SUNDAY
27 September 2015, 26th Sunday, Year B
• Numbers
11:25-29 • Psalm 19 • James 5:1-6 • Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 •
[__01__] Photo
Opportunity. The
opportunity to be seen.
This
past Tuesday, the 22nd of
September, the Alitalia Airlines plane of Pope Francis landed at [Joint]
Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C.
This
was our first opportunity to see Pope Francis in the United States, for our
U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and others to be seen
with the Holy Father.
[__02__] And,
the photo opportunities have continued all week, with the Pope visiting
the White House and Oval Office, sailing
on the deck of his customized white Jeep Wrangler / slash / Popemobile through
the District of Columbia and Central
Park , New York City.
New
York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo greeted
Cardinal-Archbishop Dolan and Pope Francis at the doors of Saint Patrick’s
Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.
The
cameras were also waiting … after all, you have to be prepared.
I
heard from my sister-in-law around 5:00 pm on
Thursday, September 24, that the entourage, with Pope Francis passed her
on the upper east side, just as she was trying to hail a taxi. The motorcade was passing her way, she said that she saw Pope Francis. I am unaware of any
video or photographic evidence. These
opportunities have to be planned, don’t they?
[__03__] It is exciting to have Pope Francis in our
midst, in our country and he celebrates
Vespers at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and
Mass at Madison Square Garden,
We
also have the photo-opportunity to remember that Pope Francis is here to be the Vicar of Christ , to speak and preach the Word of God, and on several occasions to celebrate Mass,
including 4:00 pm Sunday (today) in Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families.
Yes,
we are hear, watching to see what Pope Francis will do next. The F.B.I., Secret Service, the NYPD and others are also concerned about this, that he might try
to use his MasterCard at a Wells Fargo ATM or stop at Starbucks for an
espresso.
These
are photo opportunities. Yet, these are also opportunities not just for passive
observance but also for active listening, for prayer, for anticipation of what
we are to do next.
[*** P A U S E ***]
[__04__] The
Sacred Heart Father Michael van der Peet was
in Rome one day, in 1975 and while walking down the street, he saw
Mother Teresa.
Yes…that
Mother Teresa. She was waiting for a bus
with another sister, another Missionary of Charity, her religious order.[1]
Father
Michael recalled, “My first impuse was to go [up to Mother Teresa right there
at the bus stop] but I said to myself,
‘Leave the woman alone, everyone is always staring at her.’ ”
So,
Father Michael said to himself, ‘Leave
the woman alone, everyone is always staring at her.’ I walked on, my heart pounding, but suddenly
I thought, ‘She’s a saint, and I’m a sinner. Let the sinner go to the saint and
let her pray for me.’”
So,
Father Michael went to the bus stop, to “catch” Mother Teresa. After
a short greeting, Mother Teresa,
in her usual fashion, asked him to visit her convent to speak about
prayer to her missionaries and novices
two days later.[2]
Sometimes,
we come away from the celebrity-photo opportunity with more than a still but
with a movement and moving image of what we are called to do next.
[__05__] This
gift of grace is also given through prayer. Is this not the example of Pope
Francis when he takes the opportunity for silent prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament at Saint Patrick’s or at the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center?
[__06__] The Holy Father is well aware of his need
for God’s grace so that he can
communicate and apply God’s word to crises in our lives, to ethical
choices that you and I face.
This
is a gift given not in spite of our sinfulness, our brokenness or sorrow about
faults but rather an invitation to move steadily into the future and toward the
next step, to believe the words of Psalm 119: “Your word
is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm
119:105)
Pope
Francis in his America magazine
interview in 2013 caught the attention of both the camera and microphone when
he was asked “who are you …? How do you describe yourself?”
And
he said, “I am first of all a sinner in need of God’s grace.”
[*** P
A U S E ***]
[__07__] In the Gospel, this Sunday, Jesus declares
and warns all TEACHERS and all PRIESTS ..and all of his DISCIPLES / FOLLOWERS / APOSTLES, warns all of us as
his faithful followers about the importance of integrity, honesty, justice. We can – by our word or
action – or worse by hypocrisy lead others astray.
This
Gospel reading is a follow up to last Sunday in which our Lord and Savior had
taken the ancient equivalent of a PHOTO-OPPORTUNITY by placing a child in the
midst of his disciples and listeners and tells them, “Whoever
receives one child such as this, in my name, receives me; and whoever receives
me, receives not me but the one who sent me.” (Mark
9:37)
And,
continuing this presentation about honesty and integrity and faith, our Lord
declares, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to
sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck
and he were thrown [cast] into the sea.” (Mark
9:42)
So,
it is important, both what we do and say, and what we are seen doing and
saying.
[__08__] In our Catholic teaching about the sanctity
of life, of marriage, of justice for the poor, the marginalized, we might also
observe that we have an opportunity to connect what we believe in our hearts
and what we can see …the photo opportunity.
In
his encyclical, Laudato Si’, the Pope
is often described as writing about the
physical environment, and, specifically, about climate change.
However,
the Holy Father is not asking us to restrain our choices, impulses, consumption
and action merely to change the earth’s average temperature but rather to
change ourselves.
He
is reminding us that life is – and always has been – a sacred gift of God as
our Creator and Father.
Pope
Francis has always upheld the sanctity of life at all stages, from conception
to natural death, which with currently available technology of ultrasound
imaging, gives us quite a photo opportunity confirmation that life begins at
conception.
Pope
Francis – and all of us as Catholics – have a sacred responsibility to learn
and teach others who are God’s children by our actions that all are made in the
image of God.
Our
Catholic faith teaches us this not to
create prisons of condemnation for those who do not yet believe this, but to remind all of us of God’s mercy
and love.
All
of us are given the Good News and image, the opportunity to be the 1 lost coin
found out of the 10, to be the 1 lost sheep recovered out of 100, and to be
the one lost child/son who comes home to
the Father.
We
hope and pray his visit may enable many to take and keep his image as a
reminder that we are one family of God, one family portrait and photograph of
faith, made and seen by God’s love and care.
[__fin__]
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