[Note to Readers: I know that I have been neglecting this blog for some time but I’ve not been neglecting it intentionally. It’s just that homilies are “organic things.”
Homilies do often depend on the particular audience to which they are preached. And often enough, I preach three times (and in three languages in English and Spanish at Annunciata and twice a month in Czech for a Slovakian community at St. Simon the Apostle in Marquette Park) on a given Sunday. Even when preaching multiple times in English, the assembly can be different, and things can (and surprisingly often do) in the 15-30 minutes before Mass that can effect the direction of a given homily. What one may have wanted to say may not be fit the circumstances in which one finds oneself. And so one does (hopefully) change direction.
That being said, as I reflected today on the the past Sundays, it did occur to me that it’s been a rather interesting summer in terms of the Sunday Readings (Ordinary Time / Summer though it may be) and so I decided to “try to catch” up a bit.
There will still be a gap from the feast of the Ascension to the beginning of July. But the last 5-6 weeks will be present here because I do believe that they have come to make for a fairly nice unit :-) ...]
To then, let us go back and begin here with the Homily for July 3, 2011 -
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070311.cfm
We find ourselves in the midst of Ordinary Time, and here in the United States along with ½ the world in the midst of summer, hence for many of us vacation season.
And it’s generally hot doing this time of year in the United States and in Europe (Rome, where the Church has been centered). So the readings during this time of year are “light.” They are not meant to overburden us (or overburden the preacher for that matter ;-). Instead, they are meant to be easy-going invitations to us to reflect on God’s presence in our lives and hopefully to find that God really is present to us.
So we hear today some nice, happy, summer readings.
In the 1st Reading we hear from the Prophet Zachariah a prophesy often evoking the image of Mary running to her aunt Elizabeth after the Annunciation or Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But it could apply to us. “Rejoice heartily O daughter Zion because your king will come to you!” It’s a promise that God will come to us, and he’ll come to us in a way that we’d understand. (The imagery in fact is like that of a children’s story with kings, and ramparts and cities on a hill and all that).
In the Gospel Reading we hear Jesus thanking God (the Father) that it has been his will to reveal himself in the simplest terms to the child-like. Jesus goes on to tell us “Come to me, you who are burdened and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Together with the first reading, the Gospel Reading makes for a lovely introduction to the Readings that we’ll be hearing over the next several weeks – parables mostly about wheat, chaff, pearls and so forth – a reminder that what we need to know of God is actually very simple and designed for a mere child to grasp.
Here, I wish to note that this Gospel Reading is one of those that the Church offers for funerals, and that it is one of the most common one’s chosen for that purpose, and that it has become one of my favorties in the Gospels.
Why? This Reading reminds us that after all is said and done, what God asks of us is very little – his yoke really is easy and his burden light. For in the end, I remember people at funerals, God asks of us that during our lives we learn to love one another (which means that we learn to put up with one another) and that we learn to put our faith in God. THE REST DOESN’T MATTER.
I tell people over and over again, that God is not going to care if we became famous in this world, whether we became important, whether people quaked at our feet, whether we made “employee of the month” three times in a row (or five times in a row) or whether we "placed high" (or even won) a beauty contest. God’s just going to care about what I said above – whether we learned to love one aother (which means that we’ve learned to put up with one another) and that we put our faith in God.
And that’s good, because, my dozen or so years as a priest, I’ve buried something like 200 people. And NONE of them were famous. None of them were “important” (though I came close once at my previous parish when a Osceola County Commissioner died. I was who was able to do the last rites, but alas someone else did the funeral ... Doesn’t matter. It happily just _proves the rule_). Nobody that I’ve buried has been "important." HOWEVER, a good number of people that I’ve buried seemed to be authentically good people -- who put kids and family first, worked hard, stayed out of trouble, and yes, a fair number of them did actually go _regularly to Mass_.
And that’s nice because I think I can pretty much say this honestly that 100 years from now the vast majority of us here will have been completely forgotten by the world. Probably none of us will be “President” (and even if one did become President, what about the rest of us?) and probably none of us will be worth even a “wikipedia entry” a 100 years from now ;-). Our friends will be dead. On a family tree, we’ll be but a name.
Who will remember us, will not be our boss (he’ll be dead too). Instead, the only one who will remember us (we hope) is God. The rest utterly won’t matter.
But the Good News in this is that Jesus reminds us today that God, who created us to be happy, really, really doesn’t ask much of us at all., Instead he tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden light.
So then, as we approach this _month of ease_ ahead of us, _let us put aside things that don’t matter_, and give thanks for having a God who created us, loves us and will continue to love us regardless of how “important” (or more to the point, how _unimportant_) we may seem to the world, remembering that God just wants us to be happy both here ... and in our destiny which awaits us in heaven. Amen.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
June 5, 2011 - Ascension Sunday - A God Truly Above us All, who also Loves us All
Readings -http://www.usccb.org/nab/060511a.shtml
Today we find ourselves celebrating the Feast of the Ascension (of our Lord). This feast, traditionally celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday now often moved to the Sunday following, is rather unique Sunday/Feast Day in the Church’s liturgical calendar.
I say this because the Readings for this Feast force up to “look up” (toward the heavens) in a way that we usually don’t have to. During most of the Liturgical Year we focus on Jesus here on Earth. During the Christmas Season, we remember his birth, his growing up among us. Then during Ordinary Time (and even during Lent) we usually focus on Jesus’ teaching of his disciples. We hear Jesus talking about sheep and shepherds, grains of wheat, mustard seeds, all “down to earth” concepts that remind us that Jesus was here among us. Yet today we celebrate Jesus’ “Ascension into Heaven.”
This in our times poses its own problems. At the time of Jesus, when the Bible/New Testament was written, people everywhere basically understood the world / universe existing in three levels:
* The Dead lived in the Basement (and the really bad somewhere "below" the basement where they were punished)
* We, the living lived on the ground floor, on earth as it were, and
* the Angels and God lived on the floor/floors “above.”
I give the Biblical conception of the world here (Jewish and Christian of the time) but this was basically true across all cultures. The Gods and other heavenly beings lived somewhere “above us.”
Today, that conception is harder to use as we know through telescopes and spaceships that the Cosmos is REALLY, REALLY LARGE. So talking of God being “above us” is something of a problem. Yet, here it must be noted that (1) All traditional cultures, everywhere believed that “the Gods” lived above us and occasionally visited us “from above,” so one would suspect that there must be _something_ to it, and (2) with some tweaking, we can “save/redeem” this image. Many science fiction writers, Star Trek, the last Indiana Jones movie, etc, now postulate that perhaps beings live “in other dimensions” and so perhaps what seemed “up” or “down” to the ancients simply meant ‘to/from somewhere else’ which we do not really know how to describe.
***
Ok, of God living “somewhere above” initially may be somewhat initially difficult to talk about. Yet, the metaphor becomes useful to use in another regard. That is, in pretty much _every society_ the people who lived in the tallest buildings were the most powerful (the most ‘godlike’). This again, was true across the whole of civilizations:
The pharoahs (who considered themselves God-Kings) constructed pyramids, the tallest structures in ancient Egypt
The Mayas and Aztecs also constructed pyramids, the Babylonians ziggurats (sort of like pyramids) almost always with a Temple (to the Gods) at the top of the pyramids/ziggurats.
Then pretty much up until the turn of the 20th century, the tallest building in any town in the Christian world was a Church. Occasionally, kings tried to do the same. William the Conqueror constructed the Tower of London, which was the seat of the English king for some time and it was pretty tall (called a “tower” after all). But pretty much up until the 20th Century, the tallest buildings throughout the whole of the Chirstian world were Churches.
That changed in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century with the advent of skyscrapers. But it only gave support to the metaphor because these buildings began to be built at a time when the influence of the Church/Christianity and religion began an obvious decline.
When my mother first arrived in Chicago in the 1950s, the tallest buildings in Chicago were The Wrigley and Tribune Buildings. Who did they house? The Chicago Tribune (newspaper journalists) and WGN (radio/later TV). In Los Angeles in the 1950s the tallest building, by far, was the City Hall (People here would remember it was shown often in the first “Dragne” crime drama programs on TV at the time). And yes, in the first half of the century, it could be said that Government and The Press were the most powerful institutions in this country.
Who owns/operates out of the tallest buildings today? Isn’t it obvious – Banks (the Sears, now Willis Tower), Insurance Companies (John Hancock Building/Prudential Buildings), Oil Companies (when I was in high school it was called the Standard Oil Building, when I returned 9 years ago, it was called the Amoco Building, now it’s called the BMX building because British Petroleum now owns Amoco and its building). And this is true not just in Chicago but pretty much across the globe. The tallest buildings are owned by the Financial Services companies and/or the Oil industry.
And the metaphor extends even further in these recent years. It is commonly accepted that the current financial crisis that we have been experiencing over the last years was caused by the financial services industry. Its heads and top workers worked in high rises in lower Manhattan and lived in other high rises on Manhattan’s east side – these people both lived and worked “above us.
Even worse these “little gods” “living and working above us” CAME TO BET ON US IN A WAY THAT’S ALMOST REMINISCENT OF HOW THE GREEKS HAD IMAGINED THEIR “GODS” AS ACTING – In the Trojan War, there were two sets of Gods, one aligned with the Greeks, the other aligned with the Trojans and they were observing and betting on the outcomes of the battles below.
In the modern version, in practices which most analysts have said was the principal cause of the current financial crisis, these bankers were both giving loans to little people and then betting against them being able to pay them off. They were turning our lives into a game, into a casino where sitting always above us, they got to bet on or against us.
The image therefore of a GOD WHO LIVES ABOVE US ALL, is therefore arguably a comforting one, reminding all of us (even the bankers, people with power) that we are both ALL GOD’S CHILDREN (all fundamentally equal to each other) and that ALL of us, big and small will have to give accounting of our lives to the same God.
***
This then leads us to the last point that I wish to make about the feast of the Ascension. And that is, that it reminds us that God actually has an enormous confidence in us as a race. In the first Chapter of Genesis, we are told that we were created, all of us, in God’s image and that we were put in this world, on this planet to take care of it, to live on it, to find our happiness here. God did not wish to interfere in this process. We’re told in the second and third chapters of Genesis that our first parents screwed-up, messed this up.
The rest of the Bible from that point, in fact, up until this point Jesus’ Ascension (and next Sunday, when we celebrate Pentecost, when we celebrate the Church’s reception of the Holy Spirit) was about God’s _slow_ carefully calibrated plan to put things “back on track” AND as soon as Jesus was able to do so (after Easter) _he headed back home_. Yes, once more we remember that THIS TIME, God left us “the Holy Spirit” to _help us_ make the tough decisions to keep on track. But the message is clear: IN OUR FAITH we are told that we have a God who (1) is above us all, that is, Truly God greater than all the “little gods” that pretend to walk this earth, but also (2) that this True God both loves us and has arguably more confidence in us than we have in ourselves. We have a God who DOESN’T want to be a “micromanager” who ISN’T like the God that most of us of my age and above still grew-up with – one in which God was like an “evil Santa Claus” who looked down at us with binoculars to take note of all our sins and failings. Instead, we’re given a God who has enormous confidence in us, one who, yes, has given us Rules and even that Holy Spirit to guide us, but who really _prefers_ that _we_ run things here (reasonably well) on our own, and assuring us, above all, that He does love us all.
***
So then, that’s what we celebrate on this Day, a God who is Truly God, Creator and Master of the Universe _above us all_, but then also a God who has enormous confidence in us and wishes to simply run this world well, to find friends and happiness here, assuring us that as his Children, God loves us all.
What then a Great (and kind) God we have! Amen.
