The Surest Sign

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent are here.

Again, these are the poem and my notes from Fr Dennis’ homilies at the

• Noon & 5PM Masses on March 6, 2016.  

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The poem Fr Dennis references is:

• To My Son’s Girlfriend by Michael Milner

In 2016, we reflected on … a lot! 

• The Prodigal Son Parable is tough to preach because it has been preached on and written about so much!  So, if there was something that stuck with you or jumped out, stay with that.
• We’re in Laetare Sunday, Rejoice!  — a bit of lighter for all of us, and the mark of the final stretch for the catechumens.  So keep them in heart and prayer.
• In the first reading, we’re told of another mystery of the Hebrews’ exodus. Once the Israelites reached Canaan, after 40 years in the desert and however many years of eating manna provided nightly by God, they eat their first food made from their first harvest from the new land.  The manna had been one sign of their total dependence on God, in addition to other such signs like God accompanying them as the pillars of cloud and fire.  In other words, in the promised land, you can cultivate your own food out of God’s Creation.  God no longer needs to provide it directly.
  • Even nowadays, we still need to live, work, and provide to community; we must sow, cultivate, and harvest our food for all of us to survive.
  • And this is an important realization for us and for our catechumens: we start our journey from an inspired place, but don’t think the entire journey is going to be like this.  We have to engage and offer on our part, too, to follow God.
• In the second reading, we are all to be ambassadors for God through words and actions.  We are reconciled to God; God continues to show mercy, but also gives us lives to live in — work, mercy, and reconciliation.  Be an ambassador of God’s Mercy.
• Prodigal Son Parable —  a great story for the catechumens whether they were wandering (Prodigal Son) or a bit uppity (oldest son).  It is given to the Scribes and the Pharisees as an indirect answer to them because they’re likely to get lost in the story, when, in fact, it is an answer.
  • the younger son is essentially treating his father as dead when he asks for his future 1/2 of the property while his father is still alive
  • the Pharisees and Scribes would have recognized compassion and wasteful extravagance in the father’s joy and compassion to the younger son as an image of God.
• Rainey tips in that this is one of five times a particular form of mercy is expressed through the Greek verb, σπλαγχνιση, a very visceral, deep gut, heart-rending form of compassion and is only used with Jesus or a parable character as an image of God.  It is used in the Gospel of Luke to describe the response by the Good Samaritan on seeing the wounded traveler, of the father in the Prodigal Son parable when he sees his lost son returning destitute in all ways, and Jesus meeting with the widow of Nain.  The Gospel according to Matthew (14:14), uses this verb when Jesus fed the 5000.  The Gospel according to Mark uses it when Jesus notes the people are so hungry for the Word and healing, they are like a flock without a shepherd (Mk 6:34, Mt 9:36).  This is God’s Mercy, and what we are called to be Ambassadors of.
• Back to D2: Milburn’s poem, “To My Son’s Girlfriend,” shares a sense of the proprietary nature of God’s Love, what it means to be a father and a Father and grow in our understanding of God’s Mercy and Love.

Switching up from the SALT Lectionary Van Gogh this week for some spot on Rembrandt!  Maybe the parish will bring down our copy of the print of the painting version I linked to. The featured image of this week is a different sketch Rembrandt made of the same scene (and available a the Cleveland Museum of Art). I found it quite a different viewing experience from the painting!

Our readings for this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent are here.

These are the poem and my notes of Fr Dennis’ homily from the 5PM on February 21, 2016.  (That was an early Lent!!)

The poem Fr Dennis references in 2016 is:

The Window by Raymond Carver

In 2016, we reflected on —

• the practice of Lent is to change ourselves … but how?, to what end?  We welcome and accept the new catechumens with all the Cycle A readings, as they are among the best readings!  (The tradition is to read the Cycle A readings when a parish has catechumens, but St Mary’s has had catechumens for so long — thank God! — we hadn’t heard the other Lenten readings from Cycles A & B, so we are more selective of when and how they Cycle A readings are read.)
• from the first reading … “three-year-old heifer …”  What’s up with all these details?!?  At the time, God made covenants, i.e., civil contracts with us, in their own way. In this case, the animals are cut in half and God, as smoke and fire, walks between them signifying “If I don’t keep my part — namely, that you are God’s people and Abraham gets his own land, then let me end up like these animals cut in half.”
  • It is one example of God descending to our level.
  • The imagery of the covenant is serious (as opposed to an imperative “get it right” approach), and God is the faithful, committed one in this covenant, though we try.  It echoes what we try to share with the catechumens, that this is a serious commitment on their part, and even more so on God’s part.
• In the Lucan (Cycle C) gospel reading of the Transfiguration, we see the glory of God, so as to mark Jesus as the fulfillment of all that went before.  With Abraham in the first reading, we are to see God in the cloud and torch.  In the desert and Exodus, God is a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.  In the Transfiguration, Jesus with priest (Moses) and prophet (Elijah) is shrouded in cloud and fire (Hebrew scripture images of God) and gleaming white (Christian scripture Resurrection).
• We’re each called to this Transfiguration, too, through our many transfigurations in our life — Lenten and otherwise.
• Moments of transcendence help us become a better people to receive our catechumens and to show mercy as an expression of God’s Mercy.

