Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 19:15-29; Matthew 8:23-27)

Today the United States celebrates its existence as a self-governing nation.  Two hundred and forty-one years ago the founders of the nation declared it independent from the English monarch.  Of course, the new nation had to defeat the king’s army which was done after a protracted war.  Because the peoples of many nations have risen to shake off oppressive rulers during the summer months, it is not inappropriate to speak of the relation of patriotism to Godliness today.  It is possible to use the readings of the day for the reflection.

The first reading indicates that blessings on a land do not make its people virtuous.  Lot had chosen the land to the east because of its great promise.  The people there, however, were evidently bent on evil ways.  They mistreated even the most virtuous of guests among, who can say what, other atrocities.  The Lord’s judgment on their crimes could not be more severe.  They are being annihilated.

The gospel shows Jesus’ disciples coming to him at an hour of crisis.  A raging storm is sinking their boat.  They fear for their lives and beg Jesus for help.  No time in the history of the United States reflects this situation more than its Civil War.  The nation, so wonderfully endowed, was being torn apart between those who believed in the rights of all humans to freedom and those who thought that some humans subject to slavery.  Graciously the nation’s leader at the time had a strong sense of biblical justice.  Abraham Lincoln called for “a new birth of freedom” where the “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

All peoples today should appeal to the Lord.  We pray to him that our countries may follow just laws assuring the freedom of all.  We dedicate ourselves to the formation of virtue like his so that wise leaders may rise up to guide the nation to peace.  And we take compassion on the poor with whom he identified so that they do not lack what they need to prosper. 

Monday, July 3, 2017

Feast of Saint Thomas, apostle

(Ephesians 2:19-22; John 20:24-29)

A debate in the philosophy of science centers on the question of the existence of spiritual being.  Some philosophers hold that matter is all that there is.  They try to reduce the mind to the material functions of the brain.  More classical thinkers respond saying that the elements of matter cannot account for the intricate capacity of thought.  They understand the mind as a spiritual substance dependent upon matter for its formation but having a reality apart from it.  In today’ gospel St. Thomas seems to be a materialist until he meets the risen Lord.

When Thomas is told that the other disciples have seen Christ after he was crucified, he demands to touch Jesus’ body before accepting the fact of his resurrection.  Jesus gives him the opportunity to do it, but does Thomas actually go ahead with the experiment?  The Scripture does not say so; in fact, it indicates that he does not. Jesus says that Thomas believes only with seeing as the other disciples.

The passage ends with Jesus giving later Christians a blessing for believing in the resurrection without ever seeing him.  Because our times challenge such belief, we want to support one another in the faith of the resurrection.

Friday, June 30, 2017

Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 17:1-9-10.15-22; Matthew 8:1-4)

Sometimes when I make a donation to charitable organization, I put cash in an envelope and mail it anonymously.  I would like to report that I do this to conform to Jesus’ lesson on almsgiving.  He says in the Sermon on the Mount, “’When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites^* do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others.’” But, truth be told, the reason I don’t toot my horn when I donate is that I don’t want to receive a dozen more requests.  Jesus, as we should expect, is much more consistent in doing what he is right.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is approached by a leper for healing immediately after he delivered his famous discourse on the mountain.  He performs the cures and orders the man not to tell anyone about his doing the healing.  Most preachers say that Jesus desires secrecy because he does not want to be confused with a political messiah.  This is probably true, but it is also the case that Jesus is acting in perfect conformity with what he just said on the mount about doing righteous deeds in secret.

We find in Jesus our model for life.  We should always endeavor to do what Jesus did.  This does not mean, of course, that we have to wear sandals and drink wine.  But it does call us to love our neighbor not for any advantage to ourselves but because he or she is a child of God. 

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, apostles

Acts 12:1-11; II Timothy 4:6-8.17-18; Matthew 16:13-19)

Saints Peter and Paul testify to the inclusiveness of the Church.  Peter was a fisherman from Galilee, well within the territory of Israel.  Paul, a member of the Jewish diaspora, hailed from Tarsus in Asia Minor.  Peter worked as a fisherman before he encountered the Lord.  Paul, a scholar, served as a Jewish inquisitor when Jesus abruptly called him.  Although both had missions to non-Jews, Peter, it seems, worked primarily among his own people while Paul preached far and wide to Greek-speakers.  Their lives converged for at least a third time in Rome where they were martyred.

More importantly than dying during the same wave of persecution, they both preached Jesus Christ.  In today’s gospel, Peter identifies Jesus as “’the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”  Paul will give full meaning to those words when he writes of reconciliation through Christ, the Son.  As the Pauline letter to the Ephesians states, humans are reconciled not only to God but to one another through Christ.

Today we honor Peter and Paul together as patrons of the whole Church.  More than any other saint, the two represent the Church’s apostolicity and universality.  They left the security of their homes and indeed their homelands to tell others about God’s work in Jesus.  They reached the symbolic crossroad of the earth in Rome where they testified with their blood to God’s love for all in Jesus.

Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr

(Genesis 15:1-12.17-18; Matthew 7:15-20)

A couple is married over twenty-five years.  They never have had children of their own.  Although they are Godparents to many and serve the church in many ways, they feel a great loss in their lives.  Once they considered the possibility of producing a child in vitro, but did not pursue it because that procedure violates the sanctity of human life.  The couple’s childlessness and, even more, their trust in God resemble the circumstances of Abram in today’s first reading.

Abram not only deeply desires to have a child with his wife Sarah, but also God has promised the couple heirs as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth. Now they are advanced in years and almost have given up hope.  Abram pleads with God, perhaps for a last time, only to hear God’s promise reasserted in a more glorious way: “Look up at the sky and count the stars….Just so…shall you descendants be.’”  Abram does not abandon God, who has blessed him in different ways, to worship another.  Rather he continues to do all that God asks of him.

God’s ways are inscrutable.  Couples who would seem to be wonderful parents suffer by not having children while many children suffer in broken homes.  Yet God has cared enough for those who suffer, which include every one of us, by coming to share our suffering.  He has actually moved us beyond it with the promise of eternal life as well as many spiritual blessings.