tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19948304045419399322024-03-18T06:20:27.834-07:00Homiletic DiakoniaFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comBlogger306125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-44499213169167286702024-03-16T20:14:00.000-07:002024-03-18T06:19:55.178-07:00Lent 5 (Third Scrutiny)Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45VIDEOWith the story of the raising of Lazarus,we find ourselves arrived in our Lenten pilgrimageat the edge of the mystery.We find ourselves confronted with a final signpointing us toward our destination and our destiny:the incomprehensible love of Godpoured out into the worldin the cross and resurrection of Jesus,and the Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-84268454565837040472024-03-02T11:13:00.000-08:002024-03-16T20:24:27.494-07:00Lent 3Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25VIDEOChristianity is weird.And if you take it seriously,it will make you seriously weird as well.This is the good news.Of course, this might not sound like good news.After all, most of us(even here in Baltimore)don’t want to be weird;we just want to fit in and get along.We never really outgrow that fear that lodges in usaroundFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-30154895202886890452024-02-17T12:10:00.000-08:002024-02-18T10:55:15.401-08:00Lent 1Readings: Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15VIDEOIn celebrating the first Sunday of Lentwe hear each year the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert.The Gospel of Mark’s account, however,which we have just heard,seems quite brief and sparein comparison with the versionswe find in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.It makes no mention of Jesus fasting,or of the great hunger he felt Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-62186369388613589652024-01-27T06:26:00.000-08:002024-01-28T15:47:08.260-08:00Feast of Thomas AquinasReadings: Wisdom 7:7-10, 15-16; 1 Cor. 2:1-10a; Matt. 23:8-12VIDEOThe ancient Greek philosopher Aristotlewrote that “all people by nature desire to know.”Aristotle thought that what it meant to be humanwas to be the kind of animal whose greatest desirewas to answer the question “why?”Why does fire make things hotand ice make things cool? Why do crabs move the upper part of their clawsand notFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-49684884400472877192023-12-30T06:43:00.000-08:002023-12-31T11:08:46.312-08:00Holy FamilyReadings: Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Luke 2:22-40VIDEOMy son and his wife are awaiting the birth of their first child, any day now.More importantly, my wife and I are awaiting the birth of our first grandchild, any day now.Awaiting the birth of a child—or a grandchild—is a funny thing.You know that this will bea life-defining relationship:Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-25192302721316987632023-12-24T04:25:00.000-08:002023-12-24T04:26:29.180-08:00Christmas: Mass at DawnReadings: Isaiah 62:11-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20At least for some of us,Christmas disappoints. We hope to receive a gift that we will lovebut did not know we even wanted.We hope ourselves to give gifts that will delight the ones we love the most.We hope to sing songs that will lift our heartsabove the sorrows that shadow every lifenot just for a moment, but forever.WeFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-8785622895384488372023-12-23T04:09:00.000-08:002023-12-23T04:12:54.118-08:00Advent 4Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38King David has big plans.He has conquered the Canaanite city of Jebus,renaming it Jerusalem—“vision of peace”—and making it the royal capital.He has brought the Ark of the Covenant,containing the tablets on whichGod had inscribed the ten commandments, to Jerusalem and placed it in a tent,making his Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-59667652632357131162023-12-09T05:44:00.000-08:002023-12-10T13:33:16.321-08:00Advent 2Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8We hear today from the Second Letter of Peter,“The earth and everything done on it will be found out.”St. Augustine, picking up on the ideaof everything being revealed, wrote that in the new heavens and new earth that we await,“The thoughts of our minds will lie open to mutual observation…; for [the Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-2840771500603808862023-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:002023-11-19T08:31:38.020-08:0033rd Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30VIDEO“Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting.”The Book of Proverbs offers this as advice for finding a wife,and it is not bad advice.In fact, it’s pretty good advicefor finding a husband as well.Childhood tales of a happily ever afterwith a Prince Charming or a Sleeping Beautymay have lodged deep in our psyches,andFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-16931512866346183212023-10-28T03:49:00.003-07:002023-10-28T03:49:41.351-07:0030th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Ex 22:20-26; 1 Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40 Writing to the Christians in Thessalonica,converts from paganism,St. Paul commends them for having“turned… from idolsto serve the living and true God.”Idol worship was common in the time of Paul;indeed, the Jewish people were thought to be oddballsbecause the temple where they worshipped contained no representations of their Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-40775883912457110992023-10-14T04:14:00.003-07:002023-10-15T10:10:30.229-07:0028th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Isaiah 25:6-10a; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14VIDEOI am always struck, when reading Matthew’s versionof the parable of the wedding feast,by how violent and disturbing it is.Luke’s gospel includes the same parable,but there it is a pretty straightforward storyof people refusing an invitation to a great feastand other people being invited in their stead.But in Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-25140643943458291182023-09-16T08:03:00.003-07:002023-09-16T08:20:41.605-07:0024th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Sirach 27:30-28:7; Romans 4:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35Does anybody lie on his or her deathbed and think, “Gee, I wish I had spent more time being angry”?Do people reach the end of their livesand regret not holding more grudges or exacting crueler revenge?Maybe some people do,but I suspect that most of us, facing the end of life,find the things that angered us suddenly Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-36362172280094261122023-08-19T10:47:00.009-07:002023-09-16T08:18:27.546-07:0020th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15: 21-28VIDEOThe story