My friends, this 4^th Sunday of Easter and as those before and those to come, each, call us, as I have previously said, “back to life.”  This Sunday’s readings have a “shepherd” theme, and the action is that of “shepherding the People of God.  And even though none of us are shepherds, and perhaps never have been, nor will be, we can understand the concept of “shepherding” others in the broader context of simply, “caring for them. It is what Jesus did, and it is what we are called to do. 

   Those of you who have been with us for a while, know that I will always take the Scriptures of any given Sunday and direct us back to our everyday lives, because as Jesus’ followers, “Christians” by name, that is what he always modeled for us—what we say we believe coupled with how we live our lives. 

   And further, we must recognize and be aware that connecting what we read in the Scriptures to our daily lives will often get us into trouble, as it did Jesus, with those who choose to look at life in a very, “black and white” way. 

   A case in point of course is the discussion across our country about possibly overturning Roe v. Wade—the right of a woman over her own body—more specifically, the right—should she choose to seek an abortion.  Friends, as you may know already and accept, but I need to say it anyway for clarity here; this is not a “black and white” issue.  For those who want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, it is of course, “black and white”—thus the problem. 

   Those who have been part of this nearly 50-year-old fight to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision to make abortions legal across our land call themselves, “pro-life.”  Unfortunately, as we know, this desire to “protect life” only seems to extend to the life within the womb— “a life” that most times would be unviable outside of the womb. 

   Whenever women and men who advocate for an end to Roe v. Wade, are asked about the life outside the womb, should a woman carry the pregnancy to term, these same advocates for life early-on, have no plan for their care once here, and will often be against the social programs needed to care for these individuals, which for their lack, many times caused the women to seek abortion in the first place.  Perhaps those who so stridently claim to be “pro-life,” were to support care for those already here, they would be doing more to end the need for abortions in the first place. 

   I believe the part of this discussion that is most disconcerting to women is the complete lack of consideration for the women carrying the potential new lives.  Why, many ask, are their lives not considered as well, when we discuss the right-to-life? 

   The stories abound of women who sought the care to terminate their pregnancies in order to save their own lives, yet their lives are seldom, if ever considered by those who advocate to overturn this right for women, which, by the way, is also a right for men.  And if you don’t believe that, then consider how this discussion would go if it were the men asking for the right to choose about the care of their own bodies.  When we are making “life” decisions for our world, we must consider all who will be affected; that is what makes life good for all.  So, suffice to say, this current discussion is messy.  There is not a “one size fits all.” 

   Looking back to the Scriptures for today, the first reading from Acts gives us a few ideas to consider:  We are told to, “hold fast to the grace of God” [because], “I have made you a light to the nations.”  For me, this says, in the “messiness” of life, to always believe that our God is with us, giving the “grace” needed to do the most, “loving thing” for all considered. 

   Such “life” decisions call each of us to be responsible persons in the “life” we say, “yes” to.   Not just bringing life into existence but doing all that we can to assure that such life becomes “meaningful” and “viable” throughout its entire existence. 

   The month of May also calls us to reflect on a very special woman in our religious history.  Of course, I am speaking of our mother, sister, and friend, Mary of Nazareth—not at all, a “wallflower” or a “yes-woman,” which generally means, unfortunately, “a door mat” for the hierarchy.  To be clear, saying “yes” was definitely part of Mary’s life—but her “yeses” had to do with supporting justice, mercy and most of all, love—as did her son, Jesus. 

   This Sunday is also Mothers’ Day, a day we remember all mothers; those blessed with giving physical birth, but also those who have gifted many with emotional and spiritual mothering.  All are so important because just as we need those who can give physical birth, we likewise need women who can have others’ backs supporting them through the ups and downs of life.  Sometimes “physical” moms can give emotional and spiritual mothering too, sometimes not and thus the need for mothers of all kinds.  I personally am grateful for all the mothers I have had in my life and so grateful too for those who helped me to mother my own kids. 

