Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle A
St. Mark, Fallston
June 26, 2011
Eucharist: The Eye of the Hurricane
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
HURRICANES
June 1st began the hurricane season and from June 1 until November 30 the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida will monitor and track all hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricanes are actually defined as tropical cyclones originating in the Caribbean. As cyclones they are swirling masses of turbulent, violent air. To be a hurricane and receive an official name like Katrina, Andrew, Rita, Wilma, or Ike, they must equal or exceed winds of 74 mph. Interestingly the Spanish word huracán is derived from the Bahamian word hurakán, which means ‘god of the storm.’
Perhaps the best way to understand this is to imagine a Frisbee with a hole cut out of its center. Imagine that you expand the Frisbee so that it measures 100 miles across and the small hole measures 10 miles across.
Then, spin the Frisbee at the rate of 100 miles an hour. That’s what a hurricane is like.
The interesting thing is that inside the 10-mile wide eye, (demonstrate) there is no wind, no rain at all – just blue skies and sunshine. The eye of a hurricane is peaceful and calm.
THE MASS AS THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE
That image of the eye of a hurricane is a helpful way to understand the Eucharist in our lives as Catholics.
And on this Feast of Corpus Christi I’d like to share some thoughts on what this eye of the hurricane could be for us.
The very way that the Mass is structured, planned, and celebrated affords us some remarkable possibilities for peace and calm in our lives.
THINK ABOUT IT
1) We enter a space that is accepting, hospitable, and kind; a place we are more inclined to be ourselves; a space we are more inclined to put away our anger, resentment, or frustrations and be at peace with ourselves.
We encounter a group of people who, while they know that they are human and less than perfect, want to live life with a sense of hope …
Want to live their lives for something beyond themselves…
Want some help in dealing with the stresses they are encountering.
2) We hear Old and New Testament Scriptures that support that vision of “trying to do better” and we hear a homily that opens us up to new perspectives, new possibilities, new areas of growth.
We hear words that encourage us and give us hope.
3) At the General Intercessions we pray for our needs and the needs of all in the world.
4) The Sign of Peace opens us up to our neighbors immediately around us and a hundred clusters of such sharing of peace bind us together as a larger assembly.
5) The momentum builds, as in a great symphony, to a climax, where the Lord Jesus himself comes among us and makes his presence felt. It is a presence that each of us is intimately drawn into, as we become what we eat.
And the mood is festive by our singing; the mood is supportive as we stand while others eat; the mood is reflective as we all sit for a time of silence to relish the feast we have consumed.
CONCLUSION
It is said that the eye of the hurricane, as it passes over a place or a group of individuals, lasts only about an hour. Interesting enough, so too does the Eucharistic celebration we call the Mass.
Jesus never intended that we stay in the “eye” of the Eucharist, though it is the essence of peace and calm.
To the contrary, he intended that we go back into the storms of our life: the storms of frustrating work situation, the storms of broken promises, and the storms of difficult relationships.
On this Feast of Corpus Christi we consider what we go back into our storms with, after this hour together.
We are at peace with ourselves; we are at peace with one another; we are at peace with God.
And with the words, “Go the Mass is ended,” we are sent back into our storms renewed, refreshed, and filled with a new sense of hope, as we become the eye of the storm for others.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for June 12, 2011: Communion Through the Spirit Within
Feast of Pentecost, Cycle A
St. Mark, St. Margaret Parishes
June 12, 2011
Communion Through the Spirit Within
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
There is a fifteenth century Russian icon entitled “The Descent of the Holy Spirit.”
This icon – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – depicts Pentecost with complete quiet and calm. It is, in sharp contrast to the strong wind, the fiery tongues, and the fearful disciples, that we see in today’s readings.
The icon portrays the Apostles sitting in a semi-circle in complete serenity and peace. It conveys the coming of the Holy Spirit as an inner event.
The idea is that through the birth of Jesus, God becomes God-with-us. Now, through the sending of the Spirit, God becomes God-with-in-us.
Surprisingly, the figures in the icon are not looking at or talking to or working with one another. Instead, they are all listening intently to the God-within-them.
