In reflecting on this past week, many varied, some wonderful, some not so wonderful moments come to mind of which I’d like to mention a few:

• Monday proved to be an amazing-WOW day as many in this country experienced our earth going dark-as-night at an unlikely time—an hour past noon! The darkness as we all know was due to our moon passing perfectly in front of our sun darkening the earth for over two minutes in some places! This darkness came quickly, not like when the skies darken for a storm—gradually, but immediately, almost forcefully and as quickly as the darkness came—it went, revealing the daylight again. It was a phenomenal experience for me!  Where we were, clouds moved in during the last ten minutes of the display, so we missed seeing the totally darkened orb, but as I reflect on the cloud cover, I am choosing to see that what I saw was what was intended for me—light to darkness to light.

An event such as we experienced on Monday happens in any given place only about every 400 years, so this was a chance in a lifetime for those in the pathway of this terrestrial event.  Of course there were those from this country and around the world who traveled to experience this wonder.

• As most of you know; we traveled to Kansas City to partake in this event and worked a visit in with our daughter and her family as part of the experience. Our several days in Kansas City at her family’s home were filled with the wonder of a three and a half year old, our grandson, Elliot, talking, talking, almost non-stop, singing, both learned songs and made-up ones to suit his fanciful and beautiful little mind; moods of happiness for the most part and such sadness when at the end of his tired day, he couldn’t do one more thing but had to relent to the wisdom of his parents that it was now time to rest.
• This week also brought the death of a good friend’s mother—it brought sadness to all who know him because of our love for him as he grieves this significant loss—a time of lightness as he thinks of her and all she meant to him and now a time of darkness as he learns to live his physical life without her. We pray that light will again return as he comes to terms with this loss.
• The president of these United States put out a statement on Afghanistan this week and among other things, it seems that what he sees as most important is not how many lives are involved, but only whether the U.S. wins the conflict! A time of darkness for this country.

Friends, amidst the wonderful and not so wonderful memories of this week as I recorded them—you have yours; we are confronted with the words of Paul to the Romans, “How unsearchable [are] the ways of God!”  The psalmist proclaims, “Your love is constant forever. Complete the work you have begun.”  All the examples that I have shared are part and parcel of the life that surrounds us—each of us is called to take the “stuff” of our days and make sense of it in the larger picture of our world.  The earth and the wonder of it in our universe which is so immense, and for which we realize, in light of the eclipse on Monday, is something we can’t control, but can only marvel at.

I marveled at the morning song of a child, so sweet, so beautiful and so unaffected by the troubles that our world, so wonderful at one point and so unable to control, in reality, presents to us.  And of course, as I view my grandson and how well he is cared for and loved; I realize that this isn’t true for many in this world.

The death of a significant member of one’s family lets us know how fallible, how vulnerable we are, yet for all those who stand with us in our pain; we are encouraged and can sense the love and care of our universal and good God.

Today’s Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments let us know that our God has called us to be wise, to choose wise leaders who will show us the way.  We hear of the “key of David” from the prophet Isaiah, sign and symbol of the gift of leadership.  In the gospel of Matthew, our brother Jesus declares to his first followers that “Whatever you declare bound on earth is declared bound in heaven—whatever loosed on earth is therefore loosed in heaven.”

I think many times these words are interpreted wrongly or at least only partially, especially by those in power, to suggest that, “It can’t be done!”  When in reality this Scripture allows for clear, wise thinking, coupled with prayer and discernment to change one’s thinking as new facts arise to make our Church ever more inclusive, merciful, big-hearted and open-minded—a Church that reacts from the heart first, not just the mind and certainly never makes decisions based on power and control.   Maya Angelou, a woman of our times, now gone home to God, spoke well of leading with the heart.  She said, “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart; I usually make the right decision.”

