Bishop Thomas Gumbleton's blog

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, November 9, 2008
Homily Archives

I don't know if this ever happens on any other Sunday or feast day, but there's something very strange about the scriptures today because they seem to indicate that we really ought not to be celebrating the feast of the dedication of a church building, which is what we're doing in this liturgy commemorating the dedication of a huge building located in Rome that has now been designated as the pope's official cathedral church, built in about the fourth century, after Constantine had converted and Christians were free to celebrate in churches.

But the early Christians didn't have any churches. They never dedicated church buildings. They celebrated the breaking of the bread in their homes. Small communities of disciples of Jesus gathered together in homes throughout the Roman Empire, and that's how it was for over 300 years. No churches, no buildings to celebrate and to dedicate, to use almost as a place where we feel that somehow, because it's sacred and we're not, that when we go there, God will not punish us.

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Thursday, October 30, 2008
Homily Archives

This week we have another video for Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, courtsey of Essential Dissent (see essentialdissent.blogspot.com). Bishop Gumbleton will return to his regular homily schedule with audio and transcripts posted to NCR Cafe next week.

Until then, here's a talk he gave in Endicott, N.Y. on March 8, 2008, during a series of talks for Lent with the theme "The Election and Transforming Issues." The bishop's talk is called: "The Gospel Call to Peace in a Time of War and Terrorism."

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Friday, October 24, 2008
Homily Archives

We don't have a homily from Bishop Thomas Gumbleton this week. But we do have a video of a talk Bishop Gumbleton gave to a confirmation students at St. James Parish, Johnson City, N.Y. on March 9, 2008.

The talk is called "The Call of Jesus."

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, October 12, 2008
Homily Archives

As always when we reflect on the scriptures during our liturgy, we must today reflect on these scriptures in the light of what will be happening during this liturgy. As we mentioned at the beginning, today we will baptize the newest member of our community, this tiny infant, Alexander Golden. And then also at the end of the liturgy, members of our Pax Christi group will be renewing their vow of nonviolence, a commitment to follow Jesus, the peacemaker, who rejected all violence. It's within the context of these events that we listen to the lessons today.

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, October 5, 2008
Homily Archives

We should remember that Jesus has confronted the Jewish leaders because he had come to Jerusalem, came into the temple and drove out the money changers and so on, and they demanded to know by what authority he did these things. So last Sunday and this Sunday, we hear Jesus entering into kind of a confrontation with these chosen leaders. At this point, he's telling them a parable. When we try to listen to today's scripture lessons, I think we'll find that there are two very clear directions in which the lessons take us.

The one is a reflection about leaders, authority people, those Pharisees and Scribes -- the leaders of God's chosen people in the time of Jesus, or today, leaders of our own church community. How do we relate to these leaders? Jesus shows us. And then the other direction that the readings take us is to help us to enter into a very profound understanding of the amazing love of God, for God's people, for every one of us. But we only will be drawn into this kind of reflection if we remind ourselves again, of the context within which Jesus tells this parable.

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, September 28, 2008
Homily Archives

I must confess that when I was reflecting on the gospel lesson and the other scriptures, but especially the gospel lesson, I had to smile because I've had the experience rather recently of being invited to a Diocese where I was to give a retreat at a retreat house for a weekend. The bishop called me and said, "I don't want you to come." His reason was, "You know, Tom, you're controversial and there'll be media there." That's when I smiled or even laughed to myself. First of all, I've never had the experience, in the dozens of times that I've given retreats at retreat houses, that the media are the least bit interested in covering such an event.

Even more, I had to smile because somehow, being controversial is evidently something not very admirable or acceptable and yet, listen to today's gospel. Who could be more controversial than Jesus? I must tell you what happened just before the event of today's gospel. This was the week when Jesus had come into the temple, knocked over the tables, drove out the buyers and the sellers and said, "Don't make God's house a den of thieves" and he made them scatter and run. Pretty controversial, I would think. The leaders, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the temple authorities, were not the least bit happy about it.

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, September 21, 2008
Homily Archives

I think all of us have become accustomed to speaking about the Gospel, which we listen to each week, and read ourselves during the week, as the “good news.” It’s news -- something new and important -- but good news. Then we come to a parable like the one today and we wonder, “How can it be such good news?” Because instinctively, I think every one of us feels something is violated. Here these people worked one hour; others had worked the whole day. They mentioned the burden of the work and the heat, they put up with all of that and they get the same thing. I think most of us feel there’s something wrong there.

Well, it is really good news if we understand it adequately, but we have to understand it with the background of what Isaiah says to us today, God speaking: “My thoughts and not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways,” says God, “for as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” See, there’s a huge difference -- one that is almost impossible for us to grasp, really, between our ways and God’s ways. And if we try to understand Jesus according to our ways, we’ll never hear the Gospel as good news.

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, September 14, 2008
Homily Archives

The passage we hear today from John’s Gospel is part of a conversation Jesus was having with one of the leading Pharisees, Nicodemus. Many of the Pharisees, you’ll remember, were opposed to Jesus, but Nicodemus came in the middle of the night because he had begun to be attracted to Jesus, so Jesus engages in this conversation.

At this point, Jesus says to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. And the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so that everyone who believes in him may have everlasting life in him. Yes, God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. For God sent the son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him, the world might be saved.”

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, September 7, 2008
Homily Archives

As always when we celebrate our liturgy of the word, we try to listen deeply to what God is speaking to us. We must try to do it within the context of what is happening within our lives. Today, of course, we know, and all of us are very profoundly aware, that the biggest thing happening in our life right now, happening within our country, is the campaign to determine who will be our leaders for the next four years.

We're in the midst of a political campaign, so it's important that we listen to God's word in that context. The scriptures today, I think, are very appropriate for this in a few ways. First of all, because if we are listening carefully, we'll discover that God's word must always be listened to within the context in which God proclaims that word. We have to be very careful not to take a passage of scripture and say, "This proves a certain thing," and then that's it.