Monday, July 3, 2017

Feast of Saint Thomas, apostle

(Ephesians 2:19-22; John 20:24-29)

A debate in the philosophy of science centers on the question of the existence of spiritual being.  Some philosophers hold that matter is all that there is.  They try to reduce the mind to the material functions of the brain.  More classical thinkers respond saying that the elements of matter cannot account for the intricate capacity of thought.  They understand the mind as a spiritual substance dependent upon matter for its formation but having a reality apart from it.  In today’ gospel St. Thomas seems to be a materialist until he meets the risen Lord.

When Thomas is told that the other disciples have seen Christ after he was crucified, he demands to touch Jesus’ body before accepting the fact of his resurrection.  Jesus gives him the opportunity to do it, but does Thomas actually go ahead with the experiment?  The Scripture does not say so; in fact, it indicates that he does not. Jesus says that Thomas believes only with seeing as the other disciples.

The passage ends with Jesus giving later Christians a blessing for believing in the resurrection without ever seeing him.  Because our times challenge such belief, we want to support one another in the faith of the resurrection.

Friday, June 30, 2017

Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 17:1-9-10.15-22; Matthew 8:1-4)

Sometimes when I make a donation to charitable organization, I put cash in an envelope and mail it anonymously.  I would like to report that I do this to conform to Jesus’ lesson on almsgiving.  He says in the Sermon on the Mount, “’When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites^* do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others.’” But, truth be told, the reason I don’t toot my horn when I donate is that I don’t want to receive a dozen more requests.  Jesus, as we should expect, is much more consistent in doing what he is right.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is approached by a leper for healing immediately after he delivered his famous discourse on the mountain.  He performs the cures and orders the man not to tell anyone about his doing the healing.  Most preachers say that Jesus desires secrecy because he does not want to be confused with a political messiah.  This is probably true, but it is also the case that Jesus is acting in perfect conformity with what he just said on the mount about doing righteous deeds in secret.

We find in Jesus our model for life.  We should always endeavor to do what Jesus did.  This does not mean, of course, that we have to wear sandals and drink wine.  But it does call us to love our neighbor not for any advantage to ourselves but because he or she is a child of God. 

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, apostles

Acts 12:1-11; II Timothy 4:6-8.17-18; Matthew 16:13-19)

Saints Peter and Paul testify to the inclusiveness of the Church.  Peter was a fisherman from Galilee, well within the territory of Israel.  Paul, a member of the Jewish diaspora, hailed from Tarsus in Asia Minor.  Peter worked as a fisherman before he encountered the Lord.  Paul, a scholar, served as a Jewish inquisitor when Jesus abruptly called him.  Although both had missions to non-Jews, Peter, it seems, worked primarily among his own people while Paul preached far and wide to Greek-speakers.  Their lives converged for at least a third time in Rome where they were martyred.

More importantly than dying during the same wave of persecution, they both preached Jesus Christ.  In today’s gospel, Peter identifies Jesus as “’the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”  Paul will give full meaning to those words when he writes of reconciliation through Christ, the Son.  As the Pauline letter to the Ephesians states, humans are reconciled not only to God but to one another through Christ.

Today we honor Peter and Paul together as patrons of the whole Church.  More than any other saint, the two represent the Church’s apostolicity and universality.  They left the security of their homes and indeed their homelands to tell others about God’s work in Jesus.  They reached the symbolic crossroad of the earth in Rome where they testified with their blood to God’s love for all in Jesus.

Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr

(Genesis 15:1-12.17-18; Matthew 7:15-20)

A couple is married over twenty-five years.  They never have had children of their own.  Although they are Godparents to many and serve the church in many ways, they feel a great loss in their lives.  Once they considered the possibility of producing a child in vitro, but did not pursue it because that procedure violates the sanctity of human life.  The couple’s childlessness and, even more, their trust in God resemble the circumstances of Abram in today’s first reading.

Abram not only deeply desires to have a child with his wife Sarah, but also God has promised the couple heirs as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth. Now they are advanced in years and almost have given up hope.  Abram pleads with God, perhaps for a last time, only to hear God’s promise reasserted in a more glorious way: “Look up at the sky and count the stars….Just so…shall you descendants be.’”  Abram does not abandon God, who has blessed him in different ways, to worship another.  Rather he continues to do all that God asks of him.

God’s ways are inscrutable.  Couples who would seem to be wonderful parents suffer by not having children while many children suffer in broken homes.  Yet God has cared enough for those who suffer, which include every one of us, by coming to share our suffering.  He has actually moved us beyond it with the promise of eternal life as well as many spiritual blessings. 

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 13:2.5-18; Matthew 7:6.12-14)

In the Sermon on the Mount Matthew portrays Jesus as a great sage.  He shows him first proposing the “kingdom of heaven” as the happiness which all discerning people seek.  Then Jesus is described a revealing the new morality which will enable his disciples to reach their goal.  It is composed not so much of actions as of a disposition of the heart.  They are not to despise or will to harm anyone but to love even their enemies.  Of course, this tall order requires assistance so Matthews shows Jesus teaching his disciples how to ask God’s help.  In today’s passage from the sermon Jesus adds to the wisdom he has imparted proverbs that illustrate what he has been saying.

With the first proverb Jesus warns his disciples not to be naïve about what they believe.  People who have not been prepared to receive it will revile it.  Tell a man of the world that he should keep quiet about the good that he has done, and he will wonder why you thought he did it if not to achieve the approval of others.  Then Jesus epitomizes his message as he sums up the Old Testament: his disciples are to consider what they wish for themselves as the measure of what they will do to others.  The passage ends with another warning.  Disciples should not think the road to heaven is a lazy highway.  It is more like – Jesus tells them – a winding path which requires focus and care to navigate.

As a truly wise man, Jesus could not please everyone.  For different reasons some opposed his teachings just as Socrates found detractors in ancient Athens.  Following the ways he teaches will not always win for us either the approval of others.  However, we know from experience that doing so brings repose in the form of a friendly conscience as well as the promises of eternal life.