Thu, 27 Mar 2025 13:03:32 -0400WeeblyMon, 24 Mar 2025 03:31:15 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/god-is-sending-usGod Is Sending Us

March 23, 2025
Third Sunday in Lent
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Exodus 3:1-15; Ps. 103; Romans 2:1-11; Luke 13:1-9
 
           I think I have mentioned before that I used to teach Religious Ed to 6th, 7th, and 8th Graders. I really loved teaching that age because they asked a lot of questions, mostly to try to distract me from covering too much class material. But I found that if I did it right, I could get them to puzzle out how to answer their questions themselves, and learn the curriculum in the process. One concept they really grasped was the idea of repentance as a turning around, a changing of your mindset and behavior to become closer to God. They started calling it “the holy U-turn.” The Greek word metanoia, used by the gospel writers when recounting Jesus’ teachings, comes from a combination of the word meta, meaning “beyond,” or “change,” and the word noia, meaning “mind.” So to repent is to change your mind, and to change your behavior.
 
Fortunately, the students were also able to understand that repentance was not the same as penance, or self-punishment of any kind. It was about recognizing God’s love in their lives and trying to respond in loving ways to God’s people around them. They understood that God is a God of love, and does not inflict punishment. When bad things happen to people, they knew, it was not because God was punishing them.
 
I think these are the same points Jesus was trying to make in today’s gospel. He and the people he was teaching were suffering from tremendous political abuse from the Roman occupiers of their territory, many of whom were in league with the religious hierarchy. So the people were oppressed by both. When Jesus spoke of the victims of Pontius Pilate’s cruelty, or of natural disaster, he affirmed that those people were not killed in punishment for their sins. But he did emphasize that everyone needed to continually repent, or turn around, to change their mind. Everyone needed to try to love more, to try to increase justice, especially for the marginalized, so that they would not die without a close relationship to God, and without working to build God’s Beloved Community. When he told the parable of the struggling fig tree, he was explaining what continual loving repentance was like. It was like working with a patient gardener, who was willing to give the tree time, and to feed it and enrich the soil around it, so that, with time, it would bear abundant fruit.
 
Paul echoed similar ideas in the second reading, when he said that God is the only one who can judge evil and sins, not people. He went so far as to say that meditating on the depth of God’s kindness can lead us to repentance. In other words, serious consideration of the wrongs we have done, contrasted with the love God continues to have for us, can motivate us to change our mindset and behavior to love more like God loves, and to care for others with the same honor and  tenderness God has for us.
 
Here in the US in 2025, we are all, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, also suffering from political abuse, as Jesus’ compatriots were. Our first reading tells how God sent Moses to help those suffering under the cruel regime of the Egyptians. God communicated to Moses understanding of the Israelites’ suffering, saying, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people… I have heard their cry… I know well that they are suffering.” God then appointed Moses to talk to Pharoah, to secure release of the Israelites from their enslavement. It is interesting that Moses did not protest, did not give excuses why he was not up to this daunting task. He only asked God’s name, so he could tell the people who it was who loved them so much he had sent them a liberator. Perhaps Moses had repented himself to the point that he was eager to use the circumstances of his past not for the sake of princely privilege, but to help deliver the people of God from Pharoah’s oppression.
 
We can’t afford to wait around for a Moses to help us today. We need to try to band together to be liberators from those who are motivated by greed and power. We need to try to shield those who are immigrants, strangers in a strange land, as our Israelite ancestors once were. We need to try to help those who have lost their jobs arbitrarily. We need to try to defend Medicaid and the aid programs that USAID conducted, that help farmers here in Indiana in the process. Somehow we need to cultivate strength, peace, and justice for one another, to love like the patient gardener our God is. Bending our minds toward love, repenting in the holy U-turn, can take us there, if we take it seriously enough. The God of our ancestors, I AM, is sending us.
 
]]>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/standing-up-for-victims-of-injusticeStanding Up for Victims of Injustice

March 2, 2025
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Daniel 13:1-62, excerpts (Susanna); Ps. 138; James 1 19-22, 26; 1 Peter 4: 8-11; Luke 6:37, 39-49
 
           So today we have three really dynamic readings, and they all focus on judgement. Our first reading included another fantastic female role model for us, and a male hero as well. Last week it was Abigail, and today it is Susanna and Daniel. We read that Susanna was a holy and sincere woman who was cornered by two corrupt judges. When they presented her with a sexual ultimatum, she risked her life to remain faithful to her husband and follow God’s law, even though she suspected she would still be condemned to death. Only when Daniel stood up for Susanna, refusing to believe she was guilty, was she spared. In the end of this story, which we did not read today, but which you may remember, the judges were proved to be the guilty ones, when Daniel questioned them, asking under what kind of tree Susanna’s tryst had supposedly taken place. When the predators named different trees, they were foiled. They were proved unworthy to judge others.
 
           Our second reading admonished us never to judge one another, and to treat one another always with love, giving one another the benefit of the doubt. It said our anger never serves God’s justice. In other words, only God can judge another person, no matter how upset we may be about their actions. Criticizing others, especially when we are not willing to change our own ways, certainly does not serve God’s justice. When we speak, the reading said, we must “…speak with care, in a manner consistent with the desire of God’s heart for the world.”
 
And in the Gospel, Jesus’ parables also told us we must not judge others. They said we are as blind as those around us, so we have no basis on which to judge them. Jesus’ parable about the plank and the particle in one’s eye helps us realize we never truly have enough information on which to base judgement of another person. We may not understand the person’s upbringing, or what traumas they have endured in their life. Has that person eaten today? Is her child sick? We don’t know what motivates other people. We are never adequately qualified to judge another person.  Besides that, we all have faults and weaknesses of our own. Judgement is truly only God’s.
 
So we must “bridle our tongues” and avoid judging others. But, like Daniel, we can stand up for the victims of injustice. We can call out corrupt behavior when we see it. We can look at the effects of the unjust decisions of others, and judge those effects. And we can organize to educate people about unfair systems and how those systems can be changed or discontinued. As it said in today’s Gospel, we can hear Jesus’ words and act on them, and be like people who build on strong foundations. In fact, in order to carry out Jesus’ teaching to be fair and loving in our words and deeds, we must stand up for those in need. In today’s world, I think that could mean calling your legislators to help defend funds for public schools. It could mean helping at an immigrant center. It could mean protesting the unconstitutional actions of the White House any way we can. And if you have any Ukrainian friends, you could let them know you still support them.
 
Daniel stood up for Susanna, and proved that her judges were corrupt. For whom do we need to stand up? To whom do we need to stand up?]]>Sun, 23 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/resourceful-nonviolenceResourceful Nonviolence

February 23, 2025
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
1 Samuel 25: 2-34; Ps. 103; 1 Peter 3: 8-12; Luke 6: 27-38
 
Our Gospel this Sunday is one we have heard many times. I’d like to point out two things about it, and then move on to our fascinating first reading. We understand that we should treat others as we would like to be treated. Almost every religion and culture has a similar guideline.  But then Jesus says to go beyond that—to treat others as they would like to be treated. He asks us to love our enemies and do good to them. He asks us to give without expecting repayment. He asks us to spend our lives working on loving as freely as God loves, remembering that God loves “even the ungrateful and the wicked.”
 
On the business of turning the other cheek: Being slapped on the right cheek in Jesus’ culture was a back-handed slap- the way a superior would slap a subordinate, a cheap shot. It was meant to shock, to catch the other off-guard, to wake them up to the boss’s displeasure. Offering the left cheek would mean refusing to fight back. It would demand being struck as an equal. It would be saying, “Go ahead, slap me again. This time recognizing my humanity. Looking one another in the eye. Do you have the nerve to do that? Or the cruelty? Or are you only capable of impulsive outbursts?”
 
In the midst of freezing government aid to sick and poor people all over the world, of thousands of hardworking civil servants being fired arbitrarily, of our Chief Executive going back on all our country’s promises to its allies, our response must be to stand up and resist, but without violence. Violence, name-calling, profanity, disrespect—all these rob us of the power of love. Dr. Martin Luther King said,
“So Jesus says love. When he says it he means it. Love is not meekness, without muscle. Love is not sentimentality without spine. Love is not a tender heart without a tough mind. While it is none of that, it does mean caring. Love means going to any length to restore the broken community. Love means going the second mile to restore the broken community. Love means turning the other cheek to restore the broken community.”
 
 Violence only snowballs—remember Dr. Suess’ Butter Battle Book? On the other hand, returning compassion for cruelty destroys the power of evil. It increases the measure of gracious mercy in the world. But we are only capable of behaving graciously through the grace of God. The Holy Spirit helps transform us to be able to imitate the mercy of Christ. We are able to love unselfishly because God has so loved us first.
 
To me, the most unique perspective today is provided by our first reading, the story of Abigail. This reading is never included in the canonical lectionary, for a Sunday or a daily Mass. Abigail was in a tight spot. Her foolish husband had thoughtlessly disrespected the leader of a powerful army. But Abigail thought quickly and spoke gracefully to avert a war. And she offered food- bread and wine, with meat and fruit. She proved that she recognized the humanity of David and his troops and offered what all humans need and enjoy—nourishment, hospitality, sharing one’s gifts.
​
David appreciated the food and wine, but most of all the opportunity to pause and reconsider his actions. In the end, he blessed Abigail most for delivering him from the guilt of committing bloodshed and revenge. He wanted to follow God’s law of love, and Abigail had helped him find a way to do it. She helped find a non-violent way to solve the problem, a way to supersede disrespect with honor
 
Let us learn to be Abigails. Let us learn to right wrongs by honest, respectful communication and sharing our blessings. Let us work to turn around potential violence by grace and attention to meeting the needs of others. Let us strive to be smarter, stronger, and more loving than those who live by the sword, by looking for peaceful ways to resolve conflicts and make sure everyone involved feels they have been heard and listened to. Let us, by our examples, learn to guard one another against the guilt of violence against our created human and more-than-human siblings. Let us endeavor, over the course of our lives, to be compassionate as God is compassionate, and to leave any judgement of others to God. ​]]>Sun, 16 Feb 2025 17:22:27 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/trust-in-god-permits-the-risk-of-unselfish-love​Trust in God Permits the Risk of Unselfish Love

February 16, 2025
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Jeremiah 17: 5-8; Prov 8: 32-36; 1 Peter 4: 12-17; Luke 6: 17-26
 
You may have seen that a recent Harvard Report on human happiness revealed that positive relationships were the biggest key to making us happier, healthier, and making us live longer. Another document, the World Happiness Report, published in 3/24, agreed. It stated that social interactions tend to increase happiness, mostly by increasing social support and decreasing loneliness. It also found that virtuous behavior, altruism, and benevolence tend to increase happiness, both for the giver and receiver. That study surveyed people in many countries, including Ukraine and Russia, and concluded: “As we battle the ills of disease and war, it is essential to remember the universal desire for happiness and the capacity of individuals to rally to each other’s support in times of great need.” In other words, loving one another is what makes us truly happy.
 
