Trinity Sunday---Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Homily
I’m certain that all of us have seen the “smiley emblem”: that round yellow face with two dots for eyes, a big semi-circle smile, with the logo “Have a nice day.” It is of course a symbol of the shining sun, inviting us to the warmth of a new, happy day.

Actually, we could think of the sun as having three smiling faces that smile down on us:

• one lights our way, allowing us to go and come, to labor and work the fields without artificial light

• another warms our planet, keeping the frigid, subhuman space-cold at bay, allowing us to live; and

• the third face sends out energy, rays of power to enliven our earth.

The first two we humans use to the hilt, but the third we are only beginning to realize. We know that it is the energy of the sun that makes the plants grow and produce the food that energizes our bodies, but we haven’t yet fully been able to capture that energy to power our machines or warm our homes. But scientists are getting ever closer. With the energy of oil beginning to run out, it is becoming more and more feasible to turn to the energy offered freely by the sun.

It is a lot like that with God. He could be considered as having three faces:

• one we call Father (since that is what Jesus taught us) and this face smiles the act of creating and keeping all things in existence (you and me and every bit of the environment around us);

• another is the face of the Son, whose smile takes flesh and becomes one of us, demonstrating on our own level how we can survive and live in peace, goodness, happiness;

• and the third face that smiles from God is the Spirit which energizes us into being images of God Himself, putting God’s life in our frail selves.

And so we might think of God as we think of the sun, as a great, loving friend having three faces.

We humans use the first two to the hilt, but the third, like the energy of the sun, we have yet to realize in its fullness. But we are getting better at it. This age has been termed a second Pentecost and not without reason.

The Pentecostal movement, sometimes referred to as the Charismatic Renewal, began in the early Sixties and was largely emotional with too little bible foundation. But this is changing in the 1980’s and 90’s to a Scripture-based spirituality, and flowing out from that is an enormous potential for energy. Here in our own parish church, we have been steadily moving along these lines.

The Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday scripture study and RCIA prayer group are but one example.

Another is the deliberate way I have been preaching over these past eleven years – constantly pounding away at bringing the Catholic bible tradition into our daily lives.

Another is our prayer together, morning and evening.

As the bulletin remarks today, visitors really note the difference when they experience our Sunday liturgy. These are all first steps at capturing the energy of the Spirit, like the first steps in capturing solar energy.

It is this energy which will make disciples for Christ – giving a baptism of the Spirit in God’s Holy Name, thus to carry out God’s plan for humankind, knowing that the Lord God will be with us until the end of time.

Veni Sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte coelitus
Lucis tuæ radium.

Veni pater pauperum,
Veni, dator munerum,
Veni lumen cordium.

Consolator optime,
Dulcis hospes animae
Dulce refrigerium.

In labore requies,
In æstu temperies,
In fletu solatium.

O lux beatissima,
Reple cordis intima
Tuorum fidelium

Sine tuo numine,
Nihil est in homine
Nihil est innoxium.

Lava quod est sordidum,
Riga goud est aridum,
Sana quod est saucium.

Flecte quod est rigidum,
Fove quod est frigidum,
Rege guod est devium.

Da tuis fidelibus,
In te confidentibus;
Sacrum septenarium.

Da virtutis meritum,
Da salutis exitum,
Da perenne gaudium.
Amen. Alleluia.


--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Pentecost Sunday---Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Pentecost Sequence

Holy Spirit, Lord Divine,
Come from heights of heav’n and shine,
Come with blessed radiance bright!

Come, O Father of the poor,
Come, whose treasured gifts endure,
Come our heart’s unfailing light!

Of consolers, wisest, best,
And our soul’s most welcome guest,
Sweet refreshment sweet repose.

In our labor rest most sweet,
Pleasant coolness in the heat,
Consolation in our woes.

Light most blessed, shine with grace
In our heart’s most secret place,
Fill your faithful through and through.

Left without your presence here,
Life itself would disappear,
Nothing thrives apart from you!

Cleanse our soiled hearts of sin,
Arid souls refresh within,
Wounded lives to health restore.

Bend the stubborn heart and will,
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
Guide the wayward home once more!

On the faithful who are true
And profess their faith in you,
In your sev’nfold gift descend!

Give us virtue’s sure reward,
Give us your salvation, Lord.
Give us joys that never end!



Homily
Remember John’s gospel, at the Last Supper, when Philip and Jesus are talking? Philip says, “Lord, show us your God (Father).”

Jesus answers him, “Phil, have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me? Who sees me sees my God. God and I are one.”

We can put ourselves into Phillip’s shoes (his sandals) to say with him, “Jesus, show us the Spirit.” Heaven knows, we would sure like to see a bit of Spirit in our lives. Things can get pretty boring sometimes, even fun stuff, even vacations. Life seems to lead nowhere. Is this all there is?

