Greetings on this the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Ex 19:2-6a; Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36—10:8
Notes: Happy Father’s Day!
Preaching twice this weekend.
Each homily unique to the day.
Today I want to preach on two revelations of different origins but of the same grace.
Two very different stories but if you hang in there with me you will see the connection.
Titles
- Swimming Pool
- Juneteeth
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (Jn 8:32).
Juneteeth (Tomorrow, June 19th) An Article from NBCDFW News.
HOW DID JUNETEENTH START?
The celebrations began with enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Even then, some white people who had profited from their unpaid labor were reluctant to share the news.
Laura Smalley, freed from a plantation near Bellville, Texas, remembered in a 1941 interview that the man she referred to as “old master” came home from fighting in the Civil War and didn’t tell the people he enslaved what had happened.
“Old master didn’t tell, you know, they was free,” Smalley said. “I think now they say they worked them, six months after that. Six months. And turn them loose on the 19th of June. That’s why, you know, we celebrate that day.”
News that the war had ended and they were free finally reached Galveston when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Gulf Coast city on June 19, 1865, more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.
Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
Slavery was permanently abolished six months later when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment. And the next year, the now-free people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world. Events include concerts, parades and readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Swimming Pool
Dad bought us a swimming pool, above ground four feet deep. It was great! Plus he made a deck for us to lounge, sunbath, above the ground but level with the pool. It was luxury! It was amazing fun! We would dive off the pool deck into the pool. Such fun!
Dad also worked nights. He would leave home at 6 PM at night and come home in the early morning hours anywhere between 5 and 8 AM. Then he would sleep. It was workable with five kids in the house because five days a week we were in school. But Saturday and Sunday were difficult. Friday night and Saturday nights were good work nights for Dad. He often came home late in the morning exhausted. Ah, but to sleep.
Five kids.
Saturday or Sunday mornings.
A challenge.
One Saturday, we were swimming and diving and jumping quite enthusiastically. OK, it was a noise level of a small riot.
Suddenly in the window Dad appeared (we woke him up).
He looked furious, red-faced.
He looked angry, hands clinched in fists.
He started to bang on the window with his fist, yelling for us to get out of the pool!
He hit the glass so hard it vibrated. Never saw that before, vibrating glass.
We got out of the pool, stood on the deck dripping wet, and waited for the next thing.
Suddenly he disappeared from the window.
A short time later I heard the side door swing and slam open/shut.
It was Dad.
But, surprisingly, he didn’t come to the pool.
He walked over to the side of the house and unplugged the electrical extension cord.
He rolled it up.
And walked back into the house.
We looked at each other, confused.
I guess the radio was playing just too loud.
For my brother and sister it was a devastating moment. His countenance was so disturbed that it left a long lasting sense of dread.
I just thought we were too loud.
Years later…
When in High School I took a class in electronics. The teacher was so excited about a fairly recent invention called the GFCI. He remarked that it is now becoming commercially available to the retail market and available for homeowners to add to their electrical outlets.
GFCIs are built into electrical systems and power cords to monitor the current flowing through them (quote).
They are useful in detecting when a dangerous electrical short has occurred and cut the flow of electricity before harm comes to a human person. For example, a radio falling into a bathtub. This would usually result in the death of the bather but GFCI would prevent many such electrocutions.
Electrocutions, water, radio, swimming pool.
We had propped the radio on the side of the pool.
We rigged two extension cords so we could prop the radio on the side of the pool.
I remember now it rocked back and forth on the edge of the pool each time we jumped into the pool.
So what do you think? Was Dad angry? Or was he desperate to save his children from certain electrocution if the radio fell into the water?
We fear truth for all the wrong reason.
Jesus has come to free us from fear and has empowered us to do the same.
Do you feel empowered, in your own way, to:
- Find the lost.
- Proclaim the kingdom.
- Cure the sick.
- Raise the dead.
- Cleanse the lepers.
- Drive out demons.
On Father’s day can we reencounter the question of love by asking:
- Did Dad ever find you when you were lost?
- Did Dad ever help you when you were sick?
- Did Dad ever help you in your grief?
- Did Dad accept you when everyone else seemed to be mocking you?
- Did Dad drive away those who would be a danger to you?
Let the Spirit of the Lord flow thorough you.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord (Lk 4:18-19).
One of my favorite prayers:
Lord, extolled in the heights by angelic powers, you are also praised by all earth’s creatures, each in its own way. With all the splendor of heavenly worship, you still delight in such tokens of love earth can offer. May heaven and earth together acclaim you as King; may praise that is sun in heaven resound in the heart of every creature on earth. Amen. (LOTH Sunday morning, Week III).
First Reading
Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine.
Responsorial
We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Second Reading
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Gospel Acclamation
The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Gospel
At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Thanks for sharing the wonderful story of your Dad’s safeguarding his kids!
Happy Father’s Day, Barry!!!