Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/112810.shtml
Today after many weeks of Ordinary Time, we begin the Season of Advent and with it the “busy part” of the Liturgical Year. For after the four weeks of Advent comes the Season of Christmas; after Christmas come a number of weeks of Ordinary Time again but followed then by the 40 days of Lent and finally the 50 days of Easter and even a couple of fairly important feast days afterwards as well (Trinity Sunday and the feast of Corpus Christi). So things will be quite busy from now on for a good six months.
Very good then, today we begin the Season of Advent, which reminds us of the centuries of waiting for Jesus’ first coming, asks us to be prepared for Jesus’ second coming and helps us to prepare for the celebration of Christmas again, which recalls Jesus’ entry into the world for the first time some 2000 years ago.
***
Now it’s probably fair to say that we don’t like to wait. In traffic, I get annoyed if I find myself behind a truck or SUV which inexplicably slows down, and I find myself with no idea why -- if the reason is something only 2-3 cars down or, worse, an accident or construction delay a mile or two away. Not being able to see past the truck or SUV after a short time, I find myself fiddling with my radio to set it on WBBM to catch the traffic report to hear if there is some major tie-up ahead. In the meantime, I’ve learned to say a number of Hail Mary’s (or even SING THEM) to slow me down and help me to accept my lack of control over the irritating and, after a time, unnerving situation.
I was further reminded a number of years ago by a parishioner that today we often throw something into the microwave to reheat it -- even for as little as 30 seconds -- and we find ourselves tapping our watches awaiting the microwave oven to complete its job, even though there is simply _no way_ in _this universe_ to heat that item faster than through that microwave. The laws of physics of _our universe_ offer us no faster way.
Finally, we get irritated when we’re sitting in front of our computer and the cursor turns into a little spinning ball or top or hour glass, indicating to us, that whatever task we’re asking the computer to do, will take longer than perhaps we thought it would, and we're just going to have to wait.
***
So if we get irritating waiting even a few minutes for something, it may seem simply unfathomable that the oracle we hear in the 1st reading today from the Prophet Isaiah was written some 500 years before its _partial fulfillment_ with the coming of Christ -- after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians but before their liberation by the Persians 70 years later, again some 500-550 BC.
To get a grasp of the amount of time that we are talking about, consider simply what our world was like 500 years ago:
Only 500 years ago, Europeans were first discovering the Americas. Of course, the people living here knew where they were, but until about 500 years ago, the Americas were for all practical purposes completely separated from the rest of the world.
Only a couple of centuries earlier Marco Polo returned to Venice after living for several decades in China and reported all sorts of things about China that were simply not believed by his European contemporaries (cities of a million people, an emperor named Kublai Kahn living in such splendor that he might as well have been as “real” as Obi Wan Kanobi from our Star Wars stories of today). Indeed, part of why Columbus “discovered” America was because the Spanish and Portuguese were trying find ways to reach the China described by Marco Polo in his writings.
Then 500 years ago there were missing all kinds of items and entire technologies that we take for granted today. Forget computers, the printing press only found its way to Europe (again from China) some 500 years ago (Marco Polo's book, was originally simply a handwritten and _handcopied_ manuscript). And there was no electricity, hence only bonfires, lanterns and candles provided artificial light.
500 years, this is the length of time existed between the time that the oracle that we hear Isaiah prophesying in the first reading today and its partial fulfillment with the coming of Jesus.
***
And we say partial fulfillment because in the prophesy, we hear that “swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and nation will not go to war against nation no more.” That hasn’t happened even to this day. We are waiting _even now_ for the final fulfillment of this prophesy.
Indeed, outside of the United Nations building in New York – the United Nations having been founded at the end of World War II, the most violent of wars of recent memory – there is a plague inscribed with those words of Isaiah that we heard today. And though the wars that we’ve experienced since World War II have thankfully been smaller, we are constantly reminded (even this week with renewed threats of war on the Korean peninsula, a war that would easily dwarf in violence the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) that Isaiah’s prophesy has not yet been completely fulfilled and awaits fulfillment only perhaps with the second coming of Christ.
We have to wait some more. And so, despite all our knowledge and technology we too get to share the same frustrations experienced by generations past and indeed of the people of Israel between the centuries following Isaiah’s oracle and the first coming, according to our belief, of Jesus as the Messiah into this world.
***
But these are all large questions and perhaps distract us from what is going on closer to home.
Closer to home, Advent is a time for preparation for Christmas. Advent in the United States generally begins the weekend after the celebration of the our nation’s great family holiday of Thanksgiving and ends then with the celebration of the other great family holiday of Christmas.
Since family holidays inevitably bring to the forefront unresolved family squabbles, Advent becomes an annual invitation to work on resolving them, reminding us that we don’t have an eternity to do so.
And to illustrate the point, let me talk here from my personal experience: I will, for instance, always remember that I was not home for the last Thanksgiving that my mother was alive.
I was studying in California at the time after coming home the first year I was away for both Thanksgiving and then Christmas a month later, I asked if it would make better sense that I skip coming back for Thanksgiving in that fateful year and come back for Christmas instead, and despite not being home of Thanksgiving, Christmas went well, BUT ... (and the but is the point of my story ...)
My mother had been fighting cancer for several years then. But even then as now, it was a disease that was hard to judge. Yes, it was a matter of life and death, but from a practical, day-to-day point of view, it also appeared to be basically a two day a month disease. My mom would go to chemo, which would make her sick for a day. Then she slept pretty much the next day. Then third day she would be able to go back to work again and all that was needed was for her to go back to the doctor a few times in the weeks intervening for tests before her next round of chemo, which would come a month later.
So she was still at “fine” a month later for Christmas though all of us would later remember that she looked a paler in the photographs than in years past.
And it was my mom who drove me to the airport on the feast of Epiphany (the three kings) about two weeks after Christmas to that I could fly back to school in Los Angeles. And after dropping me off, she headed to the doctor for tests regarding her next round of chemo.
Well, on account of those tests, the doctor ordered her back to the hospital and she never left the hospital again. Yes, I was able to come back even several times in the intervening months, including at the end, basically till the end. So we all had our time to say our goodbyes. But it remains with me that I was not home for the last Thanksgiving that my mother was alive and it was the only Thanksgiving that up until that time I had ever missed.
I do not mention this story to make anyone to feel guilty, but as a reminder that we don’t have an eternity to resolve our family squabbles. We all live on a conveyor belt which keeps us moving into the future, and that yes this season of Advent, which finds itself in our country squeezed between the two most important family holidays of the year, offers us an annual opportunity to seek to resolve some of the problems that exist within our families.
Yes, the conflicts are often complicated, yes, they are often “not our fault,” or more precisely not entirely our fault, but precisely because they are often complicated, we do need to move on them, because non of us will be here forever.
So let that perhaps be at a task that we can set ourselves for this Advent season, to at least become aware that we do have to move on our unresolved conflicts, especially those that exist at home, and yes become aware that the clock is ticking, (thankfully not in a super rapid way -- it's not like EVERYONE we have unresolved issues with, will be dead by this time next year) but still the clock _is_ ticking.
Let’s see during this season and the year that follows if we can find some way through the problems that keep us apart.
If we do that, then this time, this season, this coming year will not have been a waste.
So let's use the time and the resources that we have at our disposal to move on some of those conflicts don't seem to go away.
God bless you all, and have a happy and blessed Advent. Amen.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Nov 21, 2010 - Solemnity of Christ the King - "Viva Cristo Rey"
Given in Czech at the Slovak Mass at St. Simon the Apostle's at 53rd and California in Chicago.
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/112110.shtml
Today, we find ourselves at the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which reminds us of our ultimate goal in life to become one with Jesus our Lord, that is, with God, who created us, who loves us, walks with us,and ultimately calls us to himself.
Now the image of Christ as King is actually a rather problematic one, as truly every culture on this earth probably has a different image of King.
In the United States, the idea of King is something that is almost laughed at. In the Untied States remember Elvis as King, Burger King, perhaps even Martin Luther King, but basically Kings are not respected much here. And that should not be altogether surprising as this nation was founded as a result of a revolt _against a king_, King George III of England, and ever since the people of this country have prided themselves that nominally no one is superior to anyone else, certainly not as a result of birth.
If one goes to Ireland, the idea of a King has an even more negative impression as the Irish remember centuries of oppression by the British Crown and Protestants, in fact, presenting themselves as those who were truly faithful to the British Royal Family, while Catholics were presented as people whose loyalty was considered divided or otherwise suspect. The Royal Regime has historically rewarded Protestants for their loyalty while punishing or oppressing Catholics, indeed, rendering them effectively landless in their own country for centuries preceding Irish independence. To an Irish Catholic, Kingship is something that is often despised.
In Mexico the image of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) has a totally different significance. After over a decade of chaos during the Mexican Revolution, the Catholics of the country finally rose up to demand peace. Many were martyred for their nominal backwardness, with their final words often being “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long live Christ the King!) before being shot before revolutionary firing squads. Yet the “Cristoreyista” movement did finally bring peace and stability to the nation after over a decade of upheaval and war.