we hear today from Matthew’s Gospelis also found in the Gospel of Mark,where the woman is identifiedsimply as “Syro-Phonecian,”that is, a Gentile or non-Jew.But Matthew specifies that she is a Canaanite,and so draws our attentionto that long and deep history of hatred.between the Jews and the Canaanites.The Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-93463848294704562023-07-29T07:55:00.005-07:002023-07-30T10:46:18.714-07:0017th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52VIDEOWe all want a lot of different things.This seems to be part of what it is to be human.Other animals have pretty limited sets of desires.My dog, for example, seems to want food and sleep, twice-daily walks when he can sniff everything in sight,and cuddles on the couch in the evening,and all of these wants are, more or less,Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-15959739491314531162023-07-18T04:54:00.006-07:002023-07-18T04:59:16.166-07:0015th Week in Ordinary Time--TuesdayReadings: Exodus 2:1-15a; Matthew 11:20-24I recall meeting once with a couple that was preparing for marriage.The groom was a convinced atheistwho liked to argue theology,and his future wife,an equally convinced Catholic Christian,had spent many hours answering his objectionswith saint-like patience.The groom asked me,“If God really wanted me to believe in him,why wouldn’t he simply Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-42113915274689339642023-07-15T14:27:00.007-07:002023-07-16T03:29:59.189-07:0015th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-9In the book of Genesis, after Adam and Eve have eaten from the forbidden tree,God pronounces a number of “curses”upon the human race—conditions that will prevailas human history moves forward, signs of our fallen state.Among these is what God says to Adam:“Cursed is the ground because of you!... Thorns and thistles it Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-82497353185049466952023-06-03T10:23:00.006-07:002023-06-04T16:46:01.184-07:00Trinity SundayReadings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18VIDEOIn our second reading today,St. Paul exhorts the Corinthian Christians,“Greet one another with a holy kiss.”Paul was not simply instructing them on etiquette,but was referring to the ritual exchange of a kissas a part of their gathering for worship.This is what we today refer to as the “sign of peace,”though inFrederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-28688332936306657032023-05-20T08:23:00.002-07:002023-05-25T09:37:41.611-07:00AscensionReadings: Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20VIDEOI once heard a story—which may or may not be true,but which I sincerely hope is—about a folk Mass celebrated in the early 1970sfor the Solemnity of the Ascensionwhere one of the songs was “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”You know the one:written by John Denverand popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary,with the chorus,“I’m leavin’ on a jet Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-75551534947570377592023-05-06T04:26:00.006-07:002023-05-07T10:44:41.329-07:00Easter 5Readings: Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12VIDEOI’d like to think that the sacred order of deacons,into which I was ordained sixteen years ago this month,had its beginning in some sublime and glorious moment,perhaps in a vision of the heavenly liturgyand those who serve at it.I’d like to think that,but our reading today from the Acts of the Apostles,traditionally seen as the story of the Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-27196793208958855872023-04-22T04:36:00.007-07:002023-04-23T10:50:43.822-07:00Easter 3Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35VIDEO“He was made known to them in the breaking of bread.”Not when he appeared beside them,walking along the road;not when he interpreted to them what referred to himin all the Scriptures;not when he accepted their invitation to stay with them,since it was nearly eveningand the day was almost over;not even when he sat down&Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-26057546086964356412023-04-06T08:05:00.003-07:002023-04-06T18:41:40.209-07:00Holy ThursdayReadings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians11:23-26; John 13:1-15The book of Genesis mentions in passingthat Joseph, the son of Jacob,whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt,was given a wife by the Pharaoh,a woman named Asenath, daughter of an Egyptian priest.That is pretty much all we are told about her.But the human imagination being what it is,a Jewish writer living around Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-45792872652308213622023-04-01T05:54:00.001-07:002023-04-02T04:34:02.574-07:00Palm SundayReadings: Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66Last year, the philosopher Agnes Callardpublished a column in the New York Timesreflecting on the phenomenon of social media pile-ons,or what are sometimes referred to as “Twitter mobs.”Someone says something that others find in some way offensive,and critique cascades into denunciation, vilification,Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-33734585197563469142023-03-18T05:53:00.005-07:002023-04-03T05:24:05.628-07:00Lent 4Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41VIDEOIn our Gospel today there seem to be a lot of people who just do not get what is really going on.The disciples ask a question about sinthat appears to be completely off-track;the blindman’s neighbors get into a debateabout whether it is really the same person who was blind but now can see;and the Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-21150684192252360902023-02-11T10:33:00.004-08:002023-02-12T11:15:03.235-08:006th Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings: Sirach 15: 15-20; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37VIDEO“What matters in the endis not what you dobut what is in your heart.”That sounds nice, doesn’t it?It suggests that God is not concernedwith our obeying God’s Law,as the scribes and Pharisees seem to have thought,but with our intentions.God will not judge meon the basis of what I have doneand what I have failed to do—Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994830404541939932.post-66581553763851317892023-02-04T08:00:00.005-08:002023-02-05T05:39:05.010-08:00Funeral for Alan Bauerschmidt (1927-2023)Readings: Isaiah 61:1-3; Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 36-37; John 6:37-40Death is a catastrophe.It ends a world:an irreplaceable and unique set of experiences and events.In my father’s case, it has ended an experience of deprivation in the Great Depression;of sacrifice and struggle in the Second World War;of years of hard work at everything he put his hand to;of thousands of books read;of Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01491804250797733456noreply@blogger.com