Dear Friends, 

Sorry for the lateness, but we made a quick trip to the Cities after the Saturday night mass for a visit with family and are just back today!

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My friends—today we are asked to look squarely at the notion of the insider-outsider mentality that seems unfortunately still quite prevalent in our society and Church. And with so much unrest this past year, primarily due to the agenda of the Trump administration; we seem to be growing in this mentality rather than lessening it.

But the hopeful and exciting news is that our loving God takes all these ways that we as creatures choose to exclude, separate and divide, to instead, unite, include and love.  And this is the path that we, as our brother Jesus, modeled so well in his life, must follow.  Our main purpose for being in the world is to realize that all is gift from our loving God, to enjoy it, and then, our response must always be to give back in love.

This reminds me of the Water Working Group that I am part of as a Cojourner with the Rochester Franciscans.  Part of what I see this group doing each time we meet on conference call, beyond talking about ways that we all can protect the gift of water, that at least here in our area, we all enjoy, is to be most grateful for this wonderful gift.  Whether spoken of or not, gratitude underlies all that we do.  Along with the gratitude that we feel comes the responsibility to care not only for the water, but for the whole earth, from the skies above, to the soil beneath our feet, as the two are so interrelated.

And our God is so intent on getting this message of love and care across to our errant world, that God will work through those not even aware, to accomplish this goal.  Such is the case in our first reading, from Isaiah today. Cyrus is a Persian King and ruler and the reading states that he has been anointed—that is, chosen by God to bring God’s love to the Israelite people in exile.  He does this by proclaiming that these exiled ones may return to their homelands.  Cyrus has no clue that his actions are part of God’s plan, or that he has been chosen; but he has!  The wonder for each of us to behold is that in this action for one group of people, there is contact between the Persians and the Israelites and then, the opportunity exists for the saved or rescued to share with their liberators, and as a result, draw them also into the fold. And not only this, but God will have the learning going both ways, from those “saved” and those “not saved,” for if we believe that our God works through each of us, then indeed, those “not in the fold,” in our estimation, have something to show us of the face of God. God will use any and every opportunity to allow us to unite—to be one.

We have seen evidence of God’s hand throughout history, social and religious, to unite rather than divide—to raise consciousness. The Spirit of our brother Jesus is always renewing the face of the earth.  Sometimes we are aware of her presence pushing us onward—sometimes not—but our faith calls us to be engaged, to do what we can.

God works through each of us, with the purpose of bringing others into our circle and they also are then able to bring us into theirs. This reminds me of the Winona Interfaith Council, a group of like—minded folks on issues of the day who come out of many different faith backgrounds and have joined together to allow justice to persist in our world.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is engaged in a battle of wits with the so-called leaders of his day.  They are attempting to trap him once again because their purpose isn’t to rule with justice and love, but to control.  We see this today in both religion and state. We know the story and the question in the Gospel today—is it lawful to pay the Roman tax?—these false leaders and teachers figured they had finally hatched a plan that would catch Jesus once and for all. If he answered “yes,” it is lawful, they could hold up Israel’s belief that each one is bound to God alone. If he says “no,” he will probably be encouraging political unrest because others will follow him in the action.

Now, it’s interesting to note that the national coin held the head of Caesar on it with the inscription that gave him political honor and divine status, a claim that the people of God totally rejected.  In order to be sensitive to them, the Romans had a copper coin produced with no image on it.  So, additionally, when Jesus asked these “leaders” to produce the coin that had Caesar’s head on it, it is interesting that they even had one, and it definitely showed their hypocrisy.

Jesus answers wonderfully and destroys their little game to entrap him—“Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give to God that which is God’s.”  And what does God want of us? We might answer that by looking at the reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians today.  In this reading, Paul is basically conveying his gratitude to these people for behaving in a way worthy of those chosen by God:  they prove their faith by their actions—they labor in love and are constantly filled with hope in Jesus their Savior.

Again, I think of the Rochester Franciscans who presently have nine (9) working groups that are concerned about issues that affect us all—among these issues are: interfaith, Israel/Palestine, human trafficking, immigration, corporate responsibility, mountain-top removal, climate change and water, which I have already mentioned.

It is significant I think that the title of each of these groups includes the word, “working”—these groups are about doing something.  I am personally so proud of this group of religious women and their Cojourner partners, for as Paul says, “They are proving their faith by their actions.” Paul concludes his thoughts by reminding them and us that the most significant act of their faith is love for others.  Love, true love, will cause us to do what mere rules never would!

So, my friends, like Cyrus, like Jesus, like Paul, like the saints throughout history, past and present, each of us is chosen too by merit of our baptism, to live lives worthy of our call, to always include, never exclude, to let nothing get in our way of living out God’s all-encompassing desire that we be one—this puts many Church groups in jeopardy, it would seem, including our “Mother” Church.

What we do, called by the Spirit won’t always look perfect—in fact it will be messy at times.  What matters though is that we begin, that we try to make a difference and don’t wait until what we may think is a better time—we have wonderful models in this in the Rochester Franciscans, in the Interfaith Council and others, if we are observant.

Several years back, a friend shared with me the comments of a person when she asked her what she thought of what we are trying to do in our little Catholic corner of the world here at All Are One.  This person said she thought that this whole venture hadn’t been thought out too well, because what happens when Kathy Redig can no longer do this? She didn’t want to join something that wouldn’t be there for the long haul.

