Monday, September 11, 2023

Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

(Colossians 1:24-2:3; Luke 6:6-11)

To no one’s surprise God is the great mystery facing humankind.  (For lack of a better word, we will say) He cannot be known with any definition by the human mind.  He is infinite, that is beyond limits or, in other words, undefinable.  However, the Church holds that God has revealed part of the mystery in Jesus Christ.  Christ shows that God loves humans immensely to the point of giving His own Son for their salvation.

Today’s first reading reveals another aspect of the mystery of God.  Paul, or perhaps one of the apostle’s disciples, writes that members of Christ’s Body, the Church, may share in the manifestation of God’s love.  The writer believes that he does when he wears himself out preaching and ministering.

We can do the same, and Christian spirituality is based on this insight.  Our prayers, sacrifices, and acts of mercy have salvific implications.  God uses us to show His love for the world.  When we offer a prayer to God rather than complain of an inconvenience, we contribute to the salvation of humankind.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(Colossians 1:24-2:3; Luke 6:6-11)

The scribes and the Pharisees watching Jesus in today’s gospel have a counterpart in the contemporary Church.  Many people waited to see what St. John Paul II would do regarding the definition of Mary as “co-redemptrix of the world.”  Knowing that he had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother some thought that John Paul would bestow on her the title. Others, realizing the title would cause some to confuse her role with Jesus’, were wary of it happening.  In the end the pope never made the declaration perhaps because he did not want to alienate Orthodox and Protestant Christians who see some things differently than Catholics.  However, today’s first reading gives some biblical justification for bestowing the title.

Paul claims in the passage that his sufferings make up for “what is lacking in” Christ’s.  In other words, he is working with Christ for the salvation of souls.  Or, it might be said, that he is sharing in the work of redemption.  This makes him, in a sense, a “co-redemptrix.”  Indeed, it may be said that everyone who prays for or make sacrifices on behalf of others has that role.  Of course, Mary may be considered the principal co-redemptrix.  Her prayers like her being excel above others’.

We regularly pray for others and it is not passé to fast or donate to charity on their behalf.  Doing so, we assist Christ in his redeeming work although his death and resurrection are sufficient.  It is like our fathers bringing us to work when we were young.  They may have asked fold some papers for them and we thought of ourselves as partners.  Christ allows us to have a role in the salvation of souls.  In doing so, we marvelously contribute to our own salvation.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest

(Colossians 1:24-2:3; Luke 6:6-11)

St. Peter Claver lived most of his life in Cartagena, Columbia, where he took care of the slaves recently imported from Africa.  Practicing his medical skills on the Africans, he exhausted himself trying to meet their needs.  Biographers mention that he died almost isolated from his Jesuit brothers, so radical was his dedication to the slaves.  His story makes an ample relief for the passage from the Letter to the Colossians.

The words read today might perk up a half- deaf person’s attention.  “In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church,…”  Is the author claiming that there is something deficient about Christ’s passion and death that the Church needs additional sacrifice?  Hardly! What Paul, the presumed author although many scholars today express reservations, means is that the message of Christ’s redemption must be carried to the world by his preaching which includes suffering as a witness to its truth. 

Of course, the need to “fill up what is lacking in the affliction of Christ…” is not limited to Paul or to early Christianity.  Rather it is renewed in every era, in every society.  We too have to suffer patiently so that others may know of Christ’s salvation of the world.  We too carry his message to the world by taking pains to care for others.