Tuesday, XXV Week of Ordinary Time
(Luke 8)
We still tell the parents of the married couple at a wedding that they are not losing a daughter or son, but gaining one or the other. In the gospel today Jesus indicates that his mother is not losing a son gaining a whole host of children.
At first reading it may appear that Jesus is distancing himself from Mary. He says rather tersely that his mother and brother “are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” But recollection of the beginning of this Gospel According to Luke highlights Mary as a preeminent hearer of and actor on the word of God. She willingly accepts the angel’s message that she is to be the mother of the Savior. Likewise, she makes haste to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth when the angel also notes the latter’s miraculous pregnancy.
Still the thrust of this passage is not so much Mary’s being named the mother of Jesus as we being designated his brothers and sisters. We should note that this relationship is not attributed to everyone. No, to qualify as a member of the family of Jesus we must listen to the word of God with our hearts and act on it with our whole lives.
Homilette for Monday, September 24, 2007
Monday, XXV Week of Ordinary Time
(Ezra 1)
There is hardly anything but tension today between Iran (modern Persia) and Israel (the Jewish state that incorporates most of the former Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel). The first reading from the prophet Ezra reminds us that relations were not always strained. In fact, with a history so long that it astounds the mind, Iran and Israel have had many ups and downs together. The peak recounted in our reading shows the king of Persia promoting the reestablishment of the Temple, the center of Jewish life.
Although the events narrated in the reading take place four hundred years before Christ, we Christians still read them as prefatory to his coming. The recognition of the Jewish God by a foreign king and the cooperation of different peoples to rebuild a great monument to that God anticipate the age of Jesus. With the push still being generated by his paschal experience people at the ends of the earth have come to praise God’s name. Likewise, individual Christians everywhere form new temples created through the love which the Holy Spirit deposits in their hearts.
We can also read the text as a sign of hope in this time of near crisis. Iranian leaders have threatened to drive Israel into the sea. But Israel has the military power to demolish Iran which it swaggers from time to time. If war breaks out between the two powers, there can hardly be a prosperous future for both nations. Therefore, we pray that the fraternity between the two peoples demonstrated in the reading reappears without armed hostilities.
(Ezra 1)
There is hardly anything but tension today between Iran (modern Persia) and Israel (the Jewish state that incorporates most of the former Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel). The first reading from the prophet Ezra reminds us that relations were not always strained. In fact, with a history so long that it astounds the mind, Iran and Israel have had many ups and downs together. The peak recounted in our reading shows the king of Persia promoting the reestablishment of the Temple, the center of Jewish life.
Although the events narrated in the reading take place four hundred years before Christ, we Christians still read them as prefatory to his coming. The recognition of the Jewish God by a foreign king and the cooperation of different peoples to rebuild a great monument to that God anticipate the age of Jesus. With the push still being generated by his paschal experience people at the ends of the earth have come to praise God’s name. Likewise, individual Christians everywhere form new temples created through the love which the Holy Spirit deposits in their hearts.
We can also read the text as a sign of hope in this time of near crisis. Iranian leaders have threatened to drive Israel into the sea. But Israel has the military power to demolish Iran which it swaggers from time to time. If war breaks out between the two powers, there can hardly be a prosperous future for both nations. Therefore, we pray that the fraternity between the two peoples demonstrated in the reading reappears without armed hostilities.
Homilette for Friday, September 21, 2007
The Feast of St. Matthew
(Matthew 9)
The other day a social worker in a Catholic nursing home was doing what we might call “gospel therapy” on residents. She read the first part of a verse expecting the resident to complete it. It was amazing how many of the verses the aged resident knew so well that his response was automatic. For example, she might have said, “I am the way.” And the respondent would supply, “And the truth and the life.” Of course, the worker started verses from the Gospel According to Matthew which are etched in the resident’s memory like: “Blessed are the poor in spirit...”; “Come after me and I will make you...”; “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine...”
