Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 10:38-42)
Giving a talk to Missionaries of Charity, the congregation Mother Teresa founded, will likely humble any priest aware of what is going on. The sisters place a chair in the center of the room for the priest and then sit on the floor around him. No doubt they see themselves as taking the posture of Mary listening to Jesus in the gospel today.
In the passage Jesus acts prophetically in a number of ways. First, he visits a woman’s home and then he allows a woman to sit at his feet. Rabbis do not take such liberties in biblical days for obvious reasons. But Jesus is in no way constrained by social customs neither to associate with women nor to have one in the position of his disciple. Indeed, he wants women must hear the gospel as well as men.
The great fourteenth century theologian Meister Eckhart saw Martha as Jesus’ disciple even more than Mary. He taught that where Mary only listens to the word of God as it comes from Jesus, Martha puts that word into practice by serving others. It’s a novel interpretation of the gospel but one which reinforces the idea that women as well as men express discipleship of Jesus in different ways.
Homilette for Monday, October 5, 2009
Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Jonah 1:1-2:1.11; Luke 10:25-37)
Americans cherish autonomy. That is, we want to choose for ourselves what we will do. We see autonomy as the source of freedom and the cornerstone of happiness. Of course, we recognize the need for laws, but for many Americans the fewer, the better!
Jonah might be considered a typical American. Where God tells him to go to Nineveh as a prophet, he goes the other way as an autonomous person. Jonah is even less attentive to God than the pagan sailors who at first refuse to throw Jonah overboard because their consciences tell them that it would be wrong.
If we think of autonomy as freedom from servitude, it has something to commend itself. Humans should not be forced to submit themselves to others except for a serious reason like incarceration or imminent danger. Nevertheless, autonomy that runs against God’s intentions can endanger the welfare of a society. Because no one lives independently of others, everyone has responsibilities for the common good of all. Acting as if we were completely autonomous, we may refuse to recognize the benefits that others bring us and may reject the possibility of happiness in caring relationships with them.
(Jonah 1:1-2:1.11; Luke 10:25-37)
Americans cherish autonomy. That is, we want to choose for ourselves what we will do. We see autonomy as the source of freedom and the cornerstone of happiness. Of course, we recognize the need for laws, but for many Americans the fewer, the better!
Jonah might be considered a typical American. Where God tells him to go to Nineveh as a prophet, he goes the other way as an autonomous person. Jonah is even less attentive to God than the pagan sailors who at first refuse to throw Jonah overboard because their consciences tell them that it would be wrong.
If we think of autonomy as freedom from servitude, it has something to commend itself. Humans should not be forced to submit themselves to others except for a serious reason like incarceration or imminent danger. Nevertheless, autonomy that runs against God’s intentions can endanger the welfare of a society. Because no one lives independently of others, everyone has responsibilities for the common good of all. Acting as if we were completely autonomous, we may refuse to recognize the benefits that others bring us and may reject the possibility of happiness in caring relationships with them.
Memorial of the Guardian Angels
(Baruch 1:15-22; Matthew 18:1-5.10)
We should not understand the gospel today to mean that only children have guardian angels. Jesus’ vision is more inclusive than that. Each of us is protected by angels through God’s mercy. This truth is evidenced in the whole passage of which today’s reading forms the beginning and middle.
Jesus warns his disciples that they are to look after weak Christians who stray from the faith. In a recent novel a young pastor gets wind that a new member of his congregation is having an adulterous affair. He goes to investigate one evening and sees a woman leaving the man’s apartment. Not waiting to investigate further, the pastor confronts his parishioner. He tells the adulterer to stay away from Sunday worship until he has chosen definitively for the Lord. The man knows what he must do and ends the affair.
When errant Christians stop praying or when they choose pleasure over doing God’s will, we are to assist their return to righteousness. Sometimes it will be counter-productive to confront sinners, but we must at least pray for them. Jesus makes clear that if his disciples fail to intervene in such a matter, they will face dire consequences since weak Christians also have angels in direct communication with God.
(Baruch 1:15-22; Matthew 18:1-5.10)
We should not understand the gospel today to mean that only children have guardian angels. Jesus’ vision is more inclusive than that. Each of us is protected by angels through God’s mercy. This truth is evidenced in the whole passage of which today’s reading forms the beginning and middle.
Jesus warns his disciples that they are to look after weak Christians who stray from the faith. In a recent novel a young pastor gets wind that a new member of his congregation is having an adulterous affair. He goes to investigate one evening and sees a woman leaving the man’s apartment. Not waiting to investigate further, the pastor confronts his parishioner. He tells the adulterer to stay away from Sunday worship until he has chosen definitively for the Lord. The man knows what he must do and ends the affair.
When errant Christians stop praying or when they choose pleasure over doing God’s will, we are to assist their return to righteousness. Sometimes it will be counter-productive to confront sinners, but we must at least pray for them. Jesus makes clear that if his disciples fail to intervene in such a matter, they will face dire consequences since weak Christians also have angels in direct communication with God.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church
(Nehemiah 8:1-4.5-6.7b-12; Luke10:1-12)
We have all heard the mistaken notion that in the Old Testament God reveals Himself as the mighty Lord demanding justice while in the New Testament Christ reveals Him to be a loving Father. Such an error comes from frequent references in the Prophets to God punishing His chosen people for their sins while forgetting that Jesus too speaks of “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” No, God can be recognized in both parts of the Bible as full of hesed, the Hebrew word for merciful love.
Why else would the Jews break out in tears when they hear "the law" read to them in the reading from Nehemiah today? Certainly there is something more at play than words of a legal code provoking such pathos. Law here means Torah, the first five books of what we call the Old Testament, which tell of God carefully forming Abraham and his descendants into a holy people like Himself and then rescuing them from the tyranny of Pharaoh.
But we must not be too hard on those who find God as revealed by Jesus somehow superior to the One the Jews had known. After all, in time God truly did perform the unimaginable. He came to us in the flesh so that we might have a personal experience of His goodness. God did not change, but we became aware of the depth and breath of His love. St. Therese was aware of this as much as just about anyone. She prescribed the appropriate human response to God when she wrote, “Love is repaid by love alone.”
(Nehemiah 8:1-4.5-6.7b-12; Luke10:1-12)
We have all heard the mistaken notion that in the Old Testament God reveals Himself as the mighty Lord demanding justice while in the New Testament Christ reveals Him to be a loving Father. Such an error comes from frequent references in the Prophets to God punishing His chosen people for their sins while forgetting that Jesus too speaks of “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” No, God can be recognized in both parts of the Bible as full of hesed, the Hebrew word for merciful love.
Why else would the Jews break out in tears when they hear "the law" read to them in the reading from Nehemiah today? Certainly there is something more at play than words of a legal code provoking such pathos. Law here means Torah, the first five books of what we call the Old Testament, which tell of God carefully forming Abraham and his descendants into a holy people like Himself and then rescuing them from the tyranny of Pharaoh.
But we must not be too hard on those who find God as revealed by Jesus somehow superior to the One the Jews had known. After all, in time God truly did perform the unimaginable. He came to us in the flesh so that we might have a personal experience of His goodness. God did not change, but we became aware of the depth and breath of His love. St. Therese was aware of this as much as just about anyone. She prescribed the appropriate human response to God when she wrote, “Love is repaid by love alone.”
Homilette for Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Memorial of St. Jerome, priest
(Nehemiah 2:1-8; Luke 9:57-62)
For whatever setbacks that they have incurred on the Catholic faith, it seems that contemporary times have returned the radicalness to the choice of following Christ. Many think that when families were large and incomes were small, Catholic parents would almost designate one or two children as nuns and/or priests. These commentators go on to say that now when the average family has only one, two, or possibly three children, parents want to assure themselves of grandchildren so a young person has to almost turn her or his back on the family to pursue a vocation.
This gospel passage today provokes this kind of speculation as it deals with the difficulty of discipleship. Jesus’ followers are called to sleep under the stars, to be absent from their homes when parents die, and indeed to leave aside totally family concerns. However, a problem emerges. Christian discipleship extends far beyond religious life and the priesthood. Both married and single persons are called to follow Christ with the same kind of radicalness that we find in the gospel.
Married couples who adhere to Church teaching on artificial contraception certainly swim against the tide of convention and ease. Single persons who dedicate their lives to caring for others – be they young students or aged parents – while adhering to Catholic moral norms certainly will find struggle part of the package. The key to Christian discipleship is letting go of personal desires to live as Jesus want us to. This takes radical commitment in any time or place. We can accomplish it with joy only by accepting God’s infinitely more radical love.
(Nehemiah 2:1-8; Luke 9:57-62)
For whatever setbacks that they have incurred on the Catholic faith, it seems that contemporary times have returned the radicalness to the choice of following Christ. Many think that when families were large and incomes were small, Catholic parents would almost designate one or two children as nuns and/or priests. These commentators go on to say that now when the average family has only one, two, or possibly three children, parents want to assure themselves of grandchildren so a young person has to almost turn her or his back on the family to pursue a vocation.
This gospel passage today provokes this kind of speculation as it deals with the difficulty of discipleship. Jesus’ followers are called to sleep under the stars, to be absent from their homes when parents die, and indeed to leave aside totally family concerns. However, a problem emerges. Christian discipleship extends far beyond religious life and the priesthood. Both married and single persons are called to follow Christ with the same kind of radicalness that we find in the gospel.
Married couples who adhere to Church teaching on artificial contraception certainly swim against the tide of convention and ease. Single persons who dedicate their lives to caring for others – be they young students or aged parents – while adhering to Catholic moral norms certainly will find struggle part of the package. The key to Christian discipleship is letting go of personal desires to live as Jesus want us to. This takes radical commitment in any time or place. We can accomplish it with joy only by accepting God’s infinitely more radical love.
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