Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Joshua 24:1-13; Matthew 19:3-12)
A story was told of Andrew Carnegie, one’s of America’s richest men and leading philanthropists. One day a beggar asked Carnegie to share his wealth with him. Carnegie reached in his pocket, pulled out a few coins worth perhaps seven cents, and handed them to the man. The beggar was taken aback, but Carnegie explained that it was the beggar’s portion of all Carnegie’s wealth divided by the number of people in the world.
As Carnegie tried to impress on the beggar that his wealth was for everyone, Joshua reminds the Israelites that their fortune was not their own doing. Indeed, God has been their benefactor at every point in their illustrious saga. But Joshua indicates that it has not only been the Lord who provided for their needs, countless humans – Amorites, Perrezites, Canaanites, et al. -- were God’s immediate instruments leaving their prosperity to the people of Israel. His point is that the people should be grateful to God and to heed His commands which are in good part directed to social solidarity.
We must beware that selfishness and greed does not allow us to forget God and neighbor. All of us, as Joshua says, are beneficiaries of land that we did not till and cities that we did not build. Richly endowed by our forebears, we are not so much to pay back as to pay forward. That is, we are to thank God by generosity contributing to efforts which shape a society where everyone can live, grow, and prosper.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Memorial of Saint Clare, virgin
(Joshua 3:7-10a.11.13-17; Matthew 18:21-19.1)
In a story a hoodlum kills a man presumably in a squabble over a parking space. But something more sinister is involved. At the end of the story, after several years have transpired, the son of the original victim murders the hoodlum. Retaliation was brooding all the while. Jesus tells his followers in the gospel today that they should not let it have sway in their lives.
Peter must think himself radical when he asks Jesus if one has to forgive another as many as seven times. But seven – the number of fulfillment – does not satisfy the Lord. Since forgiveness is at the core of the good news, “seven times seventy-seven times” would be closer to what he has in mind. In other words, Jesus wants his followers to always forgive.
Without forgiveness, as Blessed John Paul II noted, justice is impossible. One side eventually has to say, “Enough,” and forego retaliation. If not, hatred will grow like a foreign weed eventually taking over the social landscape. Whether in the Middle East or within our families, someone must forgive wrongdoing or no one will live in peace.
(Joshua 3:7-10a.11.13-17; Matthew 18:21-19.1)
In a story a hoodlum kills a man presumably in a squabble over a parking space. But something more sinister is involved. At the end of the story, after several years have transpired, the son of the original victim murders the hoodlum. Retaliation was brooding all the while. Jesus tells his followers in the gospel today that they should not let it have sway in their lives.
Peter must think himself radical when he asks Jesus if one has to forgive another as many as seven times. But seven – the number of fulfillment – does not satisfy the Lord. Since forgiveness is at the core of the good news, “seven times seventy-seven times” would be closer to what he has in mind. In other words, Jesus wants his followers to always forgive.
Without forgiveness, as Blessed John Paul II noted, justice is impossible. One side eventually has to say, “Enough,” and forego retaliation. If not, hatred will grow like a foreign weed eventually taking over the social landscape. Whether in the Middle East or within our families, someone must forgive wrongdoing or no one will live in peace.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A scam email was sent in my name yesterday. I pray that no one was fooled by it. I am fine and in Fort Worth. I am sorry for any trouble the scam may have caused. Please be very wary about giving out your email password. cm
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Feast of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr
(II Corinthians 9:6-10; John 12:2-26)
Of all the martyrs of the early Church, St. Lawrence is one of the most celebrated. As much as his bravery in the face of death, his sense of humor has captured the popular imagination.
Lawrence was a deacon in the Church of Rome with charge over the communal treasury. When he was brought before the authorities during the Valerian persecution of the mid third century, he was told to hand over the Church’s treasures. Lawrence then gathered the poor of the city and brought them to the Roman prefect announcing, “These are the Church’s treasures.” The quip gained for Lawrence a martyr’s death by burning. The story goes that during the gruesome ordeal, Lawrence maintained his sense of humor. After being skewered and fixed over a flame for a while, he reportedly told his executioners that they could turn him over because he was done on one side.
It is a virtue to emulate Lawrence’s humor. It is not that we should strive to become practical jokesters but, like him, we want to value everything – wealth and even health – as paltry compared with the eternal life won for us by the Savior.
(II Corinthians 9:6-10; John 12:2-26)
Of all the martyrs of the early Church, St. Lawrence is one of the most celebrated. As much as his bravery in the face of death, his sense of humor has captured the popular imagination.
Lawrence was a deacon in the Church of Rome with charge over the communal treasury. When he was brought before the authorities during the Valerian persecution of the mid third century, he was told to hand over the Church’s treasures. Lawrence then gathered the poor of the city and brought them to the Roman prefect announcing, “These are the Church’s treasures.” The quip gained for Lawrence a martyr’s death by burning. The story goes that during the gruesome ordeal, Lawrence maintained his sense of humor. After being skewered and fixed over a flame for a while, he reportedly told his executioners that they could turn him over because he was done on one side.
It is a virtue to emulate Lawrence’s humor. It is not that we should strive to become practical jokesters but, like him, we want to value everything – wealth and even health – as paltry compared with the eternal life won for us by the Savior.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), virgin and martyr
(Deuteronomy 31:1-8; Matthew 18:1-5.10.12-14)
As a student, Edith Stein distinguished herself. Her search for truth did not lead her to the halls of academia, however, but to the chapel of a Carmelite monastery. Growing up a Jew, she converted to Catholicism and eventually became a nun given to prayer and contemplation.
Living in the turbulent nineteen thirties, Sr. Teresa moved from a monastery in Germany to one in Holland to avoid trouble for her companions. Still she could not escape the voracious intolerance of the German Gestapo. In 1942 she was sent to Auschwitz where she perished in a gas chamber.
The situation of Moses in the reading today reminds us of that of St. Teresa. Like Moses she was a Jew and like him she desired to enter the Promised Land. But where he was too feeble to cross over the Jordan, Sr. Teresa dauntlessly went forward. She was heard telling her sister Rosa who was with her when the Gestapo came: “Come, we are going for our people.” She was going not only because she was a Jew but for the sake of the Jews. She gave a martyr’s witness that Christ suffers and dies for Jews as well as for all others.
(Deuteronomy 31:1-8; Matthew 18:1-5.10.12-14)
As a student, Edith Stein distinguished herself. Her search for truth did not lead her to the halls of academia, however, but to the chapel of a Carmelite monastery. Growing up a Jew, she converted to Catholicism and eventually became a nun given to prayer and contemplation.
Living in the turbulent nineteen thirties, Sr. Teresa moved from a monastery in Germany to one in Holland to avoid trouble for her companions. Still she could not escape the voracious intolerance of the German Gestapo. In 1942 she was sent to Auschwitz where she perished in a gas chamber.
The situation of Moses in the reading today reminds us of that of St. Teresa. Like Moses she was a Jew and like him she desired to enter the Promised Land. But where he was too feeble to cross over the Jordan, Sr. Teresa dauntlessly went forward. She was heard telling her sister Rosa who was with her when the Gestapo came: “Come, we are going for our people.” She was going not only because she was a Jew but for the sake of the Jews. She gave a martyr’s witness that Christ suffers and dies for Jews as well as for all others.
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