   Again, this “mothering” issue is not, “a one size fits all.”  We get a sense of this too in the second reading from Revelations where John speaks about, “the shepherd… [and how this one] will lead [the sheep] to springs of water.”  This [mother] we might say, “knows [their young] “and will never let them perish”—words spoken also by John in the gospel today.

   So friends, much on our spiritual plates again!  I think sometimes we can get frustrated when all is not, “neat and clean”—at peace, perhaps—but life calls us to all of this.  We have been promised “the grace” we will need, and we must anchor our hope in that belief and trust it.  I know personally that if I thought I had to do what I do all alone, I know I could not do it!  I depend on God, in Jesus, on all of you, on family and friends, to all help me and to help those in all our wider worlds to do what is most loving in every situation. 

   And for that reason, as we are all called “to be light” in our world and I will end with this; I find it so discouraging that those in positions of leadership within our Church are so reluctant to lead.  Where are they in promoting “life” for all people, not just in the womb, but for children and adults—all along the life continuum?  Where are their voices when it comes to eliminating the real threat to life by the proliferation of guns in our society—where are they when it comes to valuing the lives of all our non-binary, LGBTQI+ folks—where, when it comes to taking lives by execution –many times innocent lives—where, when this country incarcerates black people at 5 times the rate of white people?  I often wonder why these so-called Catholic leaders don’t drop “Christianity” from the names used to describe themselves. 

    My friends, as you can see, the right to a decent, good, and peace-filled life is so much broader than those who claim to be “pro-life” are willing to look at.  When they can see beyond the beginning of life, they will acquire so much more credibility in the view of those who consider right-to-life from birth to death as the Good Shepherd did. Amen? Amen! Alleluia!

   Friends, if we are taking a careful look at the events of this Easter Season, which, by the way, are the same during each season of Easter; we have to notice that the Resurrection of our brother Jesus, leads us right back into action.  So, what do I mean by that?

   The Scriptures for today give us a clear explanation of what I am saying.   The reading from Acts finds the apostles proclaiming “the truth” as they know it to be—Jesus of Nazareth, came, taught about the best ways to live, and paid the civil price in his time for speaking against the State. 

   For those without faith, his death was the “end of the story.”  For those with faith, he rose to a new life that continued his life and goodness in the same ways that he first demonstrated in his own humanity, but now that “goodness” would continue through the lives of his followers should they, should we, choose to continue his work. 

   In the reading from Acts, Peter clearly states the choice that he and the other apostles have made: “Better to obey God than people.”  I often talk about laws and rules that we humans come up with as “head stuff” that causes us then to propose “black and white” answers to complex world problems that show themselves in more “gray” ways.   In other words, the solutions aren’t always clear.  

    John’s gospel selection today gets at the problem we all must face as we live out our Christian lives.  Recalling the apostle Peter’s life with regard to his following in Jesus’ footsteps, we remember that when “push came to shove” during Jesus’ passion, Peter was identified by others three times as Jesus’ follower, to which we know that Peter denied three times to even knowing him. 

   Today’s gospel gets at this seeming discrepancy. Jesus isn’t reprimanding Peter for his denial, but is clearly showing him a better, truer way to go.  By asking Peter three times of his love for his master, Jesus lovingly and without anger or malice shows Peter just what “love” means—the words aren’t enough, Jesus says, there must be action too. 

   And as Peter and the others will find out, “feeding and tending the sheep” won’t always be easy—and will probably even be “messy” at times, as Robert and I have been discovering of late in trying “to launch” our Honduran family on a path that will lead to success for them in their new country. 

   I think the “messiness” in any endeavor where we start from a seemingly apparent place of love, comes especially when a group of people such as that working with our Honduran family, bring with them all the baggage of their own personal lives and somehow try to work out all that “baggage” by doing “good” for others.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes our basic humanity gets in the way of the good we would do.  Peter learned that, but moved past it in order to do the good that his brother was calling him to. 

