SERMON TIME, 8/24/03, 21st "Ordinary" Sunday, B-cycle
THE SISTER AND SUBORDINATION . . . Sister So&So of the Joliet Franciscans, a missionary in (not "to" any more) Brazil, took the stand at sermon time (acquitting herself quite nicely and gaining a place in our budget if only I can find a mailing address, not given in the bulletin).
The second reading had St. Paul's perhaps most embarrassing comment: "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands," etc. Fr. Dan, who is growing a beard, I think (!), let his comments on Paul go at a chuckling reference to wanting to say something about being "subordinate," then introduced Sister.
Tell you what I'd say. As great a man Paul was and as important to Christianity as he was, I would not recommend him as a marriage counselor, even if he's right about wives. Pausing for laughs, I would resume, "Seriously, folks," about how to deal with Scripture we don't like. I would to emphasize the importance of Scripture and would encourage resisting any inclination to dismiss any part of it, since it might be a case of God trying to tell us something. I know that's an extreme position in some quarters, but it's how we do it in Christianity.
OR: There's an approved alternate reading for today that leaves out the "subordinate" part, FYI. The official church has its doubts, apparently. See http://www.usccb.org/nab/082403.htm
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE . . . Meanwhile, in the first reading of the day, Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, and 18b, the Jews choose "the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery . . . [who] performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed" over other gods who looked good to them.
The Joshua account makes it look like a slam-dunk, but look: Miracles or not, it was an act of faith to choose the LORD Yahweh. It's always going to be an act of faith. For it no conclusive earthly reason will be available. Belief is an iffy matter for lots of us, apparently impossible for lots more. It's a gift according to accepted teaching.
To get ready for it is the assignment, and what you do along that route is all in all good advice even if you do not intend to go all Christian about it. Consider the Stoics and their resignation in the face of evil.
Consider G.K. Chesterton in his book Orthodoxy. He argues for the spirit of fairy tales (yes) as preparation for belief. Tricky business. It helps to have a well nourished and active imagination. But imagination helps no matter what you intend.
THE IMPOSSIBLE TAKES LONGER . . . The faith-as-gift part is what Jesus offers in the day's Gospel reading, John 6:60-69. Various followers, absorbing (too well) his message (about eating his flesh and drinking his blood unto everlasting life), decide it's all a bit much: "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" To which he says, "None can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." This is not a bootstrap operation.
SERMON NOTES (late delivered but on time for 10:30 masses 8/17)
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12:25 8/10/03
Walked into church this morning, and everyone was talking. Mass hadn't started, it was not too big a crowd, but it was like walking into a school board meeting before it's called to order. And as in some board meetings, the calling to order did not entirely silence some, who took mass as chat time: it was a family group, with infants in arms, just the kind of people you like to see. But couldn't they be quiet?
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09:03 8/10/03
Meanwhile, I'd been chalking up points for next week's sermon, for August 17, that is, what RCs call 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time and other Christians call the 10th after Pentecost, don't ask me why, but looks like RC lit-niks at work here, the folks whose gnashing of teeth can be heard in wake of Vatican's recent attempted quashing of public signs of affections at handclasp-of-peace time. Hey, guys and gals, you win some, you lose some.
See http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/081703.htm for the day's readings.
Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."
Gloss: Simple? It's good to be simple? This is what Wisdom has to offer today? Yes, in the sense not of dumb and uninformed but of straighforward, honest, undemanding. Forsake foolishness, yes. That we may live. That's living. It's the secret of life, we might say. Advance in understanding, grow in wisdom. Grapple with knowledge, enrich ourselves and maybe a few others. Irony has its place, but don't overdo it. Thanks, Wisdom, for the advice.
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Responsorial Psalm
Ps 34:2-3, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
R (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the Lord with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the Lord heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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Sad to say, some congregations do not do justice to this Psalm reading. Psalms are integral to the missal. It's good to get in the spirit of them.
They are ancient poetry full of enthusiasm. Very Middle (or Near) Eastern. Let my soul glory in the Lord, for instance. What is this "glory in the Lord" business? What of this "Taste and see"? We can't remake our Western Euro selves if that's who we are, and we may never approach the enthusiasm of the Psalmist. But we read poetry, don't we? (We don't? We should.)
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Reading II
Eph 5:15-20
Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
Gloss: Watch it, everybody. These are evil days. Evil? Who does Paul think he is, George W. Bush? There Paul was, in the blossoming of Christianity, speaking of evil days. If they were evil then, what are they now? Is the preacher willing to call them evil, or does he shrink from such absolutist talk?
We are to try to understand God's will for us (and do it, presumably), not get drunk but get full of the Spirit, singing and playing to the Lord in our hearts, etc. He has in mind quite a program for the Ephesians. For us too?
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Gospel
Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
Gloss: Jesus says we will live forever, thanks to the living bread, his flesh. Say what? said the Jews quite reasonably. How can this happen? Jesus apparently ignores their difficulty but spells out, adds to his claim: If you do not eat his flesh, you are lifeless. If you do, you have eternal life. He will raise you on the last day.
Actual sermon, well prepared and to the point:
Father Dan chose not to talk about this everlasting life business but instead talked about living life "more abundantly" by taking communion. The first has to do with what's after we pass away, he said, then added, as if to explain that, after we die. There. He did say the d-word but right away went into how our life here on earth is richer because of holy communion and the comfort we derive from our belief.
It's here-and-now Christianity, not what Marxists called pie in the sky when we die. In this respect, Dan concedes too much to the zeitgeist, which is now-and-here-centered, as it has always been, but not in church, where you might expect to hear about the after life as such, at least its existence known by faith if not its details.)
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Jim Bowman
Oak Park, IL
www.blithe-spirit.com
Fax: 708 575-5321
