Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Numbers 13:1-2.25-14.1.26a-29a.34-35; Matthew 15:21-28)

Today’s gospel not only shows the value of persistent prayer but also the valor of a woman who seeks the welfare of her child.  We must take care not to be scandalized by the remark of Jesus comparing non-Jews to dogs.  He only means that his mighty works are not done to impress people.  Rather, they are meant to foster a living faith in God’s care for His people.  As the woman shows that faith, Jesus readily grants her request.

Rather than contrast the urgency of the woman’s plea with the hesitation of Jesus to help her, it is more instructive to note the difference between the disciple’s desire to dismiss the woman and Jesus’ willingness to listen to her.  Like the disciples we may not want to attend to people who come begging for assistance.  It is true that granting them what they ask often is not prudent and sometimes not possible.  But we do not have to dismiss them and much less ignore them. We could listen to their needs, respond in truth and courtesy, and pray for their welfare.  Such actions are expected of us if we are truly the Lord’s servants.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Memorial of Saint Dominic Guzman, priest

(Numbers 12:1-13; Matthew 14:22-36)

The Chicago archdiocese used to be the largest in the United States.  Churches were found in almost every neighborhood, and the faithful packed them on Sundays.  It is a different story today.  Many parishes lack a resident pastor, and whole pews go empty during Sunday mass.  The Church there, as in many dioceses in North America and Europe, is experiencing crisis.  The situation is anticipated in today’s gospel.

The boatful of disciples being tossed about by the waves represents the Church after Jesus’ resurrection.  It is suffering persecution and rejection by the Jews in Israel.  Mission activity is more successful but not necessarily easier.  Preachers like St. Paul undergo supreme hardship in preaching the gospel in faraway places.  The reading shows Jesus coming to the aid of his Church.  He saves his head disciple from drowning and brings peace to the threatening elements.

St. Dominic lived in another time of pastoral challenge.  Catholics of southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were abandoning the church because of the bad example of some of the clergy.  At the same time they were accepting an old heresy called Manicheanism which held that all material things are bad and all spiritual things are good.  Dominic took up the challenge.  He put his faith in the Lord of the gospels, preached the goodness of all creation, and lived simply and joyfully.  His efforts, assisted by the same Lord, gradually won back many of those who had fallen-away.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Numbers 11:4b-15; Matthew 14:13-21)

People’s complaining about government services has a long history.  Today citizens expect a host of benefits – education of children, protection from mercantile fraud as well as the building of roads and the defense from foreign powers.  The first reading today shows what people in Moses’ day demanded.

The Israelites have become tired of eating manna.  Although it provides them calories, they evidently find it bland to the taste.  In any case because it is all they have to eat, they have begun to abhor it.  They take their case against God to Moses, his representative.  “Give us something else;” they demand, “it was better for us in Egypt.”

We might call the people ungrateful for forgetting the drudgery of life in the old country.  But God is more understanding.  He will provide meat to enhance their diet.  Much more significantly, in time he will send his Son Jesus to feed them the Bread of Life.  In today’s gospel Jesus gives his listeners a foretaste of the banquet to come.  The people receive sustenance for the journey home.  One day they will remember this ersatz meal as like the Eucharist.  In that meal they will be nourished spiritually so that they may experience eternal life.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Memorial of Saint John Vianney, priest

(Leviticus 23:1.4-11.15-16.27.34b-37; Matthew 13:54-58)

In one of his novels Larry McMurtry tells the story of an antique collector who buys a precious item from the owners of a second-hand store.  The owners ask a price many times below the object’s value because they do not know its real worth.  In the gospel today the townspeople where Jesus grew up similarly do not recognize Jesus for who he really is. 

The people of Nazareth think that they know Jesus because they know his family.  They cannot comprehend that he is the long awaited Messiah who comes to save Israel.  Even his miraculous cures and his wonderful teaching do not convince them but just confound them more.

Some of us may likewise be scandalized by the ways that Jesus makes himself present today.  We do not meet him at a grand banquet which we have to pay thousands of dollars to attend.  No, he is present in the simple hosts and the inexpensive wine that we bring to the altar.  His teachings promising eternal life are also neither complex nor enigmatic.  Rather, they contain the straightforward message that we are to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We must be careful not to reject Jesus as his townspeople do in the gospel.  Quite the contrary, we must be ever grateful that he makes himself available to us and to all.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Exodus 40:16-21.34-38; Matthew 13:47-53)

We might call the significance of the two parables in today’s gospel “a matter of emphasis.”  Jesus emphasizes the bad fish and the new teaching.  He summarily says the good fish will be put into buckets but explains that corrupt people are like bad fish and will be thrown in fiery furnaces.  Jesus more subtly emphasizes his new teaching in the storeroom of wisdom by inverting the expected order of words.  Rather than speaking of old before new, he gives priority to his new teaching before the ancient wisdom of the Scriptures.

The new teaching is the kingdom of heaven which now has definitively come through Jesus’ presence.  It brings joy, peace, and happiness to those who repent of their sins.  The old teaching – the Law and its commandments – has not been suspended but human concern goes beyond keeping its statues.  The bad fish are those who never repent, that is, never look at their faults, ask forgiveness, or endeavor to live Jesus’ new righteousness.

Here again Jesus challenges the sensibilities of the modern world.  We like to think that we can get away with doing evil.  Many have no problem with telling a lie or absenting themselves from Mass on Sundays as long as they help the poor.  Jesus is indicating that there is a problem.  He would agree with the ancient Greek moralists who said, “First, do no evil.”  Likewise, many today have trouble saying, “I’m sorry.”  Jesus would want us to do so every time we err.  It is part of what he intends when he tells us to repent.