Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, virgin and Doctor of the Church

 

(Galatians 5:18-25; Luke 11:42-46)

 

St. Teresa of Jesus, perhaps better known as Teresa of Avila, lived at a time of laxness in religious life.  It is not hard to imagine the kinds of abuses – nothing that would be scandalous today but niceties that impede the Lord’s discipleship: frequent self-dismissal from prayer, a hearty table at all meals, gossiping throughout of the day.  Teresa could not stomach the betrayal of ideals and began to reform convents where such practices were carried on.  Like Jesus in today’s gospel Teresa would have harsh words for those who exploit their religious state of life.

 

Jesus accuses the Pharisees and scholars of the Law for what might be called false religion.  Religion is defined as the love of God to which, Jesus claims, the Pharisees pay no attention.  Yet they want to be seen as doing so.  Scholars of the Law are no better in Jesus’ eyes.  They give strict interpretations of the Law which put great burdens on those who labor every day.  Perhaps they can be compared to pastors who insist that parishioners pay a literal tithe – one tenth of all earnings – to the Church.  It is fine for households making $200,000 a year but impossible for families earning only $20,000.

 

We who go to daily mass (or who read the Scriptures of the daily mass) must take care that we do not act like the Pharisees.  We want to encourage others to make sacrifices for God not with condemnation but with understanding.  If we truly love God, we will care about His people.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 5:1-6; Luke 11:37-41)

Jazz has been called “musician’s music.”  Although it may sound undisciplined, it is not for beginners.  Rather jazz players have practiced for years so that their improvisation sounds natural and the notes they strike, just right.  That is like the freedom that St. Paul has in mind in the first reading.

Paul is lecturing the Galatians about the pitfalls of taking on the Jewish law.  He finds them being deceived by the so-called Judaizers saying that they must practice the Law to please God.  He knows that perfection does not come from vain attempts to fulfill the Law’s hundreds of prescriptions.  No, he tells them that Christ has set them free of the Law so that they can love freely.  He means that they might do random acts of kindness above and beyond the demands of justice.

In Christ’s freedom we do not ask, “What is the minimum I have to do to be saved?”  Rather we are moved by the Holy Spirit to care for others in numerous ways.  We find such kindness as hardly burdensome because we have Christ with us.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 4:22-24.26-27.31-5.1; Luke 11:29-32)

A story is told about a rabbi who walks through the woods and is accosted by a robber.  “Give me the most valuable thing you carry,” the thug demands.  The rabbi thinks for a moment, then reaches into his bag and pulls out a diamond as big as a grapefruit.  He tells the robber, “You must mean this.”  The robber takes the diamond and flees.  Later the same day, he returns to the rabbi.  He now orders, “You better hand over to me the treasure that made giving up that diamond so easy.”

Just as there is no satisfying the robber, there is no pacifying the people in the gospel passage who demand a sign from Jesus.  Any further cure or exorcism that he performs would only create further desire to see works of wonder.  There will never be enough evidence to convince them that he comes from God because such a move requires a humble act of faith.  That is, they will have to repent of all false desire and begin living God’s justice.

How about us?  If you are like me, we both think that we are living pretty good lives.  We might give ourselves a “B+” or an “A-” for conduct.  But we know that we would do better if we felt absolutely certain that God is in our midst.  We too must consider that the Queen of the South and the people of Nineveh may condemn us as well those gathered to hear Jesus in today’s gospel.  After all, God comes to us in word and sacrament in this very Eucharist, and still we only make a ninety percent effort.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 3:7-14; Luke 11:15-26)

Pelagius was a fifth century monk who thought like many moderns. He taught that humans do not need God to be good. Rather, he claimed that human nature has the wherewithal to avoid sin.  These ideas were condemned by the Church, and the passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians that we read today indicates why.

For Paul the experience of trying to fulfill the 613 precepts of the Jewish Law inevitably ends in failure. It is like trying to cross the ocean in a Volkswagen.  The vehicle is simply not up to the task.  But God in His mercy has sent His son to provide viable means.  Acknowledging him as Lord and undergoing his death and resurrection through Baptism will provide the necessary grace for a holy life.

“Is the act of believing then a human work?” we may want to ask.  In other words, do we cooperate with God’s grace?  These are highly nuanced and hotly debated questions.  Certainly, the act of faith engages the human will.  But it hardly takes an effort for the wise to believe when God’s graciousness is juxtaposed with human folly.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 3:1-5; Luke 11:5-13)

Paul’s frontal attack against the Galatians – “O stupid Galatians, who has bewitched you?” – makes us wonder what kind of people would tolerate such criticism.  Most likely Paul is addressing a community of Christians he founded in the northern part of the province of Galatia.  The fair-haired and light complexioned inhabitants of that area migrated in the third century before Christ from the region of the Pyrenees Mountains separating what is presently France and Spain.  “Galatians” comes from the same root as the Latin word Gallia which refers to the expansive tract of Western Europe that includes modern France. 

In Paul’s day Galatians were considered something like the giant but amicable Brobdingnagians of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.  One biblical commentator describes the Galatian as “large, unpredictable simpletons, instinctively generous, ferocious and highly dangerous when angry, but without stamina and easy to trick.”  Paul evidently considers them good-hearted enough to accept his sharp disapproval without rejecting the gospel he preached.  He likely developed a deep rapport when ill health caused him to stay with them for an extended time.

Paul’s language, however, reveals more about himself than about the Galatians.  For Paul the single, most important fact of life is God’s redemption of humanity in Jesus Christ.  To his mind Christ commissioned him to preach this truth to non-Jews.  He does not mean to subjugate anyone with his harsh speech but only to urge them to accept the salvation won by Christ.  If strong language is necessary, he would muster the highest indignation.  If refined rhetoric would do the job, he would polish his argument.  As he himself would write to the Corinthians, “I have become all things to all, so that I might save at least some” (I Cor 9:22).