Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 1:16-25; Luke 11:37-41)
Conscience has been called “the voice of God.” Even when it is not formed by moral teaching,
one’s conscience tells the person what is good and bad. Everyone knows that seducing another person’s
spouse is wrong and stopping to help a person in distress is good. It is not far-fetched to conclude that God forms
all people to make these determinations.
For this reason St. Paul indicates in today’s first reading that God
makes his will known to humans through what He has made.
Jesus’ criticism of Pharisees in the gospel follows from
what Paul writes. He recognizes that Pharisees
often pretend that they keep God’s law with pious practices that the Law does
not even specify. Meanwhile they judge others harshly for not following those
unnecessary practices. Or, worse, they may
extort others who think that they are good.
These sins are similar to hustlers on the street who approach tourists
with friendly greetings and offers of assistance, only to lead them astray. Both Pharisees in the gospel and hustlers on
the street know that what they are doing is wrong because their conscience
tells them so.
As the voice of God, conscience deserves our full
attention. Sometimes giving it is
difficult because our consciences are not well-formed. Let us pray, study, and meditate so that we
may accurately discern what God is saying to us through our consciences.
Monday, October 11, 2021
(Optional) Memorial of Saint John XXIII, pope
(Romans 1:1-7; Luke 11:29-32)
In today’s
first reading from the beginning of the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes
of an “obedience of faith.” The
expression sounds like oxymoron -- two words of opposing ideas put together to
stimulate thought. A student might ask, “What
does faith have to do with obedience?”
Faith, after all, is trust.
Obedience concerns following another’s command.
Paul will say later in the letter that a person is justified
by faith. But his idea of faith or trust
goes beyond intellectual assent to religious truth. Faith includes a commitment to Jesus’ way of
love. It is not following another’s
command but following in the other’s path of life. For Christians faith is coming to know Jesus
by loving others as he loved.
Today the Church celebrates Pope St. John XXIII. It is not the anniversary of his death but of
the opening Second Vatican Council. Pope
John convoked the council as a way to share the truth of Christ with, as he put
it, the “human family.” Then as now, sixty
years later, people were separated by ideologies and false teachings. John wanted the whole world to follow the way
of Christ’s love.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Wisdom 7:
7-11; Hebrews 4: 12-13; Mark 10: 17-30)
Some of us
remember the television quiz show, "The Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar
Question." The host would ask the contestant questions whose correct
answers were worth different, increasing amounts of money. Of course, the
questions got harder and harder until the last, sixty-four thousand dollar
question. In the Gospel today, the rich man asks Jesus a question whose correct
answer is worth much more than sixty-four thousand.
The man
says to Jesus: "Good Teacher, what must I do to attain eternal life?"
He is an accomplished man. He has not only accumulated a lot of money but has
also followed the Law of God. However, he knows that something is missing in
his life. We too will have this disturbing sense that something is missing.
Sometimes we feel empty after having followed all the rules. We tell the truth.
We work assiduously. We take care of our parents. We give to the poor. However,
we wonder if all these acts are really worth the effort. We don't feel like
we're going to get the promised reward. We imagine that we are like dogs in the
circus just jumping through hoops.
Jesus
responds to the man in a surprising way. He asks why he calls him
"good." Didn't he know that only God is good? Jesus is not implying
that he is God. At this time in his life, Jesus looks at the Father with such awe
that he cannot identify himself with him. However, the man's question and
Jesus' answer makes us wonder: What do we have to do to make ourselves if not
good than at least better men or women?
Now we
recognize the need to repent not just once but many times. Each time we repent,
we will see ourselves closer to the Father. When we leave the fascination with immodest
behavior, we will become more like God. When we stop talking about our
achievements to listen to others, we will draw closer to God. Then something
almost impossible to describe happens to us. We discover that we have fallen in
love with God. We feel deep within us the desire for His goodness, His truth, His
beauty. Nothing less than God can satisfy us. This is the beginning of eternal
life.
To help us
reach our destiny, God has given us his word, the Scriptures. As the second
reading says, it is more penetrating than a two-edged sword. One edge accuses
us of sin - pride, lies, laziness. The other edge assures us of the love of God
that surpasses all understanding, all rationality. Meditating on the word of
God every day, we come to the conclusion that it is true. God loves me despite
my lack of virtue.
"Kiss
me, kiss me often " are the words of a particularly romantic song in
Spanish. They make us think of two young lovers. At first thought we do not
imagine that one of the lovers can be God. Then we realize how lovable, how
truthful, how beautiful God is. We are falling in love with him. We feel that
we do not lack anything. Everything will turn out fine. We want to be more and
more like Him. We have reached the beginning of eternal life.
Friday, October 8, 2021
Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
A local parish had its first “Christ Renews His Church” retreat. The men responded well. Most of those who signed up attended. Just as wonderful, most who came on Friday night stayed until Sunday. But, of course, the end of the retreat was not the end of the “Christ Renews His Church” process. Before people went home, a follow-up meeting was scheduled. At that reunion the men would share how they felt when they returned to the regular ways of the world. Such follow-up meetings are typical of the popular movements that invigorate the Church today. Jesus hints at their necessity in today’s gospel.
Jesus has just driven out a demon. The people wonder where he got such power. He tries to convince them that it comes from God because the devil would not work against himself. Then Jesus teaches the people that once cleaned of their impurities they must stay close to the Lord. He would say that thinking one can remain in virtue without prayer and penitence is tantamount to playing a trick on oneself. As he puts it, the devil can return with evil spirits more pernicious than what possessed the person before.
We do not use the terminology of spirits, evils, and demons today. But this does not mean that they do not exist. More sophisticated, we typically call the moral problems we face “psychological pathology,” “deviant behaviors,” or the like. In any case, if we can rid ourselves of moral deviances, we are wise to stay close to Jesus in prayer and virtue. If not, we are likely to experience even greater moral difficulties than before.