   My friends, most of us have experienced some measure of suffering in our own lives and hopefully our personal suffering has made us more attentive to the suffering that others in our world experience, which many times, if we are truthful, is far worse than our own. 

   The Easter story, which our Church in wisdom dedicates six weeks to, does each of us a good turn.  Why so?  As we initially rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, as is displayed in the readings from Revelations, our brother and savior, Jesus, calls us through the other readings to our new, and continual work in the world.  Jesus’ physical presence won’t be there, except in us, in the ways we now choose to “touch” our world, but his spiritual presence will be, supporting and inspiring us “to feed” and otherwise care for our sisters and brothers as he did. 

   And I would be remiss if I didn’t say—to remember ourselves in the equation—we can’t share out of “an empty cup,” anymore than should we keep all the contents for ourselves—it’s a balancing act. 

   I just finished a very good book by Fiona Hill, who came to our country’s attention during the first impeachment of Donald Trump.  Her book, entitled, There is Nothing for You Here, is her personal story of growing up in poverty in Northeastern England and of how she was eventually able to make a success of her life through many others giving her a needed, helping hand. 

   Over her lifetime that began in 1965, she tells of how she made connections with others who believed that people basically wanted to succeed in life, but that many times, the “doors” just weren’t open to do so.  She makes many like comparisons to her second country and its people, the United States of America, with regard to what people need to make their way in life.  She quotes a philanthropic friend who wisely said, “We don’t try to make things easy for people, but to make things possible for them.”

   In reflecting on my work as a Christian in general and specifically in my present, daily life, the above quote seems to give that balance that not only looks out for others but for ourselves.  Amen? Amen!  Alleluia!

My friends, each Church Year, we are taken scripturally through the life, death and resurrection of our brother, Jesus.  During Lent especially, we are called to ponder just who this God-human-person was.  During Holy Week we are encouraged to spend time with our human brother, trying to understand as fully as we can, why he came among us, for what purpose, what his death and resurrection meant for him and for us—but even more so, what his life meant. 

   Now for me, growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, before the 2^nd Vatican Council, the message was always clear— “Jesus came, died for our sins, so that we could go to heaven one day and be happy with him, there forever.”  That sounds good on the surface, but I feel that Jesus’ coming was much simpler, much more loving than that. 

   I believe for many people, it is easier to get our “heads” around the fact that “God needed to come and clean up the mess we humans made, taking our failings, placing that guilt upon Jesus’ shoulders and “wha-la,” all is good!”

   But you see my friends, the above is much more of a human outlook than that of the Loving God, that Jesus, in his life presented to us.  Jesus was always more about applying the “heart” than the “head” in any situation. 

   In our Catholic church today, just as in the Jewish faith of Jesus’ time, men ran the show and we would all probably agree that setting up a list of dos and don’ts (the Jews had over 600 and Christians, a good many too) and a storyline that neatly answers all the questions is much easier than suggesting, as Jesus often did, that we simply do, the most loving thing!  Granted, doing the most “loving thing” is a lot messier! 

   Throughout history, the virtues of goodness, kindness, mercy, long-suffering, and so on have been looked at as the “gentler” virtues and relegated to the “gentler, weaker sex”—that of women.  But make no mistake, my friends, doing the “most loving thing” in any situation is far harder than following a set of narrow rules and regulations as Jesus proved throughout his life.  We must always remember that Jesus’ one, beautiful human life was taken because he relentlessly chose to do, not what the law said, but what “love” said—the two, as we know, are often not the same.  And for any of us who have ever followed his lead, we know that it is not easy, nor a weak action. 

    The Scriptures chosen for us to hear in the days and weeks after the Resurrection show the apostles sometimes in the same situation as Jesus in his life—people were attracted to him many times because of the physical cures that he was able to do.  The same was true for the apostles, after his death.  But for Jesus and the apostles, as we read today in Acts— “through [their] hands, many signs and wonders occurred among the people—women and men, in great numbers were continually added to their number.” 

