigrants, the refugees,
the homeless, the jobless…
even us!
______________________________________
This week is National Migration Week,
the yearly time when our church reminds us
that we have a moral obligation
to stand up for the fundamental dignity
of every human being
by welcoming refugees and immigrants and migrants
into our midst
and protecting them from oppression.
There’s a lot to work on in this new year.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Holy Family B, December 31, 2017
First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12-17
Gospel: Luke 2:22, 39-40
Tonight we celebrate the Feast
of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Those of us who grew up in the 1950s
were led to believe that the “nuclear” family--
a mother and a father and their child
living together in one house--
is the norm, the ideal.
We now know that’s not the case,
and today’s feast shows that it never has been.
Of course, there are married couples with children.
There are also married couples with grandchildren.
Unmarried partners with a child, or no children,
or children from previous marriages,
or children from previous relationships outside marriage.
Single-parent families.
A grandparent or an aunt or an uncle
raising a grandchild or a niece or a nephew.
Blended families.
Adoptive families.
_____________________________________________
For the people of Jesus’ time,
the family was more than the “nuclear” family.
Depending on the situation,
the word “family” could have meant
an extended family—all the relatives included.
Or they may have thought of family
as everyone who lived under one roof--
all the members of the household,
whether related by blood or marriage
or working there as servants.
Or the clan—all the people with a common ancestry.
Or the people united by their belief in the same religion.
Or the descendants of a particular person--
like the shoot of Jesse or the offspring of David.
_____________________________________________
Because of Jesus’ teaching,
we are called to expand our notion of family exponentially.
Bigger than the nuclear family,
bigger than the household,
bigger than the clan, or the nation, or the religion.
We’re called to see the family
as including all of God’s people.
The human family.
God’s family.
_____________________________________________
It’s easy to see that we don’t always
act like we’re part of God’s family,
but lately I’ve been blessed
to see people who understand it and act like it
from the depths of their being.
I saw it In early December
when we gathered for our annual Christmas dinner
at Sue and Dick’s house.
With food and fellowship and music
we celebrated our church family
as part of God’s one family.
_____________________________________________
And I saw God’s universal family
here on Christmas Eve, last Sunday.
Celebrating Mass was a beautiful experience,
but the experience of God’s family afterwards
was stunning.
Colleen, as usual, had arranged for a paratransit service
to bring her to Mass and take her home.
It brought her here, but it didn’t show up to take her home.
Three of us waited with her
for more than an hour after the time
that the van was supposed to come for her.
No one came.
A phone call to the paratransit service
gave us a recording
saying that they were closed for the holiday.
A call to 211 yielded lots of questions
and ended with a suggestion that we might call the police.
A call to 911 yielded more questions,
the statement that the police don’t handle things like that,
and a suggestion that we call the paratransit service.
The snow was getting deeper,
and we were going around in circles.
Then we thought to call the Ursulines over on Indian Road.
There was no questioning, no hesitation.
It wasn’t long before Sister Sandy and Sister Margaret
pulled up in the community’s van
with its wheelchair lift
to take Colleen home.
They treated us like family.
_____________________________________________
I saw God’s family in action again
the next morning at Claver House.
The soup kitchen always closes on holidays,
but this year the Monday crew decided
that they would serve Christmas breakfast anyway.
They showed up with a feast--
cheese omelets and French toast
and fresh fruit and coffee cake,
Christmas candy and hats and gloves.
_____________________________________________
Treating everyone like family—that’s the basis for sainthood.
Wherever you are,
it’s treating the people you’re with
like family.
It’s traveling to visit the kids
in Ohio or Michigan or Washington or California.
It’s standing by when someone’s lonely or sick,
reaching out when there’s a need.
It’s really meaning it when we say
we are all God’s children,
all brothers and sisters to Jesus.
Sure, the big things are noticed,
like the giant checks for charity
that you see given by corporations on the evening news.
But the day-to-day sainthood happens where we live.
_____________________________________________
The scriptures tell us that
“the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
God’s Word comes to us in human form,
in Jesus of Nazareth…
and in each other.
That’s what Christmas is all about.
God comes to live in the ordinary times
of the ordinary lives
of ordinary people like us.
So it’s fitting that we celebrate the holiness of the family.
Whenever we reach out to another person,
we become living proof
that the Word became flesh and dwells among us.
We are God’s holy family.
Amen!
First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12-17
Gospel: Luke 2:22, 39-40
Tonight we celebrate the Feast
of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Those of us who grew up in the 1950s
were led to believe that the “nuclear” family--
a mother and a father and their child
living together in one house--
is the norm, the ideal.
We now know that’s not the case,
and today’s feast shows that it never has been.
Of course, there are married couples with children.
There are also married couples with grandchildren.
Unmarried partners with a child, or no children,
or children from previous marriages,
or children from previous relationships outside marriage.
Single-parent families.
A grandparent or an aunt or an uncle
raising a grandchild or a niece or a nephew.
Blended families.
Adoptive families.
_____________________________________________
For the people of Jesus’ time,
the family was more than the “nuclear” family.
Depending on the situation,
the word “family” could have meant
an extended family—all the relatives included.
Or they may have thought of family
as everyone who lived under one roof--
all the members of the household,
whether related by blood or marriage
or working there as servants.
Or the clan—all the people with a common ancestry.
Or the people united by their belief in the same religion.
Or the descendants of a particular person--
like the shoot of Jesse or the offspring of David.
_____________________________________________
Because of Jesus’ teaching,
we are called to expand our notion of family exponentially.
Bigger than the nuclear family,
bigger than the household,
bigger than the clan, or the nation, or the religion.
We’re called to see the family
as including all of God’s people.
The human family.
God’s family.
_____________________________________________
It’s easy to see that we don’t always
act like we’re part of God’s family,
but lately I’ve been blessed
to see people who understand it and act like it
from the depths of their being.
I saw it In early December
when we gathered for our annual Christmas dinner
at Sue and Dick’s house.
With food and fellowship and music
we celebrated our church family
as part of God’s one family.
_____________________________________________
And I saw God’s universal family
here on Christmas Eve, last Sunday.
Celebrating Mass was a beautiful experience,
but the experience of God’s family afterwards
was stunning.
Colleen, as usual, had arranged for a paratransit service
to bring her to Mass and take her home.
It brought her here, but it didn’t show up to take her home.
Three of us waited with her
for more than an hour after the time
that the van was supposed to come for her.
No one came.
A phone call to the paratransit service
gave us a recording
saying that they were closed for the holiday.
A call to 211 yielded lots of questions
and ended with a suggestion that we might call the police.
A call to 911 yielded more questions,
the statement that the police don’t handle things like that,
and a suggestion that we call the paratransit service.
The snow was getting deeper,
and we were going around in circles.
Then we thought to call the Ursulines over on Indian Road.
There was no questioning, no hesitation.
It wasn’t long before Sister Sandy and Sister Margaret
pulled up in the community’s van
with its wheelchair lift
to take Colleen home.
They treated us like family.
_____________________________________________
I saw God’s family in action again
the next morning at Claver House.
The soup kitchen always closes on holidays,
but this year the Monday crew decided
that they would serve Christmas breakfast anyway.
They showed up with a feast--
cheese omelets and French toast
and fresh fruit and coffee cake,
Christmas candy and hats and gloves.
_____________________________________________
Treating everyone like family—that’s the basis for sainthood.
Wherever you are,
it’s treating the people you’re with
like family.
It’s traveling to visit the kids
in Ohio or Michigan or Washington or California.
It’s standing by when someone’s lonely or sick,
reaching out when there’s a need.
It’s really meaning it when we say
we are all God’s children,
all brothers and sisters to Jesus.
Sure, the big things are noticed,
like the giant checks for charity
that you see given by corporations on the evening news.
But the day-to-day sainthood happens where we live.
_____________________________________________
The scriptures tell us that
“the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
God’s Word comes to us in human form,
in Jesus of Nazareth…
and in each other.
That’s what Christmas is all about.
God comes to live in the ordinary times
of the ordinary lives
of ordinary people like us.
So it’s fitting that we celebrate the holiness of the family.
Whenever we reach out to another person,
we become living proof
that the Word became flesh and dwells among us.
We are God’s holy family.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 4th Sunday of Advent (B) and Nativity of the Lord, December 23-24, 2017
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
As Isaiah says in that first reading,
we have been walking in the darkness.
We’ve been walking in the darkness of the waning year,
with its early sunsets and cold mornings;
in the darkness of our world,
with its wars and famines and refugees;
in the darkness of our country,
with its leaders turning their backs on the poor
to gain more for themselves;
and, for some among us, we’ve been walking
in the darkness of our personal lives,
suffering loss of work, illness,
or death of friends and family members.
We all have, for sure, walked in darkness.
_____________________________________________
In spite of that, or maybe because of it,
tonight we gather to celebrate the great light that shines on us.
It’s the light that God sends us,
the light that has not been overcome,
that cannot be overcome,
by any of this darkness around us.
It’s the light that comes
from the Word spoken by God in the beginning,
as John tells us in the gospel,
the Word of creation, the word of life.
So we celebrate today the long-awaited light,
the birth of Jesus in Nazareth,
the one who grew in age and wisdom and grace,
who lived in the light of the Spirit of God
and called his townsfolk
to live the Way of love and peace and justice.
_____________________________________________
Over the centuries we’ve prayed and celebrated
in different languages and cultures,
developed similes and metaphors
to try to talk about the Way that Jesus taught.
Sadly, we’ve also fought and killed over the differences among us.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser catalogs what he calls
“a checkered origin and a checkered sequence” to our religion:
Jacob stole his brother’s birthright;
Judah slept with his daughter-in-law;
David committed adultery and then murdered to cover it up;
our church set up the Inquisition
and killed more of our own than were martyred by others;
we’ve had popes who sold favors and were sexually immoral;
we’ve had priests who abused children,
and bishops who covered it up.
Lots of darkness over the centuries, some of it in each of us.
Through it all, though, the light of Jesus shines through.
God’s Word was born in him.
God’s Word dwells among us.
_____________________________________________
John Henry Cardinal Newman believed
that history is absolutely necessary
for a correct understanding of doctrine,
and he wrote that
he never would have converted to Catholicism
if he had not received
the doctrine of the development of dogmas.
Dogmas develop.
The birth of the baby in Nazareth
was not the beginning of God’s story,
nor was it the end.
Dogmas develop.
Most modern Christians follow the theology
that John puts forth in today’s gospel.
Jesus is God from all eternity.
The Word exists “from the beginning.”
Over the years theologians have argued
about when that divine person
became “flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Fr. Ray Brown points out
that a belief in Jesus’ pre-existence as God
only develops toward the end of the first century.
Before that Paul, in the letter to the Romans,
said that Jesus became God at the resurrection.
Other authors had—and still today have--
other opinions about when Jesus became God
and even more opinions about what that means.
_____________________________________________
These days, with our expanding understanding of the universe,
we are forming new images for God
and new ways of thinking about God.
We see ourselves, like Paul says to Titus,
living in the light
because we are heirs,
children who come forth from God.
We see ourselves
coming from that word of creation spoken billions of years ago.
That word spoken by God in the beginning,
that word of creation and life,
includes us...
each and every one of us.
We are brothers and sisters to each other and to Jesus,
the teacher of justice and peace
who shows us the path of life.
We are called to walk that very same path he followed.
When we celebrate his birth,
we celebrate his life, our lives, all life.
We celebrate the light that shines in the darkness.
And the darkness does not overcome it.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
As Isaiah says in that first reading,
we have been walking in the darkness.
We’ve been walking in the darkness of the waning year,
with its early sunsets and cold mornings;
in the darkness of our world,
with its wars and famines and refugees;
in the darkness of our country,
with its leaders turning their backs on the poor
to gain more for themselves;
and, for some among us, we’ve been walking
in the darkness of our personal lives,
suffering loss of work, illness,
or death of friends and family members.
We all have, for sure, walked in darkness.
_____________________________________________
In spite of that, or maybe because of it,
tonight we gather to celebrate the great light that shines on us.
It’s the light that God sends us,
the light that has not been overcome,
that cannot be overcome,
by any of this darkness around us.
It’s the light that comes
from the Word spoken by God in the beginning,
as John tells us in the gospel,
the Word of creation, the word of life.
So we celebrate today the long-awaited light,
the birth of Jesus in Nazareth,
the one who grew in age and wisdom and grace,
who lived in the light of the Spirit of God
and called his townsfolk
to live the Way of love and peace and justice.
_____________________________________________
Over the centuries we’ve prayed and celebrated
in different languages and cultures,
developed similes and metaphors
to try to talk about the Way that Jesus taught.
Sadly, we’ve also fought and killed over the differences among us.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser catalogs what he calls
“a checkered origin and a checkered sequence” to our religion:
Jacob stole his brother’s birthright;
Judah slept with his daughter-in-law;
David committed adultery and then murdered to cover it up;
our church set up the Inquisition
and killed more of our own than were martyred by others;
we’ve had popes who sold favors and were sexually immoral;
we’ve had priests who abused children,
and bishops who covered it up.
Lots of darkness over the centuries, some of it in each of us.
Through it all, though, the light of Jesus shines through.
God’s Word was born in him.
God’s Word dwells among us.
_____________________________________________
John Henry Cardinal Newman believed
that history is absolutely necessary
for a correct understanding of doctrine,
and he wrote that
he never would have converted to Catholicism
if he had not received
the doctrine of the development of dogmas.
Dogmas develop.
The birth of the baby in Nazareth
was not the beginning of God’s story,
nor was it the end.
Dogmas develop.
Most modern Christians follow the theology
that John puts forth in today’s gospel.
Jesus is God from all eternity.
The Word exists “from the beginning.”
Over the years theologians have argued
about when that divine person
became “flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Fr. Ray Brown points out
that a belief in Jesus’ pre-existence as God
only develops toward the end of the first century.
Before that Paul, in the letter to the Romans,
said that Jesus became God at the resurrection.
Other authors had—and still today have--
other opinions about when Jesus became God
and even more opinions about what that means.
_____________________________________________
These days, with our expanding understanding of the universe,
we are forming new images for God
and new ways of thinking about God.
We see ourselves, like Paul says to Titus,
living in the light
because we are heirs,
children who come forth from God.
We see ourselves
coming from that word of creation spoken billions of years ago.
That word spoken by God in the beginning,
that word of creation and life,
includes us...
each and every one of us.
We are brothers and sisters to each other and to Jesus,
the teacher of justice and peace
who shows us the path of life.
We are called to walk that very same path he followed.
When we celebrate his birth,
we celebrate his life, our lives, all life.
We celebrate the light that shines in the darkness.
And the darkness does not overcome it.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 3rd Sunday of Advent (B), December 17, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11
Responsorial Psalm: Luke 1:46-54
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28
Rejoice?
There’s so much wrong in the world...
breaking news every minute.
How can we rejoice?
Where is the light?
On every issue of justice, on every issue of peace,
the bad news just keeps coming.
Bad news on the climate--
floods, famine, and fire.
Bad news from our government--
tax bills that cater to billionaires
and slash programs for kids and the poor,
and deadly ideas disguised as health care.
Bad news across the world--
war and genocide
and 65 million refugees running from violence.
And here in our own country, just this year so far,
over 58,000 gun violence incidents
have killed over 14,000 people...
not counting the suicides.
Five years ago this past Thursday,
we lost 20 children and 6 teachers at Sandy Hook.
Since then, 150,000 people
have died from guns in our country.
Thirteen hundred of them are children.
Not even two weeks ago, in Aztec, New Mexico--
two high school students and the 21-year-old shooter died.
The teachers, the parents, the friends,
the families, the broken hearts…
the groaning souls.
Sometimes it’s really hard to rejoice.
________________________________________
Where is the Advent hope for us?
In today’s first reading,
we heard Isaiah say
that God makes justice spring up
for the poor and the marginalized.
We heard that the Spirit of God is on us:
that we are called to be in right relationship with all people.
that breaking that relationship is wrong.
that we cannot be in right relationship
if we do not work
to bring peace and justice to everyone.
Then we heard Paul telling us to rejoice.
And we heard John the Baptist
saying that light was coming into the world.
It’s easy to see that we aren’t there yet.
Like Isaiah’s listeners, like the baptizer’s crowds,
like Jesus’ original followers,
we are still waiting.
________________________________________
But we are on the Way.
There is joy, even here in Toledo.
Last Sunday in that 27-degree weather
with a 14 mph wind
and the wind chill down to 15,
scores of people stood at the corner of Secor and Central
demonstrating for peace and justice for Palestine.
The city chief of police and county sheriff
and Hispanic Toledoans have signed
an agreement to a Code of Conduct
for peaceful understanding on both sides.
Toledo’s Jewish community planted a peace pole
at Temple Shomer Emunim this week,
along with members of the MultiFaith Council of NW Ohio
and area citizens who speak Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Hebrew, Hindu, Russian, and Spanish.
The Lucas County Homelessness Board
called together citizens, business leaders,
shelter operators, educators,
religious communities, and government officials
to improve life for homeless people.
With Christmas and Hanukkah coming,
the evening news has started
to uncover the generosity of ordinary people
responding to the needs of their neighbors.
Here and all across the country,
thousands of people are gathering with us
in this vigil to end gun violence.
________________________________________
We still recognize, though,
that all is certainly not well in our world.
Our work is not finished.
People of every faith follow a path to God,
and we who are Christians
embrace the Way of Jesus as our path.
Our tradition calls us, in the words of Pope Francis,
to work on behalf of the poor;
to eliminate structural causes of poverty;
to work for access to education,
healthcare, and full employment
and against the idolatry of money;
to uphold the dignity of every human being,
privately and in the public square.
When we answer that call,
we’re not just obeying the rules
of the institutional church.
We’re finding peace.
And joy.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11
Responsorial Psalm: Luke 1:46-54
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28
Rejoice?
There’s so much wrong in the world...
breaking news every minute.
How can we rejoice?
Where is the light?
On every issue of justice, on every issue of peace,
the bad news just keeps coming.
Bad news on the climate--
floods, famine, and fire.
Bad news from our government--
tax bills that cater to billionaires
and slash programs for kids and the poor,
and deadly ideas disguised as health care.
Bad news across the world--
war and genocide
and 65 million refugees running from violence.
And here in our own country, just this year so far,
over 58,000 gun violence incidents
have killed over 14,000 people...
not counting the suicides.
Five years ago this past Thursday,
we lost 20 children and 6 teachers at Sandy Hook.
Since then, 150,000 people
have died from guns in our country.
Thirteen hundred of them are children.
Not even two weeks ago, in Aztec, New Mexico--
two high school students and the 21-year-old shooter died.
The teachers, the parents, the friends,
the families, the broken hearts…
the groaning souls.
Sometimes it’s really hard to rejoice.
________________________________________
Where is the Advent hope for us?
In today’s first reading,
we heard Isaiah say
that God makes justice spring up
for the poor and the marginalized.
We heard that the Spirit of God is on us:
that we are called to be in right relationship with all people.
that breaking that relationship is wrong.
that we cannot be in right relationship
if we do not work
to bring peace and justice to everyone.
Then we heard Paul telling us to rejoice.
And we heard John the Baptist
saying that light was coming into the world.
It’s easy to see that we aren’t there yet.
Like Isaiah’s listeners, like the baptizer’s crowds,
like Jesus’ original followers,
we are still waiting.
________________________________________
But we are on the Way.
There is joy, even here in Toledo.
Last Sunday in that 27-degree weather
with a 14 mph wind
and the wind chill down to 15,
scores of people stood at the corner of Secor and Central
demonstrating for peace and justice for Palestine.
The city chief of police and county sheriff
and Hispanic Toledoans have signed
an agreement to a Code of Conduct
for peaceful understanding on both sides.
Toledo’s Jewish community planted a peace pole
at Temple Shomer Emunim this week,
along with members of the MultiFaith Council of NW Ohio
and area citizens who speak Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Hebrew, Hindu, Russian, and Spanish.
The Lucas County Homelessness Board
called together citizens, business leaders,
shelter operators, educators,
religious communities, and government officials
to improve life for homeless people.
With Christmas and Hanukkah coming,
the evening news has started
to uncover the generosity of ordinary people
responding to the needs of their neighbors.
Here and all across the country,
thousands of people are gathering with us
in this vigil to end gun violence.
________________________________________
We still recognize, though,
that all is certainly not well in our world.
Our work is not finished.
People of every faith follow a path to God,
and we who are Christians
embrace the Way of Jesus as our path.
Our tradition calls us, in the words of Pope Francis,
to work on behalf of the poor;
to eliminate structural causes of poverty;
to work for access to education,
healthcare, and full employment
and against the idolatry of money;
to uphold the dignity of every human being,
privately and in the public square.
When we answer that call,
we’re not just obeying the rules
of the institutional church.
We’re finding peace.
And joy.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 2nd Sunday of Advent (B), December 10, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:8-13
Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-14
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
In its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,
Vatican II says that figuring out
what the scripture writers meant
is an exercise that we need to go through
if we are to understand the truth of the Bible.
Linguistic, cultural, and anthropological studies
can make clear the truths that we have lost
over centuries of translation and societal change.
Today’s gospel gives us some examples.
One thing is that the first verse of today’s gospel
does not start with
“As it is written in Isaiah the prophet.”
The first verse is really,
according to our New American Bible,
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.”
And even that translation doesn’t make the meaning clear.
There’s a lot of theology packed into those words--
gospel, Christ, Son of God--
words that we as Americans understand
in a way that is deaf
to the way they would have been understood
2,000 years ago.
While the prologues of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels
show Jesus’ status and authority
by detailing his family tree,
that one sentence at the start of Mark’s Gospel
shows that Jesus was important
and deserves our attention,
but it’s in words
that go right over our heads today.
________________________________________________________________________
Those first century folks
would have understood them to say this:
“the beginning of the proclamation
of Jesus the Messiah.”
Messiah, not the Greek word Christ, as if it were his last name.
Messiah: the anointed one, the expected one,
the one hoped for.
Proclamation, not gospel.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t gospel—good news—in the scriptures.
There definitely is.
But our ancestors in faith,
hearing that word “proclamation,”
would ask themselves
who the important person is
who is making this proclamation about the Messiah.
___________________________________________
Who is this John
out in the desert
making the proclamation?
He’s a Jew, born in the priestly line.
He’s a preacher, weaving the ancient promises
of Genesis, Exodus, Malachi, and Isaiah
into a message of hope to an oppressed people.
He’s a prophet calling for repentance--
a change of heart, a change of habits,
a transformation that will prepare the way
for God’s reign.
The word John uses for repentance is metanoia,
literally going beyond the mind,
a radical open-mindedness--
a repentance that has nothing to do
with making a laundry list of peccadilloes
to confess in private.
John’s words inspire folks to jump in the Jordan
in what Sister Mary McGlone calls
“a communal and enthusiastic public demonstration
in which groups of people got excited
about the idea that life could be
much better than it was.
‘Their confession was,
`‘We have settled for less,
but no more!’”
_______________________________________
Many of us respond
with that radical open-mindedness
to the signs of our own times.
Life can be better, we say,
and we’re not going to settle for less.
Remember the hope we felt
when we marched across the Martin Luther King Bridge
on the afternoon of Inauguration Day last January?
We prayed and sang and marched, hundreds of us.
We wanted that new heaven and new earth
that we heard about in Peter’s letter today,
and we saw that the times ahead
could threaten our hopes and dreams.
As we saw the gathering clouds of deportation,
travel bans, walls, tax breaks for the wealthy,
and de-funding of programs for the poor,
we experienced that same metanoia,
that change of heart.
We were inspired to say “no more!”
We knew, like those folks in Mark’s first-century community,
that life can be better than this.
Like them, we decided
that we weren’t going to settle any more...
and we were filled with hope.
_______________________________________
We still live, like John the Baptizer, in the desert,
surrounded by broken lives and marginalized people.
Yet we still hope.
This coming January 21
we’ll march across the MLK Bridge again,
singing and chanting once more.
The challenge for us
is the same as John’s challenge in the wilderness:
to turn our lives around
so that we can keep on working
to make all people free,
every one of us living in a new earth
where peace and justice reign.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:8-13
Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-14
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
In its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,
Vatican II says that figuring out
what the scripture writers meant
is an exercise that we need to go through
if we are to understand the truth of the Bible.
Linguistic, cultural, and anthropological studies
can make clear the truths that we have lost
over centuries of translation and societal change.
Today’s gospel gives us some examples.
One thing is that the first verse of today’s gospel
does not start with
“As it is written in Isaiah the prophet.”
The first verse is really,
according to our New American Bible,
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.”
And even that translation doesn’t make the meaning clear.
There’s a lot of theology packed into those words--
gospel, Christ, Son of God--
words that we as Americans understand
in a way that is deaf
to the way they would have been understood
2,000 years ago.
While the prologues of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels
show Jesus’ status and authority
by detailing his family tree,
that one sentence at the start of Mark’s Gospel
shows that Jesus was important
and deserves our attention,
but it’s in words
that go right over our heads today.
________________________________________________________________________
Those first century folks
would have understood them to say this:
“the beginning of the proclamation
of Jesus the Messiah.”
Messiah, not the Greek word Christ, as if it were his last name.
Messiah: the anointed one, the expected one,
the one hoped for.
Proclamation, not gospel.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t gospel—good news—in the scriptures.
There definitely is.
But our ancestors in faith,
hearing that word “proclamation,”
would ask themselves
who the important person is
who is making this proclamation about the Messiah.
___________________________________________
Who is this John
out in the desert
making the proclamation?
He’s a Jew, born in the priestly line.
He’s a preacher, weaving the ancient promises
of Genesis, Exodus, Malachi, and Isaiah
into a message of hope to an oppressed people.
He’s a prophet calling for repentance--
a change of heart, a change of habits,
a transformation that will prepare the way
for God’s reign.
The word John uses for repentance is metanoia,
literally going beyond the mind,
a radical open-mindedness--
a repentance that has nothing to do
with making a laundry list of peccadilloes
to confess in private.
John’s words inspire folks to jump in the Jordan
in what Sister Mary McGlone calls
“a communal and enthusiastic public demonstration
in which groups of people got excited
about the idea that life could be
much better than it was.
‘Their confession was,
`‘We have settled for less,
but no more!’”
_______________________________________
Many of us respond
with that radical open-mindedness
to the signs of our own times.
Life can be better, we say,
and we’re not going to settle for less.
Remember the hope we felt
when we marched across the Martin Luther King Bridge
on the afternoon of Inauguration Day last January?
We prayed and sang and marched, hundreds of us.
We wanted that new heaven and new earth
that we heard about in Peter’s letter today,
and we saw that the times ahead
could threaten our hopes and dreams.
As we saw the gathering clouds of deportation,
travel bans, walls, tax breaks for the wealthy,
and de-funding of programs for the poor,
we experienced that same metanoia,
that change of heart.
We were inspired to say “no more!”
We knew, like those folks in Mark’s first-century community,
that life can be better than this.
Like them, we decided
that we weren’t going to settle any more...
and we were filled with hope.
_______________________________________
We still live, like John the Baptizer, in the desert,
surrounded by broken lives and marginalized people.
Yet we still hope.
This coming January 21
we’ll march across the MLK Bridge again,
singing and chanting once more.
The challenge for us
is the same as John’s challenge in the wilderness:
to turn our lives around
so that we can keep on working
to make all people free,
every one of us living in a new earth
where peace and justice reign.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 1st Sunday of Advent (B), December 3, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 63:16-17, 19; 64:1-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:1-3, 14-19
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37
The writers of today’s readings
seem to be teetering on the edge of bipolar disorder,
what we used to call manic depression.
Isaiah is the depression side of it:
we’re doomed, he says,
and it’s God’s fault.
God made us, like a potter makes dishes out of clay,
and God did everything wrong.
God is the one who lets us stray,
God hardens our hearts,
God hides from us,
God delivers us into sin.
The psalmist is gasping,
begging God to force us to turn around.
In contrast to Isaiah and the psalmist,
Paul seems to be on the manic side:
we’re not lacking any spiritual gift,
we’re called into communion,
God is faithful, \
God will sustain us forever.
Mark is frenetic:
watch yourself, he says.
Don’t fall asleep on the job;
you don’t know when the boss is coming.
________________________________________
When I come across scriptures like this,
I like to remember what theologian Marcus Borg said:
“The Bible is true, and some of it actually happened.”
For today’s readings,
one of the things that means
is that we have to take a close look at these passages
so we can discern the truth that they tell us.
The mindset of the authors
and their situation in time
are significant.
Isaiah’s lament is the cry of the Israelites
who return from Babylon in 539 BC.
Everything was a mess.
It didn’t look anything like the new creation they were promised
while they were in exile.
It’s like coming back home to Houston after Hurricane Harvey
and seeing your neighborhood in shambles
and your house destroyed.
It looks hopeless.
Depression sets in.
________________________________________
Paul’s mindset is much different.
A few years after founding the community in Corinth,
Paul wrote from Ephesus about disputes
that he had heard of.
Today’s excerpt from that letter
is a typical beginning in Hellenistic writing.
The Greeks would begin their letters
with thanksgiving for health, a safe journey,
deliverance from danger, good fortune.
Paul expresses his thanks
for the goodness of the Christian community in Corinth,
and he uses extravagantly positive words to do it.
________________________________________
Mark, writing 25 years or more after Jesus’ resurrection,
shared the apocalyptic expectation
held by both Christians and Jews
that the end of history was near.
All of Mark’s Chapter 13 is known as the “Little Apocalypse,”
for the most part Mark’s creation
and not typical of Jesus.
Mark sandwiches his apocalyptic message
between stories of two women
who show what discipleship should be.
Right before this “Little Apocalypse,”
at the end of Chapter 12,
the poor widow gives away the two coins she needs
in comparison to the rich
who give away only what they don’t need.
At the beginning of the next chapter,
right after the “Little Apocalypse,”
a woman anoints Jesus’ head with oil,
showing her as the one
who recognizes Jesus as Messiah
while none of the powerful men do.
Given that setting,
Mark’s theological lesson in today’s gospel passage
would have us look to poor and marginalized people
to show us how to follow Jesus.
That’s part of the gospel truth.
________________________________________
Another part of the gospel truth
lies in Mark’s creation of today’s parable
for his post-Easter church
waiting for the delayed Second Coming.
In terms of the historicity of today’s passage,
scholars say the image of the returning landlord
could come from Jesus,
but that’s about it.
Everything else is created by Mark for his community.
The gospel truth comes
in that we can fall asleep to God
and sometimes need a spiritual alarm clock
to wake us up.
Sometimes we need to wake up
to what we are doing
and to what we should be doing.
These days, it can be really hard
to see the way forward.
We look at the evening news
and see little hope in making life better,
less violent,
and more just.
________________________________________
But Advent is a season of hope.
Like our ancestors in faith,
we look at the world,
and we know it can be better,
and we have faith that we can be part of making it better.
Our Advent hope prompts us
to judge as evil
our culture’s emphasis on wealth, power, and prestige,
on greed, violence, and vengeance.
Our Advent hope reminds us
that war, racism, and classism
are dehumanizing.
Our Advent hope inspires us
to value love and life,
truth, peace, justice,
forgiveness.
________________________________________
I see each of you living in that Advent hope.
From your tiniest word of prayer
to your actions for peace and justice
to your living a life of love for others,
your hope is clear.
It’s real, here and now.
It’s inspiring.
Our church sets aside this Advent season
so we can prepare for the coming of Jesus,
but he’s already born in us.
Because of him we know
that God is already here with us,
and in us,
and among us.
We’re on a journey,
the way laid out for us
by our brother and teacher Jesus,
to make hope possible
in seemingly hopeless situations
and to live wisely, lovingly, justly, and peacefully
in the present moment.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 63:16-17, 19; 64:1-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:1-3, 14-19
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37
The writers of today’s readings
seem to be teetering on the edge of bipolar disorder,
what we used to call manic depression.
Isaiah is the depression side of it:
we’re doomed, he says,
and it’s God’s fault.
God made us, like a potter makes dishes out of clay,
and God did everything wrong.
God is the one who lets us stray,
God hardens our hearts,
God hides from us,
God delivers us into sin.
The psalmist is gasping,
begging God to force us to turn around.
In contrast to Isaiah and the psalmist,
Paul seems to be on the manic side:
we’re not lacking any spiritual gift,
we’re called into communion,
God is faithful, \
God will sustain us forever.
Mark is frenetic:
watch yourself, he says.
Don’t fall asleep on the job;
you don’t know when the boss is coming.
________________________________________
When I come across scriptures like this,
I like to remember what theologian Marcus Borg said:
“The Bible is true, and some of it actually happened.”
For today’s readings,
one of the things that means
is that we have to take a close look at these passages
so we can discern the truth that they tell us.
The mindset of the authors
and their situation in time
are significant.
Isaiah’s lament is the cry of the Israelites
who return from Babylon in 539 BC.
Everything was a mess.
It didn’t look anything like the new creation they were promised
while they were in exile.
It’s like coming back home to Houston after Hurricane Harvey
and seeing your neighborhood in shambles
and your house destroyed.
It looks hopeless.
Depression sets in.
________________________________________
Paul’s mindset is much different.
A few years after founding the community in Corinth,
Paul wrote from Ephesus about disputes
that he had heard of.
Today’s excerpt from that letter
is a typical beginning in Hellenistic writing.
The Greeks would begin their letters
with thanksgiving for health, a safe journey,
deliverance from danger, good fortune.
Paul expresses his thanks
for the goodness of the Christian community in Corinth,
and he uses extravagantly positive words to do it.
________________________________________
Mark, writing 25 years or more after Jesus’ resurrection,
shared the apocalyptic expectation
held by both Christians and Jews
that the end of history was near.
All of Mark’s Chapter 13 is known as the “Little Apocalypse,”
for the most part Mark’s creation
and not typical of Jesus.
Mark sandwiches his apocalyptic message
between stories of two women
who show what discipleship should be.
Right before this “Little Apocalypse,”
at the end of Chapter 12,
the poor widow gives away the two coins she needs
in comparison to the rich
who give away only what they don’t need.
At the beginning of the next chapter,
right after the “Little Apocalypse,”
a woman anoints Jesus’ head with oil,
showing her as the one
who recognizes Jesus as Messiah
while none of the powerful men do.
Given that setting,
Mark’s theological lesson in today’s gospel passage
would have us look to poor and marginalized people
to show us how to follow Jesus.
That’s part of the gospel truth.
________________________________________
Another part of the gospel truth
lies in Mark’s creation of today’s parable
for his post-Easter church
waiting for the delayed Second Coming.
In terms of the historicity of today’s passage,
scholars say the image of the returning landlord
could come from Jesus,
but that’s about it.
Everything else is created by Mark for his community.
The gospel truth comes
in that we can fall asleep to God
and sometimes need a spiritual alarm clock
to wake us up.
Sometimes we need to wake up
to what we are doing
and to what we should be doing.
These days, it can be really hard
to see the way forward.
We look at the evening news
and see little hope in making life better,
less violent,
and more just.
________________________________________
But Advent is a season of hope.
Like our ancestors in faith,
we look at the world,
and we know it can be better,
and we have faith that we can be part of making it better.
Our Advent hope prompts us
to judge as evil
our culture’s emphasis on wealth, power, and prestige,
on greed, violence, and vengeance.
Our Advent hope reminds us
that war, racism, and classism
are dehumanizing.
Our Advent hope inspires us
to value love and life,
truth, peace, justice,
forgiveness.
________________________________________
I see each of you living in that Advent hope.
From your tiniest word of prayer
to your actions for peace and justice
to your living a life of love for others,
your hope is clear.
It’s real, here and now.
It’s inspiring.
Our church sets aside this Advent season
so we can prepare for the coming of Jesus,
but he’s already born in us.
Because of him we know
that God is already here with us,
and in us,
and among us.
We’re on a journey,
the way laid out for us
by our brother and teacher Jesus,
to make hope possible
in seemingly hopeless situations
and to live wisely, lovingly, justly, and peacefully
in the present moment.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Solemnity of Christ the King, November 26, 2017
First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46
Here we are, on the last weekend of the year of Matthew,
the end of our liturgical year.
We hear once again that familiar gospel
about the sheep and the goats.
Biblical scholar Reginald Fuller makes the point
that today’s Gospel is not a parable.
It’s an apocalyptic vision.
Looking at the culture and history of the time,
Fuller says that Matthew takes
the simile of the sheep and goats
and the sayings about how Jesus’ disciples
were received by the people they went out to
and sandwiches them
between an apocalyptic introduction and conclusion.
If we look at it in that framework,
we see that this Gospel was, for Matthew’s community,
about what will happen when the world comes to an end.
_________________________________________
So the sayings in the middle of this reading
tell about how the apostles were received
when they went out to preach the reign of God.
The people called “accursed” didn’t help them at all.
They treated them like outsiders.
They didn’t give them food or drink,
didn’t welcome them,
didn’t cover them in their nakedness,
didn’t care for them when they were sick.
The people called “righteous” did.
_________________________________________
As scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown says,
this passage shows that
there is one norm for determining how we end up,
and it’s based on how we treat the “other” in our midst.
In first century Mediterranean culture
the “other” meant
anyone who was not in the family or the tribe.
Everybody is an “other” to someone else.
For those who were young and healthy
and had a house and income,
the “other” could include the poor and the sick
and the old and the children and the widowed.
For the Christian community gathered around Matthew,
the “other” included people who were not Christians.
_________________________________________
Given that background, what are we to take from this reading?
We no longer hold to the same end-times images
that first-century folks did.
But we do have,
especially with the impact of climate change
looming ahead of us,
images of end-times.
We are beginning to see them
in the floods and fires and hurricanes and tornadoes
that rip up the land and the tear down homes and businesses.
And, worst of all, maim and kill.
So we who are safe have the “other” with us here
in Texas and Florida and Louisiana and California.
And we see the “other” in people all over the world,
refugees and immigrants, the starving and the dying.
We see the “other” here in Toledo,
in the homeless, the hungry, the ill.
We see them in the way black people are imprisoned,
the way fat people are ridiculed,
the way LGBT folks are ostracized.
We even see the “other” in the way
that our institutional church treats couples
in what is termed an “irregular” marriage,
or scholars who write books that call for church reform,
or people who use contraceptives.
End times or not,
we who follow the way of Christ
get a clear message about what we are called to do.
Like Francis of Assisi, like Mother Teresa, like Jesus,
we have to reach out
and embrace the “other” among us,
whoever that may be.
When we do that, we’ll find, as Fr. Ron Rolheiser says,
that we serve justice and charity
and that we also serve our own self-interest
because, in reaching out to the “other” in our midst,
we find that the reign of God is at hand.
We’re living it.
Amen
First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46
Here we are, on the last weekend of the year of Matthew,
the end of our liturgical year.
We hear once again that familiar gospel
about the sheep and the goats.
Biblical scholar Reginald Fuller makes the point
that today’s Gospel is not a parable.
It’s an apocalyptic vision.
Looking at the culture and history of the time,
Fuller says that Matthew takes
the simile of the sheep and goats
and the sayings about how Jesus’ disciples
were received by the people they went out to
and sandwiches them
between an apocalyptic introduction and conclusion.
If we look at it in that framework,
we see that this Gospel was, for Matthew’s community,
about what will happen when the world comes to an end.
_________________________________________
So the sayings in the middle of this reading
tell about how the apostles were received
when they went out to preach the reign of God.
The people called “accursed” didn’t help them at all.
They treated them like outsiders.
They didn’t give them food or drink,
didn’t welcome them,
didn’t cover them in their nakedness,
didn’t care for them when they were sick.
The people called “righteous” did.
_________________________________________
As scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown says,
this passage shows that
there is one norm for determining how we end up,
and it’s based on how we treat the “other” in our midst.
In first century Mediterranean culture
the “other” meant
anyone who was not in the family or the tribe.
Everybody is an “other” to someone else.
For those who were young and healthy
and had a house and income,
the “other” could include the poor and the sick
and the old and the children and the widowed.
For the Christian community gathered around Matthew,
the “other” included people who were not Christians.
_________________________________________
Given that background, what are we to take from this reading?
We no longer hold to the same end-times images
that first-century folks did.
But we do have,
especially with the impact of climate change
looming ahead of us,
images of end-times.
We are beginning to see them
in the floods and fires and hurricanes and tornadoes
that rip up the land and the tear down homes and businesses.
And, worst of all, maim and kill.
So we who are safe have the “other” with us here
in Texas and Florida and Louisiana and California.
And we see the “other” in people all over the world,
refugees and immigrants, the starving and the dying.
We see the “other” here in Toledo,
in the homeless, the hungry, the ill.
We see them in the way black people are imprisoned,
the way fat people are ridiculed,
the way LGBT folks are ostracized.
We even see the “other” in the way
that our institutional church treats couples
in what is termed an “irregular” marriage,
or scholars who write books that call for church reform,
or people who use contraceptives.
End times or not,
we who follow the way of Christ
get a clear message about what we are called to do.
Like Francis of Assisi, like Mother Teresa, like Jesus,
we have to reach out
and embrace the “other” among us,
whoever that may be.
When we do that, we’ll find, as Fr. Ron Rolheiser says,
that we serve justice and charity
and that we also serve our own self-interest
because, in reaching out to the “other” in our midst,
we find that the reign of God is at hand.
We’re living it.
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), November 19, 2017
First Reading: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128:1-5
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30
Across 2,000 years, across the seas,
across cultures and languages,
the meaning of the word talent has changed.
When we here in today’s USA hear the word talent,
we hear skills, abilities, gifts, and human resources.
That’s the meaning used for today’s gospel
by most scriptural commentators.
The parable can be seen to yield a good message that way,
and that’s the way we’ve all heard it preached over the years:
Don’t bury your talents.
A growing number of scholars, though--
among them Rita Houlihan, Roger Pilch,
Barbara Reid, and John Kavanaugh--
look back to the culture and language
of the Mediterranean world of the first century
and give us a different message.
They tell us that Jesus,
when he used the word talent,
was not talking about skills and abilities.
He was talking about money.
__________________________________________
How much was a talent worth?
It was roughly equal to 20 years of wages.
In our country and our time,
if I made $50,000 a year,
one talent would be a million dollars.
__________________________________________
And Jesus is not talking about God.
He doesn’t start this parable
saying that the reign of God is like this rich man.
On top of that, the description of the rich man
is nothing like God.
He is a demanding person.
He harvests where he didn’t plant
and gathers where he didn’t scatter.
In short, he takes the fruit of other people’s labor.
Definitely not God-like.
Definitely not God.
__________________________________________
Biblical scholar Dr. John Pilch points out
that the peasants listening to this parable
would not find it to be good news.
They would know firsthand
about the rich landlord taking away their crops--
like the landowners took from sharecroppers in the south
after the Civil War.
The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
__________________________________________
The rich man’s statement about interest
gives us another clue to the meaning this parable.
Today we see interest as a good thing.
If we could get 100% interest on our money,
we’d think we were very wise.
Very clever.
And we’d be very rich.
Our Middle Eastern ancestors in the faith, though,
didn’t see it that way.
When the rich man says
that the third servant
should have put the money in the bank at interest,
he was telling him to commit a serious sin--
the sin of usury.
The servant didn’t do that.
In burying the money,
he did what rabbis would later judge
to be the most honorable thing to do.
The third servant refused to participate in the oppressive system.
Those first two servants were not only serving their boss,
they were imitating him.
They became part of the oppressive system.
__________________________________________
Eusebius of Caesarea,
who wrote Biblical commentaries in the early 300s,
had another version of this parable
from a manuscript that has not survived.
In the Gospel of the Nazoreans, according to Eusebius,
the master puts the first servant into prison,
scolds the second one,
and welcomes the third one with joy.
The one who buried the talent
is the one who does justice.
He refuses, as Barbara Reid puts it,
to participate in a system
that glorifies making money
over all else.
__________________________________________
We’re bombarded these days
with messages that tell us that
wealth is the goal of life
and that figuring out how to get more
makes us virtuous.
Today’s parable tells us
that we have to look carefully
at what we do with money.
We can’t look at this parable
as presenting strategies for fund-raising
or for developing personal abilities.
Instead, we have to take the view
of those peasants that Jesus was talking to.
So we ask ourselves:
how much is enough?
We look at our everyday habits
and make sure we’re contributing to productive capitalism
that creates life-giving products and services.
We refuse to buy clothes made by children in sweat shops.
We find ways to cut our use of fossil fuels
that feed the climate change
that’s making refugees
out of millions of people around the world.
We do not imitate the rich man.
We don’t become oppressors of the poor.
We imitate the third servant,
in spite of the risks.
We become servant leaders.
Amen!
First Reading: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128:1-5
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30
Across 2,000 years, across the seas,
across cultures and languages,
the meaning of the word talent has changed.
When we here in today’s USA hear the word talent,
we hear skills, abilities, gifts, and human resources.
That’s the meaning used for today’s gospel
by most scriptural commentators.
The parable can be seen to yield a good message that way,
and that’s the way we’ve all heard it preached over the years:
Don’t bury your talents.
A growing number of scholars, though--
among them Rita Houlihan, Roger Pilch,
Barbara Reid, and John Kavanaugh--
look back to the culture and language
of the Mediterranean world of the first century
and give us a different message.
They tell us that Jesus,
when he used the word talent,
was not talking about skills and abilities.
He was talking about money.
__________________________________________
How much was a talent worth?
It was roughly equal to 20 years of wages.
In our country and our time,
if I made $50,000 a year,
one talent would be a million dollars.
__________________________________________
And Jesus is not talking about God.
He doesn’t start this parable
saying that the reign of God is like this rich man.
On top of that, the description of the rich man
is nothing like God.
He is a demanding person.
He harvests where he didn’t plant
and gathers where he didn’t scatter.
In short, he takes the fruit of other people’s labor.
Definitely not God-like.
Definitely not God.
__________________________________________
Biblical scholar Dr. John Pilch points out
that the peasants listening to this parable
would not find it to be good news.
They would know firsthand
about the rich landlord taking away their crops--
like the landowners took from sharecroppers in the south
after the Civil War.
The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
__________________________________________
The rich man’s statement about interest
gives us another clue to the meaning this parable.
Today we see interest as a good thing.
If we could get 100% interest on our money,
we’d think we were very wise.
Very clever.
And we’d be very rich.
Our Middle Eastern ancestors in the faith, though,
didn’t see it that way.
When the rich man says
that the third servant
should have put the money in the bank at interest,
he was telling him to commit a serious sin--
the sin of usury.
The servant didn’t do that.
In burying the money,
he did what rabbis would later judge
to be the most honorable thing to do.
The third servant refused to participate in the oppressive system.
Those first two servants were not only serving their boss,
they were imitating him.
They became part of the oppressive system.
__________________________________________
Eusebius of Caesarea,
who wrote Biblical commentaries in the early 300s,
had another version of this parable
from a manuscript that has not survived.
In the Gospel of the Nazoreans, according to Eusebius,
the master puts the first servant into prison,
scolds the second one,
and welcomes the third one with joy.
The one who buried the talent
is the one who does justice.
He refuses, as Barbara Reid puts it,
to participate in a system
that glorifies making money
over all else.
__________________________________________
We’re bombarded these days
with messages that tell us that
wealth is the goal of life
and that figuring out how to get more
makes us virtuous.
Today’s parable tells us
that we have to look carefully
at what we do with money.
We can’t look at this parable
as presenting strategies for fund-raising
or for developing personal abilities.
Instead, we have to take the view
of those peasants that Jesus was talking to.
So we ask ourselves:
how much is enough?
We look at our everyday habits
and make sure we’re contributing to productive capitalism
that creates life-giving products and services.
We refuse to buy clothes made by children in sweat shops.
We find ways to cut our use of fossil fuels
that feed the climate change
that’s making refugees
out of millions of people around the world.
We do not imitate the rich man.
We don’t become oppressors of the poor.
We imitate the third servant,
in spite of the risks.
We become servant leaders.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Wisdom 6:12-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63:1-7
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13
We usually hear today’s gospel parable talked about
in terms of what we have to do
to get into heaven when we die,
ignoring the fact that it’s a parable about the reign of God
that, as Jesus told us, is “at hand,” here and now.
Fr. Roger Karban—a classmate of Fr. Marty Donnelly,
whom most of you know—puts it this way:
“Today’s parable zeroes in
on always being prepared
for God breaking into our lives.”
Matthew, writing 50 to as many as 80 years after Jesus,
changed Jesus’ parable to make a point for his community--
the same point he makes with the parable of the talents
and the parable of the sheep and the goats--
the point that those who follow the rules carefully
will make it to heaven,
and those who don’t will get locked out.
_________________________________________
But that’s not the message Jesus preached.
He preached the reign of God--
that’s how today’s parable starts out.
The reign of God is like these ten young female relatives
waiting to welcome the groom
when he brings his bride to his home for the wedding.
They’re waiting for the celebration to start.
That’s their job in this Mediterranean culture.
Five of them are wise.
There’s oil in their lamps.
They’re ready when the groom arrives.
That’s what happens when we’re wise:
when we prepare for the future…
when we practice virtue until it becomes part of us,
an automatic response, just the way we are.
We know what to do, and we do it,
so we don’t miss out on the reign of God.
_________________________________________
Like the people of Jesus’ time,
we have to pay attention
so that we don’t absorb the fake wisdom of our culture.
We have to work hard to hear God’s wisdom.
We have to listen to the promptings of the Spirit within us
so we don’t lose heart and give up.
_________________________________________
We know what was going on back then
because we know what’s going on right now.
Author and climate activist Naomi Klein
says that our culture tells us
what she calls “dangerous stories.”
She lists those stories:
That greed is good.
That money is what matters in life.
That white men are better than everybody else.
That nature is there for us to plunder and pillage.
That the vulnerable deserve their fate
and the 1% deserve their golden towers.
That anything public or commonly held is evil.
And that there is no alternative to any of this.
Klein says that we have to “fiercely protect some space
to dream and plan for a better world.”
_________________________________________
Our first reading tells us
how to get that space to dream and plan.
Seek wisdom, it says.
Look for the spirit of God in you,
and you’ll get something that won’t fade away.
Even when times and cultures change, wisdom lasts...
and it’s available to anyone and everyone.
Wisdom tells us to stay awake.
Wisdom tells us to pay attention to what’s going on right now.
_________________________________________
There’s a flood of advice out there these days
telling us how to live in the present moment.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that,
while much of this literature is good,
little of it is very effective.
He says we just can’t do what it asks:
we can’t live each day of our lives
as if it were our last day.
We can’t sustain that heightened awareness all the time.
We’re human.
The distractions and pressures of everyday life
make us fall asleep
to what’s deeper and more important.
So we have to get in the habit of putting oil in our lamps
by praying, sharing Eucharist,
doing justice, loving our kids,
reaching out to strangers.
_________________________________________
Practice makes perfect.
We learn to stay awake to God’s action in our lives.
We practice being aware of God’s presence
in the people who cross our paths:
this moment of gratitude,
this gift of another breath,
this one person in need,
this chance to hope,
this hour to take action.
That’s how the five wise virgins entered the reign of God--
and that’s how we do it, too.
The reign of God is at hand,
right here and right now.
Just look around!
First Reading: Wisdom 6:12-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63:1-7
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13
We usually hear today’s gospel parable talked about
in terms of what we have to do
to get into heaven when we die,
ignoring the fact that it’s a parable about the reign of God
that, as Jesus told us, is “at hand,” here and now.
Fr. Roger Karban—a classmate of Fr. Marty Donnelly,
whom most of you know—puts it this way:
“Today’s parable zeroes in
on always being prepared
for God breaking into our lives.”
Matthew, writing 50 to as many as 80 years after Jesus,
changed Jesus’ parable to make a point for his community--
the same point he makes with the parable of the talents
and the parable of the sheep and the goats--
the point that those who follow the rules carefully
will make it to heaven,
and those who don’t will get locked out.
_________________________________________
But that’s not the message Jesus preached.
He preached the reign of God--
that’s how today’s parable starts out.
The reign of God is like these ten young female relatives
waiting to welcome the groom
when he brings his bride to his home for the wedding.
They’re waiting for the celebration to start.
That’s their job in this Mediterranean culture.
Five of them are wise.
There’s oil in their lamps.
They’re ready when the groom arrives.
That’s what happens when we’re wise:
when we prepare for the future…
when we practice virtue until it becomes part of us,
an automatic response, just the way we are.
We know what to do, and we do it,
so we don’t miss out on the reign of God.
_________________________________________
Like the people of Jesus’ time,
we have to pay attention
so that we don’t absorb the fake wisdom of our culture.
We have to work hard to hear God’s wisdom.
We have to listen to the promptings of the Spirit within us
so we don’t lose heart and give up.
_________________________________________
We know what was going on back then
because we know what’s going on right now.
Author and climate activist Naomi Klein
says that our culture tells us
what she calls “dangerous stories.”
She lists those stories:
That greed is good.
That money is what matters in life.
That white men are better than everybody else.
That nature is there for us to plunder and pillage.
That the vulnerable deserve their fate
and the 1% deserve their golden towers.
That anything public or commonly held is evil.
And that there is no alternative to any of this.
Klein says that we have to “fiercely protect some space
to dream and plan for a better world.”
_________________________________________
Our first reading tells us
how to get that space to dream and plan.
Seek wisdom, it says.
Look for the spirit of God in you,
and you’ll get something that won’t fade away.
Even when times and cultures change, wisdom lasts...
and it’s available to anyone and everyone.
Wisdom tells us to stay awake.
Wisdom tells us to pay attention to what’s going on right now.
_________________________________________
There’s a flood of advice out there these days
telling us how to live in the present moment.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that,
while much of this literature is good,
little of it is very effective.
He says we just can’t do what it asks:
we can’t live each day of our lives
as if it were our last day.
We can’t sustain that heightened awareness all the time.
We’re human.
The distractions and pressures of everyday life
make us fall asleep
to what’s deeper and more important.
So we have to get in the habit of putting oil in our lamps
by praying, sharing Eucharist,
doing justice, loving our kids,
reaching out to strangers.
_________________________________________
Practice makes perfect.
We learn to stay awake to God’s action in our lives.
We practice being aware of God’s presence
in the people who cross our paths:
this moment of gratitude,
this gift of another breath,
this one person in need,
this chance to hope,
this hour to take action.
That’s how the five wise virgins entered the reign of God--
and that’s how we do it, too.
The reign of God is at hand,
right here and right now.
Just look around!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), November 5, 2017
First Reading: Malachi 1:14-2:2, 8-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 131:1-3
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12
It’s November.
Feast of All Saints, feast of All Souls.
Voting for local officials and basic issues.
Thanksgiving.
As they usually do, our American bishops
will gather in Baltimore in the middle of the month.
Their agenda, as NCR’s Michael Sean Winters sees it,
fails to reflect the needs of our times.
He says that, in recent years,
our bishops have distorted our church’s teachings.
Very few of our U.S. bishops are speaking out
about the tax plan before Congress,
the inhumane response to Puerto Rico,
the anti-immigrant bigotry,
backing out of the Paris Climate Agreement,
statements from the President
that denounce or distort or demean or dismiss
the fundamental values of justice.
Given what we teach as a Church,
given what Jesus showed us with his life,
Winters asks our bishops, “Where is the outrage?”
___________________________________________
Today’s gospel gives us a first-century snapshot
of the same kind of situation.
Our bishops would serve us well
by following the advice that Jesus gave
to the people of his time.
Jesus’ description of the Scribes and Pharisees
sounds very much like too many members of our Congress,
too many of our elected officials,
and sadly, too many of our clerical hierarchy.
They hold the seats of power—in the government, in the church--
and they don’t practice what they preach,
don’t do anything to lift the heavy burdens they put on people.
They love the honor, the job titles, the public respect.
They forget that they are called to serve,
not to make a profit,
not to gain honor and privilege for themselves.
What Matthew does is apply Jesus’ teaching
to the leaders of his own time
in order to challenge them to more authentic leadership.
Servant leadership.
He is speaking truth to power like the prophets before him--
like Malachi in today’s first reading,
telling the priests that they have not kept God’s ways
but harmed the people for their own benefit.
___________________________________________
The history of not practicing what we preach
didn’t end with Malachi’s warning,
or Jesus’ warning,
or Matthew’s warning.
Friday we celebrated the feast of Saint Martin de Porres,
another example of how we fail to do
what we say we believe.
The social justice issue here is racism.
Martin was barred from taking vows as a Dominican
because he was of mixed race,
so he spent nine years living in a monastery,
performing menial labor for the brothers,
who ridiculed him
even as his reputation for curing the sick grew.
He set up an orphanage and a children’s hospital.
Eventually he was allowed to join the Dominicans,
where he continued to work among the sick and the poor.
Three hundred years later we declared him a saint,
but racism remains.
We still have white flight to the suburbs
and implicit bias in our culture.
Sunday at 11 o’clock is still, as Martin Luther King put it,
the most segregated hour of the week.
___________________________________________
Our church has done, and continues to do,
many good things—great things--
works of mercy and charity, all around the world.
But today’s gospel reminds us
that the problem of leaders who are not good shepherds
is not new,
and we know that the problem is still with us.
One symptom is the number of people
leaving the Catholic Church here in America,
and one big reason for that
is that our leaders have not practiced what they preach.
They failed to protect our children from abuse
and then they covered up their failure.
___________________________________________
Here in Toledo we know about it firsthand.
This morning [yesterday morning]
people gathered to celebrate the life of Barbara Blaine.
People remembered her for her missionary work in Jamaica,
for her work with the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi;
with the Catholic Worker.
They remembered her opening a homeless facility
in Chicago’s south side.
They also remembered her as a survivor of clergy sex abuse
and the founder and president of SNAP,
the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests,
as the healer of hearts and minds and souls broken by abuse.
And they remembered her as a faithful practicing Catholic.
She once reflected on that, saying:
"My faith is in God—not the men leading the church."
Her words are prophetic in light of today’s readings,
putting her in the choir of holy people
who have worked for justice
and been persecuted for it,
suffered for it.
___________________________________________
She was vilified by the hierarchy for speaking the truth.
So she said, "I pray for the Catholic Church
to live up to its own Gospel teachings.
I pray for the day
when I'll be treated like a faithful daughter of the church
instead of an enemy."
Like Joan of Arc, like Martin de Porres,
like way too many others
who live the gospel in spite of hardship and opposition,
300 years from now our church will be naming her a saint.
___________________________________________
As followers of Jesus,
we are called to imitate his way,
no matter what the reaction is from the people around us.
Wherever life puts us,
whatever life brings us,
our task is to respond with truth and justice and love.
So, we, too, hope to become saints--
maybe Saint Grandma and Grandpa,
Saint Neighbor, Saint Friend,
Saint Thoughtful, Saint Prayerful,
Saint Nurse, Saint Teacher,
Saint Demonstrator-for-Peace.
No matter what it is that we do,
when we live up to the Gospel teachings,
we do it as saintly people.
Amen!
First Reading: Malachi 1:14-2:2, 8-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 131:1-3
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12
It’s November.
Feast of All Saints, feast of All Souls.
Voting for local officials and basic issues.
Thanksgiving.
As they usually do, our American bishops
will gather in Baltimore in the middle of the month.
Their agenda, as NCR’s Michael Sean Winters sees it,
fails to reflect the needs of our times.
He says that, in recent years,
our bishops have distorted our church’s teachings.
Very few of our U.S. bishops are speaking out
about the tax plan before Congress,
the inhumane response to Puerto Rico,
the anti-immigrant bigotry,
backing out of the Paris Climate Agreement,
statements from the President
that denounce or distort or demean or dismiss
the fundamental values of justice.
Given what we teach as a Church,
given what Jesus showed us with his life,
Winters asks our bishops, “Where is the outrage?”
___________________________________________
Today’s gospel gives us a first-century snapshot
of the same kind of situation.
Our bishops would serve us well
by following the advice that Jesus gave
to the people of his time.
Jesus’ description of the Scribes and Pharisees
sounds very much like too many members of our Congress,
too many of our elected officials,
and sadly, too many of our clerical hierarchy.
They hold the seats of power—in the government, in the church--
and they don’t practice what they preach,
don’t do anything to lift the heavy burdens they put on people.
They love the honor, the job titles, the public respect.
They forget that they are called to serve,
not to make a profit,
not to gain honor and privilege for themselves.
What Matthew does is apply Jesus’ teaching
to the leaders of his own time
in order to challenge them to more authentic leadership.
Servant leadership.
He is speaking truth to power like the prophets before him--
like Malachi in today’s first reading,
telling the priests that they have not kept God’s ways
but harmed the people for their own benefit.
___________________________________________
The history of not practicing what we preach
didn’t end with Malachi’s warning,
or Jesus’ warning,
or Matthew’s warning.
Friday we celebrated the feast of Saint Martin de Porres,
another example of how we fail to do
what we say we believe.
The social justice issue here is racism.
Martin was barred from taking vows as a Dominican
because he was of mixed race,
so he spent nine years living in a monastery,
performing menial labor for the brothers,
who ridiculed him
even as his reputation for curing the sick grew.
He set up an orphanage and a children’s hospital.
Eventually he was allowed to join the Dominicans,
where he continued to work among the sick and the poor.
Three hundred years later we declared him a saint,
but racism remains.
We still have white flight to the suburbs
and implicit bias in our culture.
Sunday at 11 o’clock is still, as Martin Luther King put it,
the most segregated hour of the week.
___________________________________________
Our church has done, and continues to do,
many good things—great things--
works of mercy and charity, all around the world.
But today’s gospel reminds us
that the problem of leaders who are not good shepherds
is not new,
and we know that the problem is still with us.
One symptom is the number of people
leaving the Catholic Church here in America,
and one big reason for that
is that our leaders have not practiced what they preach.
They failed to protect our children from abuse
and then they covered up their failure.
___________________________________________
Here in Toledo we know about it firsthand.
This morning [yesterday morning]
people gathered to celebrate the life of Barbara Blaine.
People remembered her for her missionary work in Jamaica,
for her work with the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi;
with the Catholic Worker.
They remembered her opening a homeless facility
in Chicago’s south side.
They also remembered her as a survivor of clergy sex abuse
and the founder and president of SNAP,
the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests,
as the healer of hearts and minds and souls broken by abuse.
And they remembered her as a faithful practicing Catholic.
She once reflected on that, saying:
"My faith is in God—not the men leading the church."
Her words are prophetic in light of today’s readings,
putting her in the choir of holy people
who have worked for justice
and been persecuted for it,
suffered for it.
___________________________________________
She was vilified by the hierarchy for speaking the truth.
So she said, "I pray for the Catholic Church
to live up to its own Gospel teachings.
I pray for the day
when I'll be treated like a faithful daughter of the church
instead of an enemy."
Like Joan of Arc, like Martin de Porres,
like way too many others
who live the gospel in spite of hardship and opposition,
300 years from now our church will be naming her a saint.
___________________________________________
As followers of Jesus,
we are called to imitate his way,
no matter what the reaction is from the people around us.
Wherever life puts us,
whatever life brings us,
our task is to respond with truth and justice and love.
So, we, too, hope to become saints--
maybe Saint Grandma and Grandpa,
Saint Neighbor, Saint Friend,
Saint Thoughtful, Saint Prayerful,
Saint Nurse, Saint Teacher,
Saint Demonstrator-for-Peace.
No matter what it is that we do,
when we live up to the Gospel teachings,
we do it as saintly people.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), October 29, 2017
First Reading: Exodus 22:21-27
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 18:2-3, 46, 50
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
Three years ago we heard these same readings.
Things weren’t perfect back then,
but here at Holy Spirit we were doing what we could
to help the poor and powerless
walk with us in the reign of God.
We were giving bus tokens to the needy,
helping with the Family Promise homeless shelter,
volunteering at Claver House.
We were meeting to discern what our ministry focus would be,
the process that hatched our Tree Toledo project.
We hadn’t gone through the polarizing vitriol of the 2016 election.
The evening news was, for the most part, still real news.
______________________________________________
In retrospect it seems that we were complacent.
Maybe naive.
The world is different now, and we’re different.
Given the state of our nation and our planet,
today’s Word gives us guidance and direction for our times:
God is God.
Only God is God.
Love God, and only God.
No strange gods like money and power and prestige.
Don’t oppress the stranger, the widow, the orphan.
Don’t extort from the poor.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
______________________________________________
Yes, our world looks different now,
the opposite of Exodus’ call
for protecting the poor and marginalized,
the opposite of the Thessalonians’ faithful witness
to the living and true God,
the opposite of Jesus’ call to love God and neighbor.
Instead we have travel bans and border walls.
Poorer health care for the poorest folks.
Russians meddling in our elections.
Mistrust of the police,
mistrust of the media,
mistrust of each other.
Violence on the streets.
Threats of nuclear war.
Wildfires and hurricanes and floods.
Rude and crude language spoken openly in public.
Dysfunction and disintegration in the federal government.
Every day I run into someone who tells me
they’re on the edge of despair
over what’s going wrong in our country.
______________________________________________
This week, two U.S. Senators announced
that they will not seek re-election next year.
Both are Republicans, and both are Christians--
Tennessee’s Bob Corker a Presbyterian
and Arizona’s Jeff Flake a Mormon--
and both talk about the serious lack of values and principles
in politics and government.
Senator Flake, for example, said,
"We must never regard as 'normal'
the regular and casual undermining
of our democratic norms and ideals.
We must never meekly accept
the daily sundering of our country--
the personal attacks,
the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions;
the flagrant disregard for truth or decency;
the reckless provocations,
most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons,
reasons having nothing whatsoever to do
with the fortunes of the people
that we have all been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics
should ever be regarded as normal.”
______________________________________________
These two, as U.S. Senators,
refuse to take part in what they see as unprincipled.
We, as Christians, are also called to stand up and speak out.
We have been baptized into Christ as priest, prophet, and leader.
But what can we do?
We aren’t Senators.
There’s not going to be a breaking news alert if we speak out.
______________________________________________
Still, it’s up to us.
We need to remember that we are God’s people.
We have only to be who we are as followers of Jesus
wherever we happen to be.
The prophet Micah put it this way:
we are called to act with justice,
to love tenderly, to serve one another,
to walk humbly with our God.
______________________________________________
What we can do
is what we’ve always been called to do:
we are called to pray and act where we are--
in our families, our neighborhoods,
on the job, with our friends.
So we pray.
We enter into dialogue.
We volunteer.
We speak truth to power.
We support the powerless.
We vote.
Because of who we are and what we do,
God’s love is revealed through us.
This dark time will pass.
As Julian of Norwich wrote
back in the time of the Hundred Years’ War,
“All will be well
and all will be well
and every kind of thing shall be well.”
God is still the same God,
still in charge.
Amen!
First Reading: Exodus 22:21-27
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 18:2-3, 46, 50
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
Three years ago we heard these same readings.
Things weren’t perfect back then,
but here at Holy Spirit we were doing what we could
to help the poor and powerless
walk with us in the reign of God.
We were giving bus tokens to the needy,
helping with the Family Promise homeless shelter,
volunteering at Claver House.
We were meeting to discern what our ministry focus would be,
the process that hatched our Tree Toledo project.
We hadn’t gone through the polarizing vitriol of the 2016 election.
The evening news was, for the most part, still real news.
______________________________________________
In retrospect it seems that we were complacent.
Maybe naive.
The world is different now, and we’re different.
Given the state of our nation and our planet,
today’s Word gives us guidance and direction for our times:
God is God.
Only God is God.
Love God, and only God.
No strange gods like money and power and prestige.
Don’t oppress the stranger, the widow, the orphan.
Don’t extort from the poor.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
______________________________________________
Yes, our world looks different now,
the opposite of Exodus’ call
for protecting the poor and marginalized,
the opposite of the Thessalonians’ faithful witness
to the living and true God,
the opposite of Jesus’ call to love God and neighbor.
Instead we have travel bans and border walls.
Poorer health care for the poorest folks.
Russians meddling in our elections.
Mistrust of the police,
mistrust of the media,
mistrust of each other.
Violence on the streets.
Threats of nuclear war.
Wildfires and hurricanes and floods.
Rude and crude language spoken openly in public.
Dysfunction and disintegration in the federal government.
Every day I run into someone who tells me
they’re on the edge of despair
over what’s going wrong in our country.
______________________________________________
This week, two U.S. Senators announced
that they will not seek re-election next year.
Both are Republicans, and both are Christians--
Tennessee’s Bob Corker a Presbyterian
and Arizona’s Jeff Flake a Mormon--
and both talk about the serious lack of values and principles
in politics and government.
Senator Flake, for example, said,
"We must never regard as 'normal'
the regular and casual undermining
of our democratic norms and ideals.
We must never meekly accept
the daily sundering of our country--
the personal attacks,
the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions;
the flagrant disregard for truth or decency;
the reckless provocations,
most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons,
reasons having nothing whatsoever to do
with the fortunes of the people
that we have all been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics
should ever be regarded as normal.”
______________________________________________
These two, as U.S. Senators,
refuse to take part in what they see as unprincipled.
We, as Christians, are also called to stand up and speak out.
We have been baptized into Christ as priest, prophet, and leader.
But what can we do?
We aren’t Senators.
There’s not going to be a breaking news alert if we speak out.
______________________________________________
Still, it’s up to us.
We need to remember that we are God’s people.
We have only to be who we are as followers of Jesus
wherever we happen to be.
The prophet Micah put it this way:
we are called to act with justice,
to love tenderly, to serve one another,
to walk humbly with our God.
______________________________________________
What we can do
is what we’ve always been called to do:
we are called to pray and act where we are--
in our families, our neighborhoods,
on the job, with our friends.
So we pray.
We enter into dialogue.
We volunteer.
We speak truth to power.
We support the powerless.
We vote.
Because of who we are and what we do,
God’s love is revealed through us.
This dark time will pass.
As Julian of Norwich wrote
back in the time of the Hundred Years’ War,
“All will be well
and all will be well
and every kind of thing shall be well.”
God is still the same God,
still in charge.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), October 22, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1-10
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21
Today’s second reading
is the earliest document included in the New Testament,
written in the year 50.
Paul greets the Thessalonians
as people “who belong to God,”
and he says it’s obvious that they belong to God
by the goodness of their actions,
their labors of love,
and their hope.
The word of God is their way of life,
not just a code of conduct.
_________________________________________
Isaiah puts it another way in today’s first reading.
God anoints and sends King Cyrus of Persia--
not a Hebrew, not a follower of Yahweh,
a man who does not know God--
to shepherd the people saying,
“I am your God, there is no other.”
Even the pagans belong to God.
_________________________________________
And in our gospel we hear Jesus telling us to
“give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,
but give to God what belongs to God.”
Scholars tell us that phrase
almost certainly originated with Jesus.
Mark, Matthew, Luke, and Thomas all include it,
though they each put it in a different context.
Scholars also tell us that Jesus
probably had a conversation
about the picture on the Roman coin,
but Matthew wrote the story about a plot to trap Jesus
so he could speak to the situation of the church in his day,
arguing with the Jewish leaders
about what was true orthodoxy
and who were the true people of God.
_________________________________________
Lately we’ve heard Jesus’ words used
to tell the church to stay out of politics,
specifically to tell Pope Francis
not to talk about public issues here in the USA.
Those things belong to Caesar, we’re told.
We’ve heard it about preachers in some of our parishes.
They shouldn’t mention climate change
because it might offend people who think it’s fake.
Or they shouldn’t mention immigration
because some people
like the idea of travel bans and border walls.
We can easily come up with a long list of topics
that would bring a negative reaction
from someone in the pews.
All we would have to do is read off
the principles of Catholic Social Teaching
to get the objections bubbling up and over.
_________________________________________
At the heart, though, Jesus’ words
are the exact opposite
of telling his followers to keep out of politics.
We know it because it’s foundational to our faith
that everything and everyone belongs to God,
each of us and all of us,
even King Cyrus and Caesar,
even Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
We know it from the book of Genesis,
where chapter 1 says it clearly:
Humanity is formed in the image of God:
we are created in God’s image, male and female.
Each of us has the image of God stamped in our soul.
Because everything really belongs to God,
then no issue can be beyond our concern.
As people of God,
we have to address issues like climate change,
immigration, budget cuts, taxation,
living wage, racism, and the death penalty.
_________________________________________
Yet we live in a culture that ignores the fact
that everything belongs to God.
It divides the world into three parts--
the number one part
is to get as much as I can for myself;
the second part
is to give as little as possible in taxes,
whether it’s for Caesar or the IRS;
and the third part--
if there’s any time or energy left for it--
is for God’s work.
_________________________________________
Jesus’ words remind us that our culture has it backwards.
We’re called to put things in the right perspective,
God first,
and everything else in right order after God.
What’s erroneously called “separation of church and state”
is really a law that says
the state cannot establish a religion--
it’s freedom of religion for everyone.
Our pledge of allegiance says it:
“one nation under God.”
Our money says it:
“in God we trust.”
And our Catholic faith says it:
everyone belongs to God.
We’re called in the very core of our being
to honor God by honoring the God in others.
_________________________________________
As theologian Katherine Greiner puts it,
“We belong to God.
When we understand the truth of that reality,
we see life as gift, precious and wild,
meant to be squandered on that which matters:
gratitude, service, beauty, truth, mercy, love.”
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1-10
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21
Today’s second reading
is the earliest document included in the New Testament,
written in the year 50.
Paul greets the Thessalonians
as people “who belong to God,”
and he says it’s obvious that they belong to God
by the goodness of their actions,
their labors of love,
and their hope.
The word of God is their way of life,
not just a code of conduct.
_________________________________________
Isaiah puts it another way in today’s first reading.
God anoints and sends King Cyrus of Persia--
not a Hebrew, not a follower of Yahweh,
a man who does not know God--
to shepherd the people saying,
“I am your God, there is no other.”
Even the pagans belong to God.
_________________________________________
And in our gospel we hear Jesus telling us to
“give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,
but give to God what belongs to God.”
Scholars tell us that phrase
almost certainly originated with Jesus.
Mark, Matthew, Luke, and Thomas all include it,
though they each put it in a different context.
Scholars also tell us that Jesus
probably had a conversation
about the picture on the Roman coin,
but Matthew wrote the story about a plot to trap Jesus
so he could speak to the situation of the church in his day,
arguing with the Jewish leaders
about what was true orthodoxy
and who were the true people of God.
_________________________________________
Lately we’ve heard Jesus’ words used
to tell the church to stay out of politics,
specifically to tell Pope Francis
not to talk about public issues here in the USA.
Those things belong to Caesar, we’re told.
We’ve heard it about preachers in some of our parishes.
They shouldn’t mention climate change
because it might offend people who think it’s fake.
Or they shouldn’t mention immigration
because some people
like the idea of travel bans and border walls.
We can easily come up with a long list of topics
that would bring a negative reaction
from someone in the pews.
All we would have to do is read off
the principles of Catholic Social Teaching
to get the objections bubbling up and over.
_________________________________________
At the heart, though, Jesus’ words
are the exact opposite
of telling his followers to keep out of politics.
We know it because it’s foundational to our faith
that everything and everyone belongs to God,
each of us and all of us,
even King Cyrus and Caesar,
even Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
We know it from the book of Genesis,
where chapter 1 says it clearly:
Humanity is formed in the image of God:
we are created in God’s image, male and female.
Each of us has the image of God stamped in our soul.
Because everything really belongs to God,
then no issue can be beyond our concern.
As people of God,
we have to address issues like climate change,
immigration, budget cuts, taxation,
living wage, racism, and the death penalty.
_________________________________________
Yet we live in a culture that ignores the fact
that everything belongs to God.
It divides the world into three parts--
the number one part
is to get as much as I can for myself;
the second part
is to give as little as possible in taxes,
whether it’s for Caesar or the IRS;
and the third part--
if there’s any time or energy left for it--
is for God’s work.
_________________________________________
Jesus’ words remind us that our culture has it backwards.
We’re called to put things in the right perspective,
God first,
and everything else in right order after God.
What’s erroneously called “separation of church and state”
is really a law that says
the state cannot establish a religion--
it’s freedom of religion for everyone.
Our pledge of allegiance says it:
“one nation under God.”
Our money says it:
“in God we trust.”