The Book of Revelation gives us two images: Beast of the Deep and City of God. The woman with the crown of stars and clothed in sunlight, about to give birth to the children of the world. The Beast of Evil ready to devour them. The Child and all who wash their robes white in the Blood of the Lamb, bathed in commitment, are swept up to the throne of God and come down from heaven as the Bride of the Lamb, the City of God. It is God’s reign, God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. It is the vision of Genesis, where all of humankind are in the Eden garden in easy peace with their God. The author of Apocalypse calls Spirit people to be about the building of this reign of God.

So when we, like Philip, ask the Lord, “Show us the Spirit and we will understand,” Jesus, impatiently, must say, “Who sees me sees the Spirit.” Who sees the Body of Christ, sees the Spirit. The Spirit is in all those once committed to the New Way, to the Way of God. The Spirit is in the faces all around you. Look in the mirror. The Spirit is there. We can smother it, we can push it to the corners of our being, but we cannot rid ourselves, or shake the presence from our being. G.K. Chesterson once remarked: “Christianity has not failed; it just hasn’t been tried yet.”

On the first day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the prophet Joel,

It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out a portion of my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young ones shall see visions and your old ones shall dream dreams.

Jesus was a seer of visions and a dreamer of dreams. Even in the midst of his ill-fated walk to Calvary, Jesus dreamed of a Spirit-filled people, a people who see visions and dream dreams about what can be. A Spirit-filled community of disciples, a new creation, a new reality—the reign of God, here and yet coming, able to be savored now and yet fully to flower. God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

We can see this in the beatitudes of Matthew’s gospel. Here the visionary and dreamer, and all who walk in this Spirit see a new existence, a new kind of everyday life – a life that answers the question, “Is this all there is?” The dream and the vision see a happy people able to live in an imperfect world, amid suffering and evil, and still maintain a deep core of peace in their hearts.

It is a people in which God’s will is done – a world in which people are comforted, needs are met, mercy and forgiveness have primacy, devotion to God and to one another is singlehearted, relationships are friendly and warm as become the family of God. It is the world of the spirit, where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

I believe we are called by our God to be yeast in dough. I believe that true peace in one’s life is very possible. I believe we are called by our God to live life to the hilt: to be all God created us to be. It is God’s Spirit kindled like fire that keeps this dream, this vision, burning within.

We believe in the Sophia, the Holy Spirit, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son;
is worshiped and glorified
She has spoken through the prophets.
we believe in God the Holy Spirit.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Seventh Sunday of Easter---Liturgical Cycle C

Reading I
Acts 7:55-60

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them;” and when he said this, he fell asleep.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 97:1-2,6-7,9
R/. The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many islands be glad.
Justice and judgment are the foundations of his throne. R/.

The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory,
All gods are prostrate before him. R/.

You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth,
exalted far above all gods. R/.

Reading II
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
I, John, heard a voice saying to me: “Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates.

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

Gospel
John 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “Holy Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

Homily
From its earliest moments the church came to realize it was to live in a hostile world. Our first reading from Acts comes from the account of the death of Stephen, one of the seven men chosen to swell the ranks of the Apostles to carry out the work of outreach to the needy—the first Deacons. This is Stephen, who, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people, whose good work threatened the established society, and who was stoned, becoming the first Christian martyr. Stephen’s death signaled that the message of Jesus (peace, love, justice, reconciliation, civility, moral integrity) was not always going to be received kindly but was going to be opposed violently in a world dominated by the weakness of sin.

The second reading gives the same sense in symbolic terms. In the language of Revelation the Bride of the Lamb, the holy city coming down from God (the reign of God), was not going to be allowed to exist alongside the Harlot of Babylon – the personification of all that is evil in the societies of those whose god is self-gratification. The Bride of the Lamb must by nature be contra culture, must speak out in defense of the little ones, the poor and powerless of this earth.

Happy are they who wash their robes so as to have free access to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates.

The quote continues with a verse left out of our reading today:

Outside are the dogs and tempters, snakes, the fornicators and murderers, the self worshipers and all who love falsehood (doublespeak).

As we conclude the liturgical reading of the Book of Apocalypse today, we recall that the writings are resistance literature for a church under siege, a call of encouragement to remain faithful and not to accommodate the gospel or water it down to satisfy the lifestyles of greed and self satisfaction. Under the thumb of the Roman emperor Domitian the little insignificant Christian communities of antiquity were literally being swallowed up by the lion of Rome. Like Stephen, they needed to see the heavens open and the Lord of Hosts coming on the clouds of Glory, needed to see themselves as the Bride of the Lamb, a holy city of God coming down from God’s throne of glory.


The Holy Spirit and the Bride of the Lamb say, “Come.” Let all who hear answer, “Come!” Let all who are thirsty come forward; Let all who desire it accept the gift of life-giving water.

We need to see Steven’s vision too. As our Sisters of Charity of Nazareth can attest, experience in India and other parts of the world shows we are a church under siege. The Body of Christ is not being treated well, never will be. Our witness for justice, for human rights, for the aged, the poor, the powerless, for civility and moral integrity will be violently opposed by those who get drunk on the blood of the martyrs, who fill their chalices with the lewdness of their life-styles. The Beast of the deep waits at the foot of the Woman clothed with Light to eat the newborn children of God, who are snatched up to the Lamb—risen to life of the one who stands by God’s throne.

