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A fulfilling experience

25 Jan 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"This is the time of fulfillment," proclaims this Sunday's gospel. Barack Obama fulfilled the dreams of many when he took the oath of office as the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, the day after what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 80th birthday. Isaac Newton Farris, president of The King Center and also King's nephew, called Obama's inauguration a "huge step" forward for King's dream of racial equality. "There is definitely a spiritual connection between these two events," Farris told a large crowd Monday at a commemoration at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. But, he added, there is still work to be done. Indeed, much work on many fronts awaited Obama after Tuesday's historic day of pageantry and celebration. A full agenda greeted him Wednesday as he stepped into the Oval Office. He summoned economic advisers and top military officials to separate meetings aimed at addressing the change he promised as a candidate. He also established new lobbying rules for "a clean break from business as usual," froze salaries for top White House staff members, placed phone calls to Mideast leaders, and had aides circulate a draft executive order that would close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year. A multi-denominational prayer service at Washington National Cathedral and an open house at the White House were also on Wednesday's schedule for Obama. Source: Articles by Errin Haines and David Espo for the Associated Press

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A dream deferred no more

27 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

During the Sunday, December 27 Mass celebrating the Holy Family, the reading from the First Letter of John proclaims, "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed." In his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the day when "all of God's children . . . will be able to join hands . . . ." The groundbreaking inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American president last January brought the nation a giant step closer to fulfilling King's dream and was near the top of most lists of the year's major events. Though Obama would soon confront the sobering realities of governing as he struggled to get the economy back on track and win support for his ambitious legislative priorities, Inauguration Day was a moving moment for many in the U.S. and worldwide who watched with great interest as the nation's first black president took the oath of office. This issue compiled using source material from articles by, among others, David Crary, Alan Zibel, and Jeannine Aversa for the Associated Press; John Talty for Slate.com; Sam Hodges for the DallasNews.com Religion Blog;Chaz Muth for Catholic News Service; Alex Altman for TIME; and articles by the Religion Newswriters Associationand Agence France Presse

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Memorial to King reminds nation of his dream

28 Aug 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s readings call attention to the fact that discipleship and the prophetic life can involve great hardship. "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,” Jesus says, adding that “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Tourists and Washington, D.C. residents got their first up-close look Monday at the new memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The memorial will be dedicated Sunday, the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak. The monument sits on the National Mall near the Tidal Basin, between the Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson memorials. It includes a 30-foot-tall sculpture of King and a 450-foot-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from the civil rights leader. The sculptor, Lei Yixin, said he wanted the memorial to be a visual representation of the ideals King spoke of in his noted speech. The statue depicts King emerging from a stone. The concept for the scuplture was taken from a line in the "I Have a Dream" speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, all of whom were aids to King 40 years ago, will be present for Sunday’s unveiling, along with many other longtime supporters of the civil rights movement. "Dr. King was an emancipator, he was a liberator,” said Lewis. “He liberated not just a people, but a nation. His message is still liberating people." Sources: Articles by Errin Hanes and Ben Nuckols for the Associated Press

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A reformation of long-frayed ecumenical relations?

25 Sep 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

That Jesus did not have the highest opinion of the chief priests and religious elders is made clear in this Sunday’s gospel when he warns them that “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Despite a history of animosity between Roman Catholic and German Protestant religious leaders dating back to the 16th-century Reformation, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday he would pray with Protestant leaders during a visit this week to Germany. At the same time he played down expectations of a breakthrough in ecumenical ties. The pope's September 22-25 visit to Germany, his native country, has prompted some Protestants to call for more ecumenical measures like joint communions and Catholic recognition of Protestant churches. Benedict will visit Erfurt, one-time home of Martin Luther, considered the father of the reform movement that split Western Europe's Christians into Protestants and Catholics some 500 years ago. "In the Augustinian monastery and church where Luther began his path, I will have the opportunity to meet representatives of Germany's Protestant Church," Benedict said in a message televised by German broadcaster ARD. "We will pray together, listen to the word of God, think together, and discuss," he said. But he added: "We do not expect any sensations." Source: An article by Alexandra Hudson for Reuters