In Cental Europe, where my parents came from, the figure of the King was BOTH one of not too distant memory -- as there were the Kaiser (King) in Germany and the Emperor of Austria-Hungary and even the Czar (Emperor) of Russia, who only fell as a result of World War I -- AND yet, for the Czechs, whom my parents were, and probably for most common people in Central Europe, the figure of a King was one who appeared above all in fables and stories. In Central Europe it was possible for a King to be a “Good King” who was just and wise and under whom the people and even the land prospered. And it was possible to be an “Evil King” who oppressed, who mistreated the people and plundered the land. Yes, actual Kings existed in Central Europe up onto the not too distant past, but for most common people, Kings had become above all legendary to mythological figures from whose stories concepts for good governance could be ascertained. – a good King treated his people and the land well, a bad or evil King mistreated them. A King was above all a figure found in a morality tale.
Perhaps then, the image of the King in the Central European conception is the closest to that which appears in the Bible, excluding then the person of Jesus Christ himself. For no merely human King would live and “rule” in the manner of the Jesus of Nazareth who we encounter in the Gospels.
***
Very well then. We are presented with three very beautiful readings on Kingship and then the Kingship of Jesus in the Readings today.
The first reading, from 2nd Samuel reminds us of the kingship of David, the greatest or most beloved King of Israel. The Reading comes actually at a fairly “late part” of the story, or at least at its “middle part.” We hear in the Reading of people of Israel’s acclamation of David as King of Israel following the death of the previous King Saul along with his sons. We hear that the people recognized David as having been already a rather good military leader who led his soldiers well even under the reign of King Saul and that the people saw both in David’s leadership and in his survival a sign of God’s favor, hence anointing.
Yet, this is actually only a fairly “late” part of the story. The story actually began with the Prophet Samuel, disappointed in the pattern of decision-making by Israel’s first king Saul, going out to seek a new King, and on inspiration of God arriving at the house of Jesse, a lowly shepherd, living at the outskirts of a then utterly unimportant town called Bethlehem and declaring that he came here to anoint one of Jesse’s son to be the true King of Israel. Jesse presented Samuel his _seven_ oldest sons, and on inspection of them, Samuel asked if by chance Jesse had another son. Only then, Jesse remembered that he had his youngest son, David, out in the fields tending sheep. He called him, and it was David whom Samuel anointed as King.
The story of David, reads like a story that you’d find in various legends or stories, perhaps not altogether different from that of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” with whom most of us are familiar today. In the world of the “Lord of the Rings” it was three hobbits (little people) led especially by Frodo, who ended up saving that world, and all the Kings of that world ended up bowing down to them. The story of David, even though it has been generally understood that David actually existed rather than being a creation of a good writer, sounds not altogether foreign to a figure that could have fit into a Tolkien novel.
***
The Second Reading is a truly beautiful reading, a canticle coming from the first chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Collosians, that we, Servites, and really all Catholic religious pray each week on on Wednesday during Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is such a lovely reading that it would be worth it for you to look it up, copy it or cut it out and put it on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror on beside your bed. It reminds us of the Cosmic dimension of Christ’s Kingship, that through him all things were created, and that He is the head of the whole Body, the Church and indeed all Creation. The second reading reminds us of our goal, to become in life one with our Creator and as we see then in the Gospel, our Savior/ Redeemer ("big words" as they may at times seem).
The atmospherics/praise of the Second Reading are so high that it requires, in fact, that the Gospel to return us back to Earth. It has, in fact, been understood in Christianity that Jesus Christ incarnates (enfleshes, brings down to earth, down to our level or experience) that which the Old Testament and even the New Testament otherwise merely talked or sang about. And it is the Gospel Reading today that brings down to earth, makes real, the Second Reading, and perhaps even the first today.
In the Gospel Reading, we find Jesus -- the King of the Universe, the First Born of All Creation -- crucified on a Cross with truly EVERYONE laughing at him (the religious Authorities of his time, the Soldiers carrying out his sentence and even the Criminals being executed along with him). It is true that one of the Criminals to his side, does come to recognize the absurdity of the situation and asks Jesus to remember him/forgive him as a result. Still the image here is one of seeming total failure and humiliation. Yet it is perhaps precisely in this contradiction that we can find Jesus truly worthy of his titles of King of All, Son of God, the True Anointed One (Messiah) and so forth.
For it is easy to be “King” of the Beautiful, the Easy, the non-Problematic where everything goes Well. It is a whole different story to be King of an imperfect Kingdom, one with problems, defects, facing disaster, annihilation, humiliation. Jesus, nailed to a Cross, exposed to all, exposed to ridicule by all, becomes capable of being united with all who have ever found themselves exposed and/or humiliated before all as well. In his manner of death/destruction Jesus becomes capable of truly becoming the King of all, again, NOT MERELY of the beautiful, successful, those who’ve always had it easy in life, but precisely those who’ve taken life on the chin, and have had some experience with being put down and humiliated before others or the world.
We proclaim Jesus as King of all of those who made it in this world and of those who have not -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- of everyone and everything.
And in this rests the Kingship of Jesus Christ and why he becomes a worthy goal. We are the beloved children of God, each of us, and whether we succeed or not, we are God children, and it is perhaps precisely because Jesus experienced disaster – and being arrested, tried, convicted and NAILED TO A CROSS TO DIE is to EXPERIENCE DISASTER – that Jesus is capable of being with us, to be our Advocate, indeed King, in our worst moments as well.
And it is perhaps for this reason that it has always been the oppressed, the poor and the humble who have always been the greatest of believers because they can best experience both Christ on the Cross AND Christ being with them when _they_ find themselves nailed to their Crosses as well.
May we never forget that Christ is, indeed, Lord of All, and that it is precisely because he suffered that he can be with us in our times of suffering as well.
God bless you all and “Viva Cristo Rey!”
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/112110.shtml
Today, we find ourselves at the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which reminds us of our ultimate goal in life to become one with Jesus our Lord, that is, with God, who created us, who loves us, walks with us,and ultimately calls us to himself.
Now the image of Christ as King is actually a rather problematic one, as truly every culture on this earth probably has a different image of King.
In the United States, the idea of King is something that is almost laughed at. In the Untied States remember Elvis as King, Burger King, perhaps even Martin Luther King, but basically Kings are not respected much here. And that should not be altogether surprising as this nation was founded as a result of a revolt _against a king_, King George III of England, and ever since the people of this country have prided themselves that nominally no one is superior to anyone else, certainly not as a result of birth.
If one goes to Ireland, the idea of a King has an even more negative impression as the Irish remember centuries of oppression by the British Crown and Protestants, in fact, presenting themselves as those who were truly faithful to the British Royal Family, while Catholics were presented as people whose loyalty was considered divided or otherwise suspect. The Royal Regime has historically rewarded Protestants for their loyalty while punishing or oppressing Catholics, indeed, rendering them effectively landless in their own country for centuries preceding Irish independence. To an Irish Catholic, Kingship is something that is often despised.
In Mexico the image of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) has a totally different significance. After over a decade of chaos during the Mexican Revolution, the Catholics of the country finally rose up to demand peace. Many were martyred for their nominal backwardness, with their final words often being “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long live Christ the King!) before being shot before revolutionary firing squads. Yet the “Cristoreyista” movement did finally bring peace and stability to the nation after over a decade of upheaval and war.
In Cental Europe, where my parents came from, the figure of the King was BOTH one of not too distant memory -- as there were the Kaiser (King) in Germany and the Emperor of Austria-Hungary and even the Czar (Emperor) of Russia, who only fell as a result of World War I -- AND yet, for the Czechs, whom my parents were, and probably for most common people in Central Europe, the figure of a King was one who appeared above all in fables and stories. In Central Europe it was possible for a King to be a “Good King” who was just and wise and under whom the people and even the land prospered. And it was possible to be an “Evil King” who oppressed, who mistreated the people and plundered the land. Yes, actual Kings existed in Central Europe up onto the not too distant past, but for most common people, Kings had become above all legendary to mythological figures from whose stories concepts for good governance could be ascertained. – a good King treated his people and the land well, a bad or evil King mistreated them. A King was above all a figure found in a morality tale.
Perhaps then, the image of the King in the Central European conception is the closest to that which appears in the Bible, excluding then the person of Jesus Christ himself. For no merely human King would live and “rule” in the manner of the Jesus of Nazareth who we encounter in the Gospels.
***
Very well then. We are presented with three very beautiful readings on Kingship and then the Kingship of Jesus in the Readings today.
The first reading, from 2nd Samuel reminds us of the kingship of David, the greatest or most beloved King of Israel. The Reading comes actually at a fairly “late part” of the story, or at least at its “middle part.” We hear in the Reading of people of Israel’s acclamation of David as King of Israel following the death of the previous King Saul along with his sons. We hear that the people recognized David as having been already a rather good military leader who led his soldiers well even under the reign of King Saul and that the people saw both in David’s leadership and in his survival a sign of God’s favor, hence anointing.
Yet, this is actually only a fairly “late” part of the story. The story actually began with the Prophet Samuel, disappointed in the pattern of decision-making by Israel’s first king Saul, going out to seek a new King, and on inspiration of God arriving at the house of Jesse, a lowly shepherd, living at the outskirts of a then utterly unimportant town called Bethlehem and declaring that he came here to anoint one of Jesse’s son to be the true King of Israel. Jesse presented Samuel his _seven_ oldest sons, and on inspection of them, Samuel asked if by chance Jesse had another son. Only then, Jesse remembered that he had his youngest son, David, out in the fields tending sheep. He called him, and it was David whom Samuel anointed as King.
