Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B

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Lorraine Black
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1 You are not far from the Kingdom of God Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B DT 6:2-6, PS 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51, HEB 7:23-28, MK 12:28B-34 Dcn. Frank Sila 11/4/2018

2 Good morning. After World War II, in an international spoils-of-war lottery, the United States was awarded a German sailing ship known as the Horst Wessel. The ship was 295 feet long with three masts and a sail area of over 22,000 square feet. In May 1946, she was commissioned into the United States Coast Guard as the Eagle. She sails to this day as a Coast Guard training vessel. I recently had occasion to meet one of the officers who sailed aboard the Eagle. He told of sailing the Great Lakes through the straits to the Atlantic. One night, in that vast ocean, he came up on deck into a blackness that can only be known at sea. As he told the story, I looked up into the heavens and saw more stars than can be imagined. Retelling the story, some 40 years later, his voice softened, saying, It was in that moment that I knew there was a God. Renata and I recently visited Whitefish Point on the shores of Lake Superior. I recalled the sailor s story as I stood on the deck that looked out over the water. The Eagle would have sailed in view of where I was standing. I thought of the vessels that have floundered here in sudden storms, the Edmund Fitzgerald among them. True to her nature, the wind picked up and Lake Superior began pounding the shoreline and dunes. We fell asleep that evening listening to the waves striking the shore. About 3:00 in the morning, I woke to the much stronger sound of wind and surf. Listening to the intensity, I dressed, wanting to see this storm for myself. I grabbed my camera and headed out. Now, there is not much light at 03:00 a.m. My only option was time-lapse photography. In daylight, the camera shutter can open for as little as a thousandth of a second to get a usable picture. At night, in darkness, the shutter may need to be open for minutes not seconds. It occurred to me that the spiritual journey is like timelapse photography. The shutter speed for a life picture is measured, not in seconds and minutes but years.

3 In today s Gospel, Jesus affirms the commandments written in the Torah, to love God and neighbor. We hear in our Eucharistic prayer, It is truly right and just that we should give thanks. While we give thanks by the love we share, I believe Jesus is guiding us to something more. When the Coast Guard officer stood gazing into the heavens, he encountered the Sacred. That sense of the Sacred is our light. When we love in this world we touch the Sacred and the Sacred touches us. Jesus is teaching the scribe and us, where to gather light for our life portrait. In the days before digital photography, film was developed in a darkroom. The film would then be mounted on an enlarger to expose a photosensitive paper. There was no image until you put the print in a bath of developer, then, slowly, the image would appear. I always thought that moment was somewhat magical. At the end of our years, what will our life portrait look like? What image will others see? Will they see us or the Sacred light we have gathered? In our life portrait will they see the face of God more clearly? We live in a world where the Creator of that world wants to be in relationship with us. In loving, we touch the Sacred. Jesus tells the scribe, You are not far from the Kingdom of God, not because his acts of love have been counted and tallied, but because his love has brought him into relationship with the Creator. That is the mystery of gathering and sharing light; we enter into relationship. The mystery is not limited to Christians, or our Jewish and Islamic brothers and sisters. The Creator s invitation to relationship is universal. We answer that invitation by loving unconditionally in a chaotic and noisy world.

4 God makes his presence known in a multitude of stars seen for the first time, a splash of fall color or an unexpected an act of kindness. The wind and waves know Him, so does our St. Tom s Community. Our gathering and liturgy celebrates the mystery of God with us. In our reception of the Eucharist, Jesus invites us to open the shutter of our heart gathering the light of His embrace.

5 Works Cited All scripture quotations are taken from;. (1987). The New American Bible, Revised edition. USCCB. I welcome your questions and comments. My is fsila@sttomskazoo.org. (n.d.). Note: The cover picture was taken with a Sony 5100 digital camera using time-lapse photography at Lake Superior, Whitefish Point. It was around 3:00 a.m. and very dark. Our digital camera technology can see what the eye cannot. We live in a world in which there is always something more to be SEEN. Therein is the awe and wonder of it all. A video of life on the Eagle can be found:

The Solemnity of The Body and Blood of Christ Year B

Our rituals are the celebration of God with us. The Solemnity of The Body and Blood of Christ Year B EX 24:3-8, PS 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18, HEB 9:11-15, MK 14:12-16, 22-26 Dcn Frank Sila 6/3/2018 Our first