|
Homily
for August 10, 2003 - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 19:4-8 Ephesians 4:30-5:2
John 6:41-51
If you look up “broom tree” in the dictionary,
there’s no entry.
But the FIRST definition of “broom” describes a tree!
Seems folks used to pick branches off the broom tree,
tie them together, attached them to a pole and -
voila! - a broom.
Elijah must have been happy to find that broom tree
for shelter in the desert,
but even happier to be, well, I have to say it,
to be “touched by an angel!”
I wasn’t a big fan of the TV show of the same name,
but I’ll bet Elijah would have been.
Seems Elijah had not brought enough
bottled water and energy bars with him
so when he falls asleep, the angel touches him
and gives him a little loaf of bread and a jug of
water.
But Elijah doesn’t get the message.
He just wants to sleep and eat!
So the angel touches him a second time to wake him and says:
“Elijah, get your butt in gear!
You have 39 days and nights ahead of you
before you reach the Lord’s mountain.”
Well, fueled by that one little loaf and jug,
Elijah makes it to Mount Horeb.
This is where he waits for God to speak to him.
You know this part of the story.
He listens in the strong driving wind,
but the Lord’s voice isn’t in the wind.
He listens in the crackling of a great fire,
but the Lord’s voice isn’t in the fire.
He listens in the pounding of an earthquake,
but the Lord’s voice isn’t in the earthquake.
Finally, when things quiet down,
Elijah hears a little whisper - and it’s the
Lord’s voice.
Sometimes our life, or pieces of our life,
may seem like a 40 day hike in the desert.
Often, we fail to outfit ourselves with what we need
to survive the rigors of this journey,
but God gives us, as he gave Elijah,
just enough nourishment
to make it through one more day, one more night.
And the Lord nudges us our hopelessness, too,
and let’s an angel’s wings flutter near by us,
just enough to make
us turn and wonder,
“was that a sign for me?
was that ‘my’ angel?
was God trying to say something to me?
to touch me? to connect with me?”
And sometimes, the voice of God in our hearts
is not the clear, ringing bell we might wish it to
be,
but it’s just a
tiny whisper in the silence...
That’s why we gather here every week.
Our prayer here is our “broom tree”
where we gather together
to rest from the hike in the desert,
to find a taste of
heavenly bread,
and to take a sip from the cup of divinity,
and to hope that in the prayer of those gathered
with us,
that in the word of
scripture and homily,
that in our hearts,
we might hear the voice of God
whispering a word of love and strength.
If you’re tired, beat down, in need of strength,
then stop here with us under the broom tree of our
prayer,
rest a while, wait for an angel’s touch,
listen for the whisper of the Lord’s voice
and be nourished by a taste and sip from his table.
Such rest, touch, nourishment and a whisper
helped Elijah complete his 40 day journey in the
desert.
May the same gifts
help us to make it until next Saturday/Sunday
when once again,
we will rest under the broom tree.
Rev. Austin Fleming
*******************************
Homily
for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 13, 2003
Amos 7:12-15
Ephesians 1:3-25 Mark
6:7-13
My heart goes out to Amos, the prophet. The poor guy!
He was a simple shepherd until God called him to be a prophet
with the mission to speak God’s word of judgment
on the people.
Amaziah, the priest, didn’t shoot the messenger, but he sure does want to get rid of him!
Like most prophets, Amos was not an innovator.
His message was a plea, calling Israel BACK
to the high moral and religious demands the Lord
had already revealed.
But if that’s the case, why would the priest and the king in the story
want to run Amos out of town?
Because the priest and the king were in cahoots with each other
and Amos’ message was a threat to their power, their power over the
people,
people suffering because their
powerful leaders had compromised
the law of the Lord for their own benefit.
A call to return to the high moral ground of the past is often based on a
romanticizing of yesteryear
and is not the simple panacea its proponents make
it out to be.
Those who call us back to the “good old days” often have as keen an interest in
power and
authority as those who are dedicated to maintaining the
status quo.
What’s interesting about Amos is that he has no vested interest here.
He didn’t want to be a prophet. He doesn’t like being a prophet.
He is only doing the prophet’s job (saying the hard saying to people who do not want
to hear it)
because God told him
to do it. Amos is no fool.
He knows that speaking as a prophet is more likely to win him martyrdom than public
acclaim.
Amos is not hungry for power - he just wants to survive.
What of our own times?
What does the story of Amos and Amaziah teach us today?
