Friday, September 18, 2026

 

Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 8:1-3)

A famous painting of Mary Magdalene hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.  It shows a loosely clad woman meditating in front of a looking glass.  She is fingering a skull, which sits in front of a burning candle.  “What’s it all about?” she seems to ask herself as she contemplates life and death, herself, and Christ, the light of the world.

The painting is called “The Repentant Magdalene,” but this is a misnomer.  That title reflects a popular but unfounded belief that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute.  Preachers through the ages have concluded that she is the same as “the sinful woman” who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears in yesterday’s gospel passage.  But today’s gospel identifies her only as the woman “from whom seven demons had gone out.”  Demon possession in the New Testament is associated with sickness and hysteria, not moral depravity.  Mary Magdalene’s presence at this point in the gospel likely indicates Luke intention of showing how Jesus attracted different kinds of women, as well as of men, to himself.

The mirror in the painting invites us to ask the same question Magdalene seems to ask: “What’s the point of it all?”  Is our destiny just dry bones that will wither in time?  Or is Jesus the fire who enlightens our minds today and will raise our desiccated bones from death tomorrow?  We know the answers to these questions.  Our tasks are to live with the implications of the answers in mind and to share them with the world.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

 

Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7:36-50)

At the beginning of his letter, Paul wrote that he was responding to questions he had received from the Corinthians.  He reserves addressing the question of the resurrection from the dead for last because it is the most important of all.  Indeed, as John 3:16, proclaimed at Mass just the other day, testifies, human salvation hangs upon belief in it.  Why is the question of resurrection so critical? Two reasons come to mind.

The first reason presents the issue from the human perspective.  Death is the greatest of evils, the most formidable of human enemies.  This is evident in the death of a youth when most of the joys and hopes of life are yet unrealized.  But even for an elderly person, death takes away all that is of greatest meaning – loving relationships, growth in knowledge and wisdom, and hope of union with the Creator.  God’s gift of resurrection from the dead assures the realization of these blessings.

The second reason suggests God’s perspective.  Belief in the resurrection– the permanent and completely unexpected victory of life – implies acceptance of Jesus’ message.  Jesus came to preach God’s gratuitous and inviolate love for humans.  Acceptance of this love requires a similarly radical belief in the outrageous claim of resurrection from the dead.  Paul provides a long list of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.  Nevertheless, belief for rational people is still daunting.  It takes an abiding trust as well as a firm conviction of will to reorient our lives in line with God’s love.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

 

Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

(I Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 7:31-35)

N.T. Wright is a well-known Anglican Biblical scholar and bishop.  He introduces one of his books on Jesus with a controversial claim.  He says that people don’t want to accept Jesus for how he is described in the gospels.  Rather they accept him for how he confirms their pre-established religious and social convictions.  It’s the same problem that Jesus faces in today’s gospel.  The people don’t want to listen to him because he differs from their expectations of God’s prophet.

What was Jesus like and what did he teach that was so difficult to accept?  The answer to these questions is perhaps best expressed by St. Paul in today’s first reading.  Jesus incarnated God’s perfect love and taught it to anyone who would listen.  Because of the radicalness of that love, he bore the enmity of religious leaders, believed in people who had given up hope for salvation, and endured the greatest human suffering.

Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, the martyrs we celebrate today, were different from most people in this respect.  They understood that Jesus called them and everyone else to a self-sacrificing love and did not waver in practicing it.  They died a premature and violent death to honor Jesus for his sacrifice and his teaching.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

 

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

(I Corinthians 12:12-14.27-31a; John 19:25-27)

In today’s gospel Jesus is doing more than providing for his mother in his absence.  He is making his Church a family of followers.  The Beloved Disciple, faithful to Jesus to the end, represents all Christian believers.  With Mary as their common mother, they are to love one another as brothers and sisters.  That is, they now share more than common ideas and values but an intimacy of blood -- Christ’s blood in their veins.  Helping one another will be as natural for them as an elder sister taking care of younger siblings when parents are off giving birth to another child.

Mary provides the community a sure and substantial influence with Christ, her Son.  She is especially close to the Lord not only because of her natural relationship as mother but, strangely even more so, because of her attention to him as a follower. Like Catherine of Siena’s mother followed her mystic daughter on her benevolent missions, Mary accompanied her ever-gracious son on his salvific journey.

We do not have to pray to Mary.  After all, as the Letter to the Hebrews teaches, Jesus himself is our most efficacious mediator with God, the Father.  But there are times and conditions when we can pray to Mary with more fervor.  Certainly, a mother mourning her dead child will have common cause with the Mother of God.  And so might most of us when we think of how close our mothers once were to us.  As hurting or needing children, we called upon our mothers and unfailingly had their assistance.

Monday, September 14, 2026

 

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

(Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17)

A very successful businessman was defending his care for the oppressed. He said that as a boy, his father taught him to respect all people.  One day he used a racial slur in front of his dad.  The elder became so irate that he had the future man of success wash his mouth with soap.  The man never forgot the lesson and regretted his prejudicial remark for many years to come.

Today’s first reading tells how the Hebrews in the desert began to resent their liberation from slavery.  After their all but impossible deliverance from Pharaoh’s army, they grumbled that the Lord had delivered them.  Like the businessman’s father had his son wash his mouth with soap for the youngster’s insolence, God had the snakes bite the people for their ingratitude.  However, seeing the image of the snake that bit them mounted on a pole, the Hebrews repented of their sin and were healed of the deadly snake venom.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reminds us to see in Jesus mounted on the cross the result of our sinfulness.  He suffered one of the most excruciating deaths imaginable that we might be forgiven of our failure to live as God commands.  By allowing himself to be crucified, Jesus took upon himself our sins.  We have life – eternal life even – because he suffered such a horrible death.