Monday, October 23, 2023

Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 4:20-25; Luke 12:13-21)

On graduation day college graduates are declared fit to face the world.  They have completed a course of studies and have successfully passed tests to prove their competence.  Faith as St. Paul describes it in today’s first reading puts the believer in a similar position.

One does not have to do much more than to believe in Christ to receive the Holy Spirit.  Along with Baptism the believer is ready to live in the world as a saint.  However, it should not be thought that faith alone brings salvation.  Love, manifested in deeds of service, is necessary if one is to enter eternal life.  One should not undervalue faith as it makes humans friends of Jesus.  But only with loving care will that relationship last for eternity.

Of course, this reflection on faith and love takes us to the controversy that divided Europe in the sixteenth century.  Since then theologians on both sides have worked out a fuller, richer sense of faith like the one attempted here.  Catholics must recognize the transcendent value of faith while Protestants must concede the necessity of love, the greatest of the virtues.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

TWENTY-NINTH ORDINARY SUNDAY

(Isaiah 45:1.4-6; Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21)

Because it has to do with government and, therefore, politics, the gospel today has attracted a lot of attention. Also interesting but little noticed is the situation in which Jesus finds himself. A few days ago he entered Jerusalem to give his life for the salvation of the world. After driving the merchants out of the Temple, the Jewish elders came questioning his authority. Instead of giving them a direct answer, Jesus asked them if John the Baptist was God’s prophet. It was a trick question. If the elders answered “yes,” Jesus would ask them why they did not follow him. And if they answered “no”, they would have lost the trust of the people.

In the gospel today the Pharisees and Herodians approach Jesus with all the sincerity of the wolf greeting Little Red Riding Hood. They have a trick question like the one Jesus used with the Jewish elders. If Jesus answers that one must pay the tax to Caesar, he will lose the favor of the people. And if he answers “no,” the authorities will come looking for him.

Jesus does not fall into the Pharisees’ trap. Rather, he has perceived their wicked intentions from the false compliment with which they greeted him. He does not answer the question but outwits his adversaries by asking them for the coin to pay the tax. The fact that they have the coin on hand indicates their participation in Caesar's monetary system. They show that they should pay the tax because they take advantage of the system. They don't really want to learn from Jesus. As Jesus says, they are “hypocrites.”

Jesus leaves us a proverb without any explanation. We are to give “to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.” But what is our duty to Caesar? And what is our duty to God? “Caesar” means the government, and it is not difficult to enumerate our duties to government. We are to obey its laws, vote for its officials, pay its taxes, and defend the country when it calls us. But our duty to God is more complicated.

Some think that our debt to God is limited to attending Sunday mass and contributing to charity from time to time. However, because God created us, saved us from the snares of the devil, and sustains us, we owe him much more. In fact, we owe God our entire lives. We fulfill this duty by living each day, indeed each moment of each day like Christ.

Let me use a story as an example of what I mean.  Maybe the chaos that accompanied getting on buses in Honduras hasn't changed much in thirty years. In the nineteen nineties there was a priest there who used to say that he acted like a Christian all the time except when he got on the bus. He was joking, of course, but don't all of us propose such limits on our loyalty to Christ?

There is a document from the second century that describes the ways of Christians. It claims that Christians do not live like other people, albeit they live among them. It goes on to say that Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body. In other words, they act as the conscience of the world always showing the good, just, and correct way to conduct our lives. This is what Jesus means when he commands us to “render to God the things that are God's.”

We resist giving ourselves completely to God. It seems too much to demand from us. But we should not consider it as a payment on our part. Rather it is just fulfilling our role as members of God’s family.  It is just living as children of God.

Friday, October 20, 2023

Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 4:1-8; Luke 12:1-7)

The French philosopher Albert Camus made a hero out of the rogue mythological king Sisyphus.  In Camus’ story Sisyphus temporarily redeems humanity by putting Death itself in chains.  As a punishment for his deception, the gods assign Sisyphus the task of pushing a boulder up a mountain.  It is an arduous task, but the worst part is that when Sisyphus near the summit, the gods arrange that the boulder falls to the bottom.  Then Sisyphus must repeat the travail. 

Sisyphus’ fate is not unlike the dilemma of humans without Christ.  Try as they might, humans on their own could never be justified before God.  The Law pointed them in the right direction, but proved to be more than any person on his or her own could fulfill.  St. Paul tells us today that justification comes by faith as it did in the case of Abraham.  In the coming days we will hear Paul proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection as the definitive content of faith.  To be justified, Paul will say, we must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.

The news of justification through faith is too grand for a grim realist like Albert Camus to bear.  Camus thought that the best humans could do is to achieve integrity and, perhaps, an esprit de corps in carrying on the daily struggle of life until death.  But we Christians dare to hope for more because of the testimony of those like Paul.  He encountered the risen Jesus who changed his life and sent him to proclaim the message of eternal life.

 

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Memorial of Saints John de Brébuef and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

(Romans 3:21-30; Luke 17:47-54)

Organizations sometimes have elite groups which require the passing of a quality test for membership.  Boy Scouts have the Order of the Arrow.  Professional sports have their Halls of Fame.  The Army has its Rangers.  In the Letter to the Romans St. Paul rejects the idea of passing a quality test to join the ranks of the justified.  He recognizes that the test – observance of the Mosaic law -- was not producing holy people despite its rigor.  He finds justification in a simpler condition – faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the only one who has ever lived the law completely and become perfectly righteous.  Being the son of God, he was able to do so.  All others – both jews and gentiles -- can come to righteousness by Joining themselves to him in faith.  He provides the Holy Spirit so that they may live saintly lives.

It is not that living righteously doesn’t require effort.  It is that the Spirit of love is with us to work for the good of others.  We have the saints as models.  Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Joques, and companion martyrs gave their lives to bring salvation to native Americans by the grace of the Spirit.

Wednesday, November 18, 2023

Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist

(II Timothy 4:10-17b; Luke 10:1-9)

Of the four evangelists Matthew and Luke emphasize missionary activity most.  Jesus’ last words in Matthew’s gospel send his disciples to the ends of the earth.  Luke appends the Acts of the Apostles to his gospel.  Acts, of course, gives account of the apostles’ initial missionary activities.  Today’s passage also reflects the missionary dimension of Luke’s gospel.

Jesus sends seventy-two disciples to the towns which he intends to visit.  The number reflects Genesis’ report that seventy-two descendants of Adam formed the nations of the world.  Jesus’ disciples have no time to pack or to greet others on the road because the end is near.  Jesus is coming to call good people into his Father’s Kingdom.  For this reason they will tell the people to prepare themselves to meet him.

After almost two thousand years he still hasn’t arrived.  Or has he?  Jesus comes to us daily in Scripture, the Eucharist, our prayers, and other people, especially the poor.  It is also true that we await his coming definitively at the end of time when we hope to experience the glory of the Kingdom.