This should be no surprise to we who call ourselves Christians, since we say we believe that God has created us from love and asks that we pass that love on to one another. Since God loves us endlessly, we can conclude that what God asks us to do will be what ultimately makes us happiest.
 
This seems like a good moment to consider these fundamental questions. With the defining principals of our government and society being so radically questioned, considering what we ultimately want in life and what God expects of us seems timely.
​
All three of our readings today emphasize the word blessed, from the Greek Makarios. It meant more than just happy or fortunate, as we can tell from the way it was first used in Luke’s gospel, when Elizabeth addressed Mary, saying, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." Elizabeth understood that Mary was staking her life on her belief in God’s word. Blessed meant having such strong hope in God’s future that you would gladly bet your life on it. These readings are about maintaining hope as we take the risks necessary to love one another as God has asked us to.
 
 In the first reading, Jeremiah said, “Blessed are those who trust God, whose hope is in God.” He compared those who trust God to trees who stretch out their roots toward a stream. He said they are the opposite of “…those who trust immoral inclinations…who rely on power, greed, and envy.” In other words, those who have the confidence in God to risk loving unselfishly, just as God loves us, are truly blessed.
 
 In the second reading, from 1 Peter, we are told that those who are insulted as followers of Christ are blessed. In other words, the more closely we are following Jesus’ teachings and example, the more we are demonstrating our willingness to give everything we have for others, and the more “God’s Spirit will rest on us.”
 
In the Gospel, the passage from Luke describing Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, we are told the poor are blessed, those who hunger now are blessed, those who weep now are blessed, and those who are hated for following Christ are blessed. This is not a call to expect food and happiness as our reward later in heaven, but a call to the hope that can motivate fighting for equality and justice for everyone now. Remember the prophets and be like them, Jesus encouraged his disciples, and encourages us. Take the risk to go against the grain and demand fairness for everyone, Jesus calls. Complacency can be comfortable, but ultimate happiness comes from doing God’s will, which is fighting for justice for all.
 
So the only question is, how far are we willing to go to try to get those who are suffering in our world what they need? Since God tells us this is the way to happiness for both ourselves and the poor among our human family members, and the rest of Creation as well, how do we develop the courage to forget our own desires and take the risk of helping? I think we remember the courage of the prophets, the disciples of Jesus, and ultimately, Christ himself, in dying in the ultimate act of love, to strive for the bravery to be counted “blessed.”]]>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 05:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/to-what-does-god-call-usTo What Does God Call Us?

January 26, 2025
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Nehemiah 8:2-10; Ps.- #733, We Are Many Parts; Rev 5:1-5; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
 
 Apparently Criminal Justice is still a very popular major in colleges these days. Many experts attribute this at least in part to the drama and romanticization of police work depicted on popular TV shows. According to Google, 20-30% switch majors before graduation, due to “…misconceptions about career paths, a lack of understanding about the field, or finding better fit for their interests and skills.” So the TV-show romance seems to wear off eventually for a substantial number.

I think when most of us think about the law in general, we think about it from an enforcement perspective. We think of the law forcing people to follow traffic rules, for example, or keeping them from cheating and stealing in business transactions. But the law is not just a penal code. Law can also be a great gift to us. Consider the Civil Rights legislation passed in the US in the 1960’s. It helped prevent people being devalued and discriminated against just because of the color of their skin. It integrated schools and other public institutions, and helped people get better education, housing, and jobs.

Our readings today focus on the gift to us of the law of God. Our Jewish ancestors asked God for a law they could live by. They were asking for an ethical code, but also for a law that would help protect the vulnerable, and help people live in harmony with one another and the Earth.
 
Our first reading describes the people of God standing and kneeling for hours as the law of God is read by Ezra, the prophet, and then explained by the Levites in the community. The reading is easier to understand with a little background. The people described had returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. For several generations, they had been separated from the Temple and observance of their religion. Consequently, they were cut off from their communal identity as the People of God, and from understanding of God’s love for them. So what the reading described is a re-education/recommitment ceremony. They were becoming reacquainted with the goodness of the Torah, God’s instructions for their life together. The fact that they wept is probably explained by the fact that Ezra’s interpretation of the law required Jews to divorce any Babylonian or other non-Jewish spouses and abandon the children of those marriages. As one expert I read said, “One can imagine many acts of civil disobedience.”
 
Our second reading is a dramatic scene from the Book of Revelation, thought to be coded literature written for early Christians enduring persecution. It describes a scroll, presumed to hold instruction from God, but which no one present is capable of opening. Eventually, we are told, a person who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, and the offspring of Bathsheba, all metaphors for the Messiah, opens the scroll. In other words, the symbolic representative of Jesus the Christ has opened the Law of God for us all.
 
Today’s Gospel describes Luke’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It tells us that Jesus went to the synagogue on the sabbath, as was his custom, and read aloud a passage from the prophet Isaiah. The passage proclaimed the Good News of a Jubilee Year, and of help for the poor, liberty to those held captive, recovery of sight for the blind, and release of those in prison. Jesus then proclaimed that the reading had been fulfilled that day in him.
 
So all three of these readings described episodes in which our ancestors in the faith learned a little more each time how God wanted them to live and to love one another. Through them, we hear God’s call to us: to live as God’s people, to liberate the marginalized, and to love others as God loves us.
 
We heard one more call this week, and it came from Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde as she preached at the National Cathedral. I would say she was definitely representing Jesus, speaking up for our LGBTQ and immigrant human family members, and advocating for mercy, compassion, and empathy, as well as human dignity, honesty, and humility. After her sermon, and all the reaction, she said she was focusing on all her usual responsibilities, not letting this episode stand in the way. “It’s not just the one sermon, she said. “We just need to continue to believe what we believe in and stand for the things we stand for—and that’s the work, right?” I agree, that’s the work God has outlined for us— caring for one another the very best we can, just as God cares for us. 
]]>Sun, 05 Jan 2025 17:37:17 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/seeking-god-and-ways-to-model-gods-loveSeeking God and ways to model God’s love 

January 5, 2025
Epiphany
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
1 Kings 10: 1-13; Ps. 72; Galatians 3: 26-28; Matthew 2:1-12
 
          Yesterday started the official ceremonies to lay to rest President Jimmy Carter. I have always admired President Carter, as I know many of you do, as an authentic spiritual seeker, someone who spent his life trying to understand the love of the Creator, and how we can embody that love to make the world a more peaceful, loving place for everyone. His words and actions demonstrated to me that he understood that equality and inclusion were crucial. When he was governor of Georgia, he stunned segregationists there by declaring, in his inaugural address, “The time for racial discrimination is over. No poor rural white or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.” Later in his career he wrote a book, after conferring with experts at conferences for a year, about equality for women, in which he said, “My own experiences and the testimony of courageous women from all regions and all major religions have made it clear that there is a pervasive denial of equal rights to more than half of all human beings, and this discrimination results in tangible harm to all of us, male and female.” Pres. Carter understood that that respect, acceptance, and equality were integral to building the Reign of God, the Beloved Community.
 
          All three of our readings seem to make the same statement. Our first reading is said to describe the high point of King Solomon’s secular career, the building of the Temple being the religious high point. The gentile Queen of Sheba, the most important, richest, and wisest monarch in the entire region, (yet unnamed,) visited to survey Solomon’s kingdom, and to seek understanding of his God. Apparently, they grew to respect one another, and the Queen to respect Solomon’s God. She observed, “God loves God’s people eternally, and so made you ruler to maintain law and justice.” Their encounter was one of acceptance, giving and receiving, and honor.
Our second reading, from Paul to the Galatians, is foundational to our inclusive catholic movement, an expression of the truth that the Holy Spirit calls all people to ministries of all different kinds, regardless of race, occupation, gender, sexuality, physical ability, or marital status. The acceptance and openness modeled by Jesus and Paul to all believers were part of the new world they sought to build, a Kindom that reflected God’s pervasive love. “In Christ, there is no Judean or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Jesus the Christ.”
 
          The ultimate seekers were the Magi, gentile astronomers trying to understand the spiritual realities of the cosmos. Their dedication to this mission contrasted with that of the chief priests and religious scholars, who seemed to have no interest in visiting Jesus themselves, but were happy to refer to the scriptures and point these foreigners toward Bethlehem. The Magi heaped expensive gifts on Jesus, but can be said to have received the gifts of insight and revelation. Like the Queen of Sheba, they returned with more than they gave. A God whose son was born one with the poor and minority people of his society was the perfect example for the Magi of the hope that existed to be able to build a better, more inclusive world. As Scott Erickson said in his book, Honest Advent, “The deep desire of the Magi was to connect with the Creator of the world, and they trusted the Creator to reveal the interior journey of the soul in the exterior world around them. They wanted to know God, and they were willing to move from observation to participation in the pursuit of knowing.”
 
          Let us continue to be seekers, friends. Let us look for ways to model God’s love in our lives, the best we can. Let us be radically inclusive, like Jimmy Carter, the Queen of Sheba, Paul, Jesus, and the Magi. Let us be willing to participate in the pursuit of knowing, and following, God.

]]>Sun, 22 Dec 2024 18:22:06 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/our-call-restoration-of-peace-and-equality-for-allOur call: Restoration of peace and equality for all
 
December 22, 2024
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Baruch 4: 36; 5: 4, 7-9; Hebrews 10: 5-7, 15-16, 18; Luke 1: 57-80

           This week Jeff and I saw the movie Conclave, and I’ve heard many of you say that you have seen it. I will not spoil anything for those of you who have not. It’s about a papal conclave, obviously, an election of a new pope. One of the main tensions that runs through the movie, and, of course, is alive in the church today, is whether it is better to have progressive, reform-minded church leadership, which  will honor the decisions of Vatican II, or to return to the church of the 1950’s, and more authoritarian, hierarchical rule, with less participation of the laity. The first prioritizes the People of God; the second, power and control by ordained men.

