BUILDING 

ROADS OR WALLS?

Quote for Today - May 11, 2013

"Great roads the Romans built 
          that men may meet,
And walls to keep strong men apart, 
          secure.
Now centuries are gone, 
          and in defeat
The walls are fallen, 
          but the roads endure."

Ethelyn Miller Hartwich, What Shall Endure?

Questions: 

Looking at my life of my parents, what has endured?

Looking at my life, what has endured?

Looking at my life, what do I want to endure?

THE OTHER 

PERSON'S PRAYERS

Quote for Today - May 10,  2013

"If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burden."

Ashleigh Brilliant [1933- ]

UNANSWERED PRAYERS

Quote for Today - May 9, 2013

"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."

St. Teresa of Avila  [1515-1582]

E GO!

Quote for Today - May 8, 2013

"Before we can pray, 'Lord, Thy Kingdom come,' we must be willing to pray, 'My Kingdom go.'"

Alan Redpath

COME HOLY SPIRIT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Tuesday after Easter is, “Come Holy Spirit!”

We’re moving now into that time of the Church Year when there will be much greater stress on the coming of the Holy Spirit.

I like to stress using one’s rosary beads for all kinds of prayers. So don’t hesitate to say on the 59 beads, “Come Holy Spirit!” - especially if you feel stuck - especially if you need wisdom, advice, or the Advocate - as  today’s gospel calls the Spirit. “Come Holy Spirit.” You can take your beads and say that prayer 59 times in less than 2 minutes. Of course, I’m not stressing time, but praying.

I misplaced or lost my white rosary beads - they are somewhere I hope - so I said a prayer to St. Anthony and St. Gertrude and found a ruby red pair the next day in the pocket of a jacket I rarely wear.

Come Holy Spirit.

THE JAILER IN TODAY’S FIRST READING

Have you ever felt like the jailer in today’s first reading?  He thinks his prisoners - Paul and Silas - escaped. The whole town of Philippi were screaming and yelling at Paul and Silas. Then the town magistrates ordered that they be stripped and beaten - and thrown in jail. Seeing the cell doors open, the jailer reached for his sword to kill himself. Paul shouts out, “Don’t do it. We’re still here!” [Cf. Acts 16:22-34]

Have you ever felt like that? You wanted to kill yourself - well not really,  but you said, “I could kill myself!” You didn’t mean it literally - but you felt trapped because of shame or a family disaster or a scandal or a mistake or what have you. Woo!

Come Holy Spirit. Reach for your beads, reach for prayer, not  the sword. Reach for the Holy Spirit to get you out of that trap or that prison or those chains.

And hopefully there will be a resolution or a solution - and a happy ending. That’s how today’s first reading ends. The head of the jail and his family throw a dinner for Paul and Silas and they are baptized and become Christians.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

I read today’s gospel - John 16: 5-11 last night - to say something in this homily. I prayed, “Come Holy Spirit!”

Nothing was hitting me - except the promise of Jesus that he would send us the Advocate  - that Jesus had to leave  - so the Advocate could come. What is that all about?  Is it like a parent sending a kid off to college or one pope replacing another pope?

You heard it read, what hit you? What sense did you make of it?

I checked Raymond Brown’s Anchor Bible on this section of John and read the following, “Commentators have not found the detailed exposition of  8-11 easy.  Augustine avoided the passage as very difficult; Maldonatus found it among the most obscure in the Gospel. Loisy, p. 430, remarks that the pattern of mentioning the three charges (v.8) and then explaining each (9-11) - ‘a methodical explanation that has not much clarity”…. [1]

Come Holy Spirit.  How about some clarity?

Then it hit me: well, maybe when it comes to grasping God - it’s not clear. After all,  we Christians are taught - that God is a Father, as well as a Son who is both God and Human, and a Third Person - called the Advocate, or the Holy Spirit. All 3 are 1 God. The Church took a long time to put the Trinity into a formula and Creeds. In the meanwhile various heresies and a few centuries of efforts took place in the struggle to formulate declarations about God - as Christ taught us about God - as Trinity.

So too today’s  gospel. It is complicated stuff - these words about Jesus leaving his disciples - so he can send us the Spirit - the Advocate.

