Tuesday, January 10, 2023

 Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

Today’s first reading addresses the great question of suffering.  It tries to explain why people suffer despite being redeemed by Christ.  The question appears academic until one suffers the loss of limb or, worse, the loss of a loved one.  Then that person can see if the explanation in the Letter to the Hebrews has worth.

The reading notes that Jesus was made perfect through suffering.  The implication is that suffering is the way to perfection.  By suffering without cursing God, men and women may conform their wills to His.  Jesus has won them justification of sin so that their own suffering can merit perfection.

We might ask, why would we want to be perfect if the way to perfection involves suffering?  After all, suffering involves pain, an antithesis to the joy we seek in life.  We might answer our question by noting how the reading calls those who suffer Jesus’ “brothers” (and sisters).  In striving for perfection, we join God’s family where we experience true happiness.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

 Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(James 2:1-9; Mark 8:27-33)

Today’s gospel parallels yesterday’s.  In yesterday’s reading Jesus brings a blind man to full sight in two stages.  At Jesus’ first touch the man cannot see the true nature of things.  People, he says, are like walking trees.  When Jesus touches his eyes a second time, the man sees things clearly.

In today’s gospel Peter correctly calls Jesus “the Christ” but has a false notion of what this means.  He thinks of Jesus as a political Messiah.  That is, he expects Jesus to liberate Israel from Roman rule with a sword.  When Jesus tells him that as Messiah he must suffer, not conquer, to defeat evil, Peter tries to correct him.  Jesus reacts by calling Peter “’Satan.’”  Satan in Scripture is the great tempter.  Jesus means that Peter’s false notion of Messiah would tempt Jesus to abandon his Father’s mission. Presumably, Peter’s eyes now are fully open to see what a true Messiah must do.

We love heroes.  Their victories give us hope to conquer those whom we find objectionable.  Jesus, however, has shown us a surer way to defeat evil.  He was not a hero but a saint.  He patiently endured evil in order to overcome it.  On the cross he bore the world’s sins and won for us forgiveness.  As his disciples we are to continue his work of bearing with others in love.  We do this even for the people we find objectionable.  In this way we also assure ourselves a place with Jesus in eternal life.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

 Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

(I John 1:5-2:2; Matthew 2:13-18)

The persecution of Jesus and death of the innocents form a necessary part of the gospel.  Certainly, the gospel proclaims “glad tidings.”  But the benefits come at a price to Jesus and those who surround him.  It never pretends to be mere “happy talk.”

Herod, enraged with jealousy, pursues the newborn “king of the Jews.”  Under Joseph’s protection Jesus escapes Herod’s wiles.  The infants around Bethlehem at the time will be slaughtered in his stead. Thirty years hence, however, Jesus will be harassed by other Jewish rulers.  They will succeed in having him killed.  In the end, however, Jesus overturns their schemes as well.  He rises from the dead to show his divine origin.

Like the innocents, we will suffer.  Perhaps suffering is the lot of every human.  But followers of Jesus will be persecuted as much for doing what is right as for doing what is wrong.  Nevertheless, we must follow him to the end.  Then, as surely as Jesus rose from the dead, we will find ourselves in glory.

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

 Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Tobit 3:1-11a.16-17a; Mark 12:18-27)

If today’ first reading sounds like a melodrama, it’s being read correctly. The Book of Tobit was written as a novel during persecution to shore up the hopes of Jews.  It narrates the ordeals of ancestors living similar ordeals in exile five hundred years earlier.  In the story the archangel Raphael rescues the titular character as a manifestation of God’s mercy.

The reading today focuses on two characters undergoing hardships as they strive to be faithful to God.  Tobit had been known for carrying out all the precepts of Scripture.  Now, stricken with blindness, he has become cynical.  Sarah has experienced a comedy of misfortune as she has lost seven husbands on her wedding night.  Significantly, both Tobit and Sarah appeal to the Lord for help with prayer.