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The dream turns 50

01 Sep 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The just rejoice and exult before God” and “are glad and rejoice” as they praise God’s name, the psalmist says this Sunday. The nation this week praises and remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s stirring “I have a dream” speech, a call for racial justice issued 50 years ago at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.Speaking on Wednesday in front of the Lincoln Memorial where King and others addressed the crowds, President Barack Obama said the entire world drew strength from the March on Washington 50 years ago and that advances in securing voting rights, civil rights, and the eradication of legalized discrimination of African Americans show that part of Dr. King's goals were achieved, but continued economic inequality and stagnant wages show that only part of King.'s dreams have been fulfilled.God prepares a home for the poor, says the psalmist. The nation, however, has a ways to go when it comes to poverty rates, said the president, citing income inequality and disparities in the unemployment rate between blacks and whites as examples. Tying the 1963 demonstration to concerns about economic inequality today, Obama reminded people that jobs were a central goal of those marching years ago.Obama was among a host of people who honored King and those who assembled 50 years ago. African American luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey and civil-rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis also hailed King's message. Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton spoke as well, along with members of King´s family.The 1963 march is seen as a masterpiece of nonviolent protest, a day of speeches, prayer, and song that included gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and folk singers Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Participants then were advocating for basic freedoms later enshrined in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most sweeping civil-rights legislation since Reconstruction, which outlawed discrimination against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities and women and banned discriminatory voting-registration practices.Homily hint: In 1979 the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops issued Brothers and Sisters to Us, which begins with this strong statement: “Racism is an evil which endures in our society and in our church.” The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is a teachable moment when faith communities can use the bishops’ document to look both at progress made and promises yet to keep. Sources: Articles by Jared A. Favole and Elizabeth Williamson for the Wall StreetJournal and Peter Baker and Sheryl Gay Stolberg for the New York Times

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King daughter opposes plans to sell MLK artifacts

09 Feb 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The just one shall be in everlasting remembrance,” says the psalmist. The memory of one who worked for justice has proven to be contentious one, as the surviving children of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. have entered into another disagreement, this one over the fate of some of their father’s most treasured relics.Rev. Bernice King, the youngest of the four King children, and her brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, have been in and out of court for years over various disputes about their father’s estate. On January 20, the national holiday marking her father’s birthday, Bernice King learned that her brothers wanted access to their famous father’s Bible—used at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration—and King’s Nobel Peace Prize medal, apparently for the purpose of selling them. They filed suit on January 31 after she refused, she said.Bernice King is CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, but her brothers are in charge of their father’s estate. The Kings’ other daughter, Yolanda, died in 2007.In a statement on her Facebook page, King called the items her “most prized possessions. . . . Some actions are sacrilegious and some things are not for sale no matter the circumstances, including my daddy’s Bible and Nobel Peace Prize Medal,” she said. “Both are tangible evidence of the faith and devotion of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Parting with this priceless memorabilia should not be an option.”Homily hint: In her statement Bernice King cited Mark 8:36: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?’” While it is difficult judge a family dispute and also sad to see the legacy of a great person become the subject of such a conflict, the situation serves to remind people of faith that what they receive from the past and pass on to next generations is something commonly held and in need of good stewardship. Source: An article by Adelle M. Banks for Religion News Service

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Luther's goal not schism but reform of "church he loved"