What an apocalyptic vision for our times!

We see the vision of Stephen. We pray the prayer of our heritage: MARANA THA! (Come, Lord God!)

O Just Holy One,
The world has not known you.
But I know you.

Those know that you sent me.
To them I reveal Your Name
(who you are).

I will always reveal it,
So that your love may live in them.
And I may live in them.

AMEN.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

The Ascension of the Lord---Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Homily
In the bible reading today we are presented with two different accounts of the same event by the same author! Luke concludes his Gospel with the story of the ascension, the “going away” of Jesus. That same story coupled with the command of being His (Jesus’) witnesses, also forms the beginning of Luke Acts.

The Gospel account was developed long before Acts and thus has a far more concise rendition. The account in Acts, while basically the same narration, elaborates and interprets the Gospel story. It is the development, the interpretation that we want to focus our attention on, because it is this development that points out to us how the apostolic church was enlightened to understand the fact of the ascension, of Jesus’ going away.

You see, His going away caused great anxiety in the infant church. Luke helps his readers to catch the emotional impact by giving us, in the infancy narrative, the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus absent, lost, to his parents for three days. We of our time can empathize with parents whose child is missing.

The reason for his staying in the temple, you recall, will be the same reason for his ascension to the father—i.e. to be about His Father’s affairs.

By the time the book of Acts was written it was obvious to the early Christians that the Kingdom preached by Jesus was not going to be something imposed from above, something handed to them on a silver platter. The real message of Jesus was beginning to sink in. The individual believer, as well as the community of believers (the Church), were to be witnesses to the Kingdom, to bring the Kingdom into being both in each one’s own heart and to the world each touches. The Christians were to be Jesus to our world. In other words, each one of us must be about our heavenly Father’s affairs: the coming of the Kingdom.

This will be a major theme of our church’s Easter celebration—to renew our baptismal commitment to be witnesses of God’s Kingdom to the world each of us touches, and to do so together as Church, as a community of disciples.

Those baptized in the Spirit are not to stand around looking up to heaven, but to go out from Jerusalem into the whole world with the message of the Gospel, of the Kingdom. We, you and I, are numbered among that company of believers, the community of disciples.

We must recommit ourselves to our mission of witnesses to the Kingdom, to God’s Way, which is the Way of Jesus.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Sixth Sunday of Easter---Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Homily
Once I got a call from a Southern Baptist Seminarian. He was asking for an appointment at St. Joe’s about assisting him in a school project. He had prepared a questionnaire regarding prayer in ministry. It asked questions such as:


What is prayer?
What do you pray about?
What are ways in which one could see prayer abused in ministry?
What are ways prayer is appropriately used in ministry? etc.

The last question asked,

Do you have any other helpful suggestions on the subject of prayer?

I had dashed off some ideas but was surprised at my answer to the last question. I wrote:

“One of the greatest requirements, it seems to me, for personal holiness (personal wholeness) at the core of one’s being which is so necessary for prayer, is a good and active sense of humor—not taking oneself, or people or events, too seriously. The Lord will provide!”

Reflecting on the scriptures today, I suspect that the church has put them together with tongue in cheek. By themselves they could be read quite seriously, but when you put them side by side, I can’t help but see the Spirit dancing with joy!

The first reading is so like us—all tangled up in our own importance:

It is the decision of the Holy Spirit (and ours too) not to lay any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary…to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals…

...Now isn’t that something?!

Now, look at the freedom of the second reading from the Book of Revelation. The beautiful vision of the City of God coming down from heaven. The Semitic “City” as a place of haven, a mother enfolding the traveler in its protecting arms. It sparkles like a diamond—its gates are open on all sides to receive the weary traveler into its bosom. God himself is the temple who embraces us on the way.

Or how about that last sentence in the first reading: “You will be advised to avoid these things. Farewell.

Compare that with the farewell of the Gospel where Jesus says, “Peace is my farewell to you.”

And we know that his “peace” is the doing of the Words, his way of life. Not the words of people, of authority, of big shots. Their precepts are of human origin, not divine.

In all of this a good sense of humor seems a necessity. We have to laugh at our carryings on—necessary as they might be. The church in placing these readings side-by-side is giving us a good look at ourselves. Good order and discipline is necessary for any society of human beings and are necessary for the church’s life here on earth. But we should never canonize these rules and regulations as a matter of divine life or divine death. Such discipline seeks to help us along the way and when that function is antiquated that regulation must be discarded.

A good sense of humor, that light and free spirit of God, is indeed so necessary for our prayer, our conscious awareness of God’s presence. We must not take ourselves too seriously. God will provide.

So on this Sunday which begins to build a bridge between the Resurrection and the Ascension, and Pentecost, we must remember that the Spirit, light and free and dancing, is alive and well and growing among us right here, right now.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor