Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 6:5-8.7:1-5.10; Mark 8:14-21)

We are about to begin our annual forty day retreat known as Lent.  We should be asking ourselves what penances we will do: how might we intensify our prayer, overcome our craving for material satisfaction, and practice extra works of mercy?  If the project sounds overwhelming, we are like the disciples of today’s gospel in the boat with Jesus.

The company of disciples begins to worry that they have not brought bread for the journey.   But Jesus reminds them that they have witnessed him feed thousands with meager amounts.  Underscoring the need to trust in him, he admonishes the disciples not to imitate the Pharisees or Herod.  At least the former have demanded that Jesus perform signs on request before they believe in him.

Let us make no mistake.  Lenten penances are for our good.  They enable us to deepen our relationship with God, liberate ourselves from frivolous needs, and help one another.  They are not impossible and seldom really difficult to fulfill because Jesus accompanies us.  Trusting in him, we will discover a better place than anywhere that we have been.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 4:1-15.25; Mark 8:11-13)

The man struggled with cancer.  He wanted to live and dreaded the possibility of cancer taking his life.  “Why do you favor others, Lord, and not me?” he surely asked himself.   He was in a position much like Cain’s in today’s first reading.

Cain resents the fact that God has rejected his offering of fruit while accepting his brother Abel’s lamb.  There is no indication that Cain somehow shortchanged God with his sacrifice.  Rather God has spurned Cain’s fruit for an unknown reason.  But this does not mean that God has rejected Cain.  God tells the indignant older brother not to allow evil thoughts enter his head.  Unfortunately, Cain rejects the advice.  But even then God does not dismiss him forever.  Rather He pledges His protection.

We must not let our troubles keep us from going to God.  To the contrary, we should allow them like a pulley to bring us closer to Him.  Going to God with our needs in prayer not only demonstrates the proper order of existence – the Lord always first, then ourselves -- but also inclines us to the One who can bless us in unimaginable ways.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 3:1-8; Mark 7:31-37)

In its Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Vatican II expresses ambivalence on the autonomy of the sciences and, indeed, on other areas of secular knowledge.  On one hand, it recognizes that they follow their own rules which humans should strive to understand and utilize.  On the other, the council declares that they, like religious knowledge, are derived from God and should be pursued with attention to God’s universal laws.  Today’s first reading is an example of the human quest for knowledge without due consideration of God.

In the reading the tempter tells the woman to ignore what God has said about eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It says that the woman would not die after eating its fruit and that, indeed, she will possess knowledge equivalent to God’s.  Deceived by these empty promises, the woman and then the man disobey the divine imperative not to eat from the tree.  The result, of course, is disastrous for them and their descendants.

By not attending to God’s commands scientists jeopardize the future of humanity.  For example, pursuing research in areas which are forbidden like human cloning, they present humans as mechanisms to be manipulated and not as mysteries to be revered.  The result of this folly may be the wholesale destruction of at least part of the species.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)

The story is told of President Abraham Lincoln taking a walk in the woods one night weighing a difficult decision. A group of Union soldiers were to be executed for falling asleep on duty unless he gave them a pardon. Along the path Lincoln met an adolescent on the ground crying. The lad had run away from home after his father in a rage killed his dog. The father had learnt that his other son was to be executed for cowardice and couldn’t control his anger. Lincoln counseled the boy to go home and forgive his father; meanwhile, he said, he would do some forgiving himself. The President also gave the boy his card with a note saying that he might visit him at the White House anytime. The boy went home and made up with his father. When he found out that his brother’s crime was falling asleep on duty, he went straight to the White House and took a seat outside President Lincoln’s office. At the end of the day, the boy gave the President’s secretary the card he had received and told him he had an important matter to discuss with Mr. Lincoln. The boy was shown in, told Lincoln what happened to his brother, and heard the President promise to add his brother’s name to the list of those soldiers who would be receiving Presidential pardons. Like Jesus in today’s gospel, Abraham Lincoln had the fortitude to change his mind when he realized that there is a better way to accomplish his purpose than he had previously considered.

In this Gospel according to Mark Jesus continually retreats to rest and pray.  Almost always, however, people feeling desperate need manage to find him.  In today’s passage a pagan woman requests Jesus to drive away the demon that is menacing her daughter.  Seeing his mission as reuniting the sons and daughters of Israel, Jesus initially rejects her plea.  Then he shows himself capable of moving beyond his self-imposed limits when the woman expresses her humble faith.

Abraham Lincoln has often been compared to Jesus.  Most dramatically, he was killed on Good Friday after devoting himself for the good of the people.  Lincoln himself governed the country with an unequalled sense of the gospel in mind and heart.  It is appropriate for us Americans to especially remember him one day every year.  It is even more essential that we consult the gospel every day of the year to give sure direction to our lives.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17; Mark 7:14-23)

Just after witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in 1945, Harvard physicist Kenneth Bainbridge told J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the project, “Now we are all sons of bitches.”  He meant that in a sense they had accessed forbidden knowledge since God would not want humans to know how to destroy themselves.  The quest for that knowledge, however, did not start during World War II.  Its root can be seen in humans eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which today’s first reading describes.

Biblical experts are divided on the meaning of the tree.  Some say that eating its fruit gives humans the authority to say for themselves what is right and wrong.  This knowledge then is equivalent to moral relativism in which people determine for themselves what is right and wrong.  It inevitably leads to conflict and violence.  Others believe that eating the fruit gives no special power but only represents disobeying the Creator who has revealed His precepts for humans.  Knowledge from revelation is enough for humans to live happily.  Unfortunately, however, they prove themselves unwilling to live in respectful obedience to God.

All of God’s commandments entail putting limits on human authority.  But they are not meant to deprive humans of a good.  Rather, they insure that humans don’t experience what is bad.  We are wise to give all God’s commandments – whether revealed in nature or in Scripture – strict attention.  In doing so, we save ourselves a lot of grief.