Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, bishop

(Titus 2:1-8.11-14; Luke 17:7-10)

The Letter to Titus today tells its readers to reject the ways of the world so that they may live holy lives.  Today’s patron saint gives us good example. 

Martin of Tours was born in what is now Hungary.  He became a soldier like his father although it is said that he was inducted into the army against his will.  He served in France where he had a vision of Christ after helping a beggar.  The vision moved Martin to join the Church and eventually to withdraw from the army.  Later Martin again showed his distaste for killing when he tried to intervene in the state execution of a heretic.   

Today, both the Feast of St. Martin and Veterans’ Day, calls for Christian reflection on the military.  Soldiers perform a Christian service when they defend their nations from foreign aggressors.  They are not to take advantage of their strength or their weapons to oppress people.  Rather, they like Martin are to live as the Letter to Titus dictates: temperately, justly, and devoutly…”

Monday, November 10, 2014

Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church

(Titus 1:1-9; Luke 17:1-6)

St. Leo deserves the distinction “the Great.”   He left a legacy of sermons that express the meaning of the Church’s major holydays.  He also made a critical contribution to theology by providing the framework for the Council of Chalcedon to explain how Christ is both God and human.  Finally, and most memorably, he faced Attila the Hum with a plea to spare Rome of destruction.  We might see him as the perfect fulfillment of the Letter to Titus’ profile of a bishop.

The Letter to Titus was probably written by a Pauline disciple late in the first century.  It describes some of the structure and also the issues of the Church at that time. Presbyters in today’s reading are the same as bishops.  It is not warranted to consider either quite like the priests and bishops that will emerge in time.  The supreme quality for Church governance in the letter seems to be blamelessness.  A presbyter-bishop should not have any vices.  The letter also emphasizes doctrinal competence to refute the errors that crop up because of diverse human thinking. 

We tend to think of ourselves as being better than people of past eras.  We may know more, but do we act better?  And have we forgotten valuable lessons known in former times?  Certainly there is much for us to ponder from both the life of Leo the Great and the Letter to Titus.  Leo shows us the need to confront our problems head-on and to be judicious in proclaiming truth.  Titus reminds us of the need to develop virtue to stem our tendency to sin.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 16:1-8)

On a tour of the restored Pompeii the guide stopped in front of a house to point out an adornment.  It was a statue of a man which when the gate to the yard opened touched exposed the representation of a giant phallus.  Obviously, the stimulus for such crudeness did not die out with antiquity but remains strong today.  St. Paul’s warning in the first reading today is as valid now as two thousand years ago.

Paul urges his readers not to copy the ways of the pagan majority.  He sees the obsession with fine dining and the ubiquitous references to sex in Greek society as anti-Christian.  Disciples of Jesus, he would say, do not belong to such a realm.  According to him, their homeland is the kingdom of God which is still to come in fullness.  For now, he would recommend that they only to comply with the laws of the land like mindful immigrants but not its mores.  They are to receive directives for living from the gospel.

Today, in part because of the success of Christianity to humanize the world, we find many positive elements in secular society.  To be sure, we must proceed prudently.  Still, we can actively participate in social affairs without undue worry of contamination.  Indeed, the Second Vatican Council promoted such engagement.  It called especially lay people to prepare the world for the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Philippians 3:3-8a; Luke 15:1-10)

A man speaks of his experience of God.  He says that the day his wife’s doctor reported that she had breast cancer, he felt particularly low.  That even, as was his custom, he went into his parish church to lock up.  Then, in the darkness, he felt the embrace of the Lord around his body.  From then on, the man knew that everything was going to be all right.  Almost certainly, St. Paul refers to an experience such as this in the first reading today.

Paul is never ashamed of being a Jew.  Quite the contrary, he knows that Jews have been chosen by God to bear the divine promise of salvation.  He is likewise almost gleeful to have been faithful to the Covenant between God and Israel.  But Paul is certain that in the end, being a Jew is not important.  Nor is it very helpful to be righteous based on the law.  What really counts is to have encountered Jesus Christ.  As he so uncompromisingly puts it, “…I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

We too know the Lord Jesus.  Perhaps we sense his presence in Confession where we are accepted even after revealing what is most ugly about ourselves.  Or maybe we have encountered him through a gospel parable that has seared our consciousness with wisdom, goodness, and beauty.  Maybe we have recognized him in the man who bed-ridden for eleven years says that he has nothing to complain about when he looks at a crucifix.  We know Jesus and we love him.  That is all that matters.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary time

(Philippians 2:12-18; Luke 14:25-33)

Is Jesus really asking people to hate their own family?  Of course, he isn’t.  Aramaic, the language of Jesus, did not use comparatives so that one could say, “You must love me, more than them.”  In Aramaic to mean that, one has to say, “You must hate them and love me.”  But can people love Christ more than their parents or their spouses?

Christ walked the earth two thousand years ago.  There are no photographs of him.  Even the words of his preaching were changed before being written down a generation after his death.  Furthermore, he is one man among billions that have existed.  It seems impossible to have a personal relation with him.

To the objections, we can answer: “Yes,” “yes,” “yes,” and “yes, but we can still draw close to Christ.”  He does have a human nature but, more to the point, he is divine.  As our Creator, we know him as good beyond all telling.  As our Savior, we sense the perfect symmetry of his wisdom and his sacrifice.  He presents himself to us in the Eucharist.  There he not only lifts our souls to himself but also connects us with one another.