Tuesday, August 18, 2020

 

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 28:1-10; Matthew 19: 23-30)

What do you give to the person who has everything?  A gilded telephone? a silk facemask?  There will always be a new luxury to acquire.  The prophets chastised conspicuous consumption.  It not only ignored the needs of the poor; it also gave a priority of things to God.  In today’s Scriptures both Ezekiel and Jesus criticize the accumulation of wealth.

Ezekiel sets his sight on the prince of Tyre.  The man has accumulated countless riches but has not heeded the Lord of Israel.  The prophet predicts he will have a hard fall at the hands of the Assyrian invaders.  Jesus, likewise, foresees a bitter outcome for those who make money their treasure.  He says that they cannot enter the kingdom of God.

 Money itself is not evil.  Indeed, it enables us to live and work without back-breaking effort.  Pursuit of money while forgetting to honor God and assist our neighbor, however, can cause our undoing.  We may think that we are increasing our stature, but in truth we are preparing our ruin.  The proper stance toward money is always gratitude to God for having received it and generosity toward the needy for having witnessed their suffering.

Monday, August 17, 2020

 

Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Ezekiel 24:15-23; Matthew 19:16-22)

 The rich man in today’s gospel leaves Jesus.  He probably despairs of ever attaining eternal life.  Thoughtful commentators have observed that the command to sell everything is made to him as an individual.  Everyone does not have to do as much to be saved.  Yet Jesus’ teaching on the need to be poor to enter the kingdom has universal application. 

 People make themselves poor by making God, not their money, the highest priority in their lives.  They are to recognize that all good comes from Him and to love Him above all.  Such a disposition requires using one’s resources to care for others.  It also presumes humility in one’s relations.  Jesus does not want his community of disciples to lord over one another as the rich sometimes do. 

 Too often we want to use our money or accomplishments to carve out standing in society.  We don’t want to give God thanks, much less recognition, for whatever good we have accomplished.  But only by doing so can we be children of God with a place in eternal life.

Friday, August 14, 2020

 

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr

 (Ezekiel 60:1-15.60.63; Matthew 19:3-12)

 Both readings today esteem the marriage covenant.  In the first, Ezekiel describes how God married an undesirable Israel.  The marriage gave the bride prominence, but she traded it for pleasure and intrigue.  Israel forsook the Lord’s loving care by worshipping the gods of her neighbors.

 In the gospel Jesus confirms the teaching implied in Genesis that marriage binds a man and a woman for life.  The Pharisees are divided on the issue, not on divorce but on the grounds for it.  Some think that Moses’ permission of divorce requires a crime like adultery.  Others argued a man could divorce his wife (never vice versa) for almost any offense.  Jesus denies all grounds.  He shows his superior authority to Moses’ as he reinstates the permanency of the marriage covenant. 

Today’s celebrated saint, Maximillian Kolbe, died honoring the marriage covenant.  He was imprisoned at Auschwitz when a prisoner escaped.  The Nazis wanted to execute a married man with a family to deter more attempted escapes.  St. Maximillian offered himself for execution in the husband’s place.  Pope St. John Paul II called the act a true martyrdom because Maximillian sacrificed his life for his religious convictions – love of neighbor and, we might add, the goodness of marriage. 

Thursday, August 13, 2020

 Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Ezekiel 12:1-12, Matthew 18:21-19:1)

 A spiritual virus has plagued the world in recent years.  With the advent of the Internet, pornography attacks mass numbers of men and, to a lesser extent, women.  Pornography corrupts the soul by making one ever more desirous of illicit sexual union.  Many men come to confession regularly with the guilt of having watched pornography weighing on their conscience.  They are wise to seek forgiveness and help in the Sacrament of Penance.

The gospel today sounds a bit simplistic.  Who commits the same sin seventy-seven times?  People who are addicted to pornography do as well as most of us with our picadilloes, be they flattery or over-eating.  Jesus assures these sinners that they are neither hopelessly damned nor needlessly worried.  They are God’s beloved sons and daughters ripe for forgiveness and growth in holiness.  He expects his Church to forgive and to assist them.

Sin has a subjective element.  It may be that those who are addicted to pornography or alcohol do not commit a mortal sin with every failure to forego the pleasure.  But this should not be used as an excuse to go on sinning.  People inclined to excess of pleasurable goods should seek consolation and reinforcement through frequent reception of the Sacrament of Penance.  They will not only save their souls but probably find their human relations vastly improved.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

 

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Ezekiel 9:1-7.10:18-22; Matthew 18:15-20)

Today’s first reading tells of God proposing a slaughter of idolaters in Jerusalem.  The idol worshippers are likely the Jewish remnant left behind during the exile.  They would have followed the religious directives of their Babylonian overlords.  The obliteration dictated is disgusting to modern ears.  It seems unfair that people will be obliterated for worshipping pagan gods, albeit in the Temple constructed for the God of Israel. 

 Of course, society conceived itself differently then.  The gods, whether the Lord of Jews and eventually Christians or a system of deities, were considered essential not only for identity but for defense.  People worshipping other gods were seen as traitors who needed to be executed to preserve the nation.  In the emerging Christian tradition of today’s gospel tolerance of sinners is recommended.  Jesus tells his disciples to treat unrepentant sinners only as outsiders.  That is, they are to ignore them, not kill them.  Still at times when Christians came to dominate societies, defectors were persecuted.

Many are leaving the Catholic Church and the Christian faith tradition today.  Some of these follow strange practices that we may see as idol worship.  Perhaps those who have drifted away are members of our own family.  We do no good by ostracizing them.  We may help them by becoming more devout Catholics and more Christ-like Christians.  If they ridicule us for living what we believe, let us converse with them as the gospel recommends.  Our faith is logically coherent and has been productively lived for centuries.  It is not a system of belief that can be seriously dismissed.