Monday, June 4, 2018

Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(II Peter 1:2-7; Mark 12:1-12)

Global warming is a fact.  No one should deny that temperatures have been increasing steadily for thirty years. But there have always been cycles of warm and cold temperatures for ages.  The critical debate concerns human responsibility for higher temperatures.  Are artificial pollutants sealing warm air in the atmosphere? Today’s gospel can shed some light on the moral dimension of the issue.

Jesus is locked in a battle of wits with the religious establishment of his place.  He sees its leaders as hampering God’s freeing the people of injustice.  For him they are like the vineyard that produces sour grapes in the Book of Isaiah.  His parable implies that like the leaders’ ancestors killed the prophets, they will murder him.

The vineyard in Jesus’ parable may also be taken as the environment.  The wicked farmers then are those who wantonly contaminate it for profit.  Whether or not the result is rising temperatures, leaders of industry are polluting the earth.  As a result, common people – especially the poor – suffer.  Often the biggest culprits do not stop at murder in pursuing their aims. 

Everyone should take care in treating the environment.  Although we may not have many resources to manage, we still can improve it.  Using fewer disposable items is something all might do.  Disposing hazardous wastes in designated places also assures a safer earth.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Memorial of Saint Boniface, bishop and martyr

(Tobit 1:3.2:1a-8; Mark 12:1-12)

St. Boniface was born in England and raised there in a Benedictine monastery.  He was a successful teacher but desired to be a missionary among the pagans in what is now Germany.  When he arrived, he achieved notoriety by chopping down an old oak tree worshipped by the people without incurring harm.  He labored successfully throughout the land.  After a distinguished career in which he was named “Primate of Germany,” Boniface retired to where he began his mission.  There he and a group of followers were martyred by a band of pagans.

Missionaries leave their native place for many reasons.  But they need to have love of both Christ and the people to whom they preach if they are to succeed.  Their purpose is not to change the culture which they find in the land of their destination but to deepen it.  They will demonstrate how the best part of any culture resonates with the teachings of Christ.  Sometimes people will resent the connections that are being made.  This is what happened to St. Boniface and cost him his life.  The gospel today relates how Christ was a missionary whose life was taken out of resentment for what he said.

Christian missionaries serve humanity as well as the Church.  At their best, they bring the message of God’s love for the world and His mandate that we love one another.  They also crossbreed cultures leaving behind the best of their culture and often taking the new culture home before they die.  Today we sing their praises. 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs

(Tobit 1:3.2:1a-8; Mark 12:1-12)

For most of the second half of the twentieth century Chicago was governed by the Daley machine.  People throughout the country were aghast at the corruption, but the local populace, prospering economically, did not mind the patronage.  It seemed to take pride in the statement made by a city alderman, “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.”  Jesus can be seen as preaching against such a system in today’s gospel.

The parable of the vineyard is a thinly veiled indictment of the Jewish leadership who stand before him.  It insinuates that the chief priests, scribes and elders are abusing the trust God has placed in them.  Instead of caring for the people, it argues that they make a profit for themselves.  It further prophesizes that in time the Jewish leaders will kill Jesus himself but for this act, they will be severely punished.

Courage, of course, is required to speak up against improper governance.  Similar to Jesus in the gospel, today’s saint, Charles Lwanga of Uganda, was martyred for admonishing his king for outrageous behavior.  Prudence is always necessary when making public outcries, but prudence joins forces with courage to speak truth to power when the situation demands it.  

Homilette for Monday, June 2, 2008

Monday of the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

(Mark 12:1-12)

Philosophers debate the existence of God by telling the story of two men who come to a clearing in the jungle with many beautiful flowers. One of the men says that a gardener must have planted the flowers. The other disagrees saying that they are wild flowers. So they decide to experiment by waiting around to see if a gardener appears. After a couple of days without anyone coming to tend the garden, the man who proposed that a gardener planted the flowers says that the gardener must be invisible.

God, for those of us who believe, is the invisible gardener who created the world and all its contents. Atheists say “no,” there is no invisible gardener but only an imaginary one existing in the minds of believers. In the gospel Jesus tells us that there is indeed a gardener. The vineyard Jesus mentions is like a garden, and God is the one who planted it. Therefore, God has a right to demand that the vineyard’s caretakers produce fruit for Him. Of course, generally we understand Jesus’ vineyard as the earth and the fruit which God expects as justice and peace. But we might see the vineyard as the physical environment which we are to care for. We must not pollute it, wantonly kill its creatures, or wastefully deplete its resources. The Book of Genesis underlines this responsibility by saying, “God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it” (Genesis 2:15).

Obviously, one does not have to believe that God is the invisible gardener to care for the environment. But we who do so believe should become environmentalists. We might also question how people arguing that God is but an imaginary gardener would defend the universal need to care for the earth which is felt so strongly today.