AUGUST 26 Mon Weekday

1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10/Mt 23:13-22 

27 Tue Saint Monica Memorial

1 Thes 2:1-8/Mt 23:23-26 

28 Wed Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Memorial 1 Thes 2:9-13/Mt 23:27-32

29 Thu The Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Memorial 1 Thes 3:7-13 (428)/Mk 6:17-29)

30 Fri Weekday

1 Thes 4:1-8/Mt 25:1-13 

31 Sat Weekday 1 Thes 4:9-11/Mt 25:14-30

SEPTEMBER 1 

WENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29/Heb 12:18-1

I’m in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, today for a family wedding. My cousin Christine Gaddis is marrying Kevin Mahoney in Christ Our Light Church at 2 PM. Here’s my homily.

Christine and Kevin, thanks for giving us a love story today. We need love stories today. There’s so much violence in life, so much political and economic uncertainty. We need love stories.

You chose your first reading from a beautiful love story, the Book of Ruth:. 

But Ruth said, “Do not press me to go back and abandon you!

Wherever you go I will go,

wherever you lodge I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people

and your God, my God.

Where you die I will die,

and there be buried.

May the LORD do thus to me, and more, if even death separates me from you!”  (Ruth 1, 1-17)

In the present arrangement of our bible, the Book of Ruth is squeezed in between the Book of Judges and the Book of Kings, two books describing difficult times in Jewish history. The Book of Judges describes a period when everyone’s looking out for themselves, everyone’s on their own.  The Book of Kings describes a time when kings were fighting for control over people and politics ruled the day.   

I imagine the original compilers of our Bible saying to one another “We need a love story to break up the concentration of me, me, me. We need a love story that says life’s not about controlling others. So they put a love story, the Book of Ruth, where it is. 

That may be it. 

However it is, we can’t help being moved by the language of love, the forever language, the daring language, the godlike language that we hear today.   

And here you are two lawyers, who know the cautious language of law and deal so much with the careful steps we need for an orderly society–  here you are saying to one another, “I take you for better or worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. 

The language of Ruth, the language of love, the language of God. 

Love is the language of God. We’re made in the image of God. Whether we know it or not, we aspire to be like God. And you recognize that as you come to make your vows to one another here, where the signs of God are so strong, where God who inspires you to make this commitment of love is present.  

We ask God’s blessing for you.

You come too with your family and friends. We’re here to share your happiness, we promise you our support and our prayers, and we thank you for giving us a love story today.

Most of this week the OT readings are from the Book of Judges, which recalls the time when the Israelites, after being led by Moses and then by Joshua,  take possession of the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land.  

It’s not vacant land. The Canaanites who lived there before still live there, strongly entrenched. Instead of establishing themselves according to the commands of God, the Israelites decide to fit in. They split into isolated households rather than living as a united people, They begin to intermarry with the Canaanites and even set up altars to Baal, the Canaanite god. 

This is a time of religious and political disorder. One of the worst times in Jewish history. On Thursday of this week we hear how Jephthah kills his own daughter because of a vow he made to God. Not an easy story to make any sense of. Hard to make sense of anything in this age.

God raises up leaders, judges, but they’re not powerful enough to give the community the direction it needs. 

Gideon– his story is told this week– is an example of the kind of leader the judges were. He’s a lonely farmer expecting an invasion by the Midianites, a tribe of nomads who periodically raided the land of Canaan. He’s busy trying to save some wheat from his fields before they come, and probably hide. 

The angel of the Lord appears and calls him a “Champion of Israel,” but Gideon wants no part in championing Israel. He’s a man who’s lost faith in the promises of God. He has no big dreams or ambition to do anything except save himself. Even when God gives him a sign, one sign isn’t enough. Gideon wants no part in it.

“Go with the strength you have.”  That’s what the angel says to Gideon at a time when he and so many others have lost their trust in God’s promises. The strength you have, not the strength you would like to have, or the strength you once had. Go with the strength you have.

That was God’s command in the time of the Judges. Is it God’s command to us now?  

AUGUST 19 Mon Weekday [Saint John Eudes, Priest]

Jgs 2:11-19/Mt 19:16-22 

20 Tue Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

Memorial Jgs 6:11-24a/Mt 19:23-30 

21 Wed Saint Pius X, Pope Memorial

Jgs 9:6-15/Mt 20:1-16 

22 Thu The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Memorial Jgs 11:29-39a/Mt 22:1-14 (422)

23 Fri Weekday [Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin]

Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22/Mt 22:34-40 (423)

24 Sat Saint Bartholomew, Apostle Feast

Rv 21:9b-14/Jn 1:45-51 

25 SUN TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Is 66:18-21/Heb 12:5-7, 11-13/Lk 13:22-30 (123) Pss I

Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Family of three

You, our baby, and me.

She’s not so small

Not after all.

She takes the lead

Going up first.

A graceful Kelly

An onlooker calls.

No more artificial walls!

Long strong fingers

Stretched out wide.

Smacking below

An unforgiving tide.

Tourists blot the opposing coast

As if a beach that could be combed.

The gull rides the thermal grove

And our little one ascends.

To be lowered

And begin again.

—Howard Hain

August, 16, 2019

8/11/19     Maine Woods / Rome / Belgrade / Great Pond / 6am

Being clean. Being alone. The need to be clean. To need to be alone.

It’s what’s missing or absent that is most noticeable. I used to. Used to do or think so many things. Now, No. I do think of her. No, not think, No. I see her. Mainly her face. Plain Jane.

She’s good. And God said so. What is Goodness?  What is that beauty that comes forth from Goodness? It’s not physical beauty yet it makes one so. Much so. Attractive. Deeply attractive. Richly. Fundamentally attractive. Fundamentally is an ugly word. As is core, and basic. Goodness is not an inner entity. It’s not a treasure within a chest. It’s not a heart within a cavity. Not a potion within a vessel. Goodness is not a power that overcomes its barrier. Not a filament shining through a bulb. Not a fragrance permeating a crystal. It doesn’t overcome its hiddenness. It’s as much going in as it is coming out.  And yet in truth it doesn’t go or come into or anywhere. It’s bigger but not in size. It’s an action within a state. A state within an action. Neither. Therefore. To write about Goodness is silly. To capitalize the word is trite. To name the concept is petty. To claim it exists is to misunderstand it contains any place for one to be beneath. It’s when and where and how and why she smiles. It is who smiles.

—Howard Hain