Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)

“How can something that feels so right, be so wrong?” country crooners ask.  St. Paul has a similar thought in mind when he tells the Romans in the first reading today, “For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind…”

Paul is expressing the deceptive nature of sin.  It appeals to our inner senses as something good or satisfying, but our minds tell us it is hurtful.  We might be willing to buy a stolen car to get to work, but we know that such a vehicle belongs to its rightful owner.  We would become accomplices in the crime by purchasing it knowingly.

Paul finds in Jesus Christ the resolution to the dilemma of feeling right about something but knowing it to be wrong.  He provides a greater desire which transcends any will to comfort or convenience residing in our strictly natural being.  He loves us as his brothers and sisters so that we might return his graciousness by always doing his virtuous will.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 6:19-23; Luke 12:49-53)

The man was involved in the numbers racket; that is, in collecting small bets on the final numbers of the daily stock market trading.  As Al Capone is supposed to have said, “That’s where the money is.”  And the man made much of it and spent it on liquor, dope, and other vices.  Now he was dying alone in a rundown rental room.  As today’s reading from St. Paul’s Romans poignantly says, “…the wages of sin is death.”

St. Paul has especially in mind the fact that sinful humanity will always die.  Reflecting on Genesis, Paul concludes that the curse of Adam is a tendency to sin that ensnarls every human being and leads to his or her downfall.  That is everyone except Jesus (and by special dispensation his Immaculate Mother).  He not only transcended enslavement to sin but boosted his followers out of their entrapment.  Trusting in Jesus as Lord, humans can now overcome the tendency to love creatures more than the Creator – what sin is all about.

We need to hold ourselves close to Jesus – desperately. Heeding his warnings and following his example, we actually become freer, happier people.  We become, in other words, beneficiaries of the gift of eternal life.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 6:12-18; Luke 12:39-47)

Msgr. Charles King was a priest’s priest.  He gave himself completely to the shepherding of souls.  He learned Spanish to assist the growing numbers in his parish who could not speak English.  He also sought Church unity by participating in ecumenical and interreligious movements.  On Sundays after parish masses were celebrated, Msgr. King didn’t crash in front of the television but would call shut-ins of the parish to offer his support.  This pastor illustrates what Jesus has in mind when he answers Peter’s question in the gospel today.

“Lord, is this parable (of a thief breaking into a house) meant for us or for everyone?” Peter asks Jesus on behalf of his companions.  In his answer Jesus implies that it is meant for his apostles not so much as missionaries but as pastors.  They are to provide pastoral care so that the faithful are not stolen away by the empty promises of evil.  They must also avoid taking advantage of their people by accruing for themselves the favors that the people would give to the Lord.

Pastors need the Spirit’s support and, therefore, the prayers of the faithful to fulfill their responsibilities.  When we think about it, we realize that prayers for faithful leadership redound to everyone’s benefit.  Not only are the people in the pews assisted by their parish priests, but those same people also have shepherding roles.  Parents, of course, are to guide their children to holiness and all Christians should give one another edifying example.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 5:12.15b.17-19.20b-21; Luke 12:35-38)

Sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the United States has more than sinful and scandalous; it has been horrendous.  About three thousand priests over a period of fifty years have been accused of such crime, according to the Church’s Promoter of Justice at the Vatican.  Could any good come out of such a cesspool?  Now it is safe to answer, “Yes.”  The Church’s response has been thorough and effective.  If at one time the Church was lax in supervision, now it is exemplary.  The checks that it has set up seem to have made it a model for curtailing the evil.  It can be sighted as an example of what St. Paul means in today’s reading from his Letter to the Romans that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.”

Paul is writing of human sinful nature the history of which dates back to the first man and woman.  Even with the aid of the Hebrew Law, humans were caught in a vortex of evil.  Then Jesus came to stem the downward thrust.  He not only lived righteously but died to make manifest the egotism at the root of sin.  His death, however, left no trace of personal disgrace as he rose in glory, the first instance of a blessing that encompasses all his followers.

The Holy Spirit has given the Church a resiliency to overcome scandals like sexual abuse a decade ago.  The Spirit works through each of us.  It urges us to abide by the norms that have been set up and to always examine our consciences so that we might act with prudence.  With the Spirit’s guidance the Church has become the template for sexual temperance.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 4:20-25; Luke 12:13-21)

The Church of the early late fifteenth and early sixteenth century suffered from having too much wealth.  The popes acted more like princes than prophets.  Monks and religious hardly witnessed the poverty of Jesus.  Sometimes, indeed, they had personal servants in their convents.  Saints like Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross understood the incongruity of such comfort with religious profession and set out to reform their Carmelite Order.  Of course, Teresa and John took their cues from Jesus in the gospel.

In today’s passage Jesus refuses to get involved in a family dispute over inheritance.  It is not that he wants to ignore real-life tensions.  Rather, he wants to testify to the need of trusting in God for salvation and not in material resources at human disposal.  He calls the farmer in the parable who wants to build silos to provide for his future a “fool” because he does not recognize the obvious: his future is more in the hands of God than in his own.

Certainly we are challenged to live our faith in Jesus.  We have material needs that must be cared for.  But we cannot allow ourselves to accrue things that will take our attention from God as our final hope.  It may take the majority of our lifetime, but we must learn to see material needs best cared from a perspective that emphasizes dependence on God.