   Given the above words, we can only imagine that there were many others, for Jesus and the apostles, who experienced what Jesus was really after in them, “a change of heart.” Those who were just after a messiah who would vanquish their physical enemies or cure their physical bodies, didn’t discover the “messiah” who Jesus ultimately was. 

   In the simplest of terms, Jesus came out of the loving heart of God who wants only good for us, not bad.  Such a God would never ask for reparation for the failings that were part of the humanity given us.  But such a God would give us chance, after chance, after chance, to get it right.

   Look at our Scriptures today:  The Revelations’ reading is about things not understood, except for our God’s words, “Don’t be afraid”—the piece understood, but not said is— “I will be with you.”  In the gospel reading from John we read times two— “Peace be with you—just as the Creator sent me, I [am] sending you”—to do, like me, the most loving thing! This gospel selection also lets us know that we will have great powers—the power to forgive and many other loving things, if we so choose. 

   Eastertime my friends, is all about gratitude for a God who has loved us so much in Jesus as well as a great time of grace to choose a “change of heart” –big enough to follow him, doing always what is most loving, in our world, that today, as we all know is in need of, just that!  Amen? Amen!

Good Morning Friends!

As previously advertised–being that this was the weekend for our Saturday afternoon Mass, we opted this year for the Easter Vigil instead of an Easter Sunday service. We brought in the “new light” and the “new water” reminding us of our baptisms and our continual challenge to walk in our brother Jesus, the Christ’s light. I will have the “blessed water” at church if you would like to bring bottles and take some home. I know that several of you were away and some with guests and others unable to be with us –a solid 12 “apostles” gathered and prayed for our community. Following is my homily from last evening–be blessed my friends and sing out the alleluias of this spring-time holyday! Peace and love, Pastor Kathy

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Easter Vigil Homily

April 16, 2022

   My friends, we have experienced many readings tonight from what some might call, “salvation history,” but I would like to call it, the story of our God’s love for creation, culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, our brother.

   Tonight, because our service is already longer, I wanted to simply lift up a line or two from the readings for us to hold on our hearts:

• In the creation story we hear that God looked on all of creation and said that it was very good. For that reason, I chose not to have us read the story of Moses fleeing the Egyptians and God drowning them in the Red Sea.  It seems that as the prophets become more involved in the story of the Israelite people, God becomes a much more loving figure and certainly the God of Jesus was.
• In the reading from the prophet Isaiah, we hear, “come to the water, all who are thirsty.”
• And in the reading from Ezekiel, we hear, “You will be my people and I will be your God.” 
• We see the compassion of God expressed in the gospel selection from Matthew tonight as twice we hear, first from angels and then from Jesus, “Don’t be afraid.”
• The epistle from Paul to the Romans speaks in a somewhat cloaked fashion of sin and the truth about being Jesus’ followers—simply that it will mean we have to leave sinful ways behind, striving to be our best selves.  But that will come soon enough—now is the time for joy in the fact that Jesus is still with us.

   Because we won’t be meeting on Easter Sunday, I wanted to add a few thoughts that are included in tomorrow’s readings that are very significant in understanding this most glorious day.

   The Easter Sunday morning’s gospel comes from John 20:1-9. I think it is important not to stop after verse 9 but to continue on to verse 18 as it includes the beautiful encounter between Mary of Magdala and Jesus in the garden.  The reading shouldn’t stop after verse 9 as the story simply isn’t complete at that point.  The reading for the Easter Vigil stops short too and that is why I added verses 8-10 to that reading. 

   It is significant that these faithful women who stood by the cross to the very end would be the first to see Jesus in his risen state and only an all-male hierarchy would set up the readings in this way, completely discounting the women!

   Another point in this gospel that is most significant especially for those who may find it hard to believe in the resurrection and might say, “The body was simply stolen will find an answer in the way John describes the scene at the tomb.  [Simon Peter] observed “the linen wrappings lying on the ground and saw the piece of cloth that had covered Jesus’ head lying not with the wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.”   Exegetes tell us that if one’s intent was to steal a body, you would hardly unwrap it first and certainly not take the time to fold up a piece of cloth covering the head!