Today we find ourselves celebrating the Feast of the Ascension (of our Lord). This feast, traditionally celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday now often moved to the Sunday following, is rather unique Sunday/Feast Day in the Church’s liturgical calendar.
I say this because the Readings for this Feast force up to “look up” (toward the heavens) in a way that we usually don’t have to. During most of the Liturgical Year we focus on Jesus here on Earth. During the Christmas Season, we remember his birth, his growing up among us. Then during Ordinary Time (and even during Lent) we usually focus on Jesus’ teaching of his disciples. We hear Jesus talking about sheep and shepherds, grains of wheat, mustard seeds, all “down to earth” concepts that remind us that Jesus was here among us. Yet today we celebrate Jesus’ “Ascension into Heaven.”
This in our times poses its own problems. At the time of Jesus, when the Bible/New Testament was written, people everywhere basically understood the world / universe existing in three levels:
* The Dead lived in the Basement (and the really bad somewhere "below" the basement where they were punished)
* We, the living lived on the ground floor, on earth as it were, and
* the Angels and God lived on the floor/floors “above.”
I give the Biblical conception of the world here (Jewish and Christian of the time) but this was basically true across all cultures. The Gods and other heavenly beings lived somewhere “above us.”
Today, that conception is harder to use as we know through telescopes and spaceships that the Cosmos is REALLY, REALLY LARGE. So talking of God being “above us” is something of a problem. Yet, here it must be noted that (1) All traditional cultures, everywhere believed that “the Gods” lived above us and occasionally visited us “from above,” so one would suspect that there must be _something_ to it, and (2) with some tweaking, we can “save/redeem” this image. Many science fiction writers, Star Trek, the last Indiana Jones movie, etc, now postulate that perhaps beings live “in other dimensions” and so perhaps what seemed “up” or “down” to the ancients simply meant ‘to/from somewhere else’ which we do not really know how to describe.
***
Ok, of God living “somewhere above” initially may be somewhat initially difficult to talk about. Yet, the metaphor becomes useful to use in another regard. That is, in pretty much _every society_ the people who lived in the tallest buildings were the most powerful (the most ‘godlike’). This again, was true across the whole of civilizations:
The pharoahs (who considered themselves God-Kings) constructed pyramids, the tallest structures in ancient Egypt
The Mayas and Aztecs also constructed pyramids, the Babylonians ziggurats (sort of like pyramids) almost always with a Temple (to the Gods) at the top of the pyramids/ziggurats.
Then pretty much up until the turn of the 20th century, the tallest building in any town in the Christian world was a Church. Occasionally, kings tried to do the same. William the Conqueror constructed the Tower of London, which was the seat of the English king for some time and it was pretty tall (called a “tower” after all). But pretty much up until the 20th Century, the tallest buildings throughout the whole of the Chirstian world were Churches.
That changed in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century with the advent of skyscrapers. But it only gave support to the metaphor because these buildings began to be built at a time when the influence of the Church/Christianity and religion began an obvious decline.
When my mother first arrived in Chicago in the 1950s, the tallest buildings in Chicago were The Wrigley and Tribune Buildings. Who did they house? The Chicago Tribune (newspaper journalists) and WGN (radio/later TV). In Los Angeles in the 1950s the tallest building, by far, was the City Hall (People here would remember it was shown often in the first “Dragne” crime drama programs on TV at the time). And yes, in the first half of the century, it could be said that Government and The Press were the most powerful institutions in this country.
Who owns/operates out of the tallest buildings today? Isn’t it obvious – Banks (the Sears, now Willis Tower), Insurance Companies (John Hancock Building/Prudential Buildings), Oil Companies (when I was in high school it was called the Standard Oil Building, when I returned 9 years ago, it was called the Amoco Building, now it’s called the BMX building because British Petroleum now owns Amoco and its building). And this is true not just in Chicago but pretty much across the globe. The tallest buildings are owned by the Financial Services companies and/or the Oil industry.
And the metaphor extends even further in these recent years. It is commonly accepted that the current financial crisis that we have been experiencing over the last years was caused by the financial services industry. Its heads and top workers worked in high rises in lower Manhattan and lived in other high rises on Manhattan’s east side – these people both lived and worked “above us.
Even worse these “little gods” “living and working above us” CAME TO BET ON US IN A WAY THAT’S ALMOST REMINISCENT OF HOW THE GREEKS HAD IMAGINED THEIR “GODS” AS ACTING – In the Trojan War, there were two sets of Gods, one aligned with the Greeks, the other aligned with the Trojans and they were observing and betting on the outcomes of the battles below.
In the modern version, in practices which most analysts have said was the principal cause of the current financial crisis, these bankers were both giving loans to little people and then betting against them being able to pay them off. They were turning our lives into a game, into a casino where sitting always above us, they got to bet on or against us.
The image therefore of a GOD WHO LIVES ABOVE US ALL, is therefore arguably a comforting one, reminding all of us (even the bankers, people with power) that we are both ALL GOD’S CHILDREN (all fundamentally equal to each other) and that ALL of us, big and small will have to give accounting of our lives to the same God.
***
This then leads us to the last point that I wish to make about the feast of the Ascension. And that is, that it reminds us that God actually has an enormous confidence in us as a race. In the first Chapter of Genesis, we are told that we were created, all of us, in God’s image and that we were put in this world, on this planet to take care of it, to live on it, to find our happiness here. God did not wish to interfere in this process. We’re told in the second and third chapters of Genesis that our first parents screwed-up, messed this up.