Each of the persons is portrayed as very differently. Each has different color hair, different way of sitting and even clothes that are different in style and color.
And yet, despite all of these differences, the icon portrays complete harmony. The message is that the God-within-us – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – makes many individuals into a single community.
The icon confronts us with the truth that we are not complete, in and by ourselves, but it also consoles us with the revelation that it is the very God-within-us that brings about our completeness through our communion with others.
THE LESSON OF THE ICON
This fifteenth century Russian icon makes an extraordinary point for our living: The presence of God-within-us can be seen as the common ground between each of us and God. It’s what makes us one.
And so, what we need to do is awaken our awareness to the Spirit’s presence as what grounds us, much as we see the Apostles doing in the icon. This awareness moves us to realize God’s presence and our common grounding with all people.
In this way, our awareness of God-within-us is our union with him but also it speaks of the communion we have with each other. It is the most solid and most lasting basis of community that we could ever hope for.
THOMAS MERTON'S INSIGHT
The well-known Trappist monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton has a profound insight on this.
I want to read a few sentences of Merton that relate directly to this point. As I read them slowly, please simply take them and relish any insights that surface.
Merton says: “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless.
“It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity – we discover an older unity.
“My dear Brothers and Sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not.
“And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
CONCLUSION
Merton’s thoughts are simple and yet quite profound.
We sometimes make the differences between us, like the differences in the figures in the icon, we sometimes make these obstacles to communion or community or unity.
➢ Black versus White, Brown versus Yellow – an obstacle to communion!
➢ People in Harford County versus people in Baltimore City – obstacle!
➢ Christians versus Jews – yes, obstacle!
➢ You’re getting the point. Christians versus Muslims – obstacle!
➢ Jews versus Muslims – obstacle!
➢ Catholics versus those who are not – obstacle!
➢ American citizens versus illegal immigrants – obstacle!
➢ Politically liberal versus conservative – obstacle!
➢ Catholic progressive versus traditionalist – obstacle!
Have I left anyone out?
Yes, so often, myself included, allow differences to obscure the communion and community and unity that is there.
As Merton writes, “We are already one.
“What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
This is the Holy Spirit, God-within-us. This is what Pentecost is about.
St. Mark, St. Margaret Parishes
June 12, 2011
Communion Through the Spirit Within
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
There is a fifteenth century Russian icon entitled “The Descent of the Holy Spirit.”
This icon – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – depicts Pentecost with complete quiet and calm. It is, in sharp contrast to the strong wind, the fiery tongues, and the fearful disciples, that we see in today’s readings.
The icon portrays the Apostles sitting in a semi-circle in complete serenity and peace. It conveys the coming of the Holy Spirit as an inner event.
The idea is that through the birth of Jesus, God becomes God-with-us. Now, through the sending of the Spirit, God becomes God-with-in-us.
Surprisingly, the figures in the icon are not looking at or talking to or working with one another. Instead, they are all listening intently to the God-within-them.
Each of the persons is portrayed as very differently. Each has different color hair, different way of sitting and even clothes that are different in style and color.
And yet, despite all of these differences, the icon portrays complete harmony. The message is that the God-within-us – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – makes many individuals into a single community.
The icon confronts us with the truth that we are not complete, in and by ourselves, but it also consoles us with the revelation that it is the very God-within-us that brings about our completeness through our communion with others.
THE LESSON OF THE ICON
This fifteenth century Russian icon makes an extraordinary point for our living: The presence of God-within-us can be seen as the common ground between each of us and God. It’s what makes us one.
And so, what we need to do is awaken our awareness to the Spirit’s presence as what grounds us, much as we see the Apostles doing in the icon. This awareness moves us to realize God’s presence and our common grounding with all people.
In this way, our awareness of God-within-us is our union with him but also it speaks of the communion we have with each other. It is the most solid and most lasting basis of community that we could ever hope for.
THOMAS MERTON'S INSIGHT
The well-known Trappist monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton has a profound insight on this.
I want to read a few sentences of Merton that relate directly to this point. As I read them slowly, please simply take them and relish any insights that surface.
Merton says: “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless.
“It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity – we discover an older unity.
“My dear Brothers and Sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not.
