Monday of the First Week of Advent
(Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 8:5-11)
Every so often a municipality advertises a “guns for cash” deal in hopes of reducing the number of firearms within its limits. There is usually a generous response, and the mayor and chief of police are photographed with a stack of guns in the background. A close examination of the guns, however, would reveal that the vast majority are useless! Such programs never make a city safer and may even result in more crime as people, deluded into thinking that there are fewer dangerous firearms around, take less precaution. The reality of “guns for cash” illustrates how the prophecy in the first reading today remains to a good extent an unfulfilled dream.
In one of the most hope-filled passages in all Scripture Isaiah foretells the day when nations will convert their bombs into books or, as he puts it, their “spears into pruning hooks.” It is a time of Messianic fulfillment when Israel’s king will win the favor of the world so that all peoples will accept the adjudications of his God. Christians, of course, see the prophecy partly realized in Jesus, the teacher of peace. But they have to admit that the arms build-down foretold by Isaiah still awaits completion.
Yet we not only hope for a safer world but put our shoulders to the task. We should acknowledge schemes such as “cash for guns” as well-intentioned but naive. Nevertheless, we begin by cultivating peace among ourselves as a way of life. Then we take the effort to bring our peace to other places and cultures. Finally, and most critically, we place our hope for peace not so much in our own but in God’s with constant prayer.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(Daniel 7: 2-14; Luke21:29-33)
It is difficult for most people today to appreciate apocalyptic literature. Certainly contemporary concerns -- keeping a job and educating the children – are legitimate, of course. However, they pale really in comparison to the woes of apocalyptic times. People engage in apocalyptic thinking when ravaging armies come into their lives and systematic servitude becomes a looming threat. Apocalyptic writers offered hope to victims of calamity by providing a vision of eventual triumph after a long, hard struggle.
The only example of a completely apocalyptic work in the New Testament is the Book of Revelation. There faithful Christians are assured victory over their Roman persecutors, “the whore of Babylon.” In the Old Testament the Book of the Prophet Daniel is the prime example of the apocalyptic. Written during the oppression of the wicked Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Daniel foresees an eventual reversal of lots. Israel will overturn its oppressor, and God will reign over it forever.
Interestingly, the grotesque passage from Daniel that we read today makes sense when it is interpreted with the aid of the Book of Revelation. The text at hand is obscure. But John, the visionary of Revelation, cites the same passage evidently working from a different manuscript to provide a sensible rendition of its meaning. The passage is apparently an alternative account of the reading from Daniel heard at mass on Tuesday; that is, the succession of empires leading to the everlasting reign of God.
We should not take apocalyptic literature as a literal description of the future. Then how are we to understand it? We might spiritualize its meaning: we must struggle against the evil in our lives, be it lust, greed, or hatred. Or we might allow it to remind us of peoples in the world live today suffering the same kind of oppression as the ancients: Christians in the Near East and Tibetans, Mynamarians, and Congolese in their native lands come to mind. Or, finally, we might appropriate the hope offered by these texts as our future when we take up God’s ways: a time of universal peace, goodwill, and friendship.
(Daniel 7: 2-14; Luke21:29-33)
It is difficult for most people today to appreciate apocalyptic literature. Certainly contemporary concerns -- keeping a job and educating the children – are legitimate, of course. However, they pale really in comparison to the woes of apocalyptic times. People engage in apocalyptic thinking when ravaging armies come into their lives and systematic servitude becomes a looming threat. Apocalyptic writers offered hope to victims of calamity by providing a vision of eventual triumph after a long, hard struggle.
The only example of a completely apocalyptic work in the New Testament is the Book of Revelation. There faithful Christians are assured victory over their Roman persecutors, “the whore of Babylon.” In the Old Testament the Book of the Prophet Daniel is the prime example of the apocalyptic. Written during the oppression of the wicked Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Daniel foresees an eventual reversal of lots. Israel will overturn its oppressor, and God will reign over it forever.
Interestingly, the grotesque passage from Daniel that we read today makes sense when it is interpreted with the aid of the Book of Revelation. The text at hand is obscure. But John, the visionary of Revelation, cites the same passage evidently working from a different manuscript to provide a sensible rendition of its meaning. The passage is apparently an alternative account of the reading from Daniel heard at mass on Tuesday; that is, the succession of empires leading to the everlasting reign of God.
We should not take apocalyptic literature as a literal description of the future. Then how are we to understand it? We might spiritualize its meaning: we must struggle against the evil in our lives, be it lust, greed, or hatred. Or we might allow it to remind us of peoples in the world live today suffering the same kind of oppression as the ancients: Christians in the Near East and Tibetans, Mynamarians, and Congolese in their native lands come to mind. Or, finally, we might appropriate the hope offered by these texts as our future when we take up God’s ways: a time of universal peace, goodwill, and friendship.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving Day
(Sirach 50:22-24; I Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19)
After Thanksgiving dinner the family invited its dinner guests to stand in a circle. Each person was asked to announce her or his reasons for being grateful to God. Most said that they were thankful for their families. The children of one family expressed heart-felt gratitude for their baby sister who seemed to have been born unexpectedly but who brought new joy to the household. The gospel today expresses how important such exercises of giving thanks are.
In the passage Jesus bestows salvation on the one healed leper who remembers the source of his blessing. As important as good health is, it is not the end and goal of life. Salvation, our eternal welfare, is. Jesus indicates that salvation comes as a gift from God when we give Him thanks. It should be added that such thanksgiving needs to be more than a one time or even annual affair. No, the thanksgiving that results in salvation is a way of life that finds expression not just in worship of God but also in service to others.
