Friday, May 3, 2024

Feast of Saints Philip and James, apostles

(I Corinthians 15:1-8; John 14:6-14)

Saul, the first king of Israel, was recognized for his good looks.  He is introduced in the Bible in this way: “There was no Israelite handsomer than Saul; he stood head and shoulders above the people” (I Sam 9:2b).  One commentator says that his demeanor was what most recommended him to be king.  In contrast, nothing is said in Scripture of how Jesus looked.  Nothing.  Yet he tells Philip in today’s gospel that anyone who sees him, sees God the Father.

 Philip is asking for a theophany.  He wants an experience of God like Moses had at the burning bush.  He expects to see something that would be called “awesome” today.  Jesus corrects his largely mistaken notion that the experience of God is always earth-shaking.  When he identifies seeing the Father with seeing himself, he has his self-sacrificing love in mind.  Jesus preaches, teaches, and most of all lives this love.  That is what his Father, as well, is all about.

Philip is no slower learner than we are.  We too often look for a revelation of God in fantastic ways.  The truth is that God reveals Himself to us daily.  He appears every time someone goes out of her way to help another.  When we perform such acts, we become His angels.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Acts 15:7-21; John 15:9-11)

Today the Church celebrates another saint of enormous proportions.  Saint Athanasius deserves attention for being a creative theologian.  He developed the insight of Christ’s having a divine nature together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  This complemented Christ’s human nature.  Inasmuch as Christ has existed from all eternity in the Trinity, it is said that he is a divine person with two natures.

Athanasius was also a popular writer.  His classic biography of the desert monk, St. Anthony, was a kind of bestseller in the days of pen and papyrus.  The book not only made Anthony famous but also a model of saintly perfection.

Finally, Athanasius had the privilege of suffering for Jesus.  His Arian enemies, who believed that Christ did not share the same divinity as the Father, continually harassed him.  For a hefty portion of his long career as bishop of Alexandria he lived in exile.  No doubt he found in his trials a way to draw close to the Lord who died on the cross.

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

(Optional) Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker

(Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8)

On this Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, it is fitting that the gospel pictures God as a farm worker.  Jesus tells in his parable of the vine and branches that God prunes the branches of the grapevine so that they can produce more fruit.

Jesus has in mind the word of God when he cites God as pruning grapevines.  Scripture prunes by instructing and chastising so that its readers know God’s will.  It also encourages and consoles so that they do not fail when life demands hard choices.

The times seem to favor workers.  In recent decades they have been relieved of many back-breaking chores.  AIso, in the United States at least, a tight labor market and the ability to work at home give them more flexibility in choosing jobs.  But these factors do not relieve workers of the responsibility to do their jobs diligently for the good of society. As much as ever they need to refer to the word of God for inspiration and moral direction.  

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(Acts 14:19-28; John 14:27-31a)

Toward the end of his letter to the Philippians St. Paul writes that he learned how to be satisfied with whatever he had.  He could endure hardship with equanimity because of his relationship with Jesus Christ.  This relationship of love brings the peace to which today’s gospel refers.

Believing that Christ will return to reward them, his disciples need not fret about persecution or worry about death.  They know that Christ will give them the fulness of life in eternity.  He suffered a worse trial than they have.  It resulted in his resurrection in glory as they will experience.

This same “peace of Christ” is ours by reason of faith.  Let us embrace the promise of the resurrection Jesus made to his disciples.  Doing so, we need not have undo concern about the vagaries of the world or the coming of death.

 

Monday, April 29, 2024

Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin

(Acts 14:5-18; John 14:21-26)

One of St. Catherine of Siena’s modern biographers admits that he had trouble warming up to her.  He says in the introduction of his book that at first he was put off by her domineering style.  But in time, he continues, after carefully considering all that Catherine wrote and did, his attitude changed.  Like an early Franciscan critic who thought Catherine a fake, he turned into one of her avid followers. 

Reading her story, people of modernity readily dismiss Catherine as a fanatic.  Her self-imposed penances like not eating anything but the Eucharist seem extreme.  Her way of demanding from others what she saw as necessary appears rude and perhaps egotistic.  However, as a person learns the trajectory of her life and reads her book The Dialogue, she or he cannot but admire her.

We too may be bewildered by Catherine of Siena.  Her spirituality is as tough as the rigorist novice master’s.  She may have been naïve around the political power brokers of Italy. But we must admit that she had an ocean of love for God which itself is worth emulating.