Although they differ greatly in intensity, trials are part of everyone’s life.  We should not run from them or to bemoan them incessantly.  As the Tobit and Sarah demonstrate, we do well to bear them patiently while asking God’s assistance.  It may be said that God has countless angels like Raphael to send to us.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

 Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

Suffering is ambivalent.  It breaks some.  They become bitter, insensitive, and wicked.  It ennobles others.  Under proper tutelage suffering strengthens many to resist evil, sensitizes them to others’ pain, and moves them to call upon God.  During the great depression the experience of want catalyzed stinginess in some and sharing in others.  Today’s first reading claims that Jesus was perfected through suffering.

The author of the letter has Jesus’ passion and death in mind.  Crucifixion has been called the severest of tortures.  Jesus’ torment was magnified by anticipation of the pain.  Knowing that he would suffer for others did not necessarily lighten the load.  When Jesus looked on his disciples sleeping in the garden, he might have wondered if his ordeal was worth it.  To his advantage, however, Jesus had the Holy Spirit as his guide.  The Spirit turned the evil of the disciples into Jesus’ springboard of generosity.

The Holy Spirit, who is God, will use secondary causes to achieve its ends.  We might attribute growth in suffering to the example of parents or the wisdom of a friend.  But ultimately it is the Spirit who brings about good.  We should pray to the Holy Spirit when we cope with suffering with a trial.  The Spirit will arrange that the suffering accrue to our benefit.

 

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Amos 3:1-8.4:11-12; Matthew 8:23-27)

Suffering is a mystery.  It hurts, but it can be good for us.  If this were not true, then our all-loving God would not send it our way.  The better we understand suffering, the less trouble it causes us.  In today’s first reading, the prophet Amos prepares the nation of Israel for suffering. 

The people have offended the Lord by worshipping other gods and neglecting the poor.  Now they will be chastened for their sins.  The prophet uses interesting images to show that God is behind all the ordeals they will undergo.  He says that just as two men agree to walk together, God has consented that evil befall Israel.  Again, just as a lion roars when it has found its prey, God is telling Israel through Amos himself that Israel is about to be devoured.

We have to accept suffering in a similar vein when it comes our way.   Ours sins may not be as grievous as Israel’s, but they do exist.  When we accept suffering as a corrective of our errant behavior, we are not being naïve or Pollyannaish.  We are accepting the Lord at His word.  He loves us and wants us to be rendered holy as He is holy.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 20:17-27; John 17:1-11a)

The old priest died the other day.  After being last seen resting, he was found on the floor without life signs.  Some say that he had the best death possible – without suffering or myriad hospital procedures.  But this point is debatable. Both readings today show another way to die.

Paul feels compelled by the Spirit to return to Jerusalem.  He senses that his end is near.  On the journey he stops at the port of Miletus and sends for the church workers in Ephesus to meet him.  Then he begins his farewell address.  In today’s reading he reviews his ministry on behalf of Christ.  In tomorrow’s he will give the ministers advice regarding how to care for the people.  In both readings his care for them is evident.

In the gospel Jesus has been proclaiming his love and instructing for his disciples throughout the long final discourse.  Today he begins the conclusion of his remarks with a prayer to God the Father. He calls the disciples “the ones…given me” as a way of indicating his affection.  He also directly prays for them.

No one can enjoy suffering.  But we should not always run from it.  Through suffering we can draw closer to Jesus on the cross.  It even allows us to share in his work of redemption.  Suffering in the dying process may also afford us opportunity to confirm our love for those who mean the most to us.  Like both Paul and Jesus we want to take full advantage of it.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Peter 1:18-25; Mark 10:32-45)

The woman is taking care of her comatose son.  She has the daunting responsibility of caring for a person in a persistent vegetative state.  She does not complain.  She only wants her other children to grow up with s similar awe of human dignity.  The woman is drinking from the same chalice that Jesus refers to in today’s gospel.

