Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
10 / 23 / 2005 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily follows this announcement
We will pass out the envelopes for the Catholic Community Appeal next Sunday. I remember when I was ordained in 1989 Bishop Tschoepe the Bishop of Dallas and he’d started the Catholic Community Appeal years before. We had the Appeal in 1990 and then in July of 1990, Bishop Grahmann took over as Bishop of Dallas in the 14th of that month. This year seems to be deja vou all over again because Bishop Grahmann will turn seventy-five on July 15th and 99.999% of the time, Bishops retire at seventy-five and another one comes in. So, this year Bishop Grahmann has seven months left and the remainder will be in the hands of the successor it appears. The Catholic Community Appeal is also called the Bishop’s Appeal but it really isn’t his appeal. This appeal is for work undertaken in the Diocese that is necessary. You will be given a brochure to study during the week.
Our goal is $35,000.00, which is a lot of money. We’ve raised $5,000.00 so we have $30,000.00 more to raise. They say the first thirty is the hardest. You can designate where you want your money to go, such as to Catholic Charities, Catholic Ministries or Catholic Education; they break them down. Support for our priests is also an option. This support is going to the men who are in seminary or for deacons; also for continuing education. I was in Denton last week for three days at the Diocese meeting for priests, which takes place every two years; this is considered continued education.
The theme for this year’s appeal is “Light one Candle”. Think about it and next week we will pass out the envelopes along with the little golf pencils and you can fill out the appeal. I appreciate your time in consideration of this appeal.
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the Word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit so that you became a model for all the believers.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
The appeal, “Light One Candle” definitely leans into the topic today of the Gospel. Up until recently, the Church had a custom of marking the change of seasons; today and probably most of tomorrow we will be celebrating the Fall season and then maybe a couple days of Winter and then eleven and a half months of Summer again. [Laughter] It appears that this is what is really happening in Texas as of late. Either you have noticed a change in the temperature or you have been asleep a very long time.
The Church had the custom of marking the seasons of the year with something called “Ember Days”; what is an ember? If you have ever been slicked talked into going on a campout and you went, you definitely know what an ember is. It is the morning after the roaring campfire the night before and you wake up and are freezing. You go out to where the campfire was and there are just ashes there. You poke around in the ashes and find something that appears to be emitting heat. Then you pray as you fan the coal, the ember, and a flame is eventually produced and eventually you can boil water and have your coffee, once again becoming a human being for twenty-four hours. It makes you wonder why anyone goes on campouts. Anyway, that is an ember, which is a coal.
Ember days were apparently to mark the change in the seasons, so four times a year everyone could stop and look back over their shoulder and see how they did the last three months, think about where they are at the moment and then look forward charting out the next three months. Spiritually it is a good idea to celebrate the Ember Days, which the Church used to have on the calendar until they got tossed out about forty years ago.
It was on an Ember Day in 1895 that St. Therese, a Doctor of the Church, had a tremendous spiritual insight; one that can be helpful to us in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As you recall, St. Therese’ was fifteen when she entered the convent with special permission. Of course this would be a light that burned very brightly for almost ten years more and then she would die before ever reaching her twenty-fifth birthday. She lived all her life just north of Paris at Lisieux. Before we placed our Lady of Victory up here we had the statue of St. Therese’, whose Feast was October 1st. As I said, Therese’ entered the cloistered convent at the age of fifteen and she began to look for her place in the Church, which is an odd thing to do…to enter a place where the walls would not allow her to leave. She wasn’t a prisoner but chose to be a Cloistered Carmelite. She went to the convent to discover her mission in the Church and discover it she did!
Being the younger of the Sisters there she put herself to work in different ways. One of the things she did was to write a play on the life of St. Joan of Arc, the young woman who was martyred at the age of nineteen. St. Joan was also from France, centuries earlier than Therese’. She’d led the armies of France to victory, pushing the British back until they finally pushed them across the English Channel. The British held much of France for a long time and God had chosen St. Joan of Arc to lead the French Army and to have the man who would be king crowned King at Rheims in France. I know that this is hard to believe but eventually the French betrayed the young saint; imagine that! Anyway, they betrayed her and handed her over to the British, where a British Bishop led a trial and found her guilty of heresy. The sentence they gave was to have her burned at the stake.
When St. Joan of Arc was martyred there was nothing left but the smoke and the ash. The many spectators were not repulsed by the odor that would normally come from the smell of burning human flesh. It was a very beautiful and pleasant smell that was emitted from the fire. Hers was a life lived in a short nineteen years and her memory inspired young Therese’ in a convent just north of Paris.
So, Therese wrote and put on a play about St. Joan for the sisters. You see, back then, before the time of TV, people use to speak to each other and actually have conversations; we have records of them I know, I have seen it on TV. [Laughter] They used to sing songs and put on plays for each other but we are more sophisticated now and we communicate so much better today… at least that is what I read in my email. [Laughter] The sisters loved the play that Therese wrote. She’d made armor and a sword out of cardboard. She even got a couple of little stoves that would make a fire and put out smoke so that when it came time to burn St. Joan at the stake in the play, St. Therese appeared to be burning. The sisters just loved it and wanted to see reruns so she had to put it on again but this time something went awry. In this beautiful book I am holding up on the life of Therese’ there are pictures of St. Therese’ playing St. Joan of Arc in prison.
