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Exploring the word

28 Apr 2013 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

I often wonder how many people fall for the dozens of headlines at every checkout counter that promise you can lose 20 pounds in a few weeks by following three simple guidelines. Perhaps you don’t believe it so much as want to believe it. You’re looking for an easy way out of your dilemma of eating too much, too often, of all the bad-for-you stuff. How many, then, might fall for the book or sermon or church marquee that promises a gentler, simpler religion that doesn’t cost so much? It sounds too good to be true that there might be a version of Christianity out there that doesn’t espouse behaviors or insist you embrace uncomfortable and expensive ideals. And if you find such a church—and they’re out there—please remember that any deal that sounds too good to be true probably is. Christianity without the cross is a highly suspect brand indeed. Paul and Barnabas, still running around Asia Minor in the weekly readings, may have embraced rejection and expulsion from the occasional city with joy and a song in their hearts, but when they get back to their friends they admit that the road of proclamation is tough and costly. They suggest prayer and fasting as useful spiritual armor for those in responsible church positions. Accomplishments on the mission trail are not rare but they are also not cheap. John of Patmos likewise sees the holy new Jerusalem descend like a bride from heaven, which sounds wonderful. Those eyes of his, though, had to view a whole lot of destruction and distress between his first glimpse of glory and his last. All things are made new but the price tag on that is that the old order has to pass away. That is a euphemism for tearing the world as you know it apart. When you’re shopping for a new world, you have to keep the price in mind. Christianity, despite what you may read in the news, is not easy. Jesus talks of glory at the Last Supper but that’s after he’s talked about Passion and suffering for quite a while. His friends selectively and conveniently hit the mute button of their attention every time they hear that the Son of Man is preparing for a sacrifice like nothing the world has seen. Glory, yes. Cross, no. Palm Sunday was great but hold the Good Friday. New creation without apocalypse, please. As often as you chuckle at the obtuseness of the first disciples, you may be ignoring how much you censor the implications of your own baptism. “Love one another” sounds like a much simpler and easier religion than the one with ten commandments. But is it? Related scripture links Barnabas sponsors Paul: Acts 9:26-28 First missionary journey: Acts 13:1-14:28 Making things new: Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 11:19-20; 36:26-28; 2 Pet. 3:13 Separation of Paul and Barnabas: Acts 15:36-41 Catechism links New people: CCC 782; 1822-1829; 1970-1974; 2822-2827; 2842 Revelation: CCC 115-119; 756-757; 1043-1050; 1186; 2016

Authors Alice Camille

promises

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The inner word

18 Nov 2012 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Jesus uses the fig tree to show how his return is as inevitable as the turning of the seasons. If he says something is going to happen, it will, in time, happen. Jesus keeps his promises. In scripture promise is an important part of God’s relationship with God’s people; it’s also known as covenant: a commitment on God’s part to humanity that also frequently involves humanity’s response. What promises has God made to you? How has God kept them?

covenant promises Commitment

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Sign & sacrament

10 Jun 2012 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Cycle B

Life makes extravagant promises when we are young, or so it seems. We can have anything! We can go anywhere! We can be anyone! As time goes on, the promise of life seems to shrink down to more modest, if disappointing, proportions. Life turns out to be short, resources have limits, and we have to make wise choices. God, whose existence and love have no natural limits, chose to pour out that infinite life for our sake. If you’re looking for extravagant promises, there’s only one promise keeper. Come to the table this weekend.