The rest of the Bible from that point, in fact, up until this point Jesus’ Ascension (and next Sunday, when we celebrate Pentecost, when we celebrate the Church’s reception of the Holy Spirit) was about God’s _slow_ carefully calibrated plan to put things “back on track” AND as soon as Jesus was able to do so (after Easter) _he headed back home_. Yes, once more we remember that THIS TIME, God left us “the Holy Spirit” to _help us_ make the tough decisions to keep on track. But the message is clear: IN OUR FAITH we are told that we have a God who (1) is above us all, that is, Truly God greater than all the “little gods” that pretend to walk this earth, but also (2) that this True God both loves us and has arguably more confidence in us than we have in ourselves. We have a God who DOESN’T want to be a “micromanager” who ISN’T like the God that most of us of my age and above still grew-up with – one in which God was like an “evil Santa Claus” who looked down at us with binoculars to take note of all our sins and failings. Instead, we’re given a God who has enormous confidence in us, one who, yes, has given us Rules and even that Holy Spirit to guide us, but who really _prefers_ that _we_ run things here (reasonably well) on our own, and assuring us, above all, that He does love us all.
***
So then, that’s what we celebrate on this Day, a God who is Truly God, Creator and Master of the Universe _above us all_, but then also a God who has enormous confidence in us and wishes to simply run this world well, to find friends and happiness here, assuring us that as his Children, God loves us all.
What then a Great (and kind) God we have! Amen.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
April 24, 2011 - Easter Sunday - Not even Death has the final word, it belongs to God ...
After 40 days of Lent preparing, after celebrating all of Holy Week including the final three days of the Triduum, we come today to this day, Easter Sunday.
And it’s good that on this day, the Churches are generally packed because what we remember on this day is really the foundation of our faith. For today we remember and proclaim Jesus’ Ressurrection.
The other days, especially during the Christmas Season, then the days during Lent and Holy Week are important. But it all comes down to this day.
And we’re told in the Gospel Readings that we hear today and during the whole of the Octave of Easter which now follows, that the Disciples themselves had difficulty believing it. Yet there was Jesus, risen from the dead, assuring us that even Death does not have the Final Word.
Why did it have to be so complicated? Why did it have to take so long? If you were here for the Easter Vigil, last night, you would have heard Reading after beautiful Reading, how long it took from the Fall soon after Creation, through the calling of Abraham, the Exodus, the Prophets up until the time of Jesus. And yet it seemed to have to be this way -- and we remember it in a way that every kid who’s ever put a cloth over his head to act as a shepherd in a Christian play would remember it – so that we would both believe and remember it all of our lives.
We don’t necessarily need the hope of the Resurrection every day, but there are times when we do need it. And so it is good that we learn to remember it in the way that we hear it proclaimed today. It was confusing, it was dramatic, and the first disciples eventually came to believe it, experience it to be true. Our faith lives may be the same at times as well.
But let us give thanks to God and our parents/grandparents or whoever gave us our faith that we’ve received it. Because with it we can now pass through anything, console anyone and look toward a future that does not end in death or failure but ends with God.
So let us give thanks for that and let us bring this message that not even the Death is the End to those who need this hope now. God is with us, God is always with us, and may we never fear what is in front of us, because in the end, we will be with a God who loves us, forever.
Happy Easter to you all!
And it’s good that on this day, the Churches are generally packed because what we remember on this day is really the foundation of our faith. For today we remember and proclaim Jesus’ Ressurrection.
The other days, especially during the Christmas Season, then the days during Lent and Holy Week are important. But it all comes down to this day.
And we’re told in the Gospel Readings that we hear today and during the whole of the Octave of Easter which now follows, that the Disciples themselves had difficulty believing it. Yet there was Jesus, risen from the dead, assuring us that even Death does not have the Final Word.
Why did it have to be so complicated? Why did it have to take so long? If you were here for the Easter Vigil, last night, you would have heard Reading after beautiful Reading, how long it took from the Fall soon after Creation, through the calling of Abraham, the Exodus, the Prophets up until the time of Jesus. And yet it seemed to have to be this way -- and we remember it in a way that every kid who’s ever put a cloth over his head to act as a shepherd in a Christian play would remember it – so that we would both believe and remember it all of our lives.
We don’t necessarily need the hope of the Resurrection every day, but there are times when we do need it. And so it is good that we learn to remember it in the way that we hear it proclaimed today. It was confusing, it was dramatic, and the first disciples eventually came to believe it, experience it to be true. Our faith lives may be the same at times as well.
But let us give thanks to God and our parents/grandparents or whoever gave us our faith that we’ve received it. Because with it we can now pass through anything, console anyone and look toward a future that does not end in death or failure but ends with God.
So let us give thanks for that and let us bring this message that not even the Death is the End to those who need this hope now. God is with us, God is always with us, and may we never fear what is in front of us, because in the end, we will be with a God who loves us, forever.
Happy Easter to you all!
Friday, April 22, 2011
April 22, 2011 - Good Friday - God's Love for Us
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/042211.shtml
Today we are celebrating the second day of the Triduum in which recall the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And every year we approach these days differently. Each year, we arrive at this celebration, this commemoration a year older and hopefully a year more mature. And perhaps because this year today, Good Friday, was so dark - it started raining at noon and continued until about three - it seemed that even Heaven and Earth were weeping on this day, this year, here in Chicago. ...
Okay, how does this day, Good Friday, strike me this year? Perhaps what impressed me most this year was the reading we read the end of the Via Crucis in Spanish that we celebrated here each Friday evening during Lent.
Then we would here a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans in which Paul pointed out that there are only few people would be willing to give their lives for someone else, but if it involved someone "good" perhaps one could find people who’d be willing to sacrifice their lives for that person. But St. Paul noted that Christ showed of his love for all of us by giving his life for us, even though we didn’t deserve it, even though we were still sinners, still weakened by sin. And this really struck me this year.
When Jesus came here, became incarnate, became one of us, and then walked with us, we believe that he did so to show us that God is concerned about us and wants be part of our lives. Today on this day when we remember Jesus' Death on the Cross, we remember just how much Jesus loved us, just how far he’d go to continue to accompany us ... up until our own death, AND HE DID THIS EVEN THOUGH WE DIDN’T / DON’T DESERVE THIS, didn’t/don’t deserve such kindness or support.
But that is exactly what we remember today, God’s love for us, and His to accompany us even when we don’t deserve it, even when we’d perhaps prefer to be alone in our sadness or difficulty. And we are invited to respond to this kindness.
So this let us _give thanks_ to God who came here to look for us, and who after finding us wants to walk with us throughout our whole lives -- in good times and in bad – and even when perhaps we don’t we don’t even want him to.
Why does God do this? He does this because he loves us. We are his children and he wants to be part of our lives so that we can be part of His life, and be part of it forever.
So especially on this day, when we remember Jesus’ death for us, let us give thanks to a God who loves us so much. Amen.
Today we are celebrating the second day of the Triduum in which recall the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And every year we approach these days differently. Each year, we arrive at this celebration, this commemoration a year older and hopefully a year more mature. And perhaps because this year today, Good Friday, was so dark - it started raining at noon and continued until about three - it seemed that even Heaven and Earth were weeping on this day, this year, here in Chicago. ...
Okay, how does this day, Good Friday, strike me this year? Perhaps what impressed me most this year was the reading we read the end of the Via Crucis in Spanish that we celebrated here each Friday evening during Lent.
Then we would here a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans in which Paul pointed out that there are only few people would be willing to give their lives for someone else, but if it involved someone "good" perhaps one could find people who’d be willing to sacrifice their lives for that person. But St. Paul noted that Christ showed of his love for all of us by giving his life for us, even though we didn’t deserve it, even though we were still sinners, still weakened by sin. And this really struck me this year.
When Jesus came here, became incarnate, became one of us, and then walked with us, we believe that he did so to show us that God is concerned about us and wants be part of our lives. Today on this day when we remember Jesus' Death on the Cross, we remember just how much Jesus loved us, just how far he’d go to continue to accompany us ... up until our own death, AND HE DID THIS EVEN THOUGH WE DIDN’T / DON’T DESERVE THIS, didn’t/don’t deserve such kindness or support.
But that is exactly what we remember today, God’s love for us, and His to accompany us even when we don’t deserve it, even when we’d perhaps prefer to be alone in our sadness or difficulty. And we are invited to respond to this kindness.
So this let us _give thanks_ to God who came here to look for us, and who after finding us wants to walk with us throughout our whole lives -- in good times and in bad – and even when perhaps we don’t we don’t even want him to.
Why does God do this? He does this because he loves us. We are his children and he wants to be part of our lives so that we can be part of His life, and be part of it forever.
So especially on this day, when we remember Jesus’ death for us, let us give thanks to a God who loves us so much. Amen.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Apr 21, 2011 - Holy Thursday - Feast of the Lord's Supper - Remembering the Last Suppers of our Lives
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/042111a.shtml
Today we begin the celebration of the Triduum, the highest days of our Liturgical Year, and if you’re at all like us here at the office at Annunciata, it may feel that these celebrations have somehow "snuck-up on us" this year. (We were talking about this at the Rectory this year). Perhaps it’s because on one hand, Lent came so late this year. Perhaps it’s because it’s been unseasonably cold and rainy during this past week and so it just doesn’t feel like Easter should be upon us. BUT HERE IT IS.
And perhaps this is good, because it is a reminder that Life happens to us. It has its own pace and we aren’t completely in control of it. Sometimes we’re ready to celebrate something or something to happen. Sometimes we don’t really appreciate that it is coming until it is upon us.
On Holy Thursday, this the first night of the Triduum, we remember Jesus’ Last Supper. And it should be noted that the Passover in which context the Last Supper was celebrated, was instituted as a _happy occasion_, a celebration of _something new_ and _something good_ about to take place ... the imminent freedom of the People of Israel from slavery.
Yet, this celebration of a happy event, gets a new twist in Jesus using the occasion to celebrate his Last Supper. To be sure, he institutes a reminder for us, the Eucharist, which we use to remember this evening every Sunday, indeed every day, that we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. However, there is an obvious sadness to this feast that we commemorate on this evening, Holy Thursday.
Yet this certainly becomes part of our experience as we pass through life – and we are called to remember on this day the various "Last Suppers" that we’ve had in our own lives with family and friends, when perhaps we sensed or knew it was a "Last" of some sort (like Jesus did on this evening) or when perhaps we did not really know it was going to be a "Last" of some sort (like the Apostles). Many times we celebrate these and Christmas holidays not appreciating that this was going to be the last time we were going to celebrate it with particular people important to our lives. Sometimes we "kind of sense this" and other times, we don’t really have a clue" until we are "looking back."
It is this image of the various "last suppers" of our lives that would be valuable to take from the Liturgy this evening, and then to appreciate the people around us, because we do not know if next year they (or we) may be around ...
*****
Now this is only the First Night of the Triduum. Tommorrow, we will be celebrating Good Friday with the Liturgy of the Passion and Death of our Lord. On Saturday night and Sunday we will be celebrating Christ’s resurrection.
So this night does not remain in isolation.
However, let us though stay in this night tonight and appreciate the "lasts" in our lives, knowing that Christ is with us in those moments and always leading us then toward "something new."
Let us have a blessed Holy Thursday and a Blessed Triduum this year ...
Today we begin the celebration of the Triduum, the highest days of our Liturgical Year, and if you’re at all like us here at the office at Annunciata, it may feel that these celebrations have somehow "snuck-up on us" this year. (We were talking about this at the Rectory this year). Perhaps it’s because on one hand, Lent came so late this year. Perhaps it’s because it’s been unseasonably cold and rainy during this past week and so it just doesn’t feel like Easter should be upon us. BUT HERE IT IS.
And perhaps this is good, because it is a reminder that Life happens to us. It has its own pace and we aren’t completely in control of it. Sometimes we’re ready to celebrate something or something to happen. Sometimes we don’t really appreciate that it is coming until it is upon us.
On Holy Thursday, this the first night of the Triduum, we remember Jesus’ Last Supper. And it should be noted that the Passover in which context the Last Supper was celebrated, was instituted as a _happy occasion_, a celebration of _something new_ and _something good_ about to take place ... the imminent freedom of the People of Israel from slavery.
