On the Feast of Stephen

Proper23A, October 12, 2014, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen.  That is the first line of a popular Christmas song that I learned in my childhood.  Over the past week, one of my friends in Minnesota requested a list from which she could pick out Advent and Christmas songs or hymns to sing for a fundraiser with a holiday theme.  This is the one I picked because of a particular verse.  For those of you who are not familiar with this song or have forgotten much of it like I had, it is about a king who spies a poor man gathering wood for warmth in the middle of the winter.  He asks his page about him—where he lives and what is his dwelling.  The page answers that he lives at the foot of a mountain by the forest fence and a place called St Agnes’ fountain.  The king calls for wine and bread to take to him, assuring that he has food, not just warmth.  The king leads the way followed closely by the page, encouraging him along the way, as the journey is a good piece away and it is quite cold out with snow and ice as mentioned in verse 1.  But the best verse is one I don’t recall hearing before and what makes it a great choice for singing.  It goes like this: Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing; ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing. Yes, this was a real king, but I cannot verify the story to be historical.  However, that being said, this song talks about the initiative of a king who sees to it that a poor man gets what he needs to sustain himself in the bitter cold in the shadow of a mountain.  This story is quite similar to the one in the gospel text which also tells the story of a king who is even more widely generous with his resources.  Many of you may know Luke’s version which is a bit different in theology and what is emphasized.  Luke’s is a wedding feast whereas this is more specifically a wedding banquet for the son.  Tacked on to the end of this story is a curious little paragraph about a man who comes to the banquet improperly attired and we wonder just what that means in relation to the rest of this biblical passage. 

            I have always liked this particular friend from the first time I met her.  She was in my Systematic Theology class with Fr. Kevin.  Fr. Kevin died of cancer just a couple of years after I left the seminary.  This friend was always gracious and kind apart from the fact that she had a fabulous voice that came from such a small-framed person.  She would have made a far better cantor than I.  The quality I appreciated most was expressed when she helped me by giving me her notes from class.  I found it difficult to even write for exams due to having broken my wrist within a year.  She remains that person.  She asks her friends for different things, her friends respond, she never once tells others she doesn't like our ideas, but takes in silently each person’s contribution.  I don’t know about you, but I could not ask for a better friend than that.  Wisdom and respect is shared on both ends.  There is no “one upmanship,” we are equals with different gifts and we share as equals. She is a perfect example of the message of the King Wenceslas’ song.

            So what does this parable mean?  We are to go out.  If we are not able to go out physically, we are to go out of our comfort zone.  The page in the song actually does both.  He initially likes the idea of following in the king’s footsteps until he feels the bitter cold and the physical strain.  I have watched people struggle with doing the necessary exercise to remain strong enough to not be dependent on the aides physically.  Motivation can wane; both emotionally and physically.  As we age, we begin to question the purpose of our activity.  The closer we get to “the end” however perceived by our own assessment or the doctors of our life span, the more there is a temptation to give up and ask ourselves, what the point of it all is.  We are to go out, forgetting our own needs in order to reach out and to share what we have with others. It is one complete action.

            At the same time, we are to accept the invitation of God to God’s banquet in honor of God’s Son.  This parable is a direct parallel to the one from last Sunday.  God held a feast for the people of Israel, but they all went their separate ways and did not respond to God.  Instead, they went about their lives doing other things, some even persecuted God’s slaves and killed them.  The king actually responds with violence and killed those who killed others, burning their city. 

            God’s response to this is to send out the invitation to all, both the good and the bad.  God’s salvation is meant for everybody.  The king fills the wedding hall.  God’s covenant now extends to all people, not just the Jews because now the chosen people of God are not just the Jews, but the Gentiles as well.  God has opened the kingdom of heaven to all.  We are called to respond to that invitation, to feast with God, but as this parable reminds us, there is more.

            Just what does it mean to feast with God?  Certainly this could be thought to be an allusion to participation in the Lord’s Supper, considering that the Greek word for the supper means thanksgiving and is a celebration of the new life God gives us in Jesus.  It also means enjoyment of life in general, of all that God has given us which certainly includes food, shelter, and warmth.  It means having a thankful heart for each day.  One of the ways some people cope with bad days in their lives is to remind themselves that tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning.  I may have a difficult time making it through today.  Something terrible could happen, but tomorrow I can start fresh with a clean slate. 

            What of the man who shows up to the banquet without a wedding robe?  Scholars think that this may have originally been a separate parable about preparedness, possibly for the end times.  Another scholar suggests that this could be in reference to Romans 13:14 that we are to put on the Lord Christ or Galatians 3:27 because we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ.  Still another scholar interprets these verses to mean what it says in I Colossians 3:16 that this is a baptismal robe and we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.  If we are to take Jesus’ words seriously, we are to be committed servants who will daily walk in the footsteps of Jesus, our master, who like King Wenceslas leads the way and encourages us and strengthens us to follow his lead.

            Therefore, Christian people, be sure, wealth or rank possessing; ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing. As with the parable of last Sunday, we are called to bear fruit.  We are called to be a blessing just as God also blesses us.  God calls us to more than simply contemplation, but action.  Sometimes, the blesser is the one who walks away the most blessed.  Our interactions are all potential blessings because of our maker and redeemer. Amen.

