Please join us between 4:30 and 4:55 pm via Zoom
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome to this, our Saturday evening liturgy, in which we ponder the question of law, both religious and civil. What is the root of law? Where does it originate? Who or what does it serve?
Opening Prayer: Holy One, everything that is good comes from you. You order all things in their ways and you are the source of all order. Help us as we seek to know your perfect order in our disordered world.
Opening Song: Song Like a Seed, Sara Thomsen https://youtu.be/5CXoyhfSo4Y
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: From “A Hunger for Wholeness: Soul, Space, and Transcendence,” by Ilia Delio
We have the capacity to wrap the Earth with a new mantle of compassionate love and peace. But do we have the vision? Can we imagine a new world rising up from the ashes of the old? Teilhard’s vision of planetization and ultrahumanism is not a naïve optimism; it is born out of suffering love, a conviction that God is in the midst of our darkness, and that divine light is shining through the unknown of our fears. God will not tell us what to become but God asks us, What do you want to become?
The burden of our future is on us, and our task today is to surrender ourselves to the power of Divine Love. This is the heart of the gospel message: if we want a different world, we must become a different people.
Let us be inspired by these words of Ilia Delio, Franciscan Sister and theologian, and let us affirm them by saying Amen.
Gospel: Luke 6: 1-5
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
These are the words of the gospel writer we know as Luke. We affirm them by saying Amen.
Homily Starter:
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” With this sentence Jesus settles all of our questions about law: Mosaic Law, civil law, Canon Law, Sharia Law, and so many other attempts to order society, to structure the behavior of populations. Jesus often refers to himself as Son of Man. The son of a man. A human being sprung from another human being. A person who, like other people, is called to the one radical law on which all others are based: the law of Love.
We don’t know why Jesus and his disciples were in the grainfields that day. It was the Sabbath. Maybe they were just taking a stroll? Maybe they were on their way to the synagogue? In any case they were hungry, picked some of the heads of grain, rubbed the seeds off with their hands and ate them. When questioned about this break with the strict code against doing any work on the Sabbath Jesus reminds them of a story about their exalted King David doing an even more blatant act of feeding hungry people. And then that retort, “The son of man is lord of the Sabbath.” In other words, the Sabbath was created for human beings. Not the other way around. When any law gets in the way of people taking care of other peoples’ basic needs then that law is not in service to the greater, radical, law of love. In case we might miss this important point, today’s gospel story is immediately followed up by the one in which Jesus heals the man with the withered hand, again on the Sabbath, and this time in the Synagogue. This time the religious leaders are so incensed that they begin to talk about doing away with Jesus. The law defined them and they were so afraid of what they might be without it that the reason behind the law had become lost to them.
We live in a country with many, many laws. We are part of a church with many, many laws. And yet we are living in a very dark time. Could it be that the time has come to reexamine our laws? Is it time to remind ourselves that human beings are lords of the law, and not the other way around? Is it time to take up Ilia Delio’s challenge to really surrender ourselves to Divine Love which should be at the root of all law? Are we ready to become the different people, the open, loving, courageous and creative people needed to create a different world?
What are your thoughts on today’s readings? Please share your thoughts.
Shared Homily
Statement of Faith:
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Denise: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
(adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu)
Denise: With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
Gracious God, source and sustenance of life, redeeming presence to the pain and brokenness of our world, Holy Spirit, who enlivens and inebriates all that exists, we beseech your healing power upon us and all we pray for today.
Down through the ages, you rescue us from darkness.
you light up our ways with wise and holy people. You restore our spirits and you revive our dwindling hope.
May the Spirit of life and wholeness transform us that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love, and healing to those whose lives we touch.
For all you bring to our lives, and for all we seek amid
pain and suffering, we acclaim your love and greatness,
and we join with all creation to sing our hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Karen Drucker https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI
(Words and music by Karen Drucker)
Denise: Please raise your hands in blessing.
Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind, and spirit, we bring before you the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of your people.
We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and live your law of love in our world.
We ask you to awaken anew in our hearts the empowering grace of your abundant Spirit, who infuses these gifts of bread and wine with the transforming energy of life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
As we gather around this friendship table, we recall God’s
blessing and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew
the gift of life which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again, he showed us how to love one another.
All lift the plate and pray:
Back at the table, he took the Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
All lift the cup and pray:
Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
Denise:
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
Please receive communion saying: “I am the difference.”
Communion Meditation: Be a Light, Thomas Rhett
Prayer After Communion
Denise:
In faith and hope we are sustained,
In grace our dignity reclaimed,
In praise we thank our God.
Grant that we may strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness.
This prayer we make in the name of our loving God through, with, and in whom live and love. Amen.
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
We celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come.
Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen (Miriam Therese Winter)
Denise: Please raise your hands as we bless one another.
May the law of love which is written on our hearts be spoken on our lips, sustained though our work, and lived each day though our lives, Amen.
Closing Song What Do I Know, Ed Sheeran https://youtu.be/l11mUSu7aeA
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.