promises choices

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Exploring the word

16 Jan 2011 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

SOME PEOPLE LIKE to keep expectations low and goals modest as insurance against disappointment. Even in religion they prefer the buttoned-down and tucked-in approach, wary of God’s untidily passionate embrace. Those offended by high-flying exuberance and over-the-top promises will want to skip this Sunday’s liturgy—or else put your hands over your ears while decidedly un-conservative images are scattered about like belated New Year’s confetti. If all you want is a pinch of salvation and a polite portion of blessing, best to avoid the cornucopia being served in the Liturgy of the Word today. You can start by blaming Isaiah. In today’s Servant Song, God brushes aside the notion that such a faithful friend might remain hidden in subservience. God takes this candle from under a bushel and places the servant on a lamp stand as “a light to the nations.” If all we’re looking for is a smidgeon of religion to light our way, we might consider that God invites us to be that light ourselves! And not only for our families, or for our own kind. God intends salvation as a universal proposition: Who better to make that known than you and me? Saint Paul is next in line for culpability. When addressing the fractious Corinthians, he doesn’t stop at laying down the law for them. He doesn’t ask them to behave; he calls them to be holy! And his letter isn’t only for them but for “all those everywhere”—presumably us, too, 20 centuries later and just as in need of Paul’s instruction, truth be told. Because Paul is personally broke, he cheerfully offers his readers what’s not his: “grace and peace” from God and Jesus. It’s an astonishing abundance, and if only we would accept it we would find it to be enough to meet all our needs and concerns. Finally, we have to blame John the Baptist—but only collaterally, because it’s God who grants this final extravagance and John who announces it. John insists (perhaps too much) that he’s only an innocent bystander in this salvation episode. He didn’t know Jesus, he tells us twice. He was simply doing his job, preparing the way and sweeping off the littered path of an approaching dignitary. Frankly, John’s as passive as a signpost—and just as culpable for leading people down the path of repentance and grace. But in the end, you see, God’s at the root of these centuries of bold promises and wild dreams of hope. It would all be hyperbole if it weren’t reality: the world’s sin wiped out by a single act of perfect obedience? Who is God kidding, and how are we supposed to believe that? Or: Do we dare? Related scripture links Entertaining angels: Gen. 18-19:29 The One who is to come: Mark 1:7; Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; John 1:15 John's first testimony in the womb: Luke 1:44 John's hesitations: Matt. 11:2-3; Luke 7:18-20 Jesus involved with baptizing: John 3:22, 4:1-3 John is not the light: John 1:5-9; but see also John 5:35 Christ consciousness: Gal. 2:20; Phil. 2:5, 21; Rom. 13:14 Catechism links Lamb: CCC 407-409; 536; 608; 711-716; 1137; 1505 Messiah: CCC 436-440; 1286-1287 John the Baptist: CCC 523; 717-720

Authors Alice Camille

promises invitation celebration Hope

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Who's listening?

19 Dec 2010 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

The birth of the Lord draws near. The fulfillment of God's promises approaches. Christmas celebrates God's coming into the world as a fully human being for the renewal of human lives. Help the people to prepare for this holy day by reminding them of God's promises in their lives and the making good on those promises through the presence of the Redeemer. Encourage them to recognize how God does act and is with us. Ask them to rededicate themselves to fulfilling their own baptismal promises to God.

promises

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Exploring the word

16 May 2010 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

HOW MANY TIMES have you seen the sign in a vacant shop window or posted on an empty lot? "Coming soon!" it bravely announces. And maybe it does come, whatever it is: shopping mall or movie house, coffee shop or the Church of What's Happening Now. But just as often the announcement is too ambitious; the sign makes its claim a bit too prematurely. Meanwhile the deal falls through, the finances aren't secured, the tenant backs out. Eventually the signage yellows, tears, and falls away. It's dicey to put our hopes in a future event; it's always risky to pin our heart on "maybe." An engagement ring may seem like a downpayment on a marriage, but the two are not the same. One is legally binding; the other is a flashy bauble. So, too, a night of passion does not a lifetime commitment make. Nor is a student loan any guarantee of a diploma, and the house, as we all understand better these days, is not yours until the mortgage is paid. Brave beginnings, like all promises, are only as good as their fulfillment. "Yes, I am coming soon," the voice in John's vision assures him. The Spirit and the bride, emblems of the promise, affirm this: "Come!" John adds his amen and maranatha to the chorus that faithfully awaits the Lord's return. The early church anticipated this joyful reunion at any moment, in the twinkling of an eye, with a trumpet flourish, as Saint Paul reminds the Thessalonians. Original Christians lived for this arrival on the edge of their seats, framing the way they understood the gospel message according to this astonishing expectation. To the mind of many, at least, the result must have been disappointing. First came the gospel, then baptism, followed by persecution. But no apocalyptic Alpha and Omega showed up on the doorstep to validate all the wonderful claims. Millennialists have made such grand claims again. Dates have been calculated. People have made their preparations, sold their homes, said their good-byes. Apocalypse watchers are poised in our own generation, reminding us of the countdown and positioning themselves to be among those snatched skyward. There is another way, however, to seek the fulfillment of this promise. We cannot know the exact time of Alpha and Omega’s arrival, but the Kingdom comes when God's will is done, on earth as in heaven: This we affirm with the only prayer Jesus asked us to pray. Jesus comes when invited into our surrendered hearts. Send your invitation today. Related scripture links Images of glory: Gen. 15:17; Exod. 3:2, 13:21-22, 19:16-19; Mark 9:2-3; Matt. 17:2; Luke 9:29 The heavens are telling the glory of God: Ps. 19:1-7 Wisdom and glory: Wis. 7:25-30 Catechism links Heaven: CCC 325-327; 1023-1029; 1042-1050 Kingdom: CCC 436-440; 668-670 Second Coming: CCC 671-679; 1038-1041