Be Who God calls us to Be

Proper22A, Sullivan Park Care Center, October 5, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            There are clearly times when I feel very alone, as I am sure is the case for most of you.  I feel alone emotionally as well as in my thinking.  There are two recent incidents that come to mind. As I watched and cared for the assisted living unit on which I am assigned this past Thursday, I had the rare opportunity to see my own priest come to visit one of our mutual residents.  I quickly explained to him as I spied him peering into this resident’s room that he was not there, but had gone downstairs for exercise.  I personally thought that this particular resident would have returned to the unit by then, not knowing that his delay was caused by another employee’s time with him.  As we passed through the hallway, he asked me a number of questions one of which was about where I worked, mentioning that he thought I was working in the skilled nursing unit.  I explained to him that actually, when on low census, I floated to virtually every other section of the building.  With a smile on his face, he then guessed correctly that was probably not something I particularly enjoyed.  I agreed that he was correct about that. This day was a low census day and I explained that I was alone on the unit until 6:30 tonight. He then inquired as to when I worked, the answer being 2 pm-10 pm.  Making the astute observation, he concluded that because of my schedule, I was able to help regularly with Wednesday morning Eucharist and hardly ever could make it to choir practice on Thursday nights.  “But you manage to sing in the choir?” He queried. Pondering this information, he thought a bit while I explained that I was a pretty good sight reader and that after a couple of years of difficulty, I learned most of the music.  The point is, there is always something to talk about, whether it is with a priest or a friend, or someone who is both. I feel lucky to claim him as a friend.

            The other incident that I think about at this time is the putting together of puzzles on our unit.  The Activities Department puts out puzzles on each floor as something for the residents to do.  Most of the puzzles take some time and skill to do, so the residents who put them together have decided by that assessment to put them together as a group, often three residents at any one moment.  This operation has involved employing even staff and visitors to the unit in an effort to facilitate the process.  One day, I pulled out a puzzle that I had never tried and proceeded to figure out the best way to begin.  It seemed that nobody wanted to help me until I complained enough that my fellow co-worker decided to attempt to put together the border pieces.  This is a known technique from the days of my childhood and probably back much further.  As I neared the edge with the other pieces, it became obvious that the time-honored way to do a puzzle did not, in fact, produce the most efficient way to put this particular puzzle together.  I needed the help of my other co-worker to rearrange the border pieces to fit with the inside pieces. There are clearly certain projects that we are unable to complete without help from others.  From my first illustration, friendship is a human need which may or may not involve something as complex as working together to complete a puzzle.  Secondly, the puzzle-making involved more than one person to accomplish the finished product.  Being friends is not a pre-requisite, but working together towards the intended goal is.

            In today’s gospel text, God is the landowner who builds a vineyard, later Jerusalem which is the center of worship for Israel. The tenants are the religious authorities like the Pharisees, chief priests and elders for example.  The slaves are the prophets and the son is Jesus himself.  During this time period, the tenants would contract to give the owner an agreed-upon portion of the crop, keeping for themselves what was left.  This parable is known as the Parable of the Wicked Tenants or Treacherous Tenants. God’s expectation of the tenants is that God and the tenants will enjoy the produce, but since this simply does not happen, God is ultimately disappointed. What will God do?  Notice the similarity to the Isaiah passage I read today.  This text asks the question, “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?”  God is pleading the people to be faithful stewards, has even provided all the means to do it, yet the people continue to fail to bear fruit.  In Isaiah, the expected grapes are wild grapes.  In Matthew, God has a solution to the failure of the tenants.  God will take away the kingdom of God from Israel and give it to a people that produce the fruits of the kingdom.  Jesus will become a stumbling block for those who fall on him as well as will crush those whom he falls on.  Even if we skip over the words, “They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death,’” the concluding sentence remains: God will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time. The idea is not that God is rejecting Israel; they are still the chosen people of God by way of covenant.  It is not that God is rejecting the leaders of Judaism, but their behavior.  God expects them to behave in a certain way. God wants people who produce fruit.  How do we produce fruit?  We do it by keeping the Great Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your entire mind, all your soul, and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.

            St. Thomas Aquinas explains it this way: We love God for himself and everyone else as they are in God or capable of being in him.  We love God in loving our neighbor when we love others as they are related to him.  Love of God with our whole hearts does not diminish but should enhance our love of others because we will also want the greatest good for our friends and because the love of God enables us to be friends with others all the more, as it is the source of those feelings that are a part of friendship.[1]

            For the time of Jesus, it was a warning to the Jewish leadership, but during the time of Matthew’s writing, it was a warning to the early Christians to be the bearers of fruit.  The gospel of Matthew is full of these stories which served many Christian communities as a catechism or book of instruction designed to elucidate and articulate for Christians the components of what it means to lead a Christian life.  God claims us by way of creation and baptism to walk, not just talk as the people of God.  God expects and we are obligated when we profess to be Christians to live in such a manner that befits the name of Christian.  We are called upon daily in our walk with God to live as Christ has bidden us to do.  We are to make friends and we are to work together to build the kingdom of God even now here on earth.  We still have the power to make choices within our communities as well as with each election concerning the leadership of this country.  The best way to have a friend is to be one.  The best way to work together is to make friends with everyone as best as we are able.  If we are able to meet and speak with the candidates for office, the better we can make choices and the better our world will be.  Be who God calls us to be.

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[1] Selman, Francis, “Aquinas 101: A Basic Introduction to the Thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas,” 2005.