![Gaetano Gandolfi [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://deaconpedro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/josephs_dream_painting_by_gaetano_gandolfi_c-_1790.jpg?w=497&h=278)
‘Joseph’s Dream’ by Gaetano Gandolfi, c.1790.
Thinking about Nelson Mandela the last couple of weeks I was reminded of a quote that I always thought was his, from his 1994 inaugural speech. I knew it was from a poem by Marianne Wilkinson, but I thought Mandela had quoted her: “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond belief.” Turns out Mandela never said those words or quoted Marianne Wilkinson, still, I find those words so inspiring. And I wonder what is it about some words that they have the power to inspire. Recently I read a blog article that spoke about Martin Luther’s famous 1963 “I have a dream” speech and how inspirational it was. I’ve heard a story that Dr. King had a different speech prepared that day. He had already begun that speech when the Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was sitting close by, yelled at him to “tell them about the dream, Martin.” The rest is history. It was an inspirational speech. The blog article explained that Dr. King could have titled his speech, “I have a complaint”, and God knows he had a lot to complain about, but instead he chose to tell us about the dream. Complaints don’t inspire us. Had he done an “I have a complaint” speech no one would have remembered it. But we remember “I have a dream.” And I guess that’s why I am also inspired by the “our greatest fear” poem.
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Bolivians celebrate as it is announced that the next Missionary Congress will take place in their country in 2018.
My homily for the second sunday in Advent, Year A. The readings are: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72; Romans 15:4-9 and Matthew 3:1-12
The voice crying out in the wilderness “prepare the way of the Lord!” I love John the Baptist. He’s my role model. I guess we can say that John the Baptist is the first proclaimer. Maybe we can say that he is the first missionary.
I’ve been thinking about missionaries a lot recently for a number of reasons. The first is that two weeks ago, Pope Francis published his first Apostolic Exhortation. It’s not like an encyclical, or a letter; it’s more like a book! It’s 274 pages! It’s called Evangelii Gaudium: The joy of the Gospel. And he writes about a lot of things, all in the context of the joy of the Gospel and the joy with which we should always share the gospel. In it he writes, “I am a mission on this earth.” (EG 273) That really struck me. It’s more than simply I am called to be a missionary or I have a mission: I AM a mission. And he doesn’t mean that he alone is mission; he means that all of us are mission. We are the mission of the Father: The Church is the mission of God. And who better to say that about than John the Baptist? John was mission. On the day he was born his Father, Zechariah (remember he had lost his voice because he doubted the angel) regained his voice and prays a beautiful canticle (Luke 1:68-79), the Canticle of Zechariah: “You my child shall become the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way; to give his people knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of their sins.” From the day he was born, John had a mission and he became that mission: to prepare the way. Even before Jesus himself was proclaiming the Good News, John was proclaiming the Good News.
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“Since 1981, millions of people, have traveled to a little town on the border of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina because 6 children claim to have visions of Mary, the Mother of God. Are they all crazy?” That’s the question asked by the trailer of The Triumph, a new documentary film by Sean Bloomfield.
In August 1987, my eldest sister gave me a book. It’s titled, Reina de la Paz: Seis Años de Apariciones Marianas en una Aldea Yugoslava (Queen of Peace: Six Years of Marian Apparitions in a Yugoslavian Town). It’s written by Fr. Francisco (Paco) Verar, a Panamanian priest I had got to know when I was much younger. He had gone to the small Yugoslavian town of Medjugorje where reportedly, Mary had been appearing to a group of six children since 1981.
The book begins with a very clear disclaimer note saying that with the book the authors do not pretend to anticipate the Church’s ruling on the apparitions. I guess, at the time, it was not expected that the visionaries would still claim to be having apparitions 30 years later. In fact, in the prologue Fr. Paco writes that when he first heard about Medjugorje he thought, “how is it possible that the Virgin Mary has been appearing daily since 1981!” Needless to say, Fr. Paco went to Medjugorje and, although, already a priest, had a conversion experience. He’s been back many times.
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My homily for the 32nd week in Ordinary time, year C. The readings are Maccabees 7.1-2, 7, 9-14
Psalm 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 and Luke 20:27-38.
God is God, not of the dead, but of the living. Might seem obvious to us Christians today, but this was a notion that was fairly new to most people in the time of Jesus. Especially the Sadducees, because the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. The Sadducees were so sad, you see ; ) [OK, that was a joke…]
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection or in eternal life because they claimed that there was no mention of resurrection or eternal life in the Hebrew Scriptures, which were the Books of Moses, the Torah (also known in Greek as the Pentateuch). These are the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So when they approach Jesus today, they are not really interested in learning about heaven or about marriage; they simply want to ridicule Jesus and his belief in the resurrection; because Jesus was well known to be preaching eternal life: He talked about the Kingdom of Heaven all the time! So they come up with this ridiculous scenario to make fun of Jesus, to show how illogical the idea of resurrection was. So Jesus answers them, not just telling them that there is eternal life, but also what life in heaven will be like: We will be like angels and there will be no marriage; and we will not die again so we won’t have to worry about our descendants, which was very important for Jewish people; that’s how they lived on: Through their descendants. This is what this whole tradition of having a widow marry her dead husband’s brother: So they wouldn’t be left without descendants. But in heaven you won’t have to worry about descendants because you won’t die and you won’t have to live on through your descendants because you will live forever! And then Jesus gives them proof from one of the Books of Moses, from the Torah. But he doesn’t pick just any part – He picks one of the most important part – a part that every Jew knew very well – when God appears to Moses in the burning bush, from the Book of Exodus (see Exodus 3). God appears to Moses and says to him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to “let my people go.” Moses asks, “Who should I say sent me?” and God says, “Tell him I AM sent you.” I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3: 6) And so, Jesus explains, if God who IS, says He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then they can’t be dead because God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
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