Daily HOMILY for November 22, 2014: Saturday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time

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Saturday 33^rd Week OT

Dominican Retreat House

November 22, 2014

JUSTICE BEING SERVED ++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The Hebrew People noticed repeatedly in their history that God’s justice was not by any means always served in this world

Ø  They came to believe, by the time of Jesus, that there was an afterworld in which all was righted

Ø  Part of that belief, of course, was belief in resurrection

Ø  Justice cries out for another life

JUSTICE IN THE READINGS +++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The 2 mysterious witnesses or prophets in the 1^st reading R vindicated & raised 2 heaven

Ø  Resurrection, such an irreplaceable element in XTN belief, & wasn’t accepted by Sadducees

Ø  However, was accepted by Pharisees & other Jews and so we see this conflict of belief expressed in the Gospel

JUSTICE IN OUR LIVES +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  In R day 2 many think Resurrection sounds like fairy tale that they share Sadducees’ concentration on this life w/ Resurrection as wishful thinking

Ø  Others seem 2 think it detracts from the energy & dedication we should give 2 this present life

Ø  No matter how we try 2 live well in present, sad fact remains, many elements of present life R not unsatisfactory, but horrible 4 many people

Ø  R we 2 speak 2 them some nobility in living this present, we who often have safety & comfort?

Ø  There R many in R world & around us who don’t & will not have satisfying or full lives

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The triumph of Christ over horror of crucifixion assures us that fulfillment & happiness R not only 4 us healthy & probably middle and upper middle class suburbanites

Ø  But 4 starving, persecuted, mentally and physically challenged, the long-suffering victims of disease, & many others

Ø  We trust in the Lord not only 4 R own Resurrection, but for all those suffering people

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Daily HOMILY for November 21, 2014: Friday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time

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Friday 33^rd Week OT

Dominican Retreat House

November 21, 2014

CONTRASTS IN POETRY ++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The Jesuit poet Gerard Manly Hopkins in his poem “Pied Beauty” describes the contrasting attributes of God’s beauty

Ø  Uses words of opposites coupled together such as “swift & slow, sweet & sour, adazzle & dim

Ø  1 might think that what’s slow, sour, & dim would not reflect diving glory, yet, G’s splendor is ubiquitous, i.e. present everywhere

Ø  So, present in light & darkness, in life & death

Ø  What is swift, sweet, and adazzle then has no monopoly on G’s amazing grace

CONTRASTS IN REVELATION ++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Bk of Revelation says God’s word is both sweet & sour, sweet to the mouth, but sour 2 the stomach

Ø  G’s word consoles & confront us

Ø  G’s word is both grace & judgment, much like how Finley Peter Dunne describes job of a newspaper: 2 comfort the afflicted & 2 afflict the comfortable

Ø  J speaks his Father’s word day in & day out

Ø  In Gospel that word = strong & accusatory, naming how temple was being desecrated & instead of being a house of prayer, was turned into a den where thieves, ripped off the people

Ø  Those words were sour 2 those in authority who sought to kill him & those words were sweet 2 the crowds that hung on his every word

CONTRASTS FOR JOACHIM & ANNE ++++++++++++++

Ø  G’s word, R tradition has it, was spoken 2 Joachim & Anne, the parents of Mary

Ø  The message they received was sweet: tho childless, they’re told that a child’d B born 2 them

Ø  That child was Mary, whom they took, in thanksgiving, 2 the temple & consecrated 2 God

Ø  We know rest of story; Mary would eventually give birth to a son, the very Word of God

Ø  The sour part of account was her heart would B pierced w/ a sword 7 times during their lifetime

CONTRASTS FOR US ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  On Feast of Presentation of Mary in temple, not dwell on only 1 side of experience of Js’ call 2 us

Ø  If experiencing sweetness, sour will come

Ø  If experiencing sourness, know that sweetness will just as surely be there if we look for it

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Daily HOMILY for November 19, 2014: Wednesday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time

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Wednesday 33^rd Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

November 19, 2014

“IF ONLY” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  1 thing we all share in common – myself included – is that at 1 time or another all of us have missed an opportunity that could have changed our life,

Ø  And at that time we have lamented that if only – those famous words “if only” – we knew then what we know now, our life would be different

Ø  While we cannot know the future, there is something we can know about it

What must happen +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  In today’s reading from the Book of Revelation, John is taken up into heaven where he is shown what must happen

Ø  In the heavenly throne room he is told that (1) God will be victorious

Ø  Despite the sufferings and evils of the present, God will have the last word, the most important word, the only word that, in the end, counts

Ø  God will conquer the cosmic powers of Sin and Death

Ø  Today’s Gospel teaches us a second thin about the future by reminding us that when the Lord returns (2) We will be required to give an account of our lives

NO NEED FOR LAMENTING +++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  To be sure, neither of these readings tells us exactly how the future will unfold in our lives or what will happen to us…

Ø  But they do remind us of God’s final victory

Ø  They teach us that although we do not know the future in detail, we do know what is most important so that we will not have to lament, “I only I knew then what I know now”

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  For, the moment, for this moment, that we already know that the future belongs to God and that we must now act accordingly must suffice

Ø  But it is enough to make a difference in our attitude and in our choices today!

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