Well, in the work of repairing a broken church, we might ask:
who has the power? how is power used?
what is at stake if those in power share the power?
what will be gained by change? what will be
lost by change?
how can the truth be discerned in this struggle?
We might ask the same questions:
- in a state debating with the question of same-sex
unions;
- in a nation struggling with a painful economy;
- and in a world dealing daily with questions of
war and peace.
The same questions obtain:
who has the power? how is power used?
what is at stake if those in power share the power?
what will be gained by change? what will be
lost by change?
how can the truth be discerned in this struggle?
From our perspective as God’s people
we need to model ourselves after the prophet Amos:
- we need to divest
ourselves of the desire for power for its own sake
and seek only that
power necessary for the work of justice;
- we must seek not
our own interests, but only the interest of the truth;
- we must listen
carefully for the voice of God’s Spirit
that we might know the truth and allow it to set us free,
remembering that the
Spirit is as fully active among and within us today
(and will be tomorrow!) as it was in the past.
- we must speak the
word of truth even, and especially,
when we most want to keep silent.
In today’s gospel passage, the Lord sends out his disciples armed only with
each other,
with a walking stick,
and with sandals. Divested of everything else
(of food, of money, of even a change of clothes)
they are sent and meant to rely only on the word they have been given:
the word of truth.
You and I are sent no less than Amos, and precisely as the disciples
of Jesus.
We may not want to go, and we may not want to know (much less speak)
the
word of truth, but that is our lot as God’s people.
Perhaps in the week ahead, some or even many of us
will have an opportunity to speak a word of truth.
May that word of truth be faithful to the Lord’s word,
may it be a just word, may it be free of our
own desire for power,
and may our word and our work be nourished by the sacrament of this table
where we go now to be fed by the one who sends us.
- Rev. Austin Fleming
**************************************************
Homily
for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
July 6, 2003
On Thursday of this past week
I had the sad occasion to attend the funeral
of my classmate and friend, Fr. Gerry Fitzgerald.
The funeral was at St. Ann Parish in Somerville.
The church was packed and it’s a church at least twice the size of Our
Lady’s.
At St. Ann’s, there are four sections of pews:
two large sections in the middle of the church,
and a smaller one along both side walls.
A number of pews in one of the side sections had been “reserved”
for the large number of concelebrating priests who walked in the entrance procession.
However, not enough pews had been reserved
such that about 15 priests or so, myself included,
found themselves standing in the side aisle of a
packed church,
all in vestments -
without a place to sit.
The pews behind the reserved section were filled with members of the laity.
The first pew of folks behind the last reserved pew
saw the situation, stood up, gave their seats to
four priests,
and walked away to stand at the back of the church.
But only those four people moved.
The rest kept their seats, clearly aware of the situation at hand.
So the rest of us priests did what you often have to do here at Our
Lady’s.
We walked up and down the aisle looking for a little space where folks might scrunch together
and make room for one more person in their row. We all, finally, got seats - here and there.
Now, let me give you my take on this situation.
The people who saw us priests stranded in the aisle were not rude, or arrogant or selfish.
Nor do I think they were anticlerical.
They simply presumed we priests would figure out what to do.
- And we did.
But I couldn’t help wondering: would this have been people’s reaction two years
ago?
I certainly think that 5 or more years ago, folks would have immediately vacated their seats
to make sure that the “Fathers” had a place to
sit.
What PLEASED me on Thursday morning was my sense
that the people of God are truly finding their
place in the church -
literally and
figuratively - and they’re not going to give it up;
and that we priests are finding our place anew,
in and among
(literally and figuratively!) the people of God.
A similar change in dynamic is growing, too, between priests and their bishop.
This began last year in the regional meetings
Cardinal Law had with the priests of the
archdiocese.
For years and years, we priests sat at such meetings and listened
quietly to the bishop,
afraid to speak a word in response.
But in those meetings with Cardinal Law, for the first time,
we stood up and spoke the truth as we saw it.
Things will never be the same for the people of God, for priests and for bishops -
and for how we are
church together.
As one theologian put it: for centuries, a pastor gave his first loyalty to
his bishop -
until recently.
The crisis in the church and the people’s response to it has realigned the pastor’s loyalty
such that his primary allegiance is now to the
Lord’s gospel
and the people to
whom he preaches that word - and to the bishop, too.
How a priest, a prophet is received in the community
is the subject of today’s first lesson and the
gospel.
The same may be true for us in how we receive a pastor,
a priest looking for
a seat at a funeral or a new archbishop.
Prophets in the scriptures did not come with crystal balls
to see into the future and predict it.
