Friday, October 31, 2025

 

Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 9:1-5; Luke 14:1-6)

Yuval Noah Harari is a Jewish historian living in Israel but known internationally for his sober account of the future.  Not long ago he spoke of how Israel and Judaism were fighting a war for their soul.  Harari explained that after the fall of the Temple in 70 A.D. the rabbis assembled to shape a new concept of Judaism based on collaboration and compromise in the quest of peace.  Now, he said, Israel is more determined to become a superpower with a will to dominate other nations.

Harari’s statement rhymes with St. Paul’s assessment of Judaism in today’s first reading.  He lists the grandeur of the Jewish tradition: “adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises”.  Paul also mentions that from this transcendent tradition came the Savior, Jesus Christ.

What Harari sees happening in Israel, we might see occurring in our society. Take Halloween for example.  In recent years our society has altered the meaning of this holiday in a similar way to how Harari describes the recent turn of perspective in Israel.  We no longer think of Halloween as All Saints Eve when the unpurified dead have a free day to roam the world seeking relief.  Now images of violent death and ruthless warriors prevail.  The Christian tradition at the base of virtually all Western societies is no less built on a vision of peace than the Jewish tradition.  For this reason, we should pray and work that a worldview of dominance through violence never takes root in our society.

Friday, November 3, 2017

(Optional) Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, religious

(Romans 9:1-5; Luke 14:1-6)

St. Martin de Porres has been named the patron saint of interracial justice.  He was the son of a Spanish father and a Panamanian (African) mother in Lima, Peru.  He knew racial prejudice growing up.  As a child, he felt called to be a Dominican friar, but he was not permitted to join the order.  Because he had African parentage, it was not supposedly possible for him to become a religious.  He did not abandon his vocation but offered himself as a servant for the local Dominican monastery.  Faithfully serving the friars in menial tasks, he was put in charge of distributing the community’s alms to the poor.  In time he was allowed to take the one vow of obedience which all Dominicans make.  He cared for Lima’s sick with his knowledge of herbal medicine and was known as a friend to all kinds of animals.

Martin not only reconciled peoples of different backgrounds but also various kinds of animals.  He tore down walls of hateful discrimination by showing love and patience to everyone.  Like him people of African descent in American society have waited patiently for equal treatment.  Yes, some have demonstrated openly their disgust with being treated with suspicion and contempt.  And there is a disproportionate amount of social pathology in African-American communities. But most of the people there work hard and deserve to be duly respected. 

In today’s first reading St. Paul writes of the Jews as his “own people.”  Becoming a Christian, he did not forsake identifying himself with his nationality.  Likewise, we need not imagine a color-blind American society.  African-Americans have a culture and a tradition that have helpfully contributed to American life.  They should not be considered inferior but should enjoy equal dignity with citizens from other backgrounds.

Homilette for Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 9:1-5; Luke 14: 1-6)

The Scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown posed the question, if Paul had any children, would he have raised them as Jewish Christians? Some might think not since Paul aggressively taught that Christians were dead to the Jewish law. Brown himself, however, believed that he would have. The reading from Romans today indicates why.

Obviously Paul retains a tremendous respect for Judaism. After all, he notes, God has bestowed numerous blessings on its adherents. Paul names the traditional seven and then adds one more that we will readily appreciate. The seven blessings are: 1) adoption as children of God; 2) the presence of God both in the desert and in the Temple; 3) the covenants made to the patriarchs and especially to Moses; 4) the law by which God expressed His holy will; 5) the cult which was free of barbarisms like human sacrifice; 6) the promises that Israel will become a great nation; and 7) the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- whose adherence to God won for their descendants the promise of salvation.

The final blessing on Israel is Jesus himself in whom the whole world is reconciled. If there were no other reason to be grateful for the Jews, we would do so because our savior springs from their seed. But there are many other reasons. The Jewish people have given to the world a rich cultural heritage and many of the greatest minds in history. More importantly, they have struggled with no little success to be a beacon of moral integrity following God’s eternal law and not their whims or base nature. We see their morality reaching its perfection in Jesus and his followers, but again the Jews have given us Jesus.