And our Catholic faith says it:
everyone belongs to God.
We’re called in the very core of our being
to honor God by honoring the God in others.
_________________________________________
As theologian Katherine Greiner puts it,
“We belong to God.
When we understand the truth of that reality,
we see life as gift, precious and wild,
meant to be squandered on that which matters:
gratitude, service, beauty, truth, mercy, love.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), October 15, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
Today’s readings speak loud and clear to me personally
at this particular time of my life.
I can shout with joy the words of today’s psalm:
God renews my spirit, refreshes my soul.
I do not fear.
God gives me courage.
I am so grateful to be alive and healing.
I shall live in God’s house all my days!
And I can say to each of you Paul’s words to the Philippians:
It was kind of you to share in my distress.
How caring and loving you have been to me!
And I can celebrate with Isaiah,
because I am one of all the peoples
that God prepares a banquet for,
and I can celebrate with Jesus’ other followers
gathered from the highways and byways,
all of us invited and welcomed to the feast.
I am so blessed!
I thank God.
And I thank God for you!
__________________________________________
More about today’s gospel.
The parable that goes back to Jesus
is told in three different variations:
it’s in the gospels of Thomas and Luke
in addition the version we hear today from Matthew.
The part that comes from Jesus
is the parable comparing the reign of God
to a wedding feast where the invited guests
make excuses and won’t come,
so the host sends out to the highways and byways
to invite everyone, bad and good alike,
to the banquet, and the hall is filled with guests.
Unlike the other versions,
Matthew makes the host into a king
and adds troops killing people and burning their town. Then he tacks
on the guest without the wedding garment
and has him thrown out into the darkness.
Matthew turns the parable into a mini-history of Israel,
an allegory that speaks to problems in his community
by picturing God’s judgment
being aimed at backsliding members.
__________________________________________
Jesus’ parable, though,
tells of the reign of God, already at hand.
God is already here, but many people--
especially those in positions of power and wealth,
ignore the divine presence with them and among them.
They don’t see the advantage
of the way that Jesus is pointing out.
For poor and oppressed folks,
though, it’s not hard to understand.
As Pope Francis put it,
“The Sermon on the Mount
and the sermon in Matthew 25, the last judgment.
There's your program.
Heal the brokenhearted.
Set the downtrodden free.
Reach out to the poor.
Work for peace.
Hunger and thirst for justice.
Visit those in prison.
Give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty."
Each and every one of us—all of us—are invited,
and we respond
by finding ways to change our lives
and put on the mind of Jesus.
__________________________________________
We sure have a lot to work on,
more than enough bad news every day
to tempt us to pessimism and despair.
What are we to make of people
who profit from hurting others,
who make money
by destroying the very planet we live on?
The problems aren’t new.
The recorded history of our Judeo-Christian faith
is full of violence and bloodshed, hate and revenge...
but it’s also full of optimism and care and love.
Isaiah tells us that God gives us a rich banquet.
We are called to joy, not to grimness.
Paul tells us that God supplies all our needs.
We can do all things,
whether we are in humble circumstances
or living with abundance.
Jesus tells us that we choose the way.
__________________________________________
Jorge Bergoglio pointed to the way of Jesus
when he gave a short speech
to the 2013 Papal Conclave,
causing the Cardinals to think seriously
about electing him Pope.
He said, “The Church is called to come out of herself
and to go to the peripheries,
not only in the geographical sense
but also to go to the existential peripheries:
those of the mysteries of sin, of pain, of injustice,
of ignorance and of religious indifference,
of thought, of all misery.”
As Pope Francis, he now tells us
to be a field hospital for the suffering of the world.
__________________________________________
That’s us, a field hospital.
In the midst of government oppression
and environmental chaos,
we are called to do exactly
what Jesus was doing in the first century.
He spoke truth about oppression.
He reached out to people on the margins.
That’s what we are called to do.
No one of us can fix everything,
but we can do something.
Those letters to the editor,
emails and postcards to Congress,
speaking up at meetings,
donations to charities,
support for honest news,
signs in the yard,
demonstrations at council,
talking with friends and strangers…
and going off alone to pray:
we can do that.
And we are!
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
Today’s readings speak loud and clear to me personally
at this particular time of my life.
I can shout with joy the words of today’s psalm:
God renews my spirit, refreshes my soul.
I do not fear.
God gives me courage.
I am so grateful to be alive and healing.
I shall live in God’s house all my days!
And I can say to each of you Paul’s words to the Philippians:
It was kind of you to share in my distress.
How caring and loving you have been to me!
And I can celebrate with Isaiah,
because I am one of all the peoples
that God prepares a banquet for,
and I can celebrate with Jesus’ other followers
gathered from the highways and byways,
all of us invited and welcomed to the feast.
I am so blessed!
I thank God.
And I thank God for you!
__________________________________________
More about today’s gospel.
The parable that goes back to Jesus
is told in three different variations:
it’s in the gospels of Thomas and Luke
in addition the version we hear today from Matthew.
The part that comes from Jesus
is the parable comparing the reign of God
to a wedding feast where the invited guests
make excuses and won’t come,
so the host sends out to the highways and byways
to invite everyone, bad and good alike,
to the banquet, and the hall is filled with guests.
Unlike the other versions,
Matthew makes the host into a king
and adds troops killing people and burning their town. Then he tacks
on the guest without the wedding garment
and has him thrown out into the darkness.
Matthew turns the parable into a mini-history of Israel,
an allegory that speaks to problems in his community
by picturing God’s judgment
being aimed at backsliding members.
__________________________________________
Jesus’ parable, though,
tells of the reign of God, already at hand.
God is already here, but many people--
especially those in positions of power and wealth,
ignore the divine presence with them and among them.
They don’t see the advantage
of the way that Jesus is pointing out.
For poor and oppressed folks,
though, it’s not hard to understand.
As Pope Francis put it,
“The Sermon on the Mount
and the sermon in Matthew 25, the last judgment.
There's your program.
Heal the brokenhearted.
Set the downtrodden free.
Reach out to the poor.
Work for peace.
Hunger and thirst for justice.
Visit those in prison.
Give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty."
Each and every one of us—all of us—are invited,
and we respond
by finding ways to change our lives
and put on the mind of Jesus.
__________________________________________
We sure have a lot to work on,
more than enough bad news every day
to tempt us to pessimism and despair.
What are we to make of people
who profit from hurting others,
who make money
by destroying the very planet we live on?
The problems aren’t new.
The recorded history of our Judeo-Christian faith
is full of violence and bloodshed, hate and revenge...
but it’s also full of optimism and care and love.
Isaiah tells us that God gives us a rich banquet.
We are called to joy, not to grimness.
Paul tells us that God supplies all our needs.
We can do all things,
whether we are in humble circumstances
or living with abundance.
Jesus tells us that we choose the way.
__________________________________________
Jorge Bergoglio pointed to the way of Jesus
when he gave a short speech
to the 2013 Papal Conclave,
causing the Cardinals to think seriously
about electing him Pope.
He said, “The Church is called to come out of herself
and to go to the peripheries,
not only in the geographical sense
but also to go to the existential peripheries:
those of the mysteries of sin, of pain, of injustice,
of ignorance and of religious indifference,
of thought, of all misery.”
As Pope Francis, he now tells us
to be a field hospital for the suffering of the world.
__________________________________________
That’s us, a field hospital.
In the midst of government oppression
and environmental chaos,
we are called to do exactly
what Jesus was doing in the first century.
He spoke truth about oppression.
He reached out to people on the margins.
That’s what we are called to do.
No one of us can fix everything,
but we can do something.
Those letters to the editor,
emails and postcards to Congress,
speaking up at meetings,
donations to charities,
support for honest news,
signs in the yard,
demonstrations at council,
talking with friends and strangers…
and going off alone to pray:
we can do that.
And we are!
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), October 8, 2017
Ann Klonowski guest preaching
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:9, 2-20
Second Reading: Philippians 4:6-9
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
There have been so many natural disasters over the last several weeks. But in some way, they pale in comparison to the UN-natural disaster of this past week. Everything I’ve read these last few days has spoken of the massacre in Las Vegas. And not just Las Vegas, but all the senseless violence we are faced with. This weekend’s readings also point an accusing finger. From Isaiah: “Our God looked for justice, but found bloodshed, for integrity, but only a cry of distress.” Ripped from the headlines, indeed! The psalmist laments and blames God for destroying the vineyard and begs God to restore it. Hundreds of years later, Jesus relates the same allegory, but from a different point of view. God provided the vineyard and the workers destroyed it with their greed and violence. Wow. This is all pretty grim.
What are we to do with this? Surely no one here is guilty of this kind of violence. We may argue with spouses or neighbors; we may yell at our kids. But this?!
The tenant farmers in Matthew really take the cake. They have jobs and will receive a portion of the harvest for their work. Yet the laborers met this with violence not once, not twice, but three times. What is up with these guys? Do they think they can get away with this? Like an episode of CSI or Law and Order, these characters were willing to risk big trouble in the service of their greed. Just a little arrogant, don’t you think?
What separates these murders in the vineyard from any other murders? Not much. The first recorded crime in the Bible is Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel. Just as is true with murderers down the centuries, Cain tried to deny it, perhaps even believing he was justified. He was motivated by jealousy. Murder has been justified by passion, self-righteousness, anger, fear, vengeance, and greed. And that’s only a partial list. The one thing these all have in common is their arrogance: the self-centeredness that blinds the perpetrators to the stupidity of their actions. All these are violations of the Great Commandment to love God and to love one another.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has declared October “Right to Life month.” Most folks see this as a time to focus on the sacredness of the unborn with perhaps a glance to those at the end of life. This is a very narrow outlook. We need to look at all life as valuable. There are marches at abortion clinics. Where are the marches at gun shows? The marchers at abortion clinics frequently carry grisly photos of aborted fetuses. Where are the gruesome photos of people shot down in the streets? People write letters and make phone calls against Planned Parenthood, but where are the letters and calls for reasonable regulation of weapons of mass destruction?
If you are truly convinced that a gun in your home will protect you and your property, I won’t argue with you. I don’t think it’s safe, but I won’t argue your right. If you hunt and feed people from the kill, I won’t argue with you. I couldn’t do it, but I won’t argue with you. But if you believe you have a right to own a weapon which only purpose is to kill as many human beings as possible in the shortest amount of time, we have an issue. You could say that the first two positions do not go against the Great Commandment of love. But for the last, there is absolutely no justification. Period.
Some folks may say that I shouldn’t preach politics. This is church, not a town hall meeting. But I’m not preaching politics. I am preaching the gospel. The gospel is all about protecting the vulnerable, caring for the least ones, reaching out in love. This community does that every day. You feed the hungry. You plant trees. You protect our drinking water. You live the gospel.
But I am suggesting that you might take this one step further. The rebuttal to all this violence is found in the letter to the Philippians. While we may wallow in sadness and anger, Paul reminds us, “Dismiss all anxiety . . . God’s own peace will stand guard over your hearts.”
We don’t have to participate in this culture of death. We aren’t reduced to merely turning our backs. We don’t have to throw up our hands in frustration. The time of empty offerings of “Our thoughts and prayers are with you,” flags at half-staff, moments of silence—these are long past.
Paul gives us a path: “Your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous or worthy of praise. Live according to what you have learned and accepted. . . . Then will the God of peace be with you.”
You simply have to do what you always do, which is to live courageously. This portion from the Talmud sums it up beautifully: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work. But neither are you free to abandon it.”
Ann Klonowski guest preaching
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:9, 2-20
Second Reading: Philippians 4:6-9
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
There have been so many natural disasters over the last several weeks. But in some way, they pale in comparison to the UN-natural disaster of this past week. Everything I’ve read these last few days has spoken of the massacre in Las Vegas. And not just Las Vegas, but all the senseless violence we are faced with. This weekend’s readings also point an accusing finger. From Isaiah: “Our God looked for justice, but found bloodshed, for integrity, but only a cry of distress.” Ripped from the headlines, indeed! The psalmist laments and blames God for destroying the vineyard and begs God to restore it. Hundreds of years later, Jesus relates the same allegory, but from a different point of view. God provided the vineyard and the workers destroyed it with their greed and violence. Wow. This is all pretty grim.
What are we to do with this? Surely no one here is guilty of this kind of violence. We may argue with spouses or neighbors; we may yell at our kids. But this?!
The tenant farmers in Matthew really take the cake. They have jobs and will receive a portion of the harvest for their work. Yet the laborers met this with violence not once, not twice, but three times. What is up with these guys? Do they think they can get away with this? Like an episode of CSI or Law and Order, these characters were willing to risk big trouble in the service of their greed. Just a little arrogant, don’t you think?
What separates these murders in the vineyard from any other murders? Not much. The first recorded crime in the Bible is Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel. Just as is true with murderers down the centuries, Cain tried to deny it, perhaps even believing he was justified. He was motivated by jealousy. Murder has been justified by passion, self-righteousness, anger, fear, vengeance, and greed. And that’s only a partial list. The one thing these all have in common is their arrogance: the self-centeredness that blinds the perpetrators to the stupidity of their actions. All these are violations of the Great Commandment to love God and to love one another.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has declared October “Right to Life month.” Most folks see this as a time to focus on the sacredness of the unborn with perhaps a glance to those at the end of life. This is a very narrow outlook. We need to look at all life as valuable. There are marches at abortion clinics. Where are the marches at gun shows? The marchers at abortion clinics frequently carry grisly photos of aborted fetuses. Where are the gruesome photos of people shot down in the streets? People write letters and make phone calls against Planned Parenthood, but where are the letters and calls for reasonable regulation of weapons of mass destruction?
If you are truly convinced that a gun in your home will protect you and your property, I won’t argue with you. I don’t think it’s safe, but I won’t argue your right. If you hunt and feed people from the kill, I won’t argue with you. I couldn’t do it, but I won’t argue with you. But if you believe you have a right to own a weapon which only purpose is to kill as many human beings as possible in the shortest amount of time, we have an issue. You could say that the first two positions do not go against the Great Commandment of love. But for the last, there is absolutely no justification. Period.
Some folks may say that I shouldn’t preach politics. This is church, not a town hall meeting. But I’m not preaching politics. I am preaching the gospel. The gospel is all about protecting the vulnerable, caring for the least ones, reaching out in love. This community does that every day. You feed the hungry. You plant trees. You protect our drinking water. You live the gospel.
But I am suggesting that you might take this one step further. The rebuttal to all this violence is found in the letter to the Philippians. While we may wallow in sadness and anger, Paul reminds us, “Dismiss all anxiety . . . God’s own peace will stand guard over your hearts.”
We don’t have to participate in this culture of death. We aren’t reduced to merely turning our backs. We don’t have to throw up our hands in frustration. The time of empty offerings of “Our thoughts and prayers are with you,” flags at half-staff, moments of silence—these are long past.
Paul gives us a path: “Your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous or worthy of praise. Live according to what you have learned and accepted. . . . Then will the God of peace be with you.”
You simply have to do what you always do, which is to live courageously. This portion from the Talmud sums it up beautifully: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work. But neither are you free to abandon it.”
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), October 1, 2017
First Reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Philippians 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32
Scholars say that the comparison of the two sons
at the beginning of today’s gospel
is the kind of thing Jesus would have said,
very close to the ideas he used in his teaching.
The application at the end, though,
doesn’t connect with the story that Jesus tells,
showing that the framework
that Matthew uses to set the scene here
is Matthew’s own narrative, not literal history.
So let’s concentrate on the story of the two sons.
In its cultural context
it is more complex than it appears at first glance.
Culturally, the first son was rude,
a rebel against accepted values.
In a society where saving face was highly valued,
the son who said NO
wounded his family’s dignity and reputation.
He effectively put himself outside the family circle.
In contrast, the second son said YES,
honoring the father,
even to the point of addressing him as “sir” or “lord.”
In the culture of that society,
the second son would have been seen
as exceeding the ideal of filial respect.
_________________________________________
Neither of these two sons is perfect.
The second son’s hypocritical respect for his father
is only on the surface.
He says the right thing... but doesn’t do it.
The first son doesn’t say the right thing,
but he changes his mind and does the right thing.
_________________________________________
It’s easy to find examples of the second son
in our own culture.
TV ads are notorious for saying things they don’t mean.
Too often they convince us
to buy something that isn’t good,
or isn’t needed,
or just isn’t what the ad says it is—it’s not real.
At work, when the boss asks a question,
employees might frame an answer
in words they think the boss wants to hear.
Maybe it’s words that will get a step up toward a promotion.
Or words that will shift blame away from them.
Or words that will get them out of the office and home early.
_________________________________________
What about us?
Do we say what we mean?
Do we hide what we really have in mind
so that people will like us?
So we don’t offend them?
So we can get ahead?
_________________________________________
Do we mean what we say?
Or do we say what we think people want to hear
with no intention of keeping our word?
Or when we think it over later
and realize that we were wrong,
do we have the courage to change our minds
and move in a different direction?
In short, are we real?
Are we truthful?
_________________________________________
Jesus’ question is
which of the two did what his father wanted.
In that Middle Eastern culture,
the second son would have been judged
as giving an honorable answer.
He lied, not intending to do what he said,
but people there believed that,
because he spoke respectfully,
he obeyed Deuteronomy’s commandment
to honor his father, and that, to them,
was more important than telling the truth.
_________________________________________
The first son told the truth.
He did not intend to go to the vineyard.
Because he refused to do what his father asked,
he brought shame to himself,
his father, and the whole family.
When he later changed his mind
and went to work in the vineyard,
he did what had been asked--
he got the work done--
but the shame stayed with him and his family.
_________________________________________
In our culture today we have a high regard for truth.
We want a third son,
one who says he will go to the vineyard,
and means it,
and then actually goes.
We have lots of experience these days
with people who knowingly mislead us,
who don’t do what they say they will do,
who speak without thinking of the consequences.
We were raised in the culture of Superman...
truth, justice, and the American Way.
We see truth and justice working together.
We want to know what’s right and fair.
We don’t like the “fake news” or cover-ups,
the growing gap between our ideals
and the world we live in.
_________________________________________
This gospel passage must have puzzled
the gospel writers and the copyists and the translators,
causing them to put it in at least three different forms
and adding other material to try to make applications.
But what Jesus wanted was for them to think about it.
He wanted them to think about the morality of their own lives.
_________________________________________
Our first and second readings today give us snapshots
of what it looks like to be moral,
serving as backdrops for Jesus’ story.
Ezekiel tells us that we are responsible for our actions.
We are accountable individually and personally
AND as part of the community.
We are free to turn from good to evil,
and we are free to turn from evil to good.
Jesus is asking his disciples to examine their values
and decide for themselves what is good.
His teaching was real in his culture,
and it’s still real today.
_________________________________________
Paul tells the people of Philippi that they must be like Jesus,
who is the real image of God on earth.
They are to be united in their convictions and their love,
with a common purpose and a common mind,
without conceit, humble,
thinking of others’ interests before their own.
_________________________________________
One of the times that that kind of unity shows itself here
is every Tuesday
when the Toledo Indivisible folks gather
at Senator Portman’s office
to urge him to take action
on issues of justice and peace.
They deliver letters and carry signs
and talk with passers-by from noon to 1.
And they chant.
The drummer sings out,
Tell me what democracy looks like!
And the response comes back:
THIS is what democracy looks like!
Today’s readings prompt us to chant:
Tell me what divinity looks like!
Paul tells us: Look at Jesus!
Loving, forgiving, reaching out, serving…
THIS is what divinity looks like!
We are called to go and do likewise.
Amen!
First Reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Philippians 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32
Scholars say that the comparison of the two sons
at the beginning of today’s gospel
is the kind of thing Jesus would have said,
very close to the ideas he used in his teaching.
The application at the end, though,
doesn’t connect with the story that Jesus tells,
showing that the framework
that Matthew uses to set the scene here
is Matthew’s own narrative, not literal history.
So let’s concentrate on the story of the two sons.
In its cultural context
it is more complex than it appears at first glance.
Culturally, the first son was rude,
a rebel against accepted values.
In a society where saving face was highly valued,
the son who said NO
wounded his family’s dignity and reputation.
He effectively put himself outside the family circle.
In contrast, the second son said YES,
honoring the father,
even to the point of addressing him as “sir” or “lord.”
In the culture of that society,
the second son would have been seen
as exceeding the ideal of filial respect.
_________________________________________
Neither of these two sons is perfect.
The second son’s hypocritical respect for his father
is only on the surface.
He says the right thing... but doesn’t do it.
The first son doesn’t say the right thing,
but he changes his mind and does the right thing.
_________________________________________
It’s easy to find examples of the second son
in our own culture.
TV ads are notorious for saying things they don’t mean.
Too often they convince us
to buy something that isn’t good,
or isn’t needed,
or just isn’t what the ad says it is—it’s not real.
At work, when the boss asks a question,
employees might frame an answer
in words they think the boss wants to hear.
Maybe it’s words that will get a step up toward a promotion.
Or words that will shift blame away from them.
Or words that will get them out of the office and home early.
_________________________________________
What about us?
Do we say what we mean?
Do we hide what we really have in mind
so that people will like us?
So we don’t offend them?
So we can get ahead?
_________________________________________
Do we mean what we say?
Or do we say what we think people want to hear
with no intention of keeping our word?
Or when we think it over later
and realize that we were wrong,
do we have the courage to change our minds
and move in a different direction?
In short, are we real?
Are we truthful?
_________________________________________
Jesus’ question is
which of the two did what his father wanted.
In that Middle Eastern culture,
the second son would have been judged
as giving an honorable answer.
He lied, not intending to do what he said,
but people there believed that,
because he spoke respectfully,
he obeyed Deuteronomy’s commandment
to honor his father, and that, to them,
was more important than telling the truth.
_________________________________________
The first son told the truth.
He did not intend to go to the vineyard.
Because he refused to do what his father asked,
he brought shame to himself,
his father, and the whole family.
When he later changed his mind
and went to work in the vineyard,
he did what had been asked--
he got the work done--
but the shame stayed with him and his family.
_________________________________________
In our culture today we have a high regard for truth.
We want a third son,
one who says he will go to the vineyard,
and means it,
and then actually goes.
We have lots of experience these days
with people who knowingly mislead us,
who don’t do what they say they will do,
who speak without thinking of the consequences.
We were raised in the culture of Superman...
truth, justice, and the American Way.
We see truth and justice working together.
We want to know what’s right and fair.
We don’t like the “fake news” or cover-ups,
the growing gap between our ideals
and the world we live in.
_________________________________________
This gospel passage must have puzzled
the gospel writers and the copyists and the translators,
causing them to put it in at least three different forms
and adding other material to try to make applications.
But what Jesus wanted was for them to think about it.
He wanted them to think about the morality of their own lives.
_________________________________________
Our first and second readings today give us snapshots
of what it looks like to be moral,
serving as backdrops for Jesus’ story.
Ezekiel tells us that we are responsible for our actions.
We are accountable individually and personally
AND as part of the community.
We are free to turn from good to evil,
and we are free to turn from evil to good.
Jesus is asking his disciples to examine their values
and decide for themselves what is good.
His teaching was real in his culture,
and it’s still real today.
_________________________________________
Paul tells the people of Philippi that they must be like Jesus,
who is the real image of God on earth.
They are to be united in their convictions and their love,
with a common purpose and a common mind,
without conceit, humble,
thinking of others’ interests before their own.
_________________________________________
One of the times that that kind of unity shows itself here
is every Tuesday
when the Toledo Indivisible folks gather
at Senator Portman’s office
to urge him to take action
on issues of justice and peace.
They deliver letters and carry signs
and talk with passers-by from noon to 1.
And they chant.
The drummer sings out,
Tell me what democracy looks like!
And the response comes back:
THIS is what democracy looks like!
Today’s readings prompt us to chant:
Tell me what divinity looks like!
Paul tells us: Look at Jesus!
Loving, forgiving, reaching out, serving…
THIS is what divinity looks like!
We are called to go and do likewise.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), September 24, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 55:6-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Second Reading: Philippians 1:20-24, 27
Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
We all have had the experience
of feeling that we got cheated out of what we deserve.
It started early in life.
My brother got a bigger slice of the cake.
My other brother got more Christmas presents.
As Tommy Smothers used to say,
“It’s not fair!
Mom always liked you best!”
Most of us outgrow those childhood jealousies.
We end up laughing about it years later
when the family gathers.
_____________________________________
Today’s parable reminds us of those hurts,
and of the slights we suffered--
and continued to suffer--
during our adult years,
but the point is not fairness or justice
as the world thinks of it.
The point is the great goodness of our God.
The last line of the parable tells the whole story.
The landowner asks the complainers:
Are you envious because I’m generous?
Scholars—who have no doubt
that today’s parable came from Jesus--
say that a more accurate translation of that line is
“Is your eye evil because I am good?”
In the Mediterranean world,
one of the things that makes for an “evil eye”
is to look at somebody else's good with jealousy--
to envy another person’s success.
It’s like the story where Martha is complaining
because she’s doing all the work
while Mary sits and listens to Jesus.
It’s like the prodigal son’s older brother,
complaining because his wastrel brother
is welcomed back into the family with a party
while he stayed home doing all the work.
They fail to understand
that God’s goodness is based on love,
not on merit.
_____________________________________
The situation in which Jesus originally told this story
must have been people complaining
that he was paying more attention
to the outcasts and the marginalized
than to people like them--
the respectable and upstanding members of the society.
_____________________________________
Like so much of what Jesus preached,
this parable is about the reign of God.
The reign of God is like this outrageously generous landowner
who sees justice in terms of human dignity,
in terms of the right of all people to a decent life.
Jesus lives in that reign of God.
It’s how he goes about his ministry.
He welcomes everybody.
He gives tax collectors and prostitutes
equal treatment with everyone else.
_____________________________________
It seems to be human nature
to think the way those complainers did.
Seeing “those” people—the unworthy ones--
accepted the same as we are--
we who have walked the straight and narrow,
followed all the rules--
we think it’s not fair.
We who are white
can fall into the sin of white privilege.
We who are free
can look down on those in prison.
We who are rich
can look down on the poor.
_____________________________________
But that’s not the way God is, thank God!
As Isaiah puts it, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts,
nor are God’s ways the way of us humans.
We’ve been faithful, toeing the line.
We think that makes us deserve more.
But more what?
More happiness?
More love?
More presence of God?
Just before Jesus tells this parable,
Peter responded
to Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man
by asking Jesus what he and the other disciples
will get out of leaving everything behind
to follow him.
So Jesus tells this parable,
letting the disciples know
that everyone will get all they need.
All who follow the way--
all those other people... and even us--
will live in the presence of God.
To paraphrase Tommy Smothers:
God likes everybody best!
The reign of God is indeed at hand.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 55:6-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Second Reading: Philippians 1:20-24, 27
Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
We all have had the experience
of feeling that we got cheated out of what we deserve.
It started early in life.
My brother got a bigger slice of the cake.
My other brother got more Christmas presents.
As Tommy Smothers used to say,
“It’s not fair!
Mom always liked you best!”
Most of us outgrow those childhood jealousies.
We end up laughing about it years later
when the family gathers.
_____________________________________
Today’s parable reminds us of those hurts,
and of the slights we suffered--
and continued to suffer--
during our adult years,
but the point is not fairness or justice
as the world thinks of it.
The point is the great goodness of our God.
The last line of the parable tells the whole story.
The landowner asks the complainers:
Are you envious because I’m generous?
Scholars—who have no doubt
that today’s parable came from Jesus--
say that a more accurate translation of that line is
“Is your eye evil because I am good?”
In the Mediterranean world,
one of the things that makes for an “evil eye”
is to look at somebody else's good with jealousy--
to envy another person’s success.
It’s like the story where Martha is complaining
because she’s doing all the work
while Mary sits and listens to Jesus.
It’s like the prodigal son’s older brother,
complaining because his wastrel brother
is welcomed back into the family with a party
while he stayed home doing all the work.
They fail to understand
that God’s goodness is based on love,
not on merit.
_____________________________________
The situation in which Jesus originally told this story
must have been people complaining
that he was paying more attention
to the outcasts and the marginalized
than to people like them--
the respectable and upstanding members of the society.
_____________________________________
Like so much of what Jesus preached,
this parable is about the reign of God.
The reign of God is like this outrageously generous landowner
who sees justice in terms of human dignity,
in terms of the right of all people to a decent life.
Jesus lives in that reign of God.
It’s how he goes about his ministry.
He welcomes everybody.
He gives tax collectors and prostitutes
equal treatment with everyone else.
_____________________________________
It seems to be human nature
to think the way those complainers did.
Seeing “those” people—the unworthy ones--
accepted the same as we are--
we who have walked the straight and narrow,
followed all the rules--
we think it’s not fair.
We who are white
can fall into the sin of white privilege.
We who are free
can look down on those in prison.
We who are rich
can look down on the poor.
_____________________________________
But that’s not the way God is, thank God!
As Isaiah puts it, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts,
nor are God’s ways the way of us humans.
We’ve been faithful, toeing the line.
We think that makes us deserve more.
But more what?
More happiness?
More love?
More presence of God?
Just before Jesus tells this parable,
Peter responded
to Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man
by asking Jesus what he and the other disciples
will get out of leaving everything behind
to follow him.
So Jesus tells this parable,
letting the disciples know
that everyone will get all they need.
All who follow the way--
all those other people... and even us--
will live in the presence of God.
To paraphrase Tommy Smothers:
God likes everybody best!
The reign of God is indeed at hand.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), September 17, 2017
First Reading: Sirach 27:30--28:7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
Second Reading: Romans 14:7-9
Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35
What kind of world do we really want to live in?
In our first reading, Sirach tells us
that anger and wrath are abominable.
He says that we are not to be angry
but are to overlook the faults of others.
He is not saying
that we should condone the wrong done to us
but that we have a choice about how we handle it.
Yes, we were hurt,
but if we hold on to our anger about it,
we let the hurt define our life.
What we can and must do
is choose what do about the hurt.
Maybe somebody broke confidence with us.
Maybe a co-worker took credit for our work
and got the raise that should have come to us.
We find a way to move on.
And we forgive,
because that shapes the world we live in
into a forgiving world.
_______________________________________
Sirach’s message of forgiveness
fits with Paul’s message to the Romans.
All of us are brothers and sisters to one another,
Paul says, so we are accountable
to love one another,
to help each other become better people,
and to forgive the hurts.
_______________________________________
In today’s gospel,
Peter wanted to know
how much he had to put up with
when somebody did him wrong.
Jesus answers with a parable that asks
what kind of world he wants to have.
The parable shows us that we choose,
by our actions,
the kind of world we want to live in.
First there’s the king
who is outrageously compassionate
to one of his subjects
who owes him a huge debt.
That’s what the reign of God is like.
When the king forgives the debt,
the debtor’s world changes.
Being forgiven makes him free of debt
and also puts him in a world of great compassion.
But the debtor refuses to pass on
even the tiniest bit of compassion
to someone who owes a small amount to him.
He is offered an alternative,
but he won’t give up even that relatively little debt
to keep living in a world of mercy.
His refusal to forgive
is a choice for a very different kind of world,
a world of pain and deprivation.
So he ends up in the world he has created.
_______________________________________
When we imitate the compassion of God,
we choose to live in a compassionate world.
As you know, there’s another week left
in this year’s Compassion Games.
We’ve been keeping track of our acts of compassion
for about a week,
and we’ll keep track for another week.
Toledo is a compassionate city.
We work at it,
even when the global games aren’t going on.
We work at turning our culture’s values upside down.
We put the needs of others,
not our own needs,
at the center of our lives.
How we can help someone else
becomes the focus of our actions,
every day of the year.
That’s what Jesus was talking about
when he said the reign of God is at hand.
It’s not a name for the place where God rules
but the realm of human persons
responding to God
by being accountable to our neighbor’s good--
the common good.
_______________________________________
Today’s parable answers Peter’s question to Jesus
about how many times
they should forgive someone
who hurts them.
The answer is not seven,
or seventy times seven,
not even 49,
but times without limit,
and the point is not counting them up
and keeping score.
The point is what kind of world
disciples want to create
and what it’s worth to them.
_______________________________________
It’s also important for us to remember
that there are times and circumstances
where we can’t just stick around
and hope for a change in another person’s actions.
Sometimes relationships have to be ended,
like when the harm comes from a boss who bullies
or domestic violence or sex abuse.
We have to love ourselves enough to get out of harm’s way
and move on from the hurt.
_______________________________________
No matter what, if we do not forgive,
we will live in a world that hates,
that holds on to hurts,
that explodes in anger,
that suffers.
If we forgive,
if we reach out in compassion,
if we let go of hurts,
if we love one another,
we define our life our life differently.
We shape a new world...
and the reign of God is indeed at hand!
Amen!
First Reading: Sirach 27:30--28:7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
Second Reading: Romans 14:7-9
Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35
What kind of world do we really want to live in?
In our first reading, Sirach tells us
that anger and wrath are abominable.
He says that we are not to be angry
but are to overlook the faults of others.
He is not saying
that we should condone the wrong done to us
but that we have a choice about how we handle it.
Yes, we were hurt,
but if we hold on to our anger about it,
we let the hurt define our life.
What we can and must do
is choose what do about the hurt.
Maybe somebody broke confidence with us.
Maybe a co-worker took credit for our work
and got the raise that should have come to us.
We find a way to move on.
And we forgive,
because that shapes the world we live in
into a forgiving world.
_______________________________________
Sirach’s message of forgiveness
fits with Paul’s message to the Romans.
All of us are brothers and sisters to one another,
Paul says, so we are accountable
to love one another,
to help each other become better people,
and to forgive the hurts.
_______________________________________
In today’s gospel,
Peter wanted to know
how much he had to put up with
when somebody did him wrong.
Jesus answers with a parable that asks
what kind of world he wants to have.
The parable shows us that we choose,
by our actions,
the kind of world we want to live in.
First there’s the king
who is outrageously compassionate
to one of his subjects
who owes him a huge debt.
That’s what the reign of God is like.
When the king forgives the debt,
the debtor’s world changes.
Being forgiven makes him free of debt
and also puts him in a world of great compassion.
But the debtor refuses to pass on
even the tiniest bit of compassion
to someone who owes a small amount to him.
He is offered an alternative,
but he won’t give up even that relatively little debt
to keep living in a world of mercy.
His refusal to forgive
is a choice for a very different kind of world,
a world of pain and deprivation.
So he ends up in the world he has created.
_______________________________________
When we imitate the compassion of God,
we choose to live in a compassionate world.
As you know, there’s another week left
in this year’s Compassion Games.
We’ve been keeping track of our acts of compassion
for about a week,
and we’ll keep track for another week.
Toledo is a compassionate city.
We work at it,
even when the global games aren’t going on.
We work at turning our culture’s values upside down.
We put the needs of others,
not our own needs,
at the center of our lives.
How we can help someone else
becomes the focus of our actions,
every day of the year.
That’s what Jesus was talking about
when he said the reign of God is at hand.
It’s not a name for the place where God rules
but the realm of human persons
responding to God
by being accountable to our neighbor’s good--
the common good.
_______________________________________
Today’s parable answers Peter’s question to Jesus
about how many times
they should forgive someone
who hurts them.
The answer is not seven,
or seventy times seven,
not even 49,
but times without limit,
and the point is not counting them up
and keeping score.
The point is what kind of world
disciples want to create
and what it’s worth to them.
_______________________________________
It’s also important for us to remember
that there are times and circumstances
where we can’t just stick around
and hope for a change in another person’s actions.
Sometimes relationships have to be ended,
like when the harm comes from a boss who bullies
or domestic violence or sex abuse.
We have to love ourselves enough to get out of harm’s way
and move on from the hurt.
_______________________________________
No matter what, if we do not forgive,
we will live in a world that hates,
that holds on to hurts,
that explodes in anger,
that suffers.
If we forgive,
if we reach out in compassion,
if we let go of hurts,
if we love one another,
we define our life our life differently.
We shape a new world...
and the reign of God is indeed at hand!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), September 10, 2017
First Reading: Ezekiel 33:7-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Romans 13:8-10
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20
Love God and love your neighbor.
If there’s anything that scholars agree about,
it’s that Jesus taught his disciples
to love God and neighbor
and that he showed them what that looked like
by his preaching and example,
and he did it no matter what the powerful said about it.
But today’s gospel shows Matthew’s community
beginning to turn away
from Jesus’ clear and firm teaching.
Matthew sets up a three-step process
when somebody is judged to be in error:
talk with them about it, and if that doesn’t work,
get some witnesses to talk with them about,
and if that doesn’t work,
take it to the whole community, and if that doesn’t work,
“then treat that sister or brother as you would
a Gentile or a tax collector.”
In that first-century culture, Gentiles and tax collectors
were hated and shunned, called names,
barred from the community.
That doesn’t fit what we know about Jesus.
We know that he spent a lot of time
with tax collectors and sinners.
Matthew himself is a tax collector.
In Chapter 9, Matthew tells how Jesus
ate with tax collectors and sinners.
In chapter 11, Matthew calls Jesus
“a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
In Chapter 21, Matthew reports that Jesus said that
“tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kin-dom of God before you.”
That’s what Jesus did.
He didn’t exclude or shun Gentiles
or tax collectors or sinners.
He talked with them, listened to them, healed them,
praised their humility and their perseverance
and their wisdom and their faith,
ate supper with them.
Half a century passes, and Matthew’s community--
made up of Jewish Christians--
want to understand themselves
as a new and legitimate interpretation
of the law of Moses.
To that end,
Matthew cites traditional Jewish law and practice,
turning his community in a hierarchical direction.
Then he brings in that binding and loosing,
a phrase that referred to the authority of a chief rabbi.
Two chapters before this,
Matthew had Jesus give that authority to Peter, the rock.
_____________________________________
Examples of holy defiance to authority started early.
Back in Exodus, the midwives Shiphrah and Puah
defied the Pharaoh and refused
to murder the newborn males of the Israelites.
The prophet Jeremiah faced a death sentence
because he kept on preaching God’s word.
Early on, Christianity took on the cultural practices of power
in matters of prophetic defiance.
We began to excommunicate people
who held theologies and practices
different from the people in power.
Over the centuries we excommunicated
popes and theologians and teachers and preachers
and kings and queens and politicians,
along with countless ordinary people.
Punishments could include execution, torture,
corporal punishment, incarceration, exile, silencing,
or anything else a Church official might come up with.
_____________________________________
All of this excommunication happened
because people followed their consciences
instead of the rules set down by the powerful.
They disobeyed.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out that,
of all the 613 laws in the Torah,
not one uses the word obey.
What God says is Shema…
Listen to me, God says.
Take me seriously.
Pay attention.
But God does not say obey.
In our own day
we can cite a long list of martyrs, prophets, and saints
who listen to God
and defy the rules of the authorities in power:
the woman martyrs of El Salvador, Thomas Merton,
Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Luther King,
Ludmila Javorová, the Danube Seven.
Those are some of the famous ones.
We know some who aren’t so famous.
Here in Toledo there are folks in picket lines,
demonstrators on the streets,
citizens speaking at Council and School Board meetings,
proponents of Toledo as a sanctuary city.
Ordinary people standing up in holy defiance,
choosing what’s right and moral
over what’s wrong and immoral.
_____________________________________
Like Matthew’s community,
we still grapple with issues of inclusion and exclusion,
questions of hierarchy and authority.
Too often we do what Matthew says--
excommunication and shunning--
rather than what Jesus said—inclusion and love.
Sometimes we have to ask ourselves
whether we’re following Jesus
or following the ways of the powerful.
Do we treat people with respect, even when we disagree?
Do we listen to their ideas, talk with them?
Or do we follow the culture and exclude them?
Shun them?
As Sister Joan Chittister says,
“Just because human beings
so often dress themselves in the trappings of power
does not give them power over either our consciences
or our souls.”
That power belongs to God.
_____________________________________
It’s simple, really.
We are called to love God and neighbor.
Simple, but not always easy.
Amen!
First Reading: Ezekiel 33:7-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Romans 13:8-10
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20
Love God and love your neighbor.
If there’s anything that scholars agree about,
it’s that Jesus taught his disciples
to love God and neighbor
and that he showed them what that looked like
by his preaching and example,
and he did it no matter what the powerful said about it.
But today’s gospel shows Matthew’s community
beginning to turn away
from Jesus’ clear and firm teaching.
Matthew sets up a three-step process
when somebody is judged to be in error:
talk with them about it, and if that doesn’t work,
get some witnesses to talk with them about,
and if that doesn’t work,
take it to the whole community, and if that doesn’t work,
“then treat that sister or brother as you would
a Gentile or a tax collector.”
In that first-century culture, Gentiles and tax collectors
were hated and shunned, called names,
barred from the community.
That doesn’t fit what we know about Jesus.
We know that he spent a lot of time
with tax collectors and sinners.
Matthew himself is a tax collector.
In Chapter 9, Matthew tells how Jesus
ate with tax collectors and sinners.
In chapter 11, Matthew calls Jesus
“a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
In Chapter 21, Matthew reports that Jesus said that
“tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kin-dom of God before you.”
That’s what Jesus did.
He didn’t exclude or shun Gentiles
or tax collectors or sinners.
He talked with them, listened to them, healed them,
praised their humility and their perseverance
and their wisdom and their faith,
ate supper with them.
Half a century passes, and Matthew’s community--
made up of Jewish Christians--
want to understand themselves
as a new and legitimate interpretation
of the law of Moses.
To that end,
Matthew cites traditional Jewish law and practice,
turning his community in a hierarchical direction.
Then he brings in that binding and loosing,
a phrase that referred to the authority of a chief rabbi.
Two chapters before this,
Matthew had Jesus give that authority to Peter, the rock.
_____________________________________
Examples of holy defiance to authority started early.
Back in Exodus, the midwives Shiphrah and Puah
defied the Pharaoh and refused
to murder the newborn males of the Israelites.
The prophet Jeremiah faced a death sentence
because he kept on preaching God’s word.
Early on, Christianity took on the cultural practices of power
in matters of prophetic defiance.
We began to excommunicate people
who held theologies and practices
different from the people in power.
Over the centuries we excommunicated
popes and theologians and teachers and preachers
and kings and queens and politicians,
along with countless ordinary people.
Punishments could include execution, torture,
corporal punishment, incarceration, exile, silencing,
or anything else a Church official might come up with.
_____________________________________
All of this excommunication happened
because people followed their consciences
instead of the rules set down by the powerful.
They disobeyed.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out that,
of all the 613 laws in the Torah,
not one uses the word obey.
What God says is Shema…
Listen to me, God says.
Take me seriously.
Pay attention.
But God does not say obey.
In our own day
we can cite a long list of martyrs, prophets, and saints
who listen to God
and defy the rules of the authorities in power:
the woman martyrs of El Salvador, Thomas Merton,
Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Luther King,
Ludmila Javorová, the Danube Seven.
Those are some of the famous ones.
We know some who aren’t so famous.
Here in Toledo there are folks in picket lines,
demonstrators on the streets,
citizens speaking at Council and School Board meetings,
proponents of Toledo as a sanctuary city.
Ordinary people standing up in holy defiance,
choosing what’s right and moral
over what’s wrong and immoral.
_____________________________________
Like Matthew’s community,
we still grapple with issues of inclusion and exclusion,
questions of hierarchy and authority.
Too often we do what Matthew says--
excommunication and shunning--
rather than what Jesus said—inclusion and love.
Sometimes we have to ask ourselves
whether we’re following Jesus
or following the ways of the powerful.
Do we treat people with respect, even when we disagree?
Do we listen to their ideas, talk with them?
Or do we follow the culture and exclude them?
Shun them?
As Sister Joan Chittister says,
“Just because human beings
so often dress themselves in the trappings of power
does not give them power over either our consciences
or our souls.”
That power belongs to God.
_____________________________________
It’s simple, really.
We are called to love God and neighbor.
Simple, but not always easy.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), September 3, 2017
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63:1-8
Second Reading: Romans 12:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27
We all know what it means
when somebody shakes their head
and says, “I can see the handwriting on the wall.”
It’s part of our everyday language.
The phrase comes from a story in the Book of Daniel,
six centuries before Jesus.
We have that same prophetic power
to read the handwriting on the wall.
Maybe we know someone
who makes a habit of driving home
after he’s had way too much to drink.
We can predict that, if he keeps on doing that,
sooner or later the police will catch him
or he’ll get in an accident.
Or maybe we have a co-worker
who shows up late, goofs around on the job,
and misses deadlines on his projects.
We know that, for him, the handwriting is on the wall.
We know about Martin Luther King,
who gave what’s known as his Mountaintop Speech
on April 3 of 1968.
He had heard the death threats.
He knew the bigotry and hate and violence
behind those threats.
He knew the odds of suffering
from that hate and violence
if he kept on speaking out.
Even then, knowing it, he didn’t stop.
Looking back, we might think
that he predicted his own death
the very next night,
but he didn’t.
He was simply reading the handwriting on the wall.
_________________________________________
That’s what’s going on in today’s gospel.
Jesus can’t foretell the future,
but he can see the future implications
of present actions.
Jesus is not psychic.
He’s the conscience of the people.
He can look at the signs of the times
and “see the handwriting on the wall.”
He knows that people in power want him dead
for what he teaches.
If he keeps on, they could kill him.
_________________________________________
There’s a long history of Jewish prophets suffering
because they speak truth to power,
and Jesus knows those stories.
Like Jeremiah,
the word of God brings Jesus derision and reproach
from people in power,
but Jesus can’t turn away from his prophetic teaching.
It’s a fire in his heart.
He can’t hold it in.
To stop preaching would kill his very soul.
_________________________________________
But Peter refuses to listen.
He tries to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem,
talk him out of speaking the truth.
Peter becomes an obstacle, a stumbling block,
to answering God’s call.
_________________________________________
Self-interest can become a stumbling block.
In our country,
where it’s becoming more and more acceptable
to forget gospel values,
we’re tempted to keep quiet
when it comes to things like wealth and poverty,
war and peace, sexism, racism, and climate change.
We want to get ahead, so we don’t speak up.
Somebody might not like it.
We might have to give something up.
We might suffer.
_________________________________________
Take our addiction to wealth.
Money talks.
We know that many people will judge our self-worth
by how much money we make
and how much stuff we have.
Do we stumble over that,
letting our fear of the opinions of others
become an obstacle to following the way of Jesus?
_________________________________________
If we look around, if we listen,
we can see the handwriting on the wall.
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to stand up and speak out,
no matter the cost.
And even though we know there will be a cost,
we cannot keep silent.
As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said,
“We must take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor.
Silence encourages the tormenter.”
So we can’t ignore God’s word.
We can’t ignore our consciences.
We have to keep on speaking out,
whether it’s against a terrorist in Orlando
or white supremacists in Charlottesville.
And we have to do more than just talk about it.
We have to take action--
letters and emails and phone calls
and demonstrations and marches... and votes.
_________________________________________
And so we see the Indivisible Toledo folks
gathering every Tuesday at Senator Portman’s office.
We saw the crowd last week at UT—lots of young people--
marching against white supremacy.
All around the country
people are donating cash and goods and time
to the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Still others are pointing
to the human causes of climate change
and calling for action.
Here in Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson
has joined nearly 400 other mayors and governors
in pledging to keep the Paris Climate Accord.
Toledoans—some of you here--
are lining up again this year
for the Global Compassion Games,
set for September 9-24.
Last year, out of 91 global teams,
our Toledo/northwest Ohio team
was 1st in number of volunteers,
2nd in number of volunteer hours,
11th in number of people served,
and 7th in money raised.
Again this year you’ll report
the acts of kindness and service and loving care
that you do routinely
so others can be more fulfilled in their own lives.
_________________________________________
Toledo is full of people
who dare to follow their consciences,
who are unafraid to go against the current;
people putting their own interests aside
to work with immigrants, refugees,
the elderly, the trafficked;
people demonstrating
for peace
and a clean Lake Erie
and healthcare for all;
people calling for an end to the death penalty.
It’s you... YOU are offering a living sacrifice,
your gifts of time and talent and treasure
in service, hospitality, prayer, and love.
There’s a fire in your heart,
and you can’t hold it in.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63:1-8
Second Reading: Romans 12:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27
We all know what it means
when somebody shakes their head
and says, “I can see the handwriting on the wall.”
It’s part of our everyday language.
The phrase comes from a story in the Book of Daniel,
six centuries before Jesus.
We have that same prophetic power
to read the handwriting on the wall.
Maybe we know someone
who makes a habit of driving home
after he’s had way too much to drink.
We can predict that, if he keeps on doing that,
sooner or later the police will catch him
or he’ll get in an accident.
Or maybe we have a co-worker
who shows up late, goofs around on the job,
and misses deadlines on his projects.
We know that, for him, the handwriting is on the wall.
We know about Martin Luther King,
who gave what’s known as his Mountaintop Speech
on April 3 of 1968.
He had heard the death threats.
He knew the bigotry and hate and violence
behind those threats.
He knew the odds of suffering
from that hate and violence
if he kept on speaking out.
Even then, knowing it, he didn’t stop.
Looking back, we might think
that he predicted his own death
the very next night,
but he didn’t.
He was simply reading the handwriting on the wall.
_________________________________________
That’s what’s going on in today’s gospel.
Jesus can’t foretell the future,
but he can see the future implications
of present actions.
Jesus is not psychic.
He’s the conscience of the people.
He can look at the signs of the times
and “see the handwriting on the wall.”
He knows that people in power want him dead
for what he teaches.
If he keeps on, they could kill him.
_________________________________________
There’s a long history of Jewish prophets suffering
because they speak truth to power,
and Jesus knows those stories.
Like Jeremiah,
the word of God brings Jesus derision and reproach
from people in power,
but Jesus can’t turn away from his prophetic teaching.
It’s a fire in his heart.
He can’t hold it in.
To stop preaching would kill his very soul.
_________________________________________
But Peter refuses to listen.
He tries to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem,
talk him out of speaking the truth.
Peter becomes an obstacle, a stumbling block,
to answering God’s call.
_________________________________________
Self-interest can become a stumbling block.
In our country,
where it’s becoming more and more acceptable
to forget gospel values,
we’re tempted to keep quiet
when it comes to things like wealth and poverty,
war and peace, sexism, racism, and climate change.
We want to get ahead, so we don’t speak up.
Somebody might not like it.
We might have to give something up.
We might suffer.
_________________________________________
Take our addiction to wealth.
Money talks.
We know that many people will judge our self-worth
by how much money we make
and how much stuff we have.
Do we stumble over that,
letting our fear of the opinions of others
become an obstacle to following the way of Jesus?
_________________________________________
If we look around, if we listen,
we can see the handwriting on the wall.
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to stand up and speak out,
no matter the cost.
And even though we know there will be a cost,
we cannot keep silent.
As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said,
“We must take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor.
Silence encourages the tormenter.”
So we can’t ignore God’s word.
We can’t ignore our consciences.
We have to keep on speaking out,
whether it’s against a terrorist in Orlando
or white supremacists in Charlottesville.
And we have to do more than just talk about it.
We have to take action--
letters and emails and phone calls
and demonstrations and marches... and votes.
_________________________________________
And so we see the Indivisible Toledo folks
gathering every Tuesday at Senator Portman’s office.
We saw the crowd last week at UT—lots of young people--
marching against white supremacy.
All around the country
people are donating cash and goods and time
to the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Still others are pointing
to the human causes of climate change
and calling for action.
Here in Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson
has joined nearly 400 other mayors and governors
in pledging to keep the Paris Climate Accord.
Toledoans—some of you here--
are lining up again this year
for the Global Compassion Games,
set for September 9-24.
Last year, out of 91 global teams,
our Toledo/northwest Ohio team
was 1st in number of volunteers,
2nd in number of volunteer hours,
11th in number of people served,
and 7th in money raised.
Again this year you’ll report
the acts of kindness and service and loving care
that you do routinely
so others can be more fulfilled in their own lives.
_________________________________________
Toledo is full of people
who dare to follow their consciences,
who are unafraid to go against the current;
people putting their own interests aside
to work with immigrants, refugees,
the elderly, the trafficked;
people demonstrating
for peace
and a clean Lake Erie
and healthcare for all;
people calling for an end to the death penalty.
It’s you... YOU are offering a living sacrifice,
your gifts of time and talent and treasure
in service, hospitality, prayer, and love.
There’s a fire in your heart,
and you can’t hold it in.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 27, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 22:19-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8
Second Reading: Romans 11:33-36
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20
Today’s gospel is often put forth
as proof that Jesus intended to found a church
and intended to put Peter in charge of it.
We Roman Catholics read it
as if Jesus made Peter the first Pope.
To do that, we have to ignore other statements in the Bible
that tell us something else.
Scholars point out that this passage
was created by Matthew because his community
was struggling with questions of authority
and, in Matthew’s community, Peter is in charge.
Mark’s community,
at an earlier stage in the development of Christianity,
doesn’t have the scene
where Peter receives the keys of authority.
Other parts of the New Testament writings
give the authority of leadership to James...
or Phillip, or John, or Mary of Magdala, or Paul.
_______________________________________
Those early Christians were at a point
where they were trying to find a way
to deal with people who sinned.
So Matthew has Jesus speak of “binding and loosing”
to describe Peter's authority.
That binding and loosing,
in a community like Matthew’s
that consisted of Jewish Christians,
refers to the authority of the chief rabbi of a community.
Sometimes authority meant
applying the Torah to a particular case,
and sometimes it including or excluding
a member of the community.
So Matthew has Jesus talk about Peter
as the chief rabbi of his community.
_______________________________________
But it’s not cut and dried,
even in in that one small gathering.
Just three verses later, in verse 23,
Matthew has Jesus say to Peter, “
Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does,
but as human beings do.”
And later, in Chapter 18,
Matthew says that same authority of binding and loosing
is given to the whole church community
as it deals with offending or dissenting members...
and whenever two or three of them agree
to ask for something in prayer.
_______________________________________
Our Christian forebears
struggled with their conflicting views
about identity and mission; authority and autonomy;
and, in the absence of Jesus,
they struggled over their relationship
with the "non-believing" Jewish community
as well as other Christian believers.
We know from history
that such struggles were not limited to Christians.
Today’s reading from Isaiah tells us about Shebna,
holding a position of authority but misusing his power.
And we also know from history
that those struggles did not go away.
Constantine thought the arguments would be over
after the Council of Nicea came up with the Creed.
Even that didn’t end it.
Through the Crusades and the Inquisition and the Reformation, through
the Council of Trent and the Vatican Councils,
over the years, we struggled, and we still struggle,
over authority and power and forgiveness.
_______________________________________
These questions have been at the heart
of much confusion and hurt in our Catholic church.
And they still are.
Who do we say Jesus is?
Friend, brother, role model?
Taskmaster, judge?
How do we handle this “binding and loosing?”
Who is included in this assembly?
Who’s not?
And who decides?
Do we limit authority to the hierarchy of Pope, bishops, and priests?
Or do we recognize the baptismal authority of all Christians?
And do we honor the authority of every human being’s conscience?
_______________________________________
The conflicts span the centuries.
Long lists of people were burned at the stake for heresy
during the Inquisition.
And there’s Joan of Arc,
burned at the stake and then canonized.
Authors were silenced for their writing,
like Galileo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
And in our times, U.S. Bishops have banned
Elizabeth Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God
from Catholic colleges;
refused communion to political candidates;
and vilified and tormented the victims of clergy sex abuse
for speaking the truth.
_______________________________________
Yet there is hope.
If history is any measure, eventually we will see
remarried-without-an-annulment couples
welcomed to communion.
We’ll see canonizations of LGBT couples
for persevering in the faith
in spite of what’s going on today.
We’ll see Fr. Roy Bourgeois honored
for his support of ordaining women to the priesthood.
_______________________________________
In the meantime, our task
is to use our baptismal authority
as priests, prophets, and servant leaders
to carry forward the message of Jesus:
the reign of God is at hand.
So we stay faithful.
We have nothing to fear,
not the past, or the present, or things to come.
As our psalm today tells us, God’s love is eternal.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 22:19-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8
Second Reading: Romans 11:33-36
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20
Today’s gospel is often put forth
as proof that Jesus intended to found a church
and intended to put Peter in charge of it.
We Roman Catholics read it
as if Jesus made Peter the first Pope.
To do that, we have to ignore other statements in the Bible
that tell us something else.
Scholars point out that this passage
was created by Matthew because his community
was struggling with questions of authority
and, in Matthew’s community, Peter is in charge.
Mark’s community,
at an earlier stage in the development of Christianity,
doesn’t have the scene
where Peter receives the keys of authority.
Other parts of the New Testament writings
give the authority of leadership to James...
or Phillip, or John, or Mary of Magdala, or Paul.
_______________________________________
Those early Christians were at a point
where they were trying to find a way
to deal with people who sinned.
So Matthew has Jesus speak of “binding and loosing”
to describe Peter's authority.
That binding and loosing,
in a community like Matthew’s
that consisted of Jewish Christians,
refers to the authority of the chief rabbi of a community.
Sometimes authority meant
applying the Torah to a particular case,
and sometimes it including or excluding
a member of the community.
So Matthew has Jesus talk about Peter
as the chief rabbi of his community.
_______________________________________
But it’s not cut and dried,
even in in that one small gathering.
Just three verses later, in verse 23,
Matthew has Jesus say to Peter, “
Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does,
but as human beings do.”
And later, in Chapter 18,
Matthew says that same authority of binding and loosing
is given to the whole church community
as it deals with offending or dissenting members...
and whenever two or three of them agree
to ask for something in prayer.
_______________________________________
Our Christian forebears
struggled with their conflicting views
about identity and mission; authority and autonomy;
and, in the absence of Jesus,
they struggled over their relationship
with the "non-believing" Jewish community
as well as other Christian believers.
We know from history
that such struggles were not limited to Christians.
Today’s reading from Isaiah tells us about Shebna,
holding a position of authority but misusing his power.
And we also know from history
that those struggles did not go away.
Constantine thought the arguments would be over
after the Council of Nicea came up with the Creed.
Even that didn’t end it.
Through the Crusades and the Inquisition and the Reformation, through
the Council of Trent and the Vatican Councils,
over the years, we struggled, and we still struggle,
over authority and power and forgiveness.
_______________________________________
These questions have been at the heart
of much confusion and hurt in our Catholic church.
And they still are.
Who do we say Jesus is?
Friend, brother, role model?
Taskmaster, judge?
How do we handle this “binding and loosing?”
Who is included in this assembly?
Who’s not?
And who decides?
Do we limit authority to the hierarchy of Pope, bishops, and priests?
Or do we recognize the baptismal authority of all Christians?
And do we honor the authority of every human being’s conscience?
_______________________________________
The conflicts span the centuries.
Long lists of people were burned at the stake for heresy
during the Inquisition.
And there’s Joan of Arc,
burned at the stake and then canonized.
Authors were silenced for their writing,
like Galileo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
And in our times, U.S. Bishops have banned
Elizabeth Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God
from Catholic colleges;
refused communion to political candidates;
and vilified and tormented the victims of clergy sex abuse
for speaking the truth.
_______________________________________
Yet there is hope.
If history is any measure, eventually we will see
remarried-without-an-annulment couples
welcomed to communion.
We’ll see canonizations of LGBT couples
for persevering in the faith
in spite of what’s going on today.
We’ll see Fr. Roy Bourgeois honored
for his support of ordaining women to the priesthood.
_______________________________________
In the meantime, our task
is to use our baptismal authority
as priests, prophets, and servant leaders
to carry forward the message of Jesus:
the reign of God is at hand.
So we stay faithful.
We have nothing to fear,
not the past, or the present, or things to come.
As our psalm today tells us, God’s love is eternal.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 20, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 67
Second Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28
Back in 1968, in a book called War and Peace in the Global Village,
Marshall McLuhan wrote that
“One thing about which fish
know exactly nothing
is water,
since they have no anti-environment
which would enable them to perceive
the element they live in.”
Where we live
and who we live with
cause us to grow up knowing exactly nothing
about some parts of our environment
because we have nothing to contrast it with.
Like a fish out of water, though,
we learn about ourselves when something changes.
It’s like breathing the air and not paying any attention to it
until it gets smoky or dusty or full of pollen,
or we get bronchitis and have trouble breathing it in.
_________________________________________
In May of 2016 Pope Francis said that
“Many times in the Gospels
we encounter the spontaneous cry to Jesus
of the sick, the possessed, the poor, and the afflicted.”
Then he added, “Jesus responds to them all
with a gaze of mercy and the comfort of His presence.”
But Jesus didn’t always do that, as today’s Gospel tells us.
Jesus was fully human.
He was born into, and trained in, the ways of his culture,
and that culture, contrary to God’s direction,
despised people who were not like them.
So at the beginning of today’s Gospel passage
we see Jesus being pulled out of his comfort zone
like a fish out of water.
His humanity shows through in his first response to the woman.
He’s Jewish, and he’s learned that the Syro-Phoenicians,
the Canaanites—anyone who’s not a Jew—“those people”
are not chosen by God.
So Jesus follows the tradition of his community
and doesn’t even talk with the woman.
But she keeps on,
and her persistence and her faith change him.
Jesus’ encounter with her faith prompts him
to examine his culture’s understanding of “outsiders”
and expand his ministry to include them.
That’s the first lesson in today’s Gospel:
be like Jesus.
Be ready to listen.
Be ready to measure our beliefs and our actions by God’s love.
Be ready to hear God say to us those words that Isaiah heard:
“Do what is right, work for justice.”
Be ready to change when we see
that we’re not doing right or being just.
It’s not always easy
to turn away from the ways of the culture and the world
to answer God’s call, but God’s gift and call remain,
even if we make the choice to refuse them.
As Paul tells the Romans,
God’s gift and God’s call are irrevocable.
_________________________________________
The second lesson for us in today’s Gospel is this:
be like the Canaanite woman.
Have faith.
Be peaceful.
Be respectful...
but... be persistent.
Like that woman who needs healing for her daughter,
we need healing for that which is dear to us…
the soul of our country.
The signs of our time became very clear
in Charlottesville last Saturday.
It’s been called America’s original sin.
We need healing for the racism in our country.
We need an end to the bigoted idea of white supremacy.
_________________________________________
And there is hope.
This week millions of people
pointed to the water that surrounds us fish.
They pointed to Charlottesville
and the racism that surrounds us.
They pointed to our President
and the water that surrounds him--
murky, bloody, full of hate.
Then the news outlets focused on people
noticing the toxic environment of racism and bigotry,
and speaking out—some of them for the first time--
denouncing it, calling for action.
Many of us saw where we were,
what was around us,
and we changed.
On Monday, scores of people
joined the March against White Supremacy in Maumee,
the home of the man who drove his car
into the counter-protesters in Charlottesville.
On Tuesday Indivisible Toledo
stood once again at Senator Portman’s office
calling for action against racism.
On Wednesday Toledo and Lucas County officeholders,
office-seekers, ministers, and citizens
gathered at the “Toledo Loves Love” mural—the “Love Wall”--
to show unity in the face of hatred and violence.
As the week went on,
the internet blossomed with petitions to sign on to,
draft letters to send to the White House and the Congress,
phone messages to call to Washington and Columbus,
forums and teach-ins to take part in.
_________________________________________
We have changed.
Lines of neo-Nazis and white supremacists
marching with burning torches showed us an environment
that has surrounded us all the time.
But we did not see it… like fish don’t see the water.
Now our eyes are open to a dangerous part of our world
that is full of hate,
and we know what we have to do.
_________________________________________
Sure, we get weary of it all.
It takes a lot of time and energy,
and we can get drained just listening to the morning news.
But we have to keep on praying.
We have to keep on emailing and phoning our Senators.
Keep on writing letters to the editor.
Keep on talking about justice and peace.
Keep on reaching out to the “others” in our midst.
That’s what we have to do.
The gift and call of God are irrevocable!
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 67
Second Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28
Back in 1968, in a book called War and Peace in the Global Village,
Marshall McLuhan wrote that
“One thing about which fish
know exactly nothing
is water,
since they have no anti-environment
which would enable them to perceive
the element they live in.”
Where we live
and who we live with
cause us to grow up knowing exactly nothing
about some parts of our environment
because we have nothing to contrast it with.
Like a fish out of water, though,
we learn about ourselves when something changes.
It’s like breathing the air and not paying any attention to it
until it gets smoky or dusty or full of pollen,
or we get bronchitis and have trouble breathing it in.
_________________________________________
In May of 2016 Pope Francis said that
“Many times in the Gospels
we encounter the spontaneous cry to Jesus
of the sick, the possessed, the poor, and the afflicted.”
Then he added, “Jesus responds to them all
with a gaze of mercy and the comfort of His presence.”
But Jesus didn’t always do that, as today’s Gospel tells us.
Jesus was fully human.
He was born into, and trained in, the ways of his culture,
and that culture, contrary to God’s direction,
despised people who were not like them.
So at the beginning of today’s Gospel passage
we see Jesus being pulled out of his comfort zone
like a fish out of water.
His humanity shows through in his first response to the woman.
He’s Jewish, and he’s learned that the Syro-Phoenicians,
the Canaanites—anyone who’s not a Jew—“those people”
are not chosen by God.
So Jesus follows the tradition of his community
and doesn’t even talk with the woman.
But she keeps on,
and her persistence and her faith change him.
Jesus’ encounter with her faith prompts him
to examine his culture’s understanding of “outsiders”
and expand his ministry to include them.
That’s the first lesson in today’s Gospel:
be like Jesus.
Be ready to listen.
Be ready to measure our beliefs and our actions by God’s love.
Be ready to hear God say to us those words that Isaiah heard:
“Do what is right, work for justice.”
Be ready to change when we see
that we’re not doing right or being just.
It’s not always easy
to turn away from the ways of the culture and the world
to answer God’s call, but God’s gift and call remain,
even if we make the choice to refuse them.
As Paul tells the Romans,
God’s gift and God’s call are irrevocable.
_________________________________________
The second lesson for us in today’s Gospel is this:
be like the Canaanite woman.
Have faith.
Be peaceful.
Be respectful...
but... be persistent.
Like that woman who needs healing for her daughter,
we need healing for that which is dear to us…
the soul of our country.
The signs of our time became very clear
in Charlottesville last Saturday.
It’s been called America’s original sin.
We need healing for the racism in our country.
We need an end to the bigoted idea of white supremacy.
_________________________________________
And there is hope.
This week millions of people
pointed to the water that surrounds us fish.
They pointed to Charlottesville
and the racism that surrounds us.
They pointed to our President
and the water that surrounds him--
murky, bloody, full of hate.
Then the news outlets focused on people
noticing the toxic environment of racism and bigotry,
and speaking out—some of them for the first time--
denouncing it, calling for action.
Many of us saw where we were,
what was around us,
and we changed.
On Monday, scores of people
joined the March against White Supremacy in Maumee,
the home of the man who drove his car
into the counter-protesters in Charlottesville.
On Tuesday Indivisible Toledo
stood once again at Senator Portman’s office
calling for action against racism.
On Wednesday Toledo and Lucas County officeholders,
office-seekers, ministers, and citizens
gathered at the “Toledo Loves Love” mural—the “Love Wall”--
to show unity in the face of hatred and violence.
As the week went on,
the internet blossomed with petitions to sign on to,
draft letters to send to the White House and the Congress,
phone messages to call to Washington and Columbus,
forums and teach-ins to take part in.
_________________________________________
We have changed.
Lines of neo-Nazis and white supremacists
marching with burning torches showed us an environment
that has surrounded us all the time.
But we did not see it… like fish don’t see the water.
Now our eyes are open to a dangerous part of our world
that is full of hate,
and we know what we have to do.
_________________________________________
Sure, we get weary of it all.
It takes a lot of time and energy,
and we can get drained just listening to the morning news.
But we have to keep on praying.
We have to keep on emailing and phoning our Senators.
Keep on writing letters to the editor.
Keep on talking about justice and peace.
Keep on reaching out to the “others” in our midst.
That’s what we have to do.
The gift and call of God are irrevocable!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 13, 2017
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:9-13
Second Reading: Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
Elijah hears God ask him, “Why are you here?”
Elijah had been afraid because Jezebel was after him
for killing 400 of her prophets, so he ran away.
He was lying under a tree asking God to let him die,
but God told him to get up and get going,
so he took a 40-day hike through the wilderness
and hid in a cave.
Once there, he isn’t moved by the storm,
or the earthquake, or the fire.
He doesn’t peak out of the cave
until God speaks to him in a gentle whisper.
When he hears that light silent sound,
Elijah gets the courage
to go out and continue his work as a prophet.
_____________________________________
In a different way, Jesus is running away, too.
John the Baptist was beheaded,
and it hits Jesus hard.
He tries to get away
to pray about it in a deserted place,
but people keep coming to him for help.
Because he has compassion for them,
he keeps on preaching and healing.
He feeds the 5,000.
He’s exhausted.
He needs some time to himself,
so he sends the disciples out on the lake
and goes off alone.
Then, in the middle of the night,
a storm comes up,
so he heads for the lake
to assure his followers that he’s with them.
The wind dies down,
and they experience his presence as divine,
the presence of God with them.
_____________________________________
Sometimes we feel like we want to tune out the news.
The storm and stress of current politics
wears us down
to the point of exhaustion and despair.
We want to retreat to a quiet desert place
and just pray about it.
We want to hide in a cave until it passes by.
_____________________________________
Or maybe we’re weary and worn out
with the daily hammering of violence and injustice
here and around the world.
We want to turn it off, ignore it,
limit our experiences to peaceful places,
hang around with people who agree with us,
protect ourselves from the incessant chatter
and vitriolic arguments.
Or we’re afraid
when we see government policies
chipping away at our democracy.
Or hear the saber-rattling language
between our President and the North Koreans.
Or hear about 107-degree temperatures in Salem, Oregon,
in the middle of a week of 90-degree lows in July.
Or maybe it’s closer to home--
family problems, job problems, health problems.
We’d just like it to end.
_____________________________________
At some point we all want to run away.
We’re afraid, like Elijah.
It seems like there’s no way out.
We find ourselves in a storm, like the disciples.
We start to sink, like Peter.
Our love of justice can inspire us to go forward,
leaning on God.
Or our fear can tempt us to run away and hide.
Then we hear that gentle whisper: “Why are you here?
What are you doing here?”
When we hear that,
it’s like a hand reaching out
to calm us and pull us up
and set us back on solid ground.
_____________________________________
No matter how good the work we do,
no matter how much time and energy
we dedicate to the works of justice and charity,
we have to stay centered in God.
Some folks do it with quiet prayer or meditation
or yoga or music.
Some take walks in the Metroparks
or head off on vacation.
We all need those times away from the hurly-burly,
off the treadmill and the merry-go-round.
Yes, as we sing so often,
we are “called to act with justice, love tenderly,
and walk humbly with God.”
Yes, we’re chosen and sent.
But we’re not robots.
Especially in these days,
we need times of prayerful retreat and recollection
so we can get back in touch with who we are
and who God is.
That’s how we get the confidence and strength
to keep on going,
to walk the shifting sands of the deserts in our lives,
to weather the raging storms.
Amen!
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:9-13
Second Reading: Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
Elijah hears God ask him, “Why are you here?”
Elijah had been afraid because Jezebel was after him
for killing 400 of her prophets, so he ran away.
He was lying under a tree asking God to let him die,
but God told him to get up and get going,
so he took a 40-day hike through the wilderness
and hid in a cave.
Once there, he isn’t moved by the storm,
or the earthquake, or the fire.
He doesn’t peak out of the cave
until God speaks to him in a gentle whisper.
When he hears that light silent sound,
Elijah gets the courage
to go out and continue his work as a prophet.
_____________________________________
In a different way, Jesus is running away, too.
John the Baptist was beheaded,
and it hits Jesus hard.
He tries to get away
to pray about it in a deserted place,
but people keep coming to him for help.
Because he has compassion for them,
he keeps on preaching and healing.
He feeds the 5,000.
He’s exhausted.
He needs some time to himself,
so he sends the disciples out on the lake
and goes off alone.
Then, in the middle of the night,
a storm comes up,
so he heads for the lake
to assure his followers that he’s with them.
The wind dies down,
and they experience his presence as divine,
the presence of God with them.
_____________________________________
Sometimes we feel like we want to tune out the news.
The storm and stress of current politics
wears us down
to the point of exhaustion and despair.
We want to retreat to a quiet desert place
and just pray about it.
We want to hide in a cave until it passes by.
_____________________________________
Or maybe we’re weary and worn out
with the daily hammering of violence and injustice
here and around the world.
We want to turn it off, ignore it,
limit our experiences to peaceful places,
hang around with people who agree with us,
protect ourselves from the incessant chatter
and vitriolic arguments.
Or we’re afraid
when we see government policies
chipping away at our democracy.
Or hear the saber-rattling language
between our President and the North Koreans.
Or hear about 107-degree temperatures in Salem, Oregon,
in the middle of a week of 90-degree lows in July.
Or maybe it’s closer to home--
family problems, job problems, health problems.
We’d just like it to end.
_____________________________________
At some point we all want to run away.
We’re afraid, like Elijah.
It seems like there’s no way out.
We find ourselves in a storm, like the disciples.
We start to sink, like Peter.
Our love of justice can inspire us to go forward,
leaning on God.
Or our fear can tempt us to run away and hide.
Then we hear that gentle whisper: “Why are you here?
What are you doing here?”
When we hear that,
it’s like a hand reaching out
to calm us and pull us up
and set us back on solid ground.
_____________________________________
No matter how good the work we do,
no matter how much time and energy
we dedicate to the works of justice and charity,
we have to stay centered in God.
Some folks do it with quiet prayer or meditation
or yoga or music.
Some take walks in the Metroparks
or head off on vacation.
We all need those times away from the hurly-burly,
off the treadmill and the merry-go-round.
Yes, as we sing so often,
we are “called to act with justice, love tenderly,
and walk humbly with God.”
Yes, we’re chosen and sent.
But we’re not robots.
Especially in these days,
we need times of prayerful retreat and recollection
so we can get back in touch with who we are
and who God is.
That’s how we get the confidence and strength
to keep on going,
to walk the shifting sands of the deserts in our lives,
to weather the raging storms.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Transfiguration of the Lord, August 6, 2017
First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
It was the evening of April 3, 1968,
when Martin Luther King preached
what we now know as his Mountaintop Speech.
He was in Memphis
to support the sanitation workers’ boycott,
and he had heard talk about threats against him.
He talked about it this way:
“Well, I don't know what will happen now.
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it really doesn't matter with me now,
because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over.
And I've seen the Promised Land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people,
will get to the promised land!”
He was assassinated the next evening.
_______________________________________
Today’s gospel tells us
about Jesus going to the mountaintop
and walking down from that transfiguring experience
resolved to keep on preaching the reign of God.
Scholars tell us that this transfiguration passage is mythical,
portraying a truth that is true
but that can only be expressed in symbolic language.
Its purpose is to give insight
into who Jesus is
for his disciples.
He has become the light of their lives.
Not only does he fulfill their dreams
of Yahweh’s presence in their lives,
but he also embodies
everything the Law and the prophets--
Moses and Elijah--
convey in the tradition.
Jesus is seen
as chosen by God
to keep on working for justice in the world,
no matter what might happen to him.
_______________________________________
Things haven’t changed.
I first met Sara Jobin
in front of a graffiti-covered garage door in Sylvania
where scores of ordinary people gathered
to cover the hate symbols with messages of love and support. Then I
started seeing her
at the Tuesday gatherings at Senator Rob Portman’s office,
speaking out for justice
on the issues that plague our country.
Sara, a Grammy nominee, is also famous
as Resident Conductor of the Toledo Symphony,
but I didn’t know that then.
I came to know her as one of Toledo’s crusaders for justice,
a woman who fearlessly speaks truth to power
with civil dialogue and peaceful non-violence.
_______________________________________
Sara’s not the only one.
We see profiles in courage every day.
There are famous ones in the news this week,
like Susan Murkowski, Lisa Collins, and John McCain.
And there are lots of unknown ones.
Husbands and wives
who tend their sick, sometimes dying, spouses.
Grandparents who take over raising their grandchildren
when disaster hits the family.
Strangers who give sanctuary
to people running from war and terror.
_______________________________________
Fr. Tony Gallagher—many of you know him--
is wont to say that the 8th sacrament is showing up.