When St. Therese’ put on the play for the second time she had a theatre set made with material kind of like the material that is behind Our Lady of the Rosary there on the altar. She had everything planned out and was in her costume along with her “neck to floor” Carmelite habit. This was the costume that almost caught fire at the end of the play. St. Therese’ had a terrible fear of fire. The alcohol stoves used to represent the stake at which St. Joan was burned, set fire to the screen behind which St. Therese’ stood. Her first impulse was to run away, jump over the wall or into the pool. But Mother Agnes ordered her not to move while the fire was being put out in its early stages. Therese’ didn’t flinch; no doubt she was quivering inside. Eventually the fire was put out and she was not burned. Therese’ was shown to be a young woman with an interior disposition of steel; she really showed her metal that day. The author of the book says,
Therese’ did not flinch but the incident profoundly marked her. The theme of fire would assume an increasingly greater place in her writings.
The Ember Days following Pentecost were the important days. Pentecost of course is fifty days after Easter when God the Father and the Son sent God the Holy Spirit down upon the Church gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Remember in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit descended like flames of fire resting on their heads? For example; if you look in your bulletin you will notice that Friday is the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude. St. Jude is a favorite of my mother and so many others. Most people know St. Jude as the Patron of the Impossible. My mother had an impossible child but I won’t talk about my brother here. [Laughter] It wasn’t my brother, I can guarantee you that!
St. Jude is always pictured with a staff and a large picture of Jesus. He doesn’t have any hair but there is something right here on his head standing up like this. Who knows what people think, they probably think he combed his hair that way. [Laughter] It is not hair but a flame, a tongue of fire representing St. Jude having received the Holy Spirit, the Living Flame of God Himself, which is the Living Flame of Love.
It was during these Ember Days of Pentecost where St. Therese’ and the other sisters in the convent were praying and fasting, begging God for something.
The previous day they had read from Romans 5:5.For an entire week the Carmelites begged God to pour forth the Holy Spirit upon the Church.
So, St. Therese and the sisters were praying for the Church; that is what they do inside those cloistered Convents where the Nuns never leave. They work and pray for you, the Church and me. They dedicated their lives to prayer inside the walls of the cloister at Lisieux. St. Therese’ began to think a lot about the Flame of Divine Love. St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila had spoken of the Living Flame of Love. We just celebrated St. Teresa of Avila’s Feast Day last Saturday. It was she and St. John of the Cross that began the reform of the Carmelite Order and really put things right. They saw to it that the Carmelites were dedicated to nothing more than prayer and work. St. John and St. Teresa lived back in the 1500s.The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us
St. Therese read St. John of the Cross in the late 1800s and she began to learn to appreciate that God, the Living Flame of Love, asks only to inflame the hearts of those who surrender to this fire. We kind of see this in the First Reading today.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to Me I will surely their cry. My WRATH will flare up and I will kill you with a sword.
This is speaking about God’s wrath like a flame that will flare up. At the end of the Second Reading from St. Paul, it says,
His Son Whom He raised from the dead, Jesus Who delivers us from the coming wrath
Notice that the wrath of God is mentioned as a flame that can rise up and smite and correct the errors. Yes, that is present in the Old Testament and in the New Testament St. Therese’ and St. John of the Cross saw the Holy Spirit as the Living Flame of God’s Love. In fact, on the Sunday before Pentecost, St. Therese’ had received an insight from God about this Love of God. She wrote,
In other words, God has to put on the breaks; God wants to pour into our hearts, minds and souls His Divine Love, but if we don’t open the door He will not do violence to our free will. He is so ready, willing, eager, and able to pour the everlasting Fountain of Love into us if we only open the door.God is an everlasting Fountain of Love, but God is obliged to restrain the waves of infinite tenderness that are in Him if people do not open themselves to His outpouring.
It is interesting when we look at the Divine Mercy picture, we can see the rays coming from His Heart; the fire coming from His Heart. He is standing in front of a door and you will notice that the door is closed. It can only be opened from the inside because God will not violate our free will.
St. Therese’ was making progress as she learned more and more about how the Holy Spirit is God’s gift, but it is like a bitter/sweet gift. We heard in the second Reading that St. Paul says,
You receive the Word in great affliction with joy from the Holy Spirit.
Affliction and joy mentioned in the same sentence? This is the Way of the Cross; this is bitter/sweet, the Cross and joy. This is exactly what St. Therese’ was discovering. She was making the Way of the Cross on Friday, the14th of June in 1895 during those Ember Days and was praying intensely, fasting, and making sacrifices in the Chapel. She was seized with so violent a love for God that she believed she was entirely immersed in fire.
I was burning with love and I felt that one minute, one second more and I would not be able to bear this burning without dying.