           We are, of course, involved in a movement that prioritizes restoration of the practices of the early church, declared vital by Vatican II. We are working to re-emphasize the participation of women as leaders in the early Christian movement, clearly mentioned in the Gospels and letters, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Prisca, Phoebe, Junia, the sisters Martha and Mary, Chloe, Lydia, Euodia, and Syntyche, among others. We believe the Holy Spirit calls and has called people of all genders and sexualities to ministry. We work and pray to restore this kind of equality to our church.

           Our hope of restoration is fueled by scriptures like those we read today. Our first reading promises that God’s Wisdom will restore the people of God from exile. It says that Wisdom will bring justice and relieve sorrow and distress, and that God is leading us with compassion. The beautiful Canticle of Zechariah, in our gospel, announces liberation and wholeness for God’s people, as foretold by the prophets. It reminds us of the faithfulness of God’s covenant, which restores us to holiness and righteousness. He understands his son’s, John’s, vocation to be that of a contemporary prophet, who will draw people closer to God through repentance and conversion. The God Zechariah understands is tender-hearted and forgiving, “making what is wounded whole.”

            Those two readings are very encouraging and comforting. But I find the second reading even more so. This is because it quotes Jeremiah, explaining that, through God’s covenant with us, God’s law of love is our hearts and written on our minds. The writer of Hebrews echoes Jesus’ teachings that because of this internal knowledge of God’s prescribed way of life, sacrifice for forgiveness of sin was no longer necessary. The sacrificial cult of the Temple, and the Temple as the center of Jewish spiritual and ritual life, was such a strong tradition that Jewish and early Christian followers of Jesus evidentially found it hard to grow beyond it. Because Jesus taught that the law is in our hearts and minds, we have grown beyond the idea that Jesus was the ultimate, necessary sacrifice that atones for our sins. We understand that Jesus’ execution was an injustice brought about by jealous, fearful government and religious leaders, and the ultimate act of love. Jesus’ humanity renders us capable of this same strong love; Jesus’ divinity makes us part of God’s unending love. 

​           Wednesday we will commemorate once again, not the death, but the birth of Jesus, not as a king with earthly power and riches, but as one of the poor and marginalized of the world, able to identify with those who are left out and discriminated against. We will remember how our tender-hearted God came to us as one of us, with a human body, and able to understand human suffering, as well as human belonging and joy. We will celebrate once again the hope of restoration of all God’s creatures to wholeness through interdependence and mutual respect and love. We will sing of peace on earth and good will to all. May our participation in this holy observance, and the love we share with family and friends, rekindle our hope that we are called to restoration of peace and equality for all.]]>Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:05:17 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/what-is-god-waiting-for-us-to-doWhat is God waiting for us to do?
 
December 1, 2024
First Sunday of Advent
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Jeremiah 33:12-13, 15-16; On Jordan’s Bank; Thess. 3: 6-13; Luke 1: 5-15.

           Advent is traditionally a time of new beginnings, of looking to the future with hope, with efforts to understand the Incarnation in new ways and put them into action in our lives. It is a time of recommitment to justice for those on the margins in our midst. Our readings refer to renewal and restoration of the oppressed, to their land and their livelihood.

           But new beginnings may have other implications for us these days, as well. You may have had thoughts like I did the day after the election. I thought, “Oh, no. We will have to start that kind of administration again. We will have to repeat all those bad new beginnings. It was bad the first time, and this time may be worse.” Many are asking, “What will it be like for our immigrant human family members? For those LGBTQ siblings of ours? For us as women? For our sacred threatened planet? Why do we have to begin all these battles all over again?”

           Many of our traditional songs and prayers for Advent imply waiting for God. “O Come, O Come Emmanual, Prepare Ye the Way, Soon and Very Soon,” we say. But what if Advent is really more about God waiting for us? Our readings seem to call us to step up to embody God’s justice and love for one another in new ways, more audaciously and fiercely than ever.

           Our first reading was from Jeremiah, a prophet from a time when Israel and Judah’s land had been occupied and decimated by the Babylonians. Unfortunately, there is war and destruction in some of the same regions today, and the need for peace and restoration, of Jewish life and homes, but even more so of those of Palestinian humans. So it is not difficult for us to image a prophet crying out for the righteous to rise up and help those in need of safety and security. Jeremiah called out for those who would reintroduce justice and integrity, and assured the people God would be with them. God was waiting for those who would act on their own convictions that their God was justice.

           The second reading sounds like Paul had been waiting eagerly to hear about his friends in Thessalonica, implying he was maybe literally dying to hear. He said that since Timothy’s positive report, he was now really alive. He said he prayed night and day that they had been loving one another and “standing firm in the Christ.” He prayed that God would help them persevere in holiness until the Christ came, implying patience and waiting by both God and the people.

           Our Gospel passage from the first chapter of Luke describes many kinds of waiting—Elizabeth and Zechariah waiting for a child, the people waiting outside the sanctuary for Zechariah, and then the angel waiting for Zechariah to realize the great blessing he was announcing, finally declaring that Zechariah would be struck mute for his slowness in belief. But behind all those waitings lies the idea that God that God has been waiting on us all to “convert to the wisdom of justice.”

           So this Advent presents an opportunity to respond to God’s longstanding call in a whole new way. We can recognize that God is waiting for us to translate our fear, depression, and temptation to silence, to actions to speak up and help those threatened and persecuted over the next four years, or for as long as it takes. We cannot allow ourselves to be struck mute by our hesitancy to believe in God’s justice and our ability to actualize it in today’s world. God is waiting for us to look for ways to help restore the land in Palestine, to speak out for peace and reparations. God is waiting for us to protest for our immigrant, LGBTQ, and black and brown neighbors. God is waiting for us to protect our land, air and water, against those who would destroy them in the name of profit margins. And God is waiting for us to strengthen ourselves in prayer and contemplation, to be able to tackle these daunting tasks. We know that God is patient and that with God’s help we can accomplish more than we ever thought possible. But it takes true conviction, the kind rooted in solid prayer and reflection. Let us make this Advent the time when we really listen to what God is waiting for us to do.]]>Mon, 25 Nov 2024 03:33:50 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/the-implications-of-gratitudeThe Implications of Gratitude

November 24, 2024
Thanksgiving
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Sirach 50: 22-24; Ps. 100; Phil 1:1-11; Luke 17: 11-19
  
           A few years ago, Tom Hanks starred in a movie named A Man Called Otto. It told the story of a depressed widower who was drawn out by the needs of his neighbors to become a generous teacher and benefactor. He learned to overcome his grief by giving his most precious possessions, and more and more of himself, to the people around him. Gratitude for the love he had had for his wife and their life together turned him from a grumpy loner to a treasured friend to many. His neighbors learned to be very thankful for him.

          Gratitude is a complex idea. It is not only saying thank you. It is appreciating the value of the gift. It is endeavoring to learn to imitate the generosity of the giver, by passing that generosity on to others. It is protecting the gift, treasuring the gift, and working to grow to be worthy of the gift.

          This is the collective truth our readings today tell us about gratitude. The passage from Sirach tells us how to give thanks to God for our blessings, holding up as examples both “the wondrous things of earth,” and growth itself. And then Sirach modeled how to show our gratitude by carrying on God’s work, saying, “May God’s goodness liberate us to be God’s goodness, in our days, for all days.”

           Then we read in our second reading how Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, offered another example of gratitude and appreciation. He showed the depth of his love for the people of Philippi, by praying for their comprehension and growth in wisdom in the faith, by saying: “May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best. May you have clarity and singleness of heart. May you be ready on the day of the Christ. May you be filled with the fruit of justice that flowed through Jesus the Christ and flows on to us. May all this be done to the glory and praise of God. “

What I hear is Paul praying that his followers, and then their followers after that,  may grow more and more in appreciation of God’s love, and in making it a reality to everyone around them.

           And in the Gospel, Jesus praises the gratitude of the healed person who came back to thank him, and to glorify God. Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.” In other words, the depth of your gratitude for God’s love has made you well. Your strong belief in the power of God’s love has made you well. Your complete vulnerability to God’s will for you has made you well. Your demonstration of praise for God has made you well. Your desire to imitate God’s love in your life by being grateful has made you well.

           What profound examples of gratitude the people in these readings are for us. In the light of our present American political reality, the crisis of climate change, and our continuing struggle to understand and appreciate the beauty of our human diversity, gratitude is both essential and difficult. We need Sirach, Paul and the Philippians, and Jesus and the person who was cured to teach and inspire us. They each dealt with their own crises, but rose above them to be thankful. And they spoke words of gratitude that have been passed down to us. Let us pray that we may find ways to follow them in being grateful and to teach gratitude with our lives.]]>Sun, 03 Nov 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/commitment-to-living-in-gods-loveCommitment to Living in God's Love

November 3, 2024
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hele Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Deut 6:4-9; Ps. 18; 1 Cor 12: 31-13:13; Mark 12: 28-37

           I recently read a story that I think ties in well with these readings about covenant and commitment. Apparently, a surgical oncologist was watching her son play in a Little League baseball game, when the umpire was struck in the neck by a wild pitch and experienced a cardiac arrest. The doctor sprang into action and started CPR, while another spectator ran to the church next door for an AED, and another called for the EMS. They managed to resuscitate the man, and he was rushed to the hospital and survived. No doubt they would have done the same for anyone in this situation, but they were especially grateful because this umpire was well known in the area for his kindness and commitment, and for how he encouraged the kids and helped make baseball fun even when it was stressful. They said he showed up at every single game to support the kids and engage them, to model respect, gratitude, and kindness. When expressing what this dramatic episode had meant to her, the doctor said, “I think our obligation as people is to live with intentionality.”

          To me, this story illustrates how we never know where or when we will be called to live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have to have the intention to walk in Jesus’ shoes at all times in order to be ready when someone in need of our help appears. And I know I need to back that intention up with regular prayer and reflection on scripture to keep myself from being distracted by all the constant stimuli around me. When we talk about living God’s covenant, we’re talking about commitment. Commitment to living in the love God has given to us, to not find differences in other people, but what we have in common. To help people like we would like to be helped. Commitment to making our little corner of the world better, for now, and for everybody’s kids and grandkids.

          In our first reading, from Deuteronomy, Moses summarized the law of God in the Shema, the prayer/creed that encouraged God’s people to live always with the love of God in their hearts, so that they would be ready to act in God’s name in all times and circumstances. Then Jesus linked that creed to love of our neighbors as ourselves, to make clear once and for all that loving others is a way of loving God. Taking care of one another, Jesus and the scribe in the gospel passage agree, is worth more than all the ritual sacrifices Jesus’ contemporaries could offer.