The folks on the street corners,
the ones who stand vigil against the death penalty,
in demonstrations for peace,
at rallies for legislation that promotes the common good--
they show up,
and it is indeed a sacrament,
a holy thing, a sign of God’s presence.
Folks who sit at home praying,
who write letters to elected officials--
they’re signs of God’s presence in our world, too.
Just like Jesus, they are transfigured.
_______________________________________
The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote that
“There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.”
In the rough and tumble, smudge and smell of daily life, he said,
“the world is charged with the grandeur of God.”
When we pay attention to it, we are transfigured--
we see who we are
and who God is.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that
“underneath, before and below everything else,
there flows a sacred force, both physical and spiritual.”
That energy is the presence of God in us, he says.
It gives us the freedom to live fully,
to face tough times,
to be happy
and to be thankful.
_______________________________________
Jesus grew to see himself as a beloved child of God,
charged with the responsibility
of spreading the good news of God’s presence--
God’s reign--
then and there.
His vision guided his life,
and his followers saw the change in him--
he was transfigured.
So Peter, James, and John wanted to put up a tent
and settle down on the mountain,
just like we want the honeymoon to last forever,
like we want to stay high
with our experience of a retreat that transformed us.
We don’t want to go back to the humdrum daily existence,
mowing the lawn, getting the groceries in,
gassing up the car, paying the bills,
cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry.
But, like Jesus, we know God has called us
to keep walking along the way.
We have been transformed.
We are beloved children of God,
called to spread peace and justice everywhere,
to be signs of God’s presence in our day-to-day world.
So we keep on keeping on... no matter what.
Amen!
First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
It was the evening of April 3, 1968,
when Martin Luther King preached
what we now know as his Mountaintop Speech.
He was in Memphis
to support the sanitation workers’ boycott,
and he had heard talk about threats against him.
He talked about it this way:
“Well, I don't know what will happen now.
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it really doesn't matter with me now,
because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over.
And I've seen the Promised Land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people,
will get to the promised land!”
He was assassinated the next evening.
_______________________________________
Today’s gospel tells us
about Jesus going to the mountaintop
and walking down from that transfiguring experience
resolved to keep on preaching the reign of God.
Scholars tell us that this transfiguration passage is mythical,
portraying a truth that is true
but that can only be expressed in symbolic language.
Its purpose is to give insight
into who Jesus is
for his disciples.
He has become the light of their lives.
Not only does he fulfill their dreams
of Yahweh’s presence in their lives,
but he also embodies
everything the Law and the prophets--
Moses and Elijah--
convey in the tradition.
Jesus is seen
as chosen by God
to keep on working for justice in the world,
no matter what might happen to him.
_______________________________________
Things haven’t changed.
I first met Sara Jobin
in front of a graffiti-covered garage door in Sylvania
where scores of ordinary people gathered
to cover the hate symbols with messages of love and support. Then I
started seeing her
at the Tuesday gatherings at Senator Rob Portman’s office,
speaking out for justice
on the issues that plague our country.
Sara, a Grammy nominee, is also famous
as Resident Conductor of the Toledo Symphony,
but I didn’t know that then.
I came to know her as one of Toledo’s crusaders for justice,
a woman who fearlessly speaks truth to power
with civil dialogue and peaceful non-violence.
_______________________________________
Sara’s not the only one.
We see profiles in courage every day.
There are famous ones in the news this week,
like Susan Murkowski, Lisa Collins, and John McCain.
And there are lots of unknown ones.
Husbands and wives
who tend their sick, sometimes dying, spouses.
Grandparents who take over raising their grandchildren
when disaster hits the family.
Strangers who give sanctuary
to people running from war and terror.
_______________________________________
Fr. Tony Gallagher—many of you know him--
is wont to say that the 8th sacrament is showing up.
The folks on the street corners,
the ones who stand vigil against the death penalty,
in demonstrations for peace,
at rallies for legislation that promotes the common good--
they show up,
and it is indeed a sacrament,
a holy thing, a sign of God’s presence.
Folks who sit at home praying,
who write letters to elected officials--
they’re signs of God’s presence in our world, too.
Just like Jesus, they are transfigured.
_______________________________________
The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote that
“There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.”
In the rough and tumble, smudge and smell of daily life, he said,
“the world is charged with the grandeur of God.”
When we pay attention to it, we are transfigured--
we see who we are
and who God is.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that
“underneath, before and below everything else,
there flows a sacred force, both physical and spiritual.”
That energy is the presence of God in us, he says.
It gives us the freedom to live fully,
to face tough times,
to be happy
and to be thankful.
_______________________________________
Jesus grew to see himself as a beloved child of God,
charged with the responsibility
of spreading the good news of God’s presence--
God’s reign--
then and there.
His vision guided his life,
and his followers saw the change in him--
he was transfigured.
So Peter, James, and John wanted to put up a tent
and settle down on the mountain,
just like we want the honeymoon to last forever,
like we want to stay high
with our experience of a retreat that transformed us.
We don’t want to go back to the humdrum daily existence,
mowing the lawn, getting the groceries in,
gassing up the car, paying the bills,
cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry.
But, like Jesus, we know God has called us
to keep walking along the way.
We have been transformed.
We are beloved children of God,
called to spread peace and justice everywhere,
to be signs of God’s presence in our day-to-day world.
So we keep on keeping on... no matter what.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 30, 2017
First Reading: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130
Second Reading: Romans 8:28-30
Gospel: Matthew 13:44-52
Anne Lamott says her basic prayers
are Help, Thanks, and Wow!
When we talk with God, what do we say?
What do we want help with?
What are we thankful for?
Do we pray for something that helps other people,
like the understanding heart
that Solomon asked for in our first reading?
Suppose God appeared in a dream and said,
"Ask something of me and I will give it to you."
What would we ask for?
Good health?
A long life?
Help with the bills?
To use the simile of that first parable in today’s Gospel,
what do we treasure most of all?
Do we put most of our time in
trying to get more and better stuff,
to build up the retirement account,
to gain power over other people,
to have more fun,
to get more comfortable?
What would the world be like if,
instead of these,
our one real treasure
was world peace based on justice for all?
Or the development of a classless society
based on respect for all
and the priority of need over want?
Or the worship of God
through service and a preferential option for the poor?
__________________________________
Theologian John Shea says
that Jesus’ ministry revolved around three questions:
What do you want out of life?
Where do you get it?
How much does it cost?
Jesus had those same questions
and went off alone to pray for 40 days in the desert.
He’s tempted by the same things we are--
power, money, and pleasure.
He comes away from that experience a changed man.
He’s not a carpenter any more.
He’s a preacher of good news.
He sets out into the countryside
announcing that “The reign of God is at hand.”
__________________________________
We’re used to hearing it translated as the “kingdom of God,”
but that phrase carries with it
a misleading idea
that it’s a physical place that we have to get to.
It’s not.
Jesus says it’s “at hand,” here and now.
He uses the parables of the buried treasure
and the pearl of great price
to tell us what the reign of God is like.
It’s like a treasure that’s right under our feet,
like that treasure buried in the field.
It is so valuable
that it’s worth taking drastic action to gain it,
worth giving away anything and everything else.
__________________________________
Scholars tell us that the reign of God
is about God working in our everyday lives.
So Jesus’ basic message centers on one truth:
God is present right here and now
in everything we do,
in every person we encounter,
in every situation we face.
We don’t have to go to church,
say another rosary, attend another bible study,
or even think holy, pious thoughts.
There’s nothing we can do to make God present.
God is already here.
God is already in charge.
That’s a “wow” for sure!
__________________________________
We have all given up something for the reign of God.
Maybe we changed our plans one day to help somebody.
Or did without a meal
and donated the cost of that meal to feed the needy.
Maybe we stopped by to visit a homebound friend.
Or demonstrated for peace, or a clean Lake Erie, or healthcare.
When we do those things,
when we start making the choice to love and serve,
we’re living in the reign of God,
jumping in with both feet.
It’s life-changing.
And it’s worth everything!
Amen!
First Reading: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130
Second Reading: Romans 8:28-30
Gospel: Matthew 13:44-52
Anne Lamott says her basic prayers
are Help, Thanks, and Wow!
When we talk with God, what do we say?
What do we want help with?
What are we thankful for?
Do we pray for something that helps other people,
like the understanding heart
that Solomon asked for in our first reading?
Suppose God appeared in a dream and said,
"Ask something of me and I will give it to you."
What would we ask for?
Good health?
A long life?
Help with the bills?
To use the simile of that first parable in today’s Gospel,
what do we treasure most of all?
Do we put most of our time in
trying to get more and better stuff,
to build up the retirement account,
to gain power over other people,
to have more fun,
to get more comfortable?
What would the world be like if,
instead of these,
our one real treasure
was world peace based on justice for all?
Or the development of a classless society
based on respect for all
and the priority of need over want?
Or the worship of God
through service and a preferential option for the poor?
__________________________________
Theologian John Shea says
that Jesus’ ministry revolved around three questions:
What do you want out of life?
Where do you get it?
How much does it cost?
Jesus had those same questions
and went off alone to pray for 40 days in the desert.
He’s tempted by the same things we are--
power, money, and pleasure.
He comes away from that experience a changed man.
He’s not a carpenter any more.
He’s a preacher of good news.
He sets out into the countryside
announcing that “The reign of God is at hand.”
__________________________________
We’re used to hearing it translated as the “kingdom of God,”
but that phrase carries with it
a misleading idea
that it’s a physical place that we have to get to.
It’s not.
Jesus says it’s “at hand,” here and now.
He uses the parables of the buried treasure
and the pearl of great price
to tell us what the reign of God is like.
It’s like a treasure that’s right under our feet,
like that treasure buried in the field.
It is so valuable
that it’s worth taking drastic action to gain it,
worth giving away anything and everything else.
__________________________________
Scholars tell us that the reign of God
is about God working in our everyday lives.
So Jesus’ basic message centers on one truth:
God is present right here and now
in everything we do,
in every person we encounter,
in every situation we face.
We don’t have to go to church,
say another rosary, attend another bible study,
or even think holy, pious thoughts.
There’s nothing we can do to make God present.
God is already here.
God is already in charge.
That’s a “wow” for sure!
__________________________________
We have all given up something for the reign of God.
Maybe we changed our plans one day to help somebody.
Or did without a meal
and donated the cost of that meal to feed the needy.
Maybe we stopped by to visit a homebound friend.
Or demonstrated for peace, or a clean Lake Erie, or healthcare.
When we do those things,
when we start making the choice to love and serve,
we’re living in the reign of God,
jumping in with both feet.
It’s life-changing.
And it’s worth everything!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 23, 2017
The dictionary says that a weed
is “a plant that is not valued where it is growing.”
It’s out of place, like a dandelion in the lawn… a weed,
until you want to make some wine.
Or chicory,
that light blue flower that’s popping up everywhere right now…
a weed, until you want coffee without caffeine.
Or like that purslane in the rose garden… a weed,
until you want lots of Omega-3s and Vitamin A in your salad.
_________________________________________
Jesus tells this parable
comparing the reign of God to weeds in the wheat
to make the point
that we need to have the patience of the Master Gardener,
not be quick to judge who’s weed and who’s wheat.
God is patient, and so must we be.
We need to value every person,
even the ones who seem to be out of place,
out of step with everyone else…
or surely out of step with where we think they should be.
_________________________________________
How can we tell who’s a weed and who’s not?
We live in a world where many people judge harshly,
are quick to get angry,
ready to pounce and pull up what they see as weeds.
That’s not what the reign of God is like,
and it’s not the good news we are called to spread.
Each person is unique--
each of us with a different handle on God,
a different holiness,
a different life commitment to serve.
According to the Vatican II
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
we have to inspire our world
by showing mutual esteem, reverence, and harmony.
It’s our mission as Church
to show the goodness of the gospel message…
to be one with people of every nation, race, creed, and culture.
_________________________________________
So we can’t treat people, no matter who they are,
like weeds in our wheat field.
Jesus didn’t label people as hopeless weeds,
and we’re not supposed to do that, either.
We are not called to separate and exclude people,
but, like our God, to welcome and embrace.
We are not to label people because they’re in a different group,
whether it’s an ethnic group,
or a religious group,
or a racial group, or whatever.
We’ve sure heard it:
You’re Islamic, so you’re a terrorist.
You’re Irish, so you’re a drunk.
You’re Polish, so you can’t be all that smart.
You’re liberal… you’re a nut.
You’re conservative… you’re crazy.
You live in Monclova, and I live in north Toledo?
Then don’t cross over!
We know who you are,
and that’s the way you’ll always be!!
Those labels hurt, don’t they?
_________________________________________
We are all a work in progress--
like weeds growing until they’re found to have special vitamins
or the ability to give comfort or healing
or be useful or beautiful...
or just be able to hold the soil in place
in a drought or a windstorm.
Or like poke weed with its poison berries
that are now being spread on solar cells
to capture more sunlight to convert into power.
The wheat has its purpose, but so do the weeds.
Our task is to find the unique purpose that’s ours.
_________________________________________
That doesn’t mean we have to do big things,
like run for public office so we can help people,
or run a Fortune 500 company
so we can give big donations to good causes,
or become sports heroes so we can inspire little kids.
Maybe we spend time with the grandkids.
Scramble eggs at Claver House.
Say hi to the new person in the neighborhood.
Those random acts of kindness
weave themselves into a lifetime of accepting others
and loving them for who they are.
Weeds or wheat?
It doesn’t matter.
Whether we’re growing in a place where we’re appreciated
or stuck in a place where people think we don’t belong,
we are valuable
for becoming all that we were created to be.
Amen!
The dictionary says that a weed
is “a plant that is not valued where it is growing.”
It’s out of place, like a dandelion in the lawn… a weed,
until you want to make some wine.
Or chicory,
that light blue flower that’s popping up everywhere right now…
a weed, until you want coffee without caffeine.
Or like that purslane in the rose garden… a weed,
until you want lots of Omega-3s and Vitamin A in your salad.
_________________________________________
Jesus tells this parable
comparing the reign of God to weeds in the wheat
to make the point
that we need to have the patience of the Master Gardener,
not be quick to judge who’s weed and who’s wheat.
God is patient, and so must we be.
We need to value every person,
even the ones who seem to be out of place,
out of step with everyone else…
or surely out of step with where we think they should be.
_________________________________________
How can we tell who’s a weed and who’s not?
We live in a world where many people judge harshly,
are quick to get angry,
ready to pounce and pull up what they see as weeds.
That’s not what the reign of God is like,
and it’s not the good news we are called to spread.
Each person is unique--
each of us with a different handle on God,
a different holiness,
a different life commitment to serve.
According to the Vatican II
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
we have to inspire our world
by showing mutual esteem, reverence, and harmony.
It’s our mission as Church
to show the goodness of the gospel message…
to be one with people of every nation, race, creed, and culture.
_________________________________________
So we can’t treat people, no matter who they are,
like weeds in our wheat field.
Jesus didn’t label people as hopeless weeds,
and we’re not supposed to do that, either.
We are not called to separate and exclude people,
but, like our God, to welcome and embrace.
We are not to label people because they’re in a different group,
whether it’s an ethnic group,
or a religious group,
or a racial group, or whatever.
We’ve sure heard it:
You’re Islamic, so you’re a terrorist.
You’re Irish, so you’re a drunk.
You’re Polish, so you can’t be all that smart.
You’re liberal… you’re a nut.
You’re conservative… you’re crazy.
You live in Monclova, and I live in north Toledo?
Then don’t cross over!
We know who you are,
and that’s the way you’ll always be!!
Those labels hurt, don’t they?
_________________________________________
We are all a work in progress--
like weeds growing until they’re found to have special vitamins
or the ability to give comfort or healing
or be useful or beautiful...
or just be able to hold the soil in place
in a drought or a windstorm.
Or like poke weed with its poison berries
that are now being spread on solar cells
to capture more sunlight to convert into power.
The wheat has its purpose, but so do the weeds.
Our task is to find the unique purpose that’s ours.
_________________________________________
That doesn’t mean we have to do big things,
like run for public office so we can help people,
or run a Fortune 500 company
so we can give big donations to good causes,
or become sports heroes so we can inspire little kids.
Maybe we spend time with the grandkids.
Scramble eggs at Claver House.
Say hi to the new person in the neighborhood.
Those random acts of kindness
weave themselves into a lifetime of accepting others
and loving them for who they are.
Weeds or wheat?
It doesn’t matter.
Whether we’re growing in a place where we’re appreciated
or stuck in a place where people think we don’t belong,
we are valuable
for becoming all that we were created to be.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 16, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 55:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 65:10-14
Second Reading: Romans 8:18-23
Gospel: Matthew 13:1-23
The parable of the sower and the seed
was common lore in Jesus’ culture and time,
sort of like how we say something like
“a stitch in time saves nine”
or “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Scholars think that Jesus uses that parable to answer his critics
when they say he’s wasting his time
by preaching the reign of God.
They tell him that almost nobody
would ever follow through on what he’s teaching,
but Jesus won’t stop teaching.
He believes that the few who do follow him
will produce abundant fruit.
_____________________________________
Half a century later, Matthew’s community has needs
that the historical Jesus didn’t have.
By that time they’re being called Christians,
and they have a problem
with some of their people leaving the faith,
going off the path,
producing no fruit.
So Matthew applies Jesus’ parable
in a way that meets the needs of his community.
_____________________________________
Our task as today’s followers of the way of Jesus
hasn’t changed from the task of those first apostles.
We are to listen to God’s word
and figure out how that word speaks to us
for the needs of our time.
Today we hear Isaiah telling us
that God speaks through all of creation.
God says:
Yes, as rain and snow come down from the heavens,
it shall not return to me void,
but it shall do my will,
achieving the end—its purpose—for which I sent it.
Each of us is a word that comes forth from the mouth of God,
destined to achieve the purpose for which God sent us.
God made each of us like everything else in creation.
God said: Let there be light.
And there was light.
God said: Let there be Colleen, and there was Colleen.
Let there be Tom, and there was Tom.
And… [mention names of others present].
God calls us by name
and plants us here to make a difference.
_____________________________________
What is the rain that makes us grow?
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
he said, “So you are the little lady who inspired this big war.”
Who was Albert Einstein’s grammar school science teacher?
Who told Aretha Franklin she should sing?
We remember people who have encouraged us,
taught us,
showed us the way.
They helped us grow.
We in turn encourage, teach, and show the way
to our children, our friends, our co-workers.
_____________________________________
Back in the 80s
a reporter interviewed Russian Premier Boris Yeltsin
and asked him what gave him the courage
to stand firm against communism.
Yeltsin said it was a Polish electrician named Lech Walesa.
When Walesa was interviewed and asked what inspired him,
he said it was the civil rights movement in the United States
led by Martin Luther King.
When Martin Luther King was interviewed
and asked what inspired him,
he said it was the courage of one woman, Rosa Parks,
who refused to move to the back seat of the bus.
So it is with each one of us.
God sows good seed,
creates us with a personality and a character
that’s unique and special,
and surrounds us with people who help us grow and develop.
_____________________________________
Like the sower who sows seed in the earth,
God pronounces our names
and sends us forth to be great fathers, great mothers;
good sisters to our sisters,
good brothers to our brothers,
good friends and co-workers,
good citizens of our country and world.
We will not return empty;
we will do what we have been called and sent to do,
and we will produce abundant fruit.
_____________________________________
Each day of our lives we ask ourselves
how we are bringing about God’s reign right now.
We know, just like Paul said,
that we are all groaning inwardly
as we struggle with the needs of our world.
This week we’ve all groaned at the disclosures
of more Russian involvement
in our American political process.
We groan at the health care proposals in Congress
that threaten the well-being of our friends and neighbors
who are poor and sick.
We groan at the failure of our government to take serious action
to protect our planet.
Yes, we groan,
but because we know that we are a people called and sent,
we don’t just groan.
We take action.
We pray.
We take care of our family and friends.
We write letters and send emails and phone public officeholders.
We show up at demonstrations and lectures.
We talk about the issues with the people in our lives.
We sign petitions.
We vote.
We carry God’s word of justice and peace and love with us.
We speak God’s word with our very lives,
everywhere we go.
_____________________________________
So Jesus was right.
He was not wasting his time
preaching and teaching about the reign of God.
Like that seed on good ground,
we—his followers today--
are producing an abundant harvest.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 55:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 65:10-14
Second Reading: Romans 8:18-23
Gospel: Matthew 13:1-23
The parable of the sower and the seed
was common lore in Jesus’ culture and time,
sort of like how we say something like
“a stitch in time saves nine”
or “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Scholars think that Jesus uses that parable to answer his critics
when they say he’s wasting his time
by preaching the reign of God.
They tell him that almost nobody
would ever follow through on what he’s teaching,
but Jesus won’t stop teaching.
He believes that the few who do follow him
will produce abundant fruit.
_____________________________________
Half a century later, Matthew’s community has needs
that the historical Jesus didn’t have.
By that time they’re being called Christians,
and they have a problem
with some of their people leaving the faith,
going off the path,
producing no fruit.
So Matthew applies Jesus’ parable
in a way that meets the needs of his community.
_____________________________________
Our task as today’s followers of the way of Jesus
hasn’t changed from the task of those first apostles.
We are to listen to God’s word
and figure out how that word speaks to us
for the needs of our time.
Today we hear Isaiah telling us
that God speaks through all of creation.
God says:
Yes, as rain and snow come down from the heavens,
it shall not return to me void,
but it shall do my will,
achieving the end—its purpose—for which I sent it.
Each of us is a word that comes forth from the mouth of God,
destined to achieve the purpose for which God sent us.
God made each of us like everything else in creation.
God said: Let there be light.
And there was light.
God said: Let there be Colleen, and there was Colleen.
Let there be Tom, and there was Tom.
And… [mention names of others present].
God calls us by name
and plants us here to make a difference.
_____________________________________
What is the rain that makes us grow?
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
he said, “So you are the little lady who inspired this big war.”
Who was Albert Einstein’s grammar school science teacher?
Who told Aretha Franklin she should sing?
We remember people who have encouraged us,
taught us,
showed us the way.
They helped us grow.
We in turn encourage, teach, and show the way
to our children, our friends, our co-workers.
_____________________________________
Back in the 80s
a reporter interviewed Russian Premier Boris Yeltsin
and asked him what gave him the courage
to stand firm against communism.
Yeltsin said it was a Polish electrician named Lech Walesa.
When Walesa was interviewed and asked what inspired him,
he said it was the civil rights movement in the United States
led by Martin Luther King.
When Martin Luther King was interviewed
and asked what inspired him,
he said it was the courage of one woman, Rosa Parks,
who refused to move to the back seat of the bus.
So it is with each one of us.
God sows good seed,
creates us with a personality and a character
that’s unique and special,
and surrounds us with people who help us grow and develop.
_____________________________________
Like the sower who sows seed in the earth,
God pronounces our names
and sends us forth to be great fathers, great mothers;
good sisters to our sisters,
good brothers to our brothers,
good friends and co-workers,
good citizens of our country and world.
We will not return empty;
we will do what we have been called and sent to do,
and we will produce abundant fruit.
_____________________________________
Each day of our lives we ask ourselves
how we are bringing about God’s reign right now.
We know, just like Paul said,
that we are all groaning inwardly
as we struggle with the needs of our world.
This week we’ve all groaned at the disclosures
of more Russian involvement
in our American political process.
We groan at the health care proposals in Congress
that threaten the well-being of our friends and neighbors
who are poor and sick.
We groan at the failure of our government to take serious action
to protect our planet.
Yes, we groan,
but because we know that we are a people called and sent,
we don’t just groan.
We take action.
We pray.
We take care of our family and friends.
We write letters and send emails and phone public officeholders.
We show up at demonstrations and lectures.
We talk about the issues with the people in our lives.
We sign petitions.
We vote.
We carry God’s word of justice and peace and love with us.
We speak God’s word with our very lives,
everywhere we go.
_____________________________________
So Jesus was right.
He was not wasting his time
preaching and teaching about the reign of God.
Like that seed on good ground,
we—his followers today--
are producing an abundant harvest.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 9, 2017
First Reading: Zechariah 9:9-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14
Second Reading: Romans 8:9, 11-13
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
For a long time I’ve thought that,
like a cat, I have at least nine lives:
when I was two,
pitching headfirst off Grandma’s front porch onto the sidewalk;
when I was 17, crushed under my horse
when he flipped over in a parade;
when I was 28, hit broadside and ending up with a broken back.
That makes three of them, already before I was 30.
And then there are a lot more than nine lives
that I’ve lived in the different jobs,
one after another, sometimes two at a time--
in teaching, politics, government, business administration,
my own technical writing business, and now the church.
Serial careers, they call them,
typical of my generation of American women.
At each step along the way--
it’s the same way with your life as it is with mine--
we go through changes,
and we have some bad things happen along with the good.
Some folks rant and rave when bad things happen to them,
get into a rage about things they can’t change.
Been there, done that.
And other folks follow a path of stillness,
a calm and centered approach.
I keep working on that one.
___________________________________
Today’s Gospel gives us insight into Jesus’ advice to his followers
to help us through the tough times.
We are to aim for that quiet grounding
in meekness and gentleness and humility of heart
that will help us get through.
We are to be humble, not proud.
Not above it all.
We’re to stand in the middle of things,
accepting what comes
and doing our best to stay centered in God,
remembering our mission as disciples sent to the world.
___________________________________
Scripture scholars tell us
that the third part of today’s gospel passage,
that part about the yoke,
echoes a passage in the Book of Sirach--
the prophet Ben Sira--
written about two centuries before Jesus.
The prophet gives this advice:
“Put your neck under the yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little
and found for myself much rest.”
Matthew’s community remembers Jesus putting it this way:
“Come to me, all you who labor and carry heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me,
for I am humble and gentle of heart.
Here you will find rest for your souls,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
It’s not true that Jesus described himself as humble and gentle.
Matthew puts these words in Jesus’ mouth
because it’s the way Jesus’ followers
describe the way they experienced his presence with them,
the way they remember him—as meek and humble of heart.
___________________________________
That “yoke” metaphor that Sirach and Jesus use
isn’t a familiar one in our country today.
Most of us don’t have any experience
hitching animals together to do work for us.
We don’t have any first-hand experience
of being tied up in a prison chain gang.
We have heard about people in abusive relationships,
tied to a spouse who mistreats them.
We’ve known folks in jobs
that require long hours at low pay
under harsh working conditions,
tied to keeping the job
because their family can’t survive without it.
Even though we haven’t had those negative experiences,
we do know what’s it’s like to be tied to people.
Married folks are said to be yoked in marriage.
All of us enjoy relationships that connect us—tie us together--
yoke us—to family and friends and co-workers.
___________________________________
When we hear that first reading
with Zechariah’s promise of freedom, peace,
and deliverance from war and discord
under a meek, just ruler--
we can’t help but contrast it
with the leader we have in our country today.
Our President seems to be committed
to giving us a daily lesson in what it looks like
when a person is not humble and gentle of heart.
With every day’s speech and every night’s tweets
he shows the pride and arrogance of a tortured soul.
He seems unable to bear the burdens of office,
and the burdens of life, with grace.
Like some other folks in the news these days,
he doesn’t yoke himself to the Spirit of God that dwells in him.
Like the Pennsylvania man who went into road rage
and killed 18-year-old Bianca Roberson
as she tried to merge onto the highway.
Or the New York doctor who killed another doctor
and wounded six others
because he lost his job.
___________________________________
On the other hand, we do personally know lots of folks
who are humble and gentle of heart,
who do yoke themselves to the Spirit of God.
Last week I heard of a 101-year-old woman in a nursing home
who accepts the increasing limitations of age with grace
and cheers up her visitors and the workers who help her.
And those members of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition
who demonstrate for peace every Sunday at noon,
rain or shine—peacefully.
And those Indivisible Toledo folks who gather
at the door of Senator Portman’s office every Tuesday
with their signs
urging him to stand with the poor and the vulnerable.
And you tell me stories of the people in your lives,
how you celebrate with family and friends in the good times,
how you walk with them
as they suffer through physical problems
and work problems and relationship problems,
yoking yourself with them
through the Spirit of God in you and in them.
You are living proof
that there is reason to hope for the peace
that God promised through Zechariah.
You are witnesses to the peace that comes with following Jesus,
taking his yoke on your shoulders.
It’s your grace-filled struggle with the pains of your life,
your gentle presence walking with the people in your life,
that shows me Jesus today.
You are inspiring!
I thank God for you!
First Reading: Zechariah 9:9-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14
Second Reading: Romans 8:9, 11-13
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
For a long time I’ve thought that,
like a cat, I have at least nine lives:
when I was two,
pitching headfirst off Grandma’s front porch onto the sidewalk;
when I was 17, crushed under my horse
when he flipped over in a parade;
when I was 28, hit broadside and ending up with a broken back.
That makes three of them, already before I was 30.
And then there are a lot more than nine lives
that I’ve lived in the different jobs,
one after another, sometimes two at a time--
in teaching, politics, government, business administration,
my own technical writing business, and now the church.
Serial careers, they call them,
typical of my generation of American women.
At each step along the way--
it’s the same way with your life as it is with mine--
we go through changes,
and we have some bad things happen along with the good.
Some folks rant and rave when bad things happen to them,
get into a rage about things they can’t change.
Been there, done that.
And other folks follow a path of stillness,
a calm and centered approach.
I keep working on that one.
___________________________________
Today’s Gospel gives us insight into Jesus’ advice to his followers
to help us through the tough times.
We are to aim for that quiet grounding
in meekness and gentleness and humility of heart
that will help us get through.
We are to be humble, not proud.
Not above it all.
We’re to stand in the middle of things,
accepting what comes
and doing our best to stay centered in God,
remembering our mission as disciples sent to the world.
___________________________________
Scripture scholars tell us
that the third part of today’s gospel passage,
that part about the yoke,
echoes a passage in the Book of Sirach--
the prophet Ben Sira--
written about two centuries before Jesus.
The prophet gives this advice:
“Put your neck under the yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little
and found for myself much rest.”
Matthew’s community remembers Jesus putting it this way:
“Come to me, all you who labor and carry heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me,
for I am humble and gentle of heart.
Here you will find rest for your souls,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
It’s not true that Jesus described himself as humble and gentle.
Matthew puts these words in Jesus’ mouth
because it’s the way Jesus’ followers
describe the way they experienced his presence with them,
the way they remember him—as meek and humble of heart.
___________________________________
That “yoke” metaphor that Sirach and Jesus use
isn’t a familiar one in our country today.
Most of us don’t have any experience
hitching animals together to do work for us.
We don’t have any first-hand experience
of being tied up in a prison chain gang.
We have heard about people in abusive relationships,
tied to a spouse who mistreats them.
We’ve known folks in jobs
that require long hours at low pay
under harsh working conditions,
tied to keeping the job
because their family can’t survive without it.
Even though we haven’t had those negative experiences,
we do know what’s it’s like to be tied to people.
Married folks are said to be yoked in marriage.
All of us enjoy relationships that connect us—tie us together--
yoke us—to family and friends and co-workers.
___________________________________
When we hear that first reading
with Zechariah’s promise of freedom, peace,
and deliverance from war and discord
under a meek, just ruler--
we can’t help but contrast it
with the leader we have in our country today.
Our President seems to be committed
to giving us a daily lesson in what it looks like
when a person is not humble and gentle of heart.
With every day’s speech and every night’s tweets
he shows the pride and arrogance of a tortured soul.
He seems unable to bear the burdens of office,
and the burdens of life, with grace.
Like some other folks in the news these days,
he doesn’t yoke himself to the Spirit of God that dwells in him.
Like the Pennsylvania man who went into road rage
and killed 18-year-old Bianca Roberson
as she tried to merge onto the highway.
Or the New York doctor who killed another doctor
and wounded six others
because he lost his job.
___________________________________
On the other hand, we do personally know lots of folks
who are humble and gentle of heart,
who do yoke themselves to the Spirit of God.
Last week I heard of a 101-year-old woman in a nursing home
who accepts the increasing limitations of age with grace
and cheers up her visitors and the workers who help her.
And those members of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition
who demonstrate for peace every Sunday at noon,
rain or shine—peacefully.
And those Indivisible Toledo folks who gather
at the door of Senator Portman’s office every Tuesday
with their signs
urging him to stand with the poor and the vulnerable.
And you tell me stories of the people in your lives,
how you celebrate with family and friends in the good times,
how you walk with them
as they suffer through physical problems
and work problems and relationship problems,
yoking yourself with them
through the Spirit of God in you and in them.
You are living proof
that there is reason to hope for the peace
that God promised through Zechariah.
You are witnesses to the peace that comes with following Jesus,
taking his yoke on your shoulders.
It’s your grace-filled struggle with the pains of your life,
your gentle presence walking with the people in your life,
that shows me Jesus today.
You are inspiring!
I thank God for you!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 2, 2017
First Reading: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19
Second Reading: Romans 6:3-4, 8-11
Gospel: Matthew 10:37-42
We find lots of good lessons in this short gospel reading today
as Matthew’ ends his “Mission Discourse”--
Jesus’ instructions to his followers
as they go out to teach as he has done.
Matthew gives us a group of sayings
that focus on priorities and hospitality.
The passage starts with the saying
that we who follow him
can’t hold back even if our family is not with us.
It’s a serious life-and-death commitment to follow his way.
____________________________________________
Then comes the first statement about hospitality:
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.”
It’s Namaste!
The divine in me bows to the divine in you.
We say that we believe God is everywhere,
and that includes God in every human being,
in all of creation.
____________________________________________
We have to ask ourselves how successful we are
at putting that belief into practice.
I experience it here, and I hope you do, too.
When we gather, I feel your welcome surround me.
It’s the same open-hearted welcome I feel
when I join my Toledo relatives for Thanksgiving Dinner.
It’s the open-hearted welcome I felt
when the Muslims at Masjid Saad
hosted a five-week discussion
on Jesus and loving our neighbor.
It’s the same open-hearted welcome we,
as followers of the Way of Jesus,
are required to extend to immigrants and refugees,
to the homeless and the downtrodden,
to folks who are like us,
and to folks who are different.
As the poet William Butler Yeats put it,
“There are no strangers here;
only friends you haven't yet met.”
____________________________________________
Matthew’s group of hospitality sayings continues with
“Those who welcome prophets…
will receive the reward reserved for the prophets themselves;
those who welcome holy people…
will receive the reward of the holy ones.”
The prophets and the holy ones
are the people who speak truth to power,
the ones who stand up for moral law and moral actions.
In our country this weekend,
as we prepare to celebrate our independence
as a free people in a free nation,
we hear some people of faith
speaking out against unjust government actions
and labeling some government actions as immoral.
Some folks say they’re being unpatriotic.
They think that the church should always support the country,
regardless of its actions or policies--
my country, right or wrong--
but that makes the church’s prophetic mission
a mission impossible.
No country is perfect,
and there is much in our country right now
that is clearly contrary to Christian teaching and Gospel values.
To challenge unjust policies and situations is deeply patriotic.
Because we love our country,
we want it to be the best it can be.
So it’s our love of country and our love of God
that put us on the streets
protesting the lifting of EPA regulations,
and the establishment of Muslim bans,
and health care that doesn’t include everyone,
and taxes that benefit only the rich…
a long list, isn’t it?
____________________________________________
Matthew goes on to end his Mission Discourse
with the saying about giving just a cup of cold water
to the lowly ones.
Water is life.
According to Scientific American,
a child left in a hot car
or an athlete exercising hard in hot weather
can dehydrate, overheat, and die in a period of a few hours.
An adult in comfortable surroundings, though,
can sometimes survive for a week or more without water.
The United Nations says
that 700 million people in 43 countries
don’t have enough water.
Eight years from now,
that number will be up to 1.8 billion people
without enough water.
Five years after that, almost half the world's population
will be living in areas of high water stress,
and lack of enough water
will displace between 24 and 700 million people.”
Even right now, 6 to 8 million people die every year
from water scarcity, water disasters,
and water-related diseases.
Here in northwest Ohio
we know the threat from lack of safe drinking water
because of our experience with toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie.
And we know that it is the poor and the central city dwellers
who suffer first and most from the problem.
We remember the TV news coverage
showing long lines in the hot sun
for the bottled water distributions in the inner city
and the suburban folks able to drive their SUVs
to buy as much water as they wanted
from the chain stores in their neighborhoods.
We still hear about the unresolved problems just north of us
because of the lead in Flint’s drinking water supply.
We who are called by our baptism to be prophets--
to speak truth to power--
have a moral obligation to speak out.
As Pope Francis put it in his encyclical letter, Laudato Si,
“Access to safe drinkable water
is a basic and universal human right…
essential to human survival
and… a condition for the exercise of other human rights.
Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor
who lack access to drinking water,
because they are denied the right
to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.”
____________________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit, we have been speaking out.
We donated to Clean Water for the World,
funding a solar-powered water purification system
for villagers in a developing country.
Several of our members have become
active as Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
showing up and speaking out about the toxic algae problem.
I have two friends who travel from Liberty Center
to our southwest border every year
to spend their “vacation” with a group called “No More Deaths,”
dropping caches of water in the desert
to help people trying to escape death squads
in their home countries.
____________________________________________
As we hear in today’s Gospel,
God’s favor rests on the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
on Clean Water for the World,
on the prophets of the Flint Water crisis,
on the water-bearers of the “No More Deaths” effort.
God’s favor rests on each one of us
because we welcome the stranger,
stand up for justice,
walk with the down-hearted,
and speak truth to power.
We have no need to fear the Last Judgment
that Matthew describes in his 25th chapter.
“Just as you did it to one of the least of these,
you did it for me.”
We don’t have to do big things.
We have only to open our hearts to the people we live with,
and we will have the reward of knowing that,
by following Jesus’ way,
we have opened our hearts to them
and to God.
Amen!
First Reading: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19
Second Reading: Romans 6:3-4, 8-11
Gospel: Matthew 10:37-42
We find lots of good lessons in this short gospel reading today
as Matthew’ ends his “Mission Discourse”--
Jesus’ instructions to his followers
as they go out to teach as he has done.
Matthew gives us a group of sayings
that focus on priorities and hospitality.
The passage starts with the saying
that we who follow him
can’t hold back even if our family is not with us.
It’s a serious life-and-death commitment to follow his way.
____________________________________________
Then comes the first statement about hospitality:
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.”
It’s Namaste!
The divine in me bows to the divine in you.
We say that we believe God is everywhere,
and that includes God in every human being,
in all of creation.
____________________________________________
We have to ask ourselves how successful we are
at putting that belief into practice.
I experience it here, and I hope you do, too.
When we gather, I feel your welcome surround me.
It’s the same open-hearted welcome I feel
when I join my Toledo relatives for Thanksgiving Dinner.
It’s the open-hearted welcome I felt
when the Muslims at Masjid Saad
hosted a five-week discussion
on Jesus and loving our neighbor.
It’s the same open-hearted welcome we,
as followers of the Way of Jesus,
are required to extend to immigrants and refugees,
to the homeless and the downtrodden,
to folks who are like us,
and to folks who are different.
As the poet William Butler Yeats put it,
“There are no strangers here;
only friends you haven't yet met.”
____________________________________________
Matthew’s group of hospitality sayings continues with
“Those who welcome prophets…
will receive the reward reserved for the prophets themselves;
those who welcome holy people…
will receive the reward of the holy ones.”
The prophets and the holy ones
are the people who speak truth to power,
the ones who stand up for moral law and moral actions.
In our country this weekend,
as we prepare to celebrate our independence
as a free people in a free nation,
we hear some people of faith
speaking out against unjust government actions
and labeling some government actions as immoral.
Some folks say they’re being unpatriotic.
They think that the church should always support the country,
regardless of its actions or policies--
my country, right or wrong--
but that makes the church’s prophetic mission
a mission impossible.
No country is perfect,
and there is much in our country right now
that is clearly contrary to Christian teaching and Gospel values.
To challenge unjust policies and situations is deeply patriotic.
Because we love our country,
we want it to be the best it can be.
So it’s our love of country and our love of God
that put us on the streets
protesting the lifting of EPA regulations,
and the establishment of Muslim bans,
and health care that doesn’t include everyone,
and taxes that benefit only the rich…
a long list, isn’t it?
____________________________________________
Matthew goes on to end his Mission Discourse
with the saying about giving just a cup of cold water
to the lowly ones.
Water is life.
According to Scientific American,
a child left in a hot car
or an athlete exercising hard in hot weather
can dehydrate, overheat, and die in a period of a few hours.
An adult in comfortable surroundings, though,
can sometimes survive for a week or more without water.
The United Nations says
that 700 million people in 43 countries
don’t have enough water.
Eight years from now,
that number will be up to 1.8 billion people
without enough water.
Five years after that, almost half the world's population
will be living in areas of high water stress,
and lack of enough water
will displace between 24 and 700 million people.”
Even right now, 6 to 8 million people die every year
from water scarcity, water disasters,
and water-related diseases.
Here in northwest Ohio
we know the threat from lack of safe drinking water
because of our experience with toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie.
And we know that it is the poor and the central city dwellers
who suffer first and most from the problem.
We remember the TV news coverage
showing long lines in the hot sun
for the bottled water distributions in the inner city
and the suburban folks able to drive their SUVs
to buy as much water as they wanted
from the chain stores in their neighborhoods.
We still hear about the unresolved problems just north of us
because of the lead in Flint’s drinking water supply.
We who are called by our baptism to be prophets--
to speak truth to power--
have a moral obligation to speak out.
As Pope Francis put it in his encyclical letter, Laudato Si,
“Access to safe drinkable water
is a basic and universal human right…
essential to human survival
and… a condition for the exercise of other human rights.
Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor
who lack access to drinking water,
because they are denied the right
to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.”
____________________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit, we have been speaking out.
We donated to Clean Water for the World,
funding a solar-powered water purification system
for villagers in a developing country.
Several of our members have become
active as Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
showing up and speaking out about the toxic algae problem.
I have two friends who travel from Liberty Center
to our southwest border every year
to spend their “vacation” with a group called “No More Deaths,”
dropping caches of water in the desert
to help people trying to escape death squads
in their home countries.
____________________________________________
As we hear in today’s Gospel,
God’s favor rests on the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
on Clean Water for the World,
on the prophets of the Flint Water crisis,
on the water-bearers of the “No More Deaths” effort.
God’s favor rests on each one of us
because we welcome the stranger,
stand up for justice,
walk with the down-hearted,
and speak truth to power.
We have no need to fear the Last Judgment
that Matthew describes in his 25th chapter.
“Just as you did it to one of the least of these,
you did it for me.”
We don’t have to do big things.
We have only to open our hearts to the people we live with,
and we will have the reward of knowing that,
by following Jesus’ way,
we have opened our hearts to them
and to God.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), June 25, 2017
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:10-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-15
Gospel: Matthew 10:26-33
This part of Matthew’s gospel is called “the Mission Discourse”
because Matthew has crafted a scene
where Jesus gives instructions to the Twelve
on how to act as faithful followers of his message
as he sends them out to teach as he has done.
Biblical scholars conclude that Jesus did not send 12 apostles.
He sent many more than that.
And they observe that the instructions
given in the 10th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel
reflect the direction of the young Christian community
as it tried to imitate what Jesus had told them
in light of the events that were taking place half a century later.
Those scholars think that Jesus probably said
that there is nothing hidden that won’t be made known,
and he probably used common analogies
like the price of sparrows
and the number of hairs on our heads
to talk about God’s care for us when we are afraid.
And they don’t have much doubt
that Jesus invited his followers to imitate him
in his role as itinerant sage,
as speaker of truth to power,
as faithful servant of the God of love.
Jesus was true to the tradition of his Jewish faith,
the same tradition that has developed
into what we today refer to
as the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
____________________________________
As today’s scriptures tell us,
when we profess our faith in God
and commit ourselves to follow the Way of Jesus,
we risk people’s anger and resentment.
It’s never been easy to speak the word of God.
We are called to speak the truth out loud,
proclaim it in public,
announce the way of Jesus…
and not only in words
but in the way we live.
We open ourselves up for arguments and opposition,
even attacks and hate.
People get mad at us
because they take it as a challenge to the way they live--
and so it is.
Today’s civic atmosphere requires us
to challenge injustice,
to proclaim to the housetops, without fear or intimidation,
the truth that the Spirit of God gives us.
We are not allowed to wait for a Marcy Kaptur
to speak out against the Lake Erie pollution problem,
or wait for a Romulus Durant to fix our schools.
We ordinary folks are the ones who have to speak truth to power,
to say it like it is, and keep saying it.
So we see the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
that grassroots group of ordinary citizens
who work tirelessly to get public officeholders
to take our toxic algae problem seriously.
And we know about the work
of Toledoans United for Social Action—TUSA--
who have been badgering City Council for years
about the lead paint in Toledo’s central city rental housing.
And the work of the FLOC HOMIES and Toledo Indivisible.
And the Toledo Community Coalition with its anti-racism efforts.
And the volunteers who staff the 145 food pantries
and 40 clothing programs
and 28 homeless shelters in Toledo,
and the folks who read to kids and tutor them
or spend hours rocking the premies at the hospital.
Groups of ordinary citizens who step up and live the Word,
who demand truth and justice
for the poor and the weak and the vulnerable,
and who show what that means with their very lives.
____________________________________
Prophets like them--
prophets like Jesus, and like Jeremiah in that first reading--
prophets like us even, are not the powerful,
not the heads of government,
not the ones in charge of companies and institutions,
not the church authorities.
We are people who seem to have no power,
but God speaks through us.
So today’s readings are aimed at each and every one of us.
We are all called to be prophets.
We have been baptized into Jesus
as priest, prophet, and servant leader.
All of us.
Sure, we have different roles in the church.
But we all have the same role in life.
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to proclaim
the way that rejects hate and violence,
the way of justice,
the way of peace.
We are called to witness to God’s love in the world.
Amen!
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:10-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-15
Gospel: Matthew 10:26-33
This part of Matthew’s gospel is called “the Mission Discourse”
because Matthew has crafted a scene
where Jesus gives instructions to the Twelve
on how to act as faithful followers of his message
as he sends them out to teach as he has done.
Biblical scholars conclude that Jesus did not send 12 apostles.
He sent many more than that.
And they observe that the instructions
given in the 10th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel
reflect the direction of the young Christian community
as it tried to imitate what Jesus had told them
in light of the events that were taking place half a century later.
Those scholars think that Jesus probably said
that there is nothing hidden that won’t be made known,
and he probably used common analogies
like the price of sparrows
and the number of hairs on our heads
to talk about God’s care for us when we are afraid.
And they don’t have much doubt
that Jesus invited his followers to imitate him
in his role as itinerant sage,
as speaker of truth to power,
as faithful servant of the God of love.
Jesus was true to the tradition of his Jewish faith,
the same tradition that has developed
into what we today refer to
as the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
____________________________________
As today’s scriptures tell us,
when we profess our faith in God
and commit ourselves to follow the Way of Jesus,
we risk people’s anger and resentment.
It’s never been easy to speak the word of God.
We are called to speak the truth out loud,
proclaim it in public,
announce the way of Jesus…
and not only in words
but in the way we live.
We open ourselves up for arguments and opposition,
even attacks and hate.
People get mad at us
because they take it as a challenge to the way they live--
and so it is.
Today’s civic atmosphere requires us
to challenge injustice,
to proclaim to the housetops, without fear or intimidation,
the truth that the Spirit of God gives us.
We are not allowed to wait for a Marcy Kaptur
to speak out against the Lake Erie pollution problem,
or wait for a Romulus Durant to fix our schools.
We ordinary folks are the ones who have to speak truth to power,
to say it like it is, and keep saying it.
So we see the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
that grassroots group of ordinary citizens
who work tirelessly to get public officeholders
to take our toxic algae problem seriously.
And we know about the work
of Toledoans United for Social Action—TUSA--
who have been badgering City Council for years
about the lead paint in Toledo’s central city rental housing.
And the work of the FLOC HOMIES and Toledo Indivisible.
And the Toledo Community Coalition with its anti-racism efforts.
And the volunteers who staff the 145 food pantries
and 40 clothing programs
and 28 homeless shelters in Toledo,
and the folks who read to kids and tutor them
or spend hours rocking the premies at the hospital.
Groups of ordinary citizens who step up and live the Word,
who demand truth and justice
for the poor and the weak and the vulnerable,
and who show what that means with their very lives.
____________________________________
Prophets like them--
prophets like Jesus, and like Jeremiah in that first reading--
prophets like us even, are not the powerful,
not the heads of government,
not the ones in charge of companies and institutions,
not the church authorities.
We are people who seem to have no power,
but God speaks through us.
So today’s readings are aimed at each and every one of us.
We are all called to be prophets.
We have been baptized into Jesus
as priest, prophet, and servant leader.
All of us.
Sure, we have different roles in the church.
But we all have the same role in life.
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to proclaim
the way that rejects hate and violence,
the way of justice,
the way of peace.
We are called to witness to God’s love in the world.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Body & Blood of Christ, 6-18-2017
First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14B-16A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Gospel: John 6:51-58
We are what we eat.
We know that if we eat too many carrots,
or any of the long list of foods with high levels of carotenoids,
we’ll turn yellowish in just a month or two.
And we know that if we don’t eat anything with vitamin C,
we’ll get scurvy.
Our church has known for a long time that what we eat--
the word and the bread that we take in,
literally and figuratively—changes us.
_____________________________________
It was about 3,300 years ago when Moses,
leading our Jewish ancestors out of Egypt,
reminded them that they are “fed not by bread alone,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Word and bread--
still the same today, underlined for us
in Vatican II’s document Sacrosanctum Concilium,
the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
Word and bread--
the Liturgy of the Word
and the Liturgy of the Eucharist:
this Mass we celebrate.
It was about 25 years after Christ
when Paul wrote to the Corinthians urging them
to act in keeping with their belief
that they are one in Christ,
exhorting them to remember
that they all drink from the one cup
and eat from the same loaf.
One bread, one cup of wine, shared by all--
still the same vision of unity today...
and, unfortunately, the quarrels still divide us.
John, unlike the other evangelists,
doesn’t write about eating the Last Supper meal.
Instead he gives us that whole Chapter 6--
called the “Bread of Life discourse”--
to talk about the meaning of Jesus’ table fellowship:
Jesus is in God,
and God in him,
and we are in them
and they in us.
We are one.
The tradition goes on.
In 1549 an Anglican Mass prayer asked
that “we,
and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion,
may… be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction,
and made one body with him,
that he may dwell in us, and we in him.”
_____________________________________
So here we are, week after week,
coming together and reciting our Berakah prayer,
built on the same blessing that Jesus prayed.
We say, “Blessed are you, God of creation”--
Berakah Adonai--
“Blessed are you, for through your goodness
we have this bread to offer…
through your goodness
we have this wine to offer….”
We gather as the body of Christ,
one people in covenant relationship,
giving thanks, sharing food and drink--
the bread of life, the blessing cup--
practicing the inclusive table fellowship that Jesus taught,
the same prodigally generous hospitality
that he learned from his Jewish roots.
_____________________________________
Bread and wine,
fitting signs of our oneness in Christ and with one another.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser reminds us
that bread is not made from one grain of wheat
but from individual kernels
that that had to be crushed to become flour,
which then had to endure fire
to be baked into the substance
that gives us the bread of life.
And the wine is not one grape but many,
crushed to become the substance
out of which ferments this cup of salvation.
We are that bread and wine, united as one.
_____________________________________
We are one body, united in Christ, gathered in fellowship--
in communion--
with one another and all that is.
Here at Holy Spirit, we say we’re inclusive
and we do welcome and include everyone who comes.
We go out into the highways and byways with Tree Toledo,
witnessing to what we’re about.
Ecumenical outreach happens here in Toledo, too,
like the Lutherans inviting me to sub
when their pastor is out of town
and First Church of God spearheading the anti-racism efforts
of the Toledo Community Coalition.
_____________________________________
It goes even farther with interfaith cooperation.
Sue put together and facilitated our Jesus Fatwah series,
and the Masjid Saad folks provided
both the venue and great food for us at the mosque.
Jenny invited our new Muslim friends to Mass at the Cathedral,
and we joined them again at the mosque this past Thursday
to break the Ramadan fast.
The MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio
gathers Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs,
and any and every other faith tradition
for worship and fellowship and action for justice and peace.
Good things are happening here.
_____________________________________
But the vast majority of Christians live gated lives,
even if they don’t live in gated communities
They don’t reach out to the “other,”
even to other Christians,
even the ones who live next door
or work in the next office down the hall.
Rev. Martin Luther King’s observation
that the most segregated time in America
is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning
is still true.
The movie Hidden Figures gives us a vivid picture
of how separation by race hurts everyone.
As Tennyson put it in his poem Ulysses,
we are a part of all that we have met.
If we avoid people because they are different from us,
whether it’s religion or race or class
or disability or education or gender orientation
or whatever,
we miss the chance
to become all that God created us to be.
There’s still work to do
before all of us are one body
in the one God of us all.
_____________________________________
Yes, we are what we eat.
When we step forward to eat the bread and drink the wine,
we take in the sign and sacrament
of our unity with each other,
with all of God’s people,
with all creation,
and with God.
We are in communion.
We are one.
Amen!
First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14B-16A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Gospel: John 6:51-58
We are what we eat.
We know that if we eat too many carrots,
or any of the long list of foods with high levels of carotenoids,
we’ll turn yellowish in just a month or two.
And we know that if we don’t eat anything with vitamin C,
we’ll get scurvy.
Our church has known for a long time that what we eat--
the word and the bread that we take in,
literally and figuratively—changes us.
_____________________________________
It was about 3,300 years ago when Moses,
leading our Jewish ancestors out of Egypt,
reminded them that they are “fed not by bread alone,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Word and bread--
still the same today, underlined for us
in Vatican II’s document Sacrosanctum Concilium,
the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
Word and bread--
the Liturgy of the Word
and the Liturgy of the Eucharist:
this Mass we celebrate.
It was about 25 years after Christ
when Paul wrote to the Corinthians urging them
to act in keeping with their belief
that they are one in Christ,
exhorting them to remember
that they all drink from the one cup
and eat from the same loaf.
One bread, one cup of wine, shared by all--
still the same vision of unity today...
and, unfortunately, the quarrels still divide us.
John, unlike the other evangelists,
doesn’t write about eating the Last Supper meal.
Instead he gives us that whole Chapter 6--
called the “Bread of Life discourse”--
to talk about the meaning of Jesus’ table fellowship:
Jesus is in God,
and God in him,
and we are in them
and they in us.
We are one.
The tradition goes on.
In 1549 an Anglican Mass prayer asked
that “we,
and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion,
may… be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction,
and made one body with him,
that he may dwell in us, and we in him.”
_____________________________________
So here we are, week after week,
coming together and reciting our Berakah prayer,
built on the same blessing that Jesus prayed.
We say, “Blessed are you, God of creation”--
Berakah Adonai--
“Blessed are you, for through your goodness
we have this bread to offer…
through your goodness
we have this wine to offer….”
We gather as the body of Christ,
one people in covenant relationship,
giving thanks, sharing food and drink--
the bread of life, the blessing cup--
practicing the inclusive table fellowship that Jesus taught,
the same prodigally generous hospitality
that he learned from his Jewish roots.
_____________________________________
Bread and wine,
fitting signs of our oneness in Christ and with one another.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser reminds us
that bread is not made from one grain of wheat
but from individual kernels
that that had to be crushed to become flour,
which then had to endure fire
to be baked into the substance
that gives us the bread of life.
And the wine is not one grape but many,
crushed to become the substance
out of which ferments this cup of salvation.
We are that bread and wine, united as one.
_____________________________________
We are one body, united in Christ, gathered in fellowship--
in communion--
with one another and all that is.
Here at Holy Spirit, we say we’re inclusive
and we do welcome and include everyone who comes.
We go out into the highways and byways with Tree Toledo,
witnessing to what we’re about.
Ecumenical outreach happens here in Toledo, too,
like the Lutherans inviting me to sub
when their pastor is out of town
and First Church of God spearheading the anti-racism efforts
of the Toledo Community Coalition.
_____________________________________
It goes even farther with interfaith cooperation.
Sue put together and facilitated our Jesus Fatwah series,
and the Masjid Saad folks provided
both the venue and great food for us at the mosque.
Jenny invited our new Muslim friends to Mass at the Cathedral,
and we joined them again at the mosque this past Thursday
to break the Ramadan fast.
The MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio
gathers Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs,
and any and every other faith tradition
for worship and fellowship and action for justice and peace.
Good things are happening here.
_____________________________________
But the vast majority of Christians live gated lives,
even if they don’t live in gated communities
They don’t reach out to the “other,”
even to other Christians,
even the ones who live next door
or work in the next office down the hall.
Rev. Martin Luther King’s observation
that the most segregated time in America
is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning
is still true.
The movie Hidden Figures gives us a vivid picture
of how separation by race hurts everyone.
As Tennyson put it in his poem Ulysses,
we are a part of all that we have met.
If we avoid people because they are different from us,
whether it’s religion or race or class
or disability or education or gender orientation
or whatever,
we miss the chance
to become all that God created us to be.
There’s still work to do
before all of us are one body
in the one God of us all.
_____________________________________
Yes, we are what we eat.
When we step forward to eat the bread and drink the wine,
we take in the sign and sacrament
of our unity with each other,
with all of God’s people,
with all creation,
and with God.
We are in communion.
We are one.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Trinity Sunday, June 11, 2017
First Reading: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
Responsorial Psalm: Daniel 3:52-56
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel: John 3:16-18
Many years ago, my brother Bill told this story
about how his feet would get cold,
so when he went to bed
he got in the habit of warming them up
on his wife Cheryl’s back.
One especially cold winter night
when he hopped into bed
and tried to warm up his toes,
Cheryl jumped up and yelled at him,
“God, your feet are cold!”
Bill smiled at her and said,
“Cheryl, we’ve been married for 25 years.
You can call me Bill.”
___________________________________
My brother sure isn’t God, and Cheryl--
as every wife finds out much sooner than 25 years--
she sure knew it.
But she was right in one way--
God is in my brother, just as God is in her,
and in everyone,
and in everything else in the universe.
That’s one of the things we believe about God--
that God is everywhere.
___________________________________
Today we celebrate the Trinity,
another one of our beliefs about the nature of God,
and today’s readings give us some of the historical passages
that eventually led to the belief we hold today.
We know that the word “trinity”
doesn’t appear anywhere in scripture.
The dogma of the Trinity as “three persons in one God”
was not articulated until the 4th century in the Council of Nicea.
Fr. Roger Karban suggests that,
if the question of defining God had come up in the 1st century,
the biblical writers
would have challenged the questioner’s faith.
They were much more concerned with talking about
what they had experienced God doing in their lives
than with defining who God is.
___________________________________
Some of us who grew up memorizing the Baltimore Catechism
learned to answer question 27, “What is the Blessed Trinity?”
this way: “The Blessed Trinity is one God
in three Divine Persons.”
We now know that “person”
is a mistranslation of the Latin persona,
from the Greek prosōpon
meaning character, or mask, or personality.
Even though we hear some of our church leaders insist
that the church is unchanging,
this dogma took a long time to develop,
and it’s still developing today.
Even The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that
“In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity,
the Church had to develop her own terminology.
In doing this, it says, the Church gave these terms
“a new and unprecedented meaning.”
Over time, the Church has used lots of terms
to talk about the Trinity,
including substance, essence, nature, person, hypostasis,
manifestation, epiphany, and relation.
___________________________________
And not just words.
There have been lots of images, too.
Franciscan Sr. Marie Lucey points to The Shack
as “only the most recent expression
of what seems to be a human need
to visualize the mystery of The Most Holy Trinity,”
noting that we’ve used a triangle,
a picture of two men and a bird,
and a shamrock to try to define and explain the dogma,
so why not a movie?
___________________________________
We spend our lives trying to understand God,
and we’re living in a time that seems especially challenging,
what with the reach of science
and the chaos in our society
and the medieval rigidity
of some members of our Church’s hierarchy.
The bottom line is that we can learn everything
that’s ever been thought about God by somebody else,
and we will not really know anything
until we experience God ourselves.
Paradoxically, once we experience God,
we will also find that our words and images
aren’t any better
than the ones other people have come up with.
As Fr. Jim Bacik says, God is “gracious mystery.”
___________________________________
For many folks these days,
the scriptures and the tradition and the signs of the times
lead us to understand God as love
and the Trinity as that love expressed in relationship.
So God loves.
It makes sense to me
because that has been my experience of God.
And I find affirmation for belief in the God of love in the scriptures.
Our Jewish ancestors in faith experienced God
as a cloud surrounding the mountain and covering the tent,
as a pillar of fire, a burning bush, a tiny whispering sound.
Moses experienced a personal God
who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
rich in kindness and fidelity.”
The commandments and the law tell us
about right relationship with God, with family,
with self, with others.
Regardless of how the infancy narratives are interpreted,
perhaps some part of Jesus’ experience of God was
as the father he didn’t have on earth,
a relationship that was nurturing and abiding,
comforting and faithful.
His experience of God gives us the great commandment--
love God with all our being;
and the commandment that is like it--
love our neighbors as ourselves.
Paul’s experience of God prompts him to insist
that we "encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace….
Greet one another with a holy kiss,
and the God of love and peace will be with you."
___________________________________
How do we know God today?
We can’t count the ways.
We know God as giver of life, land, and food;
as liberator and protector, as shepherd;
as peace and love.
We know God as the suffering God,
the God of the poor and the vulnerable.
We know about the God made flesh like us,
the God for us, the God with us, the God among us.
Those are just some of the ways we know God.
___________________________________
It’s a different question to ask how we experience God today,
in this world of individualism and self-gratification,
this America-first political arena,
this me-first society.
Experiencing God requires
that we live in right relationship with others, with nature,
with all the pieces of the universe around us.
In those right relationships
we will see God.
___________________________________
Today’s celebration calls us to be on the watch for God’s presence,
no matter what form it takes.
It’s not an accident that we experience God’s presence
when we’re with family and friends,
or when we’re walking along the lake,
or when we smile and say hi to a stranger on the street.
God is already God,
already here.
When we’re in right relationship,
loving God and loving neighbor,
we live with justice.
And justice is what love sounds like
when it speaks in public.
Amen!
First Reading: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
Responsorial Psalm: Daniel 3:52-56
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel: John 3:16-18
Many years ago, my brother Bill told this story
about how his feet would get cold,
so when he went to bed
he got in the habit of warming them up
on his wife Cheryl’s back.
One especially cold winter night
when he hopped into bed
and tried to warm up his toes,
Cheryl jumped up and yelled at him,
“God, your feet are cold!”
Bill smiled at her and said,
“Cheryl, we’ve been married for 25 years.
You can call me Bill.”
___________________________________
My brother sure isn’t God, and Cheryl--
as every wife finds out much sooner than 25 years--
she sure knew it.
But she was right in one way--
God is in my brother, just as God is in her,
and in everyone,
and in everything else in the universe.
That’s one of the things we believe about God--
that God is everywhere.
___________________________________
Today we celebrate the Trinity,
another one of our beliefs about the nature of God,
and today’s readings give us some of the historical passages
that eventually led to the belief we hold today.
We know that the word “trinity”
doesn’t appear anywhere in scripture.
The dogma of the Trinity as “three persons in one God”
was not articulated until the 4th century in the Council of Nicea.
Fr. Roger Karban suggests that,
if the question of defining God had come up in the 1st century,
the biblical writers
would have challenged the questioner’s faith.
They were much more concerned with talking about
what they had experienced God doing in their lives
than with defining who God is.
___________________________________
Some of us who grew up memorizing the Baltimore Catechism
learned to answer question 27, “What is the Blessed Trinity?”
this way: “The Blessed Trinity is one God
in three Divine Persons.”
We now know that “person”
is a mistranslation of the Latin persona,
from the Greek prosōpon
meaning character, or mask, or personality.
Even though we hear some of our church leaders insist
that the church is unchanging,
this dogma took a long time to develop,
and it’s still developing today.
Even The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that
“In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity,
the Church had to develop her own terminology.
In doing this, it says, the Church gave these terms
“a new and unprecedented meaning.”
Over time, the Church has used lots of terms
to talk about the Trinity,
including substance, essence, nature, person, hypostasis,
manifestation, epiphany, and relation.
___________________________________
And not just words.
There have been lots of images, too.
Franciscan Sr. Marie Lucey points to The Shack
as “only the most recent expression
of what seems to be a human need
to visualize the mystery of The Most Holy Trinity,”
noting that we’ve used a triangle,
a picture of two men and a bird,
and a shamrock to try to define and explain the dogma,
so why not a movie?
___________________________________
We spend our lives trying to understand God,
and we’re living in a time that seems especially challenging,
what with the reach of science
and the chaos in our society
and the medieval rigidity
of some members of our Church’s hierarchy.
The bottom line is that we can learn everything
that’s ever been thought about God by somebody else,
and we will not really know anything
until we experience God ourselves.
Paradoxically, once we experience God,
we will also find that our words and images
aren’t any better
than the ones other people have come up with.
As Fr. Jim Bacik says, God is “gracious mystery.”
___________________________________
For many folks these days,
the scriptures and the tradition and the signs of the times
lead us to understand God as love
and the Trinity as that love expressed in relationship.
So God loves.
It makes sense to me
because that has been my experience of God.
And I find affirmation for belief in the God of love in the scriptures.
Our Jewish ancestors in faith experienced God
as a cloud surrounding the mountain and covering the tent,
as a pillar of fire, a burning bush, a tiny whispering sound.
Moses experienced a personal God
who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
rich in kindness and fidelity.”
The commandments and the law tell us
about right relationship with God, with family,
with self, with others.
Regardless of how the infancy narratives are interpreted,
perhaps some part of Jesus’ experience of God was
as the father he didn’t have on earth,
a relationship that was nurturing and abiding,
comforting and faithful.
His experience of God gives us the great commandment--
love God with all our being;
and the commandment that is like it--
love our neighbors as ourselves.
Paul’s experience of God prompts him to insist
that we "encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace….
Greet one another with a holy kiss,
and the God of love and peace will be with you."
___________________________________
How do we know God today?
We can’t count the ways.
We know God as giver of life, land, and food;
as liberator and protector, as shepherd;
as peace and love.
We know God as the suffering God,
the God of the poor and the vulnerable.
We know about the God made flesh like us,
the God for us, the God with us, the God among us.
Those are just some of the ways we know God.
___________________________________
It’s a different question to ask how we experience God today,
in this world of individualism and self-gratification,
this America-first political arena,
this me-first society.
Experiencing God requires
that we live in right relationship with others, with nature,
with all the pieces of the universe around us.
In those right relationships
we will see God.
___________________________________
Today’s celebration calls us to be on the watch for God’s presence,
no matter what form it takes.
It’s not an accident that we experience God’s presence
when we’re with family and friends,
or when we’re walking along the lake,
or when we smile and say hi to a stranger on the street.
God is already God,
already here.
When we’re in right relationship,
loving God and loving neighbor,
we live with justice.
And justice is what love sounds like
when it speaks in public.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Pentecost, June 4, 2017
First Reading: Acts 2:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3B-7, 12-13
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Pentecost is not just another Sunday.
It’s a feast equal to Christmas and Easter.
Pentecost celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit into all people.
In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
the Spirit opens the hearts of people from all over the world
to understand God’s message,
even though it is spoken in foreign languages.
In our second reading
the people of Corinth embrace Paul’s message
of many gifts and many outcomes in one body and one Spirit.
In the Gospel the disciples understand Jesus’ message
as he breathes the Spirit’s power
of peace and forgiveness into them.
It’s an empowering breath, the breath of life, that Holy Spirit.
The Spirit sends us out
to serve the common good and change the world.
_________________________________________
Those messages from our scripture and tradition make sense.
Today we hear lots of messages that make no sense.
We hear the language of HUD Secretary Ben Carson say
“poverty is a state of mind,”
that people with the “right mind”
can pull themselves up without help from others.
But we don’t understand that language.
It makes no sense.
Doesn’t fit the facts.
We hear Representative Paul Ryan say
that the proposed budget is “right on the target.”
We wonder what his target is,
since the budget cuts programs
for people who need the most help,
like education, Social Security, food stamps, and Medicaid.
Same with Donald Trump.
We hear him continuing to talk about “radical Islamic terrorism.”
He calls Muslims “sick people”
and tries to ban them from coming here.
This week he continued his attack on our environmental protections
by pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.
We hear the words, but they make no sense.
They don’t fit the facts.
Where is the Spirit of truth?
_________________________________________
We hear other messages.
We know about the impact of climate change,
those 173,000 other people around the world
who died last week…
173,000 people who starved to death
because their land has turned to desert rubble.
Last week 140 people died at the hands of terrorists
in Iraq, England, the Philippines,
Yemen, Egypt, and Afghanistan.
Another 90 died in Kabul this week.
Where is the Spirit of peace?
_________________________________________
Or to get closer to home, in that same week here in the U.S.,
386 people died of drug overdose;
769 people died in car accidents;
and 2,163 people died from gun violence,
49 of them children
People around the world and right here at home
are suffering and dying.
Where is the Spirit, the Giver of Life?
_________________________________________
Pope Francis encourages us to ask
whether we are open to the Holy Spirit,
or closed and fearful.
“Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths
which God’s newness sets before us,” he asks,
“or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures
which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?”
_________________________________________
We have to keep asking that same question,
everywhere in our lives…
of our institutional church, of our government,
of the organizations we belong to...
and of ourselves.
_________________________________________
We have dreams of a better world.
We dream of living in a society where all people are equal.
We dream of a just world
where all people have their basic needs met
and no one lives in poverty, hunger, or homelessness.
We dream of a nonviolent world--
no war, no terrorism, no murder,
no death penalty, no domestic violence, no bullying.
We dream of a world of love, forgiveness, and service.
Yes, we dream of renewal in the Spirit.
_________________________________________
This past Tuesday, over a cup of tea with my friend Eileen,
I heard the story of her cousin Bruce.
He had a learning disability and didn’t do well in school.
He went to Guatemala as a construction worker.
Eileen told me that the family didn’t know many details of his life
until they gathered for his funeral where they learned that,
though plagued with that learning disability
and injuries he had suffered doing construction,
Bruce had gone on to teach English language
for years before he died.
Friends and former students showed up
to tell how much Bruce had meant to them,
how encouraging he was,
how he had spurred them to become all they could be.
The family received notes from people all over the world
remembering Bruce’s kindness, his sense of humor,
and his helping hand reaching out in time of need.
Thursday I heard Helen’s story,
a woman who had to have her arms and legs amputated
but still manages to cheer up the other nursing home residents
and give wise counsel to the aides who care for her.
_________________________________________
That’s where the Spirit of truth and peace and forgiveness is,
with ordinary people like Bruce and Helen and you and me.
We don’t need to look for somebody to let the Spirit loose,
or wait for elected government officials
to tell the truth and to make peace.
Today’s celebration of Pentecost reminds us
that we are all baptized in the Spirit,
sent into the world to do what Bruce did,
to do what Helen does--
to use the gifts we have
to make the world better
whoever and wherever we are.
The Spirit moves in the world,
and in each of us.
We are the ones sent
to renew the face of the earth.
Amen!
First Reading: Acts 2:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3B-7, 12-13
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Pentecost is not just another Sunday.
It’s a feast equal to Christmas and Easter.
Pentecost celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit into all people.
In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles,
the Spirit opens the hearts of people from all over the world
to understand God’s message,
even though it is spoken in foreign languages.
In our second reading
the people of Corinth embrace Paul’s message
of many gifts and many outcomes in one body and one Spirit.
In the Gospel the disciples understand Jesus’ message
as he breathes the Spirit’s power
of peace and forgiveness into them.
It’s an empowering breath, the breath of life, that Holy Spirit.
The Spirit sends us out
to serve the common good and change the world.
_________________________________________
Those messages from our scripture and tradition make sense.
Today we hear lots of messages that make no sense.
We hear the language of HUD Secretary Ben Carson say
“poverty is a state of mind,”
that people with the “right mind”
can pull themselves up without help from others.
But we don’t understand that language.
It makes no sense.
Doesn’t fit the facts.
We hear Representative Paul Ryan say
that the proposed budget is “right on the target.”
We wonder what his target is,
since the budget cuts programs
for people who need the most help,
like education, Social Security, food stamps, and Medicaid.
Same with Donald Trump.
We hear him continuing to talk about “radical Islamic terrorism.”
He calls Muslims “sick people”
and tries to ban them from coming here.
This week he continued his attack on our environmental protections
by pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.
We hear the words, but they make no sense.
They don’t fit the facts.
Where is the Spirit of truth?
_________________________________________
We hear other messages.
We know about the impact of climate change,
those 173,000 other people around the world
who died last week…
173,000 people who starved to death
because their land has turned to desert rubble.
Last week 140 people died at the hands of terrorists
in Iraq, England, the Philippines,
Yemen, Egypt, and Afghanistan.
Another 90 died in Kabul this week.
Where is the Spirit of peace?
_________________________________________
Or to get closer to home, in that same week here in the U.S.,
386 people died of drug overdose;
769 people died in car accidents;
and 2,163 people died from gun violence,
49 of them children
People around the world and right here at home
are suffering and dying.
Where is the Spirit, the Giver of Life?
_________________________________________
Pope Francis encourages us to ask
whether we are open to the Holy Spirit,
or closed and fearful.
“Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths
which God’s newness sets before us,” he asks,
“or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures
which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?”
_________________________________________
We have to keep asking that same question,
everywhere in our lives…
of our institutional church, of our government,
of the organizations we belong to...
and of ourselves.
_________________________________________
We have dreams of a better world.
We dream of living in a society where all people are equal.
We dream of a just world
where all people have their basic needs met
and no one lives in poverty, hunger, or homelessness.
We dream of a nonviolent world--
no war, no terrorism, no murder,
no death penalty, no domestic violence, no bullying.
We dream of a world of love, forgiveness, and service.
Yes, we dream of renewal in the Spirit.
_________________________________________
This past Tuesday, over a cup of tea with my friend Eileen,
I heard the story of her cousin Bruce.
He had a learning disability and didn’t do well in school.
He went to Guatemala as a construction worker.
Eileen told me that the family didn’t know many details of his life
until they gathered for his funeral where they learned that,
though plagued with that learning disability
and injuries he had suffered doing construction,
Bruce had gone on to teach English language
for years before he died.
Friends and former students showed up
to tell how much Bruce had meant to them,
how encouraging he was,
how he had spurred them to become all they could be.
The family received notes from people all over the world
remembering Bruce’s kindness, his sense of humor,
and his helping hand reaching out in time of need.
Thursday I heard Helen’s story,
a woman who had to have her arms and legs amputated
but still manages to cheer up the other nursing home residents
and give wise counsel to the aides who care for her.
_________________________________________
That’s where the Spirit of truth and peace and forgiveness is,
with ordinary people like Bruce and Helen and you and me.
We don’t need to look for somebody to let the Spirit loose,
or wait for elected government officials
to tell the truth and to make peace.
Today’s celebration of Pentecost reminds us
that we are all baptized in the Spirit,
sent into the world to do what Bruce did,
to do what Helen does--
to use the gifts we have
to make the world better
whoever and wherever we are.
The Spirit moves in the world,
and in each of us.
We are the ones sent
to renew the face of the earth.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Ascension of the Lord, May 28, 2017
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 47:2-3, 6-9
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
As with Jesus’ other Easter appearances,
the Ascension stories don’t fit together in time,
or place,
or even in the descriptions of what happened.
Fr. Lawrence Mick says that
“the Ascension is more of a theological reality
than a historical date.”
He points out that Luke,
in writing his Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles,
puts the Ascension event weeks after Easter.
John’s Gospel, though, has the Spirit bestowed on the apostles
on Easter Sunday evening,
so Jesus would already have to have ascended to God.
Matthew—our Gospel today--
doesn’t even say Jesus was taken up into heaven.
Instead, what he says is that Jesus is with the apostles
and promises to be with us always.
That, according to Fr. Mick,
is the key to understanding the Ascension:
that the risen Christ is now truly present in a different way,
always with us,
a presence we can depend on and draw on.
