Wednesday, August 20, 2025

 

Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and Doctor of the Church

(Judges 9:6-15; Matthew 20:1-16)

The fable in today’s first reading needs explanation.  The story from the Book of Judges relates a sample of the tragic history of Israel in the first centuries in the Promised Land.  At issue is the desire of the people of Shechem, a prominent city of northern Israel for a king. Abimelech, one of the many sons of the judge Gideon, is the leading candidate.  He manipulated the people to kill his seventy brothers.  Jotham, the one brother who survived the slaughter, relates the fable to decry his half-brother’s candidacy.  He says that most trees have the good sense not to be sovereign over the others.  Only the wiliest of all the trees, the buckthorn, will take the office.  By the story Jotham implies that the reign of Abimelech is bringing terror to Shechem.

Abimelech is hardly the first or the last seeker of kingly power.  Humans crave authority so that they may lord it over others.  St. Bernard, a friend to kings of his day, surely knew this.  He embraced an ascetical way of life and became a proponent of humble monasticism.  He wrote a stern letter to a cousin who left his Cistercian reform for the more grandiose life of the Benedictines in Cluny.

If we cannot have kingly status in the world, we may seek it in our homes.  In either arena we should be careful to take our Lord as a model.  A king by nature and achievement he did not lord it over others. He served all --rich and poor – to teach us how to live in humble righteousness.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

 Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church

(Judges 6:11-24a; Matthew 19:23-30)

Religious life, much like secular life, is prone to excess.  Monastic orders have taken the vow of poverty very seriously since antiquity.  Yet, over time, members have grown accustomed to different comforts.  Benedictines, whose motto is “to pray and to work,” began to abandon at least manual work in the early Middle Ages.  A reform movement sprung up at the monastery of Citeaux in France.  Its most famous representative is St. Bernard whose feast is celebrated today.

Bernard believed deeply in living poverty as a means to follow Christ.  He understood implicitly Jesus’ comment in today’s gospel about the improbability of the rich entering the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom, he would say, belongs to those who trust in God and not in their material resources.  He undoubtedly would lament today’s facility for checking one’s wealth as well as its meager concern for an evangelical lifestyle.

Wealth is not bad in itself, of course.  But we should use it for the good of all, not selfishly spent on ourselves.  Cruises, expensive sports events, costly entertainment all seem superfluous.  But perhaps even these luxuries might be justified when occasional and purchased after we give due attention to the needy.

Homilette for December 28, 2007

Thursday, December 20, 2007

(Luke 1:26-38)

It is said that a military commander may not send troops on a “suicide mission” without their consent. A society can conscript a person into the army as a matter of the common good. Also, the common good may dictate that the military then order the conscripted soldier to battle with the possibility, but not the surety, that he or, we should add, she may die in action. If, however, there is near certainty that the soldier will be killed, the military should obtain his (her) permission because soldiers are enlisted to give their service not their lives.

In this gospel of the annunciation, God gives to the Virgin Mary a similar prerogative to withdraw from his plan of salvation. Although the passage uses the declarative mode “you will...,” the angel waits for her consent. She is free to refuse to cooperate with the heretofore unheard of plan of conceiving by the Holy Spirit to give Israel its long-awaited Messiah. In a famous homily, the great medieval preacher St. Bernard of Clairveaux pictures the world hanging on Mary’s word. Of course, she expresses her willingness to set in process the Incarnation.

As God does not force Mary to participate in His plan, He does not force salvation on us. We are free to accept or reject it. Although it is an entirely free and gratuitous gift, it does involve some effort. We have to heed the words of Mary’s baby Jesus when he grows up. But his commands are not so much burdensome as they are liberating. We may think of them as directions from MapQuest. They provide us the best possible way to get us to where we want to go.