30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 25, 2020

 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 25, 2020

Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air 4 pm

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 11:00 AM

 

Jazz Vespers 

 

Back in April, New York City was in some very dark days of this pandemic.

 

In the midst of that, a man named Roy Nathanson who lives in Brooklyn took some initiative. Roy Nathanson is an accomplished jazz musician and one April afternoon, he came out on his porch with his alto-saxophone and began to play Amazing Grace.

 

Roy Nathanson appeared on his porch at 5 p.m. the next day and kept doing that day after day. Soon, other musicians joined him.

 

Bass, drums, guitar, melodica, and trumpet all became part of the socially distant ensemble. In the weeks that followed, banjos, flutes, horns, and other instruments indigenous to Brooklyn’s many cultures also appeared.

 

David Gibson, the Director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, lives in that Brooklyn neighborhood. He witnessed all of this and began calling it “Jazz Vespers.”

 

Vespers, as you probably know, is the traditional title of our Catholic Evening Prayer, which is usually prayed around 5 PM. Well, David Gibson writes about this “Jazz Vespers” in Commonweal magazine.

 

He says: “They played through rain and wind. Street life hummed along with the instruments. 

 

“In the first weeks, ambulance sirens were a mournful counterpoint to almost every performance. The Q train rumbled along the tracks behind Roy Nathanson’s house. 

 

“Curious passersby stopped to listen. Some were strangers, some neighbors.

 

“There were skateboarders and cyclists, dog walkers and strollers. All the colors and creeds of the neighborhood would stop and listen.

 

“Some wept, all applauded…As the weather improved, the onlookers increased…

 

“In May, when the dogwood in front of Roy’s house began to bloom, lockdown life began to ease. Spirits lifted: the tunes grew more up-tempo, more diverse.

 

“But it was never a jam session. All was intentional, planned.

 

“Neighbors who knew each other by sight now knew each other by name; acquaintances became friends; friends introduced us to strangers. We began to collect money to help those without food and for local social-service groups.”

 

David Gibson says that those 5 p.m. concerts continued for eighty-two days and ended with a final two-hour concert in late June. But, the 5 p.m. concerts continue to bear fruit.

 

He writes: “The musicians created a website to raise money for community agencies helping the neighborhood recover from the pandemic. Faith and hope are wonderful, but charity is the best.”

 

A Response of Love 

 

When I read about this “Jazz Vespers,” I was immediately moved by it.

 

I see it as a genuine point of light in the midst of this pandemic. I see it as an expression of love, an expression of the kind of love that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel.

 

Jesus urges us to put our talents, our gifts, our resources at the service of God and of God’s sons and daughters. To love with “all our heart and all our soul and all our mind” enables us to move beyond our fears and differences.

 

It enables us to comfort, support, seek out, and welcome back. “Jazz Vespers” reminds us that maybe we underestimate what we can accomplish when we act out of love.

 

It reminds us of what we can accomplish through a love that is centered on the needs of the other person, a love that has no ulterior motive except the well-being of the other. It reminds us of what we can accomplish through a love that is of God, who is, as the Scripture reveals, unconditional love.       

 

 

 

 

 

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 18, 2020

 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 18, 2020

Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville 11:30 AM

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 8:30 AM

 

Image 

 

The key word to understanding today’s gospel is the word “image.”

 

Hold onto that for now – I will come back to it in a minute. There is something else I want to point out first.  

 

The Either-Or Question 

 

Matthew’s gospel tells us that there are some people who are out to get Jesus. 

 

They oppose him because he is attracting a following. He is becoming fairly popular, and that is threatening to some of the religious leaders.

 

So, they devise a question that, they figure, will be an ironclad trap for Jesus. They ask him: is it lawful to pay the tax to the emperor or not?

 

If Jesus says yes, it is okay to pay the tax, he will be discredited with his fellow Jews. His popularity will dip because they resent this tax that is imposed by the foreign power occupying their country.

 

On the other hand, if Jesus says no, it’s not okay to pay the tax, he will get in trouble with the Roman rulers. Maybe he will be put in jail because they won’t tolerate opposition to their authority.

 

So, these religious leaders pose this either-or question to Jesus. They figure that they’ve really got him.

