Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Solemnity of All Saints

(Revelation 7:2-4.9-14; I John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a)

Mr. Blue is the story of a saint.  The main character was never canonized and, in truth, existed in the author’s, Myles Connolly’s, mind.  But there probably was a model on which the story was based.  In any case, Mr. Blue reminds readers of people in their lives who practiced all the virtues, especially faith and love.  These men and women may never have been recognized universally as saints in part because one of the virtues they cherished was humility.  In today’s Feast of All Saints the Church honors all such people.

They are indeed many.  The first reading from the Book of Revelation describes them as “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”  It is said that since the beginning of humanity there have lived one hundred billion human beings.  The really good ones make up that “great multitude.”  The criteria for counting them as saints come from today’s gospel. Saints are “poor in spirit,” “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and strive to be “peacemakers.”  In short, they are always ready to sacrifice themselves for God’s sake.

We praise holy women and men not just by recalling them today but by imitating their virtue every day.  We pray for the realization of grace that assists the poor with their needs, speaks humbly and truthfully at all times, and fulfills all responsibilities to society.  Doing so will include us among the number who are praised today.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 8:18-25; Luke 13:18-21)

The car window opened, and an object flew out – perhaps a plastic cup – littering the road.  It was a small act of defiance of both law and public decency indicative of a careless person.  But little things add up.  An estimated fifty-one billion articles of litter are deposited on the roads of the United States alone every year! 

Yet litter is hardly the biggest environmental problem.  Other worries far outsize trash on roads.  The way humans consume fossil fuels causes pollution that likely contributes to global warming.  Their cutting down rain forests results in the destruction of animal habitats which, in turn, causes land to dry up.  St. Paul describes the situation well in today’s first reading.  Creation groans in anticipation of a redeemed humanity so that the environment may be saved.

Paul is far from being desperate about the situation.  He perceives creation already being liberated by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is changing our hearts to value the environment as a common patrimony.  Good people have begun to cooperate in protecting natural resources.  We want future generations to know the wonder of otters, octopuses, and owls.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 8:12-17; Luke 13:10-17)

An article in the October edition of First Things offers a perspective for reading today’s gospel.  Entitled “Empathy is not Charity,” the article criticizes the contemporary urgency to feel the pain of the suffering.  Such empathy often enough leads to actions that undermine truth and justice.  It may cause, for example, one to counsel a woman with a problem pregnancy to have an abortion.  Charity will move us to help the woman bear the child with all necessary support.

Jesus shows like concern for the woman who has been crippled for eighteen years.  He does not feel her pain but removes it.  Of course, the synagogue leader accuses him of working on the Sabbath which in Deuteronomy celebrates God’s gift of liberation from slavery.  But Jesus knows that he has not infringed any Sabbath rule.  Rather he has liberated the woman from oppression – an action quite in synch with the Sabbath.

We should not say that it is wrong to empathize with others.  Often trying to feel the pain of another gives us a true understanding of the situation that we face.  But we must realize that charity – the purest form of love – is not primarily taking away the other’s pain.  It is a matter of doing what is best for the one suffering as well as for everyone else.

Thursday, October 26, and Friday, October 27, 2017

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 6:19-23; Luke 12:49-53)

An unforgettable scene in the movie “Malcom X” shows a man dying in a rundown rental room.  He once made a small fortune in the numbers racket; that is, in collecting small bets on the final numbers of the daily stock market trading.  As bank robber Willie Sutton reputedly said: “That’s where the money is.”  He had spent most of it on liquor, drugs, and other vices.  Now he was paying the price.  As today’s reading from St. Paul’s Romans says, “…the wages of sin is death.”

Paul recognizes that sinful humans will always die.  Reflecting on Genesis, he concludes that the curse of Adam is a tendency to sin that ensnarls all humans on a steady downward trajectory.  That is everyone except Jesus (and by special dispensation his Immaculate Mother).  Jesus not only transcended enslavement to sin but boosted his followers out of their entrapment.  Trusting in Jesus as Lord, women and men can now overcome the tendency to love creatures more than the Creator – the essence of sin.

We need to hold ourselves close to Jesus – desperately. Heeding his warnings and following his example, we actually become freer, happier people.  We become, in other words, beneficiaries of the gift of eternal life.

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)

At the end of Luke’s gospel Jesus is pictured accompanying two of his disciples leaving Jerusalem on the day of his resurrection.  He explains to them the gospel and shares with them a meal.  In today’s passage from the same gospel Jesus tells the crowds that they are on the way to see their judge with someone they have offended.  That offended one accompanying them is the same Jesus.

He has come from God to make humans aware of their sins and to deliver them from them.  As St. Paul says in the reading from Romans, “Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Humans must make peace with Jesus by confessing their sins and petitioning his mercy.  Otherwise, at death they will face the Supreme Judge with his blood on their hands.

Although Jesus in the gospel here is portrayed as our “opponent,” he is more kindly than adversarial. He is ready to forgive the most grievous, the most embarrassing, and the most conventional of our sins.  We do not have to be afraid of telling them to him.  Actually he is always our friend more than our opponent.

Tuesday, October 24, and Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 5:12.15b.17-19.20b-21; Luke 12:35-38)

Sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the United States has more than sinful and scandalous; it has been outrageous.  About three thousand priests over a period of fifty years have been accused of such crime, according to the Church’s Promoter of Justice at the Vatican.  Could any good come out of such a cesspool?  Now it is safe to answer, “Yes.”  The Church’s response, at least in the United States, has been thorough and effective.  At one time the Church was lax in supervision: now it is exemplary.  The checks to abuse that it has positioned have made it a model for curtailing the evil.  The process can be sighted as an example of what St. Paul means in today’s reading from his Letter to the Romans that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.”

Paul is writing of the fallen state of human nature which goes back to the first man and woman.  Even with the aid of the Covenants, humans were unable to curtail sinful activity.  Then Jesus came to stem the downward thrust.  He not only lived righteously but died to make manifest the egotism at the root of sin.  His death, however, left no trace of personal disgrace as he rose in glory, the first instance of the blessing that is promised to all his followers.

The Holy Spirit has given the Church a resiliency to overcome scandals like sexual abuse fifteen years ago.  The Spirit works through each of us.  It urges us to abide by the norms that have been set up and to always examine our consciences so that we always act with prudence.  With the Spirit’s guidance the Church has become the template for sexual temperance in the U.S. and beyond.

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 6:12-18; Luke 12:39-48)

St. Augustine famously told his people, “With you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop. The second fills me with terror, the first, with great consolation.” The fear flowed from the responsibility he had to guide his diocese.  He knew that God would judge him harshly if he failed to discharge his duties or if he used the episcopacy for his own gain.  It goes without saying that Augustine took note of the gospel passage we read today.

In the passage Jesus warns his apostles that they are susceptible to a stricter judgment than others.  Because he has taught them himself, they can have no excuse for abusing their authority.  The bishops today are the successors of those apostles with the same responsibility of guiding the Church.  Priests do not share the fullness of the apostolic mandate, but they are likewise well tutored in the gospels.  Both bishops and priests can expect stiff punishment if they fail to give judicious pastoral care.

Sometimes in hearing the Eucharistic Prayer we may wonder why the clergy are given special mention.  Some priests, you may have noticed, change the wording to include all ministers or all people.  This is a forgivable sin.  But surely it is charity that moves us to pray especially for bishops, priests, and deacons.  They bear grave responsibility which they may fail to handle well leaving everyone in jeopardy.