Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin

(Titus 2:1-8.11-14; Luke 17:7-10)

A family is not a household.  A family is based upon blood relationships among people. People can belong to the same family without living in the same household. People live together in a household for a common purpose.  They share daily experiences in order to be united in a community of care.  In a household people come to know that they live for one another and not for themselves.  In a Christian household they learn as well that God has called them to this purpose and that Christ has made known the reason for the call.

Today’s first reading from the Letter to Titus assigns responsibilities to different members of the household.  Older women are to teach younger women.  Younger women are to take care of household needs.  Younger men are to teach their children virtue so that no one can criticize the Church, the household of households.  The purpose of this great household is to witness to Christ, the Savior, who will come to justify the sacrifices made by his people.

Most of us live in a culture that plays down the work of a household.  We seldom pray together at home, much less teach our children about God.  We don’t even eat together much anymore.  Should we wonder why young men and women have lost the faith?  Likewise, should we wonder why the young are individualistic?  We need to reclaim the work of the household to pass on our hope for the Savior.  Indeed, we have to reclaim it to pass on our humanity.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Memorial of Saint Josephat, bishop and martyr

(Titus 1:1-9; Luke 17:1-6)

The fruit of the mulberry tree is hard to enjoy.  It has a taste both sweet and tart, but more objectionably a mulberry lacks substance.  Eat one or a hundred and you still feel hungry.  What is worse, it stains the hand that picks it and blotches the sidewalk if found on a city street.  The mulberry tree gives little shade but sits like a mole on one’s face defying the beauty around it.  It is no wonder that Jesus suggests that it be rooted out and sent to the sea.

We might compare eating mulberries to forgiving others of their quirks and bad habits.  Both set our teeth on edge.  It seems that people should have more control of their actions, yet they can repeatedly make the same offensive remark or commit the same foolish mistake.  We want to scream at the perpetrators, but Jesus tells us to be ready to forgive them.

The disciples ask Jesus for an increase of faith to follow his directive.  They reason the more they trust God, the more conviction they will have to love others.  Jesus assures them, however, that they have enough faith. They have only to get over the self’s feeling abused by others’ mindless actions.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

(Ezekiel 47:1-2.8-9.12; I Corinthians 3:9c-11.16-17; John 2:13-22)

It would be hard to over-exaggerate the importance of the Jewish Temple in Jesus’ day. Religiously, it served as the one place where Jews could give due reverence to God.  Economically, it provided most Jerusalemites with livelihood. If it could be compared with any structure today, it would be the great mosque in Mecca which millions of Muslim pilgrims give homage to God every year.  It should cause little wonder then why Jesus’ action in today’s gospel creates such consternation.

Jesus disrupts the usual business at the Temple.  He virtually starts a riot as he drives away the merchants along with their livestock and the money changers.  The Jews misconstrue his motives as much as they misunderstand his words.  They think that he is an upstart looking to make a name for himself.  When Jesus tells them that if they try to destroy him, he will rise again, they believe he is referring to the Temple.

In celebrating the Lateran Basilica in Rome today, we celebrate all Catholic churches.  The giant structure serves as a sign for all places where Christians come together to offer bread and wine to God and receive in return the body and blood of Jesus.  The feast indicates that we don’t have to go to Rome to give true worship to God.  Our parish church serves quite well in providing space for offering the sacrifice of our salvation.

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Thursday if the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Philippians 3:3-8A; Luke 15:1-10)

Last week in a perceptive column author David Brooks analyzed the social ecology of American society.  He said that Americans are becoming increasingly lonely.  We spend way too much time by ourselves often in front of a computer.  We do not join organizations as our parents and grandparents did.  The resultant isolation triggers bizarre fantasies of power, suicide, or the yearning for drugs.  Brooks calls for a war on “division, discord, and isolation.”  But, he writes, the war is to take place not among different kinds of people but inside every human heart.  Today’s gospel indicates both the ongoing war of the heart and the spiritual weapon necessary to win it.

Jesus tells the Pharisees and scribes of the need for repentance.  He points to the tax collectors who are giving up their propensity to extort money from the people.  He says that their moral turnarounds cause rejoicing in heaven.  But it is not that the Pharisees and scribes are so righteous that they cannot precipitate a party among the saints.  Rather, they and the rest of humanity have dark sides that need illumination.  All people have hearts divided between loving and loathing, between serving and being served.

As wealthy, our society affords many people opportunities to live distant from others.  Not only do many have their own households, they can also can work, shop, and recreate without leaving home.  As luxurious as this may seem, we must resist at least some of it.  If we are going to live in harmony with ourselves, we must interact with others.  Jesus has already shown us how to do it.  We should follow his example of civility, service, and friendship.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary time

(Philippians 2:12-18; Luke 14:25-33)

St. Paul’s words about perversity ring in most people’s minds these days.  However, the people are divided about what it comprises.  Some see perversity in the attitude and actions of the American president and his supporters.  These people find the equating of racial bigots with civil rights activists outrageously scornful.  They judge fear-mongering about falsely documented immigrants as merciless and hateful. 

Another ideological bent judges as bankrupt many of contemporary society’s mores.  The people of this large segment are indignant over the increasingly high percentage of children born outside of marriage.  They reel at the indifference with which many, concentrating on their smart phones, ignore one another.  Generally elderly, these folk yearn for the past when civility meant addressing a stranger by her or his last name with the proper salutation.

Both sides of the ideological divide can build up arguments for their moral persuasions.  Today’s reading from Philippians tells us that present outrage is nothing new.  Sin and injustice have been rooted in the world since almost the beginning.  But it exhorts us to rise above the mire by following Jesus, the Lord.  Later in the letter Paul tells his readers: “…our citizenship is in heaven.”  We care about the world because Jesus died to redeem it. But if we have embraced him, we know that soon enough either we will pass or it will pass away.  In either case we will take our places in a new world of justice and love.