Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Jeremiah 30:1-2.12-15.18-22; Matthew 15:1-2.10-14)

A lovely story is told about St. John Paul II’s visit to the World Youth Day in Toronto.  The youth group at a local parish invited a young woman of the streets whom they knew to accompany them to the beloved pope’s mass.  The woman, who really was a prostitute, decided to go along.  There she was converted by the pope’s graciousness.  She said that he changed her life as many men had said to her before that they loved her but that this one meant it.  The story mirrors the prophecy of Jeremiah in today’s first reading.

The first half of the prophecy pictures Judah as a forlorn wanton woman, all of whose lovers having forgotten her.  In the second part, however, there is a complete change of tenor.  God promises to turn the fate of the nation around.  It will become strong and happy, and noted especially for its leader.  His integrity will be so great that he will approach the majesty of the Most High without having to flinch.  Of course, this is a vision of the Lord Jesus.

Too often we see people ruining their lives by following frivolous passions.  Sex, drugs, alcohol can lead a people from the road of righteousness down a path to perdition.  Jeremiah’s vision today gives us at least a bit of hope that such people are not necessarily lost.  We can and should offer our support so that they might return to the Lord.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Memorial of Saint John Vianney, priest

(Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14:22-36)

A man tells of a particularly trying time.  His wife was just diagnosed with cancer, and he felt his world crumbling.  He had the responsibility of closing his parish church every night and this night he stopped in his rounds with a plea for mercy.  Then, he says, he felt what seemed like an arm grasping him around the back and a voice telling him that everything will be okay, not to worry.  How else could the man interpret this experience except as a divine intervention?  He felt like the apostles in today’s gospel after seeing the Lord Jesus.

The passage is often taken as an allegory for the early Church in crisis.  Jesus is risen and ascended into heaven.  The nascent Church, symbolized by the little boat, is having great difficulty, perhaps from persecution or maybe from internal disputes.  The stormy sea represents primordial, destructive forces that always threaten human projects with annihilation.  But the Lord, who seemed to the apostles to be absent, is actually on his way to help them.  He tells them not worry.  He even bids their leader to act boldly in face of the chaos.

Just as much as forces of destruction are constantly threatening the order of creation, we should realize that Jesus, whom Peter rightly identifies in the passage as “Lord,” stands on guard.  He will help us, but let us not forget in our distress to call on him.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, bishop and doctor of the Church

(Jeremiah 26:1-9; Matthew 13:54-58)

If a bank robber threatened you with your life to act as his accomplice by driving his get-away car, could you do so without committing a sin?  It’s not an easy question to answer since it seems that you would be giving immediate material cooperation that is generally forbidden.  Moralists are likely divided on the issue which brings us to St. Alphonsus Ligouri whose feast day is today.

Alphonsus lived during a time of great debate among moral theologians. Some, called probablists, held that one could take a position in favor of freedom on a difficult issue – in the above, that it would be permissible to cooperate with the bank robber – if at least one accredited moralist held that position.  Others, named probabilorists, believed that it is always necessary to follow the opinion with the most internal reasons.  St. Alphonsus settled the issue with his typical wisdom.  He wrote that one could take a position of freedom if there are as many internal arguments in its favor as there are in favor of the law.

We live in an age that exalts information.  Especially through the Internet a mountain of facts are at one’s fingertips.  But there is a scarcity of wisdom, the ability to live rightly in any circumstances in which we find ourselves.  People like St. Alphonsus are gifts from God to be heeded and followed.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Memorial of Saint Ignatius Loyola, priest

(Jeremiah 18:1-6; Matthew 13:47-53)

Preachers today often speak of God’s “unconditional love.”  Rightly understood, the statement is on target.  Unlike most humans, God doesn’t reserve His affection for one nation or another, for one race or another, even for one religion or another.  There is something to the special love God has for the poor, but this does not mean that He does not care as well for the rich and the strong.

Yet it seems that some may run too fast with the idea of God’s unconditional love.  They would say that it assures everyone a place in the Kingdom.  They want to claim that nothing anyone does might alienate him or her from eternal life.  A funeral director, who hears plenty of homilies about God’s mercy, said that this was one of the results of Vatican II. 

But, of course, the bishops arrived at no such conclusion fifty years ago nor could they do so today.  It would counter Jesus’ teaching in this mass’s parable of a huge catch of fish some good and some bad.  In the first reading as well, written before a sense of personal salvation took hold in the biblical literature, the Lord declares Himself able to reject a people to whom He has shown great love.

A wise man once said that we cannot know if no one has been condemned but we can pray that no one has been condemned.  We also should pray that people who do evil things turn from their misdeeds.  And while we are at it, let us also pray that we who come to church to listen to pious homilies do not have hidden, darker motives for doing so.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Jeremiah 15:10.16-21; Matthew 13:44-46)

Ralph Powell was a Dominican priest known for eccentricity.  He used to take two cups of coffee with him to his room every morning.  His brothers in community would joke that the one was meant for him and the other for God.  They did not doubt, however, that the priest had a close relationship with the Lord.  He knew that he was blessed.  Anytime -- on both good and bad days alike – he was asked how he was, he would respond, “Better than I deserve to be.”  It is precisely such a relationship with God that Jesus refers to as the treasure a man discovers in a field and the fine pearl a merchant finds.

When Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like riches or a jewel, he means that knowing God surpasses anything a person has or does.  Jesus’ preaching began with the proclamation, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; repent and believe.”  Now he is making the claim that repentance is tantamount to selling everything one has.  It is turning away not just from evil things but from good things as well that might distract us from pursuing a relation with God.

More likely than not, the good things that distract us need to be put in their place rather than discarded.  We work too hard and should relax to pray more.  We enjoy wine, chocolate, and beef, but a day of abstinence each week from these goods would make us more appreciative to the Lord.  He is the one for whom we are to sacrifice everything.