          I never get tired of hearing Paul’s description of love, in the passage we read from 1 Cor. It is a more concrete expression of how to love one another as ourselves. Paul said we follow God by acting with patience and kindness, humility and honesty, patience, mercy,` hope, trust, and zeal for justice. He said he believed we can only see vaguely what God is like during our life on earth, but that after we die, our understanding of God’s love will be crystal clear.
 
          Our zeal for justice will tested in one way, I believe, by next week’s election. The simple act of voting for candidates who support fair treatment for everyone can be an act of justice itself. So can writing those who get elected and supporting legislation to feed more hungry people, provide decent health insurance for everyone, protect personal rights, and protect the environment. By staying engaged with what our civil leaders are doing, we can act to help protect the most vulnerable.
 
          So let us recommit ourselves to live lives of love like God’s love, and to look out for our neighbors as we would like to have them look out for us. Let us, as it said in the first reading, write the law of God’s love on our hearts.]]>Mon, 07 Oct 2024 03:14:55 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/st-francis-simplicity-and-the-earthSt. Francis, Simplicity, and the Earth 

Oct 6, 2024
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
Numbers 11: 25-29; Ps. 19; Eph 4: 7, 11-16; Mark 9: 14-29, 38-41

            This week we witnessed the destruction in multiple states in the southeastern US from Hurricane Helene. It brought home once again that extreme weather events are happening, as a result of shifting wind currents and rain patterns caused by rising land and ocean temperatures. Some of us may have family or friends who live in those area who were affected. Even if not, many of us are in a kind of mourning for our favorite places in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, among other states. We wonder if those destroyed communities can ever be rebuilt.

           The epicenter of the NC damage seems to be around Swannanoa. I am in mourning for that place. I have loved that area for many years and have been there many times. Besides being a beautiful place for humans to live, it happens to be one of the most diverse areas in the US for animals and plants. Many scientists do research there because of the huge varieties of species they can study. We have seen the damage to human communities and homes on TV and online. I wonder what the damage to other species was and if they will be able to rebound.

           It is more and more clear that we are running out of time to turn the climate crisis around. And that it will take every ounce of human cooperation we can muster to accomplish it. Traveling to Europe, among other things, has made me aware that there is much more we could all be doing. In Scotland and Ireland, at least, I observed that people live in much smaller houses and drive much smaller cars. And the cars they have they don’t use very often. Many more people there walk or bicycle, or use public transportation whenever they can. They use much smaller, more efficient appliances, and many hang their clothes to dry rather than use the drier. They are incentivized by the government to recycle. Altogether, they are doing much more to conserve fossil fuels than we are.
 
           So there are environmental extravagances that we could sacrifice more. More of us could consider putting solar panels on our homes, for example, and there are government programs to provide incentives. We could consider hybrid or electronic vehicles, or at least driving less, even by planning our errands ahead better to reduce the number of times we drive. We could eat less meat. Meat production requires so much more water use than plant foods- 2000 gallons for a pound of beef, for example, and about 500 gallons for a pound of chicken or pork. And we can certainly vote for candidates who support legislation to protect the environment.
 
           St. Francis advocated for simplicity of lifestyle, out of love for the earth and a desire to protect it, but also to help the poor, and ultimately, to help ourselves have a better relationship with God. He modeled avoidance of over-consumption, and redistribution of wealth in the community. He knew from experience as a young man that concentration on property and possessions distracts from our spiritual work. Simplicity, he taught, frees us to concentrate on loving God and our family members, both human and more-than-human. And helps us appreciate the beauty and complexity of the millions of plants, animals, geological formations, and water systems around us.
 
           So let us pray for all those of God’s creatures affected by the recent storms, and let us contribute to help them as best we can. But even more, let us educate ourselves about how simplifying our lifestyles can help reduce our impact on this beautiful planet of ours. Let us concentrate on loving God by loving all God’s creatures, as simply and sincerely as we can.]]>Sun, 29 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/using-our-prophetic-spiritUsing Our Prophetic Spirit 

September 29, 2024
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
Numbers 11: 25-29; Ps. 19; Eph 4: 7, 11-16; Mark 9: 14-29, 38-41

              Most of you are aware of the Justice Action that some of us participated in on July 20, at the end of the US Catholic Bishops’ Eucharistic Congress, in downtown Indianapolis. We held signs and banners that day in support of all sacraments for all people. We prayed and sang and handed out leaflets in hopes of opening people’s minds to inclusion, in all roles in the Christian community, regardless of gender, sexuality, or past marital status.
 
              Response from people in the crowd that day was mostly positive, but a few folks objected to our ideas vigorously, and, usually, condescendingly. More than one priest, in full clerical garb, literally stood talking down to me and other members of our group, shaking their fingers and telling us we were mistaken, unenlightened, sinful, condemned to hell, etc.
 
              I wonder how Jesus would have responded if he were there. His statement in today’s Gospel, and that of Moses in the first reading, seem completely contrary to those of the finger-wagging priests. When told by his disciples that there were people outside their group performing miracles in his name, Jesus responded, “Do not stop such a one! … Whoever is not against us is for us. Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name, because you belong to Christ, will not lose God’s gratitude.” And when alerted that there were elders outside the designated group prophesying to God’s people, Moses said, similarly, “If only all of God’s people were prophets! If only God would bestow the spirit on them all!”
 
             Of course, we can say Jesus was there at our protest on July 20, and that he was expressing himself thru our voices, signs, leaflets, banners, and spirits. We had all thoughtfully prepared for our action that day with sincere prayer, study, and training regarding our right to express our opinions publicly. We trusted that we were endeavoring to speak prophetically, to deliver God’s word in a way that invites to change and transformation. We believed we were equipped by the Spirit to communicate truths that would help reform and strengthen the church. That is the motivation of every part of the Womenpriests movement.
 
            Unfortunately, in the institutional church, as in many hierarchies, there have always been tendencies for some leaders to talk down to the rank and file, usually to try to induce dependence. “Just follow our rules if you want to go to heaven,” has been typical. It sounds like it was even happening back when Ephesians was written! But this second reading encouraged us to talk back. “We are not infants,” it said. It calls us to an adult faith and critical thinking, challenging clericalism and domination by those who claim superiority. It encourages us to “…attain the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Chosen One, maturing into the fullness of humanity.” And it affirms the unique gifts and talents with which God has blessed each person.
 
             As I see it, we are all in this together, this effort to find justice for ourselves and everyone around us. We each have some share of prophetic spirit resting on us, and God expects us to claim that voice to speak the truth we each alone know. Jesus showed us the example of speaking out in defense of those who were persecuted-- the women, the disabled, the sick, the poor, and those suffering mental illnesses. He asks us to do the same—to claim the power we have by virtue of our creation in God’s image, to refuse to be treated like infants, and to speak up for peace and equal rights like empowered adults. He asks us to “perform powerful acts of compassion,” all working to build up his Body and keep him alive forever and make his words heard in our world.
 
  
The Creator does not have any monopoly over the power to free and heal. Spirit lives in us all, and our Maker is not threatened by our collaboration with Them. Even more, God delights in our cooperation and sacred co-conspiracy. Should we muster the courage to do the difficult-yet-divine thing to reestablish liberation and righteousness, The Divine offers unyielding support for our initiative. Those who seek to hoard power and spiritual resource for themselves (clericalism, infantilization) are worthy of scrutiny. Instead, our communities of believers can be leaderful and outpouring with giftings of Spirit. We pray, we praise, we intercede, we lay hands, we speak tongues, we testify, because we know that the work of our Mother is communal.    -    Enfleshed
 
The prophetic word invites people to change and transformation……. Would that the prophetic spirit be stirred up in the lives of all people so justice can take lasting root to end all forms of oppression.    -      NCR
 ​]]>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 19:41:26 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/the-bread-of-justice-inclusiveThe Bread of Justice is Inclusive
 August 25, 2024
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
1 Kings 17: 8-16; Ps. 15 - They Who Do Justice; Gal 2: 1-14; Mark 7: 24-30

Thursday this week, Aug. 22, marked the death of Sister of Mercy Theresa Kane. As some of you probably recall, it was Theresa Kane who stood up in the National Basilica of Mary in Washington DC, on Oct. 7, 1979, and addressed Pope John Paul II, saying this:
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           “Our contemplation leads us to state that the church in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and dignity for all persons must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of our church.”

That day ,Theresa Kane’s prophetic words would galvanize the women’s movement within the Catholic Church. Her truth, spoken to power, was a reminder to the Church hierarchy of a core truth of its own teaching: that all are equally created in God’s image, and equally called to help establish the Reign of God on earth.
 
           All three of our readings today express this same sacred truth, that, regardless of ethnic heritage, race, gender, or any other human characteristics, all are called by God and have something to contribute to the increasing human realization of God’s life of love. They also continue the theme of the past few weeks of bread and feeding, this time focusing on the bread of justice.
 
           Our first reading told how a widow in the non-Jewish town of Zarephath and the prophet Elijah ministered to one another. Both were called to leaps of faith. Elijah was asked to go to a village which was in the midst of a drought, and to depend on the kindness of a stranger there for his sustenance. The unnamed woman was asked to use the last bit of food she and her child had to provide hospitality for Elijah. Through the grace of God, they all survived together, until the drought was over. Without this widow’s faith and kindness, Elijah would not have been able to continue in prophesy, and without Elijah’s surrender to God’s will, they all would have starved. Sharing God’s bread of justice kept them alive.
 
           Our second reading is an account of the Council of Jerusalem, considered the first Council of the church. Paul presented to the establishment of Jewish followers of Christ in Jerusalem, headed by Peter, James, and John, the gospel he had been teaching to non-Jewish believers in many surrounding territories. Finding no fault in what he had presented, they agreed to be partners in apostleship, Peter to Jewish followers of The Way, and Paul to the non-Jewish. In other words, they decided that people who wished to join in following Jesus’ teachings were all to be welcomed, without constraint to follow Jewish ritual law. The last part of the passage from Galatians represents Paul’s challenge to Peter when he perceived Peter failing to honor this agreement, by refusing to eat with non-Jews. Paul demanded that Peter recognize Paul’s non-Jewish community as equally called to faith by God. He insists that the bread of justice be shared equally by all the Christ followers.
 
           Thirdly, in one of my favorites of all Gospel passages, we heard a non-Jewish woman enlighten Jesus as to the scope of his ministry. This Syro-Phoenician woman, also unnamed, refused to take no for an answer, when Jesus declined to help her afflicted daughter. She demanded that Jesus recognize that God calls everyone to live by returning God’s selfless love, not just Jewish people. Her clever response, born of her desperation for healing for her daughter, convinced Jesus of her faith, and forced him to reconsider the limitations he had placed on God’s love. By insisting on at least crumbs of the bread of justice, the woman inspired Jesus to listen to the Spirit of inclusion and dignity for all the created.
 
           All three of these passages call us to do likewise, to both partake of and to share the bread of justice. I believe we are called to prophetic protest of the Church’s refusal to ordain all those called to ministry by the Holy Spirit. Having accepted God’s call, we are bound to provide all sacraments for all people called to them, regardless of gender, sexuality, or marital status. And we are called to do all we can to follow the loving examples of the widow of Zarephath, Paul and his followers, the Syro-Phoenecian woman, Theresa Kane, and Jesus.]]>Sun, 04 Aug 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/the-message-of-sharingThe Message of Sharing
 August 4, 2024
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
 Ex 16: 2-4, 12-18; Ps. 34; Acts 20: 4-11, Mark 8: 1-9

           What does it mean when people share food? (Congregation makes suggestions...)   In a survival situation, it means, “I want you to live.” When someone is sick, food can be medicine. In a romantic situation, it can mean, “You mean more to me than anyone else.” In a family, it can mean, “Let us celebrate our bond of unity.” After a big disappointment, it means, “Life will go on, and I still have faith in you.” At the Olympics, when a coach hands an athlete a banana or an electrolyte drink, it means, “I wish for you to succeed.” At a big celebration, like a wedding, it can mean, “We are so happy you are getting married, let us waste a little time and money on food that provides nothing but joy and pleasure, like a big layered cake covered with flowers made of frosting.”
 
           So sharing food can convey all kinds of sentiments. But in all these situations, which is more important—the food? Or the sharing? (Opinions from congregation.)
 
           In a disaster, most people probably do not remember what they ate, but they remember that someone came to their aid and helped them survive. Years after a wedding, we may not remember what was served, but we certainly remember being together and the happiness we felt for the newlyweds.
 
           So I would contend that it is the sharing of food that usually is more important than what was actually eaten. Because sharing means giving of oneself, unselfishly providing for another, putting another person’s needs or happiness before our own.
 
           All of our readings today are about this beautiful act of sharing food. Our first reading, from Exodus, recalled how God helped the Israelites find quail and manna as they traveled across the desert. The people took this as a sign that God loved them and had helped them escape from slavery in Egypt so that they could build a new way of life. They were to follow God’s covenant of love and live according to God’s example of unselfishness and generosity. They were to share with one another as their Creator had shared with them.
 
           The second reading recalls a Eucharistic celebration by Paul and the people of Troas. The sharing, specifically Paul’s sharing of the Word, apparently lasted all night long, such that a young man named Eutychus (whose name means ‘good fortune,’) dozed off and fell out of a third-story window. He was said to have been killed, but then brought back to life, after which they all broke bread, and then conversed some more until dawn. The whole account of this and the following chapters of Acts implies that Paul was in danger, that he was afraid of being arrested or killed during this journey, and that he was eager to share the love of God with the people as fully and as quickly as possible. A few chapters after this reading he is said to have told people in Ephesus, “I do not count my life of any value, if only I may finish the ministry I received from Jesus, to testify to God’s grace.” There was urgency to his sharing. His mission was to relate God’s unconditional love for them, in a way that they would remember it.
 
           The gospel story of Jesus’ sharing the Word of God, along with bread and fish, with a huge crowd of people is the second such account in Mark’s gospel. Just two chapters earlier, Jesus is said to have shared teaching and food with five thousand people, in Jewish territory. This time he was sharing in a mainly gentile region. When the worried disciples asked Jesus a second time how they could feed such a big crowd, he had them take inventory of their stock again, implying, “Do at least whatever you are able to do.” Was Jesus’ teaching about God’s limitless love powerful enough to encourage the people to share what little they had with one another? Had the second group come prepared to share, having heard of the astounding generosity of the first? Or did the people of the surrounding neighborhood come and share some of their food? We don’t know. But we can take the lessons of Jesus as instruction to us: to not despair when things seem overwhelming, but to do what we can do, to share whatever we have with those in need.
 
           The point of all three of these readings, as I see it, is to lead us to remember Jesus’ ultimate sharing of food. This, of course, was when he gave his body and blood to us as bread and wine on the night before he died. “I lay my life on the line for you,” he taught us that evening. “And I do it as an example for you to follow.” He invited us to repeat this ritual over and over, in memory of his ultimate act of love. “Give what you have,” his actions told us. “Do what you can,” his whole life said.  All summed up in his instruction to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.”]]>Sun, 28 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/listening-for-gods-callListening for God’s Call
 June 28, 2024
Feast of St. Mary Magdelene
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
 
Micah 6:1-8; Woman Wisdom (based  on Proverbs 1: 20-23, 33; words- Inclusive Lectionary; music- Kathy Schmid); Tell Them, by Edwina Gately; John 20: 1, 11-18
 
           Eight days ago, some of the people here and some other Womenpriests and supporters of equality and justice within the catholic church, staged a protest downtown outside the Indpls. Convention Center. Inside the Center, the US Catholic Bishops were conducting a Eucharistic Congress, a national meeting to help US Catholics, the bishops said, understand better the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. From what we demonstrators saw and heard, the meeting seemed to focus on two ideas: hierarchy and the adoration of Christ. While we stood in counter-witness with signs, banners, songs, and prayers, we watched a parade of hierarchy, in ascending order. First came the lowest members, all the women, all the sisters and nuns. Then there were seminarians, deacons, priests, bishops, and then finally, a cardinal with a big monstrance holding a host. Hierarchy and adoration, that’s why they were there. We were there because we felt called to stand up for all sacraments for all people; to stand up for inclusion, regardless of gender, sexuality, or marital status. We wanted to point out that the true presence of Christ is in each one of us. And we wanted to remind people that Jesus never said, “Adore me.” No, Jesus said. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

           Then, seven days ago, we expressed all those same ideas liturgically, with a Eucharist of Equals, a Liturgy of Love. With beautiful prayer, music, preaching, symbol, gesture, and even spontaneous dancing, we emphasized that the way to follow Jesus is to act with justice every day in our lives. To act with justice, first of all, in our own church.

           Speaking for myself, I felt, while participating in both events last week, that I was answering God’s call in an important way. I was joining with members of the Body of Christ to demand justice, to provide encouragement, and to express my joy in the new way of being church that we are bringing to reality. I felt I was educating people about open, inclusive catholic communities, like ours, and inviting others to join us, especially if they felt left out or had even been hurt by the Church.

          I guess I can say I felt like I was following St. Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was someone who spoke out when she was called by Christ, to announce the Good News that we must keep alive the reality that God became human and would live forever through us. Not as an objectified wafer in a monstrance, but in our human bodies, in our voices and hands and feet, called now to carry on Jesus’ work. Mary Magdalene walked with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, and even to the cross and then the garden where he had been laid to rest. And then, instead of walking, she ran, to tell the other apostles what the resurrected Jesus had told her.

           All of our readings today tell us about how God calls us. Micah’s message was that we are to seek justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. The message of Proverbs was to listen to Wisdom, to Sophia, God’s Holy Spirit, and to let that Wisdom guide our lives. To let wisdom of God’s endless love give us the confidence to take on the hard tasks of helping people who need food, health care, education, legal help, or help dealing with discrimination. Edwina Gately’s message was that Jesus told Mary Magdalene to ask people to rise with him to heal the earth. And Jesus’ message to Mary Magdalene, in John’s gospel, was that she and all other people must learn a new way to relate to him, no longer present physically in his body, but now present physically in the bodies of all beings, all called to carry his love to one another and join in keeping his teachings alive.

           God did not call us to individually save the world, all by ourselves. Instead, God joined us into one body, to carry God’s love to everyone we encounter, any way we can. God gave us the sacred meal we are about to experience, to unify us in sharing his body and blood, so that they can become part of our bodies and our blood, and make us one with God and with one another. Like Mary Magdalene, we just have to follow Jesus, recognize him when he appears, and then tell everybody through our love that he will live forever. ​]]>Sun, 23 Jun 2024 17:52:02 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/ecstasy-reason-and-gods-loveEcstasy, Reason, and God's Love
 
June 23, 2024
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP

Job 38:  1-9, 12-18; All Shall Be Well, Joyce Rouse/Julian of Norwich; 2 Cor 5: 13-20; Mark 4: 35-41
 
           Julian of Norwich was a 14th century woman mystic who lived through very turbulent times, including the Black Plague in Europe. She experienced a series of sixteen mystical encounters with Jesus, revealing to her the love of God. In one of these encounters, Jesus told her, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

          Julian perceived this statement not as soothing, but as shocking. How could this possibly be, she thought, given the reality of pain, suffering, and violence in the world? Years later, she wrote how she had come to understand these words of Jesus: “Would you learn to see clearly your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love… Why did he show it to you? For love… Thus I was taught that love was our Lord’s meaning.” She went on in her writings to portray God as a loving mother. She spent the rest of her life counseling people to avoid sin and live in love.

          Our readings show us other examples of this same age-old human question: How do understand the love of God when tragedy strikes in our lives? In our first reading, Job lost all his property, wealth, and even his children and family, one after another. He struggled to understand God as loving. His friends tried to convince him that God was vengeful. But God then addressed Job face-to-face, reminding him of the power and beauty of her gifts of creation, in the words of a loving mother. “Where were you when I spun the cosmos into being?... Who planted the earth with seeds of life?... Were you there when the seas filled the earth as waters burst forth from the womb?” “I am still present to you,” this mother-God seemed to say. “Joy and sorrow may pass through your life, but my love, like the sea and stars, always remain.”

          In our Gospel, the apostles sailed with Jesus across the Sea of Galilee, when a violent storm rose and threatened to drown them all. They were terrified and begged Jesus to protect them. Jesus calmed the seas and waves, and then asked his friends, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” The Gospel says they were filled awe and asked one another, “Who is this?”
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          So in these two accounts, Job and the apostles were left, not with understanding, but with awe of God. They were left with ecstatic wonder at God’s enduring presence with them.
 