Yet, this celebration of a happy event, gets a new twist in Jesus using the occasion to celebrate his Last Supper. To be sure, he institutes a reminder for us, the Eucharist, which we use to remember this evening every Sunday, indeed every day, that we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. However, there is an obvious sadness to this feast that we commemorate on this evening, Holy Thursday.
Yet this certainly becomes part of our experience as we pass through life – and we are called to remember on this day the various "Last Suppers" that we’ve had in our own lives with family and friends, when perhaps we sensed or knew it was a "Last" of some sort (like Jesus did on this evening) or when perhaps we did not really know it was going to be a "Last" of some sort (like the Apostles). Many times we celebrate these and Christmas holidays not appreciating that this was going to be the last time we were going to celebrate it with particular people important to our lives. Sometimes we "kind of sense this" and other times, we don’t really have a clue" until we are "looking back."
It is this image of the various "last suppers" of our lives that would be valuable to take from the Liturgy this evening, and then to appreciate the people around us, because we do not know if next year they (or we) may be around ...
*****
Now this is only the First Night of the Triduum. Tommorrow, we will be celebrating Good Friday with the Liturgy of the Passion and Death of our Lord. On Saturday night and Sunday we will be celebrating Christ’s resurrection.
So this night does not remain in isolation.
However, let us though stay in this night tonight and appreciate the "lasts" in our lives, knowing that Christ is with us in those moments and always leading us then toward "something new."
Let us have a blessed Holy Thursday and a Blessed Triduum this year ...
Monday, April 18, 2011
April 17, 2011 - Palm Sunday - Let us Have a Blessed Holy Week
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/041711.shtml
Today after 5 weeks of Lent, we come to the beginning of Holy Week with our celebration of Palm Sunday. This is a week in which each year the Liturgy asks us lift ourselves out of the Ordinary / day-to-day to contemplate the great mysteries of our faith.
Today, we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem after an active ministry outside, beginning in Galilee and proceeding then through the hill country of Judea, Samaria, Jericho and finally to Jerusalem. We also proclaim the Passion, this year according to Matthew to remind us of the other events that will follow during this week.
On Thursday, we will be remembering the Feast of the Last Supper where Jesus left us with two mandates; the first, the celebration of the Eucharist which we do each Sunday, indeed each day, during the year; the second, the washing of feet, we do only that one evening a year, reminding us of Jesus’ call to minister to others in our following of him. At the end of the Mass, we will process out with the Blessed Sacrament and then be given the opportunity to keep vigil with him until midnight remembering Jesus’ time in prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane on the night he was betrayed.
On Friday, we will remember the Lord’s Passion in a Special Liturgy in which we will ask each of you participating to come forward and reverence the Cross of Jesus that set us free. We will also pray on behalf all the people of the world.
On Saturday, we will celebrate the Easter Vigil, in which we will recall key passages in our Salvation History, from our Creation, to the Fall, to the Exodus, to the Prophets, ending finally with the Proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus. We will baptize and initiate adults into our faith who have been preparing for this moment for the better part of the yaer.
Finally on Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection, renew our baptismal promises and seek then to celebrate the joy and the promise of Easter throughout the rest of the Easter season and throughout the rest of the year.
Parents and Grandparents, I ask you to find a way during this week to make this week special for your children and grandchildren. Teach them what we celebrate this week and why. These are dramatic days. And this is a week, offered to us each year, to deepen our commitment to God.
Most of our lives are lived in the mundane day-to-day. Yet this is a week that is offered to us to be special. Let us make it so. God bless you all and may you have a blessed Holy Week.
Today after 5 weeks of Lent, we come to the beginning of Holy Week with our celebration of Palm Sunday. This is a week in which each year the Liturgy asks us lift ourselves out of the Ordinary / day-to-day to contemplate the great mysteries of our faith.
Today, we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem after an active ministry outside, beginning in Galilee and proceeding then through the hill country of Judea, Samaria, Jericho and finally to Jerusalem. We also proclaim the Passion, this year according to Matthew to remind us of the other events that will follow during this week.
On Thursday, we will be remembering the Feast of the Last Supper where Jesus left us with two mandates; the first, the celebration of the Eucharist which we do each Sunday, indeed each day, during the year; the second, the washing of feet, we do only that one evening a year, reminding us of Jesus’ call to minister to others in our following of him. At the end of the Mass, we will process out with the Blessed Sacrament and then be given the opportunity to keep vigil with him until midnight remembering Jesus’ time in prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane on the night he was betrayed.
On Friday, we will remember the Lord’s Passion in a Special Liturgy in which we will ask each of you participating to come forward and reverence the Cross of Jesus that set us free. We will also pray on behalf all the people of the world.
On Saturday, we will celebrate the Easter Vigil, in which we will recall key passages in our Salvation History, from our Creation, to the Fall, to the Exodus, to the Prophets, ending finally with the Proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus. We will baptize and initiate adults into our faith who have been preparing for this moment for the better part of the yaer.
Finally on Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection, renew our baptismal promises and seek then to celebrate the joy and the promise of Easter throughout the rest of the Easter season and throughout the rest of the year.
Parents and Grandparents, I ask you to find a way during this week to make this week special for your children and grandchildren. Teach them what we celebrate this week and why. These are dramatic days. And this is a week, offered to us each year, to deepen our commitment to God.
Most of our lives are lived in the mundane day-to-day. Yet this is a week that is offered to us to be special. Let us make it so. God bless you all and may you have a blessed Holy Week.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Apr 10, 2011 - 5th Sun of Lent - Christ gives us New Life
Readings – http://www.usccb.org/nab/041011.shtml
We find ourselves at the 5th Sunday of Lent and during the last three Sundays of Lent, we hear various aspects of Jesus’ mission being progressively revealed.
On the 3rd Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well and we were reminded of Jesus’ reconciling mission. He reconciled the Samaritan Woman to God and then to her community. Indeed, this woman, who previously was so separated from her community that she was sneaking to the well for water (water that she needed to survive) at a time when she wouldn’t encounter anyone, ended up presenting Jesus to the whole community and through her the whole community was saved.
On the 4th Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus healing the man born blind, reminding us here of both Jesus’ healing mission and, more importantly, of Jesus’ ability to illuminate all of us and give us direction, purpose in life.
Today, on the 5th Sunday of Lent, we hear of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, reminding us that Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
Now here two things need to be said about both the miracles that we heard last Sunday and this Sunday:
First, we do have to believe that Jesus was capable of performing the miracles presented. After all, we remember Jesus as God and God _can do anything_ (which is pretty much the definition of God, or certainly part of the "job description" of God, that God can do _anything_). And so we have to believe that Jesus was able to perform the miracles that he hear him doing in the Gospel. However, secondly, we need to remember that Jesus was not merely a miracle-worker and that his miracles were best understood on a symbolic value where these miracles are capable of touching us all.
I say this because there were many people who were blind in Jesus’ time (and many who were "born blind") just as there are many people who are blind/born blind today. Jesus chose NOT to heal EVERY blind person. Instead, Jesus healed _only a few_, including _that particular man born blind_ and not many others. Why? Well it was probably because "blindness" is _not merely physical_. Most of us know people who live lwithout direction, who seem to living it BLIND. They don’t know what’s coming, they seems to crash repeatedly into obstacles that others see clearly, and again not merely physical obstacles but walls, constraints, traps, that exist in life. Jesus shows us through this miracle that he is able to "illuninate" / "give direction" (hope, peace, guidance) to even people who’ve "walked blindly through life" even from birth, thus saving them again from falling into needless problems and traps that perhaps others are able to see "from a mile away." Jesus is capable of doing this.
The same could be said of the Gospel reading from today. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. He didn’t raise everybody from the dead during his life. He simply raised Lazarus, and then (obviously) _only for a time_ because Lazarus eventually died just like all of us will eventually die (leave this world) as well. There is no 2000+ year old Lazarus living out there in Bethany today. Yet, Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
And I think we know people who are living today as if they were dead. Perhaps we ourselves have found ourselves in situations that we thought that our lives were over, or that we were in such a depression that we appeared to others or even to ourselves as being effectively dead. In this miracle, Jesus shows us that he is capable to give us new life, new hope even in the midst of tragedy, even in the midst of death.
***
Now, many of you know that I like movies. I even write about them now. But those of you here know that I generally keep away from using them as examples here in my homilies. I prefer to take examples from my life or life as I’ve observed it around me over the years. Today though, I do wish to take the other tack and actually use a recently released movie to make the point here. (I do this because here because going too personally into my life here may not be particularly helpful or appropriate _here_, even if I do certainly believe that Jesus gives us new life, AND that I probably would not be standing here if I did not _believe this to be true_ AND have not _experienced this to be true_ as well).
I say all this because this time I do really prefer to use a movie as an example. And the movie is the movie Soul Surfer that was just released in the theaters this weekend. I like it for all kinds of reasons, among them that the movie was explicitly Christian (though also _not_ particularly preachy about it).
It’s about a 13 year old girl who was growing up in rural Hawaii, really having quite a blessed life, living just off the beach, home schooled for a few hours each day and then spending the rest of the day surfing. What a wonderful way to be growing up! And she even had hopes of becoming a competitive surfer, having already won some junior championships.
Anyway, all that was ended or was certainly put on hold, when in an instant a shark came up while she was surfing one day and bit off one of her arms all the way to the shoulder. She was lucky to have survived at all.
And in an instant, her life was radically changed. And the movie was great at showing this. How does one butter a toast with only one arm? How does one squeeze orange juice? Even though the movie was largely about her surfing life, these basic changes and new obstacles in her life were shown quite well.
Well, needless to say this tragedy caused her difficulty, and yes, even as a 13 year old, she did reflect on it, asking her youth group minister, how could it be that THIS (the loss of her arm again all the way up to her shoulder so even a prosthesis was unworkable) could be "part of God’s plan." And the rest of the movie was about working out an answer.
Part of the answer came when she joined her when sometime later she joined her youth group in going to Thailand after tsunami there – and this again was a poignant trip for her and the rest of the group for the very same waves that gave them so much joy growing up in Hawaii had caused so much tragedy to the people in Thailand. How could this be?
And yet, without saying a word, the movie came to show the fundamental Christian belief that ANY situation, indeed ANY tragedy can become an invitation, that ANY situation, ANY tragedy can be redeemed.
The girl in this movie started to play with the kids giving them rides on her surf board bring smiles to faces and reaquainting them with the water that had caused them so much pain, in a new and happier way. She of course comes back and restarts her surfing career, etc, etc. But she also sees the water and indeed her purpose in a new way. She becane a hero to all kinds of kids who suffered similar tragedies and she started to see her surfing not merely in terms of competition but in terms of giving people, all people joy. What a great movie! And what a great message!
And it’s a message that we see here in the Gospel Reading as well.
Yes, there will be times when tragedy will send us "into a tomb" for a while. But as Christians, we have a faith that DOES FUNDAMENTALLY BELIEVE that EVERY TRAGEDY can be converted into something positive. Yes, every cloud has a silver lining and yes, "if Jesus closes one door, he (or Mary) opens a window as well." We are a people of hope, a people of New Life.
And we hear this today.
So let us reflect on this more this coming week, during our remaining time of lent. And let us hope to bring the message of these last weeks to others around us who may need to hear it: That God/Jesus can bring us back (reconcile us), that God/Jesus can bring us light and give us direction in life, and God/Jesus can always give us "New Life" even if we may feel at times as if we were already in the Grave. God gives us hope. And let’s then seek to pass it on.
We find ourselves at the 5th Sunday of Lent and during the last three Sundays of Lent, we hear various aspects of Jesus’ mission being progressively revealed.