13 Apr 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“You who fear the Lord, praise him . . . give glory to him; revere him!” prays the psalmist this Sunday. Catholics and Lutherans hoping to find further unity around their mutual reverence for and praise of God have reasons for hope, say leaders from both communions."The international and national dialogues between Lutherans and Catholics in the last 50 years have yielded significant truth," retired Roman Catholic Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans told a recent ecumenical gathering in Kenner, Louisiana on March 25, prompting Catholics "to revisit the person and motivation of Martin Luther" in advance of the 500th anniversary in 2017 of the publication of Luther's "95 theses," seen as the traditional starting point of the Protestant Reformation.Luther’s “genuine desire to promote renewal in the church cannot be denied," Archbishop Hughes said. "The personal struggle that marked his life was severely complicated by the way in which authorities in Rome, during the papacy of Pope Leo X, treated him.”Bishop Michael Rinehart, head of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, told the meeting: "Luther did not want to leave. He was bold, he was blunt, he was vulgar and mistakes were made, but he really didn't want schism. He wanted to reform the church he loved."Two of the concrete signposts of the fruitfulness of international dialogue, said Archbishop Hughes, are the 1999 joint statement by Catholic and Lutheran leaders on the doctrine of justification—how people are justified in God's eyes and saved by Jesus Christ—which expressed a consensus that this issue no longer divides Catholics and Lutherans. The other landmark statement, issued last July, was called "From Conflict to Communion."Last year's document, released by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation, offered five "ecumenical imperatives" for jointly commemorating the 500th anniversary of Luther's theses:Begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division; be transformed by the encounter with each other and by the mutual witness of faith; commit ourselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps; jointly rediscover the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world.There still are obvious doctrinal disagreements between the two churches, but Bishop Rinehart said Lutherans and Catholics "believe in the real presence of Christ" and "have a responsibility to witness to the transforming love of Christ. . . . It's OK to disagree, but what the world needs to hear is the message of Christ."Homily hint: "We need not only to be explicit about what we have been able to recognize we believe in common," Archbishop Hughes also said, "but also what it is we still need to address if we are going to realize the Lord's priestly prayer at the Last Supper that we all be 'one in him even as I am one with the Father.' " Despite centuries of division, contemporary Christians need to recognize it was Christ's intention that all his followers be one and that to believe otherwise is an offense not only against the Lord but also the unity of God. Source: An article by Peter Finney, Jr. for Catholic News Service

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Martin Luther now welcome in Rome

30 Aug 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Authentic religion is marked by avoidance of worldly ways, says Alice Camille in Exploring the Word for this Sunday. Martin Luther, the church reformer excommunicated nearly 500 years ago, in retrospect had legitimate grievances about the worldly ways of the church of his age. With time, reconciliation has begun. The Vatican has given its backing to a central Rome square being named after Luther. Next month a hilltop square in Rome is due to be named Piazza Martin Lutero. Despite Luther being thrown out of the Catholic Church during his lifetime, the Vatican reacted positively to news of the square’s upcoming inauguration. “It’s a decision taken by Rome city hall which is favorable to Catholics in that it’s in line with the path of dialogue started with the ecumenical council,” said the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Vatican press office. Homily hint: Ecumenism enjoyed a revival in the wake of Vatican II. That revival lagged in recent decades but takes on new energy during the current pontificate. Lutherans and Roman Catholics have much to discuss. Let the dialogue continue! For more on the Vatican approval of the naming of the square, see: Vatican backs plan to name Rome square for Martin Luther

