The King's Corner

Memorial Day is when we remember those we’ve lost.  My hometown of New Bedford lost many men at sea during whaling or fishing.   Many were lost in the 1800s.   The 1900s lost its share as well – hard-working, adventurous men providing the manpower and skill necessary to bring back to port whales and fish for which New Bedford was and still is well known. Last Friday I attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at the renovated New Bedford Seamen’s Bethel now joined to the Mariners’ Home.  According to the plaque outside the Home, “Whaling men spent much of their lives at sea.  The ship was their home.  Back in port, most of the poor, unskilled sailors knew no one in New Bedford and were essentially homeless until the next voyage.   In 1850 the daughter of William Rotch, Jr. donated her father’s home to shelter and feed needy seamen.  After the whaling industry declined, retired whalemen, merchant seamen, and fishermen lived here.  The Mariners’ Home provides lodging for mariners to thi

First Homily of Deacon Daniel Nunes May 28, 2017 - Seventh Sunday of Easter Seventh Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

Remembering the remembering :   Each year at this time I can vividly recall the rituals that were observed in my childhood each year on Memorial Day.  As a family we would be off about 9AM to go to the parish cemetery.    It seemed that everyone was there including many relatives, neighbors and people whom we saw regularly at Sunday Mass; all were either placing baskets of flowers at the gravestones or tending to those they had recently planted at the graves.    Soon the pastor and associate priests would arrive and park in front of the large monument that marked the grave of the first pastor of our church, a priest well known to my great grandparents who were also resting in this consecrated ground.  The greetings and conversations would soon cease as everyone would assemble in the cemetery's central road behind the clergy, then the procession would begin and the responses to the rosary would ring out as all walked solemnly and prayerfully through the entire cemeter

Cape Cod is blessed with many birds. We have resident and migratory birds making many of us watchers of chicadees, robins, cardinals, blue jays, and many more. I like the ospreys, the sea hawks – birds of the sea.  Like all the other birds, they soar in the sky.  They have the gift of flight making all of us jealous, although some of us have taken to the air through drones with their cameras. We can learn from ospreys and all the rest.  They don’t appear to mind the wind.  They fly over land and sea seeming to enjoy the buffeting with wind blowing their feathers.  They go with the wind.  They go against the wind.  They soar into the sky and then plunge back to earth and the water.  All the time they use the wind; they make use of its power.

May 21, 2017 Sixth Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily

With May being a popular month for marriages, here are some “rules” for engaged couples, newlyweds, and seasoned married folks to follow.   I am not the author.    They were written by  Larry Brown, a Cape Cod Academy teacher who writes for the Cape Cod Times. I’ve saved many of his articles.  Here is one from April 19, 2013 entitled, “How to make love last.” He offers ideas about how to make relationships live on and get stronger.  First, we need friendship plus desire.   Have desire without friendship and we have one wild weekend…but a long-term disaster.

I look outside my kitchen window and see a vast wasteland – trees stripped of their leaves by rampaging and rapacious winter months and gypsy moths.  Scourges! Waiting all winter long for the green of spring, I find myself pining for the poor trees that would scream if they could.   Crawling “worms” up the many trunks to feast on spring’s early fruits – the green leaves – the caterpillars are unwelcomed pests.  Now all oak leaves are stripped to their veins making for grotesque, finger-like silhouettes against cloudy skies.  Enough of my drama already!   It’s spring on Cape Cod where invasive insects have taken over to weaken trees – many of which will fall with winter winds.  Que sera sera.

“I am the vine and you are the branches” is a snippet from today’s Gospel reading from John (15:1-8).   This sounds like the vine is all important.  Without the vine the branches die.   Without the vine, the branches can do nothing.   Of course, this comparison is made with Jesus in mind.  He is the vine, and we bear fruit when we are attached.  Makes sense. However, the vine is at the mercy of the branches from which the leaves grow to produce the carbohydrates necessary for vine growth.   We all remember photosynthesis in which carbon dioxide and water combine to produce glucose (sugar) and oxygen.  Importantly, light energy is critically important for this reaction and conversion.  Without light there’s no oxygen, and life (with some exceptions) is doomed.  The vine, Jesus, depends on all of us leaves to sustain him.    In the words of biologists, it’s a mutualism relationship with each benefiting and depending on the other for sustenance and survival.

I witnessed a resurrection recently.  Someone came back from the dead.  He was risen, and I was some glad.   Shocked is the better word.   Walking into a Mystic CT bookstore, I approached the religion section and before me was a new book written by Marcus Borg: “Days of Awe and Wonder: How to be a Christian in the 21st Century.” Marcus died in 2015.   Quite a wonder to come back from the dead!   Actually, his wife, Marianne Borg assembled this collection of his writings from his many books, presentations, and unpublished works.   For more information on Marcus try the site: “MarcusJBorgFoundation.org.”   Some of his lectures can be viewed such as “What is God?” Some will not like his perspective.  Nevertheless, he tells us to take Jesus seriously.  Most of us think we already do, but probably not for many of us.

In today’s Gospel according to John (14:21-26) we read: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.’ Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, ‘Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" How many of us refuse to “reveal” ourselves to the ones we love?   Many of us are guarded and unwilling or unable to share our feelings with those who really need to know us.   We’re all unique with much to offer and share.   Let’s follow Jesus’ lead.  When we love someone, we must reveal ourselves to that person.  This is especially true for couples intending to marry.   This May many couples will marry, and we can only hope they have shared their innermost feelings.    Otherwise, it will become very hard for them to observe Jesus’ commandments.   

May 14, 2017 Fifth Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

May 7, 2017 Fourth Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

The Stranger Along the Way ~ Fr. Edward Healey April 30, 2017 Third Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass