Monday, July 10, 2017

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 28:10-22a; Matthew 9:18-26)

Ask children what they will do when they grow up, and often enough they have an answer.  One girl approximately twelve years old says that she will be a pediatrician.  She will have to work hard to fulfill her plan, but it is not an impossible dream.  We meet Jacob in the first reading today in a comparable situation.

Jacob has left his house as a young man to pursue his destiny.  The reading shows him in communion with God who promises to make him the father of a nation that will bless the entire earth.  In making a shrine on the spot where he receives the revelation, Jacob shows his wholehearted acceptance.    Christians see this promise fulfilled in Jesus, Jacob’s descendant whom the world recognizes as a universal teacher of righteousness.

As we become older, our dreams often become humbler.  We no longer think of changing the world but only hope to change our own hearts.  We want to lose our preoccupation with self so that we might love others as Jesus has shown us.  It is helpful to remember that the same God who promised to accompany Jacob wherever he went is also at our side.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 23:1-4.19.24:1-8.62-67; Matthew 9:9-13)

Abraham’s purchasing land to bury Sarah may seem like a realistic detail.  In reality it is a very important step in nation-building. People have to own land before they will identify themselves with it.  They will revere as sacred the places where they bury their fathers and mothers.  There they will tell the stories which add meaning to life and bind themselves to one another.

The wise Abraham realizes these facts as he insists on buying a broad piece of land rather than accepting as a gift a narrow swath to accomplish his immediate purpose. He will be buried on the same territory as will Isaac, Rebecca and Leah, and Jacob.  It will truly become the “land of the patriarchs” worth working to grow a nation and dying to defend.  It remains a great symbol for Jews who though scattered throughout the world feel a tie to Israel.

But nations are more than land with flags.  They require virtue to create and sustain.  Families must be supported and individuals must dedicate themselves to procuring more than their own needs.  Jesus will give priority to the Kingdom of God in his preaching, but he never denies the importance of family and state to that end.  Without either we are dehumanized, and the kingdom becomes a sterile symbol.  

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

Mass murderers are regularly reported as hearing voices.  They are directed by what they often explain as a divine command to commit an atrocity.  Abraham seems to hear such a dark order in today’s first reading. 

The passage, sometimes called by its Hebrew name Akeda meaning binding, challenges interpreters.  They rightly ask, “How could a just God suggest to anyone that he kill his son as a sacrifice?”  Can God really be so capricious or, more pointedly, so cruel.  No, such a conception contradicts what God has revealed about Himself.  But humans are subject to such vagaries of will.  The story may be better understood in a way that contrasts to what is written.  Rather than God directing Abraham to slaughter Isaac, Abraham may be superimposing on God an aberrant voice within him telling him to commit the outrage.  Drama is taking place within Abraham – will he accept as God’s will the voice that tells him to kill Isaac or the natural order that forbids all human sacrifice?  What may well be God’s true voice then speaks up.  Abraham clearly hears that he is not to kill his son, but to offer a sacrifice on his behalf.

People often enough claim to hear the voice of God within them.  They are not to be dismissed as demented or foolish.  But they should test that voice by comparing it with God’s will as seen in the natural law and in revelation.  If there is an aberration between the two, they must concede to what is known in the latter category.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

NOTE: I have been posting reflections for ten years and have considered discontinuing the effort. 

However, it may be advantageous for me and perhaps helpful to you if I keep up the work.  You may notice that I will often be publishing reworked homilies like the following. 

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Amos 5:14-15.21-24; Matthew 8:28-34)

In The Good Earth, Pearl Buck’s classic portrayal of pre-revolutionary China, the protagonist has a brief encounter with Christianity.  Having gone to the city to escape the famine that consumed the countryside, Wang Lung is handed a picture of the crucified Christ.  He is fascinated by the image but has no time to inquire into who the crucified one is.  Struggling to eek out a living for his family, Want Lung is impelled to continue working.

The people of Gadarene town on the outskirts of which Jesus casts out demons in today’s gospel seem little different from that of the Chinese peasant.  Charged by Jesus to leave two wild men, the demons possess a herd of pigs whom they send hurling into the sea.  The people might be expected to welcome Jesus for saving two men from a fate worse than Alzheimer’s.  But being practical, they weigh their loss of property as greater than the benefit of having two men restored to their senses.  Rather than thanking Jesus, they ask him to leave before he causes them more trouble. 

It is as easy for us to get so caught up with business – even Church business – that we ignore what Jesus has to offer us.  It requires patience to meditate on his words in our world of a ten thousand distractions.  We can also be sure his message will demand some sacrifice on our part.  But there is an upside to opening our minds and hearts to Jesus.  He brings us the same tranquility of spirit which the former wild men of the Gadarene territory now possess.

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.