 

The Both-And Answer 

 

And then comes the surprise.

 

Jesus asks his opponents if someone has one of the coins used to pay the tax. Quickly, one of them pulls a coin out of his pocket and hands it to Jesus.

 

Jesus then asks: “Whose image is this on the coin?” – and here we are, back to the word “image” that I mentioned at the beginning. The opponents say: “Caesar’s.”

 

So, based on this image, Jesus simply says: “Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” So, a both-and, not an either-or response.

 

And, there’s a big hook in Jesus’ response. The coins belong to Caesar because they have his image on it. 

 

The question is: what belongs to God? And the answer is: anything that has God’s image on it. 

 

And that means: all human beings. This is exactly what the Book of Genesis says: that we are made in the “image and likeness of God.”

 

So, what Jesus is saying is that all human beings, all human life is God’s because it is made in the “image” of God. This means that we owe to God respect and care for human life in whomever and wherever it is found.   

 

Image: Human Life/Humanity

 

This is why a central piece of our Catholic moral teaching is the respect for human life.

 

And this includes the life of all human beings. It goes from conception to natural death and includes everything or everyone in between.

 

Pope Francis has spoken on this, and I want to leave us with what he wrote on two separate occasions. In 2018, he said this.

 

“Our defense of the innocent unborn…needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. 

 

Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.”

 

In that 2018 statement, Pope Francis goes on to cite some other human life issues, like the care of migrants and health care for all. And then, in June of this past summer, Pope Francis wrote to us, the American people and adds this.

 

“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of human life.”

 

Conclusion

 

So, the word “image” – all human beings are made in the image of God. 

 

And because of that, all human beings, human life wherever it is found, belongs to God, and we need to respect and care for it. That is the clear and challenging extent of our ethic of life.   

 

 

 

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 11, 2020

 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 11, 2020

Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville 8:00 AM

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 11:00 AM

 

Food, Glorious Food 

 

Maybe I am dating myself a little bit here, but today I am remembering a play called Oliver.

 

I’m sure some of you remember this and probably saw it. Oliver originally came out as a play in 1960 and then there was also a movie version of it.

 

It is based on the classic novel Oliver Twist that was written by Charles Dickens – one of the books I had to read in high school. One of the really popular songs in the show is titled Food, Glorious Food.  

 

It starts like this: “Food, glorious food, we’re anxious to try it. Three banquets a day, our favorite diet…” and on it goes.

 

In the story, Oliver Twist and other young boys are at a workhouse orphanage in London in the early 1800’s. The living and working conditions for these boys are awful – very, very meagre.

 

For them, it can be hard to get enough to eat and that’s why they sing of Food, Glorious Food. But for them, food is also a metaphor or symbol of deeper things that they hunger for – a home, a family, security, and some hope for the future. 

 

Food in Scripture 

 

Today’s Scripture readings also focus on food.

 

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah says that “the Lord will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines.” In the gospel, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a “wedding banquet.”

 

Now it is important to understand that here in the Scripture, as in the show Oliver, food is also a metaphor. It points to God satisfying deeper hungers that are within each one of us.

 

The Food of Eucharist 

 

And all of these food images point to the Eucharist.

 

The Eucharist is Jesus – real spiritual food. And, as spiritual food, it is also a kind of metaphor and it responds to our deeper hungers of living fully, of acceptance and belonging, of being loved and loving.

 

The Eucharist gets to the very heart of what we hunger for deep down within ourselves. That is why receiving the Eucharist is so important for so many of us. 

 

Eucharist as Source and Summit

 

Our Church describes the Eucharist as the source and summit of our lives.

 

I like those words – the source and summit of our lives. Let’s think of it this way.

 

On Monday morning, after being here for Mass on the weekend, we may experience the Eucharist as the source of our lives. It may empower us to deal with a job that we dislike or with a deadening routine. 

 

The Eucharist may strengthen us to deal with stress in your family or with loneliness after the death of your husband or wife. The Eucharist, I know, has been a source of life for many of us during this pandemic.

 

You and I are able to be physically here at Mass today and there are many more people who are watching livestreamed Masses and would love to receive Communion sacramentally. So yes, the Eucharist is a source of life if we remain aware of its power and open ourselves to it.  

