Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(Wisdom 7:22b-8:1; Luke 17:17-25)

The man, humbled by years in prison, declared that he took special note of Jesus saying, “The kingdom of God is within you.”  This is a possible rendering of a sentence from today’s gospel which the New American Bible renders as “…the Kingdom of God is among you.”  Self-help promoters prefer the former translation because it underlies the vast human potential available when people discipline their appetites and focus on what they wish to achieve.  But does it render completely satisfactorily what Jesus means by the presence of the Kingdom of God?

Pope Benedict in the first volume of his trilogy on Christ calls the Kingdom of God none other than God Himself.  Yes, God does lie within every righteous person but what Jesus wants to convey is that God has come to the world to arrest the forces of darkness and to bring reconcile sinners to Himself and to one another.  God has arrived precisely in his messenger-son, Jesus Christ, who dies as humanity’s servant.  Tying ourselves to Jesus by Baptism and the Eucharist, we are freed from the dominance of the ego and can submit ourselves gladly to the ways of divine love. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Memorial of Saint Frances Cabrini, virgin

(Wisdom 6:1-11; Luke 17:11-19)

During the Viet Nam War, President Lyndon Johnson once was handed a memo concerning the pros and cons of using tactical nuclear weapons.  According to his Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, the memo stated that use of such weapons would move China to enter the war with its own nuclear weapons starting a full-fledged nuclear war.  Rusk later reported that the words of the memo “popped out of the page” to Johnson who as President of the United States felt responsibility for not just his country but for the world. 

The reading from Wisdom tells us that princes and kings (and we can surely add to the list presidents and prime ministers) should indeed feel grave responsibility for their actions.  It emphasizes that the burdens of their offices will not exempt them from divine judgment.  Rather those responsibilities will entail God’s intensified scrutiny of their actions. 

The Church recognizes the responsibilities and difficulties of civil leaders.  Together with prayers for Church needs, the General Instructions for the Roman Missal (GIRM for short) specifies that the faithful are to pray for “public authorities and the salvation of the world” in the intercessions after the homily.  Although there are always those who think that they can do a better job, we are wise to pray for those in power rather than covet their positions.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Memorial of Saint Josaphat, bishop and martyr

(Wisdom 2:23-3:9; Luke 17:7-10)

Although some people have poor self-images, most think of themselves as better than they actually are.  Some have exalted self-images.  Not long ago The Atlantic magazine published a story on Donald Trump showing that although certainly a multimillionaire, he is not as rich and successful as he claims to be.  Jesus tells his apostles in the gospel today that they must take care not to exaggerate their importance.

Jesus sounds almost ruthless as he warns against pride.  He says that his followers should not think that they are owed even a “thank you” for performing a good deed.  Rather they are to think of themselves only as workers doing their jobs, no more.  In fact, he says that they are to be so humble that they should consider themselves “unprofitable servants,” more tolerated by their master out of good will than really valuable to him.

Such self-effacement provides a needed corrective to most of our egos.  But we should not think of Jesus as a hard master.  In an earlier passage of this same gospel Jesus described himself as one day returning from a banquet and finding his servants at their posts.  He said that he will do what no other master would even think of: “’Amen, I say to you, he (really, I) will gird himself (myself), have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them'” (12:37).

Monday, November 11, 2013

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, bishop

(Wisdom 1:1-7; Luke 17:1-6)

It seems ironic that the memorial of St. Martin of Tours, the icon of pacifist saints, is celebrated on the day given to remember war veterans.  Yet the juxtaposition of events for November 11 was not done cynically, but by coincidence.  Martin’s traditional feast day happened to be the day World War I ended.  Perhaps, though, the two remembrances are not as incongruous as they appear.

Martin was once a soldier as was his pagan father.  When he became a Christian, he thought his profession incompatible with the faith and resigned from the army.  Whether it was because of the possibility of entering mortal combat or because of other behaviors characteristic of military life, history appears silent.  It should be said, however, that often the most valiant soldiers eschew killing.  They will fight only out of love for justice as the reading from the Book of Wisdom today recommends.

Martin too loved justice.  He did not want to see the heretic Priscillian executed for his false teaching as the emperor demanded.  Rather, he thought that the state should stay out of the Church’s business.  He was at once a man of great capacity and humble aspirations.  He is rightly celebrated as one of the holiest men of the Patristic Age.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 15:14-21; Luke 16:1-8)

When baseball player Grant Desme gave up the very real possibility of joining the Oakland Athletics to study for the priesthood, some probably said that he was following a “higher calling.”  Priesthood has traditionally been considered a way to serve God in a noble way.  Even in St. Paul’s time this was true as he intimates in the reading from his Letter to the Romans today.

Paul writes that in preaching the gospel he is performing a “priestly service.”  He doesn’t mean that he is acting like an ordained priest in the contemporary sense but that in facilitating the self-sacrifice of the pagans to Christ, he is serving like an Old Testament priest.  The fact that Paul mentions it at the culmination of his letter indicates that he too considers the work a “higher calling.”

The same calling is available to all of us.  In responding to the challenge of the New Evangelization, we help others find their way to Christ.  This priestly ministry is not foreign or out of character to laypersons.  Rather as baptized members of Christ’s body we share in his priestly office.