Memorial of St. John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church
(Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a; Matthew 21:23-27)
Balaam was a holy man who lived in Palestine just before the Israelites occupied the territory. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, saw the oncoming Israeli horde, he summoned Balaam to curse the intruders. Balak’s strategy was that a saint’s curse would provide him the margin of victory in war with the newcomers. Balaam, however, could not comply with the king wishes because he saw how God was favoring the Israelites. The rising star which he saw in the heavens represented the ascendency of Israel’s prominence in the land.
Christians at least since the time of the writing of Matthew’s gospel view the star as a reference to Jesus. He is the light shining from the Jewish people to guide the world in righteousness.
The gospel today shows us to take Jesus’ seriously. Many have trivialized the salvation which he offers by reducing Christmas and, indeed, Christianity to nostalgia. As the passage demonstrates, Jesus can outwit sanctimonious adversaries who mean trip him up. He also provides us the capacity to prevail in our struggle with sin.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday of the Second Week in Advent
(Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19)
It is curious to hear people making excuses for not exercising daily. They say that early in the morning they are not ready to move their bodies and that later in the day they are too busy. Or that they are too cold in the morning and too tired in the evening. Doctors, no doubt, wonder if this kind of patient really wants good health.
Jesus feels the frustration of doctors in the gospel passage today. He sounds amazed that the people refuse to repent despite the testimony of God’s best preachers. John, who warned the people to repent or face God’s wrath, was rejected because he lived on grasshoppers and honey. Then Jesus, who preached a similar message of repentance but for the motive of sharing in God’s goodness, is repudiated for eating and drinking with everyone.
We are required to repent and our repentance must be on-going. Perhaps it is more helpful to use the word conversion. The twentieth century theologian Bernard Lonergan wrote of the need for ever deeper conversion. He says that we convert intellectually by knowing ever more deeply through experiencing, understanding, judging, and believing. Then we convert morally by calling good not what satisfies but what corresponds to true value. Finally, we convert religiously by falling in love as God loves which, we may say, is the full realization of sanctifying grace.
(Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19)
It is curious to hear people making excuses for not exercising daily. They say that early in the morning they are not ready to move their bodies and that later in the day they are too busy. Or that they are too cold in the morning and too tired in the evening. Doctors, no doubt, wonder if this kind of patient really wants good health.
Jesus feels the frustration of doctors in the gospel passage today. He sounds amazed that the people refuse to repent despite the testimony of God’s best preachers. John, who warned the people to repent or face God’s wrath, was rejected because he lived on grasshoppers and honey. Then Jesus, who preached a similar message of repentance but for the motive of sharing in God’s goodness, is repudiated for eating and drinking with everyone.
We are required to repent and our repentance must be on-going. Perhaps it is more helpful to use the word conversion. The twentieth century theologian Bernard Lonergan wrote of the need for ever deeper conversion. He says that we convert intellectually by knowing ever more deeply through experiencing, understanding, judging, and believing. Then we convert morally by calling good not what satisfies but what corresponds to true value. Finally, we convert religiously by falling in love as God loves which, we may say, is the full realization of sanctifying grace.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Thursday of the Second Week in Advent
(Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15)
When the elderly woman was told that she might enjoy reading a popular spiritual writer, she dropped her eyes in humility. Then she explained that she only went to school for a couple of years and never learned to read well. Most of the world, in contrast, is fortunate to have at least a basic education. People may not read enough, but at least they have the basic skills. Likewise most people in the world have access to medical care and hygiene which has dramatically increased the average life span.
If we count our blessings in this way, we can understand why Jesus calls “the least in the kingdom of heaven” greater than John the Baptist. The “least in the kingdom” includes all of us. We are blessed in a way that John was not because we have experienced the fullness of the Kingdom in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course, we were not there to witness these events, but in participating in the liturgy of the Church, especially the Eucharist, we encounter for ourselves the risen Christ.
Although John did not witness the Kingdom in its fullness and could not appreciate the extent of God’s love that it brought, he was certainly aware that an experience of God demands human response. John’s constant message was repentance. We must change our sinful ways if we are to benefit from the Kingdom’s blessings. John is the central figure of these middle weeks of Advent because he reminds us that the king who is to come will require some sacrifice on the part of his subjects as he transmits to them the fullness of life.
(Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15)
When the elderly woman was told that she might enjoy reading a popular spiritual writer, she dropped her eyes in humility. Then she explained that she only went to school for a couple of years and never learned to read well. Most of the world, in contrast, is fortunate to have at least a basic education. People may not read enough, but at least they have the basic skills. Likewise most people in the world have access to medical care and hygiene which has dramatically increased the average life span.
If we count our blessings in this way, we can understand why Jesus calls “the least in the kingdom of heaven” greater than John the Baptist. The “least in the kingdom” includes all of us. We are blessed in a way that John was not because we have experienced the fullness of the Kingdom in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course, we were not there to witness these events, but in participating in the liturgy of the Church, especially the Eucharist, we encounter for ourselves the risen Christ.