          Our reading from Paul to the Corinthians is an attempt to approach understanding of God’s love, even when life is sad and confusing. Paul acknowledged that sometimes ecstasy and awe are our only ways of responding to God’s wonders. Yet our human reason demands understanding. He said, “If we seem ecstatic, it is for God.  If we appear of rational disposition, it is for you.  ….” Paul’s answer to this puzzle was this, “Jesus did die, , so that those who live might also no longer live for themselves, but for the raised and living body of Christ” Paul’s conclusion is the same as Julian’s: Whatever happens, we are called to love. We are called to live for others, to die to our own selfishness, and to live in self-giving love, as Jesus did.
 
          Jesus mentioned faith, asking the apostles in the boat, “Why are you afraid, have you no faith?” As I see it, faith seems to be at the crossing of ecstasy, or awe, and reason. Often, when we are facing tragedy, it is hard to recognize God’s love. We have to hang out in faith for a while. We know through reason that God does not wish for anyone to experience pain or loss. How could God have created this beautiful world and our beautiful relationships if she did not love us without reservation? Yet, because of God’s total love, she created freedom and choice for us. With freedom, comes the possibility of wrong choice, of violence and greed and death. Whatever happens, faith can sometimes tide us over until we are once again ready to recognize that God is love, and that, in the end, all shall be well. ​]]>Sun, 16 Jun 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/seeds-of-justiceSeeds of Justice
 June 16, 2024
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
 Ezekiel 17: 22-23; Ps. 65; 2 Cor 9: 5-15; Mark 4: 1-9, 26-33
 
                       Many of you probably know of the beautiful life and legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, who worked for 40 years in the Amazon to help defend the land and indigenous small farmers, in opposition to large landowners, multi-national corporations, and others who wished to destroy them. Like Jesus, and many other justice activists he inspired, she made a lot of enemies in the course of her compassionate work. She was martyred on Feb. 12, 2005, by assassins hired by corrupt ranchers in Brazil, as she was on her way to aid a family whose house and farm had been burned down.
           At Sister Dorothy’s funeral, one of the peasant farmers in attendance stood up and said, “Today we are not going to bury Sister Dorothy. We are going to plant her.” They understood that resurrection means following in the footsteps of a saint like Sister Dorothy, keeping her work alive by carrying it on. She had planted many seeds, and her community cultivated them by energetically continuing her justice efforts.
           If we look at our first reading today, from Ezekiel, in context, we see that the great eagle symbolizes God, and the planting of the cedar shoot is a metaphor for the establishment of God’s people in a new land. It is a prophetic command to us and to all to help provide homes for those who need them, and to stand up for those whose homelands are taken from them, or whose heritage and culture are threatened.
           Paul, in our second reading, from Second Corinthians, sends us a similar message of encouragement to help those in need. The letter this passage came from was sent to gentile Christians in Corinth, encouraging them to help the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and to do so with humility and gratitude. “Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully,” Paul advises them, and us. “You are glorifying God by living out the gospel of Christ through the generosity of your contribution to them and to all others.” We are called to bountifully sow support for those in need-- even those, maybe especially those, outside our cultural and faith traditions.
           Jesus calls us to fight for the poor by generously waging peace as well. In today’s gospel, he calls us to be like mustard seeds, growing up to provide shelter for many. Be like the good soil in which the seed grows readily, he tells us—deep, fertile, hospitable to new life for those whose previous life may have been destroyed. But he also reminds us to ground our work for the poor and homeless in prayer, and in humility before the endless loving creativity of God. Like the farmer who plants the seed and then harvests the grain without understanding how God makes it grow, we must try to work always in concert with God’s plan of home and livelihood for all, without judgement and without prejudice.
           Let us take the teachings in these readings to heart, and do what we can to be seeds of justice in this troubled world. Let us work to grow into the kind of strong trees that can provide wood for homes for those who need them. Let us humbly give up our lives as seeds to live as food, medicine, and shelter.
 
]]>Sun, 26 May 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/the-multifaceted-wholeness-of-god 
The multifaceted wholeness of  God
 
May 26, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
 
Deut 4: 32-34, 39-40; Ps. 33; Romans 8: 14-17; Matt 28: 16-20
 
 
             I would like to start today with a little audience participation. Is there one brave soul who could please stand up and explain some of their many roles in life? Maybe you could frame this by saying, “I am a _____,” and repeat it about several of the jobs and roles you have in life.  
           Thank you! We can see that any given person is not just one thing. We are all multifaceted, able to do many things, and to relate to other people and to God in many different ways. It seems to me, that if this is true of humans, it is surely true of God, the ultimate Person of all being, the most complete and inclusive Being there is.
          Our readings today give us a starting point with which to understand the many identities of God. They emphasize the three images of God traditionally grouped as the Holy Trinity, and these are rich and beautiful images. The first reading, from Deuteronomy, described the greatness, power, and originality of God the Creator. It is an ancient defense of monotheism, of course, written when this was a unique idea for people to follow. But it is also an inspiring and poetic praise of God, the Originator of all. In question form, it proclaims the superiority of the God of Israel, compared to all previous gods, saying, “…from the time God created human beings on this earth… has anything as great as this ever happened before?” And it proclaims that God’s greatness cannot be contained only in humans, saying, “Know this well, and take it to heart. God is everywhere, in the heavens and the earth, in the vastness of creation.” So God, the Deuteronomist proclaims, is in every creature and substance, all throughout the cosmos.
          Our second reading tells how Paul wrote to the Romans, a community of both Jews and Gentiles, about the Holy Spirit, stating that, “God’s Spirit beckons.” She constantly draws us, all of us, to herself and her wisdom if we choose to follow. And the Spirit offered, Paul stated, is a Spirit of adoption, which actually puts us on a relationship par with Christ. “The Spirit Herself joins our spirit confirming that we are children of God, God’s holy family!” Paul proclaims. “And so, if we are in solidarity with the Christ, in hardship, suffering, and even death, then we will also experience the blessings the Christ now enjoys, the glory that awaits.” As Sr. Mary McGlone explains, “This implies that we share in (Christ’s) relationship with God, and if with God, then with the rest of creation as well.” The Holy Spirit invites everyone to be one with Christ and the Creator, and ALL creation.
          Our gospel attributed to Matthew framed what has become the traditional Trinitarian Christian baptismal formula. It quoted Jesus as issuing what has come to be called The Great Commission, the call for disciples to go forth and baptize all peoples, “… in the name of God who is Father and Mother, the Child, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit.” This idea apparently evolved gradually as Christian theology, as one way to capture the way the followers of Christ understood the different facets of God’s being.
But certainly, we understand that there are many more aspects to our understanding of the character of God. Jesus mentioned many in his parables. He compares God, and the Reign of God, the perfect life of love which we all aim to help create, as a mustard seed, tiny, but capable of growing into a bush that can protect many birds. He said God is like yeast, with which a baker which could somehow transform flour into bread, comparing it to the caring and thirst for justice with which we can “leaven” and transform our relationships and society. Jesus said God is like a woman searching for lost coin, turning her house upside down to find it, then rejoicing with her friends and neighbors when it is found. His listeners, no doubt, could see the connection with a God who valued each and every person and creature, never willing to lose even one. And we can find many more examples in Jesus’ teachings.
          I’ve mentioned before Richard Rohr’s conception of the many manifestations of God’s being as a flow of love, each member equally contributing to and benefiting from the other. He says that this is a mystery that we can only understand contemplatively, through deep thought and meditation about and with God. He says, “To approach the Trinity in this way is not to understand at all, but to “stand under” a waterfall of infinite and loving Flow.” In this view, there can probably be as many identities of God as there are drops of water in a waterfall.
          To me, the most beautiful thing about this multi-factorial view of God is that it recognizes the endless variety of humans and other creatures, and that, as Paul said, God beckons ALL. And if God is incarnate, revealed in flesh like ours, flesh of all races, genders, sexualities, relationships statuses, occupations, levels of education, and physical abilities, then there is no limit to the acceptance and inclusion to which we are called. This is our challenge, I think, to embrace the many identities of God in the many identities of people and other creatures around us, and to love and fight for justice for them all. The Trinity is just a starting point. We can let science and art and sociology and all the other knowledge with which we have evolved lead us to fully know God in the endless variety of Creation.
]]>Sun, 12 May 2024 16:54:31 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/midrash-sarah-of-nazareth-reflects-on-her-lifelong-friendMidrash: Sarah of Nazareth reflects on her lifelong friend.
 
May 12, 2024, Feast of the Ascension and Mother’s Day
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
Acts 1: 1-3, 6-11; Ps. 68; Eph 4:1-14; Mark 16: 9-15, 19-20 
 
My name is Sarah, and I am a follower of the one they call Jesus of Nazareth. If you are reading this, I hope it is because you also are his follower. I have faith and hope as I write this that his words and his Way will be alive forever.
            Jesus and I actually grew up in the same neighborhood in Nazareth. As a child, he loved to have fun, but always seemed a little preoccupied. His parents, Mary and Joseph, were very kind, gentle people, and he was like them. As he got older, he spent any free time he had listening to the rabbis and learning as much of our Hebrew scriptures as possible. As we approached adulthood, the oppressive abuses of the Roman occupiers of our region grew worse and worse. Jesus was very concerned about the way they affected the ability of the local farmers, merchants, and laborers to earn a living wage. But he did not go off and join the violent gangs trying to sabotage the Romans. He spoke out in protest, but always advocated for non-violence and reconciliation.
            When he was thirty years old, Jesus started actively teaching his vision of a reformed, justice-oriented observance of our Jewish faith. He wanted to tell everyone about the love of God he had experienced in prayer, his study of scripture, in nature, and in human relationships. He had a way of devising down-to-earth stories that made it clear to people that God’s love for them was unlimited, and that God wanted us to love one another in the same way. He developed quite a following, which made the local leaders feel threatened. So, unfortunately, he developed enemies as well.
            My mother and I joined Jesus as he began to travel around the region and toward Jerusalem, teaching and encouraging people to stand up for justice for themselves and others. He especially advocated for the ostracized, the lepers, the blind, the deaf, and people who seemed to have demons in their minds. We wanted to learn all we could from him, but, like his mother and the others who traveled with him, we wanted to support and protect him as well. We tried to convince him that Jerusalem was dangerous for him, and that he was better off staying in the small villages, letting people who wanted to learn come to him. But Jesus believed he had been sent by God to confront the injustices and corruption in our government and even our religious leadership there in the Temple city. He hoped he could make a difference with his message of selfless love.
            Eventually the number of Jesus’ disciples, and the challenging teachings he proclaimed, became too alarming to the civic and religious leaders in Jerusalem. They found a way to get rid of him. Watching his gruesome execution was the worst experience of my life. They tried to make an example of him with their cruelty. The other women and I stood by him until the end, though the soldiers ran most of the men off. We saw him dead on the cross, and buried in the tomb.
            We who were Jesus’ friends and followers were terrified that the Romans would come after us next. We hid out together. We gathered in an upper room and reminisced about all Jesus had taught us and how his example had affected our lives. The more we prayed and sang and remembered together, the more it seemed that Jesus was not dead, but vibrantly alive in our midst. It seemed like he would, in fact never die, as long as we had had breath to pass on his Way with our own words and actions. We came to understand that Jesus had embodied the love of God to us, that he had made God intimately real to each of us, and that his message had been that of the Christ the prophets had promised. Eventually, the loving impact he had on each of us helped us overcome our fear and begin to venture out to teach and model the love he had taught us. As time went on, we realized that, though Jesus was no longer physically with us, he would always be alive in our love for one another and the people we tried to teach and help. We realized that he had left his mission in our hands, to live out with our lives, and to encourage others to carry on.
            I have written this in hope that you will read it in the future and be inspired to continue living the Way of the Christ and passing it on as I have tried to do. We came to realize that Jesus had called us to be his eyes and voice and hands. Now I call you also to see as Jesus saw, speak loving and challenging words, as Jesus spoke, and work and build and heal, as Jesus did with such powerful divine love. ]]>Sun, 21 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/good-shepherds-care-for-the-earthGood shepherds care for the earth
 