Finally, we see the rightness of what I just said, (leading from the heart) when we reflect on the question for all times and places in the lives of Christians, put forth by Jesus in today’s gospel, “Who do people say that I am?”  I think that Jesus wanted to know what effect he was having on the people around him in general; but more importantly, he wanted to know what effect he had on those closest to him, who had for the most part, close relationships with him, whom he had spent days and nights with—whom he regularly ate with—in other words, they knew each other well! He wanted to know, what they really thought and believed about him! “Who do you say that I am?” as opposed to, “Who do people say that I am?” really asks them, asks us, to commit to a relationship with Jesus.

If we believe his words, his actions and have committed ourselves through our confirmations; then we must respond to the words, to the actions and not remain, passive.  People cannot go hungry in our world without our response. Our women and girls must be raised to know that they are equal to the men and boys with whom they share the planet and be given every chance to excel.  Women and men must be accepted for whom they love, whether the loved one is of the opposite sex or the same sex. We must be open to all others striving to find who they are as persons, being good listeners of other’s stories and respecting their truth.  We as a nation must lead with our hearts when we are asked to share our country with immigrants seeking a life that is better, free from war and conflict.  We must embrace the differences we see in our world and uplift all races and cultures and religions, realizing that the differences are what make us great!

This week we were amazed to witness the skies darken for a time at an unlikely moment and equally amazed to see the light return!  Our country is experiencing some dark times now and each of us is charged with striving to help the light return, whether we do that in large or small ways. We each need to do our part!  Amen? Amen!

My friends, the readings presented to us this week are challenging to our comfort level in many ways—look out for Ordinary Time!  First, the prophet Isaiah says simply, “Do what is right—work for justice.”  But we must face the question, is that “simple” to do?  In this day and age, it would appear not, when we find ourselves looking for leadership in Church and State and finding little in either place.  But yet, the challenge is there—do what is right!

The second reading from Paul to the Romans shows his dilemma in doing the “right thing.”  Paul has to come to the conclusion that as much as he wants to minister to his own people; he is being called to minister to the Gentiles, because they are the ones who are listening and believing.

Then, in the gospel, we see our brother Jesus ministering to his own people and basically turning his back on a Gentile woman who challenges him, “to do the right thing.”  So what are we to make of this?

We have talked often here about how Jesus sayings are multi-layered and this certainly is true when he speaks in parables—there is generally a simple, surface message, for instance, in the Sower and the Seed; if you throw seed among the rocks, it may not grow—and then there is the deeper message for which Jesus told the story in the first place; if we pursue evil rather than good in our lives; we may not flourish.

In the gospel today, one, by the way, that many of us find hard to take because we find ourselves saying, “Did Jesus really mean to speak to this woman in such a rude way, when she was simply asking for help for her daughter?”  His statement to her, “It is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” speaking of his ministry to the house of Israel as opposed to the Canaanites or Gentiles, can hardly be looked at in a favorable light, can it?  Let’s leave that for the time being.

This gospel today about the exchange between the Canaanite woman and Jesus is a very good one for us to consider when contemplating what it is to be human.  One of the most important things for us to remember when hearing this gospel is the reality of Jesus’ human existence—that he was totally immersed in his humanity.  While true that he was God, Jesus was totally human too.  This means that all of his actions aren’t always going to look perfect. That’s right; all of his actions aren’t always going to be perfect!   Part of being human is to be limited, including Jesus—if this were not the case; we couldn’t say that Jesus was truly human. It’s our ability, like that of Jesus, to rise above our limitations that will make all the difference in the way we live out our Christian lives.  Sadly, there were probably some who were part of the mob in Charlottesville who among titles, might have claimed to be Christians also.

Through Scripture study, scholars have let us know some of the history existing between the Jewish people and the Canaanites to help us understand Jesus’ reaction. Several cultural and social issues come into play in their exchange.   The Jewish people and the Canaanites were enemies because of the Israelites conquering them and taking their land.  The Jews saw their victory as a gift from God, and as a result, this made their land holy in their eyes.  Any group of people that didn’t believe in their God; they considered “pagans.”  Such was the case with the Canaanites.  Jesus would have known this history and to a point, probably believed it.