In the SALT Lectionary Van Gogh Lenten reflection for this Sunday, we are encouraged to spend time with Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

I also remember a summer daily homily reflection by Fr. Dennis on the Feast of the Transfiguration, a sharing of his experience of a transfiguration. (‘T’was notable because he didn’t often share about himself.) As a Jesuit, he studied for his PhD in Film History and Criticism at NYU. From meeting Dorothy Day at the nearby Catholic Worker House to the performing arts, God was at work in his life in New York City. On one such outing, he saw the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform their signature work, Revelations. As he left the theater and moved through the subway, that feeling of the dance inside him — (he jokingly retold: as if he could move in such liberation) — went with him as he walked, spirit dancing three feet above the ground in a body that could do no such thing.

Though we won’t stay in our moments of Transfiguration, we can celebrate and be transformed by them, as Raymond Carver writes in The Window.

Our readings for this Sunday, the Nativity of the Lord are here.

The gospel readings for Christmas are tied to the Mass, e.g., Vigil, Night, Dawn, or Day, and come from the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John.  The readings are listed for ABC, rather than a single cycle, like we read during Advent, e.g., Luke’s gospel is the dominant gospel account in Cycle C this liturgical year.  It and the Gospel of Matthew are the only two of the four which discuss the birth of Jesus.  Luke has the shepherds and angels, Matthew has the magi and more about Joseph’s interactions with the angels. 

For clarification, both the gospels according to Luke and Matthew have plenty of angels!  However, one would expect the angels to interact with the key people in the story, like Mary and Joseph, and they do.  The messengers of God interact with key people. However, what is unusual about our God and the account in Luke, is the angels proclaimed “glad tidings of great joy” to shepherds, at that time some of the lowliest members and most on the fringes of Jewish society.  This is God’s very different take on who the key players are in God’s eyes and heart! This is one more exclamation point by God that salvation is for everybody!  St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote in Oration 14 that we are most made in the image of God when we love humans, preferentially the poor.  This is one more example of God doing so!

Below are my notes and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily (Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ) from the 10AM Mass on December 25, 2017.  

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The poems Fr Dennis references in 2017 are:

It Happened One Christmas by Wendell Berry,

and the other Christmas homily poems that I have …

Christmas Light by May Sarton (Christmas Day 2016)

December by Gary Johnson (a favorite, used on Christmas Eve 2016)

Some additional poems for Christmas shared via the SALT Lectionary team:

The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman

On the Mystery of the Incarnation by Denise Levertov

Christmas Poem by e.e. cummings

Making the House Ready for the Lord by Mary Oliver

In 2017, we reflected with Fr Dennis that —

• The Nativity Pageant and Mass are a celebration of the children of the world.  The pageant itself and its fresh interpretation of the story by each year’s cast of children renews our faith.  Fr Dennis wore the stole of children to honor all the children (our featured image of this post) — those who are children by age, and those who are children at heart.  Most importantly, he wore it to honor the One who came to be with us … as a babe!

• Why would the Trinity do this, this mystical incredible idea of the Incarnation?  What was Jesus hoping to say with the Incarnation?  Solidarity. Jesus of the Trinity became incarnate to share the vulnerability of a fertilized cell on to his last breath on the cross to be in total solidarity with us humans, God’s created.  This form of solidarity means:
  • His mercy comes from within, from his full humanity and divinity
  • He felt himself at home with us in a very simple meal of bread and wine. And, being divine, he could leave this expression of himself with us in the Eucharist, so we can always be together in the Sacrament
  • He became helpless, like we are helpless and vulnerable

• Because of Jesus’ mercy of Incarnation, we aren’t so helpless, and no one of us is ever alone.

• In today’s Collect Prayer for the Vigil Mass for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas!), we pray that because of God we “share[e] in the divinity of Christ.”  In other words, through the Incarnation, we are called to be divine, and the call itself — as well as its manifestation — is Grace, God’s Life within us, now.  (rl: this reflection on grace helps me understand the gentle power of Tony de Mello, SJ’s spiritual exercise: Imagine God looking at you … and smiling.)

• He read Wendell Berry’s poem, Remembering That It Happened Once.  Wendell Berry was a highly successful academic and teacher.  After 25 years, he and his wife purchased a farm (eventually 117 acres) in Kentucky in the late 1970s near his parents’ lands, and they have lived there ever since.  He writes and submits all his poems written by hand.

• His poem captures the mystery of the Incarnation of God — the sweet spot of Holiness in relationship between God and us, and past and present (and future). “… and we are here / As we have never been before, / Sighted as not before, our place / Holy, although we knew it not.”

• Gary Johnson’s December is a familiar one, but fits so well with the reflection themes of the day (and was familiar to many by this time).

