Monday, September 21, 2015

Feast of Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist

(Ephesians 4:1-7.11-13; Matthew 9:9-13)

Sojourners, the premier Christian social justice magazine, recently featured a woman pastor whose body was covered with tattoos.  According to the article the pastor is doing remarkable work shepherding a Lutheran community that includes gays and lesbians.  Seeing her picture, however, strikes many as odd. It must have been as peculiar for Jews to see a tax collector following Jesus in the gospel today.

In Palestine at the time of Christ tax collectors are seen as collaborators with the imperial government.  Moreover, they are generally considered as using their authority to swindle people.  This judgment is not made of Matthew, but certainly the Pharisees criticize Matthew’s house guests as sinful.  Jesus, on the other hand, is not repulsed by the company but attracted to it.  He came precisely to tell sinners of God’s unique love for them.

We need to refrain from judging others by their appearance.  Rather let us not be afraid to dialogue with everyone.  Like Jesus we want to intimate God’s love by our friendliness.  We also might relate how we find the hand of the Lord making us into who we are.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Timothy 6:2c-12; Luke 8:1-3)

A cartoon shows a fat corporate executive describing a recent business decision.  “It was a matter,” he says, “of either losing a friend or losing money.”  No doubt is left as to which of the two the tycoon values more. 

However, the New Testament repeatedly indicates that money makes a lousy friend.  In Luke’s gospel Jesus often warns against the accumulation of wealth.  Still, as today’s passage indicates, he and his disciples had needs which the women’s money met.  Perhaps Scripture is nowhere more wary of money than in the first reading.  We should note, however, that First Timothy does not condemn money itself as the root of evil but “the love of money.”  

Should charities accept money from patently sinful sources?  Much good can be done with so-called tainted money, but then virtue’s kissing vice leaves many people morally bewildered.  Scandal must be avoided, but at times thieves make reparation for their crimes by privately reciprocating institutions that care for the needy.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Timothy 4:12-16; Luke 7:36-50)

There is a story about two monks – one old and one young walking on a road.  At a riverbank a beautiful woman comes along.  She asks the monks to carry her across the river.  The old monk takes her into his arms, wades through the water to the other side, and lets her down.  The younger monk follows behind.  When the monks are alone again, the younger monk addresses the older unapprovingly, “How could you hold that beautiful woman in your arms and not commit the sin of lust.”  The elder monk replied, “Son, I took her in my arms on one side of the river and let her go on the other.  But you have held her in your thoughts all this while.”  One may have a similar question of Jesus in today’s gospel.

The passage calls the woman who weeps on Jesus’ feet, wipes them with her hair, kisses them, and anoints them with oil “sinful.”  It is not said that she is a prostitute although she is obviously a sensuous person.  Jesus, however, appears unaroused.  At least it can be said that he did not react to the woman’s caresses by either embracing or rejecting her.  Rather he calmly makes the point to his host that she was in need of forgiveness and found it in Jesus.  Steeped in virtue, Jesus knows that the woman’s affection was not directed at him at all but to God.

We all need such self-control and understanding.  We may think that the solicitations on Yahoo advertisements are meant for us as individuals.  Of course, they are a ploy to get our money.  Even when a person shows affection, often enough it is misdirected.  If one gets entangled in a relationship under such a condition, he or she will regret it.  We will find true peace if we can put aside lustful thoughts to view the other as a child of God like us standing in the need of grace.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Memorial of St. Cornelius, pope, and St. Cyprian, bishop, martyrs

(I Timothy 3:14-16; Luke 7:31-35)

“You will be known by the company you keep,” our mothers used to tell us.  They were only repeating a folk that generally serves its listeners well.  Not only are people inclined to judge us as good or bad on the basis of our associates, but also we tend to become like our friends. 

But folk wisdom has its limitations.  What do we do, for example, when proverbs contradict one another?  Is “discretion the better part of valor” or is “the one who hesitates lost”?  Obviously, we have to look beneath the surface to attain the truth in matters like this.  Just so, Jesus appeals to his listeners in the gospel today to look beyond what they see as a fault.  His eating and drinking with sinners does not result in his conforming to their sinful ways.  Rather it is causing them to repent of their sins. 

Jesus is telling us not only to stop judging by superficial criteria but also to step out of our social confines.  He wants the young to greet the elderly, blacks and whites to dialogue together, and workers to extend a hand to the unemployed.  Whether or not we talk explicitly about Jesus, we will be giving testimony to his goodness.  Like him, we will be extending ourselves to those outside of our comfort zones. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

(I Timothy 3:1-13; John 19:25-27)

Most people think of Jesus in the gospel today as providing a home for his widowed mother.  Such understanding, however, ignores the fact that Jesus has brothers who advise him (see John 7:3-7).  Catholic dogma prohibits thinking of these men as Mary’s physical sons.  But it is quite possible that they would care for her just as they show a worldly concern for Jesus.  There must be another, deeper explanation for Jesus giving his mother to the disciple whom he loved.

It should be remembered that the “beloved disciple” is distinctive precisely for his faith in Jesus.  After Mary Magdalene tells Peter and him that Jesus’ body was not to be found in his tomb, the two race to investigate the situation.  Peter enters the tomb first and is said to have noticed Jesus’ burial cloths.  Then the disciple whom Jesus loved enters and is said to have seen and believed.

In today’s passage Jesus gives Mary to his beloved disciple.  He is said to have taken Mary into “his own.” Home is the interpretation most translators give, but the Greek is actually less precise.  It is quite possible that “his own” is his faith in Jesus as Lord which Mary now accepts.  She is physically a “mother of sorrows” because she has witnessed the death of her only son.  She is even more sorrowful because the Lord of Creation has died the most humiliating of deaths to redeem sinful humanity of its sins.

Faithful to the Gospel of John, we too believe in Jesus as Lord.  He has died so that we, accepting him as Lord and imitating his ways, may live with him in glory.