Tuesday, August 18, 2026

 Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Ezekiel 28:1-10; Matthew 19: 23-30)

 What do you give to the person who has everything?  A gilded telephone? Designer earbuds?  There will always be a new luxury product to spend one’s money on.  The prophets chastised such conspicuous consumption.  It not only ignored the needs of the poor; it prioritized things to God.  In today’s Scriptures both Ezekiel and Jesus criticize the accumulation of wealth for consumption.

 Ezekiel sets his sight on the prince of Tyre.  The man has accumulated countless riches but has not heeded the Lord of Israel.  The prophet predicts he will have a hard fall at the hands of the Babylonian invaders.  Jesus, likewise, foresees a bitter outcome for those who make money their greatest treasure.  He says that they cannot enter the kingdom of God.

 Money itself is not evil.  Indeed, it enables us to live with a modicum of ease.  Pursuit of money while forgetting to honor God and to assist our neighbor, however, will cause our undoing.  We may think that we are increasing our stature, but in truth we are preparing our ruin.  The proper stance toward money is always gratitude to God for having received it and generosity toward the needy for having imitated Christ in their suffering.

Monday, August 17, 2026

 

Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 24:15-23; Matthew19:16-22)

Grieving the loss of a family member or close friend helps a person go on living sanely.  Especially if the loss is sudden, one needs to recognize what the loss will mean and to consider how it may be replaced.  In today’s reading from the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord tells the people of Judah that their loss will be double.  First, they will lose their loved ones, their possessions, and their homeland. Then, He says, there will be no time to grieve over these losses.

If the people ask themselves, “Why has God allowed these losses?”, they can find the answer in what the Lord tells Ezekiel: “Thus you shall know that I am God.”  God has tolerated the people’s unfaithfulness long enough.  Like a wise parent, He will correct their idolatry and neglect with a stern lesson.  He knows that adjusting to the loss will be fruitless.  He knows that they must start over and live justly from the beginning.

Idolatry and unfaithfulness are hardly remote from us today.  The Internet has made the telephone a commodity to be sought at practically any cost.  Although there are strategies and programs calling people back to church, membership is still diminishing in the West.  There is no starting over now that Christ has revealed fully God’s will.  But there is renewal in what Jesus has taught in his words and in his love for all.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

 

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:11-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28)

The Gospel we just heard is one of the most fascinating in the lectionary. It presents Jesus as attentive to people’s requests. Even more striking is how the Canaanite woman displays a blend of courage and humility. Unfortunately, many focus on Jesus’ comment about non-Jews when they hear the story. Listening to Jesus speak of Gentiles as “little dogs,” they question the Lord’s goodness. Let’s clear up this misconception first. Then we will be able to see more clearly the wonderful love Jesus has for all.

Scholars tell us two things about the comment. First, Jesus refers to Gentiles with the diminutive “little dogs,” which suggests affection. Furthermore, in the first century Jews regularly called pagans “dogs.” It can be compared to Americans calling their children "kids." In any case, the Canaanite woman doesn't take offense. Rather, she uses it to strengthen her request of Jesus.

Jesus has come to the region of Tyre and Sidon to rest.  Lately, his mission has been difficult. For the most part, the Jews are not accepting his message. Also, the Pharisees and scribes keep harassing him. Jesus seeks a break from the crowds seeking him out for healing. Then the mother of the demon-possessed Gentile girl confronts him.

But it isn't just to regain his strength that he initially rejects the Canaanite woman's request. As he tells his disciples, he has been sent to bring back "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Here Jesus again uses an animal name to refer to people.) This is no small matter. Jesus does not want his mission to Jews to be confused with that of his disciples to all the nations once the Kingdom of God has been established.  This will happen when he is ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit sent into the world.

However, the woman's faith moves him to change his mind. The Canaanite calls him "Lord" and prostrates herself before him to acknowledge his divine origin. Then Jesus realizes that a person's ethnicity is not as important as her beliefs. He is willing to grant the Canaanite woman’s request because she has demonstrated a firm belief in God's mercy. Through this change of plan, Jesus is initiating the preaching to the nations anticipated by the prophet in the first reading and carried out in the ministry of Saint Paul in the second.

There is a story that can help us understand the dynamic here. During World War II, an American soldier was killed in the French countryside. The dead man's comrades took the corpse to a church and asked for permission to bury him in the parish cemetery. The pastor asked if the dead soldier was a Catholic. They replied that he was a Protestant. The priest informed them that he could not allow it because the cemetery was reserved only for deceased Catholics. So, the soldiers sadly buried their friend just outside the stone wall of the cemetery.

The next day they returned to say a final prayer at the grave of their friend before leaving the area. But they couldn't find it. They searched thoroughly, but to no avail. Then they went back to the rectory to ask the priest if he knew what had happened to their comrade's remains. The priest told them that he wasn't been able to sleep that night because he had refused their request. So he got up in the middle of the night, went to the cemetery, took down the stone wall, and rebuilt it to include the dead soldier's grave!

We are not saying that the rules insisting only Catholics be buried in Catholic cemeteries are unjust. Much less are we saying that Jesus' initial reasons for not casting the demon out of the Canaanite woman's daughter were frivolous. But love sometimes compels us to reach beyond our limits and the rules that govern our daily activity. God's love, agape, extends to those we barely know, to those we don’t know at all, to those who may be sinful and to those who are suffering.  This is the will of God the Father. This is our legacy from Jesus, the Lord.

Friday, August 14, 2026

 

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

(Ezekiel 16:1-5.60.63; Matthew 19:3-12)

The Pharisees are playing hardball with Jesus as he and his disciples approach Jerusalem.  They are not testing whether he learned his catechism when they ask him about divorce.  They know that he has taught that marriage is a permanent union.  They want him to commit himself to opposing an article in the Torah that permits a man to divorce his wife with a written dismissal. 

Jesus is not intimidated by the truth.  He reiterates what he said in the Sermon on the Mount that it is a sin to divorce one’s wife to marry another woman.  As strong as Jesus is, he also is compassionate.  It is not impossible that Jesus has in mind homosexuals when he mentions those “incapable of marriage because they were born so.” 

There is no question of allowing so-called “homosexual marriage,” but there is reason to afford homosexuals special pastoral care.  Their genital desires can never be licitly satisfied.  Yet they may have fulfilling lives as they bear their cross behind Jesus.

 

Thursday, August, 13, 2026

 

Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 12:1-12; Matthew 18:21-19:1

Doesn’t the gospel today seem somewhat fantastical?  Whoever heard of a person asking forgiveness seventy-seven times?  The truth is that probably every one of us has done so.  As children, we likely confessed repeatedly, “disobeying my parents.”   As adults, many poor souls cannot stop looking at pornography and confess the sin sometimes twice a week.

However, multiple sinning is not the point of Jesus’ parable.  His intention goes to the heart of the good news he preached.  As the king in the parable, God forgives individual men and women their many offenses. In return, God expects them to forgive one another.

Must we forgive our offenders when they do not ask for our pardon?  Do we have to extend forgiveness if offenders show no sign of repentance?  It does not seem so.  The Church does not give general absolution for sins unconfessed.  But it is necessary that we be ready to forgive by praying for those who offend us.