My friends, as I said in this week’s bulletin, our Church Year is winding down, with just four more weeks after this one, and we are to Advent and the beginning of a new Church Year.  Endings and beginnings, for us humans always call us to reflections of what has been good, perhaps not so good, with hope as we look to a new start, that there is the possibility of more that is good, or better.  For us as Christians, this is even more true, especially the desire to once again try to be our best, for ourselves, but for others too.

The 1^st reading today from Exodus, in Moses’ words from our God, suggest well I think what might be answer to all the violence we see in our world.  In this 1^st reading  we might basically come away with the idea that we should, “do unto others as we would want them to do unto us.”  Moses also lets the people know that their God, “is compassionate.” And this people would understand from past covenants or promises they had made with their God, that their response to others, must be the same – they too must be compassionate . 

The Israelite people, being nomadic, lived with the notion that as they traveled from place to place, often through desert areas, they could experience life-threatening conditions and that it would be advantageous to come upon a “friend” who could help them out.  Often, this help might come from a stranger – perhaps even an enemy.  Thus, there was an understanding within their belief system that anyone, friend or foe, coming to their door, must be helped and ultimately treated as a “guest.”

The Catholic Bishops of this country wrote a pastoral paper in 1980 entitled, Strangers and Guests, and it was aimed at Midwest farmers, and care for the land, and the environment.  It had the same focus as the belief system of our earlier sisters and brothers – looking past personal cares and anxieties to see a bigger picture. 

Today’s gospel in our brother Jesus’ words from Matthew, builds on the thought of Moses in the covenantal mentality of God first loving us, and our response to love in return. Jesus simply reminds them, to love God, and their neighbor – that’s it! – for them and for us.

Bringing us back to the present then – how do we, as one Church Year is finishing, and another is “waiting to start,” assess our past year, and think about applying this seemingly simple request of “loving God and others?” 

For those of us who have lived a while, we realize the difficulty of this request, at times.  Jesus realized the difficulty too of this dual request when he said, “You can’t say you love God who you have never seen, and not your neighbor who you have seen!”  Again, as always, we are asked to go deeper – to see beyond the actions that we perhaps can’t abide, and if you are like me, you must ask our God for help to do what you/I can’t do alone. 

We sometimes feel stuck – almost as if we can’t do a thing to change the trajectory of life as we know it, so perhaps a personal story might help.  I began work to complete my undergraduate degree that I began 20 years earlier when I was in the convent, by attending the College of Saint Teresa in the last year that it was open, 1989-90.

I was taking a course in  Women’s Studies and a text we were using was divided into sections with different women authors writing each section.  Because we were using several different texts, the professor decided to have each of us choose a chapter and present it to the class so as to get through more material. 

I felt it was the work of the Spirit that I randomly flipped through the book and landed on a chapter about “Mother-Daughter Relationships.”  As many of you know, I didn’t have a good relationship with my mother. 

The author of this chapter made the statement that often it is the case in families that the relationship of women, Grandmother-mother-daughter – their ways of interacting with each other tend to follow throughout time, good or bad.  In my case, I thought, talk about being “stuck!”  I saw this “truth”  in the relationship of my grandmother, mother and me – not good relationships – and my reaction was, “well, that stops with me!”  And through the years with my own daughter, even though I had to many times fight the “tendency” to act on this “seemingly” family trait, I willed, along with the help of a good partner, something better for her and me. 

So, friends, I share that story to simply say that we don’t have “to be stuck” and that we can strive continually, to be better, even our best.  We are living in unprecedented times – in my 76 years, I am quite sure that I have never witnessed the amount of unchristian, and even inhuman actions – devoid of a sense of morality, character and values, as at this present time – one just becomes starved for goodness and a sense of service and caring for others.  In addition, the lack of leadership in Church and state, in many areas, on issues where one would expect the “compassion” shown by our God is most troubling.  Pope Leo is doing his part to speak against, for us, the unchristian behavior in our time, but few of our country’s bishops, including our own, are following his efforts. 

Many of you are old enough to remember the terrible times in Ireland when the Catholics and Protestants were feuding, year after seemingly endless year  — a conflict that only found resolution when the women from both sides came together, prayed, and basically said, “This is enough! Let’s not kill each other’s loved ones anymore!”  One wonders if maybe mothers, sisters and wives of the Palestinians and Israelis might do the same!

