Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 5:21-33; Luke 13:18-21)

Betty and her husband lived in a Texas city fifty years ago.  It was still a time when most women did not work outside the home, and Betty was no exception here.  But she had social interests that brought her in contact with the poor.  She began to advocate publicly for needy children.  She asked for government support for programs like Head Start.  Her husbands’ friends saw such social schemes as communist.  They told him that his wife she should stay at home.  But he told them that he believed his wife was right.  The community should assist poor families meet the needs of their children.

Betty’s husband was motivated by a deep love for his life.  He did not come to favor community social assistance on his own.  It was his love for his wife that made him see its justice.  No doubt he took seriously today’s first reading.  Husbands have to love their wives wholeheartedly.  True love requires careful attention to what the other believes.  It calls forth patience to both understand her truth and question her inconsistencies.  It also elicits sacrifice so that she might flourish in her goodness.

Today’s passage from Ephesians has been dismissed as culturally conditioned.  Even St. John Paul II said that love excludes any kind of servile subjection.  But it contains a message as critical as a hurricane warning.  Husband and wife must love one another unreservedly.  If they do not, they will not only fail their families but also their Lord.  As the Letter makes clear, their relationship is to reflect Christ’s love for the Church.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 4:32-5:8; Luke 13:10-17)

Every seminarian should learn not to chastise people in public.  People may be willing to change improper behavior if told politely and discreetly.  But they will surely defend themselves if publicly humiliated.  Priests receive this lesson the hard way when they tell parents to remove a crying infant from church.  Today’s gospel gives another instance of this very mild form of clerical abuse.

The synagogue leader scolds the sick for coming to see Jesus on a Sabbath.  He faults them for causing Jesus to heal which he sees as a form of prohibited work.  Interestingly, he directs his criticism at the invalids and not at Jesus, the perpetrator of the perceived misdeed.  Anyway, Jesus comes to their defense.  His argument is that since the Sabbath celebrates liberation, how can it be wrong to liberate the suffering on that day?

The passage from Ephesians gives us the proper perspective for correcting others’ mistakes.  It exhorts us to be kind and compassionate to one another.  Fraternal correction is an act of charity if done with respect for the dignity of the person at fault.  We have to help him or her to feel cared for and not demeaned.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 4:1-6; Luke 12:54-59)

In a remarkable painting the seventeenth century artist Caravaggio depicts Jesus calling Levi, the tax collector.  Light streams from behind Jesus to expose a look of complete surprise on the tax collector’s face.  Jesus points to Levi with his hand reminiscent of God’s on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  A new creation is taking place. Levi is being called to become a new man.  Meanwhile he points his own finger at himself as if to say, “Me?  You must be kidding.” 

As Jesus calls the tax collector to follow him, he beckons each of us.  Like Levi, we may be astounded by the summons.  “Am I fortunate or deluded?” we ask ourselves.  “Does it mean that I have to give up everything?” we worry.  The reading from Ephesians today does not demur in impressing on us the reality of the call.  It also reminds us of the burden such a call imposes.  We will have to bear with the idiosyncrasies of one another and strive to make our own less annoying.

Sooner or later our effort will cause us to ask, “Is the call worth it?”  A recent analysis discovers four stages of happiness: satisfying our physical senses, bettering our neighbors, coming to peace with others, entering into a relationship with God.  The first two kinds are fleeting while the latter settle deeply within the soul.  Ephesians proposes these final types of happiness as it speaks of “unity of the spirit through the bond of peace” and “one God and Father of all” as our destiny in Christ Jesus.  It harbors no doubt that the assured goal more than justifies any energy exerted.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 3:14-21; Luke 12:49-53)

A lot of people want to be cool. They want to be liked without being engaged with others.  More importantly, they want to be admired without becoming attached.  They like to use their cells.  With these devices they can communicate with anyone or everyone without having to settle for present company.  They want to impress others as being happy, but in reality they are probably lonely.

Today’s readings are meant to offer the ones who want to be cool another route in life.  They speak of love – not so much physical love although that is not necessarily excluded – but a richer kind.   They tell of the love which enables one to transcend personal desires for the benefit of neighbor.  The Letter to the Ephesians is more direct.  It prays that the love of Christ which moved him to die so that the world might live may dwell in the readers’ hearts.  This love is the fire with which Jesus in the gospel says he wants to ignite the world. 

With such love we do not care about being cool.  We want to help strangers as well as relatives.  With such love we will put away our telephones to talk with those around us.  With such love we come to realize that happiness can never be singular but must be shared with others.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 3:2-12; Luke 12:39-48)

Faulty church leadership has erupted into the news this year.  The Attorney General of Pennsylvania documented numerous cases of episcopal cover-up of clerical child abuse.  Former Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, D.C., was cited for numerous homosexual incidents with clerics and seminarians.  A bishop in Chile was forced to resign after protecting a pedophile priest and even reportedly witnessing his abusiveness.  Even Pope Francis suffered a loss of credibility when he temporarily defended the Chilean bishop.  Jesus warns against such misuse of holy offices in today’s gospel.

Jesus uses the startling image of a burglar to express how he will surprise those who use their authority to abuse others.  He says that they will be punished severely if they knew of his concern for justice as all bishops and priests surely do.  Peter has asked Jesus if the punishment applies to the apostles.  Jesus answers effectively that they can bet their lives that it does.

The Church has survived worse scandals than the present ones.  The corruption in the hierarchy in the Renaissance serves as a ready example.  But this fact should be of little consolation.  Its mission in an age of skepticism and autonomous thinking has been severely compromised.  It must, as Francis as begun to do, root out the abuse of clerical power especially when it leads to sexual exploitation.