Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 2:10b-16; Luke 4:31-37)

One college man was telling a companion how he was listening to himself recite the Creed at Mass.  He said rather defiantly “Since when do I believe in everything ’seen and unseen’ (these were the days of the former translation)? “I don’t believe in what is unseen.”  He continued, “Since when do I believe in the Holy Spirit? Where is he?  I don’t believe in him.”  Fortunately, the young man was quite drunk and not completely responsible for the blasphemy.  However that may be, his words belie the Spirit of God to whom St. Paul witnesses in the first reading today.

Paul tells the Christians of Corinth that the rebirth in hope that they have experienced is nothing natural.  Rather it comes from God’s very Holy Spirit.  It is not an illusion because it raised Christ from the dead. Indeed, it will bring about their resurrection when Christ returns in glory.  For now the Spirit brings the community together in love despite differences of age, gender, temperament and national origin.

We find the same Spirit at work today.  It enables us to see the world in a different light.  We are not here to show off our talents so that we might be given a fleeting experience of adulation.  No, the Spirit enables us to serve others in humility that we might enjoy God’s eternal wonder.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time (Labor Day)

(I Corinthians 2:1-5; Luke 4:16-30)

Today many young people prefer to receive Holy Communion on the tongue.  A generation ago, most took the host in the hand.  Some of this latter group probably had hygiene in mind, but others were thinking of the dignity of the human hand.  We work with our hands – whether we are bricklayers or brain surgeons.  In a sense work gives the hand its dignity.

We work so that we might eat, of course.  But we also work to give glory to God by making the world a better place to live.  In fact, the worthiness of one’s work may be measured by how much it improves society.  This does not mean that those whose work is humble – an attendant in comparison with a technician – are not significantly benefitting society.  Indeed, done with care, the work of the attendant may make a greater contribution to the human community than the sloppy performance of a genius.  The labor movement has assisted in this effort by training and exhorting women and men to work with pride.

Jesus in the gospel is presented as a worker.  We see him today returning to his hometown where he is known as the son of Joseph, the carpenter.  The Gospel of Mark calls Jesus a carpenter himself.  But he perceives a call to the most worthy work of all.  No more will he be building houses.  Rather, he recognizes that God, his true Father, wants him to proclaim God’s love to the world.

Fiday, August 29, 2014

Memorial of the Passion of John the Baptist

(I Corinthians 1:17-25; Mark 6:17-29)

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, the protagonist says: "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."  He is referring to the many occasions in which cowards betray their consciences during their lifetimes by failing to do what is right.  King Herod proves himself such a coward when he executes John the Baptist in today’s gospel.

Herod does not wish to be seen as a liar or a coward in front of his guests.  As he promised his stepdaughter anything that she asks, he feels compelled to deliver the head of an innocent man which she requests.  Ironically, Herod acts like the coward what he wants to avoid being known as.  A brave man would have scolded his stepdaughter openly for making such an outrageous request.

On the other hand, John the Baptist showed real courage by speaking out against a public scandal.  He put his life on the line by criticizing Herod for marrying his brother’s wife.  His death is rightly memorialized through the centuries as a testimony to truth and decency.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Memorial of Saint Augustine, bishop and Doctor of the Church

(I Corinthians 1:1-9; Matthew 24:42-51)

A seminary professor, accustomed to lecturing sitting down, said that when teaching today’s patron saint, “I stand for Augustine”!  There is certainly reason for such propriety.  More than any other thinker, St. Augustine shaped Christian theology.  He was to the Church what the Federalists -- Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, combined -- were to the government of the United States; that is, the chief commentator of its ideals.

Augustine’s achievement may be attributed to several contingent factors.  He lived a long life during a period of many challenges to the faith.  Of course, he was a genius, but also he had an excellent humanistic formation.  His writings were formative because they were directed toward the great theological controversies of the time.  He refuted Manicheanism, a belief system which attracted Augustine as a young man, that denied the value of material existence.  He also waged a theological war against Donatism, an error holding that the value of the sacrament depended upon the holiness of its minister.  The end of his life was given to fighting Pelagianism, which held that a person can achieve salvation with human power alone.  Beyond these controversies Augustine commented brilliantly in seminal works on the Trinity and the Christian’s role in the world.

Besides being the greatest theologian of the first millennium other than the New Testament writers themselves, Augustine also distinguished himself as a bishop, which occupied the majority of his time. His sermons, four hundred of which have been preserved, are a testimony to Scriptural insight, theological acumen, and rhetorical eloquence.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Memorial of St. Monica, holy woman

(II Thessalonians 3:6-10.16-18; Matthew23:27-32)

St. Monica is known today for her praying for her son, the great St. Augustine.  She was a holy woman who remained faithful to her unfaithful husband and solicitous of her son’s conversion. Augustine seems to have gone through opposite phases of detesting the world and glorying in its pleasures.  For a while he was a Manichean, the sect that professed belief in a benign principle of the spirit and an evil principle of matter.  He also had a mistress and once prayed famously, “Make me chaste, O Lord, but not just yet!”

In today’s gospel Jesus castigates such inconsistency.  He tells the Pharisees that their intentions do not match their actions.  If they want to honor the prophets, then they must follow the prophets’ call to reformation of heart.

We should not be dismayed to see Augustine’s and the Pharisees’ inconsistency in us.  It is deeply human in the sense that our physical emotions often run counter to right reason.  We should pray for one another like Monica prayed for Augustine.  We need to ask the Spirit to transform our hearts completely so that we might love like God loves.