She interpreted this as being the sign for her mission in the Church and that God had just given her a bit of His Divine Love. It is as if she had been dipped into fire. She’d read in the Old Testament where different kinds of sacrifices were offered like at the Passover where the lamb was taken and slaughtered and cooked, then the people are the Passover Lamb. Other sacrifices were made where the entire animal was dedicated totally to God and burned up completely until there was only ashes and smoke that went up to Heaven; that is a holocaust and I mentioned holocaust to you before. St. Therese’ had read about this as I said and this is the kind of holocaust victim she wanted to be; just like St. Joan of Arc.
It is interesting that St. Joan was canonized by the Church 23 years after the death of St. Therese’ in 1897. St. Joan of Arc was a model for St. Therese’ and had inspired her. She asked permission from the Mother Superior if she could offer herself to God completely and the mother superior told her to go ahead. St. Therese’ went and wrote down in her own handwriting, a prayer dedicating herself totally, heart, mind and soul to God. The letter is here in this book as you can see. They still have these letters in Lisieux. She wrote it on a piece of paper just like this on with the square corners. If you can see this picture of her letter, the corner is kind of rounded…hummm. Or as they say in French…”hummm, hummmm.” [Laughter]
Anyway, St. Therese’ wrote up her complete gift of self to God and she showed it to a priest. The book here says he was a Missionary Priest, Father Lemoine. He was going to check it for any errors against the faith and there were none by the way. So the priest took the dedication that she’d written and in the book it says that at the top right of the dedication is a burn. The priest had held the candle he was using for light too close to the paper and damaged it. The paper caught fire and I can just imagine him beating the fire out. Talk about “Light One Candle”. St. Therese’ had this imagery of fire all over the place. This is the insight leading up to this, she realized that,
Remember where Jesus says not to light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket? You put it on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. St. Therese’ said she realized that love must not remain enclosed in the depths of the heart. Jesus asks that the flame of our love enlighten and give joy to all those in the house.Love must not remain enclosed in the depths of the heart. Jesus asks that the flame of our love enlighten and give joy to all those in the house.
Look at today’s Gospel, which is so familiar. It is so familiar that we probably have it memorized. What is the greatest commandment in the law?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind; this is the greatest in the First Commandment. The second is that you shall love your neighbor as yourself; the whole law and the prophets depend on these two Commandments
Yes, it is very direct but at the same time it seems very nebulous, not really spelled out. I was thinking about this last week. Friday was the anniversary of my Aunt Mary’s death. She was my mother’s only sister and she passed away on October 21, 2001. Aunt Mary and I had visited Lisieux just a couple of years before she died. When people die they start putting things in order. I am thinking of this right now because my mother’s sister-in-law is dying and I will go to see her on Tuesday in Houston. When people are dying they know it and they start giving things to those people they love, who had admired certain possessions that they own. People say that they need to do this kind of thing now because they have a focus and they actually begin to give away or take care of these things if God grants them the time or days. The people around the dying person start to think too. I am one of them. I am forty-six and of course I am bullet proof. DON’T TRY IT! [Laughter] We all think we are going to live forever and then when a loved one is dying we start to think that we should get our papers in order. If only we would live with the focus of St. Therese’, St. Joan of Arc, Our Lady and especially Our Lord because when they left this world there was nothing more to give; they had given everything away and had loved to the very end. As Our Lord says,
They laid down their lives for their friends.
There is nothing more to give. Everything had been dispensed and there was no excess or surplus because it had all been taken care of before they died. This is exactly the opposite to our fallen human nature because we want to hold on and conserve, pile up in a mass and take it with us. There is that one little problem about taking it with us…the next time you think of this Gospel about loving God with all your heart and soul, the next time you are alone in front of the mirror, say to yourself.
You are filled with Divine Love and your heart, mind and soul are on fire with God’s love!
You won’t be able to keep a straight face will you? Why? Because we are not but that is exactly the image the saints have given us. St. John of the Cross was very influential to Pope John Paul II who did his Doctrinal Dissertations on the writings of St. John of the Cross and when the pope died, there was nothing left because he had given it all while he was here. Mother Teresa, St. Pio, and all of the saints are those models as the second reading says; they are models mixed with affliction and great joy.
The Holy Spirit is God’s own Flame of Divine Love given to us but He doesn’t want it buried in a field. Remember the men who received different denominations of money and the last one took his money and buried it in the fields? When the King came back he handed the king the money that had been buried and the king’s wrath flared up. The man was dealt with in a terrible way. We have heard this Gospel so many times.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.
It is such a big, nebulous, cloudy kind of thing and it doesn’t really grab us but God wants the world to be set on fire. Jesus says in the New Testament that He came to light a fire and that He wished it were already set ablaze. That fire is the Holy Spirit, the Flame of His Divine love working in and through our hearts, minds, and souls. Think about this tonight when you are changing the channels and you see all of that uplifting material on the TV just filling your mind with the Holy Spirit, right? You can just feel that upward tug of the Holy Spirit into Heaven, right? Well, we don’t and we wonder why the world is in such sad shape. St. Paul says,
Become imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the Word with great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit so that you become a model for all the believers.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen