Tag: Samaritan

No Condemnation

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Greetings on this the Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C Readings
Readings: Is 43:16-21; Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11
Notes:

Cross reference: Exodus 31:18 and Deuteronomy 9:10,

When the LORD had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, the stone tablets inscribed by God’s own finger.

The LORD gave me the two stone tablets inscribed, by God’s own finger.

The Law of the Lord.

  • Lev 20:10 both share face the consequence.
  • Deut 22:22 both share face the consequence.
  • Ez 33:11 I take no pleasure.

Answer them: As I live—oracle of the Lord GOD—I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, house of Israel?

First reading
See, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.

Responsorial Psalm
The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

The return from Exile is an outward sign of the forgiveness of sin.

Second reading
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God.

Verse before the Gospel
Even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.

Gospel Portion

For my homily today, I will be blindfolded and have a walking stick.

Tell the story of the ex-official of a repressive regime that came upon hard times having been shot through the temple, blinded and left to die by the same regime officials.

The Lord had other plans.

What did Jesus write?

Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

What did Jesus write?
See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

I am at work

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Readings: Is 49:8-15; PS 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18; Jn 5:17-30
Notes: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”

I have in the past spoke about Sabbath rest being a form of work, proplery understood.

First reading

The WORK:

  • In time of favor – answer.
  • Restore the land.
  • Prisoners – come out.
  • Darkness – bring light.
  • Plenty water and food.
  • I will not forget you.

From the psalm: The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works.

Responsorial Psalm
The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Verse Before the Gospel
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.

Gospel Portion
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Some are really stuck in their preconceived notions of what holy work is and is not.

Jesus, in his active working, fulfilled the Sabbath.

Time to rethink the juridical Church.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Reconciliation Jubilation

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Greetings on this the Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C Readings
Readings: Jos 5:9a, 10-12; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; 2 Cor 5:17-21; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Notes: Today is Laetare Sunday.

Rejoice, O Jerusalem (IS 666:10).

Today, in the middle of our Lenten reflections and disciplines we celebrate the love of Christ in a particular way: The Jubilation of Reconciliation.

From a few years ago – http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2019/03/31/ive-been-framed/

We completed our parish Lenten Mission this past week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). On Wednesday we had the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Reconciliation with the Lord.
Reconciliation with one another.

Brings… Joy!

First reading
On that same day after the Passover,
on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased.
No longer was there manna for the Israelites,
who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.

Change Change for the good.

  • New modes of operation.
  • New modes of being.
  • New modes of expressing faith.

[Story of “I’ve been baptized and I don’t have to tell anyone”]

Responsorial Psalm
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Second reading
Brothers and sisters:
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.

Should not our baptism bring about:

  • New modes of operation.
  • New modes of being.
  • New modes of expressing faith and friendship.

The sacrament of Reconciliation brings about the return to baptismal innocence.

Verse Before the Gospel
I will get up and go to my Father and shall say to him:
Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

Gospel Portion
Everyone in the story needs reconciliation.

The Father because he wants us to be reconciled to him.
The brothers.
The servants.
The friends.
All those hiding in the shadows quaking in fear.

All.

Today is a day to rejoice.
Called into friendship with the Lord and one another.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Convinced You Are Righteous?

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Greetings on this the Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Readings: Hos 6:1-6; PS 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab; Lk 18:9-14
Notes:

Mercy is defined by humility.
We have the power to choose mercy.
In humility we find our reason.

Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.

First reading
For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Responsorial Psalm
It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.

Verse Before the Gospel
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.

Gospel Portion
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

The one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Be exalted to be mercy.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Mutual Yes – Revisited

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Greetings on this the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Notes: It was a Wednesday. From a 2020 Homily: http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2020/03/25/annunciation/

Coincidence this also poped up in the search:

http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2018/09/29/scandalized/
http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2018/07/01/reserve-the-grrrr/

Say Yes to Love.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Driving Out a Demon

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan
Photo by Mariana Montrazi on Pexels.com

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Readings: Jer 7:23-28; PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Lk 11:14-23
Notes:

There are two demons in the gospel portion today.

  1. One demon who kept a man mute.
  2. One demon of disbelief that God loves us.

Psalm 95 is a daily psalm reading for the Church in the LOTH.
It is a Call to Praise God.
It the midst of all uncertainty, know you are loved and God is with you.

