My friends, there is much wisdom and challenge in the readings the Church has given us this week – let’s take a deeper look. The Wisdom writer says to the Israelite people, “And this was the covenant [you all] made with God – that the holy people would share all things – blessings and dangers alike.” A little play on the words, “holy people” would be to say, “people who are holy,” indicating I think, that action is required from those who are indeed, “holy.” As the writer says, those who are “holy” share in both the [joys and sorrows] of others. And as we learn in watching our brother Jesus, it is what we who claim to be his followers – Christians that is, are called to do!
And granted, the days in which we are presently living challenge us as never before to be our best selves – naming the lies when we hear them, speaking truth to power, especially for and with those who seemingly have no voice.
In today’s 2nd reading we find confidence and strength for this awesome task in the writer to the Hebrews: “Faith is the confident assurance of what we hope for, the conviction about the things we do not see.”
“Faith,” we know, is what allowed all of us to begin and/or form a community, which in our 17th year is still attracting new people – and none of us knew in 2008 whether this venture would be something that would be good for people or not, but we “walked ahead” in faith anyway. The “unbelievers,” primarily the hierarchy of our beloved Church said that we were “playing” at ordaining a women as priests, and that this action along with forming communities of believers was “confusing” to those not a part of us.
But yet, here we are, 17 years later and it would seem that the only ones “confused” were the hierarchy. Faith, coupled with hope gave us the strength to move ahead, not knowing the end result, working at being, “holy,” at being our best selves.
Some of the early members of All Are One have “gone home” to God, and I believe are praying for all of us, still. This past week I visited Sue and Bob in their home, and I shared about our Mary Magdala Mass on the Farm, to which they said, “We were with you in spirit!” When I visit Jim at St. Anne’s in Winona and share that we continue to pray for him, he tells me that he prays for and remembers us as well. Several weeks back I gave Patte, now living with her son and daughter-in-law in Cincinnati, a phone call and let her know too that she is still in our warm thoughts and prayers with her responding in like manner to Jim, that she remembers us too! My friends, these attempts on our parts to stay connected to those of our community whose life situations have changed is all about, as the Wisdom writer says, “sharing in the blessings and dangers alike” – it is what “holy people” do!
The writer of Psalm 33 today touches on another aspect of “this being holy.” Happy are the people who are chosen to be God’s own. I believe most of us have heard this reading over the years, thinking of the Jewish people as the “Chosen Ones,” but in reality, we know from our brother Jesus, that we are all chosen. The psalmist prays then for all of us, “May your love be upon us [God] as we place all our hope in you.” Before leaving this section, I think it is important to lift up, that it is one thing, “to be chosen,” but quite another “to respond,” to being chosen!
A few examples from this past week that I noticed of some of the responses being made:
- People lining both sides of the streets on the corner of Main and Broadway here in Winona, speaking their truth — hoping for a renewed time when “lying will again be wrong,” when democracy, not autocracy will live again, when “kindness, not meanness” will be the action of the day, and when those in power will again act for the good of all.
- A group of perhaps 50 or more meeting this past week in Winona to organize a rapid response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or as some have labeled, “the Gestapo” coming into our community. This meeting educated those present about the basic rights that anyone, citizen or not, have in our country.
- A great many, folks meeting in a local coffee shop and eatery, writing postcards to all in power, asking them to live up to our Constitution – which they promised to be faithful to – basically serving all in our country.
There are, no doubt, more examples of people in our world trying to be their “best selves,” responding appropriately to the awesomeness of being “chosen” by our God to make this world better, but you get the idea.
We probably all smiled to hear today in the 2nd reading from Hebrews, that from one woman and one man, “as good as dead” came descendants “as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seashore.” It is truly a great history that we are part of! Many of you, have, no doubt, traveled to the sea or even to a favorite beach and walked along the sandy shores as well as looking at the heavens in star-filled skies and know of the wonder of the above statement of the writer to the Hebrews. Our brother Jesus has told us that “with God, all things are possible,” – good words to remember in the times in which we live when it seems that every day there arises an issue of greed, and selfish meanness that we must address.
So, my friends, moving on to today’s gospel from Luke, we receive one more piece of wisdom from Jesus to point us in the right direction – “wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be.” Said another way, attempting “to be holy,” we will strive every day, with all our strength, to be our best selves, which will not only benefit us, but all others who need us to act, to care, in this way. Additionally, Jesus encourages us, “to be ready,” to do the right thing, not to wait for a future date, but to act now, today, and every day.
In conclusion, when our faith and hope seem low and hard to hold onto, it would be good to once again remember our parents in the faith, Sarah, and Abraham, “as good as dead,” as the writer to the Hebrews says, but in actuality, began a family of descendants, “as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seashore.”
And finally, as our brother Jesus reminds in the gospel today, we have been given much, and “much is required” as well. It is what Christians are called to…
Amen? Amen!
All Are One Church 