The story of David, reads like a story that you’d find in various legends or stories, perhaps not altogether different from that of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” with whom most of us are familiar today. In the world of the “Lord of the Rings” it was three hobbits (little people) led especially by Frodo, who ended up saving that world, and all the Kings of that world ended up bowing down to them. The story of David, even though it has been generally understood that David actually existed rather than being a creation of a good writer, sounds not altogether foreign to a figure that could have fit into a Tolkien novel.
***
The Second Reading is a truly beautiful reading, a canticle coming from the first chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Collosians, that we, Servites, and really all Catholic religious pray each week on on Wednesday during Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is such a lovely reading that it would be worth it for you to look it up, copy it or cut it out and put it on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror on beside your bed. It reminds us of the Cosmic dimension of Christ’s Kingship, that through him all things were created, and that He is the head of the whole Body, the Church and indeed all Creation. The second reading reminds us of our goal, to become in life one with our Creator and as we see then in the Gospel, our Savior/ Redeemer ("big words" as they may at times seem).
The atmospherics/praise of the Second Reading are so high that it requires, in fact, that the Gospel to return us back to Earth. It has, in fact, been understood in Christianity that Jesus Christ incarnates (enfleshes, brings down to earth, down to our level or experience) that which the Old Testament and even the New Testament otherwise merely talked or sang about. And it is the Gospel Reading today that brings down to earth, makes real, the Second Reading, and perhaps even the first today.
In the Gospel Reading, we find Jesus -- the King of the Universe, the First Born of All Creation -- crucified on a Cross with truly EVERYONE laughing at him (the religious Authorities of his time, the Soldiers carrying out his sentence and even the Criminals being executed along with him). It is true that one of the Criminals to his side, does come to recognize the absurdity of the situation and asks Jesus to remember him/forgive him as a result. Still the image here is one of seeming total failure and humiliation. Yet it is perhaps precisely in this contradiction that we can find Jesus truly worthy of his titles of King of All, Son of God, the True Anointed One (Messiah) and so forth.
For it is easy to be “King” of the Beautiful, the Easy, the non-Problematic where everything goes Well. It is a whole different story to be King of an imperfect Kingdom, one with problems, defects, facing disaster, annihilation, humiliation. Jesus, nailed to a Cross, exposed to all, exposed to ridicule by all, becomes capable of being united with all who have ever found themselves exposed and/or humiliated before all as well. In his manner of death/destruction Jesus becomes capable of truly becoming the King of all, again, NOT MERELY of the beautiful, successful, those who’ve always had it easy in life, but precisely those who’ve taken life on the chin, and have had some experience with being put down and humiliated before others or the world.
We proclaim Jesus as King of all of those who made it in this world and of those who have not -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- of everyone and everything.
And in this rests the Kingship of Jesus Christ and why he becomes a worthy goal. We are the beloved children of God, each of us, and whether we succeed or not, we are God children, and it is perhaps precisely because Jesus experienced disaster – and being arrested, tried, convicted and NAILED TO A CROSS TO DIE is to EXPERIENCE DISASTER – that Jesus is capable of being with us, to be our Advocate, indeed King, in our worst moments as well.
And it is perhaps for this reason that it has always been the oppressed, the poor and the humble who have always been the greatest of believers because they can best experience both Christ on the Cross AND Christ being with them when _they_ find themselves nailed to their Crosses as well.
May we never forget that Christ is, indeed, Lord of All, and that it is precisely because he suffered that he can be with us in our times of suffering as well.
God bless you all and “Viva Cristo Rey!”
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Nov 14, 2010 - 33rd Sun. of OT – In the Midst of Change, God is with us through it all.
Readings – http://www.usccb.org/nab/111410.shtml
We find ourselves in the middle of November, generally the last month of the Liturgical Year, one week before the Feast of Christ the King which is the last Sunday of Liturgical Year, and so the Readings this Sunday talk to us about the End – which can be the End of the Year, End of our Lives, the End of the Age or the End of Everything.
In Church or when we talk of Religion, we tend to focus on the End of the World. Maybe it’s because we imagine it both so awesome and so distant that it’s actually safer to talk about it than the other “Ends” which we experience in our lives.
I’ve been at Annunciata now for some 7 years.
There are teens here today, who I remember when I was visiting them in their 3rd Grade Class.
There are young adults, in their 2-3 year of College who are remember graduating from 8th Grade the year that I came here.
There are even teens and young adults here now, who have “grown up” or “out” of various rough patches in their lives and are now much better, more upstanding people than when they were when I first came here, when I was looking at them wondering if they are going to get in trouble with the law when they “grew up.” Some did (get in trouble in such ways), went through this, and are now better, more upstanding people for it. People grow, people change, and yes, some of our people have proven here that it is possible to change for the better.
At the other end of life, there are people who were in our Choir, who are no longer with us, who have passed on, and are singing, hopefully, among the choirs of heaven now.
This is November, and November tends to be one of the busiest months for funerals and we’ve had 6 in these past two weeks, or nearly one every two days. We’re going to miss them all, but one I’m going to miss particularly, because she and her husband were among the counters of our Parish Collection, and my Monday (my Week / my Day off) would begin talking with them about the day before and she’d generally give me a review (generally positive) of my Homily the day before. I’m really going to miss her, even though we all know that none of us are here forever.
***
My grandmother in the Czech Republic, got a phone only in 1972. Until then, the only way to communicate with her was through letters, that took two weeks to get there. (We found out only after the Communists fell that it only took 1 week, but that the Communists read every letter that was received from the outside – they really did – it was amazing that they had time for that). The first phone, was like in the U.S. decades earlier a “party” phone shared by several families. Then a few years later, she had her own line. Even then, I had a hard time conceiving how one could live without a phone. I would ask my dad, how it would work. Did one have to end every meeting or get together with one’s friends with planning what, when and where everybody is going to get together the next time. He would say that it be something along those lines and that one had to have one’s home more or less in order for visitors, because one wouldn’t necessarily know when one would come. Now we have to remind people to turn off their cell phones when they come to Church. And it’s difficult to imagine life without one.
I remember the first video games – pong. They were slow, played on the TV set – “pong..., pong..., pong...” Then came Asteroids, faster, also playable on the TV set. Then came other games – space invaders, pacman, super mario, already played at an arcade. The xbox brought video games back to the home / TV, games that were now similations “grand theft auto” (not the most edifying of games) or “band of brothers” that you could play sitting on your couch, stealing cars or shooting Nazis or space aliens or what have you. Then a few years ago came the Wii and I was fascinated by that – Guitar Hero, bowling, etc. A parishioner explained to me that the Wii came about as a result of the concern that previous video games were making kids just sit in front of the TV or video screen doing nothing but clicking buttons with their thumbs, Wii allows people to stand play the guitar as if they were in a rock band or to bowl, play baseball, box or even kick box as if they were actually doing all these things. Yesterday, I heard on the Radio Program “Sound Opinions” that a company has come up with a new generation of “Guitar Hero” (I don’t remember the actually name of the new game) in which one could plug in one’s Fender (electric) guitar and the program/game would teach one how to actually play it in the style of David Lee Roth or Pete Townsend, Keith Richards and so forth. How awesome! (There are new Keraoke programs out there that are going to teach people how to sing on key, indicating to them if they are singing off key, and what an improvement that will be as well!). So a few years from now, kids will wonder how it was even possible that we would find so much entertainment in banging a piece of plastic pretending that we were playing a guitar as in Guitar Hero, when it will seem so natural to them to have the real thing plugged in and helping them to play the electric guitar in the style of the great guitarists for real (and yes competing with others as to see who could do it the best!)
I mention all this to give us a better appreciation that we experience all kinds of “Endings” in our lives all the time. And in each Change, or each Revolution or even Apocalypse we are invited to move forward and assured that God is with us.
***
But the Readings are also a reminder to us, to be prepared for Change, not necessarily super-prepared -- we’re assured by Jesus that his words will be with us to pass through the trauma – but to have our house more or less in order. If we were to die – in a car accident, for instance – tomorrow, how would we leave this world? Would we leave with our lives in more or less good order, or would we leave a mess for our loved ones to have to clean up. With time, everything does get cleaned-up, but do we want to leave our loved ones a Mess to clean up? This is something as well that we are invited to reflect on this week.
But above all, we are to remember that even as change happens, as we grow, as those around us grow and depart, that none of this Change is really that threatening to us, that God is with us and at our Sides through it all. So let us give thanks for the many things and many changes that we have seen during the course of our lives and let us live in confidence as we look toward the future. Because nothing, nor anyone can separate us from our God who created us, loves us, and will eventually take us home.
We find ourselves in the middle of November, generally the last month of the Liturgical Year, one week before the Feast of Christ the King which is the last Sunday of Liturgical Year, and so the Readings this Sunday talk to us about the End – which can be the End of the Year, End of our Lives, the End of the Age or the End of Everything.
In Church or when we talk of Religion, we tend to focus on the End of the World. Maybe it’s because we imagine it both so awesome and so distant that it’s actually safer to talk about it than the other “Ends” which we experience in our lives.
I’ve been at Annunciata now for some 7 years.
There are teens here today, who I remember when I was visiting them in their 3rd Grade Class.
There are young adults, in their 2-3 year of College who are remember graduating from 8th Grade the year that I came here.
There are even teens and young adults here now, who have “grown up” or “out” of various rough patches in their lives and are now much better, more upstanding people than when they were when I first came here, when I was looking at them wondering if they are going to get in trouble with the law when they “grew up.” Some did (get in trouble in such ways), went through this, and are now better, more upstanding people for it. People grow, people change, and yes, some of our people have proven here that it is possible to change for the better.
At the other end of life, there are people who were in our Choir, who are no longer with us, who have passed on, and are singing, hopefully, among the choirs of heaven now.
This is November, and November tends to be one of the busiest months for funerals and we’ve had 6 in these past two weeks, or nearly one every two days. We’re going to miss them all, but one I’m going to miss particularly, because she and her husband were among the counters of our Parish Collection, and my Monday (my Week / my Day off) would begin talking with them about the day before and she’d generally give me a review (generally positive) of my Homily the day before. I’m really going to miss her, even though we all know that none of us are here forever.
***
My grandmother in the Czech Republic, got a phone only in 1972. Until then, the only way to communicate with her was through letters, that took two weeks to get there. (We found out only after the Communists fell that it only took 1 week, but that the Communists read every letter that was received from the outside – they really did – it was amazing that they had time for that). The first phone, was like in the U.S. decades earlier a “party” phone shared by several families. Then a few years later, she had her own line. Even then, I had a hard time conceiving how one could live without a phone. I would ask my dad, how it would work. Did one have to end every meeting or get together with one’s friends with planning what, when and where everybody is going to get together the next time. He would say that it be something along those lines and that one had to have one’s home more or less in order for visitors, because one wouldn’t necessarily know when one would come. Now we have to remind people to turn off their cell phones when they come to Church. And it’s difficult to imagine life without one.
I remember the first video games – pong. They were slow, played on the TV set – “pong..., pong..., pong...” Then came Asteroids, faster, also playable on the TV set. Then came other games – space invaders, pacman, super mario, already played at an arcade. The xbox brought video games back to the home / TV, games that were now similations “grand theft auto” (not the most edifying of games) or “band of brothers” that you could play sitting on your couch, stealing cars or shooting Nazis or space aliens or what have you. Then a few years ago came the Wii and I was fascinated by that – Guitar Hero, bowling, etc. A parishioner explained to me that the Wii came about as a result of the concern that previous video games were making kids just sit in front of the TV or video screen doing nothing but clicking buttons with their thumbs, Wii allows people to stand play the guitar as if they were in a rock band or to bowl, play baseball, box or even kick box as if they were actually doing all these things. Yesterday, I heard on the Radio Program “Sound Opinions” that a company has come up with a new generation of “Guitar Hero” (I don’t remember the actually name of the new game) in which one could plug in one’s Fender (electric) guitar and the program/game would teach one how to actually play it in the style of David Lee Roth or Pete Townsend, Keith Richards and so forth. How awesome! (There are new Keraoke programs out there that are going to teach people how to sing on key, indicating to them if they are singing off key, and what an improvement that will be as well!). So a few years from now, kids will wonder how it was even possible that we would find so much entertainment in banging a piece of plastic pretending that we were playing a guitar as in Guitar Hero, when it will seem so natural to them to have the real thing plugged in and helping them to play the electric guitar in the style of the great guitarists for real (and yes competing with others as to see who could do it the best!)
I mention all this to give us a better appreciation that we experience all kinds of “Endings” in our lives all the time. And in each Change, or each Revolution or even Apocalypse we are invited to move forward and assured that God is with us.
***
But the Readings are also a reminder to us, to be prepared for Change, not necessarily super-prepared -- we’re assured by Jesus that his words will be with us to pass through the trauma – but to have our house more or less in order. If we were to die – in a car accident, for instance – tomorrow, how would we leave this world? Would we leave with our lives in more or less good order, or would we leave a mess for our loved ones to have to clean up. With time, everything does get cleaned-up, but do we want to leave our loved ones a Mess to clean up? This is something as well that we are invited to reflect on this week.
But above all, we are to remember that even as change happens, as we grow, as those around us grow and depart, that none of this Change is really that threatening to us, that God is with us and at our Sides through it all. So let us give thanks for the many things and many changes that we have seen during the course of our lives and let us live in confidence as we look toward the future. Because nothing, nor anyone can separate us from our God who created us, loves us, and will eventually take us home.
Monday, November 8, 2010
7 Nov 2010 - 32nd Sun of OT - God Gives us Hope
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/110710.shtml
We find ourselves in November. On Monday, we celebrated the Feast of All Saints, on Tuesday, the Feast of All Souls. During November, the final month of the Liturgical year before the beginning of Advent, the Readings on Sunday (and even during the week) call to mind ultimate questions regarding both our destiny after our death and that of the whole world.
This Sunday’s readings are about life after death.
In the first Reading from (second) Maccabees we hear of a time when Israel was under the Greeks and Jewish freedom fighters (known as the Maccabees) were fighting for Jewish independence from them.
It was during the time of the Maccabees in the centuries before the coming of Christ when belief in an afterlife entered into the Jewish religious consciousness. And it entered in large part on account of the suffering of the people at the time. Like the story of the seven brothers heard in this first Reading, many young men, many innocents, and at times entire villages or families were being killed in battle or murdered in reprisal by the Greeks, leaving no them descendants. How could one resist such brutality if the oppressors could take away one’s life and even the lives one’s descendants?
It is in this context that the people began to believe that God -- who they already believed to be just, all powerful (capable of doing all), all seeing and all good – would be capable of “raising the just” even after their deaths. It became the religious answer to an Oppressor who proved more than willing and able to take away the lives and futures of the people, especially the lives and futures of the people’s patriots as well as of the utterly innocent.
This faith, which entered into the Jewish religious consciousness during the time of the Maccabees (when the Jewish people found themselves fighting against the oppression and occupation of the Greeks), continued then during the time of Jesus when the Jewish people found themselves occupied and oppressed under the Romans.
And that then forms the context of the question posed to Jesus by the Sadducees in the Gospel Reading today.
A word about the Sadducees: The Sadducees were the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. They could be thought of as the “old rich,” “the Jewish establishment,” in Jerusalem at the time, composing a large number of the priesthood serving the Jewish temple at the time. As such they would tend to be the “Conservatives” or “Traditionalists” of the time. And they did have something of a point as they asked this question of Jesus. The point was that the faith in the afterlife entered into the Jewish religious consciousness under the Maccabees was, in fact, “something (relatively) new.” And considering themselves to be the “Conservatives” or “Traditionalists”, the Sadducees, of course tended to oppose “innovations” or “changes in the faith” under the banner of Orthodoxy.
So it was the Sadducees who asked Jesus this question about the “woman who, following the Law of Moses, had found herself married to seven brothers, and yet each of those brothers died without producing an heir and so ‘in the afterlife’ whose wife then would she actually be?”
It was a pointed even sarcastic question that the Saducees asked and betrayed something else about them: Being the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem, “the establishment” in Jerusalem, they remained in their positions of (relative) power BECAUSE THEY COLLABORATED WITH THE ROMANS. If they did not collaborate with them, the Romans would have removed them.
So in contrast with the Maccabean freedom fighters of the First Reading or of the freedom fighters of Jesus’ time (the Zealots) or even the Pharisees (religious reformers who may have not completely supported the Zealots in their struggle for Jewish independence because of religious qualms about their often brutal/terroristic methods of ambush, assassination and so forth, but _were definitely concerned_ with the religious implications of the “death of the innocent”), the Sadducees who owed their continued positions of privilege to collaborating with the Romans DID NOT PARTICULARLY LIKE A RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE PROMISING A “RESURRECTION OF THE JUST” (and _presumably_ punishment of the UNJUST) because they did not feel to be particularly “just” themselves.
Having made a choice of casting their lot to live reasonably well in this life, they didn’t exactly look forward to being condemned for making this choice in the next.
So there we are. The Sadducees did not particularly like this teaching of the “Resurrection of the Just” and chose to poke fun at it with their question to Jesus, and Jesus was asked to respond.
***
Here I would note that the contrast between the Maccabees (freedom fighters from among the oppressed) and the Saducees (collaborators with those who oppress) is a contrast that has existed across time.
It has ALWAYS been that the old, the sick and the oppressed who have found it easiest, utterly natural, to believe in an Afterlife. Believing in a God who sees all and is capable of all, it makes sense to believe that God “will make things right” if not in this life then in the next.
In contrast, Kings, Dictators and Scoundrels across all ages have often tried to take away this hope from the oppressed.
Ivan the Terrible did not just kill his opponents but their entire families. Why? So that there’d be nobody to pray for them after they died. Many Dictators (Stalin, etc) were essentially Atheists who persecuted Believers. Why? It was an attempt to take away hope from the people based on something _beyond_ of the Dictator’s power.
***
And here then is an interesting implication of believing in the afterlife. By believing in an afterlife, beyond giving us hope in a life after death, it allows us to live _more fully_ even in this life.
Because if we don’t have this faith, the powerful of this world can come to dominate us. And each time we let this happen, we _die_ a little bit even in this life.
So Jesus who came so "that we may have life and have it in the fullest," to help us to "know the Truth that sets us free," took the side of the Maccabees (or more importantly the side of the oppressed and of the innocent) in this argument telling us by his teaching but most importantly by his Death and Resurrection that nothing of this world has the final word, that the final word belongs to God, and yes, that God will raise us up.
And that then can give us the confidence to live honestly, and not in fear of those who could hurt us or make our lives difficult in this world, because the final word does not belong to them. Instead, the final word belongs to God, who created us, who loves us, and created us to be happy.
So let then us remember this, and bring this message to others who may feel down, depressed or oppressed -- That God is with us, and nothing or no one, not even Death can take that away from us. And in the end, God who does know all (and all that goes on) is able and will set things right.
Amen.
We find ourselves in November. On Monday, we celebrated the Feast of All Saints, on Tuesday, the Feast of All Souls. During November, the final month of the Liturgical year before the beginning of Advent, the Readings on Sunday (and even during the week) call to mind ultimate questions regarding both our destiny after our death and that of the whole world.
This Sunday’s readings are about life after death.
In the first Reading from (second) Maccabees we hear of a time when Israel was under the Greeks and Jewish freedom fighters (known as the Maccabees) were fighting for Jewish independence from them.
It was during the time of the Maccabees in the centuries before the coming of Christ when belief in an afterlife entered into the Jewish religious consciousness. And it entered in large part on account of the suffering of the people at the time. Like the story of the seven brothers heard in this first Reading, many young men, many innocents, and at times entire villages or families were being killed in battle or murdered in reprisal by the Greeks, leaving no them descendants. How could one resist such brutality if the oppressors could take away one’s life and even the lives one’s descendants?
It is in this context that the people began to believe that God -- who they already believed to be just, all powerful (capable of doing all), all seeing and all good – would be capable of “raising the just” even after their deaths. It became the religious answer to an Oppressor who proved more than willing and able to take away the lives and futures of the people, especially the lives and futures of the people’s patriots as well as of the utterly innocent.
This faith, which entered into the Jewish religious consciousness during the time of the Maccabees (when the Jewish people found themselves fighting against the oppression and occupation of the Greeks), continued then during the time of Jesus when the Jewish people found themselves occupied and oppressed under the Romans.
And that then forms the context of the question posed to Jesus by the Sadducees in the Gospel Reading today.
A word about the Sadducees: The Sadducees were the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. They could be thought of as the “old rich,” “the Jewish establishment,” in Jerusalem at the time, composing a large number of the priesthood serving the Jewish temple at the time. As such they would tend to be the “Conservatives” or “Traditionalists” of the time. And they did have something of a point as they asked this question of Jesus. The point was that the faith in the afterlife entered into the Jewish religious consciousness under the Maccabees was, in fact, “something (relatively) new.” And considering themselves to be the “Conservatives” or “Traditionalists”, the Sadducees, of course tended to oppose “innovations” or “changes in the faith” under the banner of Orthodoxy.
So it was the Sadducees who asked Jesus this question about the “woman who, following the Law of Moses, had found herself married to seven brothers, and yet each of those brothers died without producing an heir and so ‘in the afterlife’ whose wife then would she actually be?”
It was a pointed even sarcastic question that the Saducees asked and betrayed something else about them: Being the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem, “the establishment” in Jerusalem, they remained in their positions of (relative) power BECAUSE THEY COLLABORATED WITH THE ROMANS. If they did not collaborate with them, the Romans would have removed them.
So in contrast with the Maccabean freedom fighters of the First Reading or of the freedom fighters of Jesus’ time (the Zealots) or even the Pharisees (religious reformers who may have not completely supported the Zealots in their struggle for Jewish independence because of religious qualms about their often brutal/terroristic methods of ambush, assassination and so forth, but _were definitely concerned_ with the religious implications of the “death of the innocent”), the Sadducees who owed their continued positions of privilege to collaborating with the Romans DID NOT PARTICULARLY LIKE A RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE PROMISING A “RESURRECTION OF THE JUST” (and _presumably_ punishment of the UNJUST) because they did not feel to be particularly “just” themselves.
Having made a choice of casting their lot to live reasonably well in this life, they didn’t exactly look forward to being condemned for making this choice in the next.
So there we are. The Sadducees did not particularly like this teaching of the “Resurrection of the Just” and chose to poke fun at it with their question to Jesus, and Jesus was asked to respond.
***
Here I would note that the contrast between the Maccabees (freedom fighters from among the oppressed) and the Saducees (collaborators with those who oppress) is a contrast that has existed across time.
It has ALWAYS been that the old, the sick and the oppressed who have found it easiest, utterly natural, to believe in an Afterlife. Believing in a God who sees all and is capable of all, it makes sense to believe that God “will make things right” if not in this life then in the next.
In contrast, Kings, Dictators and Scoundrels across all ages have often tried to take away this hope from the oppressed.
Ivan the Terrible did not just kill his opponents but their entire families. Why? So that there’d be nobody to pray for them after they died. Many Dictators (Stalin, etc) were essentially Atheists who persecuted Believers. Why? It was an attempt to take away hope from the people based on something _beyond_ of the Dictator’s power.
***
And here then is an interesting implication of believing in the afterlife. By believing in an afterlife, beyond giving us hope in a life after death, it allows us to live _more fully_ even in this life.
Because if we don’t have this faith, the powerful of this world can come to dominate us. And each time we let this happen, we _die_ a little bit even in this life.
So Jesus who came so "that we may have life and have it in the fullest," to help us to "know the Truth that sets us free," took the side of the Maccabees (or more importantly the side of the oppressed and of the innocent) in this argument telling us by his teaching but most importantly by his Death and Resurrection that nothing of this world has the final word, that the final word belongs to God, and yes, that God will raise us up.
And that then can give us the confidence to live honestly, and not in fear of those who could hurt us or make our lives difficult in this world, because the final word does not belong to them. Instead, the final word belongs to God, who created us, who loves us, and created us to be happy.
So let then us remember this, and bring this message to others who may feel down, depressed or oppressed -- That God is with us, and nothing or no one, not even Death can take that away from us. And in the end, God who does know all (and all that goes on) is able and will set things right.
Amen.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
31 Oct 2010 - 31st Sunday of Ord Time - God is both Awesome and Kind (and calls us out of ourselves to Sing ...)
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/103110.shtml
Normally, I begin my Sunday homilies during Ordinary Time by reminding us that generally the Readings offer us a theme from our day to day lives and invite us to find Jesus or the Gospel in that aspect of our day to day existence.
This week, however, I’m going to proceed a little bit differently because we’re confronted by a really lovely first Reading from the Book of Wisdom (Wis 11:22-12:2) that I believe is worth BOTH “cutting and pasting” and placing on our refrigerator or bathroom mirror at home, AND taking some time to pick it apart, line by line. First the text in its entirety:
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
Now let’s pick it apart:
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
Often enough, our day to day lives are limited by the spaces of our homes, cars, and offices. We’re not able to see much past the kitchen counter, the tv set in the living room or past our cubicle in the office. Our world is “small.”
It is therefore important to occasionally get out of the house and take a walk. And it’s well worth going to take that walk at a place which is “unconstrained.” In Chicago, I’ve found a great place to take such a walk, to see “a bigger picture” is to go to the Lake. As my nieces once happily said, Lake Michigan _not_ like a lake. “It’s like an ocean.” (Actually it’s really a lake but a really big lake). Looking out onto Lake Michigan, one can not see the other shore. One just sees the water blend into the horizon. And the water itself acts like a sea. Some days it seems as smooth as glass. Other times there are five even ten foot waves. Depending on the wind and weather, the water can be blue, green, grey, and of course, in the winter, white. It is a little bit of awesomeness and it reminds me, that there is a whole world out there which is far bigger than me and my current concerns.
The writer of the Book of Wisdom reminds us that God is bigger than all of this, bigger than Lake Michigan, bigger than the entire Universe, whose Creator he is.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
But precisely because God is so great, God is also compassionate. Every major religion which is either monotheistic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) or simply tends toward the absolute (like Buddhism) appreciates this. It is precisely because God is so Awesome, indeed Omnipotent, _can_ “do all things” that God _can_ care, _care_ about _all things_, care about _us_.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
We were ALL created by God. Hence are ALL loved. The famous phrase of the much belittled Rev. Jesse Jackson is ABSOLUTELY TRUE – “God does not make junk.”
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
We are here because God wants us here. No matter how often we may hear voices either internal or external, that we are not worthy of consideration, _not worthy of being_, we ARE worthy, ALL OF US, because GOD MADE US AND SUSTAINS US. NO HUMAN BEING, OR GROUP OF HUMAN BEINGS HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE OUR INFINITE VALUE FROM US.
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
And we are not merely “made by God”, in Baptism, we become part of the Body of Christ, hence we become PART of God in this world and GOD’S SPIRIT does breathe within us!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
And yet WE ALL KNOW that could do better, that we all fail, that we all sin.
But God does not beat us for our failings, for our sins. HE DOES HOWEVER REMIND US, and remind us consistently that we are called to do better, _gently_ calling us to rise to bigger heights, to resolve the obstacles, mostly internal, that keep us down, keep us from respecting each other and to see both ourselves AND Others as God sees us all.
***
OK. This reading from the Book of Wisdom is GRAND. But now how can we relate it to the Gospel Reading which we hear today?
Well, it has been said that Jesus brought “down to earth”, _incarnated_, _fulfilled_ that which the previous Scriptures (the Old Testament) promised.
And we see the Incarnation, Fulfillment of the Old Testament Reading in Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus in the Gospel Reading.
Zacchaeus, in many respects, represents all of us. Indeed, I really believe that Zacchaeus represents a lot of Annunciata’s parishioners very, very well. Okay, it’s possible that Zacchaeus was richer than most Annunciata’s parishioners would consider themselves to be.