There was also the social taboo of a man talking to an unattended woman which would have been part of his upbringing in the culture in which he lived.  Jesus was completely immersed in his humanity and so when he responds to the Canaanite woman as he does, these cultural beliefs and practices would have come into play and right or wrong in our minds; they were part of his frame of reference.

The important thing that we should take from this exchange is that Jesus broke out of his humanity and did the right thing.  The Canaanite woman had culture, gender and religious commitment against her and Jesus had to move past all of that and do what was right.  What better way to bring someone into the fold then to show them through loving, compassionate action that there was something worth bothering over?  It is really something for us to ponder—how Jesus’ humanity and divinity must have warred with each other throughout his earthly life.

That having been said, many of us, including myself, still find it difficult to think of Jesus as less than perfect or in any way biased—but this Gospel shows us that he clearly was—just like us!  This fact should give us hope because Jesus had to struggle against his humanity, just as we do and in this example, we see that he had to struggle with the truth that this Gentile woman was challenging him to see.

Jesus was divine, he was human—fully on both counts—he had to struggle to be true to both parts.  In this example, we see that his divinity didn’t necessarily make it easier to do, “the right thing”—to do justice, as a human being.  We as humans are of God—we are divine too—becoming our best selves means to respond to the divine within us.

Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant says that if we don’t accept Jesus’ at times, shortcomings—than that minimizes the extraordinariness of those of his actions that break through the limitations of his culture, his humanity.  Being completely human, Jesus became a man of his own limited time and culture—but at the same time, he was open enough to break out of that limitation.

In the letter selection today from Romans; we see Paul’s continuation of the struggle with his own people that they would accept Jesus as the Messiah, and as he comes to accept their inability to see and believe what he has come to see, that Jesus is the Christ, he knows in his prophet’s heart that he must break out of his limitations too—his love for his own people, and share the truth with those who will accept it—the Gentiles.

The notion that Jesus was completely human and for a time while with us, appeared less than perfect, should, as I said before, be a point of great hope for each of us in our humanity as we strive to be more like God.  I often find myself praying with Paul—“I know what is the right thing to do, but often I do the wrong thing.”  Friends, like Jesus, we are subject to our cultures, our upbringing, our limited existences as human beings.

Sometimes we get down on ourselves because we see so many problems that we can’t fix.  Our humanity calls us toward having a life-giving experience while here. Enjoying all that is good, struggling with the injustice that we see and attempting to bring good and not bad to those around us. We, like Jesus, must continually break out of our limited existences, do what is right and just as Isaiah spoke of today, remembering that the promises of help from our God are meant for all of us—for no one is a foreigner,

an enemy—but all are welcome and all are friend in our Universal God’s kindom.  A wonderful group in our community of which I am proud to be part of, The Winona Interfaith Council strives to recognize all people as God’s people—a noble task for us all.

In conclusion, this week in Ordinary Time calls each of us to move past our limitations as Jesus, our brother did, “get out of our boats” of comfort, as we discussed last week and attempt to “walk on the water” as Peter did.

We were all saddened and horrified to see the violence and hatred that came out of Charlottesville last weekend and the lack of moral leadership out of Washington. Let us pray friends for each other that we can be strong in the face of this and always, “do the right thing!

 

Friends, unlike our forebears in the faith, who thought that God would come in power and fury—in the wind, in fire; we see today that Elijah finds God not in the power of nature, but in a gentle whisper.  Sometimes we have to be present and be quiet enough to hear God’s whisper, to see God’s face—in the delicacy of a violet, in the cool summer breeze, in the innocence of a baby’s face covered with food in the attempt to eat, and even in the fiery eyes of justice.  God doesn’t come in the ways that we might think, but in the randomness of every day.

