Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Job 9:1-12.14-16; Luke 9:57-62)

Perhaps we think we do God a favor by praying every day.  We may think that God somehow needs our support.  Job’s understanding of God in today’s first reading more truly hits the spot.  God is utterly beyond us so that anything we do either individually or collectively can hardly faze Him.  Yet God has made our lives important.  He created us with a certain likeness to Himself so that we might in know and love Him.  More marvelous still, He sent us His Son to clarify our knowledge and purify our love.

Today’s gospel indicates the upshot of Christ’s revelation.  The presence of the Kingdom -- which is to say the presence of God -- relativizes all other concerns.  Even care for our parents, to whom we owe the most in this world, is subordinate to service of the Kingdom.  Jesus also suggests that giving priority to God can challenge our peace.  We may find ourselves like him without a home to call our own.

Then how do we deal with the exigencies of life?  What are we supposed to do when we cannot attend Mass because we are called to work on Sunday?  What if we see someone on the side of the road obviously needing help but have other obligations to keep?  Such situations enable our love of God to mature.  Often we can find alternative ways to fulfill all our obligations.  We may not be able to attend Mass in the morning but perhaps in the evening.  Alternatively we can pray for the person in need.  We have to realize that we cannot do everything but we always can do something (usually more than most people think) to love God as only He deserves.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

(Job 3:1-3.11-17.20-23; Matthew 18:1-5.10)

Spiritual teacher Ronald Rolheiser the other day wrote that no one really parents children alone.  He said that single parents can count on God to guide their children along with them.  This idea expresses a very similar insight to Jesus’ reference to Guardian Angels in today’s gospel.

Jesus echoes an Old Testament tradition that God sends angels as His ambassadors to watch over human beings.  Jesus’ point is that not only leaders -- which is to say the most important people -- have divine guidance.   Children, the simplest of humans, have such help as well.  He is advising his disciples not to seek importance but to rejoice to have God as their Father.

We as well want to be recognized as important, not only by a few but by everyone.  It is a vain ambition since no one will be admired by all – not even a Pope Francis.  However, everyone can count on God’s love.  This providential care is well expressed by the doctrine that Guardian Angels continually watch over us.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Memorial of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

(Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50)

Genetic selection is talked about as a certain reality in the not so distant future.  It is said to provide couples with the ability to have the kind of offspring they desire.  If they want a baby with as much brawn as Serena Williams or as much brain as Albert Einstein, they have only to arrange it with their geneticist.  Genetic selection has also the possibility of avoiding medical defects like autism.  What is disturbing about genetic selection, however, is that it obscures the consideration of children as a gift from God.  We hear Job declaring this truth in today’s first reading.

The Book of Job is a brilliant gem in the Bible’s jewelry shop.  For millennia it has provided a way to understand both the incomprehensibility and the ultimate goodness of God.  It also gives a portrait of a truly good man.  Job is not only notable for his patience but also for his faith.  He believes that God is the author of life and that children are His gifts to the parents who give them birth.  They do not belong to anyone except the Lord.

A theologian has expressed a valid stance for parents in the process of having children.  He said that they should be “open to the unbidden.”  That is, rather than trying to plan every aspect of children’s lives including genetic features, parents are to accept their children as they are.  Of course, they should provide their needs and instill in them moral values.  But they are to recognize that children are a gift from God not to be fabricated and engineered but cherished.  

Friday, September 28, 2018

Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11; Luke 9:18-22)

In Umberto Eco’s novel The Island of the Day Before the main character is shipwrecked at a point just east of the International Date Line.  He sees his salvation in reaching an island that is west of the Date Line, seemingly existing in a previous time.  If he can get there, the reader gathers, perhaps he might undo the ills that have caused the shipwreck.  But, of course, it is an impossible quest.  The island does not exist in a time past.  Rather, the “day before” is only part of the time differentiations which humans construct to make sense of the transition of time around the world.

In the well-known passage from Ecclesiastes that we read today, the author Qoheleth speaks of another futile effort involving time.  It tells us that no matter how much time or toil we put into the project, human effort cannot achieve salvation because that is in God’s hands.  The text admonishes us to follow God’s ways according to the schedule He laid down in the Mosaic Law.

God does not abandon us in our quest for the eternal.  Rather, although it was beyond the view of Qoheleth, salvation does come through the Paschal event of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In today’s gospel Jesus recognizes that he is the anointed one to save the world.  That is, he is the fulfillment of the timeless hope, noted by Qoheleth, that rests in every human heart.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, priest

(Ecclesiastes 1:2-11; Luke 9:7-9)

It is said that St. Vincent de Paul was largely responsible for France’s overcoming of Jansenism.  This seventeenth century heresy was destroying souls in the name of grace.  It taught the need of an obsession over not committing sin, especially of the sexual sort, so that one might be assured of the grace for heaven.  Taking its name from a Dutch bishop, proponents of Jansenism recommended constant confession as a way to avoid eternal fire.  St. Vincent, on the other hand, promoted work of charity as a demonstration of God’s favor.

Born a peasant, Vincent was ordained a priest at the age of twenty.  Very talented, he might have had a comfortable life with the revenue received from a monastery to which he was appointed chaplain.  But the acquaintance of a cardinal in Paris steered his life in another direction.  Rather than enjoying a life of leisure, Vincent began visiting prisons and galley ships to comfort prisoners.  In time he founded the Congregation of the Mission, priests first known as Lazarists and then as Vincentians, to work among poor country folk.  He is also co-founder with St. Louise de Marillac of the Daughters of Charity, who have become renowned for their work with the poor. 

Today’s gospel comments that King Herod greatly wanted to see Jesus.  So would many people throughout the centuries.  We can turn to saints like Vincent de Paul to catch a glimpse of him.