 

And then, the Eucharist can also be the summit of life for us. What I mean is that the Eucharist can be a highpoint of the week and can give us hope for tomorrow, the kind of hope that keeps us going. 

 

And this sacramental food can also give us hope for the long-term future and be for us a taste of the heavenly banquet. So, the Eucharist is this summit of life if we remain aware of its power and open ourselves to it. 

  

Conclusion

 

As Oliver Twist and his friends say, this is Food, Glorious Food.

 

The Eucharist is Jesus, real spiritual food and in that way, it is also a metaphor and it nourishes those deeper hungers that we all have within us. It can be the source and summit of our lives.

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 4, 2020

 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 4, 2020

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 4pm

Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville 9:30 and 11:30am

 

A Vineyard and the Earth

 

Jesus was probably looking at a vineyard when he was telling the parable that we hear in today’s gospel.

 

It would have been something like us looking at some of the vineyards nearby, like Basignani, Boordy, Fiore or others. Jesus uses the vineyard to teach us something – something about what he wants us to do. 

 

And it strikes me that in using this very earthy image, a vineyard, one thing he is teaching is what he wants us to do with the earth, with our environment. I mean, a vineyard involves soil, water, sunshine, good air quality and relatively moderate temperatures. 

 

And all of these factors lead to the growth of vines and eventually grapes. So, I am thinking that with this earthy image, one thing Jesus is teaching is what he wants us to do with the earth.    

 

Pope Francis and the Earth 

 

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote an encyclical letter.

 

An encyclical is usually a rather long letter that the Pope writes on a specific topic. That 2015 letter is entitled: On Care For Our Common Home – On Care For Our Common Home – the earth, the environment.

 

Francis brings to this an interesting educational background: a Doctorate in Theology and a Master’s Degree in Chemistry. So, he brings both a scientific and a spiritual perspective to this topic.

 

The Environment and Human Life 

 

Pope Francis sees the environmental problems in our world today that many of us would also see.

 

Among other things, he identifies two major issues. 1) Carbon emissions and the pollution of our air, water and soil; and 2) the over-consumption of our resources, living as if there is an infinite supply of everything. 

 

Francis sees the care of the earth or our environment as a human life issue. Care for the environment and direct care for human life are connected. 

 

So, our disregard of the environment will lead to a disregard of human life. And vice versa: our disrespect for human life of a fetus or of our elderly or of impoverished peoples will also lead to a disrespect for our environment.

 

Positively, Francis calls us to a culture of care for one another and for our common home – the earth. There seem to be two main dimensions to this culture of care: 1) being prayerful and 2) being provident. 

 

1.    Be Prayerful 

 

First, Pope Francis calls us to be prayerful. 

 

He especially lifts up the value of a prayer before our meals. He says this.

 

“I ask all believers to return to this beautiful and meaningful custom. That moment of blessing, however brief, 1) reminds us of our dependence on God for life; 2) it strengthens our feeling of gratitude for the gifts of creation; 3) it acknowledges those who by their labors provide us with these goods; and 4) it reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need.”

 

So, a simple recommendation. Francis so insightfully sees this grace before meals as affirming human life and affirming the earth and the goods that we derive from it.

 

It is a way for us to stay alert to our calling to care for our common home.

 

2.    Be Provident

 

So, 1) be prayerful, and then 2) be provident.

 

This means that we act with all other human beings in mind and with the future in mind. Francis calls us to live more according to need than want, and in that way, avoid waste.

 

He notes that “approximately a third of all food produced (in the world) is discarded” – wasted. A study by our own Food and Drug Administration says that the same percentage is true in our own country. 

 

This is a stinging fact in the face of other data that tells us that approximately 800 million people, 10% of the world’s population, suffer from malnutrition. So, once again, everything is interconnected, a theme that Francis wants us to remember.

 

Our doing what we can – buying and consuming closer to need than want, turning off unneeded lamps and saving electricity, recycling whatever we can, trying to buy cars with lower carbon emissions – actions like these have effects. 

 

So, 1) by being prayerful, we stay alert to our calling to care for our common home. And 2) by being provident, we actually do something to fulfill what Christ calls us to do.