Friday, August 30, 2013

Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Matthew 25:1-13)

Reading today's passage from St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, we get the idea that lust was perhaps the biggest temptation in his day.  It was the vice that set Greece against Troy in history's most famous war. Still today sexual desire creates intolerable situations.  Two years ago a promising politician in New York had to resign his seat in Congress for sending lewd pictures with his telephone.

In the reading Paul warns his readers that marriage too may be polluted by prurient desires.  Spouses should not look at each other as sexual objects but as companions who will bring them closer to Christ.  They are to love like Christ who gave himself as a sacrifice for his disciples.

We are challenged to overcome sexual desires in an overly indulgent culture.  Prayer is the first line of defense.  Discipline avoiding concentration on sexual stimuli is also necessary.  We should make every effort not to become preoccupied with sexual fantasy but to develop a mature attitude toward sexuality.  It is a positive natural force but like a nuclear meltdown can get out of control.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Memorial of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

(I Thessalonians 3:7-13; Mark 6:17-29)

A famous experiment showed that people are likely to inflict lethal pain on an innocent person if told to by an authority. When the professor who designed the experiment polled his students and colleagues beforehand, few predicted that subjects would be so compassionless. But to the chagrin of all the results have been duplicated in different societies.  Today’s gospel paints a similarly dismal portrait of humans.

King Herod recognizes John as "righteous and holy." From the account it sounds as if Herod wants to keep John as a spiritual guide.  But as attuned as Herod might be to John's goodness, he does not rise above his own pride.  Because he promises Herodias' daughter anything that she asks, he executes the eminently honorable John in order to not appear weak and unfaithful to his word.  A decent person would have apologized for his foolhardy promise and disciplined his step-daughter for making such an outrageous request.

We are wise not to deny our capacity to sin grievously and to thank God every day that we have avoided offending Him.  It is His grace, given through Christ, which turns us from brutal nature into people who love and desire the good.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Memorial of St. Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church

(I Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:27-32)

It has been proposed that the three most important persons in early Christianity are Jesus, Paul, and Augustine.  Some might wonder why this short list would have to mention Jesus and why it does not include the Blessed Mother or St. Peter.  But the proposition concerns the formation of a great religion.  Jesus started it all.  Paul propelled it forward with his work among non-Jews.  And Augustine gave Christianity, in the West at least, a solid theoretical basis.

There are many comparisons to be made between Paul and Augustine beyond enshrinement in Christianity’s hall of fame.  Both experienced famous conversions.  Paul, of course, was persecuting Christianity when the Lord turned his life upside down on the road to Damascus.  Augustine’s conversion, on the other hand, was subtle and gradual.  He had leaned for a long time toward a heretical Christian sect.  Also, a promiscuous relationship hindered him from pursuing where his intellect was leading him.  Finally, however, he could not deny God’s calling from within and was baptized by St. Ambrose of Milan.  Another comparison is that both Paul and Augustine worked tirelessly for Christ after their conversions.  Paul suffered from the wiles of men as well as from the elements of nature to bring the gospel at least as far as Rome.  In today’s reading he hints at how he worked all day for his upkeep and preached all night for the salvation of souls.  Augustine’s enormous output of books and sermons eloquently testifies to his exhaustive work.

Perhaps most importantly both Paul and Augustine can be considered together for their work developing the concept of grace.  Paul understood that we humans were doomed to sin when God sent His son to save us.  Augustine made it clear that salvation is not a little bit God’s offer and a little bit our response.  No, Augustine taught, even the inspiration to respond to God’s offer is a movement of divine grace within us.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Memorial of Saint Monica

(I Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 23:23-26)

Many Catholic parents of adult children today readily identify with St. Monica.  Their children just do not care about religion.  They may or may not identify themselves with the faith, but they do not go to Mass and readily express disagreement with Church teaching.  Like Monica these parents pray fervently for their children and, hopefully again like her, remind them of not just the glorious destiny that Catholic Christians have but the joy of knowing Jesus Christ.

St. Paul in the reading today sees himself as a similar loving mother.  He writes, “…we were gentle among you as a nursing mother cares for her infants.”  He means that like a mother he loved his spiritual children so much that he was patient in his initial preaching to the Thessalonians taking pains to explain the gospel in simple terms and also that he sacrificed himself for them by practicing his trade of tent-making rather than burden them for his upkeep. 

We must be careful not to take up the erroneous ideas of the young.  Surely they have things to teach us like tolerance for different races, but we have something more essential that like Paul to the Thessalonians we have to impart – the truth that salvation comes from the self-sacrificing love of Jesus which all are called to imitate.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 12:5-7.11-13; Luke 13:22-30)

Father Ferapont is an austere but unholy monk of Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.  When the genuinely good monk Father Zossima dies and his body begins to putrefy, Ferapont does not hesitate to interpret the natural decomposition as proof of Zossima’s depravity.  Ferapont is a more modern example of vanity masquerading as religious zeal that Jesus condemns in today’s gospel.

The Pharisees should not be considered as a sect or a group of fanatics.  Actually many serve the Lord by safeguarding against laxity among ordinary Jews.  Still some, as Jesus observes, fail to assist the people they purport to keep on the straight and narrow.  Rather their condescending manners move people away from true worship.

We who go beyond the minimum obligations that the Church dictates have to guard against the sanctimony of the Pharisees.  We need to give positive example without condemning and to patiently support rather than precipitously dismiss those who do not have the wherewithal to yet commit themselves fully to the Lord.