“And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
CONCLUSION
Merton’s thoughts are simple and yet quite profound.
We sometimes make the differences between us, like the differences in the figures in the icon, we sometimes make these obstacles to communion or community or unity.
➢ Black versus White, Brown versus Yellow – an obstacle to communion!
➢ People in Harford County versus people in Baltimore City – obstacle!
➢ Christians versus Jews – yes, obstacle!
➢ You’re getting the point. Christians versus Muslims – obstacle!
➢ Jews versus Muslims – obstacle!
➢ Catholics versus those who are not – obstacle!
➢ American citizens versus illegal immigrants – obstacle!
➢ Politically liberal versus conservative – obstacle!
➢ Catholic progressive versus traditionalist – obstacle!
Have I left anyone out?
Yes, so often, myself included, allow differences to obscure the communion and community and unity that is there.
As Merton writes, “We are already one.
“What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
This is the Holy Spirit, God-within-us. This is what Pentecost is about.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for June 5, 2011: Baking Cookies: The Kingdom in Our Midst
Ascension of the Lord, Cycle A
St. Mark, Fallston
St. Margaret, Bel Air
June 5, 2011
Baking Cookies: The Kingdom in Our Midst
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
DOUGHJANGLES
Aaron and Eric Ware were not only twin brothers, but also best friends. They did everything together.
Four years ago, Eric died from brain cancer. Eleven-year-old Aaron was at a loss. Unable to accept his twin’s death, Aaron sunk into depression. His worried parents made an appointment with his pediatrician.
During the exam, the doctor noticed something. When she asked Aaron what he liked to do, Aaron smiled for the first time.
“Bake,” he said. “Well, then, that’s what we’re going to do,” the doctor told Aaron. Her prescription: “Start a baking company. Come up with a name for the company.”
She then handed her young patient a $20-dollar bill. “I’m going to be your first investor. You report back to me and we’ll see how it goes.”
Aaron threw himself into the challenge. With the help of his mom and his older brother, Aaron started “Doughjangles. “
He bakes hundreds of cookies each week and sells them to family and friends. Half the proceeds go to the charities that helped Eric. Doughjangles is still going strong.
Says Aaron, “Instead of just watching TV trying to forget, Eric would want me to do something I love doing.” In baking cookies, young Aaron found a way to continue the “work” of goodness and happiness he knew with his brother.
SCRIPTURE
Today is the Ascension of the Lord. It is about the followers of Jesus having a new kind of relationship with him, one beyond the merely physical one of two bodies in the same space together. It’s a new kind of presence to one another.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all place the Ascension as an event on Easter Sunday. For John and his gospel, the Ascension is not an event, but a new existence, a new relationship with God that is built on the former physical one.
So it is not so much Jesus having ascended “up there,” but of God’s greater more intense involvement in human life. It is God’s overcoming all that hinders his involvement with us.
There they are on the mountaintop and as Jesus takes leave of them his final words are, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all, baptizing them and teaching them all that I have told you.”
It is about their confidence and their willingness to act in the name of Jesus and that new life which God is bringing into existence through the death and resurrection of his son.
Aaron was an 11-year old with no hope, his dreams dashed by the death of Eric. But he was open to the words of his pediatrician who spoke to him of (1) His love of Eric and (2) His love of baking.
She, like Jesus, motivated him to act out of that two-fold love (Eric and baking) and he was transformed. In using a talent – baking cookies – and – motivated by his love of his brother – young Aaron found a way to continue the “work” of goodness and happiness he knew with his brother.
APPLICATION
The two men dressed in white who stood atop the mountain, while Jesus was taken from their sight, speak to us as well when they ask, “Men, women, and children of St. Mark’s (St. Margaret’s) why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
What they will learn, as will we, is that Jesus will return through (1) Our love of him and (2) The use of our talents and gifts for the good of others.
Thus for example the gift of listening, grounded in love of Jesus, can give someone who’s lost his job hope or a teen a sense of direction for her life.
Or a monetary gift, again, grounded in the love of Jesus, can put a smile on a single parent struggling to put food on the table.
Or the gift of time, grounded in the love of Jesus, can assist our parish as a volunteer or sitting with the elderly person can bring a smile to one who has been forgotten by family and friends.
