COMMUNION.... COMMUNICATION.... REALLY LISTENING.... CATCHING - REALLY CATCHING AND THEN CHEWING ON EACH OTHER'S WORDS - COMFORTABLE AND UNCOMFORTABLE WORDS - NECESSARY HOPES - WE BETTER. COMMUNION .... COMING TOGETHER VS. COMING APART. CHEWING ON OUR DAILY BREAD.... COST: DYING TO SELF - RISING FOR THE OTHERS - A DYING TO TOO MANY SELFIES. COME ON - ENOUGH OF THE NON-SENSE.
The title of my sermon for this 25 Tuesday in ordinary
time is, “Some Data About Some Churches.”
The main theme would be the “WHY?” of temples, churches.
shrines.
ISRAEL
Israel starts with a tent
- as their Holy Place.
There was Moses’ Tent and then David’s tent and we read
that God sent prophets to David to tell him, “You got a great house there David
and I just got a tent, so how about building me a temple?”
How’s that for a great reading and a great message for a
church building campaign?
So we know Solomon builds the first temple - sometime
around the 10th Century BC.
And when a group builds their first temple, they have
arrived. They are established. I assume that’s one of the reasons - ONE of the
reasons - for steeples and towers.
Solomon’s temple is somewhat destroyed and looted in the
Babylonian Captivity - in 598 and 587 - by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, when he besieged Jerusalem, and marched many
Israelites into slavery and captivity.
Now in today’s first reading we have the story of Ezra
and Nehemiah getting permission to rebuild the Solomon Temple. This is around
458 BC. Darius, the Persians, beat
the Babylonians.
Ezra - Nehemiah - and many others pull this off and the
Second temple is built.
It lasts till the year till 70 CE when the Romans destroy it.
There are rumors till this day that the Jews would like
to rebuild the temple.
SOME THOUGHTS
QUESTIONS ABOUT CHURCHES IN GENERAL
There are enough temples, churches, shrines around the
world - that prove something. What do the presence of holy places tell us? How do agnostics, atheists, non-church people
respond to the reality that human beings build holy places?
That’s my key question in this homily.
Next to more in and around that question, here are a few
more questions.
What are the biggest shrines and churches and holy places
around the world?
Do you have a favorite Church building or shrine or Holy
Place?
Have you been to Lourdes? Fatima? Do you know the big
Marian Shrines of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil and Our Lady of Pillar in Zaragoza,
Spain or Our Lady of Lichen in Poland? How about the Largest Catholic church in
the world, Our lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro on Ivory Coast in Africa.
Have you been to Chartres? It was the most famous Marian
Pilgrimage Church in the for the longest time in the world.
For size, how about big Catholic churches like the
Seville Cathedral,, Milan Cathedral, Ulm in Minster, St. Peter’s in Rome.
How about the Mega Christian Churches on Nigeria, one
holds 75,000. There is another one in Korea with 30,000 people. And there is another one in
Georgia - Southern US, with 35,000
people in the congregation.
When I lived in Lima, Ohio I heard about people taking
bus tours to old German Churches - that had great wood carved altars and church
pieces. They could be found in far west central Ohio and mid-eastern Indiana.
The other day at breakfast we were talking about places
we would like to visit. One of the guys said he’d like to get to Sagrada
Familia in Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I was able to say, “I
saw both places and it was well worth the trip and the time.”
What about chapels
- like the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona?
This church here - St. John Neumann Church - looks plain
like so many other churches and people seem to prefer St. Mary’s downtown - but
don’t forget this church of St. John Neumann has those stained glass windows up
there from Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 61st Manhattan, New York City
and Manresa - the former Jesuit retreat house here in Annapolis on the Severn
River.
I could list about 5 ugly churches - but I prefer the
beautiful ones - the great out-reachings of different communities of people for
the Lord.
CONCLUSION
I grew up in Brooklyn New York.
Now Brooklyn has often been described as the city of bars
and churches. Then the speaker says, “There’s a bar and a church on every
corner.”
That statement is not true, more true for bars than
churches, but there are a lot of bars and churches in Brooklyn.
We know what bars tell us of the needs of human beings -
but what do churches tell us about human beings?
And that’s the question and the point of this homily.
“What do churches tell us about human beings?” And let me close with some shots from the parish of my childhood: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Brooklyn New York. This past weekend they celebrated their 125 Anniversary.
September 26. 2017
BEFORE YOU
DENY CHRIST
Before you deny Christ,
turn your other cheek, shut up,
don’t retaliate, and forgive your
brother or sister for hurting you.
Before you deny Christ,
this day, go the extra mile for another -
especially when you don’t want to. Before you deny Christ, before you don't want to have him as part of your life, give someone a bottle of cold water on a hot day or your gloves to someone without gloves on the street on a cold day.
Before you deny Christ,
take a rosary and say on all 59 beads,
the words of the
father with an epileptic son,
“Lord, I have faith;
help me with the little faith that I have.” [Mark 9:24]
Before you deny Christ,
sit off to the side at any Sunday Mass
and watch people’s faces as they come
up the aisles to receive holy communion.
Before you deny Christ,
go to the graveyard of the Sisters of Mercy
in Portland, Maine, the IHM nuns of Scranton, PA, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, Long Island,
and study the stones and the numbers on the stones and ask at each grave, "What was it like with Christ in your life?"
Before you deny Christ,
volunteer to help with the St. Vincent de Paul Society
in any parish that helps the poor and the hungry.
Before you deny Christ,
save up your money, and make the 30 to 35 day
walking pilgrimage from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port
in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Before you deny Christ,
get to Galilee, take off your shoes,
sit on a rock or the beach,
and let the lake waters wash your feet as Jesus
washed his disciples feet at the Last Supper. Before you deny Christ, stand there with Peter after denying Jesus three times, and hear Jesus say three times, "Feed my sheep."