Rather, the prophet came to preach the word of God
IN and TO the PRESENT
moment
so that God’s word might render a saving judgment
on rebellious,
hardened hearts, and soften those hearts into conformity
with the just and
tender heart of the Lord.
Such was Ezekiel’s mission as a prophet;
such is your mission as the people of God; such is my mission as
your pastor;
such is Sean O’Malley’s mission as archbishop:
such is our mission, together, as the church.
At his first press conference, Bishop O’Malley said
“I feel acutely aware of my own deficiencies
in the face of the
task at hand.”
Like St. Paul, Bishop Sean recognizes his weaknesses,
and may indeed be “content” with them,
because in his weakness he is most open to God’s strength.
Indeed, it is primarily in our shared weakness as God’s people
that we will discover how strong we are and can
become in the Lord.
How we welcome one another (and one another’s
weaknesses and strengths)
as brother and sister, as people of God, as priest, pastor and
bishop -
this is at the heart of how we hear, receive, live and share
the saving word of the gospel in our lives and in
our world.
So let us go to that altar where there is a seat for each of us;
where each of us is equal in the eyes of God,
and where the Lord
sits down to table with us
to share with us the
strength he is for in our weakness
in the bread and cup of the eucharist.
Rev. Austin Fleming
****************************************
Homily
for the Solemnity of Peter and Paul -
June 29, 2003
“Upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it.”
There are some who wonder if the crisis in the church will “do the church
in.”
Numbers are down, collections are down, spirit is down.
Was Jesus right?
Is it true that nothing, not even the gates of the netherworld,
can prevail in victory over the church?
I think Jesus was right.
And I want to offer you some proof of that.
You know from our parish bulletin
that several months ago Nancy and Scott Arsenault,
of our parish,
had triplets, namely:
Audrey, Patrick, and Casey.
Since they already had Madeline, who’s about a year and a half old,
the triplets raise the number of their children to
four.
Today we will baptize the triplets at the 11:30 Mass.
This week, Nancy sent us a letter which I want to share with you.
We can consider it our fourth reading for this Sunday.
So...
A Reading from the Letter of Nancy to the Church in West Concord
Hi Father Fleming,
I am sitting here in this heat,
awaiting the midnight feeding of my constantly
hungry triplets
and I cannot stop thinking about how Scott and I
never would have survived without help from so many
parishioners.
We have been rescued by these folks so many times
that we felt you should really know what has been
going on
in this crazy place we call home.
(In the following, to protect the identity of the very generous, I
have changed the names Nancy gave me...)
Mary Brown, of course, has been unbelievable.
She is not my mother, nor are these her grandchildren,
but she has been as dependable and as caring
as any relative could have been to us, and more so.
She and her husband, Jim, are here at least 3 times a week
for feedings that last two hours at times -
sometimes at 11 P.M. one day and then back here at
6 A.M. the next morning.
Over the past few months,
Jim and Mary have really struck us as being a couple
who are true role models as marriage
partners, parents, and Catholics.
Ginny and Bill Jones are also incredible.
Bill took Scott aside one night
and told him that we should consider their home
phone number
our personal 24-hour hot-line - and he
meant it!
Last night, Ginny came over in an emergency call
to help us at 8:30 as all the kids were so hot,
Scott was trying to install an air conditioner,
and I had had a temp of a hundred and two for four
days.
Ginny and another friend sent us all to bed
and they stayed to do the 2 A.M. feeding.
Tonight Ginny and Bill and Mary were over here for hours,
and they insisted that Scott and I leave the house
and take a break!
And we did!
When all this began, Scott could not believe
that any husbands would want to help us at all
and now he has so much admiration for men like Jim and Bill
that he sees himself in a whole new light as well,
and now is suggesting that as soon as we are able,
we will give back as much as these people have
given us.
Emily Johnson and Bob and Susan Smith
have made meals for us every single week for two
months -
and after dropping off the meal
they stay as long as we need them for the babies’
feedings -
usually hours!
Margaret O’Brien feeds the babies two mornings a week at 6 A.M.
on her way to work, as does Wendy Callahan.
Ann Rossi and her friends at Concord Green
have been cooking all kinds of little treats
which she drives over to us.
Cathy Long came before the babies were born
and talked with me for hours about triplet birth
problems
and how to get
through them -
while she paid for a baby-sitter to watch her
triplets!
And there’s Nancy Bond, and her daughter Rose Burns, a nurse in Boston,
and her other daughter, 16 year old Donna who is
now our
"Mother's
Helper" 3 days a week.