James and John make an especially bold request of Jesus.  They want to serve as his chief administrators in the kingdom that he is inaugurating.  The Lord does not admonish them for their ambition.  He only warns them that the positions they seek entail intense suffering as well as supreme glory.

Nobody should want to suffer.  It is an evil that is rightly avoided when possible.  However, often enough we should engage suffering as both a responsibility and a way to our ultimate goal in life.  When we willingly care for the sick, the aged, and the disabled, we give the same witness that Jesus asks of James and John.  We drink from his chalice.   We secure a place in eternal life.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

A contemporary spiritual writer believes that it is next to impossible to teach spirituality to youth. He claims that they are too preoccupied with themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One would hope to find exceptions, but the author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes an interesting statement to a similar effect regarding Jesus.

The Letter states that Jesus was made perfect only through suffering. Of course, he possessed perfection in his divine nature and had the possibility of reaching perfection, as we all do, in his human nature. But, the author goes on, he had to suffer to become truly loving, which we should see as the essence of perfection. This means that he had to suffer to attain humility and compassion. Those who suffer become aware sooner than others that they are not the center of the world’s attention. They also recognize that others face problems even more serious than their own.

It is not easy to suffer, of course. Yet we can face suffering with the hope that, like Jesus, it will bring us to a greater love for others. By allowing suffering, God moves us along the way of eternal life.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, priest

(Haggai 2:1-9; Luke 9:18-22)

St. Pio of Pietrelcino, known as Padre Pio, is famous for having received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, and for his perspicacity as a confessor. He suffered debilitating sickness throughout his life which corresponds to the stigmata. His sensitivity as a confessor also may be related to his acquaintance with pain. In the gospel today Jesus expresses awareness that he will similarly have to suffer if he was to realize his true identity.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ admonishing his disciples not to reveal his identity as Messiah differs from Mark’s and Matthew’s. In Luke, immediately after he commands his disciples not to tell anyone, Jesus states his reason: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly…” It is not so much that Jesus is the Messiah that he wants kept secret but that the Messiah will have to suffer. The people, he understands, will not accept the idea of a Messiah who has to suffer. In the popular mind messiahs are to relieve the suffering of others, not to suffer themselves.

We want to be god-like, and we think that this means to be invulnerable. In one sense it is true. God is spirit that cannot physically suffer. But the basic message of Christianity is that God in His omnipotence took on a human nature so that He might suffer with us. In doing so, He has transformed our pains into seeds of glory. The process can be illustrated. First, in freely accepting suffering Jesus expresses God’s love. His desire to endure hardship with us teaches us to share the suffering of others. Second, by suffering patiently Jesus reminds us that suffering is not an outrageous offense which we do not deserve but rather is triggered by human sin in which we participate. Finally, Jesus’ suffering does not end in oblivion but in resurrection. This truth gives us hope that by suffering with his love and patience, we may also share fully in his divine life.

Homilette for Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 12:1-4; Mark 5:21-43)

The eminent psychologist Carl Rogers purportedly gave the banal but nevertheless insightful statistic, “One out of every one of us is hurting.” No one escapes suffering. Not only the poor and the sick need care. Conquerors of nations are sometimes insecure men. And utterly beautiful women can worry if they are attractive.

Because pain pollutes the world like jet fuel the atmosphere of an airport, crowds besiege Jesus in the gospel today. Could he heal a sick child? Could he stop the chronic hemorrhaging of an impoverished woman? No doubt he has a hundred similar requests as he steps across the sand. What would we add if we were there? Could he lift my depression? Could he heal my aunt’s cancer?

Jesus generally takes note of our faith and grants our requests. At some point, however, he will have us stretch our faith into eternity. Someday we will succumb to our suffering and die. Then we will await his voice, “Little girl, arise” or “Little boy, arise.” And just like the twelve-year-old in the gospel, we will arise to a new world. We will be finally freed from all hurt because Jesus will be fully present to us.

