Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 41:55-57.42:5-7a.17-24a; Matthew 10:1-7)

Matthew begins his gospel with a list of names tracing the lineage of Jesus.  He starts with Abraham, the receptor of God’s promise to create a chosen people, and ends with Jesus, whom Christians believe culminates that promise’s fulfilment.  Matthew mentions a few women – like Rahab and Ruth -- whose extraordinary circumstances indicate God’s hand guiding the process despite the people’s shortcomings. 

In today’s gospel Matthew provides another list of names.  In one sense, these twelve men provide a counterweight to those of the previous list.  As the Old Testament figures lead up to Jesus, the apostles will carry Jesus’ name to the world.  In another sense, however, they are similar to Jesus’ ancestors.  Many of them seem unlikely group to carry out the work of growing an institution.  Once again we have a sense of God’s direction.

We should see ourselves as part of still another list of people connected to Jesus with similarities to the ones already mentioned.  As the first group comprised Jesus’ ancestors, we are his spiritual descendants.  And like the apostles we are called by Jesus to bring growth to his Church by caring for one another and by professing Jesus’ name wherever we go.  

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot

(Genesis 32:23-33; Matthew 9:32-38)

In his encyclical Veritatis Splendor St. John Paul II calls conscience “the voice of God.”  There God speaks telling a person whether an action is right or wrong.  Sometimes, however, the person questions what she hears.  The initial judgment seems facile with more consideration of the circumstances being needed.  Now the person is struggling with her conscience.  In this way Jacob can be said as wrestling with God in today’s first reading.

Jacob to this point is no paragon of virtue.  Most egregiously, he colluded with his mother to rob Esau of his inheritance.  He has also married two wives and has fathered children with two other women.  Now he struggles with his conscience.  That neither Jacob nor the stranger with whom he wrestled throughout the night wins the fight indicates a mixed judgment.  He has done evil, but he is not a bad man.  He will need to change some ways, but Jacob proves himself capable of advancing God’s project of building a great nation.

Today the Church celebrates St. Benedict, a holy man who established the cenobite or communal monastic tradition in Western Europe.  As Jacob is accredited with a major role in building the nation of Israel, Benedict is recognized for his contribution to Western Civilization.  Benedictine monks preserved the legacies from Greece and Rome and added to them the wisdom of Christianity.  In celebrating Benedict we give thanks for both the humanistic and religious patrimonies that have been handed down to us through the ages.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 28:10-22a; Matthew 9:18-26)

Ask children what they will do when they grow up, and often enough they have an answer.  One girl approximately twelve years old says that she will be a pediatrician.  She will have to work hard to fulfill her plan, but it is not an impossible dream.  We meet Jacob in the first reading today in a comparable situation.

Jacob has left his house as a young man to pursue his destiny.  The reading shows him in communion with God who promises to make him the father of a nation that will bless the entire earth.  In making a shrine on the spot where he receives the revelation, Jacob shows his wholehearted acceptance.    Christians see this promise fulfilled in Jesus, Jacob’s descendant whom the world recognizes as a universal teacher of righteousness.

As we become older, our dreams often become humbler.  We no longer think of changing the world but only hope to change our own hearts.  We want to lose our preoccupation with self so that we might love others as Jesus has shown us.  It is helpful to remember that the same God who promised to accompany Jacob wherever he went is also at our side.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 23:1-4.19.24:1-8.62-67; Matthew 9:9-13)

Abraham’s purchasing land to bury Sarah may seem like a realistic detail.  In reality it is a very important step in nation-building. People have to own land before they will identify themselves with it.  They will revere as sacred the places where they bury their fathers and mothers.  There they will tell the stories which add meaning to life and bind themselves to one another.

The wise Abraham realizes these facts as he insists on buying a broad piece of land rather than accepting as a gift a narrow swath to accomplish his immediate purpose. He will be buried on the same territory as will Isaac, Rebecca and Leah, and Jacob.  It will truly become the “land of the patriarchs” worth working to grow a nation and dying to defend.  It remains a great symbol for Jews who though scattered throughout the world feel a tie to Israel.

But nations are more than land with flags.  They require virtue to create and sustain.  Families must be supported and individuals must dedicate themselves to procuring more than their own needs.  Jesus will give priority to the Kingdom of God in his preaching, but he never denies the importance of family and state to that end.  Without either we are dehumanized, and the kingdom becomes a sterile symbol.  

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 22:1b-19; Matthew 9:1-8)

Mass murderers are regularly reported as hearing voices.  They are directed by what they often explain as a divine command to commit an atrocity.  Abraham seems to hear such a dark order in today’s first reading. 

The passage, sometimes called by its Hebrew name Akeda meaning binding, challenges interpreters.  They rightly ask, “How could a just God suggest to anyone that he kill his son as a sacrifice?”  Can God really be so capricious or, more pointedly, so cruel.  No, such a conception contradicts what God has revealed about Himself.  But humans are subject to such vagaries of will.  The story may be better understood in a way that contrasts to what is written.  Rather than God directing Abraham to slaughter Isaac, Abraham may be superimposing on God an aberrant voice within him telling him to commit the outrage.  Drama is taking place within Abraham – will he accept as God’s will the voice that tells him to kill Isaac or the natural order that forbids all human sacrifice?  What may well be God’s true voice then speaks up.  Abraham clearly hears that he is not to kill his son, but to offer a sacrifice on his behalf.

People often enough claim to hear the voice of God within them.  They are not to be dismissed as demented or foolish.  But they should test that voice by comparing it with God’s will as seen in the natural law and in revelation.  If there is an aberration between the two, they must concede to what is known in the latter category.