On the 3rd Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well and we were reminded of Jesus’ reconciling mission. He reconciled the Samaritan Woman to God and then to her community. Indeed, this woman, who previously was so separated from her community that she was sneaking to the well for water (water that she needed to survive) at a time when she wouldn’t encounter anyone, ended up presenting Jesus to the whole community and through her the whole community was saved.
On the 4th Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus healing the man born blind, reminding us here of both Jesus’ healing mission and, more importantly, of Jesus’ ability to illuminate all of us and give us direction, purpose in life.
Today, on the 5th Sunday of Lent, we hear of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, reminding us that Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
Now here two things need to be said about both the miracles that we heard last Sunday and this Sunday:
First, we do have to believe that Jesus was capable of performing the miracles presented. After all, we remember Jesus as God and God _can do anything_ (which is pretty much the definition of God, or certainly part of the "job description" of God, that God can do _anything_). And so we have to believe that Jesus was able to perform the miracles that he hear him doing in the Gospel. However, secondly, we need to remember that Jesus was not merely a miracle-worker and that his miracles were best understood on a symbolic value where these miracles are capable of touching us all.
I say this because there were many people who were blind in Jesus’ time (and many who were "born blind") just as there are many people who are blind/born blind today. Jesus chose NOT to heal EVERY blind person. Instead, Jesus healed _only a few_, including _that particular man born blind_ and not many others. Why? Well it was probably because "blindness" is _not merely physical_. Most of us know people who live lwithout direction, who seem to living it BLIND. They don’t know what’s coming, they seems to crash repeatedly into obstacles that others see clearly, and again not merely physical obstacles but walls, constraints, traps, that exist in life. Jesus shows us through this miracle that he is able to "illuninate" / "give direction" (hope, peace, guidance) to even people who’ve "walked blindly through life" even from birth, thus saving them again from falling into needless problems and traps that perhaps others are able to see "from a mile away." Jesus is capable of doing this.
The same could be said of the Gospel reading from today. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. He didn’t raise everybody from the dead during his life. He simply raised Lazarus, and then (obviously) _only for a time_ because Lazarus eventually died just like all of us will eventually die (leave this world) as well. There is no 2000+ year old Lazarus living out there in Bethany today. Yet, Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
And I think we know people who are living today as if they were dead. Perhaps we ourselves have found ourselves in situations that we thought that our lives were over, or that we were in such a depression that we appeared to others or even to ourselves as being effectively dead. In this miracle, Jesus shows us that he is capable to give us new life, new hope even in the midst of tragedy, even in the midst of death.
***
Now, many of you know that I like movies. I even write about them now. But those of you here know that I generally keep away from using them as examples here in my homilies. I prefer to take examples from my life or life as I’ve observed it around me over the years. Today though, I do wish to take the other tack and actually use a recently released movie to make the point here. (I do this because here because going too personally into my life here may not be particularly helpful or appropriate _here_, even if I do certainly believe that Jesus gives us new life, AND that I probably would not be standing here if I did not _believe this to be true_ AND have not _experienced this to be true_ as well).
I say all this because this time I do really prefer to use a movie as an example. And the movie is the movie Soul Surfer that was just released in the theaters this weekend. I like it for all kinds of reasons, among them that the movie was explicitly Christian (though also _not_ particularly preachy about it).
It’s about a 13 year old girl who was growing up in rural Hawaii, really having quite a blessed life, living just off the beach, home schooled for a few hours each day and then spending the rest of the day surfing. What a wonderful way to be growing up! And she even had hopes of becoming a competitive surfer, having already won some junior championships.
Anyway, all that was ended or was certainly put on hold, when in an instant a shark came up while she was surfing one day and bit off one of her arms all the way to the shoulder. She was lucky to have survived at all.
And in an instant, her life was radically changed. And the movie was great at showing this. How does one butter a toast with only one arm? How does one squeeze orange juice? Even though the movie was largely about her surfing life, these basic changes and new obstacles in her life were shown quite well.
Well, needless to say this tragedy caused her difficulty, and yes, even as a 13 year old, she did reflect on it, asking her youth group minister, how could it be that THIS (the loss of her arm again all the way up to her shoulder so even a prosthesis was unworkable) could be "part of God’s plan." And the rest of the movie was about working out an answer.
Part of the answer came when she joined her when sometime later she joined her youth group in going to Thailand after tsunami there – and this again was a poignant trip for her and the rest of the group for the very same waves that gave them so much joy growing up in Hawaii had caused so much tragedy to the people in Thailand. How could this be?
And yet, without saying a word, the movie came to show the fundamental Christian belief that ANY situation, indeed ANY tragedy can become an invitation, that ANY situation, ANY tragedy can be redeemed.
The girl in this movie started to play with the kids giving them rides on her surf board bring smiles to faces and reaquainting them with the water that had caused them so much pain, in a new and happier way. She of course comes back and restarts her surfing career, etc, etc. But she also sees the water and indeed her purpose in a new way. She becane a hero to all kinds of kids who suffered similar tragedies and she started to see her surfing not merely in terms of competition but in terms of giving people, all people joy. What a great movie! And what a great message!
And it’s a message that we see here in the Gospel Reading as well.
Yes, there will be times when tragedy will send us "into a tomb" for a while. But as Christians, we have a faith that DOES FUNDAMENTALLY BELIEVE that EVERY TRAGEDY can be converted into something positive. Yes, every cloud has a silver lining and yes, "if Jesus closes one door, he (or Mary) opens a window as well." We are a people of hope, a people of New Life.
And we hear this today.
So let us reflect on this more this coming week, during our remaining time of lent. And let us hope to bring the message of these last weeks to others around us who may need to hear it: That God/Jesus can bring us back (reconcile us), that God/Jesus can bring us light and give us direction in life, and God/Jesus can always give us "New Life" even if we may feel at times as if we were already in the Grave. God gives us hope. And let’s then seek to pass it on.
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