My friends, once again we come to celebrate in our time a woman, Mary the Tower—formally known as Mary, from an obscure town—Magdala.  True exegesis done in our time tells us that in fact there is no town of “Magdala,” and that is because the word, “magdala” is not a place, but an adjective for a woman maligned throughout our religious Christian history in order to keep her in a place where her call and mission, given by our brother Jesus would remain little known to the world going forward.

   “Magdala” in fact, in Aramaic, means “tower” and was given to Mary as testament to her “tower of faith.”  In our past celebrations of Mary Magdala, we have uncovered the recent work of women scholars demonstrating the tampering done with Scriptural texts by bishops, popes, and perhaps others to combine all the “Marys” in Scripture stories minus Jesus’ mother, into a composite labeling them in the person of Mary from the supposed town of Magdala as a prostitute, rather than her true identity of prophet and priest. 

   There is evidence as well that the persons and actions of Mary and Martha, usually connected with Lazarus, as one family, being switched over time and the words in Scripture voiced by Martha, after Lazarus’ raising from the dead by Jesus, proclaiming him, “the Christ,” were really Mary’s, the one who would go on to form a house church after Jesus’ earthly life. 

   We must remember that Mary’s words are the same ones uttered by Peter which ultimately christens him, “the Rock.”  And if Mary’s words are essentially the same, then we have a problem as the men establish the Church going forward—unfortunately for women claiming their God-given calls to ministry, our beloved Church was founded on Peter the Rock instead of Mary the Tower of Faith.  My friends, this is what happens when Scripture texts are, as Sister Sandra Schneiders says, “written by men, about men and for men!”

   In our past Mary Magdala liturgies I have quoted chapter and verse where changes were made over time and if you haven’t been here at a time when I did that, and would like to know more, I can supply them to you—it is quite a tangled web…

   This year, because there is so much happening in Indianapolis this week around two very different Church views on the gift and meaning of the Eucharist, I thought it would be good to use the selected Church readings for the 16^th Weekend in Ordinary Time to be in line as much as possible with the Church of us all. The readings as such have much to say to us about what the Eucharist truly is, in light of the prophets of old, including Jesus, and his desire of how we should minister in our world. 

   Let’s begin with Jeremiah, prophet in Old Testament times who speaks our God’s words: “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!”  Most, if not all of us, are not “shepherds who care for sheep,” but Jeremiah was speaking to folks who were shepherds, so this was most meaningful to them.  The transition is easy enough for us to assign the prophets words to “leaders” in our own time.

   Our “supposed” Catholic leaders, bishops from across the country are meeting in Indianapolis this week, along with 50,000 devoted Catholics, for a 5-day event costing $28 million, wherein they are hoping to revive the Catholic church through an exaggerated presentation of the “Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” with the special emphasis on this presence being actual flesh and blood. 

   They are being “hard-pressed” to justify this expenditure which includes a special monstrance (no doubt quite spendy as all Church religious articles tend to be) to house the sacred elements, when little attention, or any “real” deep concern seems to be spent on healing the thousands of victims of clergy sex abuse—this Body of Christ—this real presence has never received a true and sincere apology for the tremendous damage done to so many, and if that were truly seen as one of the most pressing activities that they as leaders need to do, I believe they might see more people in the pews, and it would not cost $28 million to do!”  “Woe to you shepherds…destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture, the prophet proclaims today! 

   That same prophet also speaks these words of God” [Our God wants all of us] “to be fruitful and multiply.” 

   Indianapolis this weekend is also the sight of the “Eucharist of Equals,” sponsored by Roman Catholic Women Priests who are inviting those who attend to a wider, more expansive view of Eucharist, the one I believe is much more representative of how Jesus, our brother, envisioned this final gift to his followers. 

   At this liturgy and the liturgies of women priests across our country, and around the world, everyone who wants to be with us, and pray with us, is welcome to be there—no exceptions!  Our brother Jesus took his “liturgy” to the hillsides because everyone wasn’t welcome in the synagogue!  Unfortunately, with the Church men,

there are always “disclaimers and barriers” to their message.  The event at the Lucas Oil Convention Center (a curious place to hold this event it would seem) costs $300-350 to attend, not counting travel, food, and housing expenses, not something most, if any of the poor and disadvantaged could attend.

   One of the themes being uplifted by the women this weekend is of course “equality in ministry” –women too are called, and who are these so-called male “leaders” in our Church, to say, “women are not?”

   Looking at the other two readings for this weekend, we see more of the true nature and message of our brother Jesus.  Knowing himself how hard and physically, emotionally and spiritually draining, ministry can be, Jesus , in his compassion wants to take his apostles away for a time of rest, Mark tells us in today’s gospel.  The time of rest doesn’t happen in this story, but yet the counsel from Jesus to do so is there. 

   Paul’s letter to the Ephesians lets us know that “the Christ,” the only reality that Paul ever knew of Jesus, [will] “bring us all together.”

   I would say that in light of two very different views of Eucharist being presented in Indianapolis this weekend, it will be most important that we keep our eyes open, fully focused on Jesus’ actions and then he can more easily, “bring us all together.” As one of the banners that the women will be holding this weekend when they demonstrate outside of the Lucas Oil Convention Center says so well, “Jesus asks us to imitate, not adore him.” 