They are here every week -
in fact, at least one of them is here almost every
day.
They’re planning to try to give me and Scott a full day or weekend away.
These are just a few of the names, Fr. Fleming.
There are more.
And every one of these wonderful people has shared with us
about how inspired they have been
by the preaching, good example,
and all the many opportunities for service and
outreach there are
in our parish.
It truly shows the presence of the Holy Spirit
who works and lives in everyone.
A parish like ours fulfills a need for community and belonging
and self worth that is so often missing in everyday
life.
In our parish, without even trying,
you can see God more clearly then ever before.
We are grateful for how openly we can all talk about our faith
with all those who have come to help us.
Scott and I think it’s because we all believe
and come from the
same fabric within the parish - which helps so much.
Scott told me he drives to work at 5 A.M.
and just thinks about these people, over and over.
He said he can't wait to tell the triplets
all about each one who has helped us.
We can never repay these people,
but as a family, we are going to start giving back
as soon as we can
and we will certainly teach our children that this
is the way to live.
All of this shows what a great difference the church can make in one's life
- despite what goes on in the greater world.
Anyway, sorry this has been so long - but the babies are still asleep!
This is the most “alone time” I've had since they've been home.
Scott and I both talked this evening and felt you really should know
how far reaching the church support has been for us
and how much we so appreciate it.
Thank you,
Nancy
Well, such is the life of the Catholic church in West Concord,
in the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians.
Jesus was right.
In the end, nothing can or will prevail
against the faithful, self-giving love of the
people of God.
Structures may crumble,
bureaucracies may fall,
and the church will
change -
and it will survive even its own worst failings
through the mercy and power of God
and through fidelity of its people.
Not even the gates of the netherworld
will prevail against such faith.
It is into that church, our church,
and into this faith, our faith,
that we will baptize the children of Nancy and Scott Arsenault:
Audrey, Patrick, and Casey.
Rev. Austin Fleming
***************************************
Homily
for Corpus Christi - B
June 22, 2003
No small amount of effort
goes into making our Sunday worship,
(our weekly
celebration of the body and blood of Christ)
a reverent, gracious, prayerful moment of beauty,
worthy of the God whom we praise here.
And yet, at the heart of this weekly celebration
is a broken body, the body of a victim whose blood
has been shed,
and an innocent
victim at that.
I’m referring not only to the large crucifix
that hovers over our prayer every week,
but even more to the broken body of Christ
we find in the eucharistic bread,
and to the new covenant sealed in Christ’s spilled blood
which we find in the eucharistic cup.
Think of Michelangelo's great sculpture, the PIETA.
Think of the Mary, the mother of Jesus,
holding the body of her crucified son in her lap
and her arms.
Think of the pathos, the tenderness, the intimacy of that image...
That is what we do here, each week.
With tenderness, we hold the broken body of Christ close to our hearts,
intimately, consuming his presence,
in thanksgiving for
his great love of us.
We approach the gift of the Lord’s brokenness
in our own brokenness
as individuals and as
the whole church.
Our gathering here today, and very Sunday, is filled with:
broken hearts, broken memories,
broken promises, broken spirits,
broken relationships, broken bodies,
broken hopes and broken dreams.
Is there anyone among us who does not bring some brokenness
to the broken body of
Christ?
We, the broken, come to the one who was broken for our sakes,
to share in this simple bread broken in his memory,
so that our
brokenness might be healed.
So that his blood, shed for us,
might transfuse our weakness and hopelessness
and course through our veins with healing and
vitality.
But the eucharist is no magic potion promising instant healing.
Rather, the eucharist invites us with our brokenness
into the brokenness of Jesus.
And if we dare venture that close to his heart,
then we will find that we have come to that place
which is
the heart of all
mercy,
the heart of all
healing,
the heart of our
hearts.
Ours is a Lord who is no stranger to our pain or sorrow,
no stranger to our hurt and brokenness.
His presence in the eucharist of this altar
has for its purpose what was the work of the cross:
the forgiveness of
sins, the healing of broken hearts,
and the promise of
peace.
How much do we need the eucharist today!
How much do those broken in spirit -
especially those whose spirits have been hurt by
the church or its priests,
those whose hurt makes it difficult and even
impossible
to come to the altar
of eucharist - how much do they need this healing.
How much does the whole church stand in need of the healing the eucharist
offers,
in need of being transfused by the mercy and power
of God.
How much does each of us with our own brokenness
need to come to this place, this cross,
this table, this
sacrament - again and again:
to be refreshed and revitalized
by the gift of Christ’s body and blood.