We know that Elijah discovered God in a whisper, but we see from the reading that Elijah is looking for God on a mountain, in a majestic place.  We need to understand that Ancient peoples had the belief that it would be in majestic places that they would find God and because of this belief we hear of covenants in the Old or First Testament made between God and the people on mountains—Sinai and Horeb.

Exegetes tell us that because neighboring Canaanites believed in Baal and that their god would appear in fury, storms, fire and earthquakes, the Israelites wrote about their God in the same way, almost as if to say—“Our God is great too!”  But commentators today agree that God will be found in the small and insignificant events of life. It is so easy to be impressed by the impressive and overlook the everyday—right in front of us.

In the gospel of Matthew for today; there are several events happening and all are related to each other.  Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of him—he goes to the mountains to pray after feeding the 5,000—he then walks on the water—Peter attempts walking on the water too and then the disciples in the boat declare who Jesus truly is by what they have witnessed.

The disciples in the boat came to know and believe because they saw.  Perhaps, seeing is believing, but they had to struggle too, as we see Peter struggling in this gospel, to believe—as do we.  At other times I think we come to believe because others before us have believed and have shared the “Good News” with us, and in loving and respecting them, we can more easily believe.

In support of Jesus’ first followers, especially Peter, who seems to vacillate in his faith, it is good to remember that even today, the Sea of Galilee on which the disciples were crossing, is known for its storms which seem to come up out of nowhere.  The light was also not with this fear-filled group, with this event occurring in pre-dawn.

Making the natural assumption that what they were seeing could not be so—Jesus walking on the water; they thought the “vision” was a ghost and cried out in terror.  All quite natural, we might think, but Jesus says, “No.”

They came to realize little by little that Jesus was not a natural phenomenon—he spoke words of comfort to them that have accompanied divine revelation in the past, “Do not be afraid!” To this Jesus adds another connection to their past religious history—an indication of his divinity—“It is I—I am who am,” as Moses heard God say on Mount Sinai.

Another important element of this gospel that is important to keep in our minds as we reflect on the message for us today is to remember that water had a great significance for these ancient Near Eastern people.  They revered water because it sustained life, but they also feared its power to destroy—the chaos that it represented.  We have seen the truth of this in the floods in this country these last months.

Several creation myths tell of warrior gods battling the chaos of nature—they never quite conquer it, but keep trying.  Here, Jesus is seen as a conqueror of chaos as he walks on the water.  What he does calls forth great faith in Peter as he impulsively jumps out of the boat to follow Jesus.  But because Peter isn’t God, he becomes fearful and Jesus does what Jesus always does—he moves with compassion—he stretches out his arm to save.  The psalm readings of today and in the next weeks continue this theme of showing the goodness of our God—a God of justice, kindness, compassion and truth.

This entire event of “walking on the water” is a manifestation of the power that resides in Jesus to save.  Not only is this gospel for those first disciples, but for us.  We are awed by Jesus’ power as were those first followers and are invited along with Peter to get “out of our boats” of comfort—to hear the voice of our God wherever it can be heard, even if it comes in the form of a whisper.  We might reflect today on why we so often are reluctant to “get out of our boats”—do or say that which needs doing, say that which needs saying!

The Church lost a wonderful prophet this past week in the person of Capuchin, Fr. Michael Crosby.  He was definitely one for whom it could be said,  “He got out of his boat of comfort!”  He died on August 5^th and throughout his more than 50 years as a priest and friar; he challenged the Church and State, “through boardrooms and basilicas,” as Brian Roewe, staff writer for the National Catholic Reporter stated recently. He challenged these entities as he challenged all of us followers of our brother, Jesus.  He encouraged his Capuchin order to buy stock in tobacco companies so that he could address them as a shareholder at the corporate level and get them to add warnings to their packaging. This took a long time, but Michael Crosby was willing to be about the long-term work of a prophet.

He wrote extensively through 19 books and countless articles stating to the Church he so loved, that clericalism was directly responsible for the abuse crisis within it.  This is just the “tip of the iceberg,” so to speak, in Fr. Crosby’s advocacy.

We learned today that people went to the mountains looking for God in majestic places. Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant says: “Life itself is a mountain experience of God!” So it would seem that we don’t need to go to a mountain to find God, but if we have “eyes to see and ears to hear,” we will find God, in our midst each and every day!

My friends, let us open our eyes and ears and not miss the manifestations of our God in our very midst—in the young, the old, the sick, the well, those unlike us, those we find hard to like and ultimately, to love, those we consider different and perhaps unacceptable, the funny, the sullen, the serious, the playful, the beautiful, the ugly, the small, the big, the loud, the quiet, the disconnected, the beleaguered, the poor, the rich—all, absolutely each one, a manifestation of God in our midst!

In preparing for today’s homily; I came upon one that I did nine years ago, the year that I was ordained and except for some changes to update to our current year, I feel it is quite sound, so I’d like to share it again.  It is interesting that trying to live out Jesus’ way, truth and life does look the same from year to year, the challenge the same, the issues may have changed, but we are always called to respond as we believe Jesus, our brother, would have. If we forget his message to us and fail to live as he did; we can hardly call ourselves his followers!

It is always easier to follow the crowd, than to stand up, often alone, to do the right thing—to say, “Enough is enough.”  Jeff Flake, Republican senator from Arizona has apparently done that in a new book entitled, A Principled Conservative.

In it he talks about how there had always been a certain decorum among members of Congress when talking to each other and he has seen that deteriorating over the past years—we all remember, the statement thrown at former President Obama during an address to Congress, “You lie!” It is hopeful that there are others like Senator Flake who will say to their colleagues that basically, “We are better than that!”

Hope is the operative word in the three readings that we just heard.  We have a God who freely gives to us all that is needed in life to be happy and this happens in really a wonderful way.  God has first loved us and that power to love so completely, so fully, so freely, does necessarily rub off on each of us. If we can slow down enough,

believe in the goodness all around us, we can then believe that we are loved mightily by our God—we have spoken recently of the Cosmic Christ and simply put, this means that God is in all of creation manifesting the God-head. And once we are sure of this love; we can then share the love with others.

When a person knows that they are loved and cared about, there is no end to what they can accomplish.  If we think about how we felt the first time we fell in love, we recall that it seemed like, nothing could stop us—we could conquer the world with that one special person standing by our side loving and supporting us.

This is the kind of love that Isaiah is talking about today in addressing God.  We are all invited by God to be refreshed and nourished—whether we can pay or not. God is presented here like a street vender; only what God offers is free! There is nothing we can do that would be bad enough for God to give up on us! That isn’t the message that many have received over the years.

If we wanted confirmation for what we stand for in this community, as a Catholic parish, proclaiming by our name that, “All are welcome at the table,” this reading from Isaiah would be it! It made me wonder nine years ago, as I still do today, when I read this passage if my brother priests and the bishops had ever read it.  Or if they had read it, how they could not make the connection between Isaiah’s proclamations of the intent of God that all are welcome and are invited to the table and their opposing actions of turning people away because they are not Catholic, not “straight” in their relationships, divorced, remarried, using artificial birth control or having voted for the “wrong” candidate.

We frankly would not be a parish if this rhetoric was common fare for us! The God of Isaiah is eager to re-establish the covenantal promise that was broken—God is always striving to bring us back—to make us one, not to divide us.  Our God’s table is big enough to include us all.

This reminds me of an interchange I had when I was first ordained, with a male priest who was reprimanding me for my, in his mind, “invalid” ordination by using the lovely words of John’s gospel, “That they all may be one” to excuse his unwillingness and that of other clergy members to make this prayer of Jesus, before he died, a reality, by pontificating—“One day, we will all be one!” It begged the question, “And Father, how is it that we will ever be one if you and others continually turn people away?”

