Friday, February 6, 2015

Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and companions, martyrs

(Hebrews 13:1-8; Mark 6:14-29)

How have the Japanese Catholics reacted when they hear the last words of today’s first reading?  Have they cringed where it says, “Consider the outcome of (your leaders who spoke the word of God to you) and imitate their faith”?  Certainly some at least have in their minds the fate of Saint Paul Miki and companions, Japan’s first martyrs.  But perhaps the outcome they have remembered first is not their forbearers’ gory death but their entrance into glory!

Paul Miki was baptized as a child not long after Francis Xavier preached in Japan.  He joined the Society of Jesus and preached to his people about the Lord.  When the persecution of Christians started (according to one report out of reaction to a threat made by Europeans), Paul Miki and twenty-five others were arrested, tortured, and crucified.  But the persecution did not end Catholic Christianity in Japan.  Although the nation closed itself to foreign influence for more than two centuries, over two hundred thousand Catholics were found in Japan when the country reopened during the nineteenth century.

We are wise not to aspire to martyrdom for we do not know whether we will be strong enough to undergo the ordeal.  But we pray for courage to live our faith every day in imitation of Jesus.  We also pray that we will never withdraw our commitment to him even if it means giving up our lives. 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(Hebrews 12:18-19.21-24; Mark 6:17-13)

The woman came to the Sacrament of Reconciliation trembling.  She wanted to confess a sin which was very embarrassing.  She had never the courage to tell it to anyone before, even in confession.  After acknowledging the deed, she left the confessional with a relieved heart.  Her experience fulfills the promise made in the frist reading today.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews in our reading today exhorts his readers to come to the Lord. He says that just as the woman trembling in confession, they will find not harshness but mercy.   God is supremely good, but His goodness should not cause people to feel humiliated as if it meant to put them down.  Rather it is best described as “mercy within mercy.” Like a seasoned kindergarten teacher who helps children overcome their fears, God means to lift those who beg his pardon.

We should go to God in all human seasons: in good times to thank Him, in trying times to ask his help, in moments of folly to seek his mercy, and in sorrow to find his consolation.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 12:4-7.11-15; Mark 6:1-6)

One of the leading preaching theorists in the United States advised not using personal anecdotes in homilies.  His reason for the counter-intuitive message was that listeners will key into what the preacher says about himself or herself and bypass what he or she is saying about the Lord.  It is a controversial stand, but Jesus’ experience in today’s gospel offers some confirmation.

The people of Nazareth are amazed with what Jesus is saying.  Knowing he shares their background, they cannot believe that God has called him to speak in His name.  Rather than heed his call to repent, they dismiss him as a local yokel with no more insight into truth than they have.

After listening to the gospel for years, we too may become unmoved by its promises and dismissive of its demands.  We may come to church more out of habit than of conviction that here we meet our salvation.   It’s time to be shaken from this encrustation.  It’s a welcoming thought that Lent is just two weeks away.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Memorial of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr)

(Hebrews 2:1-4; Mark 5:21-43)

Once, a class of divinity students started to pray.  They exclaimed something like, “We just want to thank you; we only ask that you hear us.”  The professor interrupted them, “What do you mean ‘We just want to thank you’ and ‘we only ask you’? Don’t you know that God is always ready to hear our prayers.”  One of the students then explained in words similar to these: “Professor, we are simple people without a Ph.D. in theology.  We don’t mean take for granted that the Lord is greater than us.”  The professor wrote that he learned from his students that day and started to use such expressions himself.  In today’s reading two people – a poor woman and a synagogue official – exhibit similar deference to Jesus as the students.

After Jesus heals the woman with hemorrhages, she is afraid to admit that she was the one who touched him.  No doubt she feels that she had no right to impose herself on a man so close to God.  The synagogue official also indicates a reluctance to bother Jesus after messengers come to say that his daughter already is dead.  But Jesus does not feel constrained by either person.  Indeed, he blesses the woman even further and goes to raise from the dead the official’s daughter.

We also should approach Jesus with our needs.  He is ready to help us.  It is not wrong to recognize his lordship with appropriate words, but they are not necessary.  Indeed, as one commentator has observed, the only person in the four gospels to address Jesus simply by his name is the thief who was crucified at his side.  According to the Gospel of Luke Jesus promises that thief a place in Paradise.  

Monday, February 2, 2015

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

(Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-32)

Today’s feast is formally called the “Presentation of the Lord.” More traditionally it is known as “Candlemas Day.”  For centuries on this day churches blessed all the candles that they would use in the course of the year.  The inspiration for this grand event is Simeon’s declaration in today’s gospel that the baby Jesus is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”  He is the Israelite through whom Isaiah’s vision of world unity and peace will be fulfilled.

Jesus is the flame – light and heat in a cold, dark world.  But he is not the whole candle.  The trunk of the candle -- its wax -- is humanity.  Like wax humans have fat -- their pride, greed, hatred, and lust – which is to be burned away.  Jesus, who may be compared to the refiner’s fire of the first reading, rids us of these vices.  Doing so, he allows us to participate in his illumination of the world.  With our lives so chastened, we are rendered sincere – a word coming from two Latin words meaning “without wax.” 

Let us be sincere to all by leaving behind our vices.   Instead of pursuing pride and lust, let us follow Jesus, the light of the world.