________________________________________
As we grew up,
so many of the metaphors and images
that were used to teach us about Jesus
spoke that mystic truth
in terms that seemed like magic.
Walking through closed doors.
Appearing and disappearing.
Floating up into the clouds.
Tears cried by statues.
Hosts that bleed.
All of those images point to the divine presence with us,
but we took them literally.
Eventually, we grew in wisdom and age and grace
and began to understand that,
although they were true,
they were not real.
________________________________________
Today’s celebration of the Ascension,
with Jesus flying up to join God
on a throne above the clouds,
fits a worldview we no longer accept.
We see some folks throwing the baby out with the bathwater,
no longer believing in anything at all.
I thank God for botanists and quantum physicists
and biblical historians and astronomers…
well, the list goes on.
I’m grateful for the generations of folks
who have explored the universe,
from the tiniest spaces between matter
to the multiple universes
stretching out beyond what we can imagine.
They explore the ability of plants to “hear” water
even when they can’t sense the moisture.
They find that wild animals
can understand if a human’s thought
is dangerous or friendly to them.
They find possibilities and connections throughout all of creation.
They give us a way
to think about the continuing presence of Christ
across time and space
that doesn’t require the magic of our childhood understanding.
________________________________________
What Jesus’ Ascension means for us in the 21st century
has to be expressed in terms
of our understanding of God and creation and ourselves,
and for me that means
that he remains alive
and will always be with us.
The Divine Presence,
uniquely within each of us,
connects us with all being, all matter, all energy--
with God and each other,
in unrelenting communion.
________________________________________
So the real presence remains.
When we celebrate Eucharist,
we do not believe that Christ magically
zaps himself into the bread and wine
at the words of consecration.
We understand that he is with us in the bread and wine,
just as he has already been present in the assembly,
in the presider,
in the word proclaimed,
and wherever we are, every minute
of every day of our lives.
________________________________________
Fr. Richard Rohr talks about the “sacred space”
that we find after major events,
a kind of communal consciousness--
a heightened awareness,
a deepened compassion,
a renewed conviction.
It happens when we fall in love, or get ordained.
It happens when someone we love dies.
And it’s happening every day
when we read about events in the latest national news
striking a blow at the health of our planet,
marginalizing Muslims and blacks,
demonizing immigrants and refugees,
denigrating the poor and the vulnerable.
We step into a sacred space
where our understanding
of the connection of all that is
requires us to take a stand
against hate and persecution and violence.
________________________________________
And so we do.
We sing and pray and shout and demonstrate for justice.
We stand up and speak out for truth.
And we’re not alone.
We have each other,
and we have the spirit of Jesus.
_____________________________________________
So today we celebrate the Ascension—the growth--
of Jesus of Nazareth
from that holy Galilean preacher
into the friend who remains in communion with us always.
We remember what he stood for, and how he lived,
and the way he taught us to follow his example.
We build on the foundation he gave us--
we celebrate our communion
with him
and each other
and all the world,
as he showed us at the Last Supper.
And we wash each other’s feet,
as he did at the Last Supper,
whenever we dedicate everything we have and are
to serving the least among us.
Amen!
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 47:2-3, 6-9
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
As with Jesus’ other Easter appearances,
the Ascension stories don’t fit together in time,
or place,
or even in the descriptions of what happened.
Fr. Lawrence Mick says that
“the Ascension is more of a theological reality
than a historical date.”
He points out that Luke,
in writing his Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles,
puts the Ascension event weeks after Easter.
John’s Gospel, though, has the Spirit bestowed on the apostles
on Easter Sunday evening,
so Jesus would already have to have ascended to God.
Matthew—our Gospel today--
doesn’t even say Jesus was taken up into heaven.
Instead, what he says is that Jesus is with the apostles
and promises to be with us always.
That, according to Fr. Mick,
is the key to understanding the Ascension:
that the risen Christ is now truly present in a different way,
always with us,
a presence we can depend on and draw on.
________________________________________
As we grew up,
so many of the metaphors and images
that were used to teach us about Jesus
spoke that mystic truth
in terms that seemed like magic.
Walking through closed doors.
Appearing and disappearing.
Floating up into the clouds.
Tears cried by statues.
Hosts that bleed.
All of those images point to the divine presence with us,
but we took them literally.
Eventually, we grew in wisdom and age and grace
and began to understand that,
although they were true,
they were not real.
________________________________________
Today’s celebration of the Ascension,
with Jesus flying up to join God
on a throne above the clouds,
fits a worldview we no longer accept.
We see some folks throwing the baby out with the bathwater,
no longer believing in anything at all.
I thank God for botanists and quantum physicists
and biblical historians and astronomers…
well, the list goes on.
I’m grateful for the generations of folks
who have explored the universe,
from the tiniest spaces between matter
to the multiple universes
stretching out beyond what we can imagine.
They explore the ability of plants to “hear” water
even when they can’t sense the moisture.
They find that wild animals
can understand if a human’s thought
is dangerous or friendly to them.
They find possibilities and connections throughout all of creation.
They give us a way
to think about the continuing presence of Christ
across time and space
that doesn’t require the magic of our childhood understanding.
________________________________________
What Jesus’ Ascension means for us in the 21st century
has to be expressed in terms
of our understanding of God and creation and ourselves,
and for me that means
that he remains alive
and will always be with us.
The Divine Presence,
uniquely within each of us,
connects us with all being, all matter, all energy--
with God and each other,
in unrelenting communion.
________________________________________
So the real presence remains.
When we celebrate Eucharist,
we do not believe that Christ magically
zaps himself into the bread and wine
at the words of consecration.
We understand that he is with us in the bread and wine,
just as he has already been present in the assembly,
in the presider,
in the word proclaimed,
and wherever we are, every minute
of every day of our lives.
________________________________________
Fr. Richard Rohr talks about the “sacred space”
that we find after major events,
a kind of communal consciousness--
a heightened awareness,
a deepened compassion,
a renewed conviction.
It happens when we fall in love, or get ordained.
It happens when someone we love dies.
And it’s happening every day
when we read about events in the latest national news
striking a blow at the health of our planet,
marginalizing Muslims and blacks,
demonizing immigrants and refugees,
denigrating the poor and the vulnerable.
We step into a sacred space
where our understanding
of the connection of all that is
requires us to take a stand
against hate and persecution and violence.
________________________________________
And so we do.
We sing and pray and shout and demonstrate for justice.
We stand up and speak out for truth.
And we’re not alone.
We have each other,
and we have the spirit of Jesus.
_____________________________________________
So today we celebrate the Ascension—the growth--
of Jesus of Nazareth
from that holy Galilean preacher
into the friend who remains in communion with us always.
We remember what he stood for, and how he lived,
and the way he taught us to follow his example.
We build on the foundation he gave us--
we celebrate our communion
with him
and each other
and all the world,
as he showed us at the Last Supper.
And we wash each other’s feet,
as he did at the Last Supper,
whenever we dedicate everything we have and are
to serving the least among us.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 6th Sunday of Easter, May 21, 2017
First Reading: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel: John 14:15-21
In today’s Gospel we hear
another piece of Jesus’ farewell address at the Last Supper.
He says that he will send a Paraclete--
that’s the Greek word for helper.
He will send the spirit of truth.
Georgetown theology professor Dr. John Pilch says that,
in Jesus’ time, it was always hard to know the truth
because secrecy, lying, and deception
were key strategies in the culture for protecting one’s honor.
Pilch says that In the culture of that time
one way to affirm the truth
was to call on God as a witness,
and the fact that we have the 8th commandment against lying
suggests that it was a common practice for people
to name God as witness to their lies.
Jesus’ contemporaries would have been frustrated
trying to discover the truth,
so Jesus’ promise of the Spirit of truth as Paraclete
was very good news to them.
____________________________________
We look around our world today, around our country, our city,
and we have to ask, where is this spirit of truth?
Where is this advocate for us?
Where is our comforter, our helper in this time of need?
We aren’t exempt from the frustration of trying to figure out
what’s true and what’s not.
Some folks I know have stopped listening to the news
because it’s so full of breaking news
with charges and counter-charges
and drama and fake news.
Where is the Spirit of Truth
as we try to sort through this daily onslaught of lies?
Where is this comforter for the people in Yemen
struck with a cholera epidemic?
Where is this helper
for the millions of South Sudanese and Nigerians
driven from their homes by war,
for the 1.4 million children
who face starvation in the famine there?
Where is the advocate
for the more than 10,000 undocumented people in NW Ohio
as they cower in fear of deportation?
Where is this Paraclete
when Mother Earth cries out
because our extravagant lifestyles
pollute the air and the water and the land?
If there is good news, where is it?
Where is the spirit of truth, the Paraclete, the comforter?
____________________________________
I know where the Paraclete is.
The spirit of God is in us.
That’s what it says in Paul’s first letter to the 1 Corinthians.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit,
and if we look around, we can see that Spirit.
In the midst of political turmoil,
both houses of Congress are investigating charges
of Russian interference in our elections,
and Wednesday a special counsel was named.
The spirit is active in that search for truth.
We all have relatives and friends
who have fallen for some piece of fake news
about poor people or Muslims or blacks or immigrants,
so we continue to talk with them and try to get them
to turn toward compassion for the vulnerable.
The spirit of truth is alive in those conversations.
The United Nations has called for aid
to the millions of people facing starvation,
and here in Toledo a group of Vatican II priests
joined their voices in a letter urging relief for Yemen.
The spirit is reaching out in comfort to people in need.
Unwilling to wait for federal action on climate change,
this past week the Governor of Virginia said “Forget Trump!”
as he ordered a strong limit
on carbon pollution from power plants,
and Tree Toledoans distributed
another 200 seedlings this week.
The spirit is giving life to the earth.
And, all over the country
people are phoning and emailing
and sending letters to their elected representatives
asking for laws to protect people and the planet.
They’re marching and demonstrating
and showing up at Congressional offices
to speak out for justice and peace.
As the hymn goes, “The Spirit is a-movin’ all over this land.”
____________________________________
We believe that God is in us and with us, so we have hope.
Our second reading tells us that we need to be ready to answer
when we’re asked why we continue to hope: it says to
“be ever ready to reply, but speak gently and respectfully.
We know that people are suffering.
We know the planet is suffering.
We know it’s not enough.
At the same time, we know that, as followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are sent to help,
sent to advocate for the poor and the vulnerable,
sent to bring peace.
So we keep on, doing what we can wherever we happen to be.
We are God’s love made visible.
We are, indeed, temples of the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
First Reading: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel: John 14:15-21
In today’s Gospel we hear
another piece of Jesus’ farewell address at the Last Supper.
He says that he will send a Paraclete--
that’s the Greek word for helper.
He will send the spirit of truth.
Georgetown theology professor Dr. John Pilch says that,
in Jesus’ time, it was always hard to know the truth
because secrecy, lying, and deception
were key strategies in the culture for protecting one’s honor.
Pilch says that In the culture of that time
one way to affirm the truth
was to call on God as a witness,
and the fact that we have the 8th commandment against lying
suggests that it was a common practice for people
to name God as witness to their lies.
Jesus’ contemporaries would have been frustrated
trying to discover the truth,
so Jesus’ promise of the Spirit of truth as Paraclete
was very good news to them.
____________________________________
We look around our world today, around our country, our city,
and we have to ask, where is this spirit of truth?
Where is this advocate for us?
Where is our comforter, our helper in this time of need?
We aren’t exempt from the frustration of trying to figure out
what’s true and what’s not.
Some folks I know have stopped listening to the news
because it’s so full of breaking news
with charges and counter-charges
and drama and fake news.
Where is the Spirit of Truth
as we try to sort through this daily onslaught of lies?
Where is this comforter for the people in Yemen
struck with a cholera epidemic?
Where is this helper
for the millions of South Sudanese and Nigerians
driven from their homes by war,
for the 1.4 million children
who face starvation in the famine there?
Where is the advocate
for the more than 10,000 undocumented people in NW Ohio
as they cower in fear of deportation?
Where is this Paraclete
when Mother Earth cries out
because our extravagant lifestyles
pollute the air and the water and the land?
If there is good news, where is it?
Where is the spirit of truth, the Paraclete, the comforter?
____________________________________
I know where the Paraclete is.
The spirit of God is in us.
That’s what it says in Paul’s first letter to the 1 Corinthians.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit,
and if we look around, we can see that Spirit.
In the midst of political turmoil,
both houses of Congress are investigating charges
of Russian interference in our elections,
and Wednesday a special counsel was named.
The spirit is active in that search for truth.
We all have relatives and friends
who have fallen for some piece of fake news
about poor people or Muslims or blacks or immigrants,
so we continue to talk with them and try to get them
to turn toward compassion for the vulnerable.
The spirit of truth is alive in those conversations.
The United Nations has called for aid
to the millions of people facing starvation,
and here in Toledo a group of Vatican II priests
joined their voices in a letter urging relief for Yemen.
The spirit is reaching out in comfort to people in need.
Unwilling to wait for federal action on climate change,
this past week the Governor of Virginia said “Forget Trump!”
as he ordered a strong limit
on carbon pollution from power plants,
and Tree Toledoans distributed
another 200 seedlings this week.
The spirit is giving life to the earth.
And, all over the country
people are phoning and emailing
and sending letters to their elected representatives
asking for laws to protect people and the planet.
They’re marching and demonstrating
and showing up at Congressional offices
to speak out for justice and peace.
As the hymn goes, “The Spirit is a-movin’ all over this land.”
____________________________________
We believe that God is in us and with us, so we have hope.
Our second reading tells us that we need to be ready to answer
when we’re asked why we continue to hope: it says to
“be ever ready to reply, but speak gently and respectfully.
We know that people are suffering.
We know the planet is suffering.
We know it’s not enough.
At the same time, we know that, as followers of the Way of Jesus,
we are sent to help,
sent to advocate for the poor and the vulnerable,
sent to bring peace.
So we keep on, doing what we can wherever we happen to be.
We are God’s love made visible.
We are, indeed, temples of the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 5th Sunday of Easter, May 14, 2017
First Reading: Acts 6:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:4-9
Gospel: John 14:1-12
Discrimination against people who are different is not new.
In that first reading from the Acts of the Apostles
we heard about mistreatment of widows
on the basis of which language they spoke.
In the second reading
we heard a letter to five communities in Asia Minor
that was written as a speech by Peter
to encourage people
who were being threatened because of their faith.
And in the Gospel
the evangelist creates a scene at the Last Supper
to help the early Christian communities
grapple with the issues of their day.
John puts memories of Jesus’ teaching
into what’s been labeled a “farewell speech.”
Scholars tell us it’s not historical fact but a faith story,
written to give the early church
a moral framework for their lives.
It’s a moral framework that still works for us,
calling us to oppose racial, ethnic, and religious bias
in our lives.
_____________________________________
John lays the cornerstone of that moral framework
in the passage just before today’s gospel,
in Chapter 13 where Jesus reminds his followers
of the commandment in the Book of Leviticus--
they are to love one another.
Then Jesus continues with a metaphor
that shows the moral basis for all life…
that we are all connected.
He talks about many dwelling places in God’s house.
It’s one house,
and to phrase it for our world today,
God’s house has room
for Spanish speakers and English speakers;
for Catholics and Lutherans and every other kind of Christian;
for Jews and Muslims and Sikhs and Buddhists
and every other kind of faith.
God’s house even has room for agnostics and atheists.
It has room for Republicans and Democrats and Independents,
and for Libertarians, conservatives and progressives.
It has room for blacks and whites
and browns and yellows and reds,
for rich and poor and in-betweens,
for city slickers and country cousins.
We are all one in God.
_____________________________________
Jesus tells us that he is in God and God is in him.
In our democratic society
with our current scientific understanding of the universe
and our cultural values of freedom, equality, and inclusiveness,
we hear those words
and understand that God is everywhere,
and that we are, like Jesus,
in God and God is in us.
Just as Jesus is a “living stone,” so are we.
_____________________________________
Cardinal Walter Kasper
describes our understanding of the connectedness of all being
as “communio.”
We are in communion—in relationship--
with everyone and everything.
We are one creation.
_____________________________________
Because we are followers of the Way,
living stones in the city of God,
we have to grapple with the issues of our day.
We have to love one another.
We have to welcome the stranger;
befriend people who are different from us;
protect the vulnerable;
tend our fragile planet.
That’s why we do what we do here at Holy Spirit--
our Tree Toledo ministry
with its digs and distributions and documentaries--
and pot parties, too, of course.
That’s why we contribute to 1Matters and Claver House
and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether
and Water for the World.
That’s why we volunteer at food pantries and community gardens,
why we reach out to help families in need.
That’s why we gather to pray and read the scriptures
and break bread.
We live in communion with God, with the world, with all that is.
Amen!
First Reading: Acts 6:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:4-9
Gospel: John 14:1-12
Discrimination against people who are different is not new.
In that first reading from the Acts of the Apostles
we heard about mistreatment of widows
on the basis of which language they spoke.
In the second reading
we heard a letter to five communities in Asia Minor
that was written as a speech by Peter
to encourage people
who were being threatened because of their faith.
And in the Gospel
the evangelist creates a scene at the Last Supper
to help the early Christian communities
grapple with the issues of their day.
John puts memories of Jesus’ teaching
into what’s been labeled a “farewell speech.”
Scholars tell us it’s not historical fact but a faith story,
written to give the early church
a moral framework for their lives.
It’s a moral framework that still works for us,
calling us to oppose racial, ethnic, and religious bias
in our lives.
_____________________________________
John lays the cornerstone of that moral framework
in the passage just before today’s gospel,
in Chapter 13 where Jesus reminds his followers
of the commandment in the Book of Leviticus--
they are to love one another.
Then Jesus continues with a metaphor
that shows the moral basis for all life…
that we are all connected.
He talks about many dwelling places in God’s house.
It’s one house,
and to phrase it for our world today,
God’s house has room
for Spanish speakers and English speakers;
for Catholics and Lutherans and every other kind of Christian;
for Jews and Muslims and Sikhs and Buddhists
and every other kind of faith.
God’s house even has room for agnostics and atheists.
It has room for Republicans and Democrats and Independents,
and for Libertarians, conservatives and progressives.
It has room for blacks and whites
and browns and yellows and reds,
for rich and poor and in-betweens,
for city slickers and country cousins.
We are all one in God.
_____________________________________
Jesus tells us that he is in God and God is in him.
In our democratic society
with our current scientific understanding of the universe
and our cultural values of freedom, equality, and inclusiveness,
we hear those words
and understand that God is everywhere,
and that we are, like Jesus,
in God and God is in us.
Just as Jesus is a “living stone,” so are we.
_____________________________________
Cardinal Walter Kasper
describes our understanding of the connectedness of all being
as “communio.”
We are in communion—in relationship--
with everyone and everything.
We are one creation.
_____________________________________
Because we are followers of the Way,
living stones in the city of God,
we have to grapple with the issues of our day.
We have to love one another.
We have to welcome the stranger;
befriend people who are different from us;
protect the vulnerable;
tend our fragile planet.
That’s why we do what we do here at Holy Spirit--
our Tree Toledo ministry
with its digs and distributions and documentaries--
and pot parties, too, of course.
That’s why we contribute to 1Matters and Claver House
and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether
and Water for the World.
That’s why we volunteer at food pantries and community gardens,
why we reach out to help families in need.
That’s why we gather to pray and read the scriptures
and break bread.
We live in communion with God, with the world, with all that is.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 4th Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2017
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 36-41
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:20-25
Gospel: John 10:1-1
On July 4, 1969,
we had torrential rain in Sandusky County
like we experienced here this past week.
The Lake rose, and the marshes overflowed,
and the drainage ditches
that criss-cross the Great Black Swamp
jumped their banks.
My family spent the night in a car,
marooned on a piece of higher land
on our way home from celebrating
Grandpa’s 74th birthday
at my brother’s house in Sandusky.
It was afternoon on the 5th by the time
we had navigated our way west on Route 6
to see the devastation to my Grandparents’ home
flooded to the second floor,
the barn under water to the rafters,
and their little flock of sheep dead.
______________________________________
Sheep are docile animals,
submissive, weak, and needy.
In a crisis situation, as one writer puts it,
they’re dumb, directionless, and defenseless.
Sheep can swim,
and they could have made it to higher ground,
but they needed the shepherd to show them the way.
That shows one of the ways
that the sheep metaphor in today’s gospel
doesn’t work for us.
We are not like sheep in so many ways.
Like them, we can swim.
But we are not dumb.
Like them, we are animals.
But we’re more like goats--
rebellious, inquisitive, ready to try out something new.
Or like bulls—ready to attack.
We human beings do not tend
to be docile or submissive or defenseless.
______________________________________
Nope, we’re not sheep…
but the way we’re like sheep in need of a shepherd
is the point of today’s gospel reading.
Jesus tells us that,
just like sheep have to learn
to recognize the voice of the shepherd,
we have to learn to recognize the word of God.
We have to learn
to reject the voices of those thieves and robbers,
the ones who come to steal and slaughter and destroy.
______________________________________
These days politics offers us lots of lessons
that can teach us whose voice
is caring and dependable
and whose is not.
We can find the latest news on radio, TV, and internet.
We get knowledge about history and context
from books and magazines…
and radio, TV, and internet.
We have no excuse to be dumb sheep.
People in positions of power
talk and write about the issues every minute of the day.
No, we’re not dumb sheep.
______________________________________
And we’re not directionless sheep, either.
We’re smart human beings,
with a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong,
and we have the ability to think
and to sort through what we hear and read and see
to choose the right way.
As Christians, we recognize God’s voice and follow it.
We hear the message about loving our enemies,
caring for the poor,
and seeking justice.
______________________________________
Other voices may be telling us
to put ourselves ahead of everybody else,
to do whatever we have to do to be famous,
to get rich.
They speak as if the golden rule is “me first,”
not “love your neighbor as yourself.”
When we hear those other voices, we don’t follow.
Here at Holy Spirit,
we listen for the word that calls us to peace and justice
and try to follow it.
We pray… here at Mass,
and as we go about our daily routines.
Our prayer surrounds people in need everywhere,
and it helps us become more aware
of God’s voice in our hearts.
Yesterday we were downtown at the annual Plant Exchange
handing out tree seedlings
in our ongoing effort to mitigate climate change.
We’ll be doing it again and again
over the spring planting season,
not for ourselves
but for coming generations of Americans
who are not related to us
and who we will probably never meet.
Some of you are on Medicare,
but you write and call your Congress reps
to encourage them to do a better job
on health care for other people.
As a community
we entered into extended dialogue
with the Muslim community at Masjid Saad Foundation
so that we are no longer strangers
but brothers and sisters to one another.
______________________________________
One of the voices we hear is Pope Francis,
who tells us that we are
“sent out into the world as prophets of the Word
and witnesses of God’s love.”
That’s our mission as sheep—to be attentive and faithful:
attentive to the Word of God
and faithful to the practice of love and mercy in the world.
Amen!
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 36-41
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:20-25
Gospel: John 10:1-1
On July 4, 1969,
we had torrential rain in Sandusky County
like we experienced here this past week.
The Lake rose, and the marshes overflowed,
and the drainage ditches
that criss-cross the Great Black Swamp
jumped their banks.
My family spent the night in a car,
marooned on a piece of higher land
on our way home from celebrating
Grandpa’s 74th birthday
at my brother’s house in Sandusky.
It was afternoon on the 5th by the time
we had navigated our way west on Route 6
to see the devastation to my Grandparents’ home
flooded to the second floor,
the barn under water to the rafters,
and their little flock of sheep dead.
______________________________________
Sheep are docile animals,
submissive, weak, and needy.
In a crisis situation, as one writer puts it,
they’re dumb, directionless, and defenseless.
Sheep can swim,
and they could have made it to higher ground,
but they needed the shepherd to show them the way.
That shows one of the ways
that the sheep metaphor in today’s gospel
doesn’t work for us.
We are not like sheep in so many ways.
Like them, we can swim.
But we are not dumb.
Like them, we are animals.
But we’re more like goats--
rebellious, inquisitive, ready to try out something new.
Or like bulls—ready to attack.
We human beings do not tend
to be docile or submissive or defenseless.
______________________________________
Nope, we’re not sheep…
but the way we’re like sheep in need of a shepherd
is the point of today’s gospel reading.
Jesus tells us that,
just like sheep have to learn
to recognize the voice of the shepherd,
we have to learn to recognize the word of God.
We have to learn
to reject the voices of those thieves and robbers,
the ones who come to steal and slaughter and destroy.
______________________________________
These days politics offers us lots of lessons
that can teach us whose voice
is caring and dependable
and whose is not.
We can find the latest news on radio, TV, and internet.
We get knowledge about history and context
from books and magazines…
and radio, TV, and internet.
We have no excuse to be dumb sheep.
People in positions of power
talk and write about the issues every minute of the day.
No, we’re not dumb sheep.
______________________________________
And we’re not directionless sheep, either.
We’re smart human beings,
with a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong,
and we have the ability to think
and to sort through what we hear and read and see
to choose the right way.
As Christians, we recognize God’s voice and follow it.
We hear the message about loving our enemies,
caring for the poor,
and seeking justice.
______________________________________
Other voices may be telling us
to put ourselves ahead of everybody else,
to do whatever we have to do to be famous,
to get rich.
They speak as if the golden rule is “me first,”
not “love your neighbor as yourself.”
When we hear those other voices, we don’t follow.
Here at Holy Spirit,
we listen for the word that calls us to peace and justice
and try to follow it.
We pray… here at Mass,
and as we go about our daily routines.
Our prayer surrounds people in need everywhere,
and it helps us become more aware
of God’s voice in our hearts.
Yesterday we were downtown at the annual Plant Exchange
handing out tree seedlings
in our ongoing effort to mitigate climate change.
We’ll be doing it again and again
over the spring planting season,
not for ourselves
but for coming generations of Americans
who are not related to us
and who we will probably never meet.
Some of you are on Medicare,
but you write and call your Congress reps
to encourage them to do a better job
on health care for other people.
As a community
we entered into extended dialogue
with the Muslim community at Masjid Saad Foundation
so that we are no longer strangers
but brothers and sisters to one another.
______________________________________
One of the voices we hear is Pope Francis,
who tells us that we are
“sent out into the world as prophets of the Word
and witnesses of God’s love.”
That’s our mission as sheep—to be attentive and faithful:
attentive to the Word of God
and faithful to the practice of love and mercy in the world.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Easter, April 30, 2017
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 22-33
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:17-21
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
There they go, Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas.
Going in the wrong direction.
Away from Jerusalem… disappointed, confused, afraid.
Then they meet up with a stranger.
They walk along together, talking about the scriptures.
They share a meal.
And they come to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
__________________________________________
Scholars say that this story of the travelers on the road to Emmaus
shows Luke’s storytelling ability at its best.
It started as a simple story that grew through the years
until Luke made it into a narrative
and enhanced it with scriptural echoes
of the long Jewish tradition of hospitality
where people encounter the divine
in sharing a meal with a stranger.
In its present form,
the story reflects the pattern of early Christian worship--
hearing the Scriptures proclaimed and sharing the meal.
And that’s still the pattern of our worship today.
That pattern has not changed.
__________________________________________
The gospels tell us story after story of Jesus breaking bread--
on the plain, on the mountainside,
at the homes of friends, at the homes of sinners.
No one is turned away, not even Judas at the Last Supper.
Everybody is welcome.
Everybody is included.
That’s what we’re supposed to do at every Mass.
But that pattern has changed.
__________________________________________
We have to wonder how our institutional church
got to the point of making all those rules
to exclude people from the table.
Sure, there have been some times throughout history
when it made sense to be careful,
those times when Christianity was being persecuted
and you could be jailed or killed for celebrating Mass.
But here in the United States, now, with us today?
Instead of walking along the way with people,
instead of inviting them to stop a while with us,
instead of sharing a meal and breaking bread with them,
we still have rules on the books
that say they’re not welcome at the table.
__________________________________________
Some of them are rules about church practices.
Skip Mass last Sunday?
Not welcome.
Didn’t go to communion during the Easter season?
Well, you can’t go now.
Haven’t been to confession in a year?
Sorry.
Take communion in a non-Catholic church?
Then you’re not allowed at the Catholic table.
And then there are the pelvic issues.
Divorced and remarried without an annulment?
Practicing contraception?
Think that homosexuality is not an “intrinsic disorder?”
That abortion is okay to save the life of the mother?
Any one of those, according to the rules,
bars you from communion.
And there are bunches of other rules.
__________________________________________
Thank God for Pope Francis,
who calls us to walk with people where they really are,
not where we think they should be.
Francis looks at these two travelers heading off to Emmaus
and says that
“We need a Church unafraid of going forth into their night.
We need a church capable of meeting them on their way.
We need a Church capable of entering into their conversation.
We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples who,
having left Jerusalem behind,
are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment,
disillusioned by a Christianity
now considered barren, fruitless soil,
incapable of generating meaning.”
The Pope encourages us live our faith in the real world.
He tells us to reach out in service without judging people.
Just like Jesus did, Pope Francis wants us to welcome everyone.
He reminds us that we are one human people the world over,
living in a common home.
__________________________________________
The rules that keep people away from communion
don’t make sense any more,
so we don’t follow them here at Holy Spirit.
We live, as Fr. Ed Hays puts it,
“in unrelenting communion,
even if we are unaware of it,
with God and the Spirit of God.
Life is constant holy communion
because the world was created to be cosmic communion
between God and every creature and entity in the world.
This communion flows from life
as a seamless unity
of every person, creature, plant, animal, and star.”
__________________________________________
The rule that Jesus shows us
is bigger than any church rule.
He did not throw anybody off the mountain.
He did not bar anyone from eating at the table with him.
We who walk the way with him,
we who have been created
in constant, unrelenting communion
with God and with all being
are always welcome at the table…
and so is everyone else.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 22-33
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:17-21
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
There they go, Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas.
Going in the wrong direction.
Away from Jerusalem… disappointed, confused, afraid.
Then they meet up with a stranger.
They walk along together, talking about the scriptures.
They share a meal.
And they come to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
__________________________________________
Scholars say that this story of the travelers on the road to Emmaus
shows Luke’s storytelling ability at its best.
It started as a simple story that grew through the years
until Luke made it into a narrative
and enhanced it with scriptural echoes
of the long Jewish tradition of hospitality
where people encounter the divine
in sharing a meal with a stranger.
In its present form,
the story reflects the pattern of early Christian worship--
hearing the Scriptures proclaimed and sharing the meal.
And that’s still the pattern of our worship today.
That pattern has not changed.
__________________________________________
The gospels tell us story after story of Jesus breaking bread--
on the plain, on the mountainside,
at the homes of friends, at the homes of sinners.
No one is turned away, not even Judas at the Last Supper.
Everybody is welcome.
Everybody is included.
That’s what we’re supposed to do at every Mass.
But that pattern has changed.
__________________________________________
We have to wonder how our institutional church
got to the point of making all those rules
to exclude people from the table.
Sure, there have been some times throughout history
when it made sense to be careful,
those times when Christianity was being persecuted
and you could be jailed or killed for celebrating Mass.
But here in the United States, now, with us today?
Instead of walking along the way with people,
instead of inviting them to stop a while with us,
instead of sharing a meal and breaking bread with them,
we still have rules on the books
that say they’re not welcome at the table.
__________________________________________
Some of them are rules about church practices.
Skip Mass last Sunday?
Not welcome.
Didn’t go to communion during the Easter season?
Well, you can’t go now.
Haven’t been to confession in a year?
Sorry.
Take communion in a non-Catholic church?
Then you’re not allowed at the Catholic table.
And then there are the pelvic issues.
Divorced and remarried without an annulment?
Practicing contraception?
Think that homosexuality is not an “intrinsic disorder?”
That abortion is okay to save the life of the mother?
Any one of those, according to the rules,
bars you from communion.
And there are bunches of other rules.
__________________________________________
Thank God for Pope Francis,
who calls us to walk with people where they really are,
not where we think they should be.
Francis looks at these two travelers heading off to Emmaus
and says that
“We need a Church unafraid of going forth into their night.
We need a church capable of meeting them on their way.
We need a Church capable of entering into their conversation.
We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples who,
having left Jerusalem behind,
are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment,
disillusioned by a Christianity
now considered barren, fruitless soil,
incapable of generating meaning.”
The Pope encourages us live our faith in the real world.
He tells us to reach out in service without judging people.
Just like Jesus did, Pope Francis wants us to welcome everyone.
He reminds us that we are one human people the world over,
living in a common home.
__________________________________________
The rules that keep people away from communion
don’t make sense any more,
so we don’t follow them here at Holy Spirit.
We live, as Fr. Ed Hays puts it,
“in unrelenting communion,
even if we are unaware of it,
with God and the Spirit of God.
Life is constant holy communion
because the world was created to be cosmic communion
between God and every creature and entity in the world.
This communion flows from life
as a seamless unity
of every person, creature, plant, animal, and star.”
__________________________________________
The rule that Jesus shows us
is bigger than any church rule.
He did not throw anybody off the mountain.
He did not bar anyone from eating at the table with him.
We who walk the way with him,
we who have been created
in constant, unrelenting communion
with God and with all being
are always welcome at the table…
and so is everyone else.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Second Sunday of Easter A, April 23, 2017
The message of Easter, according to Fr. James Martin,
is that life is stronger than death,
love is stronger than hatred,
and hope is stronger than despair.
These days we hear that lots of folks
are walking away from the church--
pollsters call them “nones”--
N O N E S, not N U N S.
The thing I find interesting about these “nones”
is that most of them
practice some kind of spirituality,
but it’s not organized religion.
Something else we hear a lot about
is the “militant atheism”
of writers like Richard Dawkins.
The thing I find interesting about Dawkins
is that he equates religion
with a literal reading of the texts
and then uses that misunderstanding
as a basis for throwing everything out.
Dawkins is totally certain that he’s right.
He’s not like those “nones,”
who keep on seeking God
when religion stops making sense to them.
He’s not a “Doubting Thomas,” not at all.
_______________________________________
Thomas questioned and doubted,
but he stayed open
to experience of the divine.
When Thomas hears that his friends were hiding
and Jesus came to them
with a message of peace,
he doesn’t believe them.
Then, the following week,
when Thomas himself experiences
the same presence of Jesus
that the other disciples had,
his doubt turns to faith.
He never did put his finger in Jesus’ wounds.
_______________________________________
Even though scholars conclude that today’s gospel
does not report a historical event,
it’s true that the evangelist
is telling a real story of how faith works.
Just like the apostles can’t get away from Jesus,
we can’t get away from him, either.
_______________________________________
For many years I struggled with the faith.
That’s an experience
that many of us went through before Vatican II.
At one point of that journey
I found James Fowler’s descriptions
of the six levels of faith development helpful.
One of its pieces of wisdom is its description
of the reflective Stage 4 of young adulthood,
when people begin to examine their beliefs critically
and become disillusioned with their former faith.
This is the stage when people
who cling to the earlier stages of development
label the Stage 4 people
as backsliders and atheists
when, in fact,
the Stage 4 folks have started to move forward.
I remember well my spiritual director, Fr. Earl Loeffler,
and his patience with me through those years.
He walked with me
while I came to grips
with the loss of my childhood belief
and grappled with all those questions.
It took years.
I still smile when I remember the day he told me,
“Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Eventually I really did move on,
and somewhere in mid-life
began to return to the sacred stories
without getting stuck in a theological box.
_______________________________________
Richard Dawkins seems to be stuck in those boxes of literal faith,
unable to embrace an adult faith of any kind
and making money from heaping scorn on people
who manage to go beyond the understanding
of their childhood and teen years.
_______________________________________
The basic issue in this gospel story
is coming to believe
that Jesus is risen and alive among us,
and that’s always the work of the Spirit.
We don’t come to belief through proofs;
we come to belief through living,
questioning,
and seeking.
It’s a journey--
a path through life that has stops and starts,
racing and resting,
uphill and down.
_______________________________________
Anne LaMott said that the opposite of faith is not doubt.
It’s certainty.
Growing to a more mature faith
leads to accepting mystery
and living with questions and doubts.
So we have four gospels
with four different stories about Jesus’ resurrection,
and we still don’t know the historical facts
of what really happened.
We may wonder about it, speculate even,
but we don’t have to know.
We believe that resurrection is real.
We see new life again and again.
We experience hope after times of despair.
When we rise, we want to help others rise.
And that leads us, eventually,
into what Fowler calls the “universalizing faith,”
the final level of faith development
where we live our lives to the full
in service of others
without any real worries or doubts.
_______________________________________
In Evangelii Gaudium—The Joy of the Gospel--
Pope Francis describes it like this:
“Where all seems to be dead,
signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up.
Each day in our world beauty is born anew,
it rises transformed through the storms of history.
Values always tend to reappear under new guises,
and human beings have arisen time after time
from situations that seemed doomed.
Such is the power of the resurrection.”
Amen!
The message of Easter, according to Fr. James Martin,
is that life is stronger than death,
love is stronger than hatred,
and hope is stronger than despair.
These days we hear that lots of folks
are walking away from the church--
pollsters call them “nones”--
N O N E S, not N U N S.
The thing I find interesting about these “nones”
is that most of them
practice some kind of spirituality,
but it’s not organized religion.
Something else we hear a lot about
is the “militant atheism”
of writers like Richard Dawkins.
The thing I find interesting about Dawkins
is that he equates religion
with a literal reading of the texts
and then uses that misunderstanding
as a basis for throwing everything out.
Dawkins is totally certain that he’s right.
He’s not like those “nones,”
who keep on seeking God
when religion stops making sense to them.
He’s not a “Doubting Thomas,” not at all.
_______________________________________
Thomas questioned and doubted,
but he stayed open
to experience of the divine.
When Thomas hears that his friends were hiding
and Jesus came to them
with a message of peace,
he doesn’t believe them.
Then, the following week,
when Thomas himself experiences
the same presence of Jesus
that the other disciples had,
his doubt turns to faith.
He never did put his finger in Jesus’ wounds.
_______________________________________
Even though scholars conclude that today’s gospel
does not report a historical event,
it’s true that the evangelist
is telling a real story of how faith works.
Just like the apostles can’t get away from Jesus,
we can’t get away from him, either.
_______________________________________
For many years I struggled with the faith.
That’s an experience
that many of us went through before Vatican II.
At one point of that journey
I found James Fowler’s descriptions
of the six levels of faith development helpful.
One of its pieces of wisdom is its description
of the reflective Stage 4 of young adulthood,
when people begin to examine their beliefs critically
and become disillusioned with their former faith.
This is the stage when people
who cling to the earlier stages of development
label the Stage 4 people
as backsliders and atheists
when, in fact,
the Stage 4 folks have started to move forward.
I remember well my spiritual director, Fr. Earl Loeffler,
and his patience with me through those years.
He walked with me
while I came to grips
with the loss of my childhood belief
and grappled with all those questions.
It took years.
I still smile when I remember the day he told me,
“Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Eventually I really did move on,
and somewhere in mid-life
began to return to the sacred stories
without getting stuck in a theological box.
_______________________________________
Richard Dawkins seems to be stuck in those boxes of literal faith,
unable to embrace an adult faith of any kind
and making money from heaping scorn on people
who manage to go beyond the understanding
of their childhood and teen years.
_______________________________________
The basic issue in this gospel story
is coming to believe
that Jesus is risen and alive among us,
and that’s always the work of the Spirit.
We don’t come to belief through proofs;
we come to belief through living,
questioning,
and seeking.
It’s a journey--
a path through life that has stops and starts,
racing and resting,
uphill and down.
_______________________________________
Anne LaMott said that the opposite of faith is not doubt.
It’s certainty.
Growing to a more mature faith
leads to accepting mystery
and living with questions and doubts.
So we have four gospels
with four different stories about Jesus’ resurrection,
and we still don’t know the historical facts
of what really happened.
We may wonder about it, speculate even,
but we don’t have to know.
We believe that resurrection is real.
We see new life again and again.
We experience hope after times of despair.
When we rise, we want to help others rise.
And that leads us, eventually,
into what Fowler calls the “universalizing faith,”
the final level of faith development
where we live our lives to the full
in service of others
without any real worries or doubts.
_______________________________________
In Evangelii Gaudium—The Joy of the Gospel--
Pope Francis describes it like this:
“Where all seems to be dead,
signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up.
Each day in our world beauty is born anew,
it rises transformed through the storms of history.
Values always tend to reappear under new guises,
and human beings have arisen time after time
from situations that seemed doomed.
Such is the power of the resurrection.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Resurrection of the Lord, April 16, 2017
Advances in scientific understanding
say that some experiences
that were once labeled “pathological”
are “normal,
among them religious ecstatic trance experiences.
Because of the work of cognitive neuroscientists
we now know
that our brains have many different levels of consciousness.
So far they’ve detected 35 of them.
Dr. Felicitas Goodman ‘s research shows that four elements
of ecstatic trance experiences exist in all cultures,
especially cultures where death is understood
as a process over time
rather than a point in time.
All four elements appear in our New Testament accounts
of people who saw Jesus alive after the crucifixion,
and it’s easy to recognize the parallels
between the resurrection gospels
and Dr. Goodman’s description.
First, she says, the visionary is usually frightened by the vision…
as it’s told in the resurrection appearances
in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
Second, the visionary doesn’t recognize who it is who’s appearing
or what it is that’s being seen…
as in the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John.
Third, the vision communicates calm assurance
followed by self-identification...
like the angel in Matthew’s gospel
telling Mary Magdalene not to be afraid.
Finally, the visionary receives some useful information,
like an answer, an insight, or a commission…
like Mary being told that Jesus has been raised
and given the commission to go tell the disciples about it.
________________________________________
These ecstatic trance experiences can happen when we pray.
They are are common to grieving people,
especially when they visit burial sites.
Other cross-cultural psychiatric research shows that,
when death is seen as a process, a journey, or a transition,
survivors keep relating to the departed for many years,
most commonly within the first ten years after the loss.
This science can help us understand today’s Gospel
and the other resurrection reports.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
report what fits the scientific description
of an ecstatic trance experience.
The other Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles,
and the letters of Paul relate the same kind of experiences.
________________________________________
What about us?
In our culture we tend to think of death as a point in time,
not as a process,
so we’re less likely to be open
to the reality of post-death experiences.
At the same time,
we’ve all heard a bereaved widow
saying she felt her husband’s presence at certain times.
“It’s like he’s still with me,” she’ll say.
Maybe it’s a dream,
where the deceased person gives you a message.
I had one of those.
Maybe you’re praying, and you zone out,
and when you come back to your everyday consciousness,
you feel assured that it’s going to be okay.
I’ve had those, too.
Science now tells us that these are normal human experiences.
Our evolving brains
have developed multiple levels of consciousness.
As Professor John Pilch puts it,
good science can help us to understand and appreciate
the marvelous gifts to human beings from our Creator God.
________________________________________
There’s not much reason to doubt
that Jesus’ disciples experienced his presence with them
after the crucifixion.
By the time the scriptures were written down,
the lived reality of Jesus’ resurrection
had found expressions in multiple levels of consciousness
of those witnesses and their communities.
As we know from trying to tell someone else
about our own spiritual insights and experiences,
the words don’t come easily.
The experience often defies description.
But our understanding grows
as we live with that experience
and embrace its meaning.
We believe, and we begin to act on our belief.
We carry Christ into the world, wherever we go.
Our families bask in the bright light
of our care and concern for them.
Our friends call on us for help
because they know how we are.
The poor find us with them,
providing for their urgent needs
and working to change the systems
that keep them from thriving.
________________________________________
In John’s Gospel Mary of Magdala looks at the empty tomb
and laments, “We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
She will soon find out.
I know exactly where to find him,
where that unique expression of the Divine Presence lives:
in you!
In your heart, in your values, in your prayers,
in your reaching out, in all you do and all you are.
Yes, Christ has died.
But Christ is risen!
And Christ comes again!
Alleluia!
Advances in scientific understanding
say that some experiences
that were once labeled “pathological”
are “normal,
among them religious ecstatic trance experiences.
Because of the work of cognitive neuroscientists
we now know
that our brains have many different levels of consciousness.
So far they’ve detected 35 of them.
Dr. Felicitas Goodman ‘s research shows that four elements
of ecstatic trance experiences exist in all cultures,
especially cultures where death is understood
as a process over time
rather than a point in time.
All four elements appear in our New Testament accounts
of people who saw Jesus alive after the crucifixion,
and it’s easy to recognize the parallels
between the resurrection gospels
and Dr. Goodman’s description.
First, she says, the visionary is usually frightened by the vision…
as it’s told in the resurrection appearances
in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
Second, the visionary doesn’t recognize who it is who’s appearing
or what it is that’s being seen…
as in the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John.
Third, the vision communicates calm assurance
followed by self-identification...
like the angel in Matthew’s gospel
telling Mary Magdalene not to be afraid.
Finally, the visionary receives some useful information,
like an answer, an insight, or a commission…
like Mary being told that Jesus has been raised
and given the commission to go tell the disciples about it.
________________________________________
These ecstatic trance experiences can happen when we pray.
They are are common to grieving people,
especially when they visit burial sites.
Other cross-cultural psychiatric research shows that,
when death is seen as a process, a journey, or a transition,
survivors keep relating to the departed for many years,
most commonly within the first ten years after the loss.
This science can help us understand today’s Gospel
and the other resurrection reports.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
report what fits the scientific description
of an ecstatic trance experience.
The other Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles,
and the letters of Paul relate the same kind of experiences.
________________________________________
What about us?
In our culture we tend to think of death as a point in time,
not as a process,
so we’re less likely to be open
to the reality of post-death experiences.
At the same time,
we’ve all heard a bereaved widow
saying she felt her husband’s presence at certain times.
“It’s like he’s still with me,” she’ll say.
Maybe it’s a dream,
where the deceased person gives you a message.
I had one of those.
Maybe you’re praying, and you zone out,
and when you come back to your everyday consciousness,
you feel assured that it’s going to be okay.
I’ve had those, too.
Science now tells us that these are normal human experiences.
Our evolving brains
have developed multiple levels of consciousness.
As Professor John Pilch puts it,
good science can help us to understand and appreciate
the marvelous gifts to human beings from our Creator God.
________________________________________
There’s not much reason to doubt
that Jesus’ disciples experienced his presence with them
after the crucifixion.
By the time the scriptures were written down,
the lived reality of Jesus’ resurrection
had found expressions in multiple levels of consciousness
of those witnesses and their communities.
As we know from trying to tell someone else
about our own spiritual insights and experiences,
the words don’t come easily.
The experience often defies description.
But our understanding grows
as we live with that experience
and embrace its meaning.
We believe, and we begin to act on our belief.
We carry Christ into the world, wherever we go.
Our families bask in the bright light
of our care and concern for them.
Our friends call on us for help
because they know how we are.
The poor find us with them,
providing for their urgent needs
and working to change the systems
that keep them from thriving.
________________________________________
In John’s Gospel Mary of Magdala looks at the empty tomb
and laments, “We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
She will soon find out.
I know exactly where to find him,
where that unique expression of the Divine Presence lives:
in you!
In your heart, in your values, in your prayers,
in your reaching out, in all you do and all you are.
Yes, Christ has died.
But Christ is risen!
And Christ comes again!
Alleluia!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Holy Thursday A, April 13, 2017
Lent is over, and the Triduum begins.
Over the next three days,
you and I will give witness to Jesus’ commitment
to live in love and truth,
faithful to God’s will,
even at the cost of his life.
The commitment transforms him,
as it transforms us
when we ground ourselves
in God’s unconditional love
and Jesus' prophetic example.
_________________________________
Tonight we begin the Triduum
by following Jesus’ example
with a ritual washing of each other’s hands.
Jesus’ simple action, as told in John’s gospel,
lends itself to several interpretations.
It’s very often interpreted
as signifying that Jesus will suffer a humiliating death
on behalf of all humanity.
A related interpretation
reads the washing of dirty, smelly feet
as the act of a slave,
showing Jesus’ humble nature.
Another interpretation
looks at the meaning of Jesus’ actions
in their cultural context.
In biblical times
people looked at hands and feet
as a zone of the human body
that symbolized human activity.
To wash the feet or hands
was to wash away
all the offensive deeds done by those hands and feet,
so the washing was equal to forgiveness.
When Jesus tells his disciples to repeat his action for each other,
he is not telling them to go around washing everybody’s feet
but to forgive each other as he forgives them.
_________________________________
Another significant message in this Holy Thursday gospel
comes from the meal
that Jesus has called his disciples to share.
In the Middle East
unrelated people rarely, if ever, eat together,
but people saw Jesus regularly eating with others--
people who were not his relatives,
people who opposed him,
people who were strangers and aliens in the land.
Sharing a meal with someone who was not a blood relative
transformed that person into a family member,
one who became connected like family,
one committed to the giving of oneself
for the others at the table.
_________________________________
So we gather here in this holy space.
Some of us are relatives--
spouses, parents and children, brothers and sisters.
As a group, though,
we are just like those first followers of Jesus--
not relatives in the usual sense of the word
but children of the one God
invited by our brother Jesus
to forgive one another
by washing each other’s hands,
welcomed into the family
through our sharing of the meal.
_________________________________
Forgiven and fed,
we will go forth
ready to practice God’s love
in our world
for our time.
Amen!
Lent is over, and the Triduum begins.
Over the next three days,
you and I will give witness to Jesus’ commitment
to live in love and truth,
faithful to God’s will,
even at the cost of his life.
The commitment transforms him,
as it transforms us
when we ground ourselves
in God’s unconditional love
and Jesus' prophetic example.
_________________________________
Tonight we begin the Triduum
by following Jesus’ example
with a ritual washing of each other’s hands.
Jesus’ simple action, as told in John’s gospel,
lends itself to several interpretations.
It’s very often interpreted
as signifying that Jesus will suffer a humiliating death
on behalf of all humanity.
A related interpretation
reads the washing of dirty, smelly feet
as the act of a slave,
showing Jesus’ humble nature.
Another interpretation
looks at the meaning of Jesus’ actions
in their cultural context.
In biblical times
people looked at hands and feet
as a zone of the human body
that symbolized human activity.
To wash the feet or hands
was to wash away
all the offensive deeds done by those hands and feet,
so the washing was equal to forgiveness.
When Jesus tells his disciples to repeat his action for each other,
he is not telling them to go around washing everybody’s feet
but to forgive each other as he forgives them.
_________________________________
Another significant message in this Holy Thursday gospel
comes from the meal
that Jesus has called his disciples to share.
In the Middle East
unrelated people rarely, if ever, eat together,
but people saw Jesus regularly eating with others--
people who were not his relatives,
people who opposed him,
people who were strangers and aliens in the land.
Sharing a meal with someone who was not a blood relative
transformed that person into a family member,
one who became connected like family,
one committed to the giving of oneself
for the others at the table.
_________________________________
So we gather here in this holy space.
Some of us are relatives--
spouses, parents and children, brothers and sisters.
As a group, though,
we are just like those first followers of Jesus--
not relatives in the usual sense of the word
but children of the one God
invited by our brother Jesus
to forgive one another
by washing each other’s hands,
welcomed into the family
through our sharing of the meal.
_________________________________
Forgiven and fed,
we will go forth
ready to practice God’s love
in our world
for our time.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (A), April 9, 2017
Blessings of the Palms: Matthew 21:1-11
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:1, 7-8, 16-19, 2-23
Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14--27:66
Homily for the Procession:
When Jesus entered Jerusalem,
“the whole city was shaken.”
They saw the sign, and they asked,
“Who is this?”
It helps to know a bit about the scriptures and the culture
so we can understand
that what shook them up
was Jesus heading into Jerusalem like a king.
________________________________________
First, there’s the donkey.
Jesus’ riding in on a the donkey
not only fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy
for the coming of the king,
but it also shows that he had the deep humility
that a true king would have.
________________________________________
Then there’s the people
crying out their hosanna to the Son of David
and “blessed is the one who comes.”
Matthew’s phrasing clearly points to Jesus
as the Messiah who is to deliver Israel.
________________________________________
Who is this?
For our ancestors in faith,
this Jesus from Nazareth
was both king and messiah,
the one who would transform their lives
and set them free.
They saw the signs.
Those who were oppressed believed…
and they followed him.
Those who were oppressors believed…
and they crucified him.
________________________________________
Who is this Jesus for us today, now?
More and more of us,
around the world and even here in the United States,
live under oppression of one sort or another,
and all of us live under threats
from environmental degradation.
________________________________________
Will we choose the path of wealth and power,
serving only ourselves and our own interests,
no matter who we hurt?
Or will we choose the path of Jesus,
serving the common good,
no matter what happens to us?
Today, let’s choose
once more
to follow the Way of Jesus.
___________________________________________
Homily for the Mass
Jesus spent his life doing what real leaders do.
He poured his life
into working for the poor and despised and vulnerable.
He spoke truth to power.
He went about doing good.
Because he did not hide
from the consequences of doing good,
he was tortured and killed.
In both life and death, Jesus reflects
what God’s power and God’s love really are:
giving oneself to others.
________________________________________
In today’s reading from the Hebrew scriptures
we heard about Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
and the true leadership that requires
speaking the word that will rouse the weary,
trusting in God,
and going forward regardless of the consequences.
________________________________________
And we heard from Paul
how the divine presence in Jesus
moved him to humility and obedience
throughout life and unto death,
ready and willing to pour himself out for others.
________________________________________
The Gospel accounts of the events
leading up to and including the death of Jesus
are full of references to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Like the infancy narratives,
these passion narratives
either quote directly or echo
the Hebrew Scriptures in almost every verse.
The message is simple,
shared by Christians and Jews and Muslims
and people of good will the world over:
we are one people with one God,
called to love God and love one another,
no matter what happens to us.
________________________________________
But we know that the way of Jesus
has been rejected and condemned throughout history,
even by those who claim to follow him.
Just think of our crusades, our inquisition, our slaves, our wars.
And it still goes on.
All over our country, from Ferguson to Chicago,
from California to North Carolina,
from coal country to central Toledo,
people are afraid that if they really follow Jesus,
they will lose their white privilege
or political power
or tax loopholes.
They would have to share resources
and act out of concern for other people’s rights
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
________________________________________
Holy Week asks us pointed questions:
Do we act with justice?
Love our neighbors?
Go about doing good?
No matter what it costs us?
If we can say yes, we try,
then we’re on the right path.
Thanks be to God!
Blessings of the Palms: Matthew 21:1-11
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:1, 7-8, 16-19, 2-23
Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14--27:66
Homily for the Procession:
When Jesus entered Jerusalem,
“the whole city was shaken.”
They saw the sign, and they asked,
“Who is this?”
It helps to know a bit about the scriptures and the culture
so we can understand
that what shook them up
was Jesus heading into Jerusalem like a king.
________________________________________
First, there’s the donkey.
Jesus’ riding in on a the donkey
not only fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy
for the coming of the king,
but it also shows that he had the deep humility
that a true king would have.
________________________________________
Then there’s the people
crying out their hosanna to the Son of David
and “blessed is the one who comes.”
Matthew’s phrasing clearly points to Jesus
as the Messiah who is to deliver Israel.
________________________________________
Who is this?
For our ancestors in faith,
this Jesus from Nazareth
was both king and messiah,
the one who would transform their lives
and set them free.
They saw the signs.
Those who were oppressed believed…
and they followed him.
Those who were oppressors believed…
and they crucified him.
________________________________________
Who is this Jesus for us today, now?
More and more of us,
around the world and even here in the United States,
live under oppression of one sort or another,
and all of us live under threats
from environmental degradation.
________________________________________
Will we choose the path of wealth and power,
serving only ourselves and our own interests,
no matter who we hurt?
Or will we choose the path of Jesus,
serving the common good,
no matter what happens to us?
Today, let’s choose
once more
to follow the Way of Jesus.
___________________________________________
Homily for the Mass
Jesus spent his life doing what real leaders do.
He poured his life
into working for the poor and despised and vulnerable.
He spoke truth to power.
He went about doing good.
Because he did not hide
from the consequences of doing good,
he was tortured and killed.
In both life and death, Jesus reflects
what God’s power and God’s love really are:
giving oneself to others.
________________________________________
In today’s reading from the Hebrew scriptures
we heard about Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
and the true leadership that requires
speaking the word that will rouse the weary,
trusting in God,
and going forward regardless of the consequences.
________________________________________
And we heard from Paul
how the divine presence in Jesus
moved him to humility and obedience
throughout life and unto death,
ready and willing to pour himself out for others.
________________________________________
The Gospel accounts of the events
leading up to and including the death of Jesus
are full of references to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Like the infancy narratives,
these passion narratives
either quote directly or echo
the Hebrew Scriptures in almost every verse.
The message is simple,
shared by Christians and Jews and Muslims
and people of good will the world over:
we are one people with one God,
called to love God and love one another,
no matter what happens to us.
________________________________________
But we know that the way of Jesus
has been rejected and condemned throughout history,
even by those who claim to follow him.
Just think of our crusades, our inquisition, our slaves, our wars.
And it still goes on.
All over our country, from Ferguson to Chicago,
from California to North Carolina,
from coal country to central Toledo,
people are afraid that if they really follow Jesus,
they will lose their white privilege
or political power
or tax loopholes.
They would have to share resources
and act out of concern for other people’s rights
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
________________________________________
Holy Week asks us pointed questions:
Do we act with justice?
Love our neighbors?
Go about doing good?
No matter what it costs us?
If we can say yes, we try,
then we’re on the right path.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Lent A 5, April 2, 2017
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130: 1-8
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Gospel: John 11:1-45
Lots of ink has been spilled over the question
of whether Lazarus was in a deep coma or really dead or--
as Jesus’ critics would have said--
faking it to make Jesus look like a miracle worker.
But that doesn’t matter because it’s not the point.
The story is not factual history
but a statement of faith in the transformation
that following the Way of Jesus brings to us.
__________________________________________
The Israelites had a history
of being tied down by conquering armies,
notably under slavery in Egypt, exile in Babylon,
and the Roman occupation.
Our Jewish ancestors in faith thought and talked and prayed
in images of resurrection that hoped
for a renewal of their covenant relationship with God.
They looked forward to a revived fullness of life--
to freedom in peace
and with justice.
__________________________________________
When Moses went to Pharaoh,
he was calling for political and religious freedom.
He called out, Let my people go!
The priest and prophet Ezekiel
puts the promise of freedom in God’s mouth
with the metaphor of rising from the grave:
I will open your graves and have you rise from them,
put my spirit in you that you may live,
settle you on your land.
It’s a vision of freedom from the Babylonian captivity.
John’s gospel speaks
to a people suffering under the oppression of Roman rule.
As with Ezekiel, it’s the metaphor of rising from the grave.
As with Moses, it’s the call to freedom that Jesus speaks to Lazarus:
Untie him and set him free!
__________________________________________
Biblical scholar John Pilch points out
that resurrection means a transformation of life,
not the restoration of life to a corpse.
Following Jesus does not abolish death; it transcends it.
__________________________________________
We live in a world that seems to be caught up in death.
We kill each other in acts of murder, execution, war,
terrorism, drunk driving, domestic violence.
We kill our planet
with extravagant lifestyles and waste and pollution.
We watch people die from poverty, hunger, homelessness,
disease, abuse, war, discrimination, unsafe working conditions.
__________________________________________
Even in this country of freedom and plenty,
we kill ourselves through suicide, drug and alcohol abuse,
smoking, overwork, stress, bad eating habits,
and physical neglect.
As Karl Rahner said,
“There are so many little deaths along the way
that it doesn’t matter which is the last one.”
__________________________________________
When we look at our lives, we can see
that we all have died those “little deaths” along the way.
We can also see that we have transcended them
and been raised to new life.
It happens every day,
in one way or another, to person after person.
A few months ago Tom & Mary Jean helped a Toledo family
that was dying one of those little deaths.
They had moved to Toledo
and needed help until the first check came in.
Mary Jean and Tom found resources
for food and clothes for this couple and their children,
and you generous folks of Holy Spirit voted
to pay their rent for that month.
The family transcended that “little death.”
They were raised to new life.
Transformed.
__________________________________________
On the first of every month Julie shows up
with boxes of household goods for UStogether--
and those refugees settling here in Toledo
are raised to new life.
Sallie’s son Zak found a job, after nearly a year off work.
He’s raised out of a deep funk to new life.
__________________________________________
I remember back in 1972, when a car accident
put me in the hospital with five breaks in my vertebrae.
While I lay there flat on my back without moving for five weeks,
not knowing if I’d ever walk again,
I felt like life was over.
But the experimental treatment worked—a miracle for me--
and I was changed--
never the same again, a new path, raised to new life.
__________________________________________
If we look around, it’s easy to see
those “little deaths” happening to people.
And it’s easy to see when the transformation happens.
There’s the joy in the hope for change
that comes to people marching and demonstrating.
There’s the love that glows
when a homebound person gets a visit from a friend.
There’s the energy that comes to a retiree
who escapes from being buried in a job,
from heading into the garden after a cold and blustery winter,
from working through the breakup of a relationship.
__________________________________________
Whenever and wherever we see someone
in the midst of one of these little deaths,
whether they’re buried by oppression or hopelessness
or pain or loss,
we are the ones called
to be the hands and heart of God reaching out to them,
the voice calling out,
“Untie my people. Let them go. Set them free!”
Amen!
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130: 1-8
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Gospel: John 11:1-45
Lots of ink has been spilled over the question
of whether Lazarus was in a deep coma or really dead or--
as Jesus’ critics would have said--
faking it to make Jesus look like a miracle worker.
But that doesn’t matter because it’s not the point.
The story is not factual history
but a statement of faith in the transformation
that following the Way of Jesus brings to us.
__________________________________________
The Israelites had a history
of being tied down by conquering armies,
notably under slavery in Egypt, exile in Babylon,
and the Roman occupation.
Our Jewish ancestors in faith thought and talked and prayed
in images of resurrection that hoped
for a renewal of their covenant relationship with God.
They looked forward to a revived fullness of life--
to freedom in peace
and with justice.
__________________________________________
When Moses went to Pharaoh,
he was calling for political and religious freedom.
He called out, Let my people go!
The priest and prophet Ezekiel
puts the promise of freedom in God’s mouth
with the metaphor of rising from the grave:
I will open your graves and have you rise from them,
put my spirit in you that you may live,
settle you on your land.
It’s a vision of freedom from the Babylonian captivity.
John’s gospel speaks
to a people suffering under the oppression of Roman rule.
As with Ezekiel, it’s the metaphor of rising from the grave.
As with Moses, it’s the call to freedom that Jesus speaks to Lazarus:
Untie him and set him free!
__________________________________________
Biblical scholar John Pilch points out
that resurrection means a transformation of life,
not the restoration of life to a corpse.
Following Jesus does not abolish death; it transcends it.
__________________________________________
We live in a world that seems to be caught up in death.
We kill each other in acts of murder, execution, war,
terrorism, drunk driving, domestic violence.
We kill our planet
with extravagant lifestyles and waste and pollution.
We watch people die from poverty, hunger, homelessness,
disease, abuse, war, discrimination, unsafe working conditions.
__________________________________________
Even in this country of freedom and plenty,
we kill ourselves through suicide, drug and alcohol abuse,
smoking, overwork, stress, bad eating habits,
and physical neglect.
As Karl Rahner said,
“There are so many little deaths along the way
that it doesn’t matter which is the last one.”
__________________________________________
When we look at our lives, we can see
that we all have died those “little deaths” along the way.
We can also see that we have transcended them
and been raised to new life.
It happens every day,
in one way or another, to person after person.
A few months ago Tom & Mary Jean helped a Toledo family
that was dying one of those little deaths.
They had moved to Toledo
and needed help until the first check came in.
Mary Jean and Tom found resources
for food and clothes for this couple and their children,
and you generous folks of Holy Spirit voted
to pay their rent for that month.
The family transcended that “little death.”
They were raised to new life.
Transformed.
__________________________________________
On the first of every month Julie shows up
with boxes of household goods for UStogether--
and those refugees settling here in Toledo
are raised to new life.
Sallie’s son Zak found a job, after nearly a year off work.
He’s raised out of a deep funk to new life.
__________________________________________
I remember back in 1972, when a car accident
put me in the hospital with five breaks in my vertebrae.
While I lay there flat on my back without moving for five weeks,
not knowing if I’d ever walk again,
I felt like life was over.
But the experimental treatment worked—a miracle for me--
and I was changed--
never the same again, a new path, raised to new life.
__________________________________________
If we look around, it’s easy to see
those “little deaths” happening to people.
And it’s easy to see when the transformation happens.
There’s the joy in the hope for change
that comes to people marching and demonstrating.
There’s the love that glows
when a homebound person gets a visit from a friend.
There’s the energy that comes to a retiree
who escapes from being buried in a job,
from heading into the garden after a cold and blustery winter,
from working through the breakup of a relationship.
__________________________________________
Whenever and wherever we see someone
in the midst of one of these little deaths,
whether they’re buried by oppression or hopelessness
or pain or loss,
we are the ones called
to be the hands and heart of God reaching out to them,
the voice calling out,
“Untie my people. Let them go. Set them free!”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community
Fourth Sunday of Lent (A), March 26, 2017
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16: 1, 6-7, 10-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel: John 9:1-41
Still another transfiguration this week,
the third of four in this Lenten season.
Two weeks ago the disciples gained insight
into Jesus’ closeness to God
through the law and the prophets.
Last week Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well
both gained insight through their theological discussion.
This week the man-born-blind gains both eyesight and insight.
___________________________________
The Greek word for this man is “anthropos,”
the generic word for a human being
without telling gender, ethnicity, or historical context.
The man-born-blind—the one-who-saw—is everyone.
It’s us.
So when we hear this Gospel,
we are challenged to figure out the part we have been playing
AND
the part we want to play.
We may be bound by our unshakeable convictions.
We may be the ones who wonder what God is up to.
We may choose to let authorities give us the answers.
No matter what our role has been,
we are invited to be anthropos,
people who realize we have been blind
BUT who are now ready to see.
___________________________________
Last month Pope Francis said
that Christians don’t live outside the world;
we live in the world.
Francis said that Christians have to know
how to recognize the signs of evil, selfishness, and sin
in their own life
and in what surrounds them.
Part of the transformation for the man-born-blind
is recognizing the politics of the Pharisees
who blind themselves to the truth
so they can keep their power and wealth and control
over the people.
___________________________________
We don’t have to look far to see
how this story speaks to the signs of our times.
The big picture for us is that America is being transformed.
Programs that support the principles of Catholic Social Teaching
are threatened by that budget sent to Congress this month.
It ignores the rights and dignity of the human person.
It is blind to the preferential option for the poor.
It is blind to the command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
shelter the homeless, and welcome the stranger.
It is deaf to the call for peace and justice.
It would cut 62 agencies and programs
to fund expansion of our military,
already 1,000 times more lethal
than all the other militaries in the world together.
___________________________________
Here in Toledo we would see drastic cuts
to programs to shelter the homeless, like Family House;
Meals on Wheels for seniors and people with disabilities;
weatherization assistance;
low-income home energy assistance;
UStogether and its support for refugee families;
school breakfasts and lunches;
PBS and NPR.
___________________________________
And there’s more than the budget
to threaten our Christian values.
Already we see Muslims vilified
and immigrants and refugees turned away.
Environmental protections are being wiped out,
allowing unrestrained dumping of pollutants.
The proposed health insurance proposal
would make health care unaffordable or unavailable
to millions of people.
Truth and civility and respect have been replaced
with unfounded accusations, insults, and crude language.
In short, our country is abandoning its commitment
to the common good.
___________________________________
One good thing is
that it’s not only our country that’s being transformed.
We—each of us individually, and all of us together—are changing.
How blind we have been!
We were stumbling along in the dark.
Like the man-born-blind,
we didn’t see the damage that could be done.
We thought it couldn’t happen here.
Now, thanks to Donald Trump, our eyes are opened.
We are being transformed.
___________________________________
The transfiguration is everywhere we look.
Across the country
ordinary citizens are showing up at their senators’ offices.
We’re asking for town hall meetings.
We’re making phone calls and sending emails
about the issues we care about.
We’re writing postcards to Congress and letters to the editor.
We are following the political news
on TV and radio and in the paper.
We’re talking about it, and we’re taking action.
___________________________________
This is the “faithful citizenship” that the U.S. Bishops called us to
10 years ago when they said
that responsible citizenship is a virtue;
when they said participation in political life
is a moral obligation
rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus;
when they said that all of us
must actively participate in promoting the common good.
So we continue to work for the change
that will transform each and every one of us
to be able to read the signs of our times
and put our faith into action.
___________________________________
We’re halfway through Lent, symbolized in the pink around us.
Light is dawning.
With the man-born-blind,
with all who follow Jesus,
we are called to live as children of the light.
Fourth Sunday of Lent (A), March 26, 2017
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16: 1, 6-7, 10-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel: John 9:1-41
Still another transfiguration this week,
the third of four in this Lenten season.
Two weeks ago the disciples gained insight
into Jesus’ closeness to God
through the law and the prophets.
Last week Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well
both gained insight through their theological discussion.
This week the man-born-blind gains both eyesight and insight.
___________________________________
The Greek word for this man is “anthropos,”
the generic word for a human being
without telling gender, ethnicity, or historical context.
The man-born-blind—the one-who-saw—is everyone.
It’s us.
So when we hear this Gospel,
we are challenged to figure out the part we have been playing
AND
the part we want to play.
We may be bound by our unshakeable convictions.
We may be the ones who wonder what God is up to.
We may choose to let authorities give us the answers.
No matter what our role has been,
we are invited to be anthropos,
people who realize we have been blind
BUT who are now ready to see.
___________________________________
Last month Pope Francis said
that Christians don’t live outside the world;
we live in the world.
Francis said that Christians have to know
how to recognize the signs of evil, selfishness, and sin
in their own life
and in what surrounds them.
Part of the transformation for the man-born-blind
is recognizing the politics of the Pharisees
who blind themselves to the truth
so they can keep their power and wealth and control
over the people.
___________________________________
We don’t have to look far to see
how this story speaks to the signs of our times.
The big picture for us is that America is being transformed.
Programs that support the principles of Catholic Social Teaching
are threatened by that budget sent to Congress this month.
It ignores the rights and dignity of the human person.
It is blind to the preferential option for the poor.
It is blind to the command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
shelter the homeless, and welcome the stranger.
It is deaf to the call for peace and justice.
It would cut 62 agencies and programs
to fund expansion of our military,
already 1,000 times more lethal
than all the other militaries in the world together.
___________________________________
Here in Toledo we would see drastic cuts
to programs to shelter the homeless, like Family House;
Meals on Wheels for seniors and people with disabilities;
weatherization assistance;
low-income home energy assistance;
UStogether and its support for refugee families;
school breakfasts and lunches;
PBS and NPR.
___________________________________
And there’s more than the budget
to threaten our Christian values.
Already we see Muslims vilified
and immigrants and refugees turned away.
Environmental protections are being wiped out,
allowing unrestrained dumping of pollutants.
The proposed health insurance proposal
would make health care unaffordable or unavailable
to millions of people.
Truth and civility and respect have been replaced
with unfounded accusations, insults, and crude language.
In short, our country is abandoning its commitment
to the common good.
___________________________________
One good thing is
that it’s not only our country that’s being transformed.
We—each of us individually, and all of us together—are changing.
How blind we have been!
We were stumbling along in the dark.
Like the man-born-blind,
we didn’t see the damage that could be done.
We thought it couldn’t happen here.
Now, thanks to Donald Trump, our eyes are opened.
We are being transformed.
___________________________________
The transfiguration is everywhere we look.
Across the country
ordinary citizens are showing up at their senators’ offices.
We’re asking for town hall meetings.
We’re making phone calls and sending emails
about the issues we care about.
We’re writing postcards to Congress and letters to the editor.
We are following the political news
on TV and radio and in the paper.
We’re talking about it, and we’re taking action.
___________________________________
This is the “faithful citizenship” that the U.S. Bishops called us to
10 years ago when they said
that responsible citizenship is a virtue;
when they said participation in political life
is a moral obligation
rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus;
when they said that all of us
must actively participate in promoting the common good.
So we continue to work for the change
that will transform each and every one of us
to be able to read the signs of our times
and put our faith into action.
___________________________________
We’re halfway through Lent, symbolized in the pink around us.
Light is dawning.
With the man-born-blind,
with all who follow Jesus,
we are called to live as children of the light.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Lent A 3, March 19, 2017
First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-42
Another transfiguration this week.
Last week the disciples saw the change in Jesus
and his closeness to God
through their law and their prophets.
This week the transfiguration comes through dialogue.
The meeting at the well shows both the woman and Jesus
transformed from their exclusive native religions
to allow both to embrace one faith in one inclusive God.
The woman learns to give up
worshiping the multiple gods in her Samaritan tradition.
Jesus learns how to give up
his Jewish attachment
to Jerusalem as the only proper place to worship God.
She stays a Samaritan, and he stays a Jew,
but they are both transformed.
_____________________________________________
Did this really story happen?
Fr. Raymond Brown doesn’t go very far towards a yes on that.
He writes that “It is not at all impossible
that even in the conversation
we have echoes of a historical tradition
of an incident in Jesus’ ministry.”
Most scholars doubt that this gospel story ever took place.
They think the point is to explain
how the hated Samaritans came to be included
in the Jesus movement.
_____________________________________________
There was a long history of dissension among the tribes of Israel,
nearly a thousand years of it between Samaritans and Jews.
When the city of Samaria fell to the Assyrians,
many of them were led off into captivity,
but some were left behind.
Both Israel and Samaria failed to keep to the way of Yahweh.
When the Jews came out of Babylon nearly 400 years later,
the Samaritans tried to welcome them back,
but the returning exiles despised the Samaritans
because they had intermarried with the Assyrians.
By the time Jesus came around,
there had been over 500 more years of hate
between the Jews and the Samaritans.
Scripture scholar John Pilch says
that some knowledge of Mediterranean culture
helps to focus on the shocking pieces in the dialogue.
For one thing, the well was a space open to both men and women
but not at the same time.
Women came only in morning or evening...
but this woman is there at noon.
Also, it was very questionable for a man
to speak to an unchaperoned woman in a public place.
And it was scandalous for a woman to talk with a man in public,
but this woman talks with Jesus
and then heads off to the marketplace,
a place reserved for men, where she talks to the men there.
_____________________________________________
The improper details of the story let us know
that something extraordinary is going on,
and other details give us clues about their meaning.
It’s significant that Jesus and the woman meet at Jacob’s well,
a place whose tradition is shared by Samaritans and Jews.
Those five husbands and the one she’s living with now
refer to the many gods that Samaria had historically worshiped
along with the God of Israel.
They discuss the question of whether worshiping God
is proper to Jerusalem or to Shechem…
and Jesus’ insight is no.
Not exclusively in those places
but anywhere and everywhere,
in Spirit and truth.
They’re talking theology.
Through their mutual acceptance of the other,
the walls, boundaries, hostilities, and hatreds
which had long separated Samaritans and Jews
melt away and disappear.
_____________________________________________
And what about us?
Think about the 400 years of hate
between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland,
or the 1,400 years of hate
between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East.
Think about the 482 years we Christians spent hating each other
from Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses in 1517
to the 1999 Lutheran-Catholic Declaration
reconciling our differences on that “justification by faith”
that Paul talks about in today’s second reading.
How often do we just talk at one another!
Genuine conversation is hard work,
but it opens up encounter with the other
and brings life-giving transformation.
_____________________________________________
This past Tuesday our Muslim neighbors
at Masjid Saad Foundation up on Alexis Road
opened their doors in gracious hospitality
to help us Christians begin to understand Islam.
We talked about having very different perspectives,
different contexts, different rituals, different readings--
and all converging on faith in one God
that has to lead to action in the world.
We agreed that God—by whatever name—is everywhere.
And we agreed that our traditions converge
on the need to put our love for God and neighbor into action.
We’ll be meeting again on the next four Tuesdays
to continue the conversation.
_____________________________________________
We have much in common.
We share a thirst for meaning,
sometimes feeling abandoned by God
in the desert of our lives.
We share a thirst for freedom--
the need to leap out of the slavery of our Egypts
into the promised land.
We share a thirst for truth--
looking to get away from the polluted water
of outmoded parts of our traditions
to drink from fresh, clean springs.
We share a thirst for justice--
to stand in right relationship with one another
and with all of creation.
Above all, we share a thirst for love--
the burning desire
for a world that follows the Great Commandment--
love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
_____________________________________________
Psalm 95 tells us, “Harden not your hearts.”
We must not live our life against any person,
against any religion,
against God.
We must live together in peace with all.
Amen!
First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-42
Another transfiguration this week.
Last week the disciples saw the change in Jesus
and his closeness to God
through their law and their prophets.
This week the transfiguration comes through dialogue.
The meeting at the well shows both the woman and Jesus
transformed from their exclusive native religions
to allow both to embrace one faith in one inclusive God.
The woman learns to give up
worshiping the multiple gods in her Samaritan tradition.
Jesus learns how to give up
his Jewish attachment
to Jerusalem as the only proper place to worship God.
She stays a Samaritan, and he stays a Jew,
but they are both transformed.
_____________________________________________
Did this really story happen?
Fr. Raymond Brown doesn’t go very far towards a yes on that.
He writes that “It is not at all impossible
that even in the conversation
we have echoes of a historical tradition
of an incident in Jesus’ ministry.”
Most scholars doubt that this gospel story ever took place.
They think the point is to explain
how the hated Samaritans came to be included
in the Jesus movement.
_____________________________________________
There was a long history of dissension among the tribes of Israel,
nearly a thousand years of it between Samaritans and Jews.
When the city of Samaria fell to the Assyrians,
many of them were led off into captivity,
but some were left behind.
Both Israel and Samaria failed to keep to the way of Yahweh.
When the Jews came out of Babylon nearly 400 years later,
the Samaritans tried to welcome them back,
but the returning exiles despised the Samaritans
because they had intermarried with the Assyrians.
By the time Jesus came around,
there had been over 500 more years of hate
between the Jews and the Samaritans.
Scripture scholar John Pilch says
that some knowledge of Mediterranean culture
helps to focus on the shocking pieces in the dialogue.
For one thing, the well was a space open to both men and women
but not at the same time.
Women came only in morning or evening...
but this woman is there at noon.
Also, it was very questionable for a man
to speak to an unchaperoned woman in a public place.
And it was scandalous for a woman to talk with a man in public,
but this woman talks with Jesus
and then heads off to the marketplace,
a place reserved for men, where she talks to the men there.
_____________________________________________
The improper details of the story let us know
that something extraordinary is going on,
and other details give us clues about their meaning.
It’s significant that Jesus and the woman meet at Jacob’s well,
a place whose tradition is shared by Samaritans and Jews.
Those five husbands and the one she’s living with now
refer to the many gods that Samaria had historically worshiped
along with the God of Israel.
They discuss the question of whether worshiping God
is proper to Jerusalem or to Shechem…
and Jesus’ insight is no.
Not exclusively in those places
but anywhere and everywhere,
in Spirit and truth.
They’re talking theology.
Through their mutual acceptance of the other,
the walls, boundaries, hostilities, and hatreds
which had long separated Samaritans and Jews
melt away and disappear.
_____________________________________________
And what about us?
Think about the 400 years of hate
between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland,
or the 1,400 years of hate
between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East.
Think about the 482 years we Christians spent hating each other
from Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses in 1517
to the 1999 Lutheran-Catholic Declaration
reconciling our differences on that “justification by faith”
that Paul talks about in today’s second reading.
How often do we just talk at one another!
Genuine conversation is hard work,
but it opens up encounter with the other
and brings life-giving transformation.
_____________________________________________
This past Tuesday our Muslim neighbors
at Masjid Saad Foundation up on Alexis Road
opened their doors in gracious hospitality
to help us Christians begin to understand Islam.
We talked about having very different perspectives,
different contexts, different rituals, different readings--
and all converging on faith in one God
that has to lead to action in the world.
We agreed that God—by whatever name—is everywhere.
And we agreed that our traditions converge
on the need to put our love for God and neighbor into action.
We’ll be meeting again on the next four Tuesdays
to continue the conversation.
_____________________________________________
We have much in common.
We share a thirst for meaning,
sometimes feeling abandoned by God
in the desert of our lives.
We share a thirst for freedom--
the need to leap out of the slavery of our Egypts
into the promised land.
We share a thirst for truth--
looking to get away from the polluted water
of outmoded parts of our traditions
to drink from fresh, clean springs.
We share a thirst for justice--
to stand in right relationship with one another
and with all of creation.
Above all, we share a thirst for love--
the burning desire
for a world that follows the Great Commandment--
love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
_____________________________________________
Psalm 95 tells us, “Harden not your hearts.”
We must not live our life against any person,
against any religion,
against God.
We must live together in peace with all.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Lent A 2, March 12, 2017
First Reading: Genesis 12:1-4
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:8-10
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration.
Biblical anthropologist John Pilch says that
describing the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ transfiguration as a “vision”
is an important piece of information.
Modem psychological anthropology tells us
that the majority of the world’s cultures
do not consider alternative states of consciousness
like visions
to be odd or irrational.
They see them as normal human experiences.
Cultures like ours are the ones that need to take another look.
___________________________________________
In the USA we’re more likely to talk about hallucinations or illusions
instead of visions or transfigurations.
But we do know about change.
We know that people can change, dramatically.
Old dogs can learn new tricks.
People jailed for serious crimes turn their lives around
and become productive citizens,
even role models for youngsters.
The footloose and fancy-free
have been known to shape their idealism
into responsibility and commitment.
These days we see scores of folks
turning out for demonstrations and marches
because they have a better idea—a vision--
of what our country should be.
They have a vision.
___________________________________________
Then there’s the difference that faith makes--
the change in people who live what they believe.
It’s plainly visible.
John’s gospel tells us
that everyone will know that we are Jesus’ disciples
if we love one another.
If we believe that,
and if we begin to act out of that love,
then we will change our lives.
And people will notice.
We will be transfigured.
___________________________________________
The early followers of Jesus saw transfigurations all around them.
Acts 10:38 says that Jesus went about doing good,
and people saw it
and followed him.
Chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians
tells us what that love looks like.
You know the passage: Love is patient, love is kind….
If we are not changing,
not acting out of love,
not becoming transformed,
then we cannot call ourselves disciples.
We cannot call ourselves Christians
unless people can see a difference in us.
___________________________________________
The turning point--
that point where the change becomes noticeable--
is transfiguration.
Today’s first reading calls Abram to change.
He goes from being Abram of one tribe
to Abraham for all the tribes,
for all the nations.
Today’s second reading encourages Timothy to change.
Paul tells him to lead a holy life,
to fan to flame the gifts he has,
not with a spirit of fear
but with a spirit of love.
And today’s gospel shows the transfigured Jesus
inspiring Peter, James, and John to follow him.
___________________________________________
We’ll hear about another transfiguration next Sunday
in the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.
The Sunday after that
we’ll hear the story of the transfiguration of the man born blind.
And the Sunday after that
we’ll hear the story of Lazarus untied and set free,
brought to life,
transfigured.
___________________________________________
Something clicked for Peter, James, and John on that mountaintop with Jesus.
They finally understood that he was the real thing;
a leader, like a new Moses;
a prophet, like a new Elijah.
Those three disciples finally learned
that Jesus’ very being
was an expression of the God’s presence,
They had to listen to him.
They were compelled to follow him.
___________________________________________
What changed them?
What made the difference for the woman at the well,
for the blind man, for Lazarus?
It was Jesus’ compassionate love,
his honesty, his truth,
and his hunger to share all his life--
the length of it and the memory of it,
the quantity and the quality of it--
to share life and love with the likes of them.
The Spirit of God—the divine Spirit—filled Jesus’ soul,
and it changed him
to the point that it became visible.
Jesus taught with his very life,
with what he did with it
and all the ways he lived it
by giving it to God.
The power of his goodness
moves us to be like him,
to imitate him.
We become, like Peter, James, and John, disciples.
We learn how to be good.
Then our goodness becomes contagious.
Others are inspired by us--
by our compassionate love;
the power of our truth;
our freedom to be wholly ourselves,
the selves we are made to be.
We are changed.
Transformed.
Transfigured.
We become more like Jesus.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Genesis 12:1-4
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:8-10
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration.
Biblical anthropologist John Pilch says that
describing the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ transfiguration as a “vision”
is an important piece of information.
Modem psychological anthropology tells us
that the majority of the world’s cultures
do not consider alternative states of consciousness
like visions
to be odd or irrational.
They see them as normal human experiences.
Cultures like ours are the ones that need to take another look.
___________________________________________
In the USA we’re more likely to talk about hallucinations or illusions
instead of visions or transfigurations.
But we do know about change.
We know that people can change, dramatically.
Old dogs can learn new tricks.
People jailed for serious crimes turn their lives around
and become productive citizens,
even role models for youngsters.
The footloose and fancy-free
have been known to shape their idealism
into responsibility and commitment.
These days we see scores of folks
turning out for demonstrations and marches
because they have a better idea—a vision--
of what our country should be.
They have a vision.
___________________________________________
Then there’s the difference that faith makes--
the change in people who live what they believe.
It’s plainly visible.
John’s gospel tells us
that everyone will know that we are Jesus’ disciples
if we love one another.
If we believe that,
and if we begin to act out of that love,
then we will change our lives.
And people will notice.
We will be transfigured.
___________________________________________
The early followers of Jesus saw transfigurations all around them.
Acts 10:38 says that Jesus went about doing good,
and people saw it
and followed him.
Chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians
tells us what that love looks like.
You know the passage: Love is patient, love is kind….
If we are not changing,
not acting out of love,
not becoming transformed,
then we cannot call ourselves disciples.
We cannot call ourselves Christians
unless people can see a difference in us.
___________________________________________
The turning point--
that point where the change becomes noticeable--
is transfiguration.
Today’s first reading calls Abram to change.
He goes from being Abram of one tribe
to Abraham for all the tribes,
for all the nations.
Today’s second reading encourages Timothy to change.
Paul tells him to lead a holy life,
to fan to flame the gifts he has,
not with a spirit of fear
but with a spirit of love.
And today’s gospel shows the transfigured Jesus
inspiring Peter, James, and John to follow him.
___________________________________________
We’ll hear about another transfiguration next Sunday
in the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.
The Sunday after that
we’ll hear the story of the transfiguration of the man born blind.
And the Sunday after that
we’ll hear the story of Lazarus untied and set free,
brought to life,
transfigured.
___________________________________________
Something clicked for Peter, James, and John on that mountaintop with Jesus.
They finally understood that he was the real thing;
a leader, like a new Moses;
a prophet, like a new Elijah.
Those three disciples finally learned
that Jesus’ very being
was an expression of the God’s presence,
They had to listen to him.
They were compelled to follow him.
___________________________________________
What changed them?
What made the difference for the woman at the well,
for the blind man, for Lazarus?
It was Jesus’ compassionate love,
his honesty, his truth,
and his hunger to share all his life--
the length of it and the memory of it,
the quantity and the quality of it--
to share life and love with the likes of them.
The Spirit of God—the divine Spirit—filled Jesus’ soul,
and it changed him
to the point that it became visible.
Jesus taught with his very life,
with what he did with it
and all the ways he lived it
by giving it to God.
The power of his goodness
moves us to be like him,
to imitate him.
We become, like Peter, James, and John, disciples.
We learn how to be good.
Then our goodness becomes contagious.
Others are inspired by us--
by our compassionate love;
the power of our truth;
our freedom to be wholly ourselves,
the selves we are made to be.
We are changed.
Transformed.
Transfigured.
We become more like Jesus.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, First Sunday of Lent, March 5, 2017
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
Today’s scriptures pose the same question we heard last Sunday:
will we serve God
or will we serve money?
This time it’s phrased in terms of obedience.
We hear lots of commentary about this Genesis creation story
that focuses on the subservience of women to men,
or the dogma of original sin,
or the idea that humans
are the be-all and end-all of God’s creation.
It’s important to remember
that these beginning chapters of Genesis are not history.
They are story, myth in the true sense of the word.
Sister Mary McGlone reminds us
that the Genesis myths have been preserved
not to record historical or scientific events
but to communicate timeless truths.
Among other things, McGlone says,
the creation myth tells us
about human rebellion against God’s reign,
our susceptibility to selfishness
that leads to lies and hate and killing,
and the rupture in right relationship
of humans to God and creation.
Scripture scholar Reginald Fuller
sees the theological insight in this Genesis myth
as pointing to human responsibility for evil in the world.
____________________________________
The teaching of this Genesis passage
is repeated in other stories in the Hebrew Scriptures.
One of the well-known passages
is where Joshua challenges the Israelites
to choose whether or not they will follow God.
Joshua tells them to choose who they will serve
and makes his own pledge, saying,
“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
The book of Joshua was compiled
about 500 to 600 years before Christ,
the same period that produced the compilation of Genesis.
The question of who we serve, of who we follow,
is the basic question of faith.
Every one of us has to answer that question for ourselves.
____________________________________
Paul’s letter to the Romans,
even though it takes a literal approach to the Genesis myth,
also centers on obedience to God as crucial to faith.
____________________________________
The Gospel story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert
continues the idea of obedience to God.
Scripture scholars call Matthew’s temptation passage a legend,
a story based on what Jesus’ followers imagined he did
when he was alone in the desert.
Matthew and Luke both adapt this story from earlier writings,
a dramatization of the internal struggles
that come from grappling with the basic question of faith:
who will you serve?
Scholars find it plausible, but not certain,
that Jesus actually went on a vision quest in the desert
or that he fasted for an extended period
and went hungry as a result.
We can be certain, though, that he would have spent time
in thought and prayer about the meaning of life and God,
and that his teaching is the fruit of his pondering,
wherever and however he did it.
____________________________________
Just as in the Genesis story,
the truth of the temptation story does not lie in its historicity.
The truth is in Jesus’ example of saying no to the idolatry of power,
no to the spiritual laziness that asks for miracles
and refuses to take responsibility,
no to a life dedicated to serving only himself.
The truth lies in the choice between the good and evil.
In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis describes it as the choice
between the reign of God and the places
where everything comes under the laws of competition,
where the powerful feed on the powerless.
____________________________________
Today, on this first Sunday of Lent,
we begin the traditional process
of checking up on our spiritual selves.
We look for the things that tempt us to serve that which is not God,
and biggest one for us in the first world in the 21st century
is the temptation to put our time and energy
into money, power, and stuff.
____________________________________
Who do we serve?
We can find out by keeping watch
on what we are really doing
as we go about our daily life.
We can learn more about ourselves and our motivations
and how we can turn them into actions
that bring about the reign of God,
here and now.
That is the challenge of our journey through Lent.
Let’s get going.
Amen!
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
Today’s scriptures pose the same question we heard last Sunday:
will we serve God
or will we serve money?
This time it’s phrased in terms of obedience.
We hear lots of commentary about this Genesis creation story
that focuses on the subservience of women to men,
or the dogma of original sin,
or the idea that humans
are the be-all and end-all of God’s creation.
It’s important to remember
that these beginning chapters of Genesis are not history.
They are story, myth in the true sense of the word.
Sister Mary McGlone reminds us
that the Genesis myths have been preserved
not to record historical or scientific events
but to communicate timeless truths.
Among other things, McGlone says,
the creation myth tells us
about human rebellion against God’s reign,
our susceptibility to selfishness
that leads to lies and hate and killing,
and the rupture in right relationship
of humans to God and creation.
Scripture scholar Reginald Fuller
sees the theological insight in this Genesis myth
as pointing to human responsibility for evil in the world.
____________________________________
The teaching of this Genesis passage
is repeated in other stories in the Hebrew Scriptures.
One of the well-known passages
is where Joshua challenges the Israelites
to choose whether or not they will follow God.
Joshua tells them to choose who they will serve
and makes his own pledge, saying,
“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
The book of Joshua was compiled
about 500 to 600 years before Christ,
the same period that produced the compilation of Genesis.
The question of who we serve, of who we follow,
is the basic question of faith.
Every one of us has to answer that question for ourselves.
____________________________________
Paul’s letter to the Romans,
even though it takes a literal approach to the Genesis myth,
also centers on obedience to God as crucial to faith.
____________________________________
The Gospel story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert
continues the idea of obedience to God.
Scripture scholars call Matthew’s temptation passage a legend,
a story based on what Jesus’ followers imagined he did
when he was alone in the desert.
Matthew and Luke both adapt this story from earlier writings,
a dramatization of the internal struggles
that come from grappling with the basic question of faith:
who will you serve?
Scholars find it plausible, but not certain,
that Jesus actually went on a vision quest in the desert
or that he fasted for an extended period
and went hungry as a result.
We can be certain, though, that he would have spent time
in thought and prayer about the meaning of life and God,
and that his teaching is the fruit of his pondering,
wherever and however he did it.
____________________________________
Just as in the Genesis story,
the truth of the temptation story does not lie in its historicity.
The truth is in Jesus’ example of saying no to the idolatry of power,
no to the spiritual laziness that asks for miracles
and refuses to take responsibility,
no to a life dedicated to serving only himself.
The truth lies in the choice between the good and evil.
In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis describes it as the choice
between the reign of God and the places
where everything comes under the laws of competition,
where the powerful feed on the powerless.
____________________________________
Today, on this first Sunday of Lent,
we begin the traditional process
of checking up on our spiritual selves.
We look for the things that tempt us to serve that which is not God,
and biggest one for us in the first world in the 21st century
is the temptation to put our time and energy
into money, power, and stuff.
____________________________________
Who do we serve?
We can find out by keeping watch
on what we are really doing
as we go about our daily life.
We can learn more about ourselves and our motivations
and how we can turn them into actions
that bring about the reign of God,
here and now.
That is the challenge of our journey through Lent.
Let’s get going.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017
In our tradition Lent is the time
to remember Jesus' life and passion and death.
It’s a time of self-examination and penance.
It’s a time when we concentrate on re-shaping our lives
to learn what we can do without
so others can have something to do with.
Let’s start by remembering our unity with all creation,
each of us a part of God’s immense universe.
Let’s remember that we, like all of creation, are important.
Let’s remember that sometimes, though, we think we’re in charge,
that all too often we act like we’re the center of the universe--
as if everything is here for us,
for us to use, even to use up.
Lent calls us to remember that we live in, and through,
connections with all that was and is and shall be,
and that we are responsible for taking care--
care of ourselves,
care of our family and friends and neighbors
and enemies and all humankind,
care of animals and plants,
care of water and sky,
care of the whole planet, our common home.
_______________________________
So we are called this Lent to ask God
to show us where we live in the illusion
that we are separate and apart from the rest of creation.
We are called to ask God
to show us the old, ingrained habits we need to get rid of;
to show us the ways we need to change;
to show us the new practices
that we need to get into the habit of doing.
This is the real work of Lent.
_______________________________
It’s not about guilt or shame.
It’s not meant to make us crawl
or beat us down
or make us suffer.
The real work of Lent
is to renew our sense of connection,
restore our dignity,
and call us to a place where we choose life
and shoulder our responsibility to act co-creatively with God.
So let us answer the call
and take the first step on our Lenten journey.
_______________________________
Call to the Lenten Journey
Priest: Lent calls us to journey along the edge.
All: Lent calls us to the cutting edge,
where the wheat falls to the ground and new life comes forth.
Priest: Lent not only calls us to give up something
but also invites us to participate
in the mystery of God-with-us.
All: God of all creation,
by your grace, call us from grief into gladness, from despair into hope,
from estrangement into right relations with you and with each other
and with the earth.
Blessing and Imposition of Ashes
So we begin.
We declare the fast, call the assembly,
listen to God’s voice, and act on it.
We’ll find the one thing that we can do
to change our lives this Lent--
and doing that, no matter if we stumble at it,
we will change the world.
_______________________________
We will now bless these ashes,
and all will be invited to come forward
to receive the sign of the cross on our foreheads
as our communal act of penance--
the sign of dying to something negative in our lives
and preparing to rise in new and positive ways.
Let us embrace this opportunity to change our lives,
to embody our values,
and to walk humbly with our God.
In our tradition Lent is the time
to remember Jesus' life and passion and death.
It’s a time of self-examination and penance.
It’s a time when we concentrate on re-shaping our lives
to learn what we can do without
so others can have something to do with.
Let’s start by remembering our unity with all creation,
each of us a part of God’s immense universe.
Let’s remember that we, like all of creation, are important.
Let’s remember that sometimes, though, we think we’re in charge,
that all too often we act like we’re the center of the universe--
as if everything is here for us,
for us to use, even to use up.
Lent calls us to remember that we live in, and through,
connections with all that was and is and shall be,
and that we are responsible for taking care--
care of ourselves,
care of our family and friends and neighbors
and enemies and all humankind,
care of animals and plants,
care of water and sky,
care of the whole planet, our common home.
_______________________________
So we are called this Lent to ask God
to show us where we live in the illusion
that we are separate and apart from the rest of creation.
We are called to ask God
to show us the old, ingrained habits we need to get rid of;
to show us the ways we need to change;
to show us the new practices
that we need to get into the habit of doing.
This is the real work of Lent.
_______________________________
It’s not about guilt or shame.
It’s not meant to make us crawl
or beat us down
or make us suffer.
The real work of Lent
is to renew our sense of connection,
restore our dignity,
and call us to a place where we choose life
and shoulder our responsibility to act co-creatively with God.
So let us answer the call
and take the first step on our Lenten journey.
_______________________________
Call to the Lenten Journey
Priest: Lent calls us to journey along the edge.
All: Lent calls us to the cutting edge,
where the wheat falls to the ground and new life comes forth.
Priest: Lent not only calls us to give up something
but also invites us to participate
in the mystery of God-with-us.
All: God of all creation,
by your grace, call us from grief into gladness, from despair into hope,
from estrangement into right relations with you and with each other
and with the earth.
Blessing and Imposition of Ashes
So we begin.
We declare the fast, call the assembly,
listen to God’s voice, and act on it.
We’ll find the one thing that we can do
to change our lives this Lent--
and doing that, no matter if we stumble at it,
we will change the world.
_______________________________
We will now bless these ashes,
and all will be invited to come forward
to receive the sign of the cross on our foreheads
as our communal act of penance--
the sign of dying to something negative in our lives
and preparing to rise in new and positive ways.
Let us embrace this opportunity to change our lives,
to embody our values,
and to walk humbly with our God.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 8, February 26, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 49:14-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62:2-3, 6-9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
Today’s readings
are the perfect antidote to the troubles of our time.
They tell us we don’t have to worry...
but we do need to get our priorities in order.
First, Isaiah reminds us that, in times of trouble,
God is the one who will not forget us.
Then the psalmist calls us to remember
that our hope and our strength comes from God.
And Paul tells the Corinthians
not to pay attention to any person or any human court,
but to Christ, who is the ultimate judge,
Finally, Jesus tells us that we can’t divide our loyalties.
_______________________________
Just like with last week’s gospel, scholars conclude that Jesus
probably said something like the first part of today’s gospel,
the part that is printed as the first paragraph in the bulletin.
They think the last part, the part printed as a second paragraph,
was added to address specific concerns
of the Christian community.
_______________________________
So Jesus really said
that we can’t split our loyalty to God
with someone else or something else.
We can’t serve both God and money.
_______________________________
As we get ready to step into Lent this Wednesday,
we can prepare ourselves by asking what really matters to us.
Do we have our priorities in order?
One of the ways to figure that out
is to look at how we spend our days,
which turns out to be, as author Annie Dillard said,
how we spend our lives.
It’s not a question of what we do for a living,
or where we live,
or even where we volunteer in our spare time.
It’s HOW we spend our lives wherever we are,
in the middle of whatever task we’re doing.
_______________________________
I was walking into the Y last week
when a teenager ahead of me slowed down
and held the door open for me.
When I stop at the Lagrange branch library,
I see one of the librarians smiling and listening
and patiently explaining things to patron after patron.
Grandparents travel, sometimes very long distances,
to spend time with their children and grandchildren.
I notice a friend who always gives generous tips,
sometimes twice the cost of the meal.
I heard that Elsie sat at the hospital all day
with a member of her church
waiting for doctors to tell her test results.
_______________________________
These folks have their priorities in order.
God is Number ONE for them,
so wherever they are and whatever they’re doing,
it’s the way they are—their very being--
that shows their choice between God and not-God.
_______________________________
The opposite of that is also true.
We can see when priorities get out of order,
or, as Jesus puts it,
when someone tries to give himself to both God and money.
The Golden Rule gets broken.
It becomes “Do to others before they do it to you.”
We can see examples of that these days,
especially in the major shifts to public policy.
Immigration enforcement that breaks up families.
Refugee policy that targets Muslims.
Health care policy that makes the poor pay more than the wealthy,
and, if they can’t afford to pay,
takes away their insurance.
Tax breaks for the wealthiest people
but not for the working poor.
Public policy that’s prompted by half-truths and outright lies.
We hear diatribes against people
because of what country they come from
or what religion they believe in.
These days we hear too many elected officeholders judge people--
as Martin Luther King put it--
by the color of their skin
rather than the content of their character.
_______________________________
The principles of Catholic Social Teaching--
those basic rights and dignity of all human persons
that are honored not only by Catholics
but also by other Christians and by Jews
and by Muslims and by every other religion--
those principles are being violated every day
in the public arena.
_______________________________
The first thing we are called to do in the face of injustice
is to keep our priorities in order.
God is God: our Number One.
All of us earthlings, as children of God,
are required to stand in holy relationship to one another.
_______________________________
So we will take peace with us as we go about our daily business,
whatever that may be.
We will choose to act with justice
toward all our sisters and brothers.
We will think about how we want people to treat us,
and we will go out of our way to treat everybody like that. -
With our priorities in order, we can leave worry behind.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 49:14-15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62:2-3, 6-9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
Today’s readings
are the perfect antidote to the troubles of our time.
They tell us we don’t have to worry...
but we do need to get our priorities in order.
First, Isaiah reminds us that, in times of trouble,
God is the one who will not forget us.
Then the psalmist calls us to remember
that our hope and our strength comes from God.
And Paul tells the Corinthians
not to pay attention to any person or any human court,
but to Christ, who is the ultimate judge,
Finally, Jesus tells us that we can’t divide our loyalties.
_______________________________
Just like with last week’s gospel, scholars conclude that Jesus
probably said something like the first part of today’s gospel,
the part that is printed as the first paragraph in the bulletin.
They think the last part, the part printed as a second paragraph,
was added to address specific concerns
of the Christian community.
_______________________________
So Jesus really said
that we can’t split our loyalty to God
with someone else or something else.
We can’t serve both God and money.
_______________________________
As we get ready to step into Lent this Wednesday,
we can prepare ourselves by asking what really matters to us.
Do we have our priorities in order?
One of the ways to figure that out
is to look at how we spend our days,
which turns out to be, as author Annie Dillard said,
how we spend our lives.
It’s not a question of what we do for a living,
or where we live,
or even where we volunteer in our spare time.
It’s HOW we spend our lives wherever we are,
in the middle of whatever task we’re doing.
_______________________________
I was walking into the Y last week
when a teenager ahead of me slowed down
and held the door open for me.
When I stop at the Lagrange branch library,
I see one of the librarians smiling and listening
and patiently explaining things to patron after patron.
Grandparents travel, sometimes very long distances,
to spend time with their children and grandchildren.
I notice a friend who always gives generous tips,
sometimes twice the cost of the meal.
I heard that Elsie sat at the hospital all day
with a member of her church
waiting for doctors to tell her test results.
_______________________________
These folks have their priorities in order.
God is Number ONE for them,
so wherever they are and whatever they’re doing,
it’s the way they are—their very being--
that shows their choice between God and not-God.
_______________________________
The opposite of that is also true.
We can see when priorities get out of order,
or, as Jesus puts it,
when someone tries to give himself to both God and money.
The Golden Rule gets broken.
It becomes “Do to others before they do it to you.”
We can see examples of that these days,
especially in the major shifts to public policy.
Immigration enforcement that breaks up families.
Refugee policy that targets Muslims.
Health care policy that makes the poor pay more than the wealthy,
and, if they can’t afford to pay,
takes away their insurance.
Tax breaks for the wealthiest people
but not for the working poor.
Public policy that’s prompted by half-truths and outright lies.
We hear diatribes against people
because of what country they come from
or what religion they believe in.
These days we hear too many elected officeholders judge people--
as Martin Luther King put it--
by the color of their skin
rather than the content of their character.
_______________________________
The principles of Catholic Social Teaching--
those basic rights and dignity of all human persons
that are honored not only by Catholics
but also by other Christians and by Jews
and by Muslims and by every other religion--
those principles are being violated every day
in the public arena.
_______________________________
The first thing we are called to do in the face of injustice
is to keep our priorities in order.
God is God: our Number One.
All of us earthlings, as children of God,
are required to stand in holy relationship to one another.
_______________________________
So we will take peace with us as we go about our daily business,
whatever that may be.
We will choose to act with justice
toward all our sisters and brothers.
We will think about how we want people to treat us,
and we will go out of our way to treat everybody like that. -
With our priorities in order, we can leave worry behind.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 7, February 19, 2017
First Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103, 1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48
The book of Leviticus tells us to “be holy as God is holy”
and gives us some specific ideas of what that looks like.
Don’t hang on to hate.
Don’t store up bad feelings.
Don’t try to get revenge.
Don’t hold a grudge.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
_______________________________________
Today’s psalm describes the holiness of God that we are to be like.
God pardons all our iniquities, comforts our sorrows,
redeems our life from destruction, crowns us with kindness.
God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.
_______________________________________
Then Jesus tells us
that we have to go beyond what the law requires.
Scripture scholars tell us that this part of the Sermon on the Mount
is among the things Jesus almost certainly said.
He really said not to react violently against people who do evil.
To turn the other cheek.
If you’re sued for your shirt, to give them your coat, too.
If you’re forced to go a mile, to go along for two.
Give to everyone who begs or wants to borrow from you.
He really did say those things.
_______________________________________
Is Jesus telling us to be doormats?”
Not at all.
It helps to have a cultural context for this passage.
Most people are right-handed,
so if someone slaps me across the right cheek,
it would have to be back-handed,
the way a powerful person
slaps someone they consider below them,
meant to be demeaning and to dishonor the person.
The expectation is that I will slap back the same way,
and, in first century Palestine, I would get my honor back.
But if I turn the other cheek,
that person will have to hit me as an equal.
Turning the other cheek speaks loud and clear:
I will not be dishonored,
and I will not be violent.
_______________________________________
Then there’s the shirt and coat part of today’s reading.
Jesus’ listeners would have known
that Exodus says you have to return the coat before sunset
because it’s the only covering the poor people have.
Handing over both the shirt and the coat would leave you naked.
You would make it obvious that your oppressor is an evil person.
_______________________________________
There’s also a cultural context to help us understand the extra mile.
Roman law allowed the occupying army
to force people to carry their backpack for one mile
but no farther.
Instead of growling or grumbling about it,
Jesus suggests, go two miles.
His audience knew
that the soldier would get in trouble for violating Roman law.
_______________________________________
Jesus reminds me a lot of Saul Alinsky,
a community organizer who put together actions
aimed at bringing about racial equality.
In his last book in 1971, Rules for Radicals,
Alinsky wrote that the threat of an action
was sometimes enough to produce results.
My favorite was his plan
to have large numbers of well-dressed African Americans
occupy the urinals and toilets at O'Hare Airport
for as long as it took to bring the City of Chicago
to the bargaining table.
Like Alinsky, Jesus tells people
to act in ways that the opponent does not expect
and to act in ways that will make the oppressor’s evil visible.
_______________________________________
Jesus was teaching an oppressed people
the principles of creative nonviolence.
His teachings inspired Mahatma Gandhi
to his famous salt march
that exposed oppressive British taxation.
His teachings led Martin Luther King, Jr.,
to his creative nonviolent practices
of bus boycotts and restaurant sit-ins.
We are called to follow his teachings.
_______________________________________
We’re called to love, but there are some people I don’t like.
At all.
There’s injustice, people doing wrong to others,
sometimes even to us.
It’s hard not to hate them when they hate us.
Hard to keep being gracious and forgiving them
when they misunderstand us, lie to us,
oppose us, mistreat us, threaten us.
_______________________________________
Trying to love them is exhausting,
but we are clearly called to love.
It’s easier if we do it Jesus’ way.
We know that an executive order banning Muslims is evil.
We know that the poor live in neighborhoods
where the rental houses poison the kids with lead paint
and the stores don’t carry healthy food at fair prices.
We know that obscenity and a swastika on a garage door is evil.
We know that the poor and the middle class
carry a heavier tax burden than the rich.
We know that polluting the Maumee River and Lake Erie is evil.
_______________________________________
And we know that we,
and our friends and neighbors, and our enemies,
are temples of God.
The Spirit dwells in all of us.
_______________________________________
So we set out to love as God loves.
We try to love everyone.
And we set out to show our love for all people the way Jesus did.
We try to show them better ways.
We pray for them.
We help them when they’re in need.
We speak up when they’re doing wrong.
We protest and make phone calls and write letters.
When they’re oppressing people,
taking actions that bring evil to others,
we try to treat them as we would want to be treated.
We enter into dialogue.
We call them to right actions.
We pray for them,
No matter how much we hate their ideas or their actions,
we love them
and treat them with respect.
We are their neighbors.
Amen!
First Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103, 1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48
The book of Leviticus tells us to “be holy as God is holy”
and gives us some specific ideas of what that looks like.
Don’t hang on to hate.
Don’t store up bad feelings.
Don’t try to get revenge.
Don’t hold a grudge.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
_______________________________________
Today’s psalm describes the holiness of God that we are to be like.
God pardons all our iniquities, comforts our sorrows,
redeems our life from destruction, crowns us with kindness.
God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.
_______________________________________
Then Jesus tells us
that we have to go beyond what the law requires.
Scripture scholars tell us that this part of the Sermon on the Mount
is among the things Jesus almost certainly said.
He really said not to react violently against people who do evil.
To turn the other cheek.
If you’re sued for your shirt, to give them your coat, too.
If you’re forced to go a mile, to go along for two.
Give to everyone who begs or wants to borrow from you.
He really did say those things.
_______________________________________
Is Jesus telling us to be doormats?”
Not at all.
It helps to have a cultural context for this passage.
Most people are right-handed,
so if someone slaps me across the right cheek,
it would have to be back-handed,
the way a powerful person
slaps someone they consider below them,
meant to be demeaning and to dishonor the person.
The expectation is that I will slap back the same way,
and, in first century Palestine, I would get my honor back.
But if I turn the other cheek,
that person will have to hit me as an equal.
Turning the other cheek speaks loud and clear:
I will not be dishonored,
and I will not be violent.
_______________________________________
Then there’s the shirt and coat part of today’s reading.
Jesus’ listeners would have known
that Exodus says you have to return the coat before sunset
because it’s the only covering the poor people have.
Handing over both the shirt and the coat would leave you naked.
You would make it obvious that your oppressor is an evil person.
_______________________________________
There’s also a cultural context to help us understand the extra mile.
Roman law allowed the occupying army
to force people to carry their backpack for one mile
but no farther.
Instead of growling or grumbling about it,
Jesus suggests, go two miles.
His audience knew
that the soldier would get in trouble for violating Roman law.
_______________________________________
Jesus reminds me a lot of Saul Alinsky,
a community organizer who put together actions
aimed at bringing about racial equality.
In his last book in 1971, Rules for Radicals,
Alinsky wrote that the threat of an action
was sometimes enough to produce results.
My favorite was his plan
to have large numbers of well-dressed African Americans
occupy the urinals and toilets at O'Hare Airport
for as long as it took to bring the City of Chicago
to the bargaining table.
Like Alinsky, Jesus tells people
to act in ways that the opponent does not expect
and to act in ways that will make the oppressor’s evil visible.
_______________________________________
Jesus was teaching an oppressed people
the principles of creative nonviolence.
His teachings inspired Mahatma Gandhi
to his famous salt march
that exposed oppressive British taxation.
His teachings led Martin Luther King, Jr.,
to his creative nonviolent practices
of bus boycotts and restaurant sit-ins.
We are called to follow his teachings.
_______________________________________
We’re called to love, but there are some people I don’t like.
At all.
There’s injustice, people doing wrong to others,
sometimes even to us.
It’s hard not to hate them when they hate us.
Hard to keep being gracious and forgiving them
when they misunderstand us, lie to us,
oppose us, mistreat us, threaten us.
_______________________________________
Trying to love them is exhausting,
but we are clearly called to love.
It’s easier if we do it Jesus’ way.
We know that an executive order banning Muslims is evil.
We know that the poor live in neighborhoods
where the rental houses poison the kids with lead paint
and the stores don’t carry healthy food at fair prices.
We know that obscenity and a swastika on a garage door is evil.
We know that the poor and the middle class
carry a heavier tax burden than the rich.
We know that polluting the Maumee River and Lake Erie is evil.
_______________________________________
And we know that we,
and our friends and neighbors, and our enemies,
are temples of God.
The Spirit dwells in all of us.
_______________________________________
So we set out to love as God loves.
We try to love everyone.
And we set out to show our love for all people the way Jesus did.
We try to show them better ways.
We pray for them.
We help them when they’re in need.
We speak up when they’re doing wrong.
We protest and make phone calls and write letters.
When they’re oppressing people,
taking actions that bring evil to others,
we try to treat them as we would want to be treated.
We enter into dialogue.
We call them to right actions.
We pray for them,
No matter how much we hate their ideas or their actions,
we love them
and treat them with respect.
We are their neighbors.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 6, February 12, 2017
First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20
Respon. Psalm: Psalm 119: 1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-37
Today’s readings ask us to read the signs of our times
just as our ancestors in faith had to do in their times.
When we think about at what’s going on these days in our country,
we have to ask, with Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?”
What’s the evidence for that statement?
Is that an “alternative fact?”
Is that true or false?
Is that a lie?
_______________________________________
Sometime around 200 B.C. in Egypt
Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira
wrote the book we call Sirach.
The passage we heard today tells us
that we have the power to be faithful.
We are free to choose what is good.
No one, Sirach says, has permission to sin.
No one is given strength in order to tell lies.
_______________________________________
About 250 years later Paul writes to the Corinthians
about the wisdom of those who are spiritually mature.
He tells them that such maturity is not the wisdom of their time,
and points to the rulers “who are headed for destruction.”
_______________________________________
Then Matthew, in the year 85 in Syria,
has Jesus telling his disciples
that their sense of justice
has to go beyond the justice of the scholars
and the religious leaders.
Jesus tells them to be honest and forthright,
to say “Yes” when they mean “Yes”
and “No” when you mean “No.”
_______________________________________
The passage that follows today’s gospel
has Jesus telling his disciples to love their enemies,
which scholars agree was definitely spoken by Jesus.
They also agree that the pattern of today’s gospel passage
reflects Jesus’ message
in that he consistently called the disciples
to a higher standard than simply following the letter of the law.
He told them that they were to work at living the spirit of the law.
And the spirit of the law is love.
_______________________________________
We hear these scriptures today and ask:
what’s the message here for our world?
Pope Francis, a week ago Friday, named it plainly.
He said, “It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian
and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help,
someone who is hungry or thirsty,
toss out someone who is in need of help.
“If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite.”
The Pope said that all nations must focus
on “service to the poorest, the sick,
and those who have abandoned their homelands
in search of a better future for themselves and their families.”
_______________________________________
Our U.S. bishops apply Jesus’ teaching
when they write about the need for embracing truth
in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
The bishops tell us
that we have to be guided by our moral convictions,
not attachment to a political party or interest group.
They tell us that “We are called
to bring together our principles and our political choices,
our values and our votes,
to help build a civilization of truth and love.”
_______________________________________
When we look at our world today,
it’s obvious that we’re a long way
from a civilization of truth and love.
In too many ways, we’re a long way from civilization.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
in the days since the presidential election,
states across the country have seen increased incidents
of racist or anti-Semitic vandalism and violence,
many of which have drawn directly
on the rhetoric and proposals of Donald Trump.
We’ve seen the executive order
banning Muslims from traveling to our country.
We’ve seen hate crimes against Jews,
the killing of unarmed black people.
After the November election
New York saw more than double the hate crimes
against Muslim Americans
and a 67% increase in hate crimes against Jews,
African Americans, and LGBT individuals.
_______________________________________
We’ve seen it right here at home.
We saw the obscenity and the Swastika
painted on the home of American citizens of Arab descent.
There was the bomb threat at the Jewish Community Center.
Then Adrian Williams, an African American,
was subjected to racial insults
and then seriously injured by two whites
right in front of his own house over on Lagrange Street.
High school kids who are LGBT
suffer rape, physical violence, and bullying.
_______________________________________
The signs of our times are clear.
They call us here at Holy Spirit to continue
to welcome everyone to the table, no exceptions.
We are called to embrace everyone we meet wherever we go--
whether it’s the homeless at the soup kitchen
or the Gothic teen
or the close-minded racist.
We are called to befriend the remarried divorced couple,
the worker who lost his job,
and the student who doesn’t make it into college.
We are called to be generous
in our love for every one of God’s people.
_______________________________________
So we march for unity with the gays and the straights,
with the blacks and browns and tans
and yellows and reds and whites,
with the poor and the middle class and the wealthy.
We pray with the Muslims and the Jews
and the Sikhs and the Buddhists and the Quakers
and the atheists and agnostics.
We even march with other Christians.
To each and every one of them, our “yes” means “yes.”
_______________________________________
We reach out to the poor and the oppressed,
no matter their color or ancestry
or citizenship status or religion.
Our “yes” to them means “yes.”
We stand in solidarity with people targeted by hate.
Our “yes” to them means “yes.”
_______________________________________
And when we are told lies,
when we are told to hate,
whether it comes from a friend or a stranger
or the President of the United States, we say “no.”
Our “no” to them means “no.”
Amen!
First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20
Respon. Psalm: Psalm 119: 1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-37
Today’s readings ask us to read the signs of our times
just as our ancestors in faith had to do in their times.
When we think about at what’s going on these days in our country,
we have to ask, with Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?”
What’s the evidence for that statement?
Is that an “alternative fact?”
Is that true or false?
Is that a lie?
_______________________________________
Sometime around 200 B.C. in Egypt
Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira
wrote the book we call Sirach.
The passage we heard today tells us
that we have the power to be faithful.
We are free to choose what is good.
No one, Sirach says, has permission to sin.
No one is given strength in order to tell lies.
_______________________________________
About 250 years later Paul writes to the Corinthians
about the wisdom of those who are spiritually mature.
He tells them that such maturity is not the wisdom of their time,
and points to the rulers “who are headed for destruction.”
_______________________________________
Then Matthew, in the year 85 in Syria,
has Jesus telling his disciples
that their sense of justice
has to go beyond the justice of the scholars
and the religious leaders.
Jesus tells them to be honest and forthright,
to say “Yes” when they mean “Yes”
and “No” when you mean “No.”
_______________________________________
The passage that follows today’s gospel
has Jesus telling his disciples to love their enemies,
which scholars agree was definitely spoken by Jesus.
They also agree that the pattern of today’s gospel passage
reflects Jesus’ message
in that he consistently called the disciples
to a higher standard than simply following the letter of the law.
He told them that they were to work at living the spirit of the law.
And the spirit of the law is love.
_______________________________________
We hear these scriptures today and ask:
what’s the message here for our world?
Pope Francis, a week ago Friday, named it plainly.
He said, “It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian
and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help,
someone who is hungry or thirsty,
toss out someone who is in need of help.
“If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite.”
The Pope said that all nations must focus
on “service to the poorest, the sick,
and those who have abandoned their homelands
in search of a better future for themselves and their families.”
_______________________________________
Our U.S. bishops apply Jesus’ teaching
when they write about the need for embracing truth
in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
The bishops tell us
that we have to be guided by our moral convictions,
not attachment to a political party or interest group.
They tell us that “We are called
to bring together our principles and our political choices,
our values and our votes,
to help build a civilization of truth and love.”
_______________________________________
When we look at our world today,
it’s obvious that we’re a long way
from a civilization of truth and love.
In too many ways, we’re a long way from civilization.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
in the days since the presidential election,
states across the country have seen increased incidents
of racist or anti-Semitic vandalism and violence,
many of which have drawn directly
on the rhetoric and proposals of Donald Trump.
We’ve seen the executive order
banning Muslims from traveling to our country.
We’ve seen hate crimes against Jews,
the killing of unarmed black people.
After the November election
New York saw more than double the hate crimes
against Muslim Americans
and a 67% increase in hate crimes against Jews,
African Americans, and LGBT individuals.
_______________________________________
We’ve seen it right here at home.
We saw the obscenity and the Swastika
painted on the home of American citizens of Arab descent.
There was the bomb threat at the Jewish Community Center.
Then Adrian Williams, an African American,
was subjected to racial insults
and then seriously injured by two whites
right in front of his own house over on Lagrange Street.
High school kids who are LGBT
suffer rape, physical violence, and bullying.
_______________________________________
The signs of our times are clear.
They call us here at Holy Spirit to continue
to welcome everyone to the table, no exceptions.
We are called to embrace everyone we meet wherever we go--
whether it’s the homeless at the soup kitchen
or the Gothic teen
or the close-minded racist.
We are called to befriend the remarried divorced couple,
the worker who lost his job,
and the student who doesn’t make it into college.
We are called to be generous
in our love for every one of God’s people.
_______________________________________
So we march for unity with the gays and the straights,
with the blacks and browns and tans
and yellows and reds and whites,
with the poor and the middle class and the wealthy.
We pray with the Muslims and the Jews
and the Sikhs and the Buddhists and the Quakers
and the atheists and agnostics.
We even march with other Christians.
To each and every one of them, our “yes” means “yes.”
_______________________________________
We reach out to the poor and the oppressed,
no matter their color or ancestry
or citizenship status or religion.
Our “yes” to them means “yes.”
We stand in solidarity with people targeted by hate.
Our “yes” to them means “yes.”
_______________________________________
And when we are told lies,
when we are told to hate,
whether it comes from a friend or a stranger
or the President of the United States, we say “no.”
Our “no” to them means “no.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 5, February 5, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 58:7-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 112:4-9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples, “YOU are the salt of the earth.”
How is that?
Our bodies need less than a quarter of a teaspoon a day,
very little compared to our size.
If you weigh 125 pounds,
only half a pound of you is salt.
But if you don’t get enough salt,
you get hyponatremia—low blood sodium--
and that can make you weak and tired,
can give you headaches and nausea and cramps,
can get you confused and irritable,
can make you vomit.
_________________________________
On the other hand, too much salt
can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.
It can damage your kidneys,
and it may be bad for your bones, too.
_________________________________
The good thing about salt
is that it makes our food taste good.
Just a little bit makes a big difference.
_________________________________
Religion is like salt.
We need the right amount to keep our faith healthy.
Not too little,
or our faith gets weak.
Not too much,
or our faith gets seriously damaged.
_________________________________
It’s like that great scholar noted for his piety.
Every day he sat alone for hours
studying the scriptures and praying and meditating.
One day the scholar heard that a holy man was in town,
so he went looking for him.
He looked in the church but didn’t find him there.
He went to the local shrine, but he wasn’t there, either.
He looked in all the likely places but couldn’t find him,
so he gave up and headed toward home.
That’s when he found him... in the marketplace.
So the scholar went up to the holy man
and told him who he was
and how he spent hours alone every day
in the study of the scriptures and in prayer and meditation.
Then he said, “I have come to seek your advice
on how I might grow in the service of God.”
The holy man gave him a simple and direct answer:
“It’s easy to be a saint in your room.
“Go out in the world and try to be a saint there.”
_________________________________
Salt of the earth.
When Jesus says that his followers are the salt of the earth,
he’s saying that we have a serious responsibility
BOTH to practice our religion
AND to give witness in the world with our good deeds.
Just like with salt, balance is important.
_________________________________
That phrase “salt of the earth”
comes into colloquial American English
meaning a worthy, dependable, unpretentious person,
a person who is thoroughly decent.
_________________________________
But being the salt of the earth isn’t the whole thing.
Jesus also tells his disciples,
“You are the light of the world.”
Yes, go to the synagogue and say the prayers,
but if that’s all we do,
the salt loses its flavor,
the light is hidden.
And no, don’t skip the meditation and rituals,
because our faith will grow weak,
like a body without salt,
like a light under a bushel basket.
_________________________________
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we don’t have to leave our jobs,
rush out,
and get involved in a whirlwind of good works.
To be salt of the earth and light of the world,
we are called to practice our faith
in whatever situation we happen to be in.
_________________________________
Isaiah gives us some pointers
that look a lot like those “corporal works of mercy”
we had to memorize in grade school.
Food, clothes, shelter.
Don’t oppress people.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s not always easy.
_________________________________
At last week’s Community meeting,
you voted to donate for anti-racism efforts,
for legal help for vulnerable and oppressed folks,
for food for UT students,
for help for single parents and their children.
Every week you fill my car with really good stuff
for Claver House and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether.
In the middle of that big crunch of people
walking across the MLK bridge on inauguration day
I caught sight of several of you
with your signs about love and inclusion…
and some clever ones,
like Sue with her bright pink “We will be watching” sign.
I finally got myself on Facebook,
so I see your comments
on the justice and injustice going on in our world.
I hear about your kindnesses to both friend and stranger.
You followers of the Way of Jesus,
you ARE salt of the earth and light of the world.
And I thank God for you!
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 58:7-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 112:4-9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples, “YOU are the salt of the earth.”
How is that?
Our bodies need less than a quarter of a teaspoon a day,
very little compared to our size.
If you weigh 125 pounds,
only half a pound of you is salt.
But if you don’t get enough salt,
you get hyponatremia—low blood sodium--
and that can make you weak and tired,
can give you headaches and nausea and cramps,
can get you confused and irritable,
can make you vomit.
_________________________________
On the other hand, too much salt
can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.
It can damage your kidneys,
and it may be bad for your bones, too.
_________________________________
The good thing about salt
is that it makes our food taste good.
Just a little bit makes a big difference.
_________________________________
Religion is like salt.
We need the right amount to keep our faith healthy.
Not too little,
or our faith gets weak.
Not too much,
or our faith gets seriously damaged.
_________________________________
It’s like that great scholar noted for his piety.
Every day he sat alone for hours
studying the scriptures and praying and meditating.
One day the scholar heard that a holy man was in town,
so he went looking for him.
He looked in the church but didn’t find him there.
He went to the local shrine, but he wasn’t there, either.
He looked in all the likely places but couldn’t find him,
so he gave up and headed toward home.
That’s when he found him... in the marketplace.
So the scholar went up to the holy man
and told him who he was
and how he spent hours alone every day
in the study of the scriptures and in prayer and meditation.
Then he said, “I have come to seek your advice
on how I might grow in the service of God.”
The holy man gave him a simple and direct answer:
“It’s easy to be a saint in your room.
“Go out in the world and try to be a saint there.”
_________________________________
Salt of the earth.
When Jesus says that his followers are the salt of the earth,
he’s saying that we have a serious responsibility
BOTH to practice our religion
AND to give witness in the world with our good deeds.
Just like with salt, balance is important.
_________________________________
That phrase “salt of the earth”
comes into colloquial American English
meaning a worthy, dependable, unpretentious person,
a person who is thoroughly decent.
_________________________________
But being the salt of the earth isn’t the whole thing.
Jesus also tells his disciples,
“You are the light of the world.”
Yes, go to the synagogue and say the prayers,
but if that’s all we do,
the salt loses its flavor,
the light is hidden.
And no, don’t skip the meditation and rituals,
because our faith will grow weak,
like a body without salt,
like a light under a bushel basket.
_________________________________
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we don’t have to leave our jobs,
rush out,
and get involved in a whirlwind of good works.
To be salt of the earth and light of the world,
we are called to practice our faith
in whatever situation we happen to be in.
_________________________________
Isaiah gives us some pointers
that look a lot like those “corporal works of mercy”
we had to memorize in grade school.
Food, clothes, shelter.
Don’t oppress people.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s not always easy.
_________________________________
At last week’s Community meeting,
you voted to donate for anti-racism efforts,
for legal help for vulnerable and oppressed folks,
for food for UT students,
for help for single parents and their children.
Every week you fill my car with really good stuff
for Claver House and Rahab’s Heart and UStogether.
In the middle of that big crunch of people
walking across the MLK bridge on inauguration day
I caught sight of several of you
with your signs about love and inclusion…
and some clever ones,
like Sue with her bright pink “We will be watching” sign.
I finally got myself on Facebook,
so I see your comments
on the justice and injustice going on in our world.
I hear about your kindnesses to both friend and stranger.
You followers of the Way of Jesus,
you ARE salt of the earth and light of the world.
And I thank God for you!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 4, January 29, 2017
First Reading: Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:6-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12A
These days I can’t seem to read the scriptures
without hearing the Word of God
speaking directly to what’s going on
in our country and our world,
and I find myself looking for some much-needed comfort there.
Take that first reading,
where Zephaniah writes about God’s concern for the anawim,
the “poor.”
The part we heard skips from the 3rd verse of chapter 2
to the 12th verse of chapter 3.
More than a chapter is left out,
a long and vivid description
of what happens to people who oppress the poor.
The verses we do hear today
tell about the goodness of the survivors
and the peace that will come to them.
We are reminded
that God is in charge.
It gives us hope,
lifts us up in the face of today’s news.
But how long before this peace comes?
How much more do we have to endure?
_________________________________
Then we listen to Psalm 146,
with its message of hope and assurance of promise.
God will give us justice, food, and freedom.
God will protect the vulnerable.
And then there’s the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount,
pieces of which will be our gospel reading
for five more Sundays after today.
The sermon begins today with the Beatitudes.
Scholars say that three of these beatitudes
were almost certainly formulated by Jesus--
the ones addressed to the poor, the hungry, and the mourners.
They also say that the original meaning of the beatitudes
is closer to the way Luke phrased them,
referring to the distress people suffered
from social and economic conditions in the first century.
_________________________________
The beatitudes speak to us
of the serious problems in today’s topsy-turvy world.
Blessed are the poor, they say.
But where is this blessing?
Earlier this month Oxfam issued its annual report on poverty,
pointing to eight men whose wealth
is equal to the total wealth of 3.6 billion people--
the poorest half of the earth’s population.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said:
“It is obscene for so much wealth
to be held in the hands of so few
when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day.
Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty;
it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.”
The Oxfam report details how big business and the super-rich
are fueling the inequality crisis
by dodging taxes,
driving down wages,
and using their power to influence politics.
_________________________________
The Beatitudes go on: Blessed are the hungry.
How can that be?
The United Nations estimates
that about 795 million of the 7.3 billion people in the world--
that’s 1 in 9--
suffer from chronic undernourishment.
About 21,000 people die every day
of hunger or hunger-related causes.
That’s one person every four seconds, most often children.
In the 20 minutes since Mass started this afternoon,
300 people have starved to death.
And hunger is not just a problem in other countries.
Here in America, 49 million people
struggle to put food on the table
because of poverty.
How will they be satisfied?
_________________________________
Blessed are they who mourn.
That’s all of us who care.
We mourn for ourselves and our neighbors,
for the oppressed and vulnerable among us.
We mourn for our planet
and for the species that are becoming extinct.
We mourn for our children and grandchildren
who will suffer from the impact of climate change.
We mourn over the denial of truth from our government leaders.
We mourn over the loss of regulations and programs
that have sought to protect the most vulnerable among us.
With all that, the gospel tells us that we will be comforted.
_________________________________
Who’s going to lift all these people out of poverty?
Who’s going to feed them?
Who’s going to comfort them?
When’s it going to happen?
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians gives us the answer.
It’s in his advice on how to end
the falsehood and greed and injustice in our world.
We hear that God calls us to stand up for justice,
and that our efforts, however small they are,
will bring shame
to those who follow the ways of the world
and worship its power.
_________________________________
So, yes, there is comfort in the face of all of this.
People caught in hopeless situations
manage to hold on in spite of it all.
The world has seen devastation and disaster before.
The specter of nuclear catastrophe and planetary destruction
makes the stakes higher,
but the reign of God is at hand.
We will prevail because, as Paul says,
we will do no wrong
and speak no lies.
We will go forward doing what we are called to do--
speaking truth and doing justice.
It’s not easy these days, given the times we’re in,
but God is with us on the way.
Amen!
First Reading: Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:6-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12A
These days I can’t seem to read the scriptures
without hearing the Word of God
speaking directly to what’s going on
in our country and our world,
and I find myself looking for some much-needed comfort there.
Take that first reading,
where Zephaniah writes about God’s concern for the anawim,
the “poor.”
The part we heard skips from the 3rd verse of chapter 2
to the 12th verse of chapter 3.
More than a chapter is left out,
a long and vivid description
of what happens to people who oppress the poor.
The verses we do hear today
tell about the goodness of the survivors
and the peace that will come to them.
We are reminded
that God is in charge.
It gives us hope,
lifts us up in the face of today’s news.
But how long before this peace comes?
How much more do we have to endure?
_________________________________
Then we listen to Psalm 146,
with its message of hope and assurance of promise.
God will give us justice, food, and freedom.
God will protect the vulnerable.
And then there’s the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount,
pieces of which will be our gospel reading
for five more Sundays after today.
The sermon begins today with the Beatitudes.
Scholars say that three of these beatitudes
were almost certainly formulated by Jesus--
the ones addressed to the poor, the hungry, and the mourners.
They also say that the original meaning of the beatitudes
is closer to the way Luke phrased them,
referring to the distress people suffered
from social and economic conditions in the first century.
_________________________________
The beatitudes speak to us
of the serious problems in today’s topsy-turvy world.
Blessed are the poor, they say.
But where is this blessing?
Earlier this month Oxfam issued its annual report on poverty,
pointing to eight men whose wealth
is equal to the total wealth of 3.6 billion people--
the poorest half of the earth’s population.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said:
“It is obscene for so much wealth
to be held in the hands of so few
when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day.
Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty;
it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.”
The Oxfam report details how big business and the super-rich
are fueling the inequality crisis
by dodging taxes,
driving down wages,
and using their power to influence politics.
_________________________________
The Beatitudes go on: Blessed are the hungry.
How can that be?
The United Nations estimates
that about 795 million of the 7.3 billion people in the world--
that’s 1 in 9--
suffer from chronic undernourishment.
About 21,000 people die every day
of hunger or hunger-related causes.
That’s one person every four seconds, most often children.
In the 20 minutes since Mass started this afternoon,
300 people have starved to death.
And hunger is not just a problem in other countries.
Here in America, 49 million people
struggle to put food on the table
because of poverty.
How will they be satisfied?
_________________________________
Blessed are they who mourn.
That’s all of us who care.
We mourn for ourselves and our neighbors,
for the oppressed and vulnerable among us.
We mourn for our planet
and for the species that are becoming extinct.
We mourn for our children and grandchildren
who will suffer from the impact of climate change.
We mourn over the denial of truth from our government leaders.
We mourn over the loss of regulations and programs
that have sought to protect the most vulnerable among us.
With all that, the gospel tells us that we will be comforted.
_________________________________
Who’s going to lift all these people out of poverty?
Who’s going to feed them?
Who’s going to comfort them?
When’s it going to happen?
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians gives us the answer.
It’s in his advice on how to end
the falsehood and greed and injustice in our world.
We hear that God calls us to stand up for justice,
and that our efforts, however small they are,
will bring shame
to those who follow the ways of the world
and worship its power.
_________________________________
So, yes, there is comfort in the face of all of this.
People caught in hopeless situations
manage to hold on in spite of it all.
The world has seen devastation and disaster before.
The specter of nuclear catastrophe and planetary destruction
makes the stakes higher,
but the reign of God is at hand.
We will prevail because, as Paul says,
we will do no wrong
and speak no lies.
We will go forward doing what we are called to do--
speaking truth and doing justice.
It’s not easy these days, given the times we’re in,
but God is with us on the way.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 3, January 22, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23
It’s hard to keep in mind these days
that the reign of God is at hand, among us, here and now.
It seems that all we hear these days
is quarreling and hostility and division.
We heard it all through that long, long election campaign:
I’m for Hillary. I’m for Trump. Well, I’m not voting.
Welcome to refugees. No, America first.
This past week we heard even more contention:
I’m going to the Inauguration.
No, I’m boycotting it.
_________________________________
The same kind of discord, the polarization,
is evident inside our church:
I’m for restoration; let’s go back to the way it was.
No, I’m for reform; let’s go forward.
In the Presidential election, the pollsters tell us,
52% of Catholics voted for Trump
and 48% for someone else.
We’re split apart, like those Corinthians Paul writes to,
quarreling with each other
because we’ve committed ourselves
to someone or something other than Jesus.
We have to ask ourselves, when we begin to break into factions,
whether we’re motivated by our own wants
or by the common good.
_________________________________
Even here in Toledo, this Compassionate Community,
this big blue zone on the red map of Ohio,
we hear loud, angry arguments.
We see signs of hate.
But we also see signs of hope.
_________________________________
The State of Ohio had set January 12
as the date to kill Ronald Phillips
in the name of the people of Ohio, kill a man in our name.
The execution has been delayed until February 15,
and a hundred people showed up at the Unitarian Church--
some of you were there--
in an effort to stop Ohio’s death penalty for good,
because, as our Catholic Social Teaching tells us,
every person has the right to life.
_________________________________
A week ago Tuesday
the front page of the Blade showed the garage door
at the home of an Arab-American family in suburban Sylvania,
a door that vandals spray-painted with obscene graffiti, including a
swastika.
But well over a hundred people gathered around--
some of you were there, too--
to cover the hate up with love.
_________________________________
Then Friday evening a pretty big crowd
showed up on the Martin Luther King Bridge
to march for unity with the vulnerable.
They sang, they prayed, they smiled.
They carried signs of love for everyone.
Again, some of you were there.
_________________________________
For many people, a light is dawning… the light of justice.
They’re NOT doing it to call attention to themselves--
it’s not a selfie--
but they’re lifting a light
so others can find a way through the darkness.
It’s NOT giant actions, not big events,
but individual people, each doing the right thing,
planting a seed of hope.
When we show up and speak out, it’s what we’re called to do.
_________________________________
In the late 1930s
when the Nazis began purging the opposition, group by group,
German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller
wrote several versions of a now-famous statement.
You’ll recognize it:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak for me.
We all can easily fill in the groups that are being singled out today:
Muslims, immigrants, people with disabilities,
refugees, migrants, Syrians, LGBTs, the media…
the list goes on and on.
_________________________________
Rabbi Abraham Skorka tells it like it is.
He say’s it’s evil “when a demagogue or a despot threatens
or speaks in terms of destruction,
in terms of denying or demonizing another."
The Rabbi says we have to “strive for a different world,
in spite of everything that happens.”
That’s where we are now in this country.
In spite of what happens, because of what’s happening,
we have to work to make the world different.
We have to speak up.
It’s our prayer, our striving, our work,
that builds the city of God right here.
Because of what we do,
the reign of God is at hand.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23
It’s hard to keep in mind these days
that the reign of God is at hand, among us, here and now.
It seems that all we hear these days
is quarreling and hostility and division.
We heard it all through that long, long election campaign:
I’m for Hillary. I’m for Trump. Well, I’m not voting.
Welcome to refugees. No, America first.
This past week we heard even more contention:
I’m going to the Inauguration.
No, I’m boycotting it.
_________________________________
The same kind of discord, the polarization,
is evident inside our church:
I’m for restoration; let’s go back to the way it was.
No, I’m for reform; let’s go forward.
In the Presidential election, the pollsters tell us,
52% of Catholics voted for Trump
and 48% for someone else.
We’re split apart, like those Corinthians Paul writes to,
quarreling with each other
because we’ve committed ourselves
to someone or something other than Jesus.
We have to ask ourselves, when we begin to break into factions,
whether we’re motivated by our own wants
or by the common good.
_________________________________
Even here in Toledo, this Compassionate Community,
this big blue zone on the red map of Ohio,
we hear loud, angry arguments.
We see signs of hate.
But we also see signs of hope.
_________________________________
The State of Ohio had set January 12
as the date to kill Ronald Phillips
in the name of the people of Ohio, kill a man in our name.
The execution has been delayed until February 15,
and a hundred people showed up at the Unitarian Church--
some of you were there--
in an effort to stop Ohio’s death penalty for good,
because, as our Catholic Social Teaching tells us,
every person has the right to life.
_________________________________
A week ago Tuesday
the front page of the Blade showed the garage door
at the home of an Arab-American family in suburban Sylvania,
a door that vandals spray-painted with obscene graffiti, including a
swastika.
But well over a hundred people gathered around--
some of you were there, too--
to cover the hate up with love.
_________________________________
Then Friday evening a pretty big crowd
showed up on the Martin Luther King Bridge
to march for unity with the vulnerable.
They sang, they prayed, they smiled.
They carried signs of love for everyone.
Again, some of you were there.
_________________________________
For many people, a light is dawning… the light of justice.
They’re NOT doing it to call attention to themselves--
it’s not a selfie--
but they’re lifting a light
so others can find a way through the darkness.
It’s NOT giant actions, not big events,
but individual people, each doing the right thing,
planting a seed of hope.
When we show up and speak out, it’s what we’re called to do.
_________________________________
In the late 1930s
when the Nazis began purging the opposition, group by group,
German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller
wrote several versions of a now-famous statement.
You’ll recognize it:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak for me.
We all can easily fill in the groups that are being singled out today:
Muslims, immigrants, people with disabilities,
refugees, migrants, Syrians, LGBTs, the media…
the list goes on and on.
_________________________________
Rabbi Abraham Skorka tells it like it is.
He say’s it’s evil “when a demagogue or a despot threatens
or speaks in terms of destruction,
in terms of denying or demonizing another."
The Rabbi says we have to “strive for a different world,
in spite of everything that happens.”
That’s where we are now in this country.
In spite of what happens, because of what’s happening,
we have to work to make the world different.
We have to speak up.
It’s our prayer, our striving, our work,
that builds the city of God right here.
Because of what we do,
the reign of God is at hand.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, OTA 2, January 14-15, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Gospel: John 1:29-34
Our nation faces challenges that demand strong moral courage.
We are a country divided by race and ethnicity and class;
a nation of immigrants struggling with immigration;
a nation involved in wars, with all their human cost.
We are an affluent society
where too many live in poverty.
We are part of a global community
confronting terrorism
and facing urgent threats to our planet.
As Catholics and as Christians,
we are called to participate
in shaping the moral character of our society.
It is the mission given to us,
as it was to our brother Jesus,
by the Spirit of God.
_______________________________________
Our Catholic Church has been very clearly calling us
to put our faith values into action
since its 1976 document Faithful Citizenship.
The values of Catholicism do not conflict
with the values of our democracy.
Catholics—both as citizens of the city of God
AND
as citizens of the United States of America--
believe that life, liberty, and equality are God-given rights.
Our faith requires us
to stand in solidarity
with the most vulnerable people
and with our vulnerable planet.
_______________________________________
This past Tuesday evening
we heard President Obama
echo the values of our faith
when he delivered his farewell address
to the American people.
He said that “change only happens
when ordinary people get involved,
and they get engaged,
and they come together to demand it.”
He called those actions that lead to change
“the beating heart of our American idea”
and quoted the Declaration of Independence,
that we are all created equal,
endowed by our Creator
with rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Life, liberty, equality--
rights that come from God for all people,
every single one.
_______________________________________
Tomorrow [today]
we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who, as a man of God,
preached those scriptures we just heard.
Half a century ago, he said,
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
He said,
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be
until you are what you ought to be.
He said,
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is,
‘What are you doing for others?’
And he said,
Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about things that matter.
_______________________________________
It’s fitting that today’s readings
are full of political and theological meanings
not only for the time they were written,
not only for the time before that,
but for our time as well.
The message for us,
as it was for Isaiah and Paul and John,
is two-fold:
servant discipleship and inclusiveness.
Isaiah talks about the anointed leader being formed from the womb
to be God’s servant
and a light to peoples of all the nations.
Paul tells the Corinthians that they are the body of Christ,
flesh and blood alive
and continuing to incarnate God in history.
John the Evangelist tells us
that the meaning of baptism
is in its revelation of Jesus
as the servant of God.
Behold the Lamb of God, John says.
Theologian Joachim Jeremias observed
that the word for “lamb” in Aramaic was “talyã’,”
which meant lamb,
but it also meant slave or servant.
_______________________________________
When we read these passages, we see ourselves in them.
We claim for ourselves
the calling to be servants of God
and light to the nations.
_______________________________________
It’s not only Christians who are called to bring light to the nations.
People of all religions follow that same call,
each in our own culture and tradition.
And it’s not just people of faith who are called
to bring light to the nations.
Many folks
labeled atheists or agnostics or “nones” by the media today
are people of virtue
with values and priorities
that call them to lead lives of service
and do the good works that bring light to others.
With us Catholics and Christians
and people of every faith everywhere,
they can claim citizenship in this country
and on our planet
and in the reign of God.
_______________________________________
On Tuesday, President Obama urged us to be good citizens,
to speak up for justice,
to care for the common good.
It’s the same message we heard from Dr. King in the Sixties.
It’s the same message we heard from Isaiah 2,800 years ago,
and Paul and John 1,950 years ago.
It’s the message of God’s Spirit to Jesus and to us:
I love you.
I call you to serve one another.
I have chosen you to be light for the world.
For those of us who have dedicated our lives to the Way of Jesus,
this coming Friday’s inauguration
marks the need for even greater commitment to inclusivity
and even greater efforts at serving the most vulnerable.
We are called.
So let’s get to work.
First Reading: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Gospel: John 1:29-34
Our nation faces challenges that demand strong moral courage.
We are a country divided by race and ethnicity and class;
a nation of immigrants struggling with immigration;
a nation involved in wars, with all their human cost.
We are an affluent society
where too many live in poverty.
We are part of a global community
confronting terrorism
and facing urgent threats to our planet.
As Catholics and as Christians,
we are called to participate
in shaping the moral character of our society.
It is the mission given to us,
as it was to our brother Jesus,
by the Spirit of God.
_______________________________________
Our Catholic Church has been very clearly calling us
to put our faith values into action
since its 1976 document Faithful Citizenship.
The values of Catholicism do not conflict
with the values of our democracy.
Catholics—both as citizens of the city of God
AND
as citizens of the United States of America--
believe that life, liberty, and equality are God-given rights.
Our faith requires us
to stand in solidarity
with the most vulnerable people
and with our vulnerable planet.
_______________________________________
This past Tuesday evening
we heard President Obama
echo the values of our faith
when he delivered his farewell address
to the American people.
He said that “change only happens
when ordinary people get involved,
and they get engaged,
and they come together to demand it.”
He called those actions that lead to change
“the beating heart of our American idea”
and quoted the Declaration of Independence,
that we are all created equal,
endowed by our Creator
with rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Life, liberty, equality--
rights that come from God for all people,
every single one.
_______________________________________
Tomorrow [today]
we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who, as a man of God,
preached those scriptures we just heard.
Half a century ago, he said,
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
He said,
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be
until you are what you ought to be.
He said,
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is,
‘What are you doing for others?’
And he said,
Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about things that matter.
_______________________________________
It’s fitting that today’s readings
are full of political and theological meanings
not only for the time they were written,
not only for the time before that,
but for our time as well.
The message for us,
as it was for Isaiah and Paul and John,
is two-fold:
servant discipleship and inclusiveness.
Isaiah talks about the anointed leader being formed from the womb
to be God’s servant
and a light to peoples of all the nations.
Paul tells the Corinthians that they are the body of Christ,
flesh and blood alive
and continuing to incarnate God in history.
John the Evangelist tells us
that the meaning of baptism
is in its revelation of Jesus
as the servant of God.
Behold the Lamb of God, John says.
Theologian Joachim Jeremias observed
that the word for “lamb” in Aramaic was “talyã’,”
which meant lamb,
but it also meant slave or servant.
_______________________________________
When we read these passages, we see ourselves in them.
We claim for ourselves
the calling to be servants of God
and light to the nations.
_______________________________________
It’s not only Christians who are called to bring light to the nations.
People of all religions follow that same call,
each in our own culture and tradition.
And it’s not just people of faith who are called
to bring light to the nations.
Many folks
labeled atheists or agnostics or “nones” by the media today
are people of virtue
with values and priorities
that call them to lead lives of service
and do the good works that bring light to others.
With us Catholics and Christians
and people of every faith everywhere,
they can claim citizenship in this country
and on our planet
and in the reign of God.
_______________________________________
On Tuesday, President Obama urged us to be good citizens,
to speak up for justice,
to care for the common good.
It’s the same message we heard from Dr. King in the Sixties.
It’s the same message we heard from Isaiah 2,800 years ago,
and Paul and John 1,950 years ago.
It’s the message of God’s Spirit to Jesus and to us:
I love you.
I call you to serve one another.
I have chosen you to be light for the world.
For those of us who have dedicated our lives to the Way of Jesus,
this coming Friday’s inauguration
marks the need for even greater commitment to inclusivity
and even greater efforts at serving the most vulnerable.
We are called.
So let’s get to work.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Epiphany A, January 8, 2017
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13
Second Reading: Ephesians 3:2-6
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12
The Catholic Bible—the New American Bible--
has extensive footnotes
to the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel,
making it clear that Matthew constructed the infancy narrative
to show “the coming of Jesus as the climax of Israel’s history,
and the events of his conception, birth, and early childhood
as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.”
As Marcus Borg put it,
“The Bible is true, and some of it actually happened.”
Today’s feast of the Epiphany
is a clear example of the Bible giving us truth
by means of a story of things that didn’t actually happen.
Matthew creates this birth story
to prefigure and interpret what happened with Jesus later.
__________________________________________
Epiphany is a good word for this.
It’s from the Greek,
meaning appearance or manifestation or revelation.
Lots of things are revealed
in this second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel,
and two of the most decisive are
that Jesus is hated by the powerful oppressor
and that he is adored by wise outsiders.
To show who Jesus really is,
Matthew pictures him as a helpless baby,
born away from his parents’ home,
taken to another country to escape slaughter,
then being settled in a different place
because of fear of oppression.
Jesus is poor, a refugee, a displaced person, an immigrant.
__________________________________________
Tomorrow [today] through next Saturday
is National Migration Week.
Our Church reflects on the circumstances
faced by migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children,
and victims and survivors of trafficking.
Pope Francis asks us to create a “culture of encounter” with them.
He wants us to look past what we want
to pay attention to what the people around us need.
__________________________________________
It’s hard for me to imagine the fear and the chaos
of the experience of being a refugee.
The closest I’ve been was the time I woke up
to find a strange man standing by my bed.
I jumped up and chased him out of the house,
swinging a rocking chair at him like it was a piece of spaghetti.
Adrenalin is pretty amazing!
But I didn’t feel safe in my home any more.
I couldn’t stay there,
but I didn’t have to leave town or leave the country.
I slept on a friend’s sofa for three nights
while I searched for an apartment.
That’s a pretty tame experience
compared to some I’ve heard about.
Last year a teacher told me about a second grade student
who was living with his grandmother in a van.
A few years ago I visited Family House Shelter
and cringed at the rooms for the homeless,
a 10x9 space for the whole family.
You’ve seen it, right here in our own wealthy country:
rows and rows of cots at the Cherry Street Mission,
New Orleans after Katrina,
people curled up to sleep under a bridge or on a park bench.
And we’ve all seen our broken world on TV,
most recently the bloodied women with babies and children
racing away from the rubble of their homes in Aleppo.
As Christians, we see the Holy Family in these refugee families.
We see living, breathing, feeling people,
children of God just like us,
people who, as Isaiah says, show the glory of God rising.
__________________________________________
When I think about the suffering of the immigrant and the migrant
and the refugee and the trafficked and the homeless,
I’m inspired by YOU.
Our community has donated to ABLE, Rahab’s Heart,
Claver House, 1Matters, UStogether, and Beach House.
More than money, though,
each one of you gives stuff, or time and energy, or prayer.
You create that “culture of encounter” that Pope Francis talks about
every time you work in a pantry, pray for peace,
or give socks and gloves for the homeless.