Homilette for Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(John 15:1-8)

Few people want to suffer. Suffering is unnatural and evil. Our bodies revolt at the proximity of pain. There are, no doubt, one or two who seek suffering per se. We term this behavior masochism and rightly see it as abnormal and harmful. Yet suffering may be accepted for a concomitant good. A cancer patient undergoes chemotherapy for this reason. Even when the benefit sought is not self-evident as the decrease in the size of a tumor or the amputation of a leg to save a life, suffering may occasion a benefit. Cardinal Avery Dulles, one of the Church’s great theologians, is suffering from increasing paralysis of limbs and mouth. He does not rail against the trouble. Rather he says, paraphrasing St. Paul, “I know that (Christ’s) power can be made perfect in infirmity.”

In today’s gospel Jesus indicates how suffering can lead to a positive outcome. He tells his disciples that the Father prunes productive branches so that they might yield more fruit. Of course, his metaphorical language describes the good that Christians do with the help of divine grace. Pruning is the invasive cutting back of superfluous branches that makes the remaining ones heartier. It implies suffering, but the end result obliterates suffering’s evil dimensions. Like the case of Cardinal Dulles, Christ’s power is being perfected.

All of us suffer slight setbacks if not major traumas. Perhaps our best efforts are criticized as unworthy or an illness causes us to miss an opportunity we have been counting on. Perhaps a close friend has died or we cannot afford central air-conditioning in hundred degree heat. Rather than consider these conditions as bad luck, punishment for past wrongs, or the triumph of evil, we should think of them for what they likely are – God’s pruning us of excess so that we might render more abundant fruit.

Homilette for Thursday, August 9, 2007

Thursday, XVII Week of Ordinary Time

(Matthew 16)

We have heard the central question of this gospel passage many times. Perhaps we remember Peter’s answer as if it were our telephone number. But can we appreciate its implications? “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Jesus asks. Of course, he is talking about himself. He is the Son of Man; that is, the human who does God’s work. But the question asks, “What more is Jesus?” Peter gives the answer that we all know. He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Now what does this mean?

Peter thinks it means that Jesus is exempt from suffering. Like the son of a king will never have to wait in line to receive medical care, Jesus -- in Peter’s mind -- will never punishment by human hand. But, of course, Peter is only reflecting what most humans think when he responds, “God forbid, Lord,” to Jesus’ prophecy of his own passion. That God’s son will undergo some of the most excruciating torture imaginable still astounds us.

But Jesus’ suffering will redeem suffering. With Jesus’ passion and death, suffering is no longer necessarily a scourge. Rather than only torment and desperation, suffering can now bring eternal life. All humans know suffering, and nobody likes it. But now we can welcome it. When we suffer in loving patience with Jesus, we show our acceptance of him as Lord. His resurrection and eternal life then becomes our hope.

It is like primitive humans controlling the use of fire. For a long time they reeled from its intensity and feared its power. But then they saw that they might use it for cooking, farming, and keeping warm. We do not look for suffering and pray that the suffering that comes our way is not beyond our strength. But we accept it knowing that endured in solidarity with Jesus, it assures salvation.

Homily for Sunday, April 22, 2007

Sunday, III Easter

(John 21)

Peter is not the model disciple. That distinction belongs to the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” But Peter is the disciple with whom most of us identify. This is so for several reasons. The four gospels picture Peter in a variety of situations – from earning his livelihood to questioning the Lord about his teaching. Also, Peter presents himself as a frustratingly fallible person like most of us. He begins to doubt when walking on water and falls asleep when Jesus asks him and two others to pray. Perhaps the Gospel of John includes the positive encounter between Jesus and Peter as its last scene in order to shore us up in our struggle of faith.

Peter, of course, denied Jesus three times when he was in need of support. It was a dismal display of cowardice because Peter had bragged that he would lay down his life for Jesus. As a way for Peter to compensate for his failure, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. We should view each question as an opportunity to probe who Jesus is. We should also hear Jesus make a distinctive demand on us at each level of our understanding.

First, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him “more than these.” “These” may refer to the other disciples. Or Jesus’ question may ask whether Peter loves him more than he loves his fishing gear. Let’s assume this latter meaning and ask ourselves if we love Jesus more than the things that bring us satisfaction. Do we love him more than our jobs – selling real estate or providing physical therapy? Do we love him more than our pleasures – watching football or ballroom dancing? Do we love him more than our joys – coming home in the evening or sharing coffee with a trusted friend? Of course, we do, so Jesus tells us along with Peter to feed his lambs. We do so by always treating people as ends in themselves with their own needs and limitations. We should never look on another human being as a stepping stone to our own gratification.

Jesus’ second question is simpler but deeper. He asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He may want Peter to consider carefully the particular human being standing before him. Does he love Jesus, the man who taught the thousands, breaded the bread-less, and healed the helpless? As remote as the biblical times are, we still love Jesus for all his virtue. It may sound strange to have a love relationship with a person that walked the earth two thousand years ago. Yet many people have an affection for a spouse that outlives death. Some keep a similar devotion for a personality like Elvis or Marilyn. Why can we not harbor such unwavering affection for Jesus? We express our love for Jesus by imitating his goodness. Jesus wants us as well as Peter to tend his sheep. Like Jesus we are to enlighten and encourage those around us by always speaking the truth in love.

The third time Jesus questions Peter he fathoms the depth of his own identity. Does Peter love Jesus as God? This inquiry challenges us when we consider all the evil in the world that God seems to permit? The tragedy this past week at Virginia Tech has raised the question again in the hearts of many. If God exists, they ask, how could He allow such massive suffering? Maybe God exists, but He doesn’t care about the massacre of thirty-two innocent people and the self-slaughter of one pitiful maniac. Then is he worthy of our love? However, neither the option that God doesn’t exist nor that He doesn’t care is tenable for us. No, we believe in a gracious and all-powerful God and love Him with all our hearts even though we do not completely understand His ways. In fact, we believe in and love Him because He is a mystery beyond our understanding. If we could understand Him fully, then He would not really be worthy of our awe and worship. We only know that He has gifted us with life and shared our suffering on the cross! He wants us in turn to feed his sheep, i.e., to be a Samaritan to each person we meet out of our love for Him.

We look forward to a positive encounter between Jesus Christ and ourselves at death. We can imagine ourselves coming before the heavenly throne. There Christ asks us something like, “Do you love me?” We have a question for him as well. “Why,” we will ask, “is there such massive suffering in the world?” He will look on us with the joy of one coming home in the evening. Then he will answer us with the tenderness of a trusted friend over coffee. But we won’t understand Him anymore than before. In his divinity Christ will always remain a mystery worthy of our awe and worship. Christ always remains worthy of our awe and worship.

Homilette for Wedensday, January 10, 2007

(Hebrews 2)

In the 1940s and 1950s a number of priests in France set out early in the morning to work in factories and on docks. These worker-priests saw that many laborers were no longer coming to church. So they brought the gospel message to them. It became a contentious experiment, however. The worker-priests promoted labor union activity which was, of course, opposed by company managers who did go to church. Eventually, the worker-priests were told by the hierarchy to leave their jobs.

The worker-priest movement perhaps found its inspiration in the part of the Letter to the Hebrews that we read today. Just as Jesus Christ had to experience the human condition in order save humanity from sin so the priests in mid-20th century France had to work side-by-side with the common people. The reading is quite explicit. Jesus was tried by suffering, it says, so that he might help others who suffer.

Suffering is part of every human life but especially the Christian life. Jesus tells his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. That is, we should not avoid suffering at all costs but rather embrace it when it comes our way in order to serve our Lord. When we are sick, we can bear with the discomfort as an offering in prayer to God for others’ salvation. When we are well but find it distasteful to visit the sick, we should not shirk that responsibility. Doing it, we suffer with Christ again for others’ welfare.