The Finger of God: A previous homily on the finger of God. http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2021/10/08/knock-knock/

First reading
This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction.
Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.

Responsorial Psalm
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Verse Before the Gospel
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
for I am gracious and merciful.

Gospel Portion
Jesus drove out a demon that was mute.
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.

Who is your Lord? Disbelief?

Believe in the Resurrected One.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Pax Christi

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Pilgrimage, Samaritan

My friend and mentor Father Frank O’Loughlin sent me this interior reflection. Please share far and wide.

Link to PDF: https://deacongerrypalermo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/wp-1648045605297.pdf

Text version

There’s an envelope here.
Let’s take a look: And the winner is… ….
It says, “Stop the steal,”
Who counts the votes? Stop the steal: It demands a recount.
I can’t argue with that.
Frank O’Loughlin is not a prophet.
On my best days, I’m a plagiarist.
By the Grace of God, I hope to sometimes
be a plagiarist of the Word of God.
I know what a prophet is supposed to be.
I read and loved Abraham Heschel;
Plagiarized him constantly for homilies.
If you were in a parish with me,
you have a copy of Walter Brueggeman’s Prophetic Imagination.
Stop the steal.
What I am is an Irish Catholic.
Irish Catholic, the very definition of ordinary.
No WASP here. Not white, Not Anglo, No Protestant individualism.
You remember how James Joyce defined Catholic,
“Here comes everybody.”
Whether upper or lower case C,
Catholic, everybody, pluralist.
In Florida we learn to say, “Y’all.”
Cut me some slack, I’m in trouble if you think I’m being sectarian or nationalist.
I’m no prophet, merely product of a culture, Catholic and Irish.
Proud, for example, to say, “I’m Irish, not white.”
When we were little schoolboys, our teachers had the wisdom
to ridicule the notion of whiteness: “White, what can that mean?
Take a gander at that pink mug of yours in the mirror;
where is that famous white?”
It isn’t that I don’t believe in prophecy
I wholly believe in prophetic community,
to our attending to each other’s voices in community.
On Saturday the Wall Street Journal celebrated a catechism teacher,
Stephen Colbert, as the adult Mister Rogers.
One of our own. Listen to him.

I am of an era of peace activists. I belonged to the movements.
None has had more depth and staying power than Pax Christi of the Cathedral parish.
Community and culture. Never mere individual idealists.
We were the parish, reading the Gospel together,
receiving Communion, animated by a spirited quest for God,
even reckless in pursuit of a world renewed.
The Bible Girls praying for more, not less, demanding mission
Barbara and Beth, liberationists in the Megan mode
Phyllis and Sandy, instigators of the kingdom of peace and hope
the poet Nancy, our ambassador to Haiti and to Heaven.
Have you forgiven the Irish bit?
I’m not promoting nationalism, but community and culture.
May I plagiarize once more?
This will be a reading from the gospel according to Bruce Springsteen.
Describing the vocation he shares with the kids from the Dublin community,
the rockers Bono and U2, he says
“You want the sky to split open and God to pour out.”
Does that sound like the yearning of your Pax Christi culture?
About U2, Springsteen says,
“Their search for God intact, laying claim
not only to this world, but the next.
There is a deeply held faith in the work you’re doing
And its power to change the world.
Before James Brown, there was Jesus.
We are not ironists,
we are creations of the heart and of the earth
and of the Stations of the Cross.
Here we are Lord, this mess in your image.
Bono brought his personal faith into the real world.
You find the spirituality as home, as quest.
How do you find God, unless He’s in Your heart?”
Within the heart and culture of your Peace community.
As the Peace Activists invited me to their three-day retreat and credited me with the formation
we have given each other through many years, I realized that day one was on the anniversary of
the My Lai massacre.
The second was the birthday of Wilfred Owen.
The third was the anniversary of George Bush’s unleashing of fire and brimstone
on Baghdad.
And each day Putin was getting away with ravishing the Ukraine.
What to say at such a date?