CONCLUSION

In the meanwhile we can say, “Come Holy Spirit” - and while praying those words we can ask for help with family, work, neighbor, stuff, self.

In the meanwhile,  we can  pray, “Come Holy Spirit” - and while praying those words ask the Holy Spirit to challenge us - to convict us when we’re living a lie or a sin or being lazy or not in the right.

Tough stuff. Tough prayer. Yet hopefully we keep praying, “Come Holy Spirit.” Amen.

NOTES

[1] Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible, The Gospel According to John XIII - XXI, Doubleday and Company, New York, 1970, page 711.

Blue picture on top: The Blue Angels flying over St. Mary's. Tap, tap, with your cursor - to get a full screen picture.

Painting in Middle: Rembrandt Van Rinj, Apostle Paul in Prison

ATTITUDE

Quote for Today - May 7, 2013

"Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it."

Lou Holtz

REMEMBER WHAT 
I TOLD YOU

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Monday after Easter  is, “Remember What I Told You!”

I’m taking that from the last sentence in today’s gospel. “I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.” [John 16:4]

In my title I changed  the “that” to “what” - mainly because if we don’t remember what someone told us - how can it be helpful? Okay, we might remember they told us something - and we knew it was important at the time - so we know their motive was concern for us. But! But the what is what will help us.  To me that’s the key.

JESUS TOLD HIS DISCIPLES A LOT

Jesus told his disciples a lot of things.  Lucky for us - people remembered some of what he told them and some folks wrote his words down - or told others what he said.

So we have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - to be thankful - for gathering the words of Jesus - and putting them down on papyrus or vellum - or animal skin.

Some people love the Red Letter editions of the gospels where what Jesus said is written in red ink.

What I love is the Greek Editions of the New Testament - because they get me closer to what Jesus said in Aramaic than the English translations.

Last September 13^th, 2012, I had a great moment to savor. It was a Thursday. I was with some folks from the parish. We were on a trip. We were in London. However, that morning, a group went to Paris on the fast train under the English Channel. Others went elsewhere in London. That morning I went with George one of the group. We saw St. Paul's and a few other famous London sights. That Thursday afternoon, I left George and headed for the British Library. George had some other stuff he wanted to see. Moreover, I didn’t think he or anyone else would want to go to the British Library.

I’ve always wanted to see with my own eyes some tiny, tiny scraps - remains of a copy of the Gospel of John that are dated to around the 2^nd century. I went looking for them in the British Museum in London a few years earlier - but a guide there told me they were in the British Library. Never got there - because of time - but here was another chance to get there - finally - on September 13^th 2012. I found the room I was looking for. There I stood looking at these tiny scraps - under heavy glass. I was looking at something much more important to me than the London Bridge or Westminster Cathedral.

They also had under glass the Codex Sinaiticus which I also always wanted to see. It’s dated to some time in the 300’s.

Before I die - it's on my Bucket List - I’d love to see in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, Papyrus 457. It is dated to the 2^nd century - that’s the 100’s. It’s a tiny scrap of papyrus which has on it, John 18:31-33. It’s the oldest surviving fragment of the entire NT. 

It was found in an a key town in Egypt - along the Nile. Specialists tell us that indicates that copies of the Gospel of John,  some 40 to 45 years after John wrote his gospel that it had made its way to far away Egypt.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Remember What I Told You!”

Writers were remembering what Jesus told us - and we are doing just what Jesus told us to do. Use these words - use what I told you - to hold together your life in me.

For homework, dig deep into the soil along rivers of your life - and find fragments of Jesus’ words that you have preserved - that you use to hold together your life - your favorite sayings of Jesus - texts - precious words that captivate who you are.

In that last statement in today’s gospel Jesus says just that. Listen again to his motive why he told us what he told us,  “I have told you this so that you may not fall away.”

Get your own pen and paper and write down the words of Jesus that are key to you - words that more important than seeing the London Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge, Westminster Cathedral or St. Patricks’ Cathedral - the Pope or Elvis Presley - if he’s still around. 

OOOOOOO

Painting on top: The Lord's Supper by Gail Meyer