Authors Alice Camille

promises Hope

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Homily stories

21 Dec 2014 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

In my entire eight years of life I had never received an invitation to a party in the mail. Murray from across the alley was celebrating his birthday. Mom made me check the return card saying I would be there, explaining to me what RSVP meant. I felt really grown up until I later found out that it was scheduled the same day my brothers and I were going to Riverview Amusement Park with Aunt Mary. I figured I’d just blow off Murray’s party. But mom insisted that a promise made had to be a promise kept. I wasn’t happy until I got to the party and found that there was a clown and a magician and gift bags for all of us. I had a great time. God kept promises made to King David and to Mary. And they in turn kept their promises to God even when it wasn’t easy. In just a few days we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, the outcome of all those kept promises. Let us pray that we will be surprised and overjoyed by what the promise of Christmas will bring this year to all who need Jesus’ love.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

promises

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The inner word

17 Jan 2016 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The first reading is a kind of writing that’s called “reminding the Lord”—reminding God about the promises God made to God’s people. It sounds strange because why would anyone have to remind God about anything? You don’t. The ultimate audience for the reminder is the people. By listing God’s promises, the prophet is giving a kind of pep-talk that calls to mind what God said God will do for them. What do you have to ”remind the Lord” about? In other words, what blessings do you need to recall in your own life?

promises

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Homily themes

24 Jan 2016 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

How do the listeners react in this week’s readings? When the Israelites heard God’s word, they wept. When the disciples first heard it in Galilee, they didn’t always understand. When the Corinthians heard it, they started arguing. How about the teachers? In the Book of Nehemiah the priests scrambled to change the people’s reaction. Despite Saint Paul’s talk about the equal necessity of different roles, some are more equal than others; he even numbers them so we notice, and they were the teachers. Jesus of course is the surest teacher. He literally sat in the tradition: at the weekly synagogue service, proclaiming God’s promises. But this time the old promises were being fulfilled, and it was happening today—not only that particular day in Nazareth but the dawn of a new era of God’s relationship to God’s people.

promises

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Will ethics charges fell congressional stalwarts this fall?

08 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s first reading speaks of the oaths and promises made at the first Passover, and of the faith the people of Israel placed in those oaths as they awaited their salvation and the punishment of their adversaries. Two of the longest-serving and highest-ranking Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative face serious ethics charges that suggest they may have to some extent violated their oaths of office as well as the public trust. Representatives Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Maxime Waters (D-CA) hope to salvage their careers through a combination of mea culpas for errors of judgment and vigorous defenses that the charges warrant no further punishment. Both Waters and Rangel are pushing for what promise to be highly publicized public trials on the ethics charges, which brings the potential of a spectacle focusing on Congressional corruption this fall just as Democrats are fighting to hold their majorities in the House and Senate. At the time of the first Passover, the Jewish people steadfastly awaited their salvation, the reading from the Book of Wisdom tells us. Rangel and Waters both have said they are confident they will be vindicated. Nervous Democratic leaders hope private talks can resolve the cases well before election day. Source: Articles by Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan for Politco.com, Larry Margasak for the Associated Press, and Joshua Burns for Examiner.com (Cincinnati)

promises Passover corruption ethics charles rangel maxime waters

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