Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Proverbs 30:5-9; Luke 9:1-6)
A short story tells of a young couple of modest means. They attend a lower-class Protestant church, perhaps Baptist, with devotion. As years pass, the couple becomes wealthier and their tastes change. They find themselves socializing with different people and following these people to higher brow churches – a progression something like from Methodism to Presbyterianism to Anglicanism. Eventually, the woman dies and the man (if I remember the story correctly) chooses not to have a church funeral. The man, at least, has lost his faith in Jesus.
The reading from Proverbs today reminds us to ask God for sufficiency, not for wealth or poverty. Riches tend to make one forget about God as the short story attests. Although the poor are said to attract God’s concern, poverty is hardly desirable in itself. As Proverbs indicate, it may cause loss of trust in God’s providence. “In medio virtus stat” (virtue stands in the middle), the scholastics taught. We are best off neither rich nor poor but with just enough so that we do not forget both to thank God for today’s bread and to ask Him for tomorrow’s.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Feast of Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist
(Ephesians 4:1-7.11-13; Matthew 9:9-13)
Once a social worker in a Catholic nursing home was doing what we might call “gospel therapy” with a resident. She read the first part of a verse expecting him 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.” Many of the worker’s verses were drawn from the Gospel According to Matthew which are etched in the memories of most Catholics. For example, she said: “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...”
Today we celebrate the feast of the author of this “first” gospel. As with the other gospels we know little with certainty about his background. Because his Greek language is refined, he was not likely a Hebrew-speaking disciple of Jesus. Since the gospel refers to the destruction of the Temple, which occurred in the year 70 A.D., he probably composed the work after that date and, therefore, was of the second generation of Christianity.
In the Gospel passage selected for today’s 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, Matthew also expresses his purpose for coming to the world. We should take them to heart because they contain the key to salvation. Let us do a bit of gospel therapy. If we hear, “I did not come to call the righteous...” What are we to answer?
(Ephesians 4:1-7.11-13; Matthew 9:9-13)
Once a social worker in a Catholic nursing home was doing what we might call “gospel therapy” with a resident. She read the first part of a verse expecting him 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.” Many of the worker’s verses were drawn from the Gospel According to Matthew which are etched in the memories of most Catholics. For example, she said: “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...”
Today we celebrate the feast of the author of this “first” gospel. As with the other gospels we know little with certainty about his background. Because his Greek language is refined, he was not likely a Hebrew-speaking disciple of Jesus. Since the gospel refers to the destruction of the Temple, which occurred in the year 70 A.D., he probably composed the work after that date and, therefore, was of the second generation of Christianity.
In the Gospel passage selected for today’s 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, Matthew also expresses his purpose for coming to the world. We should take them to heart because they contain the key to salvation. Let us do a bit of gospel therapy. If we hear, “I did not come to call the righteous...” What are we to answer?
Monday, September 20, 2010
Memorial of Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr; Paul Chong Hasang, martyr; and their companions
(Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18)
A lifetime ago poet T.S. Eliot wrote what many people wonder today. “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” Eliot asked, “Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Our society seems to know more and more but act with less prudence. Information abounds, but few seem able to use it profitably. Schools, where knowledge should be passed on, may provide a good example. All too often they stand out for apathy and resistance rather than the pursuit of understanding.
In the Scripture readings at Mass this week we will hear several wisdom passages. Today’s passage from the Book of Proverbs reminds us to be generous and just. Also, Jesus uses proverbs to teach the crowds in the gospel today. The wise, he says, will listen carefully to worthy instruction or they will lose whatever edge they have had on life’s challenges. Later in the week we hear the wisdom of Ecclesiastes warning that human achievement is vain without proper acknowledgement of God.
Wisdom is not knowledge and much less mere information. It is truth about life which takes almost a lifetime to comprehend. We are wise not to dismiss the readings from Scripture this week as commonplace or already mastered. Rather we should ponder them anew and measure our lives according to their contents.
(Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18)
A lifetime ago poet T.S. Eliot wrote what many people wonder today. “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” Eliot asked, “Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Our society seems to know more and more but act with less prudence. Information abounds, but few seem able to use it profitably. Schools, where knowledge should be passed on, may provide a good example. All too often they stand out for apathy and resistance rather than the pursuit of understanding.
In the Scripture readings at Mass this week we will hear several wisdom passages. Today’s passage from the Book of Proverbs reminds us to be generous and just. Also, Jesus uses proverbs to teach the crowds in the gospel today. The wise, he says, will listen carefully to worthy instruction or they will lose whatever edge they have had on life’s challenges. Later in the week we hear the wisdom of Ecclesiastes warning that human achievement is vain without proper acknowledgement of God.
Wisdom is not knowledge and much less mere information. It is truth about life which takes almost a lifetime to comprehend. We are wise not to dismiss the readings from Scripture this week as commonplace or already mastered. Rather we should ponder them anew and measure our lives according to their contents.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(I Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 8:1-3)
A famous painting by the French master Georges de La Tour hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It shows a loosely-clad woman sitting in front of a looking glass in meditative stupor. She is fingering a skull, which sits in front of, and almost blocks from view, a burning candle. “What’s it all about?” she seems to ask herself as she contemplates life and death, herself and Christ, the light.
The painting is called “The Repentant Magdalene,” but this may be a misnomer. That title reflects a popular but unfounded belief that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute. Preachers through the ages have concluded that Mary Magdalene, mentioned for the first time in Luke’s gospel today, is “the sinful woman” who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears of yesterday’s gospel passage. But today’s gospel only identifies her as the woman “from whom seven demons had gone out.” Demon possession in the New Testament is associated with sickness and hysteria, not moral depravity. Mary Magdalene’s relation to the woman of the previous chapter is likely one of inclusion, that is the evangelist Luke includes the story of the women accompanying Jesus following that of “the sinful woman” to indicate how Jesus attracted different kinds of women as well as men to himself.
But certainly the questions that La Tour’s Magdalene seems to ask are likewise inclusive of all humanity as well. What’s the point of it all? Is our destiny just dry bones that will whither completely in time? Or is Jesus the fire who enlightens our minds today and will empower our resurrection from the dead tomorrow? We Christians know the answers to these questions. Our task is to live their implications in our everyday lives.
(I Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 8:1-3)
A famous painting by the French master Georges de La Tour hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It shows a loosely-clad woman sitting in front of a looking glass in meditative stupor. She is fingering a skull, which sits in front of, and almost blocks from view, a burning candle. “What’s it all about?” she seems to ask herself as she contemplates life and death, herself and Christ, the light.
The painting is called “The Repentant Magdalene,” but this may be a misnomer. That title reflects a popular but unfounded belief that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute. Preachers through the ages have concluded that Mary Magdalene, mentioned for the first time in Luke’s gospel today, is “the sinful woman” who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears of yesterday’s gospel passage. But today’s gospel only identifies her as the woman “from whom seven demons had gone out.” Demon possession in the New Testament is associated with sickness and hysteria, not moral depravity. Mary Magdalene’s relation to the woman of the previous chapter is likely one of inclusion, that is the evangelist Luke includes the story of the women accompanying Jesus following that of “the sinful woman” to indicate how Jesus attracted different kinds of women as well as men to himself.
But certainly the questions that La Tour’s Magdalene seems to ask are likewise inclusive of all humanity as well. What’s the point of it all? Is our destiny just dry bones that will whither completely in time? Or is Jesus the fire who enlightens our minds today and will empower our resurrection from the dead tomorrow? We Christians know the answers to these questions. Our task is to live their implications in our everyday lives.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Memorial of Saints Cornelius, pope, and Cyprian, bishop and martyr
(I Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7:36-50)
Albert Camus, the twentieth century French existentialist, wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus that suicide is the most important philosophical question. First and foremost, he opined, one should decide whether life is worth living before bothering to think about any other thing. In a similar vein, it might be said that the most important religious question for us Christians is whether Jesus rose from the dead. We might suspend every other article of faith until we address that issue.
In the first reading today Paul faces the question head-on. He tells us not just that Christian witnesses have testified to Jesus’ resurrection since it presumably happened, but also that he personally, and quite unlikely, saw the risen Christ. He admits that the vision was a special grace and that it completely turned around his life.
Reading the letters of St. Paul, we feel like he is a contemporary. There is no stiltedness to his words or lack of sensibility in what he says. Rather, he writes as honestly and passionately as Rachel Carson in The Silent Spring or John Steinbeck in Travels with Charlie. The witness of these letters, confirmed by Paul’s enduring multiple hardships to proclaim it to others, reassures us that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is no fiction. He rose to give us, like he gave Paul, the grace to conquer sin in our lives and to survive the death that is to come.
(I Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7:36-50)
Albert Camus, the twentieth century French existentialist, wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus that suicide is the most important philosophical question. First and foremost, he opined, one should decide whether life is worth living before bothering to think about any other thing. In a similar vein, it might be said that the most important religious question for us Christians is whether Jesus rose from the dead. We might suspend every other article of faith until we address that issue.
In the first reading today Paul faces the question head-on. He tells us not just that Christian witnesses have testified to Jesus’ resurrection since it presumably happened, but also that he personally, and quite unlikely, saw the risen Christ. He admits that the vision was a special grace and that it completely turned around his life.
Reading the letters of St. Paul, we feel like he is a contemporary. There is no stiltedness to his words or lack of sensibility in what he says. Rather, he writes as honestly and passionately as Rachel Carson in The Silent Spring or John Steinbeck in Travels with Charlie. The witness of these letters, confirmed by Paul’s enduring multiple hardships to proclaim it to others, reassures us that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is no fiction. He rose to give us, like he gave Paul, the grace to conquer sin in our lives and to survive the death that is to come.
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