Presider: Fr. John Puodziunas OFM
Parish: Assumption BVM Province
Choir: Heart of the Nation
TEXT FROM THE HOMILY
Confronting people with the challenges of our time is difficult. Sometimes they don't want to hear sometimes they want to be ignorant, but I found confronting young people with the real challenges, whether it be hunger or poverty or violence, or the great polarization, I found that they have this sense of they want to fix it! They want to solve the problem. They just don't know where to start. They don't know how to start. And so I asked him, "do you know the name of the janitor who sweeps the floor or cleans your classroom? Have you recognized him? Do you know the name of the woman who dishes out the pizza or piles on the french fries at the cafeteria table? Do you recognize her? We have a familiar gospel today. A rich man. Purple garments, fine linens, sumptuous banquet. Enjoying life in the here and now. Then we have a poor man. Hungry with sores being licked by the dogs. Notice that the rich man is nameless. The poor man is Lazarus. And with that name he is recognized and with that name this whole story becomes personal. The divide that exists at the time of the rich man and Lazarus is a divide that continues for them into the afterlife. This great chasm between Abraham and Lazarus and then there is the rich man by himself. In torment. But we don't have to look at this as just a story. For the great chasms, the great divides exist in our time too whether they be political or social. Whether they be in families amongst people, amongst nations, amongst races. There are great divides. We are such a fractured people. We all feel it. We all know it. And we don't like it no matter who you talk to, we don't like it. What do we do? Where do we start? How do we overcome these chasms? These divides, these barriers, these walls? Pope Francis in his many writings and teachings reminds us of God's affinity for the poor and we could focus in on the poor but it's really bigger than this for his way of approaching pope Francis, the way he approaches the poor, is he acknowledges them. He sees them. He reaches out to them. He learns their names. He steps into their life. He doesn't just send them a check or provide a program. He steps into their lives and he invites them to step into his. This is where we begin. Paul writes to timothy in today's second reading about a God who treats us stepping into our lives, with great love. With great peace. With great mercy. With gentleness. This is what we can bring to the great divides of our lives. To step into the life of another. To recognize them. To acknowledge them. To name them. As the song goes, open my eyes Lord so that I can see your face in the troubled and the poor. Open my ears Lord so that I can hear the cries of those in torment. Open my heart Lord that I can love like you. We are called by name we are told. To love like God is to love the other like we are loved. To acknowledge, to recognize, to name them. Let us do as God does to us.
Entrance: Gather Your People
Text: Based on 1 Corinthians 12; Isaiah 2:3–4; 11:9. Text and music © 1991, Bob Hurd. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Psalm 146: Praise the Lord My Soul
Text © 1969, 1981, 1997, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music © 2016, Sarah Hart. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Preparation: You Gather In The Outcast
Text: 76 76 D; Genevieve Glen, OSB, © 2001, The Benedictine Nuns of the Abbey of St. Walburga. Music: MORRIS-RADER, © 2011, Scot Crandal (ASCAP). Text and music published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Communion: One Love Released
Text: Bob Frenzel and Kevin Keil (ASCAP). Music: Based on O WALY WALY. Text and music © 1999, 2000, Robert H. Frenzel and Kevin Keil. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Sending Forth: All Creatures of our God and King
Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226 Tr. by William H. Draper, 1855-1933Geistliche Kirchengeslinge, Cologne, 1623
Arr. by Ed Bolduc ©2018 World Library Publications a div. of GIA Publications, Inc
Mass Setting: Mass of St. Mary Magdalene
Text © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music © 2018, Sarah Hart. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
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