Although John did not witness the Kingdom in its fullness and could not appreciate the extent of God’s love that it brought, he was certainly aware that an experience of God demands human response. John’s constant message was repentance. We must change our sinful ways if we are to benefit from the Kingdom’s blessings. John is the central figure of these middle weeks of Advent because he reminds us that the king who is to come will require some sacrifice on the part of his subjects as he transmits to them the fullness of life.
Wednesday, December 8, 2009
Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
(Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:28-30)
In the 1960s an Episcopalian priest wrote a popular prayer book entitled Are You Running with Me, Jesus? Evidently the author felt more pressured by the demands Jesus seems to make than relieved by the rest Jesus offers in the gospel today. Therefore, he had to ask Jesus’ assistance in fulfilling his ministry.
Of course, we can count on Jesus to help us and should go to him in need. However, it is possible that we make too much of our own efforts and fail to find the comfort that Jesus offers us in his love. Often we can allow others to do the work that we arrogantly see only ourselves capable of performing. Also, it is possible to give more effective witness to Christ by retreating in prayer for a regular period everyday than by constant motion in meeting needs. Some of the most accomplished religious leaders of our times – including Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II – have seen their success in ministry flowing out of daily meditative prayer.
In his book on Jesus, Pope Benedict underscores this truth by claiming that in inviting others to find rest in himself, Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the Sabbath. But his Sabbath goes far beyond the relief we may experience on Sunday. He provides not just temporary relief from work but permanent release from anxiety. Jesus also puts a yoke on us: we are to love others with the same care and joy that he has for us. In this way, we place ourselves in an environment of goodness which, as Jesus claims, is easy and light to bear.
(Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:28-30)
In the 1960s an Episcopalian priest wrote a popular prayer book entitled Are You Running with Me, Jesus? Evidently the author felt more pressured by the demands Jesus seems to make than relieved by the rest Jesus offers in the gospel today. Therefore, he had to ask Jesus’ assistance in fulfilling his ministry.
Of course, we can count on Jesus to help us and should go to him in need. However, it is possible that we make too much of our own efforts and fail to find the comfort that Jesus offers us in his love. Often we can allow others to do the work that we arrogantly see only ourselves capable of performing. Also, it is possible to give more effective witness to Christ by retreating in prayer for a regular period everyday than by constant motion in meeting needs. Some of the most accomplished religious leaders of our times – including Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II – have seen their success in ministry flowing out of daily meditative prayer.
In his book on Jesus, Pope Benedict underscores this truth by claiming that in inviting others to find rest in himself, Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the Sabbath. But his Sabbath goes far beyond the relief we may experience on Sunday. He provides not just temporary relief from work but permanent release from anxiety. Jesus also puts a yoke on us: we are to love others with the same care and joy that he has for us. In this way, we place ourselves in an environment of goodness which, as Jesus claims, is easy and light to bear.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Genesis 3:9-15.20; Ephesians 1:3-6.11-12; Luke 1:26-38)
At an interview for a job with the Church a young woman was asked what the Immaculate Conception means. The woman hesitated before answering and then sputtered the common misconception which many who should know better think.
The Immaculate Conception, of course, refers to the special dispensation from original sin which Christ’s paschal victory won for his mother. It means that sin never touched Mary from the moment of conception to her last breath on earth. It seems to be an exaggeration to say that she never knew the effects of sin. After all, she witnessed the terrible price that sin exacted from her son Jesus. But we may presume that at Jesus’ death her sorrow was not tinged by self-pity, as ours often is, or by contempt for Jesus’ executors.
In the polemics over the years about Mary’s Immaculate Conception Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, sometimes lose sight of the fact that Mary’s special grace is but an extension of every baptized person’s. Through Christ’s grace Mary never sinned, and through it Christians have their sins forgiven. Rather than contending over theological distinctions, Protestants as well as Catholics should seek to emulate Mary’s desire to have God’s will carried out in her.
(Genesis 3:9-15.20; Ephesians 1:3-6.11-12; Luke 1:26-38)
At an interview for a job with the Church a young woman was asked what the Immaculate Conception means. The woman hesitated before answering and then sputtered the common misconception which many who should know better think.
The Immaculate Conception, of course, refers to the special dispensation from original sin which Christ’s paschal victory won for his mother. It means that sin never touched Mary from the moment of conception to her last breath on earth. It seems to be an exaggeration to say that she never knew the effects of sin. After all, she witnessed the terrible price that sin exacted from her son Jesus. But we may presume that at Jesus’ death her sorrow was not tinged by self-pity, as ours often is, or by contempt for Jesus’ executors.
In the polemics over the years about Mary’s Immaculate Conception Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, sometimes lose sight of the fact that Mary’s special grace is but an extension of every baptized person’s. Through Christ’s grace Mary never sinned, and through it Christians have their sins forgiven. Rather than contending over theological distinctions, Protestants as well as Catholics should seek to emulate Mary’s desire to have God’s will carried out in her.
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