But Zacchaeus’ behavior in this Gospel story would be _very recognizable_ to many of us: He was rich, he was enthusiastic (full of life), but he also _felt himself “small”_, not really worthy.
We see this at Annunciata. All kinds of people come out to support the parish at Annunciata Fest. All kinds of people come together if there is someone who is in need. All kinds of people will come out and buy raffle tickets to support the Parish financially as well.
But ask people to Read (to be a Lector), to be a Eucharistic Minister, to join the Choir, to join a Bible Study group and many ... most ... shirk away. It’s that they are not interested. It’s generally, that they don’t feel themselves _worthy_.
So they salute the Priest at a distance, often sincerely and with a great and sincere smile, perhaps with a beer in one’s hand. But they feel that they’re not worthy, that they’d look like fools reading, or embarrass themselves trying to sing, or feel almost hopelessly distant from the Scriptures they hear proclaimed Sunday. They prefer to stand on a branch, sincerely enthusiastic, but afraid to do more than watch Jesus pass by.
But Jesus stops. Jesus, invites himself into Zacchaeus’ life into Zacchaeus’ house.
And yes, Zacchaeus would have been right. The people around him IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO MURMUR – Doesn’t Jesus know who Zacchaeus is? Doesn’t he know how unworthy Zacchaeus is of a man of God’s company?
But Zacchaeus, now invited, does not let go of the invitation. He begins to make promises that perhaps he doesn’t keep (we _don’t know_ if he kept them). But we can recognize them as certainly sincere at the time: “I’ll give half of what I own to the poor, and if I’ve defrauded ANYONE, I’ll give that person 4x back what I took from him.”
Zacchaeus is changed. And Jesus is happy, because as he notes, “this man is ALSO a descendant of Abraham.”
AND THAT COULD BE SAID ABOUT US: WE ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. Perhaps for years we don’t act that way, but by virtue of our Baptism we are. AND WE ARE INVITED, EVER GENTLY, TO STAND UP AND TAKE OUR PLACE IN THE BODY.
Yes, we are invited GENTLY to do more than just buy raffle tickets (as _important_ financially to the Church/Parish as this is). We are invited to proclaim God’s praises, to hand out Christ’s Body, we are invited to Sing.
God bless you, us, all ;-)
Normally, I begin my Sunday homilies during Ordinary Time by reminding us that generally the Readings offer us a theme from our day to day lives and invite us to find Jesus or the Gospel in that aspect of our day to day existence.
This week, however, I’m going to proceed a little bit differently because we’re confronted by a really lovely first Reading from the Book of Wisdom (Wis 11:22-12:2) that I believe is worth BOTH “cutting and pasting” and placing on our refrigerator or bathroom mirror at home, AND taking some time to pick it apart, line by line. First the text in its entirety:
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
Now let’s pick it apart:
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
Often enough, our day to day lives are limited by the spaces of our homes, cars, and offices. We’re not able to see much past the kitchen counter, the tv set in the living room or past our cubicle in the office. Our world is “small.”
It is therefore important to occasionally get out of the house and take a walk. And it’s well worth going to take that walk at a place which is “unconstrained.” In Chicago, I’ve found a great place to take such a walk, to see “a bigger picture” is to go to the Lake. As my nieces once happily said, Lake Michigan _not_ like a lake. “It’s like an ocean.” (Actually it’s really a lake but a really big lake). Looking out onto Lake Michigan, one can not see the other shore. One just sees the water blend into the horizon. And the water itself acts like a sea. Some days it seems as smooth as glass. Other times there are five even ten foot waves. Depending on the wind and weather, the water can be blue, green, grey, and of course, in the winter, white. It is a little bit of awesomeness and it reminds me, that there is a whole world out there which is far bigger than me and my current concerns.
The writer of the Book of Wisdom reminds us that God is bigger than all of this, bigger than Lake Michigan, bigger than the entire Universe, whose Creator he is.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
But precisely because God is so great, God is also compassionate. Every major religion which is either monotheistic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) or simply tends toward the absolute (like Buddhism) appreciates this. It is precisely because God is so Awesome, indeed Omnipotent, _can_ “do all things” that God _can_ care, _care_ about _all things_, care about _us_.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
We were ALL created by God. Hence are ALL loved. The famous phrase of the much belittled Rev. Jesse Jackson is ABSOLUTELY TRUE – “God does not make junk.”
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
We are here because God wants us here. No matter how often we may hear voices either internal or external, that we are not worthy of consideration, _not worthy of being_, we ARE worthy, ALL OF US, because GOD MADE US AND SUSTAINS US. NO HUMAN BEING, OR GROUP OF HUMAN BEINGS HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE OUR INFINITE VALUE FROM US.
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
And we are not merely “made by God”, in Baptism, we become part of the Body of Christ, hence we become PART of God in this world and GOD’S SPIRIT does breathe within us!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
And yet WE ALL KNOW that could do better, that we all fail, that we all sin.
But God does not beat us for our failings, for our sins. HE DOES HOWEVER REMIND US, and remind us consistently that we are called to do better, _gently_ calling us to rise to bigger heights, to resolve the obstacles, mostly internal, that keep us down, keep us from respecting each other and to see both ourselves AND Others as God sees us all.
***
OK. This reading from the Book of Wisdom is GRAND. But now how can we relate it to the Gospel Reading which we hear today?
Well, it has been said that Jesus brought “down to earth”, _incarnated_, _fulfilled_ that which the previous Scriptures (the Old Testament) promised.
And we see the Incarnation, Fulfillment of the Old Testament Reading in Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus in the Gospel Reading.
Zacchaeus, in many respects, represents all of us. Indeed, I really believe that Zacchaeus represents a lot of Annunciata’s parishioners very, very well. Okay, it’s possible that Zacchaeus was richer than most Annunciata’s parishioners would consider themselves to be.
But Zacchaeus’ behavior in this Gospel story would be _very recognizable_ to many of us: He was rich, he was enthusiastic (full of life), but he also _felt himself “small”_, not really worthy.
We see this at Annunciata. All kinds of people come out to support the parish at Annunciata Fest. All kinds of people come together if there is someone who is in need. All kinds of people will come out and buy raffle tickets to support the Parish financially as well.
But ask people to Read (to be a Lector), to be a Eucharistic Minister, to join the Choir, to join a Bible Study group and many ... most ... shirk away. It’s that they are not interested. It’s generally, that they don’t feel themselves _worthy_.
So they salute the Priest at a distance, often sincerely and with a great and sincere smile, perhaps with a beer in one’s hand. But they feel that they’re not worthy, that they’d look like fools reading, or embarrass themselves trying to sing, or feel almost hopelessly distant from the Scriptures they hear proclaimed Sunday. They prefer to stand on a branch, sincerely enthusiastic, but afraid to do more than watch Jesus pass by.
But Jesus stops. Jesus, invites himself into Zacchaeus’ life into Zacchaeus’ house.
And yes, Zacchaeus would have been right. The people around him IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO MURMUR – Doesn’t Jesus know who Zacchaeus is? Doesn’t he know how unworthy Zacchaeus is of a man of God’s company?
But Zacchaeus, now invited, does not let go of the invitation. He begins to make promises that perhaps he doesn’t keep (we _don’t know_ if he kept them). But we can recognize them as certainly sincere at the time: “I’ll give half of what I own to the poor, and if I’ve defrauded ANYONE, I’ll give that person 4x back what I took from him.”
Zacchaeus is changed. And Jesus is happy, because as he notes, “this man is ALSO a descendant of Abraham.”
AND THAT COULD BE SAID ABOUT US: WE ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. Perhaps for years we don’t act that way, but by virtue of our Baptism we are. AND WE ARE INVITED, EVER GENTLY, TO STAND UP AND TAKE OUR PLACE IN THE BODY.
Yes, we are invited GENTLY to do more than just buy raffle tickets (as _important_ financially to the Church/Parish as this is). We are invited to proclaim God’s praises, to hand out Christ’s Body, we are invited to Sing.
God bless you, us, all ;-)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
24 Oct 2010 - 30th Sunday of Ord. Time - "Our Salvation DEPENDS on God Loving Us All"
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/102410.shtml
As I’ve said many times here, during Ordinary Time, the Readings on Sunday generally touch on some aspect of our day to day lives and invite us then to find Jesus and the Gospel in that aspect of our day to day existence.
This Sunday, identifying the aspect of our lives which we are asked to take a look at is rather easy – our attitude toward our brothers and sisters with which we share our lives.
Indeed, this Sunday’s Gospel Reading begins with the words:
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
And then continues to give the example of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector arriving at the Temple to pray.
The Pharisee, actually a rather good guy, one who sought to live his life according the law of God, honest, faithful, arguably generous, nevertheless betrayed an arrogance in his living in such a way: “I give you thanks O Lord for not being like the others – greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like that tax collector over there...”
In contrast, we’re told that the Tax Collector, no doubt know exactly who he was, “would not even lift his eyes toward heaven but beat his breast saying, ‘O God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
And we’re told, of course, that the Tax Collector’s prayer was heard while the Pharisee’s, again, arguably in good part a good guy, was not.
Why?
Well, if God is Our Father then we are all God’s children. There is no such a thing as a “better” child. To our parents, we are ultimately all equal. And as it’s usually the case “at home,” if one or another of the children starts to think of him or herself as better than the rest, then the parents usually step in to say “Hey, cut it out. You all have good points, you all have bad points, and we love you all.” And that may be frustrating to the “good kids” but it’s the truth.
