November 28, 2010. Homily, November 30, 2010.

Mt. 4:[12]18-22[23].

[Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

"Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles --

the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death

light has dawned.'

[From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."]

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

[Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.]

The Gospel of the Lord.

Israel is in three provinces, stacked south to north, Judah, Samaria, and Galilee.

Judah has Jerusalem with its Temple in its southern portion.

Samaria is a province where its inhabitants had intermarried with the local pagans.

The people in Samaria, cut off from the Temple of Jerusalem, were seen as living in darkness and a spiritual void.

James and John, brotherS, each with a fiery temper, hence Boanerges, Sons of Thunder.

November 25, 2010. Homily, November 27, 2010.

Luke 21:34-36.

Jesus said to His disciples: "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Only two things are certain: death and taxes.

And we also know, or think we know, that no one gets off this earth alive.

What is our response to agnostics (do not know if there is a God or is not); atheists (deny that God exists)? Well, for atheists, there is no hope.

How does one comment on this Gospel? Jesus was talking at end of days, before His Passion, death and resurrection. Before that time, before the resurrection, there is no hope. Where do we look for hope? Let us look back at the readings of Thanksgiving. Paul to the Corinthians. Paul 's version of Jesus is all after the Resurrection, so that Paul's writings are all of hope: Paul says in Romans, If there is no Resurrection, then all our preaching is in vain. We preach the Resurrection so that we can say, "O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?"

Paul, 1 Cor. 1:3-9.

Brothers and sisters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you await for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The word of the Lord.

November 23, 2010. Homily, November 24, 2010.

Sir. 50:22-24

And now bless the God of all, who everywhere works great wonders, who fosters our growth from birth, and deals with us according to his mercy.

May he give us gladness of heart, and may there be peace in our days in Israel, as in the days of old.

May he entrust to us his mercy, and may he deliver us in our days.

Ps. 138:1-5

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise.

I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.

On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.

All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.

They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

1 Cor. 1:3-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind -- jut as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you -- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful: by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lk. 17:11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice, fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

The Gospel of the Lord.

The Pope John Paul II addressed the World Youth Council in Canada and told them: No man is so poor that he can not give to another, no man so rich that he cannot receive from another.

When we are baptized we are baptized "Priest, Prophet, King." Priest so that we say our prayers; prophet so that we preach the Word of God; King because kings are generous.

What is the opposite/antonym of "Love"? Is it "Hate"? No, it is "Selfishness". The opposite of "Love" is "Selfishness".

My soul magnifies the Word.

My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

For He has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.

Behold, henceforth, all generations will call me Blessed.

For the Lord has done great things for me.

And Mighty is His name.

His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.

He has shown the strength of His arm.

He has scattered the proud in the privacy of their hearts.

He has taken down the mighty from their thrones.

He has elevated the lowly.

To the hungry He has given all manner of good things.

The rich He has sent empty away.

In His mercy He has kept His promise to His servant Israel.

The Word of the prophets to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

November 11, 2010. Homily, November 23, 2010

Luke 21:5-11.

While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, "All that you see here -- the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky."

The Gospel of the Lord.

This is the last week of the Liturgical Year. In this last week we contemplate the end of things. This Gospel has Jesus teaching on the destruction of the Temple. There was but one Temple for the Jews. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. It has never been rebuilt. To destroy the Temple was to destroy the identity of the Jewish people.

Father Dowling teaches, "To the ancient Jewish mind, time was divided into two ages, the present age and the age to come. They regarded the present age as so evil and corrupt due to human sinfulness and intransigence that it was beyond the pale of human rectification or divine redemption. God's only option, they concluded, was to destroy the present age and to start all over from scratch. The age to come they pictured as an idyllic time in which God's rule would reign supreme and Jewish nationalism would finally triumph. The transition between the two ages, however, would involve a frightful period called the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord would entail unimaginable personal suffering throughout the world and widespread destruction of nature and property on an epic scale. It would mark the death throes of the present age and the labor pangs of the age to come."

The reading is from the the Book of the Prophet Daniel where Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar who dreamt the collapse of a mighty statute made of precious metals, with the head of gold, the chests and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and tile. The statute was struck by a mighty stone, the statute crumbled, and the stone expanded to become a mountain and then to fill the earth. The interpretation was that the gold, silver, bronze parts of the statute represented kingdoms to follow Nebuchadezzar until God would set up a kingdom that would last forever.

We are reminded of the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away".

November 10, 2010. Homily, November 16, 2010.