So, my friends, again, horrible life situations cause, or should cause us to go deeper, to remember our roots, to find, at the end of the day, our best selves. The same can be said of the crisis in our beloved country with weapons of mass destruction—what are we thinking that allows the indiscriminate killing of our loved ones to continue? – especially our children:  We are “so used” to these mass shootings that the news stories seldom, if ever, raise the easy-ness of obtaining a gun. Perhaps, it would serve us better to begin “feeling” more, to see the world as one, as sisters and brothers, all wanting the same basic goods—home, food, and safety for our families and friends.  Let us all strive for this—demand that our leaders in Church and State tend to the basic, simple needs of all the people, a noble goal and prayer as we end one Church Year and prepare for the next.  Amen? Amen!

My friends, as I pondered over today’s readings, it came to me that, “being a Christian,” a follower of our brother, Jesus, has to most assuredly be about action.  St. Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, which served as our 2^nd reading today, says as much.  He notices that the people are, “proving their faith by their actions, laboring in love, and hoping constantly in Jesus”  –  all action words!

Upon further reflection, I humbly realized that the above three actions are what we attempt to do here, and it’s what one of our own did stunningly as she proclaimed her, and our truth to the local bishop recently!  Hers and our truth proclaimed to him that we all felt his lack of pastoral care in refusing to meet with us because we disagree on key issues of our religious faith.  Her proclamation also included the truth that we are a vibrant parish, led by a woman priest, and that he is basically missing a lot in not talking with us!

Paul, again from his letter to the Thessalonians, gives credit to the Spirit for the “preaching” he and his associates are doing among them.  I have often shared with this community that my homilies are what “the Spirit and I do together each week.”  I truly believe this – that the Spirit is with me when I write, and find it most interesting that what She gives me is often about love, while what the bishop proclaims begins with the law, and never quite gets to “the love.” 

My 2^nd mother, the mother of my heart, Margaret, often said of it, “They [meaning the hierarchy] have forgotten the love.”  Bishop Barron said as much when 3 years ago he wrote to the diocese before attending Pope Francis’ synodality meetings in Rome, of his concern that the “laws” of the Church wouldn’t be followed, and his exact words were, “law always trumps love”[!]

We are currently moving through the fall time of our year – here in Minnesota, many of our trees are “alive” with colors of gold, red and brown.  Watching any of the PBS specials on the wonders of our solar system, the expanse of our universe, the fruit, flower, and fauna varieties in our world, we can hardly view all that and not realize and understand how much we are loved by our God, that we are given so much to enjoy.  Also, that God or some Higher Power is with us, and responsible for all this variety and beauty!

The prophet Isaiah speaks of this today when he relates God’s message, “I am your God – there is no other.”  In other words, there is one God for all.  Certainly, this same God for all can’t wish that the Israelis and the Palestinians kill mass amounts of each other’s people. 

It strikes me that a piece of Jesus’ message in the gospel of Matthew today, that we give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is God’s, has to be that we as spiritual people here, having a human experience must rise above the law, the status quo, what everyone else is doing, and simply, try love for a change, try talking and talking some more with true hearts until we get to a workable solution – it’s what Jimmy Carter did 50 years ago in bringing together Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel. Laws can only get us so far, but love can take us where we want and need to be as Jesus taught in his earthly life among us.  Ultimately, placing law over love is more about authoritarianism, whereas love is about being in relationship with others.

The documentary on women priests highlighting my priesthood, being produced by Kay Hannahan and Tyler Hurley is about placing love over law.  When I was actively engaged as a chaplain in this community at our hospital, Winona Health, in the Hospice program and in senior living, I realized that I was consistently doing “priestly” ministry, without proclaiming it as such –  by “showing up” at births to celebrate, in times of trouble showing God’s mercy, and at deaths to help folks grieve, but to remember as well. 

Through our personal spiritual process, Robert and I, not being able to find the love, challenge and acceptance within the “regular” Church, realized we needed to form one, modeling Jesus, where love could truly be found.  Canon law 1024 that prohibits women being ordained within the Catholic church, an unjust law, had to be broken because love called for more.  In all of this, I am not saying that laws shouldn’t be followed  — only when they get in the way of love – as Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is God’s.”

In the spirit of hope, I would like to share some thoughts from others that have “crossed my plate” recently:

• From 13^th Century Persian Sufi mystic and Islamic scholar and poet, Rumi,
  “In every religion there is love, but love has no religion.”
• From Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, and this is for the demonstrators out there, “There maybe times when we are [unable] to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
• From Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, who says, “I always pass my words through three gates – Is it true?  Is it loving?  Is it necessary?”  He goes on to say, “We must be sustained by a sense of what we are for, not just what we are against!” 

