1st Reading: 2 Kings 5: 14 – 17
2nd Reading: 2 Timothy 2: 8 – 13
Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19
Homily: Tuck Grinnell (paraphrased from notes taken)
One of the things I’ve done over the last 32 years is to participate in mass of healing services (with a break for COVID). Over the course of these services, I’ve seen much remarkable healing. I’d come to expect all kinds of healing. One thing I did not understand is sometimes a person can be healed (e.g., of addiction, of emotional pain), but not transformed…This amazed me.
Today’s Gospel tells of the ten people with leprosy who were healed, yet only one comes back to Jesus “praising God in a loud voice”, only one experiences a deep transformation. When God does something for you, do you allow it to have its full impact on your life?
In our second reading, Paul relates to Timothy how he has suffered, “being thrown into chains” for preaching the Good News of salvation. And yet, that’s not his main point which is about the mercy of God: “If we are unfaithful, Christ will remain faithful, for Christ can never be unfaithful.”
If someone beat me, left me for dead, jailed me – wouldn’t I be bitter? I might even think God is untrustworthy. But persecution did the opposite for Paul, “I will bear with all of this for the sake of those whom God has chosen…that they may obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus…” That’s the question for us: no matter what life throws at you, how will you respond to life’s experiences?
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, wrote “Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself . . . turn a personal tragedy into a triumph.”
Paul says, “You can depend on this: If we have died with Christ, we will also live with Christ; if we hold out to the end, we will also reign with Christ.”
Mary Lou Melley offered the following reflection/prayer:
This morning we gather to acknowledge and appreciate the life of Theo Kooij. As we have just heard, God calls us to be open to the possibilities that our life gives us. How do we respond to life experiences? Theo’s life is an amazing example for us to follow.
As a survivor of the second world war, he went on to study and succeed in sonar science in the Netherlands and in the United States. He delighted in his studies and in his professional career with the Federal Government in the Washington Area. He also delighted in and responded to other experiences as they occurred, including his faith life. He certainly was committed to his faith when he joined the PAX Community.
For many a cold or very warm morning, I was with Theo and Maria Teresa as we entered St. Luke Social Hall around 8:30 a.m. to perform the sacristans’ duties. Physically moving tables, rolling the carts so we all could set up the altar. Again, he and Maria Teresa just showed up. Her commitment to Theo we also celebrate.
We in PAX are thankful for his life and his example and always for the joy he shared with us. In thanksgiving we pray to the Lord. Lord Hear our prayer.
A friend of Theo’s wrote this poem in his memory:
https://paxcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Poem-for-Theo-Kooij.pdf
Holy Spirit Fortune Cookies
At the end of today’s liturgy, Tuck mentioned upon turning 75, he went through his files of 45 years knowing he has fewer years ahead than behind him. He copied 130 sources of inspiration and brought some (in sealed envelopes) to share saying, “Heaven knows what you may receive.”
Here’s what was in the envelope Marian Kylmkowsky took:
Blessed Among Us. John Kaiser, Missionary Priest (1932 -2000)
John Kaiser was born in Perham, Minnesota. Following military service and studies at St. John’s University in Collegeville, he entered the Mill Hill missionary seminary in England. After ordination, he was assigned to serve in Kenya. He spent twenty years working in the Kisii diocese before being reassigned to work in the Maela refugee camp in the Ngong diocese. Most of the refugees had been driven from their homes and farms by armed gangs, which the government attributed to tribal conflict. Kaiser believed much of the violence was encouraged by the government as part of a land grab. In 1994, following international pressure, the camp was closed and residents forcibly relocated.
Fr. Kaiser later testified before a commission investigating the closing of the camp. He identified by name certain cabinet officials as well as President Moi for instigating violence. His testimony was quashed and the government tried unsuccessfully to have him deported.
On August 23, 2003, Fr. Kaiser was found lying on a roadside with a fatal shotgun wound to the back of the head. The government claimed it was suicide. But a later inquest reopened the case and confirmed his murder. For the church in Kenya there was never any doubt. At his funeral, the papal nuncio said, “Let no one have any doubts about it: … we are reflecting on a religious assassination, not a political one … Those who killed him, those who planned his killing, wanted to silence the voice of the Gospel.
“If I die, let it be, but let people be given their rights.” Fr John Kaiser