Monday, August 14, 2023

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr

(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan friar working in Poland until he was arrested by the Gestapo.  Committed to Auschwitz, Kolbe saw an opportunity to show his love for God when another prisoner was being sent to death for a crime that he did not commit.  Because the man had a family, Kolbe offered himself as a substitute.  Pope St. John Paul II considered this act a genuine witness to the faith and canonized Maximillian Kolbe as a martyr.  In today’s first reading Moses exhorts the people to likewise give witness to their love of God.  He does not ask them to die for God but to live for him.

The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land.  They have every reason to hope that they and their children will have all the resources they will need to live in prosperity.  But Moses, conveying the will of God, wants more than that for them. Because he wants them to fulfill their destiny of modeling God’s justice, he exhorts them to remember God’s graciousness.  He is especially concerned that they treat other peoples fairly by reminding them, “…you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”

Because immigration has become a reality throughout the world, we should underscore these words of Moses.  Different customs, food, and language make sojourning in a foreign land difficult.  Immigrants need understanding and compassion.  Such treatment shows solidarity not just across social boundaries but across generational ones as well.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)

Once I traveled from Calcutta in eastern India to the Punjab in the west.  Having purchased my train ticket beforehand, I went to the train station with confidence.  All I had to do was to board the train.  But that was easier said than done.  Fifteen minutes before the scheduled departure, the station went wild.  People rushed in every direction.  I could not find my coach but foolishly refused the request of porters to help me.  A young man noticed my vulnerability and came to my aid.  He took my bag and found my coach and seat.  He did not ask for anything in return.  He probably did not realize that he was carrying out the precept in today’s first reading.  He befriended an alien. 

Scripture has a universal vision.  People are not to so clannishly or nationalistically that they turn their backs to others.  They are to help one another as they share a common origin in God.  Obligations to family and to nation exist, but these should not curtail friendship with others.

We live in a time of people on the move.  There are certainly more tourists and probably pilgrims than ever before.  The numbers of immigrants and refugees also keep growing.  Material benefits are regularly derived from this vast movement of humankind.  Spiritual benefits are to be reaped as well when we make an effort to assist strangers.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr

(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan friar working in Poland until he was arrested by the Gestapo.  Committed to Auschwitz, Kolbe saw an opportunity to show his love for God when another prisoner was being sent to death for a crime that he did not commit.  Because the man had a family, Kolbe offered himself as a substitute.  Pope St. John Paul II considered this act a genuine witness to the faith and canonized Maximillian Kolbe as a martyr.  In today’s first reading Moses exhorts the people to likewise give witness to their love of God.  But he does not ask them to die for God but to live for him.

The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land.  They have every reason to hope that they and their children will have all the resources they will need to live in prosperity.  But Moses, conveying the will of God, wants more than that for them.  He wants them to fulfill their destiny of being a model of God’s justice.  So he exhorts them to remember God’s graciousness to them and to their ancestors.  He is especially concerned that they treat other peoples fairly for, he says, “…you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”

As mass immigration has become a reality in all parts of the world, we should highlight these words of Moses.  It is difficult to sojourn in different lands with different customs and a different language.  Immigrants need understanding, fairness and even compassion.  Such treatment would show our solidarity not just across national boundaries but among generations.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)

In his landmark “Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln appealed to the “Declaration of Independence” in exhortation that the nation carry on the struggle for a united nation.  He said that the government founded to protect the freedom of all peoples is worth dying for.  In the Book of Deuteronomy Moses makes a similar argument. 

The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land.  They have every reason to hope that they and their children will have all the resources they will need to live in prosperity.  But Moses, conveying the will of God, wants for them more than that.  He wants them to fulfill their destiny of being a model of God’s justice.  So he exhorts them to remember God’s graciousness to them and to their ancestors.  He is especially concerned that they treat other peoples fairly for, he says, “…you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”

As mass immigration has become a reality in all parts of the world, we should highlight these words of Moses.  It is difficult to sojourn in different lands with different customs and a different language.  Immigrants need understanding, fairness and even compassion.  Such treatment would show our solidarity not just across national boundaries but among generations.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Memorial of Saint Dominic, priest

(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)

St. Dominic is often pictured with a dog. A legend says that his mother dreamed of giving birth to a dog with a torch in his mouth that would set the world on fire. The dog is taken as Dominic himself who with his band of friars helped spread the gospel to the corners of Europe and beyond. C.J. Jung thought the dog indicates the saint’s well-integrated emotional life. Dominic was noted as a person of equanimity able to accept advances or setbacks with the same reliance on the Lord. A more recent explanation of the dog would be that Dominic had a personal affection of the Lord akin to a dog’s for his master. This may be pushing the envelope too far, however, as dogs may in ways imitate people but certainly mature human love reaches far beyond canine devotion. Nevertheless, throughout their history Dominicans have taken pride in being thought of as “dogs of the Lord,” what their popular name sounds like in Latin.

Dominic would readily accept Moses’ plea to the Israelites in today’s reading from Deuteronomy. The primitive constitution of his Order speaks of its purpose as bringing men (and in their own convents women) together to be perfected with the same love of God and of neighbor. But the Order has always been more outward than inward looking. The same constitution speaks of its mission as “preaching and the salvation of souls.”