Or the gift of a car ride, grounded in the love of Jesus, can get a very appreciative senior to a doctor.
CONCLUSION
In baptism, the Gospel preached by Jesus is passed on to us – we become witnesses of the great Easter event and accept responsibility for the “work” of telling the people in our lives the good news of the empty tomb and that Jesus is alive and alive in us.
The question that is left for us is, “Where is my relationship with Jesus in the midst of my own loss, pain, longing, unsettlement and to what is that relationship calling me?”
St. Mark, Fallston
St. Margaret, Bel Air
June 5, 2011
Baking Cookies: The Kingdom in Our Midst
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
DOUGHJANGLES
Aaron and Eric Ware were not only twin brothers, but also best friends. They did everything together.
Four years ago, Eric died from brain cancer. Eleven-year-old Aaron was at a loss. Unable to accept his twin’s death, Aaron sunk into depression. His worried parents made an appointment with his pediatrician.
During the exam, the doctor noticed something. When she asked Aaron what he liked to do, Aaron smiled for the first time.
“Bake,” he said. “Well, then, that’s what we’re going to do,” the doctor told Aaron. Her prescription: “Start a baking company. Come up with a name for the company.”
She then handed her young patient a $20-dollar bill. “I’m going to be your first investor. You report back to me and we’ll see how it goes.”
Aaron threw himself into the challenge. With the help of his mom and his older brother, Aaron started “Doughjangles. “
He bakes hundreds of cookies each week and sells them to family and friends. Half the proceeds go to the charities that helped Eric. Doughjangles is still going strong.
Says Aaron, “Instead of just watching TV trying to forget, Eric would want me to do something I love doing.” In baking cookies, young Aaron found a way to continue the “work” of goodness and happiness he knew with his brother.
SCRIPTURE
Today is the Ascension of the Lord. It is about the followers of Jesus having a new kind of relationship with him, one beyond the merely physical one of two bodies in the same space together. It’s a new kind of presence to one another.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all place the Ascension as an event on Easter Sunday. For John and his gospel, the Ascension is not an event, but a new existence, a new relationship with God that is built on the former physical one.
So it is not so much Jesus having ascended “up there,” but of God’s greater more intense involvement in human life. It is God’s overcoming all that hinders his involvement with us.
There they are on the mountaintop and as Jesus takes leave of them his final words are, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all, baptizing them and teaching them all that I have told you.”
It is about their confidence and their willingness to act in the name of Jesus and that new life which God is bringing into existence through the death and resurrection of his son.
Aaron was an 11-year old with no hope, his dreams dashed by the death of Eric. But he was open to the words of his pediatrician who spoke to him of (1) His love of Eric and (2) His love of baking.
She, like Jesus, motivated him to act out of that two-fold love (Eric and baking) and he was transformed. In using a talent – baking cookies – and – motivated by his love of his brother – young Aaron found a way to continue the “work” of goodness and happiness he knew with his brother.
APPLICATION
The two men dressed in white who stood atop the mountain, while Jesus was taken from their sight, speak to us as well when they ask, “Men, women, and children of St. Mark’s (St. Margaret’s) why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
What they will learn, as will we, is that Jesus will return through (1) Our love of him and (2) The use of our talents and gifts for the good of others.
Thus for example the gift of listening, grounded in love of Jesus, can give someone who’s lost his job hope or a teen a sense of direction for her life.
Or a monetary gift, again, grounded in the love of Jesus, can put a smile on a single parent struggling to put food on the table.
Or the gift of time, grounded in the love of Jesus, can assist our parish as a volunteer or sitting with the elderly person can bring a smile to one who has been forgotten by family and friends.
Or the gift of a car ride, grounded in the love of Jesus, can get a very appreciative senior to a doctor.
CONCLUSION
In baptism, the Gospel preached by Jesus is passed on to us – we become witnesses of the great Easter event and accept responsibility for the “work” of telling the people in our lives the good news of the empty tomb and that Jesus is alive and alive in us.
The question that is left for us is, “Where is my relationship with Jesus in the midst of my own loss, pain, longing, unsettlement and to what is that relationship calling me?”
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