These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven who also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came from the altar, who was in charge of the fire, and cried out in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and cut the clusters from the earth’s vines, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage. He threw it into the great wine press of God’s fury. (Rev 14:14-19)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112624.cfm
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the great anthem of the abolitionist movement, makes reference to the Grapes of Wrath. And of course, American writer John Steinbeck used The Grapes of Wrath as the title of his famous story about the poor who escaped to California from the disaster of the Dust Bowl during the years 1932-1939.
I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. They were singing what seemed to be a new hymn before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. (Rev 14:1-3, 4b-5)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112524.cfm
More heavenly music and a new hymn before the Throne. What a liturgy for the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb! The hymns we grow up with give us the language and the music of faith and prayer.
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." (Jn 18:33b-37)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112424.cfm
In a time like ours when political discourse and reason has been replaced by conspiracy theories and boldfaced lies, truth has become a rare commodity. But truth matters, as Jesus says. And today we are reminded that the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords is not the one who throws his weight around and claims executive privilege and power, but rather the one who testifies to the truth and dies on a Cross.
Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.” (Lk 20:27:-40)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112324.cfm
The Shakers were a non-Catholic religious group founded in 1747 by Mother Ann Lee. Originally founded in England, they moved to the United States in 1780’s. Ann Lee had a revelation that she was the second coming of the Messiah. She believed that this particular verse was fulfilled in her and so the Shaker community she founded was composed solely of celibate men and women, and of course, over time, they died out. The Virgin Mary teaches us that nothing is impossible for God.
Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 119)
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
How sweet to my palate are your promises, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112224.cfm
Saint Cecilia, for the manner of her martyrdom, is the patron saint of musicians and singers. May God’s sweet praises pour forth always from our hearts. For those of a certain generation we remember today the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the hope of Camelot.
