Tuesday, December 9, 2025

 Optional Memorial of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

(Isaiah 40:1-11; Matthew 18:12-14)

Picture Mexican natives in the year 1530.  The majority had been endlessly targeted by mighty Aztec warriors seeking blood to propitiate their ruthless gods.  Then even the Aztecs were ravaged by the advent of Spanish conquistadors.  With virulent plagues and firearms they laid waste the tribes of Mexico.

Then in 1531, as if they were the lost sheep in Jesus’ parable today and she the brave shepherd, God sent the Virgin of Guadalupe to rescue the native people.  With the assistance of St. Juan Diego Cuaulatoatzín, she signaled the birth of a mixed-race people.  The new nation incorporated Spain’s Christianity and native devotion in a people both simpatico and strong. 

It is said that Pope St. John Paul II returned to Mexico five times because of his high regard and deep affection for the Mexican people.  Like Juan Diego, their forerunner, they not only proudly proclaim Christ the King but also cherish the Virgin of Guadalupe, his holy Mother.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

 

Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 40:1-11; Matthew 18:12-14)

If “all flesh is grass,” then a human being seems not very valuable.  Grass proliferates so that it is found everywhere and costs little.  Human beings likewise are plentiful – now numbering almost eight billion worldwide.  In some places human life seems readily disposable.  Widespread abortion testifies to this bitter fact.  The Scripture readings today give the contrary position.  Human lives mean much to God.

Isaiah refutes the naysayers.  He announces that God is making extraordinary efforts to save human life.  He cares for His people like a shepherd, his injured lamb.  The gospel takes up the image.  It says that as a shepherd goes after a lost sheep, Jesus searches for people who go astray.  Toward the end of all the gospels Jesus makes the ultimate sacrifice to save humans from their folly.

Today’s patron saint, Ambrose of Milan, showed a similar care for people.  He once had the emperor suffer a severe penance for having thousands of people murdered.  He especially cared for people’s spiritual welfare.  He struggled to keep the people free from paganism and the aberrant doctrine of Arianism.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Memorial of St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 40:1-11; Matthew 18:12-14)

Although a remarkable scholar and diplomat as bishop, St. Ambrose is equally remembered for his role in the conversion of St. Augustine. One biographer of Augustine tells the illustrative story of Ambrose going out of his way to assuage the worries of his convert.

Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, was visiting him in Milan where she noticed the people there not fasting on Saturdays in preparation for Sunday. She was so troubled by the practice that Augustine inquired of Ambrose the reason for not fasting. Ambrose told Augustine that he should do what he did himself: if he had a better reason for fasting than not, he would fast. Augustine went away thinking that Ambrose meant that he should dumbly follow authority. But that was incorrect. Ambrose followed Augustine to add that when he went to Rome, he fasted on Saturdays because that is what the people there do. Augustine remarked later that he took Ambrose’s advice “as an oracle from heaven.” Ambrose evidently meant that we should not follow prescriptions blindly but use both our heads to figure out their purpose and our discretion, when allowed, in applying them to ourselves.

Just as in Jesus’ parable the shepherd goes out of his way to find the lost sheep, the bishop Ambrose took pains to see that his people were well educated in the faith.

Homilette for Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Tuesday, II Week of Advent

(Isaiah 40:1-11, Matthew 18:12-14)

When God calls the prophet to comfort His people, He is referring to the many exiled Jews in Babylonia. After the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah, they carried off a portion of the population to what is now eastern Iraq. There the people languished many years until God sent a liberator in the person of Cyrus of Persia.

Like the Jews in Babylon, forty-five million people today live outside their native areas because of violence or threats of violence, according to the United Nations. Fourteen million of these are bona fide refugees residing outside their native lands and twenty-one million are internally displaced persons dwelling away from their homes but still in their countries of origin. We may know refugee families in our neighborhoods who have a house and access to social services. Most displaced people are not so fortunate. Many reside in camps which provide little opportunity for productive lives.

Perhaps we know another kind of refugee. In wealthy countries like the United States many men, women and children live on the streets. Perhaps drugs alienated some of them from their families. Maybe not having grown up in a conducive environment allowed many of them minimal education so that many are virtually unemployable. These people too are included in God’s call of comfort.

Jesus answers God’s call when he brings comfort to the nations living under the captivity of sin. In the gospel today he instructs his disciples to search out still another kind of displaced person. He wants them to bring back Christians who have strayed from the practice of the faith. We too should assist former Catholics return to church by our example, prayer, and encouragement. Just as important we could support relief efforts to the many refugees and displaced persons in the world. And we should not neglect the street people in our communities often struggling to survive.