You signed welcome cards
to the Syrian refugee families now settling here in Toledo.
Every week you fill my car with really good stuff
to take to Claver House for the hungry and homeless;
and to take to Rahab’s Heart
for their work with trafficked women;
and to UStogether for the new refugees.
__________________________________________
The principles of social justice you put into practice
weren’t created by our Catholic church.
They are rooted in the whole Judeo-Christian tradition
of hospitality to the stranger.
Referring to Abraham and Sarah,
St. Paul told the Hebrews not to neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
And he wrote to the Ephesians that we are all heirs,
all part of the one body.
To paraphrase Pogo, we have met the stranger and he is us.
__________________________________________
We expect the coming years to be challenging.
We find hope in responding to the needs of the displaced.
Even more, we will keep on speaking up
whenever the policies of our leaders--
local and state and national--
threaten the peace and prosperity
of the least of our brothers and sisters.
Maybe it will be a one-line email
sent to our representative and senators in Congress:
don’t mess with Obamacare;
keep public lands for the public;
subsidize renewable energy, not fossil fuels;
no more fracking;
tax breaks for the poorest, not the richest.
Or a phone call to the mayor
or a council member or a county commissioner.
__________________________________________
However we are able, we will reach out,
building that “culture of encounter” that Francis talks about,
one person at a time.
We’ll be entertaining angels,
and we will be aware of it.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13
Second Reading: Ephesians 3:2-6
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12
The Catholic Bible—the New American Bible--
has extensive footnotes
to the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel,
making it clear that Matthew constructed the infancy narrative
to show “the coming of Jesus as the climax of Israel’s history,
and the events of his conception, birth, and early childhood
as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.”
As Marcus Borg put it,
“The Bible is true, and some of it actually happened.”
Today’s feast of the Epiphany
is a clear example of the Bible giving us truth
by means of a story of things that didn’t actually happen.
Matthew creates this birth story
to prefigure and interpret what happened with Jesus later.
__________________________________________
Epiphany is a good word for this.
It’s from the Greek,
meaning appearance or manifestation or revelation.
Lots of things are revealed
in this second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel,
and two of the most decisive are
that Jesus is hated by the powerful oppressor
and that he is adored by wise outsiders.
To show who Jesus really is,
Matthew pictures him as a helpless baby,
born away from his parents’ home,
taken to another country to escape slaughter,
then being settled in a different place
because of fear of oppression.
Jesus is poor, a refugee, a displaced person, an immigrant.
__________________________________________
Tomorrow [today] through next Saturday
is National Migration Week.
Our Church reflects on the circumstances
faced by migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children,
and victims and survivors of trafficking.
Pope Francis asks us to create a “culture of encounter” with them.
He wants us to look past what we want
to pay attention to what the people around us need.
__________________________________________
It’s hard for me to imagine the fear and the chaos
of the experience of being a refugee.
The closest I’ve been was the time I woke up
to find a strange man standing by my bed.
I jumped up and chased him out of the house,
swinging a rocking chair at him like it was a piece of spaghetti.
Adrenalin is pretty amazing!
But I didn’t feel safe in my home any more.
I couldn’t stay there,
but I didn’t have to leave town or leave the country.
I slept on a friend’s sofa for three nights
while I searched for an apartment.
That’s a pretty tame experience
compared to some I’ve heard about.
Last year a teacher told me about a second grade student
who was living with his grandmother in a van.
A few years ago I visited Family House Shelter
and cringed at the rooms for the homeless,
a 10x9 space for the whole family.
You’ve seen it, right here in our own wealthy country:
rows and rows of cots at the Cherry Street Mission,
New Orleans after Katrina,
people curled up to sleep under a bridge or on a park bench.
And we’ve all seen our broken world on TV,
most recently the bloodied women with babies and children
racing away from the rubble of their homes in Aleppo.
As Christians, we see the Holy Family in these refugee families.
We see living, breathing, feeling people,
children of God just like us,
people who, as Isaiah says, show the glory of God rising.
__________________________________________
When I think about the suffering of the immigrant and the migrant
and the refugee and the trafficked and the homeless,
I’m inspired by YOU.
Our community has donated to ABLE, Rahab’s Heart,
Claver House, 1Matters, UStogether, and Beach House.
More than money, though,
each one of you gives stuff, or time and energy, or prayer.
You create that “culture of encounter” that Pope Francis talks about
every time you work in a pantry, pray for peace,
or give socks and gloves for the homeless.
You signed welcome cards
to the Syrian refugee families now settling here in Toledo.
Every week you fill my car with really good stuff
to take to Claver House for the hungry and homeless;
and to take to Rahab’s Heart
for their work with trafficked women;
and to UStogether for the new refugees.
__________________________________________
The principles of social justice you put into practice
weren’t created by our Catholic church.
They are rooted in the whole Judeo-Christian tradition
of hospitality to the stranger.
Referring to Abraham and Sarah,
St. Paul told the Hebrews not to neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
And he wrote to the Ephesians that we are all heirs,
all part of the one body.
To paraphrase Pogo, we have met the stranger and he is us.
__________________________________________
We expect the coming years to be challenging.
We find hope in responding to the needs of the displaced.
Even more, we will keep on speaking up
whenever the policies of our leaders--
local and state and national--
threaten the peace and prosperity
of the least of our brothers and sisters.
Maybe it will be a one-line email
sent to our representative and senators in Congress:
don’t mess with Obamacare;
keep public lands for the public;
subsidize renewable energy, not fossil fuels;
no more fracking;
tax breaks for the poorest, not the richest.
Or a phone call to the mayor
or a council member or a county commissioner.
__________________________________________
However we are able, we will reach out,
building that “culture of encounter” that Francis talks about,
one person at a time.
We’ll be entertaining angels,
and we will be aware of it.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, World Day of Peace, January 1, 2017
Isaiah 32:15-19
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 5:1-10
1967.
50 years ago.
That’s when Pope Paul VI dedicated this day to universal peace.
On the first day of every year since then,
every pope has issued a declaration on social justice,
including statements on the United Nations, human rights,
women's rights, labor unions, economic development,
the sacredness of life, international diplomacy,
peace in the Holy Land, globalization, and terrorism.
Now it’s Francis’ turn, with his message
for the 50th World Day of Peace tomorrow [today].
Peace is a big deal for Catholics.
___________________________________________
But when we look around our world, it’s not hard to find wars.
Conflicts, crises, insurgencies, unrest, rebellion, clashes…
whatever term we use to describe it,
it’s nowhere close to peace.
The big ones—the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria--
have taken over three million lives.
Closer to home,
the Mexican Drug War has killed more than 165,000.
___________________________________________
Here in our US of A some of us live in peace--
a secure home in a quiet neighborhood,
respectful interchanges with co-workers
and strangers at the grocery store or in the library,
freedom from harassment
as we go around town or travel for the holidays.
But some of us don’t have that safe home or quiet neighborhood.
Some of us head out the door
wary of strangers who might not respect our shared humanity
because of the color of our skin or the disability we have,
because of our gender or our income,
because of some difference about us.
___________________________________________
A significant number of people in our country
are afraid about what will happen in the next four years.
We face a real challenge if the next President
is able to do even a small part of what he has talked about.
People of color are concerned that racial hatred
will increase even more,
that more black churches will be burned, more children killed.
LGBT people wonder if the harassment will get worse,
if another unhinged person will open fire on them.
Latino citizens worry about getting arrested and deported
if they don’t carry their ID with them all the time.
Muslims are uneasy about threats of a registry.
Senior citizens are anxious that attempts to cut Social Security
will make them lose their homes.
And many of us are stressed about the dismantling of protections
that keep our air, water, and food safe.
We’re nervous about the easing of regulations
that make our cars and furnaces and medicines safe.
Pope Francis, while not naming names,
has been consistent in insisting
that the values articulated by the candidate
are not Christian values.
These days
there’s a whole lot of disruption in our general peacefulness.
___________________________________________
In the middle of all of this, we have to remember
that we are called to follow the Way of Jesus.
He calls us to be peacemakers.
But how do WE bring peace?
How do WE make peace?
Like Jesus, we have to stand in relationship, in solidarity,
with the marginalized.
We have to learn about people who are different from us.
We have to put ourselves in a position to have friends
who are different from us.
We have to get out of our silos and walk the way
with people who are victimized in our society.
We have to let our voice be heard
on the issues of justice that lead to conflict--
the racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, islamophobia,
homophobia, the climate change denying, economic inequality,
gun violence, drugs, nuclear proliferation… the list goes on.
___________________________________________
The first step, though, is prayer,
that basic conversation with God,
that deep encounter that nourishes peace in our hearts.
We will bring peace when, as Paul tells the Philippians,
we direct our thoughts to what is true, respectable, honest,
decent, virtuous, and praiseworthy.
___________________________________________
Now, more than ever before, we must pray for peace,
stand with those who are in the way of threats to their peace:
stand with the blacks, browns, and tans;
the LGBTs, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, migrants,
people living on social security, prisoners,
minimum wage workers, victims of gun violence…
and stand with the earth, our common home.
___________________________________________
Last Sunday we celebrated the birthday of the Prince of Peace.
The need today is just as great as—even greater than--
it was 2,000 years ago.
We know we stand in need of peace in our homes, our families,
our neighborhoods, our cities, our country, and way beyond.
We even stand in need of peace within ourselves.
___________________________________________
It seems overwhelming.
Yet we have hope as we step into this new year.
As Isaiah tells us, the Spirit will be poured out on us,
and our work for justice will bring about peace,
and calm, and security.
And the blessing has already been given to us.
It’s the blessing God told Moses to give to Aaron to use,
recorded in the book of Numbers.
It’s the blessing we’ll ask for at the end of today’s Mass:
May our God bless and keep you!
May our God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you!
May our God look kindly upon you and give you peace!
Amen!
Isaiah 32:15-19
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 5:1-10
1967.
50 years ago.
That’s when Pope Paul VI dedicated this day to universal peace.
On the first day of every year since then,
every pope has issued a declaration on social justice,
including statements on the United Nations, human rights,
women's rights, labor unions, economic development,
the sacredness of life, international diplomacy,
peace in the Holy Land, globalization, and terrorism.
Now it’s Francis’ turn, with his message
for the 50th World Day of Peace tomorrow [today].
Peace is a big deal for Catholics.
___________________________________________
But when we look around our world, it’s not hard to find wars.
Conflicts, crises, insurgencies, unrest, rebellion, clashes…
whatever term we use to describe it,
it’s nowhere close to peace.
The big ones—the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria--
have taken over three million lives.
Closer to home,
the Mexican Drug War has killed more than 165,000.
___________________________________________
Here in our US of A some of us live in peace--
a secure home in a quiet neighborhood,
respectful interchanges with co-workers
and strangers at the grocery store or in the library,
freedom from harassment
as we go around town or travel for the holidays.
But some of us don’t have that safe home or quiet neighborhood.
Some of us head out the door
wary of strangers who might not respect our shared humanity
because of the color of our skin or the disability we have,
because of our gender or our income,
because of some difference about us.
___________________________________________
A significant number of people in our country
are afraid about what will happen in the next four years.
We face a real challenge if the next President
is able to do even a small part of what he has talked about.
People of color are concerned that racial hatred
will increase even more,
that more black churches will be burned, more children killed.
LGBT people wonder if the harassment will get worse,
if another unhinged person will open fire on them.
Latino citizens worry about getting arrested and deported
if they don’t carry their ID with them all the time.
Muslims are uneasy about threats of a registry.
Senior citizens are anxious that attempts to cut Social Security
will make them lose their homes.
And many of us are stressed about the dismantling of protections
that keep our air, water, and food safe.
We’re nervous about the easing of regulations
that make our cars and furnaces and medicines safe.
Pope Francis, while not naming names,
has been consistent in insisting
that the values articulated by the candidate
are not Christian values.
These days
there’s a whole lot of disruption in our general peacefulness.
___________________________________________
In the middle of all of this, we have to remember
that we are called to follow the Way of Jesus.
He calls us to be peacemakers.
But how do WE bring peace?
How do WE make peace?
Like Jesus, we have to stand in relationship, in solidarity,
with the marginalized.
We have to learn about people who are different from us.
We have to put ourselves in a position to have friends
who are different from us.
We have to get out of our silos and walk the way
with people who are victimized in our society.
We have to let our voice be heard
on the issues of justice that lead to conflict--
the racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, islamophobia,
homophobia, the climate change denying, economic inequality,
gun violence, drugs, nuclear proliferation… the list goes on.
___________________________________________
The first step, though, is prayer,
that basic conversation with God,
that deep encounter that nourishes peace in our hearts.
We will bring peace when, as Paul tells the Philippians,
we direct our thoughts to what is true, respectable, honest,
decent, virtuous, and praiseworthy.
___________________________________________
Now, more than ever before, we must pray for peace,
stand with those who are in the way of threats to their peace:
stand with the blacks, browns, and tans;
the LGBTs, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, migrants,
people living on social security, prisoners,
minimum wage workers, victims of gun violence…
and stand with the earth, our common home.
___________________________________________
Last Sunday we celebrated the birthday of the Prince of Peace.
The need today is just as great as—even greater than--
it was 2,000 years ago.
We know we stand in need of peace in our homes, our families,
our neighborhoods, our cities, our country, and way beyond.
We even stand in need of peace within ourselves.
___________________________________________
It seems overwhelming.
Yet we have hope as we step into this new year.
As Isaiah tells us, the Spirit will be poured out on us,
and our work for justice will bring about peace,
and calm, and security.
And the blessing has already been given to us.
It’s the blessing God told Moses to give to Aaron to use,
recorded in the book of Numbers.
It’s the blessing we’ll ask for at the end of today’s Mass:
May our God bless and keep you!
May our God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you!
May our God look kindly upon you and give you peace!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Nativity of the Lord, December 25, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 9:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
Second Reading: Titus 2:11-14
Gospel: Luke 2:1-14
Each of us is an expression of God in human form.
All the stardust floating out of that cosmic hatch--
out of that “big bang” 13.8 billion years ago--
all of it is in God and God in it.
And God is even more than that.
All that is expresses God-ness—including us.
____________________________________
A woman bears a child—wondrous miracle, gracious mystery--
and God is born in our world once more.
Tonight [today] we celebrate one of those special births,
the birth of our brother Jesus.
Luke shapes the story of Jesus’ birth--
we call it an “infancy narrative”--
to try to capture the essence of
the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth.
He pictures this young couple traveling miles from home,
so poor they aren’t able to find an inn to stay in,
birthing their child in a stable.
And the shepherds—the poor and marginalized—rejoice.
The birth of a child gives them hope for justice, hope for peace.
____________________________________
Luke has set the stage for what is to come:
that God is with us in the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden.
Just as God walked with Abraham and the people out of Ur,
just as God walked with Moses and the people of Israel
across the desert out of Egypt,
so God continues to walk with us,
keeps on revealing divinity in all creation.
Luke will go on
to tell the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
the story of God’s loving care for all,
the story of God’s special concern for the poor and oppressed.
____________________________________
The story is not over.
Each time we reach out to help someone;
each time we gather with family and friends,
each time we tend the poor and downtrodden among us,
we write another chapter of the story of God-with-us.
____________________________________
Our world is beset by violence these days,
just as it was 2,000 years ago.
We mourn the bombings in Aleppo,
innocent people killed because they’re in the way of war.
We are wary of the signs of hate and violence
in so many statements of the incoming administration
that will take over our government on January 20.
We’re saddened to know that the “guns everywhere” bill
passed the Ohio General Assembly
and was signed by the Governor.
We’re shocked to hear about a semi truck killing a dozen people
as it crashed through a Christmas Market in Berlin.
____________________________________
But in the midst of the chaos and darkness, we have hope.
We are the ones who are sent to bring light to the darkness.
We are the ones responsible for speaking truth to power.
We are the ones, anointed by our Baptism,
called to spend our lives
bringing justice to the poor and peace to the world.
____________________________________
So we gather with family and friends and neighbors,
those folks who love us,
those folks whose love for us
reflects God’s love for all of creation.
They love us, in spite of our foibles and idiosyncrasies,
no matter what.
And we love them, no matter what.
Just like God loves us, no matter what.
So let us celebrate with great joy
that perfectly wonderful expression of Emmanuel,
of God-with-us--
the one who reveals God to us;
let us celebrate our brother Jesus.
He has been indeed born again in us.
Let us rejoice and be glad!
First Reading: Isaiah 9:1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
Second Reading: Titus 2:11-14
Gospel: Luke 2:1-14
Each of us is an expression of God in human form.
All the stardust floating out of that cosmic hatch--
out of that “big bang” 13.8 billion years ago--
all of it is in God and God in it.
And God is even more than that.
All that is expresses God-ness—including us.
____________________________________
A woman bears a child—wondrous miracle, gracious mystery--
and God is born in our world once more.
Tonight [today] we celebrate one of those special births,
the birth of our brother Jesus.
Luke shapes the story of Jesus’ birth--
we call it an “infancy narrative”--
to try to capture the essence of
the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth.
He pictures this young couple traveling miles from home,
so poor they aren’t able to find an inn to stay in,
birthing their child in a stable.
And the shepherds—the poor and marginalized—rejoice.
The birth of a child gives them hope for justice, hope for peace.
____________________________________
Luke has set the stage for what is to come:
that God is with us in the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden.
Just as God walked with Abraham and the people out of Ur,
just as God walked with Moses and the people of Israel
across the desert out of Egypt,
so God continues to walk with us,
keeps on revealing divinity in all creation.
Luke will go on
to tell the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
the story of God’s loving care for all,
the story of God’s special concern for the poor and oppressed.
____________________________________
The story is not over.
Each time we reach out to help someone;
each time we gather with family and friends,
each time we tend the poor and downtrodden among us,
we write another chapter of the story of God-with-us.
____________________________________
Our world is beset by violence these days,
just as it was 2,000 years ago.
We mourn the bombings in Aleppo,
innocent people killed because they’re in the way of war.
We are wary of the signs of hate and violence
in so many statements of the incoming administration
that will take over our government on January 20.
We’re saddened to know that the “guns everywhere” bill
passed the Ohio General Assembly
and was signed by the Governor.
We’re shocked to hear about a semi truck killing a dozen people
as it crashed through a Christmas Market in Berlin.
____________________________________
But in the midst of the chaos and darkness, we have hope.
We are the ones who are sent to bring light to the darkness.
We are the ones responsible for speaking truth to power.
We are the ones, anointed by our Baptism,
called to spend our lives
bringing justice to the poor and peace to the world.
____________________________________
So we gather with family and friends and neighbors,
those folks who love us,
those folks whose love for us
reflects God’s love for all of creation.
They love us, in spite of our foibles and idiosyncrasies,
no matter what.
And we love them, no matter what.
Just like God loves us, no matter what.
So let us celebrate with great joy
that perfectly wonderful expression of Emmanuel,
of God-with-us--
the one who reveals God to us;
let us celebrate our brother Jesus.
He has been indeed born again in us.
Let us rejoice and be glad!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Advent A4, December 18, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1-6
Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-2
Here's the context for our first reading:
Ahaz is king of Judah, the southern kingdom,
with Jerusalem as its capital.
An alliance between Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel
has laid siege to Jerusalem.
Ahaz has decided to ask for help from Assyria--
a ruthless nation bordering the northern kingdom--
instead of relying on God.
Seeing the danger of that alliance with Assyria,
Isaiah challenges Ahaz to ask God for a sign
that everything will eventually turn out well for Judah
without the Assyrians,
but Ahaz has already made up his mind
and refuses Isaiah’s advice.
But Isaiah tells Ahaz about the sign anyway.
He says that “the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel,” “God-with-us.”
King Ahaz knows the danger, ignores Isaiah, and goes ahead,
abandoning faithfulness to God for trust in military might.
The signs of Ahaz's time were clear,
and he understood them,
but he refused to pay attention to them.
______________________________________
Ahaz wasn't the first, and won't be the last,
to ignore the signs of the times.
We all show who we are
when we show the kind of power we put our faith in.
We expose our true selves
by the signs we choose to pay attention to.
______________________________________
In his letter to the Romans,
Paul looks back to the Hebrew Scriptures
for signs to show that Jesus is the Messiah.
Matthew does the same thing in his infancy narrative,
shaping the story to make Isaiah's prophecy
look like a 700-year-old prediction of Jesus' birth.
______________________________________
Looking for signs isn't something new,
and it didn't stop with Ahaz or Matthew.
Our country is looking for signs these days.
We're going to have a new President,
and the media is buzzing with stories
about what it's going to be like, basing their predictions
on whichever of the signs they pick to believe in.
Maybe the sign is in the rise and fall of the stock market,
or Donald Trump’s tweets and twitters,
the biographies of appointees for cabinet posts,
or stories of Russian hacking
and billionaire deals with foreign countries.
______________________________________
We all look for signs.
This week we've been keeping a close watch on weather reports,
with their comparisons to the past
and projections for the future,
looking for signs to help us decide
whether we'll even be going out of the house and, if we do,
how many layers of coats and hats and gloves we'll wear.
There are signs to read all over the place.
A friend of mine who had cancer
is always on the watch for signs of a recurrence.
Parents watch their children for signs
of drug use, or porn addiction, or victimization by bullies.
Shoppers look for signs that Christmas gift prices will be cut back.
And people are looking at us Christians for a sign.
They want to see if we're real... or not.
Are we just calling ourselves Christians?
Or are we really doing what Jesus said and did,
really following him?
______________________________________
It seems that I can't go anywhere these days
without someone coming up to me
and giving me an answer to that.
Last week when I stopped in at St. Anne Hospital to visit a patient,
a woman came up and asked if I'm me, and then she said,
“I heard that your church gave a big donation to Beach House.
I've been thinking of coming to Mass with you,” she told me.
At the grocery store, a nurse came up to me and said,
“One of your Holy Spirit people came in to donate blood.”
Someone else told me that one of you
regularly drives your neighbor around
since he can't see to drive any more.
And then I heard that a couple of you
have been up and down the block
shoveling snow for your older neighbors.
People will walk up to me and name one of you
and say they saw you volunteering in all kinds of ways…
at the Peace Coalition demonstrations, at Helping Hands,
with UStogether, with Feed Your Neighbor,
at Pax Christi, with the League of Women Voters.
Because of you, our Holy Spirit Community
is gaining a reputation all over town,
and it's a great reputation.
______________________________________
Some of the signs of our time are truly ominous,
but some of them are hopeful.
Each of you is a reason to celebrate.
By your actions, every day,
day in and day out,
you are living witness to what it means
to be followers of Jesus.
______________________________________
We have one more week to get ready for Christmas…
one more week to plan the food
and clean the house and wrap the gifts,
or if you're gathering somewhere with family or friends,
one more week get the car ready for the trip
and pack it with food and gifts.
No matter—you're ready in the most important way:
it's obvious from your actions,
obvious in the way you live your life.
You are the signs of the times that people are hoping for,
signs of Immanuel--
signs that, indeed, “God is with us.”
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1-6
Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-2
Here's the context for our first reading:
Ahaz is king of Judah, the southern kingdom,
with Jerusalem as its capital.
An alliance between Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel
has laid siege to Jerusalem.
Ahaz has decided to ask for help from Assyria--
a ruthless nation bordering the northern kingdom--
instead of relying on God.
Seeing the danger of that alliance with Assyria,
Isaiah challenges Ahaz to ask God for a sign
that everything will eventually turn out well for Judah
without the Assyrians,
but Ahaz has already made up his mind
and refuses Isaiah’s advice.
But Isaiah tells Ahaz about the sign anyway.
He says that “the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel,” “God-with-us.”
King Ahaz knows the danger, ignores Isaiah, and goes ahead,
abandoning faithfulness to God for trust in military might.
The signs of Ahaz's time were clear,
and he understood them,
but he refused to pay attention to them.
______________________________________
Ahaz wasn't the first, and won't be the last,
to ignore the signs of the times.
We all show who we are
when we show the kind of power we put our faith in.
We expose our true selves
by the signs we choose to pay attention to.
______________________________________
In his letter to the Romans,
Paul looks back to the Hebrew Scriptures
for signs to show that Jesus is the Messiah.
Matthew does the same thing in his infancy narrative,
shaping the story to make Isaiah's prophecy
look like a 700-year-old prediction of Jesus' birth.
______________________________________
Looking for signs isn't something new,
and it didn't stop with Ahaz or Matthew.
Our country is looking for signs these days.
We're going to have a new President,
and the media is buzzing with stories
about what it's going to be like, basing their predictions
on whichever of the signs they pick to believe in.
Maybe the sign is in the rise and fall of the stock market,
or Donald Trump’s tweets and twitters,
the biographies of appointees for cabinet posts,
or stories of Russian hacking
and billionaire deals with foreign countries.
______________________________________
We all look for signs.
This week we've been keeping a close watch on weather reports,
with their comparisons to the past
and projections for the future,
looking for signs to help us decide
whether we'll even be going out of the house and, if we do,
how many layers of coats and hats and gloves we'll wear.
There are signs to read all over the place.
A friend of mine who had cancer
is always on the watch for signs of a recurrence.
Parents watch their children for signs
of drug use, or porn addiction, or victimization by bullies.
Shoppers look for signs that Christmas gift prices will be cut back.
And people are looking at us Christians for a sign.
They want to see if we're real... or not.
Are we just calling ourselves Christians?
Or are we really doing what Jesus said and did,
really following him?
______________________________________
It seems that I can't go anywhere these days
without someone coming up to me
and giving me an answer to that.
Last week when I stopped in at St. Anne Hospital to visit a patient,
a woman came up and asked if I'm me, and then she said,
“I heard that your church gave a big donation to Beach House.
I've been thinking of coming to Mass with you,” she told me.
At the grocery store, a nurse came up to me and said,
“One of your Holy Spirit people came in to donate blood.”
Someone else told me that one of you
regularly drives your neighbor around
since he can't see to drive any more.
And then I heard that a couple of you
have been up and down the block
shoveling snow for your older neighbors.
People will walk up to me and name one of you
and say they saw you volunteering in all kinds of ways…
at the Peace Coalition demonstrations, at Helping Hands,
with UStogether, with Feed Your Neighbor,
at Pax Christi, with the League of Women Voters.
Because of you, our Holy Spirit Community
is gaining a reputation all over town,
and it's a great reputation.
______________________________________
Some of the signs of our time are truly ominous,
but some of them are hopeful.
Each of you is a reason to celebrate.
By your actions, every day,
day in and day out,
you are living witness to what it means
to be followers of Jesus.
______________________________________
We have one more week to get ready for Christmas…
one more week to plan the food
and clean the house and wrap the gifts,
or if you're gathering somewhere with family or friends,
one more week get the car ready for the trip
and pack it with food and gifts.
No matter—you're ready in the most important way:
it's obvious from your actions,
obvious in the way you live your life.
You are the signs of the times that people are hoping for,
signs of Immanuel--
signs that, indeed, “God is with us.”
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Advent A3, December 11, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:6-10
Second Reading: James 5:7-10
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
Today's reading from Isaiah
tells us to have courage
because we will be vindicated.
Justice will prevail.
God will uphold us,
sustain us,
make all things right and just for us.
And when that happens, Isaiah says,
the poorest will be healed.
The eyes of the blind will be opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed,
those who can't walk will leap like deer,
and the tongues of those who cannot speak
will sing for joy.
________________________________________
In the Gospel we heard Matthew tell how John the Baptist,
when he sends his followers to ask Jesus if he is sent by God,
gets the answer
in terms of a fulfillment of that passage in Isaiah:
go back and report what you hear and see:
‘Those who are blind recover their sight;
those who cannot walk are able to walk,
those with leprosy are cured;
those who are deaf hear;
the dead are raised to life;
and the anawim—the “have-nots”--
have the Good News preached to them.’
________________________________________
The practice of looking to the tradition
for keys to the present situation
is as long as recorded history.
It's the habit of calling on the wisdom of the past
for guidance in our time.
James' letter gives the same kind of advice:
Be patient, don't grumble about one another, persevere--
take the prophets as your models.
________________________________________
What about us, now, in our time?
We say we are followers and imitators of the way of Jesus.
That means, according to the Word we just heard,
that we are to be teachers and healers,
reaching out in love to the poor and marginalized.
We are to work miracles, just like Jesus did.
________________________________________
It sounds like a tall order,
but we see those miracles all around us.
Pax Christi, the national Catholic peace movement,
has a local branch that meets over at Corpus Christi Parish.
Just one of the projects that makes Pax Christi a healer
is the “Manna bag,”
a gallon-size plastic bag full of non-perishable food and drink
that they put together and sell
so they can give them away
to those folks standing on street corners asking for help.
Then there are miracle workers like our own Liz Facey, who,
like so many other teachers,
works tirelessly to open the eyes and ears
of her special needs students.
We've been seeing stories on the news lately
about doctors who are pioneering stem cell therapy
that rebuilds body parts,
giving new life to people struck with disability and disease.
We all know families and friends of stroke victims
who tend them through the difficult times of loss and rehab,
loving them through every possible step of improvement.
We all face hard times, accident, illness, or surgery,
the difficulties of aging,
and it's there that we see the loving care
that Jesus told John's followers to tell him about.
_______________________________________
Miracles are happening here at Holy Spirit, too.
We're focused on the environment
and the impact of climate change
on the poorest and most vulnerable people,
and we're doing something about it
with our Tree Toledo efforts.
And you are generous in direct help to the anawim of our time,
donating to organizations
that serve the poor and the marginalized
with housing, food, health needs, clothes, education…
it's a very long list!
You write letters to officeholders
supporting programs that help the poor…
or criticizing programs that harm the poor.
And you pray,
preparing your heart and your soul
to be ready to love when it's the hardest.
________________________________________
Christmas is just two weeks away.
It's heart-warming for me to hear the plans you're making
to gather with family and friends,
to share a feast and enjoy each other's company.
And among the things I hear is
that you're going to welcome Maude and Claude--
Aunt Maude with her acid tongue,
Uncle Claude with his overindulgence.
And you're going to embrace Pam and Sam--
cousin Pam, who is sure to let you know
that she's better than everybody else,
and nephew Sam with his crude language,
sneaking off to smoke marijuana behind the barn.
Even though you don't approve of what they do,
you love them.
You're planning to open the door and welcome them at the table.
And that's a miracle.
________________________________________
As Richard Rohr said:
“The Second Coming of Christ is us.”
When we help the poor and the oppressed,
the downtrodden and the marginalized,
no matter if they're families
racing away from their bombed-out homes in Aleppo
or family at the Christmas feast,
it's our love that brings Christ to life again.
We are miracle workers.
________________________________________
People don't recognize us as Christians
because we go out and buy lots of presents every December.
They know us by our presence, our p-r-e-s-e-n-c-e.
People see that we are followers of Jesus
because of how we treat people every day, all year long--
family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, strangers, enemies.
We meet them and reach out to them and walk with them
along the way.
We spend time with them, get to know them,
see the face of Christ in them.
That's how they know we are Christians…
they see our love bringing light to the world.
It's the true miracle of Christmas.
We have two weeks left to get ready
for our celebration of the fact
that we are the ones
who make that miracle happen all year long.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:6-10
Second Reading: James 5:7-10
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
Today's reading from Isaiah
tells us to have courage
because we will be vindicated.
Justice will prevail.
God will uphold us,
sustain us,
make all things right and just for us.
And when that happens, Isaiah says,
the poorest will be healed.
The eyes of the blind will be opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed,
those who can't walk will leap like deer,
and the tongues of those who cannot speak
will sing for joy.
________________________________________
In the Gospel we heard Matthew tell how John the Baptist,
when he sends his followers to ask Jesus if he is sent by God,
gets the answer
in terms of a fulfillment of that passage in Isaiah:
go back and report what you hear and see:
‘Those who are blind recover their sight;
those who cannot walk are able to walk,
those with leprosy are cured;
those who are deaf hear;
the dead are raised to life;
and the anawim—the “have-nots”--
have the Good News preached to them.’
________________________________________
The practice of looking to the tradition
for keys to the present situation
is as long as recorded history.
It's the habit of calling on the wisdom of the past
for guidance in our time.
James' letter gives the same kind of advice:
Be patient, don't grumble about one another, persevere--
take the prophets as your models.
________________________________________
What about us, now, in our time?
We say we are followers and imitators of the way of Jesus.
That means, according to the Word we just heard,
that we are to be teachers and healers,
reaching out in love to the poor and marginalized.
We are to work miracles, just like Jesus did.
________________________________________
It sounds like a tall order,
but we see those miracles all around us.
Pax Christi, the national Catholic peace movement,
has a local branch that meets over at Corpus Christi Parish.
Just one of the projects that makes Pax Christi a healer
is the “Manna bag,”
a gallon-size plastic bag full of non-perishable food and drink
that they put together and sell
so they can give them away
to those folks standing on street corners asking for help.
Then there are miracle workers like our own Liz Facey, who,
like so many other teachers,
works tirelessly to open the eyes and ears
of her special needs students.
We've been seeing stories on the news lately
about doctors who are pioneering stem cell therapy
that rebuilds body parts,
giving new life to people struck with disability and disease.
We all know families and friends of stroke victims
who tend them through the difficult times of loss and rehab,
loving them through every possible step of improvement.
We all face hard times, accident, illness, or surgery,
the difficulties of aging,
and it's there that we see the loving care
that Jesus told John's followers to tell him about.
_______________________________________
Miracles are happening here at Holy Spirit, too.
We're focused on the environment
and the impact of climate change
on the poorest and most vulnerable people,
and we're doing something about it
with our Tree Toledo efforts.
And you are generous in direct help to the anawim of our time,
donating to organizations
that serve the poor and the marginalized
with housing, food, health needs, clothes, education…
it's a very long list!
You write letters to officeholders
supporting programs that help the poor…
or criticizing programs that harm the poor.
And you pray,
preparing your heart and your soul
to be ready to love when it's the hardest.
________________________________________
Christmas is just two weeks away.
It's heart-warming for me to hear the plans you're making
to gather with family and friends,
to share a feast and enjoy each other's company.
And among the things I hear is
that you're going to welcome Maude and Claude--
Aunt Maude with her acid tongue,
Uncle Claude with his overindulgence.
And you're going to embrace Pam and Sam--
cousin Pam, who is sure to let you know
that she's better than everybody else,
and nephew Sam with his crude language,
sneaking off to smoke marijuana behind the barn.
Even though you don't approve of what they do,
you love them.
You're planning to open the door and welcome them at the table.
And that's a miracle.
________________________________________
As Richard Rohr said:
“The Second Coming of Christ is us.”
When we help the poor and the oppressed,
the downtrodden and the marginalized,
no matter if they're families
racing away from their bombed-out homes in Aleppo
or family at the Christmas feast,
it's our love that brings Christ to life again.
We are miracle workers.
________________________________________
People don't recognize us as Christians
because we go out and buy lots of presents every December.
They know us by our presence, our p-r-e-s-e-n-c-e.
People see that we are followers of Jesus
because of how we treat people every day, all year long--
family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, strangers, enemies.
We meet them and reach out to them and walk with them
along the way.
We spend time with them, get to know them,
see the face of Christ in them.
That's how they know we are Christians…
they see our love bringing light to the world.
It's the true miracle of Christmas.
We have two weeks left to get ready
for our celebration of the fact
that we are the ones
who make that miracle happen all year long.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Advent A2, December 4, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 15:4-9
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
Paul's letter to the Romans has a hopeful lesson for us.
And we sure do need hope these days!
We look ahead to unsettling times…
days, and months, and years, of chaos and uncertainty.
Already we are disturbed,
both by the promises and by the protests.
We are unsettled,
both by suspicions of vote fraud
and by the possibility of recounts.
We are disturbed by news of government appointees
whose views threaten to overturn
the work for a clean environment and health care for the poor,
to rebuild barriers that take away the rights
of immigrants and minorities and women.
We need hope.
Paul says that the scriptures are written to encourage us,
so that “we might derive hope” from them.
___________________________________________
And the scriptures do give us hope.
Isaiah's prophecy in our first reading seems like déjà vu.
King David's successors are not good leaders,
and the Israelites are weary and fearful.
Isaiah tries to calm their fears
and give them hope that a new king will—eventually--
come to bring justice.
The people will eventually come together in a peaceful world--
“no harm, no destruction anywhere.”
It's the echo of that song we love to sing:
“God will reign,
and we'll walk with each other as sisters and brothers,
united in love.”
With that hopeful promise in mind,
we hear Matthew's strident warnings
in the voice of John the Baptizer
and the baptismal anointing of Jesus of Nazareth
as the one who will “fulfill God's justice.”
___________________________________________
Most scholars believe this gospel was written
between 80 and 90 A.D., possibly as late 110,
not by the apostle Matthew
but by an anonymous Jewish man
standing on the edge
between traditional and non-traditional Judaism.
The community was divided about Jesus' nature,
so this gospel quotes a lot of scriptures
to show Jesus fulfilling Old Testament messianic prophecies.
Matthew has John the Baptizer
challenge the Scribes and Pharisees
who come out to see what's going on--
what's with all the people gathering around,
confessing their sins,
being baptized?
John thinks that they show up out of curiosity,
so he challenges those synagogue leaders,
calling them a “brood of vipers,” a “pack of snakes.”
He doesn't believe they're serious about changing their ways.
But he believes that the ordinary people are serious,
so he encourages them to act with justice.
They must change their lives and act with love
so they will be able to recognize the promised Messiah.
___________________________________________
Then Jesus comes to be baptized.
Matthew creates this dialogue to teach the community about Jesus:
that he has God's approval,
that he is anointed by God,
that he is related to God as God's beloved son.
We believe those lessons from Matthew,
even though our understanding of their meaning
is in terms of our 21st century worldview
rather than Matthew's 1st century one.
We give our assent
every time we profess our faith in the Creed of our tradition.
We give our assent
every time we make a decision for justice and peace.
___________________________________________
Thus we step forward in this Advent season of hope.
We get ready for the coming of Christ in our world,
the anointed one.
We are confident that we will find him in each other,
and in everyone we meet,
if we are faithful in following the way of Jesus…
if we live in love.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 15:4-9
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
Paul's letter to the Romans has a hopeful lesson for us.
And we sure do need hope these days!
We look ahead to unsettling times…
days, and months, and years, of chaos and uncertainty.
Already we are disturbed,
both by the promises and by the protests.
We are unsettled,
both by suspicions of vote fraud
and by the possibility of recounts.
We are disturbed by news of government appointees
whose views threaten to overturn
the work for a clean environment and health care for the poor,
to rebuild barriers that take away the rights
of immigrants and minorities and women.
We need hope.
Paul says that the scriptures are written to encourage us,
so that “we might derive hope” from them.
___________________________________________
And the scriptures do give us hope.
Isaiah's prophecy in our first reading seems like déjà vu.
King David's successors are not good leaders,
and the Israelites are weary and fearful.
Isaiah tries to calm their fears
and give them hope that a new king will—eventually--
come to bring justice.
The people will eventually come together in a peaceful world--
“no harm, no destruction anywhere.”
It's the echo of that song we love to sing:
“God will reign,
and we'll walk with each other as sisters and brothers,
united in love.”
With that hopeful promise in mind,
we hear Matthew's strident warnings
in the voice of John the Baptizer
and the baptismal anointing of Jesus of Nazareth
as the one who will “fulfill God's justice.”
___________________________________________
Most scholars believe this gospel was written
between 80 and 90 A.D., possibly as late 110,
not by the apostle Matthew
but by an anonymous Jewish man
standing on the edge
between traditional and non-traditional Judaism.
The community was divided about Jesus' nature,
so this gospel quotes a lot of scriptures
to show Jesus fulfilling Old Testament messianic prophecies.
Matthew has John the Baptizer
challenge the Scribes and Pharisees
who come out to see what's going on--
what's with all the people gathering around,
confessing their sins,
being baptized?
John thinks that they show up out of curiosity,
so he challenges those synagogue leaders,
calling them a “brood of vipers,” a “pack of snakes.”
He doesn't believe they're serious about changing their ways.
But he believes that the ordinary people are serious,
so he encourages them to act with justice.
They must change their lives and act with love
so they will be able to recognize the promised Messiah.
___________________________________________
Then Jesus comes to be baptized.
Matthew creates this dialogue to teach the community about Jesus:
that he has God's approval,
that he is anointed by God,
that he is related to God as God's beloved son.
We believe those lessons from Matthew,
even though our understanding of their meaning
is in terms of our 21st century worldview
rather than Matthew's 1st century one.
We give our assent
every time we profess our faith in the Creed of our tradition.
We give our assent
every time we make a decision for justice and peace.
___________________________________________
Thus we step forward in this Advent season of hope.
We get ready for the coming of Christ in our world,
the anointed one.
We are confident that we will find him in each other,
and in everyone we meet,
if we are faithful in following the way of Jesus…
if we live in love.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Advent A1, November 27, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-9
Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
Our penitential rite at the beginning of today's Mass
took the traditional form of sacramental reconciliation--
confession, contrition, absolution.
Why?
Fr. Ron Rolheiser tells us
that confession is the sacrament of the mature.
As mature people we have to face ourselves
and admit that we have not done what we should have,
or that we have done what we shouldn't have…
and we apologize.
By that process we become even more mature.
__________________________________________
It is fitting that we practice reconciliation communally.
When we sin, we sin against the whole world.
We are not the person we are called to be.
We fail to become the person we could have become.
So we apologize… to God, to one another.
That's the meaning of that “act of contrition”--
I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters….”
As a Christian community,
we are the sign—the sacrament—of reconciliation.
We pray for one another,
and we forgive one another,
and God forgives all of us.
Through that process, we grow in faith and virtue.
__________________________________________
I know from my own experience
that I have learned the greatest lessons
from my greatest mistakes.
When I get out of the habit of taking stock of my day--
that practice we learned as the “examination of conscience”
when we were youngsters--
it's then that I get stuck in routine and don't grow.
It's as if I'm sleepwalking through life.
I might fail to pay attention to my responsibility
as a citizen, as a friend, as a family member,
as a worker, as a retiree with free time.
In whatever failure, in whatever of those ways I stumble,
I fail to act as a follower of Jesus.
__________________________________________
Scripture scholars tell us that today's readings
are not about the end of the world.
They're about events in the everyday world of the time
that make it feel like it's all over.
Matthew's community experienced the destruction of the Temple,
the center of their religious and cultural life.
It was the end of the world as they knew it.
Lots of folks are having that experience in our country
in these post-election days.
People feel as if it's the end of the world as they knew it.
Some fear the loss of traditional jobs,
or the cultural norms they grew up with,
or a change in their social status and identity.
Some fear persecution for their color or their religion
or their gender or their nationality.
__________________________________________
One of the ways we know that today's gospel
is not about the end of the world is that,
as people are going about their daily lives,
some are taken and some are left behind.
It's a metaphor for what happens
when we fail to stay alert to the signs of the times,
when we sleep-walk through life.
If we're not paying attention, we get left behind.
We are miserable.
We are unfulfilled.
On the other hand, if we are keeping watch, we move on.
We adapt and change.
We respond.
We grow, and we live in peace.
__________________________________________
It's never too late.
We're not too old to change.
We're not too old to make a difference.
From time to time I visit a woman in an assisted living facility.
When I stop in, Mary is rarely in her room.
She's pushing 90…
and she's also pushing her walker around the halls,
visiting people who can't get out of bed.
She doesn't have anything to give them
except the gift of her presence.
Mary makes a difference.
__________________________________________
Then there's Nolan, one of my neighbors,
retired from a government job.
I see him every day, walking up and down the street,
smiling at the teenagers on their way to school,
picking up trash, waving to folks as they drive by.
He stops by my garden and chats over the fence,
then moves on.
Nolan is tending to the part of the world that he can change,
and doing a great job of it.
Nolan makes a difference.
And then there's Tina, in her 50s,
limping into Claver House
before heading off to her work cleaning rooms in a local hotel.
Always a smile and a cheerful hello,
greeting everyone by name and asking how they are.
Tina makes a difference.
__________________________________________
Good folks they are, and many more like them, old and young.
They keep going,
watching what's happening in the world around them,
and making the ordinary times of their ordinary lives
into gifts of friendliness and caring… and love...
to everyone they meet.
When I look around this chapel, I see you--
people who are alert to the signs of the times,
living your lives in relationship to God
and neighbor
and the world around you.
I see you... making a difference.
__________________________________________
The day of the Lord comes again and again, over and over.
Advent is our wake-up call.
So we open our eyes once more
to see that God is with us, among us, and in us.
Amen!
First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-9
Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
Our penitential rite at the beginning of today's Mass
took the traditional form of sacramental reconciliation--
confession, contrition, absolution.
Why?
Fr. Ron Rolheiser tells us
that confession is the sacrament of the mature.
As mature people we have to face ourselves
and admit that we have not done what we should have,
or that we have done what we shouldn't have…
and we apologize.
By that process we become even more mature.
__________________________________________
It is fitting that we practice reconciliation communally.
When we sin, we sin against the whole world.
We are not the person we are called to be.
We fail to become the person we could have become.
So we apologize… to God, to one another.
That's the meaning of that “act of contrition”--
I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters….”
As a Christian community,
we are the sign—the sacrament—of reconciliation.
We pray for one another,
and we forgive one another,
and God forgives all of us.
Through that process, we grow in faith and virtue.
__________________________________________
I know from my own experience
that I have learned the greatest lessons
from my greatest mistakes.
When I get out of the habit of taking stock of my day--
that practice we learned as the “examination of conscience”
when we were youngsters--
it's then that I get stuck in routine and don't grow.
It's as if I'm sleepwalking through life.
I might fail to pay attention to my responsibility
as a citizen, as a friend, as a family member,
as a worker, as a retiree with free time.
In whatever failure, in whatever of those ways I stumble,
I fail to act as a follower of Jesus.
__________________________________________
Scripture scholars tell us that today's readings
are not about the end of the world.
They're about events in the everyday world of the time
that make it feel like it's all over.
Matthew's community experienced the destruction of the Temple,
the center of their religious and cultural life.
It was the end of the world as they knew it.
Lots of folks are having that experience in our country
in these post-election days.
People feel as if it's the end of the world as they knew it.
Some fear the loss of traditional jobs,
or the cultural norms they grew up with,
or a change in their social status and identity.
Some fear persecution for their color or their religion
or their gender or their nationality.
__________________________________________
One of the ways we know that today's gospel
is not about the end of the world is that,
as people are going about their daily lives,
some are taken and some are left behind.
It's a metaphor for what happens
when we fail to stay alert to the signs of the times,
when we sleep-walk through life.
If we're not paying attention, we get left behind.
We are miserable.
We are unfulfilled.
On the other hand, if we are keeping watch, we move on.
We adapt and change.
We respond.
We grow, and we live in peace.
__________________________________________
It's never too late.
We're not too old to change.
We're not too old to make a difference.
From time to time I visit a woman in an assisted living facility.
When I stop in, Mary is rarely in her room.
She's pushing 90…
and she's also pushing her walker around the halls,
visiting people who can't get out of bed.
She doesn't have anything to give them
except the gift of her presence.
Mary makes a difference.
__________________________________________
Then there's Nolan, one of my neighbors,
retired from a government job.
I see him every day, walking up and down the street,
smiling at the teenagers on their way to school,
picking up trash, waving to folks as they drive by.
He stops by my garden and chats over the fence,
then moves on.
Nolan is tending to the part of the world that he can change,
and doing a great job of it.
Nolan makes a difference.
And then there's Tina, in her 50s,
limping into Claver House
before heading off to her work cleaning rooms in a local hotel.
Always a smile and a cheerful hello,
greeting everyone by name and asking how they are.
Tina makes a difference.
__________________________________________
Good folks they are, and many more like them, old and young.
They keep going,
watching what's happening in the world around them,
and making the ordinary times of their ordinary lives
into gifts of friendliness and caring… and love...
to everyone they meet.
When I look around this chapel, I see you--
people who are alert to the signs of the times,
living your lives in relationship to God
and neighbor
and the world around you.
I see you... making a difference.
__________________________________________
The day of the Lord comes again and again, over and over.
Advent is our wake-up call.
So we open our eyes once more
to see that God is with us, among us, and in us.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 34 OTC, November 20, 2016
First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43
The feast we celebrate today,
the Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe,
is relatively new--
not even a century old in the 2,000-year history of our Church.
Some sources say that, when Pope Pius XI started it
as the “Feast of Christ the King” in 1925,
he was trying to stem the spread of secular rulers
taking over lands previously ruled by the Vatican,
disputes that were not resolved
until the Lateran Treaty in 1929.
Other sources say the Pope started the feast
to counter the increasing threat to the power of the church
from dictators like Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin.
__________________________________________
Our church still engages in political disputes and power struggles.
The irony in this, whether back in the 1920s or now,
is that Jesus' teaching is clear.
Jesus doesn't call for the religious powers to govern a country,
as the Papacy had tried to do.
He doesn't call for the government
to make everybody follow the rules of one religion,
as the U.S. Bishops have sometimes tried to do.
In fact, Jesus' teaching is clearly not about worldly power,
no matter whether it's the power of the state
or the power of the church.
The scriptures, especially John's gospel,
show us Jesus teaching about the reign of God,
not the reign of church or state.
__________________________________________
The idea of a king is foreign to us.
But we do have people in positions of power,
and their decisions are not always ones
that our own well-formed consciences can agree with.
Because we are followers of Jesus,
we try to act in accordance with his teaching,
even when it goes against the government or the church.
Jesus showed us, in his teaching and with his life,
that there is another way, a better way, a more effective way--
the way of service, the way of peace, the way of love.
He said that he came not to be served but to serve.
That's what he did,
and that's what we're called to do.
_________________________________________
We don't have to think hard to figure out what that means.
Following Jesus means that we act out of love for all people.
So we oppose capital punishment.
We support gun control.
We welcome refugees and immigrants.
Our Holy Spirit Catholic Community stands vigil in prayer
when the State of Ohio executes a prisoner in our name.
We contribute to Compassion on Death Row.
We co-sponsor “Guns to Gardens”
with the Ohio Coalition against Gun Violence.
Following Jesus means
that we care for the poor and the oppressed.
Our Community members volunteer in countless efforts
to help the homeless and the hungry and the downtrodden.
That's on top of very generous donations
to shelters and soup kitchens
and tutoring programs and disaster relief;
and your letters to elected officials and to the media
on behalf of programs to make life better for everyone,
here and around the world.
__________________________________________
We look at our government
and see challenges to the Way of Jesus.
Our next President has spoken against almost every principle
of Catholic Social Teaching.
He proposes that we set forth on a path of hate
for the most vulnerable, poorest,
and most oppressed among us.
His climate-denying lays out a path of death and destruction
for peoples here and around the world,
for us and for generations to come.
__________________________________________
But we have hope in the one
who is higher than the President of the United States,
higher than any power on earth,
greater than any power in the universe.
It's the hope that Dorothy Day wrote about in the '40s.
She said, “Often we comfort ourselves only with words,
but if we pray enough,
the conviction will come too that Christ is our King,
not Stalin, Bevins, or Truman.”
We can be confident because God is in charge.
__________________________________________
What we are celebrating today
is not a style of government with its earthly kings
but the victory of love over hate,
the triumph of life over death.
We're celebrating that the reign of God is at hand--
the goodness, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace
that Jesus revealed to us.
__________________________________________
Our first reading today tells us that God chose David,
of the flesh and blood of the people,
to shepherd Israel as king.
Our second reading tells us that God chose Jesus,
our own flesh and blood, our brother,
to reflect God's own self.
Our Gospel shows us Jesus,
true unto death to God's way of love.
And now God has chosen us, just ordinary folks,
to bring about God's reign in our time.
__________________________________________
Donald Trump is going about the task of selecting people
to help him do the things he promised during the campaign.
But we have hope
because God has chosen us to imitate the ministry of Jesus.
We have been chosen to do the work
that shows that the reign of God,
as the U.S. Bishops put it back in 1987,
“is more powerful than evil, sickness,
and the hardness of the human heart.”
Like Jesus, we are to take up “the cause
of those who suffer discrimination.”
We are the ones God has chosen now,
for the challenges of this time,
to bring light to the world.
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday,
as we prepare to celebrate Eucharist today,
we have reason to give thanks.
We give thanks for our brother Jesus
who teaches us how to live and how to love.
We give thanks that we are called to follow him on the way,
servant disciples of our servant leader.
Amen
First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43
The feast we celebrate today,
the Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe,
is relatively new--
not even a century old in the 2,000-year history of our Church.
Some sources say that, when Pope Pius XI started it
as the “Feast of Christ the King” in 1925,
he was trying to stem the spread of secular rulers
taking over lands previously ruled by the Vatican,
disputes that were not resolved
until the Lateran Treaty in 1929.
Other sources say the Pope started the feast
to counter the increasing threat to the power of the church
from dictators like Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin.
__________________________________________
Our church still engages in political disputes and power struggles.
The irony in this, whether back in the 1920s or now,
is that Jesus' teaching is clear.
Jesus doesn't call for the religious powers to govern a country,
as the Papacy had tried to do.
He doesn't call for the government
to make everybody follow the rules of one religion,
as the U.S. Bishops have sometimes tried to do.
In fact, Jesus' teaching is clearly not about worldly power,
no matter whether it's the power of the state
or the power of the church.
The scriptures, especially John's gospel,
show us Jesus teaching about the reign of God,
not the reign of church or state.
__________________________________________
The idea of a king is foreign to us.
But we do have people in positions of power,
and their decisions are not always ones
that our own well-formed consciences can agree with.
Because we are followers of Jesus,
we try to act in accordance with his teaching,
even when it goes against the government or the church.
Jesus showed us, in his teaching and with his life,
that there is another way, a better way, a more effective way--
the way of service, the way of peace, the way of love.
He said that he came not to be served but to serve.
That's what he did,
and that's what we're called to do.
_________________________________________
We don't have to think hard to figure out what that means.
Following Jesus means that we act out of love for all people.
So we oppose capital punishment.
We support gun control.
We welcome refugees and immigrants.
Our Holy Spirit Catholic Community stands vigil in prayer
when the State of Ohio executes a prisoner in our name.
We contribute to Compassion on Death Row.
We co-sponsor “Guns to Gardens”
with the Ohio Coalition against Gun Violence.
Following Jesus means
that we care for the poor and the oppressed.
Our Community members volunteer in countless efforts
to help the homeless and the hungry and the downtrodden.
That's on top of very generous donations
to shelters and soup kitchens
and tutoring programs and disaster relief;
and your letters to elected officials and to the media
on behalf of programs to make life better for everyone,
here and around the world.
__________________________________________
We look at our government
and see challenges to the Way of Jesus.
Our next President has spoken against almost every principle
of Catholic Social Teaching.
He proposes that we set forth on a path of hate
for the most vulnerable, poorest,
and most oppressed among us.
His climate-denying lays out a path of death and destruction
for peoples here and around the world,
for us and for generations to come.
__________________________________________
But we have hope in the one
who is higher than the President of the United States,
higher than any power on earth,
greater than any power in the universe.
It's the hope that Dorothy Day wrote about in the '40s.
She said, “Often we comfort ourselves only with words,
but if we pray enough,
the conviction will come too that Christ is our King,
not Stalin, Bevins, or Truman.”
We can be confident because God is in charge.
__________________________________________
What we are celebrating today
is not a style of government with its earthly kings
but the victory of love over hate,
the triumph of life over death.
We're celebrating that the reign of God is at hand--
the goodness, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace
that Jesus revealed to us.
__________________________________________
Our first reading today tells us that God chose David,
of the flesh and blood of the people,
to shepherd Israel as king.
Our second reading tells us that God chose Jesus,
our own flesh and blood, our brother,
to reflect God's own self.
Our Gospel shows us Jesus,
true unto death to God's way of love.
And now God has chosen us, just ordinary folks,
to bring about God's reign in our time.
__________________________________________
Donald Trump is going about the task of selecting people
to help him do the things he promised during the campaign.
But we have hope
because God has chosen us to imitate the ministry of Jesus.
We have been chosen to do the work
that shows that the reign of God,
as the U.S. Bishops put it back in 1987,
“is more powerful than evil, sickness,
and the hardness of the human heart.”
Like Jesus, we are to take up “the cause
of those who suffer discrimination.”
We are the ones God has chosen now,
for the challenges of this time,
to bring light to the world.
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday,
as we prepare to celebrate Eucharist today,
we have reason to give thanks.
We give thanks for our brother Jesus
who teaches us how to live and how to love.
We give thanks that we are called to follow him on the way,
servant disciples of our servant leader.
Amen
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 33 OTC, November 13, 2016
First Reading: Malachi 4:1-2
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:5-9
Second Reading: 2Thessalonians 3:7-12
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
Wednesday afternoon one of our community members phoned me.
She was grieving about the Presidential election results.
She was mourning
because the outcome rejected
the values she holds most dear--
the moral and social teaching of Jesus
that we try to follow here.
She is afraid of what will happen to immigrants, Muslims,
Hispanics, the disabled, LGBT folks, the poor,
those 22 million who will lose their Obamacare insurance,
African Americans, our planet.
“What can we do?” she asked.
My answer was swift and to the point: “I don't know.”
So we talked a bit.
She said that the election results
make her feel compelled to speak up
where before she stayed quiet,
whenever she encounters racist or sexist remarks.
But she doesn't want to be crude or nasty.
She wants to be loving about it.
Maybe something like a support group, she said.
A place to figure out how to respond
kindly and effectively
to inappropriate remarks and hurtful ideas.
A way to work through this period of mourning.
A means of figuring out ways
to put Catholic Social Teaching into practice
in spite of the election results.
__________________________________________
We had such great hopes!
Too many of those hopes were dashed in Tuesday's voting.
So today we seek comfort and renewed hope
from the ancient scriptures.
We find Malachi's prophecy
that the arrogant and the evildoers
will be left without root or branch,
while the people who worship the most high God
will see justice rise like the sun.
We find Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians
to practice self-discipline
and imitate the best in their actions.
And we find Luke having Jesus describe for his disciples
a litany of terrible events that will come
and assuring them
that not a hair on their heads will be harmed.
Their patient endurance will save them.
__________________________________________
Because scriptures scholars say that Luke
is writing this gospel 50 or more years after Jesus died,
we know that the events have already taken place.
The disciples have already suffered the difficulties Luke describes.
Jerusalem and the temple have already been destroyed.
Luke writes this passage to show Jesus
as a “prophet mighty in word and deed”
who leads people—whose lives have lost moral direction--
back to the purpose and meaning of life.
__________________________________________
We face an unknown future in our country.
Many people are afraid.
They are wondering what will happen to our country
now that we have elected a man who said
that Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals,
that Muslims should be banned from entering the country,
that he would lock up his opponent after he was elected,
that he would sue the women
who accused him of sexual assault.
He ridiculed people with disabilities.
He denied climate change.
He used crude language, and he lied, over and over and over.
We heard Fr. Jim Bacik describe the candidate
as engaging in “apocalyptic messianism”--
predicting a disaster if he were not elected
and claiming that he is the only one who can save us.
We heard Pope Francis say that
“A person who thinks only about building walls,
wherever they may be, and not building bridges,
is not Christian. This is not the gospel."
In her pastoral letter this week--
the entire text of it is in today's bulletin--
Bishop Joan gave us hope
by comparing this election result
to the 2005 selection of the pope.
She wrote, “When I heard the announcement
that the new pope was Joseph Ratzinger,
I was equally as distraught as I am today.
We went through some very hard times
with the new Pope Benedict XVI.
How could we have known that Benedict would retire
and we would have a pope full of compassion for the poor? How can we today
know what tomorrow is going to bring to U.S. society?”
Bishop Joan encourages us to pray.
And she urges us to double down
on our efforts for justice and peace.
__________________________________________
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we cannot run away and hide from the challenges of the future.
We cannot cringe in expectation of doom.
We cannot resort to violence.
We are called to keep on living in joy and hope,
and we have reason to do so.
No matter what happens, God is in charge.
__________________________________________
It's fitting, as we near the end of our church year,
that we find scriptures talking about the “end times”
and looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ.
It's helpful to remember what Richard Rohr said:
“The Second Coming of Christ is us.”
We are the ones who bring Christ to life again
in this world, in this time.
We are the ones called
to live in hope,
to serve one another,
to love God and neighbor.
So, while we will mourn the loss of what might have been,
we will continue to work for the poor,
to stand in solidarity with the oppressed,
and to keep on working for justice and peace.
Amen!
First Reading: Malachi 4:1-2
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:5-9
Second Reading: 2Thessalonians 3:7-12
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
Wednesday afternoon one of our community members phoned me.
She was grieving about the Presidential election results.
She was mourning
because the outcome rejected
the values she holds most dear--
the moral and social teaching of Jesus
that we try to follow here.
She is afraid of what will happen to immigrants, Muslims,
Hispanics, the disabled, LGBT folks, the poor,
those 22 million who will lose their Obamacare insurance,
African Americans, our planet.
“What can we do?” she asked.
My answer was swift and to the point: “I don't know.”
So we talked a bit.
She said that the election results
make her feel compelled to speak up
where before she stayed quiet,
whenever she encounters racist or sexist remarks.
But she doesn't want to be crude or nasty.
She wants to be loving about it.
Maybe something like a support group, she said.
A place to figure out how to respond
kindly and effectively
to inappropriate remarks and hurtful ideas.
A way to work through this period of mourning.
A means of figuring out ways
to put Catholic Social Teaching into practice
in spite of the election results.
__________________________________________
We had such great hopes!
Too many of those hopes were dashed in Tuesday's voting.
So today we seek comfort and renewed hope
from the ancient scriptures.
We find Malachi's prophecy
that the arrogant and the evildoers
will be left without root or branch,
while the people who worship the most high God
will see justice rise like the sun.
We find Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians
to practice self-discipline
and imitate the best in their actions.
And we find Luke having Jesus describe for his disciples
a litany of terrible events that will come
and assuring them
that not a hair on their heads will be harmed.
Their patient endurance will save them.
__________________________________________
Because scriptures scholars say that Luke
is writing this gospel 50 or more years after Jesus died,
we know that the events have already taken place.
The disciples have already suffered the difficulties Luke describes.
Jerusalem and the temple have already been destroyed.
Luke writes this passage to show Jesus
as a “prophet mighty in word and deed”
who leads people—whose lives have lost moral direction--
back to the purpose and meaning of life.
__________________________________________
We face an unknown future in our country.
Many people are afraid.
They are wondering what will happen to our country
now that we have elected a man who said
that Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals,
that Muslims should be banned from entering the country,
that he would lock up his opponent after he was elected,
that he would sue the women
who accused him of sexual assault.
He ridiculed people with disabilities.
He denied climate change.
He used crude language, and he lied, over and over and over.
We heard Fr. Jim Bacik describe the candidate
as engaging in “apocalyptic messianism”--
predicting a disaster if he were not elected
and claiming that he is the only one who can save us.
We heard Pope Francis say that
“A person who thinks only about building walls,
wherever they may be, and not building bridges,
is not Christian. This is not the gospel."
In her pastoral letter this week--
the entire text of it is in today's bulletin--
Bishop Joan gave us hope
by comparing this election result
to the 2005 selection of the pope.
She wrote, “When I heard the announcement
that the new pope was Joseph Ratzinger,
I was equally as distraught as I am today.
We went through some very hard times
with the new Pope Benedict XVI.
How could we have known that Benedict would retire
and we would have a pope full of compassion for the poor? How can we today
know what tomorrow is going to bring to U.S. society?”
Bishop Joan encourages us to pray.
And she urges us to double down
on our efforts for justice and peace.
__________________________________________
As followers of the Way of Jesus,
we cannot run away and hide from the challenges of the future.
We cannot cringe in expectation of doom.
We cannot resort to violence.
We are called to keep on living in joy and hope,
and we have reason to do so.
No matter what happens, God is in charge.
__________________________________________
It's fitting, as we near the end of our church year,
that we find scriptures talking about the “end times”
and looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ.
It's helpful to remember what Richard Rohr said:
“The Second Coming of Christ is us.”
We are the ones who bring Christ to life again
in this world, in this time.
We are the ones called
to live in hope,
to serve one another,
to love God and neighbor.
So, while we will mourn the loss of what might have been,
we will continue to work for the poor,
to stand in solidarity with the oppressed,
and to keep on working for justice and peace.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 32 OTC, November 6, 2016
First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Today's reading from the book of Maccabees
details a horrific incident of religious intolerance:
the arrest, torture, and murder of seven children
as their mother was forced to look on
before she too was murdered.
Their crime: they were Jews.
Their religion forbade eating pork,
and they refused to go against the teaching of their religion.
______________________________________
Our U.S. Bishops have written extensively
in defense of religious liberty for all.
Four years ago they issued a document titled
Our First, Most Cherished Liberty.
It asserted that:
“If religious liberty is not respected, all people suffer.”
And Dignitatis Humanae,
the Vatican II document on religious liberty,
is absolutely clear:
we have a right to religious freedom,
to be immune from coercion,
never to be forced to act in a manner contrary to our beliefs.
______________________________________
And we are obliged to defend the right to religious liberty
not only for ourselves but also for others.
We know that we have not always done that.
The U.S. Bishops admit that
“our history has shadows in terms of religious liberty,
when we did not extend to others
the proper respect for this first freedom.”
Religious freedom does not mean
that people of other faiths have to follow our rules.
That's totalitarianism.
That's terrorism.
We have a lot of work to do.
______________________________________
Religious persecution--
the systematic mistreatment
of an individual or group of individuals
as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations
or persecution because they have no religious belief--
is rampant in countries all over our planet.
It's easy to point to places like North Korea, China,
Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh.
But it's here, too.
In some cases it's a combination
of racial or ethnic intolerance
with religious intolerance.
Again and again we hear the TV reports
of bombing incidents in Black churches in the south.
Islamophobia is more widespread than the common cold,
even here in holy Toledo.
Three years ago the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo was torched.
The arsonist said he wanted to “get some payback” for 9/11.
______________________________________
The 9/11 terrorists, like the Maccabees,
were willing to die for what they believed.
But terrorists,
like people who bomb churches and set fire to mosques--
and unlike the Maccabees--
do not respect the religious freedom of others.
The Maccabees did not launch terrorist attacks
on those they saw as perverse and wicked.
They used peaceful means of persuasion,
resisting with the words of truth
and the endurance of their hearts.
They were ready to die
rather than go against their religious beliefs.
______________________________________
With so many shouts of vengeance in our world today,
we need to reflect on the message here.
Luke's gospel shows us the way of Jesus:
he engages in dialogue.
He resists with words of truth.
Today's passage is part of a series of attempts
by the local religious leadership
to force Jesus to take sides on the political issues of his time.
The Sadducees—who, unlike the Pharisees,
do not believe in resurrection--
ask Jesus that loaded question
about the status of levirate marriage in the afterlife.
Jesus takes the side of the Pharisees but avoids the trap.
Just before that question, they had asked him
whether it's lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,
and Jesus avoided that trap with that well-known line,
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
______________________________________
When the questions end,
Jesus tells his disciples to be wary of leaders
who parade around for attention
but ignore the plight of widows and orphans.
______________________________________
So these scriptures remind us once again that,
because we are followers of the Way of Jesus,
we include in our preparation for voting
the questions
of whether or not the candidates
respect the religious freedom of all peoples
and whether the issues tend to the needs of the poor.
We're back to that basic rule of our faith,
the one that guides everything we do,
the one that identifies us as Christians:
love one another!
Amen!
First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Today's reading from the book of Maccabees
details a horrific incident of religious intolerance:
the arrest, torture, and murder of seven children
as their mother was forced to look on
before she too was murdered.
Their crime: they were Jews.
Their religion forbade eating pork,
and they refused to go against the teaching of their religion.
______________________________________
Our U.S. Bishops have written extensively
in defense of religious liberty for all.
Four years ago they issued a document titled
Our First, Most Cherished Liberty.
It asserted that:
“If religious liberty is not respected, all people suffer.”
And Dignitatis Humanae,
the Vatican II document on religious liberty,
is absolutely clear:
we have a right to religious freedom,
to be immune from coercion,
never to be forced to act in a manner contrary to our beliefs.
______________________________________
And we are obliged to defend the right to religious liberty
not only for ourselves but also for others.
We know that we have not always done that.
The U.S. Bishops admit that
“our history has shadows in terms of religious liberty,
when we did not extend to others
the proper respect for this first freedom.”
Religious freedom does not mean
that people of other faiths have to follow our rules.
That's totalitarianism.
That's terrorism.
We have a lot of work to do.
______________________________________
Religious persecution--
the systematic mistreatment
of an individual or group of individuals
as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations
or persecution because they have no religious belief--
is rampant in countries all over our planet.
It's easy to point to places like North Korea, China,
Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh.
But it's here, too.
In some cases it's a combination
of racial or ethnic intolerance
with religious intolerance.
Again and again we hear the TV reports
of bombing incidents in Black churches in the south.
Islamophobia is more widespread than the common cold,
even here in holy Toledo.
Three years ago the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo was torched.
The arsonist said he wanted to “get some payback” for 9/11.
______________________________________
The 9/11 terrorists, like the Maccabees,
were willing to die for what they believed.
But terrorists,
like people who bomb churches and set fire to mosques--
and unlike the Maccabees--
do not respect the religious freedom of others.
The Maccabees did not launch terrorist attacks
on those they saw as perverse and wicked.
They used peaceful means of persuasion,
resisting with the words of truth
and the endurance of their hearts.
They were ready to die
rather than go against their religious beliefs.
______________________________________
With so many shouts of vengeance in our world today,
we need to reflect on the message here.
Luke's gospel shows us the way of Jesus:
he engages in dialogue.
He resists with words of truth.
Today's passage is part of a series of attempts
by the local religious leadership
to force Jesus to take sides on the political issues of his time.
The Sadducees—who, unlike the Pharisees,
do not believe in resurrection--
ask Jesus that loaded question
about the status of levirate marriage in the afterlife.
Jesus takes the side of the Pharisees but avoids the trap.
Just before that question, they had asked him
whether it's lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,
and Jesus avoided that trap with that well-known line,
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
______________________________________
When the questions end,
Jesus tells his disciples to be wary of leaders
who parade around for attention
but ignore the plight of widows and orphans.
______________________________________
So these scriptures remind us once again that,
because we are followers of the Way of Jesus,
we include in our preparation for voting
the questions
of whether or not the candidates
respect the religious freedom of all peoples
and whether the issues tend to the needs of the poor.
We're back to that basic rule of our faith,
the one that guides everything we do,
the one that identifies us as Christians:
love one another!
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 31 OTC, October 30, 2016
First Reading: Wisdom 11:22-12:2
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13, 14
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:11-22
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
Luke's story about Zaccheus has some lessons for us today.
One lesson is what not to do--
not to cheat people,
not to take more than my fair share,
not to grow wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Another lesson is what to do--
admit that I've been wrong,
change my ways,
and make up for the bad things I've done.
And then there's the lesson that undergirds all the rest:
love my neighbor.
_______________________________________
Zacchaeus is neighbor to each of us.
And we look down on him.
He's a tax collector--
the IRS, ready to pounce on us
if we leave anything off our tax return,
hitting us with dunning letters and fines.
He's wealthy--
a government job, making money for himself
by taking it away from people like us.
Even more, he's shorter than we are.
Really short.
The average Semite man at the time of Jesus,
archaeologists tell us,
was 5'1” and weighed about 110 pounds.
So if Jesus was of average height,
the top of his head would come to about where my nose is.
And Zacchaeus was really short.
He had to climb a tree to be able to see Jesus walking by.
But Jesus looks up to him, up in that sycamore tree.
Jesus lives the truth of that first reading.
He knows that God loves all that lives,
that God's “imperishable breath fills every one of them”...
including Zacchaeus.
So he ignores the derision of the crowd
and shows Zacchaeus great respect
by accepting his hospitality.
_______________________________________
We pick up those lessons of inclusion and exclusion early in life.
There's family, and there's not family.
There's friend and there's acquaintance.
There's neighbor, and there's stranger.
There's us... and there's them.
As we grow, we learn reasons for including some people
and excluding others.
_______________________________________
Back in the '50s, when I was in grade school,
I learned the kid version of exclusion.
If you were good-looking,
you made fun of the kids who looked ordinary.
If you had nice clothes from Joseph's,
you didn't make friends with the kids
who wore out-of-date styles from the thrift shop.
If you were athletic, you'd never choose the kids who weren't
to be on your side for recess games.
If you had money to buy lunch in the cafeteria,
you'd never sit with the kids who had to pack their lunch.
But I also learned lessons of inclusion.
I remember the Hungarian Revolution of 1956,
when a dozen new students came to St. Ann's School,
displaced from their home country,
couldn't speak English, and wore odd clothes.
Some kids just stared at them.
But some of the kids smiled at them
and helped them learn the strange Fremont ways,
just as they had chosen friends
from both rich and poor, black and white,
no matter how they dressed
or where they lived
or what they ate for lunch.
_______________________________________
By the time high school rolled around,
we had for the most part learned to gather with our own kind.
Without consciously thinking about it,
we began to separate ourselves
by neighborhood, religion, race, class, and gender.
We learned that befriending a classmate
who was different in any way
would put us out on the fringes along with them.
If we wanted to be part of the in-group,
we went along with the crowd.
_______________________________________
The patterns are set early,
and all of us have a bias of some sort,
an unexamined assumption about others
that needs to be challenged.
Over the years we all have had to work hard
to overcome the prejudices of our society.
Our Catholic Social Teaching tradition,
as our Bishops describe it,
is clear that our faith calls us
to welcome the stranger among us,
to find unity in diversity.
They tell us that we are to “welcome the newcomers
in our neighborhoods and schools,
in our places of work and worship,
with heartfelt hospitality, openness, and eagerness
both to help and to learn from
our brothers and sisters
of whatever religion, ethnicity, or background.”
_______________________________________
The need for welcoming the stranger
is overwhelming in today's world.
Every minute of every day last year, 24 people were displaced.
At the end of 2015 the total of forcibly displaced people worldwide
reached 65.3 million—one out of every 113 people on Earth
[according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees],
more than any time since record-keeping began.
_______________________________________
If those displaced millions were spread evenly around the world,
there would be 2,498 Toledoans forced to leave their homes.
Thank God we don't suffer war or persecution here.
We don't suffer daily bombings of our cities and hospitals.
We are are privileged with the freedom to speak our opinions,
practice our religion, and vote as we choose.
_______________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit we welcome the stranger.
Everyone who walks in the door is welcome…
welcome to come in,
welcome to celebrate with us,
welcome at the table.
As a community we work
on racial justice with the Toledo Community Coalition
and Dialogue-to-Change,
on refugee resettlement with UStogether,
on religious tolerance with the MultiFaith Council,
on homelessness with Beach House
and Tent City and 1Matters.
Today's scriptures encourage us to keep on keeping on…
to keep on loving
every one of our neighbors
on this planet.
Amen!
First Reading: Wisdom 11:22-12:2
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13, 14
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:11-22
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
Luke's story about Zaccheus has some lessons for us today.
One lesson is what not to do--
not to cheat people,
not to take more than my fair share,
not to grow wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Another lesson is what to do--
admit that I've been wrong,
change my ways,
and make up for the bad things I've done.
And then there's the lesson that undergirds all the rest:
love my neighbor.
_______________________________________
Zacchaeus is neighbor to each of us.
And we look down on him.
He's a tax collector--
the IRS, ready to pounce on us
if we leave anything off our tax return,
hitting us with dunning letters and fines.
He's wealthy--
a government job, making money for himself
by taking it away from people like us.
Even more, he's shorter than we are.
Really short.
The average Semite man at the time of Jesus,
archaeologists tell us,
was 5'1” and weighed about 110 pounds.
So if Jesus was of average height,
the top of his head would come to about where my nose is.
And Zacchaeus was really short.
He had to climb a tree to be able to see Jesus walking by.
But Jesus looks up to him, up in that sycamore tree.
Jesus lives the truth of that first reading.
He knows that God loves all that lives,
that God's “imperishable breath fills every one of them”...
including Zacchaeus.
So he ignores the derision of the crowd
and shows Zacchaeus great respect
by accepting his hospitality.
