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Transcript of Homily
Summary - Missing Intro:Summary
- Missing Intro:
Fr. Simon began with
a short explanation as to why "Ascension Thursday" was still a Holy Day
of Obligation, but why it was also being celebrated on a Sunday in the
United States.
See Above
Editorial Note for Holy Days of Obligation
The video begins where
Fr. Simon is saying that if Catholics in the USA (about 25%
of the population) did not go to work on any type
of holy day, such as Ash Wednesday, then.......
.... or Ash Wednesday.... or that sort
of thing....
The country would grind to a halt.
Be we seem to be unable to muster that
much...
Is the word ‘’hutzpa”
? ? ?
This is Skokie [Skokie,
Illinois - 63,348 residents, of which about 70% are Jewish]
We don’t have that much hutzpa.
For those of you who don’t speak Yiddish....
That means “brazenness” I suppose,
or "nerve."
But, why should I bother you with my problems?
We celebrated on Sunday because we need
to pay attention to it.
It’s an important feast.
It’s kind of a feast, that....
Well..... we don’t really talk
about much.
Well.... Jesus.... you can’t see Him....
So.... He must have ascended into Heaven.
I’ve heard people say it was a clever
way to get out of the problem where did Jesus go.
But, that is not true.
In a sense I think that Holy Thursday is
a Eucharistic feast.
Because, you know...
A few months back I talked about how the
temple....
The temple was built on a threshing floor.
A floor where grain was ground into weed.
It was thresh, the outer hole was taken
off.
And that threshing floor was completely
hidden underneath the temple.
The beauty that was the temple
And from the mount of olives, where Jesus
traditionally ascended to Heaven.
People who discuss whether the scriptures
say He ascended in Galilee or mount of olives....
Bbut if you look at this passage, this
really doesn’t mention Jesus ascending.
In the gospel passage, whereas the reading
from Luke seems to indicate that He went to the mount of olives, but that’s
the traditional sight.
If Jesus ascended from the mount of olives,
they were looking squarely at the temple.
And Jesus said “I am with you all days
until the end of the earth”, then he disappeared.
In a sense, this is a Eucharistic feast.
Because if Jesus is not present in the
temple of the Church....
If Jesus is not present in the form of
bread and wine, in every tabernacle....
Well then He was being sort of allegorical.
But the wonder of it is that Jesus ascended
not only into Heaven....
But He ascended into all space and time.
He ascended into this building today.
He, as if it were telescoped itself through
time....
To be at 3138 north Karlof, this Sunday
morning....
Under the form of bread and wine.
So the fulfillment of the ascension promise
is the Blessed Sacrament.
You know, looking at this....
I think we need to kind of take a fine
tooth comb to the readings today.
Because the Ascension....
Well that’s where Jesus ascended to Heaven.
It’s a lot more than that - - -
it’s a lot more than that.
First of all.
The great commission...
“Go forth and make all nations my disciples.”
That’s, that’s an amazing thing.
You see, Jesus would have been a little
bit of Aramaic....
And a little bit of Hebrew to his disciples.
And the word “disciple”
This a very important thing - - - I just
want to ...
I wish we’d translate the Bible into
English someday.
The word “disciple” means student.
It means a particular type of student.
But it was the word for student.
And this is... these readings are full
of that word.
The eleven students went to Galilee.
And Jesus approached and said to them:
“Go forth and make students of all the
nations...."
"Baptizing them in the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
This is the great commission.
Jesus didn’t tell us to make church members
of people....
Though that’s a fine thing.....
He didn’t tell us to make better human
beings of everyone.....
He told us to make students of all nations.
He told his students to make other students.
Now, as I’m always pointing out, we live
in Skokie....
Right up Karlove(??), there is a Hubbub
center, the altra orthodox ? ? ? ?? ,
You know, they’re guys with the curls
and the hats....
Ever seen these guys?
They are...
Well, you get these guys who are maybe
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen....
Who are going to a Yasheeva - - - which
is Jewish higher education.
And they are crazed...
I suppose you don’t get much chance to
meet them....
But, down at the synagogue in uptown....
I’ve had some....
I’ll never forget when...
Wait, let me look at my watch....
This could be long, forgive me.
I remember one feast of ? ? ? ?,
Which is sort of Hebrew Halloween.
They all dress up in costumes.
And I went down to the synagogue....
And it’s one of the feast where you can
travel.
You can drive a car.
And the rabbi invited a lot of ? ? ??
A lot of these ? ? ? ? students.
And they were...fourteen, fifteen...the
oldest was probably nineteen.
And I walked in with my little yamocha,
and my Roman collar.
And they thought it was a great costume,
they wore costumes on ? ? ? ?.
And they thought it was a great costume....
And the rabbi’s sons were just laughing
--- they think this is great.
And they finally go,
“No - - - he’s a Catholic priest.”
He says, “No he’s not”
He goes “Yes..yes he is.”
“Prove it.”
So I pull out my driver’s license....
And I had my picture taken with a little
piece of plastic.
It use to get you out of tickets....
Now it’ll get you a ticket....
Things have changed.
But I figured I’d wore a collar when
it was a benefit....
Now I gotta wear it when it isn’t.
But, they said, one of the students:
“I could get one of those made”
And of course when immediately they
were convinced I was a priest.
They started asking what I thought about
Mel Gibson’s movie.
Ay...
But these guys were....
They were kind of frenzied.
They love to dance.
And it’s much more like aerobics than
dancing - - - hasidic dancing.
Very intense.
And they are, and they are called ? ? ?
?,
And they’re students....
But they just aren’t students as we think
of students.
You go to school, you get home, you forget
to do your assignment.
No. You moved in with the rabbi.
There’s a saying:
“You should be so involved with your
rabbi - so close to your rabbi...."
"That you are covered in your rabbi’s
dust.”
And you became your rabbi.
We see in the gospel that Peter, rather
James and John, asked Jes:
“Where do you live?”
Which is an odd thing to ask your teacher.
But that meant they wanted to sign up to
live with Him.
You went and live with your rabbi.
So it was a very intense thing and very
personal thing.
It was a fervor for the truth.
I asked Rabbi ? ? ? ? once....
Iif there was any place that was orthodox,
where Gentiles could study ? ? ? ?.
Now the ? ? ? ? is a collection of oral
traditions....
And the commentary on oral traditional
.
It’s a very complex book....
Well, it’s a whole library....
And Rabbi ? ? ? ? Looked at me and
said:
“No, there really isn’t place you could
study ? ? ? ?”
And I said, “there isn’t?”
“No, they wouldn’t teach you ? ? ?
?”
And I said, “Why not?”
“You’re a gentile. It would be a waste
of their time, it’d be a waste of your time.”
Well... how do you like that?
It’d be a waste of their time, it’d
be a waste of my time to teach me ? ? ? ?.
Alright... now you live in Skokie, right?
Many of you - - - Most of you.
You know that the word “goi” is not
complimentary, isn’t it?
You know, the word “goi”
If a Jew calls you “eeeeh, stupid goi”,
it means a gentile.
Someone from the nations.
We’re the goian.
We’re the nations.
We’re the non-Jews.
And we’re not capable of learning ? ?
? ?.
Yeah, we can go to Heaven if we follow
the basic covenants....
And you know....
But we’re not capable of learning ? ?
? ?
We can’t become students....
We can’t become ? ? ? ?.
So Jesus said to His disciples:
“Go and make ? ? ? ? of all the goian”
Make students of all the gentiles.
This is the last thing He says to them.
And they would have said:
“What ?"
"What ? ! ?"
"Make students out of all the gentiles?"
"Why?”
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