Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

(Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:27-30)

The movie Chariots of Fire tells the story of the British Olympic track team of 1920.  Several outstanding men were on that team, but the one who captured the most attention was a Christian who refused to compete on the Lord’s Day.  Because of his insistence on putting the Lord before earthly prizes, he lost the opportunity to win a medal in his specialty.  One of his teammates, who had already earned a medal, saw the injustice and gave the him his berth in another race.  The Christian ran and won.

After the race the Christian received a message from a runner of a different team.  The message contained the verse from today’s first reading.  “They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings. They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”  This truth was certainly validated in the case of this athlete who refused to betray his principle of resting on the Lord’s Day.

We may disagree with the judgment of the athlete not to run on Sundays, but his living what his conscience dictates deserves not only admiration but also imitation.  Conscience is the voice of God speaking personally to us.  We are obliged to form our conscience guided by Church teaching, and we must always obey what it judges right.

 

 

 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

 Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 1:16-25; Luke 11:37-41)

Conscience has been called “the voice of God.”  Even when it is not formed by moral teaching, one’s conscience tells the person what is good and bad.  Everyone knows that seducing another person’s spouse is wrong and stopping to help a person in distress is good.  It is not far-fetched to conclude that God forms all people to make these determinations.  For this reason St. Paul indicates in today’s first reading that God makes his will known to humans through what He has made.

Jesus’ criticism of Pharisees in the gospel follows from what Paul writes.  He recognizes that Pharisees often pretend that they keep God’s law with pious practices that the Law does not even specify. Meanwhile they judge others harshly for not following those unnecessary practices.  Or, worse, they may extort others who think that they are good.  These sins are similar to hustlers on the street who approach tourists with friendly greetings and offers of assistance, only to lead them astray.  Both Pharisees in the gospel and hustlers on the street know that what they are doing is wrong because their conscience tells them so. 

As the voice of God, conscience deserves our full attention.  Sometimes giving it is difficult because our consciences are not well-formed.  Let us pray, study, and meditate so that we may accurately discern what God is saying to us through our consciences.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot

(Genesis 32:23-33; Matthew 9:32-38)

In his encyclical Veritatis Splendor St. John Paul II calls conscience “the voice of God.”  There God speaks telling a person whether an action is right or wrong.  Sometimes, however, the person questions what she hears.  The initial judgment seems facile with more consideration of the circumstances being needed.  Now the person is struggling with her conscience.  In this way Jacob can be said as wrestling with God in today’s first reading.

Jacob to this point is no paragon of virtue.  Most egregiously, he colluded with his mother to rob Esau of his inheritance.  He has also married two wives and has fathered children with two other women.  Now he struggles with his conscience.  That neither Jacob nor the stranger with whom he wrestled throughout the night wins the fight indicates a mixed judgment.  He has done evil, but he is not a bad man.  He will need to change some ways, but Jacob proves himself capable of advancing God’s project of building a great nation.

Today the Church celebrates St. Benedict, a holy man who established the cenobite or communal monastic tradition in Western Europe.  As Jacob is accredited with a major role in building the nation of Israel, Benedict is recognized for his contribution to Western Civilization.  Benedictine monks preserved the legacies from Greece and Rome and added to them the wisdom of Christianity.  In celebrating Benedict we give thanks for both the humanistic and religious patrimonies that have been handed down to us through the ages.

Homilette for Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

(Acts 5:27-33; John 3:31-36)

“We must obey God rather than men” (or women, we should add). This maxim from the first reading today may be delusive since God sometimes speaks through others and since our sense of God speaking to us may be mistaken. Discernment guided by Scripture and Church teaching provides necessary assistance in determining what God expects of us when the dictates of others conflict with our own ideas and actions.

A recent development in government points to an impending conflict between obedience to God and compliance with civil law. The Obama Administration has called for inquiries on whether the protections of medical workers and institutions from prosecution for not performing abortions should be lifted. In other words, the Obama Administration is contemplating pressuring Catholic facilities, doctors, and nurses into doing abortions. Catholic bishops have raised their voices decisively and vigorously in defense of freedom of conscience. Removal of protections, they claim, would mean violation of many consciences, non-Catholic as well as Catholic. It would also facilitate the taking of human life in its most vulnerable period.

Many Americans are pleased with policy changes introduced by the Obama Administration. His friendly overture to the Cuban government, for example, seems productive and right-minded. It is also in line with the approach the Church has taken in recent years. But Catholic Americans especially should be wary not to allow their enthusiasm for positive change allow them to overlook areas where the Administration may tread on sacred values upholding the common good.

Homilette for Friday, February 13, 2009

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 3:1-8; Mark 7:31-37)

Although the serpent is frequently looked on as the devil, Genesis never says it. It is an intelligent creature with a gift also for smooth talking. It might be considered a person’s divided mind which poses contrary arguments to the positions he or she holds in conscience. As we learn growing up, these contrary ideas often make us our worst enemies.

In the garden the serpent tempts the woman not with lies but with distorted truth. “Did God really tell you not to eat of any of the trees in the garden?” it asks. There was something in God’s command about not eating fruit but the prohibition was hardly universal; indeed, it was limited to one tree. Humans often exaggerate the extent of prohibitions. The Church’s Lenten penance, for example, does not require fasting everyday but on two days and abstaining from meat on eight. The woman herself begins to play the devil’s game. She says that God told them not to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil as well as not to eat it. Both she and the devil make God appear as opposed to human welfare. On the other hand, they paint a picture in which humans have to oppose God’s will in order to attain it.

It has been said that Genesis is true not because it reveals what happened at the beginning of history but because it shows what happens everyday. Like the woman and her partner, we can easily talk ourselves into sins like gossiping and stealing and sometimes into truly abominable acts like abortion and betrayal. For our own welfare as well as the benefit of others, we need to make every effort to form our consciences well and then to heed carefully what they tell us to do.

Homilette for Friday, June 13, 2008

Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church

(I Kings 19:9a, 11-16)

The “tiny, whispering sound” conveying the presence of the Lord to Elijah is better translated the “sound of silence.” God visits him, as He does each of us, in the silent chamber of conscience where He tempers our pride and chastises our sloth.

The Lord’s question of Elijah, “Why are you here?” is both rhetorical and accusatory. God knows well that Elijah has chosen to run away from his responsibilities as prophet. Elijah must speak the word of God in order to turn the people’s hearts back to God. But the prophet only complains about his lot: the people have abandoned God, they have killed God’s messengers, and they are presently hunting down Elijah himself. God, however, does not condemn Elijah for irresponsibility and endless complaints. He only re-commissions Elijah to carry out His will.

Sometimes we feel discouraged like Elijah. Nothing seems to go right despite our efforts to please God. We too complain about our situation and perhaps become cynical about possibilities for its improvement. A generation ago Henry Nouwen wrote a pamphlet “From Resentment to Gratitude” which explored these feelings of frustration and anger that pervade contemporary life. As an antidote, Nouwen prescribes humbly refocusing our perspective. He writes that we must see “that our life is not an inalienable property to be defended but a gift to be shared.” Recognizing life for the gift that it is, we can leave behind our pouting to do God’s will.