The title of my homily for this 28th Saturday
in Ordinary Time is, “Acknowledging Christ.”
ACKNOWLEDGING
We all know what it is to be acknowledged - to be recognized
- to be thanked - to be welcomed to a get together - or what have you.
We all know that MC’s have the job at banquets to point
out who is present - who is responsible for organizing, contacting, putting
together a dinner or what have you.
We all have been in settings when someone at the
microphone uses the word “acknowledge” - when she or he says, “I want to
acknowledge the great grandmother - of
the bride.She hit105 last week.”
We thank people who have gifted us - helped us - made our
education possible.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel from Luke 12: 8-12 has Jesus saying, “If
you acknowledge me before others, the Son of Man will acknowledge you before the angels of God.”
It’s definitely a “quid pro quo” - as well as it’s
opposite. “If you deny me, I’ll deny you.”
Scary.
A message I got out of this is to take a moment each day
to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and God - the one who gifts me with life each
moment.
We do that at Daily Mass.We can do that at daily prayer.
A message that hit me is tothink about that moment at public events when
someone is acknowledged. Think about - reflect about - the human behavior of
acknowledging.
To pray is to acknowledge Jesus.
To pray is to acknowledge God as Father.
To pray is to acknowledge the Holy Spirit.
We heard this last acknowledgement about the Holy Spirit clearly in the gospel for today. The spirit -
RUAH - in Hebrew - PNEUMA - in Greek -BREATH - in English is a message we hear
about in the beginning of the Bible - Genesis. There’s a moment there when God took and
formed clay and then God breathed air,
breath, the spirit, RUAH, into that first person.
That was a first moment.I like to see God with us in every breath of our life. I am
having breathing problems this past year - so I’m well aware of my breath. I
acknowledge to God, I need help. Keep me breathing
We see athletes acknowledging God publically all the time,They point their index finger or all their
fingers or their hand to God.
What a great morning prayer: to acknowledge God in
thanksgiving every morning.
What a great night prayer: to acknowledge God in thanksgiving
every night for the day.
CONCLUSION: TODAY
Today we celebrate the life of St. Paul of the Cross who
acknowledged Jesus with his life and his religious congregation the
Passionists.
Today we celebrate the lives of the North American Martyrs,
Saint Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf and their companions who went to the Native
Americans to tell them about Jesus and how he can better our lives, our
attitudes, our work, our families, our lives.
Let’s all do that today.
October19, 2019
Thought for today:
“Your face is your passport.”
Someone
Friday, October 18, 2019
October 18, 2019
PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE
Sometimes when we feel put down,
when our A Game is not happening,
we hope our smarts triggers a pièce
de résistance -
which covers over
our feelings of being small, stupid
and of no consequence - but then
again - sometimes we just sit back and
let others rise and shine and give God or
themselves the glory - knowing our name
is ballpoint pen inked in God’s Hand or
at least we feel good about ourselves
for being able to say something in French."C'est sensationnel!"Wow!
Here are five comments about the Gospel of Luke on his feast
day. It’s the longest of the four gospels:19,482 words - and then add The Acts of the
Apostles - another 18,450 words. I add Acts because it’s often attributed to Luke.
Now that’s a lot of words from Luke in the New Testament.
Matthew has more chapters - 28 - than Luke - who has 24.However, the chapters in Luke are longer.Matthew has 18,345 words. That’s 1,037 words
less than Luke. Mark is 16 chaptersand the shortest of the gospels - 11,304
words. John has 21 chapters and 15,635 words. Obvious those numbers depend on the
translation and the language of the text in hand.
So that is one point: Luke is the longest of the gospels and
then add The Acts of the Apostles which many credit Luke as the author of.
Second point: scholarsstress the Gentiles - non Jews - are the target audience for Luke.
Scholars - not all - many see Luke as a Gentile - perhaps from Syria. Suggestion:
just read Luke and compare it to Matthew. You should come up with the same conclusion about
Luke’s audience - being non-Jews. Of
course while reading Luke notice his concern for the poor - and judge whether
he’s heavier than Matthew and Mark with this.
Point Three: Luke is good with geography and doesn’t make
too many mistakes with mention of places in his gospel as well as in The Acts
of the Apostle.
Fourth Point: Luke is one of the synoptics - the 3 Gospels
being seen as following a similar pattern.I read a commentator saying Luke
might have had the outline Matthew had for his gospel which we no longer have.
However Luke has additional stories and
stuff - for example, the Emmaus story and the Infancy Narrative especially the Mary stories. Then there are the unique parables
of the Prodigal Son, and Good Samaritan etc.
Fifth and Last Point: Luke is the most polished writers of the
gospels. As you know the Sunday Gospels run on 3 year cycle: Matthew, then
Mark, then Luke.You listen. Which of
the 3 are you most at home with and you feel is speaking your language? As they
say on the weekend retreats here - Luke has the reader eating with Jesus -
going to eat with Jesus or leaving a meal with Jesus.Eat Luke up! Digest Luke. Let him become you.
This document is 426 words. [Picture on top: Book of Kells, Folio 27v, Luke is the calf with wings.]
“The history of scholarship is a history of disagreements.”
Charles Evans Hughes [1862-1948],
Speech to American Law Institute, May 7, 1936
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
October 16, 2019
QUID PRO QUO
Crud! All I heard
for three
weeks now are these three
words, “Quid pro quo!”
Everybody on the news talk shows
used the Latin term, “quid pro quo”,
as if I knew exactly what they meant.
I did and I didn’t,
so I didn’t say
anything. I even used the term without
being sure of what I was saying.
I know it means, "Something for something."
"You scratch my back …. I’ll scratch yours."
"Nobody does nothing for nothing - no how."
Yet, I still don’t know what quid pro quo
means. I really don’t. So I’ll go with the
phrase: "There’s always a catch." Got it.
October16, 2019
Thought for today:
“Today the ringing of the telephone takes precedence over everything. It reaches a point of terrorism,
particularly at dinnertime.”
Nieles
Diffrient,
New York Times,
October
16, 1986
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
October 15, 2019
10 TOP MOTIVES
[Self-test # 26]
Here are 10 possible motives for doing what we do. Jot
them down on 10 small pieces of paper so you can shuffle them. Next study them.Ask yourself if you have a motive that is not
listed and you want it on your list.Good. But then eliminate one from this list - so you’ll still have
10.When you have your 10, put them in
order of importance or priority for you. There you go. It’s a self-test. This
is Self-Test# 26 on this blog - which I began back on June 17,
2007. Game: see if you can find all 26 tests.
The title of my homily for this 28th Sunday in
Ordinary Time - YearC - is, “Two Mule-Loads of Earth.”
That’s an image in today’s first reading from 2 Kings 5:
14-17.
Interesting …. Different …. Intriguing ….
Naaman, a Syrian army commander, gets a serious skin
disease.They call all kinds of skin
problems “leprosy”back in those days in
the middle east: B.C. and early A.D..
The story mentions a young Israeli girl becoming a
servant to Naaman’s wife servant. Good story…. She was captured in a raid on
Israel.
The Israeli servant girl upon hearing from Mrs. Naaman
that her husband has skin problems says, “If only he would go down to Samaria
and ask the prophet Elisha there to heal him?”He’s hesitant to do this. He’s
skeptical that it will work. Good story….
He goes reluctantly. He washes in the Jordan 7 times as
told. He is healed and heads from the Jordan to go and see
Elisha to give him a gift .Elisha says, “No - no gifts.”
Well, at that Naaman says, “Give me two mule loads of
earth - so I can bring them back to Syria and use them as part of an altar in
thanksgiving to the God of Israel, the God of Elisha the prophet. Good story.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel - Luke 17: 11-19 - also has a story about
leprosy - 10 people who have leprosy - and they too are healed.
Most preachers for this Sunday will challenge all of us
to begrateful - thankful.This gospel is used every year for
Thanksgiving - taking the time to be thankful.
For a Sunday sermon or homily let me stress 3 messages.
FIRST GRATITUDE
The first would be gratitude - making sure we express
gratitude to God for starters and then to others.
A key word in this Gospel in the original Greek is eucharizein
- eucharist - thanks. Notice it becomes -the word we use the Mass - whose key message
is to come here each Sunday and say to God, “Thank you.”
Luke’s gospel is for the Gentiles, the foreigners. So notice
Naaman in the first reading - the one who is very grateful - is a foreigner -
and notice in the gospel it’s the foreigner - the Samaritan - who is grateful.
SECOND MESSAGE
A second message from today’s readings is a question: how do we treat the stranger or the strange
folks or strange rangers - or the person who doesn’t look right to us.
How dare we do that, but we do that to one another. I
know I do.
People with leprosy had to keep back - stay at a distance.What’s that like?
I remember in one parish a lady asking me if she could
skip Sunday Mass - because kids would stare at her - and sometimes say out
loud,“Mom …. Dad …. What’s wrong with
that lady?”
She had cancer inside her face and she was missing her
eye on that side - along with her right cheek.What would that be like to be that woman?
What’s it like to be overweight - and folks stare at you
and make comments.
I remember a gal saying to me: “My sister has given me
10,000 diets.”
I remember a good friend of mine - a fat priest - saying that
the same thing happened to him. Other
priests called him names etc. along also
with giving him diets. He told me that fat people don’t need reminders that
they are fat. They are calling themselves fat - all day long - every day of the
year.
So this is my second point - how we treat those who look
different than we do?
I remember getting a skin treatment once. The doctor
asked when my slowest time for work was. “I said, January.”So for 4 weeks in January, I had to put this cream on my face. It pulled
out all kinds of pre-cancerous stuff.I
ended looking like a pizza. Red blotches all over my face.
Well, one Saturday in January a lady came into
confession. You could go face to face or behind the screen. I was hoping
everyone would go behind the screen. Well this lady went face to face and
didn’t look atmy face till she was
finished. After the act of Contrition she looked me in the face and her face
panicked.As she stood upI reached out my hand to wish her a peaceful
next. Her hand was hesitant. She was sort of caught and sort of surprised. After touching me she wiped her hands on her
side.
I said to myself, “Great! Now I know how another feels
when they are considered a person with leprosy. I said, “Great.I can use that in a homily someday…
THIRD MESSAGE: “TWO MULE-LOADS OF EARTH.”
I figured out a family builder exercise.
Naaman was doing what we all do. We take souvenirs back
from where we’ve been. Refrigerator Door
Magnets. Knick Knacks, a rock from the Grand Canyon, Lourdes Water, Key chains.
Well everyone in thefamily get a box and go through your house and load the box with
souvenirs of stuff you got when you were on a cruise or what have you: then
show and tell.
CONCLUSION: HOW TO GO HOME
So we come here to Mass to say, “Thanks”. Then go home as
a stubborn sturdy mule- filled with the Love and Power and Grace of
Christ.
October 13, 2019
Thought for today:
“The consciousness of duty performed gives us music at midnight.”