With that my friends, onward!  Amen?  Amen!

My friends, as we are presently living in our annual “time of the harvest,” here in Minnesota and across the Midwest, it is appropriate I think that two of our readings are about “banquets” being given. In Isaiah’s  reading, we hear about the banquet that our good God is preparing one day for all who choose to attend.  Jesus speaks about a wedding feast that is being prepared.  Now, if we were to stop there, with, “banquets being prepared,”  we would miss the beauty and challenge of these readings. 

   So, friends, as always, we must go deeper.  We are told that the “wedding feast” that Jesus speaks of in his parable is not so much “a place” as an “attitude.” Our God “plays” the part of the host at this feast.  God has first of all given each of us the gift of life, our human existence, coming into this life as spiritual people.  Matthew Fox has spoken of it rightly in saying that each of us is “an original blessing,” not “a sin,” as the powers-that-be have insisted for too long.

   Going back then to the wedding feast images, we need to understand that “the garment” we are asked to wear is our “attitudes” toward the rest of creation; beginning with the fact that, “all are welcome,” here, now, to attend the feast! – we used to believe something along those lines here in this country.  Next comes the attitudes needed to live peacefully with all others “invited to the feast,” mercy, justice, long-suffering, and patience, to name a few.

   Earlier I said that we, each of us, as spiritual people, are here to experience what it is to be human.  Those of us with a good many years under our belts know that while this human experience can bring many joys, it can bring heartache too, as things happen that we wouldn’t necessarily choose, but for lack of a better explanation, are simply part of life.  It is our task then to strive to balance our spiritual and human selves, becoming throughout our lives the best that we are capable of.  That is really what God’s invitation is all about.

   And if you are thinking, “this is easier said than done,” you would be right.  Our psalm response today that you all sang so beautifully, “Shepherd me O’ God, from all my wants, from all my fears, from death into life,” states well I think, the dilemma we often find ourselves in as we try to balance our human and spiritual selves.  Our “wants” and our “fears” are two very strong emotions that keep us, at times, from being our best selves. 

   My second mother in life, Margaret, often expressed the 1^st emotion well, in the form of a question:  “How much do I want, and how much do I need?  If more in this world chose their needs over their wants in a more balanced way, there would be enough for all to simply live, rather than die for lack of the basics. 

   Fear is something that often keeps us from saying and doing that which needs to be said and done in our needy world.  “What would people think?” What indeed, for us who claim to be Christians!  I can remember times in my life when people thanked me for saying what they were afraid to say; so, we shouldn’t always think that the response from others will be negative. 

   Paul’s response to the Philippians today should encourage us in our fears; [whether low or high, poor or rich, hungry or full], “I can do all things through the One who gives me strength.” And Isaiah in today’s 1^st reading would seem to affirm this: “Adonai is the One in whom we hoped.” 

   Today’s liturgy uses the beautiful 23^rd psalm, loved by many, and used through time to speak of the loving care of our God.  The modern translation of this psalm in The Message, reminds us that our God, “chases after us” all the days of our lives until we are home, once more, in the full company of God.  I think it is good for us to think about a God who would “chase after us.” If nothing else, this should tell us that our God “never gives up on us,” even when we might give up on ourselves or others.

   My friends, our world today is fraught with so much darkness needing our light – seemingly endless wars, those in power who have forgotten that the office calls for service, greed in too many, when sharing would bring more happiness not only for others, but for themselves, the abuse of one [1] by seven [7] that also raises the double-standard in this country regarding gender – if the tables were turned, 7 women raping 1 man, this issue would have been handled immediately, not hidden.

   But lest we end on a negative note, I would remind us of the Alleluia verse today: “Creator God, enlighten the eyes of our “hearts” that we may know the hope that belongs to our call.”  Notice please, that this prayer asks that our “hearts” be enlightened.  It isn’t enough that our minds be enlightened, in that we “know” something has happened that is wrong, but that our hearts are enlightened, in that we can feel the pain of another.  In fact, our hearts really need to be broken open, which is a much harder task.  Once our hearts break open over the ills we witness in our world, it will be much, much harder to let fear get in the way of speaking the words, doing the actions that are needed to better our world.  Amen? Amen!