Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 24:8-17; Matthew 7:21-29)

A few years ago a man owning a two hundred year-old house in New England visited Rome.  He was bragging a bit about his historic home in the States when it occurred to him that the building in which he was standing went back five hundred years!  

In the gospel today Jesus names the condition for a house to remain standing in perpetuity.  He says that it must be built upon rock and not upon sand.  Of course, he is not concerned about buildings but about people.  He means to say that if people seek fulfillment in life then they should base their lives upon his words.  Doing all that he commands in the Sermon on the Mount, which he completes in today’s reading, will assure his assistance in weathering any storm.

  

The first reading offers a demonstration of what Jesus is getting at.  The dynasty to which Jehoiachin belongs falls because of lack of attention to the word of God.  As the reading says, Jehoiachin and his forbears “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”  Interestingly, dynasties are frequently called “houses” probably because the personal traits are passed along from ancestor to descendant as if it were a house.  Anyway, if dynasties are to survive, just as if individuals are to find fulfillment, their inheritors must practice justice.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 22:8-13.23:1-3; Matthew 7:15-20)

At the time recalled in the first reading today there was, apparently, much idolatry in Judah.  The people were not living the solidarity that the Law envisions with the poor protected from severe suffering.  They had only paid lip-service to God having lost the “book of the law” explicating God’s commands.  The situation was so far from the ancient covenant that once the “book of the law” was found, the king called a national congress to reveal its stipulations.

The signs of the present times are somewhat similar.  People may not worship idols of clay but they certainly make fetishes of electronic products.  There is only vague notion of national cohesion perhaps symbolized by the fervor for the world cup competition.  Most people do not go to Church, in the West at least, and evoke God more as sentiment than as a rock on which to base one’s life.  For laws they often make arrangements that accommodate their desires for pleasure and comfort.

We will have to wait to see how the obvious strains of such a social arrangement become too much to bear.  Then perhaps there will be a return to a system that finds its source and end in a transcendent God who has indicated his will for all in human nature, not in human desire.  For us now He commands us to be faithful to the Judeo-Christian principle of seeking the common good and finding our solace in Him.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

(Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66.80)

As great a dramatist as William Shakespeare was, he could not have achieved such masterpieces as Prince Hamlet or King Lear without writers of comparable skill working at the same time.  Shakespeare’s plots were deepened, his vocabulary was polished, and his characterization was developed by the likes of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kidd producing dramas in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century England.  To give a feel for his times, many teachers of Shakespeare require students to read a play by one of his lesser known but still quite talented contemporaries.  Something similar may be said of John the Baptist in relation to Jesus.

As a preacher, John seems to have shaken ancient Israel.  Although most of what is known about John comes from the four canonical gospels, he seems to have had an impact like few others.  In fact, there is a religious sect today which claims John as its founder and leader in a way very similar to the way Christians view Jesus.   Still the gospels see John as a foil to Jesus.  That is, they relate his story as a way to highlight Jesus’ own.  Luke tells us in today’s passage, for instance, that John is remarkably conceived by parents in old age.  A bit later in his narrative he will show how Jesus is conceived even more miraculously by a virgin.  In the fourth gospel, Jesus stands out more artfully.  John’s disciples gravitate to Jesus, and John himself utters the humble yet lofty line, “He must increase; I must decrease.”

In a sense all Christians are foils of Jesus.  Like him we can extend a hand to the downcast and provide bread for the hungry.  But we recognize that we only imitate his goodness and that if there is anything about our actions that is truly unselfish, it is produced by his grace working in our hearts.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 17:5-8.13-15a.18; Matthew 7:1-5)

In his Second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln named slavery as the sin which brought about the great Civil War.  Knowing that the blame was not limited to the South, he proclaimed God’s wrath on both parties to the conflict. “He gives to both North and South this terrible war,” Lincoln said, “as the woe due to those by whom the offense came…”  It is not likely that another president will soon accuse the nation of sin, but today’s reading from II Kings does not hesitate to do so for Israel. 

The Northern Kingdom of Israel has been demolished.  Its people are in exile.  How could this have happened? everyone wanted to know.  For the historian who composed I and II Kings the answer is evident.  Israel fell so profoundly because it did not follow the covenant it had made with the Lord.  In other words, God would not defend a people that betrayed their promise.

We have good reason to question the future of the United States.  Its economy is strong and its military still the most powerful on earth.  But its commitment to human rights has been compromised significantly by the de-penalization of abortion.  We Catholics perform a great service to the nation by protesting the ongoing slaughter of the most vulnerable of human beings.  Perhaps people will recognize the crime, change their lives, and renew the country.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 11:1-4.9-18.20; Matthew 6:19-23)

The medical profession has sounded the alarm on obesity.  It tells us that people in the United States are digging their grave with forks and knives.  When will it make a similar cry about “sexual obesity,” the pandemic of porn that has enveloped the country?  The facts are that young people who have looked at pornography are more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, to have used alcohol and tobacco at their last sexual encounter, to engage in forced sex and to become sexual offenders.  This alarming report readily verifies what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel.

Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body.  He means that what the eye takes in will either bring light or darkness to the person.  Viewing pornography will darken the both body and spirit.  It will lead to corporal excess and deteriorate the possibility of positive relationships.

As neither government nor even the medical establishment seem much concerned about pornography, it is incumbent bring about us to curtail it.  We must be vigilant about it entering our own computers and mobile devices.  We also want to assist friends and those to whom we minister who have already been ensnarled in pornography’s web to climb out.  We should refer them to twelve step groups programs if not professional help when necessary.