As with the other gospels we know little with certainty about the background of Matthew’s. Because its Greek language is refined, someone schooled in that language, and not in Hebrew, probably wrote it. Since it refers to the destruction of the Temple which occurred in the year 70 A.D., it was composed after that date. Its familiarity with the Jewish Scripture and customs suggests that the author intended it for a community with Jewish roots.
In the Gospel passage selected for today feast, Jesus characteristically quotes the Old Testament. The evangelist Matthew alters those words a bit, however. Where the prophet Hosea says that God wants mercy more than sacrifice, Jesus is quoted as saying that God wants mercy and not sacrifice. Whatever Jesus’ original words were, he also expresses his purpose for coming to the world. We should take them to heart because they contain the key to salvation. Let me begin the verse and have you complete it for yourselves: “I did not come to call the righteous...”
(Matthew 9)
The other day a social worker in a Catholic nursing home was doing what we might call “gospel therapy” on residents. She read the first part of a verse expecting the resident to complete it. It was amazing how many of the verses the aged resident knew so well that his response was automatic. For example, she might have said, “I am the way.” And the respondent would supply, “And the truth and the life.” Of course, the worker started verses from the Gospel According to Matthew which are etched in the resident’s memory like: “Blessed are the poor in spirit...”; “Come after me and I will make you...”; “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine...”
As with the other gospels we know little with certainty about the background of Matthew’s. Because its Greek language is refined, someone schooled in that language, and not in Hebrew, probably wrote it. Since it refers to the destruction of the Temple which occurred in the year 70 A.D., it was composed after that date. Its familiarity with the Jewish Scripture and customs suggests that the author intended it for a community with Jewish roots.
In the Gospel passage selected for today feast, Jesus characteristically quotes the Old Testament. The evangelist Matthew alters those words a bit, however. Where the prophet Hosea says that God wants mercy more than sacrifice, Jesus is quoted as saying that God wants mercy and not sacrifice. Whatever Jesus’ original words were, he also expresses his purpose for coming to the world. We should take them to heart because they contain the key to salvation. Let me begin the verse and have you complete it for yourselves: “I did not come to call the righteous...”
Homilette for Thursday, September 20, 2007
Thursday, XXIV Week of Ordinary Time
(Luke 7)
We may think of Jesus as unfriendly toward all Pharisees, but this is not the case. True, he does chastise some in the gospels, but he also eats with others. He really has a lot in common with Pharisees. Like them Jesus is a layman, learned in the Law, who teaches in synagogues and exerts every effort to live righteously. Nothing should seem peculiar, therefore, in Jesus’ entering a Pharisee’s home in the gospel today.
Simon, the Pharisee, becomes scandalized when Jesus allows a notoriously sinful woman to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. Although he is too proper to say it out loud, Simon sees Jesus’ indulgence as evidence that he is not a true prophet. A prophet, he thinks, would see into a person’s heart to know if she or he is worthy. But Simon is dead wrong. Jesus shows himself to be a prophet on two counts. First, he knows the woman to be repentant and thus receptive of God’s grace. Second, he reads the hypocrisy of Simon’s heart that criticizes too much and loves too little.
Jesus demonstrates God’s mercy as he forgives the woman of her sins and enlightens Simon of his. He is not too proper to call Simon to task for hypocrisy, but he does not indignantly walk away from him. We pray with complete confidence that he will treat us as graciously. As church-goers, we are susceptible to the sin of hypocrisy. When we criticize others unjustly, may Christ remind us of the sin that we commit and may he then offer us opportunities to show our love for him.
(Luke 7)
We may think of Jesus as unfriendly toward all Pharisees, but this is not the case. True, he does chastise some in the gospels, but he also eats with others. He really has a lot in common with Pharisees. Like them Jesus is a layman, learned in the Law, who teaches in synagogues and exerts every effort to live righteously. Nothing should seem peculiar, therefore, in Jesus’ entering a Pharisee’s home in the gospel today.