April 21, 2024, 4nd Sunday of Easter and Earth Day
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Readings from:  A New climate for Theology, by Sallie McFague; Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer; John 10: 2, 1, 3-7, 9-18
 
           Yesterday afternoon, I had an experience of the “abundant life” vision to which Sallie McFague referred in our first reading. I was at Girl Scout Camp Gallahue, in Brown County, out on the lake, teaching canoeing. There were 114 Scouts and leaders there, and over the course of four hours, they came down and put on their life jackets, got in their boats by twos and threes, and experienced that beautiful freedom of propelling a boat with their muscles and paddles. That silent peacefulness of unity with water, boat and body, augmented by wind, bright sun sparkling on the lake, and friendship. The awesome beauty of earth, lake, and sky. Of learning something new, or teaching something you have loved all your life, and sharing with a new generation.

          Over and over, kids and adults just kept saying, “It’s so beautiful here.” The physical setting was breathtaking, but so was the opportunity to soak it all in, with their kids, their troop mates, their neighborhood volunteers. I think is was an example of what Robin Wall Kimmerer referred to in our second reading as “making something beautiful in response.” God has given us a world that is so intricately interrelated that we will never fully understand it. We can only try to immerse ourselves in it, whenever we can, and do our best to share it, and to inspire one another to protect it and sustain it. As McFague said, working for environmental justice “….need not be a call for asceticism, for anxiety, or for despair. Rather, it is a vision of… our place as dependent and interrelated with all other life-forms in order to attain a just, sustainable planet where we—and all others—can flourish.” When we understand that our biology and that of bees, as Kimmerer points out, is identical in attraction and enjoyment, we get a glimpse of the love with which God created the world given to us. God truly is a protective, caring shepherd, who leads us to what we need and can teach us how to thrive.

          When we think about sheep, however, we know that they are not necessarily the docile, soft, wooly followers that are depicted in children’s bible stories. Sometimes sheep butt heads, even for hours at a time, fighting for dominance. They throw themselves at each other at speeds up to 20 miles an hour. People can be the same, fighting greedily for oil and gas revenue, for example, at the peril of the earth and everything in it. We need the energy these products can give us, but not at the expense of climate change and its consequences, which, as Pope Francis has pointed out, impacts the poor first and most. We must use the intelligence and impulse toward charity which we are endowed to reverse the forces destructive to the earth which we have instigated. Jesus emphasized in today’s gospel that he was one with us, bodily unified with our flock, and willing to sacrifice himself to teach us the dedication efforts like reversing climate change will take. He was willing to lay down his life, and calls us to lay down our work with governmental leaders, our financial support, and our study and understanding of the environment to care for one another by caring for our planet. Experiencing the world’s beauty can inspire us. Avoiding head-butting for dominance must be part of the love put into it. And providing inspiring experiences for others can help.​]]>Sun, 07 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/continuing-the-work-of-the-christ

Continuing the Work of the Christ
 
April 7, 2024, 2nd Sunday of Easter
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Readings:  Acts 1:3-5, 12-14, 15;  Ps.118; 1 John 1:1-4; 3:11, 14, 16; John 20:1, 11-18
 
           Let’s try to picture one hundred-twenty followers of Jesus gathered together in Jerusalem, including Mary, his mother, and his siblings. Our first reading tells us they were gathered “with one heart,” in prayer, waiting for the promise of Jesus, that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. I can imagine that they were filled with a huge mixture of emotions. They were probably elated that Jesus’ spirit was still vital and alive in their midst. But they were scared as well. How could they not be? Their leader had just been brutally executed, by an empire that had previously crucified thousands. They no doubt feared they could be next. Yet they were encouraged by the unity they felt. I imagine that they reminisced about all Jesus’ teachings and the beautiful way he had related to people, going out of his way to approach the marginalized. I imagine that together, they felt grief, and amazement, fear, and great joy, uncertainty, and solidarity.

           I assume Mary Magdalene was there too. I can hear her repeating her experience to each of them, how Jesus’ message was loud and clear to her: Don’t cling to the human memory you have of me. Instead, let everyone know that I can live forever through you, through all of you. Remember my example and do as I did.

           We might wonder why Mary Magdalene was the first to whom Jesus appeared alive. It is clearly documented that she was the first in the gospels of both John and Mark. We can also get some hints from reading the non-canonical gospels of Mary Magdalene and Phillip. These documents tells us that she was “first among the apostles” even when they were all alive, for one reason: she best understood Jesus’ message and was best able to actualize it in her own life. Her position of leadership was earned, and Jesus validated this specifically. Mary Magdalene is our namesake because, of all the apostles, she was the first and most capable follower and teacher of Jesus’ Way.

            I think they probably asked themselves and one another the question of what exactly had happened to Jesus? The sense of his presence was strong, and he it certainly felt to them as if he was alive. Yet they had witnessed him on that cross.

           We know the gospels are not historical documents. They often compress time for the sake of conveying their message. When I think of the disciples all gathered, the first beginnings of the early church, I think they probably had to work these ideas out slowly in their minds, not in a few days, but over weeks and months and years. I see them talking all through the night, trying to remember all of what Jesus had said and what they should do to make sure his message also lived on. I picture many of them coming to the conclusion, one after another, that Jesus had chosen them to keep God’s creative mercy and compassion alive. That it was up to them to spread the Good News that love can defeat cruelty, corruption, judgementalism, prejudice, and greed, just as Jesus had said.

           So I’m betting the disciples had to grow into these decisions, some quickly, some little by little. The way I picture it, Mary Magdalene and the other apostles had a big influence on the others, testifying about how strong Jesus’ commitment and single-minded love had affected them.
 
           So I don’t think it is surprising that we continue to grow into our faith in Jesus’ resurrection also. We listen to the Easter Gospel accounts and celebrate joyfully that He is Risen. But then, like the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, we have to figure out what we should do. There is so much wrong in our world. It is easy to get cynical about our ability to effect any important changes. Yet we have all witnessed, at some time or another, impressive unselfishness and courageous witness to justice that actually has made a difference. The bravery of the aid workers trying to help in Ukraine and Gaza right now is an example. So we know that there is strength in numbers, and that if we work together, it is possible to continue building the Reign of God right where we are.
 
           Our second reading reminded us so beautifully: “For this is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. We know that we, too, have passed from death to life because we love one another. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Let us continue working to grow into how our actions can keep the Christ alive.
​



​
 
 
* It is important to note that the verses Act 1: 13-14 are only included in the canonical Catholic lectionary every 3 yrs., and for the 7th Sunday of Easter, the readings for which are usually replaced by those for the Ascension. John 20:11-18 is not included anywhere in the traditional parish lectionary. So most Catholic parishioners never hear the story of Mary Magdala being the first to greet the resurrected Christ, and the person who transmitted the news of his resurrection to the rest of the disciples. Pope Francis named St. Mary of Magdala an Apostle in 2015.

Those disciples had seen how Jesus lived his mission – never focusing on sin, but drawing forth each person's greatest potential. That was now their call. (McGlone)

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]]>Sat, 30 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/the-dance-continues-alleluiaThe Dance Continues, Alleluia!
 
Easter Vigil, March 30, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds

Readings:  Genesis 1: 1-5; Stars Beyond the Stars, Rumi
Psalm Response: Lord of the Dance
Genesis 8: 18-19, 9: 8-16; Remember, by Joyce Harjo
Isaiah 61: 1-7; Broken, Unbroken, by Mary Oliver
Exodus 15: 19-20, 13; I Praise the Dance, by Augustine of Hippo
Romans 1:19-20; Stars Beyond the Stars, by Rumi
Mark 16: 1-8

           This is a long service, so I will keep my share of this collaboration short. To me, the message of Easter is that the dance continues: God created the cosmos, including Jesus and all other beings, human and non-human, out of love and nothing else but love. Jesus came to teach us to love one another as God loves us. This was a threatening idea to those whose love was devoted to power, control, and wealth, so it got him in trouble. In fact, eventually he was executed for promoting the ideas that selflessness, sharing, and defending the defenseless is the only real sustainable human path.

           Jesus died not for our sins, but for love of us. He died to show us the ultimate act of love: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. God’s plan was not to send Jesus to punish him for what we had done, but to show that the death-dealing ways of this world can be overcome. They can be overcome by authentic justice, by waging peace, by valuing all beings equally, as God does, and by putting away our selfishness. Rejecting violence, greed and discrimination frees us. It frees us to join in the dance, God’s dance of love, established before the world began and continuing through life eternal. Resurrection means we can take part forever, that Jesus’ life continues as the Christ forever, and that our lives are one with His and with those of all creatures. It means that the music will never end, that God’s love is for eternity, and that we are called to invite one another to celebrate it and move with it, now and forever.