_______________________________________
We pick up those lessons of inclusion and exclusion early in life.
There's family, and there's not family.
There's friend and there's acquaintance.
There's neighbor, and there's stranger.
There's us... and there's them.
As we grow, we learn reasons for including some people
and excluding others.
_______________________________________
Back in the '50s, when I was in grade school,
I learned the kid version of exclusion.
If you were good-looking,
you made fun of the kids who looked ordinary.
If you had nice clothes from Joseph's,
you didn't make friends with the kids
who wore out-of-date styles from the thrift shop.
If you were athletic, you'd never choose the kids who weren't
to be on your side for recess games.
If you had money to buy lunch in the cafeteria,
you'd never sit with the kids who had to pack their lunch.
But I also learned lessons of inclusion.
I remember the Hungarian Revolution of 1956,
when a dozen new students came to St. Ann's School,
displaced from their home country,
couldn't speak English, and wore odd clothes.
Some kids just stared at them.
But some of the kids smiled at them
and helped them learn the strange Fremont ways,
just as they had chosen friends
from both rich and poor, black and white,
no matter how they dressed
or where they lived
or what they ate for lunch.
_______________________________________
By the time high school rolled around,
we had for the most part learned to gather with our own kind.
Without consciously thinking about it,
we began to separate ourselves
by neighborhood, religion, race, class, and gender.
We learned that befriending a classmate
who was different in any way
would put us out on the fringes along with them.
If we wanted to be part of the in-group,
we went along with the crowd.
_______________________________________
The patterns are set early,
and all of us have a bias of some sort,
an unexamined assumption about others
that needs to be challenged.
Over the years we all have had to work hard
to overcome the prejudices of our society.
Our Catholic Social Teaching tradition,
as our Bishops describe it,
is clear that our faith calls us
to welcome the stranger among us,
to find unity in diversity.
They tell us that we are to “welcome the newcomers
in our neighborhoods and schools,
in our places of work and worship,
with heartfelt hospitality, openness, and eagerness
both to help and to learn from
our brothers and sisters
of whatever religion, ethnicity, or background.”
_______________________________________
The need for welcoming the stranger
is overwhelming in today's world.
Every minute of every day last year, 24 people were displaced.
At the end of 2015 the total of forcibly displaced people worldwide
reached 65.3 million—one out of every 113 people on Earth
[according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees],
more than any time since record-keeping began.
_______________________________________
If those displaced millions were spread evenly around the world,
there would be 2,498 Toledoans forced to leave their homes.
Thank God we don't suffer war or persecution here.
We don't suffer daily bombings of our cities and hospitals.
We are are privileged with the freedom to speak our opinions,
practice our religion, and vote as we choose.
_______________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit we welcome the stranger.
Everyone who walks in the door is welcome…
welcome to come in,
welcome to celebrate with us,
welcome at the table.
As a community we work
on racial justice with the Toledo Community Coalition
and Dialogue-to-Change,
on refugee resettlement with UStogether,
on religious tolerance with the MultiFaith Council,
on homelessness with Beach House
and Tent City and 1Matters.
Today's scriptures encourage us to keep on keeping on…
to keep on loving
every one of our neighbors
on this planet.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 30 OTC, October 23, 2016
First Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2-3, 17-19, 23
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
The parable in this week's gospel shows us two men at prayer,
one a Pharisee, assumed to be righteous
according to the traditional religious practices of the day,
and the other a tax collector,
assumed to be unjust, dishonest in his dealings,
disloyal to his country, and unfaithful to his religion.
That's the way Jesus' audience would have thought of them.
The people who first heard this parable
were victims of what we now call “implicit bias,”
the unconscious attitudes
that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions.
We often make judgments about people automatically,
without thinking.
_____________________________________
It's called implicit bias
and it has been part of our national conversation about racism
ever since Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald
conducted experiments for their book Blindspot 20 years ago.
Last Monday on NPR
Banaji called attention to mentions of implicit bias
in both the presidential and the vice-presidential debates.
One of the candidates said
that implicit bias is a problem for everyone,
and that, “unfortunately, too many of us in our great country
jump to conclusions about each other.”
Banaji gave a simple example that shows
how we come to have a bias without consciously realizing it.
First, our brains pick up information from what we see.
If we repeatedly see
doctors who are male and nurses who are female,
our brains pick it up and recognize it as a pattern.
Second, Banaji says, we begin to act
in ways that support the pattern,
and we think that's the way it really is.
So men become surgeons and women become nurses.
_____________________________________
Today's parable turns the tables
on the implicit biases of Jesus' audience.
The tax collector is justified, not the Pharisee.
What that has to do with us is that,
just like the bias of ancient Israelites against tax collectors,
we all, regardless of the color of our skin
or the size of our bank account,
act unconsciously on faulty assumptions.
We have all learned to be biased.
When we find out that we're biased,
it doesn't mean that we have to stay that way.
_____________________________________
Today's first reading, psalm, and gospel tell us one thing:
unlearn our biases.
We are God's people,
called to be holy, called to reflect God's goodness.
Sirach describes God
as a “God of justice, who knows no favorites.”
The Psalm tells us that God hears the cry of the poor.
Just as God has no favorites,
so are we to treat all people equally.
Just as God responds to the cry of the poor,
so are we, the People of God,
called to listen to their cries and work for justice.
_____________________________________
The meaning of these scriptures for our times
is rooted deeply in our Catholic Social Teaching tradition.
We are called to work for the “common good”
so that all people have food, clothes, shelter,
medical care, education...
so that all people live in right relationship with others
and with the earth
and with all of creation.
_____________________________________
With just two weeks and two days until election,
these scriptures call us to look at our biases
and learn to be just.
They call us to look for the candidates
whose policies work for the good of all,
not just for the rich and the powerful.
They call us to examine the issues
and weigh their impact on the poor.
This is our faith.
As our U.S. Bishops said in their document
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,
“A basic moral test for our society
is how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst.”
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si',
called the preferential option for the poor
“an ethical imperative
essential for effectively attaining the common good.”
He said that wasting food, for example,
takes it out of the mouths of the poor.
An ethical imperative:
if we seek to imitate the life of Christ,
we must work for justice
until the basic needs of all people are met.
It's not ethics as a general idea.
It's a specific ethical imperative for each one of us.
_____________________________________
Our own way of life must reflect our values.
We know what that means.
As Gandhi, and so many others, have put it,
we must “Live simply so that others may simply live.”
It starts with an examination of conscience,
ferreting out those implicit biases we hold
and unlearning them.
And it continues with serious prayer that we might--
as our favorite hymn says--
act with justice, love tenderly, serve one another,
and walk humbly with our God.
Amen!
First Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2-3, 17-19, 23
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
The parable in this week's gospel shows us two men at prayer,
one a Pharisee, assumed to be righteous
according to the traditional religious practices of the day,
and the other a tax collector,
assumed to be unjust, dishonest in his dealings,
disloyal to his country, and unfaithful to his religion.
That's the way Jesus' audience would have thought of them.
The people who first heard this parable
were victims of what we now call “implicit bias,”
the unconscious attitudes
that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions.
We often make judgments about people automatically,
without thinking.
_____________________________________
It's called implicit bias
and it has been part of our national conversation about racism
ever since Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald
conducted experiments for their book Blindspot 20 years ago.
Last Monday on NPR
Banaji called attention to mentions of implicit bias
in both the presidential and the vice-presidential debates.
One of the candidates said
that implicit bias is a problem for everyone,
and that, “unfortunately, too many of us in our great country
jump to conclusions about each other.”
Banaji gave a simple example that shows
how we come to have a bias without consciously realizing it.
First, our brains pick up information from what we see.
If we repeatedly see
doctors who are male and nurses who are female,
our brains pick it up and recognize it as a pattern.
Second, Banaji says, we begin to act
in ways that support the pattern,
and we think that's the way it really is.
So men become surgeons and women become nurses.
_____________________________________
Today's parable turns the tables
on the implicit biases of Jesus' audience.
The tax collector is justified, not the Pharisee.
What that has to do with us is that,
just like the bias of ancient Israelites against tax collectors,
we all, regardless of the color of our skin
or the size of our bank account,
act unconsciously on faulty assumptions.
We have all learned to be biased.
When we find out that we're biased,
it doesn't mean that we have to stay that way.
_____________________________________
Today's first reading, psalm, and gospel tell us one thing:
unlearn our biases.
We are God's people,
called to be holy, called to reflect God's goodness.
Sirach describes God
as a “God of justice, who knows no favorites.”
The Psalm tells us that God hears the cry of the poor.
Just as God has no favorites,
so are we to treat all people equally.
Just as God responds to the cry of the poor,
so are we, the People of God,
called to listen to their cries and work for justice.
_____________________________________
The meaning of these scriptures for our times
is rooted deeply in our Catholic Social Teaching tradition.
We are called to work for the “common good”
so that all people have food, clothes, shelter,
medical care, education...
so that all people live in right relationship with others
and with the earth
and with all of creation.
_____________________________________
With just two weeks and two days until election,
these scriptures call us to look at our biases
and learn to be just.
They call us to look for the candidates
whose policies work for the good of all,
not just for the rich and the powerful.
They call us to examine the issues
and weigh their impact on the poor.
This is our faith.
As our U.S. Bishops said in their document
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,
“A basic moral test for our society
is how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst.”
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si',
called the preferential option for the poor
“an ethical imperative
essential for effectively attaining the common good.”
He said that wasting food, for example,
takes it out of the mouths of the poor.
An ethical imperative:
if we seek to imitate the life of Christ,
we must work for justice
until the basic needs of all people are met.
It's not ethics as a general idea.
It's a specific ethical imperative for each one of us.
_____________________________________
Our own way of life must reflect our values.
We know what that means.
As Gandhi, and so many others, have put it,
we must “Live simply so that others may simply live.”
It starts with an examination of conscience,
ferreting out those implicit biases we hold
and unlearning them.
And it continues with serious prayer that we might--
as our favorite hymn says--
act with justice, love tenderly, serve one another,
and walk humbly with our God.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 29 OTC, October 16, 2016
First Reading: Exodus 17: 8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 121:1-8
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
As they come down to us,
today's readings are about persistence.
The Exodus reading and the passage from Luke's gospel
give us messages about persistence in prayer,
and the letter to Timothy
gives us advice about persistence in preaching.
Those were good messages for the people they were written for,
and they still contain good messages for us.
________________________________________
But now take a look at the part of the gospel
that's printed in bold type in your bulletin.
Scripture scholars point out that that part goes back to Jesus,
and the rest of today's passage--
the narrative framework and the lessons about prayer--
those are Luke's application for his community.
________________________________________
What was Jesus' message when he told that parable?
Let's take a look at the three actors
and what their roles are.
There's the widow,
and the person she's suing in court,
and the judge.
Given the culture of the time,
what do we know about the law
that would give a widow grounds for complaint in court?
If she has no children and her deceased husband had a brother,
the law required him to marry her
and raise up descendants in his brother's name.
Or if she did have a son,
the law required the first-born to care for her
until he was 30 years old.
________________________________________
That brings us to the defendant.
It could be her husband's brother, who won't marry her,
or her own son, who won't care for her.
Either way, without a judgment in her favor,
she has no means of support.
She's oppressed by laws and systems,
perceived as useless in society and culture,
unprofitable, forgettable, and lost.
Without family, she is dead to the world, a beggar on the streets.
So she goes to court.
________________________________________
The judge is corrupt, maybe taking bribes
from the husband's brother or the widow's son.
Jesus describes him as fearing no one... not people, not God.
He's totally self-centered.
He considers giving the widow justice—her right--
only because she keeps coming back
and he's afraid of getting worn out--
in the Greek, literally getting a black eye.
He's afraid his reputation will suffer
because people will hear her complaints
and judge him for not following the law,
for his corruption.
________________________________________
Jesus' listeners would have put themselves in the story, but where?
They would want to be law-abiding,
so they wouldn't see themselves as the defendant in the case.
They would want to be honest and faithful,
so they wouldn't see themselves as the corrupt judge.
They lived in oppression and too often found themselves
caught up in systems and practices
that reduced them to poverty and powerlessness.
They would want justice.
They would see themselves
as the one who insists on righteousness—as the widow.
The widow is the one who is on the right side of the law.
She is the poor one whose cry God hears,
the lowly one who God raises up.
________________________________________
We, as believers in God--
however we manage to think about that Gracious Mystery--
and as followers of the Way of Jesus,
are called stand with the widows of our world,
and there are many.
As American citizens, we're called to listen to the poor
crying for food and clothing and shelter,
clean water, adequate health care, a living wage,
fair taxes, just laws, peaceful neighborhoods.
We can't ignore them.
As our second reading tells us,
we must act whether it is convenient or inconvenient.
We must convince, reprimand, and encourage.
That is our vocation as people baptized and sent
to carry out the mission of Christ in the world.
________________________________________
I'm inspired when I look around our little community
and see the justice you work for,
here and around the world.
Sunday afternoon I saw some of you
standing on the corner of Bancroft and Secor
waving peace signs.
Monday I took another carload of your contributions
to help refugees settle in Toledo.
Then over to Claver House,
with all those much-needed bags and containers,
along with enough butternut squash to feed an army!
Whenever we gather for our monthly community meeting,
you eagerly vote to give generous contributions
to charities doing good works,
like Beach House and 1Matters and Padua Center.
I see you at gatherings for justice and peace and the environment,
read your letters in the Blade,
watch you register voters.
I hear you struggling your way
through the rip tide of this year's political campaigns,
sifting through the candidates and issues
looking for the best choice for the common good.
And through it all, grounding and sustaining your lives,
I see your everyday ministering
to family and friends and neighbors,
reaching out, helping out,
spreading joy, standing by in sorrow,
praying.
You persist--
and you will keep on going, and going, and going …
until justice reigns in our world.
Your goodness, your works of justice,
give me faith that, as Julian of Norwich wrote,
all shall be well… all manner of thing shall be well.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Exodus 17: 8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 121:1-8
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
As they come down to us,
today's readings are about persistence.
The Exodus reading and the passage from Luke's gospel
give us messages about persistence in prayer,
and the letter to Timothy
gives us advice about persistence in preaching.
Those were good messages for the people they were written for,
and they still contain good messages for us.
________________________________________
But now take a look at the part of the gospel
that's printed in bold type in your bulletin.
Scripture scholars point out that that part goes back to Jesus,
and the rest of today's passage--
the narrative framework and the lessons about prayer--
those are Luke's application for his community.
________________________________________
What was Jesus' message when he told that parable?
Let's take a look at the three actors
and what their roles are.
There's the widow,
and the person she's suing in court,
and the judge.
Given the culture of the time,
what do we know about the law
that would give a widow grounds for complaint in court?
If she has no children and her deceased husband had a brother,
the law required him to marry her
and raise up descendants in his brother's name.
Or if she did have a son,
the law required the first-born to care for her
until he was 30 years old.
________________________________________
That brings us to the defendant.
It could be her husband's brother, who won't marry her,
or her own son, who won't care for her.
Either way, without a judgment in her favor,
she has no means of support.
She's oppressed by laws and systems,
perceived as useless in society and culture,
unprofitable, forgettable, and lost.
Without family, she is dead to the world, a beggar on the streets.
So she goes to court.
________________________________________
The judge is corrupt, maybe taking bribes
from the husband's brother or the widow's son.
Jesus describes him as fearing no one... not people, not God.
He's totally self-centered.
He considers giving the widow justice—her right--
only because she keeps coming back
and he's afraid of getting worn out--
in the Greek, literally getting a black eye.
He's afraid his reputation will suffer
because people will hear her complaints
and judge him for not following the law,
for his corruption.
________________________________________
Jesus' listeners would have put themselves in the story, but where?
They would want to be law-abiding,
so they wouldn't see themselves as the defendant in the case.
They would want to be honest and faithful,
so they wouldn't see themselves as the corrupt judge.
They lived in oppression and too often found themselves
caught up in systems and practices
that reduced them to poverty and powerlessness.
They would want justice.
They would see themselves
as the one who insists on righteousness—as the widow.
The widow is the one who is on the right side of the law.
She is the poor one whose cry God hears,
the lowly one who God raises up.
________________________________________
We, as believers in God--
however we manage to think about that Gracious Mystery--
and as followers of the Way of Jesus,
are called stand with the widows of our world,
and there are many.
As American citizens, we're called to listen to the poor
crying for food and clothing and shelter,
clean water, adequate health care, a living wage,
fair taxes, just laws, peaceful neighborhoods.
We can't ignore them.
As our second reading tells us,
we must act whether it is convenient or inconvenient.
We must convince, reprimand, and encourage.
That is our vocation as people baptized and sent
to carry out the mission of Christ in the world.
________________________________________
I'm inspired when I look around our little community
and see the justice you work for,
here and around the world.
Sunday afternoon I saw some of you
standing on the corner of Bancroft and Secor
waving peace signs.
Monday I took another carload of your contributions
to help refugees settle in Toledo.
Then over to Claver House,
with all those much-needed bags and containers,
along with enough butternut squash to feed an army!
Whenever we gather for our monthly community meeting,
you eagerly vote to give generous contributions
to charities doing good works,
like Beach House and 1Matters and Padua Center.
I see you at gatherings for justice and peace and the environment,
read your letters in the Blade,
watch you register voters.
I hear you struggling your way
through the rip tide of this year's political campaigns,
sifting through the candidates and issues
looking for the best choice for the common good.
And through it all, grounding and sustaining your lives,
I see your everyday ministering
to family and friends and neighbors,
reaching out, helping out,
spreading joy, standing by in sorrow,
praying.
You persist--
and you will keep on going, and going, and going …
until justice reigns in our world.
Your goodness, your works of justice,
give me faith that, as Julian of Norwich wrote,
all shall be well… all manner of thing shall be well.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 28 OTC, October 9, 2016
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1-4
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
After this past week, we all know where Aleppo is.
Even Gary Johnson knows.
Aleppo is in northern Syria.
It's one of the oldest cities in the world,
dating back to at least 5,000 years before Christ.
In modern times, it has been the largest city in Syria…
until recently.
The people of Aleppo are under siege.
They live in the middle of war.
They suffer from the shortage of water, food, and medical care.
Civilians are dying.
Even their hospitals are being bombed.
Their doctors and nurses and aid workers are being killed.
_______________________________________
The story in today's reading from the second book of Kings
starts in Aleppo.
The Bible calls the city Aram,
the place where Naaman is an army commander.
Naaman has leprosy,
and there's no healing for him in Aram.
No healing for anyone there today, either.
Naaman takes the advice of a little slave girl,
captured from Israel and serving his wife,
and goes to Israel for healing.
He takes a letter from the King of Aram to the King of Israel,
along with ten silver talents,
six thousand gold pieces,
and ten festal garments
so he can pay for the healing he's hoping for.
Israel's king knows
that he doesn't have the power to cure leprosy,
so he suspects the Arameans
of looking for a reason to attack Israel.
He rends his garments,
expressing grief and anger
because he believes Israel is facing destruction and death.
Then Elisha hears about it
and suggests that Naaman come to him.
So Naaman the Syrian
goes to to Elisha, the Israelite prophet,
hoping to be healed.
_______________________________________
Not only are Syrians not part of God’s people;
they are in fact among the enemies of Israel.
They worship an alien God.
But Elisha reaches out to Naaman anyway,
telling him to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.
Naaman turns away in anger,
thinking it's too trivial an action to be of help to him,
but some of those powerless slaves,
Naaman's own servants this time,
give him some advice.
Naaman listens to them, washes in the Jordan,
and is made clean of his leprosy.
That's where today's reading starts.
Nathan is healed,
and he is grateful.
_______________________________________
Luke's gospel tells us
about the gratitude of another foreigner with leprosy.
This time it's a Samaritan.
Today we know Samaria as the West Bank,
land designated to be an Arab State
by the United Nations in 1948.
But it's not.
In today's geography
we recognize that 10th leper as a Palestinian.
Realizing that Jesus has healed him of his leprosy,
he goes back to give thanks.
_______________________________________
Healing like that is going on right now here in Toledo.
Refugees who can't survive in their homeland come here,
whether it's from Aleppo in Syria
or Hebron in the West Bank,
or Somalia or Afghanistan, Turkey or Pakistan,
Lebanon or Iran or Colombia or some other place
where they are under siege
and attacked because of who they are
or what they believe.
They come here with hope for healing and a new life.
_______________________________________
Some Toledoans look at them
like that Israeli king looked at Naaman,
suspecting them of plotting evil, terrorism, war.
They are filled with fear and loathing
and don't want them here.
_______________________________________
Many other Toledoans look at them with love and acceptance,
the way Elisha and Jesus did,
seeing in each of them
another child of the one God of us all.
They welcome the refugees
and set about helping to make a safe place for them.
Like Naaman the Syrian,
like the Samaritan leper,
the refugees are grateful.
They come here in faith,
hoping that their lives can be healed,
and their faith makes them whole again.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-17
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1-4
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
After this past week, we all know where Aleppo is.
Even Gary Johnson knows.
Aleppo is in northern Syria.
It's one of the oldest cities in the world,
dating back to at least 5,000 years before Christ.
In modern times, it has been the largest city in Syria…
until recently.
The people of Aleppo are under siege.
They live in the middle of war.
They suffer from the shortage of water, food, and medical care.
Civilians are dying.
Even their hospitals are being bombed.
Their doctors and nurses and aid workers are being killed.
_______________________________________
The story in today's reading from the second book of Kings
starts in Aleppo.
The Bible calls the city Aram,
the place where Naaman is an army commander.
Naaman has leprosy,
and there's no healing for him in Aram.
No healing for anyone there today, either.
Naaman takes the advice of a little slave girl,
captured from Israel and serving his wife,
and goes to Israel for healing.
He takes a letter from the King of Aram to the King of Israel,
along with ten silver talents,
six thousand gold pieces,
and ten festal garments
so he can pay for the healing he's hoping for.
Israel's king knows
that he doesn't have the power to cure leprosy,
so he suspects the Arameans
of looking for a reason to attack Israel.
He rends his garments,
expressing grief and anger
because he believes Israel is facing destruction and death.
Then Elisha hears about it
and suggests that Naaman come to him.
So Naaman the Syrian
goes to to Elisha, the Israelite prophet,
hoping to be healed.
_______________________________________
Not only are Syrians not part of God’s people;
they are in fact among the enemies of Israel.
They worship an alien God.
But Elisha reaches out to Naaman anyway,
telling him to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.
Naaman turns away in anger,
thinking it's too trivial an action to be of help to him,
but some of those powerless slaves,
Naaman's own servants this time,
give him some advice.
Naaman listens to them, washes in the Jordan,
and is made clean of his leprosy.
That's where today's reading starts.
Nathan is healed,
and he is grateful.
_______________________________________
Luke's gospel tells us
about the gratitude of another foreigner with leprosy.
This time it's a Samaritan.
Today we know Samaria as the West Bank,
land designated to be an Arab State
by the United Nations in 1948.
But it's not.
In today's geography
we recognize that 10th leper as a Palestinian.
Realizing that Jesus has healed him of his leprosy,
he goes back to give thanks.
_______________________________________
Healing like that is going on right now here in Toledo.
Refugees who can't survive in their homeland come here,
whether it's from Aleppo in Syria
or Hebron in the West Bank,
or Somalia or Afghanistan, Turkey or Pakistan,
Lebanon or Iran or Colombia or some other place
where they are under siege
and attacked because of who they are
or what they believe.
They come here with hope for healing and a new life.
_______________________________________
Some Toledoans look at them
like that Israeli king looked at Naaman,
suspecting them of plotting evil, terrorism, war.
They are filled with fear and loathing
and don't want them here.
_______________________________________
Many other Toledoans look at them with love and acceptance,
the way Elisha and Jesus did,
seeing in each of them
another child of the one God of us all.
They welcome the refugees
and set about helping to make a safe place for them.
Like Naaman the Syrian,
like the Samaritan leper,
the refugees are grateful.
They come here in faith,
hoping that their lives can be healed,
and their faith makes them whole again.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 27 OTC, October 2, 2016
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
Some translations of two words in today's gospel
obscure the point of this passage.
First, there's “douloi, the Greek word for slave.
Our Catholic New American Bible translates it as servants.
Other translations call them “hired workers” or “employees.”
But it really does mean slaves.
Jesuit Fr. Dennis Hamm observes that,
in first century Israel slavery was simply a fact of life,
with two-thirds of the population either slaves or former slaves.
Fr. Hamm says that both Jesus and the early Christian writers
used slavery as a positive metaphor
to describe human relationships with God.
___________________________________________
Then there's that adjective that's translated as “miserable.”
Other versions translate it as
worthless, unprofitable, useless, or unworthy.
Presbyterian scripture scholar Ken Bailey renders it
as those “to whom nothing is owed,”
meaning that our relationship with God is parallel to a slave.
God doesn't owe us anything
for doing what we are supposed to do.
So this gospel teaches us humility.
We are God's people,
and we're expected to do good.
We're expected to do our best.
And once we've done that,
God doesn't owe us for it.
There's nothing we can do to put God in debt to us.
___________________________________________
In today's first reading we heard the prophet Habakkuk
complaining to God about injustice.
But God doesn't owe us justice.
God is justice, that right relationship that brings peace.
God gives us life
and gives us the ability to love
and to serve in the ways of right relationship that create justice.
___________________________________________
Still, we get discouraged.
Like Habakkuk we look around and see oppression and violence.
We see war and famine and destruction.
We cringe at the devastation of poverty.
We are aghast at the deep disrespect for people and planet.
Seeing all that, knowing injustice is rampant,
what gets us up out of bed in the morning?
What moves us?
Some days it might be family, the kids, friends.
Other days it might be to keep a promise.
Others it might be that we just don't want
to suffer the consequences if we don't get up and go to work.
Whatever gets us moving, it reveals a relationship--
with people, with the world,
with that gracious mystery we call God.
Whatever gets us moving, we can call it faith.
It's what we are loyal to, have a vision about, what we care for.
It's what we believe in.
Yes, faith.
It can be strong... and still falter.
It can be weak... and still hold up.
___________________________________________
The gospel gives us another lesson in humility
when Jesus tells us we don't need a big bunch of faith,
that we can move mountains with trust
that's the size of a tiny mustard seed.
He had to be using that rhetorical device called hyperbole
to make a point,
because I haven't seen anybody but coal miners
moving any mountains lately.
___________________________________________
But I have seen people who are changing the world.
Last week I went to a presentation
by the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
a group of ordinary citizens who are trying
to put pressure on local and state officials
to start here the same process
that cleaned up Chesapeake Bay.
And there's a group of local priests
who are part of a national effort to end racism
in our Catholic Church.
And then there was Tuesday,
when members of the League of Women Voters
stood at every library to get people to register to vote.
And Wednesday Tree Toledo helped two clients of Lott Industries
plant a Blue Spruce in memory of a staff member who,
they said, had been really nice to them.
It's like anthropologist Margaret Mead said,
that we should “Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed,” she said, “it's the only thing that ever has.”
These folks are changing the world.
___________________________________________
Then there's a family, members of this assembly,
who bought a newer car this week.
Instead of trading in the old one,
they had a mechanic check it over to make sure it was still safe
and then gave it to a local refugee family through USTogether.
It's like Pope Francis said, commenting on today's gospel,
that the mustard seed is small,
but faith that size is enough
“to do things that are humanly impossible, unthinkable.”
The faith of these people, and many others in our town,
is making a difference.
___________________________________________
Think about holy people we've heard about.
They didn't set about to do big things.
They had a vision.
For Mother Teresa it was the conviction that every human
has the right to dignity, even in poverty and facing death.
She wrote about the years when she felt abandoned by God,
long years when she kept on helping one person at a time.
Through all that,
her conviction sparked enough faith to keep her going.
For Malala Yousafzai
it was the belief that every girl has a right to education.
She lived that belief and was shot for it,
and kept it through her recovery, and she still keeps going.
She calls us to remember that “One book, one pen, one child,
and one teacher can change the world.”
___________________________________________
Some people who do little deeds of justice end up being famous.
But most of us end up unknown to the world,
even to close neighbors, and friends, even to family.
You probably don't think you've moved any mountains.
You doubt if you've even shifted a pebble in the road.
But I see you doing it anyway.
You keep up on issues and talk about them with your friends.
You write letters to the Blade and letters to officeholders.
You help people.
You take part in organizations that work for peace and justice.
You pray.
You vote.
You keep on trying, with that little mustard-seed faith,
to stir into flame
the Spirit that makes you strong, and loving, and wise.
I thank God for your witness to the Gospel!
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
Some translations of two words in today's gospel
obscure the point of this passage.
First, there's “douloi, the Greek word for slave.
Our Catholic New American Bible translates it as servants.
Other translations call them “hired workers” or “employees.”
But it really does mean slaves.
Jesuit Fr. Dennis Hamm observes that,
in first century Israel slavery was simply a fact of life,
with two-thirds of the population either slaves or former slaves.
Fr. Hamm says that both Jesus and the early Christian writers
used slavery as a positive metaphor
to describe human relationships with God.
___________________________________________
Then there's that adjective that's translated as “miserable.”
Other versions translate it as
worthless, unprofitable, useless, or unworthy.
Presbyterian scripture scholar Ken Bailey renders it
as those “to whom nothing is owed,”
meaning that our relationship with God is parallel to a slave.
God doesn't owe us anything
for doing what we are supposed to do.
So this gospel teaches us humility.
We are God's people,
and we're expected to do good.
We're expected to do our best.
And once we've done that,
God doesn't owe us for it.
There's nothing we can do to put God in debt to us.
___________________________________________
In today's first reading we heard the prophet Habakkuk
complaining to God about injustice.
But God doesn't owe us justice.
God is justice, that right relationship that brings peace.
God gives us life
and gives us the ability to love
and to serve in the ways of right relationship that create justice.
___________________________________________
Still, we get discouraged.
Like Habakkuk we look around and see oppression and violence.
We see war and famine and destruction.
We cringe at the devastation of poverty.
We are aghast at the deep disrespect for people and planet.
Seeing all that, knowing injustice is rampant,
what gets us up out of bed in the morning?
What moves us?
Some days it might be family, the kids, friends.
Other days it might be to keep a promise.
Others it might be that we just don't want
to suffer the consequences if we don't get up and go to work.
Whatever gets us moving, it reveals a relationship--
with people, with the world,
with that gracious mystery we call God.
Whatever gets us moving, we can call it faith.
It's what we are loyal to, have a vision about, what we care for.
It's what we believe in.
Yes, faith.
It can be strong... and still falter.
It can be weak... and still hold up.
___________________________________________
The gospel gives us another lesson in humility
when Jesus tells us we don't need a big bunch of faith,
that we can move mountains with trust
that's the size of a tiny mustard seed.
He had to be using that rhetorical device called hyperbole
to make a point,
because I haven't seen anybody but coal miners
moving any mountains lately.
___________________________________________
But I have seen people who are changing the world.
Last week I went to a presentation
by the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie,
a group of ordinary citizens who are trying
to put pressure on local and state officials
to start here the same process
that cleaned up Chesapeake Bay.
And there's a group of local priests
who are part of a national effort to end racism
in our Catholic Church.
And then there was Tuesday,
when members of the League of Women Voters
stood at every library to get people to register to vote.
And Wednesday Tree Toledo helped two clients of Lott Industries
plant a Blue Spruce in memory of a staff member who,
they said, had been really nice to them.
It's like anthropologist Margaret Mead said,
that we should “Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed,” she said, “it's the only thing that ever has.”
These folks are changing the world.
___________________________________________
Then there's a family, members of this assembly,
who bought a newer car this week.
Instead of trading in the old one,
they had a mechanic check it over to make sure it was still safe
and then gave it to a local refugee family through USTogether.
It's like Pope Francis said, commenting on today's gospel,
that the mustard seed is small,
but faith that size is enough
“to do things that are humanly impossible, unthinkable.”
The faith of these people, and many others in our town,
is making a difference.
___________________________________________
Think about holy people we've heard about.
They didn't set about to do big things.
They had a vision.
For Mother Teresa it was the conviction that every human
has the right to dignity, even in poverty and facing death.
She wrote about the years when she felt abandoned by God,
long years when she kept on helping one person at a time.
Through all that,
her conviction sparked enough faith to keep her going.
For Malala Yousafzai
it was the belief that every girl has a right to education.
She lived that belief and was shot for it,
and kept it through her recovery, and she still keeps going.
She calls us to remember that “One book, one pen, one child,
and one teacher can change the world.”
___________________________________________
Some people who do little deeds of justice end up being famous.
But most of us end up unknown to the world,
even to close neighbors, and friends, even to family.
You probably don't think you've moved any mountains.
You doubt if you've even shifted a pebble in the road.
But I see you doing it anyway.
You keep up on issues and talk about them with your friends.
You write letters to the Blade and letters to officeholders.
You help people.
You take part in organizations that work for peace and justice.
You pray.
You vote.
You keep on trying, with that little mustard-seed faith,
to stir into flame
the Spirit that makes you strong, and loving, and wise.
I thank God for your witness to the Gospel!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 26 OTC, September 25, 2016
First Reading: Amos 6:1, 4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:7-10
Second Reading: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
“Giving Pledge” is an organization that asks billionaires
to commit the majority of their net worth to philanthropy,
either now or in their will.
Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet started it in 2010.
This year the Gates' net worth is just over 77 billion dollars.
Buffet's is nearly 68 billion.
In the six years since those three started the effort,
$365 billion has been pledged by 139 people.
In today's gospel we heard about a rich man who is not on that list.
Luke doesn't give him a name,
but sometimes he's referred to as Dives [DIE-veez],
the Latin word for “rich man.”
_______________________________________
There's nothing wrong with having enough...
enough food to eat, clean water, clothes to wear,
a secure home to live in.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Those are basic human rights.
When people don't have the basics,
something is radically wrong.
It's sinful when poverty or war or prejudice
stunt a person's potential
and suffocate hope.
_______________________________________
Dives had the ability to help Lazarus.
It wasn't that he kicked him, or yelled at him, or belittled him.
He just didn't see him.
In and out, every day, walking past,
and not so much as a penny or a table scrap.
That was Dives' sin--
indifference to the suffering in the world around him.
_______________________________________
Today we're tripping over a world full of Lazaruses.
People are homeless and without hope,
here in Toledo and around the world.
They're displaced by war and famine and greed.
They're refugees, immigrants, and migrants.
They're the addicted, the formerly incarcerated, the bankrupt,
the penniless, the mentally ill.
They're the sex slaves and the work slaves and the wage slaves.
_______________________________________
How much money is enough?
How much stuff is enough?
How much do we need
before we think we can afford to give something away?
We build up bank accounts, make investments,
buy health plans and life insurance,
sock it away in retirement plans…
always thinking we need more,
always feeling insecure.
And it's never enough,
so we hold on to everything
and lose the precious chance to help others.
_______________________________________
Those billionaires who follow through with their Giving Pledge
will have billions left after they give half of it away.
They're generous, and that's good,
but it's not quite the widow's mite,
the woman who gave
not what was extra
but what she needed to thrive.
That's the kind of generosity I see in Toledo.
_______________________________________
Joseph is one of the regular guests at Claver House.
He's young, in his 30s.
He's homeless, living at the Cherry Street Mission.
When he arrives for breakfast, he's a ray of sunshine,
even on a bleak rainy day.
When the volunteers put a basket of fruit
or a carton of chips or yogurt out,
Joseph is the one who makes sure that everybody gets some,
even if there's nothing left for him.
And when he leaves, he calls out,
“I am blessed! You have a blessed day, too!”
Joseph is doing
what the Jesuit theologian Walter Burghardt advised
when he said we can't turn our backs on the poor.
All that Joseph has is his cheerfulness,
and he spreads it around everywhere he goes.
_______________________________________
Pope Francis says that many of the wealthy have a heart problem
—a growing inattention to anything but their own desires.
They are spiritually destitute.
We've all heard the excuses they make.
“Those people” are illegal, it's too inconvenient, too far away.
They'd just buy alcohol with it, they're too far gone to be helped.
“Those people” need to get a job and buckle down
and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they say...
“like I did.”
_______________________________________
Paul's letter to Timothy give us the prescription
to cure that heart problem--
love one another.
We do that here at Holy Spirit.
Each one of you spends time
and lends expertise
and donates to justice and peace causes.
Some of you ran—well, walked or trotted--
in the Race for the Cure this weekend,
or volunteered or donated to help make it happen.
All of you participated in the annual Global Compassion event
that ended Wednesday.
And every month we sit around the potluck
at our community meeting
and very deliberately spend
a portion of the generous offerings of our members.
Among other things,
we have helped the homeless through 1Matters,
Syrian refugees through UStogether,
people in need through Claver House,
women trapped in prostitution through Rahab's Heart,
central city children through Padua Center,
people caught in disasters through Catholic Charities,
our own parishioners through our Special Needs Fund,
and our struggling planet through Tree Toledo.
We'll meet again tomorrow night [tonight] after Mass
and put our heads together
to come up with another dose
of that medicine that makes our hearts healthy.
Together we try to keep our eyes open
to notice the poor among us,
whether they beg at our door
or huddle in refugee camps on the other side of the world.
And we reach out.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Amos 6:1, 4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:7-10
Second Reading: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
“Giving Pledge” is an organization that asks billionaires
to commit the majority of their net worth to philanthropy,
either now or in their will.
Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet started it in 2010.
This year the Gates' net worth is just over 77 billion dollars.
Buffet's is nearly 68 billion.
In the six years since those three started the effort,
$365 billion has been pledged by 139 people.
In today's gospel we heard about a rich man who is not on that list.
Luke doesn't give him a name,
but sometimes he's referred to as Dives [DIE-veez],
the Latin word for “rich man.”
_______________________________________
There's nothing wrong with having enough...
enough food to eat, clean water, clothes to wear,
a secure home to live in.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Those are basic human rights.
When people don't have the basics,
something is radically wrong.
It's sinful when poverty or war or prejudice
stunt a person's potential
and suffocate hope.
_______________________________________
Dives had the ability to help Lazarus.
It wasn't that he kicked him, or yelled at him, or belittled him.
He just didn't see him.
In and out, every day, walking past,
and not so much as a penny or a table scrap.
That was Dives' sin--
indifference to the suffering in the world around him.
_______________________________________
Today we're tripping over a world full of Lazaruses.
People are homeless and without hope,
here in Toledo and around the world.
They're displaced by war and famine and greed.
They're refugees, immigrants, and migrants.
They're the addicted, the formerly incarcerated, the bankrupt,
the penniless, the mentally ill.
They're the sex slaves and the work slaves and the wage slaves.
_______________________________________
How much money is enough?
How much stuff is enough?
How much do we need
before we think we can afford to give something away?
We build up bank accounts, make investments,
buy health plans and life insurance,
sock it away in retirement plans…
always thinking we need more,
always feeling insecure.
And it's never enough,
so we hold on to everything
and lose the precious chance to help others.
_______________________________________
Those billionaires who follow through with their Giving Pledge
will have billions left after they give half of it away.
They're generous, and that's good,
but it's not quite the widow's mite,
the woman who gave
not what was extra
but what she needed to thrive.
That's the kind of generosity I see in Toledo.
_______________________________________
Joseph is one of the regular guests at Claver House.
He's young, in his 30s.
He's homeless, living at the Cherry Street Mission.
When he arrives for breakfast, he's a ray of sunshine,
even on a bleak rainy day.
When the volunteers put a basket of fruit
or a carton of chips or yogurt out,
Joseph is the one who makes sure that everybody gets some,
even if there's nothing left for him.
And when he leaves, he calls out,
“I am blessed! You have a blessed day, too!”
Joseph is doing
what the Jesuit theologian Walter Burghardt advised
when he said we can't turn our backs on the poor.
All that Joseph has is his cheerfulness,
and he spreads it around everywhere he goes.
_______________________________________
Pope Francis says that many of the wealthy have a heart problem
—a growing inattention to anything but their own desires.
They are spiritually destitute.
We've all heard the excuses they make.
“Those people” are illegal, it's too inconvenient, too far away.
They'd just buy alcohol with it, they're too far gone to be helped.
“Those people” need to get a job and buckle down
and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they say...
“like I did.”
_______________________________________
Paul's letter to Timothy give us the prescription
to cure that heart problem--
love one another.
We do that here at Holy Spirit.
Each one of you spends time
and lends expertise
and donates to justice and peace causes.
Some of you ran—well, walked or trotted--
in the Race for the Cure this weekend,
or volunteered or donated to help make it happen.
All of you participated in the annual Global Compassion event
that ended Wednesday.
And every month we sit around the potluck
at our community meeting
and very deliberately spend
a portion of the generous offerings of our members.
Among other things,
we have helped the homeless through 1Matters,
Syrian refugees through UStogether,
people in need through Claver House,
women trapped in prostitution through Rahab's Heart,
central city children through Padua Center,
people caught in disasters through Catholic Charities,
our own parishioners through our Special Needs Fund,
and our struggling planet through Tree Toledo.
We'll meet again tomorrow night [tonight] after Mass
and put our heads together
to come up with another dose
of that medicine that makes our hearts healthy.
Together we try to keep our eyes open
to notice the poor among us,
whether they beg at our door
or huddle in refugee camps on the other side of the world.
And we reach out.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 25 OTC, September 18, 2016
First Reading: Amos 8:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8
Second Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
Take a look at the bold type in the Gospel in your bulletin.
Scholars tell us that today's story of the dishonest steward
and the verses about split loyalties
definitely go back to Jesus.
He spoke words very close to what is written here.
______________________________________
2,000 years ago Jesus looked at the signs of his times
and observed that “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
He urged his disciples to be creative at being good
by telling them the parable of the cheating steward
who gets caught red-handed.
He knows he's going to be fired.
He worries.
He asks himself, “What shall I do?”
He could grab the chance to turn his life around.
But he doesn't--
he looks after his own security and cheats even more,
just to feather his own nest.
______________________________________
He's shrewd, that's for sure.
But he's not shrewd enough to practice virtue,
not wise enough to change course
and leave his self-serving ways behind.
Granted, it's not easy to do.
Whether it's a good habit or a bad habit,
the longer we've had the habit
the harder it is to change.
______________________________________
In the routine of everyday life, that daily grind,
it's rare that we take time to think about the long term.
So we end up making shortsighted choices.
Like the high school secretary who forgot her purse
and used the petty cash box to pay for her lunch.
Or the factory worker joining in the laughter at a racist or sexist joke.
Or the student postponing an assignment
until the night before it's due.
We suffer the consequences of our shortsightedness,
but it's what we do afterward that forms our character.
We can choose to keep doing the same thing,
or we can resolve to change the habit.
______________________________________
Being a follower of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to live so that our daily choices
form patterns of virtue
that end up in our living a holier life.
Karl Rahner calls it a “fundamental option.”
When we choose evil, and choose it over and over,
we form habits that frame our “fundamental option”
away from God.
When we choose good, and choose it over and over,
we form habits that frame our “fundamental option”
towards God.
______________________________________
So what happens next with that school secretary?
She has a choice:
she can rationalize that she's underpaid
and deserves a free lunch and keep on taking from petty cash
—an option away from God;
or she can repay the petty cash the next day
and just go without lunch if she forgets her purse again
—an option toward God.
Same goes for that factory worker,
who can tell his friends an even more hateful joke
or let them know he doesn't think it's funny.
And that student, who can plagiarize the assignment
or choose to practice the self-discipline
needed to finish future assignments on time.
______________________________________
The untrustworthy steward in today's reading
found himself so trapped in his vice
that he couldn't come up with another kind of option.
He applied his wit and energy to a fundamental option toward evil,
serving himself.
______________________________________
So here we are, two millennia after Jesus,
living in a society that worships money
and routinely spews a rhetoric of hatred.
Pope Francis puts it in strong words:
the “unfettered pursuit of money”
leaves behind the service of the common good
and brings “pain, death, and destruction,”
“the stench of the dung of the devil.”
We are called to rise above the stench.
The path requires that we keep ourselves
turned toward the One God of all,
not the money god of our culture,
not the god of war and hate.
When we find ourselves wandering off the path of virtue,
we remind ourselves that new habits
are formed the same way the old ones were,
one choice at a time.
That's how we end up following the commandment that matters:
love God, love our neighbor.
Amen.
First Reading: Amos 8:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8
Second Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
Take a look at the bold type in the Gospel in your bulletin.
Scholars tell us that today's story of the dishonest steward
and the verses about split loyalties
definitely go back to Jesus.
He spoke words very close to what is written here.
______________________________________
2,000 years ago Jesus looked at the signs of his times
and observed that “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
He urged his disciples to be creative at being good
by telling them the parable of the cheating steward
who gets caught red-handed.
He knows he's going to be fired.
He worries.
He asks himself, “What shall I do?”
He could grab the chance to turn his life around.
But he doesn't--
he looks after his own security and cheats even more,
just to feather his own nest.
______________________________________
He's shrewd, that's for sure.
But he's not shrewd enough to practice virtue,
not wise enough to change course
and leave his self-serving ways behind.
Granted, it's not easy to do.
Whether it's a good habit or a bad habit,
the longer we've had the habit
the harder it is to change.
______________________________________
In the routine of everyday life, that daily grind,
it's rare that we take time to think about the long term.
So we end up making shortsighted choices.
Like the high school secretary who forgot her purse
and used the petty cash box to pay for her lunch.
Or the factory worker joining in the laughter at a racist or sexist joke.
Or the student postponing an assignment
until the night before it's due.
We suffer the consequences of our shortsightedness,
but it's what we do afterward that forms our character.
We can choose to keep doing the same thing,
or we can resolve to change the habit.
______________________________________
Being a follower of the Way of Jesus,
we are called to live so that our daily choices
form patterns of virtue
that end up in our living a holier life.
Karl Rahner calls it a “fundamental option.”
When we choose evil, and choose it over and over,
we form habits that frame our “fundamental option”
away from God.
When we choose good, and choose it over and over,
we form habits that frame our “fundamental option”
towards God.
______________________________________
So what happens next with that school secretary?
She has a choice:
she can rationalize that she's underpaid
and deserves a free lunch and keep on taking from petty cash
—an option away from God;
or she can repay the petty cash the next day
and just go without lunch if she forgets her purse again
—an option toward God.
Same goes for that factory worker,
who can tell his friends an even more hateful joke
or let them know he doesn't think it's funny.
And that student, who can plagiarize the assignment
or choose to practice the self-discipline
needed to finish future assignments on time.
______________________________________
The untrustworthy steward in today's reading
found himself so trapped in his vice
that he couldn't come up with another kind of option.
He applied his wit and energy to a fundamental option toward evil,
serving himself.
______________________________________
So here we are, two millennia after Jesus,
living in a society that worships money
and routinely spews a rhetoric of hatred.
Pope Francis puts it in strong words:
the “unfettered pursuit of money”
leaves behind the service of the common good
and brings “pain, death, and destruction,”
“the stench of the dung of the devil.”
We are called to rise above the stench.
The path requires that we keep ourselves
turned toward the One God of all,
not the money god of our culture,
not the god of war and hate.
When we find ourselves wandering off the path of virtue,
we remind ourselves that new habits
are formed the same way the old ones were,
one choice at a time.
That's how we end up following the commandment that matters:
love God, love our neighbor.
Amen.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 24 OTC, September 11, 2016
First Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
Second Reading: 1Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
Every single individual is important to God!
Even me, says Paul in the first letter to Timothy,
even the stiff-necked people of Exodus…
even us.
Everybody and everything, Jesus tells us in those three parables.
The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost sons.
They are lost because they are doing what is in their nature to do.
The sheep strays.
Among other things, that's what sheep do.
The coin drops, maybe out of a hole in the householder's pocket.
That's what coins do.
The younger son asserts his independence.
The older son is self-centered.
That's what young people do.
And they end up lost.
That's something that can happen to anyone.
______________________________________
We've all been lost.
Jesus doesn't tell these parables to tell us we're lost.
He tells them because of what God does when we get lost.
God is tireless in the search
and joyful in the finding,
like the shepherd going after the sheep.
God is persistent,
like the woman looking for the coin.
God is loving,
like the parent waiting to welcome the son back.
These are not parables about sinners and their sin.
They are parables that tell us that God greets everyone with joy,
no matter where they've been
or what they've done.
God is a God of endless generosity, endless love.
______________________________________
As children of God, we are made in God's image,
born to reflect God's radical actions,
and total commitment,
and complete service.
God is with us.
And so we must be with the one who is lost.
The one in need right now
is the one we must tend.
The one who needs forgiveness right now
is the one we must forgive.
The one who is lost right now
is the one we must find.
______________________________________
Sometimes it seems that we wait around
for "big" things to do for God.
We want to imitate
the Mother Teresas and the Martin de Porreses of the world.
We want to minister in meaningful, significant ways.
We want to spend our life-times
in great deeds of service to humanity.
It's easy to ignore the little things
that make up the fabric of our lives,
the little obediences and services that add up to a holy life.
Jesus reminds us that it is in the single moments of decision
that we show who we are.
It is in our willingness
to seek out the one of a hundred who is straying.
It is in our effort
in searching for the one in ten who is lost.
It is in our open-armed welcoming
of the one who has wronged us and seeks reconciliation.
______________________________________
Looking at the signs of our times,
we have to ask ourselves
what we have done in the 15 years since the 9/11 attacks.
Have we done anything to stop the hate and dysfunction--
and the hurt--
at the root of that tragedy?
Have we looked for the lost among us
and ministered to them?
______________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit, we don't just do “random” acts of kindness.
We don't wait for a natural or human-made disaster to take action.
We make a habit of practicing deliberate acts of compassion,
every day.
Some of us have family situations that call us to seek the lost--
relatives with health problems,
children making a wrong turn,
bereaved neighbors,
friends in despair.
We pray for them, of course.
But we also reach out to help.
______________________________________
As our City of Toledo continues
to welcome more Syrian refugees than any other Ohio city,
members of Holy Spirit have worked with UStogether
to help them settle in,
spending time and donating food and household goods.
At our last Community meeting,
we decided to send welcoming cards to the new Toledoans,
and Carol Falquette has them ready
for you to sign after Mass today.
______________________________________
As a community we've contributed in lots of ways
to reach out to the lost among us--
the Compassion newsletter
written by Ohio's death row prisoners,
the 1Matters efforts for the homeless,
the Padua Center's projects for at-risk kids,
the Claver House food ministry to the central city,
and—of course—our Tree Toledo project
to get people to plant trees and shrubs
to help repair our damaged home planet.
And there's more to come!
Starting today through September 21,
the UN's International Day of Peace,
Holy Spirit will be taking part
in the annual Global Unity Games “coopetition”
with teams around the world.
It's called “survival of the kindest.”
Come January 12, when the State of Ohio
will execute Ronald Phillips in our name,
we'll be standing on the corner at the Courthouse
with Ohioans to Stop Executions.
The list goes on and on.
______________________________________
We don't all do everything,
but each of us makes a habit
of reflecting God's embrace to the world.
We are the People of God.
That's what we do.
Amen.
First Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
Second Reading: 1Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
Every single individual is important to God!
Even me, says Paul in the first letter to Timothy,
even the stiff-necked people of Exodus…
even us.
Everybody and everything, Jesus tells us in those three parables.
The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost sons.
They are lost because they are doing what is in their nature to do.
The sheep strays.
Among other things, that's what sheep do.
The coin drops, maybe out of a hole in the householder's pocket.
That's what coins do.
The younger son asserts his independence.
The older son is self-centered.
That's what young people do.
And they end up lost.
That's something that can happen to anyone.
______________________________________
We've all been lost.
Jesus doesn't tell these parables to tell us we're lost.
He tells them because of what God does when we get lost.
God is tireless in the search
and joyful in the finding,
like the shepherd going after the sheep.
God is persistent,
like the woman looking for the coin.
God is loving,
like the parent waiting to welcome the son back.
These are not parables about sinners and their sin.
They are parables that tell us that God greets everyone with joy,
no matter where they've been
or what they've done.
God is a God of endless generosity, endless love.
______________________________________
As children of God, we are made in God's image,
born to reflect God's radical actions,
and total commitment,
and complete service.
God is with us.
And so we must be with the one who is lost.
The one in need right now
is the one we must tend.
The one who needs forgiveness right now
is the one we must forgive.
The one who is lost right now
is the one we must find.
______________________________________
Sometimes it seems that we wait around
for "big" things to do for God.
We want to imitate
the Mother Teresas and the Martin de Porreses of the world.
We want to minister in meaningful, significant ways.
We want to spend our life-times
in great deeds of service to humanity.
It's easy to ignore the little things
that make up the fabric of our lives,
the little obediences and services that add up to a holy life.
Jesus reminds us that it is in the single moments of decision
that we show who we are.
It is in our willingness
to seek out the one of a hundred who is straying.
It is in our effort
in searching for the one in ten who is lost.
It is in our open-armed welcoming
of the one who has wronged us and seeks reconciliation.
______________________________________
Looking at the signs of our times,
we have to ask ourselves
what we have done in the 15 years since the 9/11 attacks.
Have we done anything to stop the hate and dysfunction--
and the hurt--
at the root of that tragedy?
Have we looked for the lost among us
and ministered to them?
______________________________________
Here at Holy Spirit, we don't just do “random” acts of kindness.
We don't wait for a natural or human-made disaster to take action.
We make a habit of practicing deliberate acts of compassion,
every day.
Some of us have family situations that call us to seek the lost--
relatives with health problems,
children making a wrong turn,
bereaved neighbors,
friends in despair.
We pray for them, of course.
But we also reach out to help.
______________________________________
As our City of Toledo continues
to welcome more Syrian refugees than any other Ohio city,
members of Holy Spirit have worked with UStogether
to help them settle in,
spending time and donating food and household goods.
At our last Community meeting,
we decided to send welcoming cards to the new Toledoans,
and Carol Falquette has them ready
for you to sign after Mass today.
______________________________________
As a community we've contributed in lots of ways
to reach out to the lost among us--
the Compassion newsletter
written by Ohio's death row prisoners,
the 1Matters efforts for the homeless,
the Padua Center's projects for at-risk kids,
the Claver House food ministry to the central city,
and—of course—our Tree Toledo project
to get people to plant trees and shrubs
to help repair our damaged home planet.
And there's more to come!
Starting today through September 21,
the UN's International Day of Peace,
Holy Spirit will be taking part
in the annual Global Unity Games “coopetition”
with teams around the world.
It's called “survival of the kindest.”
Come January 12, when the State of Ohio
will execute Ronald Phillips in our name,
we'll be standing on the corner at the Courthouse
with Ohioans to Stop Executions.
The list goes on and on.
______________________________________
We don't all do everything,
but each of us makes a habit
of reflecting God's embrace to the world.
We are the People of God.
That's what we do.
Amen.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 23 OTC, September 4, 2016
First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-17
Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
Today's gospel is clear:
if we want to be Jesus' disciples,
we have to get rid of whatever stands in the way.
We have to step on the path with our eyes wide open.
__________________________________________
This coming Monday we celebrate Labor Day.
Over and over again,
in the 125 years since Leo XIII
issued his encyclical Rerum Novarum on capital and labor,
Catholic teaching has stood firmly for the rights of workers.
This year we see those rights still threatened,
not only in developing countries but right here in the U.S.
We abolished slavery,
but people today are kidnapped and trafficked into slavery.
African-Americans, Latinos, refugees, immigrants--
all those others who are not “like us”--
suffer the burden of discrimination and prejudice.
We have a minimum wage, but it's not a living wage.
We have workplace standards,
but workers can get fired
when they report that the standards aren't being met.
__________________________________________
Our second reading reminds us that these issues are not new.
It's the year 62 AD.
Prisoners of war are enslaved.
Their children are born into slavery.
They do hard labor for the wealthy of the Roman Empire.
Paul, in prison in Rome, writes to his good friend Philemon,
head of the church in Colossae.
Paul is sending Philemon's runaway slave Onesimus back to him.
A slave running away was a capital crime,
just as it was in our country
before the Emancipation Proclamation.
But Paul pleads with Philemon for a different understanding
because Onesimus is now a follower of Christ,
and in Christ there is no slave.
As Fr. Daniel Harrington writes,
Paul's request to take Onesimus back as a brother in Christ
and therefore as equal to Philemon
“would have been very difficult
and even offensive
to a slave owner.”
Paul, in practicing his Christianity,
is risking his friendship with Philemon.
Onesimus, in practicing his Christianity,
is risking his life.
__________________________________________
We have plenty to think about this Labor Day,
first and foremost the fact
that our own country was built on the backs of slaves,
and that we who are white still reap the benefits
of the ongoing racism in our country and in the church.
__________________________________________
Even though Labor Day
is the traditional beginning of the political campaign season,
campaign 2016 has been going on for well over a year,
and it's brought a flood of vicious, hateful speech
not only from candidates
but also from officeholders, the media, and ordinary people.
Because we try to follow the Way of Jesus,
the campaign shows us the kind of choice
that Jesus talks about in today's gospel.
When we bake cookies to welcome
the new African American family into the neighborhood
and invite them to the next block party,
we risk flak from the family,
disapproval and arguments and ultimatums.
Will we speak up when our best friend tells us a racist joke?
If we tell the boss that
we find those racist remarks about our co-worker offensive,
we risk losing a promotion, or being demoted, or getting fired.
Will we join a march calling for an end to racist policies in our town?
We risk arrest, even violence.
__________________________________________
Last week you may have seen the news
about an incident in a Florida Middle School.
Along with the Florida State football team
visiting the school Tuesday
was junior wide receiver Travis Rudolph,
a 20-year-old African American,
graduate of Cardinal Newman High School.
When he walked into the cafeteria with his teammates,
he saw a boy alone,
all the other students sitting far away from him,
and Travis thought about what it was like
to be bullied and alone.
Travis didn't know that Bo Peske has autism
and usually eats alone in the crowded cafeteria.
Travis walked over and asked if he could sit with him.
They ate lunch and talked.
Someone took a picture and sent it to Bo's mom,
who posted thanks to Travis on Facebook.
As the saying goes, it “went viral”
and ended up on the national news.
The next day the other students
were scrambling to sit with Bo at lunch.
Later, when Travis saw the news reports
about Bo's autism and how much his eating lunch with him
had meant to Bo and his mother,
he sent Bo his cell number so he can call him any time.
What prompted this young black man
to notice this red-headed white kid sitting alone
and eat lunch with him?
What sensitivity to the pain of others?
What love for others?
Is Travis Rudolph a Christian?
Don't know.
Whatever his religion,
he sure knows the Golden Rule... and acts on it.
__________________________________________
When Jesus says that we have to give up everything to follow him,
he is telling us that we are called--
as our favorite hymn puts it--
to act with justice, to love tenderly,
to walk humbly with our God.
__________________________________________
It is possible for someone
to be a camp-follower of Christ without being a disciple,
to be a hanger-on in Christianity,
a talker rather than a doer.
We can follow at a safe distance
and never actually do what Jesus called us to do.
But I don't see that here at Holy Spirit.
I see doers.
I see people who live the gospel in every part of their lives.
You do your best to live in peace.
You work for justice.
You welcome the stranger.
You embrace the outcast.
You love one another.
__________________________________________
Our Christian discipleship is a serious calling,
with serious risks.
Yet we are confident that the Holy Spirit will,
as the book of Wisdom tells us,
set us on the right path
and support us on the Way.
Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-17
Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
Today's gospel is clear:
if we want to be Jesus' disciples,
we have to get rid of whatever stands in the way.
We have to step on the path with our eyes wide open.
__________________________________________
This coming Monday we celebrate Labor Day.
Over and over again,
in the 125 years since Leo XIII
issued his encyclical Rerum Novarum on capital and labor,
Catholic teaching has stood firmly for the rights of workers.
This year we see those rights still threatened,
not only in developing countries but right here in the U.S.
We abolished slavery,
but people today are kidnapped and trafficked into slavery.
African-Americans, Latinos, refugees, immigrants--
all those others who are not “like us”--
suffer the burden of discrimination and prejudice.
We have a minimum wage, but it's not a living wage.
We have workplace standards,
but workers can get fired
when they report that the standards aren't being met.
__________________________________________
Our second reading reminds us that these issues are not new.
It's the year 62 AD.
Prisoners of war are enslaved.
Their children are born into slavery.
They do hard labor for the wealthy of the Roman Empire.
Paul, in prison in Rome, writes to his good friend Philemon,
head of the church in Colossae.
Paul is sending Philemon's runaway slave Onesimus back to him.
A slave running away was a capital crime,
just as it was in our country
before the Emancipation Proclamation.
But Paul pleads with Philemon for a different understanding
because Onesimus is now a follower of Christ,
and in Christ there is no slave.
As Fr. Daniel Harrington writes,
Paul's request to take Onesimus back as a brother in Christ
and therefore as equal to Philemon
“would have been very difficult
and even offensive
to a slave owner.”
Paul, in practicing his Christianity,
is risking his friendship with Philemon.
Onesimus, in practicing his Christianity,
is risking his life.
__________________________________________
We have plenty to think about this Labor Day,
first and foremost the fact
that our own country was built on the backs of slaves,
and that we who are white still reap the benefits
of the ongoing racism in our country and in the church.
__________________________________________
Even though Labor Day
is the traditional beginning of the political campaign season,
campaign 2016 has been going on for well over a year,
and it's brought a flood of vicious, hateful speech
not only from candidates
but also from officeholders, the media, and ordinary people.
Because we try to follow the Way of Jesus,
the campaign shows us the kind of choice
that Jesus talks about in today's gospel.
When we bake cookies to welcome
the new African American family into the neighborhood
and invite them to the next block party,
we risk flak from the family,
disapproval and arguments and ultimatums.
Will we speak up when our best friend tells us a racist joke?
If we tell the boss that
we find those racist remarks about our co-worker offensive,
we risk losing a promotion, or being demoted, or getting fired.
Will we join a march calling for an end to racist policies in our town?
We risk arrest, even violence.
__________________________________________
Last week you may have seen the news
about an incident in a Florida Middle School.
Along with the Florida State football team
visiting the school Tuesday
was junior wide receiver Travis Rudolph,
a 20-year-old African American,
graduate of Cardinal Newman High School.
When he walked into the cafeteria with his teammates,
he saw a boy alone,
all the other students sitting far away from him,
and Travis thought about what it was like
to be bullied and alone.
Travis didn't know that Bo Peske has autism
and usually eats alone in the crowded cafeteria.
Travis walked over and asked if he could sit with him.
They ate lunch and talked.
Someone took a picture and sent it to Bo's mom,
who posted thanks to Travis on Facebook.
As the saying goes, it “went viral”
and ended up on the national news.
The next day the other students
were scrambling to sit with Bo at lunch.
Later, when Travis saw the news reports
about Bo's autism and how much his eating lunch with him
had meant to Bo and his mother,
he sent Bo his cell number so he can call him any time.
What prompted this young black man
to notice this red-headed white kid sitting alone
and eat lunch with him?
What sensitivity to the pain of others?
What love for others?
Is Travis Rudolph a Christian?
Don't know.
Whatever his religion,
he sure knows the Golden Rule... and acts on it.
__________________________________________
When Jesus says that we have to give up everything to follow him,
he is telling us that we are called--
as our favorite hymn puts it--
to act with justice, to love tenderly,
to walk humbly with our God.
__________________________________________
It is possible for someone
to be a camp-follower of Christ without being a disciple,
to be a hanger-on in Christianity,
a talker rather than a doer.
We can follow at a safe distance
and never actually do what Jesus called us to do.
But I don't see that here at Holy Spirit.
I see doers.
I see people who live the gospel in every part of their lives.
You do your best to live in peace.
You work for justice.
You welcome the stranger.
You embrace the outcast.
You love one another.
__________________________________________
Our Christian discipleship is a serious calling,
with serious risks.
Yet we are confident that the Holy Spirit will,
as the book of Wisdom tells us,
set us on the right path
and support us on the Way.
Thanks be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 22 OTC, August 28, 2016
First Reading: Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 68:4-7, 10-11
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24A
Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Back in the '70s when I was just getting into politics,
the Governor was having a news conference,
and the press secretary, Bob Tenenbaum,
looked around and said “TMBS,”
and several of the department employees left the room.
Later I asked Bob what was going on.
“TMBS. Too many blue shirts,” he told me.
Too many people who showed up in blue shirts
so they'd look good on camera standing around the Governor.
_______________________________________________
Some things haven't changed in the millennia
since Jesus saw those party-goers scrambling around,
jockeying for the best places at the table.
They didn't come to the dinner
out of respect and friendship for their host.
No.
They came to be seen,
to be acknowledged as more important than the others.
So Jesus cites a common proverb to them,
“...all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
_______________________________________________
St. Augustine defines pride as “the love of one's own excellence.”
It's thinking that I am so much better than everyone else
that I'm entitled to the best seat in the house,
to be served first,
to be listened to and obeyed.
The sin of pride is loving myself
more than I love anyone else.
_______________________________________________
We know there's a different kind of pride that is a virtue,
not a sin.
That's the kind of pride that comes from doing a good job
or doing a good deed.
Or from cherishing family history
or ethnic background
or home town.
_______________________________________________
Like pride, humility can be both virtue and vice.
The word itself comes from the word for earth, humus.
Humble people are grounded.
They understand who and what they are
in relationship to God, and people, and all of creation.
They're real.
They don't pretend to be anything else.
But sometimes we see humility show up as a vice--
like when a person's intrinsic self-worth
gets trampled in the dust.
So pride is a vice when I don't love others,
and humility is a vice when I don't love myself.
_______________________________________________
This past week I've been in three different groups
that had lengthy conversations
about the evil kind of pride known as white privilege.
We who are considered white in this country
are born into privileges that other people don't experience.
We grow up with it and don't even notice.
I can go shopping alone
and be assured I won't be followed or harassed.
I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk with the person in charge,
I will be facing a person of my own race.
I can go to a job interview
and expect to be evaluated on my abilities and experience.
I can go to check out an apartment in a suburb
and be sure the realtor, after meeting me in person,
will still have a place to show me.
_______________________________________________
Fr. Bryan Massingale points out that our U.S. Bishops
revealed the subtle way white privilege
shapes our thought patterns in this country
when they titled their 1979 document on racism
Brothers and Sisters to Us.
Who is this “us,” Massingale asks.
It's the privileged white hierarchy looking at black people.
Why not Brothers and Sisters to Each Other?
White privilege is an evil kind of pride,
one of the sad signs of our times in this country.
_______________________________________________
Fortunately, we also can find signs of the holy kind of humility.
When, in the '90s, I started working in a parish,
I was blessed to land with a Vatican II pastor
who worked hard at being a servant leader.
He's retired now, but I still see him every Wednesday
down at Claver House—he's the toast guy.
Sometimes a guest will scowl at him.
Say crude things.
Complain about the toast being too light or too dark
or the wrong kind of bread
or not enough butter or too much butter.
He just smiles and apologizes and makes another batch.
Then he takes it across the room and holds it out
and asks if this batch looks okay.
And when breakfast is over, I see him--
this Catholic priest in a T-shirt,
the one who studied in Rome and whose brother was bishop--
I see him pull the sweeper out of the closet
and vacuum the floor.
He was a servant leader when he was a pastor, and he still is.
He's a humble man.
_______________________________________________
A while back in a discussion about servant leadership in the parish,
someone asked,
“How can you tell if you have the attitude of a servant?”
The answer: “'By the way you react when you're treated like one."
_______________________________________________
That's real humility--
understanding that God is in every person
and treating them with respect and reverence.
Or, as Jesus put it, love God with your whole being,
and love your neighbor as yourself.
Amen.
First Reading: Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 68:4-7, 10-11
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24A
Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Back in the '70s when I was just getting into politics,
the Governor was having a news conference,
and the press secretary, Bob Tenenbaum,
looked around and said “TMBS,”
and several of the department employees left the room.
Later I asked Bob what was going on.
“TMBS. Too many blue shirts,” he told me.
Too many people who showed up in blue shirts
so they'd look good on camera standing around the Governor.
_______________________________________________
Some things haven't changed in the millennia
since Jesus saw those party-goers scrambling around,
jockeying for the best places at the table.
They didn't come to the dinner
out of respect and friendship for their host.
No.
They came to be seen,
to be acknowledged as more important than the others.
So Jesus cites a common proverb to them,
“...all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
_______________________________________________
St. Augustine defines pride as “the love of one's own excellence.”
It's thinking that I am so much better than everyone else
that I'm entitled to the best seat in the house,
to be served first,
to be listened to and obeyed.
The sin of pride is loving myself
more than I love anyone else.
_______________________________________________
We know there's a different kind of pride that is a virtue,
not a sin.
That's the kind of pride that comes from doing a good job
or doing a good deed.
Or from cherishing family history
or ethnic background
or home town.
_______________________________________________
Like pride, humility can be both virtue and vice.
The word itself comes from the word for earth, humus.
Humble people are grounded.
They understand who and what they are
in relationship to God, and people, and all of creation.
They're real.
They don't pretend to be anything else.
But sometimes we see humility show up as a vice--
like when a person's intrinsic self-worth
gets trampled in the dust.
So pride is a vice when I don't love others,
and humility is a vice when I don't love myself.
_______________________________________________
This past week I've been in three different groups
that had lengthy conversations
about the evil kind of pride known as white privilege.
We who are considered white in this country
are born into privileges that other people don't experience.
We grow up with it and don't even notice.
I can go shopping alone
and be assured I won't be followed or harassed.
I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk with the person in charge,
I will be facing a person of my own race.
I can go to a job interview
and expect to be evaluated on my abilities and experience.
I can go to check out an apartment in a suburb
and be sure the realtor, after meeting me in person,
will still have a place to show me.
_______________________________________________
Fr. Bryan Massingale points out that our U.S. Bishops
revealed the subtle way white privilege
shapes our thought patterns in this country
when they titled their 1979 document on racism
Brothers and Sisters to Us.
Who is this “us,” Massingale asks.
It's the privileged white hierarchy looking at black people.
Why not Brothers and Sisters to Each Other?
White privilege is an evil kind of pride,
one of the sad signs of our times in this country.
_______________________________________________
Fortunately, we also can find signs of the holy kind of humility.
When, in the '90s, I started working in a parish,
I was blessed to land with a Vatican II pastor
who worked hard at being a servant leader.
He's retired now, but I still see him every Wednesday
down at Claver House—he's the toast guy.
Sometimes a guest will scowl at him.
Say crude things.
Complain about the toast being too light or too dark
or the wrong kind of bread
or not enough butter or too much butter.
He just smiles and apologizes and makes another batch.
Then he takes it across the room and holds it out
and asks if this batch looks okay.
And when breakfast is over, I see him--
this Catholic priest in a T-shirt,
the one who studied in Rome and whose brother was bishop--
I see him pull the sweeper out of the closet
and vacuum the floor.
He was a servant leader when he was a pastor, and he still is.
He's a humble man.
_______________________________________________
A while back in a discussion about servant leadership in the parish,
someone asked,
“How can you tell if you have the attitude of a servant?”
The answer: “'By the way you react when you're treated like one."
_______________________________________________
That's real humility--
understanding that God is in every person
and treating them with respect and reverence.
Or, as Jesus put it, love God with your whole being,
and love your neighbor as yourself.
Amen.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 21 OTC, August 21, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 117:1-2
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13
Gospel: Luke 13:22-30
Four weeks ago we heard about God as our friend--
Luke's parable about the neighbor
pounding on the door to borrow a loaf a bread,
and the door being opened,
even though it was the middle of the night.
Today we hear a different story,
one where it's not so easy to get in
and take a place at the feast in the kin-dom of God.
This time there's a gate, and it's a narrow one.
Lots of people will try to get in, but they'll be turned away.
But other people will get in.
They'll come from the four corners of the earth,
like in that first reading from Isaiah,
nations of every language.
They will be the very people
thought to be the last ones to make it--
not the rich and the famous
but the powerless and marginalized.
Those “others” are the ones who will get in.
_________________________________________
Jesus' explanation is simple.
Sure, people listened to him, but that's all they did.
They didn't take his teaching to heart.
They didn't change their lives.
So, even though they ate and drank with him
and hung around to hear the message,
they didn't do anything else.
They didn't put Jesus' message into practice.
_________________________________________
When I was growing up back in the 50s,
it was common to hear
that “outside the church there is no salvation.”
I remember my 5th grade classmate Judy.
Sister told us that we couldn't talk with Judy except at school.
We couldn't go to Judy's house after school.
When I asked my mom about it,
she told me that Judy's mom was divorced and remarried
and that put her “outside the church.”
So, except in class, we couldn't have anything to do with Judy.
So we didn't.
Then, when I was in 7th grade, my maternal grandparents,
pushing 60 and pretty much unchurched,
decided to be baptized at Grace Lutheran.
My mom wanted us to go.
The priest said no.
We stayed home.
_________________________________________
Too often we Catholics were like those people
that Jesus called “evildoers” in today's Gospel.
We knew the rules, and we followed them.
We jumped through the hoops.
We thought our baptism would get us through that narrow gate.
We said prayers with plenary indulgences attached,
just so we could get a free pass into heaven.
It was all about saving ourselves.
People who didn't follow the rules would just have to go to hell,
and it would be their fault.
_________________________________________
Three years ago, when we had the same readings we heard today,
Pope Francis told us that
to get through that narrow door
we have to aim our whole life at following the Way of Jesus.
That means living and witnessing
in prayer, in works of charity, in promoting justice,
in doing good for others, especially the poor and the outsider.
It's a lot more than just jumping through those hoops.
_________________________________________
It's not enough to get baptized and be labeled a Christian.
It's not enough to share a meal with Jesus.
It's not enough to just listen to what he says.
It is necessary to get to know God by following Jesus' Way.
As Elizabeth Johnson put it,
we have to become a friend of God and prophets,
and do it now.
The banquet is ready.
_________________________________________
Every day is full of chances to walk through that narrow gate
to feast in the reign of God.
We do it in company with the Syrian refugees
we help to settle here.
We do it walking side by side with our African American friends.
We do it standing on street corners with our peace signs,
handing out those tiny tree seedlings,
voting our conscience for the common good.
We do it in the love we show our family and friends and neighbors...
and enemies.
We pass through that narrow gate
by the way we live our lives.
Amen.
First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 117:1-2
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13
Gospel: Luke 13:22-30
Four weeks ago we heard about God as our friend--
Luke's parable about the neighbor
pounding on the door to borrow a loaf a bread,
and the door being opened,
even though it was the middle of the night.
Today we hear a different story,
one where it's not so easy to get in
and take a place at the feast in the kin-dom of God.
This time there's a gate, and it's a narrow one.
Lots of people will try to get in, but they'll be turned away.
But other people will get in.
They'll come from the four corners of the earth,
like in that first reading from Isaiah,
nations of every language.
They will be the very people
thought to be the last ones to make it--
not the rich and the famous
but the powerless and marginalized.
Those “others” are the ones who will get in.
_________________________________________
Jesus' explanation is simple.
Sure, people listened to him, but that's all they did.
They didn't take his teaching to heart.
They didn't change their lives.
So, even though they ate and drank with him
and hung around to hear the message,
they didn't do anything else.
They didn't put Jesus' message into practice.
_________________________________________
When I was growing up back in the 50s,
it was common to hear
that “outside the church there is no salvation.”
I remember my 5th grade classmate Judy.
Sister told us that we couldn't talk with Judy except at school.
We couldn't go to Judy's house after school.
When I asked my mom about it,
she told me that Judy's mom was divorced and remarried
and that put her “outside the church.”
So, except in class, we couldn't have anything to do with Judy.
So we didn't.
Then, when I was in 7th grade, my maternal grandparents,
pushing 60 and pretty much unchurched,
decided to be baptized at Grace Lutheran.
My mom wanted us to go.
The priest said no.
We stayed home.
_________________________________________
Too often we Catholics were like those people
that Jesus called “evildoers” in today's Gospel.
We knew the rules, and we followed them.
We jumped through the hoops.
We thought our baptism would get us through that narrow gate.
We said prayers with plenary indulgences attached,
just so we could get a free pass into heaven.
It was all about saving ourselves.
People who didn't follow the rules would just have to go to hell,
and it would be their fault.
_________________________________________
Three years ago, when we had the same readings we heard today,
Pope Francis told us that
to get through that narrow door
we have to aim our whole life at following the Way of Jesus.