   So then my friends, we come back to one of the main themes of today’s liturgy—affording Mary Magdala, Tower of Faith, her true place in our struggle to be faithful witnesses to Jesus’ profound message of love and care for our world and all its many people in so many different stripes and colors.  Many women in our Church are already doing this—we aren’t waiting for the men to say it is okay! Amen? Amen!

   My friends, we shouldn’t be surprised that once again this week we hear the theme of being a “prophet,” as it is really part and parcel of being a follower of our brother Jesus.  Coupled with this theme to prophesy, is the most comforting, additional theme of a God who loves us mightily. 

   I will begin with this second theme of a “loving God” who wants only good for us as this knowledge of such a God gives us the strength to be prophets, when we might otherwise walk away from such a task.

   This desire of our God that we would strive to be our best is laid out beautifully by Paul in today’s 2^nd reading from Ephesians. He says, “God [wants] us to be holy and blameless—full of love.” It must be said that striving after such qualities in our lives will no doubt help us to become our best. 

   Paul continues, saying that [as] “adopted children…we were willed an inheritance.”  As we consider this fact of being “adopted,” it is good to reflect that as of July 1^st  of this year, in Minnesota, and many other states, birth records have become fully available to adopted children.  Even though many adopted children are interested in those records mainly to know their “origins” for medical purposes and perhaps, curiosity, many will say that even after coming to know their original stories and coming to understanding about why they may have been “given up,”  they continue to call their “adoptive parents” their “true” parents as they were the ones who raised, and loved them into adulthood. 

   Thus, it is from this most positive view of adoption, that I invite us to ponder our God’s gift of love to us, and an inheritance of eternal life one day.  Additionally, let us consider that, contrary to ages-old Church teaching that this Loving God sent our brother Jesus to make reparation for the sins of us all, our Loving God did rather, send Jesus to show us the “best ways” to live our lives, to make sure that our human experiences here led us back to God—as such was God’s love for each of us. 

   One of those “best ways” then, was that each of us, as Jesus’ followers, would shoulder the mission/the call to be a prophet in the times and places of our lives, just as he did in his.  Amos, like many other prophets doesn’t claim to be a prophet, thinking wrongly that this task belongs to others—he is only “a shepherd” after all. 

   We can perhaps say the same; I am only a teacher, a farmer, a mother/father, an ordinary laborer, and so on—who am I to prophesy?  And our God through Amos seems to be saying, “Who are you not to!”

   This then causes us to look at just what prophets are being asked to do.  The fact that a simple shepherd is being asked to speak, “God’s truth” says that the “call” comes to the lowliest among us, and on up the ladder, in their own way —where each lives and works.

   We have already established through Amos’ call that “being a prophet” is not something that folks generally seek out.  Our brother Jesus understands, most likely from his own human journey, that there is “fear and apprehension” in this call to sometimes “stand alone” in speaking the truth given by God. Perhaps this is why many choose not to speak their God-given truth.  But Jesus sends his faithful followers out in twos that they might support one another. 

    I was called upon this past week to accompany a friend, driving her to an appointment for a procedure in Lacrosse, and bringing her back again.  She mentioned several times, before and after her procedure, “I am so glad that you were with me!” 

   Mark tells us today in the gospel story of the apostles being “sent out in twos”—“they cast out demons and anointed many people with oil, and healed them.”  “Anointing people with oil,” speaks to a “priestly function,” which we might feel would disqualify some of us, but as we know from Jesus’ teachings, we must always go deeper in these readings, finding that there are many ways “to anoint and heal,” –through touch and kind, supportive words, through simply “being with another in their pain,” and so on. 

   In today’s gospel, Jesus wisely shares with his followers then, and now, that indeed, “this being a prophet” won’t always be easy! He tells us that we may have to “shake off the dust,” we encounter along the way, which would seem to align with what we heard last week, that we aren’t ultimately responsible that our words cause others to change, but we are responsible for at least speaking the words given us by God. 

   Another of the fine-tuning pieces that we need to see in today’s gospel is that Jesus is telling the apostles to preach “repentance of sin” as they went from town to town.  We have often heard in years past the emphasis of Jesus’ “forgiving our sins,” as opposed to “repentance” on our parts.  The two often, for Jesus, went hand in hand, “Your sins are forgiven—go now, and sin no more—or in other words, “be better –try not to do this again, which really speaks to our God’s desire that we try to be our best. If we stop at “God’s forgiveness” instead of our, “repentance” too, it is all on God, without any effort on our parts. Jesus was wise enough to know that we, and others in our world would be better if we “repented” our wrong-doing, vowing to be better. 

   We can probably sum up these thoughts today by thinking of how we operate in our own lives when we need help from others in accomplishing tasks in our lives.  Most, if not all of us turn to others that we know and trust, perhaps even love, to help us do what needs to be done. Our God does the same in asking us to be “prophets” in our own times and places.  No matter where we live, work, or share life with others, we are the best people, there, to speak God’s truth! Amen? Amen!