   John also gives us another interesting tidbit in his account of the resurrection—when Mary of Magdala first encounters Jesus, now risen, in the garden—she doesn’t recognize him!  We might ask—how can this be?  Again, exegetes tell us that one apparently doesn’t appear the same in resurrected form as they would if they were merely asleep and awakened.

   The same phenomenon seems to be true in Luke’s account of Jesus joining the disciples the next day on the way to Emmaus.  Just as Mary didn’t recognize Jesus until he did something familiar—saying her name, the disciples on the road didn’t know him either until he likewise did something familiar—when he broke bread with them. This is a good thought to keep in mind after we have lost a loved one—they too probably wouldn’t be recognizable to us, except in doing something familiar to us.

   So, my friends, some thoughts to carry on our hearts as we continue now with the blessing of the water and our baptismal promises….

My friends, as we returned this past week from our Witness for Peace delegation to Cuba, and reoriented ourselves to life in the United States, many thoughts, and ideas about how to help the Cuban people, many of whom we really grew to love while there, have been swirling around in our heads and have been laying heavily on our hearts as well.  And into this mix, falls Holy Week, the holiest week in our Church Year.  In looking over my reflections for Palm Sunday and the “holy days” of the upcoming week, from three years ago, I find that what the Spirit gave then, I couldn’t really improve on, so I will start there today and update as I go. 

   Now, I could give you some exegesis around the meaning of the readings today as we begin this holiest of weeks and probably, some thoughts will make their way into this homily; but I thought what might be a more meaningful way to go, would be to concentrate on what “this triumphal entry into Jerusalem” meant, ultimately, to our brother Jesus.

   This final journey to Jerusalem was the culmination of his relatively short life on this earth. We can only imagine the emotion he was experiencing! If he had been a musician; we might say that this action was his grand opus—the high point of all that his combined humanity and divinity had allowed and challenged him to proclaim. 

   All the prophets, especially the later ones such as, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke eloquently about who Jesus, as the Messiah would be—one with humanity—with us, suffering all that we would suffer, and we might add—experiencing so much of the good that this life can bring through interactions with others, through caring and giving of himself for the least among us. 

   Our trip to Cuba was definitely about this; (caring for the least among us) or at least will be as we attempt in the days and weeks ahead, to speak to the needs of the Cuban people who are suffering so much due to our (the United States’) blockade of this tiny country in relationship to the size of our country, which in fact, is 28 times the size of Cuba.  Our Witness for Peace delegation was probably, for the most part, of the mindset that our 60+ year blockade of Cuba is more about “revenge” than anything else.  I will share more on this as time goes by. 

   Jesus spoke his truth to the powers present in his time, about justice for all, as we must do in our time. And we know from Isaiah’s words today in the first reading that what Jesus had to say would not be accepted by all—and that there were those who wished to silence him. 

    Within the time frame of a week, this triumphal entry into the holy city of Jerusalem would end in seeming failure with his death in one of the most horrible ways that death can come to an individual.  We are told by Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant, that Paul’s beautiful hymn of praise to the Philippians seems the best way for us to understand Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection—while he does not minimize it; he also doesn’t spend undo time depicting it.  Rather, Paul really explains the suffering to us and tells us what it means—his state was divine, yet he did not cling to it, but humbled himself, becoming as all humans are.  

   Our time in Cuba called each of us to truly see life through the eyes of the Cuban people—to come to understand what their day-to-day life is because of our country’s unfair blockade of them.  Many of us have probably, in the past, heard the term, “embargo” used with regard to our policies toward Cuba, which we came to realize doesn’t adequately describe our actions toward them. 

   The word, “embargo” seems to suggest one country refusing to trade with another due to disagreement in politics, etc., but our actions toward Cuba, we learned, are better described as a total blockade of this country, because not only do we refuse to trade with them, but we are willing to punish any and all other countries who attempt to trade with Cuba by not trading then with them for six months. 