Psalm 145 today displays a God who is open-handed, satisfying all of our needs.  The covenant made with the Israelites has been extended to a universal embrace.  Not, “I’ll come to you when you first come to me,” but a continual chasing after us offering something else, enticing us to come home—this last thought comes from the modern translation of the 23^rd psalm in The Message.

The adjectives used in Psalm 145 are “lovingkindness” and justice—this is how God acts towards us.  “Lovingkindness” isn’t even a word in Webster’s,  but we get the idea—God is not just “loving,”  but God adds kindness to the loving—that deep compassion and other-centeredness that we read about in Matthew’s gospel today.  Jesus needs to get away for some R &R after he hears of John, the Baptist’s death, whom some think was probably, his cousin, thus the close relationship. Even in this out-of-the-way place; Jesus is besieged by the people, those who are sick and hurting.

The Scriptures tell us that, “Jesus was moved with pity.”  In the Hebrew, “Splanchnizome”  means, “profound inner emotion.”  So, in other words, Jesus was deeply moved seeing their need. He simply wanted to help them in their pain—there was no, “I will help you when you do this or that—there was no stipulation—no hoop to jump through,  just the simple invitation—“Come to the water.”  God has always been and always will be, my friends, “For us!”—we will always be welcome with all our infirmities, blemishes and unkindness—whatever—the God who is loving-us-with-kindness will never turn away—but will be there for us! This is a true message of hope in my mind—one for the peace of our souls and one that we can truly share with others.

We have all experienced times when a family member or friend needed hope to believe that something in their life would get better.  I can think of no greater comfort than to remind another that when all else fails—when friends seem absent—God is still there—God is with us—we are not alone.  For those who had the opportunity to see the musical, Francis and Clare, one of the songs sung by Francis is this wonderful message of us, “not being alone”—that God is with us in all of creation.

Nine years ago, I was a staff chaplain at Winona Health and part of my responsibilities then was to do spiritual groups with the seniors at Lake Winona Manor.  In one of those groups; we were using an Old Testament series that presented the Israelites in Egypt and of God working through Moses to bring them out of slavery.  The presentation was done by an evangelical group, so at times; it had quite a bit of drama.  The one thing that did touch me though about the presenter was his obvious faith in a loving God, one who would give every chance to an often, errant group of people whose faith seemed so fickle.  He stressed the thought over and over that God asked Moses, someone who couldn’t even speak well to be “the message” of God to Pharaoh, just as we, my friends, are asked to be “the message” of God to our world.

And how do we do that?  We do it by the way we live our lives—which means speaking out when we see injustice.  Nine years ago the economic gap between white and black Americans was growing, not lessening. I’m not sure, but I would guess that this is still the case. Our elected leaders, then and now, were and are working on a budget for our country—one would think given the message today that God is for all of us, not just the already rich, that the decisions on how to construct such a budget would be clear—for many, if not all of these Congress people probably claim to be “Christian”—we can’t be about making the rich, richer—we have to care for the least among us and we have to let our legislators know that this is our will in order to be faithful to God’s call that we be “the message” in our lives, of God’s love for our world—every one of us.

Nine years ago; I rose up for all of us that if we don’t do this here and now, then God’s action is silent in our world.  God’s love will only be present if it is present in us—we have been given that responsibility because we know Jesus.  Now, it can feel daunting at times when we see all the needs, but if each of us does our part; we can start a groundswell that moves around our world so that we don’t have to witness one part of the globe starving to death as it was in Africa nine years ago and is still true today while others have more than they can ever use.

At the start of this homily; I asked you to recall when you first fell in love with someone and of how that felt—the fact that that energy made you feel like you could do anything, perhaps, move a mountain!  Let us, each one of us challenge ourselves this week to do one thing different that makes life better for another.  We might take a minute now to consider what that one thing might be….

With the one thing in mind and the intention to do it; I can guarantee you that your week will be different—your life will be better, fuller—and watch for the chain reactions—just as evil begets evil, good most certainly begets good. If God is for us and God is, who really can be against us?