Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church

(II Samuel 7:4-17; Mark 4:1-20)

As the Week of Christian Unity draws to a close, it might be asked how one of the great Catholics of Reformation times treated Protestants.  St. Francis de Sales was a priest and bishop in Switzerland, a country that largely converted to Calvinism.  Influenced by religious rivalry, Francis broadly backed social and political pressures to bring Calvinists back to the Church.  But when he faced Protestants directly, he spoke to their hearts. 

Francis believed that intellectual arguments do not change people’s ways as much as calling forth the good in everyone.  He would say that it is not necessary for a farmer to pray like a monk but could offer a simple prayer to place himself on the path of holiness.  Francis was able to attract a number of Calvinists to Catholicism.  Perhaps more important than conversions, his preaching the possibility of universal holiness allows for common ground among Catholics and Protestants today.

Calvinism emphasizes especially personal righteousness. It sees human nature as seriously defected by original sin.  Nevertheless, Calvinism finds some human beings redeemed by Christ.  These fortunate few, it teaches, will lead holy lives with Christ’s grace. Whether they are bankers or farmhands, Calvinism insists that their lives exemplify prayer and decency.  A convergence may be noted here with Francis’ sense of universal holiness.  Both Calvin and De Sales offer the possibility of every baptized person leading holy life.  Calvin may be stricter in his sense of what holiness consists and Francis more flexible.  But both find the need of seriousness in pursuing sanctity.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(II Samuel 6:12b-15.17-19; Mark 3:31-35)

  

Does the world need God?  As probably half of the world’s population, we say that we do. But increasingly, especially in western societies, people act as if they do not need God.  Witness the lagging observance of Sunday as the Lord’s Day and the greater interest in retirement plans than in pursuit of eternal life.  Today’s first reading suggests that indeed a right functioning requires the worship of God.

When King David dances before the Ark of the Covenant, he is showing himself as the epitome of a renewed priesthood and well as of the kingship. He has just offered sacrifice to God.  Now he gives God exultant praise before the Ark which contains the Tablets of the Law.  His actions imply that the people must recognize God as author, sustainer, and legislator of their life.  Without God their strength will shrivel, and they will come to nothing.

If we look at what is happening around us, we should reach the same conclusion.  Not remembering Christ’s command to love one another, we are falling into the division of identity politics which often ignore the common good.  More devastating, not heeding God’s law concerning sex, many rob their children of full family life.  We also need God even more for His daily assistance that comes in more numerable ways than is possible to record.

Monday, January 22, 2018

(see below for a reflection on the readings of the day)

Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

Last Monday the United States celebrated a significant social achievement.  In honoring Dr. Luther King, Jr., the nation recalled with pride its revocation of unjust laws that rendered African-Americans inferior.  Social equality among the races in this land is not perfect, but denying that great progress has been made toward that goal is the rhetoric of fools or of revolutionaries.

As advancements in racial equality were being made, the United States slipped into another kind of moral pitfall. Forty-five years ago today its Supreme Court struck down virtually all laws prohibiting abortion.  The decision has led to the wanton taking of human life at its most defenseless stage – over sixty million human beings!  It has also accelerated sexual promiscuity as most abortions involve unmarried women.  Why else would men and women conspire to allow such a horrific amount of killing if not to assure sexual libertinism?

Since its beginnings, the Church has opposed abortion.  But only in more recent years has it commented on abortion at length.  St. John Paul II was especially articulate in describing the evil.  Our former pope saw the right to life as basic to all other rights.  He said that when a society allows the taking of life at any stage it denies equal protection before the law.  This, of course, is what the African-American quest for racial equality sought.  That project has not yet been completed, but it has even farther to go now than fifty years ago.  Legalized abortion has statistically jeopardized the lives of African-American babies more than of others.

Today we pray for an end to the tragedy of abortion.  We ask God to open the eyes of all to its evil.  We also might resolve to support the right-to-life cause politically, financially, and morally.  It too has extremists with whom we may not wish to associate.  But it also has, in far greater numbers, sainted men and women to whom we owe our allegiance.

Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(II Samuel 5:1-7.10; Mark 3:22-30)

Last month President Donald Trump announced that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  The declaration caused much criticism since rights over Jerusalem are contested by Israelis and Palestinians.  The beginnings of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city are found in today’s first reading.

Israel was never a well united nation.  Before David the various tribes claimed different parts of the land.  The united kingdom did not outlive the reign of David’s son Solomon.  But for almost seventy years the southern and northern tribes thrived under these monarchs.  The reading indicates David’s capital from Hebron to Jerusalem corresponded to the unification of the nation.  Jerusalem is farther north and thus closer to the lands of the northern tribes.

We should see Jerusalem as a symbol as much among peoples of different religions as among Jews.  Palestinians with its Muslim majority sees the city as its center.  They still have hopes, as did the United Nations at the time of Israel’s founding, of making Jerusalem an international city.  The United States’ recent recognition of Jerusalem may have been just accepting the de facto reality.  But still the goal, which certainly is our prayer today, is that the city – whose very name is associated with shalom or peace – may become a place where Jews, Muslims, and Christians live peacefully together. 

Friday, January 19, 2018

Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 24:3-21; Mark 3:13-19)

Today’s first reading establishes David as worthy of being Israel’s king.  He has shown military prowess when he slew Goliath.  Now he is pictured as piously refusing to harm the Lord’s anointed one.  Eventually David will falter, but he begins with all the promise of Michelangelo chiseling the “Pieta” in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The disciples whom Jesus chooses as his apostles in today’s gospel similarly have an auspicious start.  They are all Jews but from various backgrounds.  Like young men drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II, they will be molded into a victorious evangelizing force.  But not all of them will make the grade; indeed, they all stumble on the way.  First, Judas will remove himself from the company of apostles by betraying Jesus.  The others will abandon Jesus in the garden with Peter acting especially ignobly afterwards by denying discipleship. 

We have been chosen for glory like David and for evangelizing like the apostles.  Though we may not have been able to give personal assent to this choice at Baptism, we have accepted the Lord into our lives.  We too may falter in carrying out some duties, perhaps grievously like Peter.  But Jesus is ever willing to forgive us.  Then all the more we can proclaim God’s eternal love.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 18:6-9.19:1-7; Mark 3:7-12)

Life’s great tragedy lies not in becoming old but in failing to become wise.  King Saul in the first reading should realize that the chorus of women praising David is as fickle as weather on the prairie.  If he were a wise man, he would not worry that the people favor David to himself.  Rather he would concentrate on how he, as king, might serve the Lord by attending to the people’s needs. 

Certainly Saul’s son Jonathan better fits the profile of a wise person.  As wisdom seeks the harmony of right order, Jonathan takes pains to reconcile the king with his best warrior.  He reasons with Saul that David is no threat to him.  He also protects David until father promises to do him no harm.  Unfortunately, Saul will allow his envy to reassert itself in a self-defeating manner.  David will once more flee for his life, and Saul and Jonathan will be killed in battle. 

We can locate the virtue that Saul lacks and that which Jonathan exhibits in the Lord Jesus.  In today’s gospel he refuses to have his divine origin in part to avoid misunderstanding.  And he never ceases to cure people of their ailments.  Wise persons will imitate Jesus’ virtue.