Our Thanksgiving customs, like most things today, have become unfortunately secularized. The day is associated more with eating turkey and watching football than with offering thanks to the Lord. We do well to institute a custom of giving thanks like the family in the illustration above. It will encourage everyone to count his or her blessings. It should also provoke service to the poor so that they too will have manifold reasons for giving thanks.
(Sirach 50:22-24; I Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19)
After Thanksgiving dinner the family invited its dinner guests to stand in a circle. Each person was asked to announce her or his reasons for being grateful to God. Most said that they were thankful for their families. The children of one family expressed heart-felt gratitude for their baby sister who seemed to have been born unexpectedly but who brought new joy to the household. The gospel today expresses how important such exercises of giving thanks are.
In the passage Jesus bestows salvation on the one healed leper who remembers the source of his blessing. As important as good health is, it is not the end and goal of life. Salvation, our eternal welfare, is. Jesus indicates that salvation comes as a gift from God when we give Him thanks. It should be added that such thanksgiving needs to be more than a one time or even annual affair. No, the thanksgiving that results in salvation is a way of life that finds expression not just in worship of God but also in service to others.
Our Thanksgiving customs, like most things today, have become unfortunately secularized. The day is associated more with eating turkey and watching football than with offering thanks to the Lord. We do well to institute a custom of giving thanks like the family in the illustration above. It will encourage everyone to count his or her blessings. It should also provoke service to the poor so that they too will have manifold reasons for giving thanks.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(Daniel 5:1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28; Luke 21:12-19)
The writing on the wall has been decipherable for some time now. Yet many still refuse to pay attention. The sexual revolution of the 1960s propelled by the contraceptive pill has caused more misery than could have been imagined. Children born without fathers to protect them, women and men contracting diseases, and the felt need to destroy emerging life are all pathologies attributable to the frivolization of sex. Sexuality is rightfully considered as God’s gift to creation for its continuation. Humans have turned it into a vehicle of common pleasure.
In being both being blind to the writing on the wall as well as misusing God’s sacred vessels, humans today duplicate the story of the Babylonians in the first reading. The latter should have been conscious of what they were doing when the robbed the Jerusalem Temple of its sacred objects. But they were completely oblivious. They also might realize that the peculiar writing on the wall can be nothing but a message of doom for their rapaciousness.
With good reason we want our young to shun present ideology which attempts to control the outcomes of sex rather than respect it for the holy and creative force that it is. In teaching them discipline regarding sexual appetites we are providing a map to both righteousness and happiness.
(Daniel 5:1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28; Luke 21:12-19)
The writing on the wall has been decipherable for some time now. Yet many still refuse to pay attention. The sexual revolution of the 1960s propelled by the contraceptive pill has caused more misery than could have been imagined. Children born without fathers to protect them, women and men contracting diseases, and the felt need to destroy emerging life are all pathologies attributable to the frivolization of sex. Sexuality is rightfully considered as God’s gift to creation for its continuation. Humans have turned it into a vehicle of common pleasure.
In being both being blind to the writing on the wall as well as misusing God’s sacred vessels, humans today duplicate the story of the Babylonians in the first reading. The latter should have been conscious of what they were doing when the robbed the Jerusalem Temple of its sacred objects. But they were completely oblivious. They also might realize that the peculiar writing on the wall can be nothing but a message of doom for their rapaciousness.
With good reason we want our young to shun present ideology which attempts to control the outcomes of sex rather than respect it for the holy and creative force that it is. In teaching them discipline regarding sexual appetites we are providing a map to both righteousness and happiness.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Memorial of Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr
(Daniel 2:31-45; Luke 21:5-11)
Recent events have shown that the United States, as powerful a nation as it is, cannot control the course of the world. Its withdrawal from Iraq indicates that it has lost the will to assure a peaceful society there. And the persistence of the Taliban in Afghanistan challenges the American quest for justice in that land to the breaking point. The country must reassess its purposes as prophet Daniel proposes in today’s first reading.
Daniel, writing from an historical perspective, recognizes that mighty kingdoms come and go. He is supposedly warning the king of Babylonia but actually has all the rulers of the earth in mind. His message is that they not strive to conquer more lands but to concern themselves with true justice and peace. In the end God will judge the nations of the world. In Daniel’s prophetic imagination, God’s kingdom is the stone that becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.
We Americans have cause to be grateful for the blessings heaped upon our country. Our nation has all-in-all contributed to a better world. But we should not be lulled into thinking that every American initiative is just. Our leaders are wise to remember that Americans have caused hardship in the name of democracy and that they too are subject to judgment.
(Daniel 2:31-45; Luke 21:5-11)
Recent events have shown that the United States, as powerful a nation as it is, cannot control the course of the world. Its withdrawal from Iraq indicates that it has lost the will to assure a peaceful society there. And the persistence of the Taliban in Afghanistan challenges the American quest for justice in that land to the breaking point. The country must reassess its purposes as prophet Daniel proposes in today’s first reading.
Daniel, writing from an historical perspective, recognizes that mighty kingdoms come and go. He is supposedly warning the king of Babylonia but actually has all the rulers of the earth in mind. His message is that they not strive to conquer more lands but to concern themselves with true justice and peace. In the end God will judge the nations of the world. In Daniel’s prophetic imagination, God’s kingdom is the stone that becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.
We Americans have cause to be grateful for the blessings heaped upon our country. Our nation has all-in-all contributed to a better world. But we should not be lulled into thinking that every American initiative is just. Our leaders are wise to remember that Americans have caused hardship in the name of democracy and that they too are subject to judgment.
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