Monday, February 18, 2019

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 4:1-15.25; Mark 8:11-13)

The seven deadly sins capture most imaginations.  Sin appeals to egotistic self-interest.  The deadly or capital sins have greater attraction because they imply great risk and big payoff.  The seven are not so much sins as tendencies to sin.  They may be helpfully classified as run-away passions causing people to act contrary to the law and their real interests.  In today’s first reading God counsels Cain to keep these passions in check.

God acts benevolently toward Cain.  Rather than ignore him after He chooses Abel’s sacrifice rather than his, he gives Cain good advice.  He admonishes him to, in effect, let go of envy and anger.  God tells him that these passions need not control Cain.  Rather with the development of virtue Cain can control them.

Passions in themselves are not evil.  They may even lead to some good.  There is a righteous anger, for example, and erotic love may lead to marriage and a family.  But even in these instances, we want to control their power.  Developing virtue through prayer, patience, and persistence in doing good we can harness our passions to serve us and our community. 

Friday, February 15, 2019

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 3: 1-8; Mark 7:31-37)

It is a classic axiom that humans do not choose evil because it is bad.  Rather they choose it under the aspect of some good that it brings.  In today’s first reading the serpent tempts the woman by mentioning apparent advantages of eating the forbidden fruit.  First, her “eyes would be opened”; that is, she will have gained insight or knowledge.  Then it adds that she and her mate “will be like gods.”  They will not only know more but will decide for themselves right and wrong.  Once the woman’s reason has been stirred by the serpent’s ideas, she imagines other benefits.  The fruit becomes “pleasing to the eye” and apparently to the palate.

The story is reflected in every sin.  The thief prizes another person’s treasure more than the person’s right to keep what she has legitimately obtained.  The fornicator thinks little of the harm he creates by satisfying his lust but mostly of the pleasure it gives.  Even people who know well of the evil that sin incurs may commit it anyway for the sense of autonomy it brings.

In today’s gospel as everyday Jesus is proclaimed as doing the Father’s gracious will.  He restores hearing and clear speech to the man as a sign of God’s love.  Such love is manifested in every judgment of conscience that some act would be evil.  In refusing to sin, we acknowledge that God forbids evil acts because He loves us.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop

(Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)

Today in this liturgy we celebrate four evangelizers.  We may be stretching both the term as well as the liturgy to render such a result.  However, it will be worth the effort if we reinforce our sense of being evangelizers as well.

The first to be mentioned is Jesus himself.  He is the evangelizer par excellence.  The Father sent him to the world to announce His great love.  In the gospel reading Jesus evidently needs some rest from the work.  Nevertheless, he heals the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter so that she too can give thanks and praise to the God of Israel.

Should we not see the Syrophoenician as an evangelizer?  She explains -- to Jesus in a sense and certainly to us – that God’s love was never intended solely for Jews.  She knows instinctively that it is meant for every human being.  She also shows us how God especially bestows His efficacious love on the humble of heart.

Today the Church remembers Saints Cyril and Methodius.  They were ninth century missionaries who overcame hardships and challenges to convert a part of Russia and Moravia to Christ.  Coming from Greece, their orthodoxy was suspect in the Western church.  German bishops were especially hostile to their efforts to work among the peoples of Moravia.  However, they demonstrated their faithfulness to established doctrine and used their scholarship to abet their work.  They translated the Bible into Slavic languages which assisted their evangelization efforts.

According to Fr. Stephen Rehrauer, a Redemptorist moral theologian, St. Valentine was a priest of Rome during one of the great persecutions of the Church.  He was arrested and spent time in jail before his execution.  There he converted the jailer’s blind daughter to Christ.  On his way to his martyrdom, he slipped the girl an envelope with a note reminding her to be faithful to her promise to love others like Christ.  He signed the note, “Your Valentine.”  When the girl opened the envelope and found the note, she received the gift of sight.  Fr. Rehrauer concludes that when people today exchange Valentine greetings, they might keep this story in mind.  He says that in asking one another to be their “Valentine,” they are not asking that they be their lovers, but their mentors.  They are asking that they teach them the love of Christ.

Wednesday, February 13, 2109

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17; Mark 7:14-23)

Today’s first reading presents the mysterious “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” It stands in the middle of the garden – at the center of human existence.  It is unlike any of the other trees in that God has specifically warned not to eat its fruit.  Eating it will cause death.

“Knowledge” here is more than intellectual knowing.  Rather knowledge is the often painful process of learning by experience.   It is our experience of fire or of rejection.  The Lord wants to spare Adam this bitter process.  Because He has given Adam plenty to live on, He tells Adam not to eat of the fruit.  Of course, Adam with the help of his soon to be created partner will reject this good advice.  They will freely choose to disobey God’s command in pursuit of experiential knowledge.   Their action will indeed introduce death into creation.

Humans have developed beyond Adam’s primitive state.  We have searched for knowledge in a trillion ways.  The knowledge has brought us some good like machines to relieve us of back-breaking labor.  It has also brought us anxiety and war.  There are still prohibitions established by God both in nature and revelation for our welfare.  We are not to kill.  We are not to exploit the poor and the weak.   When we violate these commands, we can expect a fate more gruesome than death.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 1:20-2:4a; Mark 7:1-13)

A number of years ago people started talking about producing a square tomato.  They said it would be easier to pack and ship.  Agriculturalists took up the challenge with some success.  Today there are tomatoes that are less rounded, but they are mainly used for processing.  Scientists have more critical projects to work on.  In doing so, they respond to God’s mandate in today’s first reading.

Genesis pictures humans as the epitome of creation.  After God creates the material universe, He sets the earth aglow with life.  First plants then fish and birds followed by land animals inhabit land, sea, and sky.  Finally, God creates men and women in His image.  In a sense they are like God because He has granted them dominion over the other creatures.  They are to develop what God has made.  But a definite responsibility is implied with this authority.  As they are given only plants to eat, humans may use animals for labor but are not to kill them for food.

Eventually, God conceded that humans may eat the flesh of animals.  But we must take care not to abuse God’s grant of dominion.  We do not have a right to squander natural resources.  Nature was created for us to use, to perfect, and to preserve.  God never intended that it be polluted and destroyed.  Where this has already been done, humans have the responsibility to restore nature as best we can.