At the heart of our Sunday prayer is the broken body of Jesus
and the Spirit of Jesus risen among us,
risen with healing in his arms and touch.
Pray with me as we go once more to his table
that we will not be afraid to reveal to the Lord
the brokenness we bring with us,
and that the Spirit of the risen Christ
will open us to the healing offered to us in this
sacrament.
-Rev. Austin Fleming
**********************************************
Homily
for Trinity Sunday - B
June 15, 2003
So, has everyone read or heard of the alleged apparition
of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a window with a leaky
seal on the second floor of
Milton
Hospital? This reminds me of a similar phenomenon several years ago
on a bank building in Clearwater, Florida -
and it’s not unlike a “frosty” image of the Mother of Jesus on the
glass door of a frozen
food compartment in a supermarket in New York, just a few years ago.
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the official church has no
comment on such images.
It’s a case of “the less said, the better.”
Now, I’ve only seen newspaper photographs of the window at Milton
Hospital,
but a few days ago, a member of our parish drove her mother to Milton
Hospital so that her
mother could see for herself.
Listen for a moment to the report the parishioner emailed to me.
She wrote:
“You can see the image of what looks like Mary
holding a baby.
She does look like she’s standing on the clouds.
But I think people are seeing it because they need
to, not because Mary is really there.
What was touching to see was the faith people have.
They brought flowers, balloons and their rosary
beads.
People came who were sick in wheelchairs, and
others who obviously needed some healing.
It was mobbed. People just need God.
They want signs that God hasn’t forgotten them.
They want signs of a better world.
It’s all very harmless, but meaningful and
touching
in a way different
than the image being ‘real.’”
There is much wisdom in my emailer’s words.
“People just need God...
They want signs to reassure them
that God hasn’t forgotten them...
signs of a better world...”
The window at Milton Hospital probably points less to the Virgin Mary
and more to how much “people just need
God”
and they need signs of God around them,
whatever and wherever those signs might be.
And we have been hungry for those signs for a long time.
Recall the words we just heard Moses speak in the book of Deuteronomy:
“Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
did anything so great
ever happen before?
Did a people ever before hear the voice of
God speaking from a fire?
Did any God ever take a people to himself
by wonders and signs?”
“People just need God...
They want signs to reassure them that God hasn’t forgotten
them...”
People are hungry for God, and hungry for signs of God,
whatever and wherever those signs might be...
I received another wonderful email from another woman in the parish
this week,
and here’s what she
wrote:
“On Monday I was out for my daily walk,
relishing one of the
few decent days of this murky spring
but still there was an almost overwhelming pall
over me,
for I was mourning
the death of a very good friend...
As I got about half way through my regular route,
I could hear the
voice of a young child who was singing.
It made me smile to hear the obvious happiness and
abandon
this young person was
showing.
As I got closer, I saw a fairly new neighbor with
her two kids,
a 2 year old girl and
her 4 year old brother.
The little boy, I realized, was singing, with all
his heart,
"Halle, Halle,
Halle, lu-u-ia".
A sign from above on an otherwise introspective and
sad day.”
A sign from above... People just need God...
Are we not among the people who “just need God,
who want signs to reassure us that God hasn’t
forgotten us?”
Are we not hungry for God? and hungry for signs of God
whatever and wherever those signs might be?
Jesus spent much of the three years of his public ministry
working signs and wonder so that the people might be reassured
that God, in his mercy, had not forgotten them.
What signs is the Lord working today, in our lives?
Do we look for signs of God’s presence in our midst?
If some can find a sign of God on a bank in Florida, in a frozen food
case in New York,
and in a leaky hospital window in Milton,
then certainly we can find signs of God’s presence in one another,
reassuring us that we have not been forgotten by
God.
Indeed: YOU are the people,
WE are the community
whose faithful prayer
taught a four year old boy to sing, “Halle! Halle! Halle!” -
a little boy whose
backyard song became a sign of God’s presence
for a neighbor who “just needed God;
who needed a sign to reassure her that in her grief, God had not
forgotten her.
The two emails I received this week are signs of God, for those who need
God,
which I am pleased to pass on to you today.
We can quibble over the legitimacy of what people name as signs of God,
but there’s no doubt that people are hungry for,
will look for, and
will find signs of God all around us:
wherever and whatever those signs might be.
When, and where, and who are the signs of God in my life and yours?
When, and where, and how might you and I be signs of God’s reassuring
presence
for one another?
We are a people who “just need God, and signs of God...”