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A legacy of love

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Martin Luther King Jr. Day SHE WAS A DAY LABORER, working 10 hours at a factory and spending another two on the bus to and from work. All she wanted was to read and write well enough to fill out a job application so she could get a full-time job with a company that offered benefits. It was a simple goal, made difficult by the fact that she was 55, her eyesight was failing, and her mind and memory weren’t as sharp as they used to be. But she persevered. Working with a tutor every Tuesday and Thursday, she struggled to memorize the alphabet and sound out words. School had not been a priority when she was growing up in Mississippi during the 1940s. Her parents were sharecroppers, and they needed every able body to work the fields. After her mother was struck by lightning—an apparent hazard of the job—she and a sister made their way to Chicago to find work. “I was lucky to make it out of Mississippi alive. Those were terrible times.” Of course, Chicago wasn’t much better during the turbulent ’60s. Race riots scarred her new neighborhood, and poverty sucked the life out of the community. “Even during the worst of times, I never failed to vote,” she said. ”People much braver than I am risked their lives so I could have this privilege.” She progressed in her studies and was soon keeping a journal and writing essays about her life. After a year, she mustered the courage to apply for a full-time job at the factory. Her hand shook as she read all the questions on the application and wrote out her answers. She received word a day later that she got the job. She called her tutor and said, “I did it. I accomplished my dream!” At the next session, her tutor gave her a slim volume of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tears welled in the woman’s eyes as she turned to King’s “I have a dream” speech and realized she was able to read every word. TODAY THE UNITED STATES HONORS the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose grand dreams of peace and equality, though not fully realized, continue to take root in the simple dreams of everyday people and plant the seeds of reform and renewal. Like today’s gospel, King’s legacy is about seeing the world in a different way and reshaping our perceptions and actions. New wine needs new wineskins, Jesus said and King heard. Thus, King imagined a world not just free of racial discord, but free from war, poverty, and injustice of any kind. And true to his Christian roots, he believed that the fight for these freedoms had to be nonviolent. “I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself,” King announced to his enemies. “Do to us what you will and we will still love you.” King imagined a world not just free of racial discord, but free from war, poverty, and injustice of any kind. These are words we ignore at our own peril. If we choose violence over conciliation, hate over love, we will be rewarded with feelings of paranoia and alienation. Every misunderstanding becomes reason for mistrust and resentment; every slight becomes reason for war. A heart filled with hate knows no joy. Like new cloth sewn into an old cloak, the heart of hate can’t bear the fullness of joy. It pulls and tears till it feels nothing. SO JESUS AND KING in his footsteps urge us to love our enemies, no matter how deep the divide, no matter how bitter the struggle. We all have enemies. Who are yours? Take a moment to picture and name them—it could be our national enemies whom we send troops to fight, or a coworker who wishes you ill; perhaps it’s a family member or friend who betrayed or abused you, or a neighbor whose political or religious views are abhorrent to you; maybe it’s some thug who robbed you, or a loathsome bully who threatened someone you care for. Can you love these people now or continue to love them even as their detestable acts and hatred toward you grows? Yes, answered Jesus; yes, answered Gandhi; yes, answered King. What will your answer be? “Love,” King said, “is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.” Begin to win new friends today by looking at your enemies as people who need your love, even as you work to understand them or change their unjust and immoral behavior. Remember, braver ones than you or I died that we might live in love.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

Special occasion Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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Exploring the word

15 Jan 2012 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

How do we distinguish God’s voice from all other voices clamoring for our attention each day? How do we detect right from wrong, or separate our stubborn self-will from God’s righteous will? Each of us has dozens of priorities to juggle every day. We have to care for ourselves as well as the practical needs of our families. We have to manage our households and also our employer’s expectations. We have responsibilities to creditors, neighbors, the church, and the custody of our own souls to consider. We’re citizens of many overlapping kingdoms, one of which is the eternal reign of God. Samuel lost the guidance of his parents early when they surrendered him to the local shrine as a human offering of thanksgiving. He had to learn to respond to new authorities, and at first that meant attending to the beck and call of the priest Eli. Too bad for Samuel: Eli wasn’t exactly the greatest mentor around. But as a priest Eli understood one thing even if he didn’t practice it: When God speaks, you listen. This one vital lesson was all he needed to teach Samuel. Once the boy recognized the voice of God, his future direction was no longer in doubt. In the same way, the apostle Andrew could leave John’s discipleship once the Baptist pointed out the Lamb of God. What more did Andrew need to know? Discerning God’s true presence will be enough for those who learn to perceive it. For those who don’t, no lesson will ever be enough. Tomorrow we commemorate another person who learned to hear God speaking to his generation: Martin Luther King Jr. King understood “that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong,” as he wrote in one of his early works, Strength to Love. If we intend to prepare a heart attentive to the divine voice, we have to make sure our thinking is likewise clear and ready. That is what religious education and formation is all about—something not only for our children but for all of us. If we don’t know that God speaks in the language of love, we won’t recognize the divine prompting when it arrives. Division is no longer an option: We have to choose “between chaos and community,” King declared, aware that today’s community must be a global union, not only by befriending the people who are near and similar to us. “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power,” this man of discernment taught us. “We have guided missiles and misguided [people].” Surely it was an angel that revealed to him one of his most powerful truths: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Related scripture links Samuel stories: 1 Sam. chs. 1-3, 7-10, 12-13, 15-16, 19, 25, 28 Other great calls: Gen. 12:1-9; Exod. 3:4-14; Isa. 6:1-13; Jer. 1:4-10; Jon. 1:1-3; Luke 1:26-38; Acts 9:1-9 Catechism links Vocation: CCC 1-3; 541-546; 823-828; 836; 1546-47 Discipleship: CCC 531-533; 551-553; 783-786; 1691-1696

Authors Alice Camille

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