There are _many dangers_ when seeking to compete to be “better than others.”
First of all, all of us are more than our sins, mistakes and failings. In my first year in the Seminary, when I was still unbelievably optimistic and enthusiastic about what I was doing, I volunteered to go visit weekly a prison as my ministry project for that year. No one at that school had done that for some time, but actually as a result of my deciding to give this a shoot, soon there were 4-5 of us were going in a group. And all of us would come back each week amazed. Why? Because we were surprised how easy it was to talk about God to the prisoners that we visited.
Reflecting on why that would be the case, I came to the conclusion that contrary to the popular perception, often presented to us in the movies that “Everybody in jail thinks that he/she is innocent,” when talking to “clergy” actually the opposite seemed to occur. Most of the prisoners _knew_, in fact, that they had screwed up. So the hard part of the preaching the Gospel was over and all that was left was, in fact, the GOOD NEWS, that despite that, God still loves us anyway.
In contrast, outside the jail, most of us carry masks, and insist we are better than the loser over there, of the floozy of a cousin or sister one had, etc, etc. And it’s hard to preach the Gospel to people who think that they are better than others.
And it’s also simply the truth that even those prisoners sitting in jail had people once had loved them. Even people like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy probably made breakfast for their moms a few times for mother’s day. Even people like them probably bought a nice card or two for an aunt or grandmother when they were younger. And their aunt or grandmother would have appreciated them for that, and GOD WOULD HAVE SEEN THAT.
So God would know that all of us are more than sins or failings. And certainly we visiting the jail that year were invited (I do say by God) to start seeing the people in that way. Yes, they screwed up, yes, they deserved to be where they were, but yes, they were still capable of being loved. And if THEY can be loved, then so can we.
In constrast, if we insist on underlining our superiority to others, well ... we put in peril our own salvation. Because if we are better than others, then certainly there would be others better than us. And Jesus did underline in his preaching that NONE OF US is absolutely good.
So in reality, we are ALL in need of God’s mercy – God’s ability to overlook OUR SINS, OUR MISTAKES, OUR FAILINGS.
How arrogant it is to beat-up on the failings of someone else (and let’s face it, often someone weaker than ourselves) for the sake of hoping to “look good” in contrast.
In contrast, why not look at the good of that person and understand if God can forgive the failings of others, then there’s a much better chance that God can forgive us our own failings.
Because in the end, what we celebrate here, the Eucharist, each Sunday is a reminder, that at the end of our lives as God’s children, we’re going to be invited to the same table as the rest of God’s chindren (the rest of the family). And we’re going to be expected to ‘get along.’
So wouldn’t it be great to just let go of “the games” and just started trying to get along now?
May God bless us all, and help us to understand that even the people who annoy us are our brothers and sisters who are loved by the same God who loves us too.
As I’ve said many times here, during Ordinary Time, the Readings on Sunday generally touch on some aspect of our day to day lives and invite us then to find Jesus and the Gospel in that aspect of our day to day existence.
This Sunday, identifying the aspect of our lives which we are asked to take a look at is rather easy – our attitude toward our brothers and sisters with which we share our lives.
Indeed, this Sunday’s Gospel Reading begins with the words:
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
And then continues to give the example of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector arriving at the Temple to pray.
The Pharisee, actually a rather good guy, one who sought to live his life according the law of God, honest, faithful, arguably generous, nevertheless betrayed an arrogance in his living in such a way: “I give you thanks O Lord for not being like the others – greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like that tax collector over there...”
In contrast, we’re told that the Tax Collector, no doubt know exactly who he was, “would not even lift his eyes toward heaven but beat his breast saying, ‘O God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
And we’re told, of course, that the Tax Collector’s prayer was heard while the Pharisee’s, again, arguably in good part a good guy, was not.
Why?
Well, if God is Our Father then we are all God’s children. There is no such a thing as a “better” child. To our parents, we are ultimately all equal. And as it’s usually the case “at home,” if one or another of the children starts to think of him or herself as better than the rest, then the parents usually step in to say “Hey, cut it out. You all have good points, you all have bad points, and we love you all.” And that may be frustrating to the “good kids” but it’s the truth.
There are _many dangers_ when seeking to compete to be “better than others.”
First of all, all of us are more than our sins, mistakes and failings. In my first year in the Seminary, when I was still unbelievably optimistic and enthusiastic about what I was doing, I volunteered to go visit weekly a prison as my ministry project for that year. No one at that school had done that for some time, but actually as a result of my deciding to give this a shoot, soon there were 4-5 of us were going in a group. And all of us would come back each week amazed. Why? Because we were surprised how easy it was to talk about God to the prisoners that we visited.
Reflecting on why that would be the case, I came to the conclusion that contrary to the popular perception, often presented to us in the movies that “Everybody in jail thinks that he/she is innocent,” when talking to “clergy” actually the opposite seemed to occur. Most of the prisoners _knew_, in fact, that they had screwed up. So the hard part of the preaching the Gospel was over and all that was left was, in fact, the GOOD NEWS, that despite that, God still loves us anyway.
In contrast, outside the jail, most of us carry masks, and insist we are better than the loser over there, of the floozy of a cousin or sister one had, etc, etc. And it’s hard to preach the Gospel to people who think that they are better than others.
And it’s also simply the truth that even those prisoners sitting in jail had people once had loved them. Even people like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy probably made breakfast for their moms a few times for mother’s day. Even people like them probably bought a nice card or two for an aunt or grandmother when they were younger. And their aunt or grandmother would have appreciated them for that, and GOD WOULD HAVE SEEN THAT.
So God would know that all of us are more than sins or failings. And certainly we visiting the jail that year were invited (I do say by God) to start seeing the people in that way. Yes, they screwed up, yes, they deserved to be where they were, but yes, they were still capable of being loved. And if THEY can be loved, then so can we.
In constrast, if we insist on underlining our superiority to others, well ... we put in peril our own salvation. Because if we are better than others, then certainly there would be others better than us. And Jesus did underline in his preaching that NONE OF US is absolutely good.
So in reality, we are ALL in need of God’s mercy – God’s ability to overlook OUR SINS, OUR MISTAKES, OUR FAILINGS.
How arrogant it is to beat-up on the failings of someone else (and let’s face it, often someone weaker than ourselves) for the sake of hoping to “look good” in contrast.
In contrast, why not look at the good of that person and understand if God can forgive the failings of others, then there’s a much better chance that God can forgive us our own failings.
Because in the end, what we celebrate here, the Eucharist, each Sunday is a reminder, that at the end of our lives as God’s children, we’re going to be invited to the same table as the rest of God’s chindren (the rest of the family). And we’re going to be expected to ‘get along.’
So wouldn’t it be great to just let go of “the games” and just started trying to get along now?
May God bless us all, and help us to understand that even the people who annoy us are our brothers and sisters who are loved by the same God who loves us too.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
17 Oct 2010 - 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time - On Perseverance in Faith
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/101710.shtml
During Ordinary Time, the readings on Sunday generally offer us a theme from our day to day lives and invite us then to find Jesus or the Gospel in this theme, and this Sunday the theme is very easy to identify – perseverance in faith/prayer.
The First Reading, taken from Exodus, is about a rather grueling battle between the Israelites and a desert people called the Amelek, where success depended on Moses’ ability to keep his arms extended in prayer. In the Gospel Reading were given the example of a widow who through her persistence, was able to wear down even a dishonest Judge to render a decision in her favor. We even find St. Paul’s admonition to Timothy to be “persistent” in the Second Reading. Rarely is the theme so obvious.
Now something that makes the theme interesting is relating it to the theme of last Sunday’s readings which were about healing. In last Sunday’s readings, we are presented in the Old Testament Reading with the Prophet Elisha’s healing of Naaman a military commander from a neighboring country called Aram, a people, when all things were considered was not particularly powerful, like the Amalek of the Old Testament Reading of this Sunday. In the Gospel Reading, last Sunday we were given the case of Jesus healing 10 lepers and one, a Samaritan it turns out, coming back to thank him. In the first reading last week, Naaman as well thanked Elisha for healing him, somewhat to Elisha’s embarrassment because Elisha did not particularly like (probably because he was a foreigner, hence a pagan, and even a military commander of this foreign, and presumably rival country).
So the Readings from last Sunday were about healing while the Readings this Sunday were about perseverance. Do we see a connection from the experience of our day to day lives? Probably because most of us don’t necessarily get healed right away. And some of us may actually never get healed, or see the healing of a loved one, despite our most sincere or urgent of prayers.
Taking this a bit further, we can be certain that if our prayers are specifically for healing, every single one of us will come to a point in our lives when that specific prayer will not be answered, as everyone of us will one day die and thus leave this world.
So what is the point of being “persistent” when we know that this prayer will at times not be answered (or will be refused)?
Well the first readings of the last couple of weeks may help us understand. By all accounts, the book of Exodus was compiled a number of hundred years after the event. The priests then putting in writing the account of Exodus, probably during the time of the Israelite monarchy, would have remembered (or chosen) to include the account of the Israelite battle with the Amalek in the desert of Sinai, probably because the story resonated with them (and the Israelite people) in their own time. The Amalek may have been the first foreign enemies of Israel but they were certainly not the last. In the time of the Judges and the Monarchy, the Israelites faced the neighboring peoples called Philistines, the Moabites, and the Edomites (interestingly enough, they never actually fought a significant war with Naaman’s Arameans). And in each case, there would have always been the worry, “will we prevail?” And the message of the priests was “pray to our God and we will succeed.”
So the people prayed and Israel eventually defeated the Philistines. The people prayed again, Israel defeated and occupied the neighboring country of the Moabites. And the people prayed once more when going off to battle against the Edomites – there are even Psalms in the Bible which note this impending battle against the Edomites – and once again the Israelites prevailed. But these were all, if worrisome battles, nevertheless against “B class” countries like Naaman’s Aram from last Sunday’s Readings.
Eventually came the bigger hitters. The Assyrians. The Israelites prayed, and they lost. Or at least the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed. After destroying that Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Assyrians continued to southward to lay seige to Jerusalem, threatening the destruction of even the Kingdom of Judah. But there suddenly the Assyrian army was beset by plague. A very fortunate turn of events, indeed possibly a miracle! The Assyrian army turned around and went home. And Judah was safe for another 100 years.
But then came the Babylonians. In the time of the prophet Jeremiah they laid siege to Jerusalem. The people prayed once more. And this time, they lost. . The Babylonians came and destroyed the city, the temple and those who they did not kill, they dragged off to Babylon to slavery. End of Story.
Or was it the end of the story? And how does this remind us of our own lives?
When in trouble, we all probably pray a lot to God. And if we’re honest, _a lot of times_, we somehow get by. Little miracles do seem to happen. Even big ones do seem to happen.
But eventually, our luck seems to run out. (And I’m using the word _luck_ here with purpose). And we know that it certainly will run out eventually, because every single one us will eventually die (to meet our maker).
So what then is the point of praying if it all can be explained by luck? And yes, THE SAME SET OF EVIDENCE (both in the Bible and in our own lives) can be interpreted as both the result of luck and God’s intervention.
So why believe?
Well, the crises in our lives will not go away whether we believe in God or not. And I do believe that it _is_ easier to navigate them, if one believes that there is a God on our side helping us through them. Further, when finding ourselves staring at disaster, and despite the odds, suddenly things turn better, if we believe, we have someone to thank.
When I was in the seminary, we went several times to the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompei in Italy. There among the _hundreds_ of ex-voto pictures given to the Shrine in thanksgiving to miracles attributed to the work of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I counted no fewer than 4 incidents in which a child fell off a train and miraculously survived. Now, one _could_ attribute this merely to coincidence that the child happened to fall into a field rather than into a post or building or street or fall under the train itself. But what an unbelievably fortunate coincidence, that the child lived! And if one does not believe, who would one thank? It would seem _to me_ rather inconceivable to not be able to thank _someone_ for such a wonderfully fortunate coincidence (miracle).
So (1) the difficulties of our lives do not go away whether we believe or not, (2) the fortune incidents in our lives (when we suspect we deserved much worse but somehow squeaked by) don’t go away whether we believe or not, and whether we believe or not, (3) we will all eventually fail and die.
I do believe that all of these realities are much easier to navigate if we do believe that we do have God in our lives and at our sides. And even regarding the final failure that faces us all, death, IF WE BELIEVE, we believe that even death doesn’t have the final say, that in Christ’s death and resurrection, which we celebrate each time we come to Mass, we remember that this final say belongs to God. So while we may not search for death, we believe that even death is not the end.
So what a great gift we have in our Faith! And why it is something that can help us throughout our lives, in the good times, in the bad times, and especially when we approach our end here on earth. If we believe, we _can_ navigate it all, remembering that truly nothing can separate us from our God who created us, who loves all of us, and who will eventually bring us all home.
During Ordinary Time, the readings on Sunday generally offer us a theme from our day to day lives and invite us then to find Jesus or the Gospel in this theme, and this Sunday the theme is very easy to identify – perseverance in faith/prayer.
The First Reading, taken from Exodus, is about a rather grueling battle between the Israelites and a desert people called the Amelek, where success depended on Moses’ ability to keep his arms extended in prayer. In the Gospel Reading were given the example of a widow who through her persistence, was able to wear down even a dishonest Judge to render a decision in her favor. We even find St. Paul’s admonition to Timothy to be “persistent” in the Second Reading. Rarely is the theme so obvious.
Now something that makes the theme interesting is relating it to the theme of last Sunday’s readings which were about healing. In last Sunday’s readings, we are presented in the Old Testament Reading with the Prophet Elisha’s healing of Naaman a military commander from a neighboring country called Aram, a people, when all things were considered was not particularly powerful, like the Amalek of the Old Testament Reading of this Sunday. In the Gospel Reading, last Sunday we were given the case of Jesus healing 10 lepers and one, a Samaritan it turns out, coming back to thank him. In the first reading last week, Naaman as well thanked Elisha for healing him, somewhat to Elisha’s embarrassment because Elisha did not particularly like (probably because he was a foreigner, hence a pagan, and even a military commander of this foreign, and presumably rival country).
So the Readings from last Sunday were about healing while the Readings this Sunday were about perseverance. Do we see a connection from the experience of our day to day lives? Probably because most of us don’t necessarily get healed right away. And some of us may actually never get healed, or see the healing of a loved one, despite our most sincere or urgent of prayers.
Taking this a bit further, we can be certain that if our prayers are specifically for healing, every single one of us will come to a point in our lives when that specific prayer will not be answered, as everyone of us will one day die and thus leave this world.
So what is the point of being “persistent” when we know that this prayer will at times not be answered (or will be refused)?
Well the first readings of the last couple of weeks may help us understand. By all accounts, the book of Exodus was compiled a number of hundred years after the event. The priests then putting in writing the account of Exodus, probably during the time of the Israelite monarchy, would have remembered (or chosen) to include the account of the Israelite battle with the Amalek in the desert of Sinai, probably because the story resonated with them (and the Israelite people) in their own time. The Amalek may have been the first foreign enemies of Israel but they were certainly not the last. In the time of the Judges and the Monarchy, the Israelites faced the neighboring peoples called Philistines, the Moabites, and the Edomites (interestingly enough, they never actually fought a significant war with Naaman’s Arameans). And in each case, there would have always been the worry, “will we prevail?” And the message of the priests was “pray to our God and we will succeed.”
So the people prayed and Israel eventually defeated the Philistines. The people prayed again, Israel defeated and occupied the neighboring country of the Moabites. And the people prayed once more when going off to battle against the Edomites – there are even Psalms in the Bible which note this impending battle against the Edomites – and once again the Israelites prevailed. But these were all, if worrisome battles, nevertheless against “B class” countries like Naaman’s Aram from last Sunday’s Readings.
Eventually came the bigger hitters. The Assyrians. The Israelites prayed, and they lost. Or at least the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed. After destroying that Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Assyrians continued to southward to lay seige to Jerusalem, threatening the destruction of even the Kingdom of Judah. But there suddenly the Assyrian army was beset by plague. A very fortunate turn of events, indeed possibly a miracle! The Assyrian army turned around and went home. And Judah was safe for another 100 years.
But then came the Babylonians. In the time of the prophet Jeremiah they laid siege to Jerusalem. The people prayed once more. And this time,
Or was it the end of the story?
When in trouble, we all probably pray a lot to God. And if we’re honest, _a lot of times_, we somehow get by. Little miracles do seem to happen. Even big ones do seem to happen.
But eventually, our luck seems to run out. (And I’m using the word _luck_ here with purpose). And we know that it certainly will run out eventually, because every single one us will eventually die (to meet our maker).
So what then is the point of praying if it all can be explained by luck? And yes, THE SAME SET OF EVIDENCE (both in the Bible and in our own lives) can be interpreted as both the result of luck and God’s intervention.
So why believe?
Well, the crises in our lives will not go away whether we believe in God or not. And I do believe that it _is_ easier to navigate them, if one believes that there is a God on our side helping us through them. Further, when finding ourselves staring at disaster, and despite the odds, suddenly things turn better, if we believe, we have someone to thank.
When I was in the seminary, we went several times to the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompei in Italy. There among the _hundreds_ of ex-voto pictures given to the Shrine in thanksgiving to miracles attributed to the work of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I counted no fewer than 4 incidents in which a child fell off a train and miraculously survived. Now, one _could_ attribute this merely to coincidence that the child happened to fall into a field rather than into a post or building or street or fall under the train itself. But what an unbelievably fortunate coincidence, that the child lived! And if one does not believe, who would one thank? It would seem _to me_ rather inconceivable to not be able to thank _someone_ for such a wonderfully fortunate coincidence (miracle).
So (1) the difficulties of our lives do not go away whether we believe or not, (2) the fortune incidents in our lives (when we suspect we deserved much worse but somehow squeaked by) don’t go away whether we believe or not, and whether we believe or not, (3) we will all eventually fail and die.
I do believe that all of these realities are much easier to navigate if we do believe that we do have God in our lives and at our sides. And even regarding the final failure that faces us all, death, IF WE BELIEVE, we believe that even death doesn’t have the final say, that in Christ’s death and resurrection, which we celebrate each time we come to Mass, we remember that this final say belongs to God. So while we may not search for death, we believe that even death is not the end.
So what a great gift we have in our Faith! And why it is something that can help us throughout our lives, in the good times, in the bad times, and especially when we approach our end here on earth. If we believe, we _can_ navigate it all, remembering that truly nothing can separate us from our God who created us, who loves all of us, and who will eventually bring us all home.
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