Simon, the Pharisee, becomes scandalized when Jesus allows a notoriously sinful woman to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. Although he is too proper to say it out loud, Simon sees Jesus’ indulgence as evidence that he is not a true prophet. A prophet, he thinks, would see into a person’s heart to know if she or he is worthy. But Simon is dead wrong. Jesus shows himself to be a prophet on two counts. First, he knows the woman to be repentant and thus receptive of God’s grace. Second, he reads the hypocrisy of Simon’s heart that criticizes too much and loves too little.
Jesus demonstrates God’s mercy as he forgives the woman of her sins and enlightens Simon of his. He is not too proper to call Simon to task for hypocrisy, but he does not indignantly walk away from him. We pray with complete confidence that he will treat us as graciously. As church-goers, we are susceptible to the sin of hypocrisy. When we criticize others unjustly, may Christ remind us of the sin that we commit and may he then offer us opportunities to show our love for him.
Homilette for Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Wednesday, XXIV Week of Ordinary Time
(Luke 7)
The movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner appeared in the 1960s when interracial couples were a rarity. The dinner guest was an African-American who wanted to marry his white hosts’ daughter. The plot moves around the father’s resistance to the marriage. Today we would admonish people who disapprove of a marriage solely because the couple belongs to different races. And we would condemn outright the refusal to eat with members of different races. Nevertheless, we should understand that such social conventions as the separation of the races in the past were based on more than prejudice and hatred. In the gospel today we see Jesus trying to break through the social conventions of his time to bring his people to a greater wisdom.
Jesus chastises the people for not accepting either John the Baptist who ate with no one or himself who seemed willing to eat with anyone. These people are Jews, of course, who are particularly attentive to table fellowship. They are supposed to share table with Jews in good standing as a matter of communal fellowship. The fact that John does not eat or drink like regular Jews makes his prophecy questionable in their eyes. The people question Jesus’ prophetic legitimacy as well for eating and drinking seemingly to an excess with sinners, people considered outside the pale of table fellowship.
But both John and Jesus possess a wisdom that runs deeper than social conventions. John’s austerity is a prophet’s call of the people to God’s holiness. It is an extreme position that is meant to witness how great the need is for reform. Jesus’ extension of himself to outcasts shows God’s special concern for sinners. Jesus does not conform to their ways but invites them to return to God’s. His words at the end of the passage “wisdom is vindicated by all her children” tell us that those who can appreciate what John and Jesus are doing will move beyond social conventions to true righteousness.
(Luke 7)
The movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner appeared in the 1960s when interracial couples were a rarity. The dinner guest was an African-American who wanted to marry his white hosts’ daughter. The plot moves around the father’s resistance to the marriage. Today we would admonish people who disapprove of a marriage solely because the couple belongs to different races. And we would condemn outright the refusal to eat with members of different races. Nevertheless, we should understand that such social conventions as the separation of the races in the past were based on more than prejudice and hatred. In the gospel today we see Jesus trying to break through the social conventions of his time to bring his people to a greater wisdom.
Jesus chastises the people for not accepting either John the Baptist who ate with no one or himself who seemed willing to eat with anyone. These people are Jews, of course, who are particularly attentive to table fellowship. They are supposed to share table with Jews in good standing as a matter of communal fellowship. The fact that John does not eat or drink like regular Jews makes his prophecy questionable in their eyes. The people question Jesus’ prophetic legitimacy as well for eating and drinking seemingly to an excess with sinners, people considered outside the pale of table fellowship.
But both John and Jesus possess a wisdom that runs deeper than social conventions. John’s austerity is a prophet’s call of the people to God’s holiness. It is an extreme position that is meant to witness how great the need is for reform. Jesus’ extension of himself to outcasts shows God’s special concern for sinners. Jesus does not conform to their ways but invites them to return to God’s. His words at the end of the passage “wisdom is vindicated by all her children” tell us that those who can appreciate what John and Jesus are doing will move beyond social conventions to true righteousness.
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