           To me, the message of Easter is new life! Another chorus, another swing around the dance floor, another chance to invite everybody to join in! Let us rejoice and be glad in it, Alleluia!
           ]]>Sun, 03 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/march-03rd-2024A Sabbath Life
 
3rd Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds
2 Chron 36: 11-12, 14-21; Ps. 137; James 4: 7-10; Mark 11: 12-21
 
           We hear a lot about mindfulness these days, about concentrating on the present moment and appreciating its beauty, of relishing the interaction with the people you are with, and of not trying to multitask or let yourself be distracted by letting your thoughts rush ahead to what is about to happen next. Mindfulness can help us prioritize people over accomplishments and recognizing our blessings over greedy acquisition.

           To me mindfulness has a connection to the idea of Sabbath, which we have inherited from our Jewish ancestors. Sabbath, that 3rd Commandment, made Israel’s ethical code unique from that of other societies. Most other groups at that time in history agreed that murder, lying, and stealing destabilized societies. But the idea of Sabbath brought love into Israel’s way of life. Their agreement to set aside one day each week for worship, rest, and family life meant they valued people over work and profit, and respect for the well-being of everyone in the community over competition and wealth. And the fact that they believed there was a God who loved them enough to ask them to cement this loving tradition into their way of life made them aware that they were uniquely loved and chosen. Eventually, they established a Temple to honor this God, a center of their worship, a place for all to relate directly to God.
  
​         All of which is helpful, I think, to be able to understand Jesus’ surprising behavior in today’s Gospel. In the chapters in Mark’s gospel before this one, Jesus was journeying toward his final visit to Jerusalem. Along the way, he blessed little children and cured blind Bartimaeus. His actual entrance into the city was triumphant, but non-violent and humble. So what explains his disruption in the Temple?
   
        Mark relates that what Jesus found when he entered the Temple that day was not respectful worship, but exploitation of the most vulnerable members of Jerusalem’s Jewish community. Scholars of Temple architecture and tradition tell us that vendors of animals for ritual sacrifice were selling them there to women and lepers, who were obligated by purity laws to buy them, to be ritually cleansed, and able to rejoin full religious community participation. These merchants had turned the Sabbath and the Temple into the opposite of respect and honor. They were preying on the poor and their devotion to religious regulations. So Jesus felt he had no choice but to kick them out.
   
        It seems like Mark included the fig tree story to emphasize the point that Jesus expected much more from the Temple and the people of Jerusalem. Though it was early for figs, this tree had lots of leaves, so he was hoping for the best from it. But it bore no fruit, just as the Temple was barren of spiritual and social fruitfulness.

       Our first reading, from 2 Chronicles, tells of desecration of the Temple by corrupt religious leaders centuries before, who refused to listen to the prophet Jeremiah. Consequently, the terrible King Nebuchadnezzar was able to defeat the people of Jerusalem and cast them into exile in Babylon. The reading ends with reference to 70 years of lost Sabbaths. The people had lost their way, had stopped honoring the life of respect and justice for the earth and all the people on it that they had vowed to follow. They had let their covenant with God become desolate.

      Jesus taught that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is present. His ultimate sacrifice of love and resurrection replaced the Temple as the center of our worship. But our obligation to lead a Sabbath life remains the same. Where does our commitment to taking time for worship, rest, and family life stand? Are we fully mindful of prioritizing people and all the other wonders God has blessed us with over success, wealth, prestige, and other selfish distractions? It seems to me that Lent offers us a special Sabbath time to contemplate these questions.]]>Sun, 25 Feb 2024 05:00:00 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/fog-clouds-and-moments-of-transformation2nd Sunday of Lent,, February 25, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Exodus 33: 9-20, 34:4-6, 27-32; Ps. 15; 2 Peter 1: 16-18; Mark 9: 2-10.
 
           You may have had the experience of driving through thick fog. You cannot see where you are going. The mist swirls around you, blocking your vision of the road ahead. You have to slow way down to be able to avoid hitting other cars or even be able to follow where the road leads. Sometimes, if you are walking in fog, it is so thick you cannot even see your hand in front of your face. It is disorienting. It is frightening. You have to watch and listen very carefully to be able to navigate your way safely. You may even have flown through thick clouds. Every few moments, there may be a brief break, and you can see light, but then you may enter another cloud and be blinded again. Finally, the pilot manages to guide your plane above or below the clouds and you can see the way ahead. The sky is clear. You know where you are going once again.

           All three of our readings today culminate in amazing brightness, clarity, vision, and radiance. But where in these stories does God’s voice come from? God’s voice comes from the cloud, the uncertainty, the foggy shadow, the area of unknowing and searching and blindness. Maybe transformation is found through dwelling in the cloud a while.

           Our Gospel tells us that when Peter, James, and John went up the mountain with Jesus, and saw Jesus transfigured with radiant, dazzling brightness, they were terrified. Peter started babbling, talking crazy. We are told he did not know what he was saying. Then a cloud appeared, casting its shadow over them. And from out of the cloud there came the voice of God, explaining the truth, clearing up the situation, confirming what they already suspected about Jesus- that he was one with God, beloved and sent to speak the truth. Our second reading uses similar language—stating that, when the disciples were on the mountain with Jesus, the voice of the Sublime Presence came from the cloud, honoring and glorifying Jesus, saying, “This is my Beloved, my own, on whom my favor rests.” And our first reading tells us that God appeared in a cloud to Moses, identifying Godself by name, and proclaiming, “I am your God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in kindness and faithfulness.” After forty days, Moses descended from the mountain, radiantly transformed, and with God’s gift of a clear covenant and way of life for the people Israel, written in stone.  We know that God appeared to Elijah from a cloud on Mount Carmel, as related in the first book of Kings, chapter 18. And there are other examples in scripture of God “coming upon” people to speak to them, as from a cloud, like when the Holy Spirit is said to have “come upon” Mary, after she consented to become the mother of Jesus.

            We all have times of fog and darkness in our lives, when the way is obscured, when we don’t know where we are going. We are forced to slow down and look and listen to discern the right path. To me, this is the meaning of Lent. It is a season to listen for God’s voice, to take more time for prayer and study, to try to be more aware of how God may be calling us. God calls us all to transfiguration, not usually in a sudden blaze of glory, but step by step, with growth in stages. We work and pray for transformation one day at a time, one Lent at a time, one season of clouded, confused vision at a time. But often we are blessed by moments of clarity, of transformation, of resurrection. We can see a way to help our human family members, and we step up and do the hard work to accomplish it. We identify an injustice and we do all we can to work together to change laws or raise money or educate people to make sure things are put right.

           In Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration, God’s words are said to be, “This is my beloved Son, in whom is all my delight.” At the Transfiguration, then, we are in the presence of delight. The brightness with which Jesus is described can seem intimidating. Who can be perfect? Who sees things completely clearly? But that’s not what is going on here. God’s love is tender and delighted, not only for Jesus, but for us, though sometimes we have a hard time believing it. And God asks us to participate in that tender, delighted love, by listening for God’s presence, and then passing that holy tenderness on.
 
]]>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:07:55 GMThttp://smmccindy.org/past-homiliesblog/healing-and-restoration-to-the-community​Healing and restoration to the community
 
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 4, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Job 5:9-11,16,18,27; Ps. 147; 1 Cor 9:1-6; Mark 1:29-31
 
Over the course of forty-two years working as a physician assistant, I have done a lot of thinking about the process of healing. Mostly I have thought about what a blessing it is to be involved in such a holy process, because, in the final analysis, it is God who is the ultimate healer. We who participate in the art and science of medicine can make a diagnosis and prescribe a therapy, but we know that God does the actual healing. Humans can’t actually make tissues heal or force the immune system to kill an infection. God controls those processes.
 
On the other hand, there are many ways I think God calls us to heal one another. For example, when we have conflicts in relationships, we have a responsibility to talk to one another and work those conflicts out. We also have a responsibility, I think, to participate in increasing scientific knowledge, if we can, or at least to use the knowledge we have. We are even called to heal ourselves, I think, by using what we know about diet and exercise and proper rest, for another example.
 
Our Gospel today is short but can teach us a lot about God’s healing. The verses from Mark’s gospel that we read today follow directly the ones we read last week. That gospel reading said that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and taught (“with new authority.”) Today’s gospel described what happened later on that same Sabbath. It told us that after being at the synagogue, Jesus went to Simon and Andrew’s house. There Jesus found that Simon’s mother-in-law (Mark does not tell us her name) was ill with some kind of fever. Jesus went directly to her. He took her hand, and helped to raise her up from her bed. We are told “then the fever left her, and she began to serve, to deacon, to them.” In other words, Simon’s mother-in-law was restored to active participation in her community. Jesus helped her get beyond the isolation and indignity of illness, and back to the freedom to serve the people around her, to what she felt called by God to do.
 
In other stories of Jesus healing people in the gospels, we can see this restoration to the community is a common thread. Scientific understanding of disease was primitive in Jesus’ time, and it was often attributed to sin. So sick people tended be isolated from the community, and even disallowed from religious inclusion. Jesus’ healing may not have necessarily included biological cure, but we know from these stories that they definitely included social and collective healing of illness. In many of them, Jesus even called the community to participate in the social restoration of the healed person. For example, he asked the people around Lazarus to unbind him from the funeral cloths after he was raised. When he cured a person with leprosy, he told the person to go and show and show evidence of the healing to the priest, in other words, to ask for re-entry to the religious community. When he cured Jairus’ daughter, he told them to feed her, to help her get back to the family circle around the dinner table. We can think of the woman with the hemorrhage as taking responsibility for returning herself to the community, by seeking to touch Jesus’ clothing, to end the isolation the religious impurity laws had imposed on her.
 
So for Jesus, restoration to love and inclusion in the community, and the ability to serve within the community, seems to have been integral to healing. It seems he, like Job, sought to reverse the idea that illness and accident were due to sin and therefore sick and injured people should be excluded. Not in the Job passage we read today, but in chapter 7, verse 1, Job asked, “Is not human life on earth a drudgery?” In other words, he recognized suffering as part of the human condition, and not necessarily a punishment from God. So the priority for Jesus, and Job, was not to blame people for their sins, but to bring them back to love and service.
 
This should be our priority, as well, I think: to do what we can to help heal the inability of people to be included in participation and service in their communities. This might mean healing from racism, or from addiction, or from poverty, or from exclusion due to gender or sexuality, or immigration status. It seems we have a lot of reasons for excluding people these days. What can we do to help break down maybe one of these barriers to inclusion, even in a small way? I think that is what God is calling us to today.

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