That means living and witnessing
in prayer, in works of charity, in promoting justice,
in doing good for others, especially the poor and the outsider.
It's a lot more than just jumping through those hoops.
_________________________________________
It's not enough to get baptized and be labeled a Christian.
It's not enough to share a meal with Jesus.
It's not enough to just listen to what he says.
It is necessary to get to know God by following Jesus' Way.
As Elizabeth Johnson put it,
we have to become a friend of God and prophets,
and do it now.
The banquet is ready.
_________________________________________
Every day is full of chances to walk through that narrow gate
to feast in the reign of God.
We do it in company with the Syrian refugees
we help to settle here.
We do it walking side by side with our African American friends.
We do it standing on street corners with our peace signs,
handing out those tiny tree seedlings,
voting our conscience for the common good.
We do it in the love we show our family and friends and neighbors...
and enemies.
We pass through that narrow gate
by the way we live our lives.
Amen.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 20 OTC, August 14, 2016
First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2-4, 18
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53
Don't make waves.
Mark's gospel—the earliest canonical gospel--
reports that Jesus' relatives set out to seize him,
believing him to be out of his mind.
He had been walking around Galilee,
teaching and healing,
calling people to live under God's rule and love one another.
Don't be a troublemaker, they tell him.
_____________________________________________
But he keeps on,
preaching truth and justice with fiery passion.
Scholars tell us that today's gospel reading
preserves “an echo of Jesus' voice,”
a glimpse into his soul.
They say that Jesus really talked about setting the earth on fire--
setting it on fire with the passion of justice.
They believe he really said that conflict is inevitable
whenever people act on their passion for justice.
_____________________________________________
Don't get carried away, his family tells him.
Don't go off the deep end.
But Jesus is on fire for justice.
He preaches the reign of God,
the reign of justice that brings peace.
He chastises the folks who want him to be quiet.
In the passage that immediately follows what we heard today,
Jesus calls them “hypocrites,” telling them
that they know how to tell what kind of weather is coming
but do not know how to interpret the signs of the present time.
_____________________________________________
Thanks to television, we know what's going on in our world.
Sometimes we see it live, just as it happens.
The signs of our times are clear.
The question for us is whether we know how to interpret them.
How, for example, do we interpret
the ongoing signs of racism in our country?
On the evening news we see demonstrators
carrying signs that say “Black Lives Matter,”
and then the white folks missing the point of what's happening,
holding up their signs that say “All Lives Matter.”
Of course all lives matter,
but the point is that some lives—the black ones--
routinely suffer demeaning and degrading situations
and live under the daily threat of violent consequences
that are not faced by the white lives.
_____________________________________________
Where is God in all this conflict?
God stands with the one who is excluded.
God lives in the one being ridiculed.
God dies in the unarmed teen shot to death by police.
If we don't stand with the victims of racism in our country,
we're not standing with God.
As Christians we have to recognize Jesus of Nazareth
in the death of every innocent
who is surrounded by a halo of hate.
_____________________________________________
Another sign of our times, the Olympics!
Before the games started, Pope Francis sent a letter
to the members of a team that represents 60 million people--
the Olympic Refugee Team,
made up of people
who have escaped the violence of their war-torn homelands.
The Pope wished them success
and hoped that their courage and strength
would “serve as a cry for peace and solidarity."
These refugees are a sad sign of our times,
so many people living in camps
without clean water, without enough food,
without health care, without a home to go to,
without a way out.
_____________________________________________
Seventy percent of the Syrian refugees coming to Ohio
have settled in Toledo.
We stand out as a welcoming community
during a time when refugees have become
a contentious political issue.
Nationally we hear talk of building walls,
deporting people without documents,
banning Muslims.
But here in Toledo, we welcome them.
We at Holy Spirit Catholic Community,
thanks to Laurie Snyder and UStogether,
have been privileged
to be part of extending a welcoming hand,
and we intend to keep on helping.
_____________________________________________
Sure, we've met with some criticism.
We've been told it's okay to pray for refugees,
but don't bring “those people” here to live next door.
We believe, as Catholic Christians,
that we are responsible
for watching and listening and taking action for justice.
We know what happens when good people fail to do good things.
Concentration camps.
Slavery.
Jim Crow.
We look to Jesus, unafraid to speak out,
no matter the consequences.
_____________________________________________
We don't set out to make waves.
We set out to make our world right and just.
If our way of living the Gospel
would never spark a fire or risk a division,
never cause a ripple of conflict, or debate, or argument,
then wouldn't we be practicing an inoffensive Christianity?
Cheap grace, not costly.
Gospel lite, not the Gospel of Light.
_____________________________________________
So we make that phone call
when we see child abuse or domestic violence next door.
We blow the whistle at work,
even if it means we'll lose our job.
We speak out when we hear racist jokes,
even though some of our own family will call us names.
We act with justice,
and that can bring conflict and division.
More than that, it brings us the peace of Christ.
First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2-4, 18
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53
Don't make waves.
Mark's gospel—the earliest canonical gospel--
reports that Jesus' relatives set out to seize him,
believing him to be out of his mind.
He had been walking around Galilee,
teaching and healing,
calling people to live under God's rule and love one another.
Don't be a troublemaker, they tell him.
_____________________________________________
But he keeps on,
preaching truth and justice with fiery passion.
Scholars tell us that today's gospel reading
preserves “an echo of Jesus' voice,”
a glimpse into his soul.
They say that Jesus really talked about setting the earth on fire--
setting it on fire with the passion of justice.
They believe he really said that conflict is inevitable
whenever people act on their passion for justice.
_____________________________________________
Don't get carried away, his family tells him.
Don't go off the deep end.
But Jesus is on fire for justice.
He preaches the reign of God,
the reign of justice that brings peace.
He chastises the folks who want him to be quiet.
In the passage that immediately follows what we heard today,
Jesus calls them “hypocrites,” telling them
that they know how to tell what kind of weather is coming
but do not know how to interpret the signs of the present time.
_____________________________________________
Thanks to television, we know what's going on in our world.
Sometimes we see it live, just as it happens.
The signs of our times are clear.
The question for us is whether we know how to interpret them.
How, for example, do we interpret
the ongoing signs of racism in our country?
On the evening news we see demonstrators
carrying signs that say “Black Lives Matter,”
and then the white folks missing the point of what's happening,
holding up their signs that say “All Lives Matter.”
Of course all lives matter,
but the point is that some lives—the black ones--
routinely suffer demeaning and degrading situations
and live under the daily threat of violent consequences
that are not faced by the white lives.
_____________________________________________
Where is God in all this conflict?
God stands with the one who is excluded.
God lives in the one being ridiculed.
God dies in the unarmed teen shot to death by police.
If we don't stand with the victims of racism in our country,
we're not standing with God.
As Christians we have to recognize Jesus of Nazareth
in the death of every innocent
who is surrounded by a halo of hate.
_____________________________________________
Another sign of our times, the Olympics!
Before the games started, Pope Francis sent a letter
to the members of a team that represents 60 million people--
the Olympic Refugee Team,
made up of people
who have escaped the violence of their war-torn homelands.
The Pope wished them success
and hoped that their courage and strength
would “serve as a cry for peace and solidarity."
These refugees are a sad sign of our times,
so many people living in camps
without clean water, without enough food,
without health care, without a home to go to,
without a way out.
_____________________________________________
Seventy percent of the Syrian refugees coming to Ohio
have settled in Toledo.
We stand out as a welcoming community
during a time when refugees have become
a contentious political issue.
Nationally we hear talk of building walls,
deporting people without documents,
banning Muslims.
But here in Toledo, we welcome them.
We at Holy Spirit Catholic Community,
thanks to Laurie Snyder and UStogether,
have been privileged
to be part of extending a welcoming hand,
and we intend to keep on helping.
_____________________________________________
Sure, we've met with some criticism.
We've been told it's okay to pray for refugees,
but don't bring “those people” here to live next door.
We believe, as Catholic Christians,
that we are responsible
for watching and listening and taking action for justice.
We know what happens when good people fail to do good things.
Concentration camps.
Slavery.
Jim Crow.
We look to Jesus, unafraid to speak out,
no matter the consequences.
_____________________________________________
We don't set out to make waves.
We set out to make our world right and just.
If our way of living the Gospel
would never spark a fire or risk a division,
never cause a ripple of conflict, or debate, or argument,
then wouldn't we be practicing an inoffensive Christianity?
Cheap grace, not costly.
Gospel lite, not the Gospel of Light.
_____________________________________________
So we make that phone call
when we see child abuse or domestic violence next door.
We blow the whistle at work,
even if it means we'll lose our job.
We speak out when we hear racist jokes,
even though some of our own family will call us names.
We act with justice,
and that can bring conflict and division.
More than that, it brings us the peace of Christ.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 19 OTC, August 7, 2016
First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:1, 12,18-22
Second Reading: Hebrews: 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel: Luke 12:32-48
I went down to John XXIII for Bible Study this past week,
and the thing that became clear to me
from the participants' comments on today's readings
is that they make a distinction between faith and religion.
For them, faith comes from the experience of God's presence,
and religion
is the way we remember, express, and celebrate
our experience of God.
______________________________________________
That first reading from Wisdom tells about
the Jewish people's experience
of God's presence as death passed over them
and they were freed from slavery in Egypt.
They had experienced God's presence before.
They had seen God's promises fulfilled before.
So they trusted, and they headed out into the desert.
And they still, today, celebrate the Passover,
remembering the experience of God-with-them on the way.
______________________________________________
Then there's the letter to the Hebrews--
not written by Paul, by the way--
that letter remembers
Abraham and Sarah's experience of God's presence.
They didn't know where they were going to end up.
They didn't know they would have offspring.
But they trusted
because they heard the voice of God
promising good to them.
______________________________________________
And in Luke's Gospel
Jesus calls his disciples
to trust that God's reign is open to them.
He tells them to sell their belongings and give to the poor,
that where there treasure is, their heart will be.
He tells them to be alert for God's presence with them,
like servants waiting for a master's return.
And he tells them to trust that God is with them.
______________________________________________
Jesus' disciples were Jewish,
so they are tuned in
to the memories of God being with their ancestors.
But those disciples were young adults
in a culture where people lived--
not to the age of 30 or 35,
which was the average life expectancy
because of the high rate of infant mortality--
but as Psalm 90 tells us,
many lived to the age of 70 if they survived childhood,
to 80 if they were strong.
They questioned the rituals of their religion
just as today's young adults do…
just as those young supporters of Bernie Sanders
question our political system…
just as our generation
found a gap between God and our church
as we grew into our late teens and early 20s.
______________________________________________
Those disciples of Jesus
experienced the presence of God
in Jesus' word and example.
They understood his honest assessment
of hypocrisy in governmental and religious leaders.
Raised up in a tradition that told them
about Abraham and Sarah hearing God's voice
in the three travelers to whom they extended hospitality,
they were open to hearing God's voice
in Jesus of Nazareth.
______________________________________________
Like Abraham and Sarah,
we can't foretell our life path.
We literally don't know where we're going.
______________________________________________
At that John XXIII Bible Study
person after person
talked about the turning points in their lives,
the people through whom, and the events through which,
God spoke to them,
compelling them to make life choices
for love and justice and compassion.
They talked about being raised up in our tradition,
with all its rules and regulations,
then coming to an experience that brought them
to embrace once again the rituals by which
we remember and celebrate our own experience of God
and connect it to the generations of faithful
who have gone before.
______________________________________________
The documents of the second Vatican Council
helped many of our generation
to mend the fraying connection with our faith history.
For today's young people, sadly,
that connection is too often broken,
buried by clerical hypocrisy.
More and more, people are describing themselves
as “spiritual but not religious.”
The Luke who told the story of Jesus
in words that his community understood
has few counterparts in today's hierarchy,
though they do exist in theologians
like Elizabeth Johnson and Ilia Delio
and scripture scholars
like Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Raymond Brown.
Many of us here in Toledo
have experienced the pastoral theology of Fr. Jim Bacik,
telling us the story of Jesus in everyday language
and suggesting ways
that we can listen to the voice of God in our lives.
Over the years he has revived the faith of countless people
by bringing cutting-edge Vatican II theologians to speak here.
Because of him and people like him,
we grew to become spiritual
at the same time that we learned to practice our religion
as an expression of, and celebration of,
our own experience of God in our lives.
______________________________________________
In some ways, it's a sad time in the history of our church,
with its ongoing sex abuse cover-up,
pre-Copernican language in the liturgy,
and misogynistic rules,
but it's also a glorious time, too.
God continues to speak to us,
and we answer.
We hear God's voice telling us
to spend our lives changing the systems that oppress the poor.
We hear God's voice calling us to reduce-reuse-recycle
and to plant those seedlings.
We hear God's voice telling us to work for justice and peace.
We hear God's voice calling us along the way,
and we keep going
because we trust that God is with us.
The reign of God is indeed at hand.
Glory be to God!
First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:1, 12,18-22
Second Reading: Hebrews: 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel: Luke 12:32-48
I went down to John XXIII for Bible Study this past week,
and the thing that became clear to me
from the participants' comments on today's readings
is that they make a distinction between faith and religion.
For them, faith comes from the experience of God's presence,
and religion
is the way we remember, express, and celebrate
our experience of God.
______________________________________________
That first reading from Wisdom tells about
the Jewish people's experience
of God's presence as death passed over them
and they were freed from slavery in Egypt.
They had experienced God's presence before.
They had seen God's promises fulfilled before.
So they trusted, and they headed out into the desert.
And they still, today, celebrate the Passover,
remembering the experience of God-with-them on the way.
______________________________________________
Then there's the letter to the Hebrews--
not written by Paul, by the way--
that letter remembers
Abraham and Sarah's experience of God's presence.
They didn't know where they were going to end up.
They didn't know they would have offspring.
But they trusted
because they heard the voice of God
promising good to them.
______________________________________________
And in Luke's Gospel
Jesus calls his disciples
to trust that God's reign is open to them.
He tells them to sell their belongings and give to the poor,
that where there treasure is, their heart will be.
He tells them to be alert for God's presence with them,
like servants waiting for a master's return.
And he tells them to trust that God is with them.
______________________________________________
Jesus' disciples were Jewish,
so they are tuned in
to the memories of God being with their ancestors.
But those disciples were young adults
in a culture where people lived--
not to the age of 30 or 35,
which was the average life expectancy
because of the high rate of infant mortality--
but as Psalm 90 tells us,
many lived to the age of 70 if they survived childhood,
to 80 if they were strong.
They questioned the rituals of their religion
just as today's young adults do…
just as those young supporters of Bernie Sanders
question our political system…
just as our generation
found a gap between God and our church
as we grew into our late teens and early 20s.
______________________________________________
Those disciples of Jesus
experienced the presence of God
in Jesus' word and example.
They understood his honest assessment
of hypocrisy in governmental and religious leaders.
Raised up in a tradition that told them
about Abraham and Sarah hearing God's voice
in the three travelers to whom they extended hospitality,
they were open to hearing God's voice
in Jesus of Nazareth.
______________________________________________
Like Abraham and Sarah,
we can't foretell our life path.
We literally don't know where we're going.
______________________________________________
At that John XXIII Bible Study
person after person
talked about the turning points in their lives,
the people through whom, and the events through which,
God spoke to them,
compelling them to make life choices
for love and justice and compassion.
They talked about being raised up in our tradition,
with all its rules and regulations,
then coming to an experience that brought them
to embrace once again the rituals by which
we remember and celebrate our own experience of God
and connect it to the generations of faithful
who have gone before.
______________________________________________
The documents of the second Vatican Council
helped many of our generation
to mend the fraying connection with our faith history.
For today's young people, sadly,
that connection is too often broken,
buried by clerical hypocrisy.
More and more, people are describing themselves
as “spiritual but not religious.”
The Luke who told the story of Jesus
in words that his community understood
has few counterparts in today's hierarchy,
though they do exist in theologians
like Elizabeth Johnson and Ilia Delio
and scripture scholars
like Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Raymond Brown.
Many of us here in Toledo
have experienced the pastoral theology of Fr. Jim Bacik,
telling us the story of Jesus in everyday language
and suggesting ways
that we can listen to the voice of God in our lives.
Over the years he has revived the faith of countless people
by bringing cutting-edge Vatican II theologians to speak here.
Because of him and people like him,
we grew to become spiritual
at the same time that we learned to practice our religion
as an expression of, and celebration of,
our own experience of God in our lives.
______________________________________________
In some ways, it's a sad time in the history of our church,
with its ongoing sex abuse cover-up,
pre-Copernican language in the liturgy,
and misogynistic rules,
but it's also a glorious time, too.
God continues to speak to us,
and we answer.
We hear God's voice telling us
to spend our lives changing the systems that oppress the poor.
We hear God's voice calling us to reduce-reuse-recycle
and to plant those seedlings.
We hear God's voice telling us to work for justice and peace.
We hear God's voice calling us along the way,
and we keep going
because we trust that God is with us.
The reign of God is indeed at hand.
Glory be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 18 OTC, July 31, 2016
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Yep, it's hot. We feel it. We see it.
Talking about climate change last December, Pope Francis said,
“It is now or never….
Every year the problems are more serious.…
We are on the edge of suicide.”
The earth is heating up, and people around the world are suffering.
Not only was last month the 40th consecutive June
with temperatures above the 20th century average,
it was the hottest June on record, ever.
The media regularly report of people dying from the heat
but have not yet begun to look at the potential for death
due to floods caused by deforestation,
reduction in crop yields from increased heat and drought,
wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes,
collapses of the oceanic food chain from ocean acidification,
or the wars they lead to.
Laudato Si', Pope Francis' encyclical last year,
focused on the environment, “our common home,”
but his message pointed to the root cause
of all this environmental degradation: greed.
______________________________________________
Today's scriptures hold that same message.
Ecclesiastes asks us what profit there is
in all this stuff we gather and hoard,
stuff that brings us grief
to the point that we don't rest from chasing it all day long
and then can't even rest at night.
Our greed is literally killing us.
As Thomas Berry explains it,
we are the first radically anthropocentric society.
We have broken the primary law of the universe...
the law that every member of the universe
should be integral with every other member of the universe.
______________________________________________
Paul's letter to the Colossians rightly labels this greed as idolatry.
Today, it's all about the American Idol.
We bow down to money.
We worship movie stars and athletes.
We stampede to honor the rich and famous,
running roughshod over the poor and hungry.
We fight to get everything we can for ourselves.
Paul's advice is as good for us as it was for the Colossians:
pay attention to the things that are not just more “stuff.”
Remember, he says, that we are all equal,
regardless of our status in this world.
______________________________________________
And Jesus gives us that same message
in the parable of the rich farmer.
All that grasping after money and power,
all that greed
that steals the livelihood of our neighbors around the world,
leads to absolutely nothing of value.
We are never satisfied.
We can never have enough.
It does us no good in the end.
______________________________________________
Jesus also tells us that it doesn't have to be like that.
We can, he says, be rich in what really matters.
I think of Catherine,
the neighbor just north of the home I grew up in.
She and her husband Bill had a small family farm
and a large, close family—literally large and close:
nine children raised in that two-bedroom house.
Bill died in 1967, and Catherine stayed there,
farming with the help of her adult children and neighbors
until she died in 1979.
Her will gave an acre to each of the children
to live on or sell, as they chose.
The remaining land was to be sold and the profits split equally.
But the children feared arguments
over the contents of the house and barn,
which had been left equally to them.
They stewed and they prayed.
Then they started
by having each one write down on a piece of paper
the one thing they wanted most
and put it in a bowl.
Tears of joy and love flowed when they opened the papers
and found that each of them had chosen something
that had a special memory and meaning for them--
all nine of them different.
The family was rich in what mattered—they loved one another.
______________________________________________
Two weeks ago the Nuns on the Bus came through Toledo
on their way to Cleveland and Philadelphia
for the Republican and Democratic Conventions.
They talked the talk of Catholic Social Teaching
and urged everyone they met to walk the walk with them,
to measure every candidate for public office, top to bottom,
by the core principles of our faith.
They compared statements
of the candidates for President and U.S. Senator
on the issues.
They called people to vote their conscience
and put their energy into making their own communities better.
They asked people to look at the candidates
to see if their statements reflect
the vanity of greed
or the love of God.
The Conventions are over now,
and the Nuns are off the bus for a while.
But their questions stay with us.
Do we give up, looking at the depressing conclusion
that can come out of Ecclesiastes,
the conclusion that,
if all is vanity,
then nothing matters.
So who cares?
Why bother?
Eat, drink, and be merry.
______________________________________________
Professor Eleonore Stump of St. Louis University
says that the transitory nature of earthly goods
should be comforting to us,
not distressing.
Those bigger barns—our possessions—may be good,
but, in the long run, getting them—or losing them--
is not of overwhelming importance.
We can do our work without fanfare,
and we can endure our trials with a sense of equanimity,
because none of these things last.
______________________________________________
We know what lasts.
What lasts is love.
We do not love money, the root of all evil.
We love people.
We love God, the God in whose image and likeness we are made.
God loves us.
And we live our lives in that love.
There are billions of us--
suffering, struggling people
who know the love
that sets us free and gives us new life.
Glory be to God!
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Yep, it's hot. We feel it. We see it.
Talking about climate change last December, Pope Francis said,
“It is now or never….
Every year the problems are more serious.…
We are on the edge of suicide.”
The earth is heating up, and people around the world are suffering.
Not only was last month the 40th consecutive June
with temperatures above the 20th century average,
it was the hottest June on record, ever.
The media regularly report of people dying from the heat
but have not yet begun to look at the potential for death
due to floods caused by deforestation,
reduction in crop yields from increased heat and drought,
wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes,
collapses of the oceanic food chain from ocean acidification,
or the wars they lead to.
Laudato Si', Pope Francis' encyclical last year,
focused on the environment, “our common home,”
but his message pointed to the root cause
of all this environmental degradation: greed.
______________________________________________
Today's scriptures hold that same message.
Ecclesiastes asks us what profit there is
in all this stuff we gather and hoard,
stuff that brings us grief
to the point that we don't rest from chasing it all day long
and then can't even rest at night.
Our greed is literally killing us.
As Thomas Berry explains it,
we are the first radically anthropocentric society.
We have broken the primary law of the universe...
the law that every member of the universe
should be integral with every other member of the universe.
______________________________________________
Paul's letter to the Colossians rightly labels this greed as idolatry.
Today, it's all about the American Idol.
We bow down to money.
We worship movie stars and athletes.
We stampede to honor the rich and famous,
running roughshod over the poor and hungry.
We fight to get everything we can for ourselves.
Paul's advice is as good for us as it was for the Colossians:
pay attention to the things that are not just more “stuff.”
Remember, he says, that we are all equal,
regardless of our status in this world.
______________________________________________
And Jesus gives us that same message
in the parable of the rich farmer.
All that grasping after money and power,
all that greed
that steals the livelihood of our neighbors around the world,
leads to absolutely nothing of value.
We are never satisfied.
We can never have enough.
It does us no good in the end.
______________________________________________
Jesus also tells us that it doesn't have to be like that.
We can, he says, be rich in what really matters.
I think of Catherine,
the neighbor just north of the home I grew up in.
She and her husband Bill had a small family farm
and a large, close family—literally large and close:
nine children raised in that two-bedroom house.
Bill died in 1967, and Catherine stayed there,
farming with the help of her adult children and neighbors
until she died in 1979.
Her will gave an acre to each of the children
to live on or sell, as they chose.
The remaining land was to be sold and the profits split equally.
But the children feared arguments
over the contents of the house and barn,
which had been left equally to them.
They stewed and they prayed.
Then they started
by having each one write down on a piece of paper
the one thing they wanted most
and put it in a bowl.
Tears of joy and love flowed when they opened the papers
and found that each of them had chosen something
that had a special memory and meaning for them--
all nine of them different.
The family was rich in what mattered—they loved one another.
______________________________________________
Two weeks ago the Nuns on the Bus came through Toledo
on their way to Cleveland and Philadelphia
for the Republican and Democratic Conventions.
They talked the talk of Catholic Social Teaching
and urged everyone they met to walk the walk with them,
to measure every candidate for public office, top to bottom,
by the core principles of our faith.
They compared statements
of the candidates for President and U.S. Senator
on the issues.
They called people to vote their conscience
and put their energy into making their own communities better.
They asked people to look at the candidates
to see if their statements reflect
the vanity of greed
or the love of God.
The Conventions are over now,
and the Nuns are off the bus for a while.
But their questions stay with us.
Do we give up, looking at the depressing conclusion
that can come out of Ecclesiastes,
the conclusion that,
if all is vanity,
then nothing matters.
So who cares?
Why bother?
Eat, drink, and be merry.
______________________________________________
Professor Eleonore Stump of St. Louis University
says that the transitory nature of earthly goods
should be comforting to us,
not distressing.
Those bigger barns—our possessions—may be good,
but, in the long run, getting them—or losing them--
is not of overwhelming importance.
We can do our work without fanfare,
and we can endure our trials with a sense of equanimity,
because none of these things last.
______________________________________________
We know what lasts.
What lasts is love.
We do not love money, the root of all evil.
We love people.
We love God, the God in whose image and likeness we are made.
God loves us.
And we live our lives in that love.
There are billions of us--
suffering, struggling people
who know the love
that sets us free and gives us new life.
Glory be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 17 OTC, July 24, 2016
First Reading: Genesis 18:20-32
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8
Second Reading: Colossians 2:12-14
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
Scholars agree that a good part of today's Gospel
is original with Jesus,
with Luke and Matthew each creating a different context
for telling about Jesus' teaching.
The passage has three parts--
the prayer,
the anecdote about the neighbor knocking at midnight,
and the blank checks from God
making promises about asking, and seeking, and knocking.
________________________________________
First, the prayer.
Luke creates a scene
in which the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray,
and Jesus answers them
with the petitions we know today as “The Lord's Prayer.”
Each petition in the prayer has a parallel
in the customary prayers of the Jews of the time.
Scholars doubt that Jesus taught it as one prayer,
thinking rather that each of these petitions
were ones that Jesus' disciples had hear him pray often.
The whole prayer, as Luke puts the sayings together,
summarizes Jesus' teaching:
—We are children of God, in a relationship as close as family.
—God is good and holy.
—The reign of God is at hand… God is in charge!
—God will take care of our needs every day.
—God forgives every debt we owe
in the same way that we forgive the debts
owed to us by our neighbors.
—God will be with us in all the struggles of life.
________________________________________
Then comes the second part of today's Gospel.
After the Lord's Prayer,
Luke has Jesus tell the anecdote about a person
who asks his neighbor to “loan” him bread
to serve an unexpected midnight guest.
The lesson is tied up with the ancient code of hospitality
and the shame that would come upon them
and their neighborhood
if the guest were not served.
The one making the request is persistent,
as our translation suggests,
but as the original Greek (anaideia) says,
he is “shameless” in waking his neighbor and expecting help.
In the same way,
the sleepy neighbor knows that his failure to respond
would bring shame on his own household
and the whole village,
who all share responsibility for hospitality to the guest.
As Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Barbara Reid puts it,
“It is completely unthinkable
that a friend would act shamefully by denying a friend in need.
A friend would most certainly give what is asked, and more.”
________________________________________
And God is our friend!
According to Pat Marrin of Celebration Magazine,
Martin Luther King preached on today's Gospel
as a challenge to churches for “sleeping behind locked doors
when the world came begging for the bread of justice.”
Like Dr. King, we can be confident
that the God of Justice would be ashamed
not to answer the cries for justice in today's world.
________________________________________
Finally, Luke gives us the third part of this passage,
a series of Jesus' sayings that promises us
that God provides all our needs.
Ask and you will receive.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus gives total assurance—that “blessed assurance”--
that our loving God—friend, neighbor, parent--
will not leave us out in the dark begging...
but will give us our daily bread.
________________________________________
We as church—the people of God--
believe that we are one people with all peoples,
that we are called to work for the common good,
to live in the right relationship we call justice,
to bring about the reign of God
that we call peace and freedom from oppression.
That doesn't mean we can just sit back and pray
and wait for God to make the world better.
We have to do it ourselves.
Our prayer doesn't change God, it changes us,
as the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard said.
So if we ask for a peaceful world, we'll get it,
because, through our prayer,
God will help us become more peaceful.
If we seek a just world, we'll find it,
because, through our prayer,
God will help us become more just.
If we knock on the door of freedom and equality, it will open,
because our prayer will lead us and guide us
to work for freedom and equality for all.
________________________________________
We could ask, with Abraham in that Genesis reading,
what if there were only fifty people working for justice?
What if there were only thirty people working for peace?
What if only ten were working for equality?
What if you were the only one?
Like Malala Yousafzai.
Mother Teresa.
Or Mahatma Gandhi.
Dorothy Day.
Simone Campbell.
Or Jesus of Nazareth.
Through his life and preaching
Jesus assured us that God
will be with even one just or peaceful or all-loving person,
and that one will live in a just, peaceful, and loving world--
will live in the reign of God.
And those who follow Jesus on the Way
will find the door to that world
wide open.
Amen!
First Reading: Genesis 18:20-32
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8
Second Reading: Colossians 2:12-14
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
Scholars agree that a good part of today's Gospel
is original with Jesus,
with Luke and Matthew each creating a different context
for telling about Jesus' teaching.
The passage has three parts--
the prayer,
the anecdote about the neighbor knocking at midnight,
and the blank checks from God
making promises about asking, and seeking, and knocking.
________________________________________
First, the prayer.
Luke creates a scene
in which the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray,
and Jesus answers them
with the petitions we know today as “The Lord's Prayer.”
Each petition in the prayer has a parallel
in the customary prayers of the Jews of the time.
Scholars doubt that Jesus taught it as one prayer,
thinking rather that each of these petitions
were ones that Jesus' disciples had hear him pray often.
The whole prayer, as Luke puts the sayings together,
summarizes Jesus' teaching:
—We are children of God, in a relationship as close as family.
—God is good and holy.
—The reign of God is at hand… God is in charge!
—God will take care of our needs every day.
—God forgives every debt we owe
in the same way that we forgive the debts
owed to us by our neighbors.
—God will be with us in all the struggles of life.
________________________________________
Then comes the second part of today's Gospel.
After the Lord's Prayer,
Luke has Jesus tell the anecdote about a person
who asks his neighbor to “loan” him bread
to serve an unexpected midnight guest.
The lesson is tied up with the ancient code of hospitality
and the shame that would come upon them
and their neighborhood
if the guest were not served.
The one making the request is persistent,
as our translation suggests,
but as the original Greek (anaideia) says,
he is “shameless” in waking his neighbor and expecting help.
In the same way,
the sleepy neighbor knows that his failure to respond
would bring shame on his own household
and the whole village,
who all share responsibility for hospitality to the guest.
As Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Barbara Reid puts it,
“It is completely unthinkable
that a friend would act shamefully by denying a friend in need.
A friend would most certainly give what is asked, and more.”
________________________________________
And God is our friend!
According to Pat Marrin of Celebration Magazine,
Martin Luther King preached on today's Gospel
as a challenge to churches for “sleeping behind locked doors
when the world came begging for the bread of justice.”
Like Dr. King, we can be confident
that the God of Justice would be ashamed
not to answer the cries for justice in today's world.
________________________________________
Finally, Luke gives us the third part of this passage,
a series of Jesus' sayings that promises us
that God provides all our needs.
Ask and you will receive.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus gives total assurance—that “blessed assurance”--
that our loving God—friend, neighbor, parent--
will not leave us out in the dark begging...
but will give us our daily bread.
________________________________________
We as church—the people of God--
believe that we are one people with all peoples,
that we are called to work for the common good,
to live in the right relationship we call justice,
to bring about the reign of God
that we call peace and freedom from oppression.
That doesn't mean we can just sit back and pray
and wait for God to make the world better.
We have to do it ourselves.
Our prayer doesn't change God, it changes us,
as the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard said.
So if we ask for a peaceful world, we'll get it,
because, through our prayer,
God will help us become more peaceful.
If we seek a just world, we'll find it,
because, through our prayer,
God will help us become more just.
If we knock on the door of freedom and equality, it will open,
because our prayer will lead us and guide us
to work for freedom and equality for all.
________________________________________
We could ask, with Abraham in that Genesis reading,
what if there were only fifty people working for justice?
What if there were only thirty people working for peace?
What if only ten were working for equality?
What if you were the only one?
Like Malala Yousafzai.
Mother Teresa.
Or Mahatma Gandhi.
Dorothy Day.
Simone Campbell.
Or Jesus of Nazareth.
Through his life and preaching
Jesus assured us that God
will be with even one just or peaceful or all-loving person,
and that one will live in a just, peaceful, and loving world--
will live in the reign of God.
And those who follow Jesus on the Way
will find the door to that world
wide open.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 16 OTC, July 17, 2016
First Reading: Genesis 18:1-10A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 15:2-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:24-28
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
That movie was released forty years ago, in late 1967,
just months before the assassinations
of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.
Joanna was bringing her new fiancé John
to dinner with her parents
in a groundbreaking film that
presented interracial marriage in a positive light.
It turned America's cultural biases upside down.
Same thing happened 4,000 years ago,
when it was God coming to dinner
in the form of the visitors to the tent of Abraham and Sarah.
And again, 2,000 years ago,
when God again came to dinner
in the presence of Jesus in Luke's Gospel.
___________________________________________
And guess who's fixing the dinner?
Just take a look at Abraham, the father of our faith.
He is indeed the patriarch.
He gives orders, and everyone jumps.
His wife heads for the kitchen to bake bread.
His slave runs off to slaughter the steer.
Abraham is consumed with providing the hospitality
that customs requires.
Sarah, on the other hand, is in the background,
baking the bread
and listening to their conversation from the tent.
She laughs—to herself—when the visitor says she will have a son.
But God knows what's in her heart
and asks Abraham why she laughed.
Then Sarah speaks up,
and God speaks directly to her.
A woman talks, and God answers!
That turned the cultural norms upside down!
___________________________________________
Luke's story of Mary and Martha is usually presented
as the difference between contemplation and action,
but it's more than that.
Before this, in chapters 5 and 7,
Luke put Jesus at two other contentious dinner parties,
one where he ate with tax collectors and sinners
and the other where he praised the woman
who washed his feet
and criticized the male host who did not treat him hospitably.
There's no question that he made a habit of turning the tables
on the social and religious norms of his time.
___________________________________________
Now, in chapter 10, Luke shows Martha
toiling away in the kitchen at what she,
and the society she lives in,
consider to be women's work,
but Mary is sitting with and listening to Jesus in the living room,
where the men gather while the meal is being prepared.
Martha complains, asking Jesus
to tell her sister to get back in the kitchen…
to get back to the acceptable role for women.
But Jesus says that Mary has “chosen the better part.”
It's one more dinner party scene
that contradicts the culture of the time.
___________________________________________
What is that “better part?”
It's not to be contemplative instead of active.
And not that contemplation is better than action.
It's both at the same time.
When we love God and listen to God's word,
we learn to love our neighbors
and help them when they're in need.
As Pope Francis puts it,
contemplation and service to others
“are not two opposing attitudes….
For a Christian the works of service and charity
are never detached from the main source of all our actions:
listening to the Word of the Lord,
being—like Mary—at the feet of Jesus
in the attitude of the disciple.”
___________________________________________
It's not an accident that Luke tells this dinner story
right after last week's Good Samaritan parable
that showed us the second commandment--
love our neighbors as ourselves.
This dinner story shows us the first commandment--
love God with our whole being.
___________________________________________
Living that first commandment
isn't just for when we're at church or reading the scriptures…
...or attentively listening to my homilies.
No matter what we're doing or how busy we are,
we are called to live in reverence and gratitude to God.
It will show in everything we do.
It will show especially in the way we treat the least among us--
the ones our culture tells us are not as good as we are.
Here in the United States these days,
that may be blacks or women
or immigrants or Muslims or LGBT folks.
It may be older people or younger people, single parents,
uneducated or poor or homeless or jobless people.
Some of our biases come from who we are,
and some from what we've experienced,
but the most insidious ones are hidden
in the systems and practices
that are so much a part of culture that we are blind to them.
It's hard to remember that God is not only with us but among us,
always present in the people we have learned not to see.
___________________________________________
Down at Claver House this week my friend John--
he's the one who fixed my lawnmower
and didn't charge me anything for it,
and does that same kind of thing for a lot of other people;
John, a Vietnam vet with a pacemaker
and a weekly visit to the clinic
to get the fluid drained from his lungs;
a lifelong truck driver,
living alone on a fixed income;
John, big black John,
who usually takes part
in the animated conversation that goes on at Claver,
seemed preoccupied,
so I asked him what was up.
He told me that two young men
were shot behind his house last night,
and one of them died.
Then he lifted up his coffee cup and said,
“So I was just being thankful for the coffee.”
Then he added, “And breakfast.
“And a safe place to be.
“And nice people to be with.”
He leaned forward a bit, looked me straight in the eye, and said,
“And I was hoping
that everybody else in the world
could have as much as I do.”
___________________________________________
It was like a eucharistic prayer:
thanksgiving for life and food and drink and community.
All I could do was say “Amen!”
First Reading: Genesis 18:1-10A
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 15:2-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:24-28
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
That movie was released forty years ago, in late 1967,
just months before the assassinations
of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.
Joanna was bringing her new fiancé John
to dinner with her parents
in a groundbreaking film that
presented interracial marriage in a positive light.
It turned America's cultural biases upside down.
Same thing happened 4,000 years ago,
when it was God coming to dinner
in the form of the visitors to the tent of Abraham and Sarah.
And again, 2,000 years ago,
when God again came to dinner
in the presence of Jesus in Luke's Gospel.
___________________________________________
And guess who's fixing the dinner?
Just take a look at Abraham, the father of our faith.
He is indeed the patriarch.
He gives orders, and everyone jumps.
His wife heads for the kitchen to bake bread.
His slave runs off to slaughter the steer.
Abraham is consumed with providing the hospitality
that customs requires.
Sarah, on the other hand, is in the background,
baking the bread
and listening to their conversation from the tent.
She laughs—to herself—when the visitor says she will have a son.
But God knows what's in her heart
and asks Abraham why she laughed.
Then Sarah speaks up,
and God speaks directly to her.
A woman talks, and God answers!
That turned the cultural norms upside down!
___________________________________________
Luke's story of Mary and Martha is usually presented
as the difference between contemplation and action,
but it's more than that.
Before this, in chapters 5 and 7,
Luke put Jesus at two other contentious dinner parties,
one where he ate with tax collectors and sinners
and the other where he praised the woman
who washed his feet
and criticized the male host who did not treat him hospitably.
There's no question that he made a habit of turning the tables
on the social and religious norms of his time.
___________________________________________
Now, in chapter 10, Luke shows Martha
toiling away in the kitchen at what she,
and the society she lives in,
consider to be women's work,
but Mary is sitting with and listening to Jesus in the living room,
where the men gather while the meal is being prepared.
Martha complains, asking Jesus
to tell her sister to get back in the kitchen…
to get back to the acceptable role for women.
But Jesus says that Mary has “chosen the better part.”
It's one more dinner party scene
that contradicts the culture of the time.
___________________________________________
What is that “better part?”
It's not to be contemplative instead of active.
And not that contemplation is better than action.
It's both at the same time.
When we love God and listen to God's word,
we learn to love our neighbors
and help them when they're in need.
As Pope Francis puts it,
contemplation and service to others
“are not two opposing attitudes….
For a Christian the works of service and charity
are never detached from the main source of all our actions:
listening to the Word of the Lord,
being—like Mary—at the feet of Jesus
in the attitude of the disciple.”
___________________________________________
It's not an accident that Luke tells this dinner story
right after last week's Good Samaritan parable
that showed us the second commandment--
love our neighbors as ourselves.
This dinner story shows us the first commandment--
love God with our whole being.
___________________________________________
Living that first commandment
isn't just for when we're at church or reading the scriptures…
...or attentively listening to my homilies.
No matter what we're doing or how busy we are,
we are called to live in reverence and gratitude to God.
It will show in everything we do.
It will show especially in the way we treat the least among us--
the ones our culture tells us are not as good as we are.
Here in the United States these days,
that may be blacks or women
or immigrants or Muslims or LGBT folks.
It may be older people or younger people, single parents,
uneducated or poor or homeless or jobless people.
Some of our biases come from who we are,
and some from what we've experienced,
but the most insidious ones are hidden
in the systems and practices
that are so much a part of culture that we are blind to them.
It's hard to remember that God is not only with us but among us,
always present in the people we have learned not to see.
___________________________________________
Down at Claver House this week my friend John--
he's the one who fixed my lawnmower
and didn't charge me anything for it,
and does that same kind of thing for a lot of other people;
John, a Vietnam vet with a pacemaker
and a weekly visit to the clinic
to get the fluid drained from his lungs;
a lifelong truck driver,
living alone on a fixed income;
John, big black John,
who usually takes part
in the animated conversation that goes on at Claver,
seemed preoccupied,
so I asked him what was up.
He told me that two young men
were shot behind his house last night,
and one of them died.
Then he lifted up his coffee cup and said,
“So I was just being thankful for the coffee.”
Then he added, “And breakfast.
“And a safe place to be.
“And nice people to be with.”
He leaned forward a bit, looked me straight in the eye, and said,
“And I was hoping
that everybody else in the world
could have as much as I do.”
___________________________________________
It was like a eucharistic prayer:
thanksgiving for life and food and drink and community.
All I could do was say “Amen!”
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 15 OTC, July 10, 2016
First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36-37
Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
Scripture scholars agree that Jesus
actually spoke today's parable of the Good Samaritan,
or something very much like it.
They call the parable itself “a classic example
of the provocative public speech of Jesus the preacher.”
But they also say that Luke
created the dialogue around the parable,
reasoning that the dialogue asks two questions
that are different from the teaching of the parable itself.
Those two questions
are what I'm used to hearing about this passage:
“Who is my neighbor?” and “Which one acted like a neighbor?”
But the parable itself leads us to ask this question:
“From what quarter can I expect help
when I have been robbed, beaten, and left for dead?”
If I'm the one in need of help,
who do I think will step up and be a neighbor to me?
_________________________________________
Phyllis is one.
Whenever I have to go out of town overnight,
she tends my chickens and keeps watch on the house.
Then there's Carrie and her family, across the street from me.
They've learned how to herd chickens
from those times the mail carrier or meter reader
has left the gate open.
Down at Claver House George and John and Tina and Shirley
get worried and phone me if I don't show up for breakfast.
And you, the members of our Holy Spirit Catholic Community,
tend me every time you see me struggling--
like when I was hobbling around on crutches last spring.
I am surrounded by Good Samaritans,
people who help me instinctively
because they have formed themselves
into compassionate human beings.
So there are people around me who I expect will help me.
But who would I not expect help from?
_________________________________________
Jesus' audience for this parable would have thought
that the beat-up and bleeding man in the ditch was a Jew.
They would have expected the priest and the Levite to help him.
But they didn't.
They would not have expected the hated Samaritan to help him.
But he did.
And he went way beyond that,
reaching out with boundless compassion and resources
to bring help and healing.
_________________________________________
Would I expect a Muslim to help me? Or not?
A Mexican immigrant?
A politician?
A homeless person?
A bishop?
My answer will show what I think of other people.
It will lay bare my acceptance of some and my rejection of others.
_________________________________________
We all want to become the kind of person
who will be expected to be a neighbor to anyone in need.
The only way to do that
is to practice compassion in ordinary, everyday life.
When we decide to follow Jesus, it's a process.
We decide to reflect and pray and study and act
in ways that will form us into a person of virtue.
If we think people who are different from us--
in race or ethnicity or religion
or gender or political persuasion--
would not be expected to help us in a crisis,
that's a sign that we need to change.
_________________________________________
Toledo janitor Karen Loudermill, taking a break from work,
saw a young girl walking alone on the street
in the middle of the night.
Karen didn't hesitate to get involved.
She didn't worry about getting back to work on time.
She didn't wonder if the girl was on drugs, or mentally ill,
or dangerous in some way.
She didn't think about what could happen to her.
Karen walked over and started the conversation
that uncovered serious mistreatment
in the home where the girl had been kept a prisoner.
_________________________________________
D.C. government worker Larry Skutnik,
caught in a traffic jam on a bridge over the Potomac
as he headed home,
got out of his car
and saw that a plane had crashed into the river.
Larry watched as a helicopter rescued two of the three people
hanging on to the tail of the plane.
When he saw the third starting to go under,
he took off his shoes and jacket, dived into the freezing water,
and brought the woman to the shore.
Larry's comment: “I reacted instinctively, that's all.”
What made Karen and Larry take those heroic actions?
What made them risk danger to help a stranger?
What gave them that instinct for compassion?
_________________________________________
That kind of virtue comes from how they had learned to be
in the ordinary times,
not from extraordinary circumstances.
They are ordinary people
who learned compassion
to the point that they didn't even think about themselves
when they saw another human being in need.
The crisis didn't create their character.
It revealed it.
_________________________________________
Social psychologists who study bystander apathy
identify three things a person uses
to decide whether to do something in an emergency:
whether or not they feel the person is deserving of help;
whether they have competence to help;
and what relationship they have with the victim.
As Christians—and as Americans--
we say we believe that all people are equal
and therefore equally deserving of help.
We believe that everyone is a child of God, a brother or sister to us.
That means that we have the same relationship
with any and every victim.
And that means that we have a responsibility
to develop habits of compassion
that will cause us to act instinctively
to help whenever we can.
We can't hesitate because the person isn't like us,
or because we don't know who they are,
or because we aren't EMTs.
When Jesus says
that the law is summed up as love God and love neighbor,
it sounds easy…
but it's the journey of a lifetime.
Amen!
First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36-37
Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
Scripture scholars agree that Jesus
actually spoke today's parable of the Good Samaritan,
or something very much like it.
They call the parable itself “a classic example
of the provocative public speech of Jesus the preacher.”
But they also say that Luke
created the dialogue around the parable,
reasoning that the dialogue asks two questions
that are different from the teaching of the parable itself.
Those two questions
are what I'm used to hearing about this passage:
“Who is my neighbor?” and “Which one acted like a neighbor?”
But the parable itself leads us to ask this question:
“From what quarter can I expect help
when I have been robbed, beaten, and left for dead?”
If I'm the one in need of help,
who do I think will step up and be a neighbor to me?
_________________________________________
Phyllis is one.
Whenever I have to go out of town overnight,
she tends my chickens and keeps watch on the house.
Then there's Carrie and her family, across the street from me.
They've learned how to herd chickens
from those times the mail carrier or meter reader
has left the gate open.
Down at Claver House George and John and Tina and Shirley
get worried and phone me if I don't show up for breakfast.
And you, the members of our Holy Spirit Catholic Community,
tend me every time you see me struggling--
like when I was hobbling around on crutches last spring.
I am surrounded by Good Samaritans,
people who help me instinctively
because they have formed themselves
into compassionate human beings.
So there are people around me who I expect will help me.
But who would I not expect help from?
_________________________________________
Jesus' audience for this parable would have thought
that the beat-up and bleeding man in the ditch was a Jew.
They would have expected the priest and the Levite to help him.
But they didn't.
They would not have expected the hated Samaritan to help him.
But he did.
And he went way beyond that,
reaching out with boundless compassion and resources
to bring help and healing.
_________________________________________
Would I expect a Muslim to help me? Or not?
A Mexican immigrant?
A politician?
A homeless person?
A bishop?
My answer will show what I think of other people.
It will lay bare my acceptance of some and my rejection of others.
_________________________________________
We all want to become the kind of person
who will be expected to be a neighbor to anyone in need.
The only way to do that
is to practice compassion in ordinary, everyday life.
When we decide to follow Jesus, it's a process.
We decide to reflect and pray and study and act
in ways that will form us into a person of virtue.
If we think people who are different from us--
in race or ethnicity or religion
or gender or political persuasion--
would not be expected to help us in a crisis,
that's a sign that we need to change.
_________________________________________
Toledo janitor Karen Loudermill, taking a break from work,
saw a young girl walking alone on the street
in the middle of the night.
Karen didn't hesitate to get involved.
She didn't worry about getting back to work on time.
She didn't wonder if the girl was on drugs, or mentally ill,
or dangerous in some way.
She didn't think about what could happen to her.
Karen walked over and started the conversation
that uncovered serious mistreatment
in the home where the girl had been kept a prisoner.
_________________________________________
D.C. government worker Larry Skutnik,
caught in a traffic jam on a bridge over the Potomac
as he headed home,
got out of his car
and saw that a plane had crashed into the river.
Larry watched as a helicopter rescued two of the three people
hanging on to the tail of the plane.
When he saw the third starting to go under,
he took off his shoes and jacket, dived into the freezing water,
and brought the woman to the shore.
Larry's comment: “I reacted instinctively, that's all.”
What made Karen and Larry take those heroic actions?
What made them risk danger to help a stranger?
What gave them that instinct for compassion?
_________________________________________
That kind of virtue comes from how they had learned to be
in the ordinary times,
not from extraordinary circumstances.
They are ordinary people
who learned compassion
to the point that they didn't even think about themselves
when they saw another human being in need.
The crisis didn't create their character.
It revealed it.
_________________________________________
Social psychologists who study bystander apathy
identify three things a person uses
to decide whether to do something in an emergency:
whether or not they feel the person is deserving of help;
whether they have competence to help;
and what relationship they have with the victim.
As Christians—and as Americans--
we say we believe that all people are equal
and therefore equally deserving of help.
We believe that everyone is a child of God, a brother or sister to us.
That means that we have the same relationship
with any and every victim.
And that means that we have a responsibility
to develop habits of compassion
that will cause us to act instinctively
to help whenever we can.
We can't hesitate because the person isn't like us,
or because we don't know who they are,
or because we aren't EMTs.
When Jesus says
that the law is summed up as love God and love neighbor,
it sounds easy…
but it's the journey of a lifetime.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 14 OTC, July 3, 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14
Responsorial Psalm 66:1-7, 16. 20
Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18
Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
In the chapter before today's Gospel,
Luke tells the story of the sending of the twelve apostles,
symbolic of the twelve tribes
and therefore representing the church's mission to Israel.
Matthew and Mark also tell of the sending of the twelve.
Luke, though, is the only one
who adds the sending of the seventy-two
that we heard in today's Gospel.
Like the twelve, the seventy-two is symbolic.
A little background here:
the Greek manuscripts of Luke's gospel
differ about the number--
it's seventy in some, seventy-two in others.
In Genesis Moses chose seventy elders to help him,
and Jacob had seventy descendents.
Both seventy and seventy-two
may also symbolize the number of nations in the world--
the Hebrew text of Genesis says seventy nations,
the Greek text seventy-two.
Whichever number is used,
it stands for the mission of the church to the whole world
and shows the understanding of the early church
that they were sent to proclaim Jesus' message
to all people everywhere.
_________________________________________
And that message begins with peace.
They are to be bearers of peace everywhere they go,
telling people that God is in charge,
not the violent or the greedy or the hate-filled.
As Luke writes it, “The reign of God is at hand for you.”
_________________________________________
Comparing the ways the gospel writers
described the sending of the disciples
makes it clear that the early church communities
freely adapted Jesus' words to their own circumstances.
The word of God is not abstract.
It doesn't exist in a vacuum.
God's word is alive,
and like our ancestors in faith,
we must interpret God's word
to learn how we are called and sent to preach the good news.
We are the ones who are sent now,
apostles of peace in our time.
_________________________________________
But how can we possibly bring peace to this world?
Or maybe the question is how we can BE peace In the world.
_________________________________________
Down at Claver House this week I noticed Katy being peace.
She and her husband Rob are regular guests.
Katy greets folks by name when they come in.
Whenever a bag of donated clothes arrives,
she unpacks it and folds things on the table,
calling out to folks, “Shirley, this would look great on you!”
or “Matt, wouldn't your granddaughter like this?”
When Katy notices someone near her with an empty coffee cup,
she'll get up and get them a refill.
And she does all this with cheerful respect.
And Rob… whenever one of the guests starts to get loud,
or, two of the guests let an argument get out of hand,
Rob calmly and firmly asks them to quiet down.
I've seen him defuse some situations that could have turned nasty.
Katy and Rob are peace in the world.
_________________________________________
Then there's Barbara Coleman.
From her experience
with the anti-racism “Dialogue-to-Change” group,
she realized that her life did not include people of color.
Sure, she worked with black people,
and she went to church with them.
But she went home to a white suburb.
So she decided to integrate her social life.
She began to invite participants in her group
to supper at her house,
eventually resulting in new friendships
among a half dozen or so people
of different races and backgrounds.
_________________________________________
I remember my Aunt Anne being peace in the world.
She preached with her actions,
mothering her five boys,
welcoming their neighborhood buddies into the house
with smiles and snacks
and always an invitation to stay for the next meal.
Whenever a new family moved into the neighborhood,
she was on the step with a cake to welcome them.
She volunteered at the Church.
She made sure people had what they needed,
whether it was a ride to the doctor's office or a listening ear.
She was a good listener,
asking the right questions and never criticizing.
Kind and generous, she preached peace in her own house,
peace in the neighborhood, peace in her parish--
just by being who she was, all without saying a word.
Aunt Anne had the marks of Jesus in her heart--
marks made by a life of gentleness and a loving spirit.
_________________________________________
In our second reading St. Paul says he's been troubled so much--
stoning, chains, beatings--
that he considers his scars
to be like the marks of Jesus on his body.
Paul had turned away from his deadly persecution of Christians
to preach peace and practice nonviolence.
We may not have the marks of Jesus on our bodies,
but we can bear the marks of Jesus in our hearts.
Those marks are visible, especially in the world we live in.
They're the ones that John's Gospel says
will make all people know that we are Jesus' disciples--
that we love one another.
_________________________________________
No one of us can bring peace to the Middle East.
No one of us can stop the killings on our city's streets.
What we can do is be peace right where we are.
Like Tom McDonald and Sharon Havelak
and the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition,
we can stand on a street corner and hold up a sign.
Like Katy and Rob at Claver House,
we can urge peace in the middle of turmoil.
Like Barbara Coleman,
we can build friendships with people who are different from us.
Like my Aunt Anne, we can reach out with hospitality and concern
to family and friends and neighbors.
_________________________________________
Our hearts will grow in peace
when we walk the way that Jesus taught,
and we too will become peace in the world.
We will be apostles of peace,
living signs of love that can soothe tempers,
bridge divisions,
and heal wounds.
Glory be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14
Responsorial Psalm 66:1-7, 16. 20
Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18
Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
In the chapter before today's Gospel,
Luke tells the story of the sending of the twelve apostles,
symbolic of the twelve tribes
and therefore representing the church's mission to Israel.
Matthew and Mark also tell of the sending of the twelve.
Luke, though, is the only one
who adds the sending of the seventy-two
that we heard in today's Gospel.
Like the twelve, the seventy-two is symbolic.
A little background here:
the Greek manuscripts of Luke's gospel
differ about the number--
it's seventy in some, seventy-two in others.
In Genesis Moses chose seventy elders to help him,
and Jacob had seventy descendents.
Both seventy and seventy-two
may also symbolize the number of nations in the world--
the Hebrew text of Genesis says seventy nations,
the Greek text seventy-two.
Whichever number is used,
it stands for the mission of the church to the whole world
and shows the understanding of the early church
that they were sent to proclaim Jesus' message
to all people everywhere.
_________________________________________
And that message begins with peace.
They are to be bearers of peace everywhere they go,
telling people that God is in charge,
not the violent or the greedy or the hate-filled.
As Luke writes it, “The reign of God is at hand for you.”
_________________________________________
Comparing the ways the gospel writers
described the sending of the disciples
makes it clear that the early church communities
freely adapted Jesus' words to their own circumstances.
The word of God is not abstract.
It doesn't exist in a vacuum.
God's word is alive,
and like our ancestors in faith,
we must interpret God's word
to learn how we are called and sent to preach the good news.
We are the ones who are sent now,
apostles of peace in our time.
_________________________________________
But how can we possibly bring peace to this world?
Or maybe the question is how we can BE peace In the world.
_________________________________________
Down at Claver House this week I noticed Katy being peace.
She and her husband Rob are regular guests.
Katy greets folks by name when they come in.
Whenever a bag of donated clothes arrives,
she unpacks it and folds things on the table,
calling out to folks, “Shirley, this would look great on you!”
or “Matt, wouldn't your granddaughter like this?”
When Katy notices someone near her with an empty coffee cup,
she'll get up and get them a refill.
And she does all this with cheerful respect.
And Rob… whenever one of the guests starts to get loud,
or, two of the guests let an argument get out of hand,
Rob calmly and firmly asks them to quiet down.
I've seen him defuse some situations that could have turned nasty.
Katy and Rob are peace in the world.
_________________________________________
Then there's Barbara Coleman.
From her experience
with the anti-racism “Dialogue-to-Change” group,
she realized that her life did not include people of color.
Sure, she worked with black people,
and she went to church with them.
But she went home to a white suburb.
So she decided to integrate her social life.
She began to invite participants in her group
to supper at her house,
eventually resulting in new friendships
among a half dozen or so people
of different races and backgrounds.
_________________________________________
I remember my Aunt Anne being peace in the world.
She preached with her actions,
mothering her five boys,
welcoming their neighborhood buddies into the house
with smiles and snacks
and always an invitation to stay for the next meal.
Whenever a new family moved into the neighborhood,
she was on the step with a cake to welcome them.
She volunteered at the Church.
She made sure people had what they needed,
whether it was a ride to the doctor's office or a listening ear.
She was a good listener,
asking the right questions and never criticizing.
Kind and generous, she preached peace in her own house,
peace in the neighborhood, peace in her parish--
just by being who she was, all without saying a word.
Aunt Anne had the marks of Jesus in her heart--
marks made by a life of gentleness and a loving spirit.
_________________________________________
In our second reading St. Paul says he's been troubled so much--
stoning, chains, beatings--
that he considers his scars
to be like the marks of Jesus on his body.
Paul had turned away from his deadly persecution of Christians
to preach peace and practice nonviolence.
We may not have the marks of Jesus on our bodies,
but we can bear the marks of Jesus in our hearts.
Those marks are visible, especially in the world we live in.
They're the ones that John's Gospel says
will make all people know that we are Jesus' disciples--
that we love one another.
_________________________________________
No one of us can bring peace to the Middle East.
No one of us can stop the killings on our city's streets.
What we can do is be peace right where we are.
Like Tom McDonald and Sharon Havelak
and the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition,
we can stand on a street corner and hold up a sign.
Like Katy and Rob at Claver House,
we can urge peace in the middle of turmoil.
Like Barbara Coleman,
we can build friendships with people who are different from us.
Like my Aunt Anne, we can reach out with hospitality and concern
to family and friends and neighbors.
_________________________________________
Our hearts will grow in peace
when we walk the way that Jesus taught,
and we too will become peace in the world.
We will be apostles of peace,
living signs of love that can soothe tempers,
bridge divisions,
and heal wounds.
Glory be to God!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 13 OTC, June 26, 2016
First Reading: 1Kings 19:16b, 19-21
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
Today begins the most important section of Luke's Gospel,
referred to by scripture scholars as the “journey narrative.”
Fr. Raymond Brown calls Luke's story
of the long journey to Jerusalem
“an artificial framework.”
It's a literary device created by Luke
so he can tell about Jesus in an organized way.
________________________________________
Jesus actually did travel from Galilee to Jerusalem.
For later followers, his journey takes on symbolic meaning:
it's the way by which Jesus went from death to new life,
and the way that we, as his disciples,
are called to do the same.
________________________________________
Luke's story of the beginning of Jesus' long journey
begins with a lesson that we still need today.
At the very beginning of the trip,
Jesus' disciples are not welcome in a Samaritan village,
but Jesus will not let them call down fire from heaven
to destroy the villagers.
________________________________________
In the 18th century, Jonathan Swift, Irish Anglican priest,
criticized Christians for having
just enough religion to hate
but not enough to love.
History continues to give us examples of people who,
like the first disciples,
want to do violence to people who don't agree with them.
We don't have to look any farther
than the front pages of our newspapers to see it.
People killing other people when they disagree.
People killing other people because they are different.
And people doing murder in the name of God.
It happened in the Crusades.
In Nazi Germany.
In the Middle East.
In Orlando.
It's still happening.
________________________________________
What motivates people to hate so viciously in the name of God?
Maybe their religion is just a veneer on the surface of their lives.
Maybe they just can't grasp the message of love
that's at the heart of all real religions.
Maybe they never really learned what their own religion is about.
Or maybe it's the failure of religious leaders
to keep their own hatred out of their beliefs.
Whatever it is, Fr. Joseph Pollard rightly calls it blasphemy.
________________________________________
But for us Christians, we should know the way.
Jesus' response to his disciples call for vengeance
is to go on to another village.
He teaches us that our way to new life
is not through violence and retribution
but through peaceful avoidance of conflict.
________________________________________
So Jesus and his disciples continue on the journey,
and Luke has Jesus give us more advice.
Three people come up to him, one by one,
and each one hears radical requirements for discipleship.
The first person, wanting to follow Jesus wherever he goes,
hears that there will be no place to rest
for the one who joins Jesus on the Way.
We have to ask ourselves if we are ready to follow,
even if we have to walk away
from the comfort and security of our homes and friends.
Are we ready to speak up for what is right and just,
even if we know our family members and best friends
will disagree with us?
________________________________________
The second person, invited by Jesus to join the group,
wants to go bury his father,
and Jesus responds with “let the dead bury their dead.”
If the man goes home to wait for his father's death
so he can fulfill the law of honoring his parents,
he himself will become dead
to the new life that comes with the journey to Jerusalem.
We have to ask ourselves what we're waiting for
that keeps us from following Jesus along the Way.
Maybe it's job security--
I won't object to my boss' racist remarks
until I have another job lined up.
________________________________________
And the third person
wants to say goodbye to family before he follows,
but Jesus warns that anyone
who expects to live in the reign of God
can't live in the past.
As followers along the way, we look ahead.
We don't regret the past and we're not obsessed with it,
either by focusing on its mistakes
or by imagining it as a golden age.
________________________________________
We know from other scriptures
that Jesus does not mean these sayings to be absolutes.
What Jesus is doing is making clear
the mindsets that undermine living in the reign of God.
He is reminding us of the greater goal,
and that everything else falls by the wayside
in our choice to follow him.
________________________________________
Rarely are we called to burn all our bridges,
like Elisha in the first reading.
These sayings remind us that, at rare, particular moments,
we are called to be heroic.
But most of the time
we are called to reflect, adapt, and take action.
As Paul puts it in that second reading,
we have to live by the Spirit, not by the law.
We are required to serve one another through love.
________________________________________
I recall times in my own life
when I lacked the courage to follow Jesus' way,
and a few times when I had the courage to burn bridges,
to walk away from security for the sake of a vision.
Out of Africa author Karen Blixen once said that
“There is probably always one moment in life
when there is still the possibility of two courses,
and another when only one is possible.
At the latter point I have burnt my boats,
and afterwards there can be no retreat.”
Elisha reached that point.
Paul reached that point.
Jesus reached that point.
________________________________________
We reach that point, too,
faced with the question of what it means
for us
to follow Christ today.
It means to act with love where we are,
in our chosen career,
on our chosen life path,
true to the commitments we have made.
It's not only what we do that's important.
It's how we do it.
There's more than one way to follow Jesus,
but each path has this in common:
we are called to follow with our whole heart,
and our heart must be full of love,
no matter what.
Amen!
First Reading: 1Kings 19:16b, 19-21
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
Today begins the most important section of Luke's Gospel,
referred to by scripture scholars as the “journey narrative.”
Fr. Raymond Brown calls Luke's story
of the long journey to Jerusalem
“an artificial framework.”
It's a literary device created by Luke
so he can tell about Jesus in an organized way.
________________________________________
Jesus actually did travel from Galilee to Jerusalem.
For later followers, his journey takes on symbolic meaning:
it's the way by which Jesus went from death to new life,
and the way that we, as his disciples,
are called to do the same.
________________________________________
Luke's story of the beginning of Jesus' long journey
begins with a lesson that we still need today.
At the very beginning of the trip,
Jesus' disciples are not welcome in a Samaritan village,
but Jesus will not let them call down fire from heaven
to destroy the villagers.
________________________________________
In the 18th century, Jonathan Swift, Irish Anglican priest,
criticized Christians for having
just enough religion to hate
but not enough to love.
History continues to give us examples of people who,
like the first disciples,
want to do violence to people who don't agree with them.
We don't have to look any farther
than the front pages of our newspapers to see it.
People killing other people when they disagree.
People killing other people because they are different.
And people doing murder in the name of God.
It happened in the Crusades.
In Nazi Germany.
In the Middle East.
In Orlando.
It's still happening.
________________________________________
What motivates people to hate so viciously in the name of God?
Maybe their religion is just a veneer on the surface of their lives.
Maybe they just can't grasp the message of love
that's at the heart of all real religions.
Maybe they never really learned what their own religion is about.
Or maybe it's the failure of religious leaders
to keep their own hatred out of their beliefs.
Whatever it is, Fr. Joseph Pollard rightly calls it blasphemy.
________________________________________
But for us Christians, we should know the way.
Jesus' response to his disciples call for vengeance
is to go on to another village.
He teaches us that our way to new life
is not through violence and retribution
but through peaceful avoidance of conflict.
________________________________________
So Jesus and his disciples continue on the journey,
and Luke has Jesus give us more advice.
Three people come up to him, one by one,
and each one hears radical requirements for discipleship.
The first person, wanting to follow Jesus wherever he goes,
hears that there will be no place to rest
for the one who joins Jesus on the Way.
We have to ask ourselves if we are ready to follow,
even if we have to walk away
from the comfort and security of our homes and friends.
Are we ready to speak up for what is right and just,
even if we know our family members and best friends
will disagree with us?
________________________________________
The second person, invited by Jesus to join the group,
wants to go bury his father,
and Jesus responds with “let the dead bury their dead.”
If the man goes home to wait for his father's death
so he can fulfill the law of honoring his parents,
he himself will become dead
to the new life that comes with the journey to Jerusalem.
We have to ask ourselves what we're waiting for
that keeps us from following Jesus along the Way.
Maybe it's job security--
I won't object to my boss' racist remarks
until I have another job lined up.
________________________________________
And the third person
wants to say goodbye to family before he follows,
but Jesus warns that anyone
who expects to live in the reign of God
can't live in the past.
As followers along the way, we look ahead.
We don't regret the past and we're not obsessed with it,
either by focusing on its mistakes
or by imagining it as a golden age.
________________________________________
We know from other scriptures
that Jesus does not mean these sayings to be absolutes.
What Jesus is doing is making clear
the mindsets that undermine living in the reign of God.
He is reminding us of the greater goal,
and that everything else falls by the wayside
in our choice to follow him.
________________________________________
Rarely are we called to burn all our bridges,
like Elisha in the first reading.
These sayings remind us that, at rare, particular moments,
we are called to be heroic.
But most of the time
we are called to reflect, adapt, and take action.
As Paul puts it in that second reading,
we have to live by the Spirit, not by the law.
We are required to serve one another through love.
________________________________________
I recall times in my own life
when I lacked the courage to follow Jesus' way,
and a few times when I had the courage to burn bridges,
to walk away from security for the sake of a vision.
Out of Africa author Karen Blixen once said that
“There is probably always one moment in life
when there is still the possibility of two courses,
and another when only one is possible.
At the latter point I have burnt my boats,
and afterwards there can be no retreat.”
Elisha reached that point.
Paul reached that point.
Jesus reached that point.
________________________________________
We reach that point, too,
faced with the question of what it means
for us
to follow Christ today.
It means to act with love where we are,
in our chosen career,
on our chosen life path,
true to the commitments we have made.
It's not only what we do that's important.
It's how we do it.
There's more than one way to follow Jesus,
but each path has this in common:
we are called to follow with our whole heart,
and our heart must be full of love,
no matter what.
Amen!
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 12 OTC, June 19, 2016
First Reading: ZEC 12:10-11; 13:1
Responsorial Psalm: PS 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Second Reading: GAL 3:26-29
Gospel: LK 9:18-24
Jesus has been teaching and healing
back and forth across Galilee,
and he takes a break.
He prays alone,
trying to understand what's going on,
trying to understand himself,
seeking to discern what God wants of him.
Then he asks his followers,
“Who do the crowds say that I am?”
___________________________________________
After Jesus hears what they report,
he asks them another question:
“But YOU—who do YOU say that I am?”
Peter answers, “You are God's Anointed One.”
He answers out of his understanding of himself at this point in time.
Having seen the healings and heard the teaching,
Peter is confident about Jesus and his Way,
though later events will shake his confidence.
___________________________________________
Today the question comes to each of us:
who do I say that Jesus is?
The answer will depend on who we think we are, our own identity.
Most of us go through an identity crisis, often more than once--
as teens, as young adults, in marriage,
in mid-life, at retirement,
at the death of a parent or a child or a spouse.
We get to a place where aren't sure who we are any more.
We know we are changing.
We try to figure out who we are now.
We feel fragile and vulnerable.
___________________________________________
Especially when we're going through a transition in life,
you and I, as believers,
can be grateful to God for the gift of faith
that shapes so much of our understanding
of ourselves and the world.
Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi was not a believer;
he was agnostic.
He wrote about what he saw in the concentration camp:
“In the grind of everyday life the believers lived better.
Catholic or Reformed priests, rabbis of the various orthodoxies,
militant Zionists, naive or sophisticated Marxists,
and Jehovah's Witnesses--
all held in common the saving force of their faith.
Their world was vaster than the world of us unbelievers,
more comprehensible.
They had a key and a point of leverage,
a place in heaven or on earth
where justice and compassion had won,
or would win in a perhaps remote but certain future.”
For us, being Christian is at the core of our identity.
___________________________________________
But identity—who we are—changes over the span of a lifetime.
Like Peter, we may have the right answer at one time
and run away from it later,
only to grow in understanding and commitment
as time goes by and life happens.
___________________________________________
Jesus wants to know what we think of him today.
It's not just dogma or doctrine.
He wants to know if we will follow his Way.
Will we take up our crosses, the daily grind of ups and downs?
Will we deny our own selfishness
and put others and their concerns at the center of our life?
___________________________________________
When Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?”
he shows us who we are.
We begin to see our relationship to the world
and our purpose in life.
We have an awesome capacity to take hold of our own lives
and give them away.
No one can ever take our place--
we are the only ones who can be us.
And all of us humans are equal in this freedom
to live our lives,
give ourselves,
speak the unique word that is in us.
The self-gift of a poor, broken-down janitor
is as valuable to God
as the self-gift of a president or a CEO… or a bishop.
___________________________________________
Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?”
Being Jew or Greek, black or white, slave or free,
old or young, male or female is not significant.
What is significant is our freedom,
that gift that reflects that we are made in the image of God.
We can deceive ourselves
with thinking that our foremost task in life
is somehow to make a difference,
to have done something
that no one else could possibly have done,
to be irreplaceable.
But the only difference we really make in this world,
the only thing that we can do that no one else can do,
is take ownership of our lives
and give them away.
This we do in our commitments, our promises.
Getting married.
Taking a job.
Raising children.
Caretaking for a parent.
Registering to vote.
Volunteering at a soup kitchen.
Protecting the environment.
Donating to disaster relief.
Each free commitment we make is out of love,
an emptying out,
a giving away of our very self.
Through those gifts to others
we discover who and what we are.
We learn to love, to believe, to hope.
We do not cling to our life;
we give it away,
and in giving away our time,
and our energy,
and our resources,
we save our lives.
And we find ourselves following Jesus on the Way.
Amen.
First Reading: ZEC 12:10-11; 13:1
Responsorial Psalm: PS 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Second Reading: GAL 3:26-29
Gospel: LK 9:18-24
Jesus has been teaching and healing
back and forth across Galilee,
and he takes a break.
He prays alone,
trying to understand what's going on,
trying to understand himself,
seeking to discern what God wants of him.
Then he asks his followers,
“Who do the crowds say that I am?”
___________________________________________
After Jesus hears what they report,
he asks them another question:
“But YOU—who do YOU say that I am?”
Peter answers, “You are God's Anointed One.”
He answers out of his understanding of himself at this point in time.
Having seen the healings and heard the teaching,
Peter is confident about Jesus and his Way,
though later events will shake his confidence.
___________________________________________
Today the question comes to each of us:
who do I say that Jesus is?
The answer will depend on who we think we are, our own identity.
Most of us go through an identity crisis, often more than once--
as teens, as young adults, in marriage,
in mid-life, at retirement,
at the death of a parent or a child or a spouse.
We get to a place where aren't sure who we are any more.
We know we are changing.
We try to figure out who we are now.
We feel fragile and vulnerable.
___________________________________________
Especially when we're going through a transition in life,
you and I, as believers,
can be grateful to God for the gift of faith
that shapes so much of our understanding
of ourselves and the world.
Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi was not a believer;
he was agnostic.
He wrote about what he saw in the concentration camp:
“In the grind of everyday life the believers lived better.
Catholic or Reformed priests, rabbis of the various orthodoxies,
militant Zionists, naive or sophisticated Marxists,
and Jehovah's Witnesses--
all held in common the saving force of their faith.
Their world was vaster than the world of us unbelievers,
more comprehensible.
They had a key and a point of leverage,
a place in heaven or on earth
where justice and compassion had won,
or would win in a perhaps remote but certain future.”
For us, being Christian is at the core of our identity.
___________________________________________
But identity—who we are—changes over the span of a lifetime.
Like Peter, we may have the right answer at one time
and run away from it later,
only to grow in understanding and commitment
as time goes by and life happens.
___________________________________________
Jesus wants to know what we think of him today.
It's not just dogma or doctrine.
He wants to know if we will follow his Way.
Will we take up our crosses, the daily grind of ups and downs?
Will we deny our own selfishness
and put others and their concerns at the center of our life?
___________________________________________
When Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?”
he shows us who we are.
We begin to see our relationship to the world
and our purpose in life.
We have an awesome capacity to take hold of our own lives
and give them away.
No one can ever take our place--
we are the only ones who can be us.
And all of us humans are equal in this freedom
to live our lives,
give ourselves,
speak the unique word that is in us.
The self-gift of a poor, broken-down janitor
is as valuable to God
as the self-gift of a president or a CEO… or a bishop.
___________________________________________
Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?”
Being Jew or Greek, black or white, slave or free,
old or young, male or female is not significant.
What is significant is our freedom,
that gift that reflects that we are made in the image of God.
We can deceive ourselves
with thinking that our foremost task in life
is somehow to make a difference,
to have done something
that no one else could possibly have done,
to be irreplaceable.
But the only difference we really make in this world,
the only thing that we can do that no one else can do,
is take ownership of our lives
and give them away.
This we do in our commitments, our promises.
Getting married.
Taking a job.
Raising children.
Caretaking for a parent.
Registering to vote.
Volunteering at a soup kitchen.
Protecting the environment.
Donating to disaster relief.
Each free commitment we make is out of love,
an emptying out,
a giving away of our very self.
Through those gifts to others
we discover who and what we are.
We learn to love, to believe, to hope.
We do not cling to our life;
we give it away,
and in giving away our time,
and our energy,
and our resources,
we save our lives.
And we find ourselves following Jesus on the Way.
Amen.
Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community, 11 OTC, June 12, 2016
First Reading: 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11
Second Reading: Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Gospel: Luke 7:36-8:311-17
Two Saturdays ago
six-year-old Robbie Richardson of Quincy, Massachusetts,
called 911 when his father drove through a red light.
Robbie knows the law.
“Daddy went past a red light,” he told the dispatcher.
“It was in the brand new car, my mummy’s car.”
The 911 dispatcher asked Robbie to put his father on the line.
Robbie's father explained a
First Reading: 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11
Second Reading: Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Gospel: Luke 7:36-8:311-17
Two Saturdays ago
six-year-old Robbie Richardson of Quincy, Massachusetts,
called 911 when his father drove through a red light.
Robbie knows the law.
“Daddy went past a red light,” he told the dispatcher.
“It was in the brand new car, my mummy’s car.”
The 911 dispatcher asked Robbie to put his father on the line.
Robbie's father explained a