Hungry for God,
let us go to the table where the Lord feeds us
with the greatest
sign of all:
his presence in the sacrament of this altar.
Rev. Austin Fleming
***************************************************
Homily
for Pentecost Sunday - B - June 8, 2003
It must have been something
for all those Parthians, Medes and Elamites, Cretans,
Jews and Arabs
from Mesoptomia, Judea, Cappodocia, Phrygia, Egypt and
Libya,
it must have been something for all of them
to suddenly understand what the Galilean apostles were
saying,
even though they were speaking in a language
that these visitors to Jerusalem
had never before spoken or understood.
But understand they did,
because the Spirit of God
helped them to hear and to comprehend
in a way that had no natural explanation.
Of course now, the words of the apostles have been translated
into just about every language there is.
There whole bible has been translated into at least 318 languages,
while the Christian scriptures (the New Testament)
has been translated into some 845 languages.
Here’s a list of 150 languages.
(Here I unrolled yards of computer printout with the names of 150
languages,
which I then draped over the altar, the word cascading over the Lord’s
table.)
No, the Holy Spirit doesn’t have to exercise any divine power
to help everyone on the face of the earth
to hear and understand the word of God.
But perhaps there’s an even more difficult task
to which the Spirit might address its energy and power.
Might the Spirit of God come again, to visit us,
and let’s say, to visit us who all speak English;
might the Spirit of God come and with a mighty wind
touch our hearts and our minds
so that we might understand in a whole new way
what others are saying to us,
and that others might understand in a whole new way,
what we are saying to them,
and that in the process we all might find new wisdom,
peace, tolerance, compassion,
humility,
and
through all of this,
that we might achieve a deeper
understanding
of what
is true and what is false;
what is
good and what is bad;
of what
is real and what is imitation?
Is it not true that we often cannot understand
those who speak English?
Is it not also true that those who speak English
struggle to understand what we are saying to them
even in their own native tongue?
Think, for a moment, of the groups the Holy Spirit might touch
and bring about greater understanding...
How about Red Sox and Yankee fans
Democrats and Republicans
Husbands and wives who are always yelling at each other
Husbands and wives who never speak to each other
Bishop Lennon and Voice of the Faithful
Pro Life and Pro Choice activists
President Bush and Pope John Paul II on the war in Iraq
Parents and children, or brothers and sisters,
who are always yelling at each other
or who never speak to each other
The Catholic bishops of Massachusetts
and the State legislature
Democrats and Republicans in Congress
Catholics and Protestants
Blacks and Whites
Liberals and conservatives
Me and myself
There’s still a lot of work for the Spirit to do,
without even moving from one language to another.
I wonder:
how many of us would be open to the Spirit’s touch
if we knew that once touched by
the Spirit
we would hear the voice of those who oppose us
with deeper understanding and
compassion?
I wonder:
how many of us would be open to the Spirit’s touch
if we knew that once touched by
the Spirit
those who heard us would understand more deeply
both the depths and the shallow
places
in our
most strongly held convictions.
I wonder:
are we really in search of the truth?
or are we more interested in convincing others
of what we have concluded the
truth to be.
Inside and outside the life of the church,
inside and outside the hearts and minds of us all,
the Spirit of God desires, deeply,
to lead each of us to the heart of truth.
Two things are true about the truth:
first, the truth often hurts;
and second, the truth will set you free.
Are we ready for the truth the Spirit brings?
Are we open to it?
Do we want such truth to over over us
in the flames of the Spirit’s presence?
God’s Spirit hovers over each of us, and all of us together,
and over the church, and over all the peoples of the
world,
as surely as that same Spirit hovered as tongues of fire
over the apostles on that first Pentecost.
That same Spirit hovers over the table of our prayer, too,
for it is the Spirit who comes to make our gifts holy
and presentable to God.
It is in the Spirit food of this table that the greatest truth of all is
revealed:
Jesus is Lord,
and we are his brothers and
sisters.
What truth does the Spirit desire to speak in your heart? in mine?
What truth does the Spirit whisper that I do not want to hear?
What truth does the Spirit bring for which I long?
What truth must we be open to
if we are to be truly counted among the brothers and
sisters of Jesus?
May the Spirit of God touch each one of us
and open us to truths we had not yet dreamed of.
***************************************************
Previous weeks' homilies
[ Home ] [ Archives Jan - May ] [ May - Aug. ] [ Sept-Dec ] [ Jan-March ] [ April-May ] [ June-July ] [ Deacon Clough ]
|