Mary Carter Warren brought substantial studies to nourish hope and purpose.
John Frank cultivator of our beginnings and Johnny Zokovitch seeding our next generation.
Father Fred, resilient graced priesthood.
Sandy’s light touch direction infused a spirit of glad joy in being together
among lifelong witnesses to grace and mercy.
And I talked about war.
A great horror of modern warfare is the calculated destruction of
spirits, of culture, identity, heart and soul.
American psychologists developed techniques in the war against
Vietnamese nationalism which were reproduced in the war against the Maya.
A European human rights study described the strategy in Guatemala as
“Creating a Devastation and calling it a Peace.”
Americans remember it as “We had to destroy the village to save it.”
Not only were villages ravaged and massacred, but such survivors as emerged
were gathered at other sites, ‘Development Poles,’
where all marks of identity were erased and a new National Security identity
was offered on streets named for warriors.
The Maya have twenty seven languages and many dialects.
These were suppressed in the new villages.
Religious expression was replaced with Southern US preaching,
now called Evangelicals.
But the most striking affront to the Mayan civilization
was the prohibition of the people’s traditional clothing.
The Maya had not only had a multiplicity of ancient cultural features
evidenced in their myriad languages
but every community had its own very clearly individual dress.
To grasp the sacred civilization
one has to imagine how the thread was first invented,
a craft taught from grandmother to granddaughter, perhaps 500 years ago.
The dyes that could be produced from local leaves and berries were created and the weaves
and patterns that became representative of the community and culture emerged.
Sticks and stones and guns and bombs, we have learned,
do not win wars against such civilizations.
The spirit that sustains the victims’ humanity must be undermined.
At their Lake Worth Center, when Mayan women have seen the huipils,
they have been carried away, recalling the grandmothers whom
they saw weave and wear huipils in those very patterns.
See the crafts, and weep with me for the sins of war.
Lord bless the prophetic culture of your Pax Christi community.

End of reflection.

Peace be with you,

Deacon Gerry

Parish Lent Retreat 2022

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Justice, Lent, Samaritan

Retreat Master – Rev. Steven R. Olds, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary

  • Professor of Systematic Theology
  • B.A., Oakland University, Rochester, MI
  • S.T.B., Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
  • S.T.L., S.T.D., Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy
  • https://www.svdp.edu/

Note: I missed the first night due to a bout of sudden onset bradycardia due to poorly controlled COPD/Apnea combination. A brief summary of the general concept of Monday is included.

Monday – The Institute for Priestly Formation’s schema of Acknowledge, Relate, Receive,
Respond (ARRR) as a pattern for encountering God in prayer. Summary from link below.

  • Acknowledge – Acknowledging Who God Is and Who We Are.
  • Receive – God speaks to us in four ways in this moment: through our spiritual senses, through our imaginations, through our God-given reason, and through His silent, loving presence.
  • Reflect – In every mode of God’s conversation with him, the seminarian must come as he is—a poor beggar.
  • Respond – we release whatever it was that we acknowledged and related. At this point, the man will often sense in himself a resolution, a sense of peace.

https://deacongerrypalermo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/msgr-trapp-5th-post-with-banner.pdf

Tuesday – Forgiveness (notes in order taken)

Scripture: The Unmerciful Servant

Reading from Gospel of Matthew – Mt 18:21-35

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18?21

The idea of 7 x 7 is intended to reflect infinity. We are to be infinitely merciful.

God never tires of forgiving us.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen quoted to say: Our culture permits everything but forgets/forgives nothing.

The King writing off such a large debt extraordinary. The Servant writing off the co-worker debt should have been manageable.

In philosophy it is said Action follows being.

How we act reflects who we are.

All of us have missed the mark and sinned.

Discouragement is our great weakness.

The Devil is NOT co-equal to God. He is a created being. He cannot read our minds. He looks for cracks in our wall, so to speak. He knows our weaknesses.

God knows our weaknesses too. And he works infinitely with us to deal with them and transform them into grace.

Mercy is productive. Unforgiveness is stale.

What is the Will of God? Love and Mercy. This! This is what He wills.

Detachment is not to discard but to align our will to God’s will of love and mercy. That is to care about things in the right way.

It is a discovery of essence. Like marital love:

  1. At first you gaze into one another’s eyes.
  2. Then you gaze together at another.

Satan lies: you are unworthy of God’s love.

