Friday, August 15, 2014

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Revelation 11:19a.12:1-6a.10ab; I Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56)

Fr. Raymond E. Brown, perhaps the best biblical scholar of his time, was very concerned about ecumenical relations.  He often reassured Protestants worrying that the Catholic Church was making excessive claims about Mary.  He proposed that the Church, at least in the cases of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, declared about Mary what Scripture proposes for all true followers of Christ albeit in a privileged way.  For example, the Church’s doctrine that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven is essentially what all the faithful will experience at the end of time.  The reading from First Corinthians gives testimony to this.  Christ was raised as the first fruits of God’s redemption.  The “proper order” that St. Paul mentions would have Mary, the mother of Christ, being glorified after him but before other women and men.

Our bodies’ destiny for eternal glory gives added reason for us to treat them well.  St. Paul in the same letter to the Corinthians presents the primary reason.  They are temples of the Holy Spirit that must not be profaned by lewd conduct.  Capitulating to sexual desire is what he has in mind here. We might supplement his concern for proper regard for the body with avoidance of excessive food and drink.  A few years ago a report was made telling of how people use their overweight friends as permission for them to pile on the pounds.  Of course, the resolution of this problem is not to cut ties with fat people but to model for others healthy eating habits. 

One more thing, if we want to develop virtue by emulating our friends, we might make friends with the saints, especially Mary.  In today’s gospel she visits her relative Elizabeth not only as a swift and certain response to the word of God but also as a show of support for of a woman with an unexpected pregnancy.  She also praises God for all the good that has happened to her.  Finally, she announces the good news of salvation.  Could anyone imagine a better person to have as a friend?

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr

(Ezekiel 12:1-12; Matthew 18:21-19:1)

Love is at the center of the gospel, but not any kind of love.  No, Jesus testifies to God’s forgiving love by his cross and resurrection.  Humans have always sinned against God, particularly by their injustice to one another.  Jesus came as the just human who never sinned.  In fact, his goodness extended to the giving of himself completely for the sake of humanity.  God raised Jesus from the dead as an acknowledgement that the myriad offenses which humans have committed have been forgiven.  Those who give themselves to Jesus are re-created, dead to sin and alive with his goodness.

The followers of Christ in turn must exhibit the same forgiving love of God by forgiving one another.  The parable of today’s gospel illustrates that human forgiveness of one another is a mere shadow of God’s forgiveness, yet some refuse to do so.  They hold others to strict account for everything done to them like the airline which charges for everything from allowing baggage to providing water. The first debtor having been forgiven a huge sum should have been more than willing to forgive his own debtor of a trivial amount.  His refusal to do it shows that he is not in the company of Jesus, that he remains outside the new creation.

Often enough we are asked to forgive a debt of another that in no way is trivial.  Perhaps a drunk driver killed our child.  The person sobers up and begs our forgiveness.  We do not feel at all like saying, even in our prayer, I forgive that one.  In this case, let’s pray for the grace to be more like Jesus, to say, “My love for you, my God, surpasses my abhorrence for what has been done to me.”

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 9:1-7.10:18-22; Matthew 18:15-20)

One moral question on which there has been a distinctive change in Catholic teaching is the freedom of conscience.  Where for centuries the Church taught that it is permissible to punish members of the community who adopt foreign beliefs, she now honors the integrity of individual conscience.  Freedom of conscience demands that no one be forced to declare as true what she or he does not believe.  The age of the Inquisition, however inaccurately it is construed, has definitely past.

Still it might be pointed out that religious persecution has biblical roots.  In the reading today from Ezekiel the Lord calls for the purification of the temple from idolaters.  Obviously, the reading has more than chastisement in mind as God demands the death of those who have defiled the Temple by worshiping idols there.  Today we only stand aghast at the suggestion of such practices.

Can such intolerance be justified in retrospect?  Certainly something may be said that in times of less developed economies social cohesion standing on common beliefs and religious practices was critical.  We can add that there is a progressive development in biblical teaching which reaches its culmination in Christ.  The people came to understand God’s ways slowly and imperfectly until God sent His Son to reveal them in their fullness.  Even now we grapple with how to understand some of Jesus’ teaching and, more challenging still, how to practice it.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 2:8-3:4; Matthew 18:1-5.10.12-14)

An old labor organizer once told the story of how a worker approached him one day saying that a preacher was talking to other workers.  The organizer said that the workers needed to have the fear of God put into them.  The worker responded that the preacher was not talking about the workers’ faults but the organizer’s faults.  The organizer then went to investigate.  Like the labor organizer the prophet Ezekiel realizes the importance of hearing the word of God.

Ezekiel is given a directive to eat the scroll; that is, he is to take in the word of God.  It is sweet to the taste, not because it tells of destruction for the people but because it ends in the people becoming purer, better, more like God Himself.  There is a glimpse of this in the gospel today.  Jesus’ parable speaks of a shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep.  The shepherd is God returning the wayward to the path of goodness.

We might find some satisfaction in preaching to people about their sins.  But that may be a sign that we are sinfully proud and contemptuous.  Instead of self-righteously criticizing others, we need to develop the habit of praying for others before we speak to them.  And when we talk with them, we should be ready to explain why we see their actions as injurious.  In these ways the word of God grows in both them and us.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Memorial of Saint Clare of Assisi, virgin              

(Ezekiel 1:2-5a.24.24-28c; Matthew 17:22-27)

Next to St. Francis himself, St. Clare was responsible for the Franciscan revolution of the thirteenth century.  Their innovations, along with those of St. Dominic, transformed religious life.  They rejected the privilege to which monks and nuns at the time had long been accustomed.  In its place they begged for the food they ate to conform themselves radically with the gospel.  Interestingly, their rules of religious life were not spurned by contemporaries but attracted phenomenal numbers of adherents.  In today’s gospel Jesus shows himself to be an even more daring innovator.

People think of God with such a powerful persona that suffering for Him would be contradictory.  Yet Jesus, accepting the title of Christ or Son of God, openly announces his imminent passion and death.  The passage also has Jesus humbly paying his taxes.  He refuses any privilege of office as he has come exclusively to serve. 

In a world that still pays great homage to power, we must remember who our Savior is.  He did not crush foes but allowed himself to be executed as an innocent person.  We follow him by rendering humble service to others and by refusing to be impressed by displays of force.