Merry Christmas!!

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, are here.

Again, these are my notes and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the December 20, 2015 5PM and December 23, 2018 Masses.  And a surprise selection from Fr Eric Sundrup in 2015.  So … many poems to help light our path through scripture this week!

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The poems Fr Dennis references in 2018 & 2015 are:

Mrs. God by Connie Wanek (2018 homily)

December by Gary Johnson (2018 and 2015 homily)

On the Mystery of the Incarnation by Denise Levertov (2015 5PM Mass)

and Fr Eric Sundrup, SJ in 2015 used The Risk of Birth, An Advent Poem by Madeleine L’Engle.

In 2018, we reflected on —

• how remarkable children are, particularly as we had the beautiful baptism of Adelaide at the 5PM Mass — remember how much joy the baptisms brought to the Sunday masses?  The children scurrying to the choir loft, so they could look down, God’s Eye view?, on the proceedings.  Gary Johnson captures this integration of faith and action in children in his poem December.

• This Sunday’s psalm has an interesting refrain — “Lord, make us turn to you; / let us see your face and we shall be saved.”  It is unusual because the face of God was historically and culturally thought by the Hebrews to be unbearable, e.g., Moses’ shining face after seeing the face of God (because they were friends).  The people wanted Moses to cover his face.  In other times, people were thought to die if they were to behold the face of God.

• But, as Christians, we see the face of God in an infant, Jesus, like our little Adelaide of the blessing today.  God wanted to give God’s self soooo completely that God became one of us as a babe.  (Rainey’s contribution of a poem!)

• In the gospel, Mary is blessed because she believes what God told her, i.e., Gabriel’s message, and this is in addition to the great trust in God or nature that we, and women in particular, must have in the process of birth, that all will work out as it should.

• What gives these moments of revelation that we hear in scripture of Micah and the gospel with Mary and Elizabeth?
  • God coming in utter helplessness to be with us.
  • The newness in each repetition of ritual, like our baptism today, our communion rite and line, like the Gary Johnson poem — a poem in sonnet form with many external references to Christmas Hymns (“for the faithful to come ye,” “Joyful and triumphant,” “the partridge in a pear tree,” and more).

• The Connie Wanek poem, Mrs. God, is fun, and a reminder that as we begin and continue on our journey with Cycle C, the gospel of Luke has many more women characters than the other gospels.

In 2015, we reflected on —

• In Denise Levertov’s poem, On the Mystery of the Incarnation, she begins with “It’s when we face for a moment / the worst our kind can do / …” that we hold the context of our saints choices and God’s Love in awe:  Mary had to trust the message of Gabriel; Joseph had to trust his dream/vision; Elizabeth had to believe in her pregnancy after the cruelty of all those years; Mary & Joseph’s visit to the temple with Jesus and meeting Anna & Simeon — Is this child really that special?  Because Jesus was growing just like any other child.

• God sent God’s Son not to one of the innocent forms of creation but to us “tainted” humans locked in “our ugly failure to evolve.”

• Gary Johnson’s December, as we discussed above, is a sonnet with AB, CD, and EF couplets of rhyming scheme) invoking external references to familiar Christmas hymns.  Somehow, the child of the poem, singing, is the hope and faith of all the years, even into the dark.  (Hark!) 

• The cameo poem by Fr Eric Sundrup, The Risk of Birth, An Advent Poem , is the message that Love risks, because love is grateful and realizes that what it has received is a gift, and so it’s not afraid to risk it all.  As Madeleine L’Engle writes:  This is no time for a child to be born … And yet our God came and pitched God’s tent among us.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! 

Our readings for this Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, are here.

This is the poem, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the 8:30AM Mass on December 13, 2015.

“Walking to Jerusalem” by Philip Terman

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• Gaudete Sunday is a brief relaxation during Advent.  All of Advent is waiting in hope, but Gaudete Sunday emphasizes the hope.

• In the gospel, John the Baptist “preached good news to the people.”  It sure didn’t sound like it – “fly right or else!”, and he’s gonna baptize you with fire! Recall that people experienced John the Baptist physically pouring water over them for baptism … and he’s saying Jesus is going to use <gulp> fire?!?  This is good news?!?

• So what are supposed to do?  Live good lives.  Live our lives well, do so with reflection, and do so for God because we are God’s.

• Note that John the Baptist was wrong.  He foresaw that someone “mightier” than him was coming (correct) and would be more fiery than he was (incorrect).  Jesus is generally depicted as mild.  John the Baptist was right in general, but not in the details.

• “Walking to Jerusalem” by Philip Terman

• The poem ends with “And keep walking.”  This walking (and the rest of their walking) is an effort to make sense of the stuff they — the poet’s mother and her fellow walkers from her congregation — do every day. 

• The change is internal because the journey, the walking toward God, is an interior experience and change.

• And we come to our “Holy Restaurant” for stories and this wayfarer’s bread. Now, we keep walking in our Mass together to the Liturgy of the Body.  Not that it changes everything, … but it does.