   This blockade hurts not only Cubans (the least among us) but ourselves and many, many others throughout our world. It would behoove all of us in this country to pick up a good history of Cuba if we are interested in knowing the true story, something we in this country have not been given over the years.  Such a book is one by Ada Ferrer. 

   A recent vote at the UN against the blockade of Cuba was 184-2, with only our country and Israel not in agreement to end it.  We are clearly on the wrong side of this issue. 

   Looking back then to our brother Jesus, within a week, his beloved apostles and friends would all, save a few—John, Mary of Magdala, his mother and some faithful women, leave him in fear.  Two would betray him—one would seek forgiveness, the other not, as he had missed the message that his friend, Jesus had spoken so many times before—that there is nothing we could ever do that would separate us from the love of God. 

   Scriptures tell us that our brother Jesus wept over Jerusalem for how they had so misunderstood his coming among them—they wanted a king—and he came as a servant.  They let their humanity, their lust for power and control get in the way of his message of love and care for all.  Even his closest friends—apostles who spent three years with him, hearing day after day the purpose for his coming—to basically show them, all of us, the best ways to live and to love, didn’t get it!  Jesus was always about, “leading with the heart,” not the head, and those in the society he graced with his presence who were women, the poor, the ill and downtrodden got his message—not about power over, but about humility—power with and for others.

   I reflect on Jesus’ “weeping over Jerusalem” just as several of us, in our delegation to Cuba wept over the injustices done to the Cuban people over the years, that were definitely about, “power over” rather than, “power with and for.”   

   His sadness, his sense of failure with so many whom he loved so much would engulf him for a time in his agony in the garden in the space of a week. His agony would call him to cry out to his Abba God, “Why have you forsaken me? —a prayer that comes to each of us at times, as we struggle against the powers-that-be, attempting to be our best selves. 

 But before that; he would spend his last days teaching in the temple, endeavoring to get the message across one last time that “what we do to others, we do to him.”  We can’t say that we love God and refuse to love our neighbor—he minces no words—it’s as simple as that!

    The more my friends that we can let these days come alive for us, the more his words will become real and guide our daily actions going forward.  A significant ritual for many of us Catholic-Christians over the years has been, “The Stations of the Cross,”  a reflection upon the steps of Jesus on the way to Calvary—a reverent reflection in itself, but probably since the Second Vatican Council, moving forward, many writers have put together modern day “Stations of the Cross”  being cognizant of the fact that Jesus’ suffering continues yet today in our sisters and brothers who live on the margins of our society.  There is such a service being held from 12:00-1:00 on Good Friday at Windom Park should anyone wish to attend.

   We won’t be meeting on Holy Thursday, but it would behoove us to remember the gift of love that this night depicts.  Jesus, knowing all that was before him, spent his last night before his death showing his closest friends, his mother and the other women, no doubt, even though the Scriptures don’t mention their presence, of how he wanted them to live going forward, once he was no longer physically with them.  They should serve each other, beautifully displayed in the washing of the feet. Whenever and wherever they gathered; they should know and believe that he was with them in the breaking of the bread.  And finally, his greatest prayer was that all people should be one, just as he was one with Abba God.  This is why our parish is named, All Are One—our statement to ourselves, our city and all others that everyone is welcome here, no exceptions!  Jesus’ priestly prayer was all about loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves—that’s it, that’s the message!

   We will gather here on Good Friday afternoon in a simple and holy remembrance of a day, more than any other that speaks to the steadfastness of our God’s love for us.  Jesus died a human death the way he had lived his human life—completely and wholeheartedly—always keeping in mind, especially at the end, the all-encompassing love of his Abba for him.  Being human, he doubted and cried out in the agony, in the suffering, but on some level; he knew that life would follow the death and he did it all for us so that we could be steadfast in hope of new life too!

   And then on Saturday afternoon, with the Easter Vigil; we will begin our alleluias in that hope.  Amen? Amen!