My simple answer was—the Spirit isn’t through with this venture yet! All of us together are about planting seeds that we may not see come to fruition. This venture is about now, what we can do now!  If nothing was ever done until all the contingencies were checked and rechecked, making sure as possible that nothing would go wrong, nothing would ever get done!

So friends, just like Cyrus who wasn’t aware of how God was using him; we don’t know the full extent of what God wants to accomplish in us.  So, we must simply keep on and trust that the Spirit is continually renewing the face of the earth—the final result is not our responsibility—that belongs to God—we simply must labor in love as the Thessalonians did so long ago.

 

My friends, this parish, All Are One Catholic church has always been about inviting everyone to the table—this was one of our founding tenets, to welcome all who want to be with us, to pray and to share our lives as we journey to be closer to our God in Jesus, our brother.  This parish has never been about judging who is worthy or acceptable—we leave that to the person and God. In that, we are, I would humbly say, like our God as the theme for this Sunday is all about “welcoming” and the fact that the invitation goes out to everyone, no exceptions, is quite a wonderful thing to celebrate, I think.

We, of course, have to keep what the Scriptures say in context to get their full import.  We might scoff at the thought that after the host of the wedding feast finally got a full house, among strangers from the streets, because the first guests didn’t come; he is willing to throw one of them out because he isn’t dressed properly!  And here is where we need to understand the customs of the times and remember that wedding dress was provided, so even the poor could come and be dressed appropriately—this person chose not to rise to the occasion!

And once again; we must remember that the stories Jesus told while among us always had deeper, secondary meanings, so we don’t want to read the texts literally. The wedding feast spoken of in Matthew’s gospel today and the banquet that is being prepared as related by the prophet, Isaiah, are both about the end times reminding us at this point in the Church Year to be serious about “checking our own houses,” so to speak, to see that we are on the right path—that we have a clear vision of that which is most important in our lives.  Are we searching after that which gives us life, or are we about more selfish pursuits?

Paul gives us a sense of this in his letter to the Philippians.  He is writing from prison, one of the many times he suffered in this way to spread the Good News of our brother, Jesus, which we know from our own study of Scripture, can be very challenging at times.  We know too as Paul relates, that we must try to keep Jesus’ message “to love” foremost in our minds and hearts, never losing sight of that, so, as he says so well, “whether on a full stomach, or…empty…, in poverty, or plenty, I can do all things through the strength of Christ.”

This summer and fall thus far have been full of tragedies from nature; hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and now, horrendous fires in California.  Whenever such events occur; we see that the people so grievously affected are called to see what is most important in their lives, often hearing from them, “We are sad for what we lost in a material way, but all of our family is safe, and that is what is most important!”  And the fact is, everyone doesn’t get through these events with their lives and it is then for the rest of us to do all we can to be in communion with those who suffer.

This is what Paul is expressing to his converts in Philippi—his gratitude to them for being remembered in his time of suffering.  The longer I live, it becomes so apparent how small our world really is—how closely we are connected and because of our faith in Jesus, are truly sisters and brothers!

That brings us to the wedding garment spoken of in the gospel.  It is provided for all of us to put on and now we are speaking of the greater sense of this gospel and this garment is made up of the virtues of compassion, mercy, justice, long-suffering, patience, and when we roll all that into one, it is love for our world, for its people.

This week, yesterday, in fact, I had the privilege of presiding at Joe Morse’s funeral—really a celebration of his life. Joe was a social justice advocate for many issues that affected people and the earth in the Winona area and greater world. If it could be said of anyone, it could be said of Joe that he had it straight in his mind and heart what the priorities were for right living.  He was motivated by the likes of Pope, Saint John XXIII, whose feast day was yesterday and who said, “All …are equal in human dignity” and by John F. Kennedy who asked us all to think, “What can you do for your country.”

So, back in the early 60’s this inspiration took him to the South to work with the Freedom Fighters to give our black brothers and sisters’ equal status in our country.  Throughout his life from that point there was no turning back for Joe—he was always about advocating for what was best for all, not just for some.

We saw this in his work with assisting men to be inclusive and respecting of women through the Beyond Tough Guise program and its MENding project to encourage businesses and tradespeople to donate work to fix the damage caused in homes by abusive men.  Joe was a friend of and advocate for the Women’s Resource Center assisting women in being safe from abusers.

Joe cared for the land and keeping it healthy—his work to ban sand-mining in our Winona County, which ultimately protects our water, protecting the bluffs from erosion by working to prohibit building on its slopes and his continual work through the Land Stewardship organization in Lewiston is testament to his concern.

Now those who knew Joe well would probably agree that he was relentless in challenging and encouraging all those he knew to do the right thing,  kind of like the host of the wedding feast wanting to fill the hall with guests.  To get a call from Joe was guaranteed to be about helping with some project.  We can be grateful for the “Joe’s” of this world who are persistent in choosing the right, even if the path is hard to follow.

So friends, we began today talking about getting the invitation from our loving God to come the wedding feast, an invitation that is continually extended to us and we live our lives between the time of that invitation extended and the actual banquet to be held. Each of us is dearly loved and appreciated by God—we shouldn’t lose sight of that.  This loving God, each and every day, gives us the strength and wisdom, and all-abiding peace to do God’s will with and for others. And as St. Paul so wonderfully says today in the reading to the Philippians: “I can do anything through the One who gives me strength.”  Amen.