Luke: 19:1-10

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I hall repay it four times over." And Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Zacchaeus was the principal tax collector for Jericho. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the time of Zacchaeus it was situated on the main trade route between the East and Egypt, at a ford in the Jordan River used for crossing over from Egypt into Israel on the way to Jerusalem. Jericho was also a resort city where the rich spent the winters, and it had an abundant supply of water. As the chief tax collector for Jericho, Zacchaeus took a part of every business transaction that touched Jericho; he was sitting on a gold mine. Today, Jericho is one of the territories governed by the Palestinians, and is a dry dusty waste of a city with but one comparatively wealthy resident, a Jewish lady doctor who tends the people.

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost.

Saint Margaret of Scotland (1046-1093), the ideal mother and queen, eight children.

A "descendant of Abraham" is one who puts one's faith completely in God.

What is the opposite of "love"? Is it "hate"? No, it is "selfishness". Those who love others are generous to those others.

The word "house" is a word oft-used by Luke, important to Luke, and thus also important to Jesus.

Zacchaeus was lost and was found by Jesus.

Book of Revelation: letter to the angel of the Church of Sardis - "However, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; they will walk with me dressed in white because they are Worthy." Letter to the angel of the Church in Laodicea - "Those whom I love I reprove and chastise. Be earnest therefore and repent."

November 11, 2010. Homily, November 13, 2010

Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his Disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "there was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just verdict for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just verdict for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

The Gospel of the Lord.

The Feast Day of Frances Xavier Cabrini, our local saint whose image is a mosaic on a wall upstairs, born in Italy in 1850, the youngest of 13 children. in 1880, at 30, she established the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; by 1887, many schools, orphanages and hospitals in Italy; in 1889, Pope Leo XIII, known for his encyclical on Capital and Labor, Rerum Novarum, and whose name is in a stained glass window in our Church upstairs. asked her to come to the United States where at first speaking no English, and for 28 years, she worked establishing schools, orphanages and hospitals, eventually 67 in the Unites States, and more in Argentina, Brazil and Nicaragua, in an era mostly before commercial airplanes, radio and television. She died in Chicago in 1917. St. Cabrini Home originally an orphanage and later an old age home. purchased from the Jesuits whose founder was St. Ignatius Loyola and her namesake St. Francis Xavier, sold because there was no water to a little nun who could hardly speak English, who brought in pipe drillers, told them where to drill and found plenty of water. The Mother Cabrini girls marching band marched in our Pelham Memorial Day Parade last year, Memorial Day 2009.

We start with the question is, who is asking whom for justice. Is it us asking God for justice? Whatever we ask of God, it is the same, that we know God and have the strength to follow His way.

Or is it God asking us to recognize Him and follow Him. Is it us bothering God or is it God bothering us? Is it us calling out to God Day and night? Or is it God calling out to us day and night. For God knows what we need from Him, what we ask of Him as we need it and before we ask it. If we are asking of God day and night, is it now that we are unable to see what God has given us and what God asks us to do with his gifts to us?

Lord Jesus, make us resist temptation

Christ Jesus, and when troubles come, give us endurance

Lord Jesus, but when things go well, may we remember to give you thanks.

November 4, 2010. Homily, November 9, 2010.

John 2:13-22.

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his Body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.

Scourging the Temple had messianic overtones. Malachi had foretold the coming of the Messiah in terms of God sending his messenger who would suddenly enter the Temple and purify the sons of Levi, the priests, so that acceptable offering could be made. The Temple officials recognized at once the significance of Jesus' actions and immediately challenged his authority by asking for a sign. The Jews regarded the Temple itself as a sign of God's presence, so Jesus used allegory to indicate that he himself is the sign. Allegory is a form of speech that uses imagery to communicate on more than one level. But Jesus [destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up] was speaking not of the massive 46-year-in-the-building stone structure but of his body. And the sign of his authority from God which he alludes to will be his resurrection from the dead. which was God's ultimate seal of approval.

November 2, 1010. Homily, November 2, 2010.

All Souls' Day

John 6:37-40

Jesus said to the crowds: "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me, And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."

The Gospel of the Lord.

The above Gospel follows "my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Will we each be saved? Catholic doctrine is: If we do not turn our back on God, then God will raise us up with Him on the last day. We will live with Him eternally in heaven.

Some early theologians, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the 3rd-century, Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th, St Isaac the Syrian the 7th, held that all will in fact be saved. St Augustine came out strongly against it.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the greatest of 20th-century theologians, wrote a book entitled ‘Dare We Hope That All Will Be Saved?’ His answer, in brief, was that we not only dare to hope, but we are obliged to hope, that all will be saved. “[after the parable of the lost sheep] It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost” (Mt 18:14).