There is no such thing as a private sin, only unrevealed sin. There is no place for common knowledge about sin. But there is common effects of sin.

Sin damages the person. Sin damages us all.

Story summary: Two altar servers serving at two different Masses spill the precious blood.

  • In the first case, the priest lovingly corrects the altar server.
  • In the second case, the priest shreds the altar server.
  1. The second altar server was Joseph Stalin
  2. The first altar server was Fulton Sheen.

Sin damages. Self examination and reflection aids us.

God asks: Will you love me even a little?

Scripture: Wedding Banquet – The Parable of the Wedding Feast.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22

Summary: Everyone is invited.

Regarding the one without the proper wedding garment…

because everyone is not wealthy the tradition is to provide. Wedding garments are provided at the door for those without wedding garments (not unlike a fancy restaurant providing jackets for male diners).

The man refused the wedding garment. That is the not spoken truth (the not revealed).

He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence (Mt 22:12).

His silence led him into the darkness.

God does not kick us out of heaven we walk away.

Scripture: Peter’s Love

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/21?15

Peter went back to his old way of life.

Simon, do you love me?

The question is posed twice as agape love (an “All In” sort of love).

Peter answers twice with a filial love (a “Servant” sort of love).

In the final question, Jesus switches to Peter’s use of the word filial love.

Conclusion: Jesus meets us where we are. If Peter, in that moment, can only see himself as Servant and not “All In”, OK. Let’s begin there.

Preparing for Wednesday night Reconciliation service:

What does it mean to forgive?

What does it mean to be “All In” kind of love and being free from the lies?

Mercy is not a private consolation but a source of mercy for others.

Mercy and mission are tightly coupled.

Allow scripture to read us, Lectio Divina. What captures your attention, your emotions. Stay with that for a while.

Peace be with you,

Deacon Gerry

Pray or Pay, Pal

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Grief, Justice, Lent, Samaritan
Photo by Kulbir on Pexels.com

Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Readings: Dn 3:25, 34-43; PS 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; Mt 18:21-35
Notes: OK a twist on a commercial word: PayPal. Continue our prayers for the liberation of Ukraine from this evil of war. They are unjustly condemned. Let us help them find prayer.

(reminder: these reflections are marginally helpful unless one reads the readings of the day. It is the sacred scripture that make this midrash of any additive value. You can find the daily reading calendar here: https://bible.usccb.org/readings/calendar)

From the burning flames, a plea for divine intervention.

It was a few days ago that we read about Jeremiah and those conspiring to put him to death. http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2022/03/16/contriving-a-plot/

Jeremiah asked the Lord for deliverance and justice (revenge in a less charitable reading of it). But he stopped short and said instead “in the time of your anger“.

The Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons (2nd Maccabees) brings us the mother: Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother who, seeing her seven sons perish in a single day, bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.

The last son, obedient to God and his mother, said to Antiochus: But you, who have contrived every kind of evil for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God.

  • Jeremiah – presumed to be martyred later.
  • Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons – martyred.
  • Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael – saved from the flames.

All lives put to the test.
All trusting in the Lord even unto death.
All, in varying degrees, putting the question of vengeance to the Lord and his decision.
All a part of a progressive elaboration of divine mercy.

Pointing us toward the final answer, mercy in Jesus.

Jesus, moves us to forgive not seven times, but every time.
As he did on the cross.

This is impossible without prayer.
Prayer for ourselves and our tormentors (or at the least ignoring the tormentor).

51 Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God.

This song, we sing in the LOTH, Week 1, Sunday mornings.
The Canticle of Daniel 3: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/3?52

First reading
I can image in Ukraine this prayer of Azariah is most heartfelt.

But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received;
As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks,
or thousands of fat lambs,
So let our sacrifice be in your presence today
as we follow you unreservedly;
for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.
And now we follow you with our whole heart,
we fear you and we pray to you.
Do not let us be put to shame,
but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.
Deliver us by your wonders,
and bring glory to your name, O Lord.

Responsorial Psalm
Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Verse Before the Gospel
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.

Gospel Portion
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

Mercy, even for “them“.

There are a